Chapter 59

Flashback

"You know, sometimes I wonder just how the hell you became a spymaster," Naruto grumbled.

Jiraiya scowled and turned away, barely pouting. "How was I to know that the client would double-cross us with the Yakuza?!"

Naruto's deadpan was impressive. "We both know you thought that the guy was shady from the start."

Jiraiya shook his head. "We deal with a lot of shady clients, but very few had had the nerve to double-cross us. Besides, the guy hadn't done anything significant to be on my radar. My spy network is currently being stretched almost to the limits to keep tabs on our resident mercenary group."

Naruto tsked, waving a finger. "You know that's a pretty weak excuse for you. Surely you could have asked me to keep an eye on him with a few of my clones?"

Jiraiya turned his scowl on him. "Then why didn't you say so?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, completely unbothered by the scowl. "You were in charge of the mission. Besides, I thought you knew best when it came to dealing with shady people, so I trusted you. Now, I'll be a bit more careful."

"Watch it, brat," Jiraiya growled, itching to just pound a fist into Naruto's skull.

"My greatest apologies, honorable spymaster," Naruto bowed, and Jiraiya could almost see the sarcasm oozing like a waterfall. Taking a deep breath, he counted to ten and let go. Sometimes, Naruto got under skin too well.

They were assigned a mission to recover a noble's stolen property that someone had stolen. Turned out, the clan was practically in a war with another, almost sister-like clan over the possession of a sword that was said to never dull, no matter how many times it was used.

The lesson that Jiraiya had taught him when it came to situations like these was, stay neutral if you can help it. If it wasn't your business, don't make it your business.

Unfortunately, they were hired by one of the two clans to steal the sword and give it to them. Between Naruto and Jiraiya, stealing the sword was no biggie. In fact, the only interesting thing was that Naruto had to impersonate a female servant to infiltrate the other compound. A servant who had a secret affair going on with the head.

He had to make it so that the female servant wouldn't get into trouble after he was finished wearing her disguise.

Stealing the sword was easy, but the return was unexpected. Turned out, the Yakuza had somewhat loose lips and the head of the clan who they were working for had the Yakuza on a payroll already, and had dispatched them to steal the sword from Naruto and Jiraiya, terminating them afterwards.

Konoha mission contracts had a specific clause in them. If the client were to breach the contract, the Konoha shinobi would retaliate with extreme prejudice. So Jiraiya and Naruto easily dispatched the Yakuza, went back to the traitor and acted as if they didn't know anything about who sent the Yakuza after them.

The guy was forced to give them the money and after he had, Jiraiya had finished him off. They later returned the sword from where they stole it.

It was somewhat fun, but Naruto had no wish to deal with something like that again.

They entered a small town and rented a room in an inn. Jiraiya went off to do kami knows what, while Naruto decided that a bath in the nearby stream would do him some good. Grabbing a towel and some spare clothes, he set out in a leisurely walk to the stream. Finding a particularly secluded spot so that he wouldn't have to deal with the embarrassment of nudity, he jumped into the water, letting the cool water of the stream relax him.

But even when bathing, he kept himself aware of his surroundings. And, he picked up 4 chakra signatures, 3 mid to high-chunin level and 1 jonin, converging on his location.

He sighed. "Can't I catch a break sometime?"

Not even a minute later, he jumped out of the water as a water dragon formed and tried to swallow him up. A scowl of irritation etched itself onto his face when he faced his attackers, completely nude.

The first thing he picked up was that it was a team from Iwa, surrounding him ina semicircle. Two boys, one man and a girl, from left to right. The boys were gaping at him, and then they focused their gazes right above his head, cheeks red and clearly feeling awkward. Nothing worth noting about them

The jonin of the group was looking at him right in the face, but the slight twitch of his eyebrow told Naruto that the jonin was trying to not let the awkwardness get to him. Nothing worth noting here as well.

The girl of the group was not even trying to look away. Her face was completely red and her eyes kept drifting downward every now and then, her expression a mix of embarrassment, rage and dear kami, was that appreciation?

Absently, he noted that she had pink eyes, a very unusual color for the eyes.

He forced any embarrassment out of his system as he tried to look as dignified as he could while being naked.

"What are you guys doing?"

His question was addressed to the jonin, who straightened up a little. His eyes hardened and he spoke with barely hidden contempt. "To kill you, Namikaze."

So it was the old grudge of Yondaime-killed-our-relatives.

Still, he would humor them. Maybe he could have some fun here if he played things right. "May I ask why?"

One of the boys spoke up. "Y-You know very well, bastard! Don't play dumb with us!"

Naruto adopted a quizzical expression as he folded his arms. "No, I really don't. Would you please tell me why?" 'Well, I actually know, but I want to hear from you guys!'

The girl spoke up, no longer being able to take his nudity. "FIRST PUT ON SOME CLOTHES, DAMMIT!"

Naruto smirked as he help up his arms up, in surrender. "Hey, don't yell at me like it's my fault. You caused me to jump out of the stream."

He bent down and picked up his towel, wrapping it around his waist. "Plus, I would really prefer if you kept your eyes upward. Don't think I didn't catch your glances, Ms. Pervert."

A vein visibly pulsed on her temple as she flushed pink, like her eyes. "I'm not a pervert, asshole."

"OK ENOUGH!"

The jonin apparently had enough of the pointless conversation. He then turned to Naruto, a look full of loathing on his face. "We have a score to settle, Namikaze."

"What score?"

The calmness with which Naruto asked his question seemed to push the girl over the edge. "The score that your damn father levelled against us, asshole! He slaughtered a thousand of our shinobi without a second thought! Do you have any idea what that did to the name of our village! All we are remembered for is how badly we lost to your father in the war! He tore up so many families, mine included! HE KILLED MY MOTHER!"

By the end, tears were sliding down from her eyes. Naruto glanced to the others; everyone had hard faces were raging bubbling in their eyes. He took a deep breath- this was a delicate situation, and it should be handled as such. It would be oh so easy to antagonize them, but he had to attempt a reason, even if it had almost a negligible chance of working. He looked the girl right in the eyes.

"I understand your anger, trust me I do. But you must hear my argument before you attempt any action," he pleaded.

The girl only clutched at her kunai tighter. "What could you have to say now?!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "First of all, it was a war. Your village was not the only one that suffered. Losses were dealt on both the sides," he held up a hand to stop anyone from shouting back, "Second, don't forget that it was your village that started the war. You forced a retaliation from Konoha. All my father did was protect his home. What you call slaughter, my father called duty. Don't think for a second that he enjoyed ending a thousand lives and scattering hundreds of families. He did what was necessary. Would you not do the same if you were in his place? Would you not kill to protect your home?"

He looked directly at the girl as he asked his questions. The anger in her eyes was slowly being replaced by frustration. Either at the wait to kill him, or being unable to find an answer to his question.

"And lastly, my father is dead. He has been for fifteen years now, since the day of my birth. The man you wanted dead is dead, and he didn't even spend one day with his son before he died. What more do you want?"

"…..the day the news of Yellow Flash's death reached Iwa, we rejoiced." The jonin said in a low voice. "We celebrated the fact that the murder of many families of the village had finally met his end. But it doesn't end there. We searched, for years. We promised ourselves that we would wipe out any speck of the Namikaze that lived, but found none.

"But the day the news of your identity reached us…you don't know how angry it made us, Namikaze. To think that bastard had a child. To think that he created his family, while slaughtering ours. It didn't sit well with us. Which was why we kept an eye on you, waiting for our moment."

His eyes hardened with determination as he fell into a stance with the others. "Now that we have the perfect opportunity, do you really think I would be swayed by pretty words from you? Do you think any of us would?"

Naruto unfolded his hands. "I thought not."

"Any last words before you join your father, bastard?"

Naruto sighed. "This grudge of yours is nonsensical."

"INSOLENT FOOL!"

It was one of the boys that shouted, throwing a horde of kunai at him. Naruto blurred away in a shunpo, leaving an after-image and appearing a few meters away. "Come on guys, think about it. Why are you trying to kill me for something that my father did? It doesn't make any sense!"

"JUST DIE, SCUMBAG!"

The boy who had thrown the kunai rushed at him, trying to slash at him. Naruto's eyes hardened- reasoning had failed. Now was the time to make a point.

He easily caught the hand of the kunai by the wrist, delivering palm thrust in the chest to push him back several feet. His danger sense buzzed, making him duck and miss a slash at his neck. He blurred in a shunpo once more, appearing right behind his attacker- the second boy- and kicked him in the back, causing him to crash into a tree.

Spikes suddenly burst from the ground, and he would have been skewered if he hadn't jumped up high. His eyes widened a fraction when the jonin met him mid-air, with an expression of rage and a stab on the way to his heart. The stab connected, and his image burst to reveal a rock the size of a human fist.

The jonin narrowed his eyes in frustration as he landed, looking around for the blonde. Kurotsuchi got up from where she had cast the jutsu, looking around desperately. The boys came back from where they had been thrown, and were looking around as well.

Suddenly, the jonin shouted as he jumped up. "DUCK!"

Everyone fell to the ground as the razor focused jet of water slicked in an arc, cutting through all the spikes and felling them, allowing everyone a clear sight on the field once more.

If not for the situation, it would have been a funny sight: Naruto in a towel, hands in a seal, confused expression on his face and water dripping from his mouth.

He straightened and looked at the jonin, annoyed. "You made me miss a perfect shot."

The jonin grinned toothily, and rushed at Naruto, engaging in close combat. His movements were noticeably more polished than the chunin, but he was a bit slow for Naruto's eyes. He caught a back roundhouse kick by the ankle, and swung the jonin into an arc, and into the ground. He then lifted him again and threw him towards the girl who was rushing at him.

"You should be grateful I didn't give you third degree burns," Naruto remarked, not at all fazed by the attacks.

Kurotsuchi saw red and sped through seals. "Doton: Dosekhiryu!" (Earth style: Earth and stone dragon)

Naruto blurred away once more at the last moment, appearing far from the Iwa shinobi. He bent down and picked a kunai. "Tch, this would have been a lot easier if I just had my special kunai," he muttered.

"What did you say?!" one boy shouted, hands readying a jutsu.

Naruto made a surprised expression. "Oh I was just saying that this would have been much easier for me if I just had my special kunai. You know, three-pronged and a formula written on the handle. I'm sure you know of it."

Kurotsuchi paled. He couldn't possibly know that jutsu, right? It was very advanced!

The jonin voiced her thoughts, shock clear in his voice. "You know that jutsu?"

Naruto smiled, part charmingly and part mischievously. "I am his son, aren't I?"

Then his face cleared of all expression so fast that it was a whiplash. "And I have you marked."

Before them, he literally vanished from his place. Not blurred, vanished. As if swished out of existence. She moved to shout to everyone, to move, but she was frozen in shock, as were the others. But they moved before she did, falling forward, faces slamming onto the ground, life extinguished from their eyes.

It was over in a flash.

She slowly turned her neck towards where the boys were now lying a pool of their own blood. Namikaze was walking towards her calmly, blood dripping from the kunai in his hand. She wordlessly snarled and was about to move when she froze, this time for real. It wasn't shock, she really couldn't move a muscle! It felt like various rods were jammed into her body, holding her in place!

"Kanashibari no jutsu," Namikaze revealed the answer to the question in her mind, now standing right in front of her. "Something very useful for me in the field."

He grabbed her hand holding the kunai, and gently moved it down, and she wasn't able to do a thing to resist. She felt ashamed and disgusted at herself for being so weak. First her mother gets killed by the father, now she was going to be killed by the son.

"I'm not going to kill you," he said, as if reading her thoughts. He then leaned in, his face right by hers and despite herself, she blushed brightly as she felt his hot breath on her ear. Hate or not, it was undeniable that Namikaze was extremely hot, and very well-endowed.

"You are going to take your comrades and return to Iwa. You will tell your kage exactly what happened here. You instigated this fight, not me. You provoked me, and I retaliated. You fought, I won and you lost. Here's a warning to you: From hereon, if any Iwa shinobi provokes me just to settle an old grudge, I will retaliate tenfold," he hissed, unknowingly causing Kurotsuchi to shiver at the menace behind the words.

"To summarize….BACK OFF," his words were literally a feral growl in her ear. He then stepped back, no sign of any rage or the menace with which he spoke.

"This is my first and last warning to Iwa," he informed her, walking towards his clothes now. He then turned to face her one last time. "Raijin no te…..never grants mercy twice," his eyes were flinty chips of azure ice. "Remember that."

He left the clearing after that, leaving her frozen.

Flashback end

"And the next thing I know, I have a bingo book entry," Naruto finished with a clap of his hands.

Hiruzen had his eyes narrowed in thought. "I see…the scars from the wounds that your father gave Iwa run deep."

Naruto spread his hands in the universal gesture of 'how does this even work?'. "Why would they be holding out on a grudge for a dead man? Isn't it just easier to move on?"

Hiruzen rubbed his forehead. "You must know that Iwa lost a lot in the third war, Naruto. Majority of it because of your father. Never had a hidden village suffered a loss of this magnitude in history. And wiping out a thousand shinobi drastically weakened their military strength, which takes years to rebuild. Even now, I suspect that they still may not have replenished those numbers. It's hard to forget such things, Naruto."

Naruto pursed his lips and looked down. What would he do if someone did that to him? Would he keep on hating, or would he let go?

"I don't know what I would do."

Hiruzen gained an understanding glint in his eye. "It's hard to put yourself in the shoes of the enemy to understand them, Naruto."

Naruto tilted his head sideways, arching an eyebrow. "Well, this sounds like something I wouldn't want to think about."

They sat in silence for a few moments, each lost in their thoughts. "It was Danzo who offered the replacement, wasn't it?"

Hiruzen looked up in surprise. "How did you know?"

"Tsunade didn't look so happy when she thought she already had a replacement," Naruto answered.

Hiruzen sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Yes."

"But every shinobi must only obey the Hokage. If some are working for him, doesn't that make him look suspicious? You could launch an investigation into him!"

"My old friend is far too careful for that," Hiruzen revealed with a tiredness he felt every time he talked with or about Danzo. "Root still exists, I'm sure of it. But we have no evidence."

Naruto remained silent, not revealing about his plan to take out the root member as soon as he met him or her. He wanted jiji to have deniability on this.

Hiruzen looked at Naruto with utmost seriousness, causing the blonde to straighten in his seat. "I advise you to be careful, Naruto. Danzo wants to keep an eye on you, for what reason I can only speculate. Don't give away too much information."

Naruto nodded back. He wouldn't expect anything else from the bandaged mummy.

"Well well, if it isn't Raijin no te."

Naruto turned his head around to see a bearded man enter the room, hands in pockets and like majority of the Sarutobi, a cigarette in the mouth. He waved at him with a grin. "Yo Naruto!"

Naruto smiled, getting up to greet the man. With some smugness he noticed that he was only a little shorter in height than the bear like jonin. Shaking hands, he remarked, "As smoky as ever, Asuma-san."

Asuma snorted. "Hard to leave such a habit is more like it."

Naruto agreed in that aspect. Just then, his nose picked up a strange scent coming from the man.

A very feminine scent.

He smirked and gave him a knowing look. "Well, I hope you and your team are doing well. Congratulations on your relationship."

Asuma spluttered. "W-what relationship?!"

Naruto turned back to Hiruzen, who also had a smirk on his face. "Don't worry. We can keep a secret."

Asuma attempted to brush past the embarrassment. "Well, I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, the smirk still on his face. "Oh? Do tell."

Asuma removed the cigarette from his mouth. "I have trained my team pretty hard in the past three years. While they have gotten better, I want to put them to a test against an S-rank shinobi. We are clashing with Akatsuki now, and sooner or later they will be facing one of the mercenaries. I want to see, and for them to see, how they fare against an S-rank heavyweight."

Naruto grinned, but there was a malicious delight in his grin. "This is sounding more interesting by the second. I'm in."

Asuma was a bit worried upon seeing the delightful grin on Naruto's face, but pushed his worry aside. Maybe he was just happy to be seeing his friends again, see how strong they had gotten.

Or maybe, a small part of his mind whispered, you just signed your students' death warrants.

Asuma pushed the voice away, masking how worried he was about the fight. He then asked the blonde, "So when do we do this?"

Naruto folded his hands. "I'm actually preparing for a mission right now, that's supposed to be quite a risky one. So let's do this after I return?"

Asuma nodded, pleased that he gotten what he wanted. "Fine by me."

Naruto then turned back to jiji. "It was nice talking to you, jiji. Let's talk some more later. Maybe get a bowl of ramen?"

Hiruzen smiled. "Sure. Good luck on your mission."

Naruto then left the office, leaving father and son alone. There was silence for a few minutes, after which Asuma spoke. "My students don't stand a chance, do they?"

Hiruzen just smirked. "Do you believe in them?"

Asuma whirled around. "Of course I do."

"There's your answer."

Asuma let it go at that. His father had the annoying habit of speaking in riddles. He wasn't going to get anything else out of him.

XXXXXXX

"So you are proctoring the chunin exams?"

Shikamaru shrugged, looking annoyed with the task assigned to him. "Troublesome but, I can't complain. I can't do what I want."

Naruto dryly pointed out. "If you were allowed to do whatever you wanted, we would never see you again."

Shikamaru looked disgruntled. "Maybe I wouldn't be disturbed from my sleep every now and then."

"Come now, Shikamaru, it would be so boring without you!"

Naruto turned to see the owner of the hearty and cheerful voice. Chouji had grown, both his hair and body. He wore clothing similar to his father, with the Akimichi symbol. However, the difference from three years ago and now was that Chouji had much more muscle at his disposal under the layer of fat.

Naruto grinned as they exchanged a hug. "I'm sure you can manage somehow."

"Ah Naruto….have you grown thinner than before?" Chouji frowned at his friend.

"My appetite is as healthy as ever, Chouji," Naruto returned with an easy smile.

"Maybe you should eat more. You are all skin and bones," Chouji chastised, pulling out a bag of chips.

Naruto snorted. "Compared to you I am."

"So what are you doing here then?"

"I was just talking to Shikamaru about-" His danger sense buzzed loudly, making his head snap to the side. Shikamaru and Chouji were right behind him, noticing the attack at the same time. But Naruto was already moving.

Air appeared around his hand like a blade of wind, slashing away at the strange black and white creature. As soon as he slashed it, it burst into a black liquid that was….ink?

Naruto wasted no more time, disappearing in a flash step and appearing right behind his attacker, kunai to the throat.

Shikamaru and Chouji gaped at the speed which Naruto moved towards the attacker, who wore a Konoha headband?

Naruto observer his attacker closely, learning whatever he could. Pale skin, suggestive of spending extended period of time away from sunlight. Barest smell of sewer air, which means he remains underground, close to the sewers. Unusual choice of clothing, unique equipment. Prefers long range combat, hidden from the eyes, but tanto suggests that he isn't unversed in close combat either. Approximate age, 15 to 17 years old, low jonin level chakra reserves. Chakra is refined, which is indicative of a high level of control.

"You're good," he complimented, eyes narrowed. He was still highly suspicious that this guy hadn't moved one bit even after being seen.

The guy turned his head and looked at him with calculative eyes, before gracing him with the fakest smile Naruto had ever seen. "I knew you were fast, but I didn't think you were this fast, Uzumaki Naruto."

Regards me as a stranger, or is simply unaware of my head of clan status. Fakest smile I've ever seen, eyes completely blank of emotion. Yep, this guy is root. Now is my chance.

"How did you-"

"I don't know how you got in the village, but you're done."

With that, Naruto slashed at the throat. The guy had tried to move away, but Naruto had already frozen him with Kanashibari. Blood flowed from his jugular vein like waterfall, and his eyes showed complete shock. Naruto watched dispassionately as the life faded from his eyes.

Shikamaru and Chouji joined him on the roof, eyes wide with surprise and horror. "Naruto, what have you done?"

Naruto glanced at Shikamaru, replying as if speaking about the weather. "He was a spy. I killed him."