I DON'T OWN NARUTO

It's been a year and a half since Naruto's entrance into ANBU and the blond shinobi has taken to his assignment like a fish to water. While Kakashi had done an excellent job training him, the truth of the ANBU is that you simply cannot be prepared for what they do to new recruits by design. Whatever your level may be they simply go beyond it so you do not get complacent. The training and the missions are hard but Naruto has never felt more powerful, every skill has improved. This is not to say that the entire time there has been smooth, his first assassination mission did not go off as cleanly as one would hope

"Gama, you will be paired with Same for this mission. We believe one of our brokers is leaking information to Iwa, we've had an increasing number of skirmishes with their shinobi and the pattern lead us to him. The order is to remove him but it cannot look like an assassination."

"Hai, Tora-taicho. When and where should I carry this out" Gama asked, trying to hide his nervousness.

"The target is paranoid and has a security system that makes his house nearly impenetrable without notice. However, it only activates at night given how sensitive and cumbersome it is and has a timed release for the morning. You'll need to sneak in before nightfall, carry out your mission and wait until dawn to slip out unnoticed." Tora said.

"Does the target live alone?" asked Same.

"No, he has a wife and three kids but she takes the children on an annual trip around this time every year, that's when you'll strike. If there are no further questions I want you two to leave immediately".

"Hai" both subordinates said.

It took three days of travel to get to the town in Earth Country and just like Tora said, the wife had taken the kids. Gama found an accessible entry point, it being unseasonably warm made their target keep a window open. A simple henge and Gama snuck through the window with no problem and stowed away in a cellar. Shortly after gaining entrance the target left, returning almost an hour later with an unforeseen complication. Apparently, the target had or was continuing to have an affair, one that produced a child. That child was currently in the residence. A sense of dread overcame Gama as he debated whether he should continue the mission or put it off for later. Each option carried risks but if this man was supplying Iwa with information on our missions, therefore movement of our forces, a delay could result in fatalities among Leaf nin. Steeling himself, Gama continued to wait until 3AM when he created a shadow clone and snuck into the targets room. That shadow clone immediately blurred the hand signs for a privacy seal while the original Gama put a paralysis seal on the target. Reaching into his waistband Gama pulled out a syringe filled with potassium chloride. Forcibly opening the target's mouth, Gama injected the poison under the targets tongue.

The effect was near instantaneous as the target eyes became wide but the paralysis seal prevented him from moving. Not even a minute later the target was dead from heart failure. Given the man's age and size, no one should ask too many questions and given the potential scandal of his lovechild, the focus may be on elsewhere. Just as Gama dispersed his clone and dropped the privacy seal he heard footsteps coming down the hall. Quickly entering the bedroom closet, Gama waited for the child to enter the room, praying he would just go to the bathroom.

"Dad, I had bad dream, can I sleep in here?" The child asked.

"Dad?" the child said as he shook his father.

"Dad!" he said a little more desperately as the man continued to be unresponsive.

"Dad, wake up! Please!" He screamed as the child broke down. He pleaded with his father to awake, hoping this an elaborate prank or if not, he'd be granted a miracle Gama assumed but neither of those happened. What made it worse was that the kid, likely not a frequent visitor, didn't know how to deactivate the security in case of emergency so was locked in a house with his dead father and his father's murderer. Around six am the security system disabled for the morning and the kid ran out of the house toward the neighbor's. Gama took this opportunity to leave and meet up with Same.

After a few days of traveling in mostly silence Same asked Gama, "Why didn't you just send in a shadow clone?".

"Shadow clones can only do what the original can do. I didn't know if I could kill a civilian like that so sending a shadow clone was too big a risk given they can think for themselves and choose not to follow my directives."

Nothing more was said until they arrived back into Konoha. It took a few days and a lot of talking with Tsunade to get Naruto out of his funk. The talked helped with the nightmares he was having.

Because the two were often paired up on their mission, Naruto became closer to Same than his other squad members; which is saying something because the squad as a whole were pretty close. This is the team dynamic Naruto wished he had while on team 7 but it was nice to have it now. Naruto helped Same with his ninjutsu and Same taught Naruto kenjutsu with a katana. While he'd likely always prefer his dual kodaichi, he was never one to turn down training. Besides, it made his mom incredibly happy.

"Aww, my sochi is finally learning to fight with a proper blade. Once you get adept at the basics, maybe I can show you a few katas, ne?" Kushina said as she stroked Naruto's hair as his head lay in her lap.

"I'd like that, although I think my dual kodaichi are proper blades. They seem to cut through everything I need them to."

"Pfft! Why have two blades when one can do? Katanas rule all, dattabane!" Naruto could only snicker in response and nod in agreement. If it made her happy, he'd learn as much about wielding a katana as he could.

His time in the ANBU was not without lose as a mission in Rice Country saw Same fall to one of Orochimaru's former followers. Due to his fall, Oto had been in disarray and ANBU teams were tasked with handling the most dangerous elements there. It had been a routine mission with the squad until they had to separate, there were four large chakra signatures in the area. Same and Gama got stuck with two with interesting and lethal kekkai genkai, one had shoton the other shikotsumyaku. Both were a bad matchup for Same but seeing as how the bone guy looked sickly, it was decided Gama would take the crystal girl and hurry back to him as fast as he could.

The fight between Gama and the shoton user lasted longer than he would have liked as the crystals offered powerful offensive and defensive options, managing to wound Gama with a crystal spike. However he managed to catch her off guard with a wind empowered exploding kunai. While he wasn't enough to kill her, the blast threw her back and left her unprepared for the kunai that was sunk into her skull to the ring on the handle, killing her instantly. As Gama raced off to help Same he saw his comrade and friend being run through with a bone sword as the bone user appeared to have an advance form of the curse seal. Trying to keep calm, Gama created four kage bunshin and each charged toward his final opponent. One clone removed Same from the vicinity of the fight while the others went on the attack. Even with wind chakra coating their blades, the cuts didn't do significant damage to the Oto nin which was fine, the attack was just a misdirection anyway. The Oto nin didn't notice the three kunai surrounding him in a triangular fashion nor was he fast enough to escape the fire barrier, the same barrier Gama used in his entrance test. Gama could tell the bone user looked smug and it was all confirmed when he spoke,

"You can trap me little ANBU but the barrier will eventually fall and when it does I'll kill you like I did your comrade. You'll…"

He didn't finish his diatribe as he was engulfed in white hot flames, flames hot enough to melt steel or incinerate a body. Had this been six months previous, the now pile of ashes may have had a reason to be confident. But not being satisfied with just making a barrier, Naruto improved his technique so each elemental barrier offered a form of attack. Wind barriers offered a perfect vacuum in which to suffocate those entrapped. The lightning barrier could shock someone with increasing levels of intensity and the fire barrier would burn someone alive. It was cold comfort, however, as even avenging his friend did little to dull the pain of having lost him. The trip back to Konoha was quiet for the squad as they mourned the fallen. It was, once again, Tsunade who helped Naruto through his grief as she had experienced what not mourning properly could do to a person.

Speaking of Tsunade, Naruto still lived at the Senju compound with her and Shizune. The investigation into the fire was completed shortly after he was inducted into ANBU; the duration caused by the thoroughness of the investigation. While Naruto was incredulous that the fire was caused by faulty wiring, the fact that the fire started on a level below his gave credence to the results. Deciding not to let his history override facts, he accepted the fire as an unfortunate accident off a poorly maintained building. One that got the building manager and owner into some serious trouble over. Tsunade is scary when she wants to be.

Her ability to invoke terror is how she managed to make Naruto promise he'd have dinner with her at least twice a week if he were in town. When he initially moved into the compound, he attempted to stay out of Tsunade and Shizune's way which lead to some faulty assumptions; namely, that he wasn't comfortable around them.

After an awkward conversation, Naruto admitted that he had lived alone for so long he simply didn't know how to live with someone else or be a proper guest so he just tried to be as out of the way as possible. The two ladies reassured Naruto that he was more than just a guest and should think of the compound as his home. It took awhile but they all eventually settled into a nice groove. Naruto particularly loved the training grounds, they were serene and it was a remote one where he was trying to take his doton and suiton manipulation to the next level after seeing the level Tora-taicho was at the releases. It took a few months, mainly because he simply couldn't use his clones for this, but he eventually able to perfect the Earth Style: Rampart of Flowing Soil and the Water Style: Waterfall Basin Jutsu to the point he was able to create a thirty foot waterfall with only minimal chakra exhaustion. With some help from Tora-taicho, adding a wooden water wheel and Jiraiya aiding in seals, Naruto was not only able to keep the waterfall a secret but make it a permanent part of the property. Both Tsunade and Shizune loved surprise.

Naruto had taken to climbing up the waterfall with his hands as a chakra control exercise once he got used to running up it. He eventually asked Tsunade for some more strenuous exercises as the intensity of the ANBU training and his continued studies in fuinjutsu, politics of elemental nations and anything else that struck his fancy meant his already massive chakra reserves were continuing to expand so he had to perform hard and hard control exercises to keep up.

Speaking of Jiraiya, the two have adopted something of a strained, yet professional, relationship. Jiraiya offers his input on Naruto's fuinjutsu projects and spars when he's in town. He also introduced Naruto to Fukasaku-sama, one of the elder toads Naruto will be training with in year three. The two got along well enough, apparently as long as you mind your manners the old toad isn't so bad.

Naruto's training time with Danzo had been limited the first year, not only getting adjusted to the demands of the ANBU lifestyle but Danzo wanted to see how Naruto would develop without his guidance. He was impressed that his young pupil had not only sought to master every jutsu in his arsenal but had begun experimenting with creating his own. This lead to something of an uncomfortable meeting about three months ago on the Senju training grounds.

"Sensei, what is the Sandaime doing here?"

"Naruto, for your ninjutsu studies to progress as far as they can you need training from the greatest ninjutsu mind in the elemental nations and Hiruzen has graciously offered to help. You may have reservations but please know you are going to accept his help, like an adult, or I'll cane you and won't help you learn the vacuum release nor request Tsunade-hime let you see the Nidaime's notes on his suiton jutsu."

"Aw, c'mon, Sensei!"

"No complaining!"

"Fine! I'll gladly accept your help, Sandaime-sensei."

"Good, my boy. First, I need to see what you can do so we'll have a spar." Hiruzen said with a gleam in his eyes.

The "spar" was really more of a beating with Naruto wasting chakra in between. The old man didn't even seem to be trying, which made Naruto revert back to some of his younger behavior.

"Oi! You could at least pretend to breathe hard, Jiji. Mean old Hokages, picking on teenagers!"

Hiruzen had to fight back his smile as Naruto continued to rant and rave. Time under Danzo or even Naruto's own attempts can only suppress the Uzumaki temper so much.

Since Hiruzen begun helping Naruto become a master of Ninjutsu there had been a slow thaw between the two and while Naruto may never trust him like he did as a child he hoped the boy could forgive an old fool before he departed for the pure world.

Naruto had also begun to establish better relationships with much of his graduating class and Team Gai, with two exceptions. While Naruto had already started to develop a friendship with team 10 due to his training with Asuma sensei, he also found a great sparring partner in Lee during his off days with the ANBU. Him and Shino still got along well, though it took them some time to navigate the Hinata issue since neither wanted to betray her privacy but Naruto still wanted to know she was doing ok.

Speaking of Hinata, she had made chunin shortly after Naruto entered the ANBU and while he couldn't have direct contact with her, sneaking into the Hyuuga compound and her room to leave her a gift; a necklace with a star shaped charm with sapphire and amethyst gems in it. He also left her a scroll on creativing privacy seals with just hand signs. He had the brightest smile when he saw her wearing her gift at the dinner the senseis threw for the new chunins. He hadn't seen much of her but he was aware she was being pushed to start accepting dates from potential suitors.

As much as it hurt, he realized that this was going to happen. She requested he not wait for her and it appeared she wouldn't have the choice to wait for him and while he wasn't dating anyone he wasn't exactly alone which brings us to the present.

"I really wish you wouldn't sneak out the window like we're doing something wrong or shameful."

"I know we aren't, it's just weird, being in my idol's house and ya know."

"I don't, why don't you explain it to me." Naruto said, fighting off a smirk.

"Ugh, you're insufferable. It's weird having sex with my best friend in my idol's house, ok? Is that what you want to hear?"

"I heard what I wanted to hear last night. A whole lot of yes, oh, and my name so I'm good."

"You're a bastard." Tenten said, now fighting off her own smirk and a bit of blush.

"That may be, Ten-chan, that may be but this bastard managed to snag you an awesome birthday present."

"Oh, really?"

"Of course, it's in that black rimmed scroll on the desk but that's only part of it."

Reaching for the storage scroll, Tenten unseals the content and is initially rendered speechless. Rushing over to Naruto she plants a kiss on his lips and proceeds to thank him. "H-how did you get these?"

"It was during a mission about a month or so ago. We were tasked with removing this element in a mining town, and Raiga was there."

"You have to tell me about it."

"There really isn't much to tell, it wasn't much of fight. I had to seal off the chakra of this kid he was working with though. Anyway, after we dealt with him and freed the town the squad agreed to let me keep the swords to gift to a friend and here we are. You, Tenten, are the proud owners of the Kiba blades."

"You sure do know how to spoil a girl, Uzumaki."

"I do what I do."

"I think I'm going to be late for training today." Tenten said as she starts to undress

"Oh my"