Decisions..

It had been about two weeks since his little battle with amaya and said sword and the giant fox living in his gut had been arguing with one another for about 60% of the time. Naruto was very annoyed these past two weeks but managed to keep his cool.

He had spent a full week training in the use of his new chains and had shocked jiraya and the third hokage when he showed them his new ability. This last week had been spent on a low B ranked mission. All he had to do was escort some merchant to suna and that was it. The only reason it was even a B ranked mission was because the guy had paid so much money.

Naruto let out a small yawn as the large konoha gates came into view. He looked up at the sun and saw that it was just rising, he guessed it was about six or seven in the morning. Amaya and kurama were currently asleep- thank Inari-sama for that. He didnt know if he could deal with them in his current state, which was extremely tired and annoyed.

After this mission he had decided that he hated sand. That's all wind country was, just sand! He had sand in places that sand shouldn't even be able to reach! Stupid suna.

Lazily flashing his ID to the gate guards he walked passed them and into the village. He slowly walked through the nearly empty streets as he made his way to the hokage tower.

After about a twenty minute walk, naruto entered the tower, climbed the stairway up to the old mans office, walked past the secretary and ignored whatever it was that she said and threw the office doors open.

"Im back old ma-" two long katanas were instantly pointed near his neck. In his tired half asleep brain, every alarm was going off. So on pure instinct he did what any good shinobi did in these situations!"- weapons!" He shouted out before he moved in a blur of motion.

Before Hiruzen could say anything or order naruto to stand down, it was to late. The young special jonin appeared upside down in the air, his hands facing the men holding the swords." Almighty push!" Said men were violently thrown into the opposite walls from one another. They slid down the walls in an almost cartoon like fashion before coming to a rest on the floor, both fully grown men were knocked out. Naruto landed gracefully on the floor and looked at his leader with wide eyes.

Finally he took a look around the room and saw the old man sitting behind his desk, next to him was another older man that had longer black hair pulled up into a bun, he idly noticed the grey hairs streaking through said hair. He wore a long silky white robe that had a red flower pattern along the sleeves and around the collar of said robes. He had brown eyes that were currently filled with both shock and amusement.

Naruto also looked at the two men he had just knocked out and saw the red armor of the land of fires samurai, the large kenji for 'fire' that was printed on their breastplates stuck out like a sore thumb now.

Naruto let the situation dawn on him and his face went blank before he spoke up." I just assaulted two of the fire lords samurai guards, didn't i?" Naruto question sounded more like a statement but the third answered anyways.

Sarutobi let out a small sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose." Yes. Yes you did." He stated." Since youre here, let me introduce you to the lord of the land of fire. Ikemo, let me introduce you to naruto uzumaki." He stated as he motioned towards naruto.

"Its nice to meet you young man." Ikemo greeted with an amused smile plastered on his unusually smooth looking face.

Naruto bowed his head." Its an honor my lord. Im so sorry for knocking out your guards like that, I had no idea you were even here." Naruto stated as he rose his head up from its bowing position.

Ikemo waved the boys apology off with a hearty laugh." Nonsense my boy! I enjoyed the performance." He stated." Plus, I now know that I need to get knew guards, these two were beaten way to easily." He added with a chuckle.

Hiruzen let out a silent sigh of relief. He was extremely happy to know that naruto wouldn't be punished for what he had done. Even he- the hokage of konoha, couldn't save naruto from the fire lords wrath.

"So naruto, how did your mission go?" The kage asked curiously." No surprises I hope?" He added.

Naruto scratched his masked cheek and tilted his head a bit." Nah, everything went perfectly fine. I was actually a bit surprised with how.. smoothly the mission went. Usually with my luck I expected to run into some troubles, but that didn't happen." He answered." Thankfully.." he added after a moment.

Hiruzen was about to respond but before he could, ikemo cut him off." You wouldn't be the kid who lost his arm in the kumo chunnin exams would you?" The fire lord asked curiously.

Naruto lightly flinched at the memory of losing his arm. Even though he had it reattached he could still feel some phantom pains every now and again.

He nodded his head a bit." Yeah, that's me. Thankfully tsunade was able to put it back on." The blond answered, raising his bandage covered left arm.

Ikemo suddenly clapped his hands with a happy smile on his face." Oh my! I watched your matches. When I saw you lose your arm I thought you were gonna lose but you surprised me when you took down that giant cat." He stated." Im very happy to see that my hidden village has such strong shinobi fighting to protect our great nation." He added with a small smile.

Narutos eyes flickered between the hokage and the the fire lord." Uh... thanks?..sir?" The boy replied sheepishly.

Sarutobi cleared his throat, getting their attention." Anyways naruto. You can go now, just make sure you bring me your written report by the end of tomorrow." He stated with a small smile.

"Of course!" Naruto nodded before giving a small bow to the fire lord." It was an honor  to meet you, my lord." He stated as he stood back up.

Ikemo gave his a small nod and a smile." You as well young man. Have a good day." He stated. Naruto gave him an awkward nod before he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"So that's minatos son huh?" Ikemo questioned softly as he looked at the spot where naruto was just standing.

Sarutobi nodded his head a bit." Yes. Narutos turning out to be a very strong shinobi. Already hes reached the rank of special jonin and I have no doubt that given a few more years, he'll be the one wearing these robes and hat instead of me." He told his long time friend.

Ikemo gave the kage an amused smirk." My my Hiruzen, don't you think youre giving him to much power for such a young age?" He asked curiously." After all, he is only six. And I do hope I don't have to remind you about what your last child prodigy did, do i?"

Sarutobi blanched at that. He didn't need to be reminded of what itachi had done." Naruto would never do what itachi had done. The boy is fiercely loyal to the village and its people and is a strong believer in the will of fire." He told the man." I have no doubt in my mind that naruto could handle any rank I gave him. Hes just like his mother, to stubborn to give up, even if the odds are against him." He added with a proud smile.

Ikemo chuckled lightly. He had been good friends with both minato and kushina, he knew first hand how kushina acted. Minato was smart and strategic while kushina was a strong talented women with an even stronger drive. If she couldn't solve a problem with her own mind then she usually beat said problem into the ground with her fists before walking over said problems corps with a happy smile on her face.

" it seems ill have to keep my eye on young naruto." Ikemo stated." Im very interested in what his future holds for him and this village." He told the kage with a happy nod.

- With naruto 6 hours later-

After getting some rest for a few hours, naruto woke up feeling the need to train a bit. He had gotten up, took a warm shower before getting around and heading out to training ground 7.

Naruto rubbed his hands together." What should I work on today?" He wondered aloud.

"Maybe you could find a kenjutsu teacher already!" Came amayas shout from within his mind." Its been like two and a half weeks already and you still havent found a teacher." She stated with an annoyed huff.

A tick mark popped up on narutos forehead." I don't know anyone that teaches sword skills amaya!" He replied. He calmed down and scratched his cheek sheepishly."anyways, I need to start on learning lightning and earth jutsus ya know. I only have wind, fire and water down and I really wanna get lightning and earth under my belt as well." He explained." I am after all a ninjutsu specialist." He added proudly. 

"Anyways, lets see here.." naruto mumbled as he reached into his back pouch and pulled out a small notebook. Flipping through a few pages he found what he was looking for." First level in lightning control is to use ones chakra to creat a small line of lightning leading from on palm to the other."  He read the books instructions before putting the book away and sitting crosslegged on the grass.

Getting comfortable and lifting both hands so his palms were facing each other and put about two inches of distance between them." Alright, lets do this." He mumbled out before he began to focus on his chakra.

- With Hiruzen-

The old kage was sitting behind his desk puffing on his lit pipe while reading the letter his student has just sent him via toad messenger.

' sorry for leaving without telling you or naruto. I got a message from one of my contacts over in the land of rice. Apparently orochimaru had been spotted with itachi, I wanna check this out and see if I can find anything else out.

I don't know how long ill be gone. These leads could take a few years to fallow up on, tell naruto to keep his training up. Ill also keep you in the loop about what I found.

See ya soon sensei.'

Sarutobi finished reading the letter before sending a bit of fire chakra into the paper. He let it go and the paper burnt to ashes, said ashes fell into the trash can next to his desk.

He looked blankly at his office door, seemingly lost in thought. Orochimaru was a loner. He worked alone, its how he prefers operate, unless he needed spies or what not.

What could the snake be up to and why is itachi with him? Dealing with just orochimaru would be difficult, now add a shinobi of itachis caliber and that duo could easily deal a lot of damage to any shinobi village. The thought of those two working against his village made him shiver a bit.

He was brought out of his thoughts as kakashi appeared in front of his desk. The silver haired shinobi was dressed in his usual anbu clothing with his dog mask firmly in place of her face.

"Hokage-sama." Kakashi greeted as his moved his mask to the side of his head, exposing his half masked face. He had his left eye closed in order to hide his implanted sharingan.

Hiruzen gave him a small nod." What can I help you with kakashi?" He questioned curiously.

Kakashi sighed a bit and brought out a rolled up scroll from his kunai pouch and handed it to his leader." The commander really wants him." He stated.

Sarutobi red through the scroll while blowing a bit of smoke out of his mouth. The scroll was from his anbu commander dragon. Said commander wanted permission to asked naruto to join anbu.

The elder leader closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Did he want naruto to join anbu? Anbu was a hard rank to deal with.

The anbu commander usually scouted out hopeful shinobi from chunin rank and up. If one did join anbu then theyed have to pass several tests in order to make sure that if they were captured they wouldn't tell the enemy any village secrets. Going as far as to teach anbu members a suicide jutsu that would ignite their bodies into flames and continuously burn until there was nothing except ashes left.

He sighed and closed his eyes. Naruto was only six and yet the boy was already a strong shinobi. He wanted to argue and say that he wanted naruto to have a normal childhood, but that excuse was made void when the blond had begged him to allow him to enter the shinobi academy when he was four. He knew that this was up to naruto and naruto alone.

He looked up at kakashi and gave him a slow nod." Talk to naruto, if he wants to join then I will not stop him." Sarutobi stated quietly.

Kakashi nodded his head." If he agrees ill make sure hes on my squad." The silver haired anbu stated." If dragon tries to argue with me about it than ill expect you to step in?" He asked.

Sarutobi nodded." I want you to be his captain. Youre his fathers student, its only right for you to be the one to look after him." The kage stated.

Kakashi gave him an eye smile before putting his dog mask back in place before giving him a nod." Ill go find him now."

"Tell him that jirayas away on a mission. It might be a few years before hes back in the village." Hiruzen instructed.

"Yes sir." With a lazy salute the dog masked anbu vanished in a cloud of smoke.

-with kakashi, 30 minutes later-

It took a bit to find the blond. Kakashi expected naruto to be either at his apartment or the hyuga clan compound, but after searching those to places he figured the boy would be out training.

Appearing in training ground 7, kakashi took his anbu mask off and clipped it to his waist. He saw naruto sitting in front of three wooden posts with his back to the man.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he saw a small flash of light and the blond seemingly jolt a bit with a small yelp.

Walking up to the boy and looking over his shoulder he saw what the boy was doing. Small flickers of lightning were shooting between the boys hands.

"Whatcha doing?" He asked innocently.

Naruto yelped out in shock and fell forward, right on his face. A second later naruto was standing up and pointing a finger at kakashi, and irked look on his masked face.

"What the hell kakshi!?!" The blond shouted out." You scared the hell out of me."

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders with an amused look on his masked face." Shouldn't someone of your rank be able to sense when people are around you?" The silver haired man jabbed.

"Im gonna pretend I didn't hear that." Naruto stated with a closed eye nod." And anyways, to answer your question. Im attempting to train my lightning element." Naruto explained." So far I keep shocking myself." He added sheepishly.

Kakashi chuckled a bit." Maybe I can help you with it later?" He suggested." Anyways I have two things to tell you."

Naruto motioned for him to continue." One, jiraya-sama had to leave the village. He had a mission he needed to fo and said that it might take a few years to complete." Kakashi informed him.

"That pervert didn't even say bye." Naruto huffed and crossed his arms.

Kakashi ignored the comment and continued." The second thing is this." He gained a serious look in his only opened eye. Naruto stood a bit straighter." The anbu commander is asking you to join our ranks."

Naruto sputtered a bit in shock." W-what?" He asked out in shock." Why would the commander want me in anbu? Im still a kid." The boy stated.

Kakashi nodded his head at that." Commander dragon doesn't care about age. He cares about skill and apparently he thinks you got what it takes to join anbu." The man replied. He let out a sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose." Anbus a hard way of life naruto. Once your in, your in. Even if you retire you wont be out of anbu." He explained." But if you do say yes and join, both hokage-sama and I will make sure youre put into my squad." He added.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck." This is a lot to take in all at once." He stated." Can I have a day or two to think about it?" He questioned.

Kakashi gave him a small nod." You have two days to think about it. When you have your answer meet me here at sundown." Kakashi stated.

Naruto nodded in acceptance and silently watched as kakashi put his dog mask back on and vanished from the clearing. 

Naruto sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked towards the sun for a moment before walking away from the clearing. He needed to sit down and think about what he wanted to do now.

-2 days later-

Naruto was sitting on top of a wooden post located in training ground seven, his legs dangling down while he stared at the setting sun. He had spent the last two days thinking deeply about this.

He had just been promoted to special jonin almost three months ago. Was he ready to move on to anbu?

He had to think about the pros and the cons of joining the elite group of shinobi. If he did join hed be able to go on higher ranked missions, have access to a larger jutsu library and hed be able to know about some village secrets due to having a higher clearance level. Hed also be able to get stronger in order to protect the village and his precious people.

But at the same time hed be doing more missions and he wouldn't have as much time to hang out with his precious people and friends. He could be sent on missions that could take months to complete.

Naruto closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh as the suns rays bathed him in its golden rays. There was a small breeze from behind him and he didn't need to turn around to know that kakashi was standing on the ground behind him. 

The two stayed silent for a few minutes before kakashi spoke up." So, whats your answer?" Kakashi asked softly.

Kakashi watched naruto jump down from the wooden post and land in front of him. The small blond looked up at him with those ringed eyes.

"Ill join, but when you leave, I leave." Naruto stated firmly.

Kakashi stared down at the boy through his dog mask." Are you sure naruto?" He asked sternly.

Naruto nodded his head." Ill be able to grow stronger in order to protect all my loved ones." The blond stated." I wanna become as strong as possible kakashi.."

Kakashi rolled up his left sleeve and laid his finger on a small storage seal that was on his forearm. A poof of smoke later and kakashi was holding a plain white porcelain mask that had the leaf symbol in dark red on its forehead.

Holding it out to naruto kakashi once again spoke." When you put this mask on, I wont be kakashi, I wont be your friend. Until your anbu trials are over, im simply dog. Your captain and senior officer." He told the boy with a hard tone." Do you understand?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto silently took the mask and looked at it. He ran his hand over the mask before gripping onto his and putting it over his face. He felt the mask stick in place do to the small seal that was on the inside of the mask.

Letting his hand fall to his side, the blond looked up at kakashi." Yes, I understand.. captain."