Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Naruto sat on his bed in his tiny apartment, looking at the new mission scroll he had gotten from Tusande moments ago. His apartment was dirty, despite Naruto's attempts to keep it clean. Rocks, broken glass, beer cans, and old paper bombs littered his floors. Message written on or attached to the rocks that he had heard and seen so many times before.

"Just die demon!"

"No one will ever love you!"

"Fox brat."

"Just do everyone a favor and kill yourself!"

"This village would be safer without you!"

"Why are you still here?"

His windows were also broken and shattered from the rocks and other things chucked at his windows. This is something that had happened daily for Naruto once the third gave him this apartment when he was four.

At a young age, Naruto would try to report everything that happened and get help from adults, but the adults never did anything about the situation. They would either send him on his way or start beating him. And one adult beating him would always soon turn into a mob beating him. At three, it quickly became apparent to Naruto that the only person who cared for him was the third and try as he might the hokage could never do much to help him. That was why as soon as he got Naruto his own apartment, he also started his training. The third did this in hopes that Naruto would thrive as he knew Naruto could do when given the correct materials, and the opportunity to do so. He also had Naruto learn self-defense.

Unsure of what the council would say, the third thought it would be best to do this under the elders' noses. He had the ANBU guards that were supposed to watch and observe Naruto teach him book work that was taught in the academy, and at home workouts to build up his muscles. But, a year later when they started to teach Naruto different Shinobi techniques and spar with him, the council caught wind of what was happening. Surprisingly, the council was in favor of having Naruto join ANBU, saying that it would be better to keep the village beast on a tight leash, and use him to their advantage. While the hokage did not agree with this, he knew it was better than the alternative.

So, when Naruto turned six, he moved into the ANBU compound and started more rigorous training. It was in there that Naruto first met his soon to be best friend, Shikamaru, who was also getting put into ANBU because of his insanely high IQ for a six-year-old. A year later, two new ANBU were produced. The youngest in history and quiet the duo. Shikamaru took on his father's identity as deer, as his father had quit ANBU and taken the position of a jounin, while Naruto became kitsune (Ironic I know but I couldn't think of anything else and it suits Naruto in this fic). Because both Shikamaru and Naruto became the youngest ANBU in Konoha history, their ANBU identities were well-known throughout the village. No one knew their exact age, but from their appearance it became quite obvious that they were under the age of 12.

When the academy was getting ready to start up after the Uchiha massacre, Naruto and Shikamaru were both assigned to watch over Sasuke and make sure that the didn't become too unstable and betray the village. They both went undercover as students to do this. Shikamaru took on the image of a lazy student, as he was lazy by nature, but never revealing his smarts. If he did, he and Naruto feared that Sasuke would think of him as a threat and constantly try to one-up him and prove that he is superior, as his egotistical behavior became apparent after a few days of observing him. Naruto took on the role of the academy failure and dead-last, as well as obnoxious. It not only made since with the way he was treated as a young child, but it also assured that Sasuke knew of him to some degree. It also allowed Naruto to become Sasuke's "rival" without Sasuke, or anyone else, taking him too seriously. This persona also benefited Naruto outside of the academy, as civilians and anyone else not knowing of Naruto's ANBU status, he seemed less dangerous and slowly, the villagers stopped beating Naruto. However, the ugly glances, whispers, and damage to his apartments never stopped.

When the time came for teams to be put together, Shikamaru was put on a team with Ino and Choji, to keep the ShikaInoChoji going for yet another generation. Naruto was put onto a team with Sasuke and Sakura, to better keep the mission going. However, from the start both Shikamaru and Naruto knew that Shikamaru was not going to be put onto a team with Sasuke, which is why Shikamaru always did slightly better on tests then Naruto, so it would not seem suspicious when Naruto was put on a team with Sasuke. This was also to ensure that he kept up his clans' image. Granted, you would think that he would score higher up, but he had to prevent Sasuke from thinking of him as competition.

So, Naruto wore his mask almost everywhere he went. Not only for his cover but also for survival as he was safer from the village, and outside forces, if he played dumb. The only people Naruto ever fully opened up to were Shikamaru, who he quickly became friends with during their ANBU training together, and the third.

After the Chunin exams, Naruto and Shikamaru were supposed to have completed the mission and return to doing other ANBU missions full time (as they would be given one or two missions each month to maintain their status with the other ANBU and so people knew that they were still active) but with the third's death, it just didn't happen. Shikamaru got promoted to the status of a Chunin (officially, unofficially he was still an ANBU) and remained on a team with Ino and Choji. And while he didn't mind that, he missed A and S-ranked missions with Naruto weekly. Naruto needed to find a new hokage, as well as get Sasuke back before either of them could go public (or at least tell their friends) that they were in ANBU, and for the Uchiha mission to come to a close.

Shikamaru was trusted with watching over Sasuke while Naruto went to get the new hokage. But he ultimately failed when Sasuke ran away to go chase after power, betraying Konoha in the process. After the retrieval of Sasuke had failed, Shikamaru and Naruto were told that the mission was being put to rest, seeing the mental strain it was putting on the both of them, also considering the fact that the whole village would be involved in this mess now. Naruto needed the break as he could fell his well, crafted mask that he had made begin to crumble as Sakura, and many others, blamed him for the mission failing. Shikamaru needed a break for blaming himself for the mission failure as well as trying to prevent his friend from having a mental break down. With all of this in mind, Tusande put the mission on hiatus and gave the two ANBU agents more missions together and put the responsibility of Sasuke's return to others.

While this did help Naruto, his mask was still breaking, are cracks forming in it every day. Shikamaru's, Tusande's, and Jiraiya's best efforts could not prevent this. While all of them hated the idea of Naruto wearing a mask, they knew that if it were to break, he would explode. They wanted him to be able to remove the mask without suffering anymore mentally.

So, Naruto now sits on his bed with a new mission in hand. Tusande had explained to him when he was in her office that it was a solo S-ranked mission that Naruto would be going on. What made this mission special though was that Naruto would be traveling to the outside for this mission.

Years ago, when chakra was first being discovered, it became apparent that people were born with or without chakra. Even the civilians in the hidden villages had chakra, they just didn't train with it early enough to be able to use it. People without chakra wanted to know how they could obtain and use it, so they quickly started torturing and experimenting on those who did have it. Soon, a war broke out between the two groups. Through seals and other jutsu, chakra users where able to hide themselves from the rest of the world, and they were soon forgotten to the outside.

To ensure their safety, multiple villages always had spies in the outside, to make sure that they would stay concealed and so another war would not break out. With the raise of what the outsiders called "quirks" more spies were sent out. Now, with the knowledge that All-For-One, a guy with a kekkei genkai that allowed him to steal and give kekkei genkai from and to others, and All Might passing One-For-All to another, along with the suspected rise of an organization led by All-For-One, it became apparent that another war would break out, and the possible discovery of the hidden villages along with it. Not wanting to be dragged into another war that was not theirs to fight, the Kages held a meeting to discuss their next course of action.

In the end, they came to the decision that someone would be sent to the outside to observe the next One-For-All user as well as observe All Might, other heroes, and understand more of the outside by sending someone to the school where they knew the next One-For-All user would be attending. They also knew that All Might would be teaching there, as well as other heroes, and there was possibility that whoever they sent out there would become a hero in that world, who they could send out again and get information that would be hidden to the public if need be.

The Kages decided to send Naruto, as he was well-skilled from being in ANBU, fit the age group, had clear loyalties to Konoha, and could keep his real self-secret.

She had told him all of this, as well as about Shikagari, who would most likely inherit All-For-One next, Izuku Midoriya, who was suspected to inherit One-For-All, and about the general society out there. Jiraiya was to bring him to the outside in a week's time, where they would meet one of his spy's who would bring him to his apartment, which was located in Izuku's complex, and help him enroll in U. A.

Naruto was told that while this was a solo mission, Shikamaru would more than likely be going him at some point throughout the mission, so he as well as Tusande would be reading his reports. As for the rest of the Rookie 9, they would be told that Naruto was going to do more solo training with Jiraiya after the Sasuke retrieval mission failure.

After Naruto finished reading the files, he got up and started to pack for the mission, knowing it would be a long one.

Updated: 5/8/20