Human talking"

'Human thinking/Talking to Tailed Beast/Inner Persona '

"Tailed Beast/Inner talking"

"Tailed Beast/Inner thinking"

Waiting Room (Hokage Tower)

"What took you guys so long?" asked Naruto grumpily. "Oh well, the Hokage wanted to talk to us about your recovery process, your mental health and stuff like that. Plus, Sasuke here asked her for a mission as we were sure you would have been bored lying about the house and sleeping for three days straight and she said yes" lied Kakashi smoothly and as soon as Naruto heard they had a mission he began jumping up and down like a second grade kid who was going to a field trip for the first time.

"Really? Well, what is the mission? When are we going? Where are we going?" asked Naruto while jumping. Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura just chuckled in amusement. "First calm down Naruto" said Sakura. Once Naruto had stopped jumping Kakashi explained the mission to him.

At the end of the explanation Naruto wasn't smiling anymore. Instead he just frowned and said "Oh". "Come on Naruto. All we need to do is to find these three brats and you need to just explain them about the Kyuubi" said Sakura. "It's not as simple as that" said Naruto in a low voice his voice being a mixture and sadness and ...was that loneliness? Suddenly, it hit Sasuke.

'All of his life he has been hated for something he has no control on. I mean, it's not like he asked for the Yondaime, his father, to seal the Kyuubi inside of him. Yet, people are still afraid of him for it. In his early childhood he had no friends whatsoever. It was not until he was 8 did he make his first friend who was Iruka-sensei and I think he was 9 when he met Choji and Shikamaru and befriended them. Until then he was always lonely, suffering alone in the darkness' thought Sasuke, and Kakashi must have thought the same because he said "Don't worry Naruto. I am sure Asuma's nephew and his friends know the difference between a scroll and a kunai." At this Naruto smiled "Yeah, I am sure that the third hokage's 'honorable grandson'" he said while using finger quotes "will surely understand and so will his gang." Everybody smiled at this. "Now then let's go" said Kakashi.

The Ninja Academy

"Hey look isn't that Iruka-sensei right?" asked Sakura while pointing towards a familiar brunette. "You're correct" said Sasuke. "Iruka-sensei, Iruka-sensei!" yelled Naruto as they reached the chunin teacher and hugged him.

"Hello Naruto" said Iruka while smiling. "Hello Ruka" said Kakashi while hugging Iruka from the behind. "Hey Kashi" said Iruka. Once his boyfriend and Naruto stopped hugging him he turned to Sasuke and Sakura and hugged them both as well.

"Well I believe that Hokage-sama has already told you what your mission is?" asked Iruka. They all nodded "Well, I hope you all find those three soon and best of luck for the explanation Naruto!" he said while giving a double thumbs up. "Thanks Iruka-nii-chan" said Naruto. Iruka did a double take. He was very surprised that Naruto referred to him as his older brother. But as Naruto didn't seem to notice he decided not to point it out. "Bye then Iruka-sensei" said Sakura before Team 7 ran ahead. Iruka waved at them, happy that Naruto saw him as an older brother.

Meanwhile with Team 2

"Okay, is everybody here?" asked Shikamaru. He looked around and saw the Hyuuga cousins, Shino, Tenten and Jiraiya's clone. "Wait, Kiba isn't here yet and nor is the female ANBU" said Tenten. Suddenly Kiba came into the clearing the trees with Akamaru and Yugao. "Sorry we are late! We kind of took a wrong turn" said Kiba.

They had all decided to meet in a clearing in the Nara part of The Forest of Death formally named as Training Ground 44. Shikamaru nodded and said "It's alright." "So what's the plan?" asked Neji. "Well I actually decided to talk to my dad about this to come up with the best strategy and we decided that we should first go to the place where Team 7 and 8 found Naruto. Tsunade-sama made sure the place was barricaded and to make sure that no one manages to erase evidence she made some of Minato-san's and Kushina-san's most trusted and close advisors and friends guard the place against civilians and shinobi alike. Them being Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, Akimichi Choza, Inuzuka Tsume, her daughter Hana, Aburame Shibi & Hyuuga Hiashi. She also wanted to send in most of our mothers but sadly they pulled out of the ninja ranks years ago. Anyway, they work in two shifts: 1) 12am – 12pm & 2) 12pm – 12am. As it is now about 1pm we will meet the second the set of guard which are Nara Shikaku, my dad, Yamanaka Inoichi, Ino's dad, and Akimichi Choza, Choji's dad and together they are the 15th generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio" said Shikamaru.

"Well, thanks a lot for the knowledge and all but what are we supposed to do once we get there?" asked Kiba. "Well you, Kiba, will use your keen sense of smell along with Akamaru to see if you can find anything. I will talk with dad, Uncle Inoichi and Uncle Choza to see if they had some encounters with certain 'people'. Meanwhile Hinata & Neji you guys can use you Byakugan to find evidence or proof of who might be Naruto's attackers. Yugao-san can use her tracking skills as well, Jiraiya-sama you can help us by summoning a few toads who can help us and Shino can use his bugs to find any chakra trails left behind by the attackers and try to follow them" said Shikamaru.

"This plan will work for sure" said Jiraiya as he viewed and reviewed the plan over and over again in his mind. He found no faults whatsoever. "Alright then, let's go!" said Shikamaru and they all quickly left. Unknown to them, however, a ROOT member had been following them. The person then left to warn his master, Danzo. However, he hadn't even walked two steps when suddenly a hand jabbed his neck and he fell down, unconscious.

I am grateful for all the people who spared their time to read this fanfiction and sincerely hope that you like it.