Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I get the feeling I'm going to get very tired of writing that sentence.

Chapter 3: Clockwork Shinobi

In Konoha, the mid-morning sun beat down on the Konoha ANBU Headquarters. Actually, the sun beat down on the packed dirt roads near the Hokage Tower. The Headquarters proper was actually located under the aforementioned roads.

Konoha's ANBU, up until very recently, the ANBU forces had been split into ten from Alpha to Kappa. The Hokage's rotating ANBU guard held the eleventh designation Lambda.

These divisions, while mostly standardized, had certain points of pride that separated themselves from their brethren.. Any deviation from one division to another was slight. For instance, Iota had the best trappers, Epsilon had the best stealth experts, and Delta had the best Taijutsu.

To further confuse any spies, these divisions could hold any number of individual shinobi, so as to not allow enemies to make accurate estimations of Konoha's silent elite. As such, the number of squads within these divisions was also difficult to calculate and therefore any number of ANBU captains could exist.

To put its simply, ANBU had three, technically four, ranks; Operator, Captain, Colonel, and Commander.

The last title was held by a single individual, who commanded the entirety of Konoha's ANBU forces. Only the Hokage, Shimura Danzo, and Jiraiya of the Sanin were aware of his or her identity.

There were ten Colonels in total, one for each division. Whichever captain in charge of the Hokage's guard, held the unofficial, but still respected rank of Lambda Colonel.

When the venerated Hokage turned Team Seven into the prototype Fast Response team, he was left with a bit of a quandary. He didn't want them officially on the records, as successful prototype teams had a notoriously high bounties. After all, if another village was doing something that worked well that your village wasn't, copying it was a time-tested strategy.

For instance, the original sensor division had been a Kiri idea. One that every other village replicated when they realized how poorly combat went while Kirigakure no Jutsu was in effect.

Instead of keeping the identities of his Fast Response in normal shinobi records, Hiruzen had used his power as kage to create a twelfth ANBU division, designated Mu. That meant any equipment, funding, or mission that went through Fast Response was placed in the highly restricted ANBU records. While nearly every member of Konoha's ANBU would know the identities of the sixteen year old shinobi, the rest of the shinobi populace would be entirely unaware.

This also meant that the ANBU HQ had had a new wing dug out for use by the fledgeling division. Unfortunately having an office space, also meant paperwork. Paperwork Kakashi, who held the rank of ANBU Colonel in the Mu division, would never do. When presented with such responsibility, Kakashi made an allusion to having dealt with that enough as a captain in Alpha division and then promptly handed off the work to his genin, claiming it would be a learning experience.

The only thing Naruto 'experienced' as she went through another form, was profound irritation at her lazy sensei/leader.

The Uzumaki sat behind a nice oak desk going through a stack of papers that had been delivered to Mu's offices. She was dressed in a pair of black kunoichi pants and a strange orange and black jacket that fit snugly around her torso. She leaned back into the plush chair with a sigh. The room was silent, other than a steady gentle thumping. coming from her shield in the corner. He bored eyes scanned the room. For being the underground offices for such a serious section of Konoha's shinobi, the ANBU headquarters did it level best to be cheerful and warm. The walls of the office had been painted deep green color. Two comfortable brown chairs were in front of the desk and a large red couch took up one entire wall. Though she couldn't see it, behind her was a wall filling map of the Elemental Nations. The borders, Hidden Villages, and key geographical features had been marked accordingly. A large set of horns, seemingly from a large bull, looked starkly out of place on the wall across from her was a tacky fake plant in the corner. Every time Naruto got rid of it, the damn thing came back. She even had Sasuke burn in once and the next day it was there again, ugly as usual.

It seemed there were some pranksters in the ANBU ranks.

Aside from the fake vegetation, the office was very posh. It didn't actually belong to Naruto per say. But if she was going to deal with all Kakashi's damn paperwork, she was going to take his kick-ass office. He never used it anyway.

Naruto had been the one caught doing all the paperwork, because the one time she pestered Sasuke into doing it, he had screwed it all up on purpose, leaving her with even more paperwork to correct the old paperwork. Sakura didn't do it because she pointed out that she couldn't afford to injure her wrists, or her medical skills would fall drastically. When Naruto argued that the same was true for her fuuinjutsu, Kakashi had actually pointed out that fuuinjutsu was heavily focused on writing, and that because of that, Naruto was best suited to deal with paperwork.

This led to Naruto's current situation. The whiskered kunoichi glared at the piece of paper in her hand.

As a result of the old man moving around the prototype squad, Team Seven was registered under ANBU Mu Division and Fast Response. This led to the squad being classified as both ANBU and not ANBU. That unfortunately meant that the ANBU armory wouldn't let them have that sweet armor. Hell they only got blank masks. Who the hell uses blank masks?

Naruto leaned back with a sigh as the thumping noise continued. Her half-lidded eyes looked over to the source of the noise.

Sakura was laid out on the couch in the room, steadily bouncing a hollow rubber ball off the flat of her shield. The slight incline of the leaning equipment popped the ball back into her waiting hand. The important thing to note about the situation was that Sakura's other arm was draped over her face, blocking her view. Naruto might have found it more impressive if she hadn't known Sakura had done surgery without being able to see. Sakura had certainly come a long way from the Bell Test eleven months previous.

With a devious smirk, Naruto placed her hand on her still unnamed shield. The smooth metal sank back in on itself, causing the rubber ball to fall into the divot. Sakura closed her hand to catch the ball. When she noticed nothing had landed, she closed her hand again. Sakura rose her arm high into the air, face still covered by the other. The medic made her hand flatten out. The thumb moved under her four fingers. The hand rapidly twisted left and right while opening and closing, giving the crude impression of a confused, long-necked bird.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, as the hand turned to face her. It opened wide as if cawing at her. Naruto grabbed the rubber ball and tossed it to the hungry beast. The hand opened and closed rapidly as if trying to swallow the ball. Sakura uncovered her face and sat up, green eyes filled with mirth. A small smile played on her lips.

Naruto sighed, "What do people even do with time off?"

Sakura tossed her ball back and forth in her hands, "Sleep, shop, civilian stuff, I suppose."

"I don't really do any of those things," Naruto said, leaning back and putting her arms behind her head.

Sakura paused in her motions to scratch her chin, "I used to, I think." She blinked, "When was the last time we weren't on call or on a mission?"

Naruto mulled the question over, "I think it was sometime in December."

"Oh," Sakura said, "What month is it?" she asked after a moment.

"March," Naruto replied.

"Oh," Sakura said, "I think I missed my birthday."

Naruto frowned, "Bummer."

Seemingly unfazed by missing her sixteenth birthday, Sakura looked over at Naruto's shield, "Say, can you make me one of those?"

"Maybe, but I don't think you could use it. I made it to mimic my Henge. My nervous system was mapped out onto those arrays."

"I know, I mapped it remember?" Sakura commented, a little upset she couldn't use the shifting weapon. Oh well, she still had her knives and ridiculous strength. Now if she could just copy Tsunade of the Sanin's absurd punch.

"You think your parents are mad about you missing your birthday?"

"No," Sakura replied, "I think they have a pretty good idea of what our team really is."

That was surprising to Naruto, "Really?"

"Yeah, they just seem to know whenever I'm going to go on a mission." Sakura frowned, "Come to think of it, They were giving me worried looks before the whole Akatou thing."

"Creepy," Naruto idly commented before giving her shield an intense stare.

Sakura clearly noticed her closest friend's behavior, "What is it?"

Naruto broke off her staring contest with the unblinking metal and sighed, "I still need to name this damn thing."

Sakura leaned back. Unique weapons usually held unique names. Naruto's creation, while experimental, was definitely unique. "Hmm," she muttered, "Hakabakashiishippou (Quicksilver)?"

"Color's too dark for that, and that name is way too long."

"Isshiki (Everything)?"

"Too esoteric," Naruto said, idly swirling the metal into fluid looking shapes.

"Nexumiironami (Gray Wave)?"

"Too unwieldy".

Sakura snapped her fingers, "Hogosha (Guardian)."

"Too.. generic. I guess it'll just stay unnamed for now. Thanks for your help anyway Sakura-chan."

Sakura just smiled back and shrugged."You done?" she asked gesturing to the papers on Naruto's desk.

"Done as I'm going to be," Naruto replied wit a sigh and put her head on her desk

Sakura got up and began toying with the blonde tactician's ponytails, lightly pulling them to and fro.

"If you were anyone else, I'd beat the hell out of you for that," Naruto grumbled.

Sakura smiled impishly, "But I'm not, so you won't"

Naruto grunted, but made no move to stop her.

"Why do you keep them in ponytails, anyway?" Sakura questioned.

The blonde kunoichi tilted her head up, "Why don't you dye your hair a more sensible color?"

Sakura twitched, but nodded. Uniqueness could be valuable to someone who spent a good deal of their time behind a mask.

"Besides," Naruto said stretching her arms and back, "I could dump wind chakra in them for a nasty surprise. If someone goes for a grab, they come back with a diced hand."

"If you were better with wind chakra," Sakura pointed out.

"Yes, if I were better with wind chakra," Naruto agreed. "We can't all have absurdly high Doton and Katon affinities."

"Actually, Katon and Doton are the most common affinities in Konoha," Sakura pointed out.

Naruto sighed, "Let's go grab our bastard and find something to do."

"I'm afraid that will to have wait," the voice of their sensei drawled as he stepped into the room, "The Hokage wants a formal debriefing." Kakashi glanced at Naruto standing behind his desk, "You're in my chair."

"No I'm not," Naruto said cheekily, "it's my office." With a grin, Naruto pointed at the small plaque on the door.

Kakashi's single eye glanced to his left.

Mu Division: Commander, U.N

He stared longer, slightly confused. When'd she have that put up?

"That was the one thing requisition forms actually worked for," Naruto said answering his unspoken question.

"Commander?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto shrugged her shoulders, "I said it as a joke, didn't think they'd actually do it."

Kakashi sighed, "Let's go."

The Sandaime Hokage looked over his first and only Fast Response Team. They stood in a staggered line in front of his desk. Kakashi and Sasuke shared similar looks of boredom, Sakura was giving him a polite smile. And Naruto was giving him a dirty look.

"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?" Naruto questioned the venerable Hokage.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, my dear," The Sandaime commented kindly. The smoke from his pipe curled out of his nose.

Naruto could see by the amused look in his eyes that the Sandaime knew damn well what was happening in Nami before Team Seven's intervention. "Of course not.," she grumbled.

"I've called you here because of your report," Sarutobi spoke calmly. "It seems you took it upon yourself to depose a nation's government, legal or not. Your mission was to defend the bridge builder, not start a regime change."

Naruto blatantly stole Sasuke's previous justification for wiping out Gato, "Gato and his men were a threat to the client. We simply took a proactive approach in defending the client."

"Is that so?" Hiruzen asked sternly, looking over the assembled team.

"Yep," Kakashi said with a straight face.

"If that's the case, then... Excellent work, Team Seven," the Hokage said with a kindly smile. "Your actions have secured the trust of Nami no Kuni and given Konoha early news of Kiri's recovery. I will be sending an envoy to greet the new Mizukage. You've done well."

Naruto stared.

Sakura stared.

Sasuke grunted.

Naruto placed a hand out with an open palm. "Mission pay, please." She noticed the odd look the Hokage was giving her. She unsealed her shield and held it up to the light. "Chakra conductive iron ain't cheap, Jiji."

"I see," the Hokage said, quietly examining the suspicious curved plate of metal, "Pick up your checks downstairs. You're dismissed."

Naruto gave him a lazy salute, opened the window, and dropped out into the busy streets below.

The Sandaime raised an eyebrow and looked over at the remaining genin. Sasuke had already headed to the door. Sakura shrugged her shoulders, gave him a small bow and followed her dark-haired teammate out the door.

The Sandaime sighed and looked at his, arguably, strongest jounin. "Kakashi, want your honest opinion. Is your team capable of winning the exams."

Kakashi pondered for a moment, "I can't say for certain without knowing who the other villages will send."

Sarutobi slid a folder across the desk. "Intelligence believes those are the most likely candidates to be sent in as ringers, so to speak."

Wordlessly, the jounin picked up the folder and scanned the contents carefully. For minutes, the office was nearly silent. The Hokage waited patiently for Kakashi to speak while puffing his pipe.

Eventually Kakashi closed the folder with a quiet snap. "I think they have a shot."

The Hokage smiled lightly behind his pipe. "Even so, I'd like a detailed report on their skills by tomorrow morning."

"How about a vague report sometime next week?" Kakashi offered.

Sarutobi stared blankly at him. Kakashi shifted. It was tremendously unnerving.

"Right, report tomorrow. Got it."

Sakura idled through the streets, seeming rather bored. Her unique hair color made her easily recognizable, earning a few greetings from members of Konoha's populace. Naruto had left, claiming she was going to refine her somewhat lacking wind manipulation. Sakura,who was quite pleased with her ability to use her element, was determined to actually take the day off.

The only problem was that she didn't exactly know what to do with a day off. As she wandered the streets she felt the familiar scent of flowers enter her nose. Sure enough, her feet had taken her to her old rival's family store. How long had it been she she'd spoken to Ino?

Sakura shrugged and headed inside.

Yamanaka Ino had been tending the counter with her head in her hands. Ino was an attractive young woman with pale skin and light blonde hair, which hung low to cover her right eye, the rest of her hair was held in a long ponytail.. Her eyes were a pale teal-green. She was wearing her usual garb, which consisted of a purple skirt split up the middle to reveal a slightly shorter gray skirt underneath, along with purple sleeveless top that covered her upper torso to her neck, but left her midriff exposed, fishnet on her knees and forearms completed the look. A standard pair of shinobi sandals covered her feet and ankles.

Her father had made her work on the one day her sensei, Asuma, had given her off. Running a flower business wasn't particularly difficult, and she found often found herself with nothing to do. As she idly wondered if plants held enough sentience for her to use her family techniques on, the bell above the door rang.

Ino began speaking in a dull tone, "Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, how can I help- Forehead?"

Sure enough, Sakura was there, glancing around the shop, as she entered. She seemed different than she had at graduation. Her stance was more confident, her eyes seemed to quickly analyze the room, and her body was more toned overall, if the shape of her legs and arms was any indicator.

"Hey Ino, it's been awhile, hasn't it?" Sakura greeted her cheerfully.

Ino broke out of her observations at the sound of her rival's voice, "I've been great! I'm still way stronger than you, and I bet my team could beat yours even with Sasuke-kun."

Sakura frowned at Ino's infatuation with Sasuke. Was that really what she had been like? However, a challenge from Ino like that couldn't go unanswered, "Yeah right, Ino. You three couldn't beat me, Sasuke, or Naruto, even if it was one against three."

Ino became red at the mention of Naruto, "Don't bring her up!."

Sakura blinked, "What's your problem with Naruto?"

Ino scoffed and turned her head. "She thinks she's so great. I'm know she's trying to beat me for best blonde. She tries to act like she doesn't know what she's doing, but she can't fool me!"

Sakura's mouth twitched upward slightly. Naruto could be a little dense when it came to people. Years on your own would do that. If there was a war between Naruto and Ino, one side was entirely unaware of it. Ino never ceased to amuse.

(With Naruto- Training Ground Seven)

Out of nowhere, Naruto let out a violent sneeze. Unfortunately this caused her to lose focus on the wind chakra she had been practicing with. This led to a score of small slashes and cuts digging into her arm.

"What the hell?" Naruto shouted, holding her now bleeding appendage.

"Hey," Ino said all of a sudden, "You didn't call him Sasuke-kun." Ino jumped up and down. "Have you finally seen that you can't win Sasuke-kun's heart?"

"I guess I just don't know if I feel that way about him anymore," Sakura said with a shrug.

Ino gasped. "How can you say that? We've been fighting over him for years."

Sakura scratched her head, "I guess I got over it." Or she was too busy trying to keep herself and her team alive to worry about a crush, but Ino didn't need to know that.

They went on like that for an hour or so, rebuilding an old friendship that had been crippled by a childish rivalry over a boy. Ino still carried a torch for Sasuke, but Sakura's ambivalence eased the blonde.

Naruto's chest heaved as she sucked in great gouts of air. After making some progress with her affinity, she had decided to work on close range combat.

Overall, Naruto liked to use stealth and to keep her opponents at range while she used clones and fuuinjutsu to secure battlefield control. In fact, Naruto had originally made her shield to cover up a glaring weakness in her fighting style.

To be frank, she had no close range techniques or any sort of taijutsu style. She was fast, fastest genin on her team, but that could only get her so far. The shield did a damn fine job of compensating for that weakness. Having any and every weapon she could think of was damn useful, and decidedly surprising to her opponent.

There were a few problems, though. The shifting process took way too long, it was difficult to adjust to, given its weight, and she had to have a very detailed understanding of the object it was changing into. And to top it off, she could be disarmed, putting her back at square one.

The first three problems could be dealt with given time, but relying exclusively on her shield for close up was unacceptable. She was damn lucky that Kakashi had beaten Haku so quickly, because when she disarmed Zabuza, she handicapped her close quarters combat much more than the vaunted kiri jounin.

That line of thinking led to now. She had let out a couple dozen kage bunshin into the woods surrounding the clearing. Clones as fast as she was, as smart as she was, and each carrying a different variation of her shield. She also happened to be fighting all the devious copies of herself bare handed. Perhaps not her best idea, but trial by fire was a bit of a staple in how she learned.

Her bright blue eyes looked back and forth incessantly. Her arms were held in loose fists by her chin and chest. The numerous cuts that littered her body were slowly closing with quiet hisses. Her entire body felt like a giant bruise, but she had managed to whittle down her opposition to just under ten. At least she thought it was ten. Her clones had taken off into the forest, and she wasn't nearly dumb enough to go into that hornet's nest.

He usual tactics weren't going to work here. She had restricted herself to using her fists, feet, and wit.

Two clones burst from the foliage, wielding a scythe and gauntlets, respectively. The dopplegangers split up and charged from either side. From the rear a third clone appeared, this one holding a broadsword. Naruto didn't move as they drew near. The scythe wielding clone went for a high horizontal swipe, while the gauntlet clone went for a low charge. The one behind her let out a downward slash to cut off her escape.

Naruto exploded into motion, ducking under the scythe swing and getting inside that clones guard. With a mighty pull on the shaft of the scythe, she ripped the clone off its feet and brought it forward to unintentionally block the broadsword with the bladed weapon. Naruto stomped on the pole of the weapon hard, forcing the broadsword's tip into the ground and driving the blade into the back of the gauntlet wearing clone, who had yet to recover from its dive. It disappeared in a satisfying puff of smoke. Naruto lashed an elbow out to dispel the scythe using clone, dispelling it as well. She launched herself into a shoulder charge at the broadsword wielder, who was raising its blade for another strike. The force of Naruto's impact knocked the large weapon out of its hands and sent it and her tumbling to the ground.

The blonde fuuinjutsu expert placed both hands on the clone's shoulders to pin its arms. She pushed her legs upward, using her arms as a pivot, before crashing down with a double heel stomp into the copy's chest. The force dispelled the clone so thoroughly it made her wince at the memory.

She rose back into a standing position, panting noticeably harder than before. The blonde couldn't stop now. All of her team would have to get stronger for the coming years. Deidara's message had been ample proof of that.

It seemed the S-class nightmare had been apart of a group of very strong, very unsavory people. Nine S-class missing nin, drawn together to hunt down the jinchuuriki. It was nearly the worst case scenario the Uzumaki could image.

The worst, oddly enough, was an undead army of shinobi from the past.

There was a glimmer of hope, however. Fortunately for them, Deidara had not wanted to join this organization. It seemed he had been forced in after losing a battle to Sasuke's brother, Uchiha Itachi. Uchiha Itachi, just one on an uncomfortable list, a list of nine people coming to kill her. It was eight, actually.

While Deidara didn't know she was a jinchuuriki, the explosives master had clearly indicated his desire to leave the group, and his willingness to cooperate with a village, who would help him get out or help him kill Itachi. Luckily him, there was a certain dark-haired male on her team who wanted the same thing. The Iwa terrorist had given them a list of names and small details on what he knew about the other members. It was hardly comprehensive, but the blonde man wasn't going to give anything else until he had some proof of support.

He also left a handy, if difficult, technique for her. She was still miffed about him calling her 'his firecracker', though.

She cracked her neck and made a 'come' gesture to the clones she knew were watching from the trees.

She was sure they wouldn't disappoint.

In a small, well lit room, the sound of a brush lightly scraping paper rang out. Smooth lines crossed one another in bold, thick lines. Every stroke added more detail; a curve hear, a set of jagged lines there. The carefully treated scroll accepted all these ministrations without complaint, bending freely to immaculate example of the art it was becoming apart of. As deft hands guided the brush, swirling red eyes predicted every brush stroke in a symphony of rapidly drying ink.

Uchiha Sasuke was participating in one of his favorite hobbies; the subtle art of cartography or mapmaking.

This one was a comprehensive representation of a small area in Tsuchi no Kuni. To be exact, it was the area that once housed the notorious Iwagakure fortress Akatou. With more pleasure than he should have taken, Sasuke made a series of harsh, jagged strokes, effectively crossing out the old bastion from the map.

Sasuke carefully blew on the ink to avoid curling and blotching. Iwa had tried to kidnap Sakura and himself. Now their precious fort was so much rubble and everyone inside it was dead.

Fast Response: 1, Iwagakure: 0.

In a flash of inspiration, aggravation, or some combination of the two, Sasuke quickly made an intricate drawing of a middle finger next to the ugly spot on the otherwise pristine map.

If he were Naruto, he'd probably write something blunt like 'Suck it' or 'Boom'. Instead, he preferred the exquisite art of imagery. Ironically, the blonde had once chided his stealth, stating that he was about as subtle as a middle finger.

Naruto. His blonde oddity of a teammate was one absurd thing after another. The scroll she showed him was just further proof of that annoying fact. Now she had nearly a dozen missing nin coming for her head. Including his brother.

The brush in the Uchiha's hand creaked under the pressure he exerted. HIs brother was coming, eventually. The pinwheels in his eyes spun furiously. If that murderous bastard thought he was going to take away one of the three people he gave a damn about, not that he'd ever admit that fact, than the traitor would find Sasuke's blade in his kidney.

Granted, he planned to put his blade in his brother's kidney anyway. This just gave him even more of a reason. The self-imposed avenger of the Uchiha clan felt his blood getting up. With a sigh, he put the map up to dry and blew out the candles. He was too angry to continue the patience draining process.

Time to go turn a few logs to cinders.

After getting the living hell beaten out of her by the rest of her clones, who decided to attack in unison, a thoroughly bloodied blonde had gotten Sakura to patch her up. She was damn sure not going to go to the hospital. Those places smelled like death and cleaning supplies. And the well-meaning medical staff were trained to keep injured shinobi in the building. Even if those injured shinobi healed at a ridiculous pace and could have gone home in half the time it took for a regular person to be there.

Fast Response's best and only physician was definitely the better option. Even if Sakura's bedside manner was a little more battlefield than bedside.

To thank her pink-haired comrade, Naruto offered to buy lunch, which Sakura accepted.

Unfortunately for the combat medic, Naruto picked Ichiraku Ramen. Sakura realized that she really should have expected that. Especially given that the blonde Uzumaki hadn't eaten at the small stand since leaving for Nami.

So, instead of being annoyed, Sakura found herself both mildly amused and disgusted as she watched her goggles-wearing teammate inhale bowl after bowl of the terribly unhealthy food.

Sakura raised her eyebrow as she resisted the urge to poke Naruto in the side, "I still don't know how you do that."

Ayame, who had been leaning over the counter to watch the ramen vacuum that was Naruto gorge herself, piped in, "I just wish I knew how she stays so thin." Ayame sighed, "Must be a kunoichi thing I guess."

Sakura sweatdropped slightly, "Yeah, a kunoichi thing." 'Or a Kyuubi thing,' she added to herself.

Naruto seemed to be ignoring both of them, intent on consuming her meal.

A third voice called out from Naruto's other side, "I can't figure it out either."

Sakura looked over at the other person dining with them. Yakushi Kabuto was a lanky genin with gray hair and glasses, and wore a purple top and pants with a white undershirt and white sash. Kabuto was a tragically unsuccessful genin, but a very sharp medic nin. He seemed to eat at Ichiraku's often, and met Naruto as a result. The blonde seemed to absorb him into her small circle of friends, as his choice of restaurant made him one of the few people to spend any significant measure of time with her.

The gray-haired genin stared at an uncaring Naruto, "Can her body really absorb the nutrients so fast she doesn't blow up like a balloon?"

Sakura shrugged, "I guess. I wonder if she'll explode if I poke you with a kunai," she tapped her chin in thought.

Naruto lifted her head, the noodles hanging from her mouth seemed to draw in on their own, "Just in the usual blood eruption."

At the phrase 'blood eruption', Ayame opted to slip away into the back, and Kabuto grimaced slightly.

Sakura frowned, "There'd probably some ramen in there, though."

Naruto deadpanned, "I usually avoid getting stabbed after I eat."

"Usually?" Kabuto asked.

Naruto folded her arms, "It's possible it happened and I didn't remember."

"Normally, people remember when they get stabbed," Sakura chided.

"Oh yeah? Then tell me how many times you got stabbed this year. Go ahead, I'll wait."

Sakura furrowed her brow, "Do those umbrellas Ame ninja use count as once, or for every one that hit?"

"Does it matter?"

"No, not really," Sakura said brightly, "I still couldn't remember."

"Aha," Naruto said triumphantly.

Sakura smirked, "Your food's getting cold."

Naruto made an 'Oh' face before diving back into the rapidly cooling dish.

The medic smiled as she finished her own meal, Naruto could control a battlefield like no one's business, but in matters of food, she was easily distracted.

Kabuto rubbed his neck, "You guys sure get into some rough stuff."

Sakura shrugged, "Bad luck I guess."

The whiskered kunoichi finished her last bowl with a satisfied sigh. "Oi, Ayame-chan!"

Ayame came from the back and accepted Naruto's payment with a smile. "Come back any time Naruto-chan. It seems like you haven't been around in forever."

Naruto grinned back at her, "Sorry, I'll try to come around more."

"Say, how did that project you were working on come out, Naruto?" Kabuto asked after thinking for a moment.

Naruto scratched her neck, "It's mostly finished, I guess."

At Sakura's questioning look, Naruto elaborated, "He's just talking about the shield."

Sakura nodded in understanding.

"Could I see it?" Kabuto asked.

Naruto shrugged, "Sure, but we'll need a bit more room."

The three genin got up and left the small restaurant.

Sasuke watched as his technique lit up the afternoon sky in Team Sevens' training grounds. Katon: Goukakyuu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball) was a very useful technique. It was also terribly slow.

As a result, Sasuke had been trying to reduce both the time it took to create, and increase the travel speed of the large conflagration. Unfortunately, to improve one side, the other would suffer. If he reduced the handseals, it took more focus to shape the chakra and still came out slower. He could speed it up if he added a few more seals, but then his opponent would have more time to prepare.

The fact that his brother was noted as having obscenely fast handseals only added fuel to the fire, so to speak.

So, the only male genin of Team Seven had been launching the technique into the air over and over to get a better feel for how the chakra was molded.

As he prepared to unleash the spherical firestorm once more, he was interrupted by a loud voice.

"It came from over here, you guys."

"Yes, Kiba, the massive fireball was a very strong indicator of that."

"Aww, shut up Shino," the now identified Kiba shot back to the also identified Shino.

"Both of you stop," a commanding third voice broke out, "I expect better from you two."

"Sorry, Kurenai-sensei" Kiba and Shino said in unison.

Sasuke rubbed his face as one of the teams from his graduating class came into view. Was he really supposed to see these people as his peers?

He reluctantly turned to face the slowly approaching team.

Inuzuka Kiba was in front, loud as ever. The feral boy had two red triangles on his cheeks, indicating his Inuzuka status. He wore black pants and a black jacket over a fishnet shirt. His hitai-ate was around his forehead and standard black shinobi sandals covered his feet. A large white dog followed dutifully by his side.

Behind Kba, stood Aburame Shino, a quiet, capable shinobi, who wielded his clan's bug colonies from hives within his body. Black pants and a high-collared black shirt covered most of his form. His eyes were covered by sunglasses and his headband was secured around his forehead. A large ,pale green, hooded jacket covered his upper body.

Near the back, Hyuuga Hinata followed the other two. The timid Hyuuga heiress, unlike her male teammates, wore her hitai-ate loosely around her neck. Her eyes were a pale lavender and without a pupil, the trademark of the Hyuuga clan. The pale girl wore calf-length blue pants along with a cream and lavender colored jacket.

Bringing up the rear of the group was the jounin sensei of Team Eight, Yuuhi Kurenai. The young jounin had long raven black hair and ruby red eyes. She wore strips of cloth with a thorn pattern that wrapped around her in the appearance of a dress. her right arm had a long red sleeve, while her left was bare. Bandages covered her arms to the elbow as well as her thighs. Her headband was around her head.

Spotting the dark-haired boy, Kiba called out, "Hey, Uchiha, what the hell is all the ruckus about?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and stiffly replied, "Training."

Shino adjusted his sunglasses, "My apologies, but a series of fireballs can imply distress."

Seeing that the Aburame was being polite, Sasuke attempted to be civil, "I understand how you could think that, but in this case, it's just training."

Kurenai cut in before Kiba could make the comment she knew he was about to, "If that's true, then we're sorry to interrupt. We'll be going."

Sasuke gave the woman a nod before speaking, "It's just as well, I'm finished."

Without another word, Sasuke left Team Eight behind.

Kiba scowled at Sasuke's retreating back, "Could that guy be any more cold?"

"He seems distracted," Shino noted.

"If I had Naruto and Sakura as my teammates, I'd be 'distracted' too," Kiba said, punching Shino in the arm.

Kurenai leveled a stare at Kiba's comment. Even Hinata seemed to give him a dirty look.

"Shino, back me up, man."

The bug user looked at Kiba over his glasses, "You stand alone."

"Akamaru?"

The large dog was too busy enjoying being scratched behind his ears by Hinata to pay any attention to Kiba..

"Traitor."

Naruto had led the two to a small training ground just outside the village proper. The blonde fuuinjutsu expert turned around to face the others.

Kabuto eyed her, "Is it ready?"

With a quick burst of chakra, the broadshield took its place on its creator's arm. Naruto grinned, "What do you think?"

Kabuto examined the unadorned piece of metal, "I don't see any tool marks. Does it do what you wanted it to?"

With her free arm, Naruto scratched the back of her neck, "Not as fast as I'd like it to, but yes."

To emphasize her statement, the shield silently shifted into a lengthy katana.

Kabuto whistled in appreciation. He barely detected any chakra in use when it changed.

After a few test swings, Naruto made it flow into a hand axe. The Uzumaki rushed to the edge of the field. With several wind-charged cuts, Naruto brought down a nearby tree. Naruto swiftly turned the axe into a short sword and medium-sized round shield. She casually cut through a falling limb with one arm and blocked a chunk of wood with the other.

"That's very impressive, Naruto-chan," Kabuto said, clapping.

"Eh, I do what I can," Naruto said with a small blush at the praise.

Sakura, who had been observing silently, spoke up, "How do make it smaller than the original form?"

Naruto grinned, "I seal it into itself."

Sakura shook her head, "But that's-"

"Asinine," Kabuto finished for her. "I don't know much about fuuinjutsu, but that sounds impossible."

Naruto smirked, turning her sword and shield into a pointer like a teacher's, "Now children, " she said, earning looks of ire from both medics, "you'd be right, if, this was one solid object. It's not. It's actually a series of increasingly bigger chunks of metal that fit together in the right amounts for what I want them to be. The leftovers get sealed into the largest piece in use."

Kabuto managed to wrap his head around the explanation, "Hmm, is it possible for someone else to change it?"

"Nope," Naruto answered cheerfully.

"Why not?"

"Trade secret."

The silver-haired genin looked over to Sakura, who nodded.

The reason the thing worked at all was because of Naruto's unique version of Henge. The origins of which, were an S-class secret.

"Must have cost a lot," Kabuto mused.

Naruto deflated, "Don't remind me." Gama-chan was still underfed after Naruto shelled out for the obscene amount of chakra conducting metal.

"Well," Kabuto said suddenly, "I've got to help out at the hospital tonight, so I'll see you guys later." Kabuto began leaving the training grounds at a leisurely pace.

"See you, Kabuto," Sakura said.

Naruto called out, "Later."

"Well," Sakura began, "What now?"

Naruto shifted the pointer back to its original state, before sealing it up, "I'm going to go fiddle with this thing, see if I can make it change faster. I don't think you want to watch me stare intently at sealing arrays for hours."

"I don't," Sakura agreed. "I'll see you later then."

Sakura left the training field to go home and read the book on useful flowers she had grabbed from Ino earlier in the day.

Naruto followed shortly afterward. While she always had the tools on her to craft her seals, doing so in a field, in the middle of nowhere, with rapidly fading light seemed foolish.

The Sandaime relaxed in his office as the sun began to set on his beloved village. The orange rays of the sun gently lit the clean room. Most of the staff had left for the day, and he had no more appointments.

He eased into his seat and looked down. An unassuming manilla folder sat on his desk. They contained rather detailed accounts of the skills of his one and only Fast Response team. To give Kakashi credit, if the man was motivated, he could get things done quite quickly.

Hiruzen paused to light his pipe before opening the folder.

Inside were four sheets of paper. A helpful photo was clipped to the page. He began reading.

A short while later, the Hokage finished his examination. It seemed these three should do quite well in the exams. The Hokage sighed and folded his hands in front of his mouth. The team was quite strong, but one line bothered him.

Calm brown eyes scanned the line once more.

It is my belief that if one member of Team Seven were to defect, the other two would follow.

It wasn't unheard of. Occasionally a team would come to trust their teammates more than their village. Inoichi had recently written a thesis on the topic.

In it he theorized that frequent time spent away from the village in high stress environments could cause a team to become wary of the village that put them 'out in the cold'. Wary enough, to side with their squadmates over their village. The thesis recommended time off and socialization with other shinobi of their village to reintegrate the team into the ninja populace.

Unfortunately, the steady need for a fast responding backup team had kept Team Seven from home more often than not.

This put him into a nasty position. He could either risk the lives of teams in the field, who are desperate enough to need reinforcements in a hurry. Or, he could risk the loyalty of his Team Zero by putting them in a never ending string of dire situations.

The Hokage needed more Fast Response teams in a hurry.

His musings were broken when, a sweaty chunin rushed into the room, scroll in hand, "Hokage-sama! The team investigated Ta no Kuni (Land of Rice) sent a distress call." The communications chunin handed him the scroll.

Hiruzen's eyes sped through the page. "Get me Kakashi, Kuma, and Tori," Sarutobi ordered. Two of his ANBU guards rushed to fill the task.

It seemed Fast Response couldn't rest. Not yet.

Naruto's head snapped up when she heard a tapping at her window. Outside, in the dim light of the early evening, Kakashi made a few hand gestures.

'Mission, Grab your gear. West gate. Send for others.'

Naruto nodded and sighed, but swiftly followed the order.

Sakura put down her book when she heard light footsteps on her balcony. Either Naruto or one of her clones had shown up outside. Sakura gracefully swept across the room, opening the door. "Mission or secret tryst?"

The Naruto outside gave her a blank stare and pointed to the west before dispelling.

Sakura sighed and closed the door, "Mission then."

Sasuke looked up at the silhouette outside his kitchen window. he noticed a hint of dark red hair and the faint curves of a mask. "Where are we meeting?"

"West gate," the silhouette said, before disappearing.

"Fun while it lasted, I suppose."

Kakashi, Fast Response garb in place arrived outside the west gate, his subordinates were already there, decked out in their combat attire, alongside two full ANBU teams.

The silver-haired elite cleared his throat, "Move out. I'll give mission detail en route." Kakashi took his place with his team as the three squads silently left Konoha's welcoming walls into the ever darkening night.

Omake

Forging Fast Response Striving to be Better

Sakura stood, still stunned that the team, her team, had managed to pass the Genin Exam. It just seemed surreal.

She glanced around the training grounds. Kakashi had already left. Sasuke was nearing the edge of the field, but she could probably still shout out to him.

No, she didn't really want to Sasuke after what had happened, not now.

Her other teammate, Naruto was quickly collecting the salvageable weapons she had used during the test.

Sakura hadn't done nearly as well as she would have hoped during the test. That is to say, she had been almost entirely useless. Moreover, Sasuke had very bluntly proven that he wasn't going to go out of his way to protect her like she always thought he would. The next time a ninja like Kakashi said he was coming to kill them wouldn't end nearly as well as it had here.

She had to get stronger, fast. And, since she didn't know where Kakashi lived, she only had one option.

"Hey, Naruto," Sakura called out, a little timid.

Naruto picked up a few shuriken and turned to her, "What is it."

Sakura bit her lip. Why was she nervous about this? "Can you help me get stronger?"

Naruto stared at her for a long moment, "I can do a lot of things. That doesn't mean I will."

"Would you help me?"

"No," Naruto answered flatly.

Sakura was visibly stunned, "Please, I was useless during the exam. I have to get better."

Naruto sighed. Sakura was her teammate now, and she might save her life at some point. She would have to get more capable.

Naruto had gotten better, and she had done it on her own. There was no reason Sakura couldn't do the same.

Would Naruto have killed to have someone she could trust help her? Well, yes, but Sakura.. seemed like she genuinely wanted to improve herself. Plus, the drive to get better was something that she was very familiar with.

"Alright, I'll help you," Naruto said, "But, I expect nothing less than every bit of effort you have in that stick of a body you've got."

Sakura smiled, too caught up in Naruto's acceptance to get angry at the comment at her shape.

Naruto finished gathering up the fallen weapons and gestured to Sakura, "Come on, we start now."

"Now?"

"Now."

Sakura nodded determinately, "Okay, I'm ready."

Naruto smirked, "You're not, but that's the point." The blonde walked up beside Sakura, "Now, we're going to run fifty laps around this field. You need endurance like Suna needs rain."

Naruto began jogging at a relatively slow pace. "You will finish what you start. If you fall, I'm going to pick you up and keep going. If you can't stand, you'll get dragged. Understand?"

"Yes," Sakura said, "I'm not giving up on this."

Naruto chuckled and sped up, "You're going to hate me by the time we're done."

Sakura was sweating slightly as she sped up to match Naruto's pace. Maybe she should have waited for Kakashi after all.

Sakura gasped for air as she finally came to a stop.

Naruto had gotten faster and faster as the laps went on. When she fell, Naruto had picked her up as promised. Unfortunately the same held true when Sakura couldn't stand and Naruto had bodily dragged her through the last two laps.

The pink haired girl lay on the ground covered in fresh bruises and sweating buckets, "I think I hate you."

Naruto grinned in a distinctly fox-like manner, "Told you." The Uzumaki eyed her collapsed form appraisingly, "I think thats all for today. You do need to be able to come to team training tomorrow."

Sakura groaned. It was already dark out. Hopefully Kakashi would be as late as he had been earlier, so she could rest, because she didn't think a night of sleep was going to put her back at a hundred percent.

Naruto leaned over and bodily lifted her to her feet. The blonde secured Sakura's arm around her shoulder. There was no way the pink-haired girl could make it home on her own.

"Wait," Sakura said, "how did you do that?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Channel chakra to your muscles, it makes physical work a lot easier."

Sakura looked flabbergasted, "Why didn't you tell me that?"

Naruto shrugged, slightly jostling her fellow kunoichi, "I honestly thought you knew. Someone with your control should be able to use that really well."

Sakura felt her eye twitch, "That's it, I know I hate you."

The Uzumaki smirked, "Whatever keeps you going."

The two traveled through the streets of Konoha, Sakura would tell Naruto which direction to go every once in awhile. Sakura noticed something seemed decidedly off about her companion.

"Hey, Sakura whispered, "why are those people glaring at you?"

Naruto grunted, "It's complicated."

Sakura wasn't satisfied with the answer, but didn't want to push her enigmatic teammate too quickly. Seriously, the girl was almost never in class. She only showed up when Iruka dragged her to class. It just made it all the more baffling when Naruto would sleepwalk through just about any exam the teachers thought to give.

Sakura stopped Naruto outside of a modest two-story building with a balcony on the second floor. "This is it. Thanks for helping me this far."

"It's no problem. I couldn't let my protege sleep outside, could I?"

It was Sakura's turn to smirk, "Whatever you say, Naruto-sensei."

That actually drew a laugh from the blonde, "Right, well I'll see you tomorrow, Sakura"

"See you, Naruto" Sakura said.

Naruto leapt onto the rooftop of a nearby building and ran off into the night.

Sakura managed to open the door to her home, only to get an earful from her worried mother when she went in.

From the rooftop Sakura had seen her run from, Naruto watched Sakura get scolded by her parents. She chuckled wistfully before standing. She stretched out to leave, before looking back once more.

Sakura's father was looking right at her. The man with the sakura petal haircut gave her a small nod before closing the door.

Naruto blinked, then bounded across the tiled roofs on her way home.

Teammates, eh?

Maybe it'll work out.

Another chapter in the books, folks. I'm sorry it took so long to come out, and wasn't quite as long as I'd like it to be. But, hey, at least it got finished.

This chapter was a little slow, but the next one should be very lively. We'll have to see how long it takes me to put that one together. Suffice to say, if Naruto's involved, things will explode.

I may have freaked some of you out last chapter. In regards to a pairing, nothing is even going to begin to happen until after the Chunin Exams, and even then, I may wait until post-timeskip. Hell, it's entirely possible I won't have one at all.

Anyway, as always thank you for your time and attention.

Catch you later.

-The Interrupter