Okayyy so I didn't think it would take me this long to update. And I'm really, really sorry! Junior year is just really, really tough! Cut me some slack, guys…

I still want to thank those who are still following this story, as well as newcomers to my story who have followed and favorited and reviewed. I really enjoy your reviews!

So, chapter ten. It's here. Enjoy.

…

"Investigation squad, why wasn't I notified of this earlier?" I barked at them, seething. They bowed their heads at me in deference.

"Kitsune-senpai, you were nowhere to be found until just recently. The fact that we initially mistook the fatal wound to be a chakra blade is unsettling—we will conduct better-quality autopsies from here."

I shook my head. "Never mind that—explain to me why this mistake occurred."

They then proceeded to say that when they'd first performed the autopsy, they focused on the heart—the commander had been seen grimacing and pressing a hand to his heart when he collapsed, right there in front of all the ANBU.

It was obvious, then, that they focused on the heart. The heart was slashed up to cause almost immediate death, but the ANBU commander had been fast enough to at least alert his subordinates. Chakra scalpels were also not a commonly known technique except in the shinobi medical community, so it was concluded that a medic-nin was the culprit.

With that discovery, they decided the chakra scalpel was the cause of death—and sure, alcohol was discovered in the bloodstream, but all shinobi drank now and then, and the ANBU commander had been a heavier drinker than most, even though his performance had never shown any discrepancies caused by too much intake of alcohol. That had then been reported to me, and most went on to interview the medic-nin at the shinobi hospital.

However, some found it a little too easy. The assassin shouldn't have been that messy with such an important individual as his target, right? And it didn't explain how the commander hadn't been able to fight off a single medic-nin…unless multiple medic-nin were "in on it."

The interviews having not been very conclusive (although they had a few suspicions about some medic-nin), and without me, the commander, there to give any further instruction, the investigation squad conducted another autopsy on the previous commander, this time choosing to focus on the organs. There had been no outward injuries, and although the cause of death could still have been the chakra scalpel, there was more to it. Further search discovered two different foreign liquids in the stomach and bloodstream. With a few of the most trusted medic-nin, the investigation squad identified the two liquids: one that acted as a poison to shut down the transportation of hormones from the brain's pituitary gland, and another that slowed and stunted an individual's ability to physically react quickly.

The ANBU were then suspicious of the alcohol having played some part in this. They traveled to a couple of the bars, interviewed many, and finally found that the commander had chosen to drink at a civilian bar under a simple henge. Apparently he hadn't wanted to be bothered that evening. Only the Hokage, surveying the village through his crystal ball at six pm, had seen him put on a henge of a muscular, green-eyed and blonde-haired man and then enter the bar called "Down the Hatch."

There, the bartender was interviewed as well. He couldn't quite remember anything—he had many customers, proudly stated by the bartender, too many to keep track of—except for a "gray-haired guy chattin' away with that buff dude you guys just described. Didn' know if he was gay or somethin'."

By this point, the cause of death had been pinpointed to be the poison that shut down the transportation of hormones—an important function that kept the body stabilized and functioning. The ANBU describing their investigation process did not go into the details of that, which I was thankful for—medical stuff was not my thing.

Now, it was these poisons that the investigation squad searched for. They searched the ANBU that were known to use these poisons, the small medical branch that also worked with poisons, as well as members of the investigation squad itself. This caused quite a bit of suspicion stirred up among the squad, but it was eventually resolved. It was assumed that these substances were slipped into the commander's drink when he wasn't watching—first, the non-scented substance that caused the targeted individual to react slowly, think a little slowly, and then the poison. The assassin would have to be very talented for that.

I nodded to them as acknowledgment I understood their explanation, and they bowed before leaving. I mused over this as I left the room as well. Who was this mysterious medic-nin?

Most medics were very busy. Their schedules were usually full, and they often did not have the time to waste to leisurely spend their evenings drinking. Shinobi were different—they could, in fact, choose how many missions they went on over a certain period of time. (As long as it wasn't wartime, of course. Wartime meant stricter schedules for everyone involved.) Their salary depended on which missions they took. Medic-nin, however, had a set schedule, and the day medics' shifts ended at exactly six pm while the night medics' shifts started at precisely six pm as well.

Apparently the Sandaime had said the previous commander entered the bar at six pm. This, in theory, meant any day medic-nin could be the culprit, since their shift ended at that time. However, that meant that the bar would need to be directly beside the hospital in order for the medic-nin to see the ANBU commander put on the henge and enter the bar, and proceed to follow him inside and shortly thereafter poison him.

The bar was on the other side of Konoha. Either the medic-nin was a foreigner, or a trainee with an erratic schedule, or someone who had access to the medical supplies and had medical abilities but did not openly display them. I would investigate it all, starting with the easiest: the trainees.

There were plenty of these trainees, but most did not progress up too high in the medical food chain. Generally, they became regular nurses who worked with big-wig medic-nin, and that meant they would not have access to these poisons. They would, however, have knowledge of where it was located, and it was easy enough to access the room containing the more dangerous supplies. Although dangerous, these supplies were needed regularly enough, and therefore too much security would only result in unnecessary delays.

With a quick step forward, I performed a shunshin and arrived at the entrance of the hospital, where doors were opening and closing as patients left and injured people entered, carried by harried-looking nurses. I strode forward, swiftly sliding the mask up and onto my hair, knowing the henge-holding seal I had stuck on my chest was activated and therefore I needn't worry about any of the medics denying any of my requests.

I headed to the front desk, where one young woman quickly turned to me, smiled prettily, and asked, "How may I help you, Commander-sama?"

"I'd like to see the profiles of all the trainees currently working at this hospital."

"Please insert a small amount of chakra into the verifier, then!"

I placed a hand on the slightly-glowing screen, and, as usual, separated the Kyuubi chakra from my own natural chakra before pushing in a bit of only my natural chakra.

"That's plenty," she chuckled, and waited for the chakra verifier to finish processing it and identify to whom the chakra belonged. I was sure my grey eyes, dark hair, and pale skin showed up, listed under the name Kitsune, as she glanced at me and nodded before bending down and rifling through the large row of folders in the drawer behind the desk.

I peered at her nametag. As she finally stood up and handed me a thin manila folder, I said, "Thank you, Rika-san."

She blinked, brown eyes wide. "No problem!"

I took the folder and quickly sat myself down in a hard, plastic chair in the waiting room, where worried family members or team members stood or sat, frowns and wrinkled foreheads and even tears on their faces. Then, with a quick flick, the cover opened and I glanced down at the first individual: Aki Rido. His profile consisted of a short list of his physical features, as well as a description of his accomplishments and aspirations, and reason for volunteering or working for the hospital. He had brown hair, however. It was possible the trainee had a henge on, but large amounts of chakra were required to keep a henge realistic for a long period of time; it would be logical, and I admit, easier, to limit my suspects (for now, at least) to gray-haired individuals.

I flipped through all of them, counting 81 in total. There were exactly six gray-haired individuals—three of whom were male. I had my list of suspects, and I memorized their names and appearances as well as general information before handing the file back to Rika.

"Could I have Ito Gen's, Sadaki Raimaru's, and Yakushi Kabuto's schedules?"

She nodded with a quick smile again, knowing full well I had the authorization to request this sort of information. Her expression was uncertain, though, as she handed those more-detailed files to me.

"They're all good kids," she added, brow wrinkling slightly. "I'm sure they wouldn't have done anything."

"We'll see," I said with a shrug. "Thanks."

Again, I flipped through these files, seated on my hard, plastic chair. Their schedules were erratic, for sure, and it just so happened that all of them did not have any volunteering scheduled during six pm.

"Tch," I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I'd have to investigate all three of them, then. First on the list was Ito Gen. I remembered his profile said he lived in the middle-class district, and only his father was a shinobi. His mother kept an apple orchard, and sold apples for a living. The next day, early in the morning, I sent a clone to my genin team meeting spot before locating the middle district and running towards it. It was the largest district in Konoha, but I had a vague notion of where Ito Gen's house was in the jumble of apartments and houses. After a couple minutes, I leaped down into the street, startling a couple civilians as I quickly strode into the bustling crowd, pulling another henge over my already-henged appearance.

Now, I was an unremarkable dark-eyed, brown-haired, middle-aged man. I held a clipboard with papers inked with charts and writing, and wore slightly formal clothing. Briskly striding up to an apartment, I stepped inside, notified the front desk that I was ANBU undercover and therefore they should not bother me and instead go along with what I was doing, and then rode the elevator up to the third floor. The Ito family lived on this floor, along with two other families.

As I rang their doorbell, I formulated a brief plan. I'd introduce myself as Susumu, part of building maintenance. The room below them had mentioned to the front desk that cracks kept forming in the ceiling, and there were leaks in some certain areas—but they didn't specify where. I'd have to check every single room because of that. Meanwhile, I would take special care in observing Gen's room.

Gen's mother opened the door, and after I informed her of what I was doing, she allowed me inside and offered to show me where all the bathrooms and sinks were. I politely declined, of course.

After scouring the rooms and noting details, I had found nothing suspicious. Nothing smelled like the samples of those poisons I'd briefly checked when the ANBU were giving me their report (one benefit from the Kyuubi that saved me time—I didn't have to go get an Inuzuka), and I found no hiding spots that Ito Gen could've used to hide the stolen poisons. With a brief nod to his mother, I left and continued investigating the other two suspects. It was only when I reached Yakushi Kabuto that something alerted me. He was the adopted son of a head of the Konoha Medic Corps, Yakushi Nonō; he'd taken the genin exam six times and failed the genin exam six times; and he'd been born in an enemy village: aspects that all immediately drew my suspicion.

Further investigation led me to the discovery that he hid his talents—I kept a constant vigil over him throughout the day, and at one point, he visited the training grounds, where he, after casting several genjutsu meant to hide himself from any passersby, displayed the abilities of a tokubetsu jounin.

Suspicion rising, I sent a clone to call for several ANBU. Once they arrived, I brief them on what I'd found, and ordered them to watch Yakushi for now. They were also to report anything else that might be of interest. Meanwhile, I entered his apartment with caution, searching, again, for the poisons.

And this time, I found them.

The scent was barely there—he was good at hiding things, but not good enough to hide from the nose of…well, the Kyuubi. I couldn't find the poisons themselves, and I assumed he'd long gotten rid of physical evidence. But he was a trainee. He would never have been given access to these poisons, which meant he'd stolen them. The gray-haired shinobi was listed as a genin, but he was of chuunin or jounin level. All the evidence pointed straight to my conclusion—Yakushi Kabuto was the previous commander's murderer.

I felt vindictive. I'd found my commander's murderer, and justice would be brought. But first, I had to report to the Sandaime. Finishing my search, I leaped across the buildings—

"Konohamaru!"

My…clone. And Sakura. And Konohamaru and his little gang. I was curious, but I wasn't going to be detained; I would receive the memories from my clone later on anyway.

"I'll teach you a lesson or two, little punk," a foreign voice growled.

Startled, I stopped on the roof nearby, and put my hand on the tiles. A moment later, my breath caught. A jinchuuriki was here. Two other chakra signatures I didn't recognize were below, and peering over the edge of the roof, I could tell that they were Suna-nin. One of them was grabbing the front of Konohamaru's shirt, and I scoffed at the display of pride in bullying a young child.

So the jinchuuriki was from Suna, since he or she stood nearby, presumably waiting for his two teammates to finish. That meant the Ichibi was here.

The Fox reacted, and I ruthlessly squashed it down, feeling cold sweat break out on my neck. I couldn't keep suppressing the Kyuubi with one of its kin so close by. The Suna jinchuuriki seemed to feel the same thing, since suddenly, he was looking straight towards me. Shit. I couldn't have him do anything to indicate he recognized me as a fellow jinchuuriki.

But then Sasuke was arriving. And there were three shinobi with music notes on the headbands. Sasuke seemed intent on diffusing the situation, and those three shinobi…must be from Otogakure, the village Orochimaru had mentioned in the notes I'd found. No other village had "music" or anything along the lines of "sound" or "hearing" in its name.

All of this raced through my head in a mere second before I leaped down anyway, disregarding the fact that Sasuke was coming. Knowing him, he'd try to do something ostentatious that could possibly rile up the Suna-nin even more, and I would prefer to interrupt the fight before it escalated to that point.

Furthermore, they were harming the Sandaime's grandson. It was my duty, especially as an ANBU member, to protect the Hokage and his family.

Killing intent leaked out. The genin with purple face paint paused mid-sneer, glancing over at me with slight caution. His teammate, blond hair pulled into four pigtails, looked a little more worried.

"Put him down," she hissed to her teammate. "That's ANBU."

"And the boy you're holding is the Sandaime's grandson," I added calmly. "If you'd like to avoid severe consequences, put him down immediately."

His eyes widened. He released Konohamaru, backing away from me warily, and at that moment, the Ichibi jinchuuriki chose to reveal himself.

"You're an embarrassment to our village, Kankuro," the boy said, a fanatical look in his pale sea foam eyes. Dark circles around his eyes immediately drew my attention, and I deduced it was from lack of sleep. Jagged, harrowing chakra radiated off of him, chilling the air and making Sasuke, having arrived on the opposite branch, look toward the Suna genin with suspicion.

The rest gasped at the sight of the redhead. He performed a shunshin, landing lightly on the ground beside his teammates, and gave me a wary onceover. I'd suppressed the Kyuubi's chakra to the best of my abilities, but still, he gave a surreptitious sniff, the scent of the Fox drifting through the air.

"I'm sorry for that," the jinchuuriki said evenly, eyes directed at me. I nodded once.

"Are you here for the Chuunin Exams?"

"Yes," the girl replied, looking at me with narrowed eyes. "You're short for an ANBU."

I only nodded again, sharply. "The Red Slash. You may have heard of me."

She sucked in a quick breath, as did her taller teammate. "I see. We'll be going, then."

They turned, striding away after quick nods to me, and were nearing the intersection when Sasuke leaped down as well, dark eyes shrewd. "What's your name?"

I swore I saw the blonde blush as she asked, "Me?"

"No. The gourd beside you."

Ichibi's container turned. Though he was shorter than his teammates, he had a much more menacing aura about him.

"Sabaku no Gaara."

Sea foam eyes studied Sasuke. "What's your name?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sasuke smirk. "Uchiha Sasuke."

The Uchihas were well-known, whether decimated or not. All of them showed just a slight inclination of having heard of the old clan. My clone scurried up behind us then, asking excitedly if the redhead—Gaara—wanted to know who he was as well, but Gaara dismissed him and met the challenging stare of Sasuke.

I cursed inwardly. Sasuke's competitiveness would be his downfall. I could imagine a future in which he competed with someone, found himself falling behind, and frustrated, did something drastic to further his own training, power his main focus. His brother, the international criminal, his ultimate opponent.

I couldn't let that happen.

"Leave immediately," I commanded, and they did so. Sasuke gave me an annoyed look, but soon enough, all of them dispersed once more, and I continued on my way to the Hokage's office, an inkling of suspicion in the back of my head. The commander's death, and the invasion of Konoha during the upcoming Chuunin Exams…Yakushi Kabuto, a genin, but with the abilities of a chuunin or a jounin…

I arrived at the Hokage's office, surprised to see several jounin assembled in front of the Sandaime, pipe in hand and smoke drifting upward. Pausing, I waited just outside the window, listening to the meeting inside and waiting to deliver my report after they left.

"It would also be interesting to crush them," Kakashi's languid voice floated through the window. There was just a hint of amusement in his voice, but apparently the man he was speaking with didn't catch on. Iruka's eyes narrowed in anger.

"What did you just say?"

"Joking aside," Kakashi continued, "Iruka-sensei, I understand what you want to say. But I also have something I want to say."

"Kakashi, enough already," Kurenai's mellifluous voice interrupted, wine-red eyes directed at her fellow jounin-sensei with rebuke.

"Stay out of this. They are not your students anymore. Now, they're my subordinates."

Kurenai closed her eyes. Tension rose in the room, judging by the hard look Kakashi sent Iruka and the furious expression on my old Academy teacher's face as the rest of the jounin remained completely silent.

Iruka began protesting again, but he was silenced by the Sandaime. The Sandaime then reassured him a preliminary exam would be given—and details were discussed. Once the meeting ended, I was finally able to give the Sandaime the information I'd acquired.

"Hokage-sama," I said, swiftly kneeling before his desk before straightening. "I have a suspect."

The Sandaime's face hardened. "Explain."

"It is Yakushi Kabuto. He is a genin, yet he displays skills far beyond that of a mere genin."

I went on to explain everything I'd found. All evidence (though scant) pointed to him; I had to commend him for covering up his tracks quite nicely—up until now, he'd stayed under the radar, and considering how many times he'd already failed the Chuunin Exam, that ability of subterfuge was admirable.

"Of course, it is not yet definite, sir," I concluded. "But I would like to make precautions beforehand just in case, and your opinion would be appreciated."

He waved for me to continue, expression grave.

"I'd like to keep from confronting him about this for now. However, I will assign several permanent ANBU to trail him and observe his day-to-day actions. They will report anything suspicious to me. I noticed earlier he was elected to, once again, take the Chuunin Exams—Hokage-sama, if I may ask, who are his teammates?"

The Sandaime, wrinkle lines crinkling as he frowned, rifled through a stack of papers before presumably locating the list of genin teams entering the Chuunin Exam.

"Akadō Yoroi and Tsurugi Misumi. You want them followed as well."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"And your reasons for having them followed and not confronted?"

"Evidence is not wholly conclusive. And waiting longer may eventually give us more reason to give a harsher punishment and keep him from weaseling out of anything by saying he hasn't done anything yet."

He nodded, appraising me. "Then I support your decisions. Go, Kitsune. Implement those plans."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." I paused. "I also have one more thing to report. It was something I happened to get caught up in as I was on my way here."

"Yes?"

I clenched my jaw. "The Ichibi jinchuuriki has arrived. Suna is going forward with their plans as we have previously discovered. His teammate happened to be threatening Konohamaru, Hokage-sama, so I intervened. I noticed three Oto-nin observing our confrontation as well. I cannot be sure what their intention was, however."

"Ah."

I became aware of a heavy tension in the air, and sketched a bow toward the Sandaime, having reported everything I felt was necessary to be reported to the Hokage. "By your leave, Hokage-sama."

He nodded absentmindedly, eyes grim and calculating as I left. He was worrying over the safety of the village and how best it would be kept. Meanwhile, I informed the ANBU I'd assigned on Yakushi's watch that they would be there for quite a while longer, possibly up until the Chuunin Exams and even during the Exam, in case Kabuto didn't do anything drastic until then. His actions seemed to be linked closer and closer to the Suna-Oto invasion, and I wanted to be cautious.

They accepted their role, and I called for several other ANBU to watch his teammates as well. In the end, it was two ANBU total for each genin—one for the day, and one for the night. These ANBU were specialized, more so than other ANBU as well, for subterfuge and secrecy, and I trusted them to keep their presences hidden from the genin. If they were discovered, that could spell disaster.

The rest of the day was spent fulfilling my duty as ANBU Commander. I completed all my paperwork with the help of my clones, and at 9:30 pm, retired for the night.

…

The next morning my genin team was given the Chuunin Exam applications. I cheered at receiving it, but inwardly, felt only dread at seeing the challenging smirk on Sasuke's face.

Kakashi gave us the instructions necessary for entering the Chuunin Exams, stating it was our choice, and our team was dismissed for the day. It was only when I separated from my teammates that Kakashi approached me once again, beckoning me silently to someplace more private.

We sat on my apartment roof, side by side, observing the view. A couple birds flew past, cawing as they flew, and my eyes remained riveted on them as Kakashi spoke.

"Naruto. You're Kitsune."

I nodded once, tensely. A quick exhalation from the man beside me.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

There was slight confusion, pain, and regret all at once in his voice. When I didn't answer immediately, he looked at me and said, "I'm sorry, Naruto."

I looked at my lap, my hands lying listlessly on my thighs. "Kakashi. I don't blame you for anything. Becoming ANBU…was the best thing that could have happened to me at that point in my life."

"I wanted Naruto—I wanted you to have a good, carefree childhood," Kakashi said, anguished. "I never wanted you to enter ANBU like that. I shouldn't have agreed to training you. You were only—"

"It doesn't matter what age I was," I cut him off. "What matters is that you were an awesome sensei. You still are. I'm grateful to you, so you shouldn't be—upset, or anything, that I didn't have a 'carefree childhood'—because I wouldn't have had one anyway. I grew up in the red light district, you know. I couldn't have integrated myself all that well into the orphanage, if I would even be allowed to integrate in the first place.

"Kakashi, I'm just glad you were there," I said, voice firm. "You helped me in the beginning. Whenever I freaked out about something, you calmed me down. You were like an older brother, or something as close to a father-figure as I could get. I know you regret not being able to take care of your sensei's kid, but you could barely take care of yourself at that time. Things played out pretty well, I would say. So don't look like that."

He stared at me, visible dark eye sad before he looked away. "If you say so, Naruto."

We fell into silence once again, and when I stood to leave, Kakashi stood as well and pulled me into a hug. It was uncomfortable, at first, and awkward too—neither of us were familiar with this, but I understood he was trying the best he could to convey that he cared. I wasn't completely alone, and I didn't have to shoulder every burden. I could talk to him if I wanted to, and for that, I was grateful.

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei," I mumbled, my arms relaxing by my side again as I looked up at him. He appeared to smile at the address I gave him, and then I said, "Iruka? You don't need to keep waiting."

The visage of a cloaked Ame-nin appeared before the henge faded and my old Academy instructor stood in his place. He looked at me oddly, and finally inclined his head at both of us.

"Kakashi, all of the, er, eight rookie genin passed. Naruto…you're—Kitsune?"

I grimaced. "Yeah. I hope you'll still treat me as Naruto, and not Kitsune?"

My genin instructor observed me for a moment, and then nodded, and I grinned at him. It wasn't a grin as big as Naruto's, but it wasn't the small, stiff smile I gave as Kitsune, either.

"Well, see ya later, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka…sensei," I said, waving at them, and with the visage of Naruto, I gave them both a wide grin, one that was easier than I expected, before leaping down into the streets of Konoha below.

…

Ends on something of an odd note, but next chapter begins the chuunin exam arc. I think. I haven't written it yet, which is bad news for you guys, but the good news is that I'm finally on summer vacation. I can finally spend time writing, yayyy

'Kay, to those who didn't bother logging in or who are random guests who still reviewed:

usaginekohime – Thank you!

random – Thank you! :3 And hi xD

Guest (1) – Action will come when it comes, dude. :P But thanks for the review!

Guest (2) – Thank you!

Guest (3) – Well, the summary does specify that it's an ANBU universe, so…why bother clicking on the story if you find that cliché? And the juxtaposition between Naruto's physical abilities and mental mindset is purposely done to illustrate how he's trying to figure himself out—and I feel like he's actually pretty mature for a 12-year-old.

Guest (4) – Finally updated! Thanks for leaving a review!

Guest (5) – Thank you! You're so sweet!

Guest (6) – Thank you! Finally updated!

KK – hi xD thanks for reviewing :D

toolazytologin – Thanks so much! Finally updated xD

furerjulian – Hi! So glad you stopped by! :P I'm still writing this, don't worry

Jon – Thank you so much! You're too nice! :O

Guest (7) – Naruto had to leave before explaining, because the other ANBU called Naruto on urgent business.

Grace – Thank you!

~paracuties