Hiruzen stood in his office as he watched the clock slowly tick towards five. That was the deadline for Jonin sensei to report back to him. It was also the deadline for all other missions to report to him.
So far he had only two appointments outstanding. One was several hours late, and the other was probably waiting somewhere to let all appointments finish.
With five seconds to go before the second hand ticked its way to him being too late, Kakashi walked through the door.
"Sorry I'm late; I walked past the Inuzuka compound on my way here and had to help retrieve a dozen stray dogs."
"Of course you did. Given the time let's skip straight to business Kakashi. Another failure of a team?"
He could have sworn there was a smirk under that mask.
"Pass. Although only just."
"Amazing. Skill evaluation?"
"The Uchiha is the most advanced of them, although that would be expected. The other two are civilian born; they'll have to be taught how to do things properly. They could be good though, if they can gel together properly."
"And the actual skill evaluation?"
"Not while he's in the room unannounced."
"How did you know that?"
"I can see the signs. That and you have a bit of paper on your desk with the words 'They passed' on it."
"He is very good isn't he?"
"He is."
"Come down Naruto."
In the darkest corner of the room, a roof beam was briefly wreathed in smoke and was replaced with Naruto.
"I know you like hiding, but if anyone else had found you you would be dead. ANBU don't take kindly to assassins. Still, a henge and additional shadows. Very neat. Even if they looked at you directly they still might not notice."
Naruto merely shrugged.
"Kakashi?"
"He's good, quiet and elusive. I only really found him by accident and needed the sharingan to confirm it."
"That good?"
"Some issues. He's a little too formulaic. No personal touches, just a basic flowchart approach to stealth. It works, it's a good strategy. But if someone works him out, he'd be in trouble."
"Good. Any comments Naruto?"
Naruto shook his head.
"Any report on your mission?"
"The genin have no stealth skills and are too direct. The sensei is a pervert, based on my research on the book he is reading, who despite appearances is very quick and clever. I'd expect nothing less from his reputation."
"Not all of us are stealth specialists Naruto, my genin teams looks to be more in the roll of an assault group."
That got a shrug.
"Can I go?"
"You are dismissed. I've given you an apartment in the city. Talk to people if you want to. I'll send someone to call for you when I have a mission for you."
Naruto nodded, walked up the wall and headed out to the roofs off Konoha as the sunset began blurring over the sky.
"Not one to mix words is he? He makes you look like a loudmouth Kakashi."
"True enough. What do you have in mind for him long term?"
"Probably ANBU black ops. He needs a little bit more training and to learn more about people. I'm going to have him trail teams when they start doing higher ranked missions, then let him decide where to go."
Kakashi shrugged and made to leave.
"Kakashi."
He turned around.
"You have a difficult team. It's the only team we force, the best and the worst. Be careful with them, and don't bias yourself."
"I'll try Hokage-sama."
A couple of weeks later
Naruto moved through the trees behind the team he was shadowing.
This team was going to be a pain to stay behind. He sniffed himself and made a mental note to properly wash later. The smell was beginning to get up his nose unpleasantly. He would endure it for the mission.
The girl of the team was a Hyuuga. That alone made him wary. When he had received his Byakugan several years before, he had been warned that the clan would likely want to murder him if they saw the eye.
That was because it meant that a main house Hyuuga had had the eyes ripped out of their face whilst they were still alive, preventing the Hyuuga seal from killing off the eyes. That alone made it nearly impossible.
The second was because the Hyuuga fighting style was incredibly well suited to killing people. Juuken strikes, difficult to pull off but deadly if managed, were able to disable a person's body inch by inch.
The fact she would be able to spot him through any genjutsu and see his chakra meant hiding from her was difficult. He had to hope his eyes had better range than hers did and that she didn't spot him.
Usually, he'd just try and stay in the blind spot of the Byakugan, but that too had held difficulties.
One of the group was an Inuzuka, and had a dog with him.
Naruto wasn't a fan of dogs. They were big, they were noisy, and they had a cunning intelligence seemingly tailor made to root out assassins. Like him.
So to avoid being seen, he had had to make himself smell like the forest. Which had involved breaking open some pine cones and daubing the stuff onto his skin. The smell was unpleasant. Although less unpleasant than getting a knife stuck into him. Again.
The final member was an Aburame. That meant bugs. He vaguely recalled meeting one of his former master's high operatives, an Aburame whose name he couldn't recall at that moment. It was an irrelevant detail for now.
Bugs would be attracted to the pine smell, so he had thrown up a small genjutsu to confuse them enough to leave him alone.
Of course, the bugs would be confused enough that there was an apparent blank where should be a tree, but it would take longer for the bug user to work that out. Then he would drop back out of range.
The sensei didn't appear to be a sensor, although he remained suspicious of her. She dressed weirdly. Almost all of the shinobi seemed to have distinctive traits.
The team was taking a scroll to the border with Suna, an ally of Konoha's. Or something like that. He hadn't really paid attention to it. He was just going to follow the team, kill anything he needed to, then get back to the apartment he had been given, for want of a better place to be.
The Root barracks wasn't allowed, now that he was a full shinobi of Konoha. He had slung the metal plate across his back, where he could reach it if needed and otherwise completely out of the way and where it could give off no reflections. Even if the cloak went, he had dutifully removed the shine from the metal and blackened it to lower the chance of it giving him away.
As far as he was aware, no-one in the block knew he was actually resident in the apartment. He only really moved when they were asleep or it was dark, and was very, very quiet.
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