A/N: Hey everyone, here's earlier update than expected. I'd just like to say thanks to Sakumo and luqie10 for reviewing, I really do appreciate it. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I had a bit trouble writing the beginning part :P.

Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns the characters and story from/of Naruto, I don't. I only own the badly named OC's from this Fanfiction.

Chapter 2: Antics and Infiltration

Outside the Hokage Tower:

"Hinata, I heard you call my name and I tried to reach you, but I couldn't and I'm sorry I failed to reach you. I've kept failing to save people in this war, I am just a failure." said Naruto, hanging his head down in shame.

"Naruto-kun it's alright I was just worried a-about you that's all. Don't blame yourself for something out of your control." replied Hinata, trying to reassure the person who she loved.

"But, it was in my control, if I had just been better Neji and Kakashi sensei wouldn't be dead. I couldn't save Obito either and I almost lost you too." continued Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, Neji and Kakashi sensei wouldn't want you to blame yourselves for what happened. Ultimately they were willing to die to help us win in the war and we have to respect their wishes." said Hinata, "And you are not a failure! You managed to defeat the enemy freeing us all from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, you can't say you are anything but a hero Naruto-kun."

"Hinata," Naruto responded, before engulfing Hinata in a hug. "Thank you, you are always there for me when I need someone."

Hinata sporting a blush hugged Naruto back, "You're w-welcome Naruto-kun."

Naruto, breaking the hug, then realized he was not wearing 'ninja attire'. "Gah! How am I supposed to go on a mission without my signature orange clothing!" he exclaimed, yet again back to his usual antics.

Hinata giggled in response, before Naruto sported a grin, "Hinata, I'll see you at the gates later, I need to find some 'hero' worthy clothes! Thanks again for everything!" he said before running off, leaving Hinata to go prepare herself for the mission whilst still sporting a soft blush from the hug.

Hidden Leaf Village Shopping District:

"Hmm, I wonder if I can find something like my usual outfit," Naruto muttered to himself gazing through the glass panels featuring the popular outfits for each store. "AH!" Naruto shouted, as he spotted his famous outfit in one of the panels, before walking into the store only to see just about everyone in the store trying it on.

"EHHH!" he exclaimed, how in the world did his outfit become so famous, in fact, who did these people think they were wearing his outfit.

"Hey look it's the Hero of the Leaf!" a random shopper exclaimed. In seconds Naruto was completely swamped by shoppers, desperate to get autographs, his opinion on clothes, and many other pointless things.

Eventually once Naruto escaped that nightmare of a store, he resolved to get a new outfit, something more awesome. He couldn't help but think of anything cooler than his dad's outfit, but unfortunately he couldn't settle for that considering he was not Hokage yet. Naruto entered a less crowded store and asked the shop owner if he had anything that he might be interested in (basically anything orange).

The shopkeeper took Naruto's dimensions and quickly prepared an outfit for him. The aforementioned outfit consisted of a short-sleeved haori similar to the one worn by the Fourth Hokage except orange with black waves at the bottom instead of flames and it ended slightly below his waist. Underneath the Haori was a plain black t-shirt and the outfit also came with black track pants with a orange stripe going down each side of the outfit. Naruto surprisingly took a liking to it despite the fact that it had much less orange then his previous two outfits and purchased the outfit.

Konoha Gate approximately 2 hours since the meeting with Tsunade:

Sakura and Hinata were already at the gate engaging in some talk about medical ninjutsu with Sakura showing Hinata some tips and techniques to use. The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Sai at the scene, "Ugly, Weird-eyes, are you both prepared for the mission?" Sai asked with a smile.

"Sai, how many times do I have to tell you not to use rude nicknames!" Sakura yelled while raising her fist at him.

"Sorry, I haven't really gotten a chance to improve on my nicknaming recently." Sai responded, still keeping his smile.

A moment later Naruto landed next to the three, wearing his new outfit. "Hey Hinata, Sakura-chan, Sai lets go complete this S-rank!" he exclaimed.

Sai observing Naruto's new clothing stated "Ah, I see you have a new outfit, " Sai paused for a second to think of a less 'rude' nickname before finishing with, "Possibly dickless over-eccentric ex-orange clad ninja."

Naruto twitched at the 'nickname' for a second before Sakura commented, "Sai, no nickname would be that long and it's still a rude nickname." Sai nodded in acknowledgement. "Anyways, the approximate location of the missing-nin group's base is about one and a half days of travel time so there is no sense in idling around here."

"Hai," acknowledged Hinata.

The team headed out of the leaf village and started to travel towards their destination at Sakura's pace. After travelling for a few minutes, Naruto realized that he could use his sage of six paths/bijuu mode and fly everyone to the location, so he notified the group to stop.

"Sakura-chan, let me use my bijuu mode to fly us to the base, it would be a lot quicker than if we went on foot," Naruto suggested.

"If you are in good enough condition Naruto, go ahead, just don't make it too difficult on yourself." Sakura replied.

"Yeah, don't worry!" said Naruto before trying to access his bijuu cloak, only for nothing to happen. Naruto tried again, but it was no use, his bijuu cloak wouldn't activate. "For some reason I can't use my bijuu-mode, let me check what's going on with the bijuus."

'Hey Kurama, are you there! For some reason I can't seem to be able to use my bijuu cloak, in fact I can't even talk to the other bijuu! What's going on?' Naruto asked in his mind.

"Kit… some … reason… can't… connect… chakra… Kaguya… seal… damaged… Fixing… wait… now… other… bijuu… free." Kurama sort of responded in Naruto's mind, the connection with Naruto's seal obviously being damaged.

"It seems that my seal got damaged by Kaguya or something, so I guess until Kurama fixes it, I can't use my sage of six paths mode. Apparently something happened to the other bijuu, could someone explain?" Naruto asked.

"The bijuu were released after we won the war, so I think they are just roaming the world freely?" Sakura answered.

"Hmm, I guess since they have their own form back they can't communicate directly or something. I'll ask Kurama once he fixes the seal, but I guess we'll just have to get there on foot." said Naruto.

Sakura nodded and the team continued on their journey. Sakura lead the group with Naruto and Hinata behind her and Sai flanking the group. Hinata turned to address Naruto, "Naruto-kun I like your new outfit, it looks good on you." her stutter having significantly reduced due to all the contact with Naruto as of late.

"Thanks Hinata, turns out a lot of people liked my old outfit, so I thought I'd get a new one, I like being unique after all!" replied Naruto, sporting a foxy grin.

"Naruto, are you two a couple?" asked Sai out of the blue, having created that assumption from the hand-holding incident during the war and the fact that they were engaged in conversation side-by-side.

"Eh! Hi-Hinata and me a couple? Sai where did you get that from? Not that I would mind it, I mean I wouldn't mind it, I mean-" answered Naruto flabbergasted by Sai's statement.

Meanwhile Hinata's mind was just thinking the same thing over and over 'Naruto-kun and I, a couple?' while her face gradually grew more and more red to the point where she just straight up fainted, not quite being able to handle the idea as easily as she thought she could.

"Hinata!" Naruto shouted as she fell from the tree she was jumping from. Naruto leapt from a branch and caught her mid-air bridal style before landing on the ground.

Sai stopped and gave a questionable stare at Hinata before being smashed in the face by a fist from the pink-haired team leader. "Sai, you bastard! You made Hinata faint!" shouted Sakura as the chakra-enhanced fist blasted Sai into a tree(well actually through a tree) and then another, and another.

"Naruto is Hinata alright?" Sakura asked from the tree she just punched Sai on.

"Yeah, I think so." Naruto responded, staring at the Hyuga heiress. 'She looks pretty cute when she sleeps' he thought, 'GAH! Stupid Sai putting thoughts in my mind, I definitely like her as a friend, she is a really good friend, but that's all right? Well maybe I like her a bit, I don't know!' Naruto finished thinking, mentally grabbing his head and shaking it in frustration.

"Naruto can you carry Hinata? We have a long way to go until we reach the base and I want to make good progress before the sun goes down." Sakura stated.

"Sure thing Sakura-chan." Naruto responded, jumping back up to a tree, while still carrying Hinata bridal style.

Sai recovered from his 'little' injury and started following the group as they continued to make their way towards their destination, with similar antics occurring for the rest of the journey.

South-West of Takigakure, a little over a day later:

"Alright, the base is supposed to be located somewhere around here, they probably hid it within a genjutsu." Sakura stated, "Hinata, can you use your byakugan to try and pinpoint the location?"

"Of course Sakura-san," Hinata replied, while activating her clans technique and scanning multiple kilometers in each direction for strange chakra disruption, before finding the base. "The base is located 2 kilometers south from this location." she stated.

The team followed Hinata's directions and paused a few hundred meters from the genjutsu, which disguised the base as a large rock formation. "I suspect that at the very least they would have a few guards outside the base including the genjutsu user. Once we get closer, I suspect Naruto should be able to sense the locations of each guard, so we can each take down a guard quickly and silently then infiltrate the base." said Sakura. The team listening to their leader moved in closer before Naruto signalled everyone to stop.

"Once we get inside the border of the genjutsu, there should be one guard positioned directly ahead, one to the right and two to the left, approximately 100 meters, 300 meters and 200 meters respectively." Naruto stated.

"Alright, Naruto since you are the fastest, take out the closest one quickly, Sai can handle the furthest one, while Hinata and I will handle the two on the left, one of them is probably the genjutsu user." Sakura commanded, before giving Naruto the signal to initiate the attack.

Naruto burst forward, before the genin-level missing-nin could even see him he was need in the stomach causing him to lose his breath, before being given a swift chop to the back of his neck knocking him out.

Sai used his ink jutsu to summon two dogs to restrain his target before knocking him out with a strike to the back of his head.

Sakura and Hinata ran to engage their targets, one of them sitting while casting a genjutsu, while the other one being a sensory nin, sensed their presence, but unfortunately too late as he was knocked out with a swift jyuken strike. The genjutsu user attempted to retaliate, but was restrained by Sakura before being jyuken striked like her colleague.

The team reformed at the front entrance of the base, being revealed to be a tunnel leading into the ground, carrying their respective guards. The team silently understood what to do with the guards as they brought them into the nearby forest and tied them to a tree. After returning to the base they decided to leave a shadow clone on watch in case any other missing-nins came back to the base, as they would likely notice the genjutsu was gone.

Without hesitating, the team entered the base, the easiest part of the mission being completed. The team now had to tackle infiltration without being detected by the numerous missing-nin hidden within the base. Upon first entering the base, they noticed that the entrance hallway branched off into many intersecting hallways, making the base a complex maze to navigate. Before attempting to navigate the halls, the team stopped at the first intersection to decide a plan.

"Naruto, how many missing-nin are currently in this base that you can sense?" Sakura asked.

Naruto replied, "Approximately 70 missing-nin are here, though I only sense 7 with jonin-level chakra pools, two of them holding larger amounts, but I can't directly tell from this distance. 3 of them are positioned together while the other 4 are positioned randomly throughout this place."

Sai said, "I would assume one of the two with larger amounts of chakra would be the leader?"

"Naruto where are the two missing-nin with larger chakra pools?" Sakura asked.

"They seem to be together with another jonin-level quite a bit below us." Naruto stated.

"Hinata, can you find us a way down there?" asked Sakura.

"Yes, it would seem that there is a stairwell on the other side of the base. It seems to lead to the bottom floor, where I can see a large room which contains quite a few missing-nin." Hinata replied.

"Alright Hinata take the lead and try to find us a route to the stairwell without encountering any missing-nin." Sakura commanded.

Hinata nodded and stepped to the front of the group before heading down the corridor to the right, followed by the rest of her team. The quartet of ninja navigated their way through the top floor of the base without any encounters with enemy missing-nin. However, while descending the stairwell Naruto quickly knocked out a chunin level missing-nin who was on their way up the stairwell, before the group continued down to the bottom floor of the base.

After reaching the bottom floor of the base, where the room containing the leader could be found, the group headed down the main corridor before they paused at the corner of the first branch in the hall. "Hinata, can you tell me how many people are in the room and their locations?" Sakura asked.

"There are three missing-nin standing on a raised platform at the far end on the room addressing 12 other missing-nin. There are also two guards blocking entrance to the room." responded Hinata.

"Naruto, can you give me an idea of how strong the other 12 ninja are?" Sakura asked.

"There seems to be 4 chunin level and 8 genin level along with the 3 jonin." Naruto answered.

"I can see why this would be considered S-rank, taking on that many missing-nin at one time will not be easy." Sakura stated.

"I could easily take them all on!" scoffed Naruto, before earning a light bonk on his head by Sakura.

"Baka, don't shout, you'll alert the guards. I think the best tactic would be to have Naruto and his clones take out the lower level nin, so that we can take on the leader and the other 2 jonin." explained Sakura. "Naruto, since you are the fastest, can you take out the two guards and Sai can you restrain them using his ink snakes?"

"Yeah, sure thing Sakura-chan" replied Naruto, while Sai nodded.

Sakura gave them a signal and Naruto burst down the hall, kicking one of the guards across the face knocking him out, before giving the other one a swift uppercut. He then proceeded to bring them back down the hall, where Sai bound them with his ink snakes. The group then proceeded to assemble next to the double doors leading into the room, with Sakura indicating for the group to wait.

"Come in!" shouted a voice from within the room, "We've been expecting you."

Sakura's eyes widened, having believed that they had infiltrated the base undetected.

"What should we do Sakura-san?" Hinata asked.

"There is no use waiting outside since they know we are here, just remember this is a capture mission, not a killing mission, we have to capture the leader once we identify him." Sakura instructed, before preparing to open the door.

"Hurry up!" shouted the same voice, "I don't like to wait on intruders in my base."

Sakura punched the door open only to be greeted by twelve missing-nin with assorted kunai and shuriken facing towards her and her team.

Across the room which was slightly larger than the arena used for the preliminary fights in the chunin exams stood three missing-nin. The missing-nin on the left was a tall and bulky bald man probably in his late thirties, who wore black anbu armor and had a dissatisfied look on his face. The middle of the three was also tall in stature, but was much lankier than the aforementioned missing-nin and seemed to be in his early thirties. He had brown hair which had the same gravity defying power and style of Kakashi's except it was slightly shorter and he wore a black haori with a golden trim over a standard anbu chest armor. He stood slightly ahead of the other two ninja on the raised platform and had a smirk on his face. Finally, on the right stood Yakekoge, who was a few inches shorter than the man in the middle. The looseness of Yakekoge's kimono made it hard to identify his/her gender, but they seemed to be quite young, probably in his/her early 20s.

"Did you think that we really wouldn't sense you strolling into our base?" the middle-man asked in a cockiesh tone, "My man Nagare here," he nodded to his right signifying the bulkier man, "is a top notch body guard and sensory nin."

"Now I've rambled enough, I can't help but notice a certain Naruto Uzumaki is amongst those Konoha nin, whoever brings me him, whether dead or alive gets 40% commission on the bounty." the man finished, before whistling to indicate the start of the fight.

A/N: I couldn't help but notice that almost every fanfiction I read seems to include evil cliff-hangers, so I thought I'd put one in (although it's probably not as evil as I think). Anyways, we'll be seeing our first real battle next chapter, hopefully I can write a good battle scene. So let me know what you guys thought of the chapter and see you next time! (I'll probably post a chapter somewhere between 2-9 days from now, I'm kind of inconsistent with deadlines)