A/N: Another chapter, since I have hit a block on TWCD chapter and I'm too lazy to work on Bird.

Don't own Naruto, blah blah blah.

Danzo's expression was set into a slight frown as he examined the papers in front of him, then glanced up at his operative. "This information is confirmed?"

"Hai, Danzo-sama. ROOT units Dōbutsu and Yoru identified the targets, and Operator Dākubītoru was able to confirm the chakra via his insects. Operative Yume did a mind-scan of the targets as well to confirm. Additionally, our units still observing Kiri after the destruction of the Tide's Tower reported messengers being sent from Kiri directly to the bridge engineer. It's also clear that the ninja were directly involved in all the attacks against the corporation."

Danzo nodded absently, thinking.

For most of his life, and the existence of the village system, the political situation was – if not stable – at least resembling a status quo. The samurai clans followed the will of the hatamoto and with the fall of the Imperial house, no one would – or could – make the daimyos submit to a greater will with all of the hatamoto answering to them. On the flip side without the tactic support of the Five Temples, the daimyo's powers were limited by the loyalty of said hatamotos.

The shinobi were both within and without of this system. The hidden villages themselves were quasi-independent, but varied in the amount of support provided by the daimyo. The shinobi made sure that the hatamoto – or independent warlords – would never be able to overthrow the daimyo. At the same time, the daimyo and their unification of the samurai clans ensured the shinobi simply could not take over the world – there were too many samurai, and every year Iron Country trained more in shape chakra manipulation.

Fire alone boasted over three quarters of a million samurai, at least ten thousand of which had some chakra training and hundreds were probably failed genin. This didn't even include independent clans that had been forced to work for the daimyos over time, and Fire's military was small compared to the lands of Stone and Lightning. Danzo's own estimates of the total military forces available to the Daimyo's combined was in excess of three and a half million samurai.

All five of the villages could, if they mobilized retired ninja and the minor village, perhaps field thirty thousand ninja. Even at twenty to one kill ratios they would be buried, leaving aside that not only most of their funding but most missions were paid for by the daimyo, hatamoto and samurai.

Danzo glanced down at the paper again. Challenging the system had been seen as impossible...and yet it assumed there were no variations in the events that would happen. The three Shinobi World Wars had all occurred because of unexpected variations. The first was caused by the Great Five preventing other villages from rising to their level, the second by the reckless adventurism of Hanzo and Oonoki, and the Third by the unexpected collapse of the economy in the riots that destroyed the government of Spring Country and the blatant assassination of six Daimyo by the Land of Wood.

The Kyuubi's attack had weakened Konoha, but Danzo had rebuilt from the ruins. He'd expected at least a few more years until things heated up for real...

But he was now out of time.

The information before him – shipping manifests, chakra maps, grainy photography, written reports and tracking information – made it clear that the chaos in Kiri had spiraled out of the control of both the instigators and the victims. Kiri's utter weakness had drawn in more than a few opportunistic attackers, but the worst had finally happened.

An unexpected action, one that threatened to cascade across the Elemental Nations in blood and death. An independent group was plotting to the economic underpinnings of the known world, using it to perhaps shatter a ninja village.

Danzo leaned back in the chair, the sunlight streaming in from the window casting the Hokage's office in a golden gleam. The light never solved anything, sadly. He cleared his throat. "Very well. Keep tracking the group. With Kiri still in utter turmoil after the assassination of the Mizukage, I doubt Kiri's ANBU or hunter-nin will react to the situation in Wave, which provides us an opening to do so. And if we do not I fear the situation will spiral out of control. Gato is a criminal I can deal with – Momochi and his ilk with access to the Gato Corporation's assets and money is not a threat we can tolerate, and I fear there is probably someone behind them even more dangerous."

He gestured and the operative left, even as Danzo rose from his seat. His health was surprisingly good, given the age he was at and the injuries he'd suffered in the Kyuubi attack, but even so he felt himself very slowly weakening, day by day. His mind was as sharp as ever and his chakra capacity was not failing, but he knew he did not have much time left.

None of his operatives were really ready to step into his shoes, and at long last he finally realized the largest flaw in his operatives and plans was that his elimination of emotion and drive made all of them useless for commanding ROOT...or the village.

If the portrait of Hiruzen on the wall seemed to be smirking at him, Danzo dismissed it as a trick of the light.

He walked slowly out of his office, taking the stairs down a single level to the more opulent meeting room reserved for high paying clients, entering with a glance to the ninja near the door. The room was guarded by two jounin ANBU, nightblack armor and masks giving them a formidable presence, and neither even twitched as he passed between them, opening the papered door and giving a deep bow to the central figure in the room.

"I apologize for the delay, Goto-shachō. It has taken us some time to confirm your suspicions."

The room was almost a full twenty meters across, taking up the bulk of the second level of the Hokage Tower, and as opulently decorated as could be expected in a shinobi village. Flanked by two grim samurai from the land of Iron, both wearing distinctive armor imprinted with the Gato Corporation insignia, was the owner of said corporation, sitting on luxurious silk cushions.

Gato was short and stout, but his face had a serious mien to it and his voice was oddly smooth given his otherwise ridiculous appearance. His hair was loosely bound and showed a few streaks of gray in the strands, and his eyes hidden behind small, dark glasses with rounded lenses. His sallow features were set in what seemed to be a habitual half-smirk, half-scowl. His clothing was the more modern silk suits of countries like Snow and Ame than the traditional clothing worn by most of the ninja, and his accent hinted at Snow country as well. "I do understand the need to have... confirmation... of such sweeping accusations, Shimura-dono. We are speaking of a conspiracy of a shinobi group to not only derail trade networks, but to pervert my company into supporting senseless – and profitless – bloodshed."

The magnate sat on the comfortable couch in the middle of the room, and Danzo stood in the doorway rather than enter. He instead chose to lean on his cane and only gave a faint nod to Gato's words. "I agree. The outlines of the attacks, the stolen money, and the clerks all adds up to direct shinobi action. The clerks were affected by genjutsu, and almost all of the stolen rice, koku and metal shipments were clearly also shinobi. They took some effort to make it look like bandits..."

Gato shook his head. "Bandits do not slaughter two hundred samurai and twice that in militia and fighters. They had to know they would be caught at this ridiculous concept, even aside from the audacity to kidnap my son and the ransom demands." Gato scowled. "What I want is a name."

Danzo tapped his cane softly. "Our initial investigations seemed inline with your own, Gato-shachō. The attacks used Kiri patterns and jutsu and my men were able to identify Kiri ninja. However, upon deeper investigation it seems that the figure behind your recent troubles is far more dangerous. Zabuza Momochi is the one pushing this set of assaults, with several dozen other Kiri ninja... or should I say, Kiri missing-nins."

One of Gato's eyebrows rose above the small dark glasses he wore. "My own sources indicated Zabuza was a loyalist to Kiri and only opposed the Mizukage."

Danzo smiled. It was a rare expression. "What is not widely known yet, Gato-shachō, is that the Mizukage was assassinated nearly a month ago. There was additional fighting after that, and it appears that Zabuza – and those with him, including one trainee of the Seven Swordsmen - is now determined to overthrow the new Mizukage, one Ao, after learning that his paramour Mei Terumi died in the uprising."

His voice took on a mocking and sardonic note. "He feels Ao will return the village to the days of the Bloody Mist, and wants the village to be instead a place of peace."

Gato sighed, shaking his head. "Kami preserve us from idealists." He took off his glasses, wiping them with a soft cloth from one of his pockets, revealing pinched and cold grey eyes. "And if what the Mist has been up to since the Third War isn't 'bloody' I'm not entirely sure I want to find out what could be worse."

Danzo allowed his smile to widen. "As I indicated upon your query, normally we would not get involved in this sort of...request. First, Kiri is not directly involved, and missing nins are usually handled by the country of origin. And technically the Land of Water falls under the domain of the daimyo of Water Country, based on the treaty signed at the end of the third war."

Gato gave a snort of amusement at that. "Danzo-sama, please. We both know that the only reason Wave 'answers' to Water is that Kiri and Kumo destroyed Whirlpool. The Fire Daimyo has wanted an ocean port for years and Wave is closer to Konoha than Kiri by over two hundred miles – which is no doubt

why Zabuza is damaging my corporate interests. And I am more than happy to provide the Fire Daimyo – and your own village, of course – deep discounts and preferential access to my entire shipping network if this is... resolved."

The short magnate glanced up. "Tazuna and his little band of shady investors would normally be a problem I could handle on my own – I have hired some ninja to... conduct certain needed tasks in the past. But Zabuza is S-class, and would destroy my entire armed force in a few moments." He spread his hands. "And the sabotage, theft, blackmail, kidnapping and extortion being placed on my operations – my entirely legal operations, I might add – is being condoned by the damned hatamotos who do nothing."

Danzo only nodded. "As I said, my sources indicate that Zabuza is being aided by several dozen other Kiri ninja. It appears that at least two of Water's hatamoto are also working for him, and the Water Daimyo is unable to act because the rest of his hatamoto see him as weak. As a result, we expect all of the Water and Wave court officials have been bribed as well."

He gave a long sigh. "Officially there is very little we can do."

Gato did not look surprised, only calmly nodding. "I suspected as much. At my level of influence one rapidly comes to term with just how narrow the edge upon which our current peacetime state rests. That being said, you would not waste your time or mine if you did not have...options."

Danzo nodded again. "I have certain assets that I can easily deploy to the region to perform further open investigations. Zabuza is not a fool. Acting as he has against civilian targets – especially ones not the specific employees of a daimyo is perfectly acceptable. And escalating against him for no reason would look like outright aggression – we would be checked by our allies as well as unit Kumo, Kiri and Iwa against us."

"On the other hand if a Konoha team was just sent along as...perhaps protection – say, a genin team to escort you back to your ship, for example - then for him or his men to strike at them would be suicidal. While normally such a mission would not provide proof of anything, the team I have in mind not only includes some of our most lethal assassins but would have certain skills to identify exactly what he is up to, identify the location of your son and free him – and if necessary, neutralize Zabuza directly."

The Hokage's tone darkened, and his visible eye narrowed. "However, this is not an action undertaken without a great deal of risk, Gato-shachō. The team in question has a high number of extremely valuable assets – this is why I am sending them, as they are always accompanied by a number of experienced ANBU as a backup. Exposing my soldiers to a dangerous foe such as Zabuza will be considered reckless by some of my political detractors...both here, and in the capital. It will not only cost me a great deal of political capital and even good will but might even ruin some of my other plans."

Gato smiled. It wasn't a pleasant expression. "I am never one to grasp all the subtle nuances of your world... but costs and money I get. I believe we can come to a mutually beneficial agreement, which will make it worth the risk, Danzo-sama."

O-DANZOSAMA-O

Naruto was awakened at the usual time by a Branch House member, and the morning breakfast was the same as always – Hihashi and Hizashi, chatting amiably; Neji glaring at Hinata and Hanabi glaring at Neji, and Hinata trying to play peacemaker.

Hinata always was the gentle one – always the one who tried to be kind and graceful. Hanabi was hot anger and hair-trigger temper, while Neji was as cold as ice. Naruto spent most of the time interacting with the family trying to shield Hinata from Neji's scorn, and help her find her strengths when it became clear she simply wasn't as talented as Neji.

Naruto understood entirely why Neji acted how he did. If not for quirks of birth order, he would have no doubt been the next Head of the clan. Both Hinata and Hanabi were certainly skilled at the Gentle Fist, but Neji was ridiculous in his ability to use it. Even when pressed by both his father and uncle it took time to cleanly defeat him, and his speed – training under Maito Guy – only grew by the day. Already many compared him to Hurhita Hyuuga, the legendary founder of the clan in Konoha.

But for all his talent, Neji was Branch House. He would never receive instruction in the true secret techniques of the Main Family, or wield any real influence or power. While rarely used, the fact that he had a seal that could incapacitate – or kill – him at the whim of the Main House was like living under constant threat. Most infuriatingly, was the fear that he was disposable – that one day, he would simply be thrown away like trash to protect the main house, as almost had happened with his father.

Naruto didn't know all the sordid details about the kidnap attempt on Hinata, only that Hihashi had killed the Kumo diplomat who tried to do it. Kumo had threatened war unless Konoha gave up Hihashi for 'justice'.

That lasted about two days until three different plagues broke out in Kumo, two of their gold mines blew up and the entire genin force woke up with leaf-stamped daggers next to their heads. Danzo had sent the diplomat back in literal pieces and had told the Raikage he would be happy to send Hihashi to Kumo – along with the entire ninja forces of Fire, Grass, Sand, and Tea. Kumo had backed down and the situation faded...but more than a few rumors still went around, and the one that said the Hokage had pondered sending Kumo Hihashi's twin brother – who was curse sealed – had been an option.

What Naruto didn't – couldn't – understand is why Neji blamed Hinata, or why she kept trying to fix the situation. Love and affection had to be reciprocated, or it wasn't love. Both of them were fixated on their own views without stepping back to look at them. There were times he admired the cool logic of the Aburame more than the stubborn pride of the Hyuuga.

On the other hand, bugs. The bugs were cool enough in fights (and in spying and scouting) but having them nest inside a person was a bit much.

He glanced down sourly at his stomach, then shook his head and sighed, clearing his thoughts.

There wasn't anything to be done about the situation in the family at the moment – at least nothing he could do. He'd tried his best to be polite to Neji, who resented his special status, and to be supportive of Hinata, who called him oniichan and treated him more like a brother than a distant, unnamed relative as per the cover story.

Adults – her own father and Neji's – hadn't solved the issue, so maybe this is what they wanted. Or maybe Hishashi was too stiff and Hizashi too bitter to really see it.

Either way, now that he knew what he was, it wasn't his place to get in the middle of the situation. Naruto finished his breakfast and excused himself, pausing to smile encouragingly at Hinata before heading out to meet up with his team.

The past few days of training and missions had been fruitful – both Obito and Kakashi were very good teachers, patient and willing to share ideas as well as tactics, honed from all the fighting they'd done over the years. The missions themselves were far more interesting than expected, covering a lot of combat (against bandits, who were of laughable threat), diplomatic and even scouting missions. While simple and hardly dangerous, each one was designed to mimic more dangerous C and B missions, or to provide additional experience for the genin in land navigation, survival and tracking.

The two jounin were both powerful, with a range of skills that was flatly ridiculous, ranging from sealing knowledge and kenjutsu to puppeteering and hundreds of (stolen jutsu). This was on top of twenty years of battle experience and a shared Sharingan power that was even more brokenly impossible. The two could phase in and out of reality at a moment's notice, banish things to some blank dimensional space with a glance and teleport with completely bullshit speed.

Very powerful. If only they weren't also utterly annoying. God, the chronic lateness was only made worse by the inane, idiotic excuses. How two powerful ninja were also either brain-damaged or insane baffled him.

Still, he couldn't complain. After only a little more than a few weeks, Obito and Kakashi were already improving them. Naruto could combine his clones with a technique to let him sink into the earth and move, as well as his Ryuken combat strikes. Combined with the insane ability of Kage Bushin he could always have both backup and surprise attacks, and combined with kawarmi hitting Naruto directly was pretty hard to do, at least in spars.

To be fair, sparring with Sasuke, much less Sakura, was mostly a waste of time. Even with Sasuke's speed, Naruto was trained from nearly the time he could walk by the masters of taijutsu in the Hyuuga clan, and given his demonic tenant, he could simply ignore damage. That meant spars basically consisted of them learning 'tricks' of terrain and positioning from Kakashi and sparring against him and Obito. He couldn't use ryoken strikes against Sasuke or Sakura, and while Sasuke had perhaps better coordination and speed his sheer skill level simply wasn't a match for the insane drills the Hyuuga had put Naruto through. Sasuke had the potential to match him - the boy was no pushover - just not the skill yet.

Sakura, on the other hand, had zero chance of stopping him.

Despite Naruto's skill and speed, his teachers were too strong for him - even Obito was more than a match for him. His hits were too fast for Naruto to block and his blasted genjutsu were all strange, mostly based on sensation and aural stuff than the standard Uchiha eye-tricks. Kakashi was even worse, both blindingly fast and using only the basic academy jutsu to decimate Naruto, both singly and when the team fought him together.

He could kawarimi with air, for Kami's sake. Naruto was pretty sure that the two veterans would easily be able to wreck most of the Hyuuga in the clan, but he kept that to himself – his skills were nothing to brag about even compared to Neji, much less his adoptive father figure.

Naruto was not as skilled as most Hyuuga – his eyes were weak, with a tendency to blur at high speeds and a shortened range, and his chakra control was never good enough for the true elegance of pure Gentle Fist juuken. The Ryoken he practiced was an older, more barbaric method predating juuken, one that the Hyuuga abandoned long ago. Rather than the delicate chakra sealing of the tenketsu of juuken, the ryoken forced chakra directly into an enemy's chakra network.

In theory, the two were similar, except the ryoken required a huge amount of chakra for each strike and the use of constantly using the Byakugan to monitor the enemy's systems, which drained even more chakra. The past users had only utilized one or two strikes as a final attack, but with his insane chakra capacity from the Kyuubi he could do it all day long if needed.

It was not as effective in some ways as juuken, but in others it was more dangerous. The chakra injected into a body interfered with an enemy's chakra control and – in some cases – if done correctly could even overload the body, damaging the internal organs.

Kakashi had taken him aside to expand on this, saying that at a given point he would be trained on how to actually utilize the chakra of the Kyuubi. Given what youkai did to anyone unfortunate to be merely exposed to it, having it forcibly shoved into a chakra system would obliterate whoever Naruto struck. And unlike the Gentle Fist, which could sometimes be nullified by thick armor, chakra barriers or sufficiently strong chakra metal weapons, absolutely nothing would stop his blows.

Naruto wasn't really looking forward to dealing with the Kyuubi, but his teammates were also being pressured.

Sasuke had started with lightning and refining his fire jutsu, as well as Obito and Kakashi bombarding him with hellish genjutsu over and over again. Eventually they awoke Sasuke's sharingan, triggering the boy boasting he could now take them both and suffering a humiliating beating by Kakashi and Obito where both didn't use their Sharingan and instead relied on basic double-team tactics and speed to fell him. Beyond that, they'd made him condition himself – long slow runs, chakra moulding, even waterfall training – to build his reserves.

And Sakura... Sakura was actually scary. She was a damned civilian who could master a jutsu after having it demonstrated and explained one time.

She was more driven than the other two, and it took her all of two days to learn a new poison jutsu that she combined with a devilishly affective genjutsu that made the cloud look like simple dust and muted the poison's effects until it was too late. Worse, Obito had taught her how to make it a chakra-reactive poison, and to 'slip' the genjutsu so that when it faded, the target feeling the poison would seem like a genjutsu attack. When they went to center and pulse their chakra, they would only make the poison worse.

Evil. Brilliant, but evil.

He grinned to himself as he walked along the path from the Hyuuga estates to the training grounds, nodding occasionally along the way, until he reached the open space the team usually met up in.

He was expecting both Obito and Kakashi to be late, so he was a little surprised to find them both at the training ground, playing shogi of all things with a slender dark haired jonin, sitting on the grass. It only took Naruto a moment to identify the man as Shikaku Nara, the senior jonin commander.

Obito looked up from the game as he approached. "Good morning, Naruto. Sasuke should be here any minute, and Sakura - "

He broke off as Sakura walked up, stared at the two of them, then frowned and did a genjutsu release. "Kai!"

Kakashi stared at her, but Shikaku just chuckled. "Even your genin think you being on time must be a genjutsu, Kashi."

The gray-haired jonin only shrugged and moved another shogi piece, cursing a moment later as Shikaku countered it and put him in tsumi. "Damn it."

Naruto glanced over as Sasuke walked before speaking. "Uh, Kakashi-sensei, what's up? Why are you two not late with a stupid made up excuse?"

Obito gave Kakashi a dark look before speaking. "Business, Naruto. Please, sit down, all of you." He waited until they did so then spoke. "Our initial plan for training was for six or seven months of mixed missions and training, then a chunin exam, and then to reassess from there."

He paused. "That hasn't changed precisely. However, a corollary to that was that we would not run any higher and tougher missions until you had much more training. Unfortunately, our time scale just got thrown off by a high-priority mission."

Obito glared at Shikaku, who sighed. "Troublesome." He turned to the three genin. "Do any of you know who Gato is?"

Sakura nodded. "Shiano Gato? He is CEO of the Gato Corporation. They own sixty percent of the shipping across the Elemental Nations and over half of the mining operations, plus businesses and farms everywhere."

Kakashi smiled and nodded. "Very good, Sakura. Gato has had some business difficulties with Iwa and Kumo, and so he bought up a lot of property in Wave Country, north of Fire and on the coast. His idea was to build a shipping dock and warehouse, along with a rail line from Snow Country for freight and some gambling."

The gray haired man sighed. "For whatever reason - probably because Gato is kind of slime and strong armed and threatened his way into the property he bought - some of the people in Wave oppose him. A local engineer and bridge builder is the focal point of all this, building a bridge with loans from some local businessmen fearful of being pushed out by Gato. The bridge itself is being built in the main shipping lane Gato plans to use, so he tried to buy it out , then sabotage it with goons. Neither worked."

Naruto thought back to his political lessons, both from Hihashi and from Danzo-sama, and grimaced. "He played hardball, didn't he?"

Obito nodded, his ravaged features twisted into a matching grimace. "Yeah. Hired goons and failed ninja to try to break things up. One thing led to another and the engineer's son got killed. Accident, supposedly." He rolled his only eye and continued. "Now it looks like this engineer has thrown in with some Kiri nukenins."

Kakashi continued. "For reasons you aren't cleared to know, Kiri seems to be invested in working with this engineer. That would be bad enough, but things have gotten out of hand recently since Kiri went up in flames."

Naruto nodded. While still only rumors, the destruction of most of central Kirigakure and the death of the Mizukage couldn't be kept secret. The civil war had not yet wound down yet, so the entire region was engulfed in fighting, and even the local hatamoto had been dragged into the mess.

Obito spoke again. "What is exactly going on is hazy, but it seems that the 'official' Kiri participation has been usurped by the nukenins, under an S-class ninja known as Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Swordsmen. They've robbed and assaulted the Gato Corporation, blown up facilities, killed workers and kidnapped Gato's son. They're demanding a huge amount of ransom - and for Gato to cut off all supplies and shipping to Kiri."

Sasuke frowned. "...that would be…"

Kakashi gave a small exhalation. "Yes. Gato has sunk too much into this venture to back off, but he either complies or he's a dead man. A multinational corporation taking action against an entire shinobi nation could not be tolerated. The Water Daimyo would demand sanctions...and the rest of the daimyo would have to refuse, given Gato's importance and the influence of his corporation. This could turn into something very ugly, very fast."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "I somehow doubt you are telling us this just to share information, sensei."

Obito smiled and ruffled Sasuke's hair, drawing snickers from Naruto and Sakura and a dark glare from the boy. "Eh, Suke-nii, no worries. The Hokage wants us to escort Gato and his clerks into Wave and to their building there, and for us to protect him while he attempts to negotiate with the officials of Wave and Water to… fix this mess. It's likely that Zabuza will try to strike at him - we're going to protect him."

Kakashi folded his arms. "Gato has tried multiple times to meet with the hatamoto of Wave, but they demand he see them in person. This is almost certainly a trap, but one we have to spring. If the Hokage sent in an ANBU platoon to escort Gato it might trigger a panic reaction."

Naruto's voice was dry. "Instead send in a genin team, with one handicapped teacher, who can't be dangerous."

Obito smiled. "Exactly! Now, we won't lie. This is an extremely dangerous mission. Normally we would never let any of you even get close to a mission like this - multiple hostile ninja, who are already kidnappers, and with two of you having valuable bloodlines. But the Hokage is sending us because Kashi-kun and I can wipe the floor with the whole lot of them. Your job is to keep Gato safe. Naruto, your clones and eyes can pick up ambushes. Sasuke, your genjutsu will distract and allow you to quickly close in for the kill. Sakura, you'll provide both medical and genjutsu support and maybe some wind gusts - Kiri ninja like using chakra-laden mists to blind dojutsu users."

The three genin glanced at each other uncertainly, Sakura speaking first. "Sensei… this isn't a volunteer mission, is it? Do you honestly think we are ready for this?"

Obito's smile turned sad. "No, Sakura-chan. The Hokage is very firm on this, we have to do this. We will do everything we can to keep you safe, but it is dangerous. However… you are all some of the best genin I've seen, and we will have backup trailing us at a distance."

Kakashi handed each of them a requisition chit, signed by the Hokage. "Equip yourself for a B-rank urban combat escort mission, duration of two months. If anyone in the shops pushes back, inform them to contact me directly. I recommend seeing if they have antidote kits available. Naruto's haori and under-armor are fine, but the two of you need to also go to the armor and request genin combat inserts for your uniforms."

His voice hardened. "Be prepared for a briefing at the Hokage Tower at 10 AM tomorrow, and absolutely no training today. Let your families know what is going on."

Naruto was quiet for a moment. "Kakashi-sensei… this seems really out of… I don't know."

Obito and Kakashi traded glances before Obito spoke. "Once upon a time we'd have never taken a mission like this, Naruto. Putting our genin in the way of danger is not something Konoha does. That being said… the danger is reasonable - even nukenins know going after Konoha genin means you will always be hunted the rest of your life and we'll kill you no matter how long it takes. We're hoping this will limit the amount of crazy shit Zabuza and his ilk will pull...and if it doesn't, well, Kashi and I can get you to safety in the blink of an eye." He tapped his Sharingan, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Bito-nii.."

Naruto nodded, but his mind was racing. Something about this simply felt off to him - why would the Hokage risk his life on such a reckless mission after spending so much time to keep him safe? Then it hit him.

Danzo-sama was using this to tie the Gato Corporation more closely to Konoha. If he could do that, the benefits would be incredible. He smiled thinly and looked at his teammates. "...we can do this."

Sakura still looked worried but nodded, while Sasuke looked pleased - he'd get some real fights now. Naruto shrugged and looked back at his teachers. "10 AM?"

"Yep. This time, eat a big breakfast, we'll be going at civilian pace but I want you scouting ahead of us. We'll have your clones make a fake party and send it ahead to see if we can't draw out some ambushes."

Naruto smiled, and Shikaku stood up, finally speaking. "And now, we'll go over the situation in detail, so you have all the latest intelligence. I'm here to provide that, as well as the tactical layout of the area and answer any questions you have."

The lazy man yawned, then continued. "But let's not take too long. It's a nice day and it would be too troublesome to simply stare at battle maps until lunch."