Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Naruto.

Chapter 14

Hiroaki was definitely beyond tired. Orochimaru had been taking out his fury on him in the form of 'training' which was more akin to torture. This past month had been real torture. Orochimaru had driven him every day to near the point of chakra exhaustion. Though that mattered very little to the snake sannin. He always seemed to have some new form of pill to help boost up his chakra and stop any muscle stress. Though the results had been very obvious. He had easily doubled his speed under his tutelage. His taijutsu was near flawless in execution, the jutsu he knew were easily more powerful for the least amount of chakra necessary to use. He had finally increased his reflexes to try and suite his new found speed. He had increased the speed of his hand signs by huge margins. Hiro had learned to do the shadow clone and had mastered the shadow kunai jutsu. Though he hadn't made too many advances in any other jutsu. He had just refined and upgraded his current skill set.

The root training he received had been more akin to stealth and tactics above anything else. ANBU were supposed to be shadows. The darkness that hide from the light. The ones no one see's but meet their end too. Though he was only taking the beginning training for root, he felt he had gotten better. It was hard to believe how fast this past month had passed. He had been breathing, eating, and sleeping under training. He hadn't much time to really think about the question's Minato had asked him to find. He knew that with Gaara sometime in the way, he wouldn't be able to help unless he was in Suna. He would need to be there to try and protect the boy from their father and the demon itself. That would need him to constantly be in Suna and other than defecting to Suna or actually somehow letting Konoha have him leave to the village it wouldn't be to possible. He knew that something would happen sooner rather than later. Danzo and Orochimaru had informed him that several Suna shinobi had been to the village traveling with the word of the Kazekage.

In this month, he hadn't seen any of the hyuuga family. He had essentially only been inside the root base. Only ever going out to spar with itachi. Itachi was another thing. Itachi had already seen the same horrors of war that he had. Itachi had changed to something similar to what he was in the show. More serious. More duty bound. Fiercely loyal to Konoha. He had shared that he was stressed out by his father. His father was pushing him harder than Orochimaru was to him. In their 5 spars they had so far this month itachi had beaten him 4 times of the 5. It was evident that itachi was faster and more agile than Hiro. While Hiro would dominate him in taijutsu, itachi had the better hand in bukijutsu. What it would always came down to was who could land the first blow. While Hiro tried to close off some of Itachi's chakra points, itachi would tank through to try and cut him down.

Their first match happened a few days after Hiro had made it back into the village. Hiro had the speed and jutsu advantage then. He had rolled through any of the taijutsu that itachi had. It had been obvious that Hiro had more experience in combat. While itachi wasn't completely beat down, it was a quick victory for him. The next few had happened the next few weeks. With the sharingan gave the advantage needed to win the spars. While they weren't too intense they were still a competitive affair.

It was the last day of the month and Hiro had been putting off really thinking. It was the first time he had any free time and now he wanted to focus on his future. He had already thought of his family and now he didn't know what else. He thought of his allegiance to the village. Some would say he had already shown that he was a great sample of what a loyal shinobi would be. Though he didn't necesaarilly fel that way. He hadn't revealed any secrets for his own and family sake in konoha. He had foughten his way out to save himself not to bring back the info to konoha, that just happened to coincide with what he was doing. He had joined the academy to get stronger, not to help save the village. He had accepted his position as gennin because Orochimaru had decided to train him. His inspiration to be an ANBU was solely to get stronger. It all seemed to stem from his desires to save himself and his family. Though he hadn't made too many friends he already knew he didn't want itachi to suffer the way he would in the future. Hiro grew a small smile. He knew what he wanted to strive and protect but could he do what he wanted in Konoha? Gaara would need someone there sooner than itachi would. If he simply left konoha he would be a traitor. If he left as a spy, he knew he couldn't possibly betray his own family for some twisted leader back in a place that had only caused more trouble for him than joy.

Hiro cursed himself for not planning things better. He was now apart of root. The most loyal shinobi that a place had to offer. Hiro knew he had messed up but he wondered if he could change that. Who could possibly help him now? Would orochimaru help to care? Maybe he could talk to the Sandaime or even the yondaime to help intervene on his behalf. Hiro sighed. He had put himself in a trap that he couldn't see hi way out of. He wasn't anywhere near strong enough to oppose these powerful figures. He wasn't all that strong to oppose a chunin if the man took the fight seriously. He had already made potentially powerful enemies who really wouldn't like his decisions.

Hiro decided that he wouldn't get anywhere delaying the inevitable and decided to just go to the tower and talk to the Hokage. Hiro decided that if he couldn't come up with what he really wanted to do in the future other than protect his family and get stronger to protect his family. He knew he would end up just winging it for now and try and reflect deeper in the night.

So he didn't waste any time and jumped through the roof tops as fast as he could possibly go. To the people down below he was just a black blur. Other shinobi were getting out his way. Usually only shinobi with important matters run on rooftops. Though hiro, didn't actually have crucial business he wanted to get it over with. He had a weird feeling of nervousness building up. He respected Minato and he didn't want to lie to him if asked on his future plans or what he was currently doing. Though the hokage might know who is in Ne at any given time. Hiro didn't believe that the hokage would allow the organization to exist without having at least some form of counter-measures but giving it more thought, Hiro began to doubt whether the hokage would know who was in the organization. On his way there his thoughts strayed to what power the hokage had in the village. He controlled most of the shinobi forces, some of the laws but what else? The council and the daimyo controlled the trades and laws of the land of fire and the village. It began to seem more and more that the hokage was just more as a powerful general working for the daimyo and didn't have full control of his own village.

Hiro thought of the other kage and wondered if it was much of the same. The raikage and tsuchikage seemed to have more power but Hiro didn't know how any of the other villages worked except for sunagakure. They had a type of council in the show but he wasn't to sure of what they controlled and what the kazekage did either. Though, hiro knew that the kazekage sold his gold to help the village finance their own village. The only kage that seemed to have complete control was Orochimaru. He went and did as he pleased and no one really tried to stop him, they knew they were powerless to try.

Before he knew it, hiro had arrived at the tower and found himself waiting in the lobby. The tower hadn't changed much but it was the vibe of the place that had changed. The sun seemed to be brighter, the mood was a better and uplifting. The last time he had been here it had been filled with a sense of urgency and sadness. It had been an oppressive feeling that he hadn't liked but now the war with Iwagakure had been settled. The land of lightning's daimyo had called for a cease fire and there had been no activity to report of in Kirigakure. Though their kage, Yagura hadn't made any recent appearance, there was speculation that their daimyo had called to halt their forces.

For most of konoha and it's citizens, the war was over. It was time to rebuild and heal the fractures the war had caused. Though most shinobi, were still on guard and training for war to happen any time soon, there was a sense of hope. It was a different sense he received from the root forces. They would always be ready for war with whomever Danzo commanded it. After close to ten minutes of sitting down, the secretary finally let him through to meet with the Yondaime. He walked in and bowed respectively. "Hokage-sama. I have come per your request." The Yondaime looked up from his paper work and gave his cheery smile. "Hiro-san, it's nice to see you. How has your month gone?" The yondaime asked as he finished off signing a few more papers. "It was very..enlightening." Hiro spoke staying a few feet away from the man's desk. Hiro looked around seeing if there were any noticeable changes in the office and he couldn't find any other than the contents of the desk top. "Ah. I hoped that would be the case. Though before you give me your answer, there were somethings that have been brought to my attention since I took office." Minato got up and went to a file that was off to the side. He opened it and briefly showed the contents to Hiro. " You see, over this past month, I have been in talks with the office of the kazekage and the council. It seems that you are the son of the kazekage and you are a shinobi for our village. In most cases, if there are shinobi children from different villages and have family in another then they wouldn't ask for the child back in any case unless you were forcefully enrolled into the ranks. Though that isn't the case here. You willingly joined our forces and have lived under your life as a Hyuuga. It would have been resolved at that. You would have stayed here, but that's not this case either." Minato gave a sigh. "You know the hyuuga clan have taken you off legally as being a part of the hyuuga. Meaning you do not have the protection of a major clan. Though some of the council has urged me to not let you into the hands of Sunagakure, it could cause another war. I am not sure on what to do here. You are a shinobi and citizen of our land."

Hiro began to ignore what Minato had been saying. He had heard enough to what would more likely happen. He would be let go of the shinobi forces and put into the hands of sunagakure. Which he had no doubt desperately wanted him because of his blood he had. The Byakugan. That's why they were fighting so hard to get me back. Hiro didn't know how to feel. It gave him access to this whole other world, but he was having doubts if he could really help gaara. He would be closing of Konoha from himself. Could he really not be a shinobi for konoha. Instinctively Hiro had reached for his hiate-tai on his arm, tracing over the carved leaf. Hiro didn't like that so many decisions were being made for him. That didn't rest well for him. He wanted to have all options open for him but it seemed that everyone was closing more and more doors for him after every small decision was made for him. Even at birth he had several doors closed for him by being born to a noble clan. He had much of his life preplanned, though plans are not necessarily being followed through. He didn't like that Danzo and Orochimaru had so much control on what he learned, what he was required to do. It bugged him that he had no freedom. That's what Hiro was slowly realizing. Only Power would set him free. That's probably why Orochimaru would leave Konoha. He knew that already, so if he couldn't become Hokage, the ultimate power authority in Konoha, he would simply leave and start his own village. If power was what would set him free, he needed to get as much power as fast as possible. Could he do that in Konoha? Could he do that in Suna? Would the Kazekage even want him to be trained or even a shinobi? Hiro needed to buy time for himself and need to try and get some control on where the direction his life was headed.

Hiro was beginning to feel like a slave, just doing what others continued to do. He noticed that Minato was still talking and felt rather dumb that he had missed the yondaime's speech these last few minutes. "- they'll be here by tomorrow. So what do you say?" Hiro's eyes widened slightly. He wasn't expecting the hokage to ask anything from him. He was just waiting for him to give im an order. Hiro's hand went to the back of his head and he got really nervous and his face turn tomato red. "Err, say to what Hokage-sama?" "If you wanted to become an ambassador of sorts. You would be tasked with going back and forth to Suna and here." Hiro began to think about it in more detail. This seemed just perfect for him now. He would have connections with both villages! Then Hiro remembered that he was still the apprentice of Orochimaru. Apprenticeships worked differently from teams. The apprentice was supposed to be soaking up as much knowledge as possible. With teams there were occasions where the team would break up after the members would go up in rank. That was not the case with the apprentices and masters. They would be a partnership until after the master deemed the apprentice ready. Apprenticeships were usually done for specialized work like the T&I to get the person ready for that particular field of work. Most apprenticeships were offered to Chunin that had decided what field to work in. Though Orochimaru had picked him up for no special role. Simply to pass down all of his knowledge.

"What about Orochimaru-sensei. I still have obligations to keep with him." Minato smiled and gave a light chuckle. "He will be your escort. Having a 'Sannin accompany the ambassador' should show how serious we are about our relations with the village. The only problem with this is seeing if the kazekage would want to agree to this." Minato gave a sigh. Hiro knew there was little chance that something perfect like this would really happen. Kami hadn't blessed him in this lifetime, so he had a hard time believing it would finally happen. Hiro began to exit when he remembered why he had gone there in the first place. "My friends, my family. That's what I want to fight for." Minato gave a small smile and nodded.

Hiro left and felt something he hadn't felt for a while. He felt a twinge of hope. He gave a genuine smile. Things were beginning to take shape, beginning to finally go his way for once.

A/N: Hello! I know I had said I would be updating on a monthly basis but I found myself having a little spare time today and wrote this out. LoL to anyone in the future who wants to flame my work, please give valid criticism instead of just flaming it, I want to know why you think it sucks. As always favorite, follow, review it helps keep the motivation up.