Starting over

#28 Anbu

Temari POV

"So how do you want your hair to be?", I asked the blonde boy that sat in front of me, while combing his hair. "I don't know, something short for sure.", Naruto answered. I paused for a moment. "No specific style in mind?", I questioned taking a Kunai into my hand. "No, I don't really know what I want, that is also the reason why I don't just let a shadow clone cut my hair.", my friend answered. "Oh, ok, then I hope you will like what I'm going to do to your head.", I joked, starting to cut through Naruto's blonde mane. "Don't worry, you'll do just fine.", the boy chuckled. Then there was a comfortable silence between the two of us, while slowly the floor around the chair got covered with blonde strands of hair.

"So what brought this sudden change of hairstyle even up?", I asked after having cut half of his hair. I had decided to give him short sides with longer hair on top, which he could style how he wanted. So far it looked great. I also couldn't help but notice the distinctive lack of scars on his body. He had told me what had happened back in Konoha and had also explained that the Kyuubi had something to do with the non-existence of any scars, but it still amazed me. "Well, you know how, your father wanted to talk to me earlier today after our mission report, right? Well turns out that the third Hokage has an advisor that has broken a lot of Konoha's laws, so he is going to get taken into custody. Therefore Sarutobi has requested the help of an Anbu squad since this advisor is Danzo Shimura and most likely will resist heavily.", Naruto explained. "Ok, I get that, but what does this have to do with you?", I asked, although I already had a strong feeling that Naruto wouldn't be in Suna for a while. "Since I am from Konoha and Rasa doesn't trust the third Hokage completely, he has ordered me to go with the Anbu squad to point out the possible dangers that they are going to face.", the blonde boy explained. "But you are not allowed to go to the Land of Fire.", I exclaimed a bit confused. "Well, that is where my change of hairstyle comes into play. Rasa has given me a temporary Anbu status and as such I don't need to reveal my identity when entering Konoha's region. I will wear a mask to conceal my identity and along with my new haircut that should let everyone that isn't a Hyuuga think that I am just a normal Anbu. But if there is a Hyuuga who happens to use his Byakugan then I will have a problem. Although I doubt that this will happen, since I am ordered to stay out of the fighting and will only give them intel before they go and capture the target.", he explained further. "Hm, okay, just make sure that you don't die.", I murmured while cutting the last few strands of Naruto's hair. The blonde boy just chuckled as I put the Kunai away and reached for a mirror to show Naruto what his hair looked like now. "No need for that Tema.", I heard Naruto's voice. As I turned around I saw a second Naruto going around the original. "It looks great.", the clone said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Naruto got up and ran his hands through his hair. "If I can do something for you, just ask, I owe you for that.", he whispered, hugging me tightly. I blushed hugging back, before we separated and I went through the drawers to find a comb to get the loose strands out of the blonde's hair. Naruto smiled at me before taking his shirt to go into his room, not without thanking me again. I said that it was no problem and smiled getting a broom to clean the bathroom.

Naruto POV

I smiled going through my hair, promising myself that I would thank Temari when I would come back from my mission.

I changed my clothes and got a scroll from my shelf. I pushed a bit of chakra into it and looked at the blue eyes of my mother's sword. I smiled and strapped it's sheath onto my back before taking the mask that Rasa had given me, putting it on, and going to my meeting point where I was supposed to meet my teammates for this mission.

Arriving at the Kazekage's office I noticed that my teammates had yet to come. But as soon as I had taken a seat in the waiting room Rasa came out of his office and smiled at me. "Come in Naruto, your team will come shortly.", he greeted and we went into his office.

"I see you already had your hair cut.", the Kazekage noticed. "Yeah, so can you give me any information on my team? Their fighting style, what their specialities are?", I asked. Rasa looked at me apologetically. "I can't give out this information, your team will give it to you if they deem it necessary.", he answered. Then suddenly there was a cloud of sand and as soon as it died down there was my team, three Anbu, everyone kneeling in front of the Kazekage. "You can rise team alpha.", Rasa said "Team alpha, this is Fox your temporary teammate for this mission.", Rasa said, surprising me with the codename he gave me. The three Anbu turned around and looked at me with cold calculating eyes. They all had short black hair although I could tell by their stature that one of the Shinobi was female and the other two were male. "I am Dragon, that there are Fly and Cat.", the Anbu on the right said, the female in the middle nodded at the mentioning of 'Fly' and the last one on the far left just blinked at the sound of his codename. The only indication for their identity other than their gender and the slight differences in their hairstyles were tags on their shoulders that showed a picture of their respective animals. "Okay, now that the formalities are out of the way, get out of here and get to know each other before your mission.", Rasa said, dismissing us. We went out and the Anbu went straight into a training ground.