Assassin's Creed, Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Konoha's Assassin:

The Right Hand of the Hokage

Chapter 1

-X-

I own nothing

-X-

Living in a hidden village, one came to expect activity at all hours of the day, even more so at night. Blurs of movement shooting through the air, zigzagging through trees and around corners, from day one you had to get use to a sudden blur flying past your window or buy a good set of blinds to block the view. But when something was happening, people tended to know as activity picked up.

"After him!"

"Don't let him escape!"

Multiple ninjas flew from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of another as he sped fluidly up and over walls, weaving around and through any tight spaces or objects in his way. The perusing ninja continued to give chase but what they had in being able to leap from place to place, they lacked the seemingly unnatural acrobatic talent their foe had as well as the ungodly dexterity.

Without warning, their target dropped from the rooftops and into an alleyway below, making them curse as they had been in mid jump and overshot it. Doubling back, the ninja followed only to come to a dead end with not a soul other then themselves around.

"Son of a bitch!" the first cursed as he kicked at the ground, "He got away!"

The second landed next to him a second later in a crouch, "Lord Tsuchikage will not be pleased,"

"No shit!" the first ninja sneered, "It's only the third time this assassin's got away."

"No, the fourth, some Chunin tracked him from the boarder but he vanished a mile from the gates. This is the third time he's struck."

"Who'd he kill this time?"

"Lord Tsuchikage's military adviser,"

The first ninja raised an eyebrow at the second, "Really? He'll be mad about that? I thought he hated the man, wouldn't he rather thank this assassin?"

The man sighed, "Maybe, but it's about saving face, three assassinations by the same man in one month? We'll be the laughing stock of the elemental nations." He scanned the alley one more time, making sure that nothing was a miss, he didn't feel a genjutsu but at the same time he wasn't a chakra sensor, so he couldn't track the persons chakra like some could, "It's too late, the assassin is gone, let's report in to Lord Tsuchikage,"

"Man… this fucking sucks, can't we look around some more?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt, we might get lucky."

With that both Iwa ninja leaped off to continue the search, holding off on their report to their village leader who would no doubt be pissed.

"Son of a bitch," whispered seemingly empty space between a dumpster and some stinking trashcans. The air rippled as a figure moved and came into view, holding his nose and moving away from the stench.

Stepping into the light, the man took a few breaths and crouched down, keeping silent as he made sure that no one was around.

His outfit strongly resembled that of the ninja monks from the various ninja temples scattered across the countries. But unlike the billowy white robes, his fit better and had a hood which covered his hair and shadowed most of his face. On both arms he had on a metal bracer covered in thin brown leather and a pair of fingerless gloves while his legs had similar protection. His pants were faded brown and around his waist was a hardened leather armor belt that held five small knives while a few pouches were attached to the back.

"My missions complete," the assassin muttered to himself while standing, but before he could go, he had to send confirmation via a summon.

Making a quick set of hand seals, the assassin was rewarded with a small plume of smoke before it cleared to reveal a brown and white eagle, "Deliver this to the Hokage," he instructed while presenting a white feather stained red with blood before wrapping it in a silk cloth.

It nodded and flapped it's wings, taking the cloth before taking to the sky.

Now all he had to do was sneak out of the village before they decided to lock it down, that is if they hadn't already done so. The thought made him smirk, even if they did, all the better, he'd enjoy the challenge.

Looking up at the moon, which was in the waning crescent phase, he hummed, "Soon the moon shall vanish and start anew… Like the moon, I too shall vanish and appear another day."

With that, his blue eyes flashed in the moonlight before he vanished, his body rippling in the air as he turned invisible.

-X-

Sitting at his deck, Hiruzen Sarutobi drank coffee and listened to his Jounin report on how their would be teams did on their 'test' to see if they deserved to be made real ninja. So far Asuma, his son had passed his team, Kurenai the rookie Jounin passed her team, and shockingly enough, the copy cat Kakashi passed his team and they were reporting on how. But in the middle of Kurenai telling how they worked together to track her down and see through her genjutsu, an eagle swooped down from a hidden opening in the ceiling, scaring those that didn't know of it which was pretty much everyone and screeching as it tossed a roll of silk on to his desk before leaving the way it came in and vanishing outside.

"Hokage-sama, what was that?" asked one ninja only to be silenced when the kage opened it and picked up the blood covered feather.

There were rumors about the village of the leaf employing an assassin of great skill, some even said that he was the best. But these rumors were pushed aside, after all, Konoha was a peace loving village and would rather go the peaceful way and talk things out, not send an assassin… right?

Taking the feather, Hiruzen, with a expressionless face, opened his drawer and placed both the feather and cloth inside before turning back to the Jounin, "Please continue with your reports,"

-X-

In the training grounds of Konoha, Team 8 led by Jounin Kurenai Yuhi waited for their sensei to show up. The first was a silent young man wearing a light blue-green coat with a high collar and a pair of round sunglasses over his face, he was Shino Aburame. The second was a timid looking girl wearing a tan coat with dark blue hair and lavender white eyes, she was Hyuuga Hinata. Lastly, there was a rather loud teen with a pup sitting next to him, he wore a grayish blue jacket with a hood lined in thick black fur, he was Kiba Inuzuka and the dog was his ninken partner, Akamaru.

"Man, Kurenai-sensei's never been this late before," Kiba complained as he waited in the clearing with his team, "Wonder why?"

"Must be important for her to take so long," Shino stated, surprisingly enough seeing as he didn't talk as much.

Hinata nodded, "I-I hope nothing b-bad happened."

As if summoned by them talking about her, Kurenai showed up, she was a pale dark haired beauty with red eyes wearing a strange dress that looked like it was made of wrappings.

"Sorry about the wait," she exclaimed before holding up a scroll, "The Hokage called me in and gave us a mission. Said it was an important on but not dangerous."

"Sweet!" Kiba cheered, excited that he was going on a important mission, clearly thinking that it was a higher ranked one, "So what is it? An S-ranked one, we saving the world?"

Kurenai shook her head, "Of course not, it's a low D-rank." she told him making him deflate, "In fact, we're delivering something to a place outside of the village,"

"How's that important!" Kiba almost yelled, "Man I thought we'd be doing some real missions, not playing delivery ninja,"

Kurenai twitched, "This is a real mission Kiba, but your still inexperienced so your doing these missions that don't involve much risk until your ready,"

"So Sensei," Hinata squeaked, her voice barely loud enough to be heard, "What a-are we d-delivering?"

Kurenai unrolled the mission scroll and looked it over, "That's just the thing, the Hokage said that he wants us to deliver a scroll to a nun."

"We're going to a church?" Kiba blanched, not liking the sound of the mission, thinking that it was going to be boring and nothing that he could brag about later.

Kurenai nodded, "It seems like it, now go home and pack enough for a two day trip just to be safe. Meet at the main gate in an hour and we'll run to Shukuba town,"

-X-

Shukuba town was not the kind of place you'd expect to find a church, much less a nun. It was a pleasure district in the Land of Fire a short distance away from Konoha filled with many hotels and inns, restaurants, bars, casinos, and brothels. It was one of the socially accepted evils to have due to it's high income due to the visitors and vacationers who came to gambol, have a good time, and get laid.

So in this small city of sin, you'd think that finding a church, a figurative beacon of light in the darkness would be simple… well…

"A church?" repeated the man working in the information kiosk near the entrance, to help new visitor by directing them to a suitable hotel or give them directions to where ever they needed to go, "The only church here that I know is the La Rosa della Virtu."

"Huh?"

The man scratched his nose, "It means 'The Rose of Virtue'," he explained, "You'll find it near the end of Fun-Fun Avenue, it's a fancy looking building with flowers and a red tent over the door, the owners name is Sister Teodora,"

Thanking the man, the four ninja made their way through the town and towards the street that they'd been directed to. Shino didn't seem to be effected by what he saw, his face mostly covered by the collar of his coat and the sunglasses, but his eyes did linger on a winking woman that waved to him. Hinata's face turned bright red when a woman made a kissing face to her as they passed by a brothel, so much so that Kurenai had been ready to catch her if she fainted, but she didn't and they continued passed. Kiba on the other hand didn't hide his perverse thoughts as they passed by said brothel, grinning dumbly with a bit of drool dripping from his mouth, he was slapped in the back of the head by Kurenai when she saw him stop in the middle of the road with a nose bleed to stare at the girls.

"I swear," she huffed, grabbing him by the ear and pulling him along, "When we get to this church, I'm gonna make you listen to them preach you little pervert,"

At the end of the street, they found the building, it was by far the nicest one there, not to mention the largest. Flowers grew in ornately carved stone boxed hanging from the window seal outside the windows on the ground floor while deep red banners hung from the windows on the second floor, leaving the windows on the third bare. Matching red cloth was draped over a circular toped tent above the door which was made of dark wood with a golden handle that was carved ornately with beautiful designs.

There was a closed sign on the door but the windows had light shining through so they walked up and knocked.

When it opened, a beautiful young woman wearing a strapless dress and a white veil over her brown hair greeted them. She had lightly tanned skin and long brown hair that stopped below her back, covering part of the chain that held a silver cross just above her cleavage.

The woman regarded them with sharp, yet alluring blue eyes for a moment before smiling softly, "May I help you?"

"We're from Konoha, we were told to deliver a scroll to a Nun here at-"

The woman cut her off by holding up her hand, "Ah yes, I know… please come in,"

She stepped back and allowed them in, shutting the door behind them, "I am Sister Teodora, I was suppose to hold the scroll for another person until he returned but since he's already here, you can hand it to him yourself."

The front room was small, about ten feet from the door was a desk with a set of stairs next to it. Off to the side there were some couches and end tables with vases full of exotic flowers while other held unlit candles. Behind the desk there was a doorway covered with two dark red cloth curtains.

It confused them, especially since they'd never seen a church like this

Sister Teodora gracefully walked passed them and headed to the curtain covered doorway passed the deck, "Come with me, I'll take you to him."

Following, they passed the doorway and came to a complete halt.

The room was like a large living room with couches all along the wall divided by a low wall, in front of each couch was a small table with candles for light and coasters for drinks. There was artwork and statues decorating the walls and various places around the room, paintings of barely dressed females posing with barely anything covering their modesty, statues of the same. It was more like one of those hostess bars/brothels where men and sometime women came to flirt and get laid.

"W-what the-" stuttered Kurenai as she looked around, seeing the artwork before noticing that there was a few other women in the room, all sitting close to one man and enjoying his presence. "What kind of church is this?"

Sister Teodora chuckled lightly, "I've come to expect such reactions by now, but you are correct in assuming that this isn't exactly a church,"

"So your not a nun?"

She shook her head, "Oh I am indeed a nun, I spent five years of my life in a convent."

Kurenai felt so confused, "A Nun… running a brothel?"

"Quite the paradox isn't it?" Sister Teodora mused, "I was drawn in by the church as a young teen, but I found myself disillusioned by the so called 'believers' spewing the Lords word of tolerance and peace then turning around and persecuting others for being different."

She then smiled sweetly, "And I find that men are much more… open, to religious change when it comes to women like me,"

Kiba openly drooled, "Is it too late to convert to your church?" he asked dumbly, eyes locked onto the valley below her silver cross, that is, until Kurenai slapped him in the back of the head.

The woman turned to the young teen with a smile and slowly approached him, causing his face to turn redder and redder with each step. She was taller than him and leaned forward a bit, letting him get a better peek at her cleavage before she took her finger and raised his chin up to look at her, making him stand ramrod straight at her touch, "Aw… you're a little too young for my congregation… try again when you a little older sweetie…" she leaned closer and whispered something in his ear.

Turning with a small laugh, Teodora walked away, leaving Kiba standing there like a statue with wide, unblinking eyes. He continued to stand there as a drop of blood fell from his nose until his sensei nudged him, causing him to tip over and fall back onto the ground, nearly landing on Akamaru who'd been behind him.

"What'd you say to him?" The red eyed Jounin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not much… it's just that I find that men hold god as an idea in their heads, not in their hearts and bodies. Men must know how to love in order to reach salvation. My girls and I provide that to our congregation… I simply told him that we'd be able to teach him that." She then turned, "Ok, now follow me, I'll bring you over to the one your suppose to give the scroll to."

Telling Shino and Hinata to take Kiba out to the front desk and to wait there for her, she followed the Nun over to the group of females and the man.

"Girls!" Teodora called out while clapping her hands to get their attention, "Give us a minute will you?"

They pouted but left, heading upstairs while Teodora approached, giving Kurenai a clear view of the man sitting on the couch. He wore faded brown pants and faded brown closed toed boots made of what looked like leather while he had on a white tank top showing off some muscle while parts of his body and arms were wrapped in bandages. Laying over the back of the couch was what seemed to be a white trench coat, a red sash, and a large brown belt of some kind. But the man himself was handsome, clear blue eyes that you could lose yourself in, wild blond hair that seemed to brighten the room itself, and a smile that made her insides heat up and heart speed up.

"Teodora-chan, I was wondering where you ran off to,"

She smiled at him and then gave him a look, "We can play later, but first things first, you got another scroll."

The blond lost his smile and grimaced, "Another one?" he exclaimed before muttering, "Why so soon?"

As if noticing Kurenai for the first time, he regained his smile, "Why hello there… are you the messenger that the Hokage sent?"

She nodded and handed him the scroll, where their hands met for a moment.

"I see that he sent his most beautiful ninja this time," the blond mused while standing up from his seat, "A much better improvement compared to the ones I usually get."

Holding out his hand and giving her a devils smile that made her burn, his blue eyes met hers, "I'm Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki, may I know the name of this divine beauty?"

To be continued…

-X-

Tell me what you think…


	2. Chapter 2

Konoha's Assassin:

The Right Hand of the Hokage

Chapter 2

-X-

I own nothing

-X-

Hiruzen yawned as he sat down in his chair first thing in the morning. A steaming cup of coffee sitting close at hand and a small stack of paperwork waiting to be looked over. He enjoyed being caught up on his work, being able to read a book or walk around the village while not having to worry about the work he needed to get done. He still had a daily work load, mainly reports from high ranked missions and financial papers for various places that needed his approval to do something.

Taking a small sip of the hot liquid, he picked up the first page and skimmed the first paragraph to get an idea on what it was about.

_Academy requests a grant for updated textbooks and equipment._

He hummed and thought about it before nodding to himself, they asked for a grant not a increase in funding like other places would. He knew that replacing that civilian with an actual retired ninja was one of the best ideas he had, what had he been thinking when he hired that man? With the new head of the Academy, he had noticed a steady increase in the quality of ninja they had, with the genin hopefuls actually knowing some things about being ninja instead of leaving it to their Jounin sensei to break the illusions they had about it.

Quickly reading over the rest to make sure that someone hadn't tried to add something into it, he signed his name and placed his official seal on it, approving it and placing it in the out box.

"I was wondering when you'd get back Naruto-kun," the old man mused, never looking up from his work as the blond dressed in white dropped down from the rafters above him, hanging upside down by his knees before flipping and landing in a crouch with a smirk on his face.

"Sorry but I did a little… information gathering before I left."

The old man glanced up at the blond with a raised eyebrow then looked back down to his work with a small shake of his head and a laugh, "Sometimes I wonder if I was wrong to have Jiraiya teach you about gathering information,"

Naruto made a face, "How mean, but at least I don't peep and get my ass kicked by pissed off females… That and my methods are much more reliable when it comes to my… work."

The Hokage couldn't argue with that, Naruto's charm had made him a hit with the ladies at the various brothels he went to. But unlike his student Jiraiya, Naruto didn't go to only to flirt with girls, he used them to gather information for him.

You see, Jiraiya's spy network mainly consisted of perverted fans who loved his books, the infamous Icha-Icha series, they were usually men all over different countries that could learn information about their villages and such to pass along to the hermit himself, who in turn, could alert him, the Hokage.

Naruto's on the other hand was better for short term and short notice information. He didn't go though the trouble of turning enemy ninjas or bribing officials, he went to the ones that no one really paid attention to, the Courtesans. Mistresses of seduction and blending in, they regularly overheard rumors and information from who suddenly made a questionable amount of money when they didn't have a job to which town official was in the pocket of a yakuza crime family.

He made friends with the owners of these establishments, sometimes protecting the girls and helping them whenever they needed, paying them a nice sum of money for the smallest bit of information they gave him. He even suspected that Naruto was investing some of his money into these places.

As ashamed as he was to admit it, he did look at the blondes bank records in the past and saw that he was only putting a small fraction of his money into the bank, even then that didn't stay too long.

Not that he had a problem with it of course.

Snapping out of those thoughts, the old man took another sip of coffee, "I see that you traveled light for your last mission," he noted, looking at the clothing the blond wore.

Naruto shrugged, "Just felt like a better choice,"

The white hooded robes were the traditional garb for his clan, worn back in the days of warring clans before the formation of most of the hidden villages. He had another, more modern set compared to these but it felt good to get back to his roots every once in a while.

"So what's up old man?" the blond questioned, moving to sit down in a chair across from the Hokage, "Usually you wait a week or two before you send someone after me,"

The man nodded, it had been a sort of protocol between them to wait at least a week before getting back in touch after a mission, Naruto himself usually waited at least two weeks before heading back to the village, hanging around towns a ways from Konoha just in case he'd been followed. That way it wouldn't be obvious that he was working for the Leaf and would have enough time to spot his trackers and take care of them.

Nodding slowly, the Hokage opened a drawer and started looking through it, "You remember a while back when some of our merchant ships were attacked? We originally thought that it was common pirates but it's come to our attention that it was a deliberate attack by a shipping magistrate by the name of Gato." he informed the blond before finding the scroll he'd been looking for, "Jiraiya's had his network searching for the man for the past couple of weeks and is close to finding him, when he does…"

Naruto watched as the old man unsealed a pure white feather and handed it over. Accepting it, the blond nodded, "I'll be waiting for your order,"

"I know you will, but we suspect that Gato may be employing multiple mercenaries and possibly missing ninja,"

"I take it that you want this to be done silently?"

The Hokage shrugged, "Honestly? Take him out however you want, do it quietly or in front of a hundred people, it's your choice. I'll send for you when I get a solid lead on his location so until then, take a break and enjoy yourself."

"So there's no need for me to hide that I'm your right hand man?"

The Hokage, in a rare show of just how quick he can change from the kind elderly Hokage to the 'Professor', gained a dark look in his eyes, "No… as a matter of fact, I want him to know who killed him."

-X-

Upon leaving the tower via the window, Naruto scaled the last few feet without using chakra and climbed onto the roof, where he perched like an eagle and gazed out at the village just as the sun started to rise. It was still early so the shops wouldn't open and get going for a little while longer so it was a good thing that he didn't need to pick anything up.

Standing, he leapt from the tower and crossed a large road before landing on the roof of a building, using chakra to soften the landing but still making his legs ache a bit. But his shook it off and started for the Hokage monument not too far from the Tower where his home was.

Deciding to take a short cut as he reached the mountain, he started climbing up the side by hand at speeds that normal rock climbers could only dream of doing without a harness. He always could've ran up the side using chakra but where was the fun in that? Besides, it was great practice.

His home was actually left to him by his parents, yes, he knew who they were and honestly didn't really care that his mother was Kushina Uzumaki and that his father was the fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, both were dead and buried, let them stay that way. The Uzumaki were actually one of the oldest clans in the world, one of the most secretive and ingenious as well, designing weapons far beyond that of what others were capable of making at the time. They also had a bloodline too, which allowed him to see what others couldn't, to see the true nature of those around him.

Those that meant no harm would glow grey, those that were his allies would glow blue, enemies and people who wanted to cause him harm stood out with a red glow while those he saw as a target would glow a golden yellow. It also helped him trace a target if they tried to run, leaving a golden trail behind them that he could follow.

Climbing up the spike of stone that was his fathers hair, the blonde then rushed off into the forest where his home stood.

It was a decent sized villa with two floors, it had only two bed rooms and both were on the second floor. The first room was a large, open foyer with a set of stairs directly in front of the door. Off to the right there was a sitting room and connected to that was the kitchen. On the left side of the villa, there was a weapons room which connected to an armor room. Above the weapons and armor room there was a large art gallery and across from it was the only two bed rooms in the house, which seemed odd to him.

From what he'd been told by the Hokage, his parent's had only just finished building it a week before the Kyuubi attacked, leaving them no chance to finish decorating it beyond the bare minimum of their bed, some kitchen appliances, and a few rugs and photos here and there. He even found what would've been his crib half put together in the other bed room, the screw driver and directions still sitting there as his father had left it, waiting to be finished.

Truth be told, he hadn't really set foot into the room again after that little discovery… well it wasn't that per say… it was the sudden vision he had when he walked in.

His bloodline had activated without warning and he had found himself staring at a ghostly figure of the fourth Hokage cursing as he tried to put the crib together. Saying how he could manage to decipher complex seals and find the tiniest of details and yet couldn't find part C and connect it to B. Then his mother walked in, belly swollen and wearing a grin as she giggled at her perplexed husband and the father of her child.

It wasn't that he was afraid to see the visions again, in fact he'd seen multiple different visions all around the villa, it was just that the one from his baby room was the most emotional one and he wasn't the type to torture himself by staring at ghosts of the past and wishing for what he couldn't have. So he avoided the temptation all together, especially after catching himself staring at the vision like a hopeless fool.

So he's been staying in the master bedroom, which had only had a mattress on the floor, some framed pictures sitting around, a dresser full of clothing, and a closet to match, they even had a few boxes laying around full of clothes and little things from their previous home, which had been a small apartment seeing as neither were very wealthy until Minato was chosen to be the fourth Hokage.

Going into the master bedroom, he stripped down to his underwear and got into bed. The décor had changed a little in the years that he'd been there, the boxes had been sorted and stored away, the dresser and closet now had his own clothing in it, and the mattress now had a frame to go with it.

-X-

Stamping his last paper, Hiruzen stacked it on top of the out-box and leaned back with a small huff. He looked at a small decorative box that sat on his desk and opened the lid to see his pipe sitting there, almost beckoning for him to come and light it up, to relax and smoke his troubles away.

The old man shut the lid and shook his head, knowing that with his age, he shouldn't smoke at all. The only reason he kept it around was because every once in a while, he'd smoke a bit just to take the edge off when he was close to summoning the monkey king and have him change into the staff before beating the hell out of the first person to walk through the door.

"Minato, Kushina…" he started while looking up at the rafters above, thinking of their son. "You must hate me right now… I thought that maybe if I trained him and made him my right hand man… he'd be safe from the council…"

Looking down, he saw the small portraits of the other Hokages staring blankly at him, "I'm such a fool, all I've done was put him in more danger and separated him from the rest of the village… sure, maybe he won't be placed under that damned Root program but now… I guess what they say is true… maybe the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Just look at me, talking to myself…"

While most children would be learning the villages history and some basic taijutsu, Naruto was going over medical books and drawing diagrams of the human body, pointing out the vital areas, how deep one had to cut to reach said vital spot, how long it took someone to bleed out, and if they'd be able to move or scream before dying.

While the female ninja were arranging flowers, a useless class that had been removed, Naruto was studying and learning to make poison from said plants.

Years and years of study had made him good, followed by the years of actually using the skills made him one of the best.

But now he regreated a lot of it. By pulling Naruto out of class he barely knew anyone his own age and at the time, he was more like an ANBU than he was a child. Now he was a 24 year old man whom assassinated more people than most ANBU ever would in their careers before their death or retirement.

"Hokage-sama, the Jounin are here,"

He hummed, telling her to send them in, he almost forgot that he told them to report in again and inform him on their teams training.

-X-

Dream

_Crouched on the ledge of a building three stories up, Naruto gazed down at his target from the shadows as he walked down the streets, strutting like a peacock with two guards flanking him. He was in a village not too far from Kiri in the Land of Water, a war torn place ravaged by the Bloodline purges._

_The Hokage had been approached by a young woman, who turned out to be a leader of the rebels fighting against the tyrannical Mizukage that ordered the genocide. She came pleading for help, hoping that Konoha's love of bloodline limits would push them to help. But with political problems with Iwa and Kumo, the Hokage officially sent her away and refused to help. Because if they got into it, Iwa would join in to fight against them and Kumo would probably join in as well._

_But unofficially, he supported the rebels and sent a small supply of rations and medical supplies along with his right hand man and assassin, Naruto._

_His target was a merchant leader loyal to the Mizukage, he supplied the loyalists with food and weapons while taking advantage of the war and charging outrageous prices to the populous, causing many to suffer more that they already wore._

_Looking over to where a pair of rebel ninja were hiding, who'd been ordered to help him with his mission by the young rebel leader Mei Terumi, he nodded, causing them to vanish._

_They attacked the two guards, trained ninja sent to protect the man, and kept them busy while Naruto followed the man from the rooftops as he ran into an alley and out of the open._

_When the man slowed to a stop, thinking that he was safe, Naruto leapt, a long thin blade sliding out of the forearm protector on his arm. The man let out a short cry as he was sent to the ground, the Assassin in white sliding the blade between his ribs and into his lung, nicking the heart._

"_No…" the merchant leader gasped, slowly dying on the ground as Naruto slid the blade from his chest, "I can't die here… I'm not ready."_

"_Most never are," Naruto exclaimed softly as he closed the near dead mans eyes and raised his blade again, "May the Lord have mercy on you… for I shall not," and in one thrust, he ended the man's life, slicing through the skin below his neck and into his skull, "Rest in peace,"_

Dream end.

Awakening from his dream, Naruto rubbed his eyes and sat up before checking the time only to find that it was around noon. Rolling out of bed, he got dressed in some normal civilian clothing and threw on a white hooded jacket before heading out to train for a little bit and take care of some things.

-X-

"Oh, you must've went to that place… ah… what was it again… oh right La Rosa della Virtu," Exclaimed Anko as she sat with her best friend at her favorite dango place for lunch, they'd been telling each other about their past missions seeing as they'd been busy with work for the past couple days and never really had the chance to hang out.

Looking to her friend with a raised eyebrow, Kurenai stared at her, "How do you know it's name?"

"Your kidding right?" Anko mused, "It's one of the most famous brothels in fire country, it actually has two other branches, one in Earth Country and another in Lightning, I can't remember the names but they all have to do with roses. So did anything else happen there?"

She told him about the blond man she had met, making Anko grin when she launched into a detailed description of the man.

"Oooooh," she cooed, "Nai-chan has a crush!"

Kurenai's cheeks turned red as her eyes.

Nai-chan has a crush, Nai-chan has a crush, Nai-chan-" She chanted childishly before receiving a slap to the back of her head, "Oww, hey that hurt!"

Giving her friend a look usually reserved for her idiot student Kiba, she made the other woman chuckle lightly, "Stop that,"

"Ok, ok, damn, no need to be all violent, but tell me, that guy you were talking about, was he around say… this tall?"

"Y-yeah, he was… how'd you guess?" the Jounin questions, seeing as the his height was the only thing she left out before.

Anko pointed out the window, "I just saw him walk into that ninja supply shop."

To be continued…

-X-

If anything this is more of a filler to get things started. Sorry about that.

Anyway pairings are undecided.


	3. Chapter 3

Konoha's Assassin:

The Right Hand of the Hokage

Chapter 3

-X-

I own nothing

-X-

AN: I've changed some dates and facts around for this story, for example, Minato wasn't Kakashi's sensei. It's impossible with the dates, Naruto is 24 and Kakashi is only around 26 or 27. So unless Kakashi was a ninja baby straight from the womb, he couldn't be trained by Minato.

-X-

The bell above the door rang loudly.

Walking into the shop, Naruto stood in the doorway for a moment and looked around before heading towards the counter. The shop was brightly lit and spotless with packs of ninja weapons such as shuriken, kunai, and senbon stacked neatly in containers. Some generic swords lined the walls with unimpressive armors and equipment also hung from display stands. But that was for the people without a lot of money or were just starting out, much like Genin, closer to the counter was where the good stuff was stored, safely locked in display cases.

Summoned by the bell, the man he knew as the owner of the establishment walked out from the open doorway from behind the counter to take care of his customer.

He was a large man, large as in buff with thick arms that looked like he could break some of these swords in half without trying. Soot covered his face, obviously from the forge in the back where he made what he needed.

The man's soot covered face broke into a grin, "Naruto, how nice to see you!" he called out while wiping his hands with a rag, "I assume that you're here to pick up that little project and your other orders am I right?"

"Hey, Dustin," Naruto greeted in return , "Yeah, I'm starting to run low and need to stock up for a mission."

Nearing the counter where Dustin had stopped, they grabbed each others arms in a roman hand shake, grabbing each others forearms. The blacksmith was one of the few to know about his assassin status, having built his hidden blade after the blond found the instructions as well as forged his armors and other weapons. He had also done the same for his parents when they needed something so it wasn't like he went to some random person who'd betray him later.

Apparently, Minato invested/donated some of his money into the shop when Dustin was in trouble financially, not only helping him and his family, but making a loyal friend in the process.

Dustin opened up a place below his counter and returned with a scroll, "Here's the throwing knives and those special smoke bombs you needed, but the other thing isn't ready yet, I still need a while to finish it,"

"How long?" he asked while paying the man what he owed and storing the scroll away in his pocket.

"I should have it done either tonight or tomorrow so I'll have my daughter deliver it to you,"

"Tenten-chan?" the younger man exclaimed with a small grin, "How is your adorable little girl?"

The question seemed to make the father frown and level a glare at the blond, "Still to young for you!" he growled, making Naruto sweat drop, "She still sleeps with that stuffed animal that she named Naruto-kun…"

Naruto's sweat drop increased in size.

Dustin calmed down and huffed, "Well at it's better than that obsession that she had with that Hyuuga on her team… that emo prick needs to take that stick out of his ass… but knowing them, he probably enjoys it." realizing that he was rambling, he shook his head, "Oh, sorry about…"

The blacksmith huffed, finding himself alone in the shop, "I hate it when he does that,"

-X-

Tenten smiled to herself as she ran up the winding pathway up towards the top of the Hokage monument. Wearing her green pants and pink sleeveless shirt, she held onto the strap of her pack that was thrown over her shoulder, which bounced with every step.

Her body was tired, having just returned to her home above the family shop after her daily warm up followed by a mission or two and lastly, some training. While she would usually drag herself into the bathroom to wash up, get herself something to eat, and then go to sleep after a day of work, her excitement over being able to go to Naruto's gave her a second wind.

She had known the blond for years and even looked up to him as her secret role model. Ever since she could remember, he'd been coming to the shop and visiting her dad, usually picking up some gear or discussing something while she wasn't near by. When he'd vanish for weeks and weeks at a time, she remembered as a little girl when she asked her dad why, he hadn't been so forthcoming and told her that Naruto was a ninja, which in turn, set her on the path to becoming one as well.

Her dream of being a weapons mistress also came from watching him as a child, when he came in to get a weapon, he'd always test it out on some training dummies out back behind the shop and seemed to be able to use them no matter what they were. She still remembered the awe she felt, watching him with her father as he gracefully decimated the dummies then smile at her when he finished, as if he only did it to entertain her.

Going around a curve, she looked up and saw that she now only had a couple more to go before reaching the top and being able to head straight to the blondes home, using the moons dim light to help her as she got further from the village lights.

She blushed at the thought of being alone with him in his villa, it wasn't the first time she'd come up to deliver something to him for her father but now certain thoughts were running through her mind.

It was funny, just a year ago she'd been hung up on her teammate Neji Hyuuga, crushing on him secretly like some of the others in her academy class. But a week into being a genin, she and her team were assigned a mission to clean the female side of the bath house, which had been closed leaving the male side still up and running. Everything went well until Lee and Guy, got into a contest to see who could scrub the floors while standing on their hands and holding a brush in each hand, saying that the first one to fall would run around the village with a boulder tied to their waist.

It went well for all of one minute, while trying to steady themselves Guy slipped on the cleaner, knocked into Lee and both crashed into the dividing wall between the male and female side.

And who should be standing ten feet away? Naruto Uzumaki, who had just dropped his towel and was about to step into the water. He'd been facing away at the time but with the loud crash he turned and… well, she saw more of him than she ever had in the past.

Reaching the top, she turned to look at the village from the vantage point at the top of the mountain before taking off down the path towards the villa, which was hidden in the dark forest atop the monument.

It was a good thing she knew the way, as it was so dark that those who didn't could easily get lost, even with the path.

As always, his home was nice and well taken care of, it was kind of hard to believe that he lived there by himself.

Knocking, she loudly called out to the man before opening the door and walking in. She knew that he wouldn't mind and went to the room left of her, the same room that she liked the most and the one he knew that she'd go to, the weapons room.

It was more like a display room than an armory, each weapon having a special designated place assigned to it in a rack or a display table. Hanging on special made racks attached to the walls were weapons of all kinds, swords, maces, war hammers, spears, each one ready for combat. But in long cases along the walls were his short bladed weapons, each different from the next and looking like they should be in a history collection. But she knew that every weapon in this room was battle ready and fully tested, she had even helped forge a couple of these.

"I knew you'd be in here Ten-chan." Came the sudden voice belonging to Naruto as he soundlessly came up behind her, making her jump and swing at him, only for him to catch it.

"Don't do that!" she whined at being snuck up on, only for him to hum.

"What?"

"Sneak up on me like that!"

He raised an eyebrow, he wasn't sneaking, he had just walked in. Deciding to just pacify her, he apologized. They talked for a minute before she handed over a sealed package and after skillfully dancing around her questions for a little while, it came time for her to head on home.

When she did leave, he opened the package and found another hidden blade like his other except with two new changes, this one had a hollow blade that could be used to poison someone as well as a small dart launcher that could allow him to shoot poisoned darts.

He knew that Tenten would wet herself over this… hell she'd do it over just the hidden blade, but all she knew was that he and her father were friends, she didn't know about Dustin building the assassination tools for him and he didn't intend for her to find out more until she was ready to take her fathers place, that is if she was ever ready.

-X-

Two weeks later, Naruto found himself inside the Hokage tower standing across from the old man himself while looking over a scroll that sat on the desk between them.

"So Gato is hiding out in the Land of Waves…" he mused while studying the scroll, it was unrolled to reveal a map of the area as well as a few pictures of the man and a physical description. He had more detailed information sealed away inside the scroll but he'd check that out later when he needed to, after all it was mainly information on the land and some of the targets contacts.

The Hokage nodded.

Thinking, Naruto frowned, "There's no courtesans there for me to get information from but if I'm right, there were some mercenaries based there. They might be useful… that is if Gato didn't manage to buy them too."

"Kakashi and his team were sent for a mission there, they've decided to continue despite the risks. I've already received their report that they've fought the Demon Brothers and Momochi Zabuza, missing ninjas from Mist. Kakashi is down at the moment from chakra exhaustion due to using his eye,"

"Oh so this is a rescue mission too…" he mused while shaking his head, "Gotta pull Kakashi's ass out of the hot grease again huh."

Hiruzen nodded, "You leave as soon as your ready,"

-X-

The Land of Waves, a small nation located on an island near the Land of Fire, one of the many that didn't have it's own hidden village and was forced to seek assistance from other Hidden Villages. It had many rivers running through it and was famous for it's mangroves, which were full of life. But it was isolated, relying on shipping for commerce and trade, making it a very prosperous land… or it had been.

Crouched on a towering rooftop, Naruto gazed down at the surrounding land with a look of disgust at what he was seeing. Homeless, starving families begging for food on the streets, terrorized by thugs on Gato's payroll. Stores were closed and boarded up, some were even burnt out shells, those that were still open had barely anything and from what he saw those few things were outrageously priced due to the lack of supply.

With a layout of the land burned into his memory, Naruto reflected on his objectives, first off he needed to contact Kakashi and make sure that both him and his team were ok, then he needed to gather information on Gato and find the runts location, and lastly, use that information to end his life.

"Hey!"

Turning his head, Naruto saw that one of Gato's men had spotted him and was yelling for him to come down. Frowning, he leapt off in the opposite direction, his white assassins robes fluttering in the air as he vanished in out of sight,

-X-

"Dad, I'm back from town!"

Kakashi looked up to see Tsunami, their client Tazuna's daughter, walk in with a small paper bag of food while his student Sakura followed her, acting as protection while in town. Tsunami was the 29 year old mother of Inari, a emo little brat that reminded him of his other students, Sasuke and Sai.

"Did anything happen?" the old bridge builder questioned as she neared.

Going back to his book, Kakashi half listened to the conversation before nearly dropping his book, catching the attention of everyone in the room. "I'm sorry Tsunami-san, but what'd you just say?"

The woman looked at him weirdly, "I said that some of my friends were going on about a strange man dressed in a hooded white robe."

"With a red sash under a wide brown belt and armor over his arms?"

She blinked owlishly and nodded, "You know who is was?"

Before he could answer, there was a string of knocks at the door. Warily of a surprise attack, they opened the door cautiously only to find the person they'd been talking about standing there.

"Identify yourself!" demanded Sasuke, who'd been in the room and opened the door since Kakashi still had to use crutches to move around. Sakura all but hid behind him while Sai was sitting in a chair, paint brush and pad ready for one to use one of his jutsu.

But the answer didn't come from the man in white, Kakashi laughed and rubbed the back of his head, "Figures that the Hokage would send you Naruto."

Removing his hood, Naruto smirked at the Jounin before walking in, bumping past the Uchiha in his way, "Yeah… wouldn't be the first time I've saved your ass now would it?"

"Ah Sensei?" Sakura spoke up, "Who is this?"

"Our support." he replied with an eye smile, making them all sweat drop.

Naruto slowly shook his head, "Actually Kakashi, I'm here to check up on you, I'm here for another reason."

"Huh?" Kakashi narrowed his eye in thought before understanding, "Oh… I see…"

Confused by all the hidden answers, Sakura loudly asked what they were talking about only for Kakashi to tell her that it was none of her business.

"Actually Kakashi, the Hokage doesn't care if this gets out," he said before looking to the pink haired girl, "As for your question, I'm not here to help your team with the mission, I'm here to assassinate Gato."

The reactions he got were amusing, the old man spat sake across the floor, the woman nearly fainted, the pink haired girl Sakura paled, and the Uchiha flinched, only the strange teen and Kakashi didn't really react.

"A-assassinate Gato!" Tazuna parroted while Naruto nodded, he raised his bottle and grinned, "To the Hidden Leaf Village then!"

-X-

Over the next two days, Naruto gathered information on the land and his target. The people of Wave, both beaten and repressed were eager for change but afraid to rise up against Gato and his mercenary army. He managed to bribe some shop keepers into talking, getting them to tell him what Tazuna's family didn't know.

Gato ran his business like a spoiled rich brat leading a wannabe yakuza street gang, answering his problems by throwing money to the nearest thug and saying break this, kill that, or threaten them. Most of said money came from his ill-gotten shipping company, which he took illegally from the rightful owners by forcing them to sign over everything, usually by holding a family member hostage. He used the shipping business for shipping drugs and more recently, slaves. A small fraction of his wealth came from forcing the people to pay tax and protection money, they usually managed to scrape by but those that didn't were taken and sold. He only just recently started that and from what he heard, he had a small handful of the ones who couldn't pay imprisoned somewhere on the island and was looking for a buyer.

Over the past few hours, he'd been combing for information on Gato's location, hoping to take the midget out sooner and possibly aid Kakashi with his little swordsman problem. From the injuries Kakashi inflicted, the scarecrow figured that the man would be up and on his feet by the end of the week, which was in two days at the least. Zabuza also seemed to have a partner masquerading around as a hunter ninja from Mist.

Leaping silently across the rooftops, silent as the grave, he followed a pair of mercenaries as they walked down the road, having just beaten a man and taken what they called 'protection money'. He had to stop himself from dropping in on them and killing them both but when he heard them say something about taking the money straight to Gato he decided to follow instead.

"Hey, did you hear about this guy that's been walking around in white monks robes?" he heard while crouching on the roof above them as they slowly made there way towards their destination.

"A monk?" the other repeated, "What the fuck's a monk doing here?"

"Don't know, it's just a rumor I've heard."

Naruto hummed lowly, the towns people must've been keeping their talk to a minimum if the mercenaries only thought that he was a rumor. They really wanted Gato gone but lacked the guts to do it themselves. Speaking of mercenaries, the ones he had thought about getting information from had disbanded, most leaving the Land of Waves while a few joined up with Gato.

He continued to follow them until they reached a small harbor and boarded a small motorboat, he wouldn't be able to sneak on but he didn't need too as he could see where they were going. A small island sat just a short ways from the main island with a mansion sitting in the middle, surrounded by a tall wall that most likely had thugs stationed here and there.

He had found Gato's place but it wouldn't do him any good right now, he needed to prepare himself and return to Tazuna's home, if he was going to infiltrate Gato's manor and assassinate the parasite, he'd need to fully arm himself just in case.

To be continued…

-X-

Please review…


	4. Chapter 4

Konoha's Assassin:

The Right Hand of the Hokage

Chapter 4

-X-

I own nothing

-X-

When he returned to Tazuna's home the sun was just beginning to peak out over the water behind the building, which was built half-way on the water with it's back door leading to a small dock that wrapped around the home.

Walking in through the front door, he found Kakashi sitting on the couch in the living room with his Icha-Icha in hand while the pink haired girl laid on a loveseat, curled up under a small sheet and snoring lightly, her weapons pouch sitting on the floor beside her.

"It's funny isn't it?" Kakashi exclaimed while glancing up at him then to the girl, "When we were her age we could only dream of being able to sleep like that on a mission."

Sakura made a small noise and moved, trying to get comfortable as she slept.

"The times have changed," Naruto mused while turning and walking over to the girl, who had kicked the sheet onto the floor by accident. He picked it up and laid it back over her, "It hasn't really been that long but it's almost like the war is ancient history now."

Kakashi nodded slowly.

"When I look at this generation… I don't know what to feel." the blond continued, taking one last look at the girl before turning away, "I mean… looking at the academy back before the old man changed it, it was a mockery. Teaching flower arranging to young girls? Replacing over half the physical training courses with pure history? Cooking classes?"

The other man got a small laugh out of that one, "Well I think that was the Akimichi clan's idea."

The assassin shrugged, "Maybe, but compare it to before… you were a trained genin at the age of five and a Chunin at six. They taught you how to be a ninja then."

"You never went to the academy didn't you?"

He shook his head slowly, "I was taken away and trained to be what I am…"

Chuckling, he shook his head, "Look at us Kakashi, not even in our thirties and we sound like a couple of old broken soldiers, let's change the subject."

The silver headed Cyclops nodded into his book, "Right… so did you find anything?"

"I found Gato's home, I plan on infiltrating tonight after getting some sleep."

"Well I won't keep you up any more," the Jounin exclaimed, "good luck tomorrow."

Naruto nodded and started to walk up to the room he was given.

"Hey Naruto?"

Hearing Kakashi call him, the slightly younger man stopped and turned his head to look at him from the corner of his eye. "Hmm?"

"Do you… do you think that if I had done things differently… maybe I could've saved Obito that day… or maybe even Rin?"

Naruto didn't say much at first, letting the words settle in before shaking his head slowly, "Don't think about it too hard Kakashi, you did what you could that day and there's no changing the past. And stop beating yourself up over what happened to Rin, you weren't even on the same mission as her that day."

"Yeah… I guess your right."

-X-

No matter how many times he's done it, the prep time before the start of an infiltration was always a highly stressful period of time. Thoughts of 'what if' rolled though his mind without pause, what if there were more guards than he planned for, what if Gato escaped, what if he had a hostage, what if, what if, what if?

Checking the time, he calmed himself down while standing over the dinning room table where all his equipment laid for one final check. It was almost 10:00 and he wanted to wait at least another thirty minutes before he set out under the cover of a dim, half-moon.

Unlike before, he'd be wearing his full gear and ensured that it was all there. Pulling on the long white hooded coat, he zipped the front and wrapped the red sash around his waist and lower torso before securing it at the hip, letting a small piece just hang there on his coattail. He then secured the hardened leather armor/belt over his waist and gut, adjusting it and making sure the thing was good and tight before connecting the harness that connected underneath it at the front and back, which went around one thigh where he had a sword sheath riveted to it. On the back of the leather armor belt, he had three pouches holding some of his other equipment. Next, he picked up another harness and hooked it across his chest, a small sheath sitting right by his shoulder blade.

Picking up the sword laying on the table, he admired it for a moment. It was forged from a smooth, silver metal with a cross guard shaped like an eagle's wings and it's pommel shaped to look like an eagle's head. The handle was wrapped in strong, dark brown leather for gripping with only one hand.

Sliding it into the sheath, he reached for his short blade, or dagger to do the same. It was a strange weapon shaped like a kunai but flatter instead of being pyramid shaped. It was called a Cinquedea, and had been forged to look like one of the old weapons of his clan, much like his sword. But the dagger had been upgraded with a small notch in it to cause more damage to a target.

Next to the dagger sat a bunch of small throwing knives, which he had a number of loops on his waist and belt, numbering to 25. They were small thin double edged blades around four to five inches long and hard to throw without practice, but he was skilled with them and they had been a traditional weapon of his clan.

And lastly, there were his arm guards which hid his greatest weapons, the hidden blades.

Pulling them on and tightening the straps, he moved his wrist back and forth for each one, sheathing and unsheathing the blades smoothly before checking over the newest addition to his poison blade, the dart gun. It was a small ingenuous device, acting like a small crossbow that shot a single poisoned dart soundlessly.

The door opened suddenly and Tsunami walked in, gasping lightly when she spotted him, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," she exclaimed, slightly intimidated by the multitude of weaponry on his person.

Turning to look at her, he smiled apologetically, "No, I should be the one to apologize, did I wake you?"

She shook her head, "N-no, I just couldn't sleep," Tsunami assured him, looking him up and down.

He did the same but with much more subtly, she was a beautiful woman to say the least, even the pink bathrobe she wore didn't take away from her looks. If he wasn't on a mission right now and was just about to go out and assassinate someone, he'd put some serious thought into flirting with her some.

"With all that's been going on," she continued while watching him double check himself, "I just can't believe what's going on, if I wasn't so afraid of what Gato will do if he gets a hold of my father…"

"Don't worry yourself about Gato," he told her with a firm tone, "He will be dealt with tonight,"

The meaning struck her like a ton of bricks, nearly making her take a step back in surprise. "Y-you mean?"

He nodded, "Yes. So just go on to bed, Gato will no longer be a problem soon enough."

-X-

Making his way to the small harbor in the dead of night without being seen was child's play, his natural skill in the stealth department could have ANBU chasing him around for hours until he decided that enough was enough and just vanished. In fact, the Hokage was starting to consider asking him to devise a training regiment for his ANBU in just that.

The harbor was nearly empty, most of the boats already gone to the island. But one remained, which was under the guard of what seemed to be a sleeping thug.

Said thug never woke up as the assassin ran him through with both of his hidden blades then dumped the corpse into the water.

He briefly considered cranking the motor but stopped, deciding to run over the water under his stealth jutsu, the Transparent Escape technique. It was actually a jutsu made by Jiraiya to make his body transparent, allowing the user to spy on others without being noticed. But it was actually made so that the old pervert could peep in on bathing females back when he was a child, Naruto took it and adopted it for his own uses.

Reaching the island, the assassin ran to the wall, his movement hidden under the jutsu as he scaled the side and caught the ledge with his hands, hanging there as he heard a man moving above him. Waiting until the movement was closest, he pulled himself up and grabbed the man's shirt, causing his blade to unsheathe itself into the man's chest before pulling him over the edge where he died on impact with the ground.

Systematically killing each patrolling guard around the wall, Naruto made his way into the mansion and used his bloodline to track down his half pint target Gato with Eagle Vision.

A small golden line ran through the halls with a small ghostly figure following it, showing him the way his target went.

Following the figure, he assassinated any mercenaries he found and hid the bodies wherever he could before finding what he knew had to be Gato's office. The blond quickly took anything that looked important and sealed it away for later before following the trail out of the room and up to a bedroom on the top floor.

Creeping in, he made his way over to Gato's bed and stood over the tiny tyrant who snored lightly. But those snores stopped as he covered Gato's mouth and nose with his hand, causing the man to wake up as he found himself unable to breath.

His eyes shot open and once he realized that a hooded man was covering his face, he struggled, the primal survival instincts pushing him to fight for air.

Naruto stared at the frantic man, watching as his face changed colors, eyes rolling back as the struggle became less and less frantic, "Your crimes against the people of Wave and the village of Konoha have not gone unseen," he told the man while reaching over his shoulder and drawing his dagger, "By order of the Hokage, your life is forfeit… may you find solace in the next life."

And just like that, Gato's life ended, his throat sliced open.

Naruto reached up and closed Gato's eyes before retrieving the feather from his pouch and running it through the blood pouring from the wound on the corpse's neck.

The deed done, he backed away and hummed, this assignment was much easier than he anticipated. He had expected a fight to be honest but it looked like he had been overestimating Gato from the beginning.

But now he needed to send a message to the people of Wave, to tell them that they were free and to put the fear of god into the mercenaries that took his money and helped oppress the people.

Looking at the body, he smirked.

-X-

Mornings in the oppressed village were silent to say the least, those that did venture out did so quietly. Adults lucky enough to still have a job went to it hoping not to attract the attention of abusive thugs. Children mostly stayed inside until the afternoon, where they would go out and play with other kids since the thugs never really paid attention to them unless they did something or got in their way.

But a piercing scream broke through the silence, echoing through the air.

The cause?

Hanging from a lamp post in the center of town was a small man, shirtless with the only thing covering him being a pair of underwear. Around the corpses neck was the thick noose keeping him suspended, stained with blood while said fluid dried on his chest.

In the commotion following the first scream, no one noticed the white hooded figure perched on a rooftop with a smirk on his face.

No one went near it a first, but when someone finally did go up to find out who the victim was, thinking that it was another poor soul who went against Gato, they were stunned to learn that it wasn't a victim of Gato, but Gato himself.

-X-

Returning to Tazuna's home, Naruto came across something strange along the path which only led to the bridge builder's home. The blond stopped his trek and jumped from the trees next to the path and knelt down to investigate.

A wild bore lay next to the dirt path, it's body covered in deep gashes with a puddle of it's life blood pooling around it while a small trail told him that it had tried to escape before bleeding to death. Around him, some of the trees were covered in marks that looked like someone hacking away with a sword.

Closing his eyes, he channeled chakra through his eyes, "Show me the truth," he muttered before opening his eyes, the blue orbs much sharper than usual and almost glowing.

Like always, when he used his Eagle Vision, the world around him turned blue.

Looking around, he saw two ghostly figures walking towards him hacking at the trees every now and then on their way towards Tazuna's home. They lazily made their way down the path a little ways before coming across the wild bore and attacking it, cruelly slicing it with intent to cause pain. When they finally finished and walked off, the bore pitifully struggled to move, making it's way a couple yards before collapsing and fading away in the same spot as it was now.

Turning his eagle vision off, he shook his head at such cruelty before turning back towards his destination, the blood on the pig was still somewhat fresh, meaning that the ones who did this couldn't be too far. The only reason they'd be here was to attack the client and his family, seeing as the old man would be gone to work by now with Kakashi and the genin, that meant that they would most likely find Tsunami and her son alone.

-X-

Tsunami hummed a little tune to herself while washing dishes by the window over her kitchen sink, looking out to the calm sea that was their backyard. She had just seen her son Inari a moment ago before he ran upstairs like he always did and sighed thinking about how he acted the day before to the ninjas protecting his grandfather, her father. Ever since Kaiza had been murdered in front of him, he'd lost all hope in justice and stopped believing that one day they'd be free.

Without warning, the wall behind her was cut to pieces, chunks of wall falling to the floor as two men walked in through the dust from outside.

The first was a light-skinned man with blue-white hair under a black skullcap that was the same color as his eyes. He had tattooed lines under his eyes and wore a blue jacket with multiple pockets. Lastly, he had a blue handled katana tied to his waist that he held with a smirk.

The second was a tall, shirtless man with an eye-patch over his right eye and ragged brown hair in a topknot. He wore a loose-fitting kimono with the top part around his waist while his sword was tucked inside his waistband.

"So your Tazuna's daughter huh?" the first exclaimed while looking at her, "That's too bad, you have to come with us now."

Inari, who was in the bathroom washing his hands, froze as he heard the sound of something breaking followed shortly after his mother screaming. He ran out of the bathroom and down the hall towards the kitchen to see his mother on the floor, covering her head as broken dishes and a few chairs from the table littered the floor.

"MOM!" the little boy screamed.

But before anything else could happen, something hit one of the swordsmen in the back and exploded with a loud bang before the room went black.

-X-

Naruto arrived just a moment before Inari did, using the distracted state of the two thugs, he reached into his back pouch and pulled out a small golf ball sized ball and threw it in, aiming at the shirtless thug.

Using his eagle vision, which allowed him to see clearly in the smoke, he rushed in and grabbed the woman, violently shoving the one with the hat off his feet and out of the way before carrying the coughing mother towards the exit made by the two swordsmen, stopping only to grab Inari before carrying them both out into the front yard where they could breath again.

The smoke from his smoke bomb would actually clear on it's on in a few moments, he had to get them to safety first just to be careful, by the time they caught their breath, the two thugs were able to see and were nearing the hole in the wall.

"Hey!" the light-skinned one yelled, his voice cracking as he let out a cough, "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but our boss told us to get that bitch the other night, you don't want to get on the bosses bad side." he continued while motioning at him with his sword.

Naruto chuckled, "Gato?" he mused, "You haven't heard? Gato's corpse was found hanging from a street lamp a few hours ago,"

"You lie!" the shirtless one sneered, "Like anyone would believe that bullshit! Now hand over the girl and maybe we'll be merciful and let you live!"

Naruto cocked his head at the obvious lie, "Men like you two do not know the meaning of the word," he exclaimed with a dark tone of voice as he drew his sword, the thin double edged blade shining in the morning sun, "Nor do you deserve any,"

The swordsmen both sneered, "You've fucked up now, come on Waraji, let's kill this idiot,"

Waraji, the topless man, nodded, "Ok, let's go, Zori,"

With the Tsunami and Inari close to him, Naruto copied the two swordsmen and advanced, not wanting them to be in danger. Both men tried to cut him down but found their weapons blocked by the assassin's arm guard and sword. Like a snake, Naruto struck the shirtless man with his foot, kicking him in the chest while holding Zori at bay with his arm guard.

Smirking, Naruto moved his hand, unsheathing the hidden blade and moved his arm to push the katana aside while swiping the hidden blade across the man's face before following up by swinging his sword and slashing the now screaming man through the gut.

"You bastard!" Waraji hissed while readying another attack, rushing in and trying to hit the assassin with an overhead strike.

Stepping aside, Naruto avoided the blade like it was child's play and thrust his hidden blade into the side of the man's bare chest, slicing through the ribcage and through the lung and heart.

As the man slowly dropped to his knees, falling to his side, Naruto sheathed his sword and hidden blade before kneeling down next to the shirtless swordsmen as the man died. "Fear not the darkness, but welcome it's embrace…" he exclaimed just moments before the man slackened, "May you find solace in the next life,"

Moments from death, the man coughed up blood, "Fuck… you, piece of… shit," he wheezed before dying.

Closing the man's eyes, Naruto did the same for the other before standing.

"Why?" Inari asked hotly, "Why say something like that after what they've done!"

Naruto turned to the little boy with a look of understanding, "Because despite what they did, everyone deserves to know at least one act of kindness during their final moments."

He could understand how the kid felt, these men had tried to kidnap his mother and helped Gato pillage these lands for years. In the boy's eyes, they were the closest thing to demons he could think of with Gato being the devil.

Standing, the assassin walked over to them and placed his hand on the child's head, right on the bucket hat he wore, "It is things like giving even the most wicked of men the chance to regret their crimes, to ask forgiveness, or make their peace with god that will show them despite what they've done, they are still human and deserve one small act of kindness."

"But he didn't care!" Inari expressed, stomping his foot and pulling away to fix his hat, "He said-"

"It doesn't matter," Naruto interrupted before the boy said something to get in trouble by repeating the thugs final words, "He may have spit on my kindness but it was his right to do so."

Turning to Tsunami, he quickly checked her over to find that she was fine, just a little shaken, "Tsunami-san, I have a feeling that Gato's goons were given their orders before I killed the man, do you have anywhere you and Inari could hide while I go check on things at the bridge?"

She was slow to answer but nodded after a moment, "I ah… we have distant relatives living in town… I-I think they'll let us stay there for a little while."

He nodded, "Go there and stay out of sight," The assassin made a hand seal and a shadow clone appeared in a puff of smoke, "My clone will escort you."

The mother nodded and quickly gathered her son and started off towards town, the shadow clone following them.

-X-

(They don't know about Gato's death yet, the bridge is on one end of the island and the town is in the opposite direction. Tazuna lives away from town closer to the bridge so they wouldn't know about it so soon.)

Things at the bridge weren't going so well, Kakashi could contest to that, Sasuke was in trouble, trapped by the fake hunter ninja that tricked them earlier before when they first faced Zabuza. Haku, Zabuza's partner, had a bloodline limit allowing him to use ice jutsu, which he used to trap Sasuke in a dome of mirrors which he fused with, allowing him to seemingly attack from each mirror all at once with senbon needles.

He had tied to help his student but Zabuza blocked his path, informing him that if he tried to help the Uchiha, he'd kill the old man. Sai was also stopped by the sudden appearance of the demon brothers, whom they had left tied up for ANBU to pick up only for someone to release them before the ANBU could get there.

So with the demon swordsmen blocking his path and the two demon brothers blocking Sai, that left Sakura to guard Tazuna and Sasuke on his own. And to make matters worse, Zabuza's hidden mist jutsu was making it harder to see.

Unable to take seeing her crush being torn apart by wave after wave of needles, Sakura threw a kunai hoping that the mirrors would break from the back while she screamed the boys name.

But it was useless, Haku's upper body exited the mirror from the back and caught it like it was nothing before turning to look at the one trapped in his dome, frowning sadly under his mask.

Looking at the kunai, the ninja spun it around in a reverse grip before shaking his head slowly and turning to say something.

But nothing came out.

The kunai in his grasp slowly fell to the stone floor, it's sound echoing through the still air and seeming much louder than it really was.

"Haku?" Barked the swordsmen, "What's wrong?"

The fake hunter ninja merged with the mirror again, making the leaf ninjas tense thinking that he was about to continue. But it was for nothing, Haku reemerged from a mirror facing them, each step clumsy before he slowly reached out with his hand, grasping for the demon swordsmen, "Z-Zabuza… Sama…" he whimpered before collapsing.

The sound of the mask hiding Haku's face shattering as he slammed face down onto the ground seemed like a bomb going off.

"What the hell!" demanded Zabuza, confused as to how his tool died when he had seen everything.

Sasuke blinked, also confused while the mirrors around him melted, leaving a massive puddle around him and the body of Haku which was slowly turning pinkish red around him. But since he was closest, he saw what the others didn't, buried deep into the young ninja's back were six knives, each to the hilt and if his memory served correctly, each had hit a vital organ zone.

A loud, ear piecing screech filled the air, making everyone look up to see a large bird perched on some scaffolding nearby glaring down at them with it's sharp eyes before letting out another screech that echoed all through out the air.

Two metallic slinking noises followed the screech before both demon brothers gasped and fell to the ground.

Turning, Zabuza found himself alone, a man wearing a white hooded robe standing over the bodies of both Gozu and Meizu with two thin blades protruding out from under his armguards.

"Zabuza Momochi," Naruto called out coldly, "The time to answer for your crimes has come, the new Mizukage has placed a kill order on your head as well as any that aid you."

Zabuza readied his blade, "So that bitch became the new Mizukage, figures," he spat out, "I thought you looked familiar, I'll kill you like the animal you are,"

Naruto slowly shook his head, "You be ashamed, what you did is unforgivable."

With a quick hand signal, a shadow appeared over Zabuza, making him turn and swing his sword at the figure dropping down on him from above. His massive blade sliced through the assassin only for it to vanish in a puff of smoke while the real Naruto tackled him from behind, sinking his hidden blade through the swordsman's chest.

-X-

Kneeling down on one knee, Naruto held Zabuza up and looked down at him as the bandages masking his face turned red from him coughing up blood.

"Hehehe…" The dying man exclaimed, stopping to cough some more, "I always figured that it would end like this, eh assassin?"

"You betrayed the resistance, sold out your brothers and sisters, left them to die at the hands of that monster, why do something so wretched?"

"No… you misunderstand, I… I'm no traitor… You can not betray those you never really loved,"

"So you were a loyalist spy?"

Zabuza rolled his eyes, "You really… expect me to tell you… everything?" he questioned, "What? Expecting… me to spill… my guts… crying for… forgiveness… and understanding? Ha… then you're a… bigger fool than… I thought."

Raising his hand, Naruto reached towards Zabuza's face.

"What… did I… strike a nerve assassin?" he mocked before the bloody bandages around the lower half of his face were ripped off, revealing a tattoo on his cheek.

Seeing the blond stare at it, Zabuza laughed weakly, "Forever locked… in an endless struggle… eh assassin?"

"May your soul find peace in the next life," Naruto muttered before unsheathing his hidden blade up through Zabuza's chin and into his skull and killing the man while staring icily at the small Maltese cross tattooed on the mans cheek, "Templar dog…"

To be continued…

-X-


	5. Chapter 5

Konoha's Assassin:

The Right Hand of the Hokage

Chapter 5

-X-

I own nothing

-X-

Templars, also known as the Order of the Knights Templar, one of those secret organizations that conspiracy theorists swore up and down that run the world, blaming anything they could on them to try and convince themselves and others in their existence. Well they were only half right, Templars did exist but they didn't rule the world, they only had a fraction of the power people said they did but still sought to complete their ambition, to create a perfect world, usually by force, control and the destruction of free will.

"And you believe that there might be a chance that the Templars are back in action?" Hiruzen asked as he sat behind his desk in front of Naruto, who just finished his report after having the room sealed against eavesdroppers.

Naruto shook his head, "I'm not sure, but Zabuza seemed to know about the history between them and my clan."

The sworn enemies of the Templars were the Uzumaki clan, or as they were called back then, the Assassin Order or the Assassin Brotherhood. The bloody covert war between the two orders lasted for decades as the two ideologies clashed. The Templars believed that humanity needed to be guided, that they needed to be controlled for their own good while the Assassins believed that mankind should always have the ability to choose, to have the freedom of liberty, even if it meant accepting that humanity would always be flawed in their ways.

The Hokage shook his head, "This is troubling news Naruto-kun, it was bad enough with them manipulating the smaller countries during the last war. I thought that we took care of them all but it seems like we may have missed some." he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I'll have Jiraiya look into this… but I think it might be a good idea to think about restoring the Brotherhood as an official section of our military."

Naruto nodded, "Maybe… but I want to make sure that the Templars are actually active before it comes to that, now, if there's nothing else, I'd like to go home…"

"Of course Naruto-kun, go home and rest, I'll have the bounty for Zabuza deposited in your account later today. I assume you'll be keeping his sword?"

The assassin nodded, "I plan on adding it to my collection, the bounty called for either the man's head or his sword, not both."

-X-

Returning home, Naruto reflected on the past week. He had freed the Land of Waves from the tyranny of Gato and even located the money that the man had stolen from the people in the paperwork he stole from Gato's office. Not only that but he managed to free the captives that Gato had been planning to sell and had turned in the rest of the stolen paperwork to the Hokage so that the information department could pick through it and follow up to try and find out who the man was looking to sell them to.

But while he had done so much good for the Land of Waves, he couldn't help but feel bad for killing Zabuza's partner, that fake Hunter ninja. Out of those four, that boy had been innocent despite what he'd been doing. The mist had been too thick for him to see on his own from a distance so he used his eagle vision to see though it, and to his surprise, the figure attacking the Uchiha hadn't been glowing red like the other three, Haku was grey but flickered red, meaning that he was really innocent but was still an enemy.

So to save the genin, he killed the fake hunter ninja. Six throwing knives to the back, each hitting a separate vital organ, one through each kidney, one through the liver, another in each lung, and lastly the heart, just barely missing the spine with that last one. He'd been innocent and yet was willing to kill for his master, a templar that used him and saw him as nothing more than a tool.

Entering his villa, he walked into the weapon room and made some room on the wall before hanging up the massive sword that once belonged to a great, yet horrible man, Momochi Zabuza.

After Zabuza faded away and Sasuke had been checked over by his fan girl, who hugged him tightly and squealed when Kakashi said that he'd be fine, the members of team seven figured that everything was over and that they'd finally get some peace.

How wrong they'd been…

-X-

-FLASHBACK-

While Naruto spoke to Zabuza as he slowly died, Kakashi took this time to run over to Sasuke and check him over. He had senbon sticking in him in a few places but nothing too serious, most had hit non-vital areas and wouldn't even bleed much once they were pulled out. But the pain from his leg muscles being used as a senbon pincushion made it hard for him to walk, so Kakashi help him walk over to the rest of them just in time to hear Naruto say his signature line before Sakura and Tazuna gasped as the blond finished Zabuza off.

But then her shock from seeing someone go from living, well slowly dying… to suddenly dead wore off at the sight of seeing Sasuke, "Sasuke-kun!" she cried out before nearly tackling him, "Sasuke-kun are you alright, your bleeding! Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun is-"

"Calm down," Kakashi exclaimed, "Sasuke will be fine, he just needs to take it easy and he'll be fine"

Hearing that her not so secret crush would be fine made her smile before she hugged him tightly, making him yelp and scaring her.

"Ah I'm still hurt!" he grunted from the puncture wounds and scrapes from the near misses, which hadn't even bled much and had already stopped for the most part.

"Oh I'm so sorry Sasuke-kun-"

Naruto ignored them and closed Zabuza's eyes before standing and doing the same for the demon brothers and Haku, moving the four corpses closer together to be moved later, where he would take the heads of the three missing ninja and dispose of the bodies before leaving.

"So Naruto," Kakashi started while walking towards him, "If you're here, then that means that Gato…"

The blond nodded, "Gato is dead, his corpse was found hanging in the town square just a few hours ago."

"Gato's dead!" Tazuna exclaimed with a mix of excitement and relief in his voice, "So everything's ok… we won't have to worry about him anymore?"

"Not from Gato," he reassured, "But there will always be those that will be happy to take his place, you must be willing to stand against such people and fight or else another tyrant will step up to take over."

Slowly, the mist around the bridge began to clear, the chakra saturating the air slowly fading away and causing the mist to disperse without nothing to hold it together now that Zabuza was dead.

Sakura saw what was on the end of the bridge and gasped, making both him and Kakashi turn to see a bunch of armed mercenaries smirking and glaring at them menacingly.

"Lookie here boys, looks like we got it easy," called out the lead thug, holding a mace over his shoulder, "They took out Zabuza and his crew for us, they're already tired, hahaha this'll be an easy payday for us."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Kind of hard for Gato to pay you when he's hanging in the town square with his throat opened up." he told them, making them look at each other confusedly, "Let me guess, he stayed in that mansion with only a few guards while you stayed somewhere else… that would explain why it was so easy to take him out."

"You son of a bitch, you killed our meal ticket," one yelled out.

Naruto nodded slowly, "Yes, and I suggest that you leave and find honest work with better men."

"Fuck that! I say we raid the town and take everything we want, I seen a couple of hot bitches in town that I'd love to hear scream when I stick my-" The speaker grabbed at his throat and fell, gargling with a throwing knife lodged in his neck.

The assassin stood there, arm outstretched with his hood shadowing his face, "Last chance, leave or join him."

This seemed to make them a bit wary, after-all, the man had just killed one of them without the others noticing until it was too late. The ones they were going to attack were ninja too and even a tired ninja could be dangerous. But their superior numbers gave them the courage to do something as stupid as what they were about to do.

"Kakashi are you fit to fight?"

The Jounin hummed, "I can, but I'm still a little sore… what, are you saying that you can't handle some mercenaries on your own?"

"Coming from the man that complains about a little soreness from a fight one week ago? I can handle them, I just wanted to make sure that you could get the ones that run past me and try to get to the town."

"I guess I could, but why not just use some shadow clones or jutsu?"

Naruto gave Kakashi a grin before turning back to the thugs, unsheathing his sword as he stared them down, "May your souls rest peacefully in the next life."

As if he'd yelled 'go' the mob of armed mercenaries charged him while he did the same.

Sprinting forward, Naruto jumped and landed knees first into the first mercenary, stabbing him through the chest with his sword before falling with the body, his sword sliding out at the point hit the stone.

An axe wielding man swung low, aiming to burry the heavy blade in his chest, but Naruto laid back on his knees as the axe head flew over him before he sat up and swung his sword, cleaving through the attackers leg.

The now screaming man fell, blood gushing from the stump.

The assassin rolled out of the way as another man attacked him, this time wildly thrusting at him with a halberd which he let fly past him before catching it and using the shaft to block a sword before striking the swordsmen followed by the one with the halberd.

Only seconds into the fight, Naruto was surrounded on all sides by the mercenaries, crouched low to the ground with his sword in a defensive stance.

Seeing this, Sasuke scoffed, "What kind of ninja gets himself surrounded like that?"

Kakashi shook his head, "Watch carefully Sasuke, he let them surround him and chooses to be on the defensive,"

Unlike his students, Kakashi could see Naruto's strategy and knew first hand that the blond could easily handle multiple attackers with ease. He had a sort of sixth sense when it came to being attacked and always seemed to know which way it was coming from. Each attack was a counter, deflecting the first attack and taking them down with one mortal wound before using that momentum to take out another, sometimes using one counter to take down three or four before having to dodge or counter another attack. It was a scary style, making the extremely agile blond seem untouchable while he decimated the enemy.

Before they knew it, there was a circle of corpses around the defending blond, his white hooded robe like top splattered with blood while the armguard and sword dripped crimson as he held a thin, rat-like man by the shoulder, said blade stuck through his back.

The remaining thugs shook as he ripped the blade out with a spin, looking at them all with cold icy blue eyes.

-FLASHBACK END-

-X-

Every mercenary that attacked them that day had died, even those that ran suffered one of his throwing knives to the back. With the thugs dead and the town rejoicing, he stayed just long enough to take care of Zabuza and the demon brothers' bodies, severing their heads and searching their equipment for anything valuable be it weapons, information, anything, he even collected their headbands and sealed them away. He then set them in a pile and burnt the headless corpses with a fire jutsu.

But the one known as Haku didn't get such a hasty treatment, he had killed a somewhat innocent young man, not even in his mid teens and despite the fact that he was going to kill the Uchiha, he deserved something a little better than a quick, uncaring cremation.

He took the time to dig the young man a grave on a peaceful hill top overlooking the village in the Land of Waves and buried him with a simple stone grave marker simply inscribed with his name. Nothing too special but enough to mark the young mans final resting place.

But unlike Kakashi and his genin, he left as soon as he could and returned to the village. Kakashi had to stay and wait until the bridge was finished as the contract stated, which would probably take a week or two at least.

Leaving the weapons display room, the assassin entered the foyer and went upstairs to his room where he disarmed and disrobed, setting his sword, dagger, armored belt and armguards with his hidden blades neatly side by side on a small table against the wall while hanging his robes on a rack.

He didn't have anything else to do today, nor did he have many friends, so he had plenty of time to rest.

In no time, his shirt and pants were laying across a chair while his boots sat on the floor in front of it, leaving him in his underwear where he then got into bed and tried to go to sleep, thinking about how he could revive the Assassin Order if it came to that

-X-

The next day, Naruto was roused from his sleep by a poke to the forehead followed by a slap from a tiny hand.

"Ah what the hell!" He yelped, rolling away and looking for his attacker, wondering how they managed to get to him without him sensing it. His answer came in the form of a snickering monkey about a foot and a half tall with a white furry body and a black face. It had a long white beard and white eyebrows and pointed at him with it's small finger.

"Haha, got you again kid!" it howled before being hit in it's forehead by the handle of one of Naruto's throwing knives, knocking it over and off the edge of the assassin's bed and onto the floor, "Oww that hurt you little shit!"

Naruto stood and glared over the edge at the monkey, it was a summon named Rolo that the Hokage used as a messenger from time to time and the bastard was tough to sense unless he was actively using his senses or had his eagle vision on. He had been used during the blonds training as a form of ultimate test and still liked to try and sneak up on him whenever he could.

"Rolo what the hell do you want?"

The monkey sat there rubbing it's forehead, "Man… the Hokage wants you," he huffed out, "You don't have to hit me you know,"

The blond nodded, "I know, now get out of here before I kick your white furry ass through a window."

-X-

Appearing in the Hokage's office in a whirl of leaves, Naruto glared at the old man and pointed an accusing finger at him, "Why the hell did you send that little shit slinger and not an ANBU!" he all but yelled before realizing that he was now flanked by three other ninja, one of which he knew, "Oh hey Ibiki,"

Ibiki was a large, imposing man, dressed in a blue militaristic uniform with a black trench coat over it and a bandana with his forehead protector baring the leaf symbol on the front of it. He was a strict person when it came to his job, but then again when your job was to get information out of people even if the methods were cruel and sadistic, you had to be strict.

The scarred man hummed and nodded, "Naruto,"

Clearing his throat, the Hokage got their attention as he sat back in his chair, "I called you here for an important reason Naruto, and to answer your question, I only have one ANBU available right now and don't want you wasting time to flirt with her."

Naruto crossed his arms, "Oh come on, it was only one time!"

The old man waved him off, "No matter… I called you in to tell you that you've been chosen to help proctor the Chunin exams."

Raising an eyebrow, he glanced back at the three other ninja before turning back to the Hokage, "I thought that there were only three stages with one proctor each."

"There's been a change of plan, you'll be helping both Ibiki and Anko with the first and second stages."

In no time, they had a rough idea of what the stages would be with Ibiki giving a torturous written exam with a hidden meaning, Anko sending them into the Forest of Death for a survival test where they'd be faced with the closest thing they could get to war without actually being in a true war, and finally Hayate Gekko would be the referee to a tournament style match in the finals for hundreds and hundreds of important people to see. With that, the others were dismissed leaving Naruto and the Hokage alone.

"Naruto listen, Jiraiya's come across some troubling rumors, he's still looking for more leads but I think it's safe to say that something might happen during the exams and he suspects that an enemy will try to do something by infiltrating the exams. We don't need another Kumo incident." Hiruzen exclaimed while fiddling with his pipe, stopping for a moment to light it and take a puff, "I want you to use your talents to identify any agents you can during the first exam and take them out during the second if they get through it."

Naruto nodded. The Chunin hopefuls would have to sign wavers before they'd be allowed to enter the forest, after that it would be a free-for-all between the genin and the death of a genin wouldn't be too shocking, after-all, at least a few died each year. All he had to do was be stealthy and not let anyone catch him… or let them live if they did, but he'd rather not cut down a passing genin or team just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, so he'd be extra careful.

"Good, and this will count as a mission too so you won't have to worry about going on another mission, you'll get a check every week for the next month until the exams start…" the old man then remembered something, "Oh and one more thing… Konohamaru asked me to tell you something whenever I saw you again… oh what was it…"

Naruto raised an eyebrow as the old man tried to remember what it was that his grandson wanted him to ask. He had met the Hokage's grandson one day a couple years back when the boy first started busting into the old man's office with a toy shuriken yelling that he'd assassinate his grandfather and take over as the Hokage.

-X-

-FLASHBACK-

"HA!" Yelled a short little boy as he slammed the door open, leaving a small dent in the wall, "I got you now grandpa! That hat is as good as mine after I take you out-"

Konohamaru suddenly yelped as he was picked up by the back of his yellow shirt with the village symbol on the front and started kicking his legs while swinging his arms when he found himself being held three nearly feet off the ground, "Hey let me down you big idiot!"

Naruto, wearing a white hoodie with grey cargo pants with some normal sandals, held the boy up towards the Hokage with a raised eyebrow, "Is it just me or are the other hidden villages getting despite to get rid of you?"

Hiruzen covered his face with his hand, hiding a small amused smile, "That's not an assassin from another village… that's my grandson, Konohamaru."

Naruto was genuinely surprised, "No kidding?"

Konohamaru, thinking that the blond would put him down and apologize, smirked, "Yeah so you'd better put me done ya big dummy or else my grandpa will-" Without warning, the boy found himself dropped on his ass, "Oww, hey what was that for!"

"What? You said you wanted me to put you down,"

Standing up in a flash, the little boy glared up to the blond, "You'd better be nice to me, my grandpa is the Hokage!"

Naruto smiled, "How adorable…" he cooed with a smile while leaning down, that smile then vanished and a darker look took its place before the boy found himself thumped in the nose, "The old man doesn't scare me brat, you can't hide behind his name all the time and expect to be strong."

Konohamaru virtuously rubbed his nose, pouting in a corner while the blond started to leave.

"Hey Naruto," the Hokage called, making the blond turn to see him poking his fingers together, "Your really not afraid of me?"

"Nope… your wife on the other hand terrifies me."

-FLASHBACK END-

-X-

"Oh now I remember, it was something to do with training him. What did he mean about that?"

Naruto waved it off, "Oh it's nothing, he kept pestering me about me teaching him something so I taught him a couple taijutsu moves."

The Hokage's eyes went wide. Naruto's taijutsu usually revolved around killing an opponent or disabling them, usually with quick strikes aimed towards breaking bones or knockouts if needed. If Naruto taught Konohamaru any of that, he feared for the other children's safety.

"Oh don't worry, it was only basics. I didn't teach him anything lethal, just a basic disarm and a combo or two. What… you think that I'd trust that brat with Assassin Taijutsu knowledge?"

The image of the almost ten year old boy wearing a long blue scarf popped into mind, grinning from ear to ear as he was picked to go up against his teachers assistant while the teacher watched and graded the fight. The boy didn't lash out first like the others in his class did but waited until the assistant moved in with a plain right hook to gauge what the boy already knew.

Konohamaru swerved around the Chunin, got under his guard and hooked his leg behind the taller Chunin before striking him with his palm, using it to push the man over his leg and off his feet. The teachers assistant fell on his ass and was kneed in the face before he could stand, sending him to his back where the boy then jumped and landed with his full weight directly on his opponent's throat, crushing his windpipe.

The Hokage shuddered at the thought, not at what he thought of his grandson doing but the thought of the ensuing paperwork dealing with the death of a Chunin that wasn't even on active field duty.

By the time he came out of his trance, he noticed that Naruto was gone and shrugged. But now that he had a little while to relax, he opened his desk drawer and pulled out a plastic container which held his lunch of left over's cooked by his wife from the night before. But when he opened it, it was empty except for a small note.

_Tell Biwako-sama that her cooking is as good as ever._

He twitched and began to curse the blond assassin.

To be continued…

-X-

Please review so that I can see how this story is going in the eyes of the readers.


	6. Chapter 6

Konoha's Assassin:

The Right Hand of the Hokage

Chapter 6

-X-

I own nothing

-X-

Naruto hummed as he perched on the top of the Hokage's tower, scanning the village with his eagle vision. He had just met with the old man a few minutes before the Jounin meeting was scheduled to start concerning who they'd allow to sign up for the exams. The Jounin sensei were required to be there but any Jounin could attend if they wanted to, usually just to be nosy and see what was going on. Sometimes there were meetings where all Jounin were required to attend but he was usually already in the loop, seeing as he was basically the Hokage's personal assassin and friend, and was rarely required to show up.

The month leading up to the exam was slow and pretty boring, he sometimes showed up to check in on Ibiki and Anko to see if anything was needed for the first and second exams, which were usually already being taken care of by Chunin desk jockeys. Ibiki had already figured out why he was told to 'help' seeing as he, like Kakashi, had worked with the blond before and knew his real status as the Leaf Village's Master Assassin.

Anko on the other hand didn't know the reason he had been assigned to 'help' and made allegations that it was because people didn't trust her and that the council had ordered that he watch her in case she tried anything. He assured her that the council had nothing to do with it and that the Hokage himself would trust her with his life. The council would bust a nut to be able to control what goes on with the exam but any tricks they tried with it were always stopped as anything that happened had to go through the Hokage himself and if they were to try and force anything, they'd be subjected to torture and execution. Mainly because the Chunin exam was a ninja-only event and had foreign ninja participating. Any tricks like trying to sabotage the other ninja and Konoha would find themselves fighting a war against every nation with little to no backing from the Fire Lord or their ally Suna.

It was bad enough that he and the Hokage were planning to assassinate people during the exam, even if it was to protect the village from threats. The last thing they needed was some arrogant merchants thinking that they can go and try to make another village's genin look bad by sabotaging them and thinking that they were untouchable. The main reason they were caught in the past was because their ego caused them to boast about it.

Anyway, he and Anko were on better terms now, if anything she seemed to like flirting with him, something he made sure to do right back to here.

Naruto stopped and turned his eagle vision off and on to get a colored view as he saw Konohamaru running with his two friends Moegi and Udon, all of which were being chased by a young pink haired girl…

"What the hell is Kakashi's genin doing?" he huffed, watching her chase them angrily while waving her fast.

Despite her being a genin, Naruto expected the three academy students to escape, especially with them trying hard to copy him and his style. It wasn't until the boy made a turn down an alley and ran into another person did he start to worry, especially when said person was glowing red.

Vanishing from his perch, Naruto quickly made his way over to find Konohamaru being held up by his shirt while a young man wearing a black cat-suit looking thing with make-up on his face.

-X-

Konohamaru wasn't having a good day, first off when he woke up this morning his grandma made him take a bath, his uncle Asuma had gotten in there first so half way though it the hot water ran out and it felt like swimming in ice water. Then he had to clean his room before his grandma would let him go out and play with Moegi and Udon.

So by the time he finished, it was close to noon so they set out to scour the village and try to find their boss, the 24 year old Uzumaki Naruto who played with them and showed them cool things every once in a while. But they couldn't find him and ended up running into a pink haired girl who was swooning in the middle of the road, saying something about a Sasuke-kun or something like that.

She bumped into him and he made a comment about her forehead, causing her to glare and start chasing after him. And low and behold, here he was, having run into some weirdo wearing makeup, the guy picked him up and started threatening to beat him up.

He was scared, who knew was a freak wearing girls make-up would do? But all that fear vanished when a figure appeared behind the strange person with a small, soundless flurry of leaves.

The slightly older girl a few feet away from the one holding him jumped at the sudden, silent arrival of this new person, obviously a ninja of the village if the Leaf Body Flicker was anything to go by. But she had warned her brother that he could get in trouble for this so as far as she was concerned, he was getting what was coming to him. After-all, this hooded man wouldn't harm him too bad she figured.

The teen holding him saw the fear fade away and raised an eyebrow at the boys sudden grin, "What're you smiling at you little-"

-X-

Naruto arrived via a silent body flicker and stood behind the genin holding and threatening the young academy student, the sun was facing them and he was suppressing his chakra to the point where he could hide from a ANBU-level chakra sensor so as far at the teen knew, nothing was wrong.

Konohamaru saw him and grinned, knowing that he was safe from this genin.

The assassin reached out to take a hold of the Suna ninja's shoulder with his thumb and middle finger.

"What're are you smiling at you little-" started the foreign genin before throwing his head back, tensing his neck, and emitting a strained cry as a sudden pain in the junction between his neck and shoulder nearly crippled him as he yelped "AHH… Let go! Let go!"

The sudden surprise attack caused him to release Konohamaru, letting the boy drop to the ground where he landed on even footing and back off to where his friends were standing with Sakura close by. The black clad teen arced his back, face twisting and contorting with each movement causing varying levels of pain to course up and down his spine while his knees were on the verge of giving out.

"Attacking civilians in a foreign village is one thing," Naruto mused evenly while keeping a steady iron-like grip on the teen as he tried to escape or at the very least find the least painful position to stand in, "But your threatening the child of a very important figure here in our village, that could end very badly for both you and your village, especially with said child being the Hokage's only grandson."

The hooded assassin turned, making his temporary prisoner cry out like a wimp as he was forced to quickly sidestep like a crap to keep up.

The sandy blond female standing a few feet away finally saw part of the hooded male's face as he turned with her brother in tow and got a better look at this man.

Dressed in a pair of dark gray pants that were very faded along the legs to the point of seeming off white near the bottom, a brown belt around his waist, and a white long sleeved hooded coat with the inside being lined in red cloth that was open near the top to show his grey shirt underneath, the only part of his face that she could see that wasn't hidden underneath that white hood was his smirking mouth and about the lower half of his nose and about the middle of his cheeks, the rest was obscured by shadows and cloth. He had a light shadowy beard growing on his face, as if he skipped shaving that morning and if she was correct, he'd most likely be in his early to mid twenties.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, acting like a child…" he spoke while releasing the ailing teen and lightly pushing the boy towards the sandy blond. The teen had already thrown himself forward to get away at the first chance he got so the shove made him stumble.

"Why you-" started the make-up wearing teen as he turned, glaring hatefully at the hooded man as he held his aching neck, he looked like he wanted to fight but the blond girl grabbed his other shoulder and pulled him back.

"Temari?" he exclaimed, sounding annoyed and slightly betrayed.

The girl, Temari shook her head, "Stop it Kankuro, we don't need any trouble with the Chunin exams only a week away. Besides, he already beat you." she replied before leveling him with a glare of her own with her dark green eyes, making her brother flinch away.

She then turned back to the others, "Sorry about my brother, he's just an idiot."

Naruto gave her a smile and approached her, making her cheeks heat up as she got a closer look at him, "It's no problem, after all kids will be kids…"

Neither Temari or Kankuro missed the thinly veiled barb directed to the make-up wearer.

"I heard that your name was Temari, I'm Naruto… it's so nice to meet such a cute desert flower so far from her home." He continued while taking her hand and kissing it, making her cheeks darken slightly despite her effort to hide it. "I'm shocked that no one has offered to show such a beauty around the village, I'd offer to take you on a tour now but we both seem to have a child to take care of. How about tonight around eight, after our respective children are put to bed, I'll meet you and show you the highlights of the Hidden Leaf Village…"

All she could do not to embarrass herself was nod, making the blue eyed blond smile at her.

"Good, how about I meet you in the village square tonight… Temari-chan?"

A nod.

He took her hand again and kissed it again, "Then I shall see you tonight…" he cooed before glancing at her brother, "If you need, I may know someone who'd be willing to baby sit your baby brother-"

Kankuro snarled and lunged, foregoing any ninja training and going for a tackle only for Naruto to vanish, his mocking laughter echoing around them before he appeared next to Konohamaru and company, "Farewell for now Temari-chan, I'll see you tonight." he called before motioning to the young children, "Come along you three,"

Moegi, Konohamaru, and Udon nodded and happily followed the blond as he walked away from the two sand ninja and turned the corner, leaving Sakura alone while Temari and her younger brother went the other way.

Minutes after the alley was cleared, a red head appeared in a tree, landing on a limb that hung over the fence. With an uncaring look, the person looked around with their arms crossed before vanishing once again, leaving only a small cloud of sand before it fell to the limb and dirt below.

-X-

The Hokage sat back in his chair, pipe in hand while slowly exhaling a puff of smoke from his mouth. In front of him, around twenty ninja stood in front of him as they occupied one of the secure meeting rooms designed for him to address larger groups of his ninja at once.

It was rather bare but at the same time why waste money making the room look nice when it wasn't used as much? The floors were smooth and made of pieces of stone that had been fitted together perfectly, the walls were the same but had green cloth draped over most of it. His desk sat close to the back wall, centered on a large red carpet with gold edges while a massive chair that could double as a couch sat behind it. There was also a smaller desk next to his where a well known and respected Chunin sat with a stack of forms and a clipboard.

The man's name was Iruka, a Chunin sensei that taught the fresh batch of genin that just graduated a few months back. He was to be the Hokage's assistant for the day seeing as the academy had closed for a small break.

The meeting had been a little slow to start, with him beginning by reminding them that it was time for the village to host the Chunin exams and the rules they must follow as sensei, stopping to give a few of them stern looks. He then asked who wanted to sign their teams up and listened to their reasoning before nodding, giving his approval and signaling the sensei to walk over to Iruka and get the forms that their genin would have to fill out while he found and marked said team on his clipboard.

"Enough," he stated firmly, opening his eyes and looking at both Kakashi and Iruka, who had been going back and forth over the Jounin sensei's choice at nominating their fresh faced teams, rookies which Iruka had taught. Asuma and Kurenai had also nominated their genin, but the shock hadn't worn off until Kakashi did the same, leading to the verbal match between the two.

His voice wasn't loud, if anything it was a whisper compared to those two, but the effect was instantaneous and both shut up. He had listened to both sides as they went back and forth, Kakashi believed that they were ready while Iruka challenged his decision by pointing out the sad fact that Sakura was one of those few fan girls that managed to avoid the chopping block.

The three Jounin stand by their decision firmly, Kakashi's reminder that the genin were no longer Iruka's students but ninja under their respective Jounin's and by default, the Hokage's command being a major blow to the Chunin teacher's case. Not only that but the fact that Iruka hadn't seen them in quite a while also played a role and as far as he knew, they could've improved by leaps and bounds while he still thought of them as students at the academy.

But in the end, the decision was the Hokage's to make, only he could approve of them entering, which he did.

-X-

Gate duty wasn't much of a mission, in fact it was usually assigned by the month to two Chunin teams of two who would be posted at their assigned gate from seven in the morning when the gates were opened until they were closed again twelve hours later. They were mainly messengers to tell the truth, ANBU patrolled the walls and were usually posted nearby to handle any real danger that may come up, their duty was to alert the Hokage should anything noteworthy happen. But they were allowed to stop any suspicious people and question them if they had to and were required to stop any foreign ninja and ask for identification and their reason for coming.

But at the same time, it was considered to be the toughest for some. Sitting in a small guard station for twelve hours, watching the travelers come by, arguing over who got the chance to run down the street to pick up their lunch or dinner which was usually free.

Aside from the mission pay and the free food, one of the other things that made this mission worth it to some was that after your shift, you got the next day off while the second team took guard duty at the gate.

The first had long, spiky, black hair and dark eyes. He had a strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose and what seemed to be a clan mark on his chin that looked like a painted beard. He also wore a standard Konoha uniform of dark blue pants, a matching shirt with long sleeves, his Chunin vest, and a standard forehead protector. His name was Kotetsu Hagane.

The second had brown hair that was combed down to cover the right side of his face, covering one of his dark colored eyes. Like the other Chunin, he wore a matching outfit but wore a bandana with the forehead protector on it while his dark blue shirt had a longer neck that reached his chin. His name was Izumo Kamizuki.

"Why do we always get this job?" huffed Kotetsu as he sat in the guard station with his partner next to him, "It seems like we've done this mission more than anyone else in the entire-"

But before he could continue a sudden voice from behind cut him off, "Hey what you guys doing?"

Jumping and looking like scared little genin, the pair all but ran a few feet before turning to see Naruto smirking at them with his hood down. But their fright wasn't unfounded, the guard station only had one large window and one door, both of which were in plain view.

"Damn it Naruto, how the hell do you do that shit!" continued Kotetsu as the pair returned, "There's no way you could've got in here!"

The blond looked around, "And yet… here I am, I'm starting to think that you lied to me back when I asked why your both still Chunin."

Izumo shook his head, "I'd rather stay a Chunin, guard duty is fine for me," he spoke before adding sagely, "Guarding Konoha and the villagers is the best mission you could get,"

The assassin couldn't really argue with that, it was a belief he also heard and believed although at the same time he kinda went about it in another way. While they were content to sit there and people watch, he guarded the village and it's inhabitants by hunting and killing those deemed a threat to it by the Hokage.

"True… but I didn't come here to discuss philosophies, I know what you two are doing in seven days," he stated, telling them that he knew that they would be helping Ibiki with the first exam, something that they were about to deny as they were suppose to hide it. "Don't worry, I'm doing the same… in a way. But listen, I need you to do something…"

-X-

Looking at the clock in her hotel room, Temari couldn't help but feel excited as 8:00 rolled around. She had never gone on a date before with her being the Kazekage's daughter and all, especially with her little sister Gaara being a murderous psychopath who'd kill someone for no reason at all. Honestly, she didn't know what to expect, a few years back she had read this book that she found while snooping through her dads room that had been about man taking a girl out on a date.

She had been young at first and didn't know better when she read it but it had been an erotic book called Icha-Icha, one of the oldest ones to come out. The main character had taken this girl out on a first date and of course, fifteen pages later the date was over and the girl was doing more than giving her date a peck on the cheek for the next forty plus pages.

She went on for the next year thinking that you always had sex after a date until her caretaker explained things to her after she had found the blond reading said book, leading to the most embarrassing period of her young life.

Getting dressed, she walked out of her room and started off to go meet the handsome older blond, never realizing that her little sister had spotted her leave.

-Five hours later-

Cursing as she opened the door to her room, which loudly creaked and echoed down the silent hallway, Temari tiptoed in and shut the door before sighing and turning the light on. But when she turned, she froze, there, sitting on the foot of her bed, was Gaara.

"G-Gaara… what are you doing here?"

The girl was rather tomboyish with her short red hair and flat chest, if one were to look they'd confuse her as a boy at first until told otherwise or hearing her cold yet feminine voice.

"I saw you earlier…" she started in a dead tone, looking at her sister with her cold light acid green eyes ringed with dark black circles from her lack of sleep, "With that blond man… what was it that he did to you… to make you scream so loud yet… beg for more."

The girl nearly fainted, her sister had followed… no watched as she lost her virginity and was now asking about sex. Could things get any more embarrassing... or scary?

_To be continued…_

-X-

Review

Oh and Temari is seventeen almost eighteen, I don't know if I put that there or may have put the wrong one on before.


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