Naruto 1. Slug Princess on the Move

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other affiliated characters, locations or ideas. I do own all original content including characters, locations, jutsu and plot lines. Likeness to any real people or places is unintentional and coincidental.

Author's Note: Here is my response to Perfect Lionheart's "Missing Hokage" challenge, with the slight modification that the scroll of forbidden seals remains in Konoha. This is rated "M" for coarse language and heavy violence in later chapters. Thanks go out to Deathmvp; id: 1556448, for the suggestion to clarify the stories starting point. This chapter has been updated with added content.

**Chapter 01**

**Slug Princess on the Move**

- Konoha: Aoyama Medical Hospital -

The steady tone of many heart monitors was silenced when the door to the children's ward clicked shut, the young medic that had just left looking to be on the verge of tears. She absolutely hated to see kids so young being admitted into the intensive care floor. Shizune wasn't even startled when her aunt approached, gently asking for a status report. "For the most part, the majority of the children were simply caught in the crossfire; they'll be fine as soon as they heal. But…"

"Rock Lee…" Tsunade sighed softly, her chocolate brown eyes sinking to the floor in sorrow. Even though the village medics had done an impressive job of treating his wounds, the damage done to his arm and leg were just too severe. However, the boy had gone through with the extremely risky operation which would either restore them, or cause the damage to become permanent; Tsunade had today shown up to find out how the operation had gone.

"Oh! No, the operation on Lee-san was a success, Tsunade-sama! He's not only going to make a full recovery, but he might even become stronger than he was before." Shizune gushed, the adoration she held for her aunt evident on her round face.

"So, everyone's going to be fine? That's the news I wanted to hear." Tsunade sighed, feeling a sense of relief rush through her body.

Shizune glanced off to one side as her voice caught in her throat. When she was finally able to speak again, the young medic sighed and came forward with the bad news. "Not everyone is going to make a quick recovery, Tsunade-sama. The little girl from the Hyuuga clan… she might not make it."

"Hyuuga?"

"Un; Hyuuga Hinata. She was hit in the heart with a Jyuuken strike." Shizune explained softly, the heat at the back of her neck only serving to remind her of her failure as a medic. "Her heart isn't healing as quickly as we'd hoped… the chakra pathways passing through it are still erratic. She'll need to be under continuous observation and require immediate treatment at the first sign of irregularity. It could be months before she can be proclaimed medically stable."

At that moment both of the medical ninjas sensed a flare of chakra from the hospital rooftop, which was coincidentally the floor just above them. A fight was going on; in fact, they could hear the screams and battle cries of two young boys now that they stopped to listen. Both women shared a look, and without breathing a word, casually walked towards the stair access that would lead them to the roof. …and just as they had suspected, Uzumaki Naruto was locking horns with Uchiha Sasuke; Sakura watching helplessly from the side.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun! Please stop this!" the kunoichi begged worriedly, grasping her hands together and holding back tears. Unfortunately all three of the children knew that she could do absolutely nothing to stop them. As such, rather than stop fighting, the two boys only seemed to become more franticly determined to hurt each other.

"Oh, yeah? Sasuke!" Naruto roared as he summoned a single shadow clone; which knowing Naruto was most likely his 30th of the day. With the original boy's hand cupped, the clone began to viciously claw at the chakra pulsing from Naruto's hand. Tsunade's breath caught in her throat as the Rasengan burst into life.

"How interesting… but you're still no match for me!" Sasuke bellowed. In response to Naruto's jutsu he belted out seals in quick succession seconds before lightning exploded off of his left hand. Shizune gasped at the tendrils of electricity coursing off of the Chidori on boy's hand. Again the two medics shared a look, yet this one was far more worried than the last.

"Stop this, both of you!" Sakura wailed as she threw herself between her friends, her arms held straight out to block their path. What she didn't know is that try as they might; whether the boys noticed the girl standing between them, neither Naruto nor Sasuke could be able to change their course at the speed they were moving.

"Sakura! No!" Tsunade screamed in horror, a brief seizure of terror gripping her heart at the foreboding scene playing out before her. Time seemed to slow as Sakura's hair flung out with the turn of her head towards the sound of her name; Naruto and Sasuke roaring with every step that took them closer and closer to destroying their friend. Time resumed its normal flow in a heartbeat, but whatever horrible consequences might have happened was obliterated as the kunoichi pair shot into action.

Shizune materialized out of thin air in time to grab Sakura and dive to safety, ensuring that she landed on her own side to protect the young girl from as much damage as she could. Yet, her eyes were locked on the woman she adored as a goddess; Tsunade had also been in time to rescue the two combatants. Catching both boys by the wrists, the Godaime Hokage spun on the ball of her foot and slung them both at the twin water towers at the edge of the building. Tsunade didn't seem too broken up upon realizing that she'd thrown Sasuke harder than she had for Naruto; some people could only learn this way, after all.

There was an audible crash as the two rivals hit the water tanks, their arms each sinking past their elbows into the metal. By the time they pulled themselves free, the medical kunoichi were beside the boys with a retraining hand on their shoulders. "Do either of you have any idea how dangerous that was? If we hadn't come by in time…" Tsunade scolded, her warning fading forebodingly.

"Especially for you, Uchiha." Shizune scolded in turn, glaring down at what had been her patient not two hours ago. "Let me see your hand…" she murmured as she inspected the damage the Chidori had done to his skin. As she held her hand over his and covered the electrified wounds in healing energy, Shizune continued her lecture, "Aren't you the son of the Uchiha clan head? I don't really know, but this can't be how someone from that noble clan should treat members of their own village. You really could have killed Sakura, you know!"

"Yeah, you jerk! You should pay more attention while fighting!" Naruto growled hotly. "If you ever try to hurt Sakura again I'll…" and before even finishing his sentence, Naruto rushed forward to attack Sasuke again.

"Naruto!" Both Sakura and Tsunade barked in unison; however, the Hokage acted quicker than the genin, deftly catching Naruto by the arm and pulling him back towards her. Tsunade only then noticed the trickle of blood on his hand when he winced and shouted in pain while grabbing his arm. Now, she knew that she hadn't grabbed him _that_ hard, but it didn't stop her from worrying.

"Oh, no! Is he hurt!?" Sakura gasped in fright, wanting to rush forward to check on her teammate; whether she liked him or hated him, she at least had to ensure that he didn't hurt himself. However, her legs still felt more like jelly than actual legs from her near-death experience to move from her spot.

Without responding, Tsunade ripped open the sleeve on Naruto's jacket by dragging her fingernail across it and moving the fabric aside. There was a thin cut along his arm, extending from his elbow to his wrist; it only took a quick glance at the busted water tank for her to realize that the metal had cut him when he used his attack. Immediately beginning treatment by pouring healing energy into the wound, Tsunade turned from a grimacing Naruto to get Sakura's attention. "Quickly go and find some gauze. We need enough for Naruto's arm and Sasuke's hand."

"H-hai!" Sakura breathed, completely forgetting the feeling in her legs as she ran for the stair access. When she was gone, Tsunade glanced towards Shizune briefly before giving a quick nod and wrapping her arm around Naruto's ribs. Shizune did the same to Sasuke, the boy's eyes going wide with surprise. By the time Sakura realized that she had gauze in her travel pouch, the Hokage and her aid had already leapt from the building.

- Hokage's office -

Having used gauze that Tsunade kept in her office, the boys had been mended and forced to sit down in chairs; where they were tied in place with rope and lectured. "I can't have two of my most promising rookies fighting each other like that." Tsunade was saying, "Do you both realize that those two jutsu are assassination techniques? There is absolutely no reason to use something like that on your own allies, do you understand me?" Naturally she didn't get a reply from the children. "What you two need is to learn some restraint. In fact…" Tsunade paused to snap her fingers.

Naruto cried out in surprise when a pair of ANBU materialized in front of him; in his shock he overturned his chair and fell over, landing on his back with a yelp. Though Sasuke scoffed, Naruto found himself cut off at the Hokage's command.

"Find Hatake Kakashi and Jiraiya; bring them here at once." The Black Ops nodded and vanished in an instant, gone to carry out their task. Walking around her desk from behind her desk, Tsunade hands a clipboard to her niece as she approaches the two naughty boys. After returning Naruto's chair to all four legs with her foot, the Hokage sighed and rubbed her temples. "Your teachers are going to drill restraint into you again and again."

"Bah!" Naruto scoffed; his sour face as wrinkled as an old man's. "How long is this going to take?"

"Put it this way, Naruto; by the time Jiraiya is done with you… _You'll look exactly like him!!_" Tsunade bellowed; clenching her fists as a bolt rocked through her body with the force of her shout.

"Bah!" Naruto scoffed again.

However, Shizune glanced at her watch and seemed to grow pale at what she saw. "Tsunade-sama! Tsunade-sama! You're late for the meeting!"

"Shit. Keep these two here until their sensei come to pick them up." Tsunade grumbled as she grabbed the domed Hokage hat from off of her desk and dropping it unceremoniously on her head. The door slammed hard enough to knock several books from the shelves as the woman stormed from the office.

"Well, now…" Shizune breathed out as she let her shoulders drop in exasperation. "Sorry, but why exactly were you two fighting in the first place? I think that you are both smart guys, but…"

"Do you want to know why?" Sasuke murmured suddenly, his tone quiet and his head hanging so that his bangs hid his eyes. Once he knew that he had the aid's attention, he glanced up and looked directly into her eyes. Then, for absolutely no reason that Naruto could fathom, the jounin went lax and dropped the clipboard on the floor. Moving like a zombie, Shizune shambled up to the two genin and drew a kunai from the sleeve of her kimono. Before he could scream, the woman came down with the knife.

The ropes fell to the floor, cut from the chair and freeing him from his bonds. "Woah, wait a minute…" Naruto gasped in shock, taking an alarmed peek over at Sasuke. It all suddenly made sense in that one glance; Sasuke had his Sharingan active!

"Heh. Do you really think that all I learned from Kakashi was the Chidori?" Sasuke gloated as his bonds too were cut and fell to the floor. "I'm sorry, but restraint is nothing more than a tool of morality. Right now, the only thing that I need is power. I don't have time to play around like this…"

"But why did you free me, too? Are you that much of an idiot?" Naruto accused childishly.

"No. I can't have you getting rusty and growing weak on me; this hatred I have for you is what's made me this strong. If nothing else, I want to keep this bond of rivalry. For now."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just get out of here before Kakashi-sensei and that perverted-sage show up!" Naruto suggested; it was advice that even Sasuke could agree with. Requiring no further comment, the two genin slipped out through the secret entrance in the roof that ANBU soldiers had just used.

Blinking heavily, Shizune looked from the cut rope, to the knife in her hand, and finally to the trap door over head that had been left open. "Wow… he certainly is from the noble clan of Uchiha…"

- Makeshift council chambers -

"…and about Uzumaki Naruto." the doddering geezer mentioned sternly, spreading out papers along the low coffee table present in what was left of the council chambers - hastily repaired and pending renovation. "In light of events involving nukenin in the country of the Waves, the Chuunin Selection Exam and the Akatsuki interest in capturing of the tailed-beasts, we must decide Naruto's fate for the safety of the village of Konohagakure. We have already recorded two instances of Uzumaki's use of the Kyuubi's chakra and one foreign attack as a result."

"What exactly are you getting at?" the Hokage demanded darkly, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"It has come to our attention that Uzumaki Naruto only serves to place the entire village in peril." the old woman that served as the Sandaime Hokage's teammate crooned morbidly. "Morality is nearly non-existent, and in all cases Konoha faces certain destruction should any of the other villages decide to attack us and seize the power of the Kyuubi in our moment of weakness."

The old man continued where his partner left off, "Should Uzumaki become the cause of another disaster, then the most favorable action would be his assassination; followed by your decommission from the position of Hokage for knowledgeable neglect of a self-destructive situation."

BAM! Tsunade was on her feet in an instant, slamming her hands into the table hard enough to crack it without having exuded any of her chakra. "He's only a child, damn it!" she roared powerfully. "I only agreed to accept the position of Hokage because of Naruto, so you can _swear_ that whatever you have planned for him, you'd better be prepared to do to me as well!" The council representatives both opened their mouths, but before they could mutter a syllable, Tsunade kicked the table off to the side to remove all obstacles standing between her and the elders. "Choose your words very carefully; I'm placing Uzumaki Naruto under my protection, so you'd better be sure that whatever is left of our troops is enough to handle someone like me. As one of the _Dansetsu no Sannin_ and _Godaime Hokage_, I won't be defeated by anything less than an entire army!"

Eerily capable of withstanding the withering threats, the elders cleared their throats and very carefully, with the utmost calm, gave their advice. "Uzumaki Naruto is to be exiled from Konohagakure on charges of willful endangerment of the peace treaty and illegal theft of the scroll of forbidden seals. Upon his resistance, wartime orders will become in effect and he will be executed. We are prepared to extend the charges to you, Lady Hokage, if that is truly your desire. That is our official advice."

A shadowy pall cast over Tsunade's face as she took in the venom-laced words of the council representatives. Oh, she wanted to rip them into bite-sized chunks; to yell and roar obscenities; they would go from fearing for their lives to fearing they could not die in the face of her wrath. But… the middle-aged woman realized a deep-seated truth that allowed her to maintain her cool. Although the council had the power to veto the Hokage in the initial two months of office, as the granddaughter of the Founding Hokage and the one in possession of his official stamp, she had reverse-veto power over the council. Putting on a sweet smile, Tsunade thanked the representatives for their time and excused herself from the makeshift office.

It didn't take her that much longer to make her way to the Hokage's office and set about writing a set of orders. Tsunade beamed deliciously as she finished signing her name on the bottom and stamped it in the very center with her grandfather's seal. She tapped the stack of papers lightly on the top of her desk, humming softly as she set the stack of papers in her outgoing bin. Even before she could finish standing from her seat, an ANBU agent materialized on the opposite side of the desk; he saluted the Hokage before claiming the papers and vanishing in a burst of smoke.

The Godaime turned to face out of the wall-sized window and produced a bitter-sweet smile as she inhaled victoriously. "I wish I could have met you in person, Namikaze-dono, but you can rest assured that your son is in good hands for now. Konohagakure has faced some rough times, and it looks like more are to come; however…" Tsunade's eyes darted to the tiny building in the distance bearing the green cross of the medical corps: the site of the shinobi hospital. "Until she's ready to take her medicine, Konoha is just going to get worse off than she already is."

- Hyuuga Main House -

Highest on her list of priorities was the heiress to Konoha's remaining noble family. If Hinata had any chance of living a normal life - of living at all if what Shizune said was true - then she would need to be kept close at hand to receive emergency treatment should her heart grow weak again. With Hinata in the hospital following her near-lethal incident during the chuunin tournament, Hyuuga Hiashi had allowed Neji to stay in the main house… "In the event that Hinata should prove incapable of running the clan, then I have authorized Neji to stand-in as the head until Hanabi can succeed me." Hiashi explained casually, using a blank expression that even Tsunade couldn't read; having been away from the village for so long, she had no clues into his personality to go by, either. Tsunade had decided to visit the Hyuuga complex in person, if only to minimize the council's ability to spy on her.

"Well, considering Hinata's heart condition right now, I think it would be in her best interest to…"

"I will arrange for my daughter to be placed under your care, Hokage-sama." Hyuuga Hiashi interrupted smoothly, his pale eyes reorienting towards Neji, who seemed to exude discipline as he remained perfectly composed beside his uncle. "Neji; as the stand-in head of the clan, you would be placed on standby status and will not perform missions with your team. Is this acceptable to you?"

Neji lowered his head and shut his eyes as he allowed the information to sink in. "That is fine. As much as I hate to admit it, as a member of the branch house I must assist the main house in anything within my power." Neji replied calmly, finally opening his eyes to glance up at the head of his clan.

"Also, as the stand-in heir, I can authorize for your cursed-seal to be removed until such a time that you must give over control of the clan to either Hinata or Hanabi."

"I understand." Neji replied just as calmly as before, though his heart pounded like a hammer in his chest. "I will do my best to prevent civil unrest between the main and branch house families." Hiashi nods in acknowledgment before returning his attention to the Hokage and her aid, both of which had waited patiently for their conversation to end.

Proffering a smile, Tsunade spread a stack of papers out along the meeting table the four shinobi had gathered around. "I appreciate your understanding in this situation, Hyuuga-san. However, I don't think you fully understand the situation. As you can see here, extenuating circumstances require that I escort Uzumaki Naruto on an extended training excursion outside of the Konoha village."

"This means that Hinata would also have to travel with us around the world. She might not be able to return for several years…" Shizune explained, though she had a slight apologetic tone to her voice. "We'll take the utmost care of her while…"

"What kind of training can you offer to those two?" Neji inquired, presumptuously reaching for one of the reports laid out on the table. He stopped cold when his uncle cleared his throat, claiming the very sheet that Neji had been reaching for; Hiashi repeated the question, his voice carrying far more authority than his young nephew's.

"Training?" Tsunade murmured softly, glancing off to one side to think of an answer. "Hmm, I could teach them that which I know best."

Shizune's eyes brightened at this suggestion and she gazed at her aunt with renewed adoration. "That's a good idea, Tsunade-sama! We can teach them medical ninjutsu. You fought to increase the number of medical ninjas sent into the field before; this will help out the village, too."

"Un. Then it's settled; we will teach medical ninjutsu to Naruto and Hinata." Tsunade announced. Even though she couldn't care any less about what happened to Konoha at this point, she at least had to sound diplomatic and reliable lest she lose her privileges as Hokage before they had a chance to leave it all behind with their skin intact.

After a long moment of deliberation, Hyuuga Hiashi stood from the table and motioned for Neji to follow him. Neither one of them uttered a word as they made their way towards the door in the back of the room. Tsunade took this time to glance at Shizune and sigh in disappointment; they were both a little sad that they wouldn't be able to take Hinata after all. The poor girl would…

"I will place Hinata in your care until you can return. She's a slow learner, so it's best to maintain your patience with her training." Hiashi announced after turning to face the Hokage as Neji slid the door open, revealing a branch house member, the cursed-seal visible in the middle of her bare forehead. "Hisana will show you out, Hokage-sama. Have a good evening."

All that was left was to explain what she could of the situation to the two children involved; Tsunade knew that she couldn't go into exact detail, as neither Naruto or Hinata had a high enough clearance to know what had been said in the council chambers, but she'd spend enough time with children to know how to interact. Naruto would be easiest; one mention of training and he was ready and raring to go! Hinata had already heard from her father and would meet them in the Hokage's office just after breakfast. With a mighty yawn, Tsunade sent Shizune to bed, but claimed a bottle of sake to keep her company while she worked through the night in her preparations to leave.

- The next morning -

The room swam as Tsunade lifted her head at the insistence of another person in the room, a trail of drool clinging to the paper scattered on her desk. "Mmmn… who? Hinata?"

"Far from it." the visitor replied in a low-timbre voice. "Morino Ibiki, Hokage-sama. I have some disturbing news to usher in the bright, new day." he continued in his eerily happy tone, wearing the questionable kind of smile one could never tell to be authentic or not.

Sitting up and brushing the drool from her face, the aged woman gave her full attention to the ANBU captain standing before her. "I take it the council didn't appreciate my orders from yesterday." she chuckled bittersweetly, still attempting to blink away her alcohol induced sleep.

"I wouldn't know about such things, Hokage-sama. This concerns one of the genin that had taken part in the chuunin selection exam; Uchiha Sasuke has just become a nukenin."

Tsunade stared in wanton disbelief for a moment before roughly shaking it off and groaning. With a sigh she sat back in her seat and rubbed her temples. "Does it look like he'll return on his own?"

"No, ma'am. Uchiha attacked his teammate, Haruno Sakura, on his way out of the village; she identified a travel pack in his possession. It is strongly believed that he met up with agents of the hidden Sound village and is currently moving to meet up with Orochimaru."

"Well, we certainly can't let that old snake-tamer get his hands on the Uchiha." Tsunade decided coldly, eyeing the Hokage uniform's hat leaning against the trash bin. "As of 0620 hours, Uchiha Sasuke is convicted of deserting the hidden village of Konoha during a time of crisis by verbal decree of the Godaime Hokage. I want two teams of hunter-nin sent out to find him and ensure the disposal of the Sharingan." The Hokage ordered in an icy voice. However, before Ibiki had a chance to zip off, Tsunade called for his attention once more. "Ensure that ANBU agents, Hatake Kakashi, Takanori Koyoko, and you, Morino Ibiki, are among the deployed units. Execute!"

"It'll be my pleasure, Hokage-sama." Ibiki stated, his charming, warm smile fading into a stone-cold grimace. The captain was off like a shot to round up his squads.

- Konoha Financial Center -

Tsunade knew her teammate well, so well that she was already on the roof of the Financial Center before Jiraiya showed up. It wasn't that the toad hermit was a shrewd business man, or a trader of any sort. It was simply because the rooftop had the best view into the women's side of the open air hot spring when viewed through a telescope. "Hah, I've been caught even before I start!" Jiraiya laughed, none-the-less pleased to see his old teammate. "It must be something important if you decide to show up wearing that stuffy old hat." he mentioned, indicating the uniform hat bearing the kanji of Fire.

"Have you discovered anything new about the Akatsuki?" Tsunade demanded, cutting right to the point.

"Absolutely nothing, cutie-pie."

"What about the recent situation with the hidden Sand? Have they located any Sound bases in their vicinity?"

"Well, no… is something on your mind, _Tsunade-hime_?" the old hermit wondered, having known her long enough to become suspicious when she refused to get angry. "Has this got anything to do with Uchiha defecting? You always did have sort of a crush on Orochimaru; does it piss you off that he's trying to steal the Sharingan from us in such a sneaky way?"

"Not right now, Jiraiya." Tsunade sighed, hiding the twinge of anger and regret at the mention of her past feelings. "I just had way too much on my mind to have any time to be angry. I'm sure that you're aware of the council's push for action against Uzumaki Naruto."

"It's not right what they're doing." Jiraiya threatened; his normally silly face growing cold for a moment. "Which is why I plan to take Naruto with me while I investigate the Akatsuki and Orochimaru; I'll use the excuse of an extended training excursion to justify it. That is, with permission of the Hokage!" the old man laughed jovially.

One of Tsunade's eyebrows rose in momentary amusement; it was just like her old teammate to come up with the exact same plan as she… Despite the rush of events, a tiny grin formed on the woman's lips as she gently lifted the Hokage hat from her head and brushed out her hair with a free hand. "You're a little too slow to the punch this time, Jiraiya; I've already assigned Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata to my team in order to search for lost jutsu scrolls."

"Haha! Smooth move…" suddenly the toad-hermit paused, clutching his chin in deep thought. "Why are you bringing Hyuuga Hinata as well?"

"She has a medical condition."

"Oh, yeah; Naruto told me about that. Wait… what about your place as the Hokage? You can't seriously mean to just take off and leave the village to fend for itself, do you?" Jiraiya accused in mild shock. It was one thing to conspire about sacrificing one's own teammate to resurrect a lost lover; but dooming an entire dependant community just wasn't something Jiraiya thought her capable of! "You've just taken the job two weeks ago. Are you really planning to leave already?"

"Jiraiya; you know very well that it was Naruto who convinced me to take this job in the first place. What the hell is the use of playing grandmother to a village that he's no longer allowed to stay in?" Tsunade finally admitted, both to Jiraiya and herself. "I do have a plan, though." Tsunade revealed as she smirked and strode up to the toad-hermit, "Your orders are to investigate the identity of the Akatsuki members and the locations of Orochimaru's lairs. Directly following the completion of this mission…" Tsunade dumped the hat on Jiraiya's head, "…you will take control of this village and whip it back into shape. Konoha is severely losing her luster and needs to taste her bitter medicine."

"Woah, woah, woah!" Jiraiya gasped, yanking the Hokage hat off of his head, staring at it incredulously. "You can't be serious about this. You know that I'd make an absolutely horrible Hokage; I'm a huge pervert, flighty and way too busy keeping an eye on our best friend." He forced the hat back on its owner's head before stepping back and crossing his arms. "Besides, I like my idea too much to abandon it so easily. If I can't take Naruto with me, then I'll bring someone else with me; that Uchiha Sasuke always seemed like a smart kid…"

"No… you'll probably hear about that later." Tsunade hinted forebodingly, readjusting the domed hat to fit more comfortably on her head. "Anyway, Orochimaru may have been the genius in our team, but that doesn't mean you're not an intelligent man yourself. I'm sure that you'll figure something out; I just have nothing left holding me to this village."

"Did you really have to use the same speech as the last time you left?" Jiraiya murmured, slowly feeling the weight of the world seeping into his every joint.

"Good luck and good bye, Jiraiya." Tsunade wished sweetly, proffering what had to be the first authentic smile she'd given in a very long time.

- Hokage's office -

The three shinobi in the office jumped to salute as Tsunade entered the room; it was something that Tsunade was glad that she'd never have to get used to. "Naruto, Hinata, Shizune; have you all prepared to leave on our trip? We may be gone for a long time, so I hope you've said goodbye to your friends and hugged your sweetheart extra tight." The last comment had the effect of causing all three of the young shinobi to blush, Hinata more than the others.

"Don't worry, Tsunade-sama; I dropped by their houses first thing in the morning and helped them pack their portable belongings." the young woman gestured to four bags set against the wall of the office; Shizune had thought to pack for Tsunade as well. It was instances like this that reminded the woman how she'd be so lost without her sweet, little niece.

"Well, I wasn't able to secure the scroll of forbidden seals, but there isn't really anything in there that we need." Tsunade explained, "We're going to be studying medical ninjutsu, and we have my personal library with us for that. So, unless any of you have something urgent that you have to do before we leave… then it's too late for that, because we're leaving now. Soldiers, attention! Gather your gear and move out!"

- Chapter end -

Tsunade's Team Hokage takes off without a hitch. However, it can't be helped that a suspicious vibe permeates from the village; could someone have greased the wheels from within the shadows? News moves fast in Konoha, so how will the rookies react to find two of their own making for the hills, and one walking to his very doom?


	2. Political Whirlwind

**Chapter 02**

**Political Whirlwind**

- Konoha -

Despite the craziness enveloping the hidden leaf village, Tsunade was able to leave the Hokage Tower with a smile on her face. The truth of the matter was that she'd begun to regret losing her bet to Naruto and being dragged back to this loveless village; so on one level it worked in her interest… she could go back to the life she'd left behind without seeming to betray her word. The fact that she had two children with her; especially ones as unusual as Naruto and Hinata; she knew for a fact that she would never be bored! Tsunade knew first-hand how horrible Konoha could be, so in her opinion she was doing Naruto a favor by dragging him away so early; both he and Hinata might actually grow without the oppression of the village. This was why she nearly laughed as she glanced towards Shizune, who wore a concerned face, and made an offer. "Why don't you let Tonton out and give her some exercise? That little piggy is starting to get fat and lazy!"

"You want me to summon Tonton? She was a little upset with me last time because I was too busy for her…" Shizune murmured, both hands gripping the straps of her pack as they walked.

"Hey!" Naruto cried in excitement, startling all three of his companions with his explosion of exuberance. "You can do the summoning jutsu, Shizune-nee-chan? I wanna see it! I wanna see it, dattebayo!" he begged as he bounced around in the street, hoisting his heavy pack as if it was stuffed with pillows. "That perverted sage taught me how to summon toads, so maybe we can make them fight sometime!" - "_Perverted sage?_" Hinata murmured questionably, but her tiny voice went unheard.

"Tonton isn't really a combat type, Naruto-kun…" Shizune replied with a giggle at the boy's excitement. "Watch." she instructed as she bit her thumb and touched it to the ground; without uttering the incantation, a small pig appeared from the summoning seal with a squeal. "Tonton, please say hello to everyone." Shizune prompted as she rose back to her feet, an earnest smile playing across her lips.

"Bui! Bui, bui!" the pig refused indignantly. She was apparently still upset at her master, a fact Naruto found so funny that he doubled over with laugher. His mirth was cut short when the pig rushed forward and performed a sweet head butt to his stomach, causing the young ninja to cry out as he fell back. Though Naruto swiped at the pig, Tonton wasn't one to be caught so easily; she shrieked "Pwee!" as she tore off down the street, leaving behind a trail of smoke behind and knocking people off their feet as she shot past.

With a small gasp, Hinata covered her mouth with her hands and blushed at what she'd just seen; she wasn't exactly worried about Naruto, knowing that it'd take more than a little piglet to hurt him; but raised as a noble's daughter, she'd been taught to adhere to principals without exception. She wanted to laugh with everyone around her, yet her father had always lectured her that any time she wasted laughing would be better spent training and not letting him down. Beside her, Tsunade wasn't holding herself to any such trappings, laughing as uproariously as Naruto had been just moments before having his pride knocked on its ass by a piglet dressed in a little coat and necklace.

"Tonton? Hey, what are you doing!?" Shizune cried after the piggy, taking a single, futile step after the racing, pink blur. "Uwa!" she screamed the next second; Tonton had changed course at some point and barreled into Shizune with enough force to knock her back onto her butt, landing on her master while pummeling her chest with little, polished hooves. "Bui, bui, bui, bui!" the piggy repeated furiously. "I'm sorry, Tonton…" Shizune apologized as she hugged the pig to her chest, soothing the angered farm animal by petting her gently, "I'll make more time for you, ok?"

"I haven't laughed like that in years!" Tsunade snickered as she wiped tears from her eyes, her massive bosom jiggling as she tried to settle herself.

"Well, I'm glad that I could be the one to help you out after so long…" Shizune grumped after thanking the kind citizen who'd helped her to stand up as he passed. Noticing that no one else was going to help Tonton's first victim, the young woman offered her hand and helped Naruto to his feet.

"Really, Shizune… I don't know what I'd do without you!" Tsunade laughed again as she led the procession out towards the village gates with Naruto to her direct right and Shizune taking up a spot beside Naruto. Behind them all, Hinata walked with a light blush tattooed to her cheeks, having observed everything without thinking once to assert herself into the middle of it all. Then again, she figured that she'd just annoy them when she couldn't think of something funny to say… but she was changing herself after all, wasn't she? Little by little, given enough time she'd be able to stand and laugh with her friends. Right?

- Meanwhile -

"…I'm sorry, Sakura." Hatake Kakashi murmured softly, his one visible eye gazing down into the weepy face of the sweetest student he'd ever had. Kakashi was once again dressed in the heartless black and white of the village's secret black ops uniform, a ceramic crow's mask held in one hand. He'd taken it upon himself to drop in on Sakura, who anyone could have tracked to the street outside of Sasuke's apartment.

"There's nothing you could do…" Sakura sniffled, choosing to stare up at what had until last night been Sasuke's balcony instead of facing her fear and looking her teacher in the eye. "The shinobi laws exist for a reason, don't they?"

"Un…" Kakashi sighed dejectedly. Even for a genius like him, there was no way to decline a reinstatement into the ANBU corps; and it was impossible to deny that the Hokage's word was law in the corps. The once-again ANBU captain felt hollow inside; the silence the two shared was deafening to him. Yet the thing that pissed him off the most was the knowledge that he'd already grown accustomed to the feeling he got when he lost someone precious to him. "I wish there was something I could do to keep this team together… It seems as if the entire world is against it, though." he bemused colorlessly.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura whined sadly, finally taking her eyes off of the abandoned apartment to look the man in the face. "Can I just ask for one last favor? If it's possible… could you bring _his_ forehead protector back for me? Even if it's just the plate… or if it's only the cloth; I just want…" she couldn't finish, choked off by her own tears.

"Un…" Kakashi promised softly. "…and I don't go back on my promises. That's my way of the ninja." Sakura finally broke down into hysterical sobs at this, which still managed to break the seasoned ANBU's heart despite how often it had happened to him. "Good bye… Sakura."

- Back with the pariah -

People stopped what they were doing and gathered in the streets to see what was breaking the monotony of piecing their lives back together. However, all they could see was a person-drawn carriage with thick, red curtains obscuring the view of whomever it was that deserved such regal treatment. But, more importantly, the fanfare was just coming to an end as the Hokage and her rag-tag team drew up to the vehicle. After a moment, the curtain drew back and two powerful-looking samurai withdrew from the carriage, their hands hovering cautiously over the hilts of their instruments of destruction; following them a moment later was a middle-aged man dressed in a kimono so fancy, one could buy an entire village if sold.

"Who's this clown supposed to be?" Naruto grumbled as he glared childishly at the man, annoyed that they were being slowed up again. He sorely wanted to get on the road so they could start his training, even though he wasn't sure what he could learn from the two women; they certainly didn't look as strong as Jiraiya did… once you got past his perverted exterior, anyway.

"I don't know…" Shizune admitted, shaking her head at a loss; Tonton gave a cute, little snort, but didn't seem to recognize him either. Again, all Hinata was prepared to do was watch from the back row.

It was Tsunade who strode up to the man and greeted him with a smile, "Good morning, Daimyo-dono!" Shizune's jaw dropped and her eyes became round, white disks as this new information reached her; the Warlord of the Land of Fire had come personally to Konoha. She wasn't sure what it could be about, but it certainly wasn't good news!

"Good morning, Hokage-dono." the Daimyo greeted with a humble bow; the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth hinting at years of smiling and good health. "Do you mind if I join you on your walk? Perhaps afterwards we could sit down to a cup of tea while your young friends get some ice cream; there are a couple things I'd like to discuss with you and your council."

"I don't really mind, Daimyo-dono. Does this have anything to do with the Fourth's Legacy?" Tsunade asked cryptically, ensuring that the children present wouldn't become aware of the true scope of what was happening behind the scenes. She didn't want to clue Naruto or Hinata in on the attempted banishment until there was absolutely nothing left to do about it

"Partially, yes. There are also some things I've wanted to discuss with the late Sandaime Hokage, but haven't been able to make it out here until today." the kind-hearted Daimyo explained with a warm smile at his old friend. "Come, come; let's not block the streets any longer than we have to!" the middle-aged man urged as he wrapped his arm around Tsunade and began directing the group back to the Hokage Tower standing tall in the distance. Shizune startled when one of the samurai approached her and placed his hand on her shoulder, causing her to blush softly; with a gentile firmness, he urged her to follow the Hokage and Daimyo. "You're all under our protection for now. We should stick together." he explained in a suave, comforting tone which almost forced the girl to comply at the simple sound of his voice. His partner strode up to the children, though all he did was smile and nod.

The two leaders chatted insubstantially as they wended their way through the busy streets of Konoha; the one samurai all but flirting with Shizune, who responded with a blush as she squeezed Tonton to her chest, ignoring the indignant squeals from the piglet. Considering their guardian to be the silent-type, this left Naruto and Hinata enough freedom to hold their own conversation. "So, what did your father say about you going on a training mission with me? Neji made him seem really mean when he told me about him during the chuunin exam."

"He's not really that mean…" Hinata corrected softly, gently poking her fingers together and blushing deeply as they walked, "He's just really worried about the image of the Hyuuga clan. He wants us to be really strong so that we can keep the respect of the village… and he doesn't want me to fall behind and risk our image. I guess that's why he wanted me to go with the Hokage for training; so that I can become strong enough to be considered a member of the Main house."

"The Hyuuga clan's image? I don't really understand any of that, but if Hinata-chan needs to become stronger then I'll do my absolute best to help you get there. Trust me; by the time we get back we'll both be stronger than Neji, and Sasuke, and Kiba… everybody! Dattebayo!" Naruto promised enthusiastically; and everyone knew by now about the boy's "way of the ninja." "I don't know what kind of training the old lady can give us, but if she was a teammate of Ero-sennin then she has to know something awesome she can teach us."

Hinata giggled lightly at Naruto's exuberance, comforted by his confidence and friendly nature. To tell the truth, she'd been very nervous of leaving Konoha for so long, knowing that so much rode on her to become strong enough to impress her father. She'd already changed enough that she could finally interact with Naruto, but even she knew that it wasn't enough yet. "What about Naruto-kun? Have you said 'goodbye' to your teammates?"

"I tried to talk to Sakura, but all she did was cry; I guess she was really broken up that I was leaving again. I was training with Ero-sennin for five weeks, you know." Naruto guessed incorrectly, shrugging ignorantly. "I wanted to rub it in Sasuke's face, too; but I couldn't seem to find him. Not that I tried very hard…"

"You couldn't find Uchiha-san? Maybe he's also doing training with his sensei." Hinata offered delicately, risking a peek at her companion as she continued to tap her fingers together. "At least, he should be… otherwise Naruto-kun and I will both become stronger than Uchiha-san when we come back." Hinata said, blushing furiously as she risked joining Naruto in his enthusiastic claims. Already she was feeling the rush of the changes she forced herself to undergo; even though they were still so small. Naruto laughed brilliantly as he clapped the girl on the shoulder, agreeing with her sentiments; however, the sudden contact broke through her guard, causing Hinata to squeak, "He's touching me…" as she pinched her eyes shut and tried to force herself to keep it together. Unfortunately she fought a valiant, lost battle - with a sigh she stumbled and passed out on the spot.

Thankfully, the silent samurai shot forward and gently caught the girl before she fell, lifting and cradling her in his powerful arms. He offered a reassuring smile to Naruto and nodded; his great, shaved head gleaming in the morning sun.

"Mmn," Naruto grunted as he gazed at Hinata's limp form, frowning in utter confusion, "Hinata-chan is so weird; she always acts like she wants to talk to me, but then she doesn't. Why did she suddenly pass out? I don't understand girls…" the young boy grumbled, his face comically resembling that of an old man's. To this, the silent samurai gave a reserved grin and chuckled softly, the sun winking off of his shiny dome.

"Wha!?" Suddenly the man chatting Shizune up turned and gazed in surprise at his partner with widened eyes. "Kogei, did you just…?" he breathed in disbelief. To this day, Marukia had NEVER heard his partner's voice; never a cough or a sneeze. Kogei shook his head in denial, his tiny grin vanishing from his face. "No, I definitely think that I heard you…" Marukia pressed, grinning in turn as he abandoned Shizune's side in order to approach his partner, marching in time with the massive samurai. Again Kogei shook his head, this time pointing an accusing finger towards Naruto; his eyes weaving a tale that placed all of the blame on the young ninja. Naruto's eyes widened and he sucked in a breath to defend him self, yet he wasn't in time; they'd just arrived back at the Hokage Tower.

Tsunade turned away from the conversation with the Daimyo and offered a smile to her dead fiancé's adult niece, "Why don't you take Naruto and Hinata out for some ramen and ice cream?" The young medic smiled and agreed to the orders, but paused when she came up to the silent samurai, who still held Hinata in his arms. As expected of Konoha's number one unexpected shinobi, Naruto's eyes shone as brightly as Kogei's shaved head as he whooped and took off at a jog towards Ichiraku's shop; an entire buffet of ramen swimming before his eyes. This left him completely unaware of what was going on back with his new friends…

"Put her down, Kogei." Marukia instructed firmly, though he gave a kind smile lest he come off as intimidating. Kogei didn't make a sound, but instead pulled Hinata closer and held her protectively in his embrace; there was longing in his eyes as he disobeyed. Marukia sighed as he reached out and placed his hand on his partner's shoulder, discreetly injecting samurai chakra into him as he spoke. "You're doing a bad thing, Kogei-kun. Wake the girl up now, ok?" Kogei let his shoulders drop, still refusing to utter even a sigh. Finally obeying his partner's insistence, Kogei let go of Hinata with one arm; while supporting her with his left arm, the samurai reached up and plugged her nose with two fingers.

"Kogei-san!" Shizune freaked even as Hinata sputtered back to consciousness, staring up in confusion and worry at the unfamiliar face gazing down at her; a moment later Shizune scooped the girl out of the samurai's grasp and set her on the ground, startled sweat pouring from her face. "Hinata, are you alright?"

"Yes, I think so…" the Hyuuga murmured around her deep blush, shocked at having been carried by an unknown adult. Yet, the greatest of her concerns was that she'd fainted in front of Naruto again. After taking a steadying breath, Hinata gazed around to find that not only was Naruto missing, but everyone in their small group was staring directly at her; each of them wearing either a worried or amused expression. "Ano…" she blushed deeper, unable to voice her concerns.

"Alright, come on you guys!" Tsunade urged with a laugh, momentarily forgetting the pressure of what she had to discuss with the warlord of the country. Pausing, she glanced towards Shizune and laughed, "You'd better hurry if you want to catch Naruto, Shizune-chan. If what I heard from Jiraiya is true, then he'll have eaten up half of the menu before you even get there!"

"Aw…" Shizune moaned in exasperation, letting her shoulders drop. Tonton comically mirrored her master - the medic had dropped the piglet in her worry over Hinata; and thankfully Tonton understood the situation, so she wasn't upset. "Come along, Hinata… Tonton…"

As they watched Shizune lead away the young charges, Tsunade turned and ushered her guests into the tower. Behind them, Marukia was reassuring his large partner, patting his arm as he walked the black samurai through the glass doors of the building.

- Hokage's office -

"Before we get down to business," Tsunade mentioned as she daintily sat in the Hokage's seat and dropped her bag beside her chair, "…what just happened out there with Hinata?" the woman asked with a catty grin, "Could it be that Kogei-san is ready to start having children?"

Marukia laughed kindly as he shifted his weight and clapped a hand on his partner's shoulder, "Nah, this big lug's already got two little boys; but he's wanted a little girl for years now. I guess he just got a little overemotional back there and got carried away." Kogei nodded demurely in silence, agreeing and begging for forgiveness all with his eyes.

"Aww," Tsunade cooed motherly, deeply touched by the unexpected outcome. However, after taking a deep breath, her face grew stony as she steeled her resolve. "As you know, this room is ensured to be secure. Please explain to me what's going on."

Already having taken a seat in one of the upholstered seats, the Daimyo cleared his throat before getting the ball rolling. "Concerning the recent attack by the village of the Sand: I'd like to bring up the shinobi we currently have stationed in Sunagakure at this moment. More to the point, I'd like to discuss whether or not we should recall the entire team to assist in securing Konohagakure's safety against attacks both foreign and domestic."

"You mean Chuunin Koda Satoshi's rookie team?" Tsunade questioned as she sat back in her chair. To tell the truth, because she'd only taken office two weeks ago after having spent ten years away, she didn't know all of the shinobi by heart. However, it was only a couple more moments before an ANBU clad in a raven's mask appeared behind the Hokage; he handed over a hastily retrieved set of folders to Tsunade before evaporating as quickly as he came. Though normally serious about their job, the ANBU corps has kicked up their production to be of the utmost usefulness to the Hokage and the village in which they served. Transferring the contents of the files to the table, Tsunade lightly bit her fingernail as she looked over the three shinobi under the medic's command. "Chuunins Senbon Takeshi, Takanori Kazuki, and Takanori Yuzuki? Weren't these last two the children of _Hassari_ Takanori Chinako? They were all purchased from Sunagakure three years ago."

"The very same," the Daimyo agreed with a short nod. "My concern is that they were given a field promotion to chuunin because they were forced to miss the last three exams due to missions and training. I don't want to do this, but it worries me that they may have known about the attack, but didn't give any warning; I wish to bring them back to be interrogated."

"Wait a minute." Tsunade countered suspiciously, "Why would their having been given a field promotion concern you?"

"As you know, a field promotion is given to genin by their sensei under the supervision of at least two ANBU; in this case two such agents were borrowed from Sunagakure under the authorization of both the Sandaime Hokage and Yondaime Kazekage. It worries me because their training mission is due to terminate in time for the following exam in five months; however, they have managed to circumvent not only this exam - which ultimately led to the attack by foreign forces - and the upcoming exam as well." the Daimyo explained carefully, not wishing to upset his friend.

"Hmm, I see what you mean. It's the perfect ploy to avoid becoming involved; and a year really isn't that long of a wait." Tsunade agreed, sending waves of relief through the Daimyo; he was worried that he'd have to witness the woman's terrifying temper once again. "However, I don't agree that we should pull them away from their training until we have more probable cause. I will concede to allowing _Hassari_ Takanori Chinako being interrogated; she still holds connections to relatives sold to each of the five great nations as weapons of war."

"Noted." the Daimyo instructed, bowing slightly to Tsunade as both of his samurai guardians retrieved a scroll and jotted down the information. Should one of them become tampered with, the partner would be able to provide an unaltered copy. "Now, again I have been given numerous requests by several shinobi and civilians to instate a removal of the caged bird cursed-seal in use by the Hyuuga main house."

"Have you brought this up with Hyuuga Hiashi?"

"He's convinced that a mass removal would goad the branch house members into a violent take-over - it would be the Uchiha massacre all over again."

Tsunade paused as she ran the scenarios through her mind. After several moments she shrugged, "Well, we certainly don't need anything like that happening so soon after an attack."

"If ever…" the daimyo and his talkative samurai spoke in unison. Marukia grinned before returning his attention to the small drawing he was making on the back of what he thought was a piece of scrap paper.

"We'll leave it as is for now; but I'll bring it up again during his successor's administration. Whether it's Hinata or Neji, the decision will have to rest with the following generation." Tsunade proclaimed, to which the samurai transcribed into text. "What else do we have to cover before we tackle Uzumaki Naruto's dilemma?"

The Daimyo paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, weighing the various ways his old friend would react to what he was about to suggest. Sensing their master's change in confidence, both samurai focused their full attention on the two diplomats, molding chakra and moving their swords into positions they could more easily be drawn from. Throwing all caution to the wind, though he could already feel the heat on the back of his neck rise and his armpits become sweaty, the Daimyo cleared his throat and suggested, "How would you feel about supplementing Konoha's military force using samurai from the emperor's own court? Emperor Kurashiba and I would never dream of undermining the Hokage of Konoha, but just until…"

"Denied!" Tsunade barked suddenly, ignoring the fact that both guardian's hands went immediately to their swords, the tell-tail click of the hilts come apart from the sheath filling the entire room with the horrible feeling of unreleased potential. "I'm sorry, Daimyo-dono, but I cannot allow any foreign soldiers into Konoha at this time. No one born outside of this village is to enter through the gates without the express permission of the Hokage."

Catching the contradiction, Marukia spoke his mind, "So then what do you plan to do with those Takanori guys? The ones born in Sunagakure?" Tsunade opened her mouth to reply, but they were all cut off by the sound of the door opening and the repeated clicking of a man who walked with a cane.

All eyes went to Danzou as he came to a stop, the door shutting on its own accord behind him. If the unreleased potential was bad before, then it more than tripled when the old warhawk entered, filling the room with eerie intent. Without ever opening his eye, Danzou stared the Hokage in the face as he spoke, "On your order, the council has convened on the fate of the Takanori, Hokage-sama. It has been decided that the _Hassari_ and her children were purchased from the Land of Wind as weapons of war, so therefore they should continue to be considered in such a manner. They belong to Konohagakure to be used in whatever manner as the Hokage deems necessary. That is the ruling, Godaime Hokage-sama."

Tsunade watched Danzou very carefully, her mind working in overtime to figure out what the sinister creature before her could possibly be trying at; she'd never asked the council to decide about anything concerning the Takanori - she hadn't even started the _Hassari's_ order of interrogation yet. What this meant was that Danzou had walked in with a false ruling at the very instant that it would become useful; this worried her greatly because it meant the room wasn't as secure as she'd thought it was. Yet, even in front of her friends, Tsunade couldn't allow herself to seem as if she wasn't in full control; despite the fact that she was already planning to abandon the village. "Then as our personal weapons, I'd like for the ANBU to arrange to pick them up upon their return and deliver them to the headquarters for safekeeping. They are not to be released until the _Hassari_ can sign for their use." She hated making such a cold order… but Danzou had her by the balls and they both knew it.

"I will have ROOT arrange for their lodging in our headquarters - on your order, Hokage-sama." Danzou replied, his very essence smiling despite his statuesque appearance. One of Tsunade's eyes twitched in response; but even with her close friend in the room, she could not appear to have lost any control. The Daimyo meant well, but he was obligated by imperial mandate to raise such a concern to the emperor himself, who very well might take action to protect his nation from internal strife. As the ROOT division head turned to leave, Tsunade imagined jabbing a kunai into the back of his head every time his infernal cane struck the hardwood floor. The Daimyo and his samurai turned in their seats when the door shut, returning their attention to the Hokage, struggling to contain the boiling inferno of rage scorching her insides.

"In that case, I'll inform Emperor Kurashiba that you have adequate forces and maintain control over your 'weapons' for the time being." the Daimyo decided, pausing to let his guardian-scribes to transcribe their notes into continually unraveling scrolls. When they had finished, he offered a wry, almost apologetic smile as he finally brought up the main concern that had caused him to personally make a trip to Konoha. "On the subject of Uzumaki Naruto… How much control would you say you have over the boy? Namely, the Kyuubi sealed inside him."

Tsunade growled as she shut her eyes and forcefully controlled her emotions; she knew that such a question would be raised, though it still clawed at her that it was brought up during her tenure. As a medic she abhorred the idea of treating the living, breathing citizens of any village as mere weapons and tools - it was too inhumane! Regardless, as the Hokage she was required to make an acceptable response that wouldn't endanger the village, yet wasn't an obvious lie. "Genin Uzumaki Naruto is as loyal to Konohagakure as my grandfather before me, the Shodai Hokage. He's defended not only our village but the ideals of this nation at the risk of his own life; he'd do anything at all for the sake of his home." Tsunade had to fight off a lump growing in her throat even as she spoke; because it was the very village that he'd risked life and limb for that threatened to put him out on his ass for the simple crime of having been born.

"His loyalty is not the question, Tsunade-san." the Daimyo mentioned as he fidgeted in his seat. Their positions were on the equal footing in the eyes of the emperor, and their long friendship would not allow them to knowingly hurt each other; therefore it killed him to bring up such a touchy subject with such far-reaching consequences. …Especially during a time of such extreme stress and tense foreign relations. "How much control do you have over the boy who carries in him the monster known as the Kyuubi no Youko? Not just from you, but from everyone appointed over him in command."

"We have perfect control over Uzumaki Naruto. Both as a shinobi and as the container of the monster..." Tsunade replied coldly, once again forcing her anger back into its cage. She had to lock the cage and keep her emotions in control, she knew. Why? So that she wouldn't damage the village she'd inherited from her grandfather, grand uncle, and sensei; the same village she would have to give over to the following generation when the time came. "Naruto is no danger to Konoha." Tsunade swore with finality.

"I'll take your word for it; however, it has come to my attention that the council has made a ruling considering Uzumaki-san's banishment from the village. They claim that he *is* in fact a danger and has been recorded to have released the chakra of the Kyuubi on three recorded occurrences. It is believed that should he lose control, the monster would be released inside the village of Konohagakure; and with no means of sealing the creature away…"

"With all due respect, Daimyo-dono," Tsunade interrupted calmly, pausing to take a deep breath. "We do have a means of controlling the release of the Kyuubi's chakra; an ANBU soldier with the ability to suppress demonic chakra… Besides, there is always an omnipresent danger from living in a shinobi village; as the recent attack from Sunagakure and Otogakure proves to have no connection to Uzumaki Naruto or the beast sealed within him."

"This is good news, indeed. Now, the council cannot overrule you as Hokage, and making an official plea to the court of the emperor would take many months of deliberation; therefore I urge you, as my good friend, not to do anything rash in response." the Daimyo pleaded diplomatically. "No, don't write that part down…" he murmured to the samurai; though of course Kogei looked up in worry before slowly drawing the scroll away and covering it with his hand. "This is off of the record. I don't believe that Uzumaki-san should be officially banished; and the council would not be permitted to apprehend the boy for any reason without your consent. However, the government of Konohagakure and even that of the Land of Fire are very fragile right now with the village's drop in power; I'd rather not risk the village to fall from an internal civil war directly following an effective foreign attack."

"Then what the Hell do you suggest I do?" Tsunade grumbled, finding it more difficult to control her temper with every passing minute. "I've already decided to take him out on an extended training mission - and as his sensei I have full right to do so regardless of rank and position. Yet, even I know that I won't be able to keep up that façade forever. I refuse to throw him to the wolves… never while he's wearing my grandfather's necklace."

"I would not have you do so." the Daimyo reassured, leaning back in his seat as he pondered the situation. "We seem to be stuck at a horrible impasse at the moment. The council, the people who support them, all of the citizens who've lost loved ones in the attack; none of them would suffer Uzumaki-san to live in their village for too much longer, not when they remain so terrified of the chakra he possesses. Yet we cannot afford to have the Hokage going into exile with him to stay at his side; and believe me, I understand why you would. We cannot have both, but we seem unable to come to a fair juxtaposition."

Everyone startled when Marukia jumped to his feet, his eyes wide and his breath caught in his throat. Though Kogei went for his sword and both diplomats leapt to stand, he waved them off and looked excitedly at the Daimyo, an idea exploding through his skull. "What about that village we passed through to get into Konohagakure? Minagi-something-or-other?"

"Minato no sato; named for our Yondaime Hokage." Tsunade provided, her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the strange samurai as she placed both of her hands on the top of her desk. "What exactly are you getting at? How would a civilian village help us out right now?"

"Listen to me for a second, if you would." Marukia insisted as he formulated his idea in his head, completely forgetting to include the addressee; he tapped his fingers in the air as if he were checking notes on a corkboard before grinning brilliantly. "Minato village is almost 30 minutes away from Konohakagure, so therefore it's outside of the immediate radius but still under the protection of the village. Yes? You and your little friend can stay in that village: the kid's effectively outside of Konoha but close enough that he can step in to help in the event of an attack! See? With only 30 minutes apart, you could periodically check in on Konoha to take care of your duties as Hokage, then go home to see your little buddy!"

Tsunade stood straight up, her hand immediately going to her mouth so that she could bite on the side of her finger in thought; her eyes darted out of the picture window behind her to gaze out over Konoha and the horizon stretching out beyond her walls. As the realization dawned on the woman, Tsunade let her arm drop and a delicious smirk to split her face, "It's certainly within my authority; and I can assign agents to guard the village and its inhabitants, seeing as it's directly in the path leading into Konoha… With permission from the Daimyo, of course,"

"Granted." the Daimyo replied quickly, his own happy smile back on his face. "There's more I feel I should add, though. While an acceptable temporary solution, even I don't feel completely easy about having the Hokage in a situation where there could be a delay in emergency decisions. Have you designated a successor should you be unable to be reached?"

Pausing to very carefully word her reply lest she become befouled due to the sudden lack of security in the room, Tsunade slowly answered, "Directly following a critical mission, I've asked Jiraiya to accept the position of Rokudaime Hokage."

"Jiraiya-san, you say?" the Daimyo murmured thoughtfully, removing his hat so that he could comb his hair using his hand as he deliberated. "I need to know if he accepts the offer, and how long you expect him to be out of the village on the mission. I have to be sure that someone can be available for immediate action in the event of an emergency. That's my job as the warlord of this nation. Tsunade, this is important."

Sighing as she dropped back into her seat, Tsunade was forced to come clean at her friend's insistence; because as much as it annoyed her, he was correct in saying that it was his duty. "He didn't seem very thrilled at all. As for the mission duration, I project no less than two months until he can gather the intelligence I asked for."

"This represents a problem, you understand? You can still nominate Jiraya-san, but considering he initially turned down the position, there will have to be an election held to determine the Rokudaime Hokage. …and the council will have to be involved to make the final decision." Tsunade had already suspected as much; and it made her blood boil to think that this would give that craven creature Danzou another chance to take control. However, despite the samurai's frantic scribbling with their ink and brushes, the Daimyo wasn't finished speaking, "What I can do is give you a little bit of leeway by delaying the election. The minor shinobi countries seem to manage just fine, so perhaps I could assume command of Konohagakure in your absence; at least until Jiraiya-san returns and can enter into the running if he wishes."

"You'd be willing to do this, Tomi-kun?" Tsunade breathed in surprise, so awed that she instinctively used the Daimyo's nickname. She sat forward and fixed her chocolate brown eyes expectantly on the warlord of the Land of Fire; she'd always known that forming a connection with him would be well worth it one day!

"Certainly, _Tsunade_-_hime_." the Daimyo returned with an amiable smile, his eyes seeming to laugh along with him. "I'll have my brilliant guards here to help me out, so there really shouldn't be any concerns. Granted, as long as you *do* check in with me periodically, Hokage-dono."

"Then that's how it's going to be. I'll make all of the orders as soon as we're done in here so that ANBU will be placed under your direction."

"Actually, there is one more thing I'd like to bring up about Uzumaki-san before moving on to our final discussion." The Daimyo mentioned, pausing to let his scribes catch up while warmly regarding Tsunade's curious expression. "The emperor would like to overturn the Sandaime Hokage's law concerning the secrecy of Uzumaki Naruto being the container of the Nine-tails. He wants to advertize the fact that any attacks on our country would be countered by the ultimate power of the Kyuubi."

"Are you serious?" Tsunade whispered in disbelief, her brown eyes having gone wide and her heart quickening its beat in her chest. "Sarutobi-sensei had a reason for making that law! The parents will tell their children; all of Naruto's friends will become terrified of him!" The Daimyo wiped the sweat from his brow as he fidgeted in his seat, his happy attitude flying straight out of the window as he waited for Tsunade to finish her tirade. "I've been back in Konoha for only two weeks, and I can already see that even the Yondaime Hokage's request is being blatantly ignored. Naruto is in no way being regarded as a hero for keeping that monster at bay!!" She wanted to smash the desk in front of her; to break a shelf and dump the books; anything to burn off the raging inferno roaring inside of her. But she held it all in, because everything had to seem as if she was still in control.

The Daimyo sighed heavily as he completely removed his hat and set it down on the desk in front of him, again running his hand through his hair. "I know it's going to be rough, Tsunade-san; I wasn't looking forward to telling you in the first place. However, it is the emperor's decree…" he postured in his defeat, his words of apology obviously falling upon deaf ears. "I don't know. Maybe while you're out there with Uzumaki-san I can figure something out from in here. That's really all I can do for right now."

Tsunade already felt double her age as the weight of the world crushed upon her shoulders. She was a fool to even pretend that she was in control of anything anymore! Shaking her head she looked the Daimyo in the eyes as she grumbled, "I hate politics…"

"I know." the Daimyo agreed with a feeble laugh. "This is the last thing for today, I promise. Concerning the genin Uchiha Sasuke; I'd like to see him for a moment. Your old teammate, Orochimaru-san, has paid the emperor a hefty amount to buy the Uchiha lad as a weapon of war; given the agreement of a cease fire between our two nations." Tsunade's eyebrows rose sharply as her breath caught in her throat. 'Uh oh,' she thought as she recalled the order she'd given earlier in the morning; the orders to assassinate Sasuke for abandoning Konoha in favor of an enemy village.

- Ichiraku Ramen -

Hearing a faint whisper, Naruto looks up from a sudden chill running through his body, but cannot place the reason behind it. He felt as if something was missing, or was going to become missing very soon. However, all such thoughts were immediately banished the moment his eighth steaming bowl of breakfast ramen was set in front of him. Ever the champion of ramen consumption, even Tonton had lost to Naruto's ravenous, insatiable apatite!

- Minato village -

It had only been two weeks since Tsunade had formed Team Hokage and stationed them in the civilian logging village on the road leading to Konohagakure. Truthfully she had wanted to take her new apprentices out on their first mission together, however a critical emergency had put a quick damper on her plans - Hinata's heart weakened on her. So, feeling like crap for holding the team up, Hinata was required to stay in bed while Naruto was taken out to practice with his Rasengan. With a soft sigh, the young girl climbed out of bed and crossed to the window, frowning as she watched the townsfolk wandering past as they went about their various errands. Standing out like a sore thumb, Hinata watched as a Konoha ninja dressed in full uniform strolled past, pausing to glance up and wave at her with a kind smile. Tsunade had assigned a 24-hour patrol to circulate through the village, which relieved Hinata somewhat; because she knew the chuunin patrols would protect her and Naruto when Tsunade and Shizune had to return to Konoha.

There was one thing that bothered her most about the condition of her heart was that it had been her Neji-nii-san that had done the damage. Hinata had always been really close to her cousin and loved him as if he was an older brother - even though he was a little scary, in her heart she knew that he would always be there to protect her and keep her safe; it was her most treasured feeling. The craziest thing about the entire mess was that she wasn't even mad at him, not for all of the terrible things he'd said or for attacking her so furiously during the preliminary round. He was her beloved brother: that was all the reason she needed to forgive him. Ever since Naruto-kun had fought her Neji-nii-san and made him realize how angry he'd gotten, Hinata once again felt safe around her cousin; and she knew that if her father warmed up to him enough, then Neji would be able to become the heir to the clan after all and absolve her of…

Hinata gasped when she realized through the blur of her vision that she had started crying. Neji-nii-san was getting stronger every day, Naruto-kun was learning so many powerful jutsu, Shino-kun was going on difficult missions with his father, and Shikamaru-kun had already been promoted to chuunin. Everyone was leaving her behind, and with her heart the way it was she was going to be left even further behind. Weeping away her sorrow, Hinata didn't bother to wipe her eyes as she shuffled back to her bed and climbed under the covers; back to her place where she belonged. She shut her eyes and cried herself to sleep, knowing that even tomorrow she'd hold everyone back with her weakness.

'But I want to be stronger; just like Naruto-kun and Neji-nii-san. I want to change myself just a little more.' a whisper ran through the girl's mind as sleep began to creep over her body. However, before she had a chance to fall asleep, an enormous tremor rocked the entire room, prying the weeping girl's head from her pillow with a start. A continuing flash from outside the window followed by a low rumble alerted Hinata that bombs were going off in the village; it was an attack! Her eyes widened, Hinata allowed her instincts to take over as she tossed aside the blanket and ran to the window, where she was horrified to see black smoke rising into the sky and dead bodies littering the streets. In an instant she yanked the window open as was immediately assaulted by the screams and shouts of the people down in the village; those running for their lives and the few taking a stand for their home all cut down with shrieks by unknown assailants. "This is bad…" Hinata whispered in shock as she took in the death and devastation, the cold claws of terror raking at her mind and body.

It was then that Hinata spotted two men fighting in the streets, locking in a violent battle to the death. To her surprise she recognized one of the men as being the very same chuunin that had waved to her just moments ago! Rational thought leaving her body, Hinata leapt out of the open window and skipped from the roof of the adjacent building to the ground below. Now at ground zero of the massacre, Hinata could smell the smoke from the burning buildings and see first hand the bleeding casualties left by whatever evil forces were making the attack. Also, from this vantage point, she was close enough to see exactly who the patrolman was fighting… it was a ninja from the Sound!! …and she was just in time to see him stabbed in the stomach and kicked away into the wall directly beside her. Frightened, Hinata turned to the man and stammered to him, her voice all but intelligible in her terror.

"Calm down, Hyuuga-san." the wounded chuunin commanded firmly, using his own stoic centre to force Hinata to relax enough that she wouldn't lose her head. "Look, it's up to you to fight him now. It doesn't matter how young you are; you can do this."

"I can't… I'm too weak. All I do is hold people back!" Hinata complained even as she pressed her hands to the man's wound to apply pressure in an attempt to stop his bleeding; it was really all she could do.

"No. That's completely wrong, Hyuuga-san. You have something very special that can help you out."

"You mean the Byakugan? I'm not as good as Neji-nii-san is with it!"

"I'm talking about the special trait that everyone in Konoha has, the one that no one else in the world can possibly stand up against. It's the Will of Fire that burns in all of us." the Patrolman urged as he pushed Hinata's hands away so that he could press his own hand to the wound. After taking a moment to catch his breath against the obvious pain he was suffering, the ninja looked Hinata straight in the eyes and urged her to listen to what he was saying. "The Will of Fire is the strength of everyone that came before us; those who wish to protect us with everything; and it'll lend its strength to anyone willing to accept it. But you have to believe in yourself, Hyuuga-san. Borrow its strength and mix it with your own so that you can lend it to your friends when they need it." Staring in complete shock, Hinata slowly drew away from the bleeding ninja and looked down at her own hands, still covered in his red blood. She looked up to see the smile he'd given her back then, "I'll even lend you my strength as well, so mix it with yours and stand up to this man! Use all of our combine power to defeat his!"

Her mind made, Hinata took a steadying breath and finally turned towards the sneering Sound ninja. Without muttering a single word, but feeling resolve and determination rising in her chest, the Hyuuga slowly shifted into her fighting stance as her Byakugan activated on its own. In an instant the enemy was rushing towards her, and she could see his chakra pumping through his body as he thrust at her with a kunai. "Ha!" she cried as her hands wrapped around his arm and guided his attack away from her body, two of her fingers pressed to the thread of chakra flowing through his arm into his hand; the unnamed enemy was forced to drop his weapon. 'I did it…!' Hinata gasped, shocked by how effectively she had countered his attack.

Unfortunately, she became distracted for a mere second in her glory; exploiting the opportunity as he was trained to, the enemy caught Hinata with his other hand and slammed his knee into her stomach, forcing the breath from her lungs from the severe blow. The next instant he swiped out at the stunned girl, backhanding her across the face and forcing her back. Hinata gasped as she stumbled to a stop several steps away, holding one hand to the growing red mark on her cheek. As silent as a snake, the Sound ninja dropped back a couple steps as well, this time never dropping his stance. Hinata watched her opponent, though she had lost her concentration on Byakugan when she was hit. In the space of seconds the young Hyuuga remembered all the times Kiba had been struck in battle, and the couple times even Shino was outmaneuvered by the enemy; yet no matter what, she remembered how they got back up and continued attacking. She knew deep down that neither Naruto-kun nor Neji-nii-san would back down - they would keep fighting and never give up. So therefore she would have to hold herself to the same determination, because if all of her friends could get back up, then she could too; that was *her* way of the ninja!

Breathing heavily through her nose, Hinata reactivated her Byakugan and steeled her resolve. Letting loose a mighty roar, the white princess of the Hyuuga clan sprinted towards her enemy with her heart beating in her ears and her eyes fixed not on her enemy, but on the future she could now share with everyone. Together with everyone.

An instant later Hinata gasped as she shot up in bed, her eyes as wide as dinner plates and her heart slamming in her chest like a jackhammer. Suddenly everything was eerily quiet and serene, the sounds of explosions gone and the smell of smoke a mere figment of her imagination; even from as far away as her bed, one glance out of the window dawned realization on the heiress. "A… dream?" Yet even as she said it, Hinata knew that it was something a little more substantial than a simple flight of fancy. It had to be a vision - a vision given to her by the Will of Fire itself!

- Meanwhile -

Tsunade barely suppressed her grin as she walked up on Naruto's training session with Shizune, where the medic had the boy weaving through an army of straw-stuffed scarecrows in an attempt to touch her with his Rasengan. Thankfully the young woman was already an experienced jounin and ran little risk of actually being hurt by the spiraling ball of energy. The reason behind Tsunade's playful smile was because of a long forgotten memory she held of back when she was putting her preteen charge through the same training; the difference was that the child Shizune had used a kunai rather than the powerful Rasengan. Acting before either of her beloved youngsters noticed her, the Hokage knelt down and focused chakra into her first finger before slamming it into the ground in the same instant she released the massive wave of chakra she had stored moments earlier.

Naruto wailed in surprise as the ground shook under his feet, forcing him to lose his balance as a lattice-work of cracks crawled along the grass, breaking the soil into large chunks. "Waa-!" Naruto cried as he lost sight of his target and slammed the mighty Ransengan into the chest of a straw scarecrow, wincing as it shuttered and flung its stuffing in a violent spiral before snapping in half. He looked up in wonder as his "sensei" called out the Hokage's name in disbelief. Dusting off his hands, the genin strode beside Shizune as they approached Tsunade.

"You're back from Konoha already?" Shizune asked, though it was pretty obvious with the woman standing before them in all her buxom glory.

"Yes; I picked up the medical supplies we might need and picked up a prescription of pills for Hinata's condition." Tsunade replied, gently patting a pouch at her hip that was bulging and fit to burst.

"That's a relief. I worry about poor Hinata's condition…" Shizune worried as she glanced off into the direction of Minato village.

"Nah!" Naruto laughed as he rubbed a finger under his nose, startling both of the women with him. "Hinata's actually really strong, you know. She might not look like it, but she's a really tough girl." he urged sagely, his beaming grin providing all the proof they needed of the fact. Tsunade and Shizune both shared a soft giggle as they agreed with the young savant; they finally understood that anything Naruto said, he'd force it to become true under the power of his will.

"Then it's a good thing I stopped in to the mission room while I was there. I'd like for all of us to go on one so that I can see first hand what all of our strengths are." Tsunade proclaimed with a broad smile, drinking in the excited look glowing on Naruto's face. "Come on, everyone; let's go pick up Hinata so we can start our first C-rank mission together!"

- Back in Minato village -

When the party came upon to the small house Tsunade had purchased, they found Hinata up on the roof dressed in her jacket and _shinobi-fuku_ as she spun in what had to be a Jyuuken kata taught to her by the girl's father. Upon noticing the party in the street, Hinata slid along the slant of the roof before bounding down the layers of buildings and landing in front of her friends with a happy smile, an expression mirrored in her pale eyes. "Good morning, Hokage-sama. Everyone." the girl greeted as she gave a happy bow, her face apparently flushed from concentrating on her kata.

"Good morning, Hinata-chan!" Naruto exclaimed as he beamed at the girl brightly with sparkling eyes, still assured that he was correct about her inner strength.

"Ah, hi! Naruto-kun…" Hinata replied, steeling her resolve even as she blushed and tapped her fingers together; her shy, little smile mostly hidden behind her hands. "How was your training?""

"It went great! Unlike with Kakashi-sensei or Ero-sennin, I feel like I actually learned something without having to figure out some stupid puzzle!" Naruto said with a laugh, grinning to himself as if he was the most amazing ninja in the world. "Except I forgot what it was that Shizune-sensei was teaching me. Nihihi!" Konoha's number-one unpredictable ninja admitted with a short laugh as he rubbed the back of his head.

"It's to teach mobility on the battlefield; and is actually something important for the both of you to learn." Shizune reminded with a gentile smile. She was a little nervous about training children at first, but after having spent some time with Naruto and Hinata, Shizune found that she really enjoyed showing them things and being called 'big sister.' She thought perhaps, that maybe Tsunade wasn't entirely wrong for having suggested it in the first place.

"Exactly." Tsunade cut in with a warm smile of her own, pausing to retrieve a folded sheet of paper from inside the front of her nearly open shirt. "So I'd like to see both of you going through it later. But for right now everyone should get ready for a mission, ok?"

Hinata gushed excitement as she tucked in her arms and bent her knees cutely, exuding pure joy as her eyes shone brightly, "Hai, Hokage-sama; I'm already ready to go. As soon as everyone else is ready… Dattebayo!" Hinata claimed, still riding the high she got from her new-found sense of confidence.

"Yes! I'm always ready for a mission! Dattebayo!" Naruto cried in turn, jumping into the air and pumping his fist in accomplishment; he only seemed to become more excited with Hinata's enthusiasm, because it went and proved him absolutely right in what he'd said about her.

"Alright, let's get a move on before we make even more of a scene!" Tsunade laughed, ushering the children along, pausing only to smile back at Shizune. 'Did I mishear Hyuuga-san back there?' she communicated with her eyes. Shizune worriedly shook her head in denial; sure she wanted Hinata to come out of her shell a little bit and maybe learn some things from Naruto, but at this rate… She shuttered at the mere thought of looking after *two* versions of Naruto.

- Konohagakure -

ANBU Captain Hatake Kakashi walked the streets of Konoha dressed in civilian clothes of all things; then again it could be said that he was probably the only person to ever wear a mask with a "V-neck" long-sleeve and cargo pants. He also wore a tan headband with a famous icon giving the Peace Sign with his fingers imprinted over his Sharingan eye; however, this was mostly at the insistence of Haruno Sakura so that he wouldn't wander around town looking like Popeye the Sailor.

At first he'd been on his way to Sakura's house to deliver Sasuke's memento; walking while reading his copy of Icha Icha Violence. Yet, along his recently altered path through the village, he came upon Naruto's apartment and paused to gaze calmly up into the boy's window; or at least the shattered remains of it, anyway. Along with the lift on the censorship surrounding the Kyuubi's container, many of the upset adults felt that it also meant they were permitted to be far more public with their vengeance. He gave a sigh and prepared to continue walking, but was stopped when he heard someone call his name from inside the apartment. Tucking his book into one of his roomy cargo pockets, Kakashi peered through the window again, spotting Yamanaka Ino peeking through the broken remains. He knew her because he'd often spotted her assaulting Sasuke early in the morning before their training sessions.

Ino opened the window so that she could stick her head out to let him in on what had happened to the apartment. Yet, when she got it open and looked back out into the street, her rival's sensei was completely gone. "Yo." Ino shrieked as she spun in place to confront the voice that had sprung up from behind her, dropping the shard of glass she was holding, which shattered as it hit the floor. Kakashi was already in the room! "Ehh, it's as bad as I feared it'd be…"

"Hokage's pants, you startled me!" Ino accused as she stomped her foot, glaring at the enigma across from her.

"Oh, did I?" Kakashi murmured as he passed his gaze over the room, taking in first hand the incredible damage that had been done so quickly following the news concerning Naruto. "I'm sorry." he apologized half-heartedly as he watched Akamaru drag Naruto's blanket and sheets off of the bed with his teeth; paint and excrement now covered the fabric. Kiba could be seen growling as he scrubbed at more paint that had dried on the floor, his fangs barred as he swore at the stain. Chouji was peeking into Naruto's refrigerator, having just picked the appliance off of the floor and replacing it, the door hanging on with only the top hinge. From what he could tell, Lee and Shino appeared to be guarding the door while everyone else busily buzzed about in their efforts to clean up.

"Yeah…" Ino sighed wearily as she too reviewed the damage, frowning at the audacity and immaturity most of the village's adult population could display. "This is actually the third time we've had to come up here and renovate. I don't think it's going to be our last, either."

With his hands stuffed into his pockets, Kakashi cocked his head to one side and asked, "So, you're alright with Naruto's…?" he hesitated, allowing his question to fade out. Ino looked off to her left as a blush grew on her face, her eyes telling that she wasn't completely sure how she felt about Naruto's having the Kyuubi sealed inside him; if Kakashi's guess were correct, then Ino knew that it didn't bother her, but would never find the correct words to explain why. Silence fell on the room as all of the genin paused in their task to look up at the ANBU, each understanding an unspoken agreement amongst them. Finally, it was spoken perfectly by the least likely child in the room, Aburame Shino, "Uzumaki Naruto is my comrade. I could never look him in the face if I wasn't prepared to carry the same burden as he does. It upsets me greatly to see all of this." It was universal agreement in the small apartment; and it made Kakashi's heart swell with pride. It pleased him to know that the future generation was this much stronger than the current generation.

"Yamanaka-san," Kakashi mentioned as he turned back to the blonde girl, reaching into one of his pockets as he did, "I have this for you." He produced a simple necklace and held it out to the girl; little more than the white half of a yin-yang with a black cord running through the hole, the jewelry actually carried far more sentimental value than anything else.

"What's that?" Ino questioned, hesitating as she reached for the gift. She wasn't exactly suspicious of it, but felt she should figure out what it was and what it meant before accepting it.

Kakashi looked the young girl in the eyes as he explained the jewelry's origin. "Sasuke-kun found this in his older brother's room just after… He was wearing it on that day…" He didn't have to spell out either event in full detail; it was already common knowledge about the Uchiha's massacre and Sasuke's more recent death. Once again the room grew silent; however, it was a deathly silence this time around.

Seeming to deflate, Ino hung her head and let her arms drop limply to her sides as her mind reeled from the loss; not a moment later tears sprang to her eyes, leaving trails down her cheeks as she lost whatever fragile restraint she had over her building sorrow. Kakashi's heart broke even as Ino slowly reached out and allowed him to place the necklace in her hand - he could feel her trembling from even that slight contact. She sobbed once before completely losing her battle, crying, "I'm sorry…!" as she ran from the room, pausing only to open the door to leave.

After several long moments, the silence was broken when Kiba swore and began attacking the floor with his scrub brush again; Alamaru whining pathetically as he hung his little puppy head. Slowly everyone else began to return to their own work, though with noticeably diminished fervor. Kakashi himself stared at the broken window, a plan already forming in his sharpened mind about how to prevent this from happening again - for a little while, at least. Placing his hand over the broken shards, he used his chakra to lift the glass into the air and fit them back where they belonged; on his command the cracks began to recede from the outer pane and crawl under his hand. When he removed his hand, he found that the window had been completely repaired, and was even tinted very slightly; this glass would not break so easily. With over 1000 jutsu under his command, it was highly unlikely that he'd only have combat related abilities; his Sharingan was just that more useful than it seemed.

"So, who wants to help me vandal-proof this apartment? I'm positive that Naruto would appreciate it…"

- Hokage Tower -

Tsunade smiled as she strode up to the Daimyo sitting behind her desk, winking at Marukia and causing him to wink back, blowing a quick kiss her way. Setting her mission report in the outbox, her grin widened when an ANBU appeared in the room and claimed the paper, going as quickly as he came so that he could input the mission details into the databank. "How is everything holding up?"

The Daimyo looked up from his paperwork to smile warmly at Tsunade, "Things are still a mess, but I can't say that it can't be fixed with a little hard work. The ANBU corps is really going out of their way to help me out, as well. Was that the C-rank mission you took out, Hokage-dono?"

"It was a complete success; Naruto and Hinata are certainly much stronger than I thought they'd be at first. I'm a little worried that I won't be able to keep up with their growth!" Tsunade teased with a shrug.

"That's great to hear. The emperor has asked for frequent reports on Uzumaki Naruto's status, so I'm sure he'll be pleased to see your latest report." The Daimyo hinted as he tapped his paperwork into a batch, lifting them so that Kogei could adhere the corner together with samurai chakra; in this manner they would stay bound until pulled apart by a human. However, before Tsunade could comment on how she hadn't even started the report as of yet, the Daimyo's face lost its rosy luster as he looked his friend in the eyes. "Actually, there's another matter that I feel you should see to personally." When he knew that he had Tsunade's full attention, the warlord continued, "We've had an extremely emotionally distraught genin admitted into the hospital with symptoms of high depression and anxiety. As the world's greatest medical ninja, I think it would be best to let you have a look for yourself."

"Oh, dear…" Tsunade murmured in worry as she waved farewell to her friend, the Daimyo, and blew a quick kiss back to Marukia, causing him smile and pantomime a fainting spell. Sliding the Hokage hat off of her head and allowing it to hang down over her shoulders, Tsunade's feet led her to the hospital on their own, long since having memorized the way. After taking the time to check up on several other patients, Tsunade decided to bite the bullet and followed a nurse to the depressive genin's room. However, she froze in shock when she entered to find a young girl sitting up in bed with an uneaten apple in her lap. It was, "Sakura-san!"

At the sound of her own name, Haruno Sakura slowly turned to look at the Hokage, her once brilliantly green eyes dulled and wet. In a flash Tsunade understood exactly why Sakura was in such a state; she'd obsessed over Sasuke and treated him as a god, so the news of his criminal abandonment and following assassination would undoubtedly crush her in unimaginable ways. Without waiting for a response, Tsunade immediately crossed the room and pulled Sakura into a tight embrace; and it killed her because she knew exactly what Sakura was going through. Tsunade had gone through the loss of her lover and the abandonment of her teammate as well, but certainly not at the same time!

"So… Naruto's the Kyuubi?" Sakura mumbled; her voice faint and muffled by Tsunade's bosom.

"Of course he isn't! Naruto is imprisoning the Kyuubi, Sakura-san." Tsunade corrected sternly, releasing her embrace so that she could take the girl by the shoulders. "He didn't ask for any of it, but he's put up with all of this shit for his entire life."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. As you always are…" Sakura murmured; her voice faintly tinged with an accusation. "I know the law - Sasuke-kun tried to run away on his own to find power in another village; but he wouldn't take me with him. I *know* the law…"

"Sakura-san, what exactly are you implying here? Do you honestly mean…?"

"I tried to go with him," the girl admitted hollowly, though her voice finally seemed to pick up strength. "That makes me a nukenin as well. I'm a criminal as well, so you should assassinate me as well." Sakura finished hotly, glaring darkly at the Hokage with tears shining in her eyes. "Well, you should go ahead and do it, because I hate this village! …with everything I've got, I absolutely *hate* Konohagakure!!" The proclamation hung nastily in the air; Sakura's hot, furious tears brimming over and streaking along her face as she sat shaking in Tsunade's grasp. "First Sasuke-kun is murdered, then Naruto is banished and called a monster, and even Kakashi is taken away and told to become a murderer all over again! I might as well be dea…"

Taking a deep breath, Tsunade gathered all of her strength before looking Sakura in the eyes and said firmly, "You're acting like such a girl, Sakura-san." Sakura stopped and stared in complete shock at the woman sitting on the edge of the bed. "I thought kunoichi were supposed to be tougher than guys. Are you really going to let yourself fall apart like a helpless little girl, or will you stand up and shout to the entire world that it cannot push you around? Sakura-san?" Color bloomed in Sakura's eyes as her mouth soundlessly struggled against syllables that refused to come; Tsunade had no idea that she had rekindled the fire behind Inner-Sakura, though she obviously saw the growing warmth spreading through the young shinobi.

"I was always the closest one to becoming the Hokage…" Sakura claimed self-convincingly, finally bringing her hands to her face briefly before reaching up and grabbing handfuls of her pink hair. "What the Hell was I thinking all this time? Ino's got to be laughing herself to death over how weak I've been acting! I mean, I didn't survive the chuunin exam just to lose everything over some bad news."

"Well, it was horribly bad news, but I think you're starting to remember exactly who Haruno Sakura was; and more importantly, why she decided to become a shinobi in the first place."

Sniffling to clear her nose as she wiped her eyes to dry them, Sakura climbed out of the hospital bed and clenched both of her hands into fists as fire flared up in her chest; the previously grey girl was once again a full palette of vibrant colors. The apple that had been in her lap fell to the floor and rolled out of sight as life sprang back into Sakura's eyes. "You're absolutely right, Hokage-sama. I will *not* come in second to anyone! This cruel world of the shinobi cannot push me around!" she shouted, evoking a satisfied grin from the older kunoichi in the room.

It was at that moment that a figure appeared in the window, followed by the tell-tale click of geta hitting the floor. Both empowered women looked up to see the massive form of Jiraiya strolling towards them with a satisfied smirk on his face and his hands tucked deeply into his pockets. "Good afternoon, ladies." the sannin greeted jovially as he came to a clicking stop. "Do you mind if I break in here to tell something to the Hokage?"

"Certainly, Jiraiya." Tsunade acknowledged, pausing briefly to instruct Sakura to eat some of the fruit that had been left on her bedside table before following Jiraiya into the corner. After checking to ensure that Sakura wasn't listening in, Tsunade set her hand on Jiraya's arm as she asked, "What have you learned about the Akatsuki organization?"

"Well, it's nothing concrete, but one of my reliable contacts came across some rumors of a front company in one of the minor hidden villages which funds a man claiming to support the Akatsuki organization. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, but there may be a chance that this person could be in contact with at least one of the members of the Akatsuki." If it wasn't for the way Jiraiya shifted his weight, his teammate might not have detected his uncertainty.

"Which minor village are we talking about here? Is it the Hidden Rain?" At Jiraiya's light nod, Tsunade's eyes narrowed slightly. "Then your contact is…?"

"The very same…" the sannin replied softly, his usually silly mask gone to bear the heavy weight he carried behind his eyes. "Tsunade, if I could convince you to join me this time, I would truly appreciate having someone like you watching my back."

Jiraiya's words hit her like a ton of bricks, causing Tsunade to pull her arm away from his and bite her thumbnail in deep thought. Foremost in her thoughts was Naruto; with his identity suddenly public there would be no way that he could just walk into the Hidden Rain undetected… and there was no way in Hell she was going to leave him here to the dogs while she travels into a foreign country. However, if she could take her fellow sannin's words literally, all he asked for was a woman *like* her. "I can't go with you this time, but why don't you take Haruno Sakura instead?"

"Tsunade, I've done some stupid things in my life before, but I have never intentionally put a child in danger."

"Think about it, Jiraiya. Who would expect a sweet old man and his adorable granddaughter to be picking at their stronghold looking for clues that could save the world? Sakura is just as strong as I am in the most important aspects; and you'll find that she just might learn twice as fast as Naruto."

"Well, I guess I can't argue with you there." Jiraiya muttered as he stroked the stubble on his chin, his sharp mind working over every fine detail. Slowly a blush came to his cheeks, a warning Tsunade had used to avoid bad situations in the past. "Besides, if I earn some brownie points with her now, I might be able to use them later when she turns 18…!" The gleam in his eye told that he wasn't completely playing around.

"You rotten, old…" Tsunade started to swear, but she was too late to stop the silver-haired toad-hermit from turning and calling for Sakura's attention.

"Haruno Sakura, was it? You must be the picture of perfect beauty that Naruto kept telling me about! How are you feeling today?" he prodded with a friendly, yet excited grin.

Startling both sannin in the room, Sakura returned to her feet and set aside the banana she's been nibbling on, pointing a wild finger directly at Jiraiya with fire burning in her eyes. "If you're going to take me out for training and a tough mission, then you'd better go ahead and make me work three times as hard as you did for Naruto! I've lost a lot of ground already, so you'd better not be playing around!" Sakura demanded as the fire in her soul billowed out to consume her entire body, "I know that Sasuke-kun wouldn't want his life's work to be forgotten so easily, so you'd better damn train me until it hurts and I can't take any more. This is not a dream, but one day I *will* kill a certain man… I will kill Uchiha Itachi! Shanaro!!" Sakura finished as she extended her middle finger far enough out that Sasuke could see it from his grave; and Itachi could look upon it and tremble in fear.

"She was listening in…" Jiraiya grumbled, his face turning sour and his fingers clawing at the air in shock. "Things are going to get very interesting now…"

- Ending note -

The _Hassari_ will be explained in the following chapter, but if anyone has any questions or comments you can feel free to send me a private message or e-mail. Also, Hinata is very difficult for me to write, so if she seems a little off then I won't be able to do much about it until she gains more self-confidence.


	3. Biting Desert Sand

**Chapter 03**

**Biting Desert Sand**

- Several weeks later -

Thus far, team Hokage had completed three C-ranked missions and put down one Konoha nukenin in between their mobility and medical training. As apprentices, Tsunade found both Naruto and Hinata to be average at best; but with Naruto's habit of forgetting everything he's learned by the time he's learned something new; and Hinata's proving her father correct by her slow rate of absorption, they were far from exceptional students. With this said, both children ate up the combat training for _breakfast_; Shizune had to dig deeper into her repertoire than she thought she'd have to so soon. She had them in training as soon as they had finished their mission.

All of this was going through Tsunade's mind as she trekked through the forest on her way back to Konoha. The children aside, today was also when she'd set up her meeting with Danzo concerning his flagrant display of disrespect the other day. She was going to prove that she was not at all like her late-sensei, the Sandaime Hokage, and would not put up with presumptuous shit like that. "ROOT?" she scoffed as she walked, "Well, it's the Daimyo's problem now. Maybe he'll order to have every member trained by the ROOT training program to be assassinated." Hardly suppressing her grin at the thought, Tsunade was forced to take a deep breath as she come up on the towering gates of Konoha. She'd never wanted to come back in the first place, but Naruto had forced her hand; and now THIS was how they were treating the little squirt? Yeah, she'd see about that.

As soon as she walked in she could feel the somber pall cast over the entire village. All of the rookies had taken the news of Naruto's "cute little pet" in different ways, but it was unanimous among all of them that they did not like having their comrade forced from the village walls; and through them, their jounin parents voiced their concerns as well. She greeted a passing chuunin, who only gave her a forced half-smile and a nod. Tsunade had heard from the Daimyo that the first solid week of Naruto's departure was spent in celebration by the greater part of the village; however it wasn't too long afterwards that a great emptiness filled Konoha, and yet no one could figure out what exactly was missing. Still, this wasn't really her problem.

She arrived to find her office vacated, which didn't concern her because she'd already been informed via ANBU that the Daimyo had been called back by the emperor for a meeting. It was just as well, because her meeting with Danzo didn't look to be very civil. Tsunade tossed the mission report into her outbox as she simultaneously took a seat in the plush chair. This time it took at least a minute before the ANBU agent appeared to claim the report, though Tsunade stopped the young woman before she carried it away. "Is Jiraiya around?"

"He's out training with Haruno Sakura, Hokage-sama. Would you like for me to summon him for you?"

"No, I have more important matters to deal with right now. Who was put in charge of the _Hassari's_ interrogation?" Tsunade inquired coolly, digging in her heels as she prepared herself for an answer she knew she wouldn't like. It already had 'Danzo' written all over it.

"ANBU Torture and Interrogation division head, Morino Ibiki, has taken the task. He's asked to be informed upon your return, Hokage-sama." the ANBU woman left a pregnant pause, patiently waiting in case the Hokage had more questions for her.

Tsunade let out a breath of relief and allowed a wave of tingles to wash through her body at the realization that Danzo wasn't behind as much as she feared. "You can tell Morino-san that I'd like to see him as soon as he has free time."

"I will, Hokage-sama." the female ANBU acknowledge. Hesitating before she left, the woman let out a small sigh before addressing Tsunade with a tone that was more informal than it should have been, "If I could speak freely for a second, Hokage-sama…?" Tsunade looked up expectantly as the black op soldier removed her mask and gently brushed her black, silken hair out of her charcoal eyes. Tsunade recognized her as being Takanori Koyoko, the _Hassari's_ eldest daughter. Speaking in a whispered hush, Koyoko leaned in closer to Tsunade as she broke the ANBU code of conduct, "I think there's someone we should be worried about before Danzo-san. I may be the only person bold enough to say this because I come from another country, but the Daimyo doesn't seem to be entirely trustworthy."

"What the hell do you mean?" Tsunade demanded harshly, hardly daring to believe the assault on her ears. "You'd better answer very carefully if you don't want me to punch you straight through the wall."

"Well…" Koyoko gulped carefully, wondering if she was fast enough to flee before creating an ANBU-sized hole in the office. "In my training I was taught to discover vulnerabilities in Sunagakure by creating strategies that I'd use if I wanted to overtake it myself. I did the same thing when I was transferred here, Hokage-sama… and the Daimyo has already done two things that I would have…"

"Explain yourself." Tsunade ordered, the hair on the back of her neck suddenly bristling.

"We already know that the Akatsuki organization is aware of the Kyuubi container's presence; but having Uzumaki-san's nature publicly revealed will have the effect of setting off a beacon for every ninja village in possession of their own demon container. There's no telling if an enemy will be planning to abduct Uzumaki for their own use, or simply kill him while he's still in human form to negate our secret weapon. I highly, highly suspect that the order to reveal this information came from someone other than the emperor." Koyoko nodded very slightly at the realization rising in the Hokage's eyes. "The second thing is that he's sending samurai from his palace to deal with the majority of the external missions, as well as replacing our sentries; this is leaving us all cooped up in Konoha with little knowledge of what's going on outside. If you ask me, it feels like we're being rounded up into a corner, but the predator has yet to be revealed."

"Ok, I'll keep all of that in mind, Takanori-san. However, for now I'd like for you to tell Morino Ibiki that I'd like to meet him for lunch at his favorite restaurant." Tsunade ordered smoothly, very carefully controlling the emotions that wanted to bubble up to the surface. "Keep your suspicions to yourself for the time being; but I want to hear more of your strategies later this evening. Now, go!" Koyoko replaced her mask before saluting and evaporating, leaving the air to swirl as if it was water. "You've left me one real fucking mess to deal with, Sarutobi-sensei…" Tsunade groaned as she leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples to relieve even a little of the pressure building in her skull.

It was only a couple minutes until there was a knock on the door, and upon her direction it swung open to reveal a shinobi who looked terrifying and mean, but was in reality a sweetheart inside. It was Jounin Commander Nara Shikaku, arriving just in time to give his report about the status of the troops. His position allowed him a spot on the Konoha council, yet Tsunade could be sure that he had nothing to do with Naruto's criminal sentence; he was likely part of the minority voting against the movement. After giving his concise brief, the scarred-up jounin tucked his hands into his pockets and frowned, "I don't like what's been going on around here, Hokage-sama. For the record, I just want to say that I support you in whatever decision you make. You can use my son in any way necessary now that he's a chuunin; he may be lazy as hell, but he's damn smarter than anyone in his generation."

"I appreciate it, Shikaku." Tsunade replied with a soft smile, though there was far too much on her mind for it to approach anything resembling warmth. "You're released for now." she dismissed her Jounin Commander. Right now she had to concentrate on preparing herself for the upcoming meeting with Danzo; the man always made her skin crawl.

- Elsewhere -

"I just don't get it, alright!" Naruto grouched as he folded his arms across his chest and pouted sourly, pointedly staring away from the fish set before him. Today he and Hinata were attempting to perform one of the medical techniques they'd been studying for the past three days; unfortunately neither of them were doing very well. Shizune had placed a dead fish in front of both students and gave an example of what they were attempting to do - that was to stimulate the nerves of the fish to make it flop around, though the technique didn't actually bring the creature back to life. "What's the point in making zombie fish!?" Naruto grumped; beside him, Hinata seemed to share his confusion but wouldn't come out and say it.

"The point, Naruto-kun, is to control your chakra to a precise level to emulate a simple, biological signal." Shizune explained as she gently ran her hand through the boy she considered as her little brother's hair. "It's almost like the tree walking jutsu, because if you don't use the correct amount, either the signal will be too weak, or you'll burn out the entire nervous system." Shizune maintained her kind smile as she turned towards Hinata. "I suspect that it's close to your Gentile Fist ability, but instead of aiming to destroy the organs, we're trying to make the body do what it does naturally, but at an accelerated pace. Before that, you two have to figure out how to emulate the simplest of bodily functions. In this case it's to create a subconscious signal automatically generated with the proper stimulation."

"I still don't understand it at all!" Naruto repeated, "Why do I even have to learn medical ninjutsu; can't you just teach me stronger fighting techniques like that poison breath or Tsunade-baa-chan's super strength?" Wasn't it more important to beat your opponent before you get to the point of needing medicine? In fact, on his first attempt he'd accidently used the rotating chakra technique he'd perfected for the Ransengan and only managed to fling the fish into the wall on the other side of the room; he even had to pull all of the scales out of the wallpaper with his bare hands! If it was this tough, then why didn't they just let him concentrate on what he was good at?

"Ano, Naruto-kun?" Hinata uttered softly, gently reaching over to very lightly tap him on the arm. She nearly lost her nerve when he turned to look at her, but the vice-grip she had on her precious changes allowed her to continue on, "You wouldn't give up in the middle of a tough fight, would you? Then it should be the same here… and maybe… we could try it together."

Naruto stared in dull comprehension as the girl's words penetrated deep into his psyche, each syllable repeating and ringing with truth. For the first time in a long time, Naruto's motivation was rekindled by the determination of someone else; he felt it bubbling up from his stomach and filling him with a radiating heat of purpose. His glowing smile was back in an instant and had so much force that neither Hinata nor Shizune could keep from mirroring the grin. "Ok! We'll do it at the same time, Hinata-chan!" Naruto prompted vigorously as he set his hands on top of the large fish set in front of him and began molding chakra.

Before the heiress could frighten and back out, Shizune grabbed both of Hinata's hands and cupped them over Naruto's with a further broadening smile. "I'll show you two the right amount by allowing my chakra to flow into your hands - try to match it as closely as you can. Don't give up and just keep trying until you get it."

Though Shizune had already expected the first few tries to be failures, it wasn't until after about two hours that their stock of fish ran low enough that only one was left; and the children had yet to successfully perform the technique! Worst off was that as she ran low on chakra, Hinata's heart began to pain her enough that she had to lie down. Then just like that, Naruto growled as smoke curled out of his specimen's mouth - he'd fried the fish from the inside out once again. Shizune sighed as she climbed to her feet and gently set her hand on Naruto's back to comfort and calm him down, "Hey, we can try again tomorrow, Naruto-kun. Knowing you, you probably haven't even used half of your chakra reserves, so why don't we let Hinata rest while we go out for some combat training?"

"Yeah, alright." Naruto mumbled stiffly as he also rose to his feet. He was disappointed that he'd failed every time, even with Hinata-chan's and Shizune-onee-chan's help. Well, all he had to do to make up for it was to give this next training all of his effort. So, Hinata was left alone in bed once again as the jounin took Naruto out to burn off what was left of his chakra.

- Hokage's office -

Tsunade growled softly before tucking her copy of Icha Icha Violence into a desk drawer. The door opened at her insistence, revealing the head of the ANBU Counterintelligence Division and secret leader of the illegal ROOT training program: Danzo. Again with every click of his cane on the floor, Tsunade imagined jabbing a kunai into the man's remaining, good eye. The warhawk came to a halt, but didn't salute; he refused to even use the special salute allowed to crippled shinobi. "Just what do you want, Danzo?"

Pausing, Danzo seemed to carefully gather his thoughts and cautiously select his next few words before cracking open his age-worn mouth and saying, "With the permission of the Hokage, we of the council have convened and propose three candidates to the position of Hokage should the need arise to fill the position in a time of emergency; as well as relieve the Daimyo the onus of performing both positions on his own." Tsunade bit her lip to keep herself from remembering what the ANBU Koyoko had mentioned; then again, if Tomi-chan had gone as dark as suspected and Danzo knew about it, it wasn't a surprise that he'd figure out a diplomatic way of keeping him out of Konoha; it would certainly give them enough time to investigate the matter properly.

"Alright, so tell me all of the candidates." Tsunade ordered briskly, folding her hands on the desk as she peered directly into the ANBU's eye. "I hope none of them are foreign acquisitions…"

"Negative. In accordance with the appended laws of Konoha, acquisitions such as the Takanori are all ineligible for any position higher than ANBU squad leader and may not apply for the position of academy instructor." Danzo explained calmly, his sinister aura radiating from his body as if he were a dark light. "Jiraiya of the sannin is the first candidate, selected by you, Hokage-sama; his instatement would come directly following the completion of his lawfully given orders to identify the members of the Akatsuki organization. Secondly, I have been selected as an authorized candidate due to my many years as an ANBU division head; I would have no qualms operating as a Co-leader of Konohagakure during the times that you would become unavailable, Hokage-sama." Tsunade hated the mere idea, but she had no politically correct standpoint to deny him candidacy. "Last is nineteen year old Jounin Umino Ikaji; he's cousin to one of our academy instructors, Umino Iruka. Umino-san has proven to be a veritable powerhouse and a shrewd tactician - as expected of a boy attaining the rank of jounin at the age of 12."

"I can find no real fault with any of those choices." Tsunade admitted stiffly; though to tell the truth, in light of her plans to pack up and leave, even if she had a problem she wouldn't press the matter too hard. What did she care about a village about to be left in her dust? Besides the innocent children who'd be left to suffer. "More to the point, I want to talk to you about the ruling to banish Uzumaki Naruto."

Danzo paused and shifted his weight very slightly; it was Tsunade's guess if it was due to leaning on his cane or some sort of psychological discomfort. "It does not show favorably on me, but it is my fear that counteragents may have gained the majority influence over out council. Whether it's blackmail, bribes, or foreign plants; it cannot be denied that those loyal to Konoha have lost control of the council."

"Really? This coming from a man who's been in direct opposition to everything the Sandaime and Yondaime Hokage's have proposed." Tsunade accused.

Danzo didn't seem to be affected by the open accusation; he merely set his cane against the chair immediately to his left so that he could reach into his kimono top. A moment later he retrieved an ANBU file titled "S-Class - Top Secret" and bearing the official seal of the Founding Fire-Shadow, Senju Harashima; he set the documents on the desk before Tsunade so that she could open the file. "Despite my past actions and outward appearance, I don't find any advantage in the expulsion of the container of the nina-tails. In the past, the Shodai Hokage gave the energies of the tailed-beasts to our neighbors as peace offerings, but ensured that the most powerful be kept in our safekeeping. I was outvoted to keep the Kyuubi safely within our walls."

"Wait, you voted *against* Uzumaki Naruto's banishment? Because the Kyuubi could be used as a weapon?" Tsunade verified shrewdly with her brown eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Negative. The chakras of the Kyuubi should never be used unless we face the direst of emergencies. Keeping the container within Konoha would keep him out of the hands of our enemies, as well as allowing us to immediately suppress the demon's chakra at the first sign of leakage. I do not wish to have the Kyuubi inside our walls, but I like the thought of it being with someone else even less." Danzo shifted again, this time to reclaim his cane.

"Hmm… I may have had you figured wrong, Danzo." Tsunade grumbled as she leaned back in her chair, having finished reading about her grandfather's handiwork.

"Unlikely. It's just that for the first time the two of us agree with a necessary measure to protect Konohagakure. I share no love for the child of the Yondaime Hokage; however I have no spite towards him either."

"I'll just have to accept that for now, then." She'd never been the political type, and that seemed to be all the Hokage was good for now-a-days; what was great strength worth when the weight of your words was what really mattered? "All of this on top of the emperor's latest decree. Our number of chuunin is pretty low, but I can't accept this new bullshit."

"Do you wish to dismiss me, Hokage-sama?" Danzo prompted curtly, hoping to be on his way. He enjoyed being around Tsunade as much as she hated seeing him.

"Not yet. Tell me what you think about this. The emperor wants to send every enlisted genin whose been in service for 12 months or longer to participate in the earliest chuunin exam without exception."

"The failure rate would be the largest we've seen since…"

Tsunade shook her head before pushing an unrolled scroll towards the one-armed ANBU so that he could read it, albeit up-side-down. "Upon *surviving* the second stage of the exam, all entrants will be promoted to chuunin regardless of if they participate in the third stage or not. Things are wildly spiraling out of control here!"

"Such tactics have been used by the other villages in the past." Danzo informed slowly, remaining as still as he had through the entire conversation. "However, I think that this turn of events could prove… advantageous to the situation regarding Uzumaki Naruto." Tsunade could swear that she saw a dark glimmer behind the man's eyelid, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious of what he was getting at; she didn't trust him just yet, but if even a temporary solution could be found… "As a chuunin, the container would fill a necessary gap in the allotted amount of chuunin Konoha is permitted in accordance with the budget set forth by the Daimyo; it would be more difficult to justify his banshment from the ranks."

"It sounds far too risky, but I don't have a lot of options to work with." Tsunade growled darkly as she again chewed on her thumbnail. "Between Naruto and Hinata, they don't have a very high chance of survival; even if we put a more experienced genin on their team to help them out."

Danzo once again set his cane against the chair and reached into his kimono top, this time withdrawing a file taken from Konoha's collection of unique wartime weapons - it made Tsunade wonder how many files he had tucked into his clothes and why he was walking around with them in the first place. Shelving her concerns for a later time, Tsunade accepted the file and flipped through the documents; from the acclaimed Sword of Lightning to the Lance of the King Slayer, she could only assume that Danzo meant to arm the children with the legendary weapons of slaughter to give them the edge they needed. That is, until she came upon the mug-shot of a young man, proceeded directly by the near-identical face of a young girl. "The Takanori twins? Why are these shinobi files stuck in with our weapons count?"

"The children of the _Hassari_ are acquired weapons from the Hidden in the Sand village, Hokage-sama. There is no doubt that Takanori Kazuki could lead the Kyuubi's container to the end of the exam in one piece. He is our secret weapon-in-training, after all." Danzo's eye seemed to smile, though not a single other muscle moved on his body. He could feel his aged heart beat quicker as Tsunade considered his option.

"Wait, wait…" Tsunade hesitated as she manhandled another drawer and grabbed the scroll at the top of the pile. Prying it open, the Hokage growled and pointed at a particular article, "All of the ninja on team two, as lead by Chuunin Koda Satoshi, were given a field promotion to the rank of chuunin already. Kazuki cannot…"

Tsunade paused when Danzo reached for the opening in his kimono, and wasn't at all surprised when he withdrew yet another file from the folds of cloth. "Clause 38, subsection-5 of the Chuunin Selection Exam rules as agreed upon by all parties involved permits up to one-tenth of the total number of shinobi participating in an exam to be comprised of chuunin rank entrants, pending authorization by the village in which the exam is to be held. Takanori-san would serve as a control to exemplify what skill level a genin should aspire to meet or exceed in order to be eligible for promotion."

"…and he'd definitely be capable of defending against chuunin-level opponents." Tsunade conceded softly. "The Hidden Waterfall village is hosting the exam next; I don't think we have very good odds of their accepting the clause. However, the biggest problem is that team two isn't scheduled to leave Sunagakure for another five months." Tsunade murmured as she leaned back in her seat before gesturing to the door and releasing the ANBU. "If I play my cards right I may be able to get the late Kazekage's children on my side; with that added firepower, it shouldn't be too difficult to arrange for our stay. After that, his little ass is mine to command!" For once she was glad to be on the winning side of Danzo's devious plots; as underhanded as it was, it would certainly make it difficult for even the emperor to justify Naruto's banishment. If they ruffled enough feathers, then perhaps the shadows behind the corruption would reveal themselves; and if it happened while she was around, then Tsunade would name herself judge, jury and executioner. She hated Danzo to the very core, but he thrived in delicate situations like this.

After several minutes of tidying up her desk and pocketing her teammate's book, Tsunade rose from her seat and called for an ANBU escort. Fortune was with her, because it was Takanori Koyoko who answered the summons; just the woman she wanted to see. Koyoko would be joining her for lunch with Ibiki to discuss the suspicions she'd brought up earlier; and perhaps have a word or two concerning her younger brother. After that she was booked for three surgeries and the diagnosis of a tricky patient.

- Sunagakure -

Even though team Hokage had been a little late meeting up with their escorts, the shinobi of the Hidden Sand knew the land so well that they were able to take enough short cuts to arrive at the Kazekage's office right on time. Tsunade had worn the Hokage hat during the trip to protect herself from the sun and wind, and as a way to bypass challenge using her position; she was still wearing it as she led the way into the Kazekage's office, where Baki was waiting with another man. "Good morning, Baki-san." Tsunade greeted with a wan smile as she finally tipped the hat back so that it fell across her back.

"Hokage-sama." Baki returned with a nod, though he retained his military bearing. "This is primary _Hassari_ Tensuki of the Takanori family. Your soldiers are staying with his family for the time being."

"I believe we've met before. We fought each other in the Second Great War." Tsunade mentioned with a wry grin, remembering how she and her teammates had bested the unheard of power of Suna's five _Hassari_ weapons. "I hope you've been treated well this past decade, Takanori-san."

"I'm rapidly approaching retirement, but I have few complaints. Are these children your apprentices, Hokage-sama?" Tensuki replied in a voice even deeper than Baki's. It was eerie, but everyone in the room could feel an unnatural power radiating off of the primary _Hassari_; it caused their skin to tingle and their knees to weaken just from being so close to the aged war legend. With the exception of Tsunade, of course.

"These are Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata. I'm teaching them everything I know - everything." the Hokage replied smoothly, a twinkle sparking in her brown eyes. "…and you?"

"Undoubtedly. Unfortunately my protégé, Kazuki, has an unfair advantage over yours; he is a Takanori after all."

This obviously caused a rise in Naruto, who knew that he was the one that had to become strong enough to become the future Hokage. "Oh, yeah? I'd like to take him up on that challenge; I'll kick his ass completely! I won't let anything get in the way of my dream - that's my way of the ninja!"

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata breathed in awe through her blush as she beheld his determined might; she felt that if it was Naruto, than he could actually have the power to live up to his word. As far as she knew, he had never been beaten, so there was a pretty good chance that he'd continue winning until he attained his dream.

"We'll see about that, Uzumaki-san." Upon taking a quick glance at the busty Hokage, a sly grin crept across his face, "Perhaps we could put a small wager on the victor. 10,000 ryo…"

Tsunade took the bait hook, line, and sinker well before her apprentice, Shizune, could intervene. With a twinkle in her eyes, Tsunade took Tensuki by the arm and grinned as well, "Make it 50,000 and you're on, _Hassari_-san." Shizune dragged her feet as she followed the gamblers out of the Kazekage's office; this happened far more often than she liked. Behind the jounin, Naruto was attempting to work Hinata up to prepare for the match, but the girl could only manage to murmur something under her breath through a heavy blush on her face.

"Ano, Naruto-kun. Kazuki-san was in the same class as Neji-nii-san in the academy; he's actually really strong." Hinata whispered in worry, her face going red from the traumatic memory of her battle with her cousin in the preliminary rounds. If they had to go up against someone on the same level as him, then she might accidently slow Naruto down and cause them both to lose.

It didn't take very long before they arrived at a large building shaped like a massive gourd with four smaller domes connected by stone bridges connecting the various roofs and windows to the central mass. Each of the domes bore the kanji for one of four elements, contained within a black diamond; the main building was painted with "Kaze". They were led into the house-sized dome marked as "Fire" by the primary _Hassari_, where they found two children passed out on a couch. One of the two was a young man dressed in a full Konoha uniform and a mask very similar to Kakashi's; he had his head lolled back as he snored softly. The other person was a ten-year-old girl with black hair set in a ponytail on the left side of her face; she'd fallen asleep with her head in the boy's lap, his hand placed loosely on the girl's shoulder.

"Takanori, attention!" Tensuki barked, causing the visitors to jump in surprise. However, the two sleepers jumped more violently, causing the entire couch to flip backwards and dump the occupants onto the floor. Not a second later, the two leapt up onto the front of the tipped sofa and performed a crisp, simultaneous salute. "Nap-time is over, Kazuki; your Hokage is here to see you. Go on home, Komoriuta."

"Ok, daddy." the little girl complied as she bounced off of the couch and jogged out of the house, not so much as pausing to say good bye. When she was gone, Kazuki shifted his weight so that the couch flipped back onto all four legs, depositing him in front of the Hokage with a ceremonious bow, "What can you do for me, Hokage-sama?"

"What?" Tsunade prompted dangerously, the nerve over her left eye twitching in annoyance. They'd come all this way for a clown?

"Come on, the Sandaime Hokage always got a kick out of that." Kazuki grunted as he returned upright and tucked his hands into his pockets, easily reminding Naruto of the lazy-ass Shikamaru. "Never mind. What's the situation?"

Tsunade frowned as she glared down at the silly chuunin. When she managed to center herself again, the Hokage reached out and patted Kazuki on the shoulder, "I'll get to the mission brief in a moment, Takanori-san. For now, I'd like for you to have a quick spar with Naruto and Hinata so that we can all see what we're working with. Alright?"

"Sure thing, boss. You just point me in the direction of my target and I'll go to work." Kazuki explained with a light chuckle. He pulled one hand out of his pocket and gestured towards the two genin, one amped and ready to roll, the other worried and blushing, "Except, don't you think it might be a good idea to get these two a drink of water first? It looks like they're just about to pass out from walking around in the desert sun. It's almost 120 degrees outside right now, you know."

"We just had a bunch of water on our way to the Kazekage's office!" Naruto exclaimed, proving that he was more than ready to rumble.

Unlike Naruto, Hinata had a different stance, "Ano… Kazuki-san? I'd like some water, please. If that'd be ok?" The poor girl was blushing so deeply it looked like she was ready to implode!

"It's Takanori-san, and… here." Kazuki corrected as he removed a canteen from a pouch and tossed it to the lavender-eyed Hyuuga. "You're gonna want to get at least three of these for your first month here, trust me. In fact, you can go ahead and keep that one, too. As long as you drink the entire thing - it's just tap water." The tap water came from a purification plant situated under Suna, which was regularly maintained and filled by shinobi using water manipulation. Hinata refused to accept the gift, however, pushing the canteen back into Kazuki's hands before she'd budge from her spot. So, with all of that taken care of, the primary _Hassari_ led the battery of Leaf ninjas to Sunagakure's training grounds seven for their spar; and his easy victory over Tsunade!

- Training Grounds Seven -

This specific location was built in the valley of two large sand dunes with a field of lumber pounded into the ground at seemingly random intervals and height. The most prominent feature was the burning sun which beat mercilessly upon anyone using the area. Naruto couldn't help but grin at his luck; he and Hinata had spent days running through Shizune's mobility field, they'd surprise this guy and take him out no problem! The two genin were spurred on by the confident words of their Hokage, "Come on, Naruto! If you're strong enough to fight Sasuke, then I know you can handle this kid!" She still didn't have the heart to tell the children the truth about their former comrade.

The primary _Hassari_ also had words of encouragement for his own apprentice, "Kazuki, I *do* want you to hold back - considering you've had training by the Sand; I wouldn't want your new friends getting hurt too badly." Kazuki merely nodded and patted the side of the short sword he wore across his lower back.

Suddenly fire broiled in Naruto's eyes and he clenched his fist tightly, growling, "We'll see who gets hurt, then! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of the Hidden Leaf; and I won't lose to you! Chuunin or even jounin… I'll still kick your ass no matter what you are!"

"Me, too… I'll also help!" Hinata offered as she shifted into her Jyuuken fighting stance, though she didn't activate her Byakugan just yet. She had once heard from her Neji-nii-san that the Takanori twins had been in his class during the academy; she'd even met the two of them before when they came to her home looking for Neji before they knew that he was in the branch house. They were very nice to her, even though Neji had told her that they were deceptively powerful. A year ago she'd have been terrified to fight someone Neji said was strong, but even she had gotten stronger by now; she felt that with Naruto's help they could do this!

"You'd better be prepared to actually use that thing," Kazuki called out as Naruto drew a kunai and gripped it tightly, "I don't want you to just wave it around like a toy." It infuriated Naruto that Kazuki wasn't even taking up a combat stance; it was almost as if he was saying that he didn't need one against him. With a mighty snarl, Naruto bolted at the cheeky chuunin with his kunai pulled back, ready to strike a precise blow. It almost surprised him that he scored a perfect hit to Kazuki's chest, until the blade met no resistance. Kazuki's body popped and scattered a flurry of leaves into the hot, desert wind.

"That was a replacement technique!" Hinata identified as she skidded to a stop in the fine sand. Acting quickly, the Hyuuga put her hands together to form the seal that would activate her Byakugan. She spotted Kazuki directly behind her, except he had strings of navy-blue chakra connected between his fingers and along five points on Naruto's right arm. "Ah!" the timid princess managed as she spun on the ball of her foot to face her opponent; but her action was folly, because before she could move to counter her senior, Kazuki appeared with his forearm smashed into her throat. Coughing and gagging, Hinata collapsed into the sand before she could react, or even alert Naruto about his impending doom.

Kazuki clawed his left hand just before flinging it back behind him and twisting his body to allow his right fist to lead; this action had the effect of pulling on the chakra strings attached to Naruto's arm, yanking him off balance and drawing him ribs first right into Kazuki's extended fist. Though Naruto gritted his teeth in pain from the attack, he was still able to spin the kunai in his hand and come down with it in an attempt to skewer Kazuki's shoulder. Naruto didn't even have time to register the event of Kazuki striking the sharp edge of the kunai with his bare hand before the knife shattered in his grip; and though he did see his chuunin opponent spin on his foot, he wasn't fast enough to counter the first kick to his stomach, or the follow-up to his throat. Every time Naruto got back up, Kazuki would have no choice but pummel him until he fell again.

By this time, Hinata had recovered from the blow to her neck and rose to her feet. Upon seeing that Kazuki was distracted with Naruto, the Hyuuga tightened her resolve before dashing forward and pressing her hand delicately against their opponent's waist. Suddenly feeling a sharp disagreement in one of his kidneys, Kazuki glanced to his side, staring into Hinata's look of determination. Refusing to back down, Hinata withdrew for a second strike, announcing, "I'm not going to give in so easily anymore!" as she struck with two extended fingers.

Kazuki merely sighed and shook his head as he disengaged from Naruto. "Jyuuken, huh? Yeah, I can do gentile, too." he chuckled as his hand blurred to catch Hinata by the wrist, and with a swift movement, reoriented himself to the girl's side, where he eased her at Naruto. Kazuki continued to pivot so that he remained facing his opponents, waiting for them to collide and grab each other to keep from falling. Hinata gasped when she found herself pressed against Naruto, forcing her to freeze in place from the contact. Ignoring this, Kazuki clapped his hands together to form a familiar set of hand seals before calling the name of his jutsu aloud, "Ninpo: Kuukinoyou Kakumo!" and breathing a wave of navy chakra at the struggling genin thick enough to see with the naked eye.

Tsunade glanced to the man beside her with a soft glare, "Why doesn't it surprise me that he knows that technique?" She had even come up against it when the sannin had fought against the five _Hassari_ during the war, though it had been before they'd been given the title of _Densetsu Sannin no Konohagakure._

"The Ethereal Fire-Cloud ninja art uses the Takanori family's unique chakra to emulate flames that burn energy rather than flesh or wood. It's a technique passed down by the _Hassari_ to our children at the age of ten." Tensuki explained as the foreign genin fought a futile battle to escape the sapping cloud. "My sister, _Hassari_ Misako has specialized in this jutsu to bring it to unimaginable levels; she was the _Hassari_ sold to your village. Use her abilities well, Hokage."

All too soon, Naruto and Hinata were drained of all their chakra and could do little more than tremble in the hot sand as Kazuki strode up to the pair and gazed down at them as he tucked his hands into his pockets. "You guys have a long way to go, you know that? This fight's over though, so let's get out of the sun."

- Takanori complex -

The primary _Hassari_ was kind enough to permit his former enemy the use of the Lighting-Dome, the vacated home to one of his sisters. After sending Shizune out to buy more desert-appropriate clothing, Tsunade had quickly put her soldiers to work shifting the furniture around to piece together a makeshift office in the living room; as soon as they were done, Tsunade had the genin slump into a sofa to rest while she interviewed Kazuki on the other side of the room. "Alright, since I just lost 50,000 on you, perhaps you could repay me by going over your history a little bit."

"Sure thing, boss." Kazuki replied as he reclined in his aunt's armchair; he'd pulled down his mask for the interview, displaying a rather unimpressive face. "I should probably explain to you all about the Takanori in general first to help you understand. My mother made me learn all of this stuff, so I'm going to put all of you through it, too." Kazuki teased with a sly grin. Clearing his throat, the young chuunin leaned back and began his explanation. "Just before the Second Great War, the Sandaime Kazekage decided that the village needed something powerful enough to fight off enemy ninjas in possession of Kekkei Genkai and foreign demon containers. So he had five people created in a lab, altering their bodies to naturally produce a unique energy called 'dark chakra'; named for its navy color. They were individually engineered with a separate elemental nature and taught the basics of ninjutsu.

"They earned the title of _Hassari Gonin no Sunagakure_ at the end of the Second Great War when they led a successful raid on the Hidden Rain and killed their leader. I think mom said they were all ten years old at the time… pretty impressive, huh?" Kazuki laughed heartily.

"Considering they were designed to make containers and advanced bloodlines obsolete, I'd say the Kazekage must have been pretty proud." Tsunade guessed, though she didn't share in Kazuki's mirth. "What exactly does the word '_Hassari'_ mean? It sounds like a local word that we don't have in the Land of Fire."

Kazuki shrugged in his seat and frowned, "I don't completely get it myself, but it means something like 'A false-human product'. You could argue that the Takanori aren't really human."

"No way!" Naruto cried, suddenly jumping to his feet with an astonished look on his face. He, too had been treated like less-than-human because of the demon sealed in his stomach, so he knew how horrible it felt. "You can't let anyone tell you what you are or are not! You have to stand up for…"

"I like the idea, actually." Kazuki corrected, effectively silencing Naruto and the two girls in the room with his unusual comment. Shifting in his seat, Kazuki climbed to his feet and stuffed his hands into his pockets, which Tsunade began to take as an unconscious reaction to discomfort. "If you put it in a hierarchy - normal people are below those with special bloodlines; and the bloodline guys are below the demon containers. I like to think that the _Hassari_ are the next in the chain, being above even the demon guys. To me, it's kind of fun pretending to fit in with everyone, but secretly knowing that I'm better than they are. Better than human." As expected, Naruto's jaw dropped and Hinata covered her mouth with her dainty hands; both of their eyes were wide with shock.

Having lived through two different wars, Tsunade wasn't the kind of woman to be shaken by such comments; it only worried her that Orochimaru had made similar comments when he was younger. If anything, she'd have to pay close attention to him if she was to prevent another great evil from spawning. "Please get back to what you were saying about the _Hassari_."

"Oh, there isn't that much left to tell. They continued to gain power and defended against entire armies among the five of them. I'm pretty sure you remember fighting them in the third war - it's a pretty popular story about how the Legendary Three Ninjas of the Hidden Leaf defeated the untouchable _Hassari_." Kazuki shrugged before sinking back into the armchair. "After that we were partitioned up and sold to the major countries matching our element; my mother was the _Hassari_ of fire, so the Hokage bought us when it was offered. You'll have to ask my uncle, the primary _Hassari_ why we were sold, though; because I have no idea."

"Alright, that will just have to do for now." Tsunade relented, pausing to glance towards the genin now sitting on the edge of the couch in rapt attention. Due to their low rank, they weren't cleared to hear anything else that Tsunade wanted to discuss; but there was plenty of time for a one-on-one with the chuunin in the four months they'd be in Suna during Team Koda's mission. "You've never been through the Chuunin Selection Exam, right? So, how would you feel about accompanying Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata through the next exam?" Now all she had to do was add the icing to the cake and set the hook. "Imagine how superior you'd feel as you dominate everyone with your unparalleled skills?"

"Do you want me to?" Kazuki replied with a question of his own, his face a blank mask.

"I would appreciate it, yes. They're getting pretty strong, but as you can see they need a little more firepower on their side." Tsunade relayed with a fox-like grin as she folded her hands overtop each other on the table in front of her.

"Sure thing, boss. Do you want me to train them, too? Because I still have my own mission I have to take care of…"

"No, Shizune and I will take care of their training." Tsunade answered as she rose from her seat and gathered up all of her papers, which incidentally gave all in the room the most magnificent view down her blouse. Whether she was aware of her shameless act or not, the Hokage returned upright and smiled, "You can concentrate on your mission, but I would like for you to show up every now and then so you can become more familiar with your teammates."

After Naruto and Hinata were presented with their new desert-wear, they were all dismissed for the day. This was to be the start of something greater than any of them could ever imagine.

- Elsewhere -

The jewel encrusted coach came to a random stop deep in the heart of an unnamed forest on the master's command. Moments later the door opened and a pair of dangerous-looking men exited and held their hands over the extended hilts of their swords; they stood guard as their kimono-clad master came down the stairs and glanced suspiciously out into the trees. "Keep your guard up at all times, understand?" the man ordered his men. At their nod, he gestured toward the tree line, instructing one of his guards to take the lead and the other to watch the rear as they slipped through the brush along the forest floor. They stopped when the carriage was completely out of sigh and well clear of hearing range.

The moment the three men came to a halt, two streaks of movement attracted their attention the instant before a pair of uniformed shinobi appeared, blocking their path. Both swords made a clicking sound as they parted from their scabbards, but the robed man merely smiled at his contacts from the Hidden Sound. "I was expecting a meeting with the _emperor_ today, gentlemen. I suppose he was busy, then?"

"Un." the shinobi on the right acknowledged, hardly moving a muscle in the process, "_He_ is a very busy man these days. Have his orders been followed exactly? Does anyone suspect you in any way, Daimyo?" the man demanded in a gruff voice. Because his face was hidden behind the mask of his uniform, it was impossible to read his expression.

"No, no." the Daimyo chuckled diplomatically, his kind smile a mask for his truly sinister intentions. "Everything is going so perfectly that it feels like the natural course of the universe. I can assure you that even if we do become discovered, it will already be too late."

"You'd better leave that up to us to decide; never forget that you're just the puppet and we're the ones in control." the apparent leader of the Sound team growled threateningly. "Now, give us the documents Orochimaru-sama has requested. We have to make the exchange quick so that we can…" The squad leader was interrupted by the sound of violent rustling in the bushes off to one side; everyone trained for combat immediately drew their weapons and prepared for a battle. It only took another moment before a voice broke the silence, "We had a fly on the wall, _taichou_. I'm bringing them out now." True to his word, a pair of shinobi marched out into plain sight; one was a hardened ninja from the Sound, the other a young kunoichi from the Leaf. She thrashed in his grip, but her captor had her fingers interlocked behind her head with his other hand firmly holding the back of her chuunin vest.

"So what's this, then?" the squad leader growled dangerously, staring murderously at the struggling teenager caught in his teammate's grasp. "Are we discovered or did we happen to be in the path of a fleeing nukenin? Daimyo, I'm warning you…"

Suddenly afraid for his life, the warlord gulped and turned his diplomacy way up as he addressed the Sound ninja, "Sir, I assure you that no one is supposed to be outside of the village; I made sure of it. There are still some ninja that haven't returned from their missions when I took over; they must be unaware of my orders."

The man holding the girl shook her hard enough for her knees to buckle, though she had enough discipline not to scream and entice them to kill her. The captor growled dangerously in her studded ear, "Is that the way it is? Are you on a mission right now, Leaf ninja?"

"I'm not going to fucking tell you," the chuunin hissed venomously as she made one more attempt to shake free of his iron-grip, "or that traitorous Daimyo! Working with Orochimaru after such an attack… how could you act so low?"

The squad leader was just about to reply when the girl's captor glanced sharply into the woods before glaring at the third Sound ninja and commanding, "There's another one; find them and kill them!" The ninja merely grunted before vanishing into the trees in hot pursuit of his target. "As for you, sweetheart… your mission is officially over." her captor insinuated as he shoved her forward an instant before jumping back into the forest to help his teammate track down the other spy.

Before the kunoichi had a chance to think of escaping, the enemy jounin flashed through a series of hand seals, ending with his hands in what appeared to be a large circle with horns. Struck by a wave of sound, the girl was stunned by the drumming vibrations as blood pooled in her ears and her body seized up from the pain. Reacting to an order from the Daimyo, Marukia drew his katana and slowly approached his thrashing victim. Birds scattered in all directions from the bloodcurdling sound of a shriek.

"Leave her there; I'll deal with her body in a moment." the jounin commanded as he dropped his jutsu, watching as the samurai wiped his sword on the kunoichi's clothes. Reaching under his vest, the Sound ninja retrieved a manila envelope containing sensitive documents, "These are the latest orders from the _emperor_. Ensure that they are instated immediately and followed to the letter." Giving a faltering smile, the Daimyo accepted an identical envelope from Kogei before handing them ceremoniously to his contact; though he in turn shoved the papers into the warlord's hand as if he was disgusted. Why shouldn't he be? He could never trust a traitor; even one working for his side. "Before you leave, keep in mind that there is no such thing as 'too late' in the Sound. You keep your fucking head down until the very end. Do you understand?" When the exchange had been made, the Daimyo gave another one of the kind of smiles that made the Sound jounin want to punch him in the face; but thankfully the warlord was smart enough to keep his mouth shut for the time being.

Finally, when the Daimyo and his bootlicking samurai had gone, the jounin strode up to the bleeding girl, not quite dead yet, and crouched over her body. Without muttering a word, he performed a forbidden jutsu and placed his hands on her face and stomach. This released sound waves at an ultra-high vibration which shredded her clothes, caused her tissue to melt as it was torn apart, and crumbled her bones into dust; the horrible, gurgling shriek she made during the process was sure to give him nightmares for many nights to come. Before he was done, the Sound jounin retrieved a vial of yellow liquid and emptied the entire thing on the remains - insects and small game would become attracted by the smell and devour what was left of the young kunoichi. This done, he gazed blankly off into the forest, wondering how far his companions had gotten during their hunt.

- Two months later -

It was just an hour after breakfast when there was a knock on the front door of the Lightning-branch of the Takanori household. Because Hinata had been left behind to rest after another attack by her weakened heart, she was the only person in the house. Despite giving a woeful groan at having to leave the comfort of her bed, Hinata dragged herself out to the door and cracked it open; she was only mildly surprised to see Takanori Kazuki standing with his hands tucked into his pockets and his mask lowered to show his face. It wasn't until she opened the door all the way that she found he'd brought the rest of his old team with him. Hinata had already met Kazuki's twin sister, Yuzuki; but she'd only just recently been introduced to Senbon Takeshi. Yuzuki was a surprisingly sweet girl, considering her status as a secret weapon of war; but, as for Takeshi, he dressed in and acted as if he was the human embodiment of "dull grey."

Hinata's heart skipped a painful beat as Kazuki gave a disarming smile and rubbed her head as if he were her older brother. "Good morning, cupcake!" he greeted with a nickname he knew she didn't like as he led the rest of his team into the house, instructing her to close the door behind them. Hinata found it a little unnerving how the three chuunin of Team Takeshi, as they referred to themselves as, all sat on the couch in perfect sync; and that they all spoke in unison as they asked, "Could you get us some water, please?"

Suppressing a minor shiver, the Hyuuga bowed before rushing into the kitchen to do as asked; it didn't take her too long to fill some paper cups with water and carry them out on a ceramic platter. After setting the drinks in front of the guests, Hinata was once again amazed at the way all three of them claimed their water and drank in sync. "Um… Did you want to ask me something?" the timid girl wondered softly. This wasn't the first time she'd been left home by herself, but it certainly was the first time she was visited by a trio of chuunin.

Hinata thanked the Will of Fire that Kazuki was the only one who responded, rather than all three of them again. "I have a question for you, cupcake; have you put a lot of thought into the chuunin exam?"

"Please, don't call me 'cupcake', Takanori-san." Hinata begged through her blush, timidly protecting her chest with her arms to keep a certain distance between her and Team Takeshi. "No, I haven't really been thinking about it at all." she lied. In reality she'd been fretting over it since before they'd left for Sunagakure, because she feared that she'd let Naruto down despite his constant inspiration and wonderful words of motivation. He'd seemed so excited when Shizune had told them that they'd be working closely together; she'd noticed that he'd been paying more attention to her ever since her fight with Neji-nii-san, and it made her nearly want to burst from the emotions welling up and swirling in her chest like a tornado made of fire.

"Well, you might want to start - the exam is in a little under two months." Kazuki advised, receiving nods of agreement from his sister and squad-captain. "Exactly how far do you want to get? We only need to complete the second round, but wouldn't it be nice to win? Show the entire tournament how powerful the Hyuuga clan grows their rookies?"

"Winning would be nice…" Hinata agreed softly, finally gracing her new friends with a kind smile, "Do you think I really can?" She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Kazuki's powerful, resonating laughter.

"Come on, Cupcake! Do you have any idea how excited I was when I got the message that I'd get to work so closely with a Hyuuga? They warn people in Suna to be wary of shinobi from your clan, so I couldn't wait to see what you could do." Kazuki admitted with a broad smile, "You haven't disappointed me yet, but my job is to keep you little guys alive during the exam using any means. So, to make it a little easier on me, I was thinking that I'd make you a better fighter to give me a little more breathing room. Check this out…" Kazuki urged as he unfastened one of his vest's pouches and withdrew a purple-lined scroll. "I've managed to squeeze out a little bit about the Byakugan from Neji, so I think I might be able to teach you something cool. Do you want to learn it?"

"Un!" Hinata enthused brightly as she slightly bounced on her toes; just enough for it to come off as adorable. "I'm not going to run away any more, so I'm going to try my best to learn. If it would help to know more about the Byakugan, I can tell you some more about it."

"Un!" Kazuki mirrored, though he wouldn't be caught dead bouncing adorably on his toes. What he did instead was rise to his feet in sync with his teammates, and a moment later they had surrounded the attentive girl. Suddenly he barked, "Byakugan, now!" a second before the three chuunin lunged to tackle Hinata. Though she gasped at the surprise attack, Hinata awakened her bloodline through willpower and took up her combat stance. Thankfully the enhanced vision of the Byakugan and her quick reflexes allowed her to catch Yuzuki from out of what would normally be a blind spot; she then rolled the thirteen-year-old over her shoulder using a defensive Jyuuken counter. With Kazuki busy catching his sister to set her down softly, Hinata was able to use the distraction to spin on her toes and direct Takeshi away from her in such a way that she ended up facing his back. The counter only took a little under a second to perform, and afterwards it left all of Team Takeshi grinning.

"You guys surprised me, but I did it!" Hinata blurted in a rush, her weakened heart beating painfully in her chest; though in light of recent events, she found it easy to ignore at the moment. Even if the maneuver was just a basic counter, being able to successfully dodge three people at once was enough to boost her confidence five-fold! It would seem that her training with Shizune was finally paying off.

All three chuunin congratulated Hinata on her accomplishment before returning to the couch, instructing Hinata to settle in the temporary Hokage seat. Kazuki took over as instructor once again, "We just had to confirm it, but it looks like you're good enough with the Byakugan that we can dive right into teaching you a special genjutsu-based dojutsu. What I'm hoping is that the Byakugan will allow you to maintain eye-contact with everyone around you, even if they aren't looking directly into your eyes. As I said: my understanding of the Hyuuga bloodline is limited at best, so I'm not even sure if you can use a dojutsu through the back of your head."

"I've never tried… but I'll do my best." Hinata promised earnestly, her tiny voice almost sweet enough to stop her senior's hearts from the sugar rush. "I'm ready to get started, if you are."

"Sure thing, Cupcake." Kazuki laughed, enjoying Hinata's timid blush. Unfortunately, now he had to give the bad news. "I'll warn you right now, that it might take a couple weeks to learn; and that's only if contact works through the Byakugan."

Even as concern etched into Hinata's bashful, little face; Yuzuki cracked a wide grin and laughed wholeheartedly, "If it doesn't, we could punch the Byakugan in the face until it gives up and does as we say. Right, Kazu-nii?"

"We can even alternate so that we don't tire as fast, Yuzu-nee." Kazuki quipped, evoking a worried gasp from Hinata. What exactly had she just gotten herself into!? Both Kazuki and Yuzuki began to broaden their terrifying grins as they punched their fists into their hands, their eyes gleaming darkly.

Finally Takeshi rolled his grey eyes and bonked each twin on the head in turn with the back of his fist - oddly enough, the light tap left darkening bruises on the Takanori's foreheads - before shaking his head slowly. "Sorry to sound like such a spoil-sport, but we don't need the two of you punching people's jutsu in the face all day. Just remember that after we help Hyuuga-san with her training, we have to accomplish the most dangerous part of our mission; it's also the most important reason why we're in Sunagakure in the first place." And so, they buckled down to get to work.

- Sunagakure hospital rooftop -

Tsunade watched her soldier depart with a dark look on her face and blood trickling from where she'd bitten her lip in rage. She'd just had a spontaneous meeting with former captain of Team Two, Chuunin Koda Satoshi of the medical corps, concerning potentially treasonous decisions. What she managed to learn worried her deeply; because while it sounded pretty bad on the surface, she couldn't help but feel like there was a hidden agenda that could blow a serious act into a devastating one.

As it turned out, the primary _Hassari,_ Tensuki, was stubborn in his requirement that a male should succeed him, but had only fathered girls. Unfortunately, each of his siblings had been purchased by one of the four neighboring kage. Therefore, every male offspring of the female _Hassari_ and whatever shinobi unit they were attached to were purchased for a C-rank mission to invite them into Suna for an evaluation of who would succeed their uncle. In the end, Kazuki had beaten out all of his cousins and claimed the right as heir to the primary _Hassari_.

This was where things began to get underhanded, however. The Yondaime Kazekage had detected a rebellious faction within Sunagakure, split due to differences in allegiance between the Kazekage and the Daimyo of Wind over the budget cuts to the village. As designated weapons, the Kazekage wished to send the Takanori of Team Two undercover to identify and incriminate local leaders of the revolutionary movement, as all of his other agents were already known to the hidden enemy. Because he needed them for a B-rank assassination mission, he called in a favor from the Sandaime Hokage to have the three genin promoted and leadership transferred to his favored weapon, Kazuki - thankfully the Hokage had instead assigned Senbon Takeshi as squad-captain; this had the effect of allowing Satoshi to perform his duties as a medic while Takeshi issued orders to his teammates in combat. This also prevented the Kazekage from issuing secret orders to Kazuki, now heir to the proverbial Takanori Throne.

Tsunade had ground her teeth when she learned that both Satoshi and Takeshi had known when and why the Sand army had mobilized for Konoha's invasion, but they chose instead to stay undercover to route out the loyalists of the Daimyo of Wind. But nothing could top the fact that not only had the Takanori twins been aware, but had actually marched with the troops on orders to fight off the Sound should they think to betray the Sand; and not a word had been whispered of their involvement until now. This was serious grounds for execution!

The problem was that Kazuki now had a tie back to one of Suna's top clans as the heir to the Takanori; killing him could be mistaken as an act of retaliation from the invasion on Konoha. She also didn't like the thought of an enraged _Hassari_ mother loose *inside* the walls of Konohagakure. The fact that she still had yet to determine whether the woman was a sleeper agent put in place by the Sand didn't make it any easier. It was just far too suspicious for there to be a _Hassari_ in each of the major nations to believe Suna simply needed the money from their sale.

"Tsunade-sama…" Shizune murmured softly from behind her mentor, the jounin's once healthy face having gone pale from the assault of such sensitive and treasonous information. Here she'd been worried that the young Takanori would have been a pervert obsessed with catching her in the bath; now they were dealing with shinobi of questionable allegiance who were designed as weapons to defeat demon hosts.

"I know, Shizune." Tsunade growled as she bit her thumbnail. She quickly mulled over her next couple of actions in her head. "You and I are going to have a chat with Baki to see what we can find out about this rebellion and what exactly my little weapons are expected to be doing. After that, you and I are going to put Naruto and Hinata under surveillance for the 72 hours it's going to take for a team of ANBU to arrive from Konoha. I don't care how illegal it is, I'm going to smuggle the black ops into Suna to keep an eye on Team Takeshi while we're here."

Shizune sighed heavily under the weight of the world. "It almost feels like another Great War is nipping at our heels this time. I'm almost starting to regret allowing you to be talked into accepting the position of Hokage…"

"Things might be going back to how they were sooner than you think, Shizune. I have a feeling the shit is really going to hit the fan. Everything hinges on the chuunin exam coming up…"

- Konoha -

Sakura groaned as she dropped face-first onto her bed, every muscle in her body pulsing with dull pain from her rigorous work-out with the Toad Sage, Jiraiya. While Kakashi had always shown up about two hours late for training, his instruction was inarguably ingenious when they did get down to the task at hand. In fact, it had been her own lack of motivation that kept her from catching up to the "dead last" of her class when he gradually grew better than she. Yet, despite her shortcomings and declarations for vengeance, Sakura's latest mentor had surprised her with a stunning act of perception. He found that it wasn't her love for Sasuke that had driven her to seek great strength, but that she was directly influenced by the recent invasion - Sakura had developed an unquenchable desire to protect her friends and loved ones through the strength of her own arm; a reoccurrence from her oath in the Forest of Death. Without even realizing it, Sakura was already being shaped by war.

Two months ago, Jiraiya had taken Sakura out to the same stream as he'd taken Naruto to for Water Walking practice; it didn't surprise either of them that the kunoichi figured out the trick in the first ten minutes. Unfortunately, the Toad-tamer hadn't thought to bring along any additional training and was far too engrossed in watching a group of girls playing in a nearby waterfall to pay Sakura much attention; so Sakura had busted her own ass doing strength training and perfecting all of the basic jutsu she'd learned in the academy. Sakura knew that she'd have to take it upon herself to avoid a repeat of similar events, so she sought to enlist the aid of Konoha's jounin force - though he was too busy with his ANBU duties to train her himself, Kakashi surprised Sakura when he loaned her his own summoning contract with dogs. Since that day, Jiraiya had begun helping her learn how to summon and control the loyal ninja dogs; which led her to the most recent, exhausting, scavenger hunt to locate scrolls hidden everywhere throughout Konoha. As an added incentive, sealed within each scroll were a dog treat and a handful of jellybeans, of which Sakura had expressed a love for.

Sakura groaned again as she rolled over onto her back, choosing to stare at the ceiling as blood pounded in her ears and her poor fingers twitched from overuse. It wasn't long before her mother knocked on the door to announce herself before entering to find her worn-out daughter sprawled across her bed. "Did you have a tough day again, sweetie?" the older Haruno guessed with unerring accuracy. All Sakura could manage was a groan and a limp flop of her arm. "Well, your father and I are going out to buy your little brother everything he'll need for his first year of the academy; so we're leaving you to watch over the house. Ok?"

"Un…"

"You can invite a couple of friends over to keep you company if you like. We'll be back in time to prepare dinner, so they're welcome to eat with us tonight." Sakura's mother, a woman with surprisingly sandy-brown hair and green eyes, allowed with a gentile smile. "I love you, honey. Bye."

Sakura waited for the sounds of her younger brother enthusing about his new gear and the slam of the front door before forcing herself to sit up in bed. "Ugh, I'm too sticky and sweaty to invite anyone over right now… I have to take a shower first." she realized with a sour sniff. So she got up and made a direct bee-line for the bathroom, where she dumped her smelly clothes into the hamper and climbed under the warm blast of a shower. She spent half an hour under the water before emerging clean and smelling of sweet petals and cream. Considering that she was alone in the house, Sakura had no qualms with leaving her pink towel in the hamper with her clothes and walking back to her bedroom in the nude.

Catching sight of her reflection as she passed, Sakura paused to stare at her body in the mirror. She sighed dejectedly and reached up to prod her small chest, lamenting the fact that she still hadn't begun to develop a womanly figure, though she was already thirteen years old. Like her diminutive bust, she was also pissed that even her hips and butt were woefully below standard. Her mother had told her to give it a couple more years, but it was difficult being that patient! But for the time being, she felt like taking the woman up on her offer to invite someone over; and she knew just who to invite!

Dressing in a simple halter top and red shorts, Sakura was about to head for the telephone when she had an even better idea. After biting her calloused thumb, she reached out to touch her injury to her own bed and called, "Kuchiyose no jutsu: Inu!"

A familiar little mutt appeared in a puff of smoke with his paw raised. "Yo." Pakun greeted. Taking a moment to sniff the air, Pakun cocked his head and mentioned, "I see that you're using a new shampoo, Sakura-chan." She'd in fact changed the day after she'd first met the talking dog…

"Anyway!" Sakura interrupted with a weak laugh, "Are you busy? Would you mind hanging out with me?"

Pakun paused, initially confused by the odd request. However, after a moment of thought, the little brown dog coughed into his paw before answering, "Only if you scratch me behind the ears." Sakura gave a warm smile in response as she reached out and rubbed her fingers on the back of Pakun's head, causing him to shut his eyes in bliss. It didn't take that much longer before she lied down on her back and set the little mutt on her stomach so she could continue petting him. In only minutes, the recently acquainted pair fell peacefully asleep. It was the start of a sweet friendship.

- Notes -

I'm not sure how it was set up in the manga, but allow me to explain how I envision the government system of the military countries in the Naruto world. As I see it, each country in possession of a hidden village is ruled by a pyramid of three figures. At the top is the emperor of the country, who oversees the governing of the country as a whole and attends meetings to promote peace and diplomacy - he is the ultimate power for any decision made in the country. Below the emperor are the daimyo; who is a warlord in charge of allocating budgets for the ninja village and has the power to declare war or peace; and on the same level as the daimyo is the village leader, whether it's a kage or whatever ninja is in charge of the hidden village; this figure has ultimate say in their respective village. As the daimyo and village leader are on the same footing, they cannot override each other, but can both be vetoed by the emperor.

Because the Hokage has the final say, the council of Konoha can only discuss matters of importance and give their suggestions and advice to the Hokage to help influence their decision. However, in the case of Naruto's banishment, as they had already pronounced him as a dangerous threat to the village, having his sentence overthrown by the Hokage would be seen as a case of favored injustice brought by sentimentality and emotions; both said to go against the rules of the shinobi as taught in the academy. This distrust would eventually form a rift between the council and the Hokage to the point that the conflicting interests would cause a violent civil dispute, which directly following the attack by the Sand and Sound would weaken Konoha enough to be defenseless against a foreign army. To prevent this, Tsunade has appeased the council by removing Naruto from the village, but is keeping him nearby for the time being.

Unlike most of the other challenge responses, I've decided that rather than just throw a promotion at Naruto and Hinata, they might appreciate it more if they take the time to earn their rank by passing the next exam in six months, with the help of an admittedly overpowered OC. I do plan to have Naruto banished after the exam, which forces his three lady friends to go rogue with him; so it is indeed the catalyst we've all been waiting for.

A note on the Takanori Twins - I'm well aware that they both referred to each other as the older sibling; I just felt that it would be funny for them to make cute nicknames for each other. As for why Kazuki continues to call Hinata "Cupcake": even I'm not completely sure why he does that - I kind of let him evolve as I go, and it just kind of happened on its own.

I've only set a couple loose guidelines with how I want the story to turn out, the rest I make up as I go; which is interesting because even I get to be surprised and intrigued by the diabolical plots and their solutions. As always, please give a review to let me know how I'm doing; PM's with suggestions are also welcome.


	4. Under a Waterfall

Author Notes: Unfortunately I've been putting off and procrastinating with my writing so the much anticipated update hasn't come out until now. While I understand that I claimed the fateful exodus from Konoha would happen in this chapter, I've decided to put it off until chapter 5 - the reason being that I wanted to add certain plot elements to the story to prevent it from feeling rushed or bland; as well as flesh out a couple of my original characters. I didn't like how I did the _Hassari_, so I changed them a little bit; they are now commanders with a great amount of skill using their specialized clan jutsu - the Dark Forging. I'm also trying to avoid common conventions used so often in fan fiction and even the manga itself, so expect some rather unconventional choices and concepts - I hope.

**Chapter 04: Under a Waterfall**

- Two months later -

"My son said all of that?" Takanori Misako laughed uproariously as she rolled in her seat and slapped the arm of the chair in which she was sitting. Tsunade had agreed to spend every other weekend as Hokage to give the Daimyo a brief respite for his hard work during the week. Her first order of business had been to have a meeting with the heads of every ninja clan swearing allegiance to Konoha; this included the Hyuuga, the Inuzuka, the Yamanaka, the Aburame, and more recently the Takanori - the Uchiha were obviously no longer represented. While it was true that the Takanori clan was actually headed by Tensuki of Sunagakure, _Hassari_ Misako had been elected as the representative of the Konoha branch.

"Kazuki-san appears to have quite the imagination. So, I'm beginning to wonder which parts of his story I should believe and which parts I should tease him about later." The Hokage finished with a small grin as she took a quick sip of her green tea. "He acts as if he's some sort of… alien."

"We are technically aliens in your country; but I'm sure you mean that he claims not to be human." Misako chuckled softly, which caused some of the other gathered clan heads to groan or shake their heads disapprovingly. "It's as you say, Hokage-sama; Kazuki has a very active imagination, and probably reads too much manga… however, he's been forged with a lot of power that he doesn't know what to do with. My son is unfortunately trying his damnedest to discover his identity and role in life, and since he's having so much trouble he kind of makes things up as placeholders until he's decided." Misako finished with an uncertain shrug.

"What do you mean by 'forged, exactly? Is he really stronger than the average shinobi?" Inoichi, head of the Yamanaka, queried curiously as he gently tapped on his clean-shaven chin. "This has something to do with your being classified as weapons, doesn't it?"

Misako leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms under her generous breasts and closed her eyes in thought as she considered his question. After a moment the woman decided to come clean, so she answered. "Part of the Takanori claim to fame involves a ritual performed on our youngest shinobi as soon as they enter the academy; it's what makes us so different from other people. I can't tell you about the ritual itself, except that we call it the Dark Forging; which is actually the reason why our navy chakra is so commonly known as Dark Chakra." Misako explained before lifting her chakra-coated hand so that the gathered jounin could see the navy energy collected in her palm.

Chouza's heavy, boisterous voice drowned out whatever grunts his fellow clan heads made as he leaned forward in the two chairs he sat on and placed his ham-hand on his knee, "All of the _Hassari_ were forged to have great powers, and so therefore are considered to be the same as a katana? Basically your entire family exists to be dangerous weapons to be used during times of war." He did not voice the startling similarity between such an existence and the actual containers of demonic chakra, though as his statement hung in the air most of the assembled ninja knew what he had been getting at.

"Well, we're still people if that's what you're implying; but that's actually part of Kazuki's problem, though. You see; when we were living in Sunagakure, Kazuki used to help my husband with his job as a photographer. He would have such a blast playing with the children of the clients and peeping into the changing rooms that he never wanted to commit himself to joining the military. He was so sweet back then, though." Misako recalled, her tone lilting in humor as she remembered the simpler times; back when her boy was just a boy. "So, when Yuzuki decided that she wanted to attend the academy, her brother didn't join her no matter how she begged."

Tsunade took another sip of her tea, but silently her eyes moved over the assembled clan leaders to gauge their reactions rather than interrupt. Inoichi seemed to be entertaining fond memories of his own daughter's childhood, judging by the warm smile on his face. Shikaku wore the same look, though his smirk seemed more intimidating that his friend's. Hyuuga Hiashi appeared to be impatiently listening with his eyes shut and mouth in a slight frown; it was as if he felt that Misako was wasting their time. However, both the Inuzuka and Aburame leaders wore blank expressions that could not be read. Patiently, Tsunade took another drink as she returned her attention to Misako's story.

"Then, just after my twins turned ten years old, I was relocated to Konohagakure and took my family with me. Kazuki had to leave all of his friends behind in Suna and start a new life here." Misako frowned as any mother would when thinking about the unhappiness of her child. "When we found out that the Konoha academy put out nine genin a year, Kazuki became sure that it would be a good way to make some more friends. As well as to help support his sisters in their careers." she added as an afterthought. "Kazuki became a ninja just to make friends; but after being able to graduate in two years, getting selected as a chuunin at a young age, and becoming the heir of the Takanori clan my boy doesn't know who he is anymore."

"He was only in the academy for two years? So, Kazuki-kun is some kind of child genius? Like that Neji boy?" Inoichi prompted, which evoked a cold look from Hiashi. "I'm starting to feel glad that you aren't with Sunagakure anymore!"

Misako laughed again, but this time it lacked the same bolster that it had earlier. Shaking her head, she felt the need to correct her peer before the misconception spiraled out of control. "No mother wants to call their son stupid, but Kazuki certainly isn't a genius or anything. It's more like he's a weapon who knows how to use himself very well; and by that I mean he's able to kill whether he understands his opponent's technique or not." Then, as if they hadn't been talking about anything more than the weather, she turned to look directly at Inoichi and smiled, causing him to lift an eyebrow in confusion. "I've answered all of your questions, now you should answer mine."

Blinking in surprise, the blonde man took a moment to recover his composure before returning her smile with a brilliant one of his own, "What would you like to ask?"

"It's just that my eldest daughter, Koyoko, wishes to marry into an established shinobi clan. I wanted to know what kind of life she might have as Yamanaka Koyoko…" Misako then glanced towards Hiashi and smiled again, "…or Hyuuga Koyoko. Or even Akimichi Koyoko." Misako finished with a wink, causing Chouza to laugh in a deep rumble. It was eerie how easy it had been to suddenly change the dismal tone that the meeting had taken on; perhaps it was the mention of the younger generation, a popular topic in Konoha…

Inoichi's teeth sparkled in the light as he rubbed his chin in thought, "Koyoko aside, I have a feeling that my daughter Ino might have an interest in young Kazuki-kun as well. So why don't we discuss both Yamanaka Koyoko and Takanori Ino at the same time?"

"Right!" Misako exclaimed as she jumped to her feet and slammed both of her fists boyishly into her hips and puffed out her chest, "So, if we're done in here, Hokage-sama…?"

"Yes, you are all dismissed." Tsunade chuckled as she tapped a stack of papers to align the pile. "Except for you, Hyuugai-san; I'd like to speak to you in private." The pale-eyed man neither nodded nor made any gesture to leave, though anyone who knew the Hyuuga Head would understand that he already had a gnawing suspicion what the Hokage would wish to speak about. It had to be Hinata.

- Land of Wind -

Shizune yawned widely as she sat up in bed and groggily scratched an itch on her stomach. Blinking her eyes blearily, the jounin glanced at the calendar to see that today was marked as the day they would have to pack up and begin their journey to the Land of Whirlpools. But that didn't exclude them from their morning training! Therefore it befell Shizune to approach Naruto's bedroom and knock on the door, calling out, "Morning training, Naruto-kun." A sleepy mumble was her only reply, reminding the young woman that Naruto had stayed out all night talking to his new friend Gaara. Well; that wasn't her problem!

Though she had been thrilled to find out that the Takanori Manor was one of the few privately-owned residences with actual wooden doors, Shizune grunted in annoyance when she found Naruto's door locked and barring her entry. However, it only took a little bit of negotiation with a pair of lock picks before the door swung open and the smell of a little boy's room wafted out into the hallway, nearly gagging the medical Jounin. Naruto's floor was completely hidden under his dirty and sweaty clothes, a teetering stack of manga which he'd borrowed from Kazuki and piles of sand from the open window; reminding Shizune about the downside of living in the desert. Letting out a humorous sigh, she crossed the floor to shake Naruto awake.

"Come on, little brother; it's time to wake… _Ittai!_" Shizune shrieked as her foot came down on a caltrop that had been left out; and in her attempt to regain balance by putting weight on her other foot, she managed to step on an open manga and lose her balance completely. With a loud crash, Shizune ended up on the floor, but not before knocking over a basket that had been set on the edge of the Takanori's dresser they were borrowing; the jounin ended up covered in all of Naruto's used laundry. It took all of her willpower and discipline not to scream out in horror, instead calmly removing whatever green fabric had landed on her face first. "Ah, Naruto-kun's boxers…"

Naruto gasped as he jumped out of bed with a kunai in his hand. It only took him a moment of staring at the woman on his floor before he busted out laughing at the top of his lungs; childishly pointing at Shizune's flushed cheeks, wide eyes, and hanging jaw. "Nihihihi NYAHAHAHA!" the hysterical blonde barked wildly, clutching his stomach and doubling over uncontrollably.

"Naruto…" Shizune growled softly as she slowly climbed back to her feet, her shoulders trembling somewhat from her fury. "Training is going to last two hours longer!"

"Do you mean it!?" Naruto gasped in excitement, his widened blue eyes gleaming and his entire body screaming in delight as he leaned happily towards Shizune. "Alright! I'm going to go get Hinata-chan so that we can get started!" Naruto dashed from the room while still dressed in his pajamas, leaving Shizune swearing under her breath in seething rage.

It took Naruto several long minutes to realize that Hinata wasn't in her room; he'd even taken the time to check under the bed and peek into the closet. There were no signs of forced entry and nothing suggested the hint of a struggle, so it stood to reason that… Hinata must have gotten up earlier so that she could train more. The two of them had promised to surpass that _baka_ Sasuke together, so she must be out somewhere trying to catch up to the Great Naruto so that she wouldn't slow them down!

Shizune came to a stop in Hinata's doorway, immediately noticing how different it was that the room was in perfect order when compared to Naruto's nightmarish living conditions. She sighed heavily at Naruto's knowing grin, realizing that it was her place to set him straight. "Hinata went to visit Kazuki-kun when you didn't come back last night. She probably stayed the night in Yuzuki-san's room…" she explained.

"Are you sure? How do you know that?" Naruto challenged, not quite ready to abandon his brilliant logic.

"I'm your guardian for right now, so it's my job to know where you all are when it gets dark. Why don't you go ahead and talk Kazuki-kun into joining us as well? His training doesn't end just because he's already a chuunin, you know…"

"…I forgot that he was already chuunin…" Naruto murmured softly, hanging his head in disappointment that he was so far behind a guy who was only a year ahead of him. Yet this didn't stop a bright light from illuminating behind his eyes as he realized, "We're all going to become chuunin for sure after the selection exam! Dattebayo!"

"Just go get her so that we can begin." Shizune advised with a bemused grin.

- Takanori Fire Branch -

Kazuki looked up and pressed a finger to his lips as Naruto came in through the door to his bedroom, indicating that the other boy should keep his voice down so early in the morning. While Kazuki's room wasn't quite as perfect as Hinata's, the only thing on his floor was a pile of manga in a neat stack, though a number of posters had been crookedly taped to the walls. His bed was in the center of the outer wall, just under the window and between a pair of dressers. Kazuki was lounging on the bed with one arm tucked behind his head while his other hand gently smoothed Hinata's hair as she slept with her head in his lap.

"I heard that she came over here last night…" Naruto mentioned as he strode into the room and came to a stop next to the bed, remembering to keep his voice down as he'd been instructed. "Did she train with you?"

"No. It turns out that we both like the same kind of manga; we read them until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer. The silly little cupcake has been asleep the entire time; even when Naruto-kun and Shizune-san were yelling next door." Kazuki replied calmly, continuing to run his hand over the girl's silky, midnight hair. Because he wasn't wearing his Kakashi-like mask, Naruto could see that Kazuki looked somewhat tired and maybe a little bored.

"It's so weird…" Naruto murmured as he watched in fascination as Kazuki's hand repeatedly brushed Hinata's hair, "…I never see you training; but you're still so much stronger than anyone I've met. Well, besides Kakashi-sensei and Ero-sennin, anyway. How…?"

"I don't know." Kazuki interrupted in a tone much quieter than Naruto's, aiming to avoid waking Hinata. "I don't try very hard, but somehow I can just get through people's jutsu." Finally Kazuki caught Naruto's eyes and gazed at him in complete seriousness, "Maybe I'm the reincarnation of a powerful assassin. You know, I was born on the same day that the Niidaime Kazekage died…"

Naruto gulped as a chill ran down his spine, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable to be in his peer's presence. "We learned about him in the academy. So… can you perform any of his amazing jutsu? Like the water control…?"

"Water control?" Kazuki questioned in confusion, so confused that he stopped patting Hinata. "The Second…" he paused as realization dawned on his face and his eyes warmed with contained laughter, "Oh, you mean the Second Hokage! Those are two completely different men, Naruto-kun." Gently, he began stroking the girl's hair again, chuckling when she made a small moan in her sleep. "I was just kidding anyway; I don't even know when the second of any kage died. I've just been taking a break from training because of my mission right now."

Naruto scoffed in light of this new information, but this time he forgot to keep his voice down, causing Hinata to grumble and stir. Both boys watched as she sat up and cutely rubbed the sleep from her eyes, a lock of her steadily growing hair still in her mouth from having been chewed on in her slumber. "Is it morning now?" she murmured as she perched on the edge of Kazuki's bed; until she realized that Naruto was in the room smiling at her. Hinata's face turned red as she looked from Kazuki to Naruto, but before either of them could say a word, she fell over backwards and fell off of the bed, fainting before she even hit the floor.

While Naruto let out a wave of fresh laughter, Kazuki peeked out over the side of his bed to stare down at Hinata, who had actually woken up as soon as she had struck the sand. "That was kind of silly, cupcake." he mentioned as she stared back up at him, blinking her large, lavender eyes in embarrassment. "You should at least say 'good morning' to us, right?"

"You're always so annoying in the morning, Onii-chan!" a new voice filled the room seconds before a brunette strode in and stood with her arms crossed over her chest, an upset look on her face. Like Naruto, Yuzuki was still in her pajamas. Even as Kazuki rolled his eyes and sat back in his bed, Yuzuki brushed past Naruto to help Hinata to her feet, offering to perform their morning hygiene together without the _boys_. Thus, Hinata was dragged off with a blush on her face and unable to speak.

"I don't mind you dropping by for a visit, even as early as this," Kazuki mentioned as he swung his legs over the bed to sit on the edge, "but you look like you came here for something in particular. Did you want me for something?"

"Oh, yeah! Shizune-nee-san wanted to invite you to train with me and Hinata this morning!" Naruto recalled excitedly, his sapphire eyes lighting up the same way they had when Shizune had mentioned it in the first place.

Kazuki had no problem with it at all.

- Konoha -

Tsunade set aside the last bit of paperwork that she was willing to do before lunch. With a heavy groan, the woman dragged herself out of her chair as she tossed the completed form into the out box, only barely noticing that the ANBU weren't picking them up nearly as fast any more. It took until she reached for the doorknob before an agent slipped in as silent as the night to process the document. "Have Takanori Koyoko meet me for lunch, alright?" the old woman instructed, not bothering to look over her shoulder to see if the assassin had heard her.

The Hokage was greeted with warm smiles as she entered Naruto's favorite shop, one of the few places in the entire village that didn't spike the prices on anyone that had made friends with Naruto. This was only part of the reason why she'd had the overpowering urge to have a bowl of ramen instead of something more filling. "What can I get for you, Lady Hokage?" the proprietor prompted as Tsunade took her seat between two customers who were already slurping their soup.

"Two bowls of jalapeno ramen and a bottle of _sake_, please. I'm expecting someone in a little bit." Tsunade ordered with a tired smile as she supported her forehead on her palm. "You do have _sake_, right?" …because she'd been up all night and decided that she deserved it.

"I'll send Ayame out for some right away, Hokage-sama." Ichiraku tossed over his shoulder with a happy smile as he continued to stir a pot of ramen he'd already started. "He's getting ready to take the exam again, isn't he?"

"You mean Naruto?" Tsunade guessed accurately, supporting her head by resting her cheek on a fist. "I think you mean that he's getting ready to pass the Chuunin Selection Exam, don't you?" Tsunade motioned with a sly smile, her light-brown eyes casually aimed at the back of Teuchi's workman's shirt. "He's training so hard that it's exhausting Shizune more than anyone! This could be his year!" So far only Tsunade, Danzo, and the Daimyo knew of the automatic promotion clause that had been enacted - even the Advisory Council had been left out of the loop for fear of leaking information to spies.

Teuchi glanced over his shoulder and gave a ghostly smile, suddenly sending chills of warning along Tsunade's arms - he knew something he shouldn't. "I've been waiting for this day to come. Ayame and I have been planning to treat Naruto-kun to a very special celebratory ramen feast when he finally made chuunin; I just hope we get the chance to see him long enough to share his victory before…"

Ichiraku was cut off when a leather-gloved hand came down on one of his customers and murmured just loudly enough for everyone in the small shop to hear, "Your meal is on the Hokage today, but for now please leave." The jounin that had been enjoying a rather clear view down Tsunade's blouse stiffened when she turned to face the young ANBU, a girl who outranked her despite being half her age. Without saying a word, the kunoichi abandoned her perch and bowed her way out of the shop, leaving the dregs of her ramen pooled in the bottom of her bowl. One of Ichiraku's workers hastily grabbed the bowl to be cleaned even as Takanori Koyoko stuffed her ANBU mask into a pouch at her side and took a seat next to Tsunade. "My little sister made it home without any trouble. Danzo-sama is speaking with her now."

Tsunade sighed. At first she wanted to barrel into Danzo's office and deny him the use of the Takanori for the ROOT division; until she learned that he'd already long since befriended the _Hassari_ and her family when they first relocated to Konohagakure. They'd had him over for dinner and referred to him by his first name, so he essentially had them in his pocket as it was; all the acquisition had done was make it official in the files. However, with a traitor like Kazuki within their ranks it would only be a matter of time before it fell apart on its own - that always gave Tsunade a grin. "Your brother will return in about two weeks."

"Un." Koyoko muttered as she accepted the steaming bowl of ramen with her hands rather than set it on the counter; she held it so that she could feel the warmth through her gloves. If she was going to be a cold-blooded killer, then she might as well remind herself of what she was missing out on. "What an unusual situation for an elder sister to be in," Koyoko mentioned in unison with claiming a pair of chopsticks, though oddly she didn't bother separating them, "In a matter of two years both of my younger siblings will be appointed as _Hassari_ above me. Can you imagine how it's going to be to salute my little brother?"

Tsunade shrugged while cupping her bowl with one hand and separating her own chopsticks with the other, "No one ever said you had to uphold the Takanori traditions once you're married. I believe I heard that you plan to marry into one of our other ninja families?"

Koyoko paused as she stared in wonder at Tsunade, clueless as to how she could have known her private desire. Only then did she realize that as the Hokage she would have held several meetings with her mother, the current _Hassari_ of the Konoha branch, who would have spilled the beans like the talkative teenaged boy she acted like. She granted a sly smile before holding the ramen noodles back with her chopsticks and drinking the broth from the soup in one go; it burned her throat… but she enjoyed the burn. Perhaps a little too much, but everyone has to have their little traits. Glancing to her left at the Hokage, Koyoko spoke while still inside her bowl, "I'll cope somehow. Kazu-kun has a lot of responsibility to undertake as the primary _Hassari_ over our entire clan, though. He's going to make a great leader one day, but until then he's still my bratty little brother."

'If he doesn't get himself executed before that…' Tsunade thought with a grimace. As Hokage she'd already overturned the charges against Takeshi and the Takanori twins by placing all of the blame on Koda Satoshi, whom was now a Medical Genin - unable to advance for no fewer than three years. He bore the punishment well, because his students could continue growing, while his own rank did nothing for how well he could heal a wound. It was almost hysterical that he'd picked them up at the rank of jounin; dropped to chuunin for healing a wounded enemy who was then able to complete his mission and strike a heavy blow to the Land of Fire; and now sinking straight back to the bottom to turn all eyes away from the chuunin of his team.

All of this was going through the old woman's mind in the time it took Koyoko to set her bowl on the counter, abandoning the noodles altogether as she dropped her chopsticks and sat back; she hadn't even touched the saucer of _sake_ that Ayame had set out for the two diners. Koyoko's face took on a serious air as she sat in deep thought, though the Takanori wasn't looking at anything in particular. "Sorry to change the subject so abruptly, Hokage-sama; but the anti-kitsune group is preparing to host their morbid festival tonight…"

"Yes, I know all about Dead Fox Day." Tsunade sneered bitterly, growling lightly before sucking in a mouthful of noodles. "Dead foxes will be hung all throughout Konohagakure by the thousands in remembrance of those who had died fighting…" The Hokage stopped and simply glared in Koyoko's direction, because even she knew that she couldn't mention Uchiha Madara's name in public. "One of the downsides of keeping everyone under house arrest is that more of them can contribute to the damage. Dead Fox Day is something I'd rather Naruto never learn about." She'd already been toying with the idea of just packing up and leaving. Much like she had after her brother had been killed… Only this time with the intention of giving Naruto - and perhaps Hinata as well - more of a normal life; and she'd round out his jutsu arsenal with medical training so that he could help protect his friends and loved ones better.

Koyoko slowly rose to her feet and replaced her ANBU mask. In a barely audible whisper Tsunade could have sworn she heard the most astonishing thing from Koyoko's mouth, "So don't bring him back. I've already shared my plan with Umino Ikaji… I just need authorization to take any necessary steps."

"…" Tsunade glared calculatingly back at the girl who had somehow become her friend; the one Takanori not under the sway of Danzo. The kunoichi seemed to communicate through their eyes alone; both seeming to understand exactly what Tsunade would say if she had the freedom - that the Sannin had already abandoned her mantle and couldn't technically give any orders. She'd pretty much made up her mind by now.

"Goodbye, Tsunade-san." Koyoko uttered as she left in a pop of smoke.

Tsunade sighed as she stared into her bowl of ramen. Finding that she was no longer in the mood to eat, the Sannin rose from her stool to pay her tab; she didn't even argue about paying for three bowls of ramen she didn't even eat. With Koyoko using her very specialized skills to keep an eye on the Daimyo, and having tapped the Hokage candidate Umino Ikaji serving to protect Konoha, Tsunade was left with a clear enough conscience that she could pack her things; as well as a few notable scrolls that weren't technically hers; and begin her journey to the Land of Whirlpools to meet with her team in Takigakure. In two weeks time it was very likely that they would become nukenin, but with two elite jounin and a pair of new chuunin, Tsunade had a feeling that they'd do just fine on the outside.

- Land of Whirlpools -

After a long, uneventful walk, the Leaf ninja's trek finally came to an end when the young teens spotted the gates of Takigakure thrust wide open to welcome the visitors to their land. Resting on the top of a sheer cliff and framed by crashing falls, the only entrance into the village was a wide set of stone stairs cut through the earth; it was strikingly similar to the Hidden Sand, only with more water involved. Large blocks had been cut from along the wall to create places to display statues and plaques dedicated to notable shinobi of the past. In a word, Shizune would have to describe the Hidden Waterfall as "Tremendous".

Shizune giggled and hugged Tonton to her chest as Naruto and Kazuki read the names and deeds aloud as they climbed what she estimated as 250 stairs leading up into the village Hidden in the Waterfall. Hinata appeared to be more preoccupied with watching both of the boys with the very hint of a blush adorning her pale cheeks rather than the plaques. At long last they arrived at the second set of gates, also thrust open to reveal a pair of uniformed Waterfall chuunin seated inside a stone booth designed to greet visitors. The young women smiled warmly as the group approached, greeting the genin team without standing. "Welcome to Takigakure, honored guests! It's always a pleasure seeing the cute little genin from Konohagakure!" the first kunoichi, a teal-haired girl dressed in the Takigakure uniform, piped cheerfully.

"Please hand us your Konohagakure ID cards so that we can process you sweethearts as visitors." her somewhat older comrade instructed in a servant's dialect. This one had green hair cropped short with a silver barrette, but also wore the standard uniform of her village; as was expected of anyone placed on guard duty.

"Do they still have you working the gates, Melina-chan?" Kazuki laughed suddenly, drawing the older kunoichi's attention to him. No longer dressed in his uniform, Kazuki wore a sleeveless one-piece outfit with a purple gradient fading into navy-blue at the bottom; his mask was pulled down to reveal flowing, curved streaks of purple tattooed into his cheeks; and his forehead protector had become a sash worn diagonally across his chest. However, the girl seemed to recognize the kanji sewn into the tan sash worn on his left arm - it was the symbol for Hassari, the "false humans" of the Takanori clan.

The girl rose to her feet and performed a playful salute over her right breast bone, though the gesture meant little while leaning over the counter of the booth and grinning like a fox. "What an honor to play host to the primary _Hassari_! I didn't expect you to be back so soon. Can I get you anything, sir?"

"You know that I won't be primary _Hassari_ until I'm 18; but a bottle of _sake_ would be nice…" Kazuki returned with a grin, brushing off Naruto's obnoxiously obvious question of whether he knew the girl with a cross of his arms. 'Just shut up for a second and I'll fill you in later,' he hissed through the side of his mouth.

"Haha… No way," Agari giggled before instructing her newbie to return the ID cards and just write everyone's names down as guests of the Daimyo, "Please accept these maps; you are free to explore our village as much as you like! We would also like to wish you all good luck in the Chuunin Selection Exam!"

"Thank you very much!" Shizune returned with a bright smile, accepting the maps with both her freehand, ensuring that she didn't accidently drop the piglet in the process - she hadn't summoned her the entire time they were in Suna to prevent the pig's sensitive skin from getting burned in the desert sun, so she wanted to do anything she could to avoid another fiasco and get knocked over again. They waved as they went around the booth and finally entered the Hidden Waterfall village; the gorgeous scenery took all of their breath away, even Kazuki, who had been in the village once before. Sprawling and white, the entire village seemed more like an enormous palace garden with its many fountains and miniature waterfalls than a shinobi village. The citizens of the village walked around wearing shades of blue or turquoise and white; random uniformed Taki-nin could be seen wandering among the populace, serving as patrols during the chuunin exam.

Suddenly Kazuki went rigid before laughing for no reason, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "You guys didn't hear that? My stomach just growled pretty loudly!" the Takanori heir mentioned with a wry grin. "We only had those berries this morning, so I'm caving in over here! Let's get something to eat before we all pass out, alright?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry, too!" Naruto realized as he rubbed his empty belly and laughed obnoxiously. "I wonder if they have a ramen shop here; I've gone four months without eating any because they didn't serve it in Sunagakure!"

"It might be a good idea to eat so that we can keep our strength up, right?" Hinata agreed softly, offering a shy smile as she tapped her index fingers together. "If the exam is anything like it was in Konoha, then we have to be ready for it. Ramen will be good… That is, if Naruto-kun and Kazuki-kun want it!" the pale-eyed, midnight-haired kunoichi put in; a momentary rush ran through her body at how bold she was for speaking her mind for once.

Shizune chuckled warmly, hugging Tonton closer to her chest and smiling beautifully as she looked out over the gorgeous hidden village. However, one thing marred the idealistic garden-like scenery of then village's entrance; and that was the presence of a hidden observer watching their every step. Hinata noticed too, judging by the measured steps she was taking - how Naruto and Kazuki could remain oblivious was beyond her! Yet there was always the possibility that they knew and didn't perceive their new friend as a threat. Still, it worried the jounin…

"You know what, guys?" Kazuki mentioned suddenly as he glanced over his shoulder, both hands tucked deeply into his pockets - a sign Shizune had detected as a nervous habit; suggesting that he did know about the concealed ninja - "What do you all think about spending the rest of the day in the Daimyo's mansion? We can drop our stuff off and order room service. The exam isn't until later, anyway." Not to mention it offered the greatest amount of security - considering that he was on a B-rank mission to ensure the health and wellbeing of the two genin, it wouldn't be too much to ask or a little bit of hospitality. Right?

A blade came at his face! Reacting instinctively, Kazuki twitched a finger on his left hand as he jerked into a fighting stance, pulling on the chakra thread he'd attached to the blade the instant he noticed it on a crash course with his eye - the sword veered to the side in time to strike the air. Utilizing the same speed that every chuunin was capable of, he performed a single hand seal before actually turning his back to his attack - a maneuver that would have been suicide had he not just summoned a shadow clone. The shadowed Kazuki dashed forward and caught the swordsman's wrist as he threw himself into their body and fell heavily to the ground; though it wasn't until he landed with his hand on the person's sternum that Shadow Kazuki realized his attacker was a young woman.

Ignorant of this at the time, the original Kazuki's hand zipped to his kodachi even as he rushed forward in the chance that his teammates might be under attack as well; in fact he already spotted a jounin with his thick arms wrapped around Shizune to keep her out of the fight. It was time to mix it up! "Hold on," an annoyingly familiar female voice commanded as a hand came out to catch his arm, stopping him from drawing his short sword and keeping him in place at the same time. It was the voice of the Hokage; Tsunade had appeared! "Stand down, everyone." she commanded with all the authority vested in the position of the Hokage.

"Maybe this one should stand up before standing down!" Kazuki heard a laugh from behind, obviously coming from the swordsman - or rather *swordswoman* judging by the pitch of her voice - his clone had captured. Damn, he was glad that he'd talked Naruto into teaching him that trick… Offering a chuckle of his own, Kazuki released his grip and disengaged from the kunoichi, only to be grabbed by his very captive and pulled forward again; this time his eyes going wide as she planted a kiss squarely on his lips. "Mmmwa!" the Mist girl finished with a sly smirk when the shadow clone vanished in surprise.

Naruto blinked in surprise, his hand still digging into his kunai holster; a quick questioning glance to Hinata told him that not only had she activated her Byakugan, but she also had no idea what was going on, let alone why they had been attacked inside a completely different hidden village. "What's going on, Tsunade-obaa-san?" he murmured in confusion, his sludge-clogged mind working on double time in a feeble attempt to grind out a possible explanation to the situation.

"They've got pretty good reaction time, but they're a bit slow where it matters…" a young man commented after landing beside Hinata, having dropped in from the rooftops. He was the average ninja with black hair and arm warmers; his outfit consisting of layers of blue, aqua and white clothing. He looked to be in the area of 17 years old and possibly the leader of the small group.

Moments later a patch of flowers rose off of the ground, revealing a third Mist ninja hidden in the terrain. "Though it certainly figures that Shiratori-san would be the only one to get captured…" he snickered as he stepped out and letting the false flowerbed fall back into place. This one wore a brown cloak over his clothing and a matching headband cap, possibly to assist with his camouflage; it was anyone's guess what was underneath. Judging by his small stature, he was either 13 or just pathetically short for his age. He received a nasty glare and equally impolite hand gesture from the girl as she offered her hand to be helped to her feet.

After allowing the real Kazuki to help her up, the flirty kunoichi returned to her sensei's side, her eyes seeming to flash mischievously as she crossed her arms over chest. Shiratori - as her teammate had called her - looked to be 16 years old, with wavy black hair long enough to be pulled over her shoulder to be played with and amber eyes light enough to draw attention from a small scar on her lower jaw. Like the first genin, her clothing consisted of layers of blue, aqua, and white; but worn with a skirt and other feminine touches. "I think they did pretty good, personally."

Naruto could tell by the headbands they all wore on their foreheads that they belonged to the Hidden Mist - it was the Land of Waves all over again! Yet it was Kazuki who managed to speak first, grumbling, "Were we being tested the entire time?" in a somewhat annoyed tone as he crossed his own arms as well. "Did you doubt that Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan would be ready for the exam; because that reflects badly on me, you know?" This obviously caused Naruto to glare in response at the mere implication that he'd been underestimated; whereas Hinata merely lowered her head and sighed softly.

"Tsunade-sama…" Shizune moaned as she knelt to the ground to reclaim Tonton, who had made a mad dash for cover at the first sign of battle, "That's not what it was, was it? You were gambling again, weren't you?" the jounin accused as she returned to her feet; Tonton even gave a reproachful snort.

"What can I say? I've got a weakness for a healthy competition…" the blonde laughed as she turned to display the kanji drawn on the back of her green top. "Minagi-sensei and I simply had a small wager this time."

"How much did you bet, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune demanded sternly. Seriously, *someone* had to keep this woman in line lest they place all of Konoha in debt to satisfy her losses!

This time it was Minagi-sensei, the jounin who had wrapped his powerful arms around Shizune to play his part, who answered the query. "It was a small wager of \20,000. Which you now owe to me, Tsunade-san." he added with a nod towards the blonde woman.

"Woah, I don't see how. The wager was that my students would be able to defend themselves against an ambush - and they did that with exemplary skill!" Tsunade defended irately; she folded her arms under her breasts - mostly because they would not reach the long way around - as she gave an annoyed glare.

"The agreement was that they'd *detect* our ambush and act upon an expected encounter. Judging from their frantic movements and confusion I'm willing to say that they failed."

Shizune shook her head in denial; not because she was surprised by the wager - it was just something that Tsunade had ingrained into her entire being - but that, "I take responsibility for not sensing them sooner, but I was distracted by someone else's presence. Though I don't know who it-"

"It was Nanashi Fuu. She's the seven-tail's container." Kazuki announced with his hands stuffed into his pockets - a sign that he too felt responsible for not catching the Mist ambush despite already being a chuunin. "I meet her the last time I was in Takigakure. Fuu is really interested in foreigners because the locals treat her like shit, but she's only dangerous if you try to touch her."

Naruto's hand went immediately to his stomach, where he clawed at the seal he'd been cursed with as well. "I know how she feels…"

"Well, I guess I can't say that I haven't lost before." Tsunade sighed before slipping her hand down into her massive cleavage and withdrawing a stack of yen. This she tossed to the jounin; the stack already containing the correct amount. "Anyway, we're supposed to be meeting some of our comrades at the Tomarani Houkago Hotel. Good luck to your students in the chuunin exam, Minagi-sensei." Tsunade mentioned as she gathered her students and waved farewell to the team of Mist ninjas.

- Tomarani Houkago Hotel -

After stopping by a local ramen place - which was sub-par in comparison to Ichiraku's according to Naruto - Team Hokage arrived in the lobby of the grand hotel. Shizune parted with the group in order to drop of some of their bags before climbing into a hot bath to relax. Almost immediately Naruto heard the most obnoxious, yet strangely familiar voice, "So you guys have finally arrived! Damn, all this time and you don't look any stronger at all, Naruto!" Kiba sneered good-naturedly as he strode up to his friends. "Well, maybe you have gotten stronger; I've just managed to keep ahead of you anyway!"

"Hah! We'll see who's stronger when we're in the chuunin exam, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed boisterously as he pointed defiantly at Kiba and his white dog, Akamaru.

"Ah - Kiba-kun! You do look stronger…!" Hinata acknowledged with a little bounce and a girlish smile. "Dattebayo!" she added in emulation of her idol.

This time it was Shino's turn to walk up to the group with his hands tucked as deeply into his pockets as Kazuki's. "Hinata. You sound a lot more confident now after your training. Has Naruto-kun treated you well?"

Blushing, Hinata tapped her index fingers together as she risked a peek at Naruto, who was still growling with Kiba over who had become the stronger of the two. "He was really nice to me, but I was training with more people than just Naruto-kun. There was also Kazuki-kun and his friends, as well. They helped me get stronger… I feel like I've changed a little bit again, too."

"Good. We have a lot of competition this year, so we will need to rely on each other more than the last time."

"Ano… what do you mean by rely on each other? Am I going to be back with Shino-kun and Kiba-kun? Not that I mind, of course!" Hinata jumbled as she wrung her hands, her brow furrowed cutely. "I mean, it's alright because I've known you both for so long, but have only just met Kazuki-kun…" Speaking of Kazuki, Hinata wondered where he had gone; he wasn't with her talking to Shino nor was he with Naruto and Kiba. It didn't take the young woman too much longer to find her new friend standing off to the side with Tsunade and Kurenai-sensei with his hands in his pockets, talking to them as if he was an adult as well. It almost made Hinata sad to see that despite all the training they had just gone through, the truth was that they were still acting like such children - would her promotion to chuunin help her change enough that she could be an adult, too?

Kurenai nodded slowly at everything Kazuki had just told her about her returning student, because it helped to ease her worries about Hinata's preparedness for the exam; it had only been six months since their last try and they had barely even survived that one. "I'm surprised that you were able to help her improve the Byakugan so much. She seems to be a lot more confident this time, too!"

"I already knew a little bit about it from Neji. All I did was help her get caught up to him somewhat" Kazuki admitted, purposefully downplaying his abilities to prevent coming off as an ass. "I tried to improve her strength so that I wouldn't have to protect her as much before I learned that she wouldn't actually be with me and Naruto. It'll still help her anyway." the chuunin finished with a quick shrug. "Now my worry is the new kunoichi that's going in with us; I have no information on her whatsoever."

"It'll be Haruno Sakura. She was a part of team 7 before it was broken up; my cohort Jiraiya has been training her since the invasion five months ago." Tsunade released in a very low tone so that he voice would carry to the eager ears of the chatty genin closer to the center of the lobby. "However you don't need to worry about her ability to keep up, because her tests imply that she's easily as brilliant as Uchiha Sasuke was."

"She doesn't have a crush on Naruto, does she?" Kazuki queried in a tone just as quietly as the Hokage's, pausing in order to glance towards Hinata in time to catch her pale eyes on him. "To be honest it's slowed us down quite a bit when the little cupcake was swooning over her teammate when she should have been giving more intensity. Her heart condition wasn't even the issue, either."

"You're not going to have a problem there; the problem is that Naruto has been trying to catch Sakura's eye since before graduating." Kurenai explained, having long since looked into his file when she first learned of Hinata's idolization. She hadn't bothered correcting Kazuki about his misunderstanding with Hinata because it didn't matter very much at the moment. "Anyway, you've been a chuunin for a while already; you've been proven to have the tools to cope with any situation. I assume that you've killed before?"

"Of course I have…" Kazuki admitted casually, treating the matter as if they were discussing the weather. It was just to be expected of living weapons, wasn't it?

"Well, I don't know why, but Danzo seems to think that you're the only person capable of taking this mission." Tsunade hissed darkly, nearly cutting herself with her fingernails as she dragged them along her arm in annoyance. "I don't particularly care why, to tell the truth; all that matters is that you can complete the B-rank mission. Even if you have to take scrolls from other Konoha teams, it is imperative that Naruto makes it past the survival exam."

"Sure thing, boss." Kazuki replied with another shrug moments before another pair of Konoha shinobi came into the lobby. Judging by the mountainous man with the explosion of white hair and regal red clothing; striding in beside a younger girl with the pink hair and a more fashionable outfit, they could be none-other-than, "Ero-sennin! Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice erupted to every corner of the room.

"I told you not to call me that in public, you short, little brat!" Jiraiya admonished with a disapproving frown, though it reversed seconds later as he rubbed his hand through Naruto's hair. "It looks like you've grown a bit, Naruto."

"Yeah, he did!" Sakura gasped as she stood across from her teammate and compared their height with her hand - they were now the same size! "I just hope that you've been keeping up with your training and not stuffing yourself full of ramen the entire time I was gone!" she teased in her usual boyish-grammar. She was just about to offer a quick spar before the start of the exam when she noticed a young man approaching them; her first impression was that this Takanori Kazuki was a little underwhelming in comparison to Uchiha Sasuke. Still, she had to do the polite thing by offering her hand to be shaken with a broad smile on her face.

Rather than accept her hand, Kazuki instead reached up and knocked on her head with the back of his knuckles, causing a confused look to come over her face. "That's a hell of a forehead you have there. It's kind of cute, actually."

"Thanks!" Sakura exclaimed as her face brightened from the compliment. Suddenly a look of determination exploded across her features as she threw a mighty punch aimed to knock him clear off of his feet, shouting, "…but that's not what I was going for!" However, Kazuki didn't dodge the attack; he didn't even move his head; yet Sakura's fist missed its target by inches, coming to a rest to the right of Kazuki's face. Sakura's dropped only long enough to be replaced by a more impressed expression. Maybe he wasn't as disappointing as he seemed at first.

"I hope that helps you realize how worthy I am of filling Uchiha Sasuke's position. My name is Takanori Kazuki: registered weapon of Konohagakure; and your best bet of getting through this chuunin exam alive and intact." he mentioned impressively, drawing himself up and puffing his out chest as he spoke. "I saw to Naruto-kun's training myself."

"Our best bet, you say?" Sakura challenged with a spark in her eye, a familiar fire rising in her chest as she too thrust her shoulders back and her chest out, "We could have gone with Konohamaru as long as *I'm* here. So I hope you don't mind becoming a background actor, because this is my show, now!"

"Haha! Sakura-chan, you haven't changed a bit!" Naruto laughed uproariously, oblivious to the saddened look Hinata made as she and the rest of her team was ushered from the lobby by Kurenai-sensei for a quick spar of their own. "Except that Kazuki is 100 times as cool as that idiot *Sasuke* ever was; stronger, too! He's already a…"

"Don't compare me to Uchiha, Naruto-kun." Kazuki cut in quickly as he stuffed his hands into his pockets as deep as they'd go. Suddenly the air in the lobby became stifling, and Sakura's face fell lower than Naruto had ever seen it go. It was at this point that Jiraiya felt it best to leave his student's side in favor of having a word with Tsunade; it was obviously Sakura's place to break it to Naruto about what had happened to Sasuke. So long as Kazuki didn't open his big mouth before she had a chance to soften the blow.

"Naruto… just after Orochimaru's invasion… Sasuke-kun… Well, he-"

"Uchiha Sasuke attacked Haruno-san during his abandonment of Konohagakure in order to defect to the international criminal Orochimaru and his village of Otogakure." Kazuki stated as bluntly as an iron club. "He was assassinated the same way as any criminal nukenin. That's why I don't wish to be compared with that traitor."

"Real smooth, Takanori…" Tsunade deadpanned as she strode up to the silenced group, having cut-off Jiraiya mid-sentence. "This is why I asked you not to be the one to tell Naruto about it."

Kazuki grinned as he glanced sideways at the old woman with a coldly detached look in his eyes and whispered so that only she could hear him, "Maybe; but you're not my Hokage anymore." Tsunade's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but the chuunin spoke before she had a chance, "Don't be surprised by what my sister tells me, Tsunade-san. You don't think that she's wise enough to notice these things and share them with the future primary _Hassari_? If no one else, I think Koyoko is the greatest weapon the Takanori has to offer."

They were interrupted by Naruto's reaction. The young blonde had his hand clawing at the seal hidden under his jacket; his face was dark and his eyes practically dead to the world. However, the next second he scoffed and dropped his arm before fixing his hardened eyes on Kazuki, the one person he'd thus far been able to consider a true friend - the only person in the room he was able to draw strength from despite their short time together. "That just figures, doesn't it? I work my ass off so that I could fight him honestly, and then he goes and wastes his pathetic life on something so stupid." He was far too upset to even add his characteristic "dattebayo" at the end of his sentence.

"Don't be confused here, Naruto. I'm not saying that it was stupid that he left in the first place; hell, I've considered it from time to time." Kazuki admitted, completely careless to how treasonous he'd sounded, "What makes it retarded as hell is the reason he did it for. Uchiha was always talking about going out to kill his brother, wasn't he? Peh, going off to hurt someone is never as respectable as doing it to protect someone else." Kazuki then withdrew his hands from his pockets and strode up very close to Naruto as the stunned audience watched with wide eyes. "Don't be like Sasuke if you actually want to become Hokage; if you only live for your desires you really will be the Kyuubi. Why else do you think I play the part of being a normal human?"

"I thought you said it was to laugh at everyone?"

"I lied; I just don't want to walk around thinking that I'm nothing more than a secret weapon of war - I'd actually start to believe it after a while." Kazuki admitted softly. "Now, let's stop this emo-parade and get ready for the chuunin selection exam. You're both ready for it, I can tell; so let's keep our heads in the game!"

"Alright! With you in the lead there's no way we can lose! Dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed as he punched into the air, forcing Kazuki to dodge his fist with a small grin on his tattooed face. This kid was just too easy to direct…

"I think Sakura-san had it correct the first time, Naruto. I'll help you out if we get into a pinch, but I'm just a background actor in you guy's show. Which is why you, Naruto," Kazuki laughed as he caught Naruto roughly by the shoulder, "and you, Sakura," he continued as he took the kunoichi by the shoulder with the same roughness and shook her slightly, "have the distinct honor of fighting over who'll play captain. I'll go either way, so don't even worry about taking me into account!"

- Takigakure academy -

It happened before they even made it to the academy doors. Naruto had been given leadership of the team when Sakura disqualified herself for not trusting everyone equally; and that she had yet to forgive Kazuki for the harsh Sasuke-bashing back in the hotel lobby. So, as Naruto took point with Kazuki and Sakura following in an uncomfortable silence, someone walked out onto the path immediately in front of the group - their intention to stop the party had been easy to read.

"You guys are foreigners…" the green-haired stranger murmured hesitantly, their oddly pink eyes slowly passing over the leaf headbands. "…but you're different from the other genin."

"Who-?" Naruto began, but once again Kazuki asserted himself into the conversation; a habit Sakura was beginning to detest. "If it isn't Nanashi Fuu… You're not usually so bold, are you, dumpling?"

"Don't call me that, Kazu-onii-san." Fuu demanded in a rush, her bronzed cheeks somehow darkening with the hint of a blush. The little girl looked to be about 12 years old and had short, pale-green hair and unnatural pink eyes; her outfit consisted of a white tank top, matching skirt, and similar arm warmers, but offset by back mesh on her abdomen and thighs; her own Takigakure forehead protector was clearly seen wrapped around her right arm. "…and don't touch me…!" she added as an afterthought.

"Alright, alright; I don't want my hand broken again, anyway." Kazuki chuckled as he flexed the extremity in question and grinned. He didn't mind the way Sakura grinned as well, though obviously for a different reason.

"Wait - aren't you the container for the…?" Naruto realized with dawning comprehension. "Did you want to see me because I have the nine-tails inside me?"

Then Fuu did the most amazing thing; she walked right up into Naruto's personal space and reached up to touch his face, hesitantly drawing her middle finger along one of the whisker-marks on his cheeks. "We're both the same… Does everyone in your village treat you badly, too? Do they glare at you with eyes even colder than ice?"

"Yeah…" Naruto sighed softly, his face again going blank and drooping. "Everyone calls me *that boy* and the merchants charge me three-times more than anyone else. But!" he exclaimed suddenly as color and warmth returned to his face, his piercing blue eyes alight with excitement and glory, "There are some people who are starting to acknowledge me and don't treat me like crap - Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Kazuki-kun and even Hinata-chan! They have become my precious friends that I'll risk my life to protect! Dattebayo!" Naruto seemed pretty ready to risk his life, seeing as how he either boldly or stupidly lurched forward and grabbed Fuu by the shoulders - she flinched, but didn't move to break any part of Naruto's body. "If you try hard enough you can make people acknowledge you, too! You're already a ninja, so all you have to do is protect people and they'll start to like you! Believe it!"

"I'm… so jealous of you, Naruto…" Fuu whispered softly, gently reaching up and hesitantly wrapping her fingers around his extended forearms. "Sometimes I can't help but feel that if I only had one person that lived her who didn't hate me, then I wouldn't be so lonely anymore. Instead I can only get along with foreigners; foreigners who will eventually have to leave when they're done with their mission here."

"Well, I hate to rain on your emo-parade; but we also have a mission to finish here, dumpling." Kazuki cut in as rudely as ever, also risking his life by physically lifting Fuu into the air by her upper arms and turning her off to the side, "Why don't you run off and…" Kazuki was unable to finish when Fuu whipped around and lunged at him, knocking the both of them to the ground and viciously biting the most readily-available part of his body - she bit him in the head; hard. Before Naruto or Sakura could move to help him, Kazuki pried the girl off of his head and held her at bay with his arms from on the ground.

"I told you not to touch me, _Kazuki no baka_! You stupid _onii-san_!" Fuu cried as she struggled in his grip, hot tears flowing from her pink eyes as she yelled at him. Suddenly she noticed one of the Taki patrolmen walking towards the group and she hastily backed off, though she was still sniffling. "I hope you enjoy your *stupid* chuunin exam; because I'm never going to be allowed in!" Fuu shouted before dashing away, vanishing into an alleyway between two libraries.

Kazuki looked up when the jounin made it to the party, a somewhat disgusted look written all over his face as he stared after where Fuu had run off to. "Is everything alright over here, honored guests?" he queried, his voice rich to match his handsome face; which was strangely attractive even for Naruto and Kazuki, who were both heterosexual boys. "You might want to check in with a medic before proceeding into the exam, young master; if it was a bite from *that girl* it'll definitely become infected if you leave it alone. Maybe if you get treated, as well." he grumbled disgustedly even as he offered his hand to help Kazuki to his feet.

Naruto glared horribly at the man with his teeth gnashed and his fists clenched. Oh, he'd heard that same line far too many times back in Konoha to tolerate them being said about someone else like him. He took an angry step forward, but found himself being pulled back by Sakura-chan, whose face was softer than his - and incidentally far cuter than the man's. "Let it go for now, Naruto-kun. Even someone like you should only fight only one battle at a time, ok?" she urged with a warm smile; her large green eyes penetrating through his rage and calming him on the spot. Sakura-chan had always had that effect on him; Naruto supposed that was part of the reason why he liked her so much that he already planned that she would be his future-wife.

At the same time, Kazuki was brushing his clothing off and chuckling sheepishly with the jounin. It irritated Sakura that Kazuki could just stand there and laugh as an innocent little girl was being heartlessly abused; if anyone was a monster it was these two! Done with his chuckle, Kazuki crossed his arms as he asked the Waterfall jounin a rather surprising question, one that made Sakura question even her own quick judgment. "Why isn't my cute little dumpling, Fuu-chan, allowed to enter the chuunin exam? I mean, Takigakure is the only village not affiliated with one of the major nations that actually has a demon host. I would have believed that you'd want to remind the Land of Fire and Lightning why underestimating your country would be a horrible mistake."

The jounin scoffed, and for a brief second it looked like he wanted to relieve all three of them of their heads; but instead he gave a diplomatic smile and gestured towards a towering mansion visible in the horizon, "The Daimyo has tried to enter *her* into the exam, however none of the sensei were willing to leave their students alone with the seven-tailed horned beetle; so without a full team, she cannot be permitted to compete."

"Oh, well that's too bad," Kazuki mentioned with a cold shrug of his shoulders. "Anyway, we're expected at the academy in ten minutes; unless you're willing to escort us so that we don't get ambushed a third time today…"

"Oho; it'd be my pleasure to escort you, young master! I've got all the respect in the world for the honored Takanori clan!" the jounin brown-nosed. It only made Naruto and Sakura hate him all the more.

- Finally at the academy entrance -

The two genin and their chuunin weapon stood before the carved mahogany door of the school; they were still in the middle of their determined stare when Naruto broke it off early by taking a deep breath and glancing towards the door. Though he didn't recognize the shinobi that had been carved into the wood, he knew that even considering that he'd been training since his last try; the chuunin exam would still be very tough. "This time we're going to make it for sure, Sakura-chan. You're not going to be higher than us for very long, Kazuki-kun…"

"I look forward to seeing you get promoted - the both of you. There are a lot of responsibilities you'll have to fulfill, but it's not a huge hassle if you have as thick skin as you two seem to have. Now come on and let's raise some hell!"

"…and this time I won't just be staring at your back, Naruto-kun!" Sakura interjected powerfully, her now calloused hands tightened into fists as she squared her shoulders in preparation for accepting the weight of the world. "I want you to depend on me as well, ok? We're all in this together, right?"

And without further ado, the three young teens pushed open the door and strode in. Their next stop was the third floor, and there wasn't any kind of genjutsu that would slow them down this time!

- Tomarani Houkago Hotel -

Now that they were safely in the dignitary suite, Tsunade and Jiraiya could get down to real business while Shizune was out taking Tonton for a walk. The former-Hokage sat back in her chair with the Hokage hat lying overturned in the center of the elegantly polished table in the room, "How much of the Akatsuki organization were you able to uncover in the Hidden Rain?"

"I found out that my first set of students learned a lot more from me than I thought at first." Jiraiya implied as he rubbed his hand against the show-white stubble on his chin, "Those three somehow managed to kill Hanzo and end his reign of terror by taking tyrannical control over the village of forcing an alliance with Konoha by proxy."

"Well, I guess a tyrannical takeover isn't so bad if it serves the interests of the people… but why is the alliance through proxy?"

"Nagato and his friends actually signed it with just me, but if I'm going to be sitting in old-man Sarutobi's seat of power, then it'll affect all of Konoha as well, wouldn't it?" Jiraiya explained, nodding slowly with his eyes shut in contemplation. "That Konan, though; I expected her to still be feisty, but I didn't expect her to-"

"Alright, that's enough of that subject, you rickety-old pervert." Tsunade grumbled with a soft glare. "I don't see what all of this has to do with the Akatsuki; or our pair of S-class nukenin who have purportedly joined their ranks."

This time Jiraiya leaned back in the chair, apparently using chakra to avoid tipping over despite his sharp angle and heavy hair. "Well, it turns out that my three students actually started the Akatsuki organization for their hostile takeover of the Hidden Rain; but when they were done with it they signed it over to their second-in-command. I was able to take care of both of your orders at the same time after that, Tsunade."

A cold shiver ran through the old woman's body as she allowed the chair to drop back onto all four legs. "You can't seriously be implying that *he* is in command of the Akatsuki!" Jiraiya fixed her with a serious glare; and though he didn't whisper a syllable, he knew that she'd already realized who he meant. "Orochimaru has control over an international criminal organization that has already attempted to capture the nine-tails once." she growled darkly, biting the side of her thumbnail in irritation. "What's worse is that he now has control of the Sharingan through Uchiha Itachi."

"That's more to it than that, Tsunade. Every member of the Akatsuki organization is an S-class felon; but what really worries me is the number of members who seem to have advanced bloodline abilities. However, when I spoke to Orochimaru, he seemed too cautious to underestimate me for always being weaker than him to reveal any of his more sensitive information."

"You actually spoke to Orochimaru? Why didn't you kill him if you were that close!?"

"I believe I just mentioned that I've always been somewhat weaker than our old party-animal." Jiraiya admitted with an annoyed grunt; he wasn't very proud of his statement, but it was still the truth. "The only reason I was able to escape was because Sakura was with me and he insisted that he wasn't so evil as to steal a mentor from the girl."

"You took Sakura with you!?" Tsunade gagged in fury at her dumbass teammate's unmitigated audacity. She slammed her hands onto the table, but without any added chakra the entire thing didn't collapse.

Jiraiya shook his head in defeat and sighed heavily, "No, Tsunade; I've done some pretty stupid things in my life - peeping at you being one of them," he added with a perverted wink, "but I would never have taken Sakura into that lair if we weren't both captured and dragged in without an option."

Tsunade sighed heavily as she leaned back once again, growling yet again as she crossed her arms under her breasts. "I'll just have to accept that for now. However, did I hear that you actually accepted my offer, Jiraiya? Are you honestly going to take over as Hokage in my place when I leave?"

"Hah; so you're certain that you're hitting the road again, are you?" Jiraiya laughed, amusingly reminded of the first time she'd bailed at the end of the war. He was already well aware that he'd dodged her question, but that only served to make his next action that much easier to do. Reaching into his robe, the toad-tamer withdrew several large stacks of cash and a number of scrolls; these he dropped inside the Hokage hat before leaning back in his chair and grinning like a child. "This is only a little bit of what I've earned from my adult books; however, I think that you and Naruto will make better use of it than I ever could."

"How generous of you," Tsunade mentioned with a growing grin of her own, "However, I somehow get the feeling that there's something you want from me in return." Jiraiya's grin broadened at his peer's wink and following nod towards the large bed at the other end of the room. Because while Jiraiya may be a big, old pervert; it didn't mean that Tsunade wasn't a lesser, middle-aged one. She was still a woman, after all.

- Takigakure academy -

Naruto led the way into the classroom filled to the brim with foreign genin; perhaps another chuunin or two as well. "Haha! I'm still not scared of any of you bastards! I'll take ya all on! Dattebayo!"

"I was hoping you wouldn't do that again. How annoying…" a highly familiar drawl filled their ears as a young teen slouched up to the group. It was Shikamaru!? "We're over in this corner; come on and we'll explain everything over there." the chuunin grumped as he turned and began winding his way back through the glaring crowd - some of which were repeats from Naruto's last attempt. Never-the-less, Naruto and Sakura strode through the wall of genin with their shoulders back and their heads held high - this was *their* year for sure! Shikamaru stopped at the end of a long table right by a window looking out into the picturesque flowerbed that was Takigakure; every survivor of the Konoha Twelve was there to greet them.

"See? That wasn't so bad, you slouch. I think I'm going to make you do more stuff from now on until we work the lazy right out of your bones!" Ino giggled as Shikamaru grunted when he fell back against the wall he'd previously occupied. "Anyway; it's good to see you again, Naruto!" the blonde explained, much to the annoyance of the sterner genin from their harsher villages. "It just wouldn't be the same without you guys, you know!"

"We even talked Shikamaru into coming along as well." Chouji added with a deep-set smile. While still somewhat on the husky side, Naruto could see that his shirt was now lined with muscles and he exuded a strange sense of dependability. "Even if it was troublesome, we agreed that it just wouldn't feel right unless we were all here. Well, all except for… but I hear that a really strong guy is here in his place!"

"Speaking of the devil-" Tenten laughed with spunk as she reached out and patted Naruto on the shoulder, giving a quick wink before looking for something she apparently couldn't see. "-where is that guy that's supposed to be filling in for Sasuke-kun? He was in my graduation class, you know? I'm thinking of asking him to go out with me after all of this is done." Tenten finished with a wistful gleam in her eyes.

Neji almost chuckled as he nodded towards another table with his head, "The eyes of the Hyuuga don't miss anything; that girl from the Hidden Mist waved him over to her table over there." As a single unit, the Konoha 11 all glanced in the direction Neji had indicated; only to see Kazuki standing in the middle of a cluster of Mist genin, speaking to a familiar young woman and her friends. Naruto recognized her as being part of the team that had ambushed them right in the entrance to the village. "You might want to hurry up and ask him before he gets too familiar with those girls, Tenten."

"There's no way Tenten will ever lose to those girls; because Tenten has guts!" Lee proclaimed wildly as he breathed heavily from his latest blast of adrenaline, though it was hard to tell if his eyes were wide from excitement or if they were just always that way. You could never tell when it came to Rock Lee.

"Shouldn't we be discussing how we're going to stay alive?" Sakura interjected in an irritated tone; pulling on the bottom of her glove as she made a fist to add emphasis to the severity of their environment. "I don't know if you guys were paying attention, but Naruto just challenged everyone in this room. I think we might need to keep our guard up."

"The exam is about to begin, you guys." Shino mentioned through the raised collar of his trench coat.

True to his word, a door opened at the side of the room to let in a line of Waterfall jounin all dressed in full uniform with their headbands polished to gleam in the noonday sun. The man in the very center - the apparent host of the first exam - took a step forward and raised both of his arms, holding his hands palms-up on the level of his chest. "Welcome to all of our honored guests and proud hopefuls to the Takigakure Chuunin Selection Exam in the glorious Land of Whirlpools! You will all risk your lives in this test of skill and survival; but more importantly you are each placing the honor and livelihood of your individual villages and nations on your own shoulders and backs." the jounin announced in a powerfully resonant voice, his words easily reaching to every corner of the large classroom. "However, I am required to inform you all that we do have a total of 11 chuunin participating alongside you all in accordance with the appended rules of this exam. Any genin able to keep up with these individuals, or even surpass them, shall have a better chance of being marked for promotion themselves.

"So, without further delay - on behalf of myself and the village Hidden in the Waterfall; I will now explain the first exam to all of our honored guests." the jounin continued as he clenched his fists and raised them higher until they were on the level of his shoulders. When he did this, the long line of instructors thrust their hands forward in perfect sync; each and every one of them was holding a heaven scroll. "As you can clearly see, there are only twenty scrolls here. I will be putting all of you through a winding maze full of traps designed to slow you down and prevent you from reaching the end; slowing and hindering your opponents is permitted, but killing is strictly forbidden and will result in immediate expulsion. Only the first twenty teams to reach the finish will be granted a scroll - all other parties will be disqualified and escorted back to the beginning to be processed out of the exam." This way only 60 of several hundred genin will be able to proceed to the second test.

Neji smirked as he shared a knowing look with his teammates; Byakugan would serve them exceptionally well here. Shino hardly moved a muscle; he already knew that his team had the greatest advantage of them all - with the Byakugan, scouting bugs, and a dog-user who was even now memorizing the scents of the examiners, they'd most likely be the first to reach the end. Naruto and Sakura had both been trained by two of the legendary three ninjas - and Kazuki was already a chuunin; there was no reason for them to have too much difficulty. However, team Ino-Shika-Chou looked to be at the greatest disadvantage with their lack of notable navigation skills; Shikamaru's razor-sharp mind would probably be the only thing getting them through this portion of the exam.

- Land of Fire -

As before, the corrupt Daimyo was flanked by the lithe lady-killer Marukia and the monstrous man-of-1000-words Kogei; his two best and only *trusted* samurai. This time, however, they were not jerked around as before; before them stood not a pair of men in black masks, but the pale snake in all his horrid glory. Dressed in a black robe bearing crimson clouds, the Sannin smelled of death and exuded a petrifying aura. "Orochimaru-sama, I came as soon as…"

"Please lower your voice, Daimyo-san. I'll kill you if you go and get our secret meeting place discovered again." the snake-tamer chuckled terrifyingly as a demonic smirk came to his lips. The Daimyo gulped, but took the hint quickly to heart, sealing his lips to let his contact speak. "I'm very pleased in your hard work, you know? So far there isn't anyone that's discovered our little plan… well, no one influential enough to stop it, anyway."

"Sir," the Daimyo whispered more quietly as he extended his hand to accept a scroll from Kogei, the massive, black-skinned samurai to his right, "this is the list of Konoha genin currently participating in the chuunin exam; and the jounin commanders assigned as their mentor." The Daimyo bowed as he passed over the scroll, mildly surprised to see that Orochimaru returned the bow - even if he wore a darkly sinister grin as he did.

Orochimaru seemed to hiss with glee as he unrolled the scroll and read the contents in the gloomy darkness of the forest - a specialized jutsu perhaps? "I must say that I'm very pleased with you right now, Tomi-kun; everything is in place for my plan to come to action. My loving, old sensei is no more; fear chokes the village hidden in the leaves as her denizens sit cramped and festering in isolation; and you, my own good friend is sitting on top of it all with such a wonderful smile." The Daimyo nodded slowly, terrified but none-the-less fascinated by the Sannin's speech. While it was true that he was supposed to be an enemy, the two old men had been friends for the longest time; that they could help each other achieve their fondest desires only served to bring them closer.

"Sir, that scroll was…" Marukia mentioned as he shifted in the darkness - unlike his master he wasn't feeling very excited by being in the presence of the legendary shinobi regarded as a boogie man by the great nation of Fire. "I mean; it's fine that Genin Uzumaki Naruto and Chuunin Takanori Kazuki are out of the village - they're part of your plan later, right? - but all the jounin who were sent to Takigakue with their genin; all of those jounin could still prove troublesome even for us…" Kogei placed his massive hand on his cohort's shoulder and shook his head to both calm him and shut his big mouth before they were all butchered before they could draw. As top-level samurai they had each killed their own jounin adversaries; but the man before them wasn't jounin - hell, he was barely still human!

"That is very correct, Marukia-kun." Orochimaru practically giggled as he brought the back of his hand up to his own smirking lips, causing a cold chill to run down the samurai's spine. They were twenty paces away, but they could both clear that distance in an instant. "There are two beautiful young women who might stand in the way of our ambition. However, we have yet to reach the *too late* mark; we have lots of time for a game of snake and mouse." the horrible man tickled with amusement, his serpentine eyes seeming to glow with darkness deeper than the enshrouding night pressing in on the small group of traitors. "Well, it seems that the Konoha shinobi aren't as blind as I would have believed; they managed to locate my hideout in Shigatta Village, after all."

The Daimyo nodded shortly, his face a mask of his swirling emotions and terror. "Thankfully as general of Konoha, I have special weapons set aside for just an occasion… The _Hassari_ and her daughter - I'll send them as soon as I return to the village. I look forward to serving as your equal, Hokage-dono."

- Elsewhere -

A large hunchback strolled along the forest floor humming child's lullaby in his head, though his mouth had long since lost the ability to smile. Not that it was possible to tell through the black cloth tied across his face, or the black robe he wore loosely over his unnatural shape. Smile or not, the sinister man held a secret close to his heart that would reveal to all the world just how beautiful art was when it was eternal. The fact that he needed help from a snake and his pet medic didn't sour the fact that he carried a vial of the most potent toxin yet to be discovered by shinobi-kind; though they would definitely learn of it before the night was out.

Sasori of the Red Sand allowed a guttural chuckle to escape his wooden lips as a breeze caused the strips of cloth on his conical hat to dance - too briefly to be considered art. Konohagakure was soon to become a graveyard of eternal suffering and regret; it was just over the next hill, after all. His next step nearly knocked him off-balance, if not for his lower center of gravity his might have been thrown on his face. He detected the gathering of shinobi just before turning to see the over-large shuriken sticking out of his back, having failed to chop him in half thanks to his durable shell. "Well, isn't this interesting?" Sasori growled as he slowly rotated to face his attackers.

Standing fully upright on a low tree branch was nineteen-year-old powerhouse, Jounin Umino Ikaji; behind him arrayed on random branches were seven more bodies, each man or woman holding their own unique sword. "You're getting a little too close to my home to be comfortable, nukenin." Ikaji mentioned coldly before jabbing his thumb towards his allies, "I'm just glad that we were able to receive help from the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist if we're up against the Akatsuki." He had already seen Orochimaru with his own eyes; heard every sickening word uttered by the snake; every intolerable little gesture made by the evil Daimyo and his samurai boyfriends recorded into his mind. Koyoko had been absolutely right about the hidden plot; very cunning to include him; very resourceful for begging her aunt in the Hidden Mist to send more help than he would have ever dreamed.

'What a piece of shit.' Sasori thought to himself as he opened a hidden panel with a string of chakra. 'Even I'll be hard-pressed fighting against such an alliance. Unless I bring Sandaime Kazekage out right off, that is.' Out loud, the runaway laughed darkly as he reached over his shoulder and dislodged the giant shuriken and tossed it to the side; the thing had been oddly reminiscent of the celebrated Umino hero from the third war. Never-the-less, it bought him enough time to unravel the summoning scroll he had placed the Iron-sand-user inside.

As expected, Ikaji let fly his second super-shuriken, but he fell backwards as soon as he released the weapon. Sasori reacted quicker than the blink of an eye, using his scorpion tail to deflect the large weapon before it could interrupt his bloodless summoning. You couldn't advance beyond jounin without having learned something special after all. However, his effort was wasted when the upstart landed with his hands still formed in the last of his seals; it hardly mattered, whatever he threw, the puppet master would just angle his tail to intercept it anyway.

"Water release: Water Bullet Storm!" Ikaji grunted before spraying a stream of water from his mouth; the stream became spheres that struck in a large cone in front of him, each "bullet" striking with enough force to crack rocks and rip bark from the trees. Yet the entire reason he'd used the jutsu was for the same reason why you couldn't eat soup broth with chopsticks; the water flowed around the razor-sharp tail, easily negating its defense.

Sasori growled in rage as he leapt away from the attack, landing several feet away after having dropped the scroll on the ground. The Sandaime scroll had been ripped to shreds by the beads of water, making it completely useless - that puppet could never be summoned again. It was a horrible waste, because he had never even used that Iron-Sand puppet yet; his eternal beauty would never be realized as the true art that it had become. However, as he watched the jounin wave his foreign allies to the ground to begin their assault, Sasori found that he was actually rather glad that it had happened. Umino… this young man might already be more powerful than that haggard old has-been ever was - he had just yet to realize just how beautiful he was about to become when graced with the eternal embrace of immortality. So Sasori watched the young man as he stood up off of the ground, and in his mind he could tell that Ikaji was doing little more than waiting to be carved up and be reborn as the finest piece of art the world had ever seen!


	5. Cold Justice

Author's Note: Keep in mind that "The Missing Hokage" is a SIDE project I'm keeping on the back burner because the challenge was an interesting concept to me. When I have spare time away from the trilogy I'm planning, then I put a little work in this - that's to explain why I don't update every week or two.

**Chapter 05**

**Cold Justice**

- Takigakure -

Naruto couldn't help but squirm as he stood at the end of a long line of victorious Leaf ninjas. As soon as they returned to the hotel, Tsunade had arranged them in a formation in the spacious lobby as curious patrons watched from the side. "I'm going to give all of you the short version for now; you'll get the full version when we get back to Konoha. As Godaime Hokage Senju Tsunade, I promote you, genin of Konoha, to the rank of chuunin. As military leaders I will expect you to act as such from here-on-out. Congratulations on your accomplishments and I hope you continue to serve our cause henceforth."

"You may cheer now." Shizune put in with a knowing grin as she gently stroked Tonton's little piglet head. The whooping nearly threw the young woman off her feet, but only served to broaden her smile; she'd felt every bit the same way when it had been her time for promotion.

Tsunade wasn't chuckling, though. "Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata - please follow me to my room. The rest of you are to return to Konoha as soon as possible for reassignment to your advanced teams and given your first missions as chuunin of Konohagakure. We are still in a time of need, so you will all be used to your fullest capacity." The new chuunin nodded, saluted, and dispersed; only Naruto and remained behind with Tsunade and her aid. "I have something important I need to ask the two of you." Tsunade mentioned as she approached an elevator that would lead them to the presidential suite.

Naruto glanced to the side as they steadily climbed - Hinata was nervously fiddling with her hands as she traced the kanji on the back of Tsunade's robe with her eyes; she looked worried that they might be in trouble for some reason. Sensing that he was looking at her, Hinata glanced back at Naruto and smiled meekly; somehow she found the strength to stand up straighter and dropped her fiddling hands just by understanding that whatever was going to happen, that it would be alright as long as he was there too. Turning back towards the front of the elevator, Naruto only just realized how high the hotel must be if it was taking them so long to reach the suite. He breathed a sigh of relief when they finally came to a stop and opened at the top floor. "I'm glad that we're here already; if we took any longer Tsunade-obaa-chan might have died of old age on the way up! Dattebayo!"

"I'm not that old, you little brat!" Tsunade snapped shortly, still leading the group at a sharp clip. Shizune rushed ahead of the task force with a small grin on her lips, moving to unlock the door to the suite; Tsunade swept into the room without slowing her pace, leaving Shizune to shut them in as soon as the chuunin had entered. Tsunade came to such a sudden halt that both Naruto and Hinata nearly ran into her and bounced off of her heavy chest. "Now listen up, Naruto, because I have some bad news for you. I hate to tell you this, but it has been decided that it'll be best for the village of Konoha if you didn't return for several years." The two children were so shocked that they could only drop their jaws in horror, remaining speechless long enough for the older woman to further clarify her news. "In effect, you're being banished from Konohagakure and exiled from the Land of Fire. It's a political shit-storm that could lead to a civil war that would very well destroy Konoha from the inside out."

"Wh-what are you saying, Tsunade-obaa-chan! What about my dream to become the Hokage?" Naruto wailed loudly; tears that he thought had long since been cried out during his childhood welled up fresh in his eyes. Hinata, who stood beside him with tears in her eyes, looked absolutely crushed and helpless; but couldn't manage to make her voice work.

Tsunade shook her head and sighed heavily, "I'm making you take responsibility for dragging me back to Konoha, Naruto - your exile will give me enough reason to pack up and leave that cursed town once again. I felt that you deserved to have a normal life for once, and the only way to do that is for us to spend a little time away from Konoha." Gesturing towards Hinata, Tsunade offered what had to be a fake smile, "I also think that you could use some time away from your father and the pressures of your clan - your cousin Neji can handle taking your place long enough for you to return in a few years. You guys don't have to worry about it getting boring, because I plan to teach you a lot more of my medical ninjutsu; and whatever unusual jutsu we uncover along the way."

"Wait…" Hinata finally spoke, her voice thick with emotion and uncertainty as she gently took a step towards Tsunade. She gulped against a dry throat before voicing her worry, "If Naruto-kun is the only one who's banished… well, if we go with him…"

Tsunade puffed out her chest and set her hands powerfully on her hips as she gazed down at the two of them with a dark look, "You are both chuunin, so I'm not going to sugarcoat it - we will all become missing ninja if we leave with Naruto-kun, and the village will have no choice but to send hunter-ninja after us. However, if we stay together and avoid countries strongly allied with the Land of Fire, then we should be alright until the council realizes how much they fucked up by playing me at my own game."

The chuunin didn't look exactly convinced, and they were far from thrilled; but after sharing a glance with Shizune they seemed to come up with the same conclusion that - at least for the time being - they'd just have to go along with it until something better presented itself. Suddenly Naruto spun and thrust his fist towards the nearest window and pointed out into the horizon, "If that's how it's going to be, then I'm going to become as strong as I possibly can so that everyone can see exactly what they're missing out on. We're going to become so great that the council will come begging for us to come back so that I can become the Hokage, dattebayo!"

"…it's just like Kazuki-san said, isn't it? That leaving is only a good thing if it's for an important reason - like stopping a civil war, right?" Hinata added with an enthusiastic bounce on her toes, "So that if we're asked to come back, then all of our friends will still be around - we have to protect everyone in that way."

Shizune shook her head slightly and hugged Tonton to her chest as she frowned lightly, "Let's not mention that guy anymore, please. He's not the kind of person either of you should try to be like."

"Alright; we won't talk about him around you, Shizune-nee-chan." Naruto relented, slowly letting his arm drop to his side, "He's still one of my friends, though; I'm never going to forget him for anything! Dattebayo!"

"Whatever." Tsunade interrupted, "Go ahead and pack your things. We leave first thing tomorrow morning, so don't waste a lot of time."

- Meanwhile in Konoha -

Satoshi made no outward reaction to the sudden change to the nameplate on his desk. What had clearly displayed "Chuunin Koda Satoshi - Lead Surgeon" a month ago had now been replaced with "Genin Koda Satoshi - Assistant Surgeon" due to his demotion. It was almost hilarious… He'd been a jounin nearly two years ago when he first picked up his students; first losing his rank by healing an enemy during a mission - who later completed _his_ mission, thus hurting Konoha - and more recently he'd been demoted again for taking all of the blame for not sending word to Konoha about the impending invasion. He highly suspected that the only reason he hadn't been executed instead was because the first whispers of oncoming war had reached the ears of the peaceful shinobi village; medics on his level would be required by the war effort should the decade-standing ceasefire be broken.

Never-the-less, Genin Koda was fiddling with the medical documents on his desk, attempting to put them in an order he was comfortable with, when a nurse walked in through the never-shut door of the office he'd been permitted to keep. "I am to inform Koda-san that both of his surgeries have been canceled for today." the young woman said in deliverance of her message. "Also, there are two chuunin who wish to see you if you have the time."

"Send them away; I do not have time to see them at this moment." Koda said in reply, not having glanced up from his shuffling of paperwork. Now, it wasn't that he didn't want to see the students that outranked their mentor; more that there was a disturbing presence watching him from the shadows that he worried about.

"I'll ask them to return in a couple hours. Will that be enough time?" the nurse replied before giving a polite bow and leaving the small office.

"That will be fine, Urabe-san." Koda didn't look up until the woman was gone, leaving a hooded ANBU in the spot she had vacated; all he could see of the shinobi was a pig-like ceramic mask and an obscuring cloak designed to conceal every feature of the assassin. He had to admit that there was always an element of fear present whenever he interacted with a member of the ANBU corps, and it wasn't absent even now. "I take it that the Daimyo would like to speak with me?" he guessed shrewdly.

"Come with me, Genin Koda Satoshi. You do not have a say in the matter…" the assassin commanded, his word carrying the authority of the Hokage herself. Offering little more than a nod, Satoshi rose to his feet and followed the ANBU agent out through the open window.

The first thing that Koda noticed as they flitted through the rooftops of the village was the sparse number of people wandering the streets below; the second being that he wasn't being led in the direction of the Hokage tower at all. If he didn't know any better he'd suspect that he was being taken to the old Uchiha sector, where there wouldn't be any witnesses… Without explanation, the ANBU dropped out of the rooftops and took to sprinting through the now empty street. If he didn't know any better, Satoshi would think that these ANBU weren't the standard fare.

His answer came in the form of the shinobi turning on a dime with a short sword slicing through the air in an effort to cut open the medic's throat; it was pure reflex that Koda was able to duck and jump back in time to take the attack across his headband rather than his flesh. He knew it - Danzo's ROOT division was alive and well! "Kuchiyose no jut-" Satoshi called as he ripped the gauze from his face to reveal a pair of seals tattooed into his cheeks - suddenly he couldn't move! Acting against his will, both of the genin's arms moved out to either side, bent at his elbows with his fists held at chest level.

"Shadow Imitation jutsu was a success." a deep voice informed both middle-aged shinobi from behind the medic, hidden in his blind-spot. So, the ROOT had a member of the Nara clan among their members; that was an annoying thing to learn too late. "You are safe to use _that_ jutsu."

"I'm already on it." the first ROOT announced as he drew off one of his gloves, revealing skin that had for reasons unknown turned purple.

Koda scoffed from his immobile pose, glaring coldly at the man who was already in the process of reaching out to touch Satoshi with his purple hand. "Torune of the Aburame clan." the medic said in identification of the ROOT agent, "Care to at least tell me why I'm being assassinated?" Yet he knew that if he'd been able to summon his combat puppets he might have been able to flee rather than accept his inescapable fate.

"No." Torune whispered before pressing his first two fingers to Koda's exposed neck; burning pain seethed deep inside his flesh from the contact, leading Satoshi to guess that he was being attacked on a cellular level. He felt his body return to his control as Torune's partner released his jutsu, but they all knew that it was already too late.

"Genin Koda Satoshi. Your actions have twice caused harm to Konohagakure and the citizens within - we cannot allow you the opportunity to threaten this village a third time." the as of yet unnamed Nara agent announced as Koda went to his knees, the unbearable agonizing pain spreading from his neck into his chest and face; it was a testament to his jounin-level training that he did no more than grunt and wince as he grew nearer to his own death. The ROOT agents watched in morbid silence as the spreading nano-sized poisonous bugs reached Satoshi's brain and heart at the same time; it was almost frightening the way the man simply went lax and fell sideways without a sound, dead before he fell to the ground.

"Target has been successfully assassinated - returning to base." Nara announced into a radio fitted to his ear under the hood of his cloak; as he spoke, Torune had crouched over the fresh corpse and touched his fingers to the man's neck again, this time recalling the insects back into his own body before replacing his glove. Though Aburame didn't hear the reply from the radio, he knew to move out at his partner's nod. They left Koda's body in the middle of the street, knowing that his death would forever remain a mystery to the village at large.

- Land of Fire -

The chief of the Higuchi village guard force sucked air in through his teeth as he surveyed the inside of a local's barn, which had until recently been the secret hideout of the Sound ninja calling himself, Enji of the Bull's Horns. The wounded man had stumbled into town and killed their previous chief of police not three days ago - he'd been controlling the populace through fear in order to obtain medical aid and prevent them from squealing to the Hidden Leaf about his presence since. Yet it had only been since morning that the chief had been dragged out to the barn to investigate the dead body of their past terror.

"No one get too close to him; he might use some ninja trick to come back to life long enough to jump up and kill everyone." one of the guards warned with a gulp. Even he refused to go closer than four feet from the corpse.

"Can you guess what the cause of death is?" the chief demanded even as he ignored the superstitious guard's warning by closing in and pulling down the Sound ninja's mask, revealing the face of a man who looked to be in his late twenties. "I see blood, but I need to see a wound before I can confirm anything." Though he certainly didn't want to continue poking and prodding a man who very well might pop up and in fact kill every last one of them, he knew that as the new chief he'd have to show enough courage to inspire his men later. So he took a steadying breath before reaching out and pulling his muffler away from his neck. Uttering a small grunt, the chief of the guard replaced the cloth and stood back, rubbing his chin in deep thought.

"What did you see, chief?" the same jumpy guard as before asked; his face was very pale by now. His hand went to his throat, "Did someone slash his…?"

"I saw a snake bite on his collarbone; but I doubt that's what killed him."

"It could have been a poisonous snake! He might have accidentally sat down on it and it jumped up and bit him…"

The chief shook his head and growled under his breath, "We don't have poisonous snakes in this village. I don't see any sword wounds on him, so I'm pretty damn sure that it wasn't one of those bloodthirsty samurai who've been wandering around claiming to be protecting us."

"Vampire…?" the superstitious guard whispered in horror. It made perfect sense, because the ninja had died at night and had bite marks on his throat! They were all doomed!

"Shut the hell up or go outside with that ghost and vampire shit." the chief grumbled with a cold glare towards the skittish man. How he ever became a guard was beyond him. "Alright; we're going to take him back to the headquarters. Whether we can figure this out or not, I'm going to send for someone from Konohagakure to come out here and have a look." However, when he tried to pull the man away from the support beam in which he sat against, he found resistance and couldn't draw the body away. Giving a questioning grunt, the newly promoted chief boldly craned his neck over the dead man's shoulder and glared at what he saw.

"What do you…?"

"Metal. It looks like this man was _nailed_ to the post!" the chief whispered, aghast at the horrible thought. Nothing like this ever happened in such a small and pointless village; he was shaking from having seen it with his own eyes. Someone puked, but it seemed like just about everyone else shared his sentiments. "We're taking him down. Pull hard…" the chief managed to get out. It was indescribable how horrible the sight was when the man was torn from the pillar and fell forward; blood flung into the air and landed on anyone who'd gotten too close. He was numbed by now, so the suddenly still chief reached down and ripped one of the long shafts of metal from their tormentor's back.

"That's a senbon! A-a… throwing needle." a guard who had yet to speak shakily informed his coworkers. "I found one of those in the forest when I was a kid; my father had to look it up for me in a book." the young adult explained. "It's a ninja weapon!" he insisted.

The chief sucked air in through his teeth before tossing the bloodstained needle onto the back of the dead Sound ninja. "If they can do what they have to without anyone even knowing that they've been there, then they've done their job. Konohagakure has our backs, men!"

Moving along the shadows without making so much as a whisper of sound, a young man smiled to himself as he briefly dragged his fingers along the edge of his green flack-vest; a genin might have rolled into town roaring at the top of their lungs that the Hidden Leaf was on the job - but the villagers seemed to have heard this chuunin's words much clearer and louder than any genin with leather lungs who never ran out of breath. Moving like the wind, the young chuunin vanished from sight, only to appear on the roof of a low building, crouching behind an air conditioning unit; leaving town without being seen would be child's play. In a matter of hours a member of the ANBU corps would show up to smuggle the body out from under the villager's noses without their being the wiser.

Takeshi landed with a light thud seconds before jogging up to a tree and stalking up the side of the trunk. Now that he was safely under the cover of the canopy he was able to dash through the branches at more of a respectable speed. That is, until someone exploded from the side with a sword drawn! Takeshi reacting quick as lightning, performing a graceful back-flip backwards off of his branch; the razor-sharp blade arced over his body, causing the air to whistle as it was cut in his stead. The evasive maneuver was performed at such a high-speed that he hadn't had time for a replacement; his attacker landed squarely on the branch Takeshi had just vacated.

"Did I just kill your teammate, Sound ninja?" Takeshi muttered in a voice a dull-grey as his hair and clothing. "Don't keep him waiting too long for a reunion." he suggested softly, blandly insinuating his enemy's oncoming demise. The Sound shinobi didn't give any reply other than darting forward with another sword slice, this one at a dangerous diagonal angle. "Earth Release: Boulder-smashing Hammer!" Takeshi called as he grabbed the six-foot steel club from his back and swung it with tremendous force. Sparks flew as the weapons came together, yet an instant later the earth-user's club continued through, snapping his attacker's blade clean in half before crashing into his opponent's left arm; the sickening crack of bones breaking left a smile on Takeshi's lips, but widened his foe's eyes in shock.

"Shit…!" the Sound ninja swore as he was thrown out of the air and left to plummet to the ground, his fist pressed against his broken arm - his sword was still in his hand despite the pulverizing attack. He landed on his feet and looked up in time to fling himself to the side to avoid the Leaf ninja's falling strike; an attack that left a deep crater in the ground where it struck. "So, your _doton_ gives you enormous strength, does it? That took me a little by surprise."

Takeshi strode powerfully out of the crater and pointed his club straight at his enemy's chest - he held it as if it was carved from sandalwood, but in reality it weighted closer to 500 pounds. "Your sword was too dangerous to me - one more attack and you might have taken my head off." he explained calmly as he sighted along the side of his weapon at his unnamed attacker. "That katana is broken now; go ahead and drop it so we can finish this up. Your friend is waiting for you."

"You have no idea…" the Sound chuckled with a knowing grin as he painfully brought up his left hand - the one attached to his broken arm - and formed an unusual hand seal while still holding his broken sword. "Bushijutsu: Art of Re-forged Steel!" The Sound ninja drew his hand along the blade before Takeshi's very eyes, only to drop shards of steel to the ground; his shattered sword had reformed into a gladius!

Takeshi immediately slipped into a combat stance, worriedly scanned the forest around him with his peripheral vision. "Bushijutsu? Those are the techniques of the Samurai caste… Who are you?" However, rather than receive an answer, an extremely baritone voice exploded from behind him with such force that Takeshi cringed, "Bushijutsu: General's Roar!" The air was knocked out of the teenaged chuunin's lungs as he was thrown off of his feet and flung towards the first Sound ninja. His eyes went wide as the stabbing blade thrust between his ribs and cut through his chest to the other side.

"I am Marukia, devout samurai in service of the Daimyo of Fire. My friend with the crazy voice is Kogei." Marukia finally answered, standing firmly with his blade impaled through the ninja half his age.

"You've gone rogue…" Takeshi accused darkly, both of his hands still gripping the handle of his weighted club. "Why kill me, what could I ever do…?"

"_We've_ gone rogue?" Marukia scoffed coldly, a bitter taste suddenly coming to his mouth as evidenced by the sour look on his face, "We're the servants of justice here - you're the one who allowed foreign forces to invade the center of our military power without whispering a word of their coming."

Takeshi coughed up a mouthful of blood, but could not find the strength to lift his club, or even force his hands to release the heavy object so that he could use them to strangle his killer - die with him. "Konoha was asleep and needed a wake-up call. How was I supposed to know that we'd be so ill-prepared for an attack? …just wanted to stoke the flames…" Takeshi gurgled as he hunched forward, his eyes finally becoming as dull-grey as his hair and clothing.

"Yeah, well treason is never the answer, Senbon Takeshi." Marukia sighed as he eased the traitor to the ground and pulled his sword free; the grooves of the blade had allowed air into the wound so that it wouldn't stick inside. Pausing to remove his mask, Marukia ran his fingers through his flowing hair before glancing at the bloody sword he held. "I have to find the broken pieces so that I can fix my katana; hurry and plant that Sound headband on him so that it looks like he was killed by enemies on his mission. It's a more glorious ending than a traitor deserves, but he did _try_ to help us out - even if it was in the wrong way."

- Land of Fire border -

Dirt kicked into the air and hung as five living blurs darted along a beaten peasant path leading straight to the nearest border town within the Land of Fire. Team Gai had decided to have one last race before they were separated into their new journeyman-level squads or singled-out for an individual task; and joining them was the young inheritor of a tremendous legacy. Takanori Kazuki pushed his legs as fast as they'd go, but no matter how far beyond his limits he was pressing, it could not be argued that he was clearly in last place.

"What's keeping you, slowpoke-san?" Tenten jeered over her shoulder, managing to keep just ahead of the heir of his clan. For a time she'd held second place, but had lost her position to Lee, whose eternal struggle to surpass Neji had propelled him faster than she could match. She told herself that she'd let Lee ahead because she wanted to tease Kazuki, but she knew that she was simply no match for the genius of hard work. "How is it that you made it to chuunin almost a year before us but you can't even keep up now?"

"My training makes my enemies weaker rather than making me stronger…" Kazuki grunted as he fought a losing battle to keep his legs going. "You know what, Tenten? You guys go on ahead and wear yourselves out before we even get back to Konoha. We're going to be getting missions as soon as we return, and I'm going to be the only one rested enough to carry mine out…" he grumbled sourly.

"Whatever you say, you quitter!" Tenten teased as she leaned forward in preparation of picking up speed. "I hope you're hungry, because you're about to eat my dust! Seishuun!" the kunoichi cried wildly before rushing ahead, leaving Kazuki to slow to a stop, gasping for breath as he wiped sweat from his brow.

Shaking his head, the young heir threw up a rude hand-gesture and sneered after Tenten's retreating back. "Here I thought Naruto-kun was bad… am I surrounded by monsters and freaks?" A crow gave an ugly sound from somewhere off to his right, but Kazuki ignored it - this part of the forest was full of crows, anyway. After downing his entire canteen of water, he cleared his throat and began along the road at more of a leisurely pace, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he strode along in a huff at having been so shamed by his peers.

"Aho…!" Kazuki paused, his eyes locked on the talkative crow staring at him from a low branch hanging across the path just ahead of him. He wasn't sure if the crow had been trying to talk to him, or if he was suddenly the target of an attack; either way he automatically threw himself off of the path and into the bushes. A moment later he was up in the trees, hanging upside down from a thick branch in order to get a better view of his surroundings. He jerked his head to the side at the sound of cracking wood, but he only had enough time to see a withered face from within the trunk of the tree he was on before dropping off of the branch and performing a graceful flip in mid-air. He watched as crows darted around him as he twisted. Landing on another branch, his hands became a blur of seals as he peeked over his shoulder.

As expected, his attacker came from his blind-spot, but was far too fast for Kazuki to keep up with; a short sword bit into his neck and traveled cleanly through to his chest! However, he grinned before lurching forward and grabbing his attacker - an ANBU member of all things - by the shoulders even as he called out the name of his jutsu, "Earth Release: Mountainous Grapple." The assassin's eyes narrowed darkly as Kazuki took on the appearance of mud so that the wound could close and keep her trapped in place. He'd switched out with a mud clone and took the hit just so that she'd fall into his trap! Suddenly the real Kazuki landed on the branch with both of his hands blurring with hand seals; his jutsu expelled a thick cloud of Dark Chakra aimed to envelop the woman. He then threw himself into the branches without waiting to see his handiwork in the chance that her teammate decided to leap out at him.

From his hiding spot, the young chuunin watched as his cloud dissipated, allowing the second ROOT ANBU to come down on his clone with an electrified hand, nullifying its ability to reform and destroying it to free his partner. It didn't matter, because the woman had already been affected by the Ethereal Firecloud - it had burned off enough of her chakra that she was most likely fighting on a genin-level now. To prove his point, he silently drew his short sword and set it in mid-air, suspended by strings of chakra attached to his fingers. "Earth Release: Boulder-smashing Hammer." he whispered as he formed seals more slowly to prevent giving himself away. The leaves were ripped from the trees as he launched from his cover; again, as expected the female ANBU shot forward with her freed blade leading. Like Takeshi before him, Kazuki shattered his enemy's weapon, but ducked around her and twisted in the air rather than following through. Yanking back on his hands, the short sword he'd left suspended flew out and impaled his weakened target through the throat.

The world spun as he was struck from behind and flung off of the branch with a sharp grunt; he heard shuriken slicing through the trees towards him before spotting them tearing through the leaves. Kazuki let out another grunt as he flicked out his hands, deflecting the projectiles with a handful of his own throwing stars. To his surprise, his enemy's stars burst into smoke and became crows - they flew after him, tearing at his skin with their talons and beaks as he fell through the air. Kazuki's vision jerked when he landed against the trunk of a tree; more shuriken filled the trunk the instant after he vacated the area. Still, he had no idea where the old man he'd seen before had gone - it was getting bad, because he knew that his chakra would run out eventually against three jounin. Even if he took out the first two, that last one would…

The ROOT ANBU assassin shot out from a shadow and bore down on Kazuki, his hand blazing with enough electricity to stop his heart if it struck. Kazuki acted without thinking, reflexively using the first jutsu that came to mind, "_Kagebunshin no jutsu_!" Both versions of the chuunin shoved against each other and were flung apart just as the masked ninja shot past. Naruto had taught it to him while they were still in Sunagakure thinking that it might help him one day - well, it certainly saved his life… but for how long? Unfortunately he hesitated too long trying to figure out what to do with his clone before a searing bolt of lightning lanced out and obliterated half of his chakra in one blast. "Shit… shit!" Kazuki swore, his left leg screaming in agony rather than complying with his command to leap away; not only had that fucking run screwed him up bad, but his thigh had suffered in the flock of crows from a moment ago.

"Takanori Kazuki. Do you not wonder why we're…?"

"Secret Ninja Art: Galactic Force!" a completely different Kazuki roared as he shot up from under the earth with a whirlwind of Dark Chakra rotating around his extended hand - it was the jutsu he'd been required to learn before he could take over as primary Hassari. He felt a very brief electrical shock once his chakra-coated hands struck his foe - evidence of a lightning-shield jutsu - but it went away as his defense-breaking jutsu canceled the effect at the cost of a large amount of chakra. The masked assassin stumbled backwards from the trust, but found that he was incapable of replacing, so his hand went immediately to the short sword at his back.

Unfortunately for Kazuki, the brief zap had rendered his entire right arm numb and inoperable; seeing as how he was exhausted, outnumbered, outmatched, and still unsure of why he was being assassinated by his own country he knew that he had one option. While keeping his eyes fixed on his masked opponent, the chuunin slowly retrieved a scroll from one of his hip pouches and held it in his hand; his heart beat like a hammer in his chest as he sucked air through his teeth as he matched gazes with the ANBU, who with the death of his teammate knew to act cautiously. Time seemed to move in slow-motion as Kazuki dropped to one knee and slammed his scroll to the ground and shouted, "Ninja Art: Reverse-Summoning!" The ANBU shot forward, his blade screaming as it cut the air in an arc aimed to relieve Kazuki of his head; yet in that exact moment a blast of fire exploded from a nearby tree, reducing the assassin to ashes. The attack had been meant for Kazuki.

Danzo started coldly into the smoldering crater of ash as he stepped out of a tree, commanding the split trunk to reform behind him as if he'd never been inside it at all. His ancient scowl never faltered as he scanned the battleground: eyed the impaled ROOT agent, the remains of the mud-clone, and the leaves shredded by shuriken. 'I need to update the bingo book immediately: Takanori Kazuki is now an enemy of the Hidden Leaf and will be dealt with accordingly.' the shrewd shinobi thought cold as ice.

- Just outside of Konoha -

Sasori looked out over the battered battlefield from the eyes of his original Living-Puppet made from what was left of his actual body. "That was quite tricky, Umino Ikaji - disguising your summoned creatures as Mist Swordsmen to unnerve me…" the puppeteer said with a sneer as he approached the crumpled body lying in a crater. Sasori gazed victoriously into the hole at his wounded opponent - shuriken pelted his body in an instant. It might have spelt his end if they'd struck more than simple wood.

"Well, I guess it was my partner after all." Orochimaru chuckled coldly, sinisterly striding out from behind a tree even as he lowered his hand from having thrown the volley of shuriken. "I'm sorry, but I lost track of the two of you in the intensity of battle." the snake-tamer finished with a fiendish gleam in his serpentine eyes. It was only less than obvious that he'd known exactly who he'd aimed at, but had attacked anyway for any sort of twisted reason.

Sasori glared venomously at his partner of ten-years for a long moment before turning away from the Akatsuki to return his attention to the limp form of Umino Ikaji. He'd known Orochimaru long enough to realize that rather than being confused or even devious, but the man was refusing to contain his bloodlust before the inevitable follow-up on Konohagakure. "Shut up and summon one of your snakes, Orochimaru; I'd like for this body to be taken back to the lair and preserved before I return to transform him into my finest piece of art ever."

Orochimaru chuckled softly as he stepped forward and licked his lips with his unnaturally-long tongue, another eerie gleam flashing in his cold eyes. "You don't look to be in a ready enough state to be fully useful to this attack, Sasori-kun. If I hadn't only brought curse-sealed prisoners with me I might suggest you return now and begin work… however…" the snake hissed humorously when he crouched at the edge of the crater and smirked at the jounin's corpse. Without another word, Orochimaru held out his arm and a snake slithered from the dark confines of his sleeve - the large serpent unhinged its jaw and drew Ikaji into its mouth as the Akatsuki watched it work from above. When it was done, the snake burrowed into the packed soil and vanished into the earth.

"I have a feeling that you're not going to tell me every part of your plan until it's happened. I don't actually care what happens in there, as long as your goal is success." Sasori admitted as he stared at Konohagakure's gates in the distance. "You could be clearer on when I'm supposed to release my agent, exactly. I'd be… upset… if you were trapped in the cloud and become poisoned to death."

"The only important thing is that you carry Kabuto-chan's experiment into Konoha and release it before you're killed." Orochimaru returned with a sly barb, creepily licking his lips with his long, purple tongue again. "Then there will only be one stage left in store for Konohagakure. It's just such a shame that there isn't anything that our cute, little mice can do to stop it. Isn't that right, _Hassari-san_?" The leaves rustled as three shinobi left the cover of the forest, surrounding the Akatsuki partners in a triangle.

"Looks like we weren't in time to save Umino-san…" Takanori Misako had one hand on her slim hip, the other holding a kunai by the tip of the blade. "I take it that he didn't come over to our way of thinking, huh?" the _Hassari_ said with a sharp laugh and a wide grin, her eyes seeming to flash momentarily. "I guess a guy like Orochimaru-dono has already come up with a plan in case Ikaji died, ne?"

"I can't believe that he's dead. He was kind of cute…" Takanori Yuzuki murmured softly, pouting slightly at the brutal battlefield. Sasori was still in the process of dragging the body from the crater and sealing it into a scroll.

"Could you be a fourteen-year-old girl somewhere else? The adults are talking." the third shinobi, Orochimaru's favorite commander and until recently his contact with the Daimyo of Fire, scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "Anyway; I've smuggled enough of the loyal Sound agents out of Konoha disguised as the Daimyo's samurai that the plan can move to the final stage. Unfortunately Danzo has pulled out of our deal and executed everyone I've asked him to extract."

Orochimaru's sly grin dropped into a glare, causing the Sound jounin to gulp in fear of his life; even Yuzuki took a cautious step away, tossing a glance to her shrugging mother. "All of them? While I do have a backup for Ikaji-chan, Satoshi-kun was the only one who could perform the operation I needed." Suddenly Orochimaru opened his mouth and his tongue shot out, wrapping around the terrified jounin's neck like a serpent and squeezing just enough to worry him; Yuzumi gave a startled squeak and stepped further away from the Sannin with a gulp. "I hope for your sake that Kazuki-kun…"

The jounin was saved from his fate when Orochimaru was thrown against tree and pinned by the throat with Misako's forearm; he grunted when her kunai found his stomach as she leaned close to his pale face. "Even if not by your own hands, you put my son's name on the same list you gave to that craven bastard Danzo? You realize that if I lose my son then I walk, right? You must be the dumbest genius in the world…!" Orochimaru's response was to open his mouth and vomit himself behind the _Hassari_ and reform with a kunai of his own to her throat.

"That may be true." Orochimaru hissed at the same time as he withdrew his tongue, an unusual trait only he seemed capable of; all traces of humor were completely vacant from his face. "What are you going to do now, Misako-san? Are you going to kill me?"

Misako breathed in fury as she stared into his golden eyes over her shoulder, her ample chest rising and falling with each enraged lungful of air. "Not yet… Konoha still has one phase left. I need you around for at least that long. Orochimaru released his captive just as the jounin was returning to his feet, coughing lightly but refusing to show weakness by rubbing his neck; he didn't say a word as he meet Yuzuki's eyes with a dark glare. "I'll get out of your way for now; Yuzuki and I have a conveniently scheduled meeting with my brother in Sunagakure concerning her acceptance as my successor."

"One more thing before you go, _Hassari-dono_." Orochimaru hissed in a whisper, finally regaining the lilting humor to his tone when the woman and her daughter turned to face him, "You're always welcome to join the Hidden Sound after Konoha falls." Misako rolled her eyes and dragged Yuzuki along behind her.

- Author's Notes -

Although this chapter is shorter than my usual entries, this does bring the epilogue to a close. From here on out the focus will shift to and remain on Naruto and Hinata now that I have all of the events leading up to what I see as probable cause to justify promotion to chuunin and realistic expulsion from Konohagakure. Kazuki and the rest of the Takanori clan will have more of a background existence, same as the Daimyo and his bodyguards. For those of you who were waiting for the Indiana Jones dungeon adventures and medical training - it's coming up now that I'm prepared for it.


End file.
