Allo!

How're you all doing?

Another new story is out but never fear, I will continue Silent Night.

I just felt like releasing this story because I want to get something out while I'm working on the next chapter of the aforementioned ff. I've had this story in my computer for months now.

A little about this story then…the Naruto here, like with all my stories, will be OOC. And like with a number of my stories, this will be dark. Right off the bat, it's going to be dark, so be prepared.

Lastly, this story will have only three chapters (or at most, four).

Enjoy…

CHAPTER 1

The Godaime wasn't giving him a choice.

"That thing that makes you special…that power that keeps the Kyuubi at bay…" the Hokage said as she looked down on the bedridden boy with shaded disdain. Her face stayed graciously neutral as she spoke. "Is no more."

Naruto couldn't look up at her, he clenched his bed sheets with his pale hands and his shaggy blonde hair shaded his cerulean blue eyes from being seen. He didn't say anything as his superior spoke down to him.

"You are of no use to us, not in your current state." She said stoically. "It was your abilities that have kept you in Konoha and now you have nothing…you have no use to me or the village."

The silence between them was tense as the boy didn't move or breathe as she spoke.

"Do you not have anyone precious to you in this world?" the woman asked sharply, crossing her lean but powerful arms. The Hokage's robes on her shoulders swished with her movement and her wide brimmed Kage's hat cast a shadow over her face. "Anyone you wish no harm come to? Do you not have anyone?"

Naruto didn't move, even as the faces of the few people he held dear flashed through his mind.

Laughing.

Smiling.

Happy.

He had nothing but they were his everything.

In a village where he was detested for situations and circumstances out of his control, he had his trusted few and with them he was content to keep living.

The woman didn't see the small twitch of his hands as he closed his eyes, fighting back the tears.

"I want you out of this village and as far away from Konoha as possible." She ordered, giving him no room to argue. "To protect your precious people…I want you gone by this evening."

She turned on her heel and stopped at the door, still with her back to the former ROOT operative.

"Kill yourself once you get to the other side of the continent." She looked over her shoulder and frowned. "That…is your last order."

The silent boy was left alone in the dim lighting of his hospital room.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Nine hours earlier

"You know the rules, no weapons allowed." The young receptionist said as she suspiciously eyed the teen before her.

"Of course." The blonde boy mumbled and brought out nine scrolls out of nine complex, artfully intricate storage seal tattoos on his upper arms and abdomen. Dropped a set of kunai and shuriken on the desk, placing alongside it a pair of forearm and shin protectors, a set of poison senbon and the last weapon was a single, small knife from the heel of his light blue shinobi sandal.

The pale boy looked at his weapons on the woman's desk, a sense of nakedness and vulnerability washed over him as the woman placed his things behind the desk, always keeping her eyes on the blank faced, fox whiskered blonde. He wrinkled his nose in hidden irritation and the sharp canines poking down from under his upper lip lengthened ever so slightly.

As per the norm for all his visits to the institution, there were five armed guards waiting for him at the door, five in the receptionists area he was in and four that walked by him to the room he was scheduled to be in. They all stopped before the door leading into the hallway and the leader of the armed guards, an ANBU wearing a Badger mask, made a motion with his right pointer finger and Naruto opened his arms and turned around, spreading his legs. The ANBU captain patted down his bare arms till his short dark red sleeves, making sure to put extra precaution and care into checking his torso for any hidden weapon and then his ankle length ninja pants, devoid of back pockets but the front held only a one hundred ryu note and the keys to his small cottage near the Hokage's monument. Another ANBU, this one a female and wearing a Viper mask, ran a palm over his face and neck, then to his arms to make sure the storage seal tattoos were truly empty and that he didn't have a secret, unseen tattoo on his face. The last two shinobi, both of whom were wearing a black and white Monkey ANBU mask respectively looked through his hair for anything that looked threatening.

"He's clear."

The boy's face gave away nothing as they led him down the wide corridor of doors to the one at the far back to the left, closest to the head office at the end of the hallway.

Since the raid on the ROOT headquarters three years ago, no one trusted him.

Danzo was labelled a wanted man for resisting arrest and willingly attacking ninjas that had come for him. The Godaime, Tsunade Senju, had vowed to bring the man to justice, to be punished for all his crimes before, during and after the three wars he witnessed. Shimura Danzo had managed to escape with less than half of his loyal ROOT while the rest were either killed or recovered, as were the case of those younger than ten and could still be saved from the war hawks brainwashing techniques.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, had lost his life in the mad fray against his former friend and was replaced by his female student, Tsunade Senju as the Godaime Hokage.

Naruto had been ten years old when he was found by the invading ANBU ninjas and he was almost to the end of an illegal, highly intensive training method that had been outlawed as far back as the second shinobi war for its absolute inhumane and cruel nature of the exercises. They had said that it was because he was an Uzumaki that he had survived the training; others assumed it was because of the Kyuubi.

Some said because of both.

The main point was that Naruto was the most feared individual in all of Fire country.

His other rehabilitating ROOT comrades were not nearly as dangerous as him and security around them was merely reduced to a few ninjas vigilantly watching them every once in a while, charged to take them down once they showed even the slightest sign of defecting. After a few months they were allowed to enter the academy to become ninjas and a large number of Danzo's recovering black ops did so, Naruto included.

The blonde thirteen year old had been promoted on special grounds that there was nothing to teach him and no one he could spar against, even the teachers.

Naruto had stayed on the straight and narrow ever since, or as law abiding as a recovering ROOT shinobi could ever be, and yet the security around him had only increased.

He couldn't blame them for being scared of him; even if he had lost touch with his emotions and obeying the orders of his superiors had irreversibly been ingrained into his very being since the very first day of his training under Danzo, it did not make him any less of a flight risk.

From the shinobis point of view, he wouldn't put it against them if they put him down but, strange enough, Kakashi had placed a lot of hope on his shoulders. Tsunade had begrudgingly allowed the copy ninja to become Naruto's parole officer, of sorts.

Essentially, Naruto was in Kakashi's ANBU team, as a chunin ANBU trainee, but he was not allowed to go on missions alone, not unless Kakashi was with him.

Still, among the requirements Naruto had to pass through to reach the status of a 'trusted' member of the society, he had to check up on his psychiatrist.

Dr Io Yamanaka.

The name of the Deputy Head of the Konoha Shinobi Mental Rehabilitation Institution, or the Konoha Psych Ward, was written on a bronze plate on her door.

Without hesitation, Naruto rapped his knuckles on her door three times. Half a minute later, the door opened and standing on the other side was a slightly smiling woman with long pale blonde hair, tied into a neat pony tail and thrown over her right shoulder, and a healthy tan, her teal green eyes sparkled pleasantly when they saw Naruto standing before her, rigid and composed before the four older ninjas. The woman wore a white doctor's coat with a light green and black dress underneath that reached her knees with black tights and normal black shinobi sandals. There was a green armband on her upper left arm and on her forehead was the Leaf hitaite.

Her whole face lit up as she registered who had knocked on her door. Normally, she would call for the person to enter and not open the door herself but it had become a tradition for the doctor and the patient-so as to break Naruto's almost one-track mind on serving and procedure; subordinates were to obey their superiors and in their case, seeing as Io was a jounin shinobi and Naruto was a chunin, he was taught to follow procedure no matter. She saw the tell-tale signs of mild confusion on his face, no matter how many times they had done this, and she said with a kind smile.

"Hello Naruto."

Naruto kept his hands at his sides and bowed forward. "Good morning, Doctor."

She took off her forehead with a fluid sweeping motion, somehow not messing up her light makeup or smudging her purple lipstick, and reached over to the boy, ushering him into her large office with a gentle hand on his shoulder.

The four ninjas made to enter with him but she shook her head.

"Stay outside, please."

"Are you sure, ma'am?" Badger asked, watching as the thirteen year old former ROOT operative marched into the woman's office and took his place on a couch near the window on the opposite side of the room, rigidly swinging his legs onto the soft green chair and lying back with his head propped up by cushions, lacing his fingers over his abdomen and keeping his eyes staring straight ahead, at nothing in particular. Though there were a few expensive paintings on the wall his feet were facing, she noted that his eyes were fixed on one spot and didn't move away from that one spot. His body stilled and his breathing became shallow and almost unnoticeable.

"Like the past three years, Badger, I'm sure." She closed the door in his face and crossed her arms. "Naruto?"

The boy sat up and brought his feet to the ground almost before his name finished coming out of her lips. "Doctor."

"What was our agreement?"

His cerulean blue eyes became unfocused for a split second before he replied. "Lady Io."

It was the closest he could get him to being informal with her. She raised an eyebrow. "And?"

The boy got to his feet and moved to her desk, he untied his forehead protector and stared at it in his hands for a short moment, tracing the Leaf symbol on the piece of metal with his eyes before he gently placed it onto her desk and marched back to the sofa, lying back down again.

"No need to act all dramatic, Naruto. You'll get it back after our session."

"Yes, ma'am." Io often said that she wanted Naruto to be as free and open as possible; she didn't want them to talk like doctor and patient or as superior and subordinate, but as two friends.

She let his form of address slide as she placed her own forehead protector by his and took her seat on a chair close to the sofa, picking up a pen and notepad from a table beside the chair and leaning back with her right leg crossed over her left. Io looked at the boy on the sofa for a few seconds, mulling over all their past sessions in her mind.

Her cousin and the head of the institution, Inoichi Yamanaka, had passed on Naruto into her capable hands as soon as the Godaime had mandated that the boy get frequently checked on. He had immediately been deemed a flight risk but one that could not simply be killed or tossed away.

He was a nice-albeit misguided and broken-kid if they actually got to talk to him. Io, Kakashi and Yugao knew this very well. He followed orders to the letter, even at the detriment of his own health and he didn't oppose his superiors in any way, shape or form. She had read a full report on what Danzo had done to Naruto concerning the banned training method and the conditioning training, most of which was written by the boy himself, and she could somewhat understand why people were hesitant to empathize with him.

Naruto's eyes flicked to her after five minutes of silence and she sighed with a hidden frown at the dark shadows under his eyes and the invisible tired twitch of his lips, his whole face empty of life or care.

Io didn't have any kids of her own, and she didn't intend to have any time soon, but she had a niece and two nephews that she absolutely adored. She didn't even want to imagine the things she would do to save them from the darkness this boy before her had been immersed in for the greater part of his life.

The simple fact was that Naruto was the result of the Sandaime's neglect and no one wanted to acknowledge that.

The good doctor gave credit to the Godaime for not immediately giving up on Naruto and she appreciated how Kakashi and Yugao were personally taking steps to help Naruto enter the society again but that couldn't be said for the rest of the populace. It was why she recommended her young friend to stay as far away from them as possible so as not to risk the chance of one of their foul words finally getting to him and he snaps in retaliation. So far, he hadn't displayed any toxic emotions towards them-or any emotion at all for that matter-but no one wanted to take that chance, not until they were absolutely positive he wouldn't commit Konoha's second mass genocide.

"How did you sleep, Naruto?"

"I slept well, ma'am. How did you sleep?"

"Well…It was ok, I guess. I dreamt I was running on a field," she motioned to the sky outside. "It was a really nice day; the sun was shining; only a few white clouds in the sky and the grass was soft and cool." She looked to the boy and noticed he was looking at her aptly, focused on each word she said.

"Sounds like a good dream."

"Did you dream last night?"

His eyebrows furrowed and he was silent for a minute, then he shook his head. "I did…but I can't remember…"

"That's fine."

"…How are you able to remember your dreams, ma'am?"

"Lots and lots of mind exercises, meditating and all that."

"But, ma'am…I meditate too. I meditate every morning for ninety nine minutes."

"You could also say that my clan specialty makes it easier for me to lucid dream and recall my dreams." She tapped his crinkled forehead, something that marred his marble smooth, porcelain pale skin. "I can teach it to you sometime. My meditation method, I mean, not my clan's secrets."

"Thank you." For a fraction of a second, the corners of his eyes lifted up slightly.

"What time did you get up?"

"04:09AM, ma'am."

"That's very good, Naruto."

"It is?"

"Yes, very, very good." he never once looked away from her, scanning her face for any lies and then he graced her with a small, short eye smile again.

"It's still a bit too early for someone your age but it's far better than getting up at nine." She looked at the seal tattoos littered on his arms distastefully; the coloured body ink art crawled into his shirt and onto his belly and his upper back. "I wish you found another way to overcome your impulse though…"

That was Naruto's main problem.

He was obsessed with the number nine.

Io, after a round of questions and a few months of observing, noted that it had been from when he was a child in the orphanage, before he had been taken by Danzo into ROOT. She didn't know how he had gotten that obsession into his head but she had a few guesses.

Naruto was born on the ninth day of the ninth month with the nine tails sealed into his belly by the Ninth Princess of the Whirlpool using the Nine Great Demon Shackles seal in tandem with the Reaper Death seal, which was drawn on by the Yondaime Hokage. His early life had been surrounded by coincidences linked to the number nine. It was the best explanation she could give for his strange obsession. Whether it was exactly nine hundred and ninety nine noodles in his ramen, nine sets of nine pull ups or beating his opponent with nine quick attacks, and if somehow the moves exceeded nine and the opponent was down then he would pour more blows until he reached ninety nine.

Well…

…before anyone could hold him back.

Io had tested how far he could take this and what would happen if he didn't achieve any form of nine.

To answer the first…there was no extent; she had-on numerous occasions-watched her patient count nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine grains of rice before he cooked it, careful not to spill any onto the ground and if he did drop even a grain he would subtract rice grains until he got to nine hundred and ninety nine. He would eat the bowl clean and if he was still hungry he would restart the whole agonizing, painstaking process once again.

For the second answer…he would stumble into a mind numbing mental breakdown. All bodily functions would cease and he then would suddenly crack his head into the closest wall he could find nine times, over and over again, until he finally passed out, usually when he reached nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine, a bloody mess and a writhing pile of limbs.

Nothing could hold him back from his self-punishment.

Io, after seeing all the tell-tale signs, diagnosed Naruto with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

She hadn't seen any bruises on his forehead for a few days now, so she was prompted to ask. "Have you found a way around your…number nine fixation?"

He looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

She pointed at his arm tattoos and said. "Like with your nine tattoos and how you can wake up in any other time than nine in the morning."

The boy shrugged. "Kakashi-senpai recommended I use nine swords to fight. We saw someone in Kumo use eight swords at once to fight and he said I should give it a try…to overcome nine combinations of attacks."

"How's that going for you?"

"Good enough." He nodded for him to go on. "I…on my last mission, yesterday, I was able to…strike my opponent down." She looked at him expectantly and he lifted three fingers.

Io beamed at him and bumped her fist into his shoulder. "Well done, Naruto." He looked away and stared at a painting on the wall. "Then who advised you to get tattoos?"

He looked at her with a wider eye smile. "They looked…cool…so I got them."

"Did both of your senpais approve of them?"

"…No."

She skirted away from that topic before she could scold him for marring his beautifully pale body. "What have you been up to today?"

"Kakashi-senpai and Yugao-senpai invited me to run errands with them for Commander Nara. I stopped some Suna genin from murdering the Sandaime's grandson and Team seven, Kakashi-senpai's genin team. One of the Suna genin…Gaara…has the one tails…"

"Oh?"

"Yes. Yugao-senpai said I should…talk to him. 'Establish connections with people you have things in common with', is what she said."

"That's the same thing I've been trying to get you to do for years." Io correctly pointed out. Naruto shrugged and kept quiet. "Have you spoken to Gaara yet?"

"Yes. He isn't much of a talker."

Io looked up from her pad, filled with scribbled words, with a sceptically raised eyebrow. "Is that really true?"

"I'm not lying. The only things he says is that he'll crush me with his sand or feed my blood to 'mother'"

"Oddly enough…I believe you."

"…I have a new friend now."

"Who?"

"Yakumo Kurama."

"Oh really. Heiress to the Kurama clan?"

"Yes. We're going to watch the chunin exams together."

"How did that happen?"

"Escort mission to Sunagakure and back to Konoha. Her father entrusted me to guard her while she went to get her daily sunlight."

"That…didn't answer my question, Naruto."

"From the books I read, constant exposure to another person would often lead to establishing a strong connection with them, and in my case I spent two weeks with her. I assumed it was because she got used to my presence."

"Or," Io said, lifting a finger. "She hasn't had anyone close to her age brave enough to approach her. You were present and you weren't cringing away from her, since she's an awkward, sick heiress and all that." Naruto looked at her with a silently raised eyebrow. "Inoichi and I went to school with her father, we talk sometimes."

"Duly noted."

"Anyway…since you plan on watching the exams, how about we make it a family affair; Inoichi and Aichi's daughter will be taking part in the exams and we all plan to watch with the rest of the clan, to support her. We can talk with Lord Kurama to have our clans sit beside each other. It'll be a lot of fun."

"I don't mind. Yugao-senpai says Kakashi-senpai won't be sitting with us, so I was thinking of seeing him and his team sometimes."

"Inoichi says he'll bring snacks, so don't worry about getting hungry."

"Alright."

"Do you ever worry about the Kyuubi breaking free?"

Naruto looked mildly surprised at the drastic change in the topic. "No. I trust in Lord Yondaime and Lady Uzumaki's seals." The Reaper Death seal was self-explanatory; the grim reaper-the Shinigami-grabbed hold of the Kyuubi's soul, thus holding his body and immobilizing it for as long as the Yondaime was alive, and pushed it into Naruto's belly while the Nine Great Demon Shackle seals, drawn by the dead Princess of the Whirlpool, held down the beast by all nine tails while Naruto's Uzumaki chakra held down the massive beasts arms, legs and head. The seal was powered by the Kyuubi's own chakra and it was as much part of Naruto's chakra system as his very soul but the thing with the seal was that it didn't allow Naruto to use the Kyuubi's chakra whatsoever.

Not even a drop.

It was a very difficult seal to administer, which was why Minato had initially wanted to only use the Reaper Death seal to seal the beast but Kushina, in her final moments, had been adamant that she didn't want the beast to have any influence on her child, whether it was using Naruto's senses or pouring out his toxic chakra. Danzo had tried and failed on multiple occasions to break open the seal but it could only be unlocked by the bearer-Naruto-and seeing as this knowledge was confined to the Uzumaki library, all the way back in Uzushio and away from all human contact, Danzo did not know this to capitalize on.

Still, even if Naruto couldn't summon the chakra of the nine tailed beast, he had the Jinchuriki Blessing of Nine Tailed Beast, which was essentially that Naruto's regeneration was way above that of a normal humans, his sensory abilities-not excluding his eyes, nose, ears, taste and touch-were amped up unbelievably, his endurance didn't have any known limit-though the same couldn't be said about his stamina-and the last blessing was his unfettered physical strength. Adding all this to the outlawed training regimen he underwent from Danzo and his Uzumaki heritage, the small fact that he was the jinchuriki of the nine tails that couldn't use his tailed beasts chakra seemed almost inconsequential compared to the other things he could do.

Their sessions were two times every week and it was now customary to ask the question of the structural integrity of his demon seals. Kakashi had been looking into every once in a while-aka, once a year-and he hadn't reported any breach or crack.

Beep beep! Beep beep!

Io's green eyes looked down to her left wrist and she pulled back the sleeve of her white doctors coat, humming when she her digital watch's alarm went off for one more second before it went off.

"Our session is over, Naruto."

Naruto placed his feet on the ground and sat up with his hands on his knees. "Thank you for having me, Lady Io."

"Your very welcome, Naruto. You're always free to come by when you have anything troubling you." Her eyes followed the boy as he got off the chair and walked to her desk. He picked up his forehead protector and gingerly tied the black clothed forehead protector onto his temple, the ends trailed down halfway down his back. "I'm aware this is…inappropriate…but the doors to my home are also open if you need somewhere to stay."

"I'm sure your boyfriend wouldn't appreciate me staying over."

She scoffed and dropped her notepad and pen on the small table by her chair. "Don't have one. Relationships are too complicated."

"Is that…another way of saying no one wants to date you?" Naruto said frankly, though, as he turned to her, his bright blue eyes glinted teasingly and she smirked sharply.

"Shut the hell up and get the fuck out of my office, brat."

"Really? Not even Anko?" Naruto asked, the snarky undertone in his voice wasn't lost to her. "Damn."

Io took off her right sandal and chucked it at him. "Get lost, idiot!"

The boy scampered away from the projectile, barely avoiding it as it wafted over his head, and ducked out of the door with a small smile. He peeked out into the office at the silently fuming Yamanaka beauty, hopping off her seat and her other shoe ready in her hand, aimed at his face. He grinned with his eyes closed, something that showed his scarily long fangs, and said. "Visits to the red light district will have to do."

Her cheeks flared red and the shoe thwacked against Naruto's face before he could register her arm throwing it. "Fuck off!"

He ran down the hallway, the ANBU stationed to trail him a few steps behind him and the enraged woman standing at her door, waving her fist at her young patient.

"Don't bother coming over again!"

Inoichi came out of his office, alarmed. "Io, what's-" his cousin humphed and stomped back into her office, slamming the door shut behind her. "Wrong…?"

Naruto retrieved his weapons and left the facility, heading straight towards the villages southern gates. As he trekked on the cobbled roads of the Wealth district, a place well-to-do traders and small families lived on; he distractedly rolled up his sleeves once and fixed on his forearm protectors, stopping briefly to fasten his shin guards over his stretchy-yet-comfortably-tight black combat pants. He ran his hands over his tattoos, of which his weapons were sealed in, as well as his supply scrolls filled with spare clothes, money and camping essentials. He adjusted his forehead protector, ruffling his radiant, spiky blonde hair with his fingers in the process and pulled out a pair of dark blue gloves from his pockets, they had black palms. He put them on, complementing his blue shirt and his black pants at the same time. He unsealed his shuriken and kunai holsters and fixed them onto the sides of his thighs-the shuriken on the left and the kunai on his right-, nine knives and throwing stars in each holster. Next he removed was his featureless black ANBU chunin flak jacket and smoothly wore it, patting down his front to make sure the strengthening and self-repair seals were activated. He rolled his shoulders, checking if he still had full mobility and rolling his wrists once, catching the dual tanto in both hands, of which they appeared in a blur of nothing, and rolling them again for them to be sealed back into his inner wrists.

Those that saw him were only the elderly that sat outside their houses, playing Shogi. They looked at him disinterestedly as he marched past to the south gate, somewhat surprised that a chunin could go through all those body checks without stopping.

Naruto reached the gate and with another flick of his wrist he placed a Fox ANBU mask over his face before the chunin at the gate could get a good look at his face, somehow not being obstructed by his forehead protector. The gatekeepers there jerked at the motion and stepped back when the apparent black ops walked by, the long black cloth of his hitaite fluttering with the action.

The boy looked up to the sun and frowned.

"…He's late…"

He spun around on his feet as a hand grabbed his shoulder, holding up a kunai under the chin of the person that had snuck up on him. Dog chuckled nervously, keeping his chin as far away from the lethal tip of the boy's kunai as possible. He gulped and held up his hands in surrender.

"How do you keep doing that, senpai?" Naruto said, sheathing the blade and narrowing his eyes.

"Basic chakra suppression and stealth techniques." The legendary copy ninja answered, his lone eye curving up into a smile as he tapped the nose of Naruto's fox mask. "Rule one of the Black ops Handbook is to never drop your guard, not even when you're sleeping in the comfort of your own bed. Never." Not even Anko could sneak up to Naruto, and that alone was a feat upon itself. It always mystified the emotionless boy on how his benefactor was still able to sneak up to him with such common ANBU-required skills when his sensory abilities made him hyper aware of his environment. "Just because your comrades are watching your back and that you're in your home turf doesn't mean you can sit back and relax."

"…Noted." Fox nodded once. The silver haired man patted Naruto's head and then his eyes steeled over, masterfully switching from Playful Kakashi to ANBU captain Kakashi. Naruto snapped to attention as the man's hand left his head. "ANBU trainee Naruto reporting, captain."

"Your ten minutes late, ANBU trainee." Dog said as he crossed his arms, jerking his head for the gatekeepers to leave for a few minutes. "Why?"

"The receptionist at the institute didn't want to give me back all my weapons, captain."

The older shinobi raised a surprised eyebrow under his dog mask. "Were you able to get all of your weapons back?"

"Yes. Captain Badger had to intervene when I informed him of my urgent mission."

"Did you give him any details?"

"I do not know any details to give and even if I do know the details, I wouldn't compromise the mission by doing so."

"…At ease." Naruto's shoulders dropped a little.

"Permission to speak, captain." Dog nodded. "Why was I not sent the mission specs?"

"I'll tell you on the way." He ran ahead and leaped up into the treeline. Naruto followed after, hopping from branch to branch alongside Dog with his head lowered and his arms behind him. "This is a mission of S class importance. Our client could only afford two of the village's best ninjas and he wants this issue to be taken care of discreetly before the daimyo finds out." Dog kicked off the trunk of a tree and soared over his protégé, running on the branches. "There have been a series of kidnappings in the town south west of Konoha and the people there have reported that there have been strange sounds coming from the forest. Our client wants us to investigate the sound, handle it if it turns out to be a threat and, if possible, retrieve the kidnapped."

"Retrieving the kidnapped, is that not the first priority?"

"…No."

"This mission does not seem S class, senpai." Naruto confessed, swinging off a branch and landing nimbly on another, continuing his sprint with his captain. "At least three squads of normal chunin can get this done."

"I'm aware. The thing is…our client wants this handled once and for all without any hiccups. He paid a shitload for Tsunade to pick those she trusts to get this done."

"And she picked you and…me?"

"Yup."

"You're not telling me something. What other reason is this mission S class?"

The captain chuckled. "Yeah, you got me. Thing is, the Fire daimyo wants to go on a tour around the country and the Mayor of Ichirona-" the town they were going to. "-wants to squeeze as much cash from him as possible to renovate his office."

"Ah, so the daimyo won't visit if his Fire Guardians find out about the kidnappings and the 'strange sounds' from the forest." Naruto surmised. "That explains the secrecy."

"Correct. Officially, we're taking a mission to scout out Fire-Earth countries for breaches. Only Lady Hokage and Commander Shikaku know we're the ones going for the mission, the mayor doesn't know it's us and the people are not to know anyone from Konoha is coming to help them. We do not communicate directly with them and once we enter the outskirts of the town, we use hand signs or channel fifteen."

"Got it." A secured radio connection Kakashi had previously gotten from the Hokage to access. He couldn't say for the black ops of other villages but for Konoha's ANBU their radios were attached to the inside of their masks, close to the mouth and ears. It was an invention that had been used and refined since the time of the Nidaime Hokage. "How long will this mission take, senpai?"

"What? You have a hot date soon?" Naruto didn't appreciate the laughing question.

"I've read that people my age are too young for 'dates'"

"Need I remind you, my adorable kohai, that being a ninja basically makes you an adult."

"That is merely a common opinion and not a documented fact. Most genin are unable to acquire accommodations outside of their parents or guardians houses until they reach the age of fifteen."

"When you have the skills and the mindset to kill, the authorization of your superiors to own weapons, control over your chakra that no civilian teen has and a steady-almost white collar-income to boot…then you're an adult." He made a flippant motion with his hands. "At least that's how it is in our world."

"Well-"

"Can you not argue with me for once and just accept my wise words without question?"

"If I do that then I would be a sheep and you," the boy made sure to point at his captain. "Keep telling me not to be a sheep."

"I told you not to follow the crowd like sheep."

"Asking questions on illogical statements counts as not following the crowd 'like sheep'"

"You're an adult, Fox, end of discussion." Dog said, pulling the superior card on the trainee. Naruto was still about to speak up but the man interrupted. "That girl, Yakumo, seems to take a liking to you. Is it her you're going on a date with?"

"I am not going on any date. I only asked when we will be back in Konoha to see if I'll still be able to catch the chunin exams."

"Where you'll be going on a date with her?"

"…I don't understand why you keep insisting I date Lady Yakumo."

"I'm not insisting on her specifically. Any girl will do."

"Why?"

"Aside from missions and errands from the Hokage, you have no life-"

"I beg to differ-"

"No social life, I mean."

Naruto seemed to take actual offense at that, though he hid it well. "I do too have a social life. Just yesterday I ate dinner at Ichikraku Ramen-"

"Booo."

"And-…And I watched a movie at the cinema. The Return of the Turtle King."

"Booooo."

"Then-then-then I played DDR in the arcade with some kids."

"Ha!"

"I'm serious."

"Oh yeah, what's the name if the song you guys danced to?" his smile grew at the long silence from the boy hopping beside him.

"What life do you have?"

"I'm in a book club."

"A book club?"

"A book club. We meet every Saturday evening."

"Smut doesn't count."

"I don't only read smut."

It was Naruto's turn to snort. "Your life outside of work is basically food, sex and porn."

"Don't forget sleep. I sleep too."

"Oh no, lets never forget how much you sleep."

"Exactly."

"You are a stellar role model, senpai." Naruto drawled sarcastically.

"It's why you look up to me, my sweet little kohai." Kakashi answered sharply.

Naruto shook his head and changed the subject. "About the mission…how many people have been kidnapped so far?"

"Twenty two in the span of two weeks." The man then added. "Three squads of Town Guards performed a preliminary investigation and zeroed an area close to the forest as either the last place the victims were or were forcefully taken to."

"Forcefully taken to?"

"The report said forcefully but it was more like they ran into the forest in a trance-like state."

"Genjutsu?"

"That's what I thought too and the report also said that foreign chakra was sensed in and around the forest but no one in the town has the capabilities to cast a genjutsu that can hypnotize and entice them to move towards a particular place."

"Then…what about drugs?"

Dog hummed and scratched the chin of his mask, thinking. "That's another possibility."

"Did the report talk of any mysterious movement of its citizens aside from those going into the forest?"

"Matter of fact no, they didn't. What do you think, Kitsune-kohai?"

"Organ farming. I'm thinking it's centred more on the seven main tenketsu and the chakra core."

"Why do you think so?"

"They're taking their time with the kidnappings-twenty two in two weeks when they can clear out the whole town at any time-, they're using drugs instead of chakra to entice them into the forest so as not to somehow damage their chakra network-" the person or people were clearly well-informed, Naruto thought, because foreign chakra in the tenketsu, even a sliver, reduced its market value. "They targeted a small town with low population and less than average strength town guards, a clear black market trader move, and the mayor is more concerned with his own wellbeing and reputation than the lives of his citizens. The kidnappers would have done their homework before starting their operation."

"You're right." Dog agreed with a small frown under his mask. "Remember that drug ring bust two weeks ago?"

"The one in the capital?"

"No, that was last month. I mean the one back in Konoha."

"Ah…yes, I remember." Fox looked to his captain with a question in his reflective blue orbs. "What about it?"

"The documents we found there said something about organ trading in the country."

"By the Jade Wolf Yakuza right?"

"Yup and that the drug lord we killed somehow wasn't a member of the Fire country mafia but he wanted to ally with them to sell organs somewhere in the country." Subsequently after the Konoha ANBU had infiltrated and executed the drug lord, shutting down his whole operation in the process, the mafia had destroyed all means of tying them to the drug ring and disappeared from view. Kakashi's team-which included Naruto, Yugao, Tenzo and, formerly, Itachi-had been searching for them since the drug ring bust. "If this has anything to do with the Yakuza then this mission is deservedly S class."

"Should we call in reinforcements?"

"…Not yet. We need to conduct a personal investigation first. If we find out it's them then I'll radio Lady Hokage and we'll standby for any other orders. I don't want you holding back if shit hits the fan."

"Understood." And after a short moment of reflecting. "What about the 'strange sounds from the forest? Last I checked, harvesting human organs isn't all that noisy…unless the victim is conscious, of course."

A man with his eyes wide open, wired to stay conscious by a constant pump of drugs, watched as his liver and kidneys were lifted out of his body, screaming and wailing, almost akin to the sound of a dying animal.

Kakashi blinked. "Thank you for that mental image."

Naruto didn't catch the man's sarcasm. "No problem. Did the report describe the sounds?"

"'Deep rumbling, like an engine, and high pitched screeching, like a swarm of bats'"

"Doesn't remotely sound like organ harvesting."

"First we scout out the edges of the forest for anything suspicious. Then on my command, we enter."

"Roger."

Protocol for Konoha ANBU was for the team to be properly informed before leaving the village and to remain on radio silence on the way, during and after the mission but the legendary Copy Ninja was disregarding those rules for Naruto. The boy was becoming more expressive.

"Spread out and gather information from the people in the town. By sunset, if the issue can be handled quickly, you're permitted to use your discretion. I'll do the same from my side."

"Understood."

The duo entered the town and parted ways.

It would be the last time Kakashi saw Naruto.

Authors note

Next chapter isn't a time skip but a continuation.

So…what's happening in that town?

What's up with that flashback at the beginning of the chapter?

What's going to happen to Naruto?

Drop a review on your thoughts, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.

Foy.