Chapter 5.

Pairing: Naruto x Yugao.

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A/N: As you can see, the winner of the pairing became Yugao. This is going to be interesting, I hope you think so too. Well, I certainly would hope so, you guys helped me pick. It was a close race, so I had to use a random number thing to help me, opinions were quite split to put mildly. I lost complete track of PMs, Reviews, and Guest Reviews requesting either Kurenai, Yugao, or Yugito. So yeah, a random number website, and it became Yugao.

And also, most of this chapter is written on my phone. Please be helpful in pointing out spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Thank you.

Hokage Tower

Waltzing through the Hokage tower, Naruto walked side by side with Shizune who was busy having him sign a few papers.

"That should be all. You have now officially agreed to be part of this initiative, how are you feeling Naruto-kun?" She asked softly, holding the small pile of papers against her chest.

Naruto hummed a bit at the question, giving a quiet shrug as he handed the pen he had borrowed back to her, "Well, I see this as a good thing. We are Shinobi, after all, we should always do what is best for our nation."

"That's very true, but, we are still human. You must have some personal opinions and feelings." Shizune tried against, nudging his arm slightly with her elbow.

Sighing Naruto just shook his head, "I already said I see this as good and necessary. And I'm proud to be part of it, and looking forward to meeting more comrades."

"How are you feeling about the fate of your former team?" Shizune then asked after nodding at his previous answer.

Shrugging again, Naruto frowned slightly, "It's not like it can't be reformed in the future, but right now, this is what is required in our present time. Sakura will have to understand this."

Shizune blushed a bit at having been caught asking this, having secretly thought about the pinkette, "She isn't feeling too good about it."

"Trust me I know. She came to me, seeking a fight. I didn't give in of course, but I'm most certainly annoyed." Naruto grumbled a bit.

Shizune couldn't help but giggle. That was so much Sakura. There was really no doubt about it. She still felt bad for the poor girl though, almost her entire life was changed in a day. She had lived for that team, and getting their teammate back. While she understood the importance of this team, Shizune did feel bad for the girl.

"Anyhow, I'll stop keeping you. Tsunade and the other members are waiting. You are last to arrive." Shizune quickly bowed and started to leave to get some work done.

"Even Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto called out with a snicker.

Shizune couldn't help but snicker back, shaking her head, "Even Kakashi, yes."

Waltzing up to Tsunade's office, Naruto briefly knocked on the door before grasping the door handle, pushing the door open.

Looking around him, he spotted a few people he knew. And a few he didn't. Looking over, he waved to the familiar persona, his sensei.

Tsunade's gaze locked onto him as he walked into the room. Coughing into her hand, she smirked and watched the five people standing in a row in front of her.

"Alright! Welcome, everyone. You're all here today because you've accepted becoming Konoha's sources of strength. Our absolute elite response team. So let me start out by saying, welcome to your first day, as The Hashira." Tsunade's mouth smirked widely as she proclaimed their titles. The Hashira, meaning pillars.

Kakashi sweatdropped a bit at that, 'Hashira? That just means pillar. I guess it does make sense, she did call us the pillars of strength last time.'

The people in the room looked at each other and nodded.

The first one Naruto noticed was none other than Neji Hyuuga. He shouldn't really be surprised though. The Jounin was a genius and had the most refined Byakugan of his generation. Noticing Neji give a small smirk and a nod, the blond couldn't help but grin and wave.

Kakashi recognized the remaining two people and chuckled with an eye smile. "Neh! It's good to see you two again, Yugao, Tenzo."

The first one mentioned was Yugao. Yugao Uzuki. A woman wearing the standard uniform of Konoha's ANBU. What interested Naruto about her, was her unique purple hair and the fact she was carrying a sword on her back.

"I'm looking forward to working with all of you." She responded calmly with a small smile, her brown deep eyes gazing around at her new team.

Everyone smiled back at her saying 'likewise' with the exception of Neji, who grunted his agreement with a small nod of his head.

The last member of The Hashira was wearing the same as Yugao, but with the exception of a sword. Smiling a bit, he turned to Kakashi. "Kakashi-senpai. Everyone." Was his greeting, waving his hand to the people around him.

"Yugao Uzuki. Kakashi Hatake. Neji Hyuuga. Naruto Uzumaki. Tenzo. You five will now be known as Konoha's Hashira! The five pillars of strength. You will work either alone, or put together with other Hashira forming all from a two-man to five-man cell. Beyond S-Class missions or catastrophes, you'll all work together as one unit." Tsunade called their names out, gaining their attention as she proclaimed them of their new titles.

Tenzo coughed into his hand, drawing people's attention. "So what's our objective Hokage-sama?"

Acknowledging his question, Tsunade nodded, "Right. You five are exceptional shinobi lead by Kakashi here. Your objective is to face threats normal shinobi units can't or won't. People like Akatsuki, and Orochimaru."

Satisfied with the answer, Tenzo bowed and stepped back. Yugao was the next to step forward, gazing out of the corner of her eyes to the young blond male. "No offense to Naruto-san, but isn't he only a genin?"

"As of the other day where he beat Kakashi, he was promoted to Jounin." Tsunade calmly answered, making Yugao's eyes slightly widen. This blond boy she had chased around as a kid, had bested her senpai?

Looking up at Kakashi for confirmation, she gaped as he just sweatdropped with a scratch to his head.

"I see. Congratulations Naruto-san. I'm looking forward to getting to know this new strength of yours." She bowed his direction, making him sweatdrop too.

"Easy Yugao-san, we're all teammates now. We can relax around each other." Tenzo smiled and places a hand on her shoulder, making her blush slightly from being too formal.

Tsunade nodded with a beamingly bright smile. "Exactly Tenzo. You should all get to know each other before your next assignment."

Kakashi perked slightly up and hummed, "Ano, do we have a base of operations?"

Tsunade gave a cunning grin, crossing her arms under her bust. "As your first bonding mission. I'm assigning all of you to go together to get a place. As soon as you find your new place, I'll have your uniforms sent to the address."

"Well, what's supposed to be in this base? So we can have an overview of how much we need." Kakashi quickly got into his role, preparing a mental price idea.

Tsunade hummed and took a pen with a piece of paper and started to write down. "Baths, sleeping quarters, training grounds, jutsu vault, weapons vault, sword forging, kitchen, laundry room. And every other necessity of a common household." Tsunade finished and handed them the note along with a check.

"That should be half the money. The place will feel more like home if you go together to buy it. So I suggest that quitting your current living situations is a good way to save some money." Tsunade finished, and Kakashi and Naruto looked at each other.

Seems like they weren't going to be roommates anymore. They would, but, not the same way. Maybe they could bunk together unless they all got their own room.

"Mah, let's get to it people. All of you go pack at home, seal your belongings into scrolls and meet back here at the bottom of the Hokage tower and we will all give an equal amount of money. And if we can't, we will figure a way out to make those unable to do so, pay off in another way. Sounds good?" Kakashi instructs casually, looking around as they all nod back.

"Alright then. Scatter!"

Naruto was the first one to finish packing. He didn't really have a lot of stuff in his room at Kakashi's apartment. He had only slept there for like two days anyhow.

Having all of his stuff sealed into a scroll, he sighed and left his room. Entering the hallway, he watched with amusement as Kakashi was stacking boxes with his stuff in the living room, with the bottom box being quite familiar to the both of them, now. It did contain their book collection, after all.

"I'll go meet up with anyone having finished early. See you at the tower." Naruto called, and before Kakashi could reply he had already shunshined out of the house and to the Hokage tower.

Landing at the entrance to the plaza in front of the tower, Naruto waltzes slowly through the small gate. Looking around him, he spotted the tall man with short brown hair from earlier. Walking over, Naruto lifted his arm in a wave, "Hi, Tenzo, right?"

"Correct. And you are Naruto-san." Tenzo greeted back, turning his gaze to the young blond.

"Just Naruto is fine, as you said earlier, we are a team now." Naruto chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest.

Scratching his head a bit embarrassed, Tenzo nodded with a sheepish grin, "Right."

A more awkward silence came over them after. They were still only just getting acquainted after all.

"So, you use a sword?" Tenzo asked after some time, making the blond nod.

Grabbing the hilt of his sword, Naruto pulled it up to let Tenzo see the sheath, "Hai, I got it while I was away training."

"Got a style yet?" Tenzo continued.

Nodding again, Naruto let go of his sword and let it fall back against his hip, "I've created my own."

Nodding impressed, Tenzo smiled at the younger male, "That's impressive! I'd like to witness it. Yugao-san is also a kenjutsu user, the two of you should talk. She is a great user of the Mikazuki no Mai. (Crescent Moon Dance.)"

"I see, that's amazing…" Naruto acknowledged with great interest. He had already seen her with her sword earlier, but the news about her using one of Konoha's own kenjutsu styles and apparently being good at it, increased his interest greatly.

"What about you then? What's your special talent?" Naruto asked this time.

While smiling, the older male sat down on a nearby bench. "Believe it or not, Mokuton. (Wood Release.)"

Looking at him with disbelief, Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly. "Show me."

Tenzo chuckled, having already seen this coming long ago. Extending his palm up, Naruto's eyes widened when suddenly the older man's hand started to morph into wood with a few small branches with green leaves sticking out from the side of his fingers.

"Would you look at that…" Naruto responded with shock as Tenzo's hand returned to normal.

Before Tenzo had any time to answer, Yugao and Neji showed up from respectively left and right. Greeting each other, Naruto looked curiously at Yugao as Neji stood in beside him.

But before he could great the purple-haired woman, Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves and wind. "Looks like we are all here."

After looking them over a second, Kakashi clapped his hands together. "Alright, I have a suggestion. We can either go for what Tsunade said, or.. we could use my father's old house and use the money given to us to lighten the place up and fix stuff around the property."

"Senpai…" Tenzo started, knowing how hard this decision must have been to make for Kakashi considering his past with his dad.

"It's alright." Kakashi quickly reassured, but the two youngest Hashira had a lot of questions now.

Everyone seemed to be thinking before Neji spoke up, "It would save us money to go with your father's property. The extra money could be used wisely elsewhere."

"Kakashi-sensei, what does the house have of the essentials that Baa-chan mentioned?" Naruto asked curiously next, making people turn to Kakashi again.

Thinking for a second, Kakashi shrugged, "I'd say most of them. There are six rooms in total, but my father's room is off-limits. There are two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. There are two training grounds, a small jutsu vault, and a basement for storage."

Neji nodded his head after hearing this, closing his eyes as he calmly said, "The extra money could be used for new training gear then and we would still have a lot leftover."

"True, but the place is in great need of repairs here and there, so we will all have to help out there." Kakashi sighed, predicting the state of his former house after all these years.

Despite the unwilling desire of renovating a house that size flew through them, they all agreed anyhow. Their mission was to bond, and renovating what's supposed to be their home now together might be a good plan.

"Let's get to it then. We're wasting sunlight." Naruto smirked, making the others chuckle with him as Kakashi started to lead the way.

Kakashi's father's house was a quite large one-story building made in a nice L-shape. It looked like a traditional house compared to their former living situations. Paper sliding doors, a rice field on the opposite side of the road, and two Sakura trees at the small gate leading into the property that was surrounded by a large fence.

Kakashi was the first one to walk in with Naruto in tow. The blond looked curiously around. The outside areas were pretty nice. He could see one training ground at the front filled with training dummies. That most likely meant the other one was in the backyard. The grass was untamed and unruly, and the bushes and trees were looking quite feral compared to the neighbor houses' properties. It must really have been a long time since Kakashi was here at all.

Making their way up on the porch, Kakashi sighed and latched onto the door and slid it open revealing a fair-sized hallway with what should be enough room for their sandals and eventual cloaks and jackets. And if it wasn't, well, they would have to use the space in their rooms for the remains.

Kakashi sighed softly and called out into the house, "I'm home." Before walking inside. The other Hashira simply let their leader get some peace and quiet by staying silent as he let them inside. The place was filled with dust and spiderwebs. Most of the furniture looked worn out, and the house smelled awful. The drains and pipes probably hadn't been looked at in a decade at this rate.

Yugao groaned a bit at the smell, covering her nose with her hand as the group entered the living room and split out on the space. The living room was simple. Two black leather couches, and a few comfortable-looking chairs with a short coffee table in the middle. All of it placed in front of a fireplace on top of a white carpet. Okay, the place was actually quite nice but required a lot of cleaning.

Next up was the kitchen, which was joined with the living room with the exception of a half-wall to slightly separate the two places. It was quite small but seemed to be able to fit two people in there comfortably. They would have to make dinner, breakfast, and lunch in teams then.

In the corner of the living was the remaining part of the house that was making up it's L-shape. Two decent sized bathrooms, one at the start and one at the end of the hallway. Only one of them had a bathtub though. The doors to their rooms were split down along the hallway, all looking quite plain and simple but nice in size. They would have to decorate them themselves obviously.

"Welcome to my home. The door down at the end is my father's room. If we want this to work, you'll all have to promise me that you will never under any circumstances enter it. That's my only rule aside from keeping the place nice and comfortable when we are done cleaning and fixing it up." Kakashi spoke softly as they all joined up in the living room again.

"Hai, Taichou." They responded in unison.

Nodding gratefully, Kakashi picked the room right next to his father's and spoke. "This was my old room when I was a kid, so I'll take this one. Feel free to pick out your rooms." He stated simply and walked in and looked around the place with nostalgia.

Looking at each other, they all shrugged. Yugao, Tenzo, and Neji picked the three rooms on the left side of the hallway. And Naruto picked the last room beside Kakashi's on the right side.

Walking inside the blond looked around. There was a double-bed in the middle of the room right below the lone window. It was quite simple. A desk to the left placed right in the corner with a chair. A dresser, a few cabinets, and a sliding door into a small closet where he could hang up his clothes.

Pacing around in the room, Naruto unsealed his scrolls containing his belongings and placed them on the desk. This place would need some severe cleaning before he would consider using it. So with a small smirk, he got a flashback to his genin days.

"How come this always comes in handy?" He mused to himself before crossing his fingers.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Jutsu!)"

Kakashi was having a trip down memory lane. He had lost his father while living here. Actually, he probably shouldn't tell the others that he found his father's cold lifeless body slumped over the living room floor. Yeah, that wouldn't be his greatest decision.

Putting the broom away and the piece of cloth he had used to wipe his desk and other surfaces in the room with, he sighed and took his headband off to wipe his forehead with a small groan. To think that it actually took him three hours to make this small space seem nice again was beyond him.

Shaking his head, he started putting his stuff away. After hanging his clothes up in his wardrobe and hiding his precious book collection in the back of the closet, he grinned and opened the window to get some fresh air in. Deciding to see how the rest of his team were doing, he stepped out into the hallway and noticed the lack of sounds from the others and figured they were about done as well.

Pacing over to his blond student's room, he gently knocked on the door before stepping inside. The room was almost like before, not that it surprised him, the blond didn't have a lot of stuff when he moved in with Kakashi the last time, so the stuff worth noticing that was new in the room was the pieces of paper and bottles of ink on the laid all over the desk, and several labeled scrolls sorted out on the shelves.

Fixing his gaze onto the bed, he sweatdropped as he heard some light snoring. Laying on top of his blankets was Naruto, with one of his books placed over his head while he rested his hands on his stomach that was slowly rising and falling along with his breathing.

Shoving his hands inside his pockets, Kakashi lifted his foot and lightly kicked at the bottom of the blond's feet, "Sleeping on the job are we?"

Naruto shifted lightly and yawned. Grabbing the book laying on top of his head, he put in his bookmark and placed it on the nightstand he had brought along with him from Kakashi's old apartment. "Finished up hours ago. Y'all were taking forever, so I decided to go ahead and take a nap."

"I doubt you were that quick about it. You never organized any of your stuff before in your life. Your old apartment was the dumpster behind the academy." Kakashi chuckled and walked slowly around the room.

Naruto rose a brow onto his forehead as he swung his feet off the bed, following Kakashi's movement, "My clones are a quite neat trick. Don't tell me you didn't think about that."

Sweatdropping at his own ignorance, Kakashi just coughed and decided not to answer that. Walking up to the desk where the paper and ink were laid out nicely with a brush at the side, Kakashi hummed to himself, "So Jiraiya taught you sealing?"

"Somewhat" Naruto answered through a yawn while standing to his feet. Stretching slightly, he paced over and grabbed his haori out of the closet and swung it over his shoulders, and put it on.

Nodding at the answer, Kakashi walked back out into the hallway, "Meet me outside in ten minutes at the training ground at the front. We'll go through some teamwork exercises."

Naruto just nodded dumbly and placed his sword back at his hip.

Tsunade was having a good day so far. She had finished almost half of today's paperwork, and it was just a little past four in the afternoon. Stretching she stood up and looked out over the village. A new era was starting, and her favorite blond gaki was in the middle of it. She couldn't be more proud. The boy had changed greatly but was still Naruto at heart. He had just grown up.

He had gotten strong too. To think he managed to beat both Jiraiya and Kakashi was just an amazing accomplishment.

Reaching for her bottle of sake, she smiled and brought it up to her mouth to take a sip but choked lightly on the liquid as her door was slammed open by Shizune who was breathing heavily with a letter in her hand.

"What's the matter?" Tsunade groaned and looked slightly annoyed until her student pulled the letter up.

"Tsunade-sama! The Kazekage has been taken by the Akatsuki! More specifically, Sasori of The Red Sand and Deidara from Iwagakure was behind it! Also, Kankuro, The Kazekage's brother is severely injured and poisoned, they request immediate aid with his condition and rescuing the Kazekage." Shizune yelled out panting hard.

Tsunade's eyes widened as her grip on the sake bottle became loose, and before long, the bottle dropped with its contents shattering all over the floor. Tsunade gritted her teeth and slammed her palm onto her desk.

'Damn those Akatsuki! I didn't think it would be so soon. I hope they are ready because we don't have time to figure something else out. Gaara has already been taken, his life is on the line and the clock is ticking. Those will have to do.' Tsunade thought to herself with frustration.

"Milady! Requesting immediate orders! What am I supposed to do? Who are we sending, or are we aiding them at all?" Shizune rambled out.

Groaning Tsunade slammed her fist into the desk and stood up, "Shizune, send word for Sakura and Ino! Those two will help in treating Kankuro since I cannot be there myself. As for dealing with the Akatsuki… Send word for The Hashira."

"B-But Tsunade-sama, they were formed today, you can't seriously mean you want to deploy them so soon?!" Shizune whispered out in surprise.

Punching her desk to splinters Tsunade yelled in outrage, "They were put together exactly for this kind of situation! The Akatsuki is striking, and we made a team of elite shinobi to deal with a threat such as them. True it is sooner than I would have liked, but we can't dwell on the details! They are the only chance we got, and we can't waste any more time putting together a rescue team of personnel selection!"

Taking a step back from Tsunade's outroar, Shizune gulped and nodded, "Hai! I'll send word immediately!"

In The Hashira's base of operations, Kakashi was busy getting to know all of his team members' strengths. Neji was obviously the most close-range fighter they had. His only ranged attack being one of his Jūken attacks that were barely medium range as it is. Despite his lack of range, his skill as a close-up fighter was beyond impressive, and with his genius mind, he was a dangerous opponent.

Tenzo was an old friend of his, so to say that he had to learn about him was a joke. Tenzo was more a support fighter than he was long-range. His Mokuton ninjutsu arsenal had a lot of defensive abilities and a few for an offense. Yet, it was fairly obvious to Kakashi why Tenzo had been put on this team aside from his unique skills and fighting capabilities.

Yugao and Naruto were mostly the same. Both of them were skilled in kenjutsu, the only difference between was that Yugao had more experience in using her sword than the blond, but Naruto had a lot more firepower than her. Plus, he apparently knew a fair amount of Suiton ninjutsu as well. A kenjutsu fight between those two would be hard to predict. Yugao could outsmart him, but Naruto could take the upper hand by overpowering her. An interesting fight that would be.

Blinking a few times Kakashi turned his head up as he got out of his line of thoughts. They were all on the training ground. At the moment they were paired up two and two, Yugao and Tenzo, and then Naruto and Neji.

Looking toward the two youngest members of the squad, Kakashi chuckled as the two young Jounin was already sparring together in a taijutsu match. That was quite amusing, and he wondered why they were doing taijutsu. Neji should have the upper hand in that field, but Kakashi knew from experience that underestimating Naruto was a bad thing.

"Ready to go again?" Naruto smirked slightly as he prepared himself to go for a second round. In response, Neji calmly nodded and took his stance, while rearing his palm back as he activated his bloodline.

Dropping his haori onto the ground, Naruto cracked his fingers and took his own stance. It all seemed to get the interest of the rest of the team. Gathering around the two youngest members, the other Hashira looked on with interest as the two simply stood completely still without moving in to attack yet.

Staring at each other for what felt like an eternity to the bystanders, Naruto and Neji didn't move a single muscle as the wind brushed through their hair and swayed their clothes lightly around as they remained in their stances.

Neji scoffed slightly at this new Naruto. The old Naruto would have moved in for the first shot, but this new one didn't seem to. "If you won't move first, I will." He calmly responded and took off in Naruto's direction.

As Neji threw his palm forward Naruto quickly jumped to the side and sent a roundhouse kick toward the Hyuuga's head. Neji with his Byakugan almost immediately caught on and ducked under the blond's foot before moving in closer, sending another palm strike laced with chakra toward the blond's chest.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and pushed Neji's palm out of the way and went for a punch directed at the Hyuuga's chest in return, which Neji calmly blocked with his palm. This went on for a solid ten minutes. Neji and Naruto trading blows all across the training ground.

"Your taijutsu has improved since the last time. I'll need to pick up the pace." Neji smirked slightly. It should have been expected really, but it still managed to surprise him that the former knucklehead had improved this greatly.

The blond Jounin returned the smirk and leapt back a few feet as Neji started to prepare a familiar stance that he had used back in the chunin exams days as well. Yet, before he could call out his technique, they were interrupted.

"Hold it." Kakashi firmly shouted as the two lost their stances and turned to Kakashi with curious gazes."We have a visitor." Kakashi finished and turned around to face a masked man kneeling before the spectating members of The Hashira.

"Hokage-sama has summoned the newly formed unit called The Hashira for a matter of utmost importance. Sunagakure's Kazekage, Gaara no Subaku, has been captured by the Akatsuki. You're told to show up at the Hokage's office in less than five minutes." The man explained before using the shunshin to leave the area again.

The most visible reaction beside shock, was Naruto's reaction of intense anger. With gritted teeth the blond clenched his fist tightly with veins throbbing all along his arm. 'Gaara…'

Once again I'm extremely sorry for the wait. I have close to zero time at all to work on these stories, and I can only work on them on a phone or school computer during weekdays.

Remember to follow my Twitter! "Skairipa1337" For news on stories and chapters.

Question of the chapter: What do you think Suna's reaction to this new Naruto is going to be? Would Naruto or Neji have won a taijutsu spar? Let me know your thoughts and theories.