Hello, people!

I'm not usually one for long author's note at the beginning of a story (or at all, for that matter), but this one deserves one and PLEASE READ IT because it is necessary to understand the story.

First things first: no, I'm not abandoning my other stories. Far from that. I'm just facong a bad case of writer's block and uni-induced chronic lack of time. But then, how come I have this brand new story to offer?

Well, the answer is ismple: it is not new at all. I was digging into my hard drive for some forgotten but needed file and I found this story. Just for the fun I read it and despite the stylistic... hum... questionable points, I found that I still liked it. After much hesitation, I decided to post it here. Now this story is to be read within a particular framework:

Where to begin? Ok, so some years ago (2011 apparently) I was addicted to both Naruto and Criminal Minds. And there was this one time, while watching a CM episode, I just thought "What would the BAU team think if they were thrown into the Naruto-verse?". You know, that really basic question. Well, that question kept bugging me and bugging me until I decided that fuck it, I'm gonna try and discover what they indeed would think were they in such a situation. And voila!

So this story started out as a simple personal writing experience. A two-fold one actually because it was also the first time I wrote in English, which is not my mothertongue.

And so I wrote. I tried to come up with an answer to my question. And after a while, even if I liked that story, it got buried under everything else and forgotten (and some things which should not have been forgotten, were lost...)

After years passed, and finding it, I decided to post it because it is still a good experience for me as a writer. I corrected a few typos and grammar mistakes but basically left the text untouched. That also means that the characters won't be up-to-date with the manga/anime/show!

Since it is a writing experience before anything, and one based on the psychological dimensions rather than the plot, it might come off as slow or lacking action. I won't apologise for that because that is the point of the story (although, there is some action in it). And since my mind came up with some scenes that are not necessarily linked but that I like, there might be plot devices or plot holes in it, too. BUT I will do my best to paste everything together smoothly! For the same reason, the cutting into chapters will probably be mostly random (I will try to keep their length somewhat regular).

So, in short: old writing experiment, dusted and all patched up, updates irregular due to personal life (and disorganization).

I think that is all... I hope you're still there despite the very long AN (sorry for that, BTW, but it was neccesary).

If that is the case, thank you and enjoy the ride !

-Celohei

Chapter 1

Spencer woke up and went through his morning routine. Today was like any other day: he would wake up, spend an ordinary amount of time in the bathroom, eat his breakfast thinking about the book he would have read the night before, leave his flat, take the metro and arrive at the BAU headquarters where he would meet with his team. Without fail, that's exactly what happened this morning. Upon his arrival, he saw JJ entering the conference room, indicating that a meeting was in order. When everyone but Dave was sitting, JJ began her briefing:

"-Good morning everyone. As you must guess, our help is required on a new case. However, this one is a bit special so I will let Hotch explain it.

-Thanks, JJ. As she just said, this case is special. We are to work together with another team from another country.

-That's new." Said Derek ", From which country?

-That's the trick. The team is from some equivalent of the CIA, this is why I can't reveal that kind of information.

-What do you mean?" asked Emily. "Do you know where they are from?

-No. And the higher-ups wouldn't tell. The only thing I know is that we are to meet with them and from then, probably follow them to their base. Knowing that, you won't be surprised to learn that we'll only receive the details of the case from them directly. I'm sure you have some questions to ask but I can't give you the answers considering I don't have them myself. Now, wheels up in 30 minutes. Rossi won't be coming with us. He's at a three-day congress. Should we need his help with the case, he will meet up with us later on. And I believe JJ is needed here so it will just be the four of us.

-What about Garcia?" asked Derek.

"-What about me?

-Will we be able to contact you?"

Penelope and the rest of the team looked at Aaron.

"I don't know."

Once on the plane, Aaron gave Spencer, Emily and Derek a file each:

"-We just received these. They are pictures of the crime scene we'll be working on. They asked us to draw a first rough profile of the killer.

-Wait, that's it? That's all they have?

-No. But they invited us to help from an outsider point of view. They didn't send us what they have so our judgment wouldn't be biased.

-But without further information, we can't do much.

-I know, Reid. But apparently, they aren't allowed to discuss more information by any technological means that could be hacked, it would be 'too much of a risk'. So I can't really do much either. Just… just look at those; I think there will be something to work on."

So they opened the files.

"-Oh my God!" hiccupped Emily.

"-Wow. That's…" trailed off Derek.

"-I know.

-That's mad! Who could just do such a thing?" asked Emily, horrified. She emphasized her words by pointing at one of the photographs. On it could be seen bodies, about twenty of them, lying on what seemed to be a forest floor. There was blood everywhere. "They are terrified. Look at their faces. All that blood, what happened to them?

-Based on the splattering of the blood and the apparently clean cut on this guy, I'd say a huge knife.

-A knife? A knife couldn't possibly do that much damage, even a huge one.

-Well, my first impression was a sword of some sort.

-Really? Reid, you're kidding, right?

-Not necessarily. Prentiss just said it: a knife wouldn't do that kind of damages.

-Yeah, but a sword? Come on.

-Not a sword exactly. Look at their cuts. A sword would be too heavy to make those. Those are made by a swift movement and, judging by the faces of the victims, I'd say everything happened pretty quickly. So the weapon would have to be easily lifted and maneuvered.

-So what do you suggest?" asked Aaron.

"-A saber would be more suited.

-A saber now?" Derek snorted ironically, "Hotch, seriously, what is it with this case?

-Just focus, ok? We'll know more when we arrive.

-And that would be…?

-In a few hours."

Hearing Aaron's answer, Derek sighed heavily. Emily seemed to have a hard time believing what she was seeing. Frowning, she asked:

"-Is that a uniform they're wearing? It looks like they're wearing the same kind of outfit.

-Yeah, you're right.

-It will definitely help for the victimology.

-Guys, there's something amiss with a few of them.

-What is it?

-See the way the blood is splattered all over this guy's face?" asked Spencer showing one of the bodies, "Well, on this one," he said showing another one on a second picture, "there's nothing above his eyebrows. It's… it's like there was something covering his forehead.

-You think the unsub took it?

-It could be.

-It may be his trophy then.

-Well done, Reid. Look at every picture and see if others present the same thing. Now, we still have a few hours left before landing. Let's try to make the best of what we've got and rest a bit."

Three hours later Derek woke Spencer up. The plane was preparing for landing. On the ground the four-member team walked out of the plane. Four people were waiting for them near two black cars. As they walked closer, the BAU members could see that there were three men and a woman. The man on the left was the tallest of the three. He was lean but not thin. His hair was silver and stood out of his otherwise young appearance. It was messy but in a kind-of-classy way. He wore a marine costume and a grey tie. His hands were in his pockets and he managed to slouch and look serious at the same time. A tall blond guy with spiky hair stood on his left. He was smaller than the grey-haired man but broader. He was also wearing a costume, albeit a black one, with a dark red tie that he apparently couldn't stop touching nervously. He was some kind of fidgety, which lead the arriving team to think that he wasn't used to wearing that kind of clothes and certainly didn't like wearing them now. The girl of the group stood next to him. She had surprisingly shoulder-length pink hair that really attracted the eye. Her outfit was nothing like the men's. It consisted of large black pants, black boots, a deep pink jacket on top of a pastel green t-shirt. Her demeanor was more relaxed and welcoming. The last member of the group was standing behind his colleagues, next to the first car. The only way to describe him was 'average': average height, average brown hair, average brown eyes, average deep green costume. He was the quietest of the group as he simply stood there, doing nothing but breathing.

The tallest man closed the distance between the two groups and introduced himself, presenting his hand to Aaron:

"-Hi! I'm Hatake Kakashi, I'm the captain of this squad. This is Uzumaki Naruto," pointing at the blond guy, "Ito Sai," the average guy, "and last but not least, Haruno Sakura," finally introducing the girl.

"-Hi. I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, these are Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss and Dr Spencer Reid.

-Nice to meet you. I trust you have questions to ask us so we'd better go somewhere we can answer those safely."

The two teams got into the cars and headed for the highway. In the first car, Kakashi explained to Aaron:

"-We are not quite yet at our office. I'm sorry but for security measures we'll have to take the train; these cars are way too recognizable.

-We understand."

For Spencer, everything happened in a kind of numbness. The plane, the car, the train… He understood that they had not quite reached their destination yet but he couldn't bring himself to feel surprised. Or actually, he was surprised and downright curious about the case but couldn't master the will to show it. The other members of his team, though, were quite vocal about it at first. When they arrived at the station, Derek showed his skepticism:

"-The train, uh?

-Well…," began the pink-haired girl, Sakura, "We can't exactly risk anyone out here following us to our… organization. The cars are going to take another direction as baits in case we are being followed. Plus, the train is the only way to get in.

-All right, then." Derek sure wasn't convinced but decided to adopt the wait-and-see approach.

Once on the train, which wasn't crowded, strangely enough considering how close the station was to the airport, Kakashi began the conversation.

"-So, did you received our intel?

-Yes. And I must say," answered Aaron, "we were surprised by what we saw." At that, the blond boy and the girl seemed to tense, which didn't go unnoticed.

"-Yeah, I can easily picture that. So were we." The man took a pause and seemed far away.

"-What did you conclude from these pictures?" asked the until-now silent Sai.

"-Well, the unsub certainly didn't do things in half.

-Unsub?

-Unknown subject.

-Not plural? What led you to believe that there was only one executioner?

-The blood trail," answered Derek.

"-The fact that the blood is splattered in a definite direction leads us to believe that this is the work of a single man," explained Spencer. "It's not easy to see, but we can observe that the onslaught probably began here," he said pointing to a corner of one of the pictures, "and then went this way to… here. There are, however, some random traces, like if the unsub came out of his pattern for some of the victims.

-Interesting," commented Kakashi, fixing intensely Spencer's face. Derek had the feeling that the man found Spencer's explanation in itself interesting rather that the conclusion of said explanation.

The blond man wasn't listening to the conversation anymore. He was looking to the passing landscape through the window, his eyebrows in a slight frown.

"-What else did you find?" asked Sakura.

"-The weapon…" said Emily, "it's probably a saber or something of the like."

At this, every member of the secretive team, even Naruto, who appeared to actually be listening, fixed their eyes on her and then on her colleagues, apparently jauging them. After a few seconds, Kakashi smiled. Spencer immediately got the impression that the BAU members just passed a test that they hadn't been aware of taking.

"-I think it was a good idea to call you guys in. But enough for now. We will explain the case in details to you back at the base. For now, let's relax. We should arrive in about an hour. There's a coffee machine over there if you need," he finished, indicating the end of the wagon.

Derek stood up and headed for said machine, followed by Emily. Pouring his beverage and some for Spencer out of habit, he whispered:

"-Did you notice?

-Yeah…" replied Emily in the same tone, "'squad', 'executioner', the way they carry themselves…

-These guys have military training.

-I thought they were part of some kind of CIA…

-It's a little more complicated than that," came a deep voice from behind them. They hadn't heard the blond man arrive. He poured two cups of tea.

"-Naruto, right?" Asked Emily, at what the blond nodded. "We didn't mean to be rude.

-No problem. That's why you're here, isn't it? Observe, understand, make conclusions…"

A little taken aback by this, Emily blinked a few times before answering: it wasn't everyday that someone whom they came to help on a case accepted said help that easily, even if they were invited in.

"-Well, yes. So…" she tried to begin a conversation, Derek having returned to his seat with his cups of coffee, "you guys are like teammates, is that it?

-Yeah, actually, we are a team. Just like you I guess.

-You have worked together for a long time?

-A few years."

This took Emily by surprise: Naruto, Sakura and Sai seemed pretty young to her, making it difficult to click with the 'a few years' concept. As they went back to the others, Naruto took the seat next to the pink-haired girl and gave her one of the cups of tea. Emily took the seat in front of her.

"-Here, Sakura-chan.

-Thanks.

-A few years, uh?

-Well," answered the girl, getting the subject of the conversation, "we kind of went to school together."

After this explanation, the conversation derived to more trivial matters. After a few minutes, Naruto resumed to his silent observation, leaving the girls to their easy chat. True to Kakashi's words, an hour or so later, the train entered a tunnel. Five minutes later, the train stopped and the passengers stepped out. The two teams were the only ones on the platform. The station seemed to be underground. Kakashi led the way to the stairs.

"-We are to meet with our superior, she will explain everything."

After a five-minute walk they stopped in front of one of the closed door of the hall. It seemed to the BAU team that they were either still underground or at least in a restricted area of a building, seeing that they hadn't seen anybody and there weren't any window. Kakashi knocked on the door. A feminine yet authoritative voice answered him:

"-Come in." As they did, Kakashi and his team bowed lightly:

"-Tsunade-sama.

-Team Kakashi, I was waiting for you. And our guests… Come in!"

The room was a well-lit, windowless office with a large rectangular table in its center. At its end sat a young blond woman. Her hair was tied in two ponytails, her eyes a common hazelnut. She wore a large green shirt. She stood up, showing her quite average size and said:

"-Welcome. I'm Senju Tsunade, the head of this… organization.

-Nice to meet you. I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, these are Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss and Dr Spencer Reid.

-Nice to meet you. Please, sit down. So, I believe your superior introduced you to the… special status of this case.

-She only told me it was confidential and only to be discussed here.

-Good." Authority emanated from her. She seemed to be the kind of woman to be obeyed. "Now that you are here, we can begin. As you just said, this case is classified, as well as everything related to it. I don't mean to be rude but you have to understand. The information you are to come across is of high importance and can become really dangerous in the wrong hands. Now, I am well aware that I'm not your boss and it is not in my prerogatives to sanction you should you not respect this secrecy. But I called you in for I hope I can trust you.

-Don't worry, Ma'am. It is part of our job not to discuss any detail of any case with any outsider. We understand and respect the need of discretion in that kind of situation. Be at ease.

-Good. Now back to business. You were told that we are some equivalent of your CIA. That's not exactly true but it's similar enough for you to understand the gravity of the situation. One of our agents has gone rogue. We brought you in to help us arrest him." At that everyone straightened. That kind of case wasn't, by far, the easiest to handle. The BAU members now understood the importance of the case and the need for secrecy.

Kakashi and his teammates had kept silent so far but they clearly became more serious about the whole thing. Naruto was downright gritting his teeth. After a brief silence, Derek asked:

"-So, the killer is that guy?

-Yes.

-I don't understand. Why do you need our help if you already know who the killer is? Why don't you just arrest him?

-We tried. But that bastard keeps playing with us. He was one of us, he knows how we work, how we think. That's why you're here. We need outsiders that don't know him and thus have a new approach of the case. And above all, we need outsiders that he doesn't know… Here, everything you need is in that box," Tsunade said, pointing to a box on the corner of the room. "You'll be working here, if it's ok with you.

-I'd like Morgan and Prentiss to go to the crime scene.

-Impossible. The pictures you saw were taken months ago, there's nothing left there.

-How can you be sure we wouldn't find anything?" Derek interjected.

"-Because we made sure there was nothing left." answered Kakashi. After a few tense seconds of surprised silence, Aaron was the first to speak:

"-All right. Shall we begin, then?

-I'll let you work and go back to my own stock of paperwork. Team Kakashi will come back later on to pick you up and lead you to your hotel once I've made all the arrangements for your stay." With that the newcomers were left alone.

"-Ok guys, let's get to work. I know we're not quite used to that kind situation but let's do our job."

Once they closed the door, Team Kakashi followed Tsunade to her office.

"-Report.

-They are capable. They're suspicious but they seem to understand our security measures or, at least, they won't complain about it for now.

-Good. What about the pictures?

-Well, I don't know how long they spent on their analysis but they were surprisingly accurate.

-Freakingly so, if I must say." added Sakura. Tsunade rose an eyebrow, encouraging Kakashi to go on.

"-They were able to tell the killer was a man, approximately where the attack begun and the way it went. They didn't understand the exceptions of some of the dead but I would have been really surprised if they had, seeing only a ninja wouldn't find anything weird about it. They could also determine what kind of weapon was used. All in all, those guys know their job and are quite good at it. For civilians, that is.

-I see. Though, if I were you, Kakashi, I wouldn't call them 'civilians' in their face. They are agents of their government after all." The woman paused for a moment. "Well, that will be it for the time being. We'll see how they'll progress. Now for the funny part." She smirked as Kakashi sighed. "I'm sure you've understood that they cannot, under any circumstance, figure out they are in a hidden village nor what is a hidden village.

-Of course.

-Excuse me, shishou, but how can we hide the entire village from them?

-For tonight, when one of you will accompany them to their hotel, we will put them under a light genjutsu, like we've been doing until now. All they will be able to see are the civilians. They'll also be put under genjutsu in and near to Hokage Tower. There are just too many ninjas in this area, we can't do anything else. For the rest of the time, well… The jounin are aware that we have special guests. They don't know why they're here but they do know that they can't be spotted doing anything even remotely ninja-like. But since they are jounin, it won't change anything. I wish good luck to any outsider in spotting a jounin. Even our own civilians rarely spot one. The ANBU aren't even worth worrying about. That leaves the chuunins and genins. I left Shikaku Nara in charge of the chuunins. Apparently he made up a mascarade test of stealth inside the village. I don't know exactly what he told them but I think the grand lines are 'If you're spotted by any civilian, I'll have you stuck to D rank missions for the next six months'… Or was it a year?" At that Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura snickered. They felt for the chuunins but found it too entertaining to really pity them. Plus, it would make a nice training. "Anyway. The genins won't be a problem. I don't think our guests will see anything else in the genins than children playing. If something leaks, we'll see what to do when it happens but I think it highly improbable. Okay, if you don't have any questions, you're dismissed. I'll send for one of you later to accompany them to their hotel and eventually show them the main places of the village.

-Hai!" And the team left.