I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

:radio chatter:

word - word = break in radio chatter

I do not own Naruto.

The fire burns strong III

It was the sixth day of their mission, aside from their run-in with the missing ninja Itachi, jackal team had found nothing, no sign of a vault. They knew through naruto's incessant nagging of the Kyuubi, that they were in the right spot, but not even the tailed beast new the exact location.

The wild untamed forests were a maze of twisting and winding trees, the unnatural darkness of the forest made navigating during the day almost impossible. At night it was hell, on the second day Naruto found out why the inhabitants of the village which was away from the main road aways, locked their doors and made the village look abandoned. Predators larger than anything he'd ever seen came out at night. they prowled the forest floor and the main road that led through the forest into the land of land of hot water.

Screams from lost or unlucky travelers trying to reach their destination made everything about the nights even worse. Through his masks limited night vision, Naruto watched the massive bear stalk through the tangled underbrush of the forest floor, its footsteps sent slight tremors through the tree he was perched in. there was a scream in the distance, the furry beast reared its head, looking in the direction before turning away to walk towards where ever it was going.

:dog this is other dog – me, bee and lion haven't found anything of interest in our zone: Naruto sighed, they had scoured the forest during the day for a while, before attempting the same thing at night.

:understood – head back to the village we'll meet you there: his mic clicked once, signaling Kakashi understood. Naruto stood from where he squatted on the branch, circling his hand in the air to signal to his other teammates to rally on him. He leaped off his perch towards the village, Kaori and chimon falling in next to him. Progress was slow when they traveled to the village, large beasts seemed to be pouring out the woodwork, and the very low light didn't help them at all.

Shoto opened the door to Momoko's house, he was wearing his ANBU canvas cloak, which he definitely hadn't been wearing beforehand.

"what-" he flashed them a paper.

Act natural put on your cloaks

"dog-1 looked at the clouds, and said it was gonna rain, if we're heading back out tonight we're gonna need to wear these."

"Okay then, Wolverine could you grab mine, I'm gonna go talk to dog-1." She nodded without saying anything before disappearing up the stairs. Naruto followed Shoto towards the living room, his eyes roamed the scratches around the room before settling on Kakashi. The jonin was relaxed on the couch, his orange book was open in front of his face. Morio sat in the armchair writing notes on a paper.

"Yo! Little dog, you guys find anything out there?"

"no, we didn't find anything, just a massive bear."

"sounds like fun." Kakashi stood, putting his book away, "bee you finished those notes?"

"yep." He tore out a page from his booklet, handing it to Kakashi, who looked the paper over before passing it to Naruto. The paper was random words scrawled rapidly around it. There was only one actual sentence.

twenty hostile's dressed in ANBU gear, have eyes on us now, hostile.

"looks like fun, are we going to check it out?" Kakashi nodded. Kaori and chimon returned, Naruto traded the paper in his hands for his cloak, the two ANBU read the information quickly.

"We're thinking in about an hour, it will give us enough time to rest before the run."

"do we wanna plan the formation now?"

"sure, spider and me, then lion and bee, little dog and Wolverine will bring up the rear." Kakashi wrote something on the paper. "we can use this formation."

Spider with bee mid, lion and dog-1 in the rear, Wolverine and dog-9 shock and awe at the front.

"ya this works."

"im cool with trying something new."

"sounds like a plan."

...

Naruto spent the hour napping, it wasn't a very good nap but it was still necessary to sleep. Kaori tapped him awake, she helped him up from the floor where he had slept, the others were all gathering standing around doing final gear checks before the went to 'scout' Kaori checked his armor, fastening a few straps on the back that had come lose, he did the same for her.

"just think little dog, in a year you'll be taking it off, and it won't be armor!" naruto barely succeeded at not reacting.

"see Bee! It told you gotta let up. He's too used to it now."

"I know!" morio fake sniffed, "little dogs all grown up! We just need to change targets! Spider, you're getting a girlfriend."

"no."

"but why?"

"my mother is a traditional Nara."

"ohhhhh" they all gave a collective wince, Nara women were notorious for being overbearing.

"big dog! How about you?"

"I'm good with my pet snake."

"you have a snake dog-sensei?"

"yep!" the man sounded so proud.

Their cheery mood was cut by the scream of another traveler, closer to the village than normal. They finished their last checks in silence, the only sound was the minor scrapes and clicks of them securing their weapons. They exited the house, the one civilian inside being none the wiser.

They followed Kakashi for thirty minutes, bobbing and weaving through the twisted trees. Their pace was fast but slow enough for them to conserve energy. When Kakashi dropped to the rear of the formation Naruto readied himself.

He inhaled, the muggy air forcing him to take deeper breaths, Kaori slid up slightly behind him ready to leap forward once he let his fire out. Kakashi and Shoto disappeared behind them to engage their followers. Naruto swirled his chakra around, causing it to heat up. It ignited the air in his lungs his chakra blocked it from escaping. One minor slip and his body set itself on fire, the nine tails had been sure to imprint those memories into his mind.

To anyone else, it would seem as if the battle started without warning, that the ANBU had stumbled across the camp. To the ninja it was obvious when it would, they avoided a well-placed trap and knew they were close. When Naruto crossed the last branch, smashing through the genjutsu that hid the camp, he let the fiery chakra in his lungs escape.

The forest grew too bright for their masks to filter, their vision was blinded temporarily by the flames Naruto created. They could only hear the sound of the roaring flames and the screams of the ninja inside of them. when it was finally dark enough for them to see the fight truly began.

Of the fifteen root ANBU in the camp. ten survived the initial blast. Kaori sent one through a tree, surfing on the ninja as he slid through the dirt. Shock and awe was over, the middle team chimon and morio, began to rain kunai and shuriken anywhere they could, covering Kaori who stood in the center, taunting anything that was around her, and destroying it with equally furious taijutsu.

The dark side of Konoha wasn't known for just their dirty work. The now eight surviving members of Root, reacted swiftly equalizing the storm of metal with one of their own. A massive man crunched the ground near Kaori, engaging the Yamanaka in a bout of savage hand to hand combat. Naruto didn't get time to worry about his, girlfriend? Before two agents landed in front of him, one was a thin kunoichi her stance with her sword signified she was a fencer. Behind her, her ninjutsu support, a tall brown-haired man, began running through hand signs. Naruto set his hands and feet on fire and stepped forward.

The girl stepped back, leaning heavily on her left foot, maneuvering her sword to angle across her body. Naruto dodged under her swing, mindful of the reverse that was about to come back his way, he put himself in the air. She hissed in victory, then he used his flames to jettison himself higher, up over her body to the ninjutsu specialist just finishing his signs. The earth jutsu the man unleashed had been aimed and prepared for a small target on the branch of the tree, ten feet away. The man didn't get a chance to block before naruto's hand landed on his head, setting the man's hair on fire.

Naruto used the momentum to send the man back towards the sword-wielding kunoichi, she skewered him. The man didn't make a noise as she shoved him off her sword towards the ground. he fell head first of towards the ground, the normally fire-resistant clothing of ANBU did nothing against naruto's scorching flames. The ground underneath them set fire and smoke began to rise.

The kunoichi advanced, using naruto's unstable foothold to engage him with superiority, he ducked an dodged as best he could, only taking minor scrapes and cuts. Finally, he managed to steady himself allowing him to take a swipe to force her back.

"give up." Her voice was smooth, commanding and monotone all at the same time. "you've been poisoned, Konoha wishes for you all to be captured alive for questioning."

Naruto coughed as his mouth went dry, he licked his lips, the Kyuubi though silent as it had been, began to burn away the toxins. His arms and legs felt heavy as he took a step forward.

"that's a load of bullshit!" The Kyuubi finished and he sprung forward much faster than she was expecting, her sword wasn't fast enough to get in between his fist, and her chest. It sent her flipping through the air and lit her armor on fire. She landed perfectly shedding her upper armor with its quick release strap. She didn't attempt to kick it away as it ignited the tree. The fire underneath them created light, he could see her breathing getting more and more labored. Sweat from the heat rising glistened off her skin.

Their tree shook as the large man fighting Kaori slammed into it, he barely rolled out of the way as Kaori shattered the trunk. Their tree tilted Naruto anchored himself with chakra before rushing the kunoichi. She let herself fall, preparing to stab him on her way down. Naruto pivoted on the branch snaking around it, she didn't have the chance to correct her self before she landed on the trunk. He came back around the branch kicking her off towards where chimon and morio had just finished their long ranged fight.

The sounds of battle ended with a final explosion from behind them. moments later Kakashi and Shoto appeared, only minor cuts along their sides where their injuries. Chimon and morio looked near perfect after their long-range bout with the root agents. Kaori was bruised, bleeding, and laughing as she dominated the large ninja, he grunted as she placed her boot on his head forcing it down into the dirt. It looked like she had torn off one of his arms and broken his other limbs.

"don't ever partake in S&M little dog."

"what's that?" he watched the other men on his team shake as they tried to hold in their laughs.

"so dog-1 wanna explain how you knew these guys would be here." Kaori ditched the now dead Root ANBU.

"we should take care of our prisoner, I'll tell you later."

Kaori withdrew a kunai, twirling it in her hand. "I can do it."

"there's no point in torture." They tilted their heads to the left, the ANBU sign for confusion. "she's a root ANBU." Kakashi pulled the girls mask revealing her a simple but pretty face, "they're given a seal on their tongues. It prevents them from leaking information when they are captured like this."

"and you know this how?"

"I was a root ANBU."

"and your speaking..…you're the reason they have the seals." The jonin nodded.

"they also brainwash, and emotional condition. Now we could kill her or turn her over to the Hokage."

"are you sure we should tell the Hokage about this, we did kill Konoha ninja?"

"it's complicated and I'll explain later, but telling her would get Danzo off our backs for a while."

The two reports made their way to her office at the same time. And by reports she meant, a toad popped into her office, gave a croak before vomiting not only a scroll but an entire body onto her desk. Then her door slammed open and Danzo barged his way into her office. The body coughed, drawing their attention to it, as the kunoichi rolled off the table and landed on the floor with a loud plop. She coughed again before vomiting.

"Sakura go take care of her." The command was absolute, her apprentice who had been reading medical folders in the corner, nodded helping the injured kunoichi stand to escort her out of the room. Tsunade was ready to spring when Danzo cast a disinterested glance down at the slime-covered kunoichi.

"I have a report I would like for you to listen to." He snapped back to his calm self. His lone eye turning up to face her.

"as you can see something else just landed on my desk." He didn't move when she took the drenched scroll in her hand and opened it, she relished in the five minutes she made him wait. The tapping of his cane signifying he was growing impatient. She didn't let anything slip by her when she read that Naruto's team had been attacked by root agents and that they had managed to capture one.

"let's hear it." She turned her eyes away from the scroll, crossing her arms in front of her face.

"you're ANBU attacked a sanctioned Konoha team in the jofuku forest. They need to be contained."

"the same team that just sent me a detailed report of how they came under attack by ninja claiming they were called back to talk to Konoha for questioning."

"yes, the council requested them back for more questions regarding their mission to Taki."

"prove it."

The old man reached into his robes pulling a mission packet out, he didn't hand it to her, he slapped it on her desk. She opened it, the forms were correct as she expected they would be.

"they killed Konoha shinobi. Have them detained."

"I will have them come back. They will report to me, and I will launch my own investigation. We have no idea what actually went down out there, and I have six people telling me they were all attacked by 'ninja dressed like ANBU' I don't remember signing a form to send ANBU out to get them."

"how the chunin wish to dress is not my concern. I have a witness, one of the survivors."

"you mean the one chunin they sent back with the toad. Im going to hold onto her until my investigation team is finished." She enjoyed the way his lip curled slightly in distaste.

"fine."

Tsunade released a sigh after the man left, throwing the report and mission packet into a drawer later for whatever poor soul she sent to investigate. The Toad next to her desk croaked again.

"I guess I should send a message back." It didn't make a noise, she grumbled as she tore a note off writing down to report to her immediately and that their mission was canceled. The toad used its tongue to take the paper to its mouth before disappearing. There was a knock on her door, Sakura entered.

"sensei the girl is in the emergency room you showed me." She stood, brushing past sakura letting the girl pitter patter after her. The room had been flipped on its side by the time they entered, the kunoichi had moved the bed around to form a barricade near in the corner of the room. The air was saturated with chakra, any number of jutsu could have been prepared.

"you're not going to be hurt." A mop of blue hair followed by two grey eyes stared out at her from behind the bed.

"what are you going to do to me?" Tsunade new exactly what she was gonna do.

"you're going to be involved in a punishment."

It took three days to get back to Konoha after their report was received and they cleaned up the bodies. Jackal team left the jofuku forest, without a hint of finding the vault. They skipped the lines at the main gate to meet an escort to the Hokage's office. Although Naruto hated the rain, he was glad it was raining, Sakura stood at the gate eyes darting around the crowd until they settled on his team. With the hood on his cloak up, she would recognize his hair, or Kakashi's.

"j-jackal team?" Kakashi who stood in front nodded, Sakura straightened up. "lady Tsunade has summoned you." They followed her to the Hokage's office, the trip was quick everyone on the streets giving the ANBU a wide berth. They would have taken the rooftops, but Sakura didn't have access to ANBU traffic routes.

The rain got worse the further into the village they traveled until finally, they reached the Hokage tower. They dripped water all over the floorboards when they walked through the building, the special duties ANBU unit's that made the Hokage tower their headquarters gave them stiff but welcoming greetings.

They entered the room without knocking, Sakura took a position behind the Hokage who stared at them with angered honey brown eyes. They all kneeled.

"You summoned us lady Hokage?"

"you…..you all are turning out to be the greatest pain in my ass I have ever had, and my teammates are Jiraiya and Orochimaru!" she pulled out a mission packet. "you killed Konoha shinobi on a legal mission to retrieve you."

"fuck." It as whispered but no one missed it, and no one had any idea who said it.

"that's right, fuck, you fucked up. Until further notice dog-1 your being reassigned to a command role in special duties, a recent loss and your own skills are too valuable to leave hanging, the rest of you are also being reassigned to special duties for the for seeable future until the investigation of what happened in the jofuku forest is complete." She pulled out a thicker folder. "my apprentice sakura will be checking in with your team once a week." Naruto almost groaned, he didn't wanna deal with that conversation anytime soon. "and you are being given an assignment."

"wait lady Tsunade didn't they-" sakura's protest was cut off by the Hokage.

"enter!"

The door opened, the kunoichi from before entered, her blank face didn't give away any shock at the sight of the ANBU that killed her team, nor did it flinch when they all bristled hands reaching for their weapons.

"lady Hokage she-"

"she has a detailed report in the mission packet, you will read it and you won't complain." She glared at Naruto specifically. "you all stumbled into a political game you weren't ready for and now your gonna play it." This time one of the ANBU did groan, Naruto knew it was chimon, but he wasn't going to say anything. "this is Hinoto, now going under the ANBU code name scorpion-12 she will be joining your team and you will be protecting her for the foreseeable future! Dog-1, dog-9, scorpion-12 stay after you dismiss your team."

Kakashi spun around facing the ANBU, "report here tomorrow regular time, do not be late!" the ANBU popped too attention before vanishing.

"dog-1, dog-9…..no more fuckups! You're on thin ice as it is I can't have the both of you put out of commission. Now I'm sure dog-1 here told you-dog-9, everything about what's going on, sakura I'll tell you later, but for now, Hinoto will be reintegrated into our forces, dog-9 I want you to give Sakura a report on both her ninja skills and integration to our forces and her social interactions."

"but t-lady Tsunade! She-"

"she has been mistreated, and she is a Konoha shinobi! If you didn't like her you should have killed her with the rest of her team." No one missed sakura's sharp intake of breath "now I don't care how you do it but her last living arrangements are off the table, so you'll have to sort it out your selve-"

Kakashi was already gone.

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed chapter 9. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism or enjoyment.