Summary: After the Kyuubi attack, Sarutobi realises that Naruto will most likely be hated if he stays in Konoha. Knowing this he decides to send Naruto away to an isolated village on the edge of Fire country. But the caravan sent to the town is ambushed by Rock shinobi and Naruto is missing. The Tsuchikage knowing instantly what Naruto is, sends him to live with one of his most trusted shinobi...Deidara. Twelve years later, at the Chuunin exams, a mysterious Rock gennin team has entered, with a powerful blonde shinobi at their disposal. How will Sarutobi and the rest of Konoha react to this revelation?

A/N: Alright this is the first chapter of my new story. For the people who have been waiting for this fic I hope this lives up to the expectations. This story is going to have much longer chapters than my other stories(despite the first shorter chapter), since I have noticed readers favor the longer chapters. I actually had to rewrite som of this because of the revealed Yondaime's name. Anyway, let's get to the story shall we?

Shinobi of The Rock,
Chapter 1:
Iwa's New Jinchuuriki

Sarutobi looked down at the young boy in his old bony hands. His wrinkled face crinked up in a smile as the boy cooed and he took him over to the crib he had put in his office. He gently set the infant down. He quietly took out a light blue baby blanket and set it over the small blonde babe, tucking it under the child's shoulders and bottom so that it would stay in place.

The Third stared lovingly down at the child. The baby had deep blue cerlean eyes and a little tuft of blonde hair on the top of his rounded head. His round baby face had little whisker marks on the cheeks, looking rather cute on him, Sarutobi thought. He cooed quietly to himself as he shifted slightly in the blanket. Soon he had fallen asleep under the old man's warm gaze.

The old Hokage sighed as he saw the baby fall asleep. He gently set a hand on the infant's stomach, right above the belly button, where the seal that kept the Kyuubi sealed away was located. "Uzumaki Naruto..." He said softly, "...You carry a huge burden that I would not bestow upon my worst enemy...you will have to be strong to even survive." He took his hand away and reached into his robe, taking out his old pipe. He tossed in some tabbacco and silently light it. He took a deep puff, savoring the bitter taste in his mouth. Slowly exhaling the smoke he took another long look at the child. "You will live a hard life..." Sarutobi shook his head and walked over to his desk, his old joints protesting at the movement.

He sat down slowly letting out a large sigh as he did so. As he took another puff out of his pipe he pondered what he should do about the young Jinchuuriki sleeping in the crib. His first reaction was to do what the Fourth had wished, tell the villagers and have Naruto viewed as the hero that keeps the Kyuubi at bay, but the more Sarutobi thought of this, the more he realised that the people of the village would never think him a hero, especially this soon after the attack when most of the village was still mourning over their lost ones.

No, Sarutobi decided, that would not be the right thing to do. He could try to keep him a secret, but the Third also aborted this course of action. The village would want an explanation and the council had already seen the child. He could outlaw them from speaking of it, but he knew that the council would treat Naruto unfairly everytime they could anyway and their hate would rub off on their children, so that would not work.

He also thought about sending the child away with Jiraiya, Tsunade, or even Kakashi, Minato's student, but then after he thought about it, he decided against it. Not one of them were good parent material. Jiraiya was a pervert and a hit author (Even Sarutobi read his books) and would probably spend more time peeking and looking for whores than actually looking after the child, despite his relationship with the Fourth. Tsunade had major gambling problems and would most likely have a hard time providing for the boy. There was always Shizune, but both her and Tsunade were still suffering from Dan's death anyway. That and Tsunade's hate of Konoha was still at large. Kakashi was also a no go. He was an ANBU captain and would spend much time away from home and he - like Jiraiya - was a pervert and openly read Icha Icha Paradise, Jiraiya's hit novel. Sarutobi did not like the idea of that rubbing off on the Yondaime's only son.

So in the end he finally decided on something. He would have to send the boy away, there was no doubt about that, but there was only one person left who the Third would trust with Naruto. They lived on the outskirts of Fire country now, in a little town laying right on the the Sand/Leaf border.

Sarutobi sat up in his chair and brought out a blank scroll, a feather, and a small ink cartridge. Dipping the tip of the feather into the ink he started to write on the scroll,

Dear Kaito,

I would like to say that I am just sending a letter to say 'hi' and ask what is new in your life, but that would be a lie. I know we have not had the best of relationships in the past, but I would like to ask you a big favor. A monsterous favor. If you accept, I will forever be in your debt. I am not trying to ramble on, I just want you to know the magnitude of this favor.

I want you to take care of a child for me.

If you haven't burnt this scroll with a Katon jutsu yet, I will explain.

This is no ordinary child, this is the only living relative of Minato, he is the last of the Yondaime's legacy (I am assuming you know that Minato died during the Kyuubi attack about a week ago). You may be wondering why I would ask you to take in this boy, because surely the child would be adored in Konoha, being the son of our greatest hero, this is true, except the villagers do not know of the boy's heritage. The Yondaime had many enemies, particillarly Iwa and Kumo. If those villages found out the Fourth had a son, they would do anything in their power to either kill the child or kidnap him and use him against us.

Besides all of this, this is not the reason I am asking you to take him. The boy would be safe from other villages in Konoha, but the reason I am sending him away is to save him from the village itself.

Uzumaki Naruto, this is the boy's name, is the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. I am sure you know that a biju cannot be killed. The Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi into his own son, sacrificing himself to do so. You have probably figured out my problem by now. The villagers hate of the Kyuubi would blind them and make them hate the boy, there could even be assasination attempts. I would have sent him with one of my students, Jiraiya or Tsuanade, but neither of them are parenting material, I chose you because I trust you and your wife to keep a keen eye on him and to raise him away from the hate of the village.

I hope you will not let our own personal feud cloud your judgement, this boy deserves a good life; something he will not recieve in this village.

Send a letter stating your answer.

I still love you otouto, no matter what has happened in the past.

Your brother,

Sarutobi.

Sarutobi sighed as he finished writing and rolled up the scroll. He really didn't want to ask this of his otouto. He had never been on the best of terms with his younger brother, that was part of the reason he moved away, but he had no other choice.

He called for a messenger and about a minute later a red haired, green eyed young man in a chuunin vest walked in. After giving him the mission details, Sarutobi had him sent to the no name village, to deliver the scroll.

After the boy had left Sarutobi once again walked over to the crib containing the Kyuubi vessel, looking down at the small, innocent blonde that was sleeping peacefully inside. As he thought of sending the child away he gained a slightly disturbed expression.

I have a feeling, he thought That things will not go as I want them to.

A week later...

On the outskirts of Fire country three shadows danced through the night. They were silent as owls in the night, though if someone were to get close they would meet the deadliness of a viper.

The first shadow, obviously the leader, stopped and held his hand up to stop the other two. He slowly crept forward, passing throw a beam of moonlight as he did so, revealing an Iwa headband, black hair, brown eyes, and a face with identical scars trailing down both sides of his face, probably made by a katana or something of the sort. He silently sneaked forward a few feet. He leaped to the top of a tree and looked ahead for a moment before dashing back to the other two shadows.

They stepped into the open to reveal a young man with blue hair and black eyes wearing a chuunin vest and another man next to him. "Man" probably wouldn't be the right word. The person was a guy but only about twenty, and had long blonde hair. The bangs were combed over to cover one eye, but the other one was a deep brown. He had a skinny and lithe figure, one might even mistake him for a woman, but when angered he could release an impressive amount of power from his thin body.

"What did you see?" asked the blonde, talking to the leader with scars down his face.

"Nothing important, just a genin team with a baby with them, probably on some C-rank escort mission, Deidara-sama." Answered the leader. One might think it was strange for him to address his subordinate with such respect, but he was only the leader because of experience and anyone from Iwa could tell you, you have to be carefull around the rookie jounin Deidara, when angered he tended to turn people into living art...the exploding kind.

"We should probably dispose of them, just in case." the blue haired chuunin added his insight.

"No," said Deidara, "We were ordered by the Tsuchikage to stay hidden until we reached Konoha. If you blow our cover I'll let you face his wrath alone, mm."

"But Deidara-sama," cut in the leader, "We are supposed to hunt down any information on the Fourth and possibly find out if Konoha is weakened enough for an envasion. The kids might not know anything, but I bet you the jounin sensei does. We should disable the genins and interrogate the jounin, we could gain some useful information, and if it is good enough you might get promoted to Hunter nin."

That stopped Deidara from argueing. He'd been trying to get promoted since he had become a jounin. Hunter nin jobs were so much better and he'd have more opportunities to use his precious art.

"Hmm..." the blonde hummed, "I guess we could try it. We better get moving before dawn though, yeah."

The leader grinned.

"Let's go then."

Umino Iruka was standing watch. He couldn't believe it. His genin team just got their first mission, due to his complaining to the Hokage, and he had to stand watch? He hated watch already, how is he supposed to stay awake after they had just traveled ALL day? There wasn't even anybody to keep him company. He could already feel himself nodding off.

Just as his eyes started to droop, there was a whirring sound. His ninja instincts kicked in and he rolled out of the way just as kunai came raining down. He grinned in pride until he notice that the kunai weren't supposed to hit him, just to pose as a distraction. He was now further away from his sensei's tent than before.

He began scanning the area. He may have been the dead last of his graduating class, but that was mostly because of his class-clown attitude, he'd had the highest score in his class on detectory skills.

But even he didn't sense the Iwa nin until he was right in front of him, kunai in hand, ready to gouge his eyes out.

"Shit!" Iruka swore. He didn't have enough time to dodge fully, just enough time to twist his head around so that it was mostly out of the way of the kunai. Not far enough, as the kunai slashed a deep gash across the bridge of his nose, nearly severing it.

The genin ignored the pain as he backflipped, just in time to dodge another slash with the kunai. Now that Iruka had some distance he was able to take a look at his opponent. The man had two scars down his face and pitch black hair and eyes. Iruka's eyes widened when he saw the Iwa headband and he nearly choked.

The Iwa nin smirked at this. "You see my headband? Well thats too bad, we aren't supposed to be detected during this mission, and since you've seen it, I guess I'll have to kill you!"

Iruka backed up and tried to get into a defensive stance, but the Iwa jounin was on him before he could blink. The man swung his fist at the genin, crashing through the feeble defense he put up and sending Iruka flying.

He flipped in the air and landed a few feet back, his eyes wide with fright as he wiped the blood from his busted lip. He had barely seen the guy move. How could he beat someone that was that fast? He realised that he was no match for this man, but settled into a defense stance anyway.

"You really think you can stand up to me, Konoha trash?" mocked the jounin as he charged again. He tried to hit with a spinning kick that was barely dodged by Iruka, taking the initiative, the genin took out a kunai and tried to slash at the man with his right hand. The older shinobi grabbed his arm at the wrist and twisted, making him drop the kunai, and breaking his hand. Iruka cried out in pain, but was cut short as another gloved fist crashed into his face, sending him crashing to the ground. Iruka twisted and managed to avoid landing on his stomach, instead landing on his right side, but as he landed he hit a rock and sickening pop was heard. The genin was able to stifle his scream this time, but he knew his shoulder was dislocated. He brushed away the tears with his good arm and stood up shakily.

"Hmm, still standing?" the nin asked, amused.

"Shut up and fight!" snapped Iruka through the tears that were gathering in his eyes.

This time the man chuckled, "You've got spunk kid, I'll give you that."

He suddenly appeared in front of the genin, his his foot catching him in the gut. Iruka fell to the ground gasping, as the other foot came crashing into the side of his head. The Konoha nin got up and made some seals, albeit very slowly because of his hurt arm and broken hand. When the Iwa nin saw what seals he was making he almost rolled his eyes. As if that jutsu would serve any purpose.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Ten clones now stood were one Iruka used to. They all dashed for the camp at top speed. Suddenly two birds landed on the ground in front of them and blew up, dispelling the clones and sending the real Iruka flying back. He slowly crawled to his feet.

What the hell was that? wondered Iruka. Just then the other two Iwa nin walked out. Oh damnit, more of them!

"You better finish this quick, yeah." said the blonde one, "I'm suprised that explosion didn't wake them up.

The nin in front of him nodded and started slowly walking toward Iruka, grinning all the while. The bastard was enjoying this, Iruka realised as he brought out a kunai with his left hand. I'll take care of that, he thought.

The man had reached Iruka now, and was just standing in front of the genin, total confidence in his aura. "It's been fun kid." the man said as he got out a kunai of his own. Iruka closed his eyes. The nin shoved his kunai toward Iruka, stabbing him right through the chest.

Suddenly he puffed into smoke and a single kunai fell to the ground. The Iwa jounin's eyes widened as he recognised the kunai as the same one the kid had dropped just a minute ago. He spun quickly, but not quickly enough. Another kunai was shoved through the left side of his back, piercing his heart.

The man fell to the ground, exposing a horrified Iruka behind him.

The fallen nin melted into mud.

"I-It was a mud clone!" exclaimed Iruka as he frantically searched for the real nin, until from the forest appeared the same man that he had thought he had just killed. The genin frantically took a shuriken out of his pouch, causing the nin to smile, the boy just didn't know when to give up.

Iruka attached an exploding tag to the shuriken and threw it...towards his camp.

The nins eyes widened and he desperately charged the boy, knowing he wouldn't get there in time to stop him from activating it. He was right, the tag blew up in mid air, waking both the jounin sensei up and the two other genins.

The Iwa nin was now standing infront of Iruka again. "Why you sneaky little bastard..."

Iruka got a grin of defiance out before he was knocked out with a chop to the neck.

Deidara grinned at the little blonde child in front of him. He had almost killed the leader when he had almost blown the mission just to toy with a mere genin, but everything had turned out for the better, and now he'd definately get that promotion he'd been wanting.

The jounin sensei turned out to know nothing and he along with the other two genin had been killed, Iruka had been spared only at the insistance at the squad leader. He'd insisted that the boy live, he said that the boy deserved it with the fight he put up. Deidara thought it was a stupid choice but had reluctantly agreed. They were just about to leave when they stumbled across the scroll in the jounin's pack. Noticing the Hokage seal on it, they decided it was worth their time and had read the small scroll.

It had been the best choice they could have made.

They had found out that the child the genin had been escorting was the Yondaime's only son. As if this alone wasn't good enough, the boy was also the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune! The strongest biju in existance. Yes, the Tsuchikage would be very pleased with this.

Deidara picked up the baby and held it to his chest with one hand, letting the mouth on his other hand lick the child's face. He smiled as the baby gurgled and smiled at the touch, a rare emotion for Deidara. He held the baby with both hands, holding him so they were face to face.

"You are gonna be a great shinobi, yeah. I can tell. You might surpass me someday. After all, you're Iwa's new Jinchuuriki now, mm."

Well, how is it? It was originally gonna be longer, going into were they met with the Tsuchikage, but I decided to end it here and see what kind of response I get. I hope it was alright. Tell me whatcha think, don't be afraid to flame.

Press the little blue button, you will (Yoda; using the jedi mind trick)