Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS.

Gibbs moved from his position only to check the perimeter of the house, the remainder of the night he spent drinking coffee and trying to figure out the case. By the time the sun rose the next morning he was no closer to the answer and feeling frustrated, he took a drink from his coffee mug. He drained the last of the cold liquid, grimaced at the taste before standing and placing the mug next to the sink. Leaving the kitchen, the NCIS agent walked into the living room. Sasuke had been awake for most of the night but appeared to have fallen asleep at one point, for he woke up as Gibbs entered the room. Naruto was also awake, sitting up on the lounge and looking around.

"Feeling better?" Gibbs asked the teen.

Naruto responded with a grin. "Yep! I'm all better," he said. Feeling relieved, Gibbs turned and walked back into the kitchen and gesturing for the teens to follow him as he did.

"You want breakfast?" he asked, opening the cupboard and searching inside. There wasn't much apart from cereal, so he pulled out the two boxes and placed them on the counter. It didn't take him long to prepare three bowls and hand two of them to the teens while taking the third for himself and sitting down at the table.

The group ate breakfast in silence. Gibbs had plenty of questions but he had the gut feeling that he wouldn't get any answers out of the two boys sitting in front of him. What Sasuke had told him the night before helped confirm that, Gibbs only hoped that Hatake would be able to answer his questions in the meeting that had supposedly been arranged. How Sasuke knew about the meeting was a different matter as the teens hadn't communicated to anyone outside of NCIS since the attack two days ago. Had it really only been to days? So much had happened in that time and Gibbs knew that it wasn't over until they caught the perpetrator, this Orochimaru.

Gibbs was still thinking about the case while they finished breakfast and left for NCIS headquarters. The ride in the car wasn't completely silent; Naruto and Sasuke were talking quietly in the back seat. Sasuke was telling Naruto what had happened the night before and after he was done, Naruto filled him in on what had happened to cause his own injury. Gibbs focused on that, but there wasn't much to hear. Orochimaru had gotten behind the teen and knocked him unconscious.

"Are you sure that he didn't do anything else?" Sasuke asked. Gibbs couldn't see Naruto's face, but there was a pause that suggested the teen had rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure Sasuke, I've checked" he replied. Gibbs added his own opinion.

"If you were injected with something there wouldn't be a mark," he pointed out. "A blood test would be a good idea."

Gibbs thought he could hear Naruto frowning when he replied.

"Poison or drugs would be metabolised by now," the blond said.

"And I doubt Orochimaru would poison Naruto, he wants him alive for some reason," Sasuke added. Gibbs wasn't convinced but knew that he couldn't force the boy to have a blood test if he didn't want to; In addition, they were right about the metabolism. It had been hours since the attack and Gibbs cursed himself internally for not thinking of collecting samples straight away, putting Naruto at risk in the process.

They arrived at NCIS not long after to discover that the rest of the team was already there and working. However, Gibbs didn't have a chance to even reach his desk before Director Vance called the agent to his office. Naruto and Sasuke followed him up the stairs and as the director didn't seem surprised, Gibbs allowed them to follow. Curious about the meeting, even if he didn't show it, Gibbs followed silently until the silver doors were shut behind them. Gibbs thought he saw a flicker out of the corner of his eye, but dismissed it after the director began to speak.

"Agent Gibbs, I have some information pertinent to your investigation," Vance began. The agent noted the overly formal tone.

"What is it?" he asked.

"This information is top secret, you will need to sign this before we continue," the Director said, handing Gibbs an unmarked folder. Gibbs flicked it open and scanned through the few pages contained inside.

"You got a pen?" he asked after a few minutes.

Vance took a pen from his pocket and handed it to Gibbs, who quickly scribbled his signature in the required area before snapping the folder shut and handing both it and the pen back to the director.

"Good, now we can get started," came a vaguely familiar voice from behind Gibbs. The agent turned to see Hatake leaning casually against the back wall with a bright orange book in his hand like he had been there the whole time. Irritated at his uncaring attitude and trying not to let any surprise show on his face, Gibbs spoke.

"Well, start," he said. However, instead of explaining, the masked man glanced up.

"Get down, you three," he scolded, but a note of humour was present in his voice. Gibbs followed his gaze and had to give a double take. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all sitting cross legged on the ceiling as if they weren't upside down. As he watched, the teens suddenly dropped and flipped in mid-air, landing gracefully on their feet in the middle of the office. Gibbs blinked, trying to process what he had just seen. Director Vance's silence beside him made Gibbs suspect that he was as equally surprised at the impossible acrobatic display.

Meanwhile, Hatake studied the teens for a moment before turning his gaze back to his book.

"Anyway, now that these three have stopped showing off, we can talk," he said.

Gibbs resisted the urge to tell him that they had been waiting for him to talk.

"The short version…" Hatake said before trailing off. "I guess it would be… the four of us are ninjas from the Hidden Continent sent here on a mission."

At this ridiculous statement, Gibbs turned to Vance. "I had to sign a confidentiality agreement for this?"

"He's not making it up Gibbs," the Director replied. "The ninja do exist; we have a treaty with them. The US government put into place certain laws to prevent this treaty form ever being broken and starting a war."

Gibbs remained silent, but his expression as he turned back to Hatake, this supposed ninja, made it clear that he wanted more information. He got the message.

"I take it you're still not satisfied, but you don't have the clearance to hear much more," he said. Gibbs glared, trying to intimidate the other man.

Hatake sighed. "Calm down, I'm not finished. Geez, you're more impatient then Naruto."

He was interrupted by an indigent sound from Naruto which Hatake ignored and continued.

"I can tell you about Orochimaru," he said. The mood among the ninja seemed to darken at the sound of his name and Hatake became more serious, putting away his book. Gibbs was mildly pleased to see that he took at least one thing seriously.

"He used to be a part of our village and he was one of the best. A prodigy as a child, and he only grew stronger. However, he is insane. He was kicked out of the village when he was discovered to be experimenting on people. Orochimaru is trying to learn every technique in the world and thinks that Sasuke can help him do it," Hatake explained. It sounded like the abridged version of what happened, but Gibbs was glad to finally be getting some answers, even if they weren't as detailed (or as sensible) as the ones he had been looking for.

"How does he think Sasuke can help him?" Vance asked. Gibbs remembered the conversation he had had with the kid, about the so-called 'sharingan.' He suspected that it had something to do with that. Sasuke was the one who answered the question, confirming Gibbs' theory as he did so.

"He wants my eyes," Sasuke said, gaze shifting between Gibbs and the director before he settled on Gibbs.

"Remember me telling you about the Sharingan?" he asked, voice revealing nothing of his feelings. Gibbs nodded.

"It's not just a distraction," he revealed.

"With these eyes, I can copy the exact move a person is about to make, instantly. It would make learning techniques that would otherwise take years easy," he explained. Gibbs met his eyes, trying to determine if he was telling the truth only to see that Sasuke's once dark irises were now red with three slowly spinning, comma like marks inside. Pushing his surprise away, Gibbs calmly asked his next question.

"That's the sharingan?" he asked, pronouncing the foreign word carefully. Sasuke nodded, but didn't elaborate further and as Gibbs watched his eyes slowly faded back to their usual black.

Director Vance had other questions. "This Orochimaru followed you here?" he questioned. Hatake took over speaking again.

"He must have, but we were here for weeks before he showed himself," he answered, but Gibbs couldn't read his feelings on the matter with his face covered the way it was. Not for the first time he wondered why the man wore the mask and covered his eye, first with the eye patch and now with the same band that Naruto and Sasuke had worn when they sparred.

"Why haven't you gone home?" Gibbs asked, returning someplace safer seemed like the better option, especially with three kids.

"We travel by plane and that's too venerable right now," Hatake said. Out of the corner of his eye, Gibbs caught a movement from Naruto. He watched surreptitiously as the blond teen whispered something to Sakura, who passed the message onto Sasuke. Hatake turned his attention back to them.

"What are you three whispering about?" he asked. Naruto spoke up, but Gibbs was surprised to hear that he wasn't speaking English. Instead, it sounded like fluent Japanese. Hatake replied in the same fashion and unable to understand anything, Gibbs looked at Vance.

"Leon," he said quietly enough that the ninja wouldn't hear. "Are you sure about this?"

The director rubbed his face as though he had a headache. "I was paid a visit by the vice president this morning," he replied.

A sudden exclamation, in English once more brought Gibbs and Vance out of their conversation.

"Right then," said Hatake. "If you'll excuse us…" he trailed off, already making his way towards the door. He left, followed by Sakura, who offered a nod to the NCIS agent and director before the silver doors shut behind her. Naruto and Sasuke remained in the room, seemingly relaxed but through years of experience Gibbs could see that they were on edge, glancing around often and with their muscles tightly wound. He turned to them now.

"How much of what you just told us can I tell my team?" he asked. Naruto looked at him and answered.

"Everything we told you, you can tell them. It's your laws that prevent you from knowing," he said. Gibbs frowned.

"Then what's the treaty about?" he questioned, wondering just why the government had such strict laws.

"You can't view us using satellites, we can't attack first and we can't send our elite on missions," Naruto answered. Either he knew Gibbs wanted more information or he just felt like talking, the agent didn't know, but Naruto elaborated anyway.

"Sasuke, Sakura and I are the lowest rank you can be, while Kakashi is the highest normal rank under our elites and leader," he explained. Before they could have any further conversation, there was a loud bag from outside the building. Instantly, both Sasuke and Naruto moved to attention, as did Gibbs and Vance on instinct.

"I suggest you wait here," Sasuke said, before he and Naruto raised their hand in a strange position and vanished. Gibbs had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't imagining things, but after a moment his training and instincts kicked in and he headed for the door, Vance close behind. Outside the director's office, the agents were beginning their evacuation. In the midst of the confusion Gibbs reached his team. He quickly told them to follow him and without a moment's hesitation, the three agents fell in behind him and followed. As the left through the stairs, Gibbs heard Vance in the background trying to regain control over the assembled agents. He appeared to be successful, as the sounds of moving died down. However, Gibbs had no more time to worry about the state of things in the office and he turned his attention to the bang that had rang out. He suspected that it had something to do with the ninja, particularly as it had only happened after Hatake and Sakura had left. He hoped that Hatake had enough sense to get the teenagers out of harm's way but had a gut feeling that if he and his team managed to find the group, the teens would be right beside the man.

A/N: Technically this is before I go back to school, although it is currently 11pm and I start tomorrow... I am so sorry for the wait, but a lot has happened. Brief list: End of the school year, NaNoWriMo, my dog passing, festive season and a new puppy (Australian Kelpies have far too much energy.

I can't thank all of you enough for all the support you have given this story, I never expected such a large response when I started it. I will finish this story, there are only a few chapters left now. Thank you again for your reviews, favourites and alerts :)