Turmanarmo: *Huff Huff* Sorry for being so late guys, I could not think of a decent prank to save my life.

Hinata: W-well you could have just alluded to the prank and left it out, sometimes what you don't see (read) can be just as powerful as what you do.

Turmanarmo: I thought about that but in the end I was able to come up with something and hopefully it works out, Anywho thanks for all of you who review, follow, and favorite. It means a lot and hopefully the long wait wasn't too hard to bear. Hinata, on with the disclaimer.

Hinata: The author does not own N-Naruto-kun or any of us in this universe; it would be really nice if you could support the official release. O-oh but you can still read these fanfictions though, especially the ones about N-Naruto-kun and me. *Faints*

Naruto headed over to the hospital to see if Sakura was possibly working there today since she did not have any Shinobi missions at the moment. When he arrived, he noticed Sakura sitting outside in the hospital gardens. Naruto walked up to her and shouted, "Hey Sakura-chan how are you doing today?"

Sakura looked up and said, "Oh Naruto, I am doing fine, how about you, what have you been up to on your break?"

Naruto chuckled before saying, "Well I have been doing fine as well. I have spent the last couple of days talking with all of the members of the Konoha 11 'tebayo."

Sakura raised her brow and said, "Oh, what have you been talking with them about. Catching up on what happened while you were gone or something?"

Naruto rubbed his head nervously before saying, "No, I was sort of ordered by Baa-chan to tell them about my status as a Jinchuuriki."

Sakura winced as she said, "Well that must have been awkward. How did it go?"

Naruto smiled brilliantly before saying, "It has gone pretty well as far as I can tell. Everyone has been very understanding and it seems to have strengthened the bonds we had which is always a good thing. Anyways, what have you been up to these last couple of days?"

Sakura smiled as well before saying, "Well I have taken this time to work a bit more in the Hospital and to do some more research to improve my skills. I am on a break at the moment but I will need to go inside fairly shortly so I must wonder, did you need me for something in particular or were you just here to say hi."

Naruto snorted and said, "Am I not allowed to say hi to my teammate? If you must know though, I came to invite you to a prank we will be pulling in a couple of days. Ino and Kiba kind of wanted to pull a prank on the village after they heard about my past and so Choji suggested I make it a group thing. I have convinced all of the members of our group to participate so far, and I was wondering if you would be interested in joining us in some pranking."

Sakura frowned for a second before grinning and saying, "That Ino, she has always been mischievous, she would suggest a prank. Oh what the heck, I am in Naruto, once you get everything planned tell me when and where and I will be there."

Naruto laughed lightly before he said, "That's the spirit Sakura-chan, now I just need to see if Sai would be interested and we are all good to go dattebayo."

Sakura looked shocked as she asked, "You are actually going to invite Sai, that is shocking. I thought you hated his guts."

Naruto frowned and said, "Sure he is a Teme sometimes, but he is trying to change despite the fact that he was trained to be an emotionless prick and for me that counts for a lot. I may not agree with him all the time but he means well even if he needs to learn how to be a bit more 'human.' And what better way to do that than to do something as a group with a bunch of people, studying those books of his will only get him so far, he needs to do a bit of field work to get it right."

Sakura laughed and shook her head as she said, "I suppose that makes sense, well anyways Naruto, I have to get back to work, good luck convincing Sai."

As Naruto left the area, Sakura thought back to when she first learned Naruto's secret and how shocking it had been at the time.

-Flashback-no-Jutsu-

The door to Tsunade's office slammed open and the intruder shouted, "Tsunade-Shishou!"

Tsunade glared at her panicking student before grinding out, "What did you need Sakura, I am rather busy right now. Didn't I just assign you to organize the public records to be released to the archives? You know that the time for their release is coming up. My granduncle deemed that allowing all the records for the major goings on of the Hokage and the council should be released every year, with ongoing secret operations being excluded of course. This helps to foster the trust of the civilian population so we need to get that done."

Sakura stiffened up realizing that she was in danger of being hit by her Shishou if she didn't give the correct answer. So she slowly said, "I know that Shishou, but while I was sorting through the records left by the Sandaime and the council for the last year before his death, I found several odd comments that are confusing to me."

Tsunade looked skeptical as she said, "Oh, and what might those be? Most of the material intentionally notes people and places in the third person unless it absolutely has to so I would imagine it would all leave you with some confusing questions unless you realized who they were talking about."

Sakura looked up and said, "Well I think I may have figured a few of them out and that honestly made it more confusing."

Tsunade was intrigued now by what could be so perplexing to her student so she asked, "Alright then Sakura, shoot. What is it that has you confused?"

Sakura sighed as she said, "Well the confusion starts around the time of our graduation with complaints from the council about the passing of 'that boy'. Then there are minutes from one of the council meetings before the Chuunin exam demanding 'that boy' be kept from advancing, although they are fine with him participating since 'the last one' needs to advance."

Sakura huffed before continuing, "The next set of notes come from after Sarutobi-sama died. The council asked 'the spymaster' to be Hokage though he declined and decided to go after you. The notes also show that they chastised him for his choice of apprentice though they could not convince him to take on a different one. Then there are some notes from when the village was attacked by those two men who put Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun in a coma. It says that from what Jiraiya reported, they are members of a group known as Akatsuki and they were here to capture 'that boy.' The team consisted of a nuke-nin from the mist and 'the clan killer.'"

Sakura looked up and added, "Then once you are back the very first council meeting minutes bring up who should pass to Chuunin. They agree with the notes Sandaime-sama left that say Shikamaru should pass but they also demanded that 'the last one' should pass, though you apparently disagreed since only Shikamaru managed to pass. The next confusing notes were from a debriefing for the mission to get 'the last one' back. They criticized the team leader for his choice of team members, the only ones they seem to have agreed with were 'the prodigy' and 'the tracker.' They also criticized you for not sending a few other chuunin with him on the mission since they felt you could have spared at least one or two more to help ensure the success of the mission."

Sakura, not noticing Tsunade's slowly darkening mood continued, "Since then most of the notes of interest have been during disagreements you have had with the council over changes in policy, but there was the one when 'The spymaster' left the village to continue his work. There seemed to be some disagreement amongst them as to whether or not he should have taken 'that boy.' Many were glad that he wouldn't be around, but some showed concern that he would distract 'the spymaster' from his work."

Tsunade sighed as she said, "Alright Sakura, what about these notes is it that concerns you. I have read over all of the old ones and was present for my own so please ask whatever question it is you are here for."

Sakura seemed unsure of herself as she said, "W-well I determined who most of those names were based on the situations they were in. Sasuke-kun is 'the last one,' Jiraiya-sama must be 'the spymaster,' and Naruto is 'that boy.' Based on the mission they were on Kiba is 'the tracker' and Neji was 'the prodigy.' The other one was a bit harder to work out, but since Sasuke went after them, I assume 'the clan killer' is the man who killed his clan. When I asked some people I trusted about some of these things I got varying answers. My parents seemed distinctly uncomfortable and demanded I stop asking questions. Kakashi-sensei and Shizune-senpai both gave me the runaround and never actually answered my questions so I came to you to ask why?"

Tsunade looked torn as she said, "Ugh, you are correct in your assessment of those identities so there is that, but what is it that you actually wish to know?"

Sakura looked resolute as she said, "Well I want to know why Naruto seems to have the elder council against him most of the time. They don't seem to like him very much and are always opposing anything he does. Plus I want to know why this Akatsuki is after him and if he will be safe while he is with Jiraiya-sama."

Tsunade winced as she sat in thought for a bit before finally saying, "Why didn't I have Shizune do that work, I could have avoided this situation then. Oh well, it can't be helped, I just hope Naruto and sensei aren't too mad at me for breaking the law."

Sakura looked confused as she asked, "Wait, what law, how can you be breaking a law?"

Tsunade snorted as she rummaged through her desk before bringing out one of her hidden bottles of Sake, "Man I am glad I found Sensei's hidden drawer even if it used to contain Jiraiya's smut. Anyways, I would be breaking a law put in place by my Sensei, the Sandaime that says no one but Naruto is allowed to share his secret with anyone who does not know without his permission. Sure I could easily remove the law if I wanted, but for the most part I agree with its reasoning."

Sakura blinked a few times as she said, "Wait, wait, I knew there was some sort of secret here but what could possibly be so important about Naruto that would require such a law. I mean –"

Sakura stopped cold at the Killing intent coming from Tsunade before she heard, "Seriously Sakura, I know you are annoyed about this but you have known Naruto long enough to know there is more than meets the eye with him. I know you think higher of him than that, so why the sudden change of opinion."

Sakura looked scared before her face morphed to one of confusion as she said, "I'm not sure if I follow Shishou, I know Naruto is stronger than most seem to think. However, based on the general disdain he receives from the council and many adults, and the fact that there is a law about his secret I assumed there was some sort of dark history to him, which didn't make any sense. As I was about to say, this is Naruto we are talking about, sure he can be a bit annoying but he would never do anything to harm the village so unless that is all an act I don't think he could have done anything to deserve all that mistrust."

Tsunade sighed before she said, "Oh, I guess I shouldn't have interrupted you then, regardless you are correct to a degree. Naruto would never willingly harm this village even if they have given him quite a few reasons to want to. The reason the council and most of the adults are opposed to him is due to something that happened on the day of his birth. Tell me Sakura, do you know when Naruto's birthday is?"

Sakura thought for a second before saying, "Well if my memory is correct I believe it is October the 10th, why is that important? Wait, isn't that the same day of the Kyuubi attack?"

Tsunade smiled slightly as she said, "Yes the lovable brat was born the same day as the Kyuubi attack on the village. However there is a secret about the attack that none of your generation or after knows."

Sakura frowned and said, "What sort of secret is this, I can't think of anything a baby could do to warrant this sort of dislike. Was it something his parents did maybe, though that seems unfair to burden a child with something because of their parent's actions?"

Tsunade snorted before she thought; well it was them who gave this burden to Naruto. After a while she said, "None of the villagers know who Naruto's parents are, they hate him because they are afraid of him. This fear stems from what the Yondaime did on that evening. Tell me Sakura, what do you know about the Bijuu?"

Sakura looked confused as she said, "I fail to see how the Yondaime dying to defeat the Kyuubi leads to all this, but regardless I don't know very much about the Bijuu. I know that we learned about them briefly in class, they were made entirely of Chakra and they were said to be creatures of mass destruction, but that is pretty much it."

Tsunade nodded and said, "Well then as you know, Chakra cannot be destroyed so what happened to the Kyuubi then? I will save you from whatever silly idea your brain may cook up, it was sealed that night. On October 10th, the Kyuubi escaped from its previous container and as a result, a new one was needed. Due to the nature of the Kyuubi Chakra that container has to be a living organism and so the Yondaime, being a master of Fuinjutsu decided to seal it inside of the newborn Naruto on that night."

Dead silence enveloped the office for a couple of minutes and Tsunade started to worry about her student. She was about to say something when she heard, "So that was what was happening."

At Tsunade's confused look Sakura continued, "Well you see there were a couple of times that Naruto did strange things that never really made sense to me until now. The first time it happened was during our mission to wave. After we thought Sasuke had died, there was suddenly a red glow and a massive amount of very evil energy coming from the area Naruto was in. At the time, I wasn't sure what to think of it so I just dismissed it. Then later when we were in the Forest of Death, Naruto came back shortly after Orochimaru attacked us and he seemed to be much faster and stronger than before, plus he had this terrifying aura around him and he looked positively feral until Orochimaru hit him with that seal. He also did something similar during his match with Neji when he suddenly was much stronger and healed all of his wounds. Now I realize that that was him drawing on the Kyuubi. Though how that is possible since it is sealed in him I am not sure."

Tsunade grinned as she said, "That would be due to the way the Yondaime designed the seal. He set it up to have a sort of channel built in that allows Naruto to draw on its power. This can happen as his body's natural reaction to being in mortal danger like with wave mission or because he chooses to draw on it like with Neji. To answer your earlier questions, the Akatsuki is after him for the Kyuubi and yes, Jiraiya should be able to keep him safe while they are gone. Regardless of all of that, you can never tell anyone else about this Sakura, even your friends. I would have preferred Naruto to be the one to tell you but he is unavailable at the moment for obvious reasons. So do you have any other questions today Sakura or are you going to get back to work?"

Sakura nodded and said, "Okay that makes sense I suppose and don't worry I won't tell any of them Shishou. See you later, once I have the papers organized to release."

As Sakura left to finish her work, she realized she had a lot to think about but after a while, and a few more questioning sessions with her Shishou she came to terms with the fact that her teammate and friend was the Jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi and she realized that it made no difference to her. Sure, she now had a reason to worry about him since he was being hunted but he was still her silly, slightly idiotic friend and no tailed beast or stupid villagers were going to stop her from staying friends with the blond.

-Flashback-End-

As Sakura went back to work, she couldn't help but smile, as she felt happy that Naruto had been able to tell all of his friends and had now deepened his bonds with them. Plus she must admit that she agreed with Ino and Kiba, a bit of vengeance, even if it was in the form of a silly prank was well overdue. Everyone in the hospital backed away slowly when they saw her malicious smirk before she went back to her normally cheerful self and walked back to her rounds.

-Elsewhere-

Meanwhile Naruto had been searching for Sai. Since he had not been at his apartment Naruto decided to see if he was in the library. As he arrived, he walked in and began his search for his friend to be. Eventually he happened across Sai in the self-help section of the library and plopped down next to him.

Naruto grinned as he said, "Hello Sai, how are you doing today?"

Sai looked up from his reading and he looked confused as he said, "I am doing well Naruto, though I must admit that I didn't expect to ever see you in here."

Naruto chuckled and said, "I came here because Sakura said she sees you hanging around in here sometimes, so I thought I might find you here. Anyways, I have a question to ask you, would you be interested in participating in a prank with me and the rest of my friends 'tebayo."

Sai smiled his creepy fake smile and said, "That is nice of you Naruto, but why do you want to invite me to come with you, I thought you didn't enjoy my company."

Naruto snorted as he said, "Well I do have to admit you are a bit hard to be around at times. You have even less sense of what is appropriate to be said than I do, which leads to some very interesting times with you around. However, despite all of that you are making an active effort to be a part of our group and to learn how to interact with others so that means a lot to me. I hope we can be friends eventually Sai, and I think a good way to help you with your quest to understand our emotions would be to do a bit of fieldwork. You can learn a lot from watching the way my friends interact to see how some of the stuff you read in your books are actually applied in real situations."

Sai smiled at this and Naruto noticed that it seemed more genuine than before as he said, "Thanks for the offer, dickless, I am interested in seeing your interactions with friends and so I will take you up on your offer."

Naruto groaned as he said, "Seriously Sai, stop calling me that dattebayo. Actually, it might be best if you don't try out any of your nicknames that you come up with while we are there. Try running them by me first so you don't end up offending them."

Sai nodded as he said, "Okay, I suppose that makes sense, though I don't understand why my nicknames are any worse than some of yours. However I will see you later Naruto, you can leave a note at my apartment telling me when and where the prank will be and I will see you then."

At this Naruto laughed before saying, "Alright, goodbye Sai, good luck with your research."

Naruto leapt off to go plan his prank. As he arrived at home he saw Shikamaru cloud watching from his roof so he jumped up to join him and asked, "Hey Shikamaru, why are you on my roof?"

Shikamaru looked over and said, "Well I decided that I would help you plan your prank, I have a good idea of all of the skills of our teammates and it might be useful to have another head to bounce ideas off of."

Naruto smiled before saying, "Okay I am game for some planning. To let you know, I managed to get everyone to agree to the prank so we can expect all of the Konoha 11 to participate and I also managed to convince Sai to come with us so we will need to factor him in as well."

Shikamaru nodded as Naruto continued, "I want this to be a super prank to end all pranks but I also want to include all of my friends as much as possible. When blame comes down for the prank I want it all to fall on me though, I don't want you guys to get in trouble because of me."

Shikamaru frowned as he said, "I can't agree to that one Naruto, I think we should do it as a sort of warning to all of the villagers to tell them that we all stand together behind you so we should all be implicated in it."

Naruto hummed as he thought about that before saying, "I suppose that would work if you insist, but how will we do that without getting caught while doing it?"

Shikamaru smirked as he said, "Well you would want to do something like ..."

-Two-Days-Later-

Two days later saw the Konoha 11 plus Sai meeting above the Hokage Monument in the very early morning. Naruto smiled upon seeing all of his friends before he clapped his hands and said, "Okay guys, I will be passing out your instructions in a moment, each of you has a different task to perform and the instructions will detail your particular task. If your part of the prank requires supplies, your instructions will show you where the stash is located. Shikamaru and I planned this out a couple days ago, the plan is to intentionally implicate ourselves in the prank but still not get caught in the act, if any of you would rather not get in trouble over this tell us now so Shikamaru can rework the plan to account for the missing skills."

When no one spoke up Naruto grinned and said, "Okay. Here are your directions for the prank, there are two stages to the prank, the first part will involve setting up traps all over the village and the second part I will explain once we get back here. Alright, as you can see we tried to tailor your jobs to your particular skill sets if possible 'tebayo. Hinata, Neji, and Ino don't have instructions because they are the lookouts. Hinata and Neji will be scanning the village for people who might find us and if they find anything or I need to contact you Ino will use her Shindenshin no Jutsu to contact you telepathically so that we can avoid using radio channels for communication. Oh and I will also be staying up here to help coordinate the operation though I will send down a couple Kage Bunshin to help out, anyways let's get this started guys."

As everyone scattered, Naruto smiled thinking about how hilarious this could end up being. Through his binoculars he could see his friends using their various skills to hide the traps in all sorts of hard to get to places. Sai's Ink creations, Shino's insects, and Shikamaru's shadows could all reach into small places to set traps. Akamaru would dig holes for Kiba to place the underground traps and Choji could lift others up to place traps in awkward high places. Tenten was responsible for making the various traps out of the materials provided. Shikamaru and Naruto had designed the traps in such a way that they could not be armed or disarmed from the outside so Sakura was in charge of using her Medical Jutsu to activate the traps before handing them to Lee who would then take them to the appropriate person.

It took them most of the morning to finish up their work due to the amount of traps that had to be set up. They managed to avoid detection by the handful of citizens and Shinobi that were wondering around at that hour thanks to the lookout team and so as dawn approached they moved back to the mountain to do the last piece of the prank before too many people woke up.

As everyone arrived Naruto said, "Okay, now that part one is complete we can begin the second phase. The first thing we need to do is cast a Genjutsu to cover the area while we work and then we can begin on this."

He gestured towards an image he had set up earlier which caused several members of the group to snicker before Ino asked, "What kind of Genjutsu are we talking about, a simple concealment Jutsu or something else?"

Shikamaru answered, "Well given how much you need to cover and for how long I would suggest splitting it up amongst those who can do a basic concealment Genjutsu and try to place a second one over the top of it if you are that skilled with Genjutsu. After that we will start our final project and remember we need to have it done soon so that it is ready when the chain reaction starts."

The ninjas all split up to complete their assigned part of the main attraction for the prank as quickly as possible. When dawn finally rolled around they had finished and they backed off to admire their work before they took flight on a few of Sai's ink birds to watch the show.

As they floated above the city, they patiently waited for the time to come and the markets to fill up with early morning shoppers. When that time finally came, the timer mechanisms in all of the traps finally went off and they were treated to a show as thousands of paint bombs went off painting the whole village bright orange. Then a few seconds later a second set went off painting a giant Konoha leaf in black with the swirl ending at the base of the Hokage Tower. There were also smaller designs for the various clan markings of the group appearing around their homes. Those who were not from a clan had picked their own symbol to represent them and centered it on their residence. After another couple of seconds there was another explosion as pink paint came oozing out of the ANBU tower.

Then about a minute later just as people were lowering their guard a string of fireworks went off that began at the gate and led to the Hokage Mountain and as the last fireworks went off they dropped the Genjutsu revealing their final piece. All of the Hokage's heads had been painted correctly to match their pictures, complete with tiny bodies underneath that would have made them look Kawaii if it were not for the scowls on their faces. To the right of Tsunade's head was a painting of Naruto in similar style with the words, 'reserved for the next Hokage' written next to it. On the bottom of the monument were drawn the signatures of their entire group to take credit for their 'painting.' The fireworks continued for some time and many of them were shaped charges that looked like faces of their group or their symbols.

The majority of the group laughed in glee as they watched on while the village seemed to be in an uproar. However, they froze as they heard the words they were dreading shouted from the top of the tower, "You brats are getting it as soon as I calm the village down, be in my office at three this afternoon or you are dead." This was followed by whizzing and popping sounds as several rocks came hurtling from Tsunade and burst the ink birds resulting in their fall to the ground right in front of an irate Hokage.

As they backed away slowly she growled, "I will deal with you lot later, now get out of my sight."

They fled the area and met up at Naruto's apartment since that was the agreed upon meeting place. As they arrived Naruto nervously said, "I wonder what Baachan will do to us for this, I hope she isn't too mad once she has some time to cool down dattebayo."

Sakura laughed nervously and said, "I think she will be alright in the end, she is more than likely mostly mad because of the extra paperwork this will cause. Hey Sai aren't you worried about how Danzo will take you being a part of this activity, he doesn't really seem like the type to take something like this lightly."

Sai nodded as he replied, "You are correct, I expect Danzo-sama will be quite upset with me for partaking in something so frivolous but Naruto helped me come up with a way to possibly get around it. Technically I am still on your team because he wants me to keep tabs on Naruto and I will make the argument that by interacting with you guys like this I can gain your trust and might be included more so I can keep tabs on you easier."

Shikamaru hummed as he said, "Wow, that is pretty devious, good thinking Naruto, I am impressed you could come up with that good of a cover for him to use. I just hope Danzo will fall for it."

Sai gave his creepy fake smile as he said, "It matters little whether he does or not in the end, as long as he lets me continue my mission. Regardless, thank you all for allowing me to be a part of this with you and I look forward to spending time with you all in the future, goodbye."

As Sai used a shunshin and escaped Naruto shook his head and thought oh Sai, at least you are making progress in your attempts to be more human 'tebayo. He then shouted, "Anyways, let's celebrate the successful completion of our prank before Baachan kills us."

Sorry this took so long to release, despite the fact that I was mostly done with it when I released the last chapter I just could not get it to work in my head. The final scene, which is in the next chapter by the way, also just would not come together right. I also had more issues with the prank than I originally anticipated, I just wasn't sure what to do and I hope this turns out okay.

Anywho this chapter is 5170 words long, though originally it and CH 15 were the same, they just felt too long stuck together so I separated them here when I was doing the editing, CH 15 will come out later today as soon as I do one last glance over to make sure it doesn't have too many obvious errors. Again, sorry for the long wait and thanks for all of you who review, favorite, and follow.