"Oh my God!" Sakura whispered, seeing Kenji and her friend Jin return. She rushed over to her son. "I was so worried!" She thought for a moment and smiled. "You threw my clone off your trail."

Kenji sheepishly shrugged, a small smile upon his face.

"I am so proud of you," Sakura said sincerely. "But don't ever do that again, okay?"

Kenji nodded, tears stinging at his eyes. "Okay, okay."

"Not 'okay, okay.' Just 'okay.'"

"Fine, Mom."

"All right, now take a bath and go to bed, okay? It's been a long day."

Kenji gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll be right on it, Mommy." He coughed a bit before walking away. Sakura's eyes narrowed at the coughing, but she figured it was nothing. If anything, the excitement was just causing his condition to flare up a bit, but it wouldn't be anything to worry about. However, he was behaving so well...she expected him to be at least a little upset.

"What did you say to him?' she asked her friend.

Jin simply shrugged. "Just things."

"Sakura, Torino." It was Itachi speaking. Sakura gave him her full attention. "There is something we need to speak about."

"I feel four presences closing in around us," Itachi murmured. "I believe they are Konoha ANBU."

Sakura hit herself in the head. "I forgot to send a report into Naruto. He's worried so he's sending the ANBU after me."

Jin clucked her tongue. "That's strange...I sent him a hawk."

"When?"

"The first time I saw you." The wise woman left out the part about Sasuke, knowing Itachi's interest would be piqued. "That dumbass never replied. Then I sent another one about you, and he still never replied! My hawk came back empty handed."

"Could it have been intercepted?" Sakura asked.

Jin shrugged. "Anything's possible. I wouldn't doubt it. After all, Konoha has the worst security out of all the nations." Sakura sharply exhaled, showing her frustration.

"He most likely sent somebody close to me," Sakura concluded. "Somebody like Ino or Shikamaru..."

"That would make sense. Naruto wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable; after all, he wants to fu-"

"Shut up!" Sakura hissed, a red flush painted over her cheeks and neck. "The best course of action would be for Kenji and me to meet them. I don't think they'd react too well to...um, the rest of you."

Itachi nodded. "I understand. The rest of us shall be in our rooms." He quietly stood and rushed to relay the instructions to the rest of the occupants of the house.

"Jin," Sakura started. "Does Naruto know...?"

"I don't know," Jin curtly replied. The tone in her voice made Sakura suspicious, but she didn't want to pursue it any further at the moment. Jin rose from her position on the floor, unconsciously fingering her weapons holster. "I think I might be in trouble with him anyway." She walked away.

Kenji and Sakura waited at the side entrance of the house. "Do you think they'll hurt us, Mommy? Do you?"

"I don't think so, Kenji. Naruto loves you too much," she said, ruffling her child's hair.

Kenji scoffed. "Mommy, he's only nice to me because he has a crush on you."

Sakura snorted. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, yeah, it is!" Kenji exclaimed. "You know, Uncle Naruto, he..."

He was interrupted by the arrival of four Konoha ANBU. They stood in front of the two, tall and imposing. "Haruno Sakura and Kenji, is that correct?" the one with the hawk mask asked.

"Yes," Sakura answered. "That is correct."

"What is your ID number, Haruno Sakura?" She quickly spouted them off, eyeing the ANBU with a bit of distrust.

The ANBU sighed. "Sakura, we have been so worried about you." Taking off their masks, it was revealed that the four Naruto had sent were Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, and Sai.

Ino let out a sob and practically tackled Sakura and Kenji, holding both of them close to her bosom. Shikamaru scratched the back of his head at the uncomfortable display of affection, and Neji's eyes wandered to everything except the two women. Sai simply stared.

"Is this how women are supposed to act?" he asked. Neither of the other men answered him as they, too, did not know.

Ino planted smooches all over Sakura and Kenji's faces, now almost wet with tears and saliva. "I was so worried!" Ino bellowed, slapping Sakura on the arm. Sakura exclaimed in pain.

"That hurt, you pig."

"Oh, yeah? Billboard brow, you've just gotten weaker," Ino snarled playfully, hitting Sakura lightly again.

Neji cleared his throat. "Why haven't you been sending in reports, Sakura?"

Sakura shook her head. "Things got complicated. I think you need to sit down so I can tell you."

Leading them to the kitchen, they all sat around the table, excluding Sai, who just settled for leaning against the door.

"I was captured by Sasuke."

Ino slammed her fist down on the table. "WHAT?" she screeched, her voice an unnaturally high pitch.

Shikamaru scoffed. "Calm down, woman. Let her finish or things will be troublesome."

Neji agreed. "Please continue, Sakura."

Sakura nodded, having difficulty swallowing. She turned to her son. "Kenji, why don't you go find your Uncle?" Kenji looked defiant and opened his mouth to retort, but Sakura's eyes hardened. "Now," she ordered, and Kenji begrudgingly took his leave.

"Orochimaru wanted to use me to coerce Konoha into a war with Oto," she explained.

"Therefore, he sent Sasuke to find you," Neji finished for her. Sakura gave a curt nod.

Ino's brows furrowed. "He knew you were that close to Naruto."

Shikamaru sighed. "Not surprising. That creep has a lot of miscellaneous information. I have no doubts that he has connections everywhere. Remember Kabuto?"

They all fell silent at the mention of Kabuto's name. Sakura could think of many things to call him, but she decided not to dwell on it at the moment. "Anyway," she started again. "We were with him for a couple of months. It was painful, but we had a chance to get away when a man with an orange mask attacked Sasuke and nearly killed him."

"An orange mask?" asked Sai, his expression as blank as ever.

"Yes," affirmed Sakura. "He was dressed in all black. He was extremely powerful. His chakra levels were...practically impossible for a human being to have." She shuddered at the memory. "There had also been people following us the whole time. Some of them after Kenji, after the Sharingan."

"Does Sasuke know..." Ino started.

"No, I never told him," Sakura said, a scowl on her face. "Kenji, however, does."

Both the men in the room perked up. "He picked up on it, huh?" Shikamaru said, a smile adorning his face.

"Yeah, that kid's gonna outsmart me someday," Sakura laughed.

Neji coughed once, getting them back on subject. "Sakura, whose house is this?"

Sakura's mouth immediately snapped shut, and she bit the inside of her cheek, trying to think of something quick. However, honesty was the best policy, and she knew this. She just didn't want them to act irrationally. If it came down to it, she would protect her family.

"It's Uchiha Itachi's," she replied, blood rushing out of her head, giving her a rather ashen appearance.

Ino gasped loudly, slapping her hand over her mouth. Neji's jaw tightened, but Shikamaru looked unsurprised.

"My prediction was correct, after all," he murmured, somewhat pleased with himself.

"What?" Ino snapped. "How could you not tell us?"

"I just didn't want you to get worked up. It's such a traditional house, and there were a couple of original Uchiha designs on the floorboards."

"Shikamaru, you little-"

"I assume there is more to this than meets the eye," Shikamaru continued. Sakura slowly opened her eyes.

"Yes. Hold on to your pants now." She told them the whole story from start to finish, noticing their faces become more and more white as time went by. Ino looked positively petrified by the end, and Neji looked ill.

"I suspected as much. Well, not completely, but there were always too many holes in the official story."

"I couldn't believe it myself," Sakura muttered. "It all made sense, too. Even Itachi would not be able to kill all those people by himself. It was just..." her voice trailed off, and her muscles tensed in anger. "There is no justifiable reason for genocide. None. Now, Itachi has to protect his family by not having any contact with the outside world. He's a rather peaceful person and quite the family man." Sakura breathed out her sadness and tried to shake out the depressing thoughts in her head. "I need you to keep this a secret from Naruto for a while. Not the Sasuke part, but please keep quiet about Itachi."

Neji frowned. "That's treason."

Sakura quirked a brow. "You've never kept secrets from the Hokage before?"

Shikamaru chuckled. "Everyone has, this is just really big. Too big for Naruto to handle right now, anyway. Even Ino can handle a secret every now and then."

Ino grumbled underneath her breath.

Sakura giggled, but her joy was short lived. She quickly turned to Neji. "Can I count on you?"

The man was silent, clearly going through a perplexing moral dilemma. Finally, he exhaled. "Yes, I will keep this a secret."

Sakura beamed at all of them. "Are you hungry? I can make some tea and dinner."

"Oh, yes please," Ino moaned. "Two days without food, bleh!"

"Quit whining," Shikamaru drawled, putting his head on her shoulder.

"All right, then I'll make food for the four of...where's Sai?" They all looked around the room. He was nowhere to be found. Neji shrugged, seeing as he didn't care for Sai too much.

"He probably had to go to the bathroom," Ino guessed. "He was all fidgety earlier."

Kenji ran silently down the hallway, practicing his stealth. All of a sudden, a figure flashed out of the corner of his eye, and his already poor heart thudded in fear. It turned out only to be Sai, and Kenji sighed in relief. Sai seemed completely preoccupied, which Kenji thought to be strange. Sai was always calm, cool, and collected, yet he didn't take any notice of Kenji. Kenji frowned. Sai was going to visit Auntie Jin. He was standing right outside of her door, muttering to himself. At one point, he even took out a book titled Conversation Starters, and he slapped himself. Finally, he knocked on the door. Kenji wanted to creep closer so he could hear better but decided he didn't want to run the possibilty of getting caught. Auntie Jin would kick his butt.

Jin put her ear to the door. Her face scrunching up in confusion, she realized that it was Sai who was waiting. He must have been one of the ANBU sent to check up on Sakura. Slowly, preparing herself for attack, she opened the door.

"Ah," Sai huffed nervously. "You look very, very different."

"How did you know I was here?" Jin inquired, closing her eyes.

"I sensed you here," he explained, discreetly placing his book in his back pocket.

"What are you doing here?" Jin asked lightly.

"I am here to check on Sakura."

"No," Jin said, shaking her head. "What the fuck are you doing here?" she demanded, shoulders tensing.

Sai froze. "I have information to relay," he finally answered.

"Well, what is it?" Jin replied coolly, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Naruto is planning things," Sai said, his voice steady. "He has discovered that you are buying weapons from many countries. He also seems to suspect who you are." Jin shrugged.

"What does he care?"

"You are buying from Oto, and our intelligence says that Orochimaru is intent on forming an alliance with you."

"I have no desire to form an alliance with Oto. Many of the people from Oto are desperate for a fucking place to live where they don't have to worry about dying every day so they make weapons for me, and we let the refugees in. No other countries are permitting the refugees to come in. We have a shortage of weapons anyway," Jin justified. "Konoha won't sell Kiri any weapons due to a longstanding prejudice."

"Naruto doesn't see it that way."

"Well, Naruto can shove a stick up his ass for all I care. I am trying to bring my country back from the dogs, and if he intends to ruin all my work, I will crush him. Do you understand?" Jin bit out, advancing on Sai. Sai stood there calmly, his expression unreadable.

Jin frowned. "Why are you telling me this?"

Sai's expression was blank, but his eyes were filled with worry. "Taichou, I think Naruto is trying to-"

"Sai!" Ino shrieked. Both their heads turned. "Sakura made us dinner!"

"I am coming, Miss Lovely." Sai faced Jin again. "Taichou, keep yourself safe."

Jin nodded. "Okay. Bye, Sai."

Then Kenji saw the weirdest thing.

He shook his head and told himself it didn't matter.

Little did he know, it did.

Naruto smiled at Hinata. She had been so helpful. She had quickly become his assistant, willingly as well. Who did that? Well, she was kind enough to do so.

However, he had told her to go home that night. He had work to do. Sitting at his desk, he waited for his man to come.

From the shadows appeared the man with the orange, swirled mask.

"Hello, Hokage-sama," he respectfully greeted with a deep voice.

"Hello, Tobi."

Words: 2307

Ooh, what are your predictions?

And yes, Naruto is going to be very twisted in this story, for reasons not yet known.