Anko looked on amused as Naruto shouted into the air, and as soon as he stopped, they both felt a sudden drop in temperature and could feel the massive killing intent coming from the Hokage Tower and neither could keep a smirk off their faces. "You got some balls for ratting out the Hokage like that gaki, for that I'll overlook the fact you tricked me." He nodded quietly, and her smirk turned to a full-blown smile. "But that doesn't get you off the hook. For tricking me, you have to pay for dinner."

"Alright, I'm assuming you have a place in mind."

Her smile faltered, having not expected him to agree so easily, but a smirk quickly found its way onto her face. "Damn right I do."

"Lead the way Hime." Anko turned to hide the blush that now shown on her cheeks, something Naruto noticed but didn't mention, and headed off in towards the village's north wall. They eventually arrived at a small dango stand and Anko made her way inside with Naruto just behind her.

When the man behind the counter saw Naruto he snarled. "I refuse to serve that thing, it's bad enough I have to serve that traitorous bitch." Though the last part was mumbled to himself, Naruto heard it as clear as a bell.

Naruto closed his eyes and Anko frowned. 'So much for that ballsy attitude he had before, probably was just because the Hokage wasn't there.' Anko opened her mouth to say as much, but was stopped short by Naruto's eyes flashing open.

His crystal blue eyes had taken on an icy blue glow and though he wasn't projecting any killing intent, she saw the man shudder and felt a chill crawl up even her spine. "You seem to be of a mind that you have a choice in the matter." The blond pointed at the hitai-ate tied around his forehead. "You see this, this marks me as a shinobi of Konoha, and in accordance to the law put in place by the Shodaime Hokage, all shops are required to serve ninja of the village, despite any personal grievances between the ninja and proprietor. The refusal to do so will result in the loss of the right to sell in Konoha, and a heavy fine that will be given to said ninja as reparation. Are you still going to refuse me service?" The man had long ago turned pale and shook his head no, all at once the tension in the room disappeared and Naruto's eyes became cheerful again as he smiled. "Good, we'll need two platters of dango and a bottle of sake, and keep them coming." The man nodded furiously and went to make the order.

They sat down at a booth as they waited for their order, and Anko kept giving him curious glances, which he didn't react to, until she couldn't hold it in anymore. "I have to admit, I thought you were going to wuss out and leave, but then you did that eye thing and rattle off information on a nearly hundred year old law they don't cover in the academy, and than you do a complete one-eighty once you get the point across, I got say gaki I'm impressed. Where'd you learn all that law shit anyway, and what was with your eyes?"

Naruto shrugged. "You'd be surprised what you read when you basically locked in the Hokage's office for an entire day every year. I've memorized every law ever passed by the Shodaime, Nidaime, and Ojii-san, and almost all the ones the Yondaime passed in his short term in office."

"So then you know about the law the Sandaime passed when he was reinstated."

"Yes, but I met her before I read about it." He saw that Anko was a little surprised. "Yes, I said her. As for the eyes, some chakra mixed with a very small amount of malice, gets the point across without producing killing intent."

"Malice huh, from what I heard about you, you're almost constantly smiling, but then again it was the same person that said you only wore an orange jumpsuit. So either they were lying, or you're under an illusion again."

"This is my true appearance more or less, but you heard right, I made myself out to be an orange wearing, happy-go-lucky, idiot, and I couldn't be happier. I was able to fool a village of ninja that I was exactly that for almost six years, it was going great until that damn Uchiha fucked it up by trying to fry the whole class with a fireball."

"He almost killed your class and he was still allowed to take the genin exam? Has that old man lost it?"

Naruto shrugged. "Ojii-san couldn't prevent him from taking it. The council kisses the Uchiha's ass because he could potentially unlock the Sharingan, and since he's was still considered a civilian at the time, his punishment was left to them. If he does that now as a genin, then Ojii-san could remove his ninja status and get him locked up since he's consider an adult the moment he donned the hitai-ate."

Anko smirked at his comment. "So you think that just by putting on that hitai-ate makes you a grown up huh?"

Naruto smiled, but shook his head. "I grew up a long time ago, people just have to recognize it now. But I never said it made someone an adult, I said they're considered adults in the eyes of the village. Ninja, no matter their age, are given the same rights and consequences as an adult."

The owner brought out the order and quickly left grumbling under his breath, and Anko smirked at the two sake saucers. "In that case, have a drink." She poured sake into both saucers and slid one across to him.

Without hesitation, he picked it up and downed the contents, giving a barely visible wince at the taste. "It's bitterer than I thought it'd be."

Anko smirked turned to an evil smile. "So you're giving up?"

A matching smile appeared on Naruto's face. "No way in hell."

------------------------

Eight PM: Outside Hokage Tower

Sarutobi stood at his balcony, overlooking an area filled with chunin, and several jonin. "Less than an hour ago, someone snuck into this very tower and stole the Scroll of Sealing. As you know, that scroll is filled with Kinjutsu that could be used to destroy our village, as such we must retrieve it. It is unclear who, or rather what has taken the scroll, all that is known is that they had a tiger-like appearance. Find and capture them, we need them alive to determine if they're working alone or for someone else."

--------------------------

Two Chunin walk into the dango stand, (Sounds like the start of a bad joke) they caught sight of Naruto and pulled out two kunai each. Chunin 1 walked closer to the table. "We go looking for the culprit, and we find the demon, we should have known it was behind the theft. Tell us where the scroll is, and we'll see if we can't get you a quick execution."

Naruto didn't even look away from a pink-cheeked Anko as they both downed another saucer of sake, but the owner did. "As much as I hate to say it, these two have been here for the past several hours having a drinking contest."

Anko slammed her saucer on to the table. "You lied to me, this can't be your first time drinking or you'd have passed out by now!"

Naruto set his down. "I didn't lie, it's just that the alcohol is burned out of my system so fast I'd have to drink a barrel just to get buzzed." He turned his head towards the two chunin. "Now, what's this about a stolen scroll?"

The second chunin glared at him. "I don't see how it's any of your business demon."

Naruto's eyes once again took on an icy blue glow, causing the chunin to shake uncontrollably. "I'm a shinobi of Konoha, the same as you, so tell us what happened."

Chunin 1 stumbled backwards and fell on his ass. "Som…someone stole the Scroll of Sealing an hour ago. They supposedly have a tiger-like appearance, but it could have been a henge to throw people off. The guards the thief killed were Anbu, so it's suspected they're High Jonin, or Anbu level themselves." Naruto locked eyes with them and they were falling over themselves to get out the door, once they were, his eyes returned to normal.

"Then they shouldn't be that hard to find, everyone looking will be traveling in groups of two or more, Anbu out of habit, and the chunin and jonin for safety because the skill level of the one they're looking for is unknown and will be searching systematically. So we're looking for someone who's either out and about by themselves, or away from the other groups."

"That's easier said then done gaki, they're obviously have some way to hide themselves or the Hokage would have found them with that crystal ball he used earlier to look in on your class."

"He has to choose who or where to focus on, and since he doesn't know either the ball is pretty much worthless."

"How the hell do you know that gaki?"

"He's told me everything about that technique except how to activate it. Chakra sensing is our best bet to find them."

"Don't you think the others searching for them have tried that?"

"They probably did, but they knew where the scroll was held, which only a handful of people are supposed to know, and if they can get their hands of that kind of information, it's safe to say they'd know how our ninja are going to search, and the problem with chakra sensing is the range is dependant on the individual's own chakra reserves, so most jonin only have a range of two hundred yards. Ojii-san can probably sense to the wastelands of the village from his office, maybe a little further"

"Is there a point to this?"

"The point is that they would head to the last place the our ninja are going to check, which will be out of the range of anyone in the searching party's range."

"Well they're probably still searching in the residential district, so if you're right the thief will head towards the eastern wall, but after he found out about the theft, the Hokage would have increased the number of Anbu patrolling the wall, so it really wouldn't do them much good." She noticed that Naruto's eyes were closed and her eyebrow started to twitch. "Hey brat, are you even listening to me?"

"Trying not to, but can't help it. Shut up for a minute, you're distracting me." This did nothing to calm her down, but she didn't say anything. After a few seconds, she felt a small spike of chakra come from him and his face scrunched up in what she hoped was concentration, the chakra staying at a constant level of output. "There's someone's in the forest alone, out by that old shack. They're not moving very fast, but they may just be confident they won't get caught." Naruto opened his eyes and looked over at a still fuming Anko. "That's the only source outside of the village proper."

"You know there's a good chance it's just another idiot who thinks they find the scroll faster themselves, but it's the best we've got, might as well check it out." Naruto threw some money down on the table and when they got outside, they jumped up onto the rooftops. After traveling this way for several minutes, they went from rooftops to tree branches with Anko leading. "Look gaki, if this is the person we're looking for, I want you to hang back, if they were able to take out the Anbu guards, you'll be way out of your league. If it starts to look like I'll need help, give off a big blast of chakra, which should get some attention. I don't want you to jump in under any circumstance, the last thing I need is for the death of an overconfident genin coming down on my head."

Naruto snorted. "Think about who your talking to, Ojii-san may come down on you a little hard, but he knows how I am, and the council will make it look like you and the thief are heroes for ridding the village of the Kyuubi-brat. It'll most likely get assholes like the dango stand owner to stop calling you a traitorous bitch under their breath."

For a brief second, Naruto saw sadness pass across her face before becoming stoic again. "Like I give a rat's ass what they think about me."

"That may be true, but we both know it still hurts. We're both in the same boat if you think about it, only difference is they say it to my face."

Anko smirked. "You keep reacting like you did tonight at the dango stand and they'll start to think twice about that."

Naruto stop at the edge of a clearing in which a small wooden shack stood alone. "They're not far, I'd say within fifty yards."

Anko nodded. "Alright. Stay here till I'm fifteen yards away before following, that should be enough of a distance that you'll be out of harms way and still be able to tell if I'm getting in to too much trouble."

"Fine, but I think I should tell you, that the signature seems familiar, but somehow… twisted? Does that make sense?"

Anko placed her right hand on her left shoulder. "A little bit, yeah. Now remember, don't join the fight for any reason."

Naruto watched as Anko went ahead and when she was out of hearing range he whispered into the dark forest. "I'm sorry Anko, but I can't promise you that." He started after her as she instructed, but sped up when he felt a spike of chakra, and felt the earth tremble. What he came upon was Anko jumping off of a giant snake's head while the tiger equivalent of a werewolf passed it's hand through the snake's throat, making it go up in a cloud of smoke that blocked all view. Before the smoke had completely cleared, Naruto could hear the sounds of fighting and then someone hitting something wooden.

When the smoke finally cleared, Anko could be seen standing shakily in front of a tree and with the tiger man standing ten feet from her, the scroll leaning against a tree behind the beast. "How could you betray the village for Orochimaru?"

"He gave me this power." Naruto's eyes widened at the familiar voice of Mizuki. "And had the Kyuubi failed the exam like it was suppose to, I would have been able to kill two birds with one stone. I still get to, but not the one I had expected, Orochimaru-sama told me that should I get the chance to kill you to do so."

"I guess I'm doing something right if he thinks I'm a big enough threat to have someone kill me."

Mizuki laughed. "I think it's more the fact that you've outlived you're usefulness and are just a loose end to be tied up. Which is something I'll gladly do because Orochimaru-sama will reward me greatly for it." In the blink of an eye, he had her pinned against the tree by her throat and held off the ground. "But maybe I should have some fun with you first." Anko's hands were gripping his wrist, trying to pry it off her neck, but when she heard this, she let go with one hand, with a flick of her wrist, a kunai shot into her hand from her sleeve. She stabbed it into his left bicep, the furthest she could reach. He let out a cry of pain, but instead of letting go like she had hoped, his grip tightened. Naruto fist clenched when he backhanded her, Naruto had been constantly releasing chakra since the snake was destroyed, but still there was no one. "You bitch! I was going to do you a favor and give you a quick, painless death, but now I think I'll watch you suffer." Mizuki poised his clawed hand to strike and Naruto rushed towards them, but he wasn't fast enough to get there before Mizuki's claws ripped into Anko's side. Blood poured from the wound, but she didn't scream out. Naruto slugged Mizuki in the jaw with his left hand as the tiger man laughed. The blonde then grabbed her before she hit the ground and gently lowered her as Mizuki stood up. "Well if it isn't the Kyuubi, today must be my lucky day, I will fulfill both of my duties to Orochimaru-sama, as well as finally finish what the Yondaime started."

"You say you're loyal to Orochimaru, yet you wish to honor the Yondaime Hokage, a man who gave his life to protect this village?"

"It's not to honor him demon, but to prove that with this power I'm able to do what even he, the supposed strongest Kage ever, could not!"

As soon as Naruto laid her down, he stood up and turned to face Mizuki with piercing icy blue eyes. The blonde's eyes flashed red for a moment before Naruto shot towards Mizuki, his left arm drawn back. Mizuki's slashed Naruto's wrist as it neared him, but instead of causing damage, his hand passed through the blonde's arm. What he didn't expect was for Naruto's right hand to grab hold of the kunai Anko had stabbed into his arm in a reverse grip and pull it towards him, leaving a deep gash down to the middle of the forearm where he ripped the small blade from Mizuki's arm. Again the chunin screamed out in pain and his right hand instinctively grabbed on to his injured arm, but Naruto didn't wait for him to refocus on the fight, and stabbed the blade clear through the tiger man's throat. Before Mizuki even fell to the ground, Naruto was rushing back to Anko's side. He lifted up her head into his lap and shook her shoulder light. "Talk to me Anko, come on say something."

A small smile appeared on her face as she opened her eyes slightly. "I thought you said not to talk because I was annoying."

"I said you were distracting me, not because you were annoying, but because I couldn't help but listen." Naruto looked at her wound to see that it was still bleeding heavily. "I really have to get you to a hospital, that gash is still bleeding and it looks really bad."

"We can't leave the scroll or his body here, there's a empty storage scroll in my right coat pocket, you know how to use them right?" Naruto nodded and reached into her pocket, quickly pulling out the scroll he ran to the middle of the gap between the body and the scroll and marked out the seals for both. He pushed his chakra arm into the scroll, which created two whirlwinds that engulfed the two objects and pulled them into the scroll. He stuck the scroll into his pants pocket and went back to Anko. He lifted her up into his arms bridal style, her head resting against his right shoulder, and sprinted back towards the village on the ground, afraid he's aggravate the wound by leaping through the trees. He blew past an Anbu squad, not even looking back at them, but the blood trail left in his wake was more than enough to get their attention. He nearly kicked the doors off their hinges when he reached the hospital, he yelled for help, and the woman behind the front desk called for a doctor and a gurney. A nurse came running down the hall with pushing the gurney with several more and a couple of doctors following her. When she came up to him, he gently laid her down on it and then followed them through the halls to an operating room where they wouldn't allow him in.

He sat down on a bench across the hall from said room, his eyes locked on the small lit-up box above the door indicating the room was in use. After a few minutes, four Anbu came up to him, he glanced over their masks before looking back at the box, there was a Inu, a Tora, a Neko, and the leader, indicated by the white cloak, a Kuma. "Uzumaki-san, are you the one's whose chakra was felt coming from the forest to the east?" Naruto nodded. "May I know why?"

"Anko and I found the person who stole the Scroll of Sealing, he was close to the wall and we knew we couldn't let him escape with it, so she confronted him while I signaled for help."

"You did not help her?"

"She told me not to, that I'd be out of my league, but when no one showed up and he had her pinned against a tree, I jumped in. He did this to her before I could stop him, and I killed him as fast as I could so I could get her here for treatment."

"Did you recover the scroll?"

"I did, I have both it and his body sealed in a scroll."

"I'll need you to hand it over, as well as come with us to see Hokage-sama."

"I'm sorry Kuma-san, but I'm not leaving till I know she's alright, and I won't give the scroll to anyone except the Hokage."

Neko's body language said she was about to protest, but Kuma made a subtle gesture. "Very well, I shall inform him of where you are, and I'm sure he shall be here before long, however, I shall leave Inu and Neko here to ensure that any accomplice the thief may have had will not attempt to harm you or retake the scroll."

"That's not necessary Kuma-san, I am more than capable of handling myself."

"Perhaps, but I'm afraid I must insist, as you said, we can not allow them to escape with the scroll."

Naruto sighed, but nodded, not taking his eyes away from the door. Kuma made to leave, but Neko stepped in front of him and spoke in a whisper. "Sir, it's unorthodox to not only allow him to remain here, but to keep procession of the scroll."

"You would be right if he were anyone else, but not even all four of Hokages would be able to move him from here, and he is right in the fact that he should only hand the scroll over to Hokage-sama. If it's safe with anyone other than the Hokage, it's him." Neko nodded and she moved out of his way.

After he and Tora left, Neko and Inu stood on either side of Naruto as he waited for news on Anko, Naruto's left hand was constantly twitching. "I'm sure she'll be alright Uzumaki-san. Konoha has some of the best medical ninja in the world."

Naruto glanced over at Neko for a second before returning to his staring contest with the door. "I know that, but that won't matter if I didn't get her here in time, I killed the bastard as quickly as I could, but the injury was pouring blood when I got back to her."

"You don't seem concerned that you've taken a life."

"I'll worry about that later." Though he couldn't see her eyes, he could feel that they were trained on him. "I know you do not trust me Neko-san, maybe you even feel the same way as almost everyone else does, but I could care less."

"It's not that I don't trust you, nor that I believe you to be what the ignorant villagers do, but you refused the orders of a superior. That alone is enough to have you stripped of your Shinobi status, but you also refused to meet with Hokage-sama to tell him the breach has been taken care of and return the scroll."

"Would you if one of your teammates were in the an operating room?"

"If it were just myself and another, than it would be my duty to report to Hokage-sama before I check on their status, and if it weren't just us two, it would be a different situation then you are in, she isn't your teammate."

"Maybe not officially, but as far as I'm concerned every ninja who knew of the theft was on a mission to retrieve it, and as such anyone working in groups were on teams."

Neko smirked beneath her mask. "Then yes, by your reasoning she would be your teammate, but you still are obligated as a shinobi to report to Hokage-sama."

"Now Neko, as you're former commander says, 'Those who violate rules and laws are called trash, but those who don't take care of their comrades are worse than trash.'" Neko and Inu bowed as the Hokage walked up to them, but Naruto didn't move. Sarutobi looked at the blonde sadly. "Naruto I know you're worried about Anko, I am too, but I need to know what happened."

"It was Mizuki, he stole the scroll for Orochimaru, or at least that's what he told Anko. Said he was told that if he got the chance to kill her. His tiger-like appearance was due to some power Orochimaru gave him, with it he was strong enough to kill a giant snake summon. I wasn't able to stop him from doing this to her, but I made sure he won't do anything like this again. She was losing a lot of blood, so I sealed both him and the scroll and raced here, nobody's told me anything."

"Naruto, perhaps you should head home, you've had a rough day."

"I'm not going anywhere till I know she's going to be alright."

"Naruto…"

"No Ojii-san, you're not going to get me to change my mind. If I had jumped in sooner, she wouldn't be in there right now, the least I can do is be here with her."

"Alright Naruto, may I have the scroll that they're sealed into?"

"May I make one request?" The Hokage nodded. "After you confirm that it's Mizuki, destroy the body. The power he received not only twisted his body, but his chakra as well, it must never be recreated."

Inu looked between Naruto and Sarutobi. "Sir, is it possible that Mizuki did all of this because he was corrupted by this 'power'?"

The old man shook his head. "No, he would have had to search out Orochimaru, or whoever may have given it to him. Until such a time when this matter is resolved, all information about tonight's events are deemed classified, the last thing we need is to start a village wide panic, as far as anyone not involved is concerned, what went on tonight was a efficiency test of our ninja's response time to a village wide search for a security breach. Anko was hurt in a training accident, and Mizuki was discovered to be leaking the academy training program to a new Hidden village, Otogakure no Sato located in Ta no Kuni, and died during interrogation, it wouldn't be the first time. Since they have only recently come onto the scene, the council will look the other way so long as we send an ambassador to arrange an alliance with them. Is all of this understood?" He got yeses from everyone there. "Good. Kuma, you and your team round up everyone who was out looking for the scroll, I'll address them at the tower." Kuma nodded and the Anbu disappeared in puffs of smoke. Naruto pulled the scroll from his pocket and handed it to the Hokage. "I'm sorry that I can't stay Naruto, but I need to get these were they need to go." He sent a glance towards the door and then back towards Naruto. "She'll be fine Naruto, she's not one to give up, just like you."

Naruto smiled. "I know Ojii-san. I'll tell her that you stopped by."

Sarutobi smiled back at the blonde. "I appreciate it, but I'm sure it'll mean a lot more to her that you stayed." He putted a hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze before he left.

No more than ten minutes after the Hokage left, a doctor came out of the room, when Naruto saw him, the blonde walked up to him. "Are you the young man that brought her in?"

Yes, is she going to be alright?"

"She's lost a lot of blood, but we've managed to stitch up the wounds, and we're infusing blood. She should be fine, but we'll need to keep her here for a few days."

"Would it be alright if I stayed with her for tonight?"

"It's fine, they'll be moving her to regular room in a few minutes. When she wakes up, make sure she doesn't move around too much or her stitches will tear open. A nurse will come in once every hour to check on her. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check up on my other patients." Before the doctor turned out of the hallway, three nurses came out pushing a gurney that had Anko laying on it and an IV stand from which hung an IV drip of blood that connected to her arm.