He was waiting again. He'd watched teams coming and going from the room with all the awareness a rabbit did just before a hawk turned it from a fluffy herbivore into a meal.
He mentally ticked off the number of kills he could have made in the time between the first team coming in and the latest one.
Ignoring consequences like the Hokage being in the room, adding on inaccuracies he could incur if he were to lose concentration or fall asleep, and assuming nobody noticed the rapidly rising body count in the room, he estimated maybe 50 or so. Maybe more if he was lucky.
Still, he was glad he had mastered a state of half alertness that allowed him to get some rest whilst he waited. It wasn't sleep, it wasn't being fully awake. It was a sort of magic in-between zone that could tide him over until he needed to properly sleep.
It was still enough for him to quickly get away if he needed to. If he was found in the first place. All he needed to do was hold his various hiding genjutsu up. The air around him was laced with a lot of his chakra.
In any case, he was now carefully watching a conversation he hadn't expected to see.
The Hokage was talking, respectfully and normal to a pug dog that was sitting on his desk. Wearing a vest. Speaking plain English. With a headband.
He knew summoning animals existed, and knew that these must be the nin dogs of Hatake Kakashi. He had decided to further research the first person who had genuinely found him when he was hiding. He found himself impressed by the man's work.
He was still fascinated. At least the bits of him that weren't working out how easily the dogs could find him or if he could kill them were. There was only a 3.7% chance, and he decided to ignore the possibility.
He could read the Hokage's lips easily, but the dog's voice was muffled and with its back turned, he could only see half the conversation. He wondered if there was a jutsu he could use to hear at a distance. That would be useful.
"The Demon Brothers? No doubt he took care of that."
There was gruff, bark like voice of the dog.
"Continuing with the mission after the genin requested to. Brave. But stupid. I'll chat to him about that later."
More talking. It sounded urgent.
"I would send backup, but there isn't a team to send right now. I mean, I could but will it be necessary?"
The dog's head tilted.
"What do I mean I could? Well let me look above and see if anything reveals itself to me."
He looked up into the air and blew a smoke ring upwards in a lazy, satisfied manner. To the dog on the table, it was a gesture that was confusing, smug and utterly unexpected.
Naruto read the way it was said, the body language and the words.
He had a choice to go as backup on a mission that would be potentially dangerous. He was being asked if he wanted it.
He dropped from where he was lying on a rafter neatly down behind the dog, which turned and looked him over.
"He's a little short Hokage-sama, is he a genin?"
"No Pakkun, he's a special case. He's your team's backup, tell Kakashi Naruto will be shadowing the mission as backup. Shadowing mind, he'll act as he sees fit."
Pakkun gave him a closer examination. He looked intently at his outfit and gear, he took in the headband, he sniffed him and recoiled with a disgusted, gruff whimper.
"When was the last time you washed?"
Naruto considered.
"A week ago? I don't really keep track of these things."
"You smell like the forest."
"Considering how much time I've spent shadowing teams in forests, it helps avoid detection."
"What on earth are you?"
"An assassin."
The dog looked at Hiruzen with an incredulous expression on its pug features.
"Seriously?"
He nodded.
"No. Seriously? He's the real deal?"
"Pretty much."
The dog looked at Naruto one final time.
"Right, you better get going towards Wave country. I'll de-summon to report back to Kakashi, and I might see you out there."
Naruto was up and onto the rooftops in seconds.
Pakkun turned back to face the Hokage.
"I really hope you you're right about this kid. He scares me. Too quiet. He's not normal."
"He isn't."
The dog shook its head and vanished in a puff of smoke.
As he bounced from tree to tree, Naruto realised that he was feeling more...alive than he had for awhile.
He had no idea what the feeling was, but he was feeling it and it was pleasant. More than pleasant.
The wind going through his hair, pushing his hood back, his mind focused on moving tree to tree and readiness to unleash his bow on his targets.
Byakugan active, he sped forwards.
Then suddenly something was blocking his vision. The mist had chakra in it. That was interesting. He slowed to prepare a strategy.
Going into the mist would be suicide, if someone was generating a chakra mist whilst attacking the team; it was likely they were going to be quite powerful. And more than likely they would know if he did go into the mist.
He moved round the edge of the mist, crossbow held loaded in his hands. His Byakugan vision swam in front of him as he watched both real and greyscale worlds at the same time. He traced the edge, looking for anything.
He found something.
Another figure, masked, sitting on a tree branch, waiting tensely just inside the mist, head twitching as it followed the movement of the fighting below.
He aimed the bow, looking to pierce the neck just under the mask. A gust of wind made the mist gently whisp around his leg, only the slightest of touches. But it was a touch nonetheless.
The figure looked round, seemingly able to sense what was happening in the mist and was just able to avoid the bolt as it sizzled past.
By then Naruto was gone, hiding in the shadows his genjutsu cast. But his assailant had some control over the mist and was flooding the area he was in.
Naruto made a shadow clone and backed off before the mist could reach his position.
He moved back and around, keeping to cover, his cloak blending with the world around him perfectly. He heard the twang as his clone fired its bow, and then saw the smoke and gained the memories of the clone.
'Senbon. Well aimed too. They are very quick.'
He silently cursed the fact the encroaching mist that was expanding to cover the ninja's back. Given their reaction time for the first shot, they'd be watching themselves even more carefully.
Oh well, he had alternatives.
He snuck closer, keeping away from the mist just in case it pushed forwards a bit further until he had sight of the ninja. From somewhere in the mist there was a sound like a tidal wave smashing into the ground and the ninja prepared to move. Naruto made another clone and got it into position, the plan the same as the originals.
He began to form hand signs, the jutsu being prepared as fast as he could. He hadn't had much time to practise it since he'd seen it for the first time, but Kurenai had performed it in full view of him and his memory was good.
Just as he hit the final hand sign as the clone fired at the figure. As expected, they whipped round to find the source of the attack, senbon needles held in one hand.
He unleashed the genjutsu, hopeful that it would work even without that much practise and formed ad hoc.
The figure froze and cried out in pain. The clone rushed forwards, dropping the bow and drawing the tanto blade of its back to go in for the kill whilst the original focused on maintaining the genjutsu.
Naruto grimaced as he continued to try and flood his targets mind with terrible ways to die. It was difficult to explain exactly how a genjutsu like this worked, or even how the chakra transfer involved worked properly, but it was like trying to control a puppet from a long distance. His target was fighting the genjutsu.
The clone thrust forward straight for the target's heart as it clapped its hands together.
"Kai!"
Naruto felt the genjutsu break and panted from the excursion. The strike from the tanto slammed into the ninja's clapped hands, going between both but not into the chest. The ninja kicked out fast and knocked the clone away before disappearing deeper into the mist. A crossbow bolt from the original sailed through where they had been and thudded into a tree.
A few moments later, and the mist began to recede. At least the chakra within it did.
Naruto dispelled the clone as he caught his breath. That was far too much like the way other shinobi fought. He had failed to get his kill.
He made a note to re-evaluate the action in his head. Right now, he was on a mission. That came first.
He activated the Byakugan from the undergrowth where the ninja had been.
He recognised the team as the one who had been his first mission. Kakashi was down, and with the Byakugan he could see that his chakra levels were down and that he was unconscious.
His mind blitzed through the options. Kakashi was alive, but heavily exerted. His foe had disappeared when the crash of water had happened, so presumably Kakashi had won his fight. Any foe capable of exhausting him was probably powerful, but alone. That made it unlikely any more attacks were coming. They were close enough to wave country to ensure that.
All of that boiled down to a few simple objectives for Naruto.
'1) Stay hidden and shadow the team
2) Kill any further threats without any kind of delay, taking charge of the mission if need be
3) Report to Kakashi with information when convenient.'
He took to the trees and followed the team as they made their way to the Wave village.
The next day
...
I'm on p@treon too, just copy the link and replace '@' with 'a'.
Read advance chapters on p@treon
[email protected]/guilty_greed