Naruto was having a rather bad day. It had even started off badly. He tsked to himself as he substituted with a log to avoid a flaming dragon that would have crushed him, remembering just how this day had gone all wrong.

~Break~

Naruto was having a fairly pleasant dream, rather than the nightmares that usually ravaged his slumbering body. He wasn't too sure of the details, more of a pleasant general sensation. He was rather rudely woken by an explosion.

Naruto rolled up off the ground, ninjato already drawn and senbon in his left hand, dream closed off in his mind. He took in the many things around him with golden eyes, seeing the Root members he had been camping with fighting off an attack from some unknown force.

He only had a moments warning before one was on him, the man's katana swinging at his neck in an attempt to take his life. Naruto ducked the blow, the force behind it causing the man to stumble, allowing Naruto to remove the offending arm holding the katana with his unnaturally sharp ninjato. The man had no time to even scream before a chakra charged senbon broke his neck, killing him instantly.

Naruto let loose the breath he had been holding, moving as he had learned over the past month to kill, rather than injure as he had previously preferred. He took down several distracted shinobi, their lack of minding their surroundings turning out to be their downfall as neck after neck was snapped by his earth charged senbon.

Two men approached him, moving at mid ANBU speed, making Naruto thankful he no longer wore weights while on missions. The two worked in perfect tandem, the kunai held in their hands proving to be a deadly threat.

One went high and the other low, both kunai out for blood. Unable to block both, Naruto gave ground, jumping back and throwing the last of his handful of senbon to give him a moment to breath. That proved to be unsuccessful, as the two dodged the senbon and clashed with him, Naruto managing to block the two kunai with an arm guard.

Naruto smiled maliciously, even as the two began to move back, knowing that they were in trouble. Their guts spilled on the ground, the putrid smell causing most of the fights to pause for a moment as the shinobi took a moment to readjust, that moment proving fatal for several Root members and Unknowns alike.

He flipped his ninjato into a reverse grip, raising it just in time to block a slash from above. What he didn't see were the talons that struck his shoulder, drawing blood and sending him tumbling to the ground. He continued the movement, rolling back and using his ninjato to catch another blow, keeping him on one knee as someone else's knee slammed into his face, most likely breaking his nose.

He kept himself steady this time, using a pulse of chakra to explode upwards and knock the man attacking him back, stumbling backward, blade still ready to catch any attack. Naruto took the moment to regain his footing and analyze his newest opponent.

The man was of average height, the standard "secret force" non-descriptive thing, hair most likely dyed brown, blank ANBU mask, and a katana in his hand. The only odd thing about him was the fact that he was standing next to a large hawk, about shoulder height to him, and the Hawk was glaring at the blond. Naruto narrowed his eyes underneath his own mask, realizing that the man had a summons. He was dangerous.

The man moved, vanishing from even Naruto's advanced eyes, the only warning that he was gone was a gust of wind as the hawk took to the air, flying up and hovering over the fight. Naruto knew that the creature would take any opportunity to attack him.

Naruto was cut from his thoughts by a foot breaking one of his ribs, sending him flying. His eyes met the other man's, and the man seemed to smirk before vanishing again. A wind bullet flew at Naruto from the hawk, and only a timed substitution prevented it from smashing him to bits like it did the log. As soon as he recovered, he saw a massive, fiery dragon coming down on him. 'This is turning into a bad day.'

~End Flashback~

The man and the hawk watched the conflagration caused by their combination jutsu with no small amount of pride, the arrogance that seemed to affect many shinobi affecting them both as they watched what was left of the boy they had been fighting burn to nothing. The brown haired man turned away, but the hawk remained, something tickling the edges of his senses. If hawks could frown, this one would have been, as it was obvious that it was displeased. It came to the answer about the same time the problem it was trying to solve resolved itself, causing quite a bit of chaos.

Senbon flew towards the hawk, which was blown away with only a wing, but that left the creature open to a new attack, one it hadn't expected. "Soru!" An invisible thing blurred past the hawk, and a moment later the hawk felt the wound. Its eyes widened with shock and a little respect, as only the very fastest could avoid a hawk's eyes. The summoned hawk cracked a grin, wondering if it had found a new, skilled summoner before it dispelled from the injury. The hawks in general had been disappointed in the group of summoners they had been serving for a while, despite the man being the most recent and the last. It hoped that if they gained a new summoner, this one would actually take the time to listen to them. The hawks had so much to teach a summoner, provided the shinobi in question actually wanted to be a shinobi rather than a glorified samurai.

The man turned around, seeing an image that would frighten many lesser men. A huge fire flickered in the background, casting the front of the boy in shadow. Formerly black clothing was stained red with blood, the blank white mask now decorated with the crimson spray. The boy's Haori fluttered in the winds caused by the fire, his ninjato shining in the light. A pair of golden eyes glared at him; making him feel as if he were one of the mice his summons loved to prey upon. Even though he was unable to see it, the man was sure that a predatory grin adorned the face of the boy. Blond hair was no longer the sun-kissed hair the others had seen earlier, as the boy had taken the opportunity gained by the genjutsu to end several more attackers, resulting in him having crimson highlights.

His breath caught in his throat as he realized his speed technique was no longer usable, as he was only able to use it when a hawk was helping him out. Seeing as he had never been much of a Shinobi, relying instead on the abilities of his summons, he realized he was screwed.

Fear now taking him, he stumbled backward, much to the unspoken disgust of Naruto. He stuttered out apologies, pulling out a large scroll and offering it to him, begging to be spared. Naruto wondered what his village was thinking when they sent him out to attack.

Naruto used another Soru, refusing to allow the man time to figure out a way to trap him, slashing through him, the man's torso rejoining his legs on the ground after a few seconds. A little confused at the scroll, he picked it up, noticing as he did so that the fights were mostly over, with Root having won thanks to Naruto's multiple kills balancing the forces. It was then Naruto realized just what this scroll was, a summoning scroll for the Hawk clan. He frowned as he pondered whether or not to use it, as each summon clan held benefits and negatives.

He was jerked from his thoughts by a harsh demand by the commanding ninja for him to report. He snapped to attention and, in his usual emotionless tone, gave a brief and factual report. The Root member nodded, before motioning over a medic and ordering him to finish healing the blonde's ribs, and after that was finished Naruto was ordered to help out with the recovery effort.

Naruto reflected on the past month and a half as he cleaned up the campsite, ridding the bodies of anything of use and then burning them. He had spent the time in near constant battle, and his Tai, gen, and kenjutsu had greatly improved, out of pure necessity, because otherwise he would have died.

Danzo had helped him with his jutsu for three days before sending him out, and that had saved his life several times. In between missions and battles he had been taught a lot of things, not the least of which was the most effective way to fight. Before, he had wasted energy despite his efforts, but a large amount of experience allowed him to move with a grace that even trained dancers had trouble achieving.

He had also learned the real reason Danzo had kept Root active despite the Sandaime's efforts. As it turned out, every village had their own version of Root. These groups were kept secret from the main village forces, and were used to take the darker missions that the Villages could not accept because it would be bad for the image. They were the epitome of a shinobi, using stealth and deception to carry out their tasks, which was part of why the hawk summoner didn't fit. If you joined this team, you were strong enough to fight with or without a summons, and there was no way a coward could get in.

A little bit of history flowed through his mind, remembering one of Danzo's lectures.

~Break~

"The Five Great Shinobi villages are in a constant state of shadow warfare. Of course, anyone who paid attention during the academy knows this, but most of the "shinobi" in Konoha outside of my organization or ANBU or on the council are unaware of just how deep it goes.

In the light of day, the side of the villages that the clients see, Konoha is a well respected village that cannot do wrong, full of legendary shinobi and beautiful sights. Even then, the light side of Konoha is working for its own benefit. Every single shinobi in Konoha is taught to fight, but more importantly to look good doing it. Most things you know about Konoha are a lie, used only for the shadow war for superiority.

The Kage Monument? It's a reminder that Konoha has produced four of the strongest Shinobi in history, and the fact that they are larger than life makes a subtle impression on everyone who sees them as they unconsciously place them above the other village leaders. The Third's grandfather façade is used only to make potential clients more comfortable and to make them feel safer. All of the civilians in the village are used to project the image of peace and prosperity, even if the latter is true.

All of the flashy jutsu are used by Konoha to impress the clients, so that they keep coming back after the first mission. Genin especially are useful in this, as from a civilian's point of view when a child can call on massive fireballs or other elemental attacks, what can the elites do?

Once the standard shinobi reaches chunin the real training begins. Every time a Konoha genin becomes a chunin they undergo six months of intense training to make up for the fact that their academy years were pretty much wasted. The other villages believe that there genin are stronger than ours, well, it's true. We focus on teaching them flashy techniques and skills that, while looking pretty, are of no real value because they don't know how to use them. It is usually the jonin that do most of the work while the client is distracted by jutsus.

However, our chunin are above and beyond all but their elite chunin, because the entire time a shinobi is a chunin they are in harsh training and gaining experience, making sure that our eventual jonin are above and beyond all of the other villages. That is why we are the strongest village, in the light.

The darkness however is my territory, the place I have held since the end of the first Shinobi world war. The shinobi under my command return to the way of the ninja, and are trained to the point where even our famous Hatake Kakashi would have a great deal of trouble fighting my elite chunin, and even then he only stands a chance of winning because he was an ANBU.

Root, and the other organizations like it, are in constant war. This is where Konoha truly makes its name as the strongest village, because despite Root's lack of numbers we are far stronger than the others. The shadow shinobi are responsible for everything that need a real shinobi, and as stated, we are secret and in the shadow. We are the supporting Roots of the Leaf, the reason the village has not fallen to ruin.

Every serious incident that is well known in our history is shadowed by our accomplishments. We won the wars for Konoha, we keep Konoha from being overrun by the superior numbers of our enemies. There is so much that Root does for Konoha that it would take me months to explain it all, and I will only do that if you wind up joining.

Back to the point, Root is in a constant state of war. We are fighting the forces of all four of the other villages, and there are no allies in the shadows, and even if two forces team up both sides must be ready for betrayal. To be completely honest with you, despite the usual warfare the fronts have been oddly quiet of late. I expected that things were merely settling down and would pick back up soon, but I was ill-prepared for just how much it picked up.

Even though the chunin exams are months away, forces are moving to help the light side of the respective villages by assassinating promising genin. In fact, we have prevented seven assassination attempts on your team alone. Because of the rising tensions, the warfare had greatly increased, and Root is being pushed back.

You are the Jinchurriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and despite any personal opinions on your part you are a powerful force. In addition to that, I have been watching you for years, and I know just how skilled you are. You can hide from the best sensors in my force, and that stealth will help you to kill many of those against Konoha.

Ever since Sarutobi disbanded Root Konoha has been at a major disadvantage when compared to the other villages, and it has only gotten worse as time goes by."

~Break~

Naruto finally finished the mindless cleaning, but came upon a nasty surprise when he came upon the dead body of the hawk summoner. It was not the man he killed; instead it was one of his unnamed companions. 'I knew it was too good to be true! No one in this business is that much of a coward!' He reported it to the commander, and was told to forget about it, as he was being cycled out soon.

Naruto intended to confront Danzo on a few things that were not adding up, like why the Third had originally disbanded Root, but he was currently satisfied with his skill set. He had gained a grace to his movements that had been lacking before, and his entire method of fighting had been honed and refined.

AN: Presentation day, after today I should be able to update as often as I had been.