Welcome back everyone. Not much to say here so I hope you all enjoy.
If I owned Naruto, this wouldn't be a fanfic now would it?
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Naruto once more stood in front of Tora, the ANBU commander, in the dimly lit chamber of the ANBU auditorium, this time wearing his full uniform, minus the mask.
To Tora's other side, Itachi was standing in the same garb as Naruto, but he was wearing his mask. Behind them slightly was Hiruzen, with a small smile on his face. Naruto knew why he was here, but he was still nervous about it.
"Hello everyone, I'm pleased to welcome you all here today for a 'passing of the torch' ceremony!" Tora said with more emotion than his voice usually portrayed.
"Today is a historical day for us all, as it gives birth to a new legend. As you all know, Weasel here was the youngest person to ever become a captain amongst our ranks at the age of 13." Tora said, and then paused for a moment.
"Now, after 6 years of exceptional service, I am sad to say that Weasel will be retiring. At the same time, I am happy to say that Weasel's last act will be to promote Kitsune to captain of Delta Squad!"
"Kitsune, you have proven yourself worthy time and time again. I trust that you will make a great leader of your squad, and I believe that if you stick with it, a great commander one day. It is my honor to name you my successor. From one legend to the next, I now dub you Kitsune-taichou." Itachi said as Naruto knelt down before Itachi as Itachi removed his sword and touched Naruto's shoulder with it. (As is the knighting ritual used by the English.)
After Naruto had been sworn in, he stood back up as Itachi removed his mask and pitched it in the air lightly.
Without any handseals, Itachi spewed out a small fireball that enveloped his old mask and kept it floating, before willing it over to Naruto's direction. Naruto reached a hand under the mask and kept it floating, still on fire, as Itachi spoke again.
"This ritual is to signify the 'passing of the torch' from one captain to the next. I present to you the youngest man to ever make ANBU captain; captain of Delta Squad; Namikaze Naruto."
At this point Naruto donned his mask before disappearing from his spot in a swirl of fire, to reappear several feet from where he was before; now standing in front of a wall full of masks of all kinds, all with fire burning around them. Naruto gracefully sat Itachi's mask upon the wall in the next empty spot before kneeling in front of it and doing a set of hand seals. He stretched an arm out and touched it to the mask for a moment as the fire flared brightly before dying back down to a small outline of the mask.
Naruto then shunshinned back to his previous location and spoke with practiced ease. "That ritual is to signify that though Weasel may no longer be among our ranks, he will always carry the Will of Fire that we strive to represent. I officially accept my nomination as captain, and I appreciate all of your support. I hope that I may lead my squad as well as Weasel has before me." Naruto said with a deep bow towards Itachi, and then a deep bow towards the crowd. After the bow, the room erupted into cheers.
"Congratulations Naruto-kun, you've earned this." Hiruzen said as he walked over and patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Now then, why don't I take you out to eat so we can celebrate?"
"Sure thing Jiji."
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Naruto and Hiruzen both appeared in the street in front of Ichiraku's ramen via shunshin. Naruto quickly noticed that it looked dark inside, but paid it no mind as he walked over and slid the curtain back only to be glomped onto from 2 directions by 2 different girls. "Congratulations Naruto-kun!" Hinata and Ino said as one.
After Naruto managed to pry the girls off, he walked in and sat down at the bar next to a grinning Sasuke, lighting up a cigarette in the process.
"Congrats on making captain, but don't think for a moment that means you could beat me." Sasuke said before patting Naruto on the back. "And that shit is gonna kill you, you know."
Naruto grinned back and replied "Making captain doesn't change a thing, I can kick your ass now same as ever. And no it's fine, rather soothing. You should try it sometime."
"Shiiit I doubt it." Sasuke said with a chuckle before a chopstick tapping on glass could be heard. Everyone turned to the source to see Hiruzen standing in the middle of the room.
"Thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate Naruto-kun's promotion. Now, a toast to the new captain!"
Tseuchi quickly filled everyone's glassed with sake, minus Hinata, Ino, and Ayame who got tea, before they all raised their glasses in the air.
"To Kitsune-taichou!" Everyone chorused before downing their drinks.
"Congratulations Ero-Gaki, you'll be beating them off with a- ahh who am I kidding you've already got 2, you'll be SWAMPED now!" Jiraiya said before his nose started to bleed a bit.
"They're not my girlfriends Ero-sennin!" Naruto said with a fake scowl.
"Sure, whatever Gaki." Jiraiya said with a wink before his face turned serious again. "Seriously though Kid you know your dad would be proud of you right? He never was ANBU himself but he would still be proud. Anyways, I want you to have this, it won't be in stores for at least another month." He finished and handed Naruto a present with his trademark lecherous grin on, as Naruto portrayed his own before stuffing the little orange book into a pocket in his pants.
"Thanks Ero-sennin." Naruto smiled and hugged the man.
"You're welcome Ero-gaki. Use it well." Jiraiya replied with a wink before heading off to drink himself to oblivion.
After that the party went on for a while longer, with Jiraiya getting hammered and stumbling off to the red light district; Sasuke learning why 11 year olds don't drink and getting carried home by Itachi; And Hiruzen leaving after warning Naruto that he needed to meet him at 8 in the morning; and finally Naruto and Hinata walked Ino home before going home to bed themselves.
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The next morning
"Good morning Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said as Naruto appeared in his office in a vortex of flames.
"Morning Jiji-sama, what did you need me for?"
"First off, I'd like for you to meet the new member of your squad." Hiruzen said, and like magic, a young man in a hyo (leopard) mask who appeared to be about 19 stepped out of the shadow.
"Hello Kitsune-taichou, I am Mumei Shiryo." (A/N: It means nameless fodder. Take that as you will, wink wink.)
"Nice to meet you Mumei, it is an honor to have you on my squad." Naruto said as the 2 shook hands.
"Alright Hyo, you may be dismissed." Hiruzen said as Mumei disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
After Mumei was gone, Hiruzen did a few hand seals and the room glowed purple for a minute before the glow died out.
"Now then, I have your first mission as commander. It will be a hands mission, and if you are discovered, you will be labeled as traitors and executed as such, do you accept?" Hiruzen said with a stern voice.
"I do." Naruto said, now in mission mode.
Hiruzen then went through some more hand seals and slammed his hand on his desk before Itachi appeared beside him in normal Konoha jonin gear.
"Hokage-sama." Itachi said with a small bow.
"Itachi-kun, Naruto-kun has accepted the mission. Care to explain?"
"Of course. The mission, simply put, will be to assassinate Danzo Shimura. We have substantial evidence that Danzo is a traitor to this village and has been working alongside Orochimaru. After the council meeting tonight, your team will follow him home, kill him, and leave no evidence behind. Do you understand?"
"Hai." Naruto replied with no emotion. Inside though, he was worried. This mission was big, and he had a new man on his squad that they had no experience with, not to mention that this would be his first mission as commander.
"Alright then, the meeting is at 19:00. Dismissed." Hiruzen said as he lifted the privacy seal and Naruto disappeared in a vortex of flames.
Naruto reappeared at ANBU HQ and summoned his team to get some training in with the new guy. They spent the next 4 hours training, and Naruto wasn't particularly impressed with the man. He was good, that much was obvious since he is in ANBU, but he wasn't great. He didn't match up to the rest of his team, but then again Delta Squad is the envy of all the other squads, so that was a big shoe to fill. Naruto just hoped he would make it through tonight so he could be caught up to Delta standards.
After the training, Naruto told his team to meet him at HQ at 18:00, and they all parted ways to rest up from their training.
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At 18:00 sharp, Delta squad appeared inside ANBU HQ in their various shunshins. Naruto spent the next hour briefing the team on their course of action, before they once more shunshinned away to outside of the council chamber, where they simply stayed hidden and waited for Danzo to leave. Somewhere around an hour and a half later, the meeting was dismissed and the various council members departed for home.
Naruto instantly activated his Sharingan, picking Danzo out of the crowd with no problem. "Target in sight." Naruto whispered into his radio, receiving 3 short clicks as confirmation. "Move out." Again receiving 3 clicks.
The team spent the next 30 minutes hidden on the rooftops, in the trees, and in the shadows following the crippled bastard home. Finally, he arrived; having no clue he was being followed, he simply nodded to the two Root operatives that were hidden in the shadows by his gate before they quickly opened the gate to allow him passage.
"Two by the gate, one on the roof, one by the front door, one by the back. I'll get the gate, Neko take the roof, Taka front, Hyo back; no sounds." Naruto whispered barely loud enough to hear through their radios, but received 3 confirmations. "Move."
As soon as Naruto was through speaking, he appeared behind the first gate guard and removed his head with a quick slash of his tanto. He caught the head and body, lowered them quietly to the ground, and repeated the process again for the other.
At the same time, Yugao, Sasuke, and Mumei all accomplished their own task before they all disappeared back to the shadows to be sure Danzo didn't notice their arrival.
After a brief moment, Naruto was sure they were good and leapt away quickly, landing beside the back door of the large home. With a quick scan of the house with his Sharingan he confirmed that Danzo was in the shower, and there were no seals anywhere to be concerned with.
"A bit too confident in his fake ANBU isn't he?" Naruto thought as he melted the door lock with a Katon jutsu. The 4 man team quickly went in before Naruto performed a soundproof barrier around the entire house, and hid outside of Danzo's bedroom, waiting for him to come out.
Several minutes later the man walked out of his bathroom and right past Naruto, who was waiting in the shadows. Without hesitating, Naruto pulled a kunai and plunged it deep into the base of Danzo's skull before the man fell to the ground… and disappeared in a poof of smoke.
"SHIT!" Naruto yelled out as he narrowly avoided a blade of wind that smashed through the wall he was standing by. Danzo then stepped out through the hole in the wall and chuckled.
"So the weak old bastard is so scared of me that he sent a squad of ANBU to take me out. Tsk. I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night; you won't take me down so easily." Danzo said calmly before running through a set of 1 handed seals before calling out "Futon: Shinkugyoku." (Vacuum Spheres) and inhaling a deep breath and releasing it, sending several streams of razor sharp wind towards Naruto.
Naruto quickly did his own hand seals and called out "Futon: Daitoppa!" as he blew out a large wall of wind that intercepted Danzo's attack, causing the hallway they stood in to explode outwards.
Danzo once more began a set of hand seals, but never got to finish as he dodged a flame bullet from Sasuke. While Danzo was still in the air from the dodge, he was shocked as he caught a glimpse of a sword swinging towards him. Unable to dodge, the sword sliced into the side of his chest and through his heart, only stopping when it hit his spine. Yugao quickly kicked him off of her blade and backed away, preparing to burn the body, when his body shimmered a bit, and then disappeared. She was quite shocked, but played it off as a seal to prevent interrogation if captured; until Danzo appeared in front of her once again, with the bandages around his face and right arm missing, revealing a Mangekyo Sharingan in his right eye, and 2 fully matured Sharingan, and what appeared to be 8 closed eye-sockets on the arm. Before she could even react, he kicked her through the wall and leapt back towards Naruto and Sasuke.
Right as Danzo started moving towards them, Mumei jumped in front of him and launched him through the wall and into what appeared to be a dojo. Mumei quickly leapt through the hole and engaged Danzo in a taijutsu bout for a moment before he was overwhelmed and knocked back out of the way. Just as Mumei got knocked away from Danzo, he heard a whistling noise before Sasuke called out "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!" and Naruto called out "Futon Katon: Kajiarashi Rasengan!" (Firestorm Rasengan) Before Danzo could react, Naruto appeared in front of him with a Futon Rasengan in hand. As Naruto began to thrust the attack home, the small fireballs that Sasuke fired merged to the Rasengan and began to swirl around it while also increasing it's size and intensity.
Danzo didn't have a chance to dodge and Naruto's attack found home, driving deep into Danzo's chest before exploding out in a ball of fire, blowing the side of Danzo's chest out. Naruto leapt back, still on guard after seeing Danzo survive Yugao's attack. Sure enough, Danzo's body soon shimmered and disappeared, before reappearing in front of Naruto with 1 open Sharingan and 9 closed sockets on his arm. He quickly went through some hand seals and said "Futon: Daitoppa!" as he released a gale-force wind at Naruto, who was unable to dodge in time, and was rocketed back out into the hallway.
Sasuke quickly leapt in while Danzo was distracted and launched a roundhouse kick at his head, but Danzo spun and blocked the kick before launching his own into Sasuke's rib cage, shooting him back towards the hall as well. Out of the blue, Yugao appeared and caught Sasuke before sitting him down and the 2 flew back at Danzo. Sasuke went in first, going through hand seals before calling out "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" and blowing out a large stream of fire towards Danzo, who countered with a Daitoppa that stalled the attack before it could reach him. It was then that Danzo felt a presence behind him and quickly pulled a kunai out and spun around just in time to block a downward slash from Yugao's katana, though he wasn't fast enough to avoid the 2 clones that appeared at both of his sides with upward slashes. Both clones successfully sliced up through his ribs and into his spine. The clones then dispelled before Danzo fell to the ground dead. Again.
Not one to be fooled twice, Yugao put a lot of distance between Danzo and herself as his body began to shimmer once again. Just like the 3 times before, Danzo disappeared, only to reappear right where he was killed most recently now with 10 closed eye sockets on his arm, before bolting for Yugao once again. Yugao threw her arm up to counter the kick that Danzo launched, but never made it as Naruto substituted with her, ducked under his kick, and drove yet another Futon Rasengan in, and through, his chest where his heart would be. Naruto pulled his bloodied arm out, and to his surprise, Danzo began to laugh.
"Well well, you managed to kill me. I can't say that I'm shocked, but at least I'll live in peace knowing I take you to hell with me! Ura Shisho Fuin!" (Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique) Danzo shouted at he tore his shirt off, revealing 4 square symbols across his chest, before the seals projected around Naruto and himself. Naruto tried to jump back out of the way, but found that he couldn't move anything.
"SHIT! You bastard!" Naruto yelled out as the 4 seals started to turn into a large black sphere. "Well fuck. I can't believe this is how it ends. I'm only 11 years old and I die on the first mission I get to lead. Some captain I am." Naruto thought as he accepted his inevitable death, only to be broke out of his musings by a distant sounding voice.
"Taichou!" Mumei shouted at he saw the sphere began to envelop the two. Quickly acting, he used a substitution and replaced himself with Naruto just as the seal completely formed and trapped him with Danzo.
Naruto was completely shocked; one second he was watching his short life replay in his mind, the next he heard a distant voice and a weird pull on his body before he was outside the seal watching Mumei die in his stead.
"NOOO! Goddammit Hyo why would you do that?!" He shouted in rage as he transformed into his one tailed chakra shroud and formed a Futon: Rasengan in his right hand. He was gone in the blink of an eye, and reappeared beside the large, now solid black, sphere, driving his palm forward. Just as he was about to hit it, the seal glowed with a golden hue, turned back to black, and disappeared. Naruto, due to his momentum, flew through the spot that used to be the sphere and crashed into the wall. Once his demon-fueled Futon Rasengan connected to the wall, it exploded outward in a large cyclone, blowing through the next two rooms and clear to the outside of the house.
Naruto promply fell to his knees and began to curse and slam his fist into the floor until he had broke through the flooring and was beating the foundation beneath. Sasuke then walked over and put a hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him.
"Calm down man it's okay. That was what he wanted to do, he did it of his own free will."
"No goddammit it's all my fault! I shouldn't have got caught in the first place! What the fuck kind of leader am I to allow my men to die on my first damn mission?!" Naruto shouted, his voice crackling from the tears he was releasing.
"It's okay Taichou, come on we'll talk about this later we need to go."
Naruto then calmed himself down a bit, but the sadness was evident in his voice. "You're right I can't forget that I am expected to set an example." He then spoke up a bit. Neko, destroy the body; Taka, you and I will burn the interior of the house to remove the evidence."
Yugao nodded and went through a few hand seals before she blew out a stream of flames that enveloped Danzo's body. She continued blowing the fire for a few more seconds, until there was nothing left of Danzo.
Naruto and Sasuke in the mean time, had both went back to opposite sides of the house and began spewing out fireballs, until they met in the middle, with Yugao; while the house burned around them.
"You two go on, I'll meet you at the back door in just a second." Naruto commanded before the 2 nodded and disappeared. Naruto then quickly knelt down and said a small prayer for Mumei, before he stood back up and flashed through a few hand seals and said flatly "Katon: Karyu Endan no Jutsu." As a large dragon made of flames spewed from his mouth and ravaged through the remainder of the house before shooting out the roof, causing a large explosion a cave in of the roof.
"Oh God he's still in there!" Yugao half screamed as the house fell in on itself.
Sasuke was too shocked to even speak, after watching his best friend just kill himself.
The two were about to break down when they felt a source of heat behind them and quickly turned to see Naruto walk out of a vortex of fire.
"I decided to make sure there was no evidence left." Naruto said simply before nodding towards the main street. "There is another squad coming. We were in the area and heard a disturbance, we came to check it out and found several of Danzo's Root operatives attacking him. They managed to kill him, but we killed them back."
Sasuke and Yugao simply nodded before following Naruto out front to meet the new squad. Naruto talked to the captain of their squad and explained what happened; the man bought the story, and he and his team quickly began damage control by putting out the fires and running off the 'rubberneckers' (I don't know if any of you have ever heard the word, but it's a term used to describe nosy people who come to emergencies just to see whats going on.) while Naruto dismissed his team and went to report in to the Hokage.
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Finally got to see some real action in this one! I don't really like the whole fight scene. By the way yes, I know Danzo had 10 Sharingan eyes to use Izanagi with in the manga, but this is set 5 years prior to that; therefore I reason that he hasn't activated all of the eyes yet. I also intentionally left out his summon because they were fighting indoors and there would be no room for it. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this one. Until next time; review, fav, follow, and refer a friend.