The newly dubbed Oto no Kuni was becoming a hot spot for nuke-nin activity in the past two months since his mission to the country. Naruto was given a debriefing and sworn to secrecy about what he heard from the two Oto ninja. While he didn't agree with keeping it from other ANBU- he did think that it would cause panic if people knew that someone like Orochimaru had an entire country to himself.

Squad Ro was given several missions to secure their borders and several garrison points since learning of how close the enemy was to home. With the increased rate of missions and their danger levels rising- Naruto has increased his training to compensate.

Since mastering the Shukakutento, Naruto has pulled back on his Genjutsu study and has been perfecting his Suiton even further. He was at a disadvantage when in fights around no water source as he has to burn through considerable amounts of chakra to produce it internally. His goal was to recreate the Nidaime's method, but he was too pressed for time to try and recreate it by himself. He needed it now if he wanted to survive in the dry environments he's been frequenting.

With that in mind, Naruto was on his way to speak with the Hokage for any information regarding the deceased Senju's methods. After all, if anyone knew anything about it- it would be one of his students.

Naruto rapped his hands on the Hokage's office door and waited for permission to enter. When he heard the affirmative the blond walked in, with it being his day off he was in form fitting black suit that was standard among Konoha shinobi with his Chūnin vest over it. He was getting strange looks as he walked through the village, but he chalked it up to the fact that this was the first-time people actually seen him without his ANBU attire since joining the organization.

The Sandaime sat behind his desk with his wrinkled and callused hands held in front of his face as he gazed at the young blond in front of him. It was seriously scary at how similar he was to his father.

Naruto kept his face composed but felt irritation when he realized that he still couldn't get a read on the Hokage after all this time, it was like he was a naive Genin sitting atop the monument again.

"Hokage-sama," Naruto bowed to show respect before steeling himself. "I wanted to ask if there was a chance, I could look into the Nidaime's water based jutsu. Or his jutsu notes…" Naruto kept his face firm to show his seriousness but was slowly wilting under the intense gaze of the Hokage.

"Tell me," The Sandaime's hands set onto the table as he leaned forward slightly. "Why is it I should allow a rather young shinobi like yourself something like that. It's both highly classified information and very deadly."

Naruto closed his eyes and took a breath. "I might be one of the few who could use those jutsu. I have large reserves and very fine control, and I think I've proven I'm more than loyal to Konoha." Naruto sent a look to the Sandaime who closed his eyes in thought.

The office became silent as Naruto waited for the elderly Hokage to decide.

"Come Naruto." The Sandaime started to leave the office with Naruto trailing behind him. Apparently, the answer was to be told in a separate location.

Most jutsu in the village were located in the Konoha library, it was sectioned off by clearance level and Naruto has enjoyed his ANBU-level clearance that allowed him free admittance throughout. But if someone were to think that is where all the jutsu in the village were located, they would be wrong.

Behind multiple layers of Genjutsu, several ANBU guards and a locked wooden door was the Hokage's vault. Within it held the infamous Scroll of Seals and any jutsu deemed too dangerous or too valuable for standard shinobi. Normally only the Hokage and the ANBU Commander was allowed in the vault, but Naruto was trailing behind the Sandaime as he led him through the dark aisles.

"This is where the Shodaime stored all of his jutsu, the Yondaime's notes on Time-Space jutsu and my various S-Rank jutsu. The Nidaime was a meticulous person, anything he created was documented and stored here, anything and everything." The Sandaime's voice was warm and Naruto smiled at the information, it was interesting, and he doubted very many others knew it.

The came to another hallway, on the ground was the symbol for second and the walls were lined with scrolls and books. Naruto shook his head at the sheer volume of information that the Nidaime created.

The Sandaime walked forward a bit and stood in front of Naruto. "These jutsu were created by the Nidaime and used only by him. Most of the jutsu that are used in the village were created by him, but these were too valuable to just hand out. Unfortunately, he never wrote down his method out right, but he did reference it in his Suiton jutsu notes- so I'm sure you can work it out."

The Sandaime went to the wall and picked a book off the wall and looked through the pages. "This is all his notes on the Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu,it goes in depth on his method of utilizing the jutsu, if you master it, I'm sure you can work out the rest." Naruto held the book with nervous hands, this was the legacy of the Nidaime the man hailed as the greatest water-user to ever live.

"And Naruto," The blond turned to the Sandaime as he was walking away. "If you master that, I might let you have another look into my old sensei's jutsu. It's a shame nobody ever had the talent for them." Naruto nodded and started walking out of the vault to get to work.

Duck!

Naruto clad in his ANBU uniform, mask on his face for the world to see. He and his comrades fought to take down a group of rogue Konoha-nin and he barely ducked in time for a Katon jutsu to fly overhead.

Naruto's opponent was a large grizzly man who had been passed over for Jōnin and left with this group to join another village. Squad Ro had the honor of disposing of them before they left the country.

A mighty arm lashed out at the blond with surprising speed for the size of his adversary. Naruto, with greater speed leaned out of the way, unsheathed his tantō and sliced it vertically to sever the arm. The man wasn't looked at for a Jōnin position for nothing as he easily backed away and weaved several seals ending in tiger getting Naruto's attention.

He only had a few days of practice, but it was now or never. Naruto weaved several hand-seals ending in a strange variant of the bird seal. Naruto's chakra flared and the area in front of him started to shimmer, his chakra was pushing itself together condensing over and over folding in on itself. This was the legendary method the Nidaime used to create Suiton jutsu without a nearby source, he could create a monsoon in a desert. Small orbs of chakra came to life in front of Naruto as his chakra continued to rise, the water came together to take shape. Naruto may take longer, and the quantity wasn't as large, but the results were the same.

Suiton: Suijinheki!

Naruto's wall of water formed in less than two seconds and blocked the stream of fire that was released from the rogue ninja. Slightly out of breath Naruto jumped to a higher location to take stock of the battlefield. He could see large branches and roots crushing and stabbing shinobi in the distance, Tora-Taicho's handy work and he could hear the sounds of conflict originating from Gorira and Kaito. The four-man squad was outnumbered three to one, yet they were winning.

Naruto gripped his tantō tightly and steadied his breathing. At his level of proficiency, he used a tremendous amount of chakra creating water and would nearly pass out from anything higher than the water wall at this point. His opponent, he found through the steam, was crouched behind a tree clutching a kunai obviously waiting for Naruto to come through. 'Amateur tactics like that are obviously the reason he wasn't promoted' Mentally snorted Naruto.

Naruto concealed himself in the Torapen no Jutsu as he silently made his way to his opponent. He could hear the mans rapidly beating heart from his position right behind him, the frantic breaths that the he was desperately trying to conceal. Naruto steeled himself and put his blade to the man's throat. He could barely widen his eyes in shock before Naruto slit his jugular ending his life.

As he fell to the ground Naruto slapped his palm on the earth for a low level jutsu to take care of the body. It was standard procedure, no remains, no traces. That was the fate that awaited you should you cross the ANBU- an unmarked grave in a forgotten part of the forest.

'It's gotten easier since that mission, I'm no longer hesitating.' Thought Naruto, it may have been a few months since his fated Kumo mission, but he was only now back able to finish his opponents without hesitating.

Knowing that his team needed back up, Naruto made his way towards Kaito and Gorira both tag teaming four rogue-nin themselves. Still concealed under his Genjutsu Naruto crept around the tree and held his blade in a reverse grip while he waited for the opportunity to strike.

Gorira replaced himself with a splintered branch to avoid a bullet of fire and flickered towards his opponent. The rogue-nin was unprepared for the vicious kick to his back that impacted with a similar sound to that of a whip cracking. The rogue-nin screamed in pain for half a second before Gorira snapped his neck and buried him in one fluid motion.

A kunai flew through the air towards Gorira's neck that was stopped by a shuriken originating from Kaito. The ANBU in question kicked his opponent away and sped through hand-signs, his opponent following suit, but the ANBU-trained shinobi was much faster. A compacted stream of wind cut through the air with no visible indication, the rogue-nin was hit center chest and blood flew through the air splattering all over the grass staining it red.

The final two rogue-nin came down on Kaito and Gorira in that instant. Both shinobi froze as the air distorted behind them and their heads fell from their shoulders. Naruto canceled his Genjutsu and let out a grunt, utilizing the Shunshin no Jutsu while under a Genjutsu was really difficult but his teammates wouldn't have made it otherwise.

Naruto landed in between his comrades slightly panting, the two shared a look before giving a respectful nod to their squad-mate.

"Appreciated Same."

"Thanks."

Naruto nodded and the three shot into the trees to find their captain, he was facing the most of them alone. But they were in the forest, and Tora was at his best in the forest. The already elite shinobi was even deadlier in his element.

When the three ANBU arrived, they came to the scene of shinobi impaled or crushed by large wooden spikes and a slightly out of breath Tora. Naruto still couldn't believe the versatility of the Mokuton Kekkei Genkai, the blond shivered slightly while thinking about the Shodaime.

"Clean up. We'll move out in one minute." Ordered Tora while holding the snake seal to retract his self-created wood back into the earth. Naruto and the others quickly performed the low-level Doton jutsu to rid of any traces of the rogue-nin, when it was done the four-man squad flickered out of existence to head back to Konoha.

The entire confrontation barely lasted five minutes.

"So, then I said that Naruto-ni was going to come back since I'm his favorite and-" Naruto smiled as he listened to Yui as she retold the events of the last two weeks that he's missed.

Naruto couldn't find it in himself to spend longer than that without visiting the excitable girl. The way she brightened up when he visited made him happier than he could ever verbally admit.

"Naruto-ni!" Naruto snapped out of his thoughts at the girls yelling.

"hm?"

"I was asking you what you have been doing lately." Pouted Yui, she didn't like it when people ignored her especially her big brother.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

A sword pierced his enemies' neck and he turned the body to keep the blood away. Naruto moved on to the next without skipping a beat to finish his mission.

"Just hanging out with friends, nothing too exciting."

Yui nodded and a smile broke out on her face as she continued telling him about her day. Gesturing animatedly with her arms to emphasize the events while he listened with a small smile.

'You don't know how much you brighten up my day Yui-chan…'

Water. It was made of two elements- Hydrogen and Oxygen. The process of the Nidaime's unique Suiton manipulation involved spreading his chakra out into the air in a very fine wave, folding his chakra in on itself then sort of rubbing the two pieces together and repeating the process over and over until the sufficient amount of water is created. The process was much more complicated, but Naruto couldn't really think of a different way to describe it.

While the Nidaime could do this process in an instant and create tidal waves on command with only a single hand-seal, something that deemed him the greatest water user to ever live. Naruto could replicate this with several seals and a few seconds of preparation, he couldn't create tidal waves, but walls of water were well within his capabilities now.

Naruto sat in a meditative position as Katsumi watched from afar, she was the only person other than the Sandaime that knew about Naruto's training. While Naruto would vehemently deny it the beautiful- if Naruto were to be honest- girl was his best friend. He didn't dare say it out loud as the she would never let him hear the end of it.

"So, you can replicate the Nidaime's Suiton abilities…you going to start dressing like him to?" Katsumi had a sly expression. The Yamanaka was suddenly hit by a glob of water, she sputtered and coughed out the water then glared at her friend.

"What was that!"

Naruto opened one eye and smirked slightly. "I read somewhere that when a cat acts up to spray it with water. It just so happens that I can create water virtually everywhere, so don't misbehave." Chided Naruto with a twitching lip.

Katsumi pouted at him and went back to watching him train. "So, my cousin- the loud one, keeps asking me about you. I told her that you weren't interested in such things though so you're welcome."

"Oh?" Naruto opened both eyes at that. "You were right, I'm not interested in such things. Right now." Naruto finished with a smile before going back to his meditation.

Katsumi huffed and continued to ask questions ranging from nonsense to suggested training methods for her Genjutsu. Both liking each other's company and the quiet pause between missions that are becoming more and more scarce.

It was a red alert in Konoha, Chūnin Mizuki had just stolen the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage's vault. The how would be sorted out later but Naruto and nearly the entirety of the ANBU Black Ops were searching the forests for the now rogue-nin.

Naruto and Katsumi both clad in their ANBU uniforms, masks for the world to see as they searched the section of the forest near the western walls of the village. Katsumi was a Yamanaka- they were natural sensors, and she was quite skilled in the art.

Hostile - Medium to Large Chakra - Possible Target.

Naruto nodded at the hand signs and they both concealed their chakras as they approached. Down on the forest floor was the target- Mizuki. He was in his standard Chūnin garb with two very large shuriken on his back. The scroll was set on the ground as he checked over his gear. Naruto went through hand signs to inform his fellow blond ANBU of his plan.

Secure Package - Report Back - I'll dispose of the Target

Naruto rolled his eyes behind his mask when Katsumi signed back in a clipped sort of way as her hand movements were like angry jabs. Naruto waved her off and with a raised fist Katsumi nodded.

Naruto took out a kunai and launched it towards the Chūnin who reflexively jumped away, separating himself from the scroll. Naruto jumped in between Mizuki and the scroll while Katsumi grabbed the scroll and flickered away to report back to the Hokage.

"Bastard!" Roared Mizuki as he threw one of his very large shuriken at Naruto. The blond ANBU lazily moved out of the way and unsheathed his tantō. By the time his blade was out the other shuriken was flying at him.

Naruto deflected the metal star with a grunt of effort and tried to find Mizuki who used that second to speed out of sight. Naruto stretched his chakra outwards; he might not be the best or even very good at it, but he could tell if someone was near enough.

Mizuki's chakra from behind the nearest tree was flaring wildly. His body became larger and took the appearance of a bipedal tiger, his hands turned to claws and his eyes became wild.

"I'll kill ya with the power he gave me!" Naruto didn't know or care who he was but prepared himself none the less.

The mutated Chūnin shot forward with incredible speeds nearly hitting Naruto, the blond rolled away and jumped over the low kick. A high kick was the rogue-nin's response, Naruto blocked the blow but was sent to the ground. Naruto put his hands to the ground and flipped himself to his feet. He's taken worst hits but that was pretty nasty one.

Naruto watched his target with unflinching eyes as he sent a thin wave of chakra outward. The chakra folded in on itself over and over becoming more and more dense. The air became heavy with chakra and the space between them shimmered slightly.

Globs of water were created in the space between Naruto and Mizuki, while the mutated Chūnin charged forward to re-engage, Naruto weaved seals at lightning speed. The water surrounded Naruto for a moment before becoming larger and larger and taking shape.

Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!

The water took the shape of an enormous dragon with yellow eyes that flew at the charging Mizuki with frightening speed for something so large. The Chūnin was unable to react in time as the B-Rank jutsu hit him with the force of a train. Mizuki was flung back into the nearest tree, the sound of a thunderclap spread through the forest as jutsu, tree and human all hit one another with ridiculous amounts of force.

Naruto let out several pained breaths, it was one thing to do this in training and another to do it while in combat. He has had a little less than six months with the book from the Nidaime's section of the Hokage vault and he is only just starting to be able to form the dragon in a reasonable amount of time. The first time took nearly two minutes, he's gotten it down to seven seconds. The Nidaime could to it in an instant. Naruto wasn't as good as the Nidaime- not yet.

Naruto and Katsumi still clad in their ANBU uniforms knelt in front of their smoking leader as he looked over the scroll in his office. His face was as hard as stone, his ever-present pipe hung loosely from his mouth.

"It's unharmed and the protection seals are still in place." Muttered the Hokage before setting down the large relic of a long past age. "If what you have told me is true…then we have a much bigger problem than I had realized."

On the one hand it explained how Mizuki knew how to get to the scroll, the Sandaime at one time brought all three of his students to the vault. But on the other hand, Orochimaru has moles inside of the village and is getting much bolder with his actions.

"I want both of you to keep the events of this mission to yourself, we can't let any other undercover agents know we know who they work for." Order the Sandaime. He sat back down behind his desk with his hands held in front of his mouth.

"Dismissed."

Sarutobi watched as the two ANBU flickered out of existence as he took several long puffs of smoke to calm his nerves. The inevitable meeting with his former rival that was on the way would be a stressful one.

"Hiruzen," The Sandaime sighed as he turned to the corner of his office. He closed his eyes while he waited for Danzo to speak.

The seemingly paralyzed elder of the village stepped out of the shadows and stood like a statue in front of his leader. "We will have to handle this very carefully, but I have a lead."

Hiruzen's eye opened and the normally grey and grandfatherly gaze was now full of unspoken fury. Danzo's face remained expressionless but he let a mental smirk out, it was truly entertaining to see his former rival worked up.

"Go on."

Danzo tapped his cane twice and an ANBU appeared before them and knelt in front of the two living legends. He wore the standard ANBU uniform with a ninja-to diagonally over his right shoulder. His mask was a completely solid white. Hiruzen eyed the shinobi seriously, this was a Ne operative, a shinobi that basked in the darkness and hated the light.

"This is Fū." The shinobi removed his mask and his expressionless gaze was for the world to see. "He was the Yamanaka given to the organization fifteen years ago, he is one of my top operatives. He recovered several memories from the deceased Chūnin."

Hiruzen gestured for Fū to explain. "Hokage-sama, Chūnin Mizuki was conversing with a hooded shinobi between the ages of eighteen and twenty, medium build. Most prominent however was his high levels of Medical Ninjutsu knowledge and expertise. The subject was experimented on several times by the hooded figure. That person was also the one who inject the curse seal into Chūnin Mizuki."

Fū left without another word and the two elders sat in silence, one waiting while the other pondered on what to do.

"That is a significant mole, not many fit that description." Muttered Hiruzen with his eyes closed. "Of all my shinobi none fit that actually, the age is wrong, or the skill is wrong. Which can only mean one thing…"

The mole has been there for a very long time and was extremely dangerous.

"The mole doesn't know we took Mizuki's body for testing, and we can use this to our advantage." Said the War hawk, he himself still thinking over what to do and how to proceed.

Hiruzen grunted and turned to look over his village out the nearest window. "With this, the situation in Yu no Kuni and the constant prodding from Iwa. It could be in a month or in a year, but one thing is certain- war will be soon."

"The situation in Yu no Kuni can be mended quickly. The mole however will take time, I will have my forces working to secure our village from the shadows." Danzo's lone eye opened to gaze at the Hokage. "I have heard news of our resident Uzumaki, he has become quite adept with Suiton from what I understand."

The Sandaime nodded slightly. "His Uzumaki Suiton affinity is strong, and his talent for the shinobi life has been proven many times in his career. I will slowly allow him more of the Nidaime's notes, he will grow in power and an arsenal will be utilized that has not been seen in nearly half a century."

"He has stabilized well after the Kumo fiasco, to think that they managed to birth a male bearing the Byakugan." Danzo's voice was agitated, but on the inside, he was curious as to how they managed such a thing. Their work with the cells of the Shodaime never came close to a success until Tenzo, yet they did it quite fast.

"He is his father's son. Minato did atrocious things for the village yet never let it affect him." Replied Hiruzen. Some of the things that Minato did during the war were horrible even to Hiruzen, the death of Obito and Rin were followed by thousands of Iwa and Mizu shinobi respectively. It ended the war, yet it left a bad taste in his mouth, long lasting peace could never be achieved with the deep seeded hatred that Minato sowed in the span of three months. But yet, Hiruzen was not hypocritical enough to say that he wouldn't have done the same thing in Minato's situation.

"Few shinobi are born in peace times with such a mentality." Danzo's monotone voice didn't portray the slight praise that he was giving out. "Is his goal still the same?"

It was no secret to the two of them that Naruto had been looking into the identities of his parents. While Naruto was more than strong enough and had enough digression not to spout it to anyone. They agreed to leave the blond in the dark, the motivation was enough so far that it pushed Naruto into the ANBU at record speeds. Why not let it go for as long as possible?

"I was considering that we should inform him soon." Responded Hiruzen. "But he is approaching Jōnin class and I don't want him to slow his progression. He stopped looking into it when Tora informed him of the Captain-level clearance. So, he will remain ignorant until then or he achieves Elite Jōnin status."

"Very well."

Even though the prior topics were extremely classified, there were no seals beyond the standard ones that were inscribed in the walls of the Hokage's office. That changed when Danzo tapped his cane on the ground and a seal spread to keep the next conversation truly secure.

"He is progressing extremely fast. He has no really natural talent but with the beast he can take a beating and get up again even stronger. The chakra is far more corrosive than expected but he has gained control of a full cloak and one tail."

Hiruzen closed his eyes yet again to further think on the new information. "Should Jiraiya be brought in?"

Danzo nearly snorted at the offer. "No. I am more than capable in the art of Fūinjutsu to handle this myself."

"Very well."

In the latest briefing Naruto learned that on the border of Hi no Kuni and Kusa no Kuni. Several Iwa squads have been operating on missions near the border or on the Konoha side. It was cause for concern that their mortal enemy was getting more and more bold.

Several Squads have been dispatched to secure borders. Alpha and Beta squads- the assault teams, have been sent to intercept any and all foreign shinobi coming from that border. Squad Ro wasn't given any express orders about the border situations but were on standby to back up the assault squads should it be needed. Tora told them to up their individual training in the time being as he expected deployment in the coming weeks.

With that in mind Katsumi asked Naruto to be her sparring partner in their off time, Naruto was more than happy to oblige the Yamanaka. Who was he to deny a beautiful girl that wanted to spend time with him?

Naruto learned everything from the Nidaime's book and returned it to the Sandaime, it was most curious when the Hokage gave him another- Suiton: Suishōha and told him to do it again. While Naruto already knew the jutsu, the notes by the Nidaime were far more informative than the scroll given to him by the Sandaime during their first training session.

The Uzumaki ANBU was making headway in Fūton as well, he and Kaito were training together once a week with the volatile element. Naruto's training in the element was more focused on pressurized base jutsu, while more chakra taxing, the results were well worth it. After all, crushing a tree to splinters with a couple of hand-signs was far from useless.

Naruto entered the ANBU HQ without a word, he was summoned to his captain's office for an assignment briefing. Tora wasn't forthcoming with information, but he made it seem urgent, the last time this happened Naruto nearly had a mental breakdown by the end of it. So, he was a tad nervous about what was to come.

The masked clad shinobi rapped his hands on the door and entered when given the go ahead. His captain sat behind the desk with his mask off, it was extremely rare for Tora to be seen without his mask, last time was in Kumo. Another positive sign of the conversation to come.

"We have been given an assignment to Yu no Kuni. A clan by the name of Abelard, has been rising in numbers. A Jōnin on a recon assignment estimated their numbers in between ten and seventeen. Squad Ro will be dispatched to deal with them."

Naruto took in the information with furrowed brows behind his mask, this was a standard assassination mission, not some extremely secretive black op.

Naruto took off his mask and put it on his belt. "Why am only I being told Tora-taicho?"

"Tenzo," The man had a hand raised to stop Naruto. "When my mask is off, I am Tenzo just as you are Naruto. I will brief the others later, but I wanted to inform you now because I wanted to ask you about something without anyone around."

Naruto gulped slightly hearing that, this should be good. "During your time as a shinobi, how many medics do you know between the ages of eighteen and twenty?"

That wasn't what he was expecting but Naruto answered. "Not many, only the chief's son, Kabuto I think his name was. He's a Genin, I actual went on a mission with him during my time as a Chūnin. He's very capable as one would expect from being taught by the chief himself, but he couldn't utilize the Chakra Scalpel."

Tenzo nodded silently. "That was my answer as well. Very well, report to the roof at 1400 hours. Dismissed."

Author's Notes:

So here we are, nearly 2 years of no news and I update, more to tell everyone that more is coming and that as of now the entire story has been edited and cleaned up. I urge all of you to go back and give it a re-read.

The timeline for the story is that canon just started but nothing is going to be the same as Naruto isn't a Jinchūriki or a new Genin. Sarutobi Kento is Konohamaru's older brother and Naruto's place holder in terms of filling a spot he'll have a place in the story, but he isn't the Jinchūriki as I have spelled out in this chapter.

Please tell me anything positive or negative about this story that you read. If you have ideas let me know if you have questions same thing. If we get to 200 reviews, I'll upload the next chapter much quicker, it tells me there's interest in this story after all.

Please leave a Review!

Original Jutsu:

Torapen no Jutsu (Transparency Technique) B-Rank: Created by Kurenai Yuhi. This user surrounds themselves with chakra to distort the air around them to bend light allowing them to appear invisible. If the user wants to conceal others within the jutsu they must be of similar or smaller sizes.