A/N: Humblest of apologies from your author for not updating sooner. Hehe... scratches head sheepishly As you can see, I uh... Well, frankly I'm horrible with consistency (In terms of update-like things. My quality of writing, I assure you will try to be consistent. Of course, you all be the judge of that), but there's really nothing else I can say besides sorry, and point out the fact that there are a lot of authors who update late (No offense). And then of course, there is the possibility that I'm exaggerating, and that to most of you this is a speedy update. Anyways, tell me your thoughts in a review, and please point out any mistakes. Oh, and thanks to CLOUD-EX-SOLDIER (Did I get that right?) For his appreciated thoughts on my previous chapter. You are completely right, of course, but I honestly don't know much about that type of organizing, so pardon the error.

Whew! That is the longest A/N post I've ever had, and I'm sure you want to read the rest of the chapter. Read, Review, Thanks!


The forest was silent, peace and quiet manifested itself throughout the greenery. It was a beautiful forest, one in which birds chirped during the day, and crickets sung at night. The sunlight managed to shaft in through holes in the canopy, lighting the way in the otherwise dark tree tops through which Naruto dashed. But there was suddenly, something interrupted the quiet.

Snap!

Naruto turned towards the bush from where the sound emanated. Here, in the forests nearby Konoha he had to be careful to mop up any enemy nins, less they attack Konoha. The blonde ninja listened carefully.

A bush rustle there, a twig snapping here, it all lead the inevitable attack. Warily, Naruto eyed the forest, taking note of anything out of the ordinary. On his guard, he also cautiously began scanning the treetops with his Kyuubi Dojutsu. Suddenly, a green blur exploded out of the forest canopy and hurtled down towards Naruto.

He quickly stepped into a defensive Taijutsu stance and with his forearm deflected the blur, wincing at the friction, but letting the pain go with just a grunt. Before he could kick at the strange object, it disappeared into the forest again.

Damn... It's the third time this month that thing appears. I need to report that to the Hokage right away! He thought to himself. The mysterious green blur repeatedly displayed this behaviour. It would strike out at Naruto after stalking him for a few meters, then dash back into the forest. At first Naruto thought that it could be a local wildlife critter that got out of hand, but dismissed this idea after the second attack. This third encounter only confirmed the fact that it was not of a regular kind of being.

Naruto was returning from his third intelligence gathering mission, coming back from Suna this time. He found nothing of importance from his sources, and nothing was amiss anywhere in the Land of Fire.

Which only meant trouble was brewing.

It wasn't common for nothing to be wrong, usually it was the calm before the storm. Something was going to happen sometime soon, and Naruto didn't like it.

Well, I don't know what the green thing was, but I don't have time to think about that. It seems relatively harmless, so I guess I'll just recommend a gennin team to work on it. There are things with higher priorities on my mind right now...

Naruto concluded.

Bounding through he trees, everything passed as the blonde raced towards Konoha. After reporting to Tsunade, he would find Sakura and maybe take her out to dinner. They hadn't had a nice night like that for weeks...

The gates loomed up and Naruto jumped out of the canopy, fell for at least 20 feet, then softened his landing by pumping chakra to his legs. The ground cracked underneath the intense force, but Naruto simpy grunted at the relatively low amount of exertion. The gate keepers stared with incredulous eyes at the sudden appearance of their Sannin, to which Naruto casually addressed,

"What?"


The Tower's gates were wide open when Naruto arrived, but he opted instead to run up the side of the building. He hated passing by the council Elder's chambers; it always reminded him of the hate the Council held for him. Of course, nowadays, the Elders were relatively introverted, compared to the three years ago when Naruto had first been named as Sannin.

And Naruto himself had changed too. Besides being older, the now 18-year-old was much more ripped thanks to intense training with Gai and Lee (Though Naruto couldn't stand another shout of 'YOUTH' so the training didn't last long). His old flame Gi had been left behind, ripped and tattered over the battles and training sessions.

Naruto now covered his over-6-foot frame with long green robes that let him pass by inconspicuously in enemy towns. Underneath the deceiving robes however, were his true clothes. Black chainmail was worn right over his skin in case of any surprise Kunai attack. Over that, he donned a new Gi that was black with his own Spiral Symbol on the back, which in the center had the Kanji symbol for 'My Precious People'.

His arms now had tattoos which were used to seal weapons, and on his back he had one long horizontal tattoo that concealed his new, signature weapon. Of course, Naruto kept the weapon sealed at all times except for battle. Finally, his old sandals had been replaced as well. Sadly, the wooden things were too awkward for battle, despite the fact that his master had used them during fights. Naruto had reluctantly replaced them with old cloth ninja boots with a steel plate imbedded in the rubber soles, to add power for kicks

Tsunade turned around the moment she sensed the chakra signature that belonged to Naruto. It was quite distinctive and she could recognize it anywhere.

"Any news?" she asked, concern for her village in plain sight.

"No," Naruto shook his head "Nothing yet. It's too quiet though. Something's going to happen. I can smell it"

"Mhmm..." Tsunade silently agreed. She was lost in thought, pondering what her old team-mate, Orochimary was planning.

He was basically the only threat Konoha had nowadays. Most enemy villages had been each soundly defeated in their own time, politically or violently. Either way, she was glad that Orochimaru was the only thing that they had to seriously worry about.

"Baa-chan? There is one small issue though" Naruto began, "There's this green thing in the forest, it's really strange. It has the appearance of a small little green blur, and it's really annoying. When I was coming in from Suna today, it attacked me. Damn thing gave me a nasty rub burn,"

Naruto bared his forearm before continuing,

"I don't think it's too dangerous, but I recommend you send in a gennin squad to check it out. It might fight back though, so I'd classify it as a C-Rank mission" he finished.

Tsunade nodded

"I'll get the paperwork done right away," she said. As Naruto turned away she perked up, however, as if remembering something.

"Hey Naruto!"

Said blonde turned around and nodded his head in a questioning gesture

"What's up?"

"I have a mission you need done pretty soon. S-Rank, so come in tomorrow before you do anything outside the village. I'll brief you on your assignment, and we'll discuss the details"

"Hai" Naruto acknowledged, then sunshined out.


Sakura was tending to her gardens again when Naruto found her. It was like that was the only thing she did that was not ninja-related. Naruto let himself in by the gate, and greeted her with a hug.

"Hello, Cherry Blosom!" he whispered into her ear.

Sakura giggled uncharacteristically at sound of Naruto's pet name for her. She liked it when her boyfriend called her that.

She invited him into the the house. Once sat down, they did some small talk, not really talking anything serious. They did that all the time, trying to prolong the inevitable ninja-talk, speaking about their careers and missions. It was what the did, but talking about their duties reminded them of the real world, in which either of the couple could be killed. The Pein mission had been a severe lesson in death.

"So... I got an S-Rank today" Naruto began, deciding to tell Sakura and get over with it before asking her out.

"Huh? Anything especially dangerous?" Sakura asked casually. She was a worry wart when it came to the Toad Sannin, and she wanted to make sure it would be all right.

"I don't know yet. Baa-Chan" he stopped when Sakura looked at him sternly

"I mean Tsunade-sama just told me about it today. She hasn't briefed me yet"

He thought a moment before continuing

"But it most be something important for her to pull me off intelligence-gathering and do something else..."

Sakura agreed. It wasn't like Tsunade to simply give up on her main intel-gatherer, if only for the duration of a single S-Rank.

Something was up, but neither Kunoichi nor Sannin would know until tomrrow.

Before leaving, Naruto set up their date for that night, agreeing to pick her up at sunset. He set out to find Lee and have light spar before turning in for the day. it was his usual precedure for most days. He found the spandex-clad Taijutsu master breaking logs at his favorite training grounds. Although he no longer was being trained by Gai (Lee was a Jounin now), he still kept to his rigorous training program that he had always used.

Naruto greeted him first.


"Hey Lee!"

Naruto began, trying to steer the conversation on a path that would end the talking quickly, and start the fighting soon.

He swore that if heard Lee say 'Youth!' too many times in one sentence, he would knock out the Green Beast right then and there.

"Naruto! I knew you were coming. I could feel the flames of your youth from MILES away! YOSH!" and so, Lee began his usual rant of 'Youth'.

Naruto stopped him before he would have to hurt the dome-head.

"Yeah, yeah! Great! Ok, whatever, Lee. Light contact or full?" He asked, referring to the severity of the blows exchanged. Light contact would mean 'pulling your punch', while full meant the opposite.

"Full contact of course, Youthful Naruto!" Lee grinned, then fell into his Goken stance. Naruto too fell into a brawling stance, but since he didn't have any set Taijutsu style, the stance was mainly to look cool. If anything, his own fighting style was close to an ancient Land of Fire fighting style called Krav Maga. Though, it was a brutal style, aimed mainly to be able to defend against several combatants in real-world scenarios.

Lee was the first to move, shifting to his right side, then spinning on his left to aim a high kick at Naruto's head. Though it was strong enough to break a bone, Naruto applied Chakra to his arm to block the blow, and then open-palm slapped Lee's chest bone to push him back. The force of his slap however knocked Lee over.

Two seconds into the match, Naruto had already knocked the Green Beast down.

Lee grunted from the floor but nevertheless attacked. He braced himself on the floor and spun like a top, his legs lashing out to Naruto.

Naruto jumped over one leg, and Chakra-blocked the other and was about to kick Lee himself, but never saw a bandaged fist come his way in a straight-vertical uppercut. The punch sent him flying into a tree, which broke. However Naruto didn't seemed harmed in the least, lest a small trickle of blood coming from his mouth.

"Nice blow, Lee" he grunted.

Lee just smiled, and charged again. This time, he jumped up and kicked downwards, his left leg slicing the air with an audible Hiss! Naruto neatly sidestepped it, then aimed a right hook at Lee's face. Lee dodged under it and came up with his knee, aimed at Naruto's gut.

Naruto was ready for it though, and gave Lee a hard strike on his knee with a Chakra-enhanced elbow. It hurt Lee more a lot more than it did Naruto, and the dome-head howled in pain.

He hopped up and down for a moment, clutching at his knee.

"Naruto-san! That was quite un-youthful of you! That strike hurt a lot!"

Naruto wasn't worried though, he knew Lee hadn't been seriously hurt. It was the blonde's turn to grin this time, and he charged too.

Running forward, he cocked a fist which he let fly as Lee fell into striking distance. Lee used his wrist to knock aside the blow then shifted forward with his full weight into a bare-knuckle punch aimed at Naruto face. Naruto quickly lifted up his free arm and managed the catch the fist with a meaty

THWACK!

He winced at the sound, while Lee mentally berated himself for not even be able to break Naruto hand. In fact, more bone damage had been delt to Lee in the short spar battle. Breaking off the fist, Lee began to move into a clock-wise low-kick, aimed at sweeping Naruto off his feet.

Without breaking a sweat, Naruto jumped up and over the kick, falling into another stance after dodging the sweep.

The pair began a hard, close-range taijutsu spar, each ducking and striking, each trying to get an edge over their opponent. Naruto deflecting and redirecting the energy from Lee's hits, with the Green Beast doing his straight-forward blocks and attacks. Lee was more proficient in Taijutsu, but Naruto had more experience for fighting in-general. It was the experience that ultimately decided the match. With one final thrust, Naruto smacked Lee a clean blow on the side of the face, which knocked Lee out. The taijutsu specialist went flying into a grove of trees, knocking down quite a few before finally coming to a rest some 20 feet away from Naruto, whose palm was still extended. Panting a bit, he lowered the hand and went over to Lee, going to rouse him.

When Lee came to, there were no hard feelings, because they had been fighting full contact anyways.

"I see you have much improved for taijutsu, youthful Naruto!" Lee exclaimed, not unhappy in the slightest for being defeated.

Naruto himself was quite proud of himself for knocking Lee out so cleanly.

"Duh! I'm Sannin, I have to improve. But you gave me a pretty hard knock on a tree, dumbass" he answered, finishing the comment on a congratulatory note. Lee had done well himself.

After getting themselves dusted off, each ninja said farewell, and headed their own ways back home.


Naruto walked slowly back home, the moonlight right behind him, illuminating the almost empty streets. Contrary to previous years, nowadays Naruto got smiles from villagers at the most, while quick escapes by the people at the least. Some villagers respected him only out of power while other genuinely liked him. His date was over too, so he had nothing to do that night besides going home. After he had kissed Sakura goodnight, he left her at home, and headed to his own aboide.

He kicked at the cobblestone path absentmindedly while deep in thought. The main thought in this case was the mission for the next day, hinted at by Tsunade.

Wonder what it could be, he questioned.

Like Sakura, he too was worried at the fact that Tsunade was pulling him off intel-gathering for an S-Class. So that meant it was something a regular Jounin couldn't handle.

Something only the Toad Sannin could handle. Which was quite worrying. Naruto finally reached his house and fished out the keys from his robe. He was in the process of opening the door when suddenly...

BAM!

Knocked to the floor, and stunned, Naruto looked up from his position on his haunches and grimaced as a familiar green blur bounded away at top speed through the buildings and alleys. The infuriating little thing had just knocked him down and was getting away!

Damnit! What the hell is that?! Naruto mentally exclaimed. The damn blur had attacked him in his own home turf, Konoha, where Naruto was supposed to have the advantage. Momentarily debating whether or not to report this immediately or simply chasing after it only took some seconds. After taking a moment to lock his house's door soundly, he gathered his legs into a low crouch, then with a cement-shattering crack was off into the night.

As the buildings shifted from large objects to narrow blurs, Naruto activated the Kyuubi Dojutsu to allow his vision to be able to keep up with his fast speed. Already the green blur was starting to sharpen in his view, and he could see that it wasn't simply a blur. Naruto mentally checked off its appearance.

Hmm... Green in appearance, but with yellow stripes on both sides. Spherical in shape, but with a flat side. And those spikes jutting out like a hedgehog... It must be what caused the massive friction last time I saw it. It... It kind've looks mechanical. I've never seen anything like it!

Naruto ran up the side of a particularly tall building, then jumped into the air into the next one, backflipping to lower his head to avoid a sign. Then he sprinted over the roof, his boots silent as a ghost, slowly but surely catching up to his quarry.

I'm close! He thought I'll catch up to whatever-it-is soon!

But their was no further time for thinking. The chase had managed to extend itself into the woods surrounding the village, where Naruto could lose the strange green machine. And that he did. In less than a second the green... thing veered off into the foliage.


Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, considering what to do next. Their were a few options. He could of course follow the strange object, hoping to find it again and subdue it. But there was the large, inevitable possibility of the fact that Naruto probably wouldn't be able to find it again.

Uncharacteristically, he began to methodically evaluate his options to find a new path.

I could go back to Baa-chan, he began, but quickly abandoned the idea. By the time he had a search-squad out for the machine, it could be long gone.

But he needed to know what it was. This fourth attack in Konoha had cleared any doubts in his mind that the machine was anything but of sinister design.

He turned his back to the forest and was about to jump into the darkness, back towards the village, when a single voice struck loud through the night. The voice that Naruto had at one point held dear, as one would hold dear a brother's voice.

One that he had not heard in over two years.

One voice that he now heard again, and recognized it still.

Naruto looked high into the trees, where a single body, shrouded in shadow, was visible.

Save for two red orbs with a spiral-shape irises. Naruto began to shake in fury, the abandonment of a past comrade still fresh in his heart. A few heartbeats passed before the words the intruder spoke registered in Naruto's head. The words shook him to the core

"Hey dobe. Fancy seeing you around here. I see you're still a loser, huh?"

Sasuke was back.