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Chapter Text

Some would say that it was difficult to annoy Hiruzen Sarutobi, seeing him as a calm and collected leader, warrior, and shinobi who had fought and sacrificed for the Village Hidden by the Leaves, but these people have never met some of the Academy Instructors who were supposed to teach the future generation of shinobi to begin their journey.

As Sarutobi looked towards the paper handed to him, telling him that 10-year-old Naruto Uzumaki had somehow graduated from the Academy even though every other test report or grade for the boy was terrible, he was legitimately the dead last.

Since the Hokage had passed a law that ensured that Naruto couldn't be harmed or told of his burden, everyone stayed clear of him not daring to go against their leader but the Academy Instructors in their 'wisdom' had decided to go behind the backs of Iruka Umino, himself and several others to ensure that Naruto would pass so that he could die in the field.

But in that decision came one of his bigger problems with replacing that many Academy Instructors it would be near impossible to find someone who could fill the void in such a short time and so had to decide if he could risk the future of those many children by having them miss out on precious education they might need in their future career or for survival.

So he decided to just keep an eye on them and make plans to replace them so that once he could find a good enough reason, other than 'the instructors really hate one kid' which if anyone else heard would have thought that was ridiculous. He decided instead to turn his eye on Naruto through his crystal ball as he watched the boy sit with Iruka and regal him with an exaggerated tale of his passing from the Academy in the ramen store.

He now had the difficult choice of having to choose an instructor for Naruto Uzumaki, this had been an eye opener in problems, he couldn't send the Jinchuriki back to the Academy as if this attempt was anything to go by, though Iruka would work his hardest to keep the boy safe, the instructors couldn't be trusted to not attempt a fast one.

So Who could be trusted with the boy?

He sighed for a few moments and then reached a decision, one that would no doubt come back to bite him in the ass in the future but what choice did he have? He needed a way for the boy to grow skilled quickly, and efficiently while at the same time learning to become a true shinobi, true, it would be dark and unjustifiable but what choice did he have?

No one could be really trusted with Naruto without placing impossible expectations on him or treating him unfairly, etc plus the boy needed to learn about being a shinobi, if he truly wanted to be a shinobi and a Hokage after this, it would give him both perspective and understanding of the hard choices he has to make.

The boy was stubborn and believed that as Hokage or as a shinobi, you could fix any problem but that wasn't the truth of the world, he needed to learn.

"Summon the Anbu Commander," ordered Sarutobi as he looked upon the picture of his successor.

'Minato, forgive me about what I am about to do,' thought Sarutobi, sadly as a man suddenly appeared in the room, kneeling in front of the Hokage. The Anbu Commander, code-named 'Crow' had short black hair, and was dressed in the usual Anbu uniform which was covered by the white cloak with the hood up, on his face was a porcelain mask resembling a crow with three thick red stripes, two running across each cheek and one on the forehead.

"Lord Hokage, you summoned me?" asked the Anbu, his voice, quiet, without emotion, and yet commanding.

"Indeed, Crow, I would like you to know that I am placing someone young into Anbu," answered the Hokage, as the Commander thought.

"Sir, what is so special about this person that you are telling me?" asked the Anbu, usually Anbu would recommend someone to the Anbu and the Hokage would make the decision on who join, it was rare that the Hokage made the decision himself and even rarer that he would tell the Commander directly, usually it was just a note or a message.

"Simple, I plan to recruit Naruto Uzumaki to Anbu Black Ops," answered the Hokage, giving the Anbu all the answers he needed. Naruto Uzumaki had always been somewhat of a wild card in the Academy, his marks were so bad that he was the dead last of the Academy, though loud and often attention-hungry, the boy has shown a potential for stealth, having pranked in the past, civilians, genin and chunin.

"May I wonder why?" asked the Anbu, he would follow his leader to the grave if required but this seemed very random and out of character for the Hokage, one would consider it in Danzo's playbook.

"Simple, it is the best place to put him, the training will help him improve skills allowing him to be a better shinobi, he will learn to kill and accept himself, it might change him but I believe it is necessary, so he might be a bit of an assassin but if it is felt that he won't be a good Anbu then we can just remove him and place him back into the regular roster, giving him the rank he deserves," answered Hiruzen, his voice controlled and calm, reflecting none of the turmoil he felt inside, "It would also keep him away from Danzo and with someone I trust to keep his eye on him, most of the Jounin instructors would treat him unfairly and it would allow the hatred of the Village to die down since he'll be out of the Public eye."

"That is... logical," said the Anbu. The Commander and the Anbu instructors were lucky that Anbu Black Ops had recruited straight out of the Academy in the past, so it meant that training had been prepared in the past.

"You are dismissed, Crow," said the Hokage, as he waved at an Anbu, ordering him to summon Naruto Uzumaki, to which Naruto came in a few minutes after the Commander had left, as innocent as always.

"Why am I here, old man? I haven't done anything recently," exclaimed the Uzumaki, excitedly.

"Naruto, you are here on your status as a shinobi," replied Sarutobi as the boy got nervous.

"Wait, I'm not going to become a shinobi," said Naruto, scared but Sarutobi shook his head.

"No, no, it's just that I might have a special placement for you," replied Sarutobi, with a chuckle.

"What placement?"

"Simple, I would like for you to join Anbu," answered Sarutobi, as Naruto's eyes widened, his face revealing all of his shock. Naruto had heard about the Anbu, back when he had wanted to find out about awesome shinobi and stuff, there was so little about Anbu except some of the stuff they do, kill people and stuff like that.

"Umm, old man, I know I'm an awesome shinobi an' all but I don't think I would be good in Anbu," replied Naruto, a bit nervously as Sarutobi raised an eyebrow.

"Naruto, I'll be honest, your skills are terrible, I have seen your grades, I have even seen your skills and they are some of the worst I've ever seen, in taijutsu, you are reliant on unpredictable attacks and are inept at taijutsu, you expect everything to go your way, you are naive about the world of shinobi, if I go into details about everything wrong with your skill, we could be here for a while," said Sarutobi, bluntly as Naruto looked down.

"So what am I supposed to do?! No one wants to help me!" shouted Naruto, angrily but Sarutobi ignored his yelling.

"You could have gone to the Konoha library, your taijutsu, you might not be able to improve taijutsu in the Academy that much, yes, but chakra control, you could learn exercises at the library to help you make a regular clone or find an alternative, geography, ninja history, all of these things are available in the Konoha library but instead you played for attention, now you are the dead last," replied Sarutobi, once again blunt as Naruto looked down.

"I don't need that stuff to become Hokage!" exclaimed Naruto but Sarutobi was not going to be sugarcoating anything, it had caused problems in the past and Sarutobi would not repeat past mistakes.

"Okay, let's say you need to go on a mission to the Land of Rain, where will you go?"

"Umm, I take a map," replied Naruto but Sarutobi pulled out a map from his desk and laid it out.

"Now where do you go?" asked Sarutobi, as Naruto looked down, he didn't know.

"Naruto, I know thousands of jutsu but jutsu wouldn't accomplish my missions, tell me is 'that stuff' still useless?" asked Sarutobi, "Jutsu are tools, just that tools, we use them but it is how we use them that defines us as shinobi, intelligence, and knowledge are the tools I used to become Hokage, these are the tools that one must use to become Hokage... there is no easy way or shortcut, Anbu could help you with many things but many things you will still have to discover yourself, but for fun, here's a fun fact, the more you learn, the more chakra you will have."

"So you're telling me if I learn stuff, my chakra will grow?" asked Naruto, to which Sarutobi nodded.

"Chakra is a mixture of physical and mental energies, where half will come from your body, the other half from your mind, so yes, the more you grow your mind, the more chakra you will have but do not forget chakra control," answered Sarutobi.

"What's the point of chakra control?" asked Naruto, he was angry mostly at himself, but now he was willing to grow, to learn

"We use chakra to be able to use jutsu, some jutsu require finer control, others require less control, you need chakra control to be able to learn and use jutsu, why do you think so many senseis stress it, shinobi often need to be able to control their chakra to do multiple things shinobi will need to do, such as walk on walls," answered Sarutobi, to which Naruto looked shocked to which Sarutobi knew he had stressed his point.

"What should I do?" asked Naruto to which Sarutobi smiled.

"Naruto, that is up to you, will you join Anbu? Are you willing to do dark things for the Leaf?" asked Sarutobi to which Naruto thought about it.

"I will, old man," answered Naruto to which Sarutobi sighed.

"Welcome to Anbu, Ko," said Sarutobi, simply.

Chapter Text

Naruto walked towards the location he had been told to go to, to get his uniform and everything, he was one of the youngest people to ever be recruited to Anbu, in fact, he was sharing the spot with a village traitor which he didn't actually know what to feel about that. He had spent the last week going over the theoretical part of the Ninja arts.

Turns out that stuff could be pretty interesting, especially history, he didn't know that there were so many battles and how the Leaf was founded, he didn't even know that Old Man Hokage was so powerful, the guy was called 'The God Of Shinobi' and the 'professor' and had fought in so many battles, the guy was able to beat other kage as well.

When he looked at the old man, you wouldn't see some awesome powerful shinobi but a weird, short old man. Maybe, that's part of the point, he looked weak but underestimate him and then he'll beat your ass. So looking cool isn't always a part of being a shinobi.

As he walked through the location, there were grey and bland walls with the smell of metal and blood, clearly present sending a shiver down Naruto's back, he arrived at the location where he found a window with bars, and a counter, somewhat like a store but not pretty and kind of run down, there he saw an anbu with a boar mask, standing looking at Naruto.

"You're the new recruit?" asked the Anbu, "Stay here, and I'll get you, your equipment."

As Naruto waited, he thought about the career, he had chosen, could he really kill people? End the lives of those asked of him, without hesitation, he never actually thought about this part of his career, always saying that he wouldn't have to kill people, that he wouldn't need to but that wasn't realistic, he had always thought that killing was amoral, that only monsters did it.

But were Iruka Sensei and Old Man Sarutobi, monsters? They had killed people, they had ended the lives of those they were asked to but it was clear to him, at least, that they weren't monsters.

Why wasn't this mentioned to him in the Academy? Perhaps, they did and he didn't think much of it at the time but that left him with thoughts about his fellow students, he honestly kinda missed them though most of them were assholes, they were most likely asleep right now and would be going to the Academy where they would learn basic stuff.

As much as he wanted to tell them, he knew it could be kinda dangerous and although he was dumb, he wasn't stupid, plus he could already imagine the looks of shock he would get when they found out that he was a true shinobi.

As the Anbu came back, with the equipment, Naruto nodded, grabbed the equipment, walked into the closest changing room, and began to change. He got out of his regular orange jacket, black shirt, pants, and blue slippers.

He put on the Anbu uniform, black clothing, a grey flak jacket, metal arm guards, black gloves, and ninja sandals with spikes. And finally, as he stepped in front of the mirror, he put on his porcelain mask. It represented a cat with a thick red stripe on both, his forehead and chin and an intricate red strip on either cheek.

Naruto knew that this was going to be a new part of his life, a new identity for him.

Naruto walked into a small room that looked kind of like a classroom but it was smaller with a few seats, he saw five people sitting at the desks, dressed in their own Anbu uniforms and masks while a tiger-masked Anbu with long brown hair was in a ponytail stood in front of the class as the instructor.

"Ko, good, now then, sit down with the rest," ordered Tiger as Naruto took his place among the class, "Now then we will begin with how Anbu operates. Anbu Black Ops is made up of only three ranks, Anbu Black Ops, Anbu Squad leaders also known as captains and finally the Anbu Commander, most of the time, you will take your orders from your Anbu Captain or Commander unless you are in Team Ro, the Hokage's personal Anbu unit who will only answer to the Hokage."

After several hours, they moved on to another topic that Anbu learned, the human body, they gave them lessons on what part of the human body did what, etc. He had tried dozing out but Anbu didn't mess around, he was hit hard, once for dozing out and hit again for speaking out and so the lesson was learned, don't speak out or doze off, or else pain is what followed.

'I am never dozing off or speaking out again,' thought Naruto with a nod, as he wiped some blood away from his mouth.

"In Anbu, you are expected to follow orders without question, in this case, your orders are to listen to me explain something, not doze off or be lazy," said Tiger, his voice controlled as though he didn't just hit someone, "Have I made myself clear, Ko?"

"Sir, yes, sir," answered Naruto as Tigger nodded.

"Good, now then, let us continue," replied the Tiger.

"Now then, we will be focusing on Kenjutsu," said Tiger, "many of you have never held a sword before as such we will be focusing on the basics, you are not expected to get good but you are supposed to pick up the basics here and work on it during Anbu."

"Let us start with the first basic kata," ordered Tiger as he showed them how to do katas.

They finally moved on sparing after practicing the katas for a few hours, he was placed against someone who seemed to be a teenager and dressed in a mouse mask with intricate red lines all over the mask, with short black hair, he struck at Naruto from the top which Naruto quickly blocked before pushing it back and returning the strike, which was blocked.

Naruto and the Anbu member continued to spar against each other, attempting to strike, block, and sidestep until Naruto had an idea, he left his side open which made Mouse attempt to strike it but Naruto smirked beneath his mask which he sidestepped and then used to kick the Anbu, knocking him off his balance before going forward and jumped at him, using the pommel to knock him down, as he pointed his sword towards his chest.

He had won... He. Had. Won. Naruto had rarely won a fight in anything, he was always being beaten but he had actually beaten someone for once not just a person but an Anbu Black Ops member, even though they were technically on the same level, he helped Mouse back to his feet.

"Good job, Ko," said Mouse before they got back to sparing.

The next part of the battle was Taijutsu and let's just say that he sucked was being kind, Anbu beat his ass every time he got into the spar, at least, they were helpful enough to tell him what he was doing wrong when asked and help him improve his taijutsu.

The next part was Genjutsu and the less said the better. He found himself in a field of roses and dispite his attempts he couldn't escape, he did eventually but that was through pure luck, he tried the basic method but failed so tried again and again, until he got out to find himself on the floor, breathing heavily.

"Now then, assassination and infiltration, here is all the intel available, your mission is to assassinate the target, how do you accomplish it?" asked the Anbu as they were shown 3d diagrams with replicas of guards and a replica 'target'. The first thing Naruto grasped was that it was kind of like a prank, you gotta know how a person acts and then prank them by using it to tell it against them.

"I would umm watch the guards, learn how they are and stuff, then I would umm, use knockout gas to take out one of the guards and use transformation jutsu to take on his appearance when the guy is alone, I would kill the guy using a knife, umm, not a kunai because people would be suspicious and leave, even if people think I did it, it would be the guard," said Naruto, even though he felt sick in the stomach, he had to do this, he had to...

It was the end of Anbu training, they had gone over everything from Shurikenjutsu to regular old jutsu, testing everything that he knew.

"Ko, stay back," ordered Tiger as Naruto looked confused, did he do something wrong? Did he make a mistake? Were they already kicking him out?

"I have been ordered to teach you the things that Genin are supposed to learn," said Tiger, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as the Anbu grabbed him and they appeared outside in a forest with large trees, where there was no one around, it was close to the location and luckily also had the same properties, "to begin, I will teach you tree climbing."

As much as Naruto wanted to retort that he knew how, he didn't want to be punched in the face again so kept it inside of him while the Anbu turned towards a tree and quickly began to walk towards it, before reaching it and taking a step on it and another one, and before Naruto's very eyes, he was walking on the tree.

'Is this what he meant?' thought Naruto, surprised as the Anbu reached the bottom of the branch and stared at him.

"This is known as tree climbing practice, it helps improve chakra control and teaches a basic skill that many shinobi know, what you will have to do is send a fixed amount of chakra to the bottom of your feet and use it to climb the tree without one's hand, if you produce too weak a stream of chakra, you will losing footing and fall off, if it is too much then, then you will be pushed away from the tree, causing it to fracture," explained Tiger, his voice the epitome of calm and control as Naruto looked on wide-eyed.

"So this is what I have to do?"

"Yes, only once perfected will you move onto the next exercise," answered Tiger, "now start practicing and remember what I told you, it should give you a basis and should only take you some time to learn tree climbing."

Tiger appeared, kneeling in a dark room, with grey walls and a small desk where the Anbu Commander sat going through files and paperwork.

"How goes training Ko, tiger?" asked the Commander, understanding the importance of the task.

"He is very rough around the edges but he has shown potential, in my professional opinion, he would be chunin level by the end of training," answered Tiger.

The Commander looked up at him, this was rare, "You are sure?"

"Indeed sir, he has already begun to improve, asking for help when necessary and adapting and improving himself though his taijutsu and many of his areas are fairly terrible, he has picked up on Kenjutsu better than some of our other trainees and is learning rather quickly in other areas as well," answered Tiger, honestly.

"A good fit for a shinobi, but what about as an Anbu?"

"Sir, he's shown a talent for Assassination and Infiltration," answered Tiger as the Commander looked up at him.

"What do you mean?"

"He was able to do well on Assassination and Infiltration," answered Tiger.

"Yes but so have most of the others recruited by Anbu," replied the Commander.

"Sir, with all due respect, most of those we have recruited are fully trained shinobi who have at least experience with killing and infiltration, this was just a recently graduated genin who is considered far behind many of his peers," replied Tiger.

"You make a good point, for now, we will watch his progress but training and truly working as an Anbu is different," said the Commander, as there was still much to come as an Anbu trainee.

Chapter Text

Naruto wondered what was taking so long, this was supposed to be the final test, the one that helped prove that one was worthy to be in Anbu, he had been working his ass off over the last 4 months, he had practiced everything they had told him to practice, he had learned everything he was supposed to learn in the two months, that he had been in Anbu.

He hoped that he would be good enough, while he was still having his ass handed to him by the other Anbu recruits, he could at least hold his own and last some time before getting beat, he was considered low chunin level in all honesty which was considered impressive as he had gone from below Genin level to Low chunin level.

He had picked up multiple new jutsu (though 2 of them were useful in learning the other Jutsu, Naruto still considered it an achievement.) He could detect and dispel Genjutsu as necessary. He was better than most at Kenjutsu, he thinks that most of his basics were good enough even though he was below most of his colleagues.

He watched as one by one, each other member walked through the door in the dark hallway to get tested, to see if they had what it took to go on missions like any other Anbu.

If he was honest, he was terrified, they tested their skills and while he had improved, he didn't know if he was good enough for the elite posting of Anbu Black Ops.

Many would understand this fear as he had tried his hardest, had tried his best in all other exams, and hoped it was enough, hoped that he was good enough for Anbu.

"It's your turn, Ko," said Tiger as he walked into the room to find a simple wooden desk with the Anbu Commander in one hand and an empty seat in the other.

"Commander-sama," greeted Naruto as the Commander nodded.

"Ko, please take a seat," ordered the Commander as Naruto did, the Commander's eye holes stared deep into Naruto's soul, even if he was hidden behind the mask, he felt that the man knew what he was feeling, what he was thinking at the moment. Naruto looked in front of him to find a simple kunai, one that was common, everywhere.

"As you know, Anbu Black Ops are loyal to the Village and the Hokage, one of the ways we test this loyalty is through an exam known as the 'Absolute loyalty test', it is the final and true exam to see if one is good enough for Anbu," explained the Commander as he waved towards the kunai, "prove your loyalty to the village."

Naruto grabbed the kunai and wondered what he meant for a second before it clicked, the Commander wanted him to stab himself with the kunai, was this why the others hadn't come out? They had killed themselves by the kunai and for a second Naruto thought about it, was this what it meant to be a shinobi, to be an Anbu Black Ops? To sacrifice himself when ordered by his superiors?

He could put the kunai and walk away but Naruto wasn't a coward, he was afraid, but he had spent two months here, he had gone through the pain, the struggle, and even the few Torture weeks (Anbu are supposed to sacrifice themselves rather than get caught but if they do, they must know how to handle torture and find a way to escape to warn the Village or kill themselves).

He aimed the kunai at himself, looking the Commander in the eye holes, at his chest, he had agreed to this, he had agreed to die for the Village if asked of him, this is what it meant to be a shinobi, to make hard choices for the sake of the village, he was asked to give it his all and he shall.

He would even give his life for the village if asked as he struck the kunai at himself, expecting himself to die for the sake of the village as asked but all he felt was a fist on his chest with a small bump as he looked down to see no kunai in his hand, where was it?

"You pass," said the Commander as Naruto looked up at him confused.

"What just happened?" asked Naruto, as the Commander just stared at him.

"In this room are multiple jutsu active at the same time, it takes us hours to set up and get properly running and is used to ensure that the shinobi is truly loyal, the kunai never existed but we were able to use the techniques in making you believe it was, you come into the room and then we see if you will stab yourself if asked, to prove that you have enough loyalty to throw the kunai at oneself," answered the Commander as Naruto let out a breath of relief, he didn't know he was holding.

It had been the true final test, to see if he truly held the village to that standard that he was willing to throw himself into a blade just for the village.

"What will happen now?" asked Naruto.

"Your team was pre-decided dependent on your skills, due to the reports I have gotten on you, you will be joining the Anbu Unit known as 'Team Ro'," answered the Commander as Naruto's eyes widened at him.

"Sir, I know I have improved a lot but I am pretty sure that I'm not that good," replied Naruto as the Commander nodded.

"No doubt but the decision is final, it was made with the Hokage will all information available," replied the Commander as Naruto sighed, they had thought about this long and hard before making the decision.

"Now then, I believe you should go see the Hokage," said the Commander, "dismissed."

Naruto smiled as he appeared outside the Hokage's office, dressed in his orange jacket and pants, walking inside to find the old man doing paperwork as he had always seen him.

"Ah, Naruto, congratulations on your pass," said the Hokage with a smile, "truly you have exceeded every expectation."

"Thanks, old man, though the last exam was the hardest," replied Naruto, cheerfully.

"It often is, we should go to celebrate and I don't need to remind you of the importance of secrets," said Sarutobi as Naruto looked excited, in those two months that he had been in Anbu training, he hadn't been able to get Ichiraku as he had spent the entire time, working his ass off to polish his skills to get ready for duty.

"So what is the regular shinobi life, like?" asked Naruto, he had experienced Anbu training but it was clear to him that the regular shinobi life would be different from the Anbu life, he was walking into.

"Well as an Anbu, you will be skipping D-rank missions altogether," answered Sarutobi as Naruto remembered hearing about the missions of catching cats, painting fences, etc, "yes, yes, feel happy at my generosity."

Naruto just looked at the old man, unimpressed as Sarutobi let out a chuckle.

"Now then, you'll find out as an Anbu," replied Sarutobi as Naruto nodded, he could get behind that.

"So let's go get ramen," said Naruto as he was gone with Sarutobi and his Anbu following suit.

Iruka Umino was walking through the village, he had been thinking about his (favorite) student Naruto, and how he hadn't seen the boy in 4 months, most didn't know where he had gone while some like the Third Hokage had told him that Naruto was busy and when he would be free, he would contact him but what was Naruto doing that was so time-consuming?

No Genin should be taking this much time, it kind of made him a bit scared for his student, Naruto was brash and overconfident in himself, if that boy got into trouble, it was often difficult for him to get out of it but the Third had assured him that Naruto was okay.

He and his big heart, it was part of the reason why he had left the field, if he kept acting like this, Naruto would never really grow.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei!" shouted an excited voice as he saw Naruto and the Hokage sitting at Ichiraku Ramen, what were they both doing here? Was what Naruto doing over?

"Hey, Naruto," said Iruka as he walked over to them and sat down in the seat next to Naruto.

"You've been busy, I haven't seen you in 2 months, Naruto," said the Chunin, as Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, as a shinobi, they are keeping me busy and all, do you know how painful it is?" asked Naruto, he wasn't lying but he wasn't telling the complete truth either.

"So, what are you up to?" asked Iruka, with a raised brow, even in shinobi cycles, Naruto Uzumaki was a rare sight in the village, meaning that whatever he was up to was important.

"Oh umm, I'm working as a sort of emissary to another village, I get training and help them on missions in return for their support of the Leaf," answered Naruto as Sarutobi raised a brow, Anbu had taught him to lie better, he was hiding his new position and with that explanation, many would believe that was why he was coming in and out of the Leaf.

"What Village?" asked Iruka but Iruka wasn't many.

"Sorry Iruka but I am afraid that is classified," answered Sarutobi, saving his new Anbu Black Ops from further answering.

"Oh, so who is your Jounin Sensei?"

"Oh I don't have one, I kinda get help in training from different people and work on missions with the rest of the members," answered Naruto, not technically a lie as well.

"So, how good are you now? How many Jutsu do you know now?" asked Iruka as Naruto thought about it for a second.

"I think I'm okay," answered Naruto as Iruka looked shocked for a second before a smile appeared on his face.

'You've matured, Naruto,' thought Iruka happily.

"After this, why don't we do a spar?" asked Iruka, as Naruto nodded.

"Sure," answered Naruto.

Naruto and Iruka stood on opposite ends of the field in training ground 3 as Sarutobi and his Anbu watched, this would be a good indicator of his skill as a new member.

'I can't fight Iruka Sensei, I've fought stronger Anbu and they won, he knows much more than me,' thought Naruto, his eyes gleaming.

"Begin!" shouted Sarutobi as Naruto threw down a smoke bomb which caused an eyebrow from Iruka, as a straight-edged Fuma Shuriken rushed at Iruka with speed.

"Shuriken shadow clones!" exclaimed a voice as that one giant shuriken multiplied into multiple all of which were coming towards Iruka whose eyes widened, as the smoke disappeared revealing Naruto standing there smirking, as the shuriken cut through Iruka, splitting him into 3 pieces and embedded themselves in the trees behind him.

Smoke suddenly appeared where Iruka was, revealing a log.

'Substitution,' thought Naruto as Naruto noted that 5 kunai were coming at him from the left Naruto quickly released his kunai to knock them down, as Iruka jumped at him with a kunai in hand Naruto quickly pulled out his kunai and blocked the strike, connecting the blades.

"You've gotten better Naruto," said Iruka with a smile as Naruto smirked with Iruka looking curious.

'Yes!' thought Naruto as Iruka's eyes widened as an explosion filled the area Iruka was thrown backward and hit a tree.

"Ah, he tricked Iruka using shadow clone explosion but not powerful enough to do any actual damage," said Sarutobi with a smile as Naruto appeared out of the ground, seemingly phasing over the injured Iruka holding a kunai.

"Yield!" exclaimed Naruto as Iruka looked up at him and smiled.

"I yield," said Iruka as Naruto nodded putting the kunai away as Naruto attempted to help to his feet and balance the man.

"That was impressive, though I do believe too far," said Iruka as they walked over to the Hokage Anbu grabbed Iruka and were gone, seconds later with only a flicker showing their leave.

"I believe that was a nice enough spar and a good show of some of your planning and strategy skill though an opponent usually wouldn't allow for the use of smoke bombs and often will try to remove them," said Sarutobi, with a chuckle, "I do believe that you should get ready as tomorrow is your first day doing missions."

"Yay," said Naruto, sarcastically remembering hearing about the types of missions a regular Anbu does.

"Have fun," said Sarutobi as he and the Anbu Black Ops guarding him, were gone in a flicker showing evident use of the body flicker.

'It has been some time since I trained,' thought Sarutobi as he thought about the last time he had practiced his skills, and his eyes widened before narrowing considerably as he turned to look at the village, 'I have been lazy, it has been over 10 years since I properly trained.'

Chapter Text

Naruto was curious about many things, many things indeed such as how was the Hokage so powerful, what ensured that the Leaf was the most powerful of the Five Nations, how the old man appeared weak when he was so strong but currently he was focusing on the fact that he couldn't feel or notice the Anbu Commander if he wasn't walking next to him.

Though the Commander was walking right next to him, he moved without a sound, he could see the man's feet touch the ground but no sound came out, Naruto couldn't even feel his presence, it was clear to him that the man might be able to walk to the Hokage's office next to a group of shinobi and they wouldn't notice until he is revealed.

"Commander-sama, how are you able to do that?" asked Naruto as the Commander turned towards him.

"Do what, Ko?" asked the Commander.

"Walking so quietly, no one would be able to know you're there without you telling them," answered Naruto as the Commander looked at him.

"Ah, that's a skill you will pick up given enough time," replied the Commander as Naruto nodded, that would be so cool and so useful as well especially in infiltration and investigation missions, plus it would be hilarious when he sneaked up to a person, they don't notice until he reveals himself and watch as they finally see him.

Naruto knew better than to ask why the Commander was accompanying him, it was part of the requirements of Anbu Black Ops, you do not question things, you do as ordered unless there is a specific reason to question it, the question he had previously asked was not related to a mission or anything, it was a simple question to improve skills.

When they arrived at the Changing Room, he could see how different it was from what he was expecting, he was expecting people to change almost robotically, fast, and ready but they were changing how regular people change, it was strangely normal.

Yes it was quicker than most would expect but some were still in discussion, he would never have expected this, but as soon as he stood there, they all turned towards him, some in shock, maybe the others were looking at the Commander but it was clear they were looking in this direction, Naruto felt nervous, nervous at their stares, at their confusion.

What if they treat him like everyone else? What if they act like assholes?

"Tenzo, this is your new Team member," said the Commander simply as a man with short brown hair dressed in a Happuri-style forehead protector at the end of the changing room turned to him.

"Oh, Naruto, over here," said Tenzo as Naruto walked over to him, doing what he always did, ignoring the stares as he walked over to the man, "This will be your locker, where you will be changing most of the time to get ready for Anbu Black Ops missions unless there is an emergency or requirement for you to change from elsewhere, you can call me Tenzo on duty and off duty, it is my name and code name."

"Tenzo, he underwent Anbu training, he knows most of what you mentioned," said the Commander as Tenzo looked over to him and back at Naruto.

"Oh," said Tenzo, showing no other emotion, "I guess that you know most of this stuff?"

"Ah, yes, captain Tenzo," answered Naruto as Tenzo nodded before smiling at Naruto.

"At least I don't have to explain things to you," said Tenzo as they turned towards the Commander who was already gone.

Naruto and Tenzo were walking to a training ground where they found two people waiting for him, one looked almost as young as him, though taller, paler, and with black hair and dressed in a dog mask with three intricate red lines around each eye and a purple-haired woman dressed in Anbu uniform but had a cat mask, with three intricate red stripes- two horizontal ones on each cheek and one vertical one on the forehead.

"Captain," said both members standing at the ready.

"Meet Ko, our new member," said Tenzo as he waved over to their new member, as they removed their masks, as well as Naruto to see their shock, well the women's shock while the guy just stared at him.

"You're in Anbu?" asked Yugao receiving dual nods from the new member and the captain, as with the other Anbu Black Ops, she accepted it and moved on, they would of course have work to do.

"So what will happen now?" asked Naruto, as Tenzo sighed.

"I guess we introduce ourselves, I'm Tenzo, and I am currently Team Ro's Captain," said Tenzo as he waved over to Yugao.

"My Name's Yugao Uzuki, code-named Cat," said Yugao, simply as they looked over to the other boy.

"I'm Sai," said the boy simply as Naruto just stared at him confused for a second before understanding, it was both his name and code name.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki, code-named Ko," said Naruto simply as Tenzo nodded.

"That's all," said Tenzo as he put on his mask, a cat mask with red and green intricate markings before putting on a white cloak with the hood up, followed by the other members though their cloaks were black.

"We are to guard the Hokage, let's go," said Yamato, simply.

"Hai!" replied the other members as they disappeared.

Guarding the Hokage was boring, really boring, most of what he had done for the past few hours was do paperwork, is this what the Hokage did all day? Sit around and do paperwork? Naruto felt bad for the Hokage and the Anbu Black Ops who had to watch him, as much as he wanted to move around, he forced himself to sit around and watch.

No wonder no one else wants to be Hokage, he guessed that the paperwork was important and all but most powerful shinobi don't want to spend hours upon hours of their day just sitting there, doing paperwork.

But he guessed that there were some important moments or else the Hokage wouldn't be considered as important job as it was, just like now...

"Ko, I have a mission for you," said Sarutobi simply as Naruto appeared from his hiding spot, kneeling in front of the Hokage.

"Sir, what do you need?" asked Naruto, using the lessons in professionalism as Sarutobi looked through a file.

"I have reason to believe that a shinobi by the name of Takeshi Akabane is a traitor, it is believed that he is altering and leaking intel to the Cloud and other Ninja Village, eliminate him and his contact from the Cloud, there must be no witnesses, after that you can take the rest of the day off," informed Sarutobi as he handed Naruto the file and the boy was gone in a flicker.

Naruto had never done a mission before, technically other than the Anbu Guard missions where he didn't see much action, this was the first mission where Naruto would be doing things that shinobi would do, hiding and watching a target, eliminating the target, Takeshi Akabane was a regular chunin with short black hair, white skin and brown eyes dressed in the regular chunin outfit.

You would usually find him at some desk, doing paperwork, too many he was completely normal, no longer on active duty since he wasn't the most skilled shinobi and was placed into the intelligence division to manage files but some of his comrades had noted that some files would have inaccurate details, especially ones that he was managing.

Why hadn't the usual shinobi squad hasn't been sent after the Cloud Nin and Akabane? Because the Cloud is more than trigger-happy, as a previous incident proved, they were willing to risk war if they found out that their shinobi was dead but if the shinobi just went missing, well they are not to blame, he just went missing.

Talking about death and doing it were two very different things, Naruto had to talk about how to kill someone and had to listen to about the best places for death, all of it was regular procedure but having to do the deed, to kill the person, Naruto was nervous, he could hold the kunai straight but striking to kill at the person was different.

He had been watching Akabane for the entire day, at night time, when his shift was over, he would go shopping, etc, etc, etc, all almost seeming as though he was a regular person but Naruto knew better, he knew what the man was upto, hiding as though he was regular to throw off regular shinobi from suspicion but Anbu knew and now he was no longer safe.

It was nearly midnight when the man left Konoha's detection border which allowed one to tell if unknown or enemies had entered the village, he then walked next to the Nakra River, arriving at a clearing, clearly meant to be a meeting spot for Takeshi's meeting with their contact, it was lucky they had spies who told them what intel had been delivered.

Suddenly, a regular cloud nin dressed in their uniform with small glasses and baldness, had a smirk on his face while meeting

"So what intel did you get for me, Takeshi?" asked the Cloud nin, as Takeshi smirked, as he pulled out a file, he had been carrying.

"Hey, hey, my payment," said Takeshi with a smirk as the cloud in pulled out a small bag, clearly filled with money but as they were about to trade, Naruto decided to strike, he threw 3 kunai straight into Takeshi putting an end to him, scaring the Cloud nin as the body flumped over, he looked around trying to find out what happened.

Naruto held his kunai in a reverse grip before jumping onto him, forcing the cloud nin onto the ground, onto his back as he struck him straight in the throat, ending him as Naruto watched as the life left his eye, watched as he struggled only for a few more seconds as blood leaked onto him and the knife.

There was blood, blood on him, blood on his mask, he knew there was, he had killed the nin and the traitor, he had put an end to the life of his enemy as was asked of him.

But all he could think about was the fact that he was dead, both of them were dead, he had killed them... Naruto stuffed the bodies into storage scrolls, taking both the money and the scroll before returning to the village in a flicker, he had a mission to complete, he had a mission to complete, a mission to complete, a mission to complete, he had to talk to the Lord Third Hokage.

"Mission complete, Lord Hokage," said Naruto, his voice kind of bland, showing a sort of emotionlessness that no one would expect from the young excitable blond child as Sarutobi nodded, Naruto handed Yugao the scrolls holding the body and the intel but was allowed to keep the ryo as no-one would miss it.

"Ko, remove your mask," ordered Sarutobi, as Naruto shakily raised a hand to the porcelain-based cat mask on his face and removed showing, a pale and scared boy who looked horrified, horrified at himself, this was one of the times that Sarutobi asked himself had he made the right choice by placing the boy in Anbu, he walked over to the young and scared boy, the boy that he had asked to join the Black Ops and engulfed the boy in a hug, as he processed his emotions.

Processed what he had done.

"It's okay, Naruto, it's okay," said Sarutobi, as he patted the boy's back, he knew that this was the boy's first kills, the first deaths that he had ever had a hand in, Sarutobi and many others could understand what he felt in this moment, everyone reacted differently but it was clear he was scared, he was feeling numb, trying to process everything.

"What have I done?" asked Naruto as Sarutobi let out a sad sigh, he knew what the boy had done, he had become a true shinobi much like all other shinobi, much like himself, much like Iruka, he had become one of the most important requirements that differentiated him from his agemates and the new Genin with their Jounin instructors, he had killed...

Chapter Text

As Naruto knelt next to the corpse of the man, he felt as though he had left something behind and that something had taken it's place. What had he left behind? Was it his morality? He had felt bad that he had to kill a man but Naruto had killed him either way, he was an Anbu and an Anbu meant bringing death to those who he had been ordered to bring death to.

But what had taken the place of that morality? Was it the obedience to complete these missions? Whatever it was, it didn't matter right now as Tenzo, who was like him covered in blood, ordered Sai and Yugao to watch the perimeter. Naruto knew that they had been Mist shinobi who had infiltrated the Land of Fire and had stolen something important, important enough that the Third Hokage had sent them out to get rid of them.

He watched Tenzo walk over, kneel, and pull something out of the corpse he had been responsible for creating and pulling out a scroll. That was it? This was what the Third Hokage thought so important and had sent them to retake. A simple scroll... But he shouldn't be foolish, perhaps it had intelligence on the spies in the Mist, he had faith that the Third wouldn't have sent them in so wastefully to get something useless back to the Hidden Leaf so it must be important.

"We've got it," said Tenzo after he had gotten up, opened the scroll, and checked the contents, "Let's get rid of the evidence." His work never finished, did it?

"So the mission has been completed, you may go," said the Third Hokage as he let out a deep breath smoke filled the area where they were as they disappeared but Naruto still remained as the Third watched him curiously, was the boy going to be asking about leaving the Black Ops? Why was he still here? Perhaps, there was something else that concerned the boy...

"Old man, may I ask for some advice?" asked Naruto as Sarutobi closed the scroll and placed it on the table.

"Of course, you did help complete the mission, I shall see if I can help you," said the Third as Naruto nodded, he had been having difficulty learning a valuable skill that he had been trying to get for some time but had failed, he had tried to read and understand several scrolls but even with that he couldn't really understand.

"Sir, I recently found out I have a wind affinity," began Naruto as Sarutobi's curiosity started to take him over, "I have tried to start the training for wind change in chakra nature by doing the first step but I have found that I have failed at it again and again... Could you explain how to use wind change in chakra nature?"

"Ah, one so young learning a change in chakra nature," said Sarutobi with a smile, "The thing is Naruto, when you use wind change in chakra nature, you need to mold your chakra a certain way, do you understand?"

"I believe so," answered Naruto as Sarutobi decided to continue, this reminded him of helping Asuma with his wind change in chakra nature training, oh those had been the days.

"For wind, you can't just do a hand sign, you need to do this by just molding chakra, it will take you some time to get past the first step, perhaps months, what you need to do is to have to imagine splitting your chakra into two and then grinding them against each other as you are finely sharpening the blade between the two points," explained the professor with a smile as Naruto nodded in understanding.

"Sharpening the blade, eh," said Naruto, he was very happy that he had gone to the Third Hokage for help with this as he didn't want to waste time.

"Yes, finely and sharply," said Sarutobi, "Watch, Naruto." The Third Hokage grabbed a piece of paper and began to focus his chakra as he had explained previously and in the middle, the page quickly split in half as Naruto's shock was palpable even beneath his mask as the Third smirked, it was always good to see the awe on young shinobi.

"Old man, thank you!" said Naruto, excitedly as the Third waved him off as the boy disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"Kids these days, starting to do something so difficult so young," said Sarutobi as he let out a chuckle, perhaps that little fool even had a shot of becoming Hokage now.

Naruto let out a sigh as he focused his chakra into the leaf, no matter how long it would take him, he would get this, He was Naruto Uzumaki, after all as he noticed that the leaf had a cut, he was getting this... Oh my god, after this, it'll be easier to do wind-style jutsu and his chakra control would be better, two wins for Naruto, suck it world.

"I don't believe that you should get excited just yet, Naruto," said Sai as Naruto noticed that his teammate was here as well, sitting under the shade of a tree, drawing something, Naruto let out a sigh, he had been trying for hours, when had Sai gotten here? Was his situational awareness really that bad or were Sai's stealth skills that good?

"Hi Sai," said Naruto as he gave a wave, he shook his head, the guy was a bit weird, Naruto had quickly learned that his fellow youngest Anbu was a bit of an ass if he was trying to be nice, say things that would piss other people off and giving bad nicknames, "When did you get here?"

"A while ago, you just didn't notice me," said Sai as Naruto let out a sigh as he did a sign and a shadow clone appeared and began to continue the training as Naruto walked and sat down with Sai and noticed a drawing of him, training wind style, Naruto was kinda impressed by how good it was as he also noticed that he was hungry... Naruto looked at Sai and then back at his stomach, perhaps he would finally have a good chance...

"Hey Sai, I'm pretty hungry, you wanna grab some ramen?" asked Naruto as Sai looked at him curiously.

"What about your training?" asked Sai as Naruto let out a shrug.

"My shadow clone will continue it, after ramen, I can come back and dispel it," answered Naruto as Sai nodded, that made sense but why him? Was this what he thought it was?

"Are you perhaps showing romantic interest in me by asking me on a date, Naruto?" asked Sai as Naruto's cheeks turned pink, where did he come from that?

"No of course not!" shouted Naruto as he looked at Sai, "Ramen is better with a friend ya know... So come on." Naruto grabbed Sai and dragged him away to get ramen as Sai contemplated Naruto's line about friends, was Naruto his friend or just his teammate? Perhaps, to understand friendship, he would spend time with Naruto.

Sarutobi let out a laugh, he was happy for Naruto, he was finally having a friend despite the apparent difficulty of it in the academy, it seemed that the field of duty and battle could truly bring people together, he had hoped that Naruto would have a chance (though he had never thought it would be an emotionally suppressed 'former' member of Foundation, he would definitely be upping the number of people keeping the eye on Danzo).

"A date?" asked the Anbu Commander, incredulous as he knew that there definitely would be a few rumors of Naruto having a romantic relationship with Sai coming up in a few weeks and he would, of course, do nothing to invent or add to them, nothing at all, despite how hilarious it would be, the Commander doesn't torture his subordinates, not at all...

"Perhaps, Anbu Black Ops has given him something," said Sarutobi as he turned away as the Anbu Commander nodded to the Third and vanished into thin air.

Naruto let out a sigh as he lay on his bed tired after a long of day training, he had gotten to know Sai a bit better and had gained an understanding that Sai wasn't an asshole (not completely), he just genuinely thought that the best way to build camaraderie was insulting people and being demeaning, he had explained that it was a bad idea and while Sai had understood that, the ass had given him such a nice nickname, a very nice one that he was not angry about, not at all.

As he lay there, sleep soon approaching, he wondered what will the future hold. Will he become even more different or would he stay the same? Only time will tell...

Chapter Text

 Naruto and 3 other Anbu were kneeling in front of the Hokage for the new mission, they were getting.

The mission team developed for this team under Anbu Captain Zo, were Fox, tiger, and Naruto, all dressed in Anbu clothes and masks, all of whom were ready for combat.

Though Black Ops members were usually part of a specific Anbu Team, it was common that members would either be transferred around or teams would be made for specific missions (this means that you would work with others but you wouldn't leave your Anbu Team).

"You have chosen for an important mission, our spies have found out that a spy from the lock village has stolen information from the Village hidden by the Rocks, your objective is to eliminate the team that is currently guarding him and steal the information from the spy, we believe that the team is fleeing from the land of Earth to Land of Keys, the hidden rock village shouldn't know you were there, we don't want to cause an incident or else you would be disavowed," ordered the Hokage, with simplicity as the Team nodded before disappearing.

Sarutobi looked at one of the corners out of which Crow appeared, the Anbu Commander simply looked at the Hokage.

"He has potential," said Crow, simply as Sarutobi nodded. Crow had at first not believed that Naruto wouldn't benefit (and benefit from) Anbu, he had severely underestimated the boy as did many others but he could see that he would become a good shinobi now.

"Yes but I didn't want Anbu Black Ops to be the place to cultivate it, he is learning that he is good at killing at such a young age," replied Sarutobi as he let out a sad sigh.

"Sarutobi, he decided to stay, he made that choice himself, you gave the option, and he took it, you even asked him after his first mission if he wanted to stay, he chose to," replied the Commander as he looked onward, "yes, he has learned that he is good at killing but he has learned so much more than that, he has learned stealth, secrecy, about the truth of jutsu of the shinobi world, have faith in him, he has improved many of his formerly abysmal skills."

"Do you think he will forgive me if I tell him?" asked Sarutobi as he looked outside the Village.

It had taken some time to get out of Fire Country and into the Land of the Keys but now they had to find the route the shinobi were taking to get to the Hidden Lock Village, from what he had been just told, the Lock Village was extremely secretive even more so than any other village, they specialized as a whole in spying and stealing intelligence, they would even wipe the minds of their own just to steal these secrets.

So to find the route would be difficult especially since lucky for them, the Land of Keys was much closer to the Land of Fire than the Land of Earth and hopefully, they still hadn't gotten here.

'Find the Captain,' signed Zo as they passed into the land of keys, the others agreed with their sign and it didn't take long to find the area where several shinobi were guarding and it was easier to find the leader, a man dressed in the regular lock village outfit with long spiky black hair held in a bun and light brown eyes barking orders until he decided to leave the area clearly for defecating reasons, and Fox was promptly sent after him.

He came back with the Lock shinobi tied up and held over his shoulder.

The captain was placed in front of them, asleep, knocked out, and tired in an empty area several miles away from society and hidden by Genjutsu, thanks to the works of Zo.

"Wake up," ordered Naruto, kicking the Lock Nin as he found himself between 4 Anbu, "tell us about the route the team guarding spy from the Rock Village is taking."

"Leaf scum, I will never tell you anything, you leaf village scum, you pathetic losers, you pieces of shit!" shouted the shinobi as the Anbu team all looked at each other before Naruto punched him straight in his face and he spit out some blood, Naruto knew better than to get angry, he had been insulted in the past and could take it.

"Tell us," ordered Eagle before the Lock Village shinobi just smirked and let out a laugh.

"I wouldn't tell you anything," said the Lock shinobi.

"This is taking too long," said Zou simply as he went through several hand signs, "Back to the Past jutsu!"

"What does it do?" asked Naruto, as they looked at the guy whose eyes were now closed and he seemed in concentration.

"It puts a target into a state of reverse hypnosis where they will remember details about missions, he will now comply with the interrogation," explained Zou as Naruto decided to ask him a question.

"What is the route that the spy and his team will take?" simplistic and straight to the point.

"They will come from the west, they will pass through the border where our shinobi will prevent the teams from chasing them, they will then have easy access to the Hidden Lock Village where they will deliver the intel," answered the Lock nin.

"Has he arrived?" asked Eagle.

"Not yet," answered the nin.

"What form will the intel take and how was it collected?" asked Fox, simply.

"It is in our spy's mind, it was collected using the eye's mind-reading ability, which allows one to subtly read one's mind, it is how we hold all our information," answered the Lock nin, once again.

"Describe the spy," said Naruto simply, finally all the questions were answered and they knew what they needed to do.

"He has blond hair, and blue eyes, he is dressed in our shinobi attire and a squad is escorting him," replied the man as Zo stopped the jutsu and the man opened his eyes, looking at them in confusion.

"What did you do?" asked the man as Naruto looked at the others and with a nod he slit his throat with a kunai, he winced at the death but knew it was a necessity for the sake of the village and those he cares about, especially since if he told anyone who captured him, it could lead to an international negative situation.

"What is the plan?" asked Naruto as he cleaned the blood off his kunai, Zou put a hand to his chin and looked to be deep in thought, this was a precarious situation but it could be to their advantage, especially as this was the plan.

The team had done it, they had escaped the enemy shinobi, the spy smiled, he had completed his mission and stole the intelligence, around a team was guarding him, to ensure that the intel couldn't be stolen, they had gotten past the border and now the teams were dealing with other Lock shinobi.

But as they walked towards the lock village he watched as two fell back dead, he could see the glint of kunai as the other two prepared for combat but before they could think about what was happening, a fox-masked and an eagle-masked Leaf Anbu black ops descended upon them and before they could think, they were dead.

It had been a trap, they had found out their location and had prepared to capture them, as he tried to run, he felt as though invisible steel ropes had been tied around him as he looked ahead to find two other Anbu waiting for him, both of them cat masked but one was short and doing a hand sign, clearly a child while the other was taller.

Before he could think he had been hit in the neck and fell to the ground, out cold as Naruto pulled out a scroll, and before they very eyes, rolled open the scroll on the ground revealing a seal, rolled him over it, and then did another hand sign before he was gone into the scroll.

"Get rid of those bodies and blood, no evidence that we were here, understood?" asked Zo, as the others nodded.

"You have all done, well," said Sarutobi with a smile as he sat behind the Hokage's desk, they were currently pulling the intel out of the spy utilizing torture thanks to the work of the Torture and Interrogation Division, "The Leaf is glad to have you, now then, you can have a break, it's clearly been a long mission for you all, actually Zo, stay."

After that, they all disappeared in a flicker to relax in whatever ways they knew.

"How did Ko do?" asked Sarutobi with a smoke from his pipe.

"He did as well as every other member of the team, though his age is young, he worked effectively and has shown as of this moment no sign of any mental issues," answered Zo as Sarutobi smiled, Naruto truly was fitting in with the elite shinobi of the Leaf, which would be strange to anyone who actually knew the boy.

Anbu are trained to complete their missions and be professional towards each other, Naruto as a young child and academy student had never really been treated respectfully, always getting insulted or talked behind his back so the professionalism and he would most likely be working with his team more, especially since they would guarding him, more often.

"Thank you, Zo, you are dismissed," said Sarutobi as he looked upon the photo of the Fourth Hokage before shaking his head, "I do hope that you will forgive me, for placing your son into Anbu, Minato."

Chapter Text

The Hokage looked at his youngest Anbu Black Ops with a sigh, he had planned to give him the day off but for now, he would have to tell the young boy about the most important fact of his life, one that would no doubt change his perception of the Leaf Village and all those inside of it, but he had faith in the boy.

"Naruto, what I am about to tell you is Classified," began Sarutobi as he noticed the confused expression on the boy's face, "Back when Lord First Hokage was fighting Madara Uchiha at Valley's End, Madara had summoned the 9 tailed demon fox itself to beat the First but the First was still able to beat the powerful Uchiha, you see the 9 tails could no longer be allowed to roam free as it did before so the First Hokage's wife, Mito Uzumaki of the Uzumaki whose skill in sealing was remembered to this day, sealed the 9 tails into herself becoming the very first Jinchuriki of the 9 tails when she had gotten old, she could no longer contain the 9 tails as such she had a girl summoned, a young girl named Kushina Uzumaki who would then become the 9 tails Jinchuriki."

"lord Third, you're not suggesting-" said Naruto but even Sarutobi wouldn't allow him to finish, as he continued on with the story.

"You see it couldn't just be anyone that could become a 9 tails Jinchuriki, they required special chakra and life force that only special members of the Uzumaki had and that was why she was chosen, later the Uzumaki's Hidden Eddy Village was destroyed and Kushina would fall in love with Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, who she would later privately marry, she would get pregnant and during the Child's birth, something happened which resulted in the 9 tails getting lose, the Fourth had no choice but to seal it into a boy, his own son as he was the only one who could hold it."

"That was me, wasn't it?" asked Naruto, receiving a nod, for the first time, he couldn't really be angry at the Fourth, his own father, the man in this case really had no choice if he hadn't done it, thousands would have died and nobody else could really hold the 9 tails, they didn't have that special chakra that was required.

"Yes, he knew what would happen, both of them did but they knew in this case, there was no choice," said the Third Hokage, as Naruto thought about something, about what happened during the attack.

"Did you guys do anything to stop it?" asked Naruto, he wanted to know if this could have been prevented.

"Indeed, we set up a barrier outside of the Village, where Anbu and medical Nin were prepared including my wife, Biwako, your father brought her there and kept himself to ensure that the 9 tails couldn't escape," answered Sarutobi as Naruto thought about how the 9 tails were said to have appeared in the Village.

"That means it was an incident, an attack on the Village by unknown perpetrators," said Naruto, realizing the obvious as Sarutobi nodded, the information seemed to have the effect Naruto needed, "by who?"

"We don't know," answered Sarutobi, truthfully as Naruto decided to think a bit more about this.

"How did Madara Uchiha control the 9 tails?" asked Naruto as Sarutobi's eyes widened, it seemed that the boy's inquisitiveness came from his father, he had learned from the story.

"Using the Sharingan," answered Sarutobi truthfully.

"That means that it was someone with the Sharingan who controlled it, everyone did say it appeared in the Village," replied Naruto as Sarutobi just looked at the boy shocked, it seemed he figured it out.

"Yes, we don't know who nor will we ever know as Itachi Uchiha had genocided the Uchiha Clan in one night," said Sarutobi, subverting the topic as Naruto looked at him with his eyes narrowed, reminding Sarutobi much of his father, "For now, we will believe that the suspect is dead or was someone who may have stole a Sharingan until other intelligence comes out."

"Am I excused?" asked Naruto as he received a nod from Sarutobi before disappearing in a flicker, the boy had a lot to think about, this information would hopefully give him some peace he needed.

Tenzo let out a sigh, he had recently heard that Naruto had heard some news about himself something, something that would change everything he knew, and though he didn't know the kid as well as he should've, the boy was his subordinate and his comrade and as Kakashi said 'those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash.'

He found Naruto sitting on his bed, staring at his wall, deep in thought, his face in a sad expression as Tenzo appeared on the side of the bed and looked at the boy, he had a few times, felt the same way, many orphans had and especially them who had gotten bad news.

"Naruto, I can't honestly say I know how you feel," began Tenzo as Naruto looked up at him confused, "I was experimented on by a traitor of the Leaf and it felt horrible, I gained an ability for it but I watched my fellow experiments die while I survived, the feeling of helplessness, of anger, it still hasn't left me and I guess it is something similar to what you are feeling..."

"I don't hate them, ya know," said Naruto as he let out a sigh, "I don't think I can hate them as I understand, I understand why they did what they did but what am I supposed to feel?"

"You don't have to feel anything," answered Tenzo as Naruto looked at him confused, "You don't know your parents, you don't know their reasons, why should you feel anything? Why should you feel love or hatred? You understand why they did it and don't hate them so who says that you must love them?"

"I think I understand," answered Naruto, and though, Sai arrived in smoke and while he didn't understand emotions, he could see the sadness Naruto is feeling, it was very obvious.

"Naruto, what happened?" asked Sai as Naruto let out a sigh.

"Sai, how would you feel if you learned something about yourself that you don't know how to feel about?" asked Naruto as Sai's mind clicked.

"That you are the 9 tails Jinchuuriki?" asked Sai as Naruto looked shocked, Sai had figured it out before him?!

"How the hell did you know?" asked Naruto as Sai let out a shrug.

"It had been obvious," answered Sai as Sai decided to tease Naruto a little, "it seems that you just aren't smart enough to figure it out..."

"Oi!" shouted Naruto as he got up, "No, it's just I didn't realize the link between me and the 9 tails..."

"Yeah because you lack a brain," said Sai as Tenzo could only shake his head and smile as he watched the two argue about who was dumb and who wasn't, it was nice to see the two youngest Anbu in history (at least not from Foundation) truly acting their age, he had often wondered if it was wise to introduce them to the world so soon.

Iruka Umino was getting annoyed, he had no idea how the ridiculous rumors about Naruto had started and why his friend, Mizuki was adding fuel to the fire... but having been asked his opinion on the new gospel for the thirtieth time Naruto seemed to be getting defense from people he had never had expected.

Naruto had gained a reputation of being a skilled and excellent shinobi, someone that the few friends that he had in Anbu told him were interested in working with (it was rare that Anbu would choose to work with anyone outside of Anbu Black Ops, it was considered a compliment of your skills and ability), what he had been up to gain such a reputation had been beyond him but he had been told that Naruto had gone on multiple classified A-rank missions.

Of course, he dismissed those dumb rumors as ridiculous (and a crazy attempt to give poor Iruka a heart attack by those assholes) because the Third Hokage wouldn't send a Genin on such missions but a part of him wanted to know the truth, the truth that Sarutobi insisted that Naruto would tell him when he wasn't busy, (busy doing what? he didn't know but it seemed pretty important).

"Naruto, I do believe you will give poor Iruka some grey hairs from worrying about you, I suggest that you do tell him," said Sarutobi, receiving a nod from the hooded and masked Anbu as he let out a laugh that sent shivers down the Old Hokage's back, "please don't scare him too much, I don't want to lose one of my best teachers."

"Don't worry, he'll be just fine," replied Ko as he disappeared after the rest of Team Ro for the mission that Sarutobi had given him.

"Why do I get the feeling that boy will get a punch for his actions?" asked Sarutobi as the Commander appeared next to him.

"Because you have experience with all of this," answered the Commander, as Sarutobi nodded, it was true.

"You usually have a reason for this, why are you here?" asked Sarutobi, as the Commander gave him what seemed to be a hurt expression.

"I have something hilarious to tell you," answered the Commander, as Sarutobi looked at him confused before the Commander began his story about how the Academy students had gotten it into their heads that Naruto had dropped out and was now masquerading as a shinobi as the few people who had seen him had seen him with a headband.

"You're joking," said Sarutobi, letting out a chuckle, he hadn't heard something so ridiculous in a long time such as when people believed that Minato's real name was Arashi.

"No, even though, none of them had seen Naruto at all in the past few months," replied the Commander as he put a hand on his chin, "Let's keep him private until they graduate."

"Oh god, imagine," said Sarutobi, who said the old man was going to solve this. He was going to watch from the distance, laughing his ass off as he watched the Jounin introduce the Uzumaki to his agemates, he needed good humour and in many cases, it seemed that those children would be it, especially with how troublesome his job was becoming.

Chapter Text

Naruto let out a sigh as he went through the hand signs: tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, snake before focusing chakra into his stomach, "Wind style: great breakthrough!" as he released powerful winds, he hadn't completed the change in chakra nature second step but he had decided to learn a few C-rank wind style jutsus just to be sure that he could have an advantage in the field, especially with how dangerous some of the missions can be.

He of course had a shadow clone still going over the second step while he focused on a few jutsus that with the completion of the first step would take far less time than he had expected (it had taken him around 3 months just to get the first step) and the second step was taking a lot of concentration and chakra, he had no doubt it would take him months.

"Naruto, wouldn't it be wiser to take a break?" asked a voice as Naruto turned around to find his Captain standing there who had been watching his subordinate train for the last few hours, he would activate a jutsu that allows him to deal with the 9 tails chakra and had seen how much hard work he was putting into his training, he had also noticed something about how he really needed to work on detection as Naruto turned towards his captain.

"After a bit more practice, the better I can get at the jutsu, the better I can use it, mine isn't really as it could be, I heard that it could be like a hurricane and uproot trees," answered Naruto as Tenzo nodded, the boy really does work hard when he puts his mind to it.

"Naruto, I know you are putting a lot of work into this but breaks are important, especially after so much work," replied Tenzo as he hid a smile, it seemed that being a shinobi and an Anbu Black Ops had truly opened his eyes but he can't have the young subordinate faint while training.

"Captain Tenzo, I know but-" said Naruto as Tenzo cut him off.

"But nothing, take a break, kid," replied Tenzo as Naruto let out a sigh, he could feel himself getting very tired and he did need a break from all the training he was doing as he began dispelling his clones in groups and a few minutes later was done and finished processing the experience though he did notice that two of his other teammates were there, too.

"Yugao-sempai, Sai," said Naruto as he noticed another man and looked at him confused, he had circles under his eyes and looked a bit pale, "Ummm,"

"Oh yeah, Naruto, this is my boyfriend, Hayate Gekko," said Yugao as Hayate put a hand around her.

"You're her boyfriend?" asked Naruto, shocked before giving him a pitying look, "You poor, poor soul..."

"Brat!" shouted Yugao as she hit him on the head, it isn't unusual for Anbu Black Ops to form friendships on teams as they will be working together for some time, but at many times, he doesn't happen for obvious reasons such as the fact that due to the much harder and more classified missions, Anbu were often more professional than friendly so they don't get hit as hard by the loss.

Hayate let out a chuckle at the boy's antics. He had been shocked that Naruto Uzumaki of all people was in Anbu Black Ops but the more he thought about it, the more it made logical sense and he was very different from what the other Leaf Shinobi spoke about him as.

"Now then, we're going to go get some lunch, you are coming along," said Tenzo as he grabbed the boy and before they knew it, they were gone in a flicker with the others following suit.

Naruto hadn't seen many of his former classmates in months, especially since had been so busy with his Anbu missions and training but sadly the first person he had run into was the Sasuke Uchiha of all people.

'Is my luck really that bad?' thought Naruto, as he ran into the boy.

Sasuke was spending the day wandering the village alone... Alone in the way that he was walking alone but was being followed by his legion of fangirls who were several feet behind him but he kept ignoring them and trying to move on with his life...

Naruto also knew how hilarious it would be when Sasuke discovered the actual missions that a Genin has to do, missions that he had technically skipped but that was due to being an Anbu Black Ops, yet his situation was very unique and different (from what he found out, this may have been a plot by some Academy Instructors and there was an uneven number of graduates) while Sasuke would be made a regular Genin.

"Idiot," greeted Sasuke as Naruto looked at him confused, "Why are you wearing that?"

Naruto looked at him confused, he wasn't really wearing anything different other than his regular orange clothes, he was off duty so really had nothing that was out of his usual fashion sense of Orange jacket and pants.

"What are you talking about?" asked Naruto as he turned back to the Uchiha.

"that," answered the Uchiha as he pointed towards Naruto's headband, a sign of the fact that he was a shinobi now. He could tell Sasuke the truth that he was a shinobi now but as much as he didn't like the boy, he really didn't want to cause issues for poor Iruka-sensei who would no doubt have to deal with that revelation.

"Ah, not important," replied Naruto as he turned around and attempted to go back the way he came but he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to find Sasuke waiting there.

"Take it off, it's illegal to pretend to be a shinobi," said Sasuke but Naruto just gave him an unimpressed look.

"I am a shinobi," replied Naruto as a strange and dark expression overtook Sasuke's face as Naruto pulled out one of his hidden kunai, he really didn't trust the boy but then the expression was gone.

"Stop pretending," replied the Uchiha as he let out a snort and began to walk away, clearly believing that strange rumor that had come about that he was not an actual shinobi.

Sasuke had decided to instead focus on anything else rather than the 'delusions' of Naruto Uzumaki who would no doubt get punished for pretending to be a shinobi, it was a criminal offence and he knew that there would be some type of punishment for the idiot, as you really wouldn't want to be caught as a spy...

"Is Naruto really a ninja?" asked Sakura as the other fangirls looked at him confused.

"No," answered the Uchiha heir, he was as sure of this as he was sure of anything and everything he had ever done, as he walked away as Sakura and the other fangirls went to talking amongst themselves.

"Let's teach that idiot a lesson!" shouted Sakura getting massive agreement as they all rushed towards Naruto who was still walking away before disappearing in a flicker causing them all to fall upon each other.

Iruka didn't know what happened but somehow the rumors that Naruto was pretending to be a shinobi were back in full force and this time supported by Sasuke Uchiha and the Uchiha's entire fan club which somehow gave it credibility, he had even heard that they were just waiting to hear about Naruto's punishment for such a 'sin'.

Even though it was unlikely, even though it was illogical whatever Sasuke Uchiha said had to be the truth and he was backed by several people (though logic does tell the idiots that those supporting the Uchiha were people who disliked Naruto and the entirety of the Uchiha's fan club, and many of them could check this information with any of their shinobi parents...)

"Why do I get the feeling I am going to have some fun?" thought Naruto, out loud as he let out a laugh Sai looked at his friend who had just a second before shrugging and going back to drawing as Naruto watched him as they sat under a nice tree, relaxing on one of the few moments when they weren't constantly training or doing Anbu missions.

"Naruto, I say this as your friend and the person who has worked with you for some months," began Sai, "Please don't do something dumb..."

"When do I ever do something dumb?" asked Naruto as Sai looked at him, unimpressed.

"Might I remind you that during lunch, you decided to see how many cookies you could stuff into your own throat and began to choke on them," answered Sai as Naruto just let out a chuckle.

"Hey! You took that out of context!" shouted Naruto "It was a challenge."

"Challenge by who? Did the God themselves ask you to?" asked Sai as Naruto felt him get insulted.

"Please, if the gods would talk to me it would be about how awesome I am," answered Naruto.

Chapter Text

He had only been out of the Academy for 10 months now, having been busy with both Anbu Black Ops missions and tasks, as well as training so that he could be the best he could be, especially with how much harder Anbu Black Ops missions were than regular missions, he had constantly been required to sneak into other countries, assassinate people and had even earned himself a lot of money.

Turns out that due to the high-ranking missions including guarding the Hokage, he had earned himself enough money to live kinda comfortably without having to worry about money as much as he used to due to being an orphan and like other orphans, only getting a stipend from the Leaf to pay for basic necessities (the leaf paid for the homes they lived in).

He had also been forced to clean up his apartment, turns out a dirty apartment could lead him to lose things rather easily such as a scroll of a powerful jutsu... 

So right now, it was much nicer or rather cleaner than it had been and much more dangerous after Naruto had learned a valuable lesson as an assassin, you are safe in your village but there was a reason there were other Anbu Black Ops so of course like any smart shinobi, he had of course, placed enough traps everywhere to prevent 'thieves'.

That was the excuse he was using.

Also as he was one of the few wind style users in the Hidden Leaf and there was the fact that he had mastered the wind change in chakra nature, he had heard about jutsu used by a certain Leaf elder and how powerful they were...

While the Sand did technically have the monopoly on wind-style jutsu, the few wind style: vacuum (Insert jutsu name here), there were far surpassed what many of the wind-style jutsu of the Sand could do or so he heard the stories of from many of the Anbu Black Ops and shinobi who served in the 3 great Ninja wars and seen the jutsu in action.

He had even begun to practice wind style: vacuum bullets, a powerful jutsu that would release small bursts of wind chakra that could decimate a target or even multiple targets.

He did plan to further his studies of the jutsu though he did have other things to be curious about such as...

"Old man, who revealed that I was a Jinchuriki?" asked Naruto, curious as the Third Hokage looked deep in thought, he knew that one day Naruto would be curious about this.

"You see, Naruto, what I am about to say is Hearsay but I believe that it was one of my subordinates who is responsible for spreading your status around the Leaf," said the Third Hokage, as Naruto's eyes widened.

"What?" asked Naruto, shaking as the Third Hokage decided to continue.

"You see many in the Leaf were shaken and angry, the Village itself needed a scapegoat and this person most likely reveal your status silently, this gave the Villagers and many of the shinobi someone to get angry against, someone to blame for their issues or the loss of their loved ones," answered the Third Hokage as Naruto understood.

"So that is how I came to be known as 'the 9 tails brat'," said Naruto simply as Sarutobi nodded.

"You see, Naruto, I relayed the wishes of the Fourth Hokage but the people did not want to listen," said Sarutobi as Naruto nodded, Jinchuriki as a whole were not attacked or targeted by the other villages and were kept private.

"But the angry and tired people of the Village wouldn't listen," finished Naruto as he nodded, he could at least, now understand the perspective of the Village, of why many of the people in the Leaf disliked him... They believed him to be responsible for the loss of many of the shinobi in the Village... Of their great hero... Of their loved ones...

While he didn't like many of the people of the Village, he could at least understand their plight, and why they acted the way they did. Civilians did not understand sealing Jutsu how it was used or even its applications, he couldn't expect the Hokage to go around teaching everyone in the Village something as complex as the art.

"Yes but much of what I just said was Hearsay, we don't know who was responsible for revealing your status," replied Sarutobi as he looked at the young man.

"I think I understand," said Naruto as he knew that without proof, the Hokage could not act against whoever he believed responsible, however he could keep an eye on him but that was about it.

"Now then, I have a mission for you, this noble must be eliminated," said Sarutobi as he passed Naruto a file, he didn't want the boy to focus on a fact that couldn't be changed no matter how much he tried and rather focus on what can be worked on "You must eliminate the man without any suspicion being placed on the leaf."

"I understand," replied Naruto as he disappeared in a flicker.

This was the exact reason Anbu Black Ops were so trusted... They completed missions such as this which many shinobi would find uneasy or wrong because they couldn't fight back or it was a civilian or it was wrong of the Leaf to kill those that were technically their superiors but Naruto knew better, this was one of the reasons Anbu Black Ops existed.

Many believed that just because the Leaf served under the Daimyo didn't mean that they were stupid, they had spies and hidden Anbu Black Ops hidden everywhere to get accurate information and to ensure that they knew what both their allies and enemies were up to, after all, many agreements are just pieces of paper and not everyone could be trusted.

Though, he was lucky that the files on these nobles were so accurate, or else he would be spending weeks learning everything, they gave a lot of detail on the mission, about what to expect, and what guards looked like.

The man he was watching had long brown hair, a bit fat, and was dressed in ceremonial robes and the long hat favored by those in the Daimyo's court... He was surrounded by regular guards holding spears who walked around and protected the man, he seemed the nice and naive sort but his actions could lead to the deaths of some.

He greeted those around them and watched as he moved into an expensive mansion where Naruto watched the sunset, Naruto then activated the transparency jutsu and jumped through an open window, blowing in a short breeze.

"Someone left this window open?" asked one of the Lord's guards aloud as Naruto sneaked past as the window closed, he needed to be smart about this, he couldn't just stab him and leave, it had to be an accident.

He snuck through the many open doors, learning the layout of the mansion sneaking past the guards who hadn't noticed the shinobi that had walked past them Naruto noticed several people walking into a room as he followed them to find the common white colors of a changing room as men changed into waiters and chefs.

He then decided to walk through the changing room, where he heard some interesting chatter that he stopped to listen to for a second.

"Have you heard? I hear the lord is trying to convince the Daimyo to decrease missions to the Leaf," said a guy as Naruto's eyes widened for a second, perhaps this was why he was being eliminated... But wouldn't that be a diplomatic mission instead of an Anbu mission?

He noticed a door and followed a waiter who had changed and as he exited, he noted that the kitchen was one of the largest he had ever seen with multiple chefs working on multiple different items and several different types of items.

He also noticed that the appetizers and soup had already been finished and were about to be wheeled out so he made the conscious decision to pull out a small bottle open it and pour the liquid into the soup when no one was looking, slowly and followed as it was wheeled outside, thanks to being an Anbu and humongous chakra reserves.

He could use certain jutsu like the transparency jutsu for hours on end without fatigue, especially because it was a low-ranking jutsu that while useful didn't require as much chakra as certain jutsu he knew.

He watched the man until Nighttime, watching as he went about his regular occurrences, and as much as it pained him, Naruto could say that he had already killed the man who had been nothing more than a bystander, a civilian, not understanding what he was suggesting but the Leaf could not allow him to continue to live.

He watched as the man had changed (he had been following him and had unfortunately followed him into the man's own bedroom with his own clothes) and been witness to an unfortunate sight, though he had been quick enough to look away when he noticed him remove his shirt and then watched as he lay in bed and fell asleep.

He was clearly just a regular guy who had been unfortunate enough to have decided to make a bad decision with the power and money he had, believing that it could be better used as anyone with a different perspective would.

Naruto knew that this was wrong but he assumed that the reason was that the income that came from important missions from the Daimyo had multiple uses which were necessary in keeping the order of the Leaf, it was used to pay for certain resources, imports, shinobi, spies, etc, etc, things that the Leaf needed to ensure that it didn't suffer any negative consequences from their enemies.

As much as Naruto would like to justify the bad thing he had done, he knew in his heart that he couldn't and knew that this was what he would have to do in the future... This had just been a guy with money and he had been required to put an end to him.

Or rather had already put an end to him... The liquid he had put into the soup had been a special poison that the man had drank, it worked slowly ensuring that certain blood vessels would be blocked, and was causing an artificial heart attack, slow but efficient and effective, ensuring that it would look like natural causes.

No suspicion would be placed on the Leaf for his actions and he would disappear back to his home as a part of him died with this man, this poor man who had been unfortunate enough to live in a world of shinobi.

After a few hours, Naruto walked up to the Noble and placed the index and middle finger on his neck to reveal he had no heartbeat, dead of a heart attack with only the Hokage and Naruto truly having known the truth.

"So the Noble is dead, I presume?" asked Hiruzen Sarutobi as Naruto nodded, he had been the one to kill him after all, "Might I ask how it was done?"

Naruto understood that he probably would never learn the truth unless he became Hokage or an elder, began to explain without any actual emotion in his voice, at least detectable to regular shinobi, how the poison had worked, how the man had died in his bed, that it had been placed into the soup, what happened to the soup, etc, etc, he knew that the Hokage could ask for the method.

"You serve the Leaf well, Ko," said Sarutobi as the kneeling Anbu Black Ops wondered how long he would be here, "You are dismissed."

Chapter Text

It had been quite a while since the Hokage had visited another nation. In that time, things had changed so in the spirit of good relations, the Third Hokage had decided to visit the village hidden by the Grass, an old ally of the Leaf they had worked with on multiple occasions, especially during the Last Great Shinobi War.

The Third Hokage instead of his usual Anbu guard of 2 or more teams had decided to visit the nation with only 2 Anbu Black Ops, Naruto and Sai, this wasn't done because Sarutobi didn't believe in his Anbu Black Ops or viewed them as less capable but had done this in the spirit of good faith as to show the Hidden Grass that he trusted their protection of him.

Of course, he had also taken Naruto and Sai because their ages were visible and it would look good on the Leaf to have such young Anbu Black Ops as it was a good show of strength as Anbu Black Ops were considered some of the best shinobi out there outside of the S-ranked shinobi, Kage and members of the Elite Jounin.

Now, they were on their way back to the Leaf, walking on the path, the Third Hokage enjoying his good old pipe. At the same time, Naruto and Sai acted as his guards on each side, looking for danger, their masks and cloaks on their bodies with the hood up, hiding the hair that most would commonly see from the traditional uniform.

"Lord Hokage," began Naruto, Sarutobi knew it took a lot for Naruto to even say his name without the common 'old man', "I still don't think it was a wise idea to just bring me and Sai..."

"My lord, no offense intended," also Sai as he walked next to his leader, "But Naruto's right, it would have been much better to have at least 2 Anbu Black Ops teams rather than just two Anbu Black Ops."

"You two are capable enough as it is and if there is an attack with too many shinobi, I do believe I can handle myself, after all, I am the Hokage for a reason," replied the Third as he watched the two youngest Anbu Black Ops in history just shake their heads, at times, the Third was just too stubborn for his own good but they guessed that was part of being Hokage and a shinobi, to be sure in your own decisions, to be sure that what you plan to do is best for the Leaf village, for everyone.

Naruto noticed something, a quiet movement in the trees on the right and then the left and then another and another, perhaps a forest critter had come too close to the path as Naruto looked at Sai.

'Sai, we're surrounded,' signed Naruto as Sai nodded as the Third Hokage stopped smoking and put away the pipe that he had been using all this time as his eyes narrowed before he reached into his cloak and with speed unable to seen by the young Anbu Black Ops, he struck at the empty air on his left with a kunai. But instead of hitting nothing, it hit something as blood leaked out and hit the Hokage's pristine robes as something seemed to appear, a body dressed in the outfit and flak jacket common in the Hidden Stone Village.

"The Hidden Stone's infamous Camouflage jutsu, I believe," said the Third Hokage as he looked at the corpse analytically, "Kou, Sai, it seems both of you are right, we are surrounded."

At that moment, all around them, shinobi revealed themselves dressed in Iwa uniforms but their headbands were crossed out, Naruto and Sai had expected a few wannabe assassins but this... this was too many, they really should have brought more protection for the Hokage as Naruto pulled out two kunai to get ready for battle as Sai's ink brush and scroll were ready with Sai having quickly drawing tigers into it to prepare for battle.

The Third Hokage however simply put away his pipe, calm as ever, as though they weren't surrounded with multiple Iwa nin, and before their very eyes did the ram sign and smoke surrounded the Third Hokage. Out of that smoke, the old man's clothes had changed, his attire now consisted of a black jumpsuit, mesh segments over the lower portions of his limbs, and a green gauntlet on his right arm, across the back was written the Third Hokage. On his head was an armored hood with a bandanna-like forehead protector over this, tied with two long stripes.

Naruto watched amazed as the Hokage released a great amount of power that bared down on all of them, a great amount of chakra that Naruto couldn't believe he was feeling as he had never felt anything like this from anyone else, the Third Hokage was truly a powerful shinobi if the chakra was anything to go by but there was something else, something inside the chakra, something else that the Third Hokage was releasing that was chilling, what was it? It felt familiar, something that all shinobi had...

Killing intent, a terrible and terrifying power that Naruto could see terrified their enemies far more than it terrified them, Naruto felt very lucky that he wasn't on the other side of the Hokage's power as he didn't know if he could even fight him.

"I am the Third Hokage of the village hidden by the Leaves, I will give you one chance to surrender or retreat," said the Third Hokage as none of the people dared to move and Naruto wondered if they could truly deal with these opponents in front of them, was this the end of them? They would give their lives but they were surrounded, does this mean Naruto had failed?

"You will die, here, old man," replied the missing nin in front as the Third Hokage nodded as he rushed forward before Naruto and Sai could say anything his hands blazing through hand signs faster than most could see, Tiger, Ox, dog, rabbit, snake...

'About 36, well, 35 now, 16 ahead of me and 19 around me, do they believe this will be enough? Perhaps, they thought my avoidance of war was a weakness,' thought the Third Hokage with conviction as he prepared the jutsu, stopping suddenly as he gathered chakra into his stomach

"Wind Style: breakthrough!" exclaimed the Third Hokage as 5 of the Stone shinobi, spatted such powerful wind that blew away what was in front of them, those in the air were thrown back with the power of the jutsu which resulted in them hitting the trees and due to the clear sound of parts of their body breaking, they were knocked out of the fight or dead.

But the Third Hokage wasn't done yet as he did but a single hand sign, tiger as he prepared another jutsu while his great breakthrough forced his opponents to stay in position or release chakra and be blown away.

"Fire style: phoenix flower jutsu," said the Third Hokage as he released 6 small fireballs together as though a large fireball that rushed at their enemies, increasing in size as they combined with the power of the wind style and hit most of the first line including the arrogant missing nin as he deactivated both jutsu to find 9 burnt corpses thanks to the combined power of the two jutsus.

The others around him were not lazy as they rushed in to kill the Hokage but the old man's speed was still too much for them the first one attacked his left by trying to stab him with a kunai but Sarutobi simply dodged and grabbed his arm and broke it, forcing him to drop the kunai which he kicked into the air before another tried to attack him as blocked a punch before grabbing it and stabbing the kunai into the attacker's throat, before grabbing the earlier attacker and launching him towards 4 of his comrades who had gathered together to get ready for combat.

They grabbed their friend but then one of them noticed something... A tag! An explosion filled the area as 5 more deaths joined the slaughter, the Third Hokage had been delivering upon his enemies.

Sarutobi had taken the time to appear in a flicker in front of the two Anbu Black Ops who they themselves, had dealt with 5 of the missing shinobi, 2 of which had the sharp part of the 4 kunai each sticking out of their backs while another two had been cut in half and the final one's neck had been slicked as well with their cloaks and masks being clearly gruffed up in the skirmish.

'What the hell? He told us we'd be fighting an old weak man, we're being routed,' thought the now leading missing nin as the former leader had been taken out by the Third Hokage, as 10 of the original 36 remained as the leader was now doing the Tiger sign as he gathered chakra into his stomach to prepare another jutsu.

"Fire style: dragon flame bombs!" exclaimed the Third Hokage as he released a high-pressure stream of flames onto the ground so large it would as big as them which then before many of them could react as 5 of them were only fast enough of jump out of the way into the trees while the others were consumed by the power and ability of the jutsu of the Third Hokage.

It then increased in heat as the yellow flames turned white a few screams did escape but were quickly silenced as after a few moments, the Third Hokage released the jutsu to reveal 5 corpses.

One of the 5 in the trees tried to take the opportunity to eliminate the Third, throwing 4 shuriken at the Professor but he used the gauntlet on his right arm to block it before grabbing two of the shuriken, sent at him and sending them straight at the opponent who fell down from the branches as the others looked scared.

"Let's get out of here," said one of them as they disappeared into the trees. Naruto and Sai prepared to give chase and completely eliminate the threat but the Third Hokage quickly blocked their way.

"Don't follow," ordered the Third, his voice calm and collected, "there may be another trap, we should return to the Leaf at once."

'What the hell is he?' thought Naruto as he looked upon the destruction the Third Hokage had wrought as Sai focused on something else.

"Missing nin don't just gather around like this, there are too many of them, there is something at play here," said Sai, bluntly with the Third Hokage silently agreeing, this was too much of a coincidence...

"When we return, I shall send out teams hunting for information," said the Third Hokage as Naruto and Sai picked up two missing nin and they vanished in smoke.

"The attack failed, my lord," said one of the voices in a dark room, "The Third Hokage still has a lot of strength, we lost all but 4 of the shinobi we sent who I deal with."

A terrifying laugh is heard as another voice calls out, "They were never sent to succeed but to see how weak he had become, clearly while his will is weak, his strength is not."

"What shall we do?" asked one of the voices.

"For now, we wait," answered the voice as the man started to laugh once again.

"What have we found?" asked the Third Hokage as he looked at Naruto who knelt in front of him as well as a Chunin, it had been a week since the attack, and the Third Hokage was beginning to get suspicious of the strange circumstances.

"Our spies and Anbu Black Ops haven't found anything," reported Naruto as the Third nodded, it may take a bit longer but he hoped that his spies would be able to find something.

"The Hidden Stone claims no responsibility for the attack, claiming that they have no idea what was going on," reported the Chunin as Third nodded towards the two who lowered their heads and were gone with smoke, in the place they were as the Third Hokage looked out of the window, his instincts telling him it was far more than just an assassination attempt.

"Someone is playing a game with Konoha," said the Third Hokage, "this is the beginning of a new age..."

Chapter Text

Naruto let out a sigh, today wasn't a good day, today was his birthday, the day his parents had died, the day he had been cursed to be a Jinchuuriki, the day that had led to the direct attack on the Hidden Leaf Village, the day so many remember and hate and fear him for, the day many have long since regretted ever happen...

The day of his birth, today was October 10th.

Naruto suddenly let out a sigh as he walked towards the Third Training Ground where the memorial stone that held many of the great shinobi of the Leaf had their names ingrained, that included his parents, after all, what else could he say about the people responsible for birthing him? He didn't know what they were like, he didn't know who they were, just that they were capable shinobi... The Third Hokage had told him they loved him but was that true? How could he be sure about people he had never met?

He noted that there was another visitor to the old polished monument, a man dressed in the attire of Jounin with silver hair which as he walked next to seemed to be wearing a forehead protector over his left eye and a mask that covered his mouth and nose, he recognized him from the bingo books that he had taken from a shinobi he had killed.

Kakashi Hatake, the infamous copy ninja who had copied over 1,000 jutsus, was the man who had cut lightning with his infamous jutsu. That covered eye is likely hiding the Sharingan, the only person that Naruto had ever heard of to have a Sharingan outside of the Uchiha Clan and said to use it better than most Uchiha ever could.

"You're staring," said the man suddenly as his eye suddenly darts over to Naruto who looked embarrassed.

"Sorry, it's just that I saw you in a bingo book," said Naruto as he looked towards the memorial stone Kakashi's eye wandered to the young lad.

"I see and how did you get your hands on this bingo book?" asked Kakashi, if one looked closely into his bored expression, one would find the hint of curiosity.

"Off a dead enemy," answered Naruto, once again as Kakashi's curiosity grew, an early graduate by stature and one who had already probably killed a chunin and had gotten his bingo book, that's honestly kinda impressive...

"What mission?" asked Kakashi as Naruto blurted out his answer.

"Classified," replied Naruto, the answer had been ingrained in him and his goto answer for anything Anbu Black Ops related, the answer had basically become a kind of go-to phrase from him.

"I'm a Jounin," replied Kakashi as Naruto nodded, he had expected that Jounin would have high clearance but clearly not high enough for the mission.

"Yeah, yeah but the ground and walls have ears," said Naruto, an old phrase in the shinobi world meaning that you don't know who is listening in and you don't really want to tell them anything as Kakashi let out a chuckle and began to walk away as he watched Kakashi disappear as his mind realized that he had forgotten to ask the Jounin about his parents, what a dumb move, he really should be less distracted by things. He touched the name of his father, 'Minato Namikaze, one time and disappeared in smoke himself, unaware that someone was watching him.

'So that must be Naruto, he's grown up in an interesting way,' thought Kakashi as he had noticed the memorial stone but no one would dare to reveal such a secret, would they? Naruto was still unaware of his heritage and the Third's will had been that it remained that way but why did he get the feeling Naruto was touching his father's name?

As Naruto entered his apartment, he noticed that someone else was there, it wasn't so much being a sensory ninja (he wasn't one or at least, wasn't aware of being one), just an adept ninja and assassin, as he pulled out a kunai and was about to throw it before the light turned on and the members of Team Ro were there as well as Hayate, dressed in casual attire rather than the standard Anbu uniform.

"Suprise!" they shouted as Naruto was ready in a throwing position before trying to act cool but it was clear to everyone that he was just trying to play it off.

"Really, Naruto? My god you are paranoid," said Yugao as Naruto let out a shrug.

"It's because people always sneak up on me, I don't know if the next one is going to be a traitor or a spy," replied Naruto as Yugao let out a chuckle, that made sense, it was clear that Sai and Tenzo had done nothing to fuel the poor boy's paranoia and belief that he would be caught, especially by all the traps that he had set on the apartment that they had disabled (multiple of which would have blown them all to smithereens).

"Naruto, sometimes being too paranoid makes you look like a crazy person," said Tenzo as Naruto just waved him off.

"I would rather be paranoid and seen as crazy than dead," replied Naruto as Tenzo nodded as he presented something onto the table, a cake with orange fondant and blue writing that said Happy Birthday. Naruto's 11th birthday and he would be spending it with friends rather than alone and thinking about his life and how it came to be.

The Third Hokage, on the other hand, was busy with other important things as he watched the Anbu Commander appear, his most trusted subordinate could always be sure to arrive on time, especially when doing his duty (even after all that he had forced the poor lad to do), he knows he had asked too much of him but he couldn't help himself, after all, the Anbu Black Ops operate at the center of the village and the Anbu Commander if nothing else was still the Commander of his special forces.

"How are you today, my boy?" asked the Hokage as the Commander looked at him, had he truly stripped him of that much emotion? Was it trauma? Was the lad angry at him?

"When you gave me this job, I didn't realize that it would come with so much paperwork," answered the Commander as the Hokage let out a chuckle, the Commander was the one who had to organize the Anbu, the Anbu spies, whenever the Hokage had a mission and it wasn't team Ro, he could always trust the Commander to have a team ready but that meant there was a lot of paperwork but he also knew that those documents were all top secret, things that only Anbu Black Ops knew.

"I know, I know but today we have work to do, as you know by the looks of things, 9 teams of missing-nin had attacked me with 4 of them escaping," began the Hokage as the Commander had heard the debriefing of the two Anbu Black Ops, "Many would believe that it was just a few fools who had gathered together and plotted a mission to kill me but have you ever heard of 36 chunin to Jounin level missing nin attacking a Kage?"

"No, there was something else at play," said the Commander as the Hokage nodded as he let out a smoke.

"or someone," replied Sarutobi as the Commander's brilliant mind began to work.

"If this was a plan by an enemy village, why haven't we upped security?" asked the Commander as the Hokage smiled, his concern for his leader was always a good thing.

"Any changes to the Leaf's activities?" asked the voice as the other voice let out a chuckle.

"It seems the Third Hokage hasn't suspected that anyone is involved, my lord," answered the previous voice as he looked around the dark room which held corpses hung up to show the death his leader had brought upon whoever he felt liked it, what a horrible fate that he was lucky enough not to join, lucky enough that he had survived.

"The old fool's mind must have weakened so much," replied the first voice, "To not see such an obvious plot."

"I see but is this plan really a good idea?" asked the Commander as the Hokage nodded, "If you were to fall, the village would be without a leader, it doesn't even have to be by some powerful attack, if a lucky kunai hit you then you could die."

"Naruto has gotten close to picking up the wind change in chakra nature," replied the Hokage, "If anything, he can use wind style to knock away any attacks that would come for me, and with him and Sai acting as partners, I do not doubt that I would be well protected." The Hokage paused before letting out a laugh, it really was funny as the Commander looked at the Hokage confused, "I never imagined that I would be saying that Naruto would be good protection for me so young, especially with how he can be."

"I am impressed by the boy's growth, very few I know can go from Genin level to truly Chunin level in all of his skills in 10 months, he is a dunce but he is a hard-working dunce when he wants to be, he is truly Konoha's most unpredictable ninja," replied the Commander as the Hokage nodded but he could still see enough of the old Naruto, the ramen lover, the idiot but it seems that Anbu Black Ops had also brought something to his eye, something that had been hiding inside of himself... Darkness.

Very few have the darkness necessary and his childhood had truly created darkness Naruto's darkness is now being used to complete the missions of the Black Ops, it seems that he was truly giving everything to the village, his blades, his hopes, even parts of himself.

Minato would be very proud of his son but he would be very angry if he was here.

Chapter Text

"Are we close?" asked Naruto as they rushed through the trees. One of the most infamous parts of the Land of Fire was their forests which proved to be both an advantage and disadvantage for shinobi, an advantage is that they could hide and prepare traps for their opponents as well as spy on them, a disadvantage was that they could be attacked and spied on themselves but for now, Naruto jumped through the trees.

"Yes," answered Sai as he stopped and pointed at the ground. Naruto noticed a few hidden ropes, knives, pits, and other traps placed on the ground, which the two had avoided by taking to the trees. As the old saying goes, 'Just because it is basic, doesn't mean that it is deadly.'

"My guess is that they are not expecting shinobi," whispered Naruto. He did not see any ninja wire or overly complex traps as he looked around, attempting to look for any other evidence of traps to suggest otherwise, but the Uzumaki couldn't detect anything.

"While the traps do seem to add to that conclusion, misdirection is also a tool used by shinobi. This could just as well be a trap to lure us into security before we are attacked," replied Sai, looking around before continuing. "For now, we should get to the location, hide, and make a plan of attack for them."

Finally, they arrived at a clearing where an old rundown big red building was held, the color and walls were peeling and there didn't even seem to be any electricity or running water, no roads leading there, from what Naruto had been told, it had belonged to an old lord who had died without any heirs or will and due to its location, no-one wanted to buy and upkeep the building.

Perhaps that was what made it perfect, no one would come here and no one would want to look at the building with the only sign that anything was going on was the armed guards that seemed to be around the building, all of which holding spears or swords at each entrance with a few seemingly in the windows.

"What's the plan?" asked Naruto as Sai looked deep in thought.

"First of all, let's get a layout of what we are dealing with," answered Sai.

By the time they had taken stock of everything going on there, the moon was high in the sky and slowly but surely approaching midnight.

"So what's the plan?" asked Naruto as Sai put a hand on his chin, clearly deep in thought.

"The best solution at this moment would be to split our efforts, One of us stays outside while the other deals with those inside," answered Sai as Naruto turned towards him and tilted his head inquisitively, "It is simple, the one outside deals with those outsides and ensures that there are no escapees while the one inside finds the information and deals with those inside, the one outside also completes the mission if the one inside fails."

"Okay, so who deals with the inside?" asked Naruto before turning to look into the dark holes of Sai's mask where his eyes usually would be as the two stared into there, "Fine."

Naruto simply activated the transparency jutsu and jumped towards the wall before using chakra to hold on and walking towards an open window where he noticed a guard, holding a bow, standing there bored, Naruto pulled out his sword and moved onto the ledge before stabbing the blade into his head causing the man to fall back.

Naruto stepped into the corridor where there were four more guards, at each entrance to the rooms, as he let out a sigh as he noticed that they all had swords and put them away.

Before they could notice he deactivated the jutsu and grabbed two of their swords and struck at them, giving them a deep gash on their chests as they fell back as the other two realized his presence.

"What?" said one of the guards as they tried to pull out their swords but Naruto replied to the gesture by moving quickly in front of them using the swords to strike at both of them as two more corpses joined the pile, it seemed that this wasn't the command center as Naruto once again pulled out his sword and moved towards the 3 other archers that had been unfortunate enough to join this group.

By the next minute, the entire upper floor had been filled with corpses that Naruto had to clean up later before moving downstairs to where he found a corridor with a room on the right filled with 10 sleeping guards as he summoned 10 shadow clones to deal with them and moments later, he gained a few more unfortunate memories thanks to the useful jutsu.

As he walked forward he noticed the sliding door guarded by two others, clearly leading to the main meeting room which would be filled with the main conspirators, Naruto while appearing invincible moved in front of the two while pulling out two kunai before jumping forward and inputting the kunai into the sides of both's heads before placing his weight onto the door and forcing it down.

Inside there were 7 others in the room around a table, 2 were in front of him at the foot while 4 were on both sides of the table at the head of the table was a woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes, as Naruto rushed forward after pulling out 2 more kunai and moving quickly to those in front of him while beginning to use the skill he had just recently mastered, wind nature transformation as he molded his chakra into the wind and placed into the blades, making them sharper and giving them a greater striking distance.

While Captains like Zou and Tenzo didn't need to use nature transformation to cut an opponent into half with just their kunais rather than swords, Naruto hadn't gotten that strong or skilled to do it meaning he needed to increase the power of the blade which he had just used to bisect the two at the foot of the table before jumping to the 2 on the right and slashing at the one in front of him while the other had pulled out a sword which he attempted to use to strike him with from atop.

As the blade hit the ground, the man's eyes could only widen before Naruto finished him off as well with a slash.

"Let's get out of here," said one on the left talking to the other, realizing the doomed fate they were about to meet if they stayed but unfortunately for them Naruto's orders had been clear on the matter as he threw both of the kunai he had just been using into their heads, leaving only the leader who had started to glare at Naruto.

"A member of the Hidden Leaf's Anbu Black Ops-" said the woman but Naruto didn't allow her to continue the tirade she was about to go on, as 3 shuriken had the honor of meeting her as she fell back dead.

'Looks like all that's left is to clean this up, find whatever information there is, and get out,' thought Naruto until he heard a voice, a young voice, one that seemingly was young which meant there was someone here, someone that was getting closer by the panic sound of his voice which could fill Naruto with a profound sadness.

"Mom! Where are you?!" shouted the child as he entered the room, dressed in a common grey shirt and shorts, with short dark brown hair and similar blue eyes to his mother, seemingly 8 or 9, 2 or 3 years younger than Naruto, they had known about the lad but he was supposed to be asleep by now, while Naruto could complete the mission and the cleanup while the child would be unfortunately alone, he would still be alive which was far better than dead. "Wait, who are you? Where is my mother?"

Naruto knew the importance of the mission, knew the importance of getting out of here quickly and without any witnesses but this was just a child, he couldn't just leave him here to die, could he? Plus he had seen him which he could report to the other member of this little group, what should he do? Please someone give him an answer as he doesn't want to kill someone who wasn't even a legal adult.

Flashback

"I need you to understand that we cannot have any witnesses or survivors in the location, you must make it all disappear as to not let the other targets figure out that we know about what they are plotting," explained the Third before continuing, "nor can we have any bodies or intelligence left around, there must have been no proof you were there, no proof of an attack, no proof of anything to confuse the insurgents, giving us a good chance of eliminating them before they figure something out."

Flashback end

Naruto in the end realized something as he watched the kid stare at his mother's corpse, a corpse Naruto had been responsible for he turned back to Naruto, his eyes filled with such fear and hatred that Naruto would no doubt remember for so long, for the rest of his life perhaps as he released a kunai straight into the adolescence head and helped reunite the boy with his mother. Naruto knew what he had done and had no way to turn back from it now, he had killed an innocent, a child, someone who hadn't deserved it but had gotten in the way of the mission.

Naruto could only stare and walk soullessly up to the body of the child and began the first of the cleanup they will have to do for the sake of the mission, the sake of the mission, the sake of the mission... Why did it always feel like these types of missions resulted in him losing a piece of himself every single time?

Perhaps that was what it meant to be a shinobi, to be the cause of the casualties.

"What happened?" asked Sai as Naruto looked back at him through his mask with a hollow and tired expression, could this mission go any slower?

-

"Mission successful, lord Hokage," said Naruto as the Third Hokage waved at him to give the report, "I and Sai were selected by my lord to complete a mission where we would move on a part of a group of insurgents who plan to kill the Feudal Lord and use the power to destroy the Hidden Leaf Village, we did that by finding out what we could about the defenses in place."

"We then planned in the middle of the night to dispose of everyone with Naruto being the one to eliminate everyone inside the building while I would eliminate anyone outside and attempt to escape while also looking out for any reinforcements as well as finish the mission if one fails," explained Sai as the Third nodded.

"Unfortunately, the leader of this cell of the Insurgents had also brought her young son, we believe him around 8-9 who we expected to be asleep at the time so that by the time he woke up, everything would be done and he would know nothing but unfortunately he was awake," continued Naruto, "As par the no witnesses part of the mission to keep other insurgents in the dark... I... I..."

Sarutobi turned towards Naruto, curiously, his eyes also filling with a sort of sadness and knowledge.

"I eliminated the boy so that we could complete the mission," finished Naruto as Sarutobi nodded.

"I see so I must thank you for this, the action you chose to bear allowed for the elimination of that cell without them knowing it was us and with the intelligence you brought back, we have been able to move on them without many casualties," said Sarutobi but Naruto didn't really pay attention as the only thing in his mind was the image of the child that he had just killed, he had seen him playing around with toys and drawing bad paintings like any kid would and now he was dead because of Naruto.

"You are dismissed," said the Third Hokage as he watched the two vanish before sighing and placing a hand on his head, perhaps just another of the deaths that would continue to rest on his head just like so many others for the sake of their home, for the sake of the people of their home, "Why would she bring her son? We received no information about a child, not even a shinobi..."

"Unfortunately, I believe that the spies believed that the child was not important," answered the Anbu Commander as he stepped out of the shadows, "We will have to find a way to tell them about the importance of all the information if we are to eliminate unneeded casualties like the child."

"Perhaps it is time to have a look at our spy network," said Sarutobi as the Anbu Commander nodded.

"We cannot have similar results as if a disguised shinobi was hiding as a child, our shinobi could walk into a trap," replied the Commander as the two began discussing methods of relaying the information.

Naruto on the other hand was trying to get the image of that boy out of his head and no matter what he did and tried, no matter what he attempted, he hadn't even touched his ramen and the coldness he felt in that moment overshadowed anything he had done before that moment.

"Naruto, are you alright?" asked Sai with a concerned expression, "You haven't at all touched your ramen."

"It's just about that boy," answered Naruto as Sai looked at him curiously, "he didn't really have an actual role in the rebellion and yet we still had to kill him..."

"You wonder if he could perhaps have lived," replied Sai as Naruto nodded, "The thing is that in this world, we are the ones who have to do such things for the sake of everyone, the others would no doubt notice when they don't receive any information from the base and once they go to investigate, if they find the child, the child could give a description of your clothes and of what happened and due to the unique nature of the Anbu Black Ops, they would know we are onto them..."

"Yeah, yeah I understand that," said Naruto but Sai wasn't finished telling Naruto just yet.

"The thing is that there is no doubt in my mind that if they found this out, they would have attacked both the Leaf and the Feudul Lord quicker, there would be casualties, some of those who serve the Feudul Lord have children and in a battle with destruction and chaos, it could mean that they die and it could mean others die as well, so the question is are we willing to take such a chance?" asked and explained Sai as Naruto's hand went onto his chin, that was a good point, an excellent point even, one that with the focus on the child's death, he hadn't had thought about.

"Perhaps this is why Anbu Black Ops is so different," began Naruto as he looked at Sai, " 'We commit crimes in the dark so others don't have to in the light', I wouldn't want anyone to do anything at all like this but someone will have to so that the people we care about don't get hurt, that's the burden we bear so everyone else doesn't have to, eh, Sai."

"Indeed, for the sake of the Leaf, someone must bear the burden and better us than those who can't handle it," replied Sai as Naruto started to eat his ramen before looking annoyed.

"Yeah, my ramen's gotten cold," said Naruto in what seemed like seconds, he had finished the ramen before making a sign as he summoned a few shadow clones that then ran off.

"Where are they going?" asked Sai as Naruto just let out a shrug.

"Off to pick up some deadly techniques I can do in wind style," answered Naruto as Sai nodded as he pulled out his painting equipment Naruto noticed something he hadn't before on one of Sai's books, "Hey, Sai, we've known each other for several months... But I am curious, I can recognize you but who is the other guy on the back of the book?"

"That's my brother, Shin," said Sai before noticing something, "He was a lot like you."

"He died?" asked Naruto as Sai nodded, "how?"

"I, I, I believe I," said Sai as the memories started to come back to him... Old memories, forgotten memories, ones that when he was younger, ones that should have been suppressed by his training but weren't, what was happening, "He died of an illness..."

"Ah, that's sad," said Naruto as he noticed Sai's sad and yet shocked and scared expression, "what's wrong, Sai?"

"Nothing just remembered something," lied Sai convincingly as he closed his eyes for a few moments and let out a few breaths as he tried to concentrate, "It's just that I haven't thought about my brother Shin in a long time."

"Why?" asked Naruto as Sai shrugged his shoulders but his expression was one of guilt and sadness.

"It's just that I had so much going on that he was out of my mind for a long time," answered Sai as Naruto nodded.

"Hey, Sai, what was your brother like?" asked Naruto as Sai thought about it.

"Much like you, he is loud, impatient, and unrefined," answered Sai without a second thought as Naruto let out a yell.

"I am very quiet and patient on missions!" replied Naruto.

"Only on missions, other than that, you are by far the loudest person I know, you're always rushing off to doing one thing or the next and might I remind you that I always win at taijutsu," replied Sai as his plan to distract Naruto had worked, the boy had now started to argue with him on how loud he is and he is insulted by the 'slander'.

Chapter Text

Hello,

I know many of you love this story but there are a few things I would like to change and a few things I would like to correct as such I am rewriting the story and upload a new version as it can allow me to correct many of the stories flaws such as Naruto's age and graduation as well as skill kit.

Thank you,

huoasis.