Minato for his part was shocked in who had been the very best within Danzo's ROOT ANBU for the last few years but had kept his composure. Leaning back he spoke in an even tone. "Your mission is simple, join me on my way to Suna as my personal guards while I negotiate with the Kazekage on a new alliance deal." He then turned directly to Naruto. "And while we're there I want you to sneak around and find any evidence that he's plotting against us. If you find even a shred of evidence then bring it to me immediately and await your new orders."

Both boys nodded and put their masks back on before standing back up as stiff as a board.

Minato stood from his desk and led the way. Each of them went there separate ways as soon as they left the tower with Itachi going back to the Uchiha clan compounds, Minato going back to the hokage mansion, and Naruto going back to the ROOT HQ, each of them preparing for the mission.

(scene change: Minato)

Minato opened his door to find that Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Mito were sitting around the living room area with each of the genin reading from Jutsu scrolls while Kakashi was reading from his copy of Icha Icha paradise.

The young hokage ran his fingers through his hair as he thought of a way to tell his daughter about Naruto. In the end he decided to just come out and say it. "Mito, that boy Naruto was in my office recently."

Both Mito and Sasuke looked to each other before the young Uzumaki girl dropped her jutsu scroll as she ran over to her father and smiled. "Really?! Where is he now? What's he up to? How strong is he?"

Before Minato could answer anything Kushina comes in laughing while carrying a tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of tea. "Slow down Mito, let your father answer your questions one at a time."

The young hokage spoke up. "Well in order he's gone to the ROOT HQ to prepare for his next mission, he's preparing for a stealth/espionage mission that may lead to a war, and from his records I'd say he's at least elite jounin rank."

Kakashi looked over and nodded to his old sensei in respect and looked to Mito. "I'm sure you'll be able to see this Naruto person sooner or later but for now return to your scroll so you'll be properly prepared for training in an hour."

The girl nodded and returned to the couch. Sasuke started reading his scroll again and had a look of pure determination as one thought ran through his mind. 'He's strong enough to be chosen to guard lord fourth already and I'm barely able to go on these D-ranks, I need to grow stronger if I'm going to be able to prove that his faith in me wasn't misplaced.'

(With Itachi)

Itachi walked into the main family house where he found his mother cooking and his father sitting at the table sharpening his kunai. When he closed the door was when they noticed him and Fugaku spoke first. "Itachi? What are you doing back so soon?"

The young Uchiha raised his mask for a second. "Prepping for the mission I told you about. Going to Suna as an escort for lord fourth, my partner is actually Naruto Kage."

Mikoto turned around wide eyed. "Did you just say Kage as in the clan with the cursed bloodline?"

Itachi nodded slowly. "Yeah, at least that's what I've been told. Why? Is something wrong?"

The Uchiha matriarch had a look of happiness. "No nothing at all, I knew his father back during the war. He was the kindest nomadic shinobi I'd ever met, he even taught me and my teammates a few tricks that have been lost in time that our ancestors had used in the past."

Fugaku hmmph'd at her comment. "Yeah well he wasn't very strong I'll tell you that, relied far to much on his so called 'cursed' bloodline for my liking."

Itachi rolled his eyes as he smiled at his parents antics and walked passed them. He left the front room and moved down to the armory. Walking in he was greeted with the usual sight of kunai, senbon, and shuriken pouches directly in the middle of the room with the daggers, swords of all kind on the far left, scythes, axes, and war fans on the far right and in the far back was the bow collection with long bows and compound bows of all types of materials along with a very large variety of arrows.

Itachi went straight to the middle of the room where he grabbed a few pouches of kunai and shuriken then moved over to the swords where he grabbed a katana that he strapped to his back in an X like shape with his ninjatō.

Looking around he was about to leave when he saw a bow and a quiver of arrows. Picking them up he shrugged. "If lord fourth wants my partner to sneak around he'll need a long range weapon for if things go south." Spoke Itachi to himself before throwing the weapon and it's ammunition over his shoulder. Turning towards the doorway he left in his signature crow shunshin.

(With Naruto)

The young blonde Kage appeared in the ROOT ANBU headquarters and headed straight for the armory. On his way to the armory Naruto was met with one of the only people in the ANBU around his age that had been there longer than him and his name was Sai.

Sai waved with his signature closed eyed smile plastered to his face as he joins the last Kage on his path. "Ah seven, you're prepping for a new mission. So what is it this time? Rogue ninja extermination? Political assassination?"

Naruto smiled, his entire time here was painful with all of the training and the insanely difficult missions that ran the risk of sending him straight to hell that Danzo put him through so that he'd grow stronger at a much faster rate (and while he was grateful for everything that the crippled/retired shinobi had done for him it was insane and even bordered abusive even to him) but Sai had been the constant ally that kept him going, a person he could rely on no matter what.

Shrugging his shoulders like what he was about to say was no big deal he spoke. "Guarding the hokage and special reconnaissance. I've got to find evidence of a betrayal from our allies in Suna."

Sais wide eyes were a perfect moral booster seeing as he never gets shocked by anything. "That's amazing! Not only do you have the chance to sneak around the village that specializes in puppet usage for guarding their home and knowledge but you have been trusted with the life of the most important figure in our village. You are being recognized as a powerful shinobi."

Naruto nodded. "Maybe so but my training isn't complete just yet, I still have three sins to go plus those four other doors that are locked tighter than the hokage's vault when we have foreign dignitaries in the village. I also need to work on my other skills a lot more as well if I'm going to be even slightly prepared for whatever these sins throw at me."

Sai patted his friends shoulder. "You will be strong enough to do what must be done I just know it."

Naruto smiled as he opened the armory door. "Thanks Sai, I needed that. Now let's see what we've got here."

The armory had the usual kunai, shuriken, and swords that are standard in ANBU that took up the majority of the room along with the far back wall being covered with different sets of armor. The blonde grabbed a few extra sets of shuriken and a pouch of spare kunai. Looking to the swords he shook his head in the negative. "I have no need for another sword."

Turning to Sai Naruto nodded and put his mask on. "I'll see you again when this mission is over, but only because I'll need to get what belongings I have."

The pale boy nodded. "I know, Danzo-sama told us what's going on. It will be odd not having you around but we will adjust, I hope that you adjust as well."

With that the two boys shunshin'ed to their separate destinations.

(Scene change)

Minato and Itachi appeared at the northern gates at the same time only to find out that Naruto had beaten them to the area.

Seeing the looks on their faces he spoke. "We ROOT ANBU don't need much time to prepare."

Minato nodded his assent to that. "I see, Danzo has trained you well."

Naruto gave a quick nod but said nothing. Itachi gave the blonde the bow and arrows. "Lord fourth has given you the mission to sneak around Suna so as a gift from me and my clan I've brought this as a long range weapon for just in case things go south."

Naruto strapped the quiver to his back in such a way that he had easy access to his sword and the arrows before nodding. "You have my gratitude Itachi Uchiha codename Weasel. I will use this only if deemed necessary."

The young Uchiha shivered at the empty comment. 'Danzo's training really did a number on this boy's mind. What kind of sick mind raping techniques did he use on him?'

The young Kage summoned six shadow clones and had each of them disappear into the treetops.

The two older shinobi were confused at first but then understood that he was setting up for the chance of an ambush.

They traveled at genin level speeds for a total of three days without incident, Naruto always taking guard duty due to him having no need for sleep, only a three minute nap every other day. On the fourth day Naruto stopped the other two and readied his ninjatō.

Looking around the blonde spoke. "Come on out, I know you're there."

Out of from the bushes came a small army of bandits. Before any of them could speak Naruto was gone in an instant and reappeared behind one of them and plunged his blade into the guys heart while aiming his outstretched palm at another. Out of the palm came a blue ball of energy that flew into the second bandits chest and killed him.

Naruto seemed to teleport to another and decapitated him as a hail of arrows came down on the small army killing the majority of them.

Killing all but one Naruto grabbed him and looked him directly in the eyes. "Mind gazer." Looking through the guys mind he found their plans and snapped the guys neck. "They were planning to attack anyone that came down this path, these sick fucks were hoping for a few women to come through so that they could have their way with them." Said the blonde as he took his mask off to spit on the man's corpse and kicked him with an angry sneer.

This was it, both Minato and Itachi had been looking for this from the very beginning, a single moment of emotion to show that he was still human and here it was. Itachi smiled from behind his mask. 'Sasuke, your motivator still has his humanity. You still have someone your age to look up to.'

Minato smiled as well. 'Kushina, maybe we were wrong, maybe just maybe this kid is stronger than we thought.'

Putting his mask back on Naruto turned towards Suna and spoke in his usual monotone. "We still have a ways to go, let's get back on track or we'll miss our set date and time and offend our only current ally."

Both older shinobi nodded and followed the younger shinobi as he took the front.

For the next few days they had an uneventful trip, when they reached Suna Minato took the lead and the two ANBU captain level shinobi took his left and right flanks.

At the front gates they were greeted by Rasa aka the fourth Kazekage and his own two ANBU flanking him.

The two village leaders shook hands. Rasa decided to speak first. "Minato-dono, I am pleased that you have agreed to a new alliance deal, as you know the current one has been… unsatisfactory to my people to the point that some of my councilmen have claimed it to be heavily in Konoha's favor so I thought that it would be a good idea to try and renegotiate the terms of the agreement."

Minato nodded with a kind smile. "Of course, I've looked over the current agreement to prepare myself before hand and quite agree with your councilmen in this matter and would love to renegotiate. As you know that deal had been formed long before I was elected as hokage, I have a strong belief that both sides of an alliance should benefit equally instead of one side getting more than the other."

This got a small look of shock from Rasa but he covered it quickly and nodded before turning back to the gates. "Then if you'd follow me we'll go to my office and discuss this further."

The moment Naruto had the chance sneak off he replaced himself with a shadow clone and merged with the shadows.

XXXAN: hello everyone and welcome to the newest chapter of the cursed seven. First off please inform me of if you believe I did alright with the reactions from Sasuke and Mito to the news on Naruto or not.Second, what should Mito do when she sees Naruto again?And finally, are any of you even still that interested in the story?