Chapter 8

Naruto woke up much later, around midnight. He was much more exhausted than he thought. Opening his eyes unhurriedly, he registered the ceiling of his room, blinking the sleepiness away. He was thinking of lazing around in his bed for a couple (or a dozen) more minutes before getting up to do something, but a sudden jolt of information streaked through his mind, making his blue eyes go wide in horror and anger.

Not a breath later, Naruto was crouching at his windowsill, his kimono top loose around his shoulders and open at the front, with his sandals in his hands. At the next blink of an eye, he vanished from his position once more. Making his path towards the Hokage Tower, which was blessedly still lit, the young ninja ran while dressing himself properly.

"Tsunade-baa-chan!" The blond blurred through the window, stopping near the end of the table in the Hokage's office and surprising the buxom woman with the urgency in his voice.

"Naruto! What the…! What is it?!" She screamed, not liking the look in his eyes once she met them.

"We need to help!"

"So you're telling me you left clones all over the Elemental Nations training and looking out for information, and one of them just heard sensitive information about their immediate next move, which is to capture not one, but TWO jinchuuriki, one of which is from an allied shinobi village. Is that ALL?" Tsunade, rubbing her forehead tiredly, said, a hint of sarcasm seeping into her voice.

"Well, pretty much…" Naruto smiled a bit worriedly. 'Tsunade-baa-chan looks like she needs a break…' he couldn't help but think secretly.

"I see. So this is about Takigakure's and Sunagakure's bijuu. Sigh." Tsunade looked at her table, as if the answer to her problems would suddenly jump out of any of the paper stacks around. Needless to say, it didn't, but it did serve to bring the Hokage a measure of calm, which in turn directed her thoughts to what should be done at a time like this.

"Okay… Even though we're not allied with Takigakure, any bijuu in the hands of the Akatsuki is bad news for us, and obviously we have to help Sunagakure. The question is, how should we do both of those and to what degree? Taki and Konoha don't have a direct communication path, so we can't send them word by the Messenger Birds… Suna is getting back on its feet, and I heard the new Kazekage is plenty powerful, but… Hmmm…"

Tsunade was mumbling under her breath, but Naruto's hearing captured all of that accurately. He didn't interrupt, however, but had his own thoughts on the matter. He certainly wasn't going to let these two things be; he was ready to be in the middle of the action, especially where Akatsuki was concerned.

On the other hand, sending a jinchuuriki to deal with top S-Class nukenin on a mission to capture jinchuuriki in the first place was simply illogical. But Tsunade should know Naruto never played by the book by now; rules were meant to be pushed, as far as he was concerned. So long as it was to help a friend or Konoha, it was just fine with him to break a few.

"Okay. ANBU!" A shout rang through the building, and suddenly a platoon of six shinobi garbed with masks and long capes showed themselves. Most of them were standing on the roof just outside the window, but two were inside the room, one at each side of Naruto.

"Hokage-sama!"

"Go and grab me Team Guy, Kakashi, and Sakura. Also, get Team Ro's Captain here; I need him ready for a mission."

"Hai!" And they were gone, each of them hopping away over buildings in different directions. Naruto always thought how incredible it was that ANBU operatives, without fail, seemed to know just where every single shinobi lived or was. Even if they studied the personal archives of each individual ninja in the village, they just never forgot.

"What about me, baa-chan?" Naruto warily asked, his eyes smoldering seriously.

"I know what you want… Just wait there for a minute." Tsunade shook her head, aware of just how restless Naruto seemed to get moving already.

But Naruto showed his maturity and nodded, walking to the wall to the side of the room and resting his back against it, closing his eyes in concentration. The chakra inside him was already raging in agitation, anticipating a fight, even though he knew for a fact that, by the information from his Kage Bunshin, Akatsuki's two targets were still safe for a couple of days.

Around five minutes later, the first arrival came. It was, in fact, another ANBU, with a cat mask and wearing ANBU clothing without the cape, a sword strapped to his back, his shoulders tense. Naruto observed the man attentively, feeling through his mastery of the Sage Arts that this shinobi felt completely different from any other he had ever sensed. He kept his mouth shut, knowing that unique people were in abundance in this world, especially where ninjas were concerned.

"Hokage-sama!" A voice with little to no inflection called, as the man took a knee in front of her table, waiting for orders.

"Good. Cat, you are being relieved from your current assignments effective immediately." Extending a few pages of paper that she had been working on for the past few minutes to the man, she continued. "These are your next assignments. You're going to be taking the codename 'Yamato' and will be incorporated as a Jonin in the Regular Shinobi Corps."

The man paused for a whole minute, papers in hand, looking down at them. It was impossible to be sure, but he seemed to be contemplating something, even though his orders were clear. Naruto could feel the man was actually observing him, probably thinking why the Hokage would blow his cover in front of the young man, even if she did give him a codename. Knowing his face and knowing he was ANBU was already more information than the ANBU forces would deem appropriate.

But after that little pause, the man nodded, either to himself or to the Hokage, and brought his hand to the mask, removing it and showing inexpressive black, almond-shaped eyes, a relatively young face with regular features, under short, spiky brown hair. The man didn't spare a glance at the blond young ninja to the side and just walked to stand near the shadow of the corner of the room.

Tsunade shook her head, exasperated with how the man seemed to be slightly drawn to the dark. 'If you walk near the shadows for too long, you begin to feel too at home with them,' she remembered her Sensei telling her, though at the time he was referring to a much more metaphorical meaning.

The next second, her thoughts were pulled from her musings by a knock on the door. Barking an 'Enter!', she was graced by the presence of Guy's whole team, complete with sleepy but wary Tenten, alert Neji, and positively giddy Lee.

"Team Guy, we have an emergency that I'll need your team to handle. Come forth." Tsunade commanded.

At first, none of the four had noticed the silent person standing at the side, nor the former ANBU at the corner. But once they stepped further into the room, the blond made himself known by moving away from the wall, smiling at people he felt were his friends and comrades.

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