Crimson Dawn: Uzumaki Naruto Chapter 7: Discovery Summit, a naruto fanfic

Hello again

So I hoped enjoyed the last chapter of the story. I hope everything was pieced together to everyone's liking, you know because I really hate reading stories were the topics are desultory and have no connection whatsoever to each other. So here's something that I've been tinkering with, that concept of connection. I want to make it so that it feels like everyone in the story is connect by at least one or more linking factor.

So I ask you, the readers, have I done a good enough job portraying that whole concept of connection within the text of my story. It's just something to think about, if you want to respond, you can either PM me or tell me what you think in a review. Like most authors I prefer the answer in a review, but hey whatever floats your boat.

I have one more thing to sat right before I get on with the story, um, a certain, someone left me a rather "beefy" review. It was seriously THE longest review I have ever gotten, its not even funny and the thing was, the guy didn't even space his lines! That must have taken like straight thirty minutes to write, I want to say to that special reviews-- you know who you are-- thank you. That made me feel really important, REALLY important.

Anyway I have not that much to say so...

"Violence is always the answer, if it doesn't work then you simply haven't used enough of it"-- The life motto of a sadist.

Enjoy, and maybe that sadist we were speaking about won't find you.

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Crimson Dawn: Uzumaki Naruto

Naruto watched the Hokage Stone Monument from atop the hospital roof today. Still they held their, uncanny, rough brilliance. Behind him, a line of clothing undulated against the cool wind, fluttering with little more than a small sough of ruffling fabric. Naruto, clad in a sea green hospital gown, one that actually covered him entirely, spread his arms feeling his shirt fluctuate with the wind. For a moment his eyes darted to the left, spotting a pair of gamboling tree swallows flap past his face until they disappeared into the sun's golden light.

Mixed in with the natural staccato of chirps and squeaks was the slightly industrial sound of the roughly square, chrome, fanned metal air conditioners protruding from the interminable amount of rooftops.

Cold steel tickled his bare feet, as the top bar of the fence he stood on supported him.

It was hard to believe all that happened yesterday; this, probably, was the most normal thing he'd done in the last nineteen hours. Well, only if you considered ritualistically admiring a mountainous monument commemorating four dead guys to be... normal.

He sighed-- it was a raspy sound. The dissipating effects of those two vipers' poison.

The sky had taken on a most... unusual hue today, painting itself with striking streaks of brilliant purple and orange and red. Magnificent, yet he could help think that it was a caveat; a warning of something to come. He couldn't tell by its color whether or not that something was good or not; clouds were always hard to read.

"Hm," he began, "Nobody decided to attack today? Awkward, I'm actually a little disappointed." Naruto chuckled dryly, carefully preserving what little saliva he'd retained in his mouth. For such mild poison, those snakes really did a number on his legs. But it was not like it mattered anyway.

One good thing about being a container was that if you ever got hurt, you'd heal fast, really fast. Those who didn't know, which was most people, called it unnatural by all standards.

Naruto hopped backward off the fence, shooing a flock of gathered pigeons in his way as he landed right in between them. They flapped wildly, their annoying "coos" invading his ears. Naruto watched the pigeons as they fluttered away, flying in a spiral formation as they ascended. Even for pigeons they flew abnormally close...

"Odd," Naruto said narrowing his eyes, "hey, come back!" He yelled at the fleeing flock of birds. Surprisingly, the birds listened and all of them stooped, in mid air hovering with the gentle flaps of their shiny black feathers glistening against the sun. Simultaneously they cocked their heads to the side.

"Coo?"

"Coo?" Naruto said, now folding his arms. He got a good look at their beady little red eyes, and scoffed. "Come down here." He said, and like that the pigeons obeyed, flying down in the same beautiful spiral formation they'd went up in. During their descent they crammed closer together, swirling around in intricate little formations until they hit the floor and, surprisingly, formed a body, a female one.

Shiny black feathers turned to shiny black hair and stupid beady, little red eyes turned to lustrous red orbs of intelligence as the Pigeons filled the air with their cooing and stopped, all of them clumping together to form the kneeling form of Kurenai.

"Talking to yourself Naruto?" She asked, smiling at him as she stood and flicked her hair.

"Spying on your students Kurenai-sensei? That's questionable you know?" He said as he turned and face the Hokage faces once again, a smirk curling his lips.

"It's just a precaution Naruto,-" Kurenai began, "-as of now no one can approach you without taking the necessary precautions, the Hokage's orders. You were bitten by those snakes, we've already seen what happened with Anko when she came in contact with Orochimaru, the hebi bastard. We don't know what might have happened to you when those snakes of hers bit into you. So technically, I'm taking a risk by coming here and seeing you right now, both fatally and professionally, for all I know right now, you could be Orochimaru."

"Then why haven't I killed you yet?" Naruto asked, quickly turning around, adopting a more feral facial expression. It was interrupted by Kurenai's index finger poking him in between his eyes.

"That's easy, because I'm your sensei." She said smiling, he knew that they certainly had come to mutual agreement saying that he was NOT Orochimaru.

"How's Anko?" Naruto asked, sober from his previous nonchalance. Kurenai looked away, biting her lip.

"Better." That's all she said.

"Kurenai-sensei, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah."

"No, I can tell that you are obviously being bothered by something. There is some apparent problem burdening you right now, your temperament tells me so. Besides, why do you even care? What's your relationship with Anko, you seemed to display something short of contempt back when Ojii-san told us that she was the one who ravaged the village." Kurenai's eyes bulged, for a moment. Only for a moment. Following that was Kurenai's sigh.

"On the contrary Naruto, Anko and I are... close. She's... my best friend, we do everything together."

"Hm, that would explain you previous frustration," Naruto elaborated.

"Yes it would...b-but I don't want to speak about that right now. I just wanted to check up on you before the Hokage and the others came here. They'll be testing you like they did Anko, so get ready and go back to your room."

Naruto raised his brow, sharply sucking in air through his teeth. "Oooohhhh, Yeah, I don't know how that's going to work out." He said scratching the back of his head.

"What?" Kurenai asked.

"Yeah, about that--this is going to sound a bit awkward but, um--I'm not really here."

Okay, she was flummoxed, just what was the boy talking ab-...ou....t.

Another sigh exited her lungs, as Kurenai slapped her head. Dormant frustration now redivivus in her again. "Naruto, you'd better not be a clone, or I swear, I'll give your mind the worst genjutsu my mind can conjure up!" She said, poking "Naruto" two more times in the head.

"Well poking me isn't helping!" "Naruto" yelled, rubbing the red bruise in between his eyes. She was serious and she was pretty good at using genjutsu, maybe even better than he was but what did he know? "Jeez, I was just kidding."

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He'd been thinking a lot, which was normal. Orochimaru, somehow, by some otherworldly act of dubiousness, got inside Anko's mind. It was worst then that though, he gained control of it, it was as if his conscience overlapped hers at the time. Whichever was on top was the one that would gain sovereignty over the body. Most likely, that's how it was, that's how it worked. But that still left the question as to how Orochimaru even did it.

Undoubtedly, he knew that Orochimaru had used a technique to do it, a kinjutsu perhaps. No... no perhaps, it was a kinjutsu, something that potentially mind altering had to have been forbidden from use. But just what was the technique, what technique had Orochimaru used on Anko to penetrate her mind. It was odd, how the first hebi fang came back for the second one. There was a list, in the Anbu Torture and interrogation department, it was just a playful joke though. It displayed the top ten Konoha shinobi that Ibiki had the hardest time trying to break down.

Anko was number one, she was the hardest person for him to ever crack, and she still was. He hadn't done it, Ibiki still had no idea that her favorite snack was dango. Odd enough, all he had to do was ask. But despite her extreme mental ramparts, Ibiki hadn't been able to break her. She simply ruled it off saying you can't already break something that had already been broken. She was right too, she could not be broken, nor could she be put back together... Orochimaru had taken a piece with him when he left.

But it seemed that when he came back, he brought that piece back with him and "fixed" her... then broke her again. The only man in history, excluding the Hokage, to bring Anko to her knees. Why Anko though, why did he choose her to infect.

That technique had to power to allow Orochimaru to project himself into the minds of other people, if that was true then why Anko. There was obviously a limit to the extension of the technique--kami forbid that anyone else use it--that Orochimaru used. Otherwise, her would have flung himself into someone much more influential than Anko.

As of now, all Naruto could do was observe and devise plan, especially since the Hokage, bless his old soul, didn't want him didn't want him doing anything... "chakra expending".

"So-," Naruto said, placing his arms behind his head as he leaned back comfortably into the white linen of his hospital bed, "- anything new."

With a hand on his head, Youhei sat, looking off to the side, rather vacantly. Despite his hebetude, he still responded, letting his fingers swim through his red inferno of hair once before uttering out a weak, "Yeah". He faced Naruto, part of his hair covered his eyes though, making him look slightly similar to a bored cyclops. But he quickly shook that visage away, we didn't need two Kakashi's. "Apparently, our friend Anko had a little something extra in her."

Naruto perked up at this, "Oh? And do you think this has something to do with Orochimaru?" Naruto asked.

"Yes... in fact it may be the reason as to why he was able to penetrate her defenses. Test results detected the remnants of a foreign substance in her bloodstream, and when I say foreign, I mean foreign. We don't even know what it is, it's not in any of our databases. Despite that, we do know that this unknown compound is chemically structured the exact same way a virus is, ergo-"

"Whatever is in there, is a virus," Naruto finished for him. Youhei's expression, hit by pale orange light, seemed to mimic Naruto's. They both smiled.

"Perhaps it allowed for Orochimaru's entry." Naruto's smile died.

"No," he shook his head, speaking dryly, "I saw Anko, the real Anko, come out for a second. She over came Orochimaru, she broke his hold... with sheer willpower. And we both know that you can't overcome a virus with willpower. Although, the same can't be said about a jutsu."

" So it's a jutsu that did that? Then I guess that we're looking for the wrong things," Youhei concluded, "we've been looking for anything her circulatory system, when we should have been checking through her chakra network."

Sarutobi who hadn't spoken until now, cleared his throat. It was always unsettling how good Ojii-san was at masking his presence, even if he was right there. That's where he got it from. "That's right, but it needs to be done quickly. Surely, whomever's chakra was left over in her system when they applied the technique might still be there."

Naruto smiled, as did Youhei; for a moment all three of their eyes met.

Then the door crashed open and a frantic looking man burst through the door, he looked around until he spotted Naruto. He pointed, "You! Boy! She wants you!" Nervously the man stopped for a second, allowing the room to grow even more gravid with the sound of his own uncontrolled breathing. After a moment, he cleared his throat and straightened out the wrinkles in his white lab coat.

"Yakushi-san, are you feeling fine?" Naruto asked.

Yakushi Kabuto wiped the expression of his face and transformed it into something resembling equipoise. "I'm fine, fine, I apologize for my rude interruption Hokage-sama, but it's Anko, she's irate. And she won't listen to anything we're trying to tell her, she won't take any medicine until she speaks with a certain person.

Sarutobi raised his eyebrow. Kabuto got the message, he pointed at Naruto and curled his finger inward. "Come please."

Naruto, ever-calm Naruto, was already out the door without another word. Nobody present in the room was aware of the twisted grin on Kabuto's face as he followed Naruto out of the room. He'd heard the entire thing, he knew that they knew. But he wouldn't let them find out, if his secret was compromised now then the entire "plan" would be in shambles.

Shortly after, tired of the awkward duty of engaging in badinage with the Hokage--a task only Naruto could do genuinely--Youhei stood and took his leave, as did the Hokage. The Hokage himself, just needed to see to the signing of some paperwork, Youhei on the other hand, needed some much needed alone time with his two daughters.

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Everything around her was dangerous.

Everyone around her was dangerous.

Medicine, was poison.

Doctors, were useless, they could not help her. She didn't need their help, its not like they could do it anything anyway. No doctor could heal a mind, not even with all the latest advances in medical jutsu. A mind could never be healed by chakra.

Maybe... it could be healed though, by seeing one of the four faces that brought comfort to her. One of them was near her. She could see his face through the glass opening in the door. He was just a boy.

The door opened, and two people stepped inside, one of them being that doctor. The other was the face she wanted to see, the last face she saw before Orochimaru took over again.

"You called?" Naruto said calmly, standing before her in his green hospital gown. Primarily, she wanted to see his face because... well it was her solace. She just felt comfortable around his visage of equanimity, and in some ways she felt vulnerable to it. This boy radiated a mass of power, all of it hidden within, it was scary and overwhelming while at the same time benevolent. Yes, his aura was generous, it had something to give to her, HE had something to give to her.

She just didn't know what it was... yet.

"Not really," she said, curling her knees to her ample bosom. The white padded walls around her loomed dangerously far away, it seemed that the room seem to stretch away, making her focus on Naruto. "I just need some...um, you know I don't know what I need. All I know is that, I want you to stay here." Anko, gazed at him, her eyes flashed gold for a millisecond.

Naruto didn't miss it, he saw it as the remnants of the chakra from Orochimaru's technique. Kabuto saw it as an opportunity, at least while his chakra lasted in her body, for Orochimaru to gain control again and have some more fun before the chakra itself fully dissipated.

Anko's eye flicked over to Kabuto. "Leave," she said.

"But-" Kabuto was interrupted by the long tongue that lashed out, almost catching him in the face. If he weren't so used to Orochimaru doing that then he might have gotten himself hit. "Okay...I'll leave." Without another word Kabuto slipped out of the room, smiling.

Anko turned to Naruto once more, his unwavering eyes all but saw through her. "Sorry you had to see that kid."

"I've seen worse." Naruto responded. "Hey, how did you just do that?"

"What?"

"The tongue thing. I thought Only Orochimaru could do that."

"Orochimaru taught it too me... a long... time ago."

"I see... let me ask you something, what else did he teach you before he left." Naruto said as he sat down, hugging his knees, much like Anko had done. He had found that the best way to get someone to open up, was to imitate them. And it was true, because Anko wasted no time opening up.

"Well, you seem to be an OK kid so I guess I can tell you... something."

Naruto smiled.

Anko, weakly, did the same.

About three hours later, Naruto walked outside of the hospital doors, fully garbed, a serious expression on his face. Deep in a scowl, his mind raced around wildly. It was easier than he thought it would be, getting Anko to open up to him was like turning on a television. Absolutely, no effort needed; that was what he basically did, sat, took the remote and turned the television on, and just like a television, Anko began spilling tons of information, both needed and unneeded, at him.

He just took a look into the mind of one of Konoha's most revered and feared Kunoichi ever to exist. And he did it, with so much as a drop of blood.

Naruto raised his chin to the sky, beating his chest primitively. Beat that Ibiki!

If he learned one thing, he learned that underneath all that eccentricity that had become to be known as Anko, there was a frail, broken child who had suffered all the way into adulthood. It was sad but... yes, Anko had grown with the knowledge of something... dangerous, even more the possession of something even more dangerous. She'd been treated differently, just because she possessed it.

Just like him and the Kyuubi.

They were alike. And that was only the surface, they were alike in so many ways that it was almost scary. But it was the good kind of scary... the type of scary that got your blood pumping. Naruto shook his head. No, that was just excitement quelling up in him.

Naruto was absently aware of Kurenai beside him. She tapped him.

"You okay?"

"Absolutely, in fact, I think that I'm much better than okay. Kurenai sensei... I don't know whether or not you've felt this before, but have you ever felt that there is someone out there that understands you in a way that no one else can and ever will?"

Kurenai raised her brow. "Define, understand," she said.

"In a way that isn't romantic. I mean someone whose been through almost everything you've been through, or at least things that are on par with those things... haven't you ever felt that?" Naruto smiled, more like smirked. His wide rictus caused Kurenai to back away. He shook his head. "Sorry, anyway, I just spoke to Anko."

"What?"

Naruto's smile died.

"What? It's not that big of a deal."

"Naruto, it is a big deal, I came to see her earlier, today. When I came, the first the first thing I saw was a med nin being hurled against the wall. He suffered from a concussion. She wouldn't let anyone come near. She wouldn't take any medicine, she didn't want to be healed at all. Completely, she'd shut herself off from every other person around her.

"Until I came inside."

"Really now."

"Yeah, until now I thought that I was the only one who she would allow to come near her. That's when you come in, and she just lets you in like that? It does mean something, obviously, she sees something about you that nobody else can see."

"I know." Naruto responded. "I see something in her as well."

Kurenai raised her brow. "Not in that way," he went on, "Anyway, there's something else that I want to discuss with you. Its about Anko's students, the Fumina sisters."

"What about them."

"She wants us to take over their training, at least until she gets her rank back."

"I don't know whether or not she'll even be getting that rank of hers back." That's when Naruto laughed.

"Oh, trust me, I'll make sure she gets her rank back. Tokubetsu Jonin correct?"

Kurenai nodded.

Naruto was gone in a flash.

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"Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back."

"No." Sarutobi said, his eye twitched dangerously.

"Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it back."

"I said no," Sarutobi responded, a vein bulged from his forehead. Naruto suddenly stormed in here, asking him to give Anko her rank back, that wasn't happening anytime soon. She was still dangerous... but-

"Give it back. Give it back. Give it back. Give it BACK."

-that mantra of his was getting annoying. But that still didn't mean he would give in. Sarutobi simply, ignored the boy and stared back down at the pile of papers before him. Then Naruto stopped.

Sarutobi actually stopped for a moment, Naruto never gave up this easily.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu."

Two Naruto's stepped out from behind the original, both carrying wide cheesy grin's, much like their creator. Sarutobi grimaced, he knew what was about to ensue. Standing on either side of him, both Narutos then began chanting.

"Give it back, give it back, give it back, give it back, give it BACK."

The Hokage just sighed, he'd never get any work done like this.

As Naruto, the real Naruto, left the room, he stopped at the door, half in half out.

"Enjoy the surround sound, Ojii-san,"

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The routine for the next couple of weeks was simple, if not perfunctory. Wake up, stare at the stone faces, visit Sanae and Konoe in the hospital in the morning; then he'd swing on over to the special containment ward of the hospital to see Anko-neechan. Mostly, they just played board games, those that were allowed anyway. Anko did enjoy playing shogi, but unfortunately the losing to Naruto part was the part that she held in contempt. Games like that required a masterful grasp of real-time tactics and strategy, you had to always have a plan and then a back plan if the first one went wrong. He soon found out, via temper tantrums and childish fits thrown by hers truly that strategy wasn't her thing. Anko was more of the...K.I.A. type, or 'kill in action', as she so gracefully put it during one of their daily chats.

But Anko was smart she wasn't an ex-jounin for nothing, her grasp for the game for outclassed a lot of those whom he'd seen playing for years, and she was just a tyro in the game. His guess was that Anko was a quick thinker, she liked the suspense of not knowing what was going to happen next and then acting accordingly.

It was that raw, twisted form of unharnessed curiosity that Naruto admired about her the most. In some ways, she thought much like him. But there were differences in their battle logic though. He, preferred a more structural approach to the field, never go in with out a plan. If any problems were to occur than he would adapt and generate new ideas, tactics to help him win. But with Anko, her strategy, for lack of a better word, was much more facile and pliable. She never had plan and if she did, it usually was simple. The woman preferred to just "wing it" and improvise, she liked to think on the run. The thrill of it was enthralling, Naruto himself did the same, however not to the extent that she did.

Anko simply threw herself into the excitement of suspense, much more attracted to it then he was and while his actions were alike, he always had some other clever though pumping through his mind.

For the most part, he had spent the better portion of his time with Anko, probing her mind with any and all bits of information pertaining to Orochimaru. Their conversations on that topic, usually resulted in either a pretty irate Anko or an utterly sobbing kunoichi. It was more the former than the latter, but when it did happen and when he did see Anko cry it was always due to her retelling the times when Orochimaru did "terrible things", as she had put, to her. Those moments were when she was at her most vulnerable. He had never though it, but Anko made him swear to never tell anyone of those rare times. And if you didn't know, Anko made people swear with their blood, literally.

Kurenai came to visit repeatedly as well. When she said that her and Anko were best friends, Naruto had disregarded what she said, they really did do everything together. And in ways that were alike in almost every way. When it came down to likes and dislikes, the only thing that Kurenai didn't have an aptitude for that Anko did was blood, dango, and the childish love of practical jokes, other than that they were like twins, inseparable. Actually, Anko did have another difference, she had the tendency to..."flaunt" herself a lot, which was something that Kurenai refrained from doing on a daily basis, even so she still had lecherous eyes glues to her posterior regularly. So partially the two shared that trait, except Anko basked in the light of her own glory while Kurenai... simply walked away from it.

Also they were very watchful of each other.

"Anko, you seem to be rather attached to our blond friend." Kurenai jested.

Anko huffed, standing up. "You've got it the wrong way Kure-chan. Naruto's the one's who's attached to me, right?" Naruto simply looked away. "Watch." Anko said, her voice rose to a higher tone. "Narutoooo, who's the most physically attractive female you know?" She outlined her hips with her hands seductively.

Naruto turned away and pointed at Anko. "You suck." He said.

"Then why did you answer her," Kurenai asked barely containing her laughter.

"Because it's true."

They shared a laughed.

Finally, after a couple days of the same thing, visits, training with his teams, Naruto got a call to go to the Hokage's office.

He made haste to get there as soon as possible.

Naruto jogged, blazing up the Hokage tower stairs leading to the Hokage's office. His hand hit the nob, no resistance met his grip as it turned smoothly, allowing him through.

"You called, Hokage-sama?" His eyes darted around his mentor's office, those present all staring him down. Inside his gut he felt the hot prickly irritation building up in the form of nervousness. He wasn't really nervous from their glares, rather, it was why they were here that put him off the edge. Naruto narrowed his eyes, spotting his entire Anbu team in the room, as well as Morino Ibiki.

Naruto's eyes then darted down to the forest green telephone receiver in the Hokage's hands. The old man held it up, his expression grim. "For you." Sarutobi said.

Slowly, Naruto's eyes widened. Who could that be? He wasted no time finding out, as he basically jammed the cold receiver to the side of his face. For a moment, nobody said anything, he waited. Held his breath. Waited some more. The suspense was killing him. Who was this fucker?

He cast a sideways glance at his captain, a shrug was Saito's response. Shaking his head, Naruto breathed deeply; enough was enough.

"Moshi-Moshi? Wha-!"

Naruto gripped the phone tighter now, the reaction from everyone else was expected, they shifted uncomfortably. The tension in the room seemed to quadruple, no it spiked, reaching its apex. Naruto's finger darted down quickly, hitting the button for the speaker, and almost immediately, deranged laughter blared through the static. It sounded distorted; the voice was unnaturally deep for... anyone actually. Most likely, the guy had masked his voice as a safety precaution.

"What the-," Sakai began, but he was silenced by the Hokage's hand... not to mention the subtle spike of Ki sent his way.

"Hahahaha! Naruto-kun, it seems that Lord Orochimaru-sama has some interest in you. Just so we're clear...heh, this is the S.A.G. speaking, that's right, I've heard you're little pet name for me, the second Oto agent! I can hear you Naruto-kun and friends, I can see you too, so don't try anything funny." His speech was cut mid-way by another round of deep laughter.

"Masking you're voice huh? You coward." Naruto spat, around him, everyone leaned in.

The agent laughed once more, a sound that was beginning to make Naruto irate. "Of course! One can never be too cautious, right Naruto-kun. Oh an by the way... how's Anko doing?"

Naruto grimaced, feeling the fire ignited in his stomach, and he was vaguely aware of his fingers digging into the wood of the Hokage's desk. Sarutobi gave Naruto an apprehensive glance.

"What do you want?"

"I've already told you, it's not what I want, only what Lord Orochimaru desires. And he wants to play a little game with you... all of you, but specifically, Naruto is the centerpiece. I'm sure that you've put me on speaker right?" When Naruto didn't respond, the agent laughed again. "See I told you I could see you. Anyway, here's the gist of the mission-"

"And why the fuck should we play along?" Naruto cut him off, angrily, Naruto leaned on the wooden desk. For a moment, there was nothing but static.

"Oh, then do you not care about the lives of the villagers?"

This time, Sakai interjected, rushing up to the desk next to Naruto. "You son of a bitch, what have you done?"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Sakai-san! Calm yourself, you too Naruto-kun, let this man speak." Sarutobi said, for a moment--and he might have just been seeing things but-- Naruto thought that he'd seen a glimmer of something in the Hokage's eye. Anger perhaps.

Anger was good.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." The agent said over the static rattled speakers. "Now, like I was saying, pay attention now. Before Lord Orochimaru was finished with her, he had Anko set up a few charges here and there, I hope you didn't think that rampaging through the village was his only objective... fools!" Quickly, Saito, gestured to Touei, Anbu communication seals. The message was simple.

Touei.... call... record it.

With a nod, the baboon masked Anbu, produced a small scroll from one his side pockets. Seeing as how they didn't have the means to trace the call, recording it was all that they could do. With masterful dexterity, Touei unfurled the scroll, smoke erupting from its contents the instant it was open, a small device dropped down from the smoke and was caught before it hit the desk. When the smoke cleared, the scroll was already rolled back into original state and tucked away in Touei's pocket, in his hands was a small tape recorder.

Yukari sweat dropped, Touei the pretentious bastard. Did he really have to do all that just to get a tape recorder, especially since they were being watched? She had no doubt that the agent had seen that, given that he didn't respond meant that either he did notice it or that he didn't care and was so confident in himself that he'd let something like that go on unaddressed. She returned her attention back onto the phone once Touei placed the recorder by the phone, hitting the big red "record" button.

"-The mission is simple: there's a bomb placed somewhere in this village, potentially, it could destroy the entire village... that is... if you can stop from detonating. Furthermore, there are others, more bombs, they're smaller but collectively, can do a whole lot of damage. I've made their locations... relatively easy to find, so you should be okay. You have until noon."

Simple.

Naruto tensed, as did everyone else, with the exception of the Hokage; he was the first to speak afterward. "And are there any conditions that we must meet?" The old man asked. "Well," Sarutobi prodded, "are there?"

"Yes... this is for Naruto-" The agent said. "-follow your orders, now duck!"

"WhAAAAOLY CRAP!" Naruto yelled, just in time to alert everyone of the gleaming Fuma shuriken that crashed through the window, sailing by a hair's breath over the Hokage's hat and embedding itself into the wall. Sarutobi did not seemed at all phased, that is until a snarl pushed his upper lip up. The Hokage growled, staring angrily at the fluttering note hanging from the wire looped around the hole in the center of the weapon. Yukari grabbed it, and read.

"It says: good luck... I'm watching you. I loom over you ominously, every day I see you and you see me...who or what am I? Listen to my words though, what lies beneath may be what kills you." Yukari looked over at the Hokage, the intense features of her eagle mask hiding behind it the slightly scared expression she held when she saw Sarutobi's glare.

"Have fun...hahahaha-.....beeeeeeeep-" The line was cut, allowing the dead buzz of the phone's dial tone to drone loudly over the speaker. Everyone looked at the Hokage. That was an obvious threat, not only against them but against the entire village. Slowly Naruto hung the phone, and looked at his mentor.

Behind the Hokage, as hazy as hazy could have been, Naruto espied something through the destroyed window; a figure was it? A man?

"Who the fuck is that?" Naruto asked, pointing past Sarutobi's hat. True to his word in the distance loomed a man, he wore a long ragged cloak and a pure white Anbu mask. Just as he was about to turn away, Sarutobi raised one hand in the air, and quickly dropped it in a swift chopping motion.

"Follow him... Now! Everyone stay connected. Naruto, Touei, you stay with me."

Those words were all it took to spur everyone but Ibiki into motion. They were gone within the second.

Naruto gritted his teeth, "Why am I staying? Ojii-san, let me go too!" Naruto pleaded.

"No! This entire ordeal, is made for you, it would be foolish to risk leading you into a trap!"

The boy's anger faded. He though about it, then agreed. "So why am I here?" He asked in a calm, refined tone.

"You'll be finding the bomb."

"Ibiki," Strange he'd almost forgotten Ibiki was there, "I want eyes, everywhere, I want as many Jounin and elite Jounin and Anbu personnel as possible searching the streets for anyone or anything that even looks suspicious! All nin are to be armed, we don't know how powerful this person is, and I'd rather avoid an unnecessary casualties, however, the use of chakra is prohibited."

Ibiki nodded accordingly, showing no signs of disapproval.

"Have a squad set up a perimeter containment around the village, nobody goes in or out. A C.D.N will be needed, if that bastard uses chakra, we'll find him, let's just hope he's stupid enough to do it. If what he's saying is true, this village could go down in rubble. Get to it, mobilize every available nin of those levels, I want you to send in everyone if possible!"

Naruto flouted. "No questions asked, Naruto-kun." Sarutobi said, for a moment it looked as if Naruto was about to argue. But he soon swallowed down his defiance and resigned to his fate. "Sit tight, I need to make a call."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Moshi-Moshi-...uwuahh! Hokage-sama! Yes...., what? A bomb? Okay... that's good." For a moment he paused, "OH, that's bad. I understand, how long will it take him to get here-"

His sentence was cut off when a baboon masked Anbu tapped him on the shoulder, startling everyone else in the lab. "Youhei, Fumina Youhei?" The man asked.

"What the f-uhh never mind, yes, he's here. I still don't know how they do that, but anyway... leave it to me, we'll catch this asshole!"

Youhei hung the phone, it 'chinged' loudly. He spun around to face his ..."helper"... and offered him a hand which, of course, sat their hanging in the air until the awkward air weighing down on his told him to put his hand down.

"Ok Shima Touei... well, let's get to work." Around him, his department just stood there, not knowing what to do... that is until, Youhei clapped his hands twice.

"Okay ladies! What are we doing here, get a move on, everyone at you're stations, I'll explain everything once we're set up. We'll be analyzing and tracing a phone call, there's someone who we need to catch... and the only way we can identify him is by the sound of his mechanically altered voice," he put a little edge in his voice, "can we do it?" He asked rhetorically.

The members of his Anbu investigations division seemed to be amused, for they smiled.

In unison they chanted. "YES SIR!"

He turned to Touei, who already had a laptop and a tape recorder set up, connecting the two appliances to a server, the main server that ran throughout the room.

The red head cracked his knuckles. "Get ready you son of a bitch, we'll catch you, you'll pay for making my daughters suffer."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Before Naruto left the tower, he left the Hokage with some very lasting words. Sarutobi didn't seemed to take a liking to what the boy had to say, frankly, his proposal was ludicrous. He'd called the leader of the village on his words, "send in everyone". Truly, the boy was smart, and at the same time cruelly manipulative. Right before Naruto left, he slammed his hands back on the top of his desk, beseeching him to let Anko out of custody.

"If you're gonna send everyone, send her. Let her earn her rank back!" Naruto roared. "She can do it."

His treatment toward Anko, was, despite the circumstances, unjust. Technically one could say that yes, it was her, but then again it wasn't and he knew it. Naruto was right. But Naruto didn't understand the consequences that came with making such rash decisions. If Anko, only if she were to prove herself amidst this chaos, then yes, her previous rank would be befitting of her. Then came the ramifications, which was something Sarutobi didn't have time for; giving the female Kunoichi, deemed insane by all those ignorant, her rank back. Seriously? On the outside, it seemed to be a foolish move, a move that a wise Hokage would never make. However, underneath all that, when it came down to the fine print, giving Anko her rank back was the right thing to do. So...

"I understand," was all the Sarutobi said, turning away from the boy's florid grin. With renewed vigor, Naruto had all but exploded from the already broken window of the Hokage tower.

Anko-neechan would be free! He wasted no time, heading toward the hospital and retrieving her. The receptionist at the front desk was smart enough to shut her mouth as he flew past. He hadn't listened to anyone, doctors, nurses, assistants, nobody. None of the mattered. He even bypassed Kabuto, speeding by without so much as a word. The white haired Med-nin attempted to call out to him, but it had been in vain for the patter of Naruto's feet filled the halls.

It had taken him no less than five minutes to find Anko, explain the situation, and divulge the good news. If he weren't so short, she would have probably jumped right into his arms, so he just settled for a strong, very breath taking hug. And he meant breath taking not breath stopping. She had a really strong grip, the next time she would offer him a hug he'd note well to decline, politely, and just go find a nice steel girder to hug. They were MUCH more comfortable.

Now they were outside.

"Any ideas as to how we're going to catch this guy?" Anko asked, the white cloth of her hospital gown-

-NOT A STRAIGHT JACKET!-

-Clung to her neck, ever now and then her fingers would move toward her throat and scratch voraciously. Anko was sagacious, eccentric yes, but she had sound judgment. That prick, whoever he was, had called at the worst time, currently the clock struck 'nine thirty'. That gave him, he didn't want to think of it. He'd wasted nearly an hour searching for the fucking bomb. He'd wasted so much precious time! This guy was like his personal boogie man; always watching, waiting, observing until the time was right to strike.

How he did it... kami only knows that.

Naruto just shrugged, offering a smile. "I don't know, you're the jounin here, I'm just a genin." He chuckled from the lucid jab in the ribs she gave him, but quickly sobered, his expression gradually decreasing into impassiveness. "But seriously, what are we doing? We've got until noon to find this bomb, and as of now I have now clue where the piece of shit is!"

He threw up his hands, but they were gently placed down by Anko's strong grip. "Come on now, think, you're the genius here."

What good was thinking going to do. Enemy location, unknown; location of major civilian threat, unknown. Where the FUCK he was going, unknown. So what would thinking do him...

Anko's face brightened, watching Naruto shift into a position she had labeled, his "thinking pose" during one of his visits.

Slowly, Naruto brought his hand up to slap himself in the face.

Anko blinked. Once. "Did you figure something out genius?" She changed expressions as she spotted several Jounin zipping along the rooftops, past there positions. Nobody spared her a glance.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anko left him in a flash once he told her what to do, her way of thinking was, as complex and intricate as her mind was, relatively simple. If it involved, death, killing, blood, knives, pain, or anything else that had to do with the underworld, then you can count her in. In a way, Anko looked at the world with a form of primal bloodlust, while at the same time retaining the cognitive thought that kept her human. She looked at the world around her like a predator, like a snake, everyone beneath her was prey, fresh meat for her to "devour" whenever she felt like it, but it was that human side to her that kept the devil within at bay and provided her with the necessary equipoise. 'Counterbalance' was the word Naruto had used to describe her mind, the unified efforts of the two powers within her resonating until they came to one final result: Mitarashi Anko.

Predator, while at the same time prey.

Her instructions were simple enough, and if everything went well, she would get to kill. She had to give it to Naruto, the kid was smart, he'd figured everything out rather quickly. There wasn't just one person they were looking after, there were two people.

She was currently going after the one he'd appointed to her. Mizuki, the former teacher at the academy. Naruto's explanation, while informative, was a boring but easy to get wrapped around what he was explaining and by the time he'd finished perorating she knew exactly what he meant.

The agent, by what he told her, had thrown in a note via fuma shuriken, that note held a petty message. Turns out, it wasn't so petty, it was a clue, a very subtle one.

Anko spotted a flash of pink hair and she rushed up to meet with it, that was Naruto's partner. She was there in less then three seconds, keeping a pace in the treetops that was slightly sub par with Yukari's.

"Hey," she whispered.

Yukari didn't respond at first. "Aren't you supposed to be in the loony bin?" She asked, turning the beak of her eagle mask on Anko. The hebi Kunoichi blinked dully.

"Oh, again with the insults, I thought that people associated with Naruto would be different, I was wrong I guess."

"Uh... no, no, I didn't mean it like that, I just wanted to know how you got out." She clarified.

Anko shrugged and looked forward, "Naruto got me out, I'll explain later right now I-"

"Hey, what is she doing here?" Sakai blurted out, some other of the nameless Anbu chorused in agreement.

Anko growled, her left eye twitching, "SHUT UP YOU PRICKS!," she turned quickly back to Yukari, but did a double take when Yukari wasn't there. Instead a man wearing an odd tiger mask invaded her vision.

"Hello, what are you doing here?"

Pushing up one eyebrow, Anko shook her head slightly, silently mouthing out "Naruto". Saito nodded in accordance.

"Fine, then what do you have to tell us. I'm sure he wouldn't have sent you here without a reason."

She ignored the slight edge marring his voice and continued. She stuck out one finger and pointed ahead of them at the fleeing nin in the ragged cloak. "You're chasing that guy huh? Well Naruto figured it out, he's not the only guy."

Saito almost looked surprised when she said it, if looking surprised was even possible with a mask on. "Elaborate." He said, never taking his eyes of the nin in front of him.

Anko pointed once more, "Sure, but before I do so, I want to know something. That guy's slow, why haven't you caught him, at the rate he's going he's barely hitting the speed of a jounin, even without chakra, you guys could do much more than what he's doing."

"He's a bomber, bombers have buttons. Buttons that, if pushed, can cause a lot of people to suffer in some of the most large scale and devastating ways. We don't need that, if he has a trigger, I doubt that he'll hesitate to use it to his advantage, if we even seem like a threat, everything goes boom. Get it, you don't bite the hand that can blow you all the way to Timbuktu."

Anko only laughed, "I thought it was you don't bite the hand that feeds you."

"Anko-san, we're ninja, as far as we are concerned, no hand feeds us."

"I guess so," she said taking out a senbon, picking her teeth with it.

"Well you seem to be rather insouciant about things, calm?"

"Serene." She responded, a grim tinging her facial features. "Anyway, that's right, Naruto figured it out, smart kid, you should be proud of him. We're not chasing one guy, we're chasing two. And this guy, is a decoy."

Saito sighed, "The thought crossed my mind, but I decided not to act on it."

For a moment Anko contemplated on denigrating him but decided against it. Her expression got somber as she began to explain things the way Naruto had explained it, monotonously, just like a robot. When Naruto said it, it'd freaked her out, hopefully she could do the same.

"Listen, there are two agents, Mizuki, and one of which the identity of is unknown. Invariably, we're at a lost, that leaves us at a disadvantage, but-" she drawled on lolling her hand back and forth lazily, "-that also leaves for a 'x' amount of possible ways that we can be observed from the inside out , all of which can be controlled by the second agent. He could be anyone, at anyplace at anytime, his vantage points were limitless. For example, he could be the guy on guard duty watching Mizuki's cell, get it?" A couple other nameless Anbu and the rest of Naruto's team came in closer to hear.

"Buuut, he decided to plant a bomb in this... well technically I did it, but Orochimaru is to blame... anyway, when the bastard chose that option he singled himself out, right now we can find him, he currently has the perspective and vantage point of a bomber." Anko allowed a smirk. " We've got to think like a bomber and bombers always have a plan B."

"But we haven't even figured out Plan A."

"I said the same exact thing, but apparently, Naruto thinks differently, he asked me this question: what is the purpose of a bomb? Bombs have one purpose, to explode, we're trying to take this purpose away, we are trying not to have the bomb live out its purpose. That's what the bastard wants, that's why he's the decoy.... its a little confusing but, if you think about it from the predatory viewpoint, this guy's plan A depends on us not wanting that bomb to explode."

There was nothing but silence, it didn't sound like much but it explained, a lot. Someone gasped, it was Yukari. "And if we keep our distance from the guy," she the Haruno continued," not wanting him to detonate the bomb, as a result he becomes an effective decoy!" She exclaimed, "We don't want him to approach him because of the possibility that he may blow the bomb, well a good bomber never puts himself on the front line... d-don't you get it? He's not the bomber, the real guy is making us think that this asshole is the bomber and he's using us, as long as we don't attack and simply follow, to make him into a decoy with the sole purpose of leading us away. And as long as we don't attack, this guy serves his purpose as an active decoy."

Anko actually laughed. "Exactly what the blond kid said! So instead of playing along with this guy's plan A we can attack and force him into a plan B, we can be certain that this nin in front of us doesn't have the detonator in his hand, although he's making it look that way. So forcefully initiate the true bomber's plan b and this turn this decoy into a sacrifice."

"T-That's ingenious." Sakai muttered, "this guy really knows what he's doing."

"That doesn't matter right now, Anko just saved the day....so-"

"Attack?"

"Well technically Naruto saved it but... yeah, attack."

Without the nuisance of sound, the dozen Anbu behind her all sped up, blurring past her with nothing but a rush of air, Anko just smiled. Seeing how almost immediately, the nin had gotten defensive, flinging dozens of kunai and senbon back at them. He'd gotten real frantic really quickly, which brought a smile to her face; the all too unbelievable notion that, yes, Naruto was absolutely right had just boosted her appearance up as well.

It didn't take long for them to detain the bastard, he stood not a chance when the Anbu swarmed and overwhelmed him like a pack of hungry lions. It was a rudimentary tactic that was considered taboo for most Anbu but, they were pretty irate at the moment, so crude maneuvers was their forte.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Saito's voice rang in Naruto's ear dulcetly, his words were sweet like honey.

"Naruto you're a genius."

Yes, yes, he knew it. He was a genius wasn't he?

Now came the second part of his grand unveiling, this guy was smart, but Naruto was...not smarter, rather he was... prepared. Naruto's mind, the super computer that it was was wired to think like his enemy, no matter who or what the enemy may be. When it came to thinking like the one in control, Naruto was number one.

Most called it a god complex, but he referred to it as a predator's complex. A god could wipe everything off the face of the planet with a little as a sneeze. He glanced down at his stomach. Apparently demons were no different than gods.

"You're the worst." Naruto hissed.

"Am I?" The agent replied. Of course, Naruto was right, but there was a second more underhanded part to the story. A part meant directly for him. "Tell me," he wheezed, "how did you figure out that Mizuki was the decoy?"

Naruto sneered, bashing his fist into the agents sternum once more, the bone gave no resistance and cracked under the pressure of his blow.

"Ahh-fuck!"

"It was simple really, once I stopped thinking like the hunter instead of the hunted, this shit just miraculously became clear to me. It was a good plan, especially since it delayed us for so long, although I don't know why you did it." The agent simply laughed, his voice coming out as muffled through his glossy white mask, his laughter, gradually, turned to wild sputtering.

"Ahh... damn, I think you punctured a lung."

Naruto simple shrugged, "Well isn't it fair?"

The agent didn't respond. The radio earpiece erupted with static in Naruto's ear before Youhei's voice cleaved through, slowly gaining clarity. "Naruto, do you copy?" Reflexively, he tapped his ear at the sound, diverting his attention from the masked Anbu whose chest he was sitting on.

"Yeah, I copy, and I got the guy."

There was a brief pause before Youhei's voice erupted once more. "WHAT--uh, no, no, that's good. Well it might not matter, but we've identified him, his name is Suki Yasatoru, jounin, he served in Heavy Ops division near Anbu HQ. Apparently, he was pretty skilled when it came to illusionary techniques, had master's grasp of it. Odd for one serving in a team the focused primarily on martial and destructive techniques. See if you can get something from him, over and out." The line was cut.

Just as Naruto prepared to open his mouth, the static return, as did Youhei's voice. "Whoa...uh, wait. Where the fuck are you... and what about the bomb?"

"I know where the bomb is, but I can't tell you where I am." Naruto said. He winced from the jolt of pain Youhei's voice sent down his ear when he yelled out 'WHY NOT!'. "Listen," Naruto began, "This game is centered around me, Orochimaru wanted me for some reason, I'll find it out... alone. I pretty sure this douche won't speak to anyone besides me."

"Well that's why we have Ibi-" Naruto didn't have time for this, violently, he tore his earpiece from his ear and hurled it to the ground. He could just barely discern the faint sounds of Youhei's screaming his voice.

Naruto...NARUTOOOO!

He shook it off, and returned to the man underneath him. And smiled, justice would be served, he committed a crime, a severe crime. Hiding a bomb... in the Hokage stone faces, unforgivable. Only punishable by death.

"Yasatoru-san," the agent seemed to flinch, if not shiver at the mentioning of his name, "why did you defect to sound?"

"Because, I hate Konoha..." He frowned, what a crappy, vague answer.

"Is that all, or did you do it for something... else. Was there an ulterior motive? Did Orochimaru promise you something?"

No response. Naruto growled.

His hand moved quickly, plucking a senbon from his weapons pouch, thrusting it down into the side of Yasatoru's mask. He jammed it directly above the point that was above the cheek, once the needle penetrated his mask, it sliced through the soft flesh of his cheek and eventually through his teeth then digging a little into his tongue.

"Gheee!"

"Painful... isn't it," he plucked out another senbon, "Hows about another?"

"Fuchhhk gwyou!" Naruto simply sighed and punched him once more in his already damaged chest.

"Listen nobody in Konoha knows where we are, right now we're off the map. If I decided to kill you, no one will hear, if I torture you, no one will hear it. If you give me what I want peacefully, no one but me will hear it, tell me what I want to know now and you''ll get off easy." He stopped for a moment, the sides of his lips curling upward to give a fanged smile, much like a dog would do before it lunged for your throat. "Or, I could call everyone here, have you shipped Ibiki and have him extract the information. You have heard of Morino Ibiki right, you have heard the way they all scream when they meet him...right?"

Naruto's words were, icy, liquid nitrogen sinking into the agent's ears, freezing his brain. All time had stopped, two choices were to be made. The former or the latter, for the agent's sake the former was the one better suited to help him at least survive a while longer. Yasatoru's body seemed... frigid, taut underneath Naruto's body, stricken with the possibility of what may happen to him. It was all good fun the genius genin though.

Naruto spoke again. "I can make it so that you don't have to see Ibiki, I'll help you."

Beneath his mask, he blinked with celerity, astonished. "Y-you will?" Naruto nodded and after an apprehensive nod of his head he muttered out, "o-okay I'll tell you."

"Good." Naruto said, his feral visage shifting into a jovial and disarming smile. "I'm going to remove you're mask though, then you'll tell me." The agent didn't say anything, a sign of his approval. Naruto grabbed his mask, stopped once, and pulled it off thoroughly, removing it in such a manner that allowed the senbon protruding from his face to slide out as well. If this guy was smart, he wouldn't try anything, especially not any of his genjutsu that he was so skilled in.

Naruto froze.

Freaky was the word that came to mind. The mask unfurled long wavy locks of unruly, bright--not nearly as bright as Naruto's-- blond hair. Underneath his bangs lurked cold blue eyes, staring back at Naruto's, his slightly tanned skin was tinged red at the cheek were a raw, bloody hole wept blood.

The guy looked almost EXACTLY like him, okay, he had some more matured facial features, and a harder jaw but other than the minor things, this guy was Naruto's spitting image. Freaky indeed. Naruto almost back away when he looked at Yasatoru's face, not out of disgust, but out of awe. And some, if not a little bit, appreciation that this guy was holding up the common dogma that all blonds were attractive. But then that would count Ino as well... well she was-...never mind.

Let the interrogation begin.

"What was you're purpose for doing this?"

"Orochimaru told me to."

"Why?"

"He wanted to perform an experiment."

"With who?"

"You."

"Not surprising. How do I deactivate the bomb that's hidden underneath this monument?"

"Cut the green wire, next to the safety clip, it runs into the components of the countdown mechanism, it'll stop it."

"Thank you... now, if we were to, I don't know, look for a Orochimaru, where in Oto would we find him." Yasatoru laughed.

"You're on your own, that guy's got so many hideouts, not even his own men know where he is, but I'll tell you one thing, I've only been to one hideout, but its not in Oto, he's got hideouts stashed all over the Lands. It's l-like a network or something...," he paused to lick the inside of his cheek, "...uh well the place I was taken to was a place called Taro island, within the borders of Sea country, there he had an underground hideout where he kept... dozens of... creatures... these things, monsters. They used to be human, he told me, but after giving them the curse mark, they mutated...uh I guess. But they were powerful, immense in strength, and their chakra was off the charts... it was beautiful. I wanted that power, I needed it, to get back at the bastards in this crap village."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, looks like Anko wasn't the only one who had the curse mark. "And let me guess, you traded yourself to Orochimaru because of a weak promise that he would give you the curse mark." Once the agent nodded.

"Is that all?"

"Well, all that I know anyw-AAYY HEY, what are you doing?!" Naruto pressed his index and middle finger onto Yasatoru's forehead, pointing them like a gun, his nail dug into the man's skin, drawing blood. His thumb was cocked back like the hammer.

"Thanks for the help...., but you betrayed us for something a petty and mundane as revenge, you don't even deserve a second chance. It's been real but.... Choubatsu..." Without a warning Naruto blew apart Yasatoru's head with the tip of his two fingers, tearing away large sections of flesh and bone with unrestrained force. Two portions of the man's cranium gushed out diverging their paths once they hit the floor with the sickening wet crunch of skin, skull, and gray matter being obliterated. His blood and pale chunks of brain were all but skid marks against the rock, slushy and damp, was his blood. And where his head had once been lay a two foot deep crater filled almost to the brim with the blood the continuously drained out down through his neck. He actually winced from the sight of the gristly decapitation, smiling a bit at his handiwork.

"Hey...buddy, you OK?"

There was no response.

"Oh well." Naruto shrugged and tossed the corpse a handkerchief produce from his pocket. "Clean yourself up, you're a mess!"

Satisfied, he stood, dusting himself off. That was easy... too easy; easy enough to call suspicious. There something odd, about this set up, the outcome of this little game was just too conspicuous. And predatorily speaking, you never played games with the prey if they actually could win. The fact that Yasatoru knew he was going up against an entire village with not much backup was odd, and even odder, the entire result of the game had been just one big stall. A predator didn't stall for anyone...unless he was trying to get to something else at the time.

The thought had instilled in Naruto an all too present paranoia that kept tapping him on the shoulder, the possibility of another objective kept yelling out to him. Naruto was a curious being, he couldn't ignore it the fact.

Paranoia aside though, it was time to find that bomb.... 'green wire, green wire', he repeated in his head as he jogged off toward his next destination.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What was up with all the commotion? Up until now, the clamorous patter of myriad shinobi hitting my roof was all that I could hear. And it was beginning to tick me off, however, for some reason the onslaught of irritating sound just ceased to exist.

What was going on out there?

I walked out of his bathroom, wearing a pair of shorts and a navy blue shirt, personal favorite of mine to wear when walking in my own domain. I ruffled my hair with an already damp towel that still held the leftover aroma from the fruity shampoo.

I am NOT gay.... I just prefer to have my hair imbued with the pleasant smell of citrus.

Shampoo aside, luckily, today Kakashi had let us off early after a minor d-rank mission. He said he had something to "attend" to-- and I use the word hesitantly-- that was a dire emergency. I simply shrugged when he dismissed us, it didn't really matter why, I was ok with it as long as it meant time away from my team... especially... her.

The pink haired one.

I don't know why but the thought of being away from my team calmed me. Was that strange? I wonder.

After I tossed the towel on my bed, I stretched, feeling the taut, smooth muscle beneath my skin loosen a bit. I don't what it was about today, but for some reason my hairs were standing on end; I was overcome with the feeling of vulnerability. I couldn't quite place it directly, but I was prey... for someone, somebody, some surreptitious bastard was watching over me covertly. Whether or not his motives fueled by malice I didn't know, but if one thing was apparent, he sure wasn't making any attempt to hide himself.

Because I knew he was here.

Reflexively, I reach for my weapons pouch that was normally strapped to my thigh. Immediately, I cursed. Shit! It wasn't there.

Whoever was in my room with me noticed as well, I could tell by the hand that tapped my shoulder.

I froze.

"Hello Sasuke."

I tried to turn, but his clutched my shoulder in one of the deadliest vice-grips I had ever been in. I was quickly brought to my knees, wincing from the pain of this guy's hand.

"Don't turn around," he whispered. He voice sounded muffled, he was speaking through a mask. "Sasuke, I've come here, to do two things."

"Arrgh...w-who the hell are you?" I spat, my left eye was sealed shut from the pain pulsing down my body.

"I'm a messenger Sasuke and I have something for you." For a moment, the pain eased up and I let out a relieved sigh. His gloved fist glided past my face and when it opened up....

I freaked... on the inside.

He had a needle, and at that moment, I was forcibly reminded that I didn't like needles. Wait...no, it was a syringe, and inside the cylinder was slightly luminescent purple liquid. His other hand grabbed my own and abruptly ripped my clenched fist open. He placed the syringe in my hand.

"Make sure you don't shoot yourself with that needle... just yet." His hands were like cold iron against my skin, and the suddenly, he let go.

What the fuck?

A quickly as he'd come, he was gone. Vainly, I spun around, hoping to catch him with a rotating backhand as he backed away. It didn't surprise me that my hand past right through thin air, but it did surprise me that I could still hear his voice.

"We'll stay in touch Sasuke." Those were his final words before his echoing voice faded away. I didn't react for several seconds, I just sat there, staring at the glowing liquid in my palm. It radiated strength, the malevolent kind. I wanted to toss it, but something kept me from doing so... some weird undertow that couldn't fight.

It turns out.... I was right, I was prey.

But just who was the predator?

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Konoha certainly had a way of hiding things, especially from those residing within. Despite the recent epidemic, the villagers seemed to be quite oblivious to the countless numbers of Shinobi flooding the streets and rooftops. It made him wonder.

A little brown haired kid zipped past him, reveling in the bliss that was his youth, he was at his happiest. Technically Naruto wasn't much older, he looked to be at least ten, but mentally, Naruto was not a child in any sense of the word.

The bomb fiasco had passed by relatively quickly, an ephemeral thing, it came and was gone in a flash. When he reported back to The Third, the atmosphere had been... invariably tense. Mizuki yelled, drawled on about how he would get out an receive the curse mark from Orochimaru. Bad idea. Simply using the words "Curse" and"Mark" was enough to elicit a "proper" response from Anko. It was a funny response, not on Mizuki's part though, but very funny indeed.

He could have sworn that he'd seen a darkened patch on the chuunin's groin when Anko grabbed him and raised him in the air. "Calm down." He remembered saying futilely for what seemed like an eternity. Once Mizuki had been successfully pried from Anko's hands--and she had an iron grip-- he was shipped to Ibiki where his screams could be easily heard reverberating throughout the building. Ensuing that, what was left of Mizuki had been taken to a prison just outside of Konoha that was just a little north Tanzaku town. Essentially, the prison was isolated and almost in the direct line of Konoha's sight.

He wasted no time, conveying the intelligence taken from Yasatoru to the Hokage, the old man listened attentively, announcing that whatever he decided to do with that information he would be sure that it would not involve Naruto directly. He had good reason for it too.

"Naruto... you're still a genin, and you have a team. For now... stay with them I doubt that their harmony is in good shape without the third member of their party." That was bull shit, but admittedly, Naruto couldn't rebuke his words anyway, compared to the Hokage's decision to not involve him in a would-be counter attack, his choice to kill the second agent was several times worse and frowned upon. But that did not by any means mean that he regretted blowing the guy's head off. So he just stayed silent and went back inside his shell.

All of that happened yesterday though, now... now he was walking... towards his team.

It stared early in the morning.

He spotted Shino first, then Hinata. Kurenai sensei stood in between them, a hand on each of their shoulders.

"Kurenai-sensei, Hinata-ch...san," he waited long enough for the air to get awkward before he finally added, "Aburame."

Shino adjusted his glasses. "Uzumaki." He responded bitterly.

Hinata simply blinked, glancing at both her male teammates... and sighed.

Kurenai interjected, suddenly appearing between them and plucking them both in the head. Shino rubbed his nose, Naruto simply popped out of existence with a loud expulsion of smoke. A few seconds later he jogged back around the corner, smiling.

"I knew you would do that." He said jauntily.

"Well, it's good to see that everyone's lively this morning."

They all looked up at their sensei, she smiled.

"And it's a good thing to, because we have a mission. it's a C-rank. It will require us to leave the village, it should last about a week, maybe longer."

Shino looked impassive, he adjusted his glasses. He remembered all those tedious D-rank missions that they had had imposed on them, those were boring, he was beginning to wonder whether or not he would see anything worthwhile. A C-rank would be a nice change in pace.

Kurenai continued. "A village near our border with Rain has been having some trouble with some animals attack their cattle and even in some cases going after the villagers themselves. Our missions is to guard, track, and eliminate the animals responsible." She tapped her chin. "Think of this as an assassination mission, much like a Jounin would get, only the target is an animal of some kind. Also it'll give us a chance to trial our stealth and teamwork."

She got worried by the way Naruto's eyes twinkled at the thought of killing... and by the way Shino adjusted his glasses. No doubt they were both suppressing the urge.

"Ano, Kurenai-sensei what is the village?" Hinata asked, taking nervous glances once more at her two teammates outright thirst for battle.

"The village is Tomahigiro, a tiny and not very productive village near a river. Naruto I want you to get some maps and hunting gear Hinata you get poisons and... medicine, , and Shino you get a selection of traps. You'll all need to bring camping gear and some food that would be suitable for up to," she looked up, "two weeks in the wild."

They all nodded seriously.

"The area's pretty wet, so we'll be doing some special training once we get there. It's similar to the tree walking exercise that I taught you a couple weeks ago," she indicated Shino and Hinata.

"Water walking?" Naruto sort of clarified.

"Yes, you already know that so this is exclusive for these two."

Hinata seemed a little confused. "I've never heard of walking on water before sensei, exactly how similar is it to tree walking?" Kurenai chuckled.

"You will know once we get there, 'kay?"

Hinata just nodded, her lower lip curled slightly into what Naruto would have defined as a girlish pout. It was cute, but Konoe's was cuter... not that he thought of it in 'that' type of way. He shook his head, Anko had been influencing him a bit too much lately. And he was supposed to be the one probing her mind, maybe it really was the other way around. Before now... he'd never really noticed it but... women were... intriguing beings. Before he payed attention to their more obvious assets; their breast, waist sizes, beauty, their butts, you know... the essentials. But he'd never really taken the time to actually sit and explore the female mind, it wasn't something he'd had never had an interest in, but ever since meeting Anko...well...

Why Ojii-san, why? Why had kept his mind away from the wonders of the female mind for so long...

He thought about it for a minute, he might not have been as strong as he was. Well played Sarutobi, well played.

Kurenai stuck her finger into the air, her red eyes light up, glowing. "Oh and one more thing, you guys might want to prepare yourselves. We don't know what we will see, anything could happen. They say nobody even has an idea as to what the animals are, every incident, the animals or occasional person had been torn to bits. I don't know what type of savage beast could do something, but keep this in mind; what ever it is, it is not tamed. Some of you may get hurt." She loomed over Hinata and Shino darkly.

It was just a joke, but maybe she'd elucidated it too well because Hinata looked as if she was repressing a strong urge to faint at the moment. Kurenai pulled back, her eyes loosing their light and rested her hands on her hips.

"Yosh, now prepare yourself, gather your supplies and... stay calm." She eyed Hinata, who, when the boys weren't looking, nodded slowly.

She was such a good sensei. Now if she could just get Naruto to stop staring at Hinata like that...

Better yet, let him be.

Yup... good sensei.

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I don't really feel like speaking much so I'll be brief.

Many thanks to Nugar, the whole Anbu list thing with Ibiki not being able to break Anko... all him... So thank you.

Thank you all, who helped me get passed my 200 hundred review mark, really appreciate it. Anyway, I just want to say, that this chapter was a little... disappointing in my opinion, it didn't seem compact enough to me, but hey, you be the judge. Hopefully you can get me to at least 235+ reviews. And if you see that I have already gotten past my 235 review mark... please still review. I want to see how far you guys can get me, so I'm counting you guys, shoot me through the sky.

Anyway.

Latr and Thanx

Next chapter: Strategies of the Vanguard

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