Chapter Five: Missions and Memories

"For all your so called genius, at times like this you're still a disgrace to the clan!"

"I'd rather be a disgrace to the clan than forget to whom I owe the most."

"Have you no shame? You owe the clan, me, everything! We made you who you are!"

"You are responsible for my existence, certainly, but you didn't make me who I am."

"Look, regardless, I think he would have wanted you to take his position, that's all I'm trying to say! Who else would be better than his partner?"

"It's because I'm his partner that I can say no. where he was a composer, I am little more than a very efficient brush. As such, I have no right to try and finish his composition."

"You are an Uchiha! None are better 'composers' than we!"

"And that is the reason you will drive this clan into oblivion."

*Blink*Blink*

Uchiha Itachi, Konoha 'S' class missing nin, wanted for the murder of all save one of his family, former ANBU captain, and current member of the Akatsuki criminal organization, suddenly sprang up from his bed, sweating bullets. What a nightmare, to dig up that memory…

"Yo, Itachi, you okay?"

Hoshigaki Kisame stood in Itachi's door, obviously being summoned by his housemate's apparent distress.

Itachi shook his head to clear the last vestiges of sleep from his mind. "I'm okay, just some bad memories."

Kisame chuckled lightly, shaking his own head. "Heh, don't we all have a few of those?"

"Yeah, I suppose so…" Itachi replied, staring into space. No matter how many times I think about it, I can never get over the fact that I have deviated from his plan. Maybe I should…

Itachi's thoughts were interrupted by Kisame. "Oh, yeah, now that you're up, we got some orders from Pain."

Itachi turned to his newest partner. "New orders?"

Kisame nodded. "Yup, apparently one of our contacts in your old hometown has quit talking, so we're supposed to go find out what happened to him."

Itachi rose from his bed. "To Konoha, then. It's been a long time."

Kisame smirked. "While we're there, I won't mind if you visit that lady friend of yours."

Itachi immediately snapped to face the shark-like man. "What are you talking about?"

Kisame's smirk widened. "Come on, it's not like it's any secret that you left someone behind. I know I did, I'm pretty sure that Deidera did, hell, even Pain has a woman. Like I said, I won't care if you spend a lost night with her as long as we get what we need to done."

Itachi's body relaxed a little. "Very well. Since I'm not getting anymore sleep tonight, we may as well prepare to head out."

Kisame smirked yet again.

-Training Ground 13, Konoha-

"Mission, complete."

Asuma smirked as he saw his team walk into the clearing that made up their preferred training ground.

"Not bad, not bad at all." Was his reply to Shikamaru's statement. "I think catching that cat is deserving of a day off, don't you?"

Shikamaru scoffed in response. "The only thing I care about at the moment is that that was successful consecutive mission number forty."

"Which means," Naruto continued. "That we just won the bet."

Asuma's smirk threatened to become a full smile around his cigarette. Ah, the bet. I can't believe that it's only been a month and five days since we made it…

-Training Ground 13, 1 month 5 days ago-

"Alright, now that you've passed my diabolical little test, tell me a bit about yourselves."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Umm, sensei, haven't you already read our files? Whatever we could tell you, you should already know."

Asuma smirked. "Heh, that right there should show you why one never relies on the official files."

It was Shikamaru's turn to scratch his head. "Okay, I know your trying to say something important, but I'm not seeing it."

Asuma gestured toward Naruto. "If one were to believe the official files, Phone's here should be a drooling idiot." He then gestures toward Ino. "Petals' here would be nothing more than a flower-obsessed egomaniac." He finally points at Shikamaru. "And you would be an absolute moron. That is, if you simply trusted the official files. I'd like to find out about you from the source. I don't need your personal biography, just a general overview of what you like, dislike, preferred training methods, things like that."

"Fine then, if that's what you want I don't mind going first." Ino spoke up. "I like a lot of things, but my favorite things are flowers, sharp, pointy objects, and action manga. I don't like bad fashion sense, sexist idiots, and quitters. As for a training method, I like to dissect things into discrete parts and tackle it a piece at a time. And if you want to know my dream, it's rather simple." At this, Shikamaru face-palmed, and Naruto caught a snippet of thought. Not this again.

Ino continued, ignorant of Shikamaru's silent interruption. "I WANT TO SURPASS THE GODS!" she shouted.

Asuma paused to blink at this. Well, that certainly wasn't in her official file, but it doesn't surprise me. Inoichi warned me that she had a strong motivation, I just didn't expect it to be this big of an understatement. "Alright, why don't you go next, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sighed, mumbling a quiet 'troublesome' as he began. "Fine, I like games, especially strategy games, reading books, preferably those on strategy or psychology, and classical music. I hate, no, loathe those who abuse those weaker than themselves, especially children, and I don't care for those who look to others for a solution without thinking for themselves. As for training, I like to see, then do."

"Not going to share your dream?" Asuma asked.

"No, to troublesome." Was his answer.

Asuma shrugged at that. He's about what I expected after seeing him in the game shop, a genius without a solid motivation until confronted with a problem. He's the type who make excellent field commanders, but poor political leaders. "Okay, Phones, your turn."

Naruto scratched the back of his head again. "Hmm, my likes? I like graffiti, I guess. I also like music and coffee, and I do like writing, from time to time. As for dislikes? Hypocritical assholes, their definitely at the top of that list, and nato, that stuff is just plain nasty. To train? I usually like to see, as well as look at the theory behind whatever it is I'm training in. A dream? I haven't really thought that far out yet, sorry."

Asuma nodded at that. You would never see any of that in his file, and he definitely has some skeletons in the closet, but he's not that different from any other kid his age, his personality isn't fully formed yet and it shows. But their all just as I had initially concluded, they've come to expect there to be no one to help them but themselves, and they have adjusted accordingly. But, they've also proven to me that they can work together, and that's all that matters.

"Alright, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I assume that you all know about missions and their rankings, correct?" Receiving three affirmative nods, Asuma continued. "Well, normally, a new genin team won't see its first 'C' ranked mission for at least four months, but I can tell that you three won't be satisfied with that, so I'm going to make a bet with you."

Naruto perked up at this. "A bet? What kind?"

Asuma smirked again. So, the kid's interested in gambling? Didn't see that one coming, but it could be useful if nurtured correctly. "A simple one. If you guys can complete forty 'D' ranked missions consecutively within two months, I'll see about getting you a 'C' rank early. If you guys lose, however, you'll be doing nothing but training exercises for two months, agreed?"

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, who nodded, then at Ino, who reciprocated, then looked back at Asuma.

"We're in."

-Present-

"So, what's our big mission going to be? Guarding some noble back to his country? Protecting a shipment of weapons being brought into Konoha? Espionage against some radical terrorist group?"

Asuma smirked again. Ah, kid, you are so fun to be around. "Sorry, Phones. Most of those would be 'B' ranked missions. However, I will try to find you something exciting, sound fair?"

Naruto deflated a little, but then straightened back up. "Fair enough." He concluded.

"In that case, your all dismissed until tomorrow morning."

At that, the three genin started walking back into downtown Konoha. As they were walking, Naruto began thinking about the last month. After Anko had taken him in, things had gotten a bit better for him, and by a 'bit', that would be that he no longer had to deal with the nonsense from his landlord. Around town, he still got both nasty looks and thoughts from most of the townspeople, but his standing amongst shinobi seemed to have improved somewhat, as he no longer received any direct hostility from most of the higher ranking ninja. His standing with his team, however, had improved drastically, as both Shikamaru and Ino had accepted him as both a teammate and friend.

Over the last month, the three had not only been working on missions, but their individual skills as well. Naruto no longer feared large crowds and the associated mind noise, although he still wore his headphones everywhere as his control was still far from perfect. He had also discovered, through hard experience, that by skin to skin contact with someone, he could directly interact with their mind, not always a pleasant thing. By a happy accident, he had also discovered a few new uses for kage Bunshin, such as the move's ability to transfer memories to the original. Ino had proven herself to be the most taijutsu oriented of the three, and her love of action manga was shown in her inventive self-taught style of martial arts. While her taijutsu skills were showing a lot of promise, she had also shown a bent for genjutsu, and she had begun work on a completely original illusion. Shikamaru had proven himself a brilliant strategist, time after time creating brutally effective plans to end a mission in the shortest time possible, and his strategic ability had only improved with practice. His skill with his family's shadow-style jutsu had also improved, making him the most dangerous member of the team.

What do you think, WildKat again?

Ino's thought snapped Naruto out of his. "Yeah, sounds great." He replied, trying to suppress a yawn. While chasing that twice-damned cat for the third time hadn't been challenging (Naruto had just used a piece of sushi in one of Ino's many noose traps), it had been a long day and the coffee sounded rather good to the young shinobi's caffeine-addicted bloodstream.

It didn't take the trio long to reach the coffee shop, their increased running speed a testament to their training. Just as Naruto reached for the door handle, the door was swung open from the other side, knocking the young ninja backwards.

"I apologize, I didn't see you there."

Looking up, Naruto saw two men, one of roughly average height, the other approaching seven feet in height, standing in the doorframe he had just attempted to go through. Both wore the same outfit, a black, full-body cloak embroidered with red clouds, as well as large straw hats with ceremonial bells that covered most of their faces.

"It's alright." Naruto answered, taking the outstretched hand of the smaller of the two men.

As the man helped the young ninja up, he made a small noise, almost audible to the other two young ninja nearby. Naruto, though he couldn't hear it, felt a ping of recognition from the man. Once he was back on his feet, Naruto was able to get a good look under the man's hat, and he mimed the ping the man had given him.

"Wait… are you…?"

Before Naruto could complete his question, the man took three objects from his pocket and placed them in Naruto's hand.

"For your trouble." He quickly said, then motioned to the other man to follow and walked off.

"Hey! You could at least say you're sorry!" Ino called after the retreating men, fist shaking dramatically.

"You okay, Phones?" Shikamaru asked, moving to his friend's side.

Naruto looked back at the retreating figures, then to the three objects the stranger had placed in his hand. "I'm fine." He answered, a look of bewilderment on his face.

"What did he give you?" Ino asked, looking back to her teammate.

In answer, Naruto held out his hand. In it were three pins, one red with an orange flame, one bearing the word 'LIVE' in orange-yellow letters on a black background, and one with a red pinwheel on a light blue background. Something about the pins felt… familiar to the headphones wearing blonde, but one thought still rung through his mind.

Was it really him?

-Elsewhere-

"What did you give him, Itachi?"

Itachi pulled the brim of his hat just a little lower.

"Just something I can't use anymore, but he should be able to put to good use."

Kisame shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever understand you."

Itatchi 'hmmmd' in response. To think that he's already a Genin… He's advancing faster than even Jiraiya had anticipated. Could he be more like Minato than I thought?

"So, what are we going to tell Pain?" Kisame asked as the two continued down the road.

"The truth, he died of cardiac arrest. Time claims everyone, eventually."

Indeed, the man that the two had been sent to find, one Abarai Renji, had died on the operating table three weeks ago, from complications arising both from the man's age and his weak heart. He had been an intelligence officer before his retirement from the Konoha Ninja Corp., and had been supplying the Akatsuki with information from his still-active network of spies throughout the world. Losing him was a blow to the organization's abilities, thankfully not a crippling one.

"Well, since that's all taken care of and everything, I think I'll take a walk." Kisame said, starting to veer off the main road toward the seedier side of town.

The large man didn't get far before the back of his cloak was caught.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Kisame looked back at his partner over his shoulder, a nervous smile on his face.

"Well, the job's done, and you probably want some privacy when you see your lady-friend and little brother, so I thought I'd just kill some time while waiting for you."

Itachi's eyes narrowed under the brim of his hat.

"You can 'kill time' by contacting Pain and delivering our report over the remote link. I will meet you at the north gate in two hours."

Kisame deflated. Why me?

-Konoha Intelligence Division Building-

Anko stretched as she walked back into her office. The day had been long and boring, although some would consider no new prisoners in need of her skills to be a good thing. Looking away from the door, however, caused Anko to immediately revise her opinion of the day.

"What the fuck are you doing in my office, Haruno?"

Haruno Shizuru, head of Konoha Social Services, sat at Anko's desk, both feet on said desk, a shot glass of Anko's private sake stash in her hand.

"Waiting to deliver a message, of course." She replied, downing the contents of the shot glass. "Excellent reserve, by the way."

Anko resisted the urge to simply murder the woman where she sat. "What message, and get your fucking feet off my desk."

Shizuru tutted as she complied. "Such language. I hope you don't use it around the house with such an impressionable child around."

Anko was really considering murdering the woman now.

"Message, then get out."

Shizuru sighed dramatically. "Oh, very well. We at Social Services were merely wondering why you defied a direct order and adopted one Uzumaki Naruto. After all, your request had been legally denied, several times as I recall."

For a moment, Anko appeared to be grinding her teeth, then, oddly, she relaxed.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't 'adopted' anyone. Naru-kun is legally an adult, after all. He's simply staying at my place until a matter with his former landlord is settled."

It was Shizuru's turn to grind teeth. "Is that so? Then why hasn't he filed a change of residence form with Social Services?"

It almost looked like Anko was surpressing a laugh. "Again, he's legally an adult, and therefore out of Social Services' hands. As a ninja, the only one he reports to now is his superior officer, and he doesn't work for you."

Shizuru's anger was almost visible at that comment. "Is that so? Well, I wouldn't count on that for very long, if I were you."

Anko started to smirk openly. "That sounded pretty damn close to sedition to me. Want to see what the ANBU and Old Man have to say about that?"

Shizuru paled, realizing that she had just said that last part out loud. Quickly schooling her features, she replied. "No, that's fine. Just remember, defying the council can be more dangerous than you think."

Standing up, Shizuru brushed past Anko as she quickly left the room.

I fucking hate that woman. Was Anko's thought as she walked to her desk. Sitting down, the interrogator threw the used shot glass into the trash before reaching into her desk and pulling out a new one for herself. As she began pouring a few fingers of the foreign brandy into the small glass, a knock came at the door.

"Is this Mitirashi Anko's office?" a man in a black cloak and straw hat asked.

Anko took one look at the man before returning to her drink. "Sorry, pal, I don't take walk in visits."

"You might want to take this one." The man said, walking through the door and removing his hat.

Anko looked back up, eyes going wide in surprise. "Itachi?"