"Naruto-kun, now that you know that I am the ROOT director, I am really curious, to what extent do you had learned from them?" I inquired. The blond seemed to be a bit taken aback but he recovered nonetheless.

"Seriously, I was surprised to know that, y' know? Let's see, I finished with that scroll, Torune-Nii, and Fu-Nii along with Ero Sennin pretty much taught me all they can--ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and fuinjutsu, under the ROOT Director's explicit order they said. Stamina training on every other day, s.h.i.+n.o.bi history once in a while, not that I like it anyway. But, yeah, it seems that studying wasn't that hard after all. Don't ask me to do genjutsu though, I suck at it," he explained in a serious tone. It was pretty much as what the report had said and had not said. My blonde, knuckleheaded best friend had grown up and he was consciously trying to speak properly too despite the unconscious outbursts.

"Eh, man, I missed the old you," I droned out while smiling indulgently.

"Well, we promised, didn't we?" the atmosphere seemed to go dark for a brief moment before he changed the subject. "How about you? Where did you get these muscles?"

"Oh? Well, let's see. I trained with Tsunade-senpai along with Sakura. Though I don't get the medical ninjutsu so well, I can really say that the woman was a physical training s.a.d.i.s.t," I s.h.i.+vered along with Naruto. "The ROOTs had taught me too--cla.s.sified kinds of stuff but you know the usual humdrum of a s.h.i.+n.o.bi life in the shadow. I trust that you know some of the ROOT jutsus too?"

"Yeah, that s.h.i.+chu s.h.i.+bari was a pain in the b.u.t.t to learn because it wasn't my natural chakra affinity. I remembered when Fu-nii used it on me during my training to use the idiot fox chakra. d.a.m.n, it hurts!" Naruto shuddered as he said that. My eyebrows raised at that fact.

"How much did you really know?" I questioned. He rubbed the back of his head and grinned.

"Everything, I managed to make Ero Sennin fessed up after I pressed him on and on about my parents," he smiled after he finished and naturally, his happiness really did was infectious.

"My best friend, the son of Yondaime Hokage. Should I call you 'Naruto-sama' now?" I joked knowing he would outright retort it seeing his newly found self.

"No, Hikari-kun. It would make them worst," he hung his head as he said that.

"Before, it was that bad, huh? Sorry that I arrived late to this village otherwise, I would slice them up and drink their blood for old times' sake," I said sullenly.

"The fu..." Naruto gave me a knock to the head. "Don't say that, you crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

"What the h.e.l.l was that for, idiot?" Holding my head, knowing that it would bruise for the whole night. "Seriously though, you know you got me, bro."

"Preciate that," he gave me a small smile before he evaded a plate that was flying at him from the kitchen.

"Do that again at my Hikari," a voice said from the said room. "I dare you. I double dare you."

"Aww don't get angry at me, Hitori-neechan. I really like to eat your food more now that I got a good taste of em. I wanna eat them more than ever," Naruto begged aloud with puppy eyes and all to which to my surprise, Hitori replied with 'Fine.'. It was rare to see Hitori acted like that. Then again, my best friend here did have an effect on people. I mean right now, I felt like I was wanting to deserve to follow him. I wouldn't be surprised if he would be replacing Tsunade-senpai anytime soon. Then again, he is still a genin. I chuckled at the thought.

"Guess it's time to leave then. Thank you, bro, for everything. See you tomorrow, then?" he asked as he rose from his seat.

"Yeah, it's been a while, and now we can finally do missions together again," I grinned before he teleported out of the house.

"Konoha's new Yellow Flash? Lightning Flash? Yellow Blizzard?" I mused silently before I called Hitori back to our bedroom. I had to have an early start for the next day, so I need to have a good rest that night.

My teammates and I were waiting for our sc.u.mbag of a sensei who dared to stand his student up for a good two hours before he finally showed up. I had to arrive a bit late since I had to do some minor paperwork at ROOT HQ. But still, to think that Kakas.h.i.+ still had to spend his morning moping at a piece of stone is really not necessary. Was he still depressed about it? I didn't think so.

"You're late!" Naruto yelled when our sensei had finally shown himself. The man rubbed the back of his head and smiled. At least I knew that he was judging by his closed eyelid.

"Well, this time I was delayed by filling out the paperwork for the new team..." he explained. This man never ran out of excuses, it seemed.

"Today we start our first mission as a new team," Naruto scolded the man. "Be enthusiastic!! Kakas.h.i.+-sensei! You've been like that for ages!"

"Oh, let it go," Sakura was clearly annoyed wasn't having that. "There's nothing he can do about the fact that he has a face devoid of any enthusiasm!"

"A Jounin nonetheless...." I droned before I heard a hawk cried above us. Kakas.h.i.+-sensei and I looked up and noticed that that's Takamaru, Suna's fastest hawk. It could be nothing important to me at least since Sai didn't show up. Didn't I mention that Sai was the best ROOT encoder that Konoha? I believed that I did? Or maybe not? We made our way to the mission a.s.signment hall when Kakas.h.i.+-sensei snapped me back to real life.

"Ehh!! That mission, no thanks!" Naruto refused angrily. My face paled of what's to come I instinctively ran in front of him. Then I heard a tongue clicked. I could only think of one thing, 'we're f.u.c.ked.'.

"Ehh! What kind of response is that? Well?!" senpai asked, annoyed? Maybe? I couldn't tell, better be annoyed though. Kakas.h.i.+-sensei seemed to be on my track and Sakura too now that she was grinding our idiot's head with her fist.

"Gah... Naruto... you haven't mentally matured at all, have you?" Iruka said while he groaned.

"Sor... Sorry, sensei!! I'll sort him out," she said, sweetly. I bet Inner was going crazy by the minute. Then a puff a smoke appeared in the hall revealing the familiar Ninneko.

"Important," Juzo said simply as the familiar scroll immediately puffed into existence just in time for someone to barged into the doors. I took the time to read Itachi's important message.

"Kazekage is in danger. You are the nearest. Deidara and Sasori."

"The sand's Kazekage has been taken by an organization called Akatsuki! We just received the message!" the women from the Intel Corps finished. Everyone was clearly agitated except for Senpai and me.

"It's confirmed. S-rank?" I asked my senpai before turning the scroll on fire and Juzo expertly disappeared on the right moment. She took the papers from the woman and read it. Tsunade-senpai then nodded at me. I then silently summoned two of my trusted ROOT into the hall.

"Right, Team Kakas.h.i.+, I will tell you your new mission. S-Ranked at that. You are to go immediately to the Sand, find out the situation and relay it to Konoha. After that, follow the orders of the Sand and back them up," Senpai ordered before another puff of smoke exploded in front of us and from it the idiot's two brothers appeared, kneeling and unmasked.

"Director," they said in unison.

"S-Rank, Sunagakure. With us, immediately," I simply said and they both nodded. Naruto expectedly brightens at the sight of them and Torune immediate ready to flick Naruto's nose in a flash.

"Shut it, brat! I have hangovers," he threatened but I joined on the fun.

"Did you two gays go out on a drinking spree? The long lost couple finally reunited, eh?" I joked as I took the intel from senpai's hand to read it and the room was practically silent. "Come on, it's a joke. Geez, we have feelings too, you know?"

My team, senpai, and s.h.i.+zune-neesan already know it too well, still, the rest was still getting used to the fact that ROOT had been flipped over upside down or was it downside up? Don't know, don't care.

"Pack your bags guys, we are traveling fast, so don't bring too much stuff. Gather at the gate when you're ready," Kakas.h.i.+-sensei lazily said to dispel the mood before all of us shuns.h.i.+nned back to our respective places and hurriedly get ready for our significantly important mission to date. I gritted to myself after running out towards the gate when I finished saying my goodbyes to Hitori. How could I let that happened so easily? I should've placed my ROOT there for Gaara's sake. It was careless of me as the ROOT Director, naturally, I felt responsible. It took a while but all five of us were ready.

"Well, off we go!" Naruto said, serious.

"Ok, Tsunade-s.h.i.+shou, off we go," she chirped and salute her master and Iruksensei that was seeing us out. The latter man was uncharacteristically silent and not to mention, frowning.

"Do your best!" he said to Naruto and the blonde said yes confidently. Jiraiya had appeared by then, now that his c.r.a.ppy spy network had finally got wind of things. I took the chance to converse with my sensei and ROOT brothers.

"Who do we have as a back-up?" I questioned the two.

"Not many as we like," Fu explained.

"The Jounins and their teams are also out of the village too," Kakas.h.i.+-sensei rubbed his chin as he said that as did I.

"I say the ROOT will take point to a.s.sess the situation and then, we can call out reinforcement that was only necessary. It's another nation we're talking here. We can't afford to have too many of us there anyway. Deidara's a Bakutsu Butai of Iwa, long ranged bomber so to speak, his technique is a form of Earth-Fire kekkei genkai of sorts, weak against lightning, and Sensei you can handle that area. Akasuna no Sasori, Kubutsu Butai, multiple puppet users and we need a subject expert on said technique," I suggested before they all nodded. "Other than that, I do believe that those two sc.u.ms wouldn't stand a chance with us."

"They aren't going to know what's coming," Torune said, gleefully.

"That's what she said," Fu answered monotonously.

"I can't believe you said that out in the open," Kakas.h.i.+ mocked disbelief.

"Says the pervert who reads p.o.r.n in front of children," I retort and Kakas.h.i.+-sensei was about to reply but I cut him off. "UNDERAGE CHILDREN."

His shoulder slumped in defeat before he tiredly ordered us to begin our journey as my two teammates already went ahead of us. We immediately took off following their trail. We ran at a faster pace than we used to as a genin and I had really hoped that we make it in time. It wasn't long that I noticed a chakra signature in front of us.

"Temari-san is up ahead," I announced while I turned off my Byakugan for the moment.

"Shannaro, she won't be liking this too much," Sakura gritted and I could only nod. Best leave that to her, one woman to another. A few moments and then we finally made contact with her.

"Temari-san!" Sakura loudly called and then she did the deed, the bearer of bad news of Temari's year.

"What?! Gaara!" She exclaimed and then she fell silent. "I've had a bad feeling."

"It'll take three days to reach Sand from here. Let's hurry," Our resident Ex-ANBU had always been the most focus-driven ninja among us, team 7. Well aside from Torune and Fu that is. Kakas.h.i.+ insisted that we shouldn't waste any of our productive time dawdling in the woods so we continued our journey non-stop. Predictably, while we were running, Naruto was behaving a bit impulsive that day.

"Naruto, just because I said to hurry, you shouldn't split up the team," Kakas.h.i.+-sensei reminded him. "Don't get so heated. Didn't Jiraiysama just tell you that?"

"I can't stand it!" Naruto gritted. "Even I knew why they're after me and Gaara!"

"You still don't know, do you, Sakurchan?" Naruto asked. Unbeknownst to him, I had already told our bubble-gummed-haired teammate the whole deal about Naruto.

"I do, Hikari told me during our therapy," Sakura began and needless to say, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei was a bit shocked. "I am sorry that I was never there before..."

Words couldn't describe how happy the blonde looked that day, he brought Sakura and me to a hug whilst still running.

"Thank you, guys. You never knew how long I waited for someone to say that," he said with a teary eye.

"Don't get all mushy with me, idiot," I shrugged him off with a smirk.

"Those who abandon their comrade are even worse than sc.u.m," Sakura smiled, genuinely smiled.

"My cute students!" Kakas.h.i.+-sensei was eye-smiling at us and I just had to groan.

"Nope, I don't want to be your victim, you pedophile!" I cried and a loud 'ehhhhh' was only words that came out next from him.

"Gaara and I, because we have it contained within our bodies, that's what they're really after!" Naruto blurted out after a long period of silence. "That's what I can't stand! Just seeing us as monsters, I can't stand them looking at us whatever they feel like!!"

"He and I are the exact same but he was fighting, he was lonelier than I was..." Naruto droned. "He was targeted by Akatsuki, just like I was before! Even so, why is it always him alone that has to have such a hard role?! Always him alone?! That's why! That's why I won't just sit around asking 'why'! this time for sure, I want to save him."

It is confirmed, he would be a Kage one day. I meant, by the look of things each one of us was already committed to complete this mission after his outward monologue.

"You really are changed, idiot," I muttered.

"I will not be that knucklehead anymore, Hikari-kun. This time, Konoha will see me as their next Hokage in line! Dattebayyo!" he said as he pointed at himself. d.a.m.n it, he's so cool! With that, we sped up our pace noticeably. The next day, I caught sight of a familiar bird chasing us and I immediately opened up a scroll and the bird jumped into the scroll forming an encoded message.

"Reinforcement incoming. Me and Gai-senpai's team."

"Tsunade-senpai sent reinforcement. Gai-sensei's team," I announced and Kakas.h.i.+-sensei s.h.i.+vered momentarily but recovered nonetheless. He made a flurry of signs and summoned his prized ninken.

"Spread out, scout the area. Pakkun, if you see Gai's team, give them a one over to them," he ordered and his ninken disappeared in a streaked blur. It wasn't long that we finally reached Suna.

"Temari-san was with you?" A Suna Kunoichi said, surprised but relieved. "We have been waiting. Please, this way."

She wasn't wasting time as she immediately gave us the sitrep on Suna's part.

"...but, the Kazekage was abducted. After that, Kankurou pursued them, but he, in turn, was wounded..." she explained. Kankurou was the puppet user that faced s.h.i.+no in the Chuunin Exam if I remembered the reports correctly. Temari, him and Gaara were siblings and children of the Yondaime Kazekage who died when Orochimaru infiltrate the village. Thinking of the snake, I bit my tongue but I know we have a chance to gain a piece of information on the snake because Sasori was his teammate during Itachi early days in Akatsuki. Apparently, the man was a poison expert and Kankurou was left without a possible antidote.

"Let's hurry, Temari-san. I'll examine him!" Sakura demanded. This Sakura isn't to be trifle with, it was the same when it comes to the medics as with Senpai. Medic Nin was fierce in their own right. We then burst into the ward that Kankurou was inside. There were people there but an old lady among them charged right at Kakas.h.i.+-sensei. Naturally, I stopped her movements as Naruto hovered in front of Kakas.h.i.+-sensei defensively.

"Why are you going at Kakas.h.i.+-sensei so suddenly for?! You wrinkled old hag!" Naruto demanded.

"Baka, that's not the way you should talk to an elderly!" I chided my best friend. "Besides, I could tell that she is a s.h.i.+n.o.bi! Sarutobi-sensei wouldn't like us to be rude anyway!"

My byakugan took a look at her chakra network and found that she was missing a hand but in reality, she did have one. Puppet arms, possibly? Yeah, I'm sure of it. She was mad about someone named White Fang of Konoha and was glaring at Kakas.h.i.+-sensei. I immediately could connect the dot as Sensei had told me about him once, so, I bowed at the old lady.

"Obasama. My apologies, I am afraid you have got the wrong person. This is the man's son. Hatake Kakas.h.i.+. I beg you to see that the war times are far from us now. We come as an ally of Suna and Kazekage's personal friend," I said while holding my bow.

"Gyahahaha, I was pretending to be stupid!" the lady bark and the tension in the room was immediately lifted. "You are a good and polite kid, Hyuugchan. Why don't you give this old woman a hug!"

The room now changed into a different atmosphere as everyone's sweat dropped at the old lady's action.

"What? This kid got good manners! Gyahahahaha! And he reminds me of my grandchild!" she said. Sakura wasn't wasting time as she immediately began the procedure needed for Kankurou-san here. I had always spent my free time to a.s.sist Sakura in medical operation. Still, her skills always amazed me.

"Got it!" she announced after a long procedure. We all could saw the blob of poison floating inside her Mystic Palm and I withdrew the breath the I was unconsciously held throughout the procedure.

"Heh, I don't think there's any need to worry about his life anymore. I've directly removed the poison," she announced and Temari could be seen slumped against the wall with relief. "Now I have to make an antidote for the little bit of poison left in his body. We can't relax yet. Please gather what I say!"

Naruto was gawking at Sakura's awesomeness. Apparently, we all had changed eh, Naruto? I swallowed my throat before making my way towards Baki-dono.

"Please explain to me. Where is your ANBU at times like this?" I glared at the man. Sweat dripped from his forehead.

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"Listen, Director," he began, "we don't have neither enough manpower to valid an ANBU existence nor enough resources to train new ones since the Chuunin Exam in Konoha. We lose more good men when those two invaded. Even Yuura is missing."

"Tsk, when we get Gaara back. I will have a word with him. I will send a few of my men to train some of yours to be ANBU," I continued to glare because I had specific orders to him that Gaara must be guarded at all times, even more, when there were actual risks of a coup' on Gaara that I had personally stopped. He learned the hard way of not getting on my bad side when it comes to my friends. Don't get me wrong but honestly, Suna was getting sloppy and yet he is the experienced s.h.i.+n.o.bi in their council. Sakura had left us along with their Medic Nin in order to make an antidote for Kankurou-san. I decided to have a wider look of things and thus the high walls of Suna would fit me exactly.

"I'm going out to sniff things out. You two are to follow Sensei's orders and keep your brother's safe and notify me if need be. I will call if I need anyone," I said before I shuns.h.i.+nned onto said wall sitting down with eyes closed. Untying the headband, I immediately opened the Rinne Sharingan and activate my Byakugan. With this, I got eyes on everywhere. Took me long enough, I saw that Gai-sensei's team was closing on us, a few days out, good riddance and then, I saw a place covered in chakra. So, that must have been their hideout but suddenly, there it was the longed chakra signature.

"Impossible," I muttered. I gritted and without thinking, I made my way towards it. Fast, really fast. When I was there, it was no one that was present. Not to the visible eye that is. But the chakra presence was still there. Marred with malice. So, I waited.

It took me a while then a plant thing appeared in front of me. I just had to c.o.c.k my head to the side. The thing had a big mouth and in it was a person with one side covered in black whilst the other in a pale white.

"You," a dark voice suddenly said.

"You know him Kuro? Oh, it's the boy who beat Itachi and Kisame!" Another cheery voice exclaimed. Two people in one? Must be.

"Who are you? You have Mother's Chakra?" I demanded as the Rinne Sharingan flared.

"Oh dear," the cheery one said and comparing to this Kuro one, this one must be s.h.i.+ro.

"Ku Ku Ku Ku, so she sent you to the future by accident, huh?" Kuro chuckled at me. That irritated me, in the blink of an eye, I punched the tree they were in and have them in a vice grip.

"Talk!" I growled. I noticed that they were trying to wiggle out of the way with some sort of jutsu. Good thing that I had the Rinne-Sharingan opened.

"That's the power of your Rinne-Sharingan huh?" Kuro said. "Fine, nice to meet you Hikari-anisama."

"What the?" I was really taken aback. This halfling is not my brother. If so, those two idiots would have told me that we have a younger brother.

"Not really a true brother, but we are the incarnation of Mother's will. She gave birth to me when our brother was going to seal her," Kuro explained and my eyes were wider than ever. Then, another chakra signature suddenly appeared. This time through some sort of portal.

"Zetsu-san, what happens here?" this one was hipper than s.h.i.+ro. Borderline nutcase.

"Drop the act, this one is a threat Madara! Get rid of him!" Kuro announced and the masked man attacked me and I was lucky that I evaded in time. With that s.h.i.+ro and Kuro disappeared into the ground.

"Madara? So, you're the one who summoned the Gedo Mazo," I said while narrowing my eyes and my hands were brought into the seal of confrontation.

"How much do you know?" his voice had changed into a deeper tone and his stance was more of an experienced s.h.i.+n.o.bi. "Rinnegan? Hyuuga brat like you had the Rinnegan?"

"Condescending. You are Uchiha Madara." My byakugan continued to a.n.a.lyze this newcomer and I was in for the shock of my life. I recognized the chakra signature. The man went through a series of hand seals that my eyes easily pick up.

"Katon; Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" we said in unison and giant fireball jutsu appeared from our mouth and canceled each other out.

"Hyuuga that can copy ninjutsu. Now that's an imbalance," the so-called Madara commended me.

"Thanks, but I saw through your mask," I said. He then proceeds to make another set of seals to which I had known it personally and thus had to back up my position just a little bit.

"Mokuton; Mokuryuu no Jutsu!" we said in unison yet again. A giant dragon appeared under us respectively and charged towards one another. When we collided, we threw a fist at each other and my whole body went through him. We were left equally baffled.

"You can copy Kekkei Genkai? Impossible!" 'Madara' complained.

"So that is your Mangekyou ability. I wonder what Kakas.h.i.+-sensei's ability is, Obito?" I glared at the man. He was alive and well. Why didn't he return to the village?

"Shut it!" Obito shouted before he made a new set of seals and a spiraling flame appeared and engulf me. The heat was rising but it was nothing compared to Hitori's fire. I made my own seat of seals.

"Suiton; Suijinheki!" With that, the fire dissipated in steam. It went on and on, ninjutsu per ninjutsu was exchanged, blow by blow though he had an upper hand since my blow couldn't connect with him. It was a long battle but we both fell down exhausted of our chakra and me having a fatal injury due to a careless mistake. I blacked out.

"Hikari-kun.... wake up.... d.a.m.n it!" I heard m.u.f.fled voice of Hitori angrily calling me in darkness.

"Don't tell anything..." another m.u.f.fled voice.

"You better wake up!" Sakura screamed and then I felt a pain in my chest, enough to jolt me awake.

"What the f.u.c.k was that for!" I shouted in pain. I had trouble breathing and found that my ribs were broken.

"You were dead! Baka!!" she screamed yet again and then her hand glow with the Mystic Palm as she placed it on my chest.

"Am I? it hurts, Sakura..." I breathed before I lose consciousness once again.