This story has sat untouched for so long. I will make an effort to finish it and will do my best to match my writing style of eight years or so ago, but I have changed a lot as a person and my voice has changed, too. Thanks for sticking with it if you're still around. :)

I realized when reviewing Chapter 14 to write this one that I wrote "Jiraiyama-sama" at one point. I read the whole chapter twice to see if it was a joke I was trying to make, before finally realizing I am merely incapable of typing properly. :P

Brutaaaaaaaaal

The sun rose joyously across the sky, birds chirping to announce the new dawn.

"Wow," Sakura said, leaning back on her butt. "That was brutal."

"Yeah," Ino agreed, eyes unblinking from the horrors of what she had seen. The two glanced at Hinata and Tenten, neither of whom had said anything yet.

Tenten had a malicious smile on her face, having gleefully enjoyed the whole thing. Ino edged away from her, frightened. Hinata merely shrugged. "It was about the same last time."

"You were there?" Sakura asked, shocked. "Of course you were," she told herself, head shaking in disbelief.

Naruto's cries of joy rang out as Iruka announced that he was now a genin, and the girls took a moment to silently applaud their comrade before carefully moving from their hiding spot to continue their discussion elsewhere. Naruto was off to have celebratory ramen, and their self-assigned mission of ensuring he learned Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and destroyed Mizuki was complete.

"Score one for Team Sakura!" Sakura said, high-fiving herself.

"That girl is so weird," Ino muttered. Then she looked around and took in her other companions. "Never mind," she said. "They're all bloody loony."

Sai nodded in agreement.

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Kakashi watched from the trees, and almost wished he could somehow go back in time and stop himself from ever living through this evening in the first place. He hadn't been fast enough to prevent the giant shuriken from embedding itself into Iruka's back, but based on the fact that the man was joyfully hugging Naruto, it couldn't have hurt too badly. No, the shock of seeing the sheer carnage, destruction, and violence the twelve year old boy laid down upon one man was too much for even his seasoned mind to get over. He had a feeling Anko had signed him up for what would undoubtedly amount to the deadliest team of shinobi since the Sannin.

"Minato-sensei," he said to the sky, "I really hope your kid is not as crazy as Kushina-san and inherited more than just your looks."

The sky appeared to merrily twinkle in laughter back at him.

"No, I suppose you're right," Kakashi replied. "I would never be so lucky." Sighing once more, he turned away from the scene and went back to report to the Hokage, stopping only to sling Mizuki's mutilated form over his shoulder. It was something of a wonder the man was still breathing, though Kakashi was not so sure it could be called a miracle.

He made his way back to the Kage Tower and bypassed the security, per his usual protocol. "Hi," he said to the Hokage, who appeared to be gazing intently into a crystal ball.

"Kakashi!" he said, sounding more surprised to see the man appear so suddenly in his office than someone with a crystal ball had any right to be. He cleared his throat. "What do you, ahem, what do you have there?"

Kakashi unceremoniously dropped Mizuki's body to the floor. "Naruto-kun's former teacher." He emphasized 'former' with a glare, as if daring the leader of the village to reinstate this guy as a head of class.

The Hokage sighed. "I see," he said. "Where is Naruto?" he asked.

"With Iruka-san," Kakashi said, arms crossed over his chest. His head twitched slightly down to his shoulder, as if he was starting to shrug. "They were hugging and crying when I left." He glanced around the room, then his face wrinkled in a confused frown.

The Hokage waited.

"Why did you ask if you have a crystal ball?" Kakashi sounded perplexed.

Hiruzen cleared his throat and hurriedly stuffed the ball away. "Never mind that," he said. No one needed to know he was spying on women at the bathhouse. "So what do you propose we do next?" he asked.

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, Naruto is clearly going to be a powerful shinobi so I guess I'll keep the team and do my best with them. And we can only wait to see what Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-hime have to say about the council's deaths."

The Hokage nodded. "Good point." His own forehead fell in a frown.

As luck would have it, the teams sent to retrieve two of the Sannin returned at just that moment. This had nothing to do with the author running out of conversational points for Sarutobi and Hatake, nothing at all.

"Wow," Anko said, looking at the Tower in surprise. "We got here really fast."

"This has got to be some kind of record," Tenzo agreed.

Temari shrugged. "Plot no jutsu," she replied, though it was hard to tell if it was a statement or question.

Nameless Ninja One attempted to step forward and be professional in giving his report but Anko waved him away. "Ji-sama doesn't need all that," she stated. "Yo, Hokage! These people are Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, and Baki; they're from the Sand. They have business with you. As you can see, Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama are here too. Go us!" She high-fived herself.

As her clone disappeared, Kakashi wondered what shinobi from Sunagakure could possibly want with Konoha. The hokage was clearly wondering the same thing, given the fact that he was glancing between the four strangers and his former pupils. "Okay," stated the village leader, "Konoha ninja teams are dismissed. Forgive me," he said to his unexpected guests, "but I have an urgent matter to deal with with my students. May I invite you to tour our village and I will have someone retrieve you when I am free?"

Temari nodded. "Sounds good. Hokage-sama," she added awkwardly. She turned and led her brothers and sensei from the room, followed by Tenzo and the two retrieval teams.

Anko and Kakashi remained behind with Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Hiruzen.

"This day seems very messy," Jiraiya remarked.

Tsunade tapped an impatient foot. "Where's Naruto?" she demanded. "I was promised I would see him."

The Hokage shifted his attention to her. "Patience, Tsunade-hime," he told her. "We have a lot to sort through this afternoon."

His former pupil rolled her eyes. "Fine, what else do you need from me?"

"Well," the Hokage began, "as you are surely aware by this point, the Council has been… displaced."

Tsunade snorted. "You mean disposed of," she corrected.

"Wait, what?" Jiraiya asked. "Someone murdered the Council?" The others in the room nodded. "All of them?"

More nodding.

"Danzo is gone? Koharu? Homura?"

Yet more nodding.

"Wow." Jiraiya plopped down to a chair. "Never thought this day would come…"

"Yes, yes, well it has," Tsunade said impatiently. She may even have stamped a foot to the floor.

Jiraiya gave her a dry look. "Excuse me for taking my time to process things," he said. His arms crossed over his chest and he turned to the village leader. "Hokage-sama, do we have any leads on who did this? I'm assuming you've upped your security."

The Hokage nodded. "Of course," he replied. "We are taking extreme measures to gather and contain the Root members now wandering the village on the loose. Although Kakashi-kun's young student Haruno Sakura appears to have requisitioned two of the former ANBU into her own unofficial club. It's quite strange," he said as though "strange" even approximated to a close-enough adjective to describe the situation.

Kakashi coughed.

"Yes, yes, well, all that aside," Anko said, "it seems as though there's really nothing to worry about. If someone was going to come assassinate you, we would have seen them by now." She was sure they would see the logic in her statement.

"Anko," Jiraiya said slowly.

"Yes?"

"Do you know something about this that you'd like to share with the group?"

She struggled to maintain the blythe expression she was known for. "Nope."

Jiraiya continued watching her face for a few long, silent, awkward moments after that. When he felt enough time had passed (ten minutes, to be precise), he spoke. "Perhaps we should start by interrogating the Root members to see what they know?" he suggested.

"I don't need to be here for that," Tsunade pointed out. "Let me see Naruto now."

"Dagnammit, Tsunade!" the Hokage yelled. "You'll see the kid shortly!" He rubbed his eyes, hoping that would wipe away his frustration and exhaustion. It didn't. "We will require your assistance in the event of any medical abnormalities among Danzou's Root."

Tsunade started to pale, but Shizune stepped forward and placed a calming hand on her mentor's arm. "I will gladly assist," she said.

"And so will Kakashi-san's new student, Haruno Sakura," Anko threw in. "She seems like the kind of kid that can learn to be a medic-nin." Nice work, she thought to herself. Subtle.

"Okay," Sarutobi agreed. He hadn't the strength to argue or question her further.

Kakashi tried not to blink too much. The Haruno as a medic-nin. The Uchiha would undoubtedly activate his Sharingan soon. Forget the Sannin, these would be the most powerful nin since the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara.

Somewhere, far off and very distant, an evil laugh was laughed.