Confrontation

The next year went by fast, Naruto and I moved to a house far from the village, but strangely close to Hokage Mountain, the first days were amazing, we fixed the house that for us looked like a mansion, Naruto was the really excited, I knew I wasn't going to spend much time there. After that first mission we didn't stay a day in the village before being sent on another mission of the same type, knowing the plot I could tell that it was Danzo who was sending these missions to me, trying to make me colder and more without feelings through continual killing he had done with his 'disciples', but what scared me the most was that it could have really had any effect on me.

Knowing it's a ruse, knowing what Danzo's goal is, didn't give me a method of defense. They were official ANBU missions, so only the Hokage himself dispatched them, but the Konoha intelligence corps was pretty much just Root, so it's easy to manipulate the missions, but not who would go on them. Over time I discovered that it was all just my paranoia, I became fond of my teammates who shared their experiences with me, well, practically only the Monkey talked, he liked to talk.

Monkey told me that when he joined the ANBU he was a Genin too, and that he was also sent on a 'clean up' mission in his first mission, seems to be some ANBU initiation rite. Lobo doesn't talk much, and neither does Coelho, they all seem to be ordinary ninjas, with no affiliation to any clan or faction, at least that's what it seemed to me, their emotions were stable and none of them seemed to have any trauma or anything like that, which told me that they probably weren't part of the main plot, and that they probably didn't suffer from the Nine-Tails attack years ago.

I believe the Hokage put me on this team on purpose, that old man might not be so bad.

The year progressed, between missions there was only training, 6 months passed in the blink of an eye, it's true when they say that when you're busy time goes by fast. I hadn't created any very affectionate bonds with any of the academy students, partly because I still have a 'character' view of them, despite what that old man told me, I can't help but think that maybe I had a head trauma with the truck and is in a hospital bed in a coma, dreaming.

But whenever I think about it I force myself to turn my thoughts 180 degrees, this was my world now, and every day I forced myself to believe it. Shikamaro came with Choji and Naruto home once, Naruto seemed excited to show them the house but they didn't seem impressed, for them this is where we've always lived, not a recent achievement, instead they were surprised to hear that we lived alone. I explained the circumstances to them and they started to come more often, I hardly saw them of course, I was spending more and more time on missions.

It was more or less in the 10th month that I was sent on a mission on the border with Pais do Vento, there had been reports of ninjas from the Hidden Sand Village hidden in the region, our mission was to locate, analyze: If possible, capture, if necessary , to eliminate. The usual.

In the mission, it was the first time that I clashed with a fully armed, attentive and trained ninja, with the sole objective of eliminating me. By then I had already taken dozens of lives, but they were all just bandits, the Hokage was still afraid to send me further into the village, I believe in part because of Danzo.

We found out that the enemy was a Sand Jounin and he had only one Genin with them, we watched for two days and no change, they seemed to be hiding, maybe waiting for orders, or reinforcements, I don't know. Lobo decided to divide us into pairs, Lobo and Macaco were going to face the Jounin, Lobo decided that because he wanted to put pressure on the Jounin from the beginning and separate him from the other ninja that we think is a Chunin. Monkey was a taijutsu focused ninja and I must say, he was good, Monkey Style he would say, strong fist style mixed with some interesting moves here and there I say.

Rabbit and I had to deal with each other fast to help Lobo, Sand ninja were different from most shinobi in the ninja world, they were experts in many things, like puppets, hidden weapons and the worst, poison. Rabbit was a combat ninja but part medical ninja, but we knew that against a sand poison, she would be useless, so regardless of the enemy Jounin's disadvantage, one scratch and we would be dead, there would be no time to return to Konoha.

Although I'm interested in testing my self-healing with poisons, not in front of others. We agreed that I would be the front fighter and Coelho would look for openings on the enemy to disable him.

As soon as we got to the cave they were hiding in, Lobo spat a huge fireball inside, which came back to us in the form of steam with a lot of concentrated chakra, the Jounin probably used some water jutsu. The fight that followed was relatively chaotic. Lobo managed to successfully fend off the Jounin and took Monkey with him, Rabbit and I approached the other Chunin. He was a boy, probably the same age as Rabbit and Monkey, I was younger, but his expression annoyed me

His eyes were full of terror, he held his kunai in both hands as if his life depended on it, I can swear I saw his legs shake, and the emotions, they affected me strongly, were pure fear and dread. He was just a boy.

I didn't hesitate.

I went at full speed towards him and kicked him in the stomach, I know the plot of this story, but it doesn't mean I'm going to prolong a fight with absurd conversations with the enemy, I'm not from here.

He flew a few meters and spat out everything he had in his stomach, I quickly came up behind him and knocked him out.

- Perfect as always Fox. - said the Rabbit.

She didn't seem upset that she wasn't needed, the image I had of her was that she was the most emotionally and mentally controlled of the team, of course, excluding me, perhaps.

I took a sealing scroll from my pocket and started sealing the Chunin, I was the only one on the team with talent for seals and I decided not to hide it, it could be explained with my Uzumaki heritage. I saddled the boy and we ran into the forest, there were trails of destruction everywhere, which I found strange, Lobo was a quick and subtle assassination style shinobi, without fancy or thunderous jutsus. So the destruction was probably on the enemy's part, I hurried.

A few meters ahead we saw Monkey, lying foaming at the mouth, he was starting to have convulsions. Rabbit hurried over and took some pills out of his bag and put them in his mouth, used some pressure points to get him to swallow, but we could both say, that wasn't going to do any good. Rabbit looked at me without saying anything.

- Step aside. - told her.

I know revealing secrets is stupid, but I'm not the type to hide cards when a mate is in trouble, that was bullshit. I took a kunai out of my bag.

- WHA-? - Rabbit was saying when he saw what I did.

I cut the palm of my own hand.

- Help me open his mouth. - I sent.

She obeyed and held him, I let my blood run down her throat for a long time, if I was going to risk a secret at least it was better to make sure he wasn't going to die.

His color was returning and he calmed down, still unconscious.

- You stay here with him, find a shelter, I'll help the Wolf. - I commanded.

- Understood. she replied.

I was grateful she didn't ask any questions, but I still wondered if that would be in any reports, well... only time will tell.

I never tried to occupy a leadership position in the team, but I ended up occupying a position of respect, we never had any training between us to know who was the strongest, but during the fights we had with bandits, and other missions, it was pretty clear that killed more, faster and more effectively, a position of leadership brought respect, but power also brought respect. I spoke little but when I spoke they listened to me.

I followed the trail of the fight and came across a stream, and there was the Wolf with his kunais one in each hand defending himself from what I can only assume is one of the infamous sand puppets. The thing didn't have a human shape like Sasori's in the anime, they were more like Kankuro's, imitating animals and insects, there were two puppets, but you could barely tell, they were already, fully open and barely maintaining a shape, it seems like all the puppets tricks had already been played.

I approached Lobo and helped him deal with one of the puppets, with my strength I could easily destroy them, but the problem was the iron spikes that surrounded it.

- Where's the puppeteer? - I asked.

- Underground, between the two puppets. - replied Wolf.

I thought about the possibilities and decided to go Sakura, but of course, I wasn't going to yell "SHANAROOO" like some kind of ogre. I jumped in the air and concentrated a lot of chakra in my right arm, it didn't compare to Tsunade's Body Enhancement, it was just a simple chakra booster, but with a massive amount.

When my fist hit the ground it was like a tractor had landed there, the ground flew into the sky and a crater formed, a figure flew away but not before Lobo took the opportunity and cut off his head.

I thought there was still room to wear it out more and then capture it but I decided not to comment. Against sand ninjas everyone prefers to kill, these poisons left a mark on the minds of the ninjas who confront them, not everyone is Tsunade who during the War was able to create an antidote a day, for every poison that old Chiyo created.

- Where is Bunny? the wolf asked after packing up the remains of the corpse and the puppets.

- He's with Monkey, he'll be fine. - he said finishing sealing the body and the puppets.

Lobo looked surprised for a moment but shrugged his shoulders, at ANBU everyone learned to respect each other's secrets, everyone had to make their own reports, they had their own responsibilities, it wasn't wise to ask too many questions.

Thus, a year passed quickly, I had already completed more than 100 missions of level C and one of level B, I had a lot of money in the account, not to mention the inheritance of Minato and Kushina that I preferred not to touch yet. I quickly found myself surprised when I noticed that Naruto was extremely downcast, sad and with a blank look in his eyes.

- What happened Naruto? - I asked already suspecting something.

- It is true? Are we the demon that destroyed Konoha eleven years ago? - he said in a sad voice.

- It's complicated Naruto .. - I tried to explain but before saying he had already run outside.

It seems that Mizuki still followed the script, asked me if this is one of those scenarios where nothing I do will change the future or if simply my actions didn't affect the future that much.

I decided to follow Naruto, and let him learn the shadow clone jutsu, but of course, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to memorize each of the Second Hokage's forbidden jutsu on that scroll. It was a unique opportunity.