The Chinook finally landed back at the base. As Naruto and his ragtag team of operators stepped out for a stretch, they were surprised by what they saw. It looked like the place had been busy, looked like it had been getting hit pretty hard. A lot more defenses were up. Some of the regular army guys manned these defenses. They all stared as Naruto and his team passed. The operators were a point of respect for the Rangers and the army boys. They were the ones who made all the major targets disappear. No one knew much about their activities. The official name of the spec ops branch in which they worked was even classified, and so they were just referred to as "operators". They had civilian haircuts. They walked into the command tent and dropped off the old man. Then they were briefed by Asuma. He was well-respected both among the operators and the Rangers, even despite all the joking barbs he threw at both. Especially the Rangers. He frequently claimed he "hates the way they go about their HOOAH monkey shit". Even the Rangers got a laugh out of it. He was always smoking.

"Ok. We are inserting you at the base of the north end of the valley, where one of your operators and your marksman will set up a sniping postion on top one of the larger hills. 50. cal bullets, son. You get to explode heads and tear off body parts!" said Asuma.

Sasuke smirked. Things always made satisfying sounds when blown off by a Barret 50. caliber sniper.

"Your other two operators will clear this anti air gun right here."

"That's it, sir?" inquired Naruto.

"Don't think you're getting off the hook easy. This right here is gonna be decently fortified. I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't hack it!" jived Asuma.

"We can handle it, without a doubt."

"I certainly hope so. Your sniper will provide support for any of the operator teams that need it, not just yours. So try to keep the requests for sniping to a minimum."

"I will most certainly try."

"The operation begins an hour before midnight. You'll be staying up pretty late."

Kiba grumbled at this. They had to sleep in during the day again, having only just gotten back from a nighttime op. Dawn was spreading its fingers of rose over the sky. Naruto and his operators went off to catch some shut eye.

"What do you think of those operators?" inquired Asuma, speaking to the man they brought in.

He didn't receive a reply.

"Sir?"

Asuma turned around. The damn bastard was sleeping. Asuma looked at the old mans profile. He was famous for ignoring the advice the men on the ground gave. That was bad news. They'd have to wait and see how this turned out. He then looked at the files of the team he just assigned to the anti air. They had done quite an impressive number of ops, though never this deep in the Sound country before. They were reportedly a bit more tenacious than the usual operator. Asuma believed he assigned just the right guys to the gun. He doubted they could take it in one day, but since the Rangers weren't getting sent in, that was fine. Orochimaru and his band of terrorists in this little valley were gonna get fucked up good. Hopefully. The leader of the team he just briefed though. His file said strange things. Bad reputations, reputations that would normally stop one from leading a squad. Lone wolf hyper-lethal vector style reputations. But it went on to say he demonstrates great leading skills. It would be interesting to see how this turns out. Seeing how many ops they've come back from in one piece, it seemed to be working out well. This latest op, intelligence couldn't have been more off. Machine gun emplacements, several trucks of men, scout with a Dragunov, bomb on the target. It was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab. Yet Naruto and his team of misfits had taken it all, with barely much ammo. Asuma hoped intel didn't fuck up as badly as they did on that last one. The operators are assets almost too important to lose. It's the almost part that worries Asuma about the quality of the intel they receive.

"Damn. I am so tired." whined Shikamaru.

"Your candy ass tired from lugging that old fart around? Guy was all skin and bones, ya pansy." remarked Kiba.

"I sincerely apologize if I don't have boundless energy to throw around, like you seemingly do. I like to take things slowly."

"That's great, then. Your being Sasuke's spotter on this next op. Hopefully your eyes don't suck as bad as the muscles in your legs." said Naruto.

Kiba laughed. Shikamaru scowled.

"So I'm with you, taking on the AA gun, Naruto?" asked Kiba.

"Yes. That you are. We can't expect much sniper support from Sasuke though, he's gonna have his hands full. It's gonna be mostly just us two. You'll be packing an LMG in case we need suppressive fire on anything."

"Right."

"So, Sasuke. How you feeling about this 50 cal.?" asked Shikamaru.

"Let's just say I am overjoyed to get to split heads apart as though they were watermelons being thrown at high velocities against a wall."

"We're riding the Chinook we came in on, hour before midnight. Best we get some sleep before then." said Naruto.

They went into the tents to crash.

Asuma stared on at each of the files of each of these operators on Naruto's team, Naruto included. There was some interesting stuff on here. You'd think these are just a bunch of misfits fresh out of high school! All of them, except Shikamaru, were slightly infamous for hyper-lethal vector tactics, working alone. Yet, they seemed to work in teams so well. Shikamaru seemed more the natural leader, his file desribed him as cautious, intelligent. But, on account of his saying that he refuses to lead a team, Naruto was instead put as the leader. Once they got to the valley, they would probably have that rehashed so much episode of "AR PEE GEEEEEE!" (RPG) and crash land the chopper. That happened a lot. Asuma smoked his grand cigar. This was a team he was gonna keep close tabs on.

The Rangers outside were playing some basketball. A mortar hit, falling short of the base. Everyone carried on, seeming uncaring. The mortar strikes must have been awfully frequent, not to mention that the operators were soon gonna insert in the valley and clear it out. The Rangers wanted to clear it, but Asuma said it would be too dangerous to send a large force of Rangers right into the valley. Once the valley op was done, the Rangers in this base would probably get sent off fighting in other areas, while the operators handled this area. The Rangers were disappointed. They always wanted to work a joint op with the operators. The operators picked 10 men from the Rangers based on performance every year. 1 would become an operator by the time the training was over. Kiba and Shikamaru were once Rangers. Both became operators by this process. Both in different years, naturally. They were once in the same Ranger squad, and now in the same operator team. Ironic. It was almost every Ranger's dream to become an operator. The badasses of the army. A small truck of miscellaneous rebels came in. The Rangers decided to use the truck as target practice. The rebels thought that the mortars were hitting the base hard. Boy, were they wrong.

"50 points if you can shoot that guys hat off!" said Choji. (pretend he is much more fit in this universe)

Gaara expertly took the hat right off the dudes head without killing him, using an M21. (pretend Gaara's personality is much warmer in this universe, too.)

"100 if you can shoot the diamond off that other ones ring." said Gaara.

"Now that's just not fair!" said Choji. "A freaking diamond off a ring?"

Choji missed a few shots, using Gaara's M21.

"Aw, damn it. I give up. You win."

The Rangers shooed off the rebels. It looked like one was wetting himself. Amusing.

"Well, that's probably the most excitement we're getting here..." sighed Choji.