Thirty minutes out from the nobles' gathering…
Being forced to hold a henge for over a week that was half his size and do it while in an ornate kimono was not Naruto's idea of fun. Being carried on his teammate's Genma's shoulders and eating snacks though? That was the most enjoyable pastime Naruto could partake in.
"You're getting crumbs in my hair, you blond bastard!" Genma griped.
"Oh? But I'm a brunette" Naruto pointed out snidely.
"Shut it! And quit eating- you're heavy enough already" The senbon enthusiast whined. Though Naruto's henge could alter his shape, it didn't change his weight.
Wonder how he'd take the information that you're wearing about twenty-five pounds on your torso? Kurama sniggered in amusement. Naruto sent a mental smirk back.
We'll find out when we're safely back in Konoha and I can hide from him for a couple days. Naruto wanted to live thank you very much and didn't doubt Gemma's ability to kill him and blame another village. Not that he would, but one could never be too careful with powerful shinobi.
"Hey, Hayate? What exactly is this 'noble's gathering' anyways?" A pregnant pause ensued at Naruto's question.
"Ah…a sleepover to build political bonds" Hayate finally managed before coughing again.
"I-I-I have to sleepover with a bunch of spoiled brats?!" Naruto demanded. Raido tossed a book to the young ANBU/chunin with a pink cover- How to act during sleepovers for noble ladies!
"This will help- but weren't you taught how to act like a lady for undercover ops?" Raido asked. With Naruto's henge he'd be excellent at espionage. Hayate and Raido noticed the suddenly pale look on Naruto's face and Genma felt the shiver.
"Never mention that week again."
"Uh, you okay?" Genma looked up a bit concerned. Naruto shivered again.
"All I'll say is Kuranai Yuhi is far crueler than Ibiki is at times- all that tea!" He cried. Three sweat drops fell but they let it go.
Soon the group was in front of gold plated gates, four guards looking stoic at the ninja- though, they were disguised as samurai. Genma set Naruto down, getting into character by bowing to the 'little princess'. With nose in the air Naruto closed the book and snack pack, making them disappear somewhere inside his kimono.
"Tsubaki-sama, I wasn't aware your guards would be samurai! You usually have attendents. And where's your father, dear?" An elderly woman with grey hair piled in a tall bun said airily as she daintily made her way outside the gate. Naruto recognized her from the file he'd been given to study over important people Tsubaki knew- this woman was her father's old tutor and friend of the family. Sasame was her name he believed.
"Baa-chan!" Naruto said giddily in the same manner he imagined the real six year old Tsubaki would have. He bowed politely to her before heading inside next to the hunched but still regal woman. "I came all by myself this time, but the samurai are sooo weird. One eats senbon like a camel" Naruto sent a wink to the now twitching Genma. Hayate had to cough to cover up a snort while Raido inched away from the senbon user looking to 'practice' on something.
"Oh? How nice dear I didn't know samurai used senbon" Sasame commented, biting her lip nervously. Naruto noticed this instantly, as did the rest of his team. Hayate gave a look with a clear message: Be on guard.
That evening…
Naruto was finally getting the hang of the whole court scene. Over the last several hours she'd greeted dozens of females from high ranking positions in their rather extravagant night gowns. Naruto himself wore a loose silk white garment. Underneath the billowy sleeves and loose bottom skirt though were two senbon laced with the new faster acting sleeping poison Anko had taught him after he helped create the summoning scrolls for the chunin exams. One prick and even a trained ninja would be out within a minute, much less a civilian. Naruto himself only had partial immunity.
One thing that confused Naruto were the lack of girls the age of Tsubaki: the age to first attend was six but the youngest was nine- that spoke of the gathering's true purpose: to amass allies and degrade enemies, much like the ninja villages' chunin exams really. Most wouldn't send a six year old to debut with the likes of the shallow girls Naruto was greeting and kissing up to. No, best to let the older children take care of it: then again, most nobles had several daughters, not one lone six year old who had the political weight piled on.
"Tsubaki-chan! I haven't seen you since you were a toddler. Squeal! We simply must hang out tonight!" An older girl glomped Naruto, looking around fifteen. Wearing a black night gown that fit to her form, the girl's silver hair and milky blue eyes made her rather exotic looking for the normally mudane looking nobles that relied on makeup and clothes to become so beautiful. At the questioning glance she looked sheepish. "Sorry, I should introduce myself: I am Hana Tachibana. Your father and mine joint own the Tachibana-Juno shipping company and work together in the trading court." That's where he heard the name. Hana Tachibana, only daughter and heiress to her father's side of the company that dominated the shipping market.
"Oh of course, Hana-san. My father talks about yours often" Naruto lied, hoping it was true. Hana's eyes darkened slightly but was gone before he could notice. With a grin she pulled Naruto away in a very unrefined manner not like the other nobles.
"Let's go Tsubaki-chan, we can eat the snacks before they come out of the kitchen."
"But the gathering" Naruto tried. It was now he wished his 'guards' were here. Like most of the others Naruto's team had been put into a bunker like setting to keep assassination attempts or political by play at bay. The best they could do was have Hayate send a shadow clone along with some of Naruto's henged into the local servants. Apparently the body guards would normally be allowed to be in the hallways but on 'coincidence' that changed this year, the first year the only daughter of Hiroshi Juno, co owner of the new largest shipping company after Gato fell, was old enough to attend this gathering.
"Is really just politics. Most of those girls would just slow you down if you associate with them. Oh, here we are!" Hana said gleefully as she pushed Naruto into a room with her. The dim light and lack of food was all Naruto needed to know: this wasn't the kitchen and Tsubaki shouldn't trust this 'Hana' person. It got worse when 'Hana suddenly became a kunoichi with the same build but black hair instead of silver. "Tsk tsk, Tsubaki-chan. Didn't your father ever tell you to not believe everything you hear? And that old woman said you were bright for your age" With a smirk the girl walked slowly towards what she believed to be a trembling six year old.
Too bad for the girl that appeared to be a seduction and infiltration specialist, chunin level by her chakra Naruto could now feel once they were alone: he might not be equal to his peers, but he was an ANBU, and the girls in her field couldn't hold a candle to the ones in Naruto's. "Don't worry, I won't kill you: no, I'll just give you a little shot. Your father will sign his half of the company over to my client before long and you'll be back to being a spoiled princess- well, as spoiled as a bankrupt girl can be."
"Y-you're a ninja?" Naruto squeaked in mock fear, crouching down as if cowed while fishing for information: he'd found out that Sasame was in on it, now he just needed a village. The kunoichi stopped and grinned confidently, a complete change from the menacing presence.
"Yep! You're looking at a chunin kid from Sunakagure, best village in the world. Now hold still and it won't hurt." She moved in with a shot, intent to jab it into the neck. Naruto took the opportunity and stabbed the kunoichi in the arm. "Ow! You little" but she didn't have a chance to retaliate when he appeared behind her after a kawarimi with a pillow nearby. With a brutal chop curtesy of his morning training with Guy the girl fell in a heap on the ground. She looked up hatefully as the poison took effect. "H-how? I didn't sense any chakra"
"A shape shift" he said simply. After she succumbed his eyes turned hard; with the current tense relations between the villages and war inevitable, standing orders from Dragon-sama were for ANBU to kill any possible ninja from other villages that interfered or appeared during the mission: every last body counted in a siege, after all. Looking at the girl though, who couldn't be more than fourteen or fifteen Naruto let out a wince. Killing her felt wrong on so many levels. She was weak. Overconfident. Not great at split second combat.
And a ninja. A heavy heart accompanied him but orders were orders, the village came first. A smooth motion had his holstered kunai from his thigh and a clean swipe severed the throat, followed by a stab in the heart. The only solace was she felt no pain.
My, how brutal of you, kit. The village comes first though, eh? Even before your own petty humanity. Kurama taunted half heartedly. The fox felt his prisoner's pain even now but the biting words just spilled out.
Shut it, Kurama. There's a mission to complete. Naruto made a shadow clone that expelled immediately, letting the other clones know what was going on; Hayate would come with a scroll to carry the body in later as Naruto couldn't transform back now to do it.
Back in the ballroom type setting no one noticed Naruto had been gone, and he slipped in in time to see the food arrive. Plastering on a pleasant smile for one of the girl's friends- Tsuki from his memory- Naruto moved through the night with the grace of a shinobi and blocked the Suna kunoichi from his mind.
That night he slipped out of his assigned room with three other girls, a shadow clone taking his place. Transforming back into himself he silently crept through the building. Compared to his training and the trouble of pranking in orange was, this was nothing. In the hallways, the couple of guards he came across were easily avoided or through the hypnotism genjutsu suddenly needed to go use the restroom, giving Naruto a pass.
Hayate had found 'Sasame' within her room and was interrogating her when Naruto arrived.
"Please stop." Her eyes begged, being unable to make a sound with a gag in her mouth. Naruto nodded to his leader before putting a silencing seal up- nobody would hear.
"Tell me *cough* before I get serious" Hayate warned- he was used to interrogating in the field and her roughed up appearance spoke to his skill. The woman in front of them, still dressed in the noble gowns, was a jonin by the looks of it. Hayate had broken her fingers among other things and looked ready to do anything else needed. With a fervent agreement Hayate released the gag. "Who else is here?"
"Two more- my other chunin students besides the one you caught" She said quickly, apparently not aware that her student was dead. "The other two are disguised as guards on the western wall." Naruto pops a clone he'd summoned earlier: Raido and Genma could take care of them. Contrary to popular belief, masking chakra wasn't that difficult: it was quite easy in fact for those in the Suna squad's specialty. The trick though was making it seem like you weren't doing it. Two special jonin, now that they knew what to look for, would be able to sense them without much effort. "We're allies. This mission is obviously a failure. Let us go and we'll leave." The woman begged. Judging by her chakra levels she only made special jonin-probably for seduction skills as she was rather pretty- and was employing the helpless card to get out. Statitics showed women who begged were more likely to be released on compassion.
"After our mission I'm sure" He stopped as Naruto had already slit her throat and was cleaning the blade on the woman's shirt. "Naruto! There wasn't any need to do that" Hayate looked shocked at the twelve year old's cold actions. Naruto fixed his leader with a blank look as he sealed the Kunoichi's body inside another scroll.
"Hayate-sempai, I'm sure Yugao-sempai and others have told you what Suna is planning?" He asked: every jonin was aware their ally was almost certainly betraying them soon. "And what ANBU has been ordered to do?"
"Yes but this isn't an ANBU mission"
"But I am still ANBU, sempai. Taking out a squad now, no matter how un used to combat they are, will potentially stop a Konoha shinobi from dying in the future." The blond admonished. "I killed the other one for the same reason."
"Your clone didn't say anything- I thought it was in battle" Hayate whispered. He looked at his temporary subordinate with a mix of respect and avoidance.
Like most special jonin and above Hayate was not above killing- but seeing Naruto kill so heartlessly was a bit of a wake up call: most had put the thought of war to the back of their minds, a nightmare none wanted to think about.
Naruto had it at the front. His blond teammate was a better shinobi simply because he did the hard choice to help prevent the 'what ifs' of war. He killed in cold blood today to save his village tomorrow- an ANBU agent indeed.
"Let's go. A clone just dispelled: the two left are combat specialists and took the encounter beyond the walls. Genma and Raido are holding them off but fighting in the dark and ninjutsu isn't their specialties" With a nod the two shinobi raced to help their comrades.
Several shunshin later the duo come across the sparks of kunai and senbon clanging against one another in the crescent moon light. Genma was more of a strategist than fighter, though his weapons accuracy was top notch. However, that didn't help as the dark made hitting the Suna ninja difficult: both had wind affinities to counteract the weapons and the one fighting Genma appeared frightingly proficient with it.
"Genma, back up Raido!" Hayate ordered as Naruto's own wind jutsu blocked their wind from cutting the senbon eating man.
"Got it." Was his curt reply before disappearing towards the sounds of Raido further off holding off the other Suna ninja.
Naruto had trained with the sickly swordsman by his side multiple times, and as such didn't need to speak to know the jutsu the man wanted to use: without a sound his sword channeled wind chakra.
"Konoha scum! Prepare to die" The black clad ninja- perhaps kunoichi but Naruto didn't have the time to care- bit out while going through hand seals.
Kurama, can I use your eyes? Naruto asked. When he used Kurama's 'demon eyes' his sight became sharper, could see better in the dim lighting at night, and gave off a terrifying appearance.
Heh, let's see him piss himself And Naruto's normal cerulean blue transformed into cat like red slits that glowed in the night.
"Wind style: Great hurricane", an almost vortex barreled towards the Konoha side. It met with Naruto's wind coated blade and shadow clone barrier, cancelling out. Using the distraction Naruto appeared in front of the Suna ninja.
"Y-you're l-like Gaara!" The ninja realized as Naruto's blade cut down. The ninja dodged. "Demon!" Was his shout as he jumped from tree to tree in a round about fashion.
"Perhaps" Naruto shrugged. "Shadow clone jutsu" and three clones charged with swords.
"Heh, I'm a wind user, stupid demon!" An explosion of air erupted from around him and took out the clones. "Where'd you go, coward" Was the frustrated grunt. Naruto had used the momentary distraction to use the head hunter jutsu to go under ground.
"Right here!" Naruto snarled under the influence of the slight Kyubi chakra, popping out of the ground below the enemy's feet, sword pointed upwards. A kawarimi saved the man, reappearing several meters back. Perfect.
"Dance of the crescent moon!" Several Hayate struck the surprised ninja before he could muster a kawarimi or more wind. One Hayate struck a leg, another the back. The third impaled the stomach. The man dropped like a log, bleeding out.
"H-how?" He said. Naruto looked down a bit sadly as his eyes- a with it the bit of feralness that came with them- disappeared.
"You focused on one opponent and don't have enough chakra or experience to jump from one attack to the next to avoid me." Hayate explained while coughing from the high speeds he just produced. "You were good enough for chunin but your cockiness in splitting up while facing jonin and a chunin- that was your downfall."
"Spare my teammates"
"If you tell me something" Naruto prompted. The dying man didn't need to know what happened and Konoha couldn't keep Suna prisoners without breaking the treaty- something that had to be done carefully, though it did happen. At the man's flinch of being asked village secrets Naruto chuckled. "No, not village secrets. I just want to know if it's true Gaara can fully transform" The spies heard rumors but any confirmation was appreciated.
"Yes, and no one can kill him, not even the Kazekage! His sand has a mind of its own" The man spoke quickly even as the gut wound no doubt pulsated with pain.
"Thank you" Naruto said sincerely and Hayate stabbed him in the heart.
"You knew all that, Naruto." Hayate said quietly.
"I know- but dying men have less reason to lie. Dragon taught me that. I just made sure I had all the facts straight." With a shrug and sealing of the body the Konoha shinobi went towards their team.
"Yo, I take it you two finished up?" Genma waved with his own scroll of the body. They'd take them back to Konoha for examination and mind walk if possible. Dead bodies were easier to hide than live ones after all.
Several days later, Konoha…
"You four did well- those ninja might have been less battle ready, but killing them provided us with potential information. Mouse, excellent on following the standing orders. I know from your report that killing an incapacitated enemy is difficult but in doing so you gave Konoha another advantage." Dragon complemented. Naruto puffed up a bit in pride while the other three looked a mixture of bored and uneasy: killing defenseless foes that weren't against Konoha was something most normal shinobi didn't need to do in peace time, and it had been years since Hayate did it. Killing every squad that went against you on missions was allowed but could spark tensions and in turn another war.
But they were preparing for war. And even if not, the blond next to Hayate smiling was like his girlfriend: the shadow protectors of the village- ANBU.
"Thank you Dragon. I am proud of you as well- Naruto, how are you feeling about it?" The Hokage asked. He was now confident in Naruto being in ANBU, but doing what he did at such a young age could be stressful.
"I am…fine, Hokage-sama. I hated doing it, but the village comes first. We protect from the shadows and take the dirtiness in life to protect the village. I would do it again in a heartbeat" Naruto spoke, echoing the words of the commander and other captains. Smiling in pride the Hokage nodded.
"And that is admirable. You'll be happy to note the Tachibana noble and his accomplices have been arrested and are being dealt with. Lord Juno thanks you and has promised to hire Konoha exclusively in the future" That got smiles everywhere: to be assured to be a rich client's first choice meant Konoha would gain more reputation and higher wages.
Finished being debriefed Hayate offered to take the group out barbeque after they all had a chance to change. Naruto declined and darted off to find his partner after she wasn't in the apartment.
I swear I need to learn those tracking seals- screw being level four, this is madness! Naruto mentally screamed two hours later when he still couldn't locate the feline despite numerous stops along the favored hangouts. Finally he spotted Tora being chased by a genin team- team ten it looked like. When they lost Tora again Naruto swooped down from a building, scooping his other feline friend up.
"Gotcha, Tora." His voice stopped any scratching. He looked at the fat kitty in his arms. "Now where is Angel?" When Tora suddenly looked everywhere but at him his blood chilled. "Tora, take me to Angel. Or else I'll never let you in my apartment again and put a tracking seal on you that links to your owner". That got the cat, and she led the unamused ANBU towards the hot springs.
"What. The. Hell" Naruto balked. Jiraiya, his godfather, was spying on the women's side, like normal. What wasn't normal was him sitting on an enlarged Angel struggling to hold the scale up and the sage's body weight. Being the size of a lion did that it seemed. "What are you doing, Jiraiya-sama?"
"Shh! Quiet gaki- Angel, a bit larger please…good!" Naruto looked deadpan.
"Why is my cat your seat?"
"Training! Now shush!" Angel looked up with a 'save me' expression. Grinning deviously he cupped his mouth.
"PERVERT! THERE'S A PERVERT!" He screamed. Ten kunoichi screamed and jumped over the wall with towels on. Angel instantly went back to normal and jumped into his arms. While Jiraiya met with a fitting fate the duo discretely used a shunshin.
"Gaki, you'll pay for that! All my lost research, I should kill you." Jiraiya cried as he sat down to a now ramen gorging Naruto and fish eating Angel. Ayame just kept giving the cat more with stars in her eyes.
"Please you pervert. Besides, if you killed me you couldn't see me do…this" and satisfaction filled Naruto's eyes as a perfect rasangan came to life. Jiraiya looked gob smacked. Recovering quickly the man smirked evily.
"Ahh, my precious student. As you've now mastered that technique, it is my duty to assess you and your partner's skills through an all out spar." Jiraiya grabbed the now trembling Naruto and Angel and took them away to the trainining grounds with a wave to the ramen stand.
"Why me!" Was heard throughout the village.
Konoha hospital…
Kabuto Yakushi couldn't keep the smile off his face as he left his bosses' office. As head of both the ANBU and regular hospital the lead medic had updated files on all the active ninja in addition to keeping his notes from every council meeting. Konoha had been lax for years and even now it wasn't uncommon for bits of information to slip through.
So they think missing ninja are banding together or are actually working for Kiri or Iwa, heh? My, how convenient, best not tip them off to Orochimaru-sama's pact with Suna then.
In the young spy's apartment a certain bandaged man was waiting, a man Kabuto personally hated with a passion after the attempted assassination.
"Danzo" he said neutrally. Danzo looked up. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Kabuto, just dropping by. A certain snake and I could share a common goal and information- if you'd like some help that is."
"I'm listening." Kabuto said hesitantly.