Sasuke Uchiha leaped from branch to branch as he led Team 7 back to the gates of Konoha. Not far behind him was Naruto and Sakura, and a bit more removed from them was Kakashi. Ever since Kakashi had delegated the task of team-leader to a rotating one among his students, he'd taken a step back from their missions, only intervening in excessively dangerous or particularly bizarre situations. Now after 6 months of operating like this it was finally time to receive his promotion. Not that he particularly cared about the title itself, he had realized back during the original round of promotions that the title of chunin meant little to his actual skill as a shinobi. What it did do was give him higher access to more difficult missions, and that was valuable to him. They finally arrived at the gates of Konoha, and when Kotetsu and Izumo were done making sure they weren't imposters, they were back within the walls of Konoha.

It was then that Kakashi turned to all of them, "I'm going to go on ahead. You two, if you have some sort of urgent matters, I suggest you tend to them now, it's going to be a longer affair than last time around. Arrive within the next 45 minutes. Also, Naruto you're to be present as well, and do not let one of your shadow clones attend in your place today. In fact I suggest you dispel any active ones, and make sure you enter through the alternate entrance separate from Sasuke and Sakura."

Naruto puffed his chest out and stood up straight, bringing his arm up into a salute, "Sir yes sir," he replied comically as Kakashi left them to their devices.

"That was weird, it was nothing like that when Naruto got promoted." Sakura said.

"They've never been like this about any type of meeting we've had with the Hokage, what about you Naruto, you don't seem concerned." Sasuke said.

"Last week after our mission, Kakashi told Shikamaru and I to expect something soon. Sounded pretty serious from his tone, but I dunno anything about it really. Anyways, it sounds like they want to keep it under wraps so I guess I'll see you guys then." and he left his two teammates alone by the gate entrance.

Sakura frowned, "What's this all about?"

"Not entirely sure, but it probably has something to do with why they've been keeping us all together," he said.

"I suppose, as genin we shouldn't even be allowed on missions with other teams, but they've been mixing us all up, even training with Team 10 isn't normal, it breaks Konoha's 4 man cell training structure," she replied.

"They're gonna assign us something big, I can feel it."


Shikamaru was not one for theatrics, but when Asuma had told him to take the alternate entrance to Hokage tower, he guessed it wasn't for no reason. With great care he slithered through the streets of Konoha, slipping from shadow to shadow, he finally materialized in front of Naruto and Shino.

"Oi Shika, you scared the shit out of me," Naruto said in an aggressive whisper.

"Neither of you were seen, right?" Shikamaru asked them.

Naruto performed a transformation into a little boy, "Only I was seen wandering into the woods that happen to be by Hokage tower," he replied in a squeaky voice before he undid the technique.

"Perfect," Shikamaru replied, "What about you Shino?"

"I don't think anyone would notice either way," he said. Shikamaru and Naruto looked at him and then at each other awkwardly.

"Sorry about that, but yes I made my presence as scarce as possible when coming here."

"The ANBU guard told me he'd let us in eventually." Naruto told them.

"Speak of the devil," Shikamaru replied as the door opened and the aforementioned guard let them in. They walked through a dimly lit tunnel until they finally arrived at Jiraiya's office where they were met with the sight of all of their comrades, and also their parents.

"What's this?" Shikamaru asked as he locked eyes with his father.

"Ah, you're here,'' Jiraiya said to the group. "Perfect, now let's begin. First for the trivial stuff, any genin-rank shinobi in this room are now officially promoted to the rank of chunin. Forgive me for not making it as ceremonious as your more advanced teammates, your flak jackets are over this way,"

The newly promoted chunin went and retrieved their flak jackets, "You might not want to get too attached to these," Jiraiya commented.

"So like, what's the deal Pervy-sage? You got all of us here all secretively, what's happening?" Naruto asked.

A few people cringed, not yet used to Naruto's casualness with the Hokage, but everyone looked at Jiraiya anyways, waiting for an answer. Jiriaya scanned everyone in the room as if suddenly expecting to discover an imposter. He motioned for the ANBU guard to stand outside, and while Shikamaru wasn't an advanced sensor like Ino was, he realized that this was likely the only ANBU in the entire building.

"I know you have a lot of questions about what's happening, and I'm going to answer all of them. From this point forward you're going to be privy to S-rank secrets, and anything that is said in this room is treated with such severity. Should any of you leak what goes down within these walls, you'll be considered rogue-nin and punished with execution for the crime of treason."

The air in the room ran cold. Several young shinobi looked around at their comrades, processing the weight of the words the Hokage had just spoken to them. The older shinobi simply continued to look at Jiraiya, waiting for him to finish.

"The outcome of this meeting may result in you being assigned to an S-rank mission. Which is why your parents are here, as it's uncommon to assign these to chunin and especially since you are not yet 16. Sakura Haruno," Sakura perked up at the mention of her name, "You may notice your parents here, since they're civillians, you must discuss with and decide right now whether or not you'll be taking this mission,"

"I. . . .I don't even know what it is yet," Sakura managed to stutter.

"I'm sorry but that's how it has to be, you may discuss outside," the Hokage told her, so Sakura and her parents retreated from the room.

"Lee," Guy said to his student, "This mission has to do with ANBU Black Ops, I advise you not to take it, because of your. . . .disability."

Lee had an indecipherable look on his face. Guy was worried Lee might hastily try and take the mission because of his recently recovered physical state, but Lee eventually spoke up, "It's okay, I understand Guy-sensei. ANBU Black Ops may require a level of finesse in their espionage that I may not be capable of with my damaged chakra pathways. I will do my best as a regular shinobi of the Leaf,"

"Splendid decision Lee!" responded Guy in his usual animatedness.

"In that case I also do not wish to be a part of this mission," Tenten chimed in. By the time everyone had made their decisions, only Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, and Kiba had decided to remain on board.

Sakura walked back into Jiraiya's office, "I've decided to take on this mission Lord Hokage," she said to Jiraiya.

"Very well then, for everyone who has decided against it, as well as your parents. Follow the instructions of the ANBU at the door on how to leave. I've released decoys for everyone in this room to leave at different times so as to prevent suspicion."

When they had left the room, Sasuke spoke up, "Lord Hokage, why would you need to avoid suspicion from your own administration?"

"He's right," Shikamaru agreed, "High rank secrets are traded here often, without this level of secrecy, as far as I can tell there's only 1 ANBU guard."

"In this whole building there's 3," Ino said, much to the pride of her father.

"Yeah whatever, the average amount of ANBU in this tower tends to be 12. The only reason to organize us here like this is if you think ANBU is compromised and you're keeping it from other political figures in the village," Shikamaru finished.

"You're correct. As of recently I've had to question my trust for my own ANBU. And it's all because of this man," and he laid in front of them a photo of a man with an X-shaped scar on his chin.

"Who's this?" Neji asked.

"This man is Danzo Shimura, within the public's eye he is simply a shinobi with higher political power than most, but that's the most a civilian could hope to grasp should they study him. If you've been around as long as we have you'll know that the Third Hokage delegated a lot of Konoha's dirty work to him." Jiraiya paused for a moment to let everyone take that in, "That dirty work is the subject of this mission. Danzo Shimura had his own personal ANBU subdivision, known as ROOT. Mentions of ROOT are incredibly scarce, almost all blacklisted even in the most confidential ANBU paperwork. For the past 4 months I've read every single piece of paper we have on file, and shortly after Itachi Uchiha's assisnation of his clan, there are no mentions of ROOT."

Sasuke growled in anger, "What are you sa–"

"Hold on Sasuke, I know the implications, but put it aside for now. Early into my examination of the mission logs, I suspected that ROOT was still active, and one night, I discovered I was right. An ANBU came into my office and spilled as much as she could before she bled out, she was being followed by two other ROOT."

"Lord Hokage, if I may ask," said Neji, "What do you need us for? It seems as though you could have him arrested even with just the information you have now."

"It's a very complicated situation, not only do I have to worry about ANBU that are loyal to him, but because of that I don't have many I can genuinely trust myself. Danzo has lots of connections, not just in Konoha. The Daimyo have historically not liked him, but he's managed to form connections and raise his reputation."

"So you're anticipating a coup d'etat, but I still don't understand why you want us specifically." Shikamaru said.

"Danzo historically gathers followers by exploiting powerful, young, but potentially mentally unstable shinobi. Recently I've learned that Naruto has revealed his status as a jinchuriki to some of you." Jiraiya replied, smiling at Shikamaru's perceptiveness, before he looked at his student's direction.

"Yeah it looks like it spread around sort of quickly," Naruto replied.

"Like I said, shinobi with upbringings as. . . .well, unfortunate, as Naruto and Sasuke's are basically gold to Danzo. Talented young chunin like the rest of you can also be, albeit more difficult because of your lack of isolation."

"So you want to use us as bait to take apart ROOT?" Ino asked in shock.

Jiraiya paused before answering, "Better I use you as bait than one of you actually falling into his hands."

"And you're all okay with this?" Ino asked as she turned to shinobi parents in the room, all 5 of which were clan heads, most of whom she had known since childhood.

Hiashi responded first, absolving Inoichi or Shikaku from having to seem heartless, "This is the best plan to take down Danzo. He continues to develop war hawk tendencies, if he is to take power, it's not just people within these walls or the Fire Country at risk."

"..."

"I guess I understand, and if that's the only way I'll do it but, that's more fucked up than I was expecting." Ino replied defeatedly.

"The cruel reality of our line of work," Jiraiya replied before he called his ANBU back in, "Bring the other two," he ordered. "These are Yamato and Yugao. By the end of the week, they'll deliver to you a comprehensive overview of everything we've gathered about Danzo and ROOT. Remember, do not trust anything concerning your mission from any other ANBU than these two. Should another ANBU attempt to engage you regarding ROOT Infiltration, leave immediately and find the nearest superior that was present in this room today. That's all for now. You're dismissed, leave in a scattered fashion just as the others did."


"Shut up Sasuke," Naruto said in irritation as they walked, he was trying to bury the venom that had built up inside of him.

"What's wrong Naruto? I'm just telling Ino about how you finally learned a legendary jutsu." he teased back.

Ino giggled in response, "Is that really how you finally pulled it off?" she asked. Naruto hated that, but he didn't want to admit it. No, no, no. This was not happening, this was just another Sakura situation, he was just feeling jealous because he felt the need to outdo Sasuke in everything. Not because he had feelings for Ino. Right?

"It was in fact how I pulled off the Rasengan," Naruto replied, doing his best to insert an air of pretentiousness in his tone, "It's no wonder it took a similarly legendary shinobi like Sakura to push me to it. Well, after she was finished obliterating Sasuke." Ino laughed out loud, having never heard this type of inflection from Naruto, and turned to ask Sasuke about this likely tall tale.

Success, Naruto had turned this back around. It was rare to have a story like that in his arsenal and he had been able to reveal it in the perfect moment. Now he was able to go back to brooding about his new predicament. Dinner with his team, Team 10, and their parents. Naruto had argued at first that this would be suspicious given their new mission, but had been quickly dismissed. After all they were just celebrating everyone's promotions, and given Team 10 and Team 7's developing closeness, it would not appear suspicious to the potential uninvited leers of ROOT.

He had nothing else to say to that, and had been left wishing he was as good at arguing as Shikamaru. Now he'd have to attend this dinner with the Ino-Shika-Cho parents, absolutely horrifying. Inoichi who looked like he could snap Naruto in half probably physically and mentally, Shikaku who had two admittedly sick looking scars and a spiky-ass vest, and Chouza who was large both horizontally and vertically. He knew this was a stupid thing to be nervous about, but after years of mistreatment from adults, he was nervous everytime he had to meet one.

"Ah you're here," Shikaku Nara stood in front of them, and proceeded to lead them inside. Naruto had never actually been in the compound. Team 10 had preferred to train in the outskirts of the Nara woods, where the deer never really ventured towards. Their training grounds always had a peaceful air to them, overwhelming greenery and the distant sound of running water. Here the effect was multiplied several times, and it worked to soothe Naruto's anxious spirit as they entered the house and met with Kakashi, Sakura, and the rest of Team 10.

"There you are, I was beginning to think you'd gotten into an epic battle among the rooftops of Konoha hospital," Kakashi said as he greeted his students.

"What?" Naruto tried to ask, but received swift dismissal from his sensei. He found himself sat next to Sasuke and Choji and remained relatively quiet while the others engaged in polite conversation.

"This meal is quite splendid Ms. Nara," Kakashi praised when the conversation began to dull.

"Oh? I haven't seen you take a single bite," she replied.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he responded innocently, and to everyone's surprise his plate was indeed mostly empty.

"Hey Sasuke! You were supposed to keep watch this time!" Shikamaru scolded.

"I did, I did, I swear to god I had my sharingan active this whole time, I haven't bothered eating myself!" and he was not lying about that, Sasuke's food was nearly untouched, "Every damn time he'd go to pick it up it would just disappear before I even realized what was happening."

"You kids are so cute," came the cheerful voice of Ino's mother, "It's so nice to see your teams have gotten so close lately."

"It'll probably save our skin out there too," Shikamaru replied grimly.

"We shouldn't discuss that here son," Shikaku responded.

"Oh, but why not?" was Ino's grating reply. Oh shit. Those were the words that came to all of the young chunin's minds when they heard that tone, Ino was about to make things awkward, and nobody was going to stop her.

Inoichi tried to reason with his daughter, anticipating the direction this was headed, "Well honey, in the compound there are Nara members that aren't Shikamaru's par–"

"Oh so when then? When are we gonna talk about how we're going to throw a bunch of 14 year olds to take down a confidential branch of ANBU?" Shikaku and Choza attempted to chime in but Ino was already on a roll, "I mean, like you literally realize how insane this is right?" she snorted. "First we're going to throw Sasuke Uchiha at the man who was likely responsible for driving his brother insane to the point of committing genocide. Not just him though, alongside him we're going to send the village's jinchuriki, who it seems to me until recently had absolutely no friends, and is still mistreated by much of the village to this day. Oh yeah and right behind Naruto and Sasuke we're going to add 5 of the youngest chunin in the village."

"That's enough Ino," her father replied coldly, "S-rank secrets are S-rank for a reason, we have no idea how many spies that scoundrel has planted around here."

But Ino remained on the offensive, "Okay, no Danzo talk then. You still all seem to ignore the Naruto and Sasuke issue. Growing up not a word was spoken to me about Naruto, you all knew how he was being treated, never did anything. Same with Sasuke, his entire clan was murdered and he just lives in their ghost-town."

"Ino you don't have to defend us," Naruto tried desperately hoping to get the attention off himself.

"If I don't, who will?" she asked and turned back to the adults in the room, "I know we're shinobi, and you always say no matter how right or just a shinobi thinks they are, they'll meet their comrades and enemies in the same dark corner of hell, but is this really how low we are? You let Shikamaru, Choji, and I grow up like this while you knew just outside our compounds they were living like that?" Ino had tears welled up in her eyes.

"Ino. . . .when it came to those two, the Sandaime didn't let us do much of anything, the most we were allowed was to get rid of anyone stupid enough to threaten Naruto's life, or in Sasuke's case keeping him from the civilian's whispers. . ."

"So that's the best we got then? Sit by and do nothing?"

None of the adults in the room had an easy time falling asleep that night.