The Blond Shinobi- Chp- 14 (Patreon)

It took him quite some time to find the hideout; it was hidden around the outskirts of the Wave Country town. The location was nothing special, but he knew there were quite a few seals guarding the premises.

Torune entered the compound but dared not enter the house itself, moving with the near-perfect silent steps as required of a Root operative. He located a secluded spot just near the main gate.

He took out the invitation scroll, written in Danzō-sama's unmistakable hand, and placed it on the gate, knocking on the wood quickly.

Without pausing, he moved toward the nearest tree, climbing it like a monkey, concealing his chakra signature the instant he found the right spot to observe.

He melted into the brown trunk of the tree, invisible to the naked eye, allowing his chakra to blend with the natural ambient energy of the area.

His senses remained alert though, focused entirely on the gate, waiting for the target to appear.

It took only moments.

A soft, scraping sound, and Uchiha Sasuke walked out of the door, his eyes alert as they darted around. He had gray hairs, not the black Danzō-sama had described. He was alone.

Sasuke stopped as his foot touched the scroll, his dark eyes instantly locking onto it. His metallic right hand twitched slightly as he approached it, suspicion radiating from the frown on his face.

He didn't touch it immediately; instead, he studied the object, his face a mask of cold calculation. He looked around again.

Torune watched, knowing this was the important juncture. The Uchiha finally snatched the scroll.

"So, you're telling me there was nothing there?" Tsunade asked, her voice making it clear she didn't believe him.

"The Information Center and the Bounty Office were clean, Baa-chan," Naruto said.

"I can attest to that, Hokage-sama," Neji said from beside him. Tsunade placed her hand on her desk, rubbing it slightly, clearly pondering something difficult.

"No tapping device? No seals?" she asked again, leaning forward.

"ANBU Hawk checked it thoroughly," Naruto confirmed. "He found no devices in the computers or their wiring."

Shikaku, who stood to the Hokage's left, frowned. "Well, you must have missed something, Naruto-san. There was an infiltration around that region, and the area is pretty isolated except for those two centers. Not even a tourist village is nearby."

"Infiltration by whom?" Naruto asked, pressing the issue.

"None of your business, that," Tsunade snapped, cutting off his inquiry. "Report your findings by morning. Dismissed." It was a simple order: a written report by tomorrow morning.

Naruto nodded, still frowning, and walked out of the Hokage chamber.

He exited the Hokage chamber, planning to go home, take a shower, and then laze around. Or maybe work on a few Fūinjutsu scrolls.

But as he walked out of the office, he found Shikamaru standing along the wall, leaning back against the cool wood.

As Naruto walked forward, Shika pushed off the wall and joined him.

"Hey," Naruto said as a way of greeting.

"Hey," Shikamaru returned with a familiar, easy grin. "Done with the mission?"

Naruto nodded, sighing dramatically. "It was tiring, honestly. We traveled all that way, and found nothing. Not even a trace."

Shikamaru frowned, his expression immediately turning serious. "Nothing at all?"

Naruto shook his head. "Neji checked the perimeter with his Byakugan, Hawk checked the electronics, and I swept the whole place twice with my best seals. Nada. It seems they infiltrated for sightseeing," he joked dryly.

They exited the Hokage Tower and started walking toward Naruto's house.

"How was yours?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Nothing special," Shikamaru said evasively, kicking a pebble on the path. "It's long-term, so it's still too early to say anything conclusive."

Naruto smirked, boyishly. "How is it working with an ANBU? Mine didn't say any word. Not one extra word."

"You got an ANBU assigned?" Shikamaru asked with a sudden frown, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep, me and Neji got one, Hawk. While Genma-san was assigned two," Naruto whispered, leaning in slightly.

Shikamaru glanced quickly around the busy street before nodding, acknowledging the need for discretion. They walked on in silence, the usual noise of the village filling the gap.

Shikamaru's mind was clearly working overtime, analyzing the difference in their team compositions. Tsunade must have been extremely worried about the identity of the target his team was watching to assign three Jōnin, two of whom were ANBU veterans, to the detail.

Finally, they reached the crossing that would lead Shikamaru to the Nara Clan Compound. "I'll catch you later, Naruto," Shikamaru said, still contemplative.

"See ya," Naruto replied.

Meanwhile, the blond walked the final stretch to his own house, completely oblivious to the fact that a set of watchful eyes—those that hadn't dispersed from the initial summoning—were still following him.

The next morning, Shikamaru was recalled to the Hokage Tower; his long-term mission was put on hiatus for now. He was given a new mission.

Standing in the office were Jiraiya-sama, Hokage-sama, and his father, Shikaku. Beside him were the two Eternal Gate Guards, Kotetsu and Izumo, and Asuma-sensei.

"You've worked together as a team for the past few years of your shinobi career, first as a Genin team and then as a Jōnin unit," Tsunade-sama said, clearly pointing to Asuma-sensei.

While sending two Jōnin and two Chūnin on a high-stakes mission was not a standard procedure, their years together had formed a bond—a kinship. They were used to working together better than any randomly assembled team of three Jōnin.

"This is a high-ranked mission," the Hokage said with all seriousness. "Jiraiya has found that Hidan and Kakuzu of Akatsuki have entered the Land of Fire, and they seem to be fixated on the Fire Temple."

Shikamaru frowned. "Why the Fire Temple, Lady Hokage?"

"We don't know fully, but they were sighted around it quite a few times," she said. "You are to track them and possibly bring them back to extract information."

Asuma nodded. "We'll try our best, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade-sama nodded. "Good, Asuma, you are to lead them. Be quick; I want those bastards caught as quickly as possible."

"If not, then you are to escort a monk named Sora back to the village, as he is a person of interest." She added.

As they exited the Hokage chamber, Asuma turned toward them. "Pack light, and report to me at the village gate in the next thirty minutes."

Shikamaru, Izumo, and Kotetsu nodded, before running off.

Naruto was seated in his living room, a weapon inscribing tool in hand and a war hammer in his lap. The latter was given to him by Kenji Higarashi, his new project.

He had been quite punctual with his inscribed weapons to Kenji, and the man had been equally punctual with his kunai and other supplies.

Kenji was even ready to supply him with high-quality Fūinjutsu paper, and that seemed like a great prospect for Naruto, as he went through enormous amounts of sealing materials.

He was also giving regular, commercial-grade seals to the weaponsmith and had seen his seals being utilized a few times; their demand was high too.

Naruto knew Higarashi was genuinely thankful to him for the quality and reliability of his work.

His own thorough study of his father's diary was complete. He had read the journal from cover to cover by now, picking up every last detail.

He had quite a few new jutsu in mind to master and a vast array of intricate seals he intended to copy and understand. The knowledge contained within those pages was staggering.

The study of his father's with the Rasengan was truly remarkable to read about. His father had been brilliant.

The "generational genius," and the "best shinobi the Leaf had created"—words Naruto had always taken with pride, yet it was only after delving into the practical intricacies of Ninjutsu, Fūinjutsu, and other shinobi arts that he found those words to be profoundly true.

His father was legendary, and nothing made it clearer than his work on the Rasengan. The complexity of forming and maintaining a sphere of raw, unstable chakra without hand seals was genius in itself, but the diary detailed the next, impossible stage.

Before his untimely demise, Minato had been meticulously working on adding nature transformation to the jutsu—integrating elemental affinity. He hadn't just experimented with Wind, which Naruto himself had struggled so hard to master, but also Fire, and whatever other element he had commanded.

The main problem, as his father saw it, was the simultaneous need for absolute control over both the Rasengan's rotational structure and the element's chaotic nature. It was like trying to contain a supernova in a ramen bowl.

Naruto now understood why Minato hadn't fully completed the technique himself. The final integration required not just tremendous chakra control, but also a specific mastery of the element being used.

Reading about his father's struggle gave Naruto a strange sense of kinship with him. He wasn't just completing a technique; he was completing his father's work.

He hummed as he inscribed the last seal on the hammer. Working on weapons, or on Fūinjutsu in general, was genuinely relaxing.

All those months spent frying his brain trying to learn the art were only benefiting him now. It was a day later after his mission to the Information Center, and he was quite enjoying his quiet evening.

The long hammer was now sturdier than ever, thanks to his latest seal. It was now as light as a normal katana when lifted, but it produced the same impact force it would if wielded with its full, original mass—a deceptive, strength-amplifying application of a weight-manipulation seal.

He would need to work on the specifics of the force calculation for a few minutes more.

Additionally, the summoning seal for retrieval should be tattooed onto the wielder's skin for them to properly use the weapon.

He nodded, placed the finished hammer to his right, and stood up, yawning slightly.

He walked to his kitchen, opening the fridge. A fresh pack of tuna, which he had bought earlier today, waited inside.

Fried tuna steaks with soy sauce would be tasty. Nodding to himself, he bent down and retrieved a pan. Lighting the stove, he started the process of cooking dinner.

Hinata and Konohamaru were due to arrive in the early evening for their lesson. They knew he was back and would come to learn by themselves. It was certainly better that he had taken on students who were grown-up enough to be self-motivated.

Dragging someone, especially someone as loud and impulsive as he himself had been as a young boy, to lessons sounded too stressful.

As he looked up, he noticed a brief spark of white light flash near his back window. He narrowed his eyes and discreetly tapped the counter beneath the stove.

His vast chakra instantly entered the sealing network he had woven beneath the counter and throughout his house. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the detection seals around his property spark to life.

They scanned the surrounding area, but they found nothing—no foreign presence, no lingering chakra signature.

Huh—he must have been mistaken then, he thought, dismissing the odd flicker.

Focusing back on his pan of tuna, he turned the steaks to ensure they were grilling nicely, unaware that the fleeting white spark was the Root agent assigned to spy on him, quickly disappearing after confirming his location.