Four years ago he had disappeared into the night, fleeing across the land of fire and mastering his chakra as he did so, he did not care for the chakra of his tenant. He did not speak with the beast, no, he would make sure that the beast remained shackled and imprisoned until it's and his death. He was one of the two that Naruto would make sure got their comeuppance, the second, the masked man and his little followers.

Squad captain Jiro placed the marker down and cleared his throat, looking around the small white room, about fifteen men were scattered around the room. Some were sitting on the floor and others were leaning on the grey concrete walls, "Now before we depart I'm going to go over this one more time, consider this an idiots guide to the Konoha ranking system. Usually Shinobi are ranked via four categories. D, C, A, B and S, our target Mr Uzumaki is presumed to be a very low A, an A minus if you would. You won't need any ridiculous Jutsu, just a few explosives and some swords." Jiro said as he grabbed his gray, padded vest and put it on, "keep in mind, Lord third wants him alive so I want you all to focus on restraining him...now, let's get moving."

The anbu, the uppermost rank of Konohas military, most soldiers worked their entire life to make it. Including Jiro's squad there was only about forty anbu across the whole village, making up just 0.26% percent of the active military population. Jiro's squad departed for the land of rice at high noon, taking a train to Nikko station before setting off on foot. Under Hiruzen Sarutobi the leaf had recovered well from the attack of the nine tails, embracing new methods of travel, construction and medical care, it had in just under two decades expanded its border by almost one thousand kilometers. His mentor and predecessor Tobirama Senju had done away with the daimyo system, now every civilized area flew one banner, Konoha. Jiro had grown up during this time, his parents weren't able to unfortunately, when he found out the boy who carried the nine tails had run off he wasn't very interested. He was all for it, it was clear the boy wasn't liked by most of the village, the kid knew how to take a hint, even now he wasn't very interested in the child. For him this was another retrieval mission.

His second in command, Baku passed another member his sword, "Stoke that for me would you?," he asked as he removed his mask revealing a horse faced man with small eyes. "Since we were assigned this thing I can't help but wonder, why didn't they send a squad of hunters to retrieve the brat ?, even as a low A rank fifteen men seems excessive." He said, grabbing a cigarette and holding it to the fire for a second before bringing it to his mouth, Jiro stopped writing in his journal for a moment. "We want him alive remember, hunters aren't know for their caution and compassion when approaching the target...if he dies, we die."

"Good riddance I say, having a mentally unstable child running around with some mountain devouring beast inside of him is stupid, if the beast comes out we can handle it...just like before." Baku said as he took a long drag from his cigarette, letting the smoke fall from his nose. He waved at the man sitting next to him, prompting him to return his sword, "You sure your vest is in fighting shape captain?, you've had that same vest for almost fifteen years." Baku inquired, Jiro looked down at his vest a small tear was growing bigger at the lower left corner, "No, but the boy won't be getting close enough to deal any lethal damage."

Anbu vests were padded, it's four layers being tightly wound fabrics that were both synthetic and natural, thirty years ago the vests had metal plates in them but those were traded for fibers due to weight and movement restrictions. "I didn't know you could see the future captain," Baku said facetiously, "he's a sixteen year old child, what serious combat training could he have?," Jiro asked. Baku brought his hands up, "Hey, all I'm saying is even a kage isn't invincible, first mizukage was stabbed while playing with his puppy, second Tsuchikage was poisoned by his revolutionary maid, first--"

"I get it," Jiro said as he closed his notebook and yawned, "You boys should get to bed...we're leaving at sunrise."

A low haze had entered the land over night, hanging over the stacked rice fields and disappearing into a green and white flatness. The sensors of Jiro's squad had been up all night scanning the border of the country, they informed Jiro of a chakra signature that was particularly striking amongst the dull and dim signatures of this country. "Up in those caves, it's just one, too big to be an animal and too active to be a civilian." Dajimu said as the squad leapt through the trees, "we've evacuated the locals just in case things don't go too smoothly so don't worry about collateral damage."

Jiro nodded and adjusted his mask, "All right men, listen and listen well...me and Baku will go in there and Dajimu will wait at the entrance...two anbu will be a bit less scary then fifteen, if things go south then I will call out to you or shoot a bit of fire, you will all keep quiet and your eyes will be sharp...understood?!."

"YES SIR!."

Jiro frowned from underneath his mask, gloom seemed to be creeping up on him.