~~Authors Note~~

Sorry for the delay, I keep my profile up to date the best I can so if you guys are curious about what's going on I usually post it on there, such as what I'm working on or for any reasons for delays. My excuse this time is simple, I moved. I am starting a new chapter in my life and it's a very rocky start, not getting enough money for internet so I'm utilizing the library to access what I need. That also means that everything I do is going to be more limited so bear with me, I plan to have the internet soon… hopefully.

Now on to the story and to escape reality. :)

Chapter 3

It was a nice cool night, the air was moist and the sounds of nature going through all night. Most were asleep in the town that lies on the lake, but there were two who were awake and energized. They were making their way through the town as discreetly as they could, staying to the shadows so no one could see them.

Their mission was to scout out and observe the forces of Lake-town, the guards themselves were not necessarily bad, it was who controlled them that were the problem. The Master of Lake-town was their main concern: what he would do when things started to get serious and what they could do to make sure that no matter what happened the causalities of the innocent would be lessened. No matter where Naruto ended up, he hated needless death, no matter friend or foe.

Back to the task at hand, he was memorizing the routes of the town, mentally taking notes of guard rotations and best evacuation routes. They also need to note who are going to be the most willing to work with them and help them prepare this town for anything while trying not to show himself to any of the leaders in this land, having no one know about his organization has been the best thing for operations and he was going to try and keep it that way.

Even though he read the reports from Kionwin about the town already, he was not one to learn things by reading and so to get the best layout of the situation he decided to do a patrol. The guards seemed like they could care less what went on, as long as they got paid to feed their families, which Naruto won't hold against them, even makes his job easier.

He went to the weapons storage and discreetly got it open, inspecting the weapons showed that they weren't the best that could be used but sharp enough to survive a good fight. Next off was the Master of Lake-town's office, he knew that the Master was no good as a ruler, but he wanted to see how bad it actually was.

When he got there, he made sure that all the curtains were shut, and unsealed a small lantern for some light along with a couple scrolls. He then started going through the paperwork he could find, trying to find anything he could use. After a few minutes he was mostly disappointed, the Master himself didn't keep that many records, only records that would benefit himself such as orders of personal shipments - mainly luxury items and expensive food.

Other than that it was mainly laws that benefited the Master, making sure the people had enough to live but he basically took all the rest in tax and other methods. It was something that Naruto hated in his very bones but was something he would always try to fix in humanity, you don't have to be greedy to find happiness, in fact that was a fast track to the opposite effect for when your greedy you push away true happiness, your friends, and family around you.

He left the office more determined to get his plans in motion before trouble started to come to town, for when things start to look dire the Master would sell his citizens lives for his own, and leave them to die. He nodded to Kionwin on the way back to their hideout. Kionwin had a different mission, he was to find people that would help make sure the town was ready while not trying to make it look like a coup d'état, which might actually end up happening if worst came to worst.

Naruto made it to the base first and was already writing on the map of Lake-town they had on a table. The line he was making was through one of the main paths towards Dale. "The best evacuation routes would be towards Dale, it provides shelter and is close enough to the town. The only problem I see with this plan is that it's going to be right next to the action if something were to happen, what do you think?" he said looking up at Kionwin.

After a few seconds, Kionwin replied "It seems like the best we can do, and I believe that the people of Lake-town would not have idle hands if their town were destroyed and armies were to show at their doorstep. As one of them, I believe that we would probably make a temporary alliance that would try and benefit us in the long run, that is if the Master doesn't have control of things when this happens."

"Trust me, I believe that once things do start happening the people will not allow the Master to make their decisions, he will show his greedy self for all to see trying to save his life and fortune. That should be enough to dissuade the citizens from him, all I care about is trying to limit the casualties but we can do some things to help before the crisis starts. How many trained men do we have in this town?" Naruto asked as he moved to the wall where a map of Middle-earth was hung, showing all of his organization's bases.

"I have 10 men and 5 women in the town, and they trade duties bi-weekly, most of them has a family makes it less suspicious and less dangerous" Kionwin replied, explaining why the roles were bi-weekly.

"OK, so if the town does decide to participate in the conflict we have the guards and our own people, but I still don't feel comforted by this, I hope you don't mind but I'm going to insert more forces in your town. Specifically, our female members, knowing the men in these lands they will leave the children and women while they fight thus making them defenseless if they were to be attacked."

"That's fine with me, the more backup we have the more secure I feel about the lives that live here. I will tell our people to spread word that they have family coming to visit for a while, and we'll make it look as less suspicious as possible" Kionwin replied.

"Perfect, I didn't want it to make it seem like I was taking over your town, and I don't really understand why in this land the men don't allow the women to fight, in my experience they could be the most dangerous of fighters" Naruto said while writing out orders to send to other bases and getting flashbacks to a pink haired teammate that could destroy mountains with a punch or knock him out when he did his famous Sexy no Jutsu.

With his orders filled out he started heading for the pigeon coop, once he got there he saw Gaenry getting a scroll off of a pigeon and reading it. The person was human like everyone at this base, almost Naruto's height so shorter than most people, and like Naruto relied on lean muscles more than bulky muscles. He had short messy brown hair and brown eyes, which helped with his laid back attitude everyone in this base seemed to have (he suspected that might have to do with Kionwin but won't say anything). "Ah, perfect timing Esgalwathon, we just got word from our team shadowing the company. They seem to have gone around Rivendell and let the party go through, they didn't want to risk being spotted."

"That's fine, send a reply that tells them to follow up to the mountains and send us a message when they do, we mainly just to make sure they don't get into too much trouble and make sure our plans can meet their timetable." Naruto then handed Gaenry his scrolls which had names of the bases that they needed to go to, code names, of course, didn't want the locations of his bases being exposed so easily. "Send these out too, we need to get prepared as fast as we can."

Naruto then turned to Kionwin "Once reinforcements come have a few stay here, we need to make sure this base is operational 24/7. Like I said, it's going to be the busiest place in Middle-Earth for a while. I will most likely go to the mountains to pick up on the companies' trail and on the plus side, it's been a long time since I pranked Elves" Naruto ended with a foxy grin.

After a while of waiting for reinforcements to come, Naruto couldn't stand just waiting anymore. He tried, really tried to be patient but he has always been one for movement, he couldn't just sit in one spot and wait, especially if he knew he could be doing something else. So he told Kionwin that he would watch the company personally when the pass the mountains, and started to head out that direction.

Knowing that the company would be taking to the Mirkwood forests for it would take far too long to go around, which means that they would have to try and pass the elves. That meant he would have someone who would greatly appreciate any pranks that he could do to said Elves because the company is mainly made up of dwarves, while also giving him a chance to test his new design in chakra infused paint pellets. These pellets are only "new" in the sense that he had to create it using this world's recipes, but it would still be a great test to see if the paint will withstand frantic scrubbing elves.

Once he made sure he had everything sealed and packed he started to head out once more, going more westward. He also decides to move along the river instead of on, might not want to freak too many people out and that would be counterproductive.

Traversing in what was basically his natural habitat, giant trees, he made it to the mountains within a couple of days using the branches. Once or twice he ran through a few webs by accident, darn spiders, taking over more of the forest than he remembered the last time he was here. He did have time to leave his present for the elves. He hopes the elves appreciate it, their place is now an amazing work of art and they'll probably love it as much as ANBU did back home.

Once he made it to the base of the mountain he looked up in time to see one of his organization's messenger birds fly towards Lake-town. That means that he got here the same time that the company of dwarves made it to the other side of the mountain, which also means that the shadowing team won't be following them anymore. Hopefully, they won't get themselves into too much trouble with no one watching them. He mainly just hopes that he is able to see them once they come out. For now, though he can do nothing but wait, wait to see if the company got themselves in trouble (he knows that the goblins reside in these mountains, so it isn't that hard), to see if they all made it, to see how the company works as a group. Man, he hates just waiting.

It was only a day that he had to wait, the night held the thunderous battle of the mountains (yes, he knew it wasn't just a thunderstorm, he even tried talking to them before… not a very talkative bunch), he heard the cheers and whoops of dwarves throughout the forest. He was off by a little bit but a few seconds of tree hopping got him close to the company and judging by how they are celebrating, they must have dealt with the goblins.

As soon Naruto noticed that the company was one short it seemed like the gray wizard figured out too, for he was yelling throughout the company asking where their bugler was. It was right after the dwarf's rant about how their hobbit ran off that Naruto saw said hobbit appear at a base of a tree in front of him.

Now Naruto wasn't always the most attentive, but since the war, he takes pride in noticing details that most people wouldn't and if the Hobbit would have been hiding at the base of the tree the whole time, he would have noticed, especially since it was right in front of him.

So that means two things, either the Hobbit teleported or he was invisible. Looking closely at the hobbit he saw him put something small and shiny in his pocket, so it wasn't the hobbit's ability alone and that also means an object of power. Naruto knows that, especially back home, objects of power were the most sought after by thieves because the people who wanted them wanted to cheat to be the best instead of working to get there. He made a mental note to make sure his organization kept an eye on this object.

Instinctively once Naruto figured out it was an object his chakra reached out to it, trying to sense what it could. As soon as it touched the ring it flooded back straight to Naruto. He had to catch himself from falling off the branch because the feedback he got, the power in that object felt as if corrupt, evil chakra.

In the time for Naruto to freak out at the sudden appearance, analyze the Hobbit, and real from the feedback the object gave was just enough time for the hobbit to step forward towards the company. It was perfect timing for Naruto because the feedback flared his chakra, which wouldn't have been too big of a problem if there wasn't a wizard with the group. Luckily for Naruto when the wizard looked his direction, the hobbit was what he fixed on first and his curiosity had been forgotten, at least for the moment.

In all of his worry over the object and then the wizard, Naruto did not notice that in his mindscape two red eyes snapped open in the darkness.

~~Authors Note~~

Again so sorry for the delay, but getting into a new habit (such as writing) is a rocky road and trying to submit things without the internet while real life worries keep making itself known makes that road a lot rougher. Thank you all for your patients and I hope you like my story, I try to limit myself from going on too much of a tangent, and while trying to get Naruto to slowly but surely change things in this universe (Snowball/butterfly effect kind of feel I'm trying for, so might feel a bit slow at the beginning).

I will try to make a habit to make sure that I have a time scheduled to write stories, either every day or every other day so that I can get my chapters' longer and better quality, along with updating more often.

Also no need to say sorry when giving me advice, it might feel like your judging me, but as long as you do it nicely (constructive) I welcome it. I know I'm not perfect so any advice/constructive criticism are more than welcome, thank you for reviewing. I read your review after I typed half of this chapter (you also might be the reason why it is now longer, and I'll try to make the rest of my chapters longer yet) and hope I added the character description smoothly.

I hope more people will review!

Tell me what you think, what you liked, what you didn't like, critique me (constructive criticism always welcome), and now that I have my plot figured out - guess what's going to happen (when someone guessed and I had somewhat of an idea of where I was going and it didn't match, it through me off a bit but I'm back on track because it was an interesting direction but you'll see where I take you guys if you stay with me). I want to hear your guys' thoughts, see your guys' imagination at work and maybe just throw you for a loop.