Anko glanced over the various assembled people, mostly jonin, the Hokage, and finished up her account of the events of the previous night. "-he showed precision chakra control, extremely high reserves and recovery, and his actions when everything went to pot demonstrated that his priorities were correct. Really, the kid has some serious promise that fits who I now know to be his father."
"So Uzumaki has been researching jutsu and training hard," mused one of the clan elders who had a daughter who'd gotten involved in all this.
"And is the Yondaime's son," said another clan elder.
"This is all highly classified," said the Third Hokage. "He might know, and you might know, but if word got back to the Stone Village - they would likely send assassins out in numbers based on their hatred of Minato Namikaze and his successes in the war."
"We hear you," grumped one of the clan heads. "So what do you want US to do, other than keep quiet about it?"
"Naruto and Anko will both receive punishment duties for having endangered so many people," said the Third Hokage, knowing that no one - least of all Naruto - had actually INTENDED harm. "I'll need personal assessments as you go along too, Anko. Exactly what ARE your plans after the punishment duties?"
"D-rank missions," said Anko. "Maybe the occasional C-rank. Some additional training, if I can send him by Maito Gai for a few weeks for polishing up his taijutsu - that might do for punishment. He's too hyper for genjutsu but I also want to send him to Yuhi, she's good enough at it maybe she can teach him a decent dispel. If he's up to it, and everything goes as it has - there's the Chuunin Exam in the Sand Village later this year. He's certainly got the chakra and control, but as he doesn't have any team to join with - that might be a problem."
"Sir, on an unrelated issue," said the Nara head, "what of Itachi?"
"What about him?" asked the Hokage.
"He's been missing for some time now, and had been under some sort of genjutsu before that," pointed out the Nara. "Has there been any word of his location and condition? There are some pretty disturbing rumors."
"I can't do anything about rumors," said the Hokage. "On the other hand, he seems to be a bit older than the sort of boy Orochimaru likes."
There were a number of shudders and at least one warding gesture as the various jonin and special jonin considered that.
April 15
"Well, this certainly sssssucks," commented Orochimaru.
"Sir?" asked one of the nervous flunkies.
Orochimaru knew he'd been nowhere near Konoha that eventful night. He'd been off trying to collect tissue samples in some crypts. He also knew that having a reputation such that he could claim credit for killing off most of the famous Uchiha clan had some uses. He had people surrendering and backing away from him now that he'd have had to waste valuable time fighting.
The tendency for people to hide their children from him meant that he didn't have to deal with snotty-nosed brats.
He certainly found it difficult to get good service when he was out and about though, because people tended to vanish near him and then get their families and flee out of the city when he wore his real face.
Even a lot of his loyal Oto servants tended to pack up and go running for the horizon if they had the opportunity.
This particular roadside inn, for example. They must have figured out who he was, because as soon as he turned his attention from the staff - all of them had fled out the back and were probably hiding their children somewhere.
Just trying to get the occasional meal out somewhere was becoming as hard as finding hidden jutsu.
"Never mind," grumped Orochimaru. "Just get busy in the kitchen and put out any fires they've left burning."
August 3rd:
"Not that damn cat AGAIN," grumped Naruto Uzumaki.
"Yes, that damn cat. AGAIN," said Anko, who really could relate. She was tired of the damn cat-retrieval missions herself.
"Fine, fine," said Naruto. "I'm not sure I can beat my time on this though. Cat's getting a lot better at avoiding my shadow-clones."
"Just find the damn thing," said Anko Mitarashi. "Then we can get back to the Hokage and try to clear another mission. Maybe he's got something better than cat finding."
"Or weed-pulling, or painting fences, or digging ditches, or irrigating fields," said Naruto, ticking off the most common missions he'd been getting of late.
"Yeah, well," said Anko.
"-or fixing wells, or babysitting kids," continued to gripe Naruto.
Anko twitched at the thought of doing more of these lame missions. It wasn't as if she liked any of this herself!
"-or fixing roofs, or mending fences," continued Naruto.
Out of all of them though, Anko decided, it was the damn cat retrieval missions she hated the most. She was tempted to just have a snake swallow the thing.
"-or delivery service, or road repair," continued Naruto.
"SHADDUP ALREADY!" snapped Anko.
"I've already got my shadow clones sectioning the city, looking for Tora," explained Naruto. "I had a feeling it would be another cat-finding mission. It HAS been two whole days after all. Come on, can't we get something where I can do something a little more interesting?"
"At least you're not having to fix sewage pipes and work the desk in a lingerie store," said Anko.
"It would have worked a lot better if they hadn't had me go straight from one to the other," pointed out Naruto.
"Yeah, tell me about it," said Anko. "Tell you what, I'll see if I can finagle a C-rank out of the old fogie."
"That'd be good," said Naruto guardedly.
"I've asked Yuhi Kurenai to teach you some genjutsu dispelling techniques," said Anko. "Try not to irritate her too much."
She was a quiet little mouse. She'd heard the words of Anko Mitarashi.
She'd heard that. She'd heard more too.
She's my precious friend.
She'd originally started watching him because she'd seen similarities in their situation. She was the useless garbage of her family, unwanted, weak. He was treated like garbage, but unlike herself - he never gave up. It never broke him the way it had crushed her.
She's cute, smart, and nice.
She had wanted the earth to just swallow her up. She'd cursed fate that she'd ever been born. She'd come to know that her life was worthless and that her father had no use for her.
In the future, I know she's going to be an AWESOME kunoichi.
She snapped through one set of forms after another. Precision. Flexibility. Strength.
We'll just start dating when we both make chuunin.
Someone believed in her. Someone cared about her. Someone she liked cared about HER.
She didn't understand how or why, but she would rather die than let Naruto down.
August 5th:
"All right! A mission that doesn't involve cats, sewers, chickens, or potholes?" asked an enthusiastic Naruto.
"Now this is a little more dangerous," said the Third Hokage.
"Hey, I eat 'danger' for breakfast!" enthused Naruto. "You should see some of the training exercises Mitarashi-sensei puts me through! OOF!"
Anko glowered at the kid she'd gotten stuck with as she retracted her elbow.
"Be that as it may," said the Hokage, "this mission will be difficult and clearly will test your abilities."
"ALL RIGHT!" enthused Naruto. "What is it?! Fighting pirates? Escorting a merchant caravan? Rescuing princesses? Beating on bandits? Border patrol? Defeating terrible monsters? Is it the Flying Spaghetti Monster? I'm ready!"
"Yeah, right, fresh meat," grumped Anko. "It's only a 'C' rank mission."
"What this mission consists of," said the Hokage, "is:"
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