"Lady Hokage, one of the search teams just found the unit we sent out a few weeks ago…they're all dead" Tsunade sighed as she put her paper work aside to respond to the one eyed jounin. "And they left another of those signs, to me it doesn't seem like the Akatsuki because no witness ever reported seeing men in black cloaks and there's been minimal damage. It think they're just some thugs" Kakashi concluded.

"Thugs with an affiliation to Naruto" she stated. "We'll have to pass this information to him then" Kakashi said with the two of them directing their gaze to the third person in the room. She immediately nods understanding the assignment.

After being dismissed by the Hokage Yugao immediately took the area were Naruto was being held, it had been just about a month ago since he attacked the village and was apprehended. She couldn't imagine it, after all the time he's trained just so he can be hokage and now that dream is surely almost gone. Even if he was pardoned for the attack no one would side him anymore, not with the history behind him. As she drew nearer to the area she could feel her body stiffen, her last time didn't go too well with him. He was putting her at arms length and doesn't know why, it should be vice versa with her keeping him away but she couldn't do that to him not again.

"Look here…it's as simple as it gets! None of you have the clearance to go down there" Yugao overhead the Uchiha explaining the a little crowd that had gathered around him. She sighed as she entered the fray as well, "what's going on here?" she asked the group consisting of Kiba, Hinata, Sakura, Ino, shikamaru and choji

"We want to speak to Naruto-kun" Hinata spoke up, still adding the honorific to his name, meaning she's still has feelings for the blond which was quite…she didn't know how to explain it. "When you get the same level clearance you can" Ino quite annoyed by receiving that answer for the second time had her fist balled up something that didn't go unnoticed by Yugao who in contrast kept her cool.

"You will just have to wait your turn" Yugao stated at the rest while Sasuke sighed.

"We've done that for a month! I think it's about time he had our turn" Ino gritted through her teeth with the room beginning to develop a weird atmosphere. "You guys will have to leave or else I'll be forced to restrain you" Sasuke stated through an exhale. Now the tension had been blow to the roof and neither side feeling to back down.

"Look guys…we don't have time for this! I've been sent Lady Hokage to ask Naruto some questions. They're urgent and PRIVATE"

"No offense Ma'am but asides from you being Kurenai sensei's close friend we don't know anything about you…and what makes you think you know Naruto more than we do?" Kiba chimed in as well.

"Look…let's all just respect Authority…you're shinobi regardless of your relationship he's been detained by the village council and the hokage who all outrank you! So if you want to speak to him you're going to have to seek permission from her"

"This is a drag guys! She's right" Shikamaru said "and let's just do what's respectful" Ino grumbled and Kiba cursed but eventually they all gave up, and left the two to their devices.

Yugao nodded at Sasuke as she herself proceeded to the next room to meet the blond, upon entering Naruto immediately sensing her presence looked up at her, his eyes filled with boredom and possibly annoyance.

"Hey" he greeted first which shocked her as she'd always been the one to initiate their slight conversations. She looks a little dumbfounded but smiles back with her response. "hey" Naruto could feel the light shining of her face as she smiled, why did he smile again? Did he have no reason? Or was his body betraying him slightly.

"what was all the commotion up there for?"

"Your friends are demanding an audience with you"

"cute and no way…I guess I should Thank you for that then"

"you can thank me by answering a few questions then"

"hmm" Naruto responded as he gave her a curious look. She slips a sheet of paper infront of him, it displayed a symbol a symbol he knew too well but she didn't need to be part of this it would just hurt her. "By your sudden movements I can tell you've seen this symbol quite a few times" The blond looked at her before looking back at the sheet of paper.

"No, just a strange symbol"

"Don't lie to me"

"I'm not"

A long time ago…

"that's the offer…just make sure he's dead by tonight" the giant man said to the blond, then immediately a girl with black hair and emerald eyes entered the room with an obvious visage of anger and annoyance. "How could you? You don't even trust me so you wasted coin on some shinobi reject" the blond threw a glare at the end of the young woman's sentence most likely at the ending more than anything.

"We need the geezer dead tonight, you've been trying for weeks now but it's hard because you're my daughter" the giant said as he placed his arm on her shoulders. "If you mess up everything will go down hill…"

"you said after I had killed him you'd make me an official member! I want to join you and the rest of the family"

Naruto disgusted by the raw display of emotions tapped his feet on the ground repeatedly whiles crossing his arms across his chests, and groaning at the display. He watched the woman groan in frustration before shoving her elbow into the blond, her father immediately came apologizing but the blond waved it off.

"Naruto!" the blond was interrupted from his flashback by the purple haired beauty infront of him. "hm?" he responded causing her to groan in frustration. "you know something…please tell me"

The blond using his index finger to call her closer, as she enclosed the area between him he passed his around across her cheek and smoothly caressed her face an act which caused her face to heat up slightly. "I don't know anything I can tell you" and with that he moved his hand away from her face and diverted his gaze away from her. "anything else you need?" still a bit bewildered she shakes her head and makes back to Sasuke.

"Well?" he asked

"Still didn't get a thing" she responded with her head down before turning to the Uchiha. "Do you think I'm doing something wrong?" the Uchiha nodded.

"You've been making it seem like it's still Naruto but it's not he's slightly different so it's time we allow them to purge his memory again.

She nodded and exited the facility again.

"hmph…what are they doing here" the blond questioned himself as he slumped back into his chair.

"I cannot believe Sasuke!" Ino groaned as she downed her glass of water in one go causing the boys to shoot concerned looks at her while Hinata just quietly consumed her meal and said nothing back to the rest.

"but we shouldn't have disrespected Kurenai sensei's friend" Shikamaru said as he himself consumed a piece of meat. "she was right in the end, we didn't have the security clearance to demand meeting Naruto" he continued.

"Yugao san means the best for Naruto but her field of work interferes with her decisions sometimes…"

"you talk like you really know her Sakura" Hinata finally commented.

"Yeah she's very close to Naruto"

"How close" Ino asked her.

"I don't know but very, maybe since childhood"

"I didn't think Naruto had many 'friends' outside us" shikamaru commented

"What makes you think he's still our friend? He attacked us, the village and his nindo most of all. I don't know why you guys want to see him but I personally want to beat the shit out of him, ask him why he attacked us and beat the shit out of him again" he concluded as he cracked his knuckles.

"Relax man…don't take this the wrong way but It took the combined efforts of most of us and a sneak attack from Jarayia before we could put him down."shikamaru informed him causing him to groan and chew down on some meat.

"Yeah…he was soo swift and tactical even going toe to toe with Sasuke" Sakura said almost like she was complementing him. The whole table became silent for a brief moment.

"we have to get permission from Tsunade to talk to that bastard" Hinata winced at his choice of words for Naruto but in all fairness he had a point. Just because she had a crush on him didn't mean they had to excuse his acts word for word he was rogue ninja now and a prisoner to the leaf so she had to forget about it but she couldn't not now not ever"

Tsunade made way down as soon as she appeared Sasuke quickly attempted to bow but was immediately waved off by her. Naruto could feel a strong presence approaching him, the chakra pressure he felt was dense and he quickly stood up from his seating position.

"not scared are you?" the fox asked him quite irritated by the blond's antics, "We're strong when we don't have chakra binding cuffs over us" Tsunade was livid, she was done having her men killed by these 'thugs' just because of their vendetta against the blond and when the time arrives for him to co-operate he blows her off. She's only seen that symbol once it treated it lightly and by the looks of it he has some sort of knowledge on the symbol and refuses to share it.

"Sit down!" Tsunade yelled at him as she entered his prison, the blond slowly took his seat and looked up into her eyes although he was not a tad bit frightened he did dread what came next. "What does the symbol mean to you?"

"I already told Yugao-san, NOTHING"

She slams her hand into the desk, "I'm not her…so don't you even think about lying to me" Naruto weighing up his options although he could not risk telling her did not want to be re-opening any wounds. He sneered at Tsunade glancing at the paper again who frowns.
"It was about sometime ago I won't go into details but I ended up in the middle of up coupe. I was hired by a member of a party to kill his rival so he'd get a new post and it was fairly easily, got the kill about an hour or two later but the catch was the man knew he'd be under fire and took the blade to his stomach but as he did he told me to give the credit to the hirers daughter which she claimed profusely as it would help her own Agenda but their government found out and blah blah she goes to jail…and eventually we fight and during the fight he's sees an image of Yugao and tells me how's seen that picture before on a deadman…How did Hayate die Tsunade?"

"he was murdered…in a far away land…after we sent he and his team to kill a rouge Ninja who'd escaped there…it wasn't you just to clarify things up"

"How did she take it?"

"I won't lie to you…she was a wreck and buried herself into her Anbu work hoping eventually one day she'd just be killed but through her friends she got over it…she's a strong woman to believe everyone you ever loved is gone but still have hope…very strong"

"hmmm" the blond hummed as he slumped himself into the chair and stared at the ceiling. "Are we done here" he stated as he noticed the blond mistress already at the doorway preparing to exit.

"Unless you have something worthwhile to say then yes…I have hokage matters to attend to"

"Let me take them down…and then you can lock me right up"

"why would I trust you? That you won't finish the job of wiping us all out"

"you'll just have to trust me"

"sorry Naruto it doesn't work like that, when you attacked us you betrayed the leaf and my trust, I'll be damned if I let you fool me again. On that note I will be telling Yugao the truth about Hayate, Good night Naruto"

The blond sighed as she walked out not frustrated but worried.