I did say I'd publish this tomorrow... Book 2 opens slow, but heats up quick.

Weaseldale: You sir, know how to review. Expressing that much opinion in so few sentences is a skill this site is seriously lacking. Hopefully, Book 2 will be more your speed.

GlitterVan: I'm glad you enjoyed the first book! Focus will be shifting away from Haku and Zabuza, but their story isn't finished quite yet. It's going to be a while, but we'll see them again. (Hopefully in better shape)

And without further stalling, welcome to...

BOOK TWO: TEAM 7

Tsunade was, in more ways than one, a cursed woman. Up until recently, she wore the cursed necklace that belonged to her grandfather, Hashirama Senju, also known as the first Hokage. She had the misfortune of losing both her brother and the love of her life before reaching the age of 30, and she was known throughout the ninja world as the Legendary Sucker. Needless to say, this foul luck stuck with her even when she had finally managed to understand the secret to dealing with the ungodly amounts of paperwork that waited for her every day.

For a mind such as hers, it wasn't difficult to realize that the job would be easier with the assistance of shadow clones...however, said clones were decidedly uncooperative. The one time she made the mistake of leaving them to sift through the paperwork of the day, the lot had pilfered her entire stash, as well as amassing a 4.5 million ryo debt over an entire day of gambling. After cleverly throwing around some of the Hokage's power, she had managed to cover up the loss, but the fact remained that she couldn't trust her own clones to deal with the monster that is bureaucracy.

She sighed, spinning her chair in order to see her village. The Hokage's office had by far the best view of the village save for the monument itself. Just gazing on the village she had vowed to protect and nurture would calm her down, reminding her of the reason she even bothered. She turned back to her desk for a moment, reaching for the active mission ledger. She skipped past the D and C-Rank sections, turning immediately to the B-Rank section. Her eyes stopped upon reaching the blonde brat's team.

Team 7 was currently on a B-Rank protection and escort mission in the Land of Tea, securing the contestant of the land's annual race. Their jonin sensei, Kakashi Hatake, was busy with a search and destroy A-Rank, organized in response to Jiraya's report of one of Orochimaru's hidden bases being found in the Land of Fields. For some reason Tsunade had a bad feeling when she sent the lot of them on the mission, she just couldn't place it. Still, the mission needed doing, and the team, while still somewhat inexperienced, were more than able to handle it. Not like they'd run into Zabuza again.

Speaking of Zabuza, Tsunade was honestly surprised when she received a letter from the newly instated Mizukage, a powerful kunoichi by the name of Mei Terumi, telling her that the aggressive regime of the Land of Water was toppled, and that they were now actively looking for diplomatic partners. Cleverly enough, she also expressed understanding if none of the other Kage trust her, given that she hails from the village of the Bloody Mist. Personally, Tsunade felt like she could work together with such a woman, but that was a bridge they were yet to cross. Right now...

She sighed once more, turning her attention to the table full of paperwork once more. Just as she did so, her right hand woman, Shizune, walked into the room with a fresh stack of late-night documents in her arms and a cute little pig on her heels. The dark-haired assistant silently gave her a reassuring look, then dropped the stack onto the desk with a loud thud. Still not making a sound, she sat behind the side desk, beginning to work through a stack of her own, a duplicate of the Hokage's seal inches away from her hands.

"Shizune, you're unusually quiet," Stated the Hokage flatly. While her assistant was known to go mute whenever she lost her temper, Tsunade wasn't nearly as ticked off to warrant such behavior, so something else had to be afoot.

The raven-haired kunoichi looked up, shooting an apologetic smile. "Oh, it's nothing serious, Tsunade-sama, I was just thinking about something! Don't pay me no mind!" She blabbered out before burying her nose deep into the stack in front of her, attempting to hide.

"Alright, I'll bite. What is it?"While she was tired, Tsunade wasn't nervous. If her assistant kept acting like this, though, she would be.

Shizune looked up again, sighing in defeat. "I was thinking about lord Third's safe. It's been months, and you still didn't open it. Perhaps there are personal items there that we should return to the Sarutobi clan." Her eyes drifted off to the opposite side of the room where, in a corner, stood a small safe.

Tsunade looked at her, then at the safe, following it up with a shrug. Truth be told, she had simply forgotten about the thing. With her luck, she'll find the collector's edition of Jiraya's book series. Not that she'd mind; that set is notoriously hard to come by. Having a set to sell off to a rich perv would be good insurance next time the urge to gamble gets the best of her.

And honestly, she'd have to skim through a few pages, if only to see why Kakashi always has one on him.

She slowly stood up, sidestepping the table with a shinobi's grace before making her way to the opposite corner. Shizune paused her work to watch as her sensei opens the safe that was her secret obsession ever since the office became her permanent station. Staring into the dial, Tsunade remembered something very important. She didn't know the code. With a shrug, she simply tore the door off of the safe, getting Shizune to yelp in surprise. Tonton looked only mildly curious.

"Smoking set...spare hat...Icha Icha, standard set," she frowned, her idea of an easy payday squashed by her legendary ill luck, "a bottle of sake? And...Huh?" Tsunade lost interest in the apparently very expensive bottle upon noticing the stack of handwritten notes tucked away carelessly to the side.

"What's this? Sensei wasn't one to keep notes out in the open like this..." she mused as she took the notes and sat on one of the many chairs available for when more people visit the office. A couple of the notes were worthless, reminders to go get groceries or to pay Naruto's rent, among other things, but the rest piqued her curiosity.

Ideas, some of which seemed almost unbelievable to come from her sensei. One was to once again up the standards in the academy in order to boost the quality of ninja, even if it meant taking flak from the civilian members of the council. Honestly, Tsunade had no clue why her grandfather even bothered including civilian members; while she respected them as people, they were wholly incapable of realizing what was good for the ninja village on a larger scale.

By now, Shizune had taken to the seat next to her sensei, peeking over and trying to make out the old man's overly flamboyant handwriting. Tsunade kept going, finding another idea she liked; getting Jiraya to hold regular fuinjutsu classes to genin. Fuinjutsu as an art had all but died with the extinction of the Uzumaki clan, leaving very few practitioners of the art. The occasional shinobi would prove gifted, but they would either kill themselves by getting overeager, or they simply refused to share the knowledge they had. Jiraya himself only ever contributed by writing the fuinjutsu books that were part of standard curriculum in the academy up until the civilian council (big surprise) requested for it to be removed on the grounds of being a 'dead' art.

She wouldn't mind forcing her old teammate to sit through classes with small, loud genin with stars in their eyes. It'd do good for both Jiraya and the genin. She chuckled upon imagining him chasing around after Naruto on the back of a toad, the latter having managed to botch his class in some way.

"Oh, this one looks interesting!' Shizune pointed out, completely forgetting the fact that she was supposed to be stealthy. Tsunade shot her a death glare, sending the traumatized woman back to her desk and the pile of paperwork on it. Yet, now that she took a look at it, she had to admit that it was indeed curious.

"4-man squads..." It was an idea that was toyed with in the past, but after the second kage summit, it was made shinobi standard to have 3-man squads, a fourth member added only when it was a genin team. Hiruzen-sensei's reasoning for trying out a few experimental missions was that shinobi worked best in pairs, leaving one member of the team without anyone to have his or her back. Somewhere among the many reasons he came up with (one being an increased shot of said team having a medic on it), there was a point that suggested that having less teams would be compensated by the fact that the remaining teams would work safer and faster due to the additional member.

"Shizune, what's your opinion on this?" Tsunade looked up, locking eyes with her assistant, "It's an idea to use 4-man squads instead of the usual 3."

The kunoichi thought about the question, apparently coming to a conclusion. "I think it's worth a shot. If we borrowed Guy's team, we could split the latest generation of genin into such squads."

"Guy's team? Why them?" Tsunade asked, still unaware of the bonds between the Konoha genin.

"Well, they get along well with this generation's genin. Several times did I spot them socializing when running errands through the village." Offered the dark-haired woman sheepishly. "I thought you knew, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade crossed her arms. "Apparently not." Letting the annoyance roll over her, she kept going through her late sensei's notes, the last idea classifying itself as serious in her mind. It was worth a shot, and the village, while a bit pressured, could afford such a gamble. If it worked out, she'd be able to get the village back to the pre-invasion regime a lot sooner than predicted.

"Wait a minute..." the last note was not an idea, but a direct message to her, from Sarutobi himself. It spoke of Shimura Danzo, the man who held the Uchiha vote on the council, and implied that the man was running a secret division of ANBU for his own purposes. By the Third's assessment, the warhawk recruited and broke promising genin on a fixed timetable, always managing to cover it up. The old man apparently knew of such a division's existence, but couldn't bring himself to incarcerate and execute his old friend without solid evidence that those 'Root' ANBU actually did something against Konoha law.

"Oh, this is going to be a headache..." She muttered, three jonin and an ANBU immediately coming to mind. She'd have those individuals track and destroy any of those 'Root' bases, much like Orochimaru's. Danzo couldn't protest, since what he was doing was illegal, and if he tried to counterattack, she'd be ready and waiting for the opportunity to take him out. Her sensei's last note was quite long, easily overtaking all the rest in length. The old man really did regret some of his decisions: Danzo, Naruto, the Uchiha... But she knew that he tried to do the right thing. Running a village was no easy task, it was a small miracle he managed to take care of Naruto as well as he did. If she was Hokage at the time, the poor boy would be driven to running from the village by the ignorant villagers before she'd get around to protecting him...

That brings up the question of Naruto. While he's not yet of age, the information that he is the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox would clear up so much for the boy, and the fact that his father was the Yondaime Hokage would strike him even more. But those truths had consequences, and she wasn't sure if she was the one who should reveal them to him... Tsunade clutched her head, then noticed yet another note, rolling her eyes.

"Scold Kakashi Hatake on his performance as team leader? That makes no sense..." She looked up from the note, catching the eyes of her assistant. "Shizune, check the mission record for the current Team 7."

The woman did as she was told, quickly finding the folder in question. She flipped through a couple of pages before finding the official mission log. "So far, their performance was spotless, despite the occasional rank upgrade. No serious injuries to the team, and high amount of targets captured alive for interrogation. I'd say they're going places."

Tsunade let out a low growl as she tried to piece together the point of her sensei's note. Where exactly did Kakashi fail? As far as she knew, his team was one of the most efficient genin squads Konoha has... Shaking her head, the Hokage stashed the notes away, took the bottle she had seemingly forgotten about, and quickly made a cross sign, willing a trio of shadow clones to life.

"Alright! We're about to do some paperwork!" She said, sounding unusually enthusiastic. Shizune watched on in mild horror, not sure why her sensei had suddenly lost her mind.

Truth was, dealing with paperwork was way, way easier than worrying about Danzo, Naruto, Team 7 and whatnot...

Sakura wasn't very thrilled with how the mission had gone. Sure, they did manage to protect Idate, taking out the Ame team and Rokusho Aoi, a low-class missing ninja who stole the second Hokage's sword, but both Naruto and Sasuke had managed to get themselves beaten down or exhausted, forcing her to drag them, the tied up Aoi, as well as the scroll in which they sealed the second's sword to the boat where Ibiki was waiting for them.

Those boys and their stupid need to constantly outdo each other. She was terrified upon hearing about the two S-Rank ninja that attacked her teammates, and the fact that the two couldn't stop fighting and bickering since had only served to further worry her. She wanted to do something to hold them together, but nothing seemed to get through their thick skulls.

She spared a glance at Ibiki, who, while quiet for the most part, threw almost hungry looks at the missing-nin Team 7 had caught. The man wasn't any less scary than he was back at the exams, and she had little doubt that he knew just how much he unnerved her. Sick bastard probably thinks being disturbing is part of the job... then again, it probably is.

Giving an exasperated sigh, the girl threw her head into the water, not minding the cold in the least. Ibiki only gave her a curious glance before shifting his attention back to pedaling. If the genin wanted to drown herself, he wasn't going to stop her... but he would take her cut for the mission. Then again, this was Kakashi's team, so the tricky jonin probably already set up several contingencies to get his team's money whatever happened. After a couple of minutes, she sprang back up, breathing as if she didn't do anything at all.

"You got good lungs for a genin, kid." Muttered the head of Konoha's T&I, an ever so mild look of surprise on his face. He knew of jonin who couldn't handle getting dunked that long.

"Eh? Thanks?" Sakura really wasn't sure how to react to the sudden compliment. She liked diving, and did so every opportunity she got. In fact, one of the sole reasons she passed the physical aptitude tests for making genin was due to her aptitude in water. Part of her wondered if that meant she had water chakra by nature.

Another few minutes passed in relative silence. For a man who was best known for his skill in interrogation, Ibiki Morino really knew how to handle his boat. To him, the assignment he was given was surprisingly rewarding. Sure, a special jonin shouldn't usually be on genin retrieval duty, but the circumstances allowed him not only to see his brother again, but to see the next poor bloke he'll be using to test out some of the new 'gadgets' he built into his torture chamber. Who better to test it out on then some lowlife missing-nin?

He threw a glance at the two near-comatose boys. They probably made the same mistake so many genin their age make- they kept trying to outdo one another. While rivalry had its benefits, on missions it was little more than a liability.

"Those two...they don't really like each other very much, do they?" Began the interrogator, intent on getting his point across.

"Well..." Sakura trailed off. How was she supposed to explain their behavior? Sasuke wanted to defeat their enemy, but then Naruto provoked him into making a mistake, then they both tried to attack at once, not cooperating in the slightest...

"Exactly," finished the special jonin, "it's their refusal to work together that got them in the state they're in right now, right?"

The genin only nodded her head, looking away in shame as if it was her fault somehow.

"So, which one do you think is stronger of the two?"

She immediately livened up at the question. "Sasuke-kun! He's the strongest!"

Ibiki saw it fit to splash the clueless genin using his paddle. He watched, amused, as the girl stared at him with a shocked expression on her face.

"There's your problem. You can't play favorites in a ninja team. Your teammates are going to have your back, just like you'll have to watch theirs. If you keep picking one over the other, you're not cut out for that headband, genin."

"B-But..."

"I couldn't care less, in fact, I'd be glad to have a malfunctioning team off the roster," he began, having long since turned back to the murky waters ahead of them, "But if you want to help your team out, you need to realize that you're all in it together. I don't care if you like emo over blondie, they're both your teammates, and you need to be able to trust both with your life."

Sakura was silent. While she'd never admit it, both Sasuke and Naruto had saved her life. In the forest of death, with Orochimaru, and later on, when Gaara lost control to his demon. Her teammates risked their lives to protect her, Naruto even going so far to take on a monster that could've easily leveled the entire village. She knew better than to think he did it only for her, the village was on the line as well, and Naruto really wanted to reach out to the sand genin, but still...

"I...I guess you're right. I wasn't a very good teammate..." She offered weakly, bowing her head in defeat.

The interrogator smirked, "At least you know how to admit when you're wrong. After a big mission, take a moment to appreciate what you and your teammates have done. If you ever make chunin, you'll soon figure out that no one's going to go out of their way to thank you for doing your duty."

He sighed.

"People need motivation. Motivation to act, to fight, to speak. Physical pain is one form of motivation, emotional pain is another. You need to find something to make everything worth the time and effort. Otherwise...just turn in the headband and live happily as a registered civilian."

The girl didn't say anything. Ibiki kept rowing.

"Alright, you're all here." Tsunade said with a tired look in her eye, motioning for her ANBU to leave from their posts atop the office. She couldn't risk one of them being Root-ANBU.

In front of her stood a collection of jonin, one of which was currently wearing a mask. "Tenzo, lose the mask. For the duration of this assignment, you are no longer an operative of the black ops division."

The ANBU did as he was told, putting the mask away in one of his many secret pockets, revealing his mild-yet-menacing expression to the rest in the room. The other masked ninja cocked an eyebrow upon recognizing his old colleague, but said nothing.

Tsunade stood up, walking around her desk and then promptly sitting atop it. She crossed her arms, looking over the room one more time and activating the standard privacy seals Jiraya had updated the last time he was in the village.

"I've chosen you four for a specific S-Ranked mission. You are to work on it during downtime between regular missions you do with your genin teams." She looked over at the two jonin to her right, giving a short smirk. "You two work full-time, since you don't have to worry about genin teams."

The taller man wearing the fashionable green spandex suit looked on in curiosity, deciding to be the first one to ask a question. "Lady Hokage, if I may ask, for which reason did you pick the four of us? What kind of mission needs our specific skillsets?"

Tsunade turned to face the man, still smirking. Might Guy was known to be eccentric to the max, but he was one of the two elite jonin Konoha had at its' disposal, the second being his 'eternal rival' of course. While he would often go on long-winded rants about the flames of youth, the man was an absolute savage in combat, easily able to take on even her in a straight up taijutsu fight. Besides, aside from her and Kakashi, no one really bothered to take him seriously, since not many saw him fight in the last war.

"Easy, Guy, all in due time. But I guess I should tell you the why of this little get-together."

Another round of arched brows, but no questions. These men were jonin for a reason.

"There is a secret and very illegal branch of ANBU within Konoha. I have reason to believe that Danzo Shimura, one of the village elders, is the man who is running this organization," she paused, expecting some kind of reaction. All she got was a surprised look from the Sarutobi, "I don't know if this faction's interests are aligned with Konoha's or Danzo's own, and that's the reason I need you four to look into it."

The four men exchanged brief looks, quickly returning their attention to the sannin. She turned to the man furthest to the left.

"Kakashi, along with Guy, you're this village's top jonin. A man with your experience in both tracking and covert ops shouldn't have too much trouble chasing down what few leads I've managed to find. It's going to be your job to find their bases."

The silver-haired jonin nodded, but said nothing in response.

"Guy. While you are fairly specialized for a jonin, you are nonetheless a superbly capable shinobi. With your abilities, you are by far the best choice for neutralizing the enemy personnel."

She got a few odd looks, then understood what they're about. "Yes, until we gather enough evidence to the contrary, those men are to be considered enemy shinobi operating on our territory. You are to bring them in for interrogation."

With a sigh, the Hokage carried on. "Asuma. Given your family, you are the best man for trying to approach Danzo directly. Do your best to keep tabs on him, and be ready to act as reinforcements for any of the others."

Finally, she turned to the recently unmasked ANBU. "Tenzo... I'm taking you off the books for this one. You're going to go by the name of Yamato, and will be operating independently from the others. I will personally assign you a mission with the aim of provoking a reaction from Danzo, making it easier to pick up on some of his activities."

The man nodded, narrowing his eyes only slightly.

Tsunade walked back around her desk, opening one of the many drawers. From it, she produced four keys, handing one each to the four present jonin. "These keys open the wartime deposit boxes in the tower's basement. While the room is usually locked during peacetime, I personally saw to it that the door is unlocked. Security measures have already been applied, preventing anyone other than you from accessing the area."

She paused, remembering the final bit of her briefing. "If you need anything, be it ryo, equipment or information, leave requests in the drawer of the table in the far right corner of the basement. I'll check up on it once every week and do my best to meet your requests."

"Also, if you find anything, you are not to act unless you are spotted. We want to have the best shot at figuring out what their game is. Any questions?"

All four men shook their heads.

"Alright. Dismissed. Kakashi, you stay here."

Three of the jonin shunshinned away, leaving a puff of smoke or a swirl of leaves where their bodies were, Kakashi just starting at the vacant spots with a look of mild boredom.

"Something you need, Hokage-sama?" The copy-nin began in a flat tone.

Tsunade took her seat, interlocking her fingers as she often did when she needed to deal with a stressful situation. How was she supposed to tell her best operative that he sucked as a teacher? The academy reports all claimed that team 7 had unbelievable potential, and she herself saw Naruto's will and determination as a shinobi. Still, post mission reports shown minimal progress with the team, as well as abysmal team dynamics.

"It's about your team, Kakashi," Spoke the Hokage, a tired look bleeding into her countenance. This was going to be a very uncomfortable discussion...

"What about them? I think they're doing fine."

"They just got back from their mission. Both Naruto and Sasuke got themselves hurt because they couldn't control themselves. The last one did nothing to help them." She wasn't very proud about not being able to remember the kunoichi's name, but she was the Hokage after all, and the amount of names that passed her eyes on a daily basis was ridiculous.

"I'm sure that they'll heal quickly. After all, they're both stubborn boys."

"That's the problem. They can't be boys anymore, Kakashi. They're genin now, shinobi of the hidden Leaf. I can't, in good conscience, let you keep giving them free passes. They need to learn to work together, or soon enough, one of them is going to do something really, really bad."

It was one of her fears... the boy that got her to come back to the village could very well lose control over the demon sealed within him, simply because he wanted to outdo his Uchiha teammate. Such as scenario would be devastating to the leaf. She believed that Naruto was strong enough to keep it in check, but the biju were feared for a reason, and no matter how strong the boy's will, he was still only 13 years old.

"Lady Hokage, do you want to tell me that I should be more serious about their training?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Is there anything else?"

Tsunade shook her head, mildly disturbed with the jonin's lack of a strong reaction.

"In that case, I need to ask one thing of you, Hokage-sama."

"Shoot."

And he asked.

"Very well."

"Thank you."

He then shunshinned away.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Next update by the end of the month or after 7 reviews.