Naruto's pov

As we stepped out into the bright morning, we made our way to the training grounds to meet the rest of Team Seven. When we arrived, Sakura and Kakashi were already there, waiting for us.

"Good morning!" Sakura greeted us cheerfully.

She's so much more tolerable than she used to be. I don't know what changed about her over the years, but one day she was just so less irritating and I absolutely love that for her. She still can't have Sasuke, I don't care how much she changes. I heard from Shikamaru about how Sakura was one of the main ones pinning after Sasuke all through the academy years and that's just unacceptable.

Kakashi looked up from his book and nodded. "You're right on time. Ready for today's mission?"

Mito, along with Sakura, nodded with excitement. Whatever this mission would be, I didn't want to do it. I want one of my missions. I'm sick of all this happy go lucky bullshit, I need to be crushing someone's windpipe right now. Kaito wasn't enough, I can still feel myself slipping.

Getting assigned missions was weird now that the twins joined because Sasuke and Sakura, and I guess you could say myself, were all technically chunin, while they were still genin. Therefore the rank of missions assigned were mostly in between ranks for both of us. I think my dad said something about separating our teams when the missions were B or sometimes C-ranked. The one from yesterday was supposedly a C-rank but in actuality, for a normal shinobi and not myself, was about a B or even an A.

My missions on the other hand were higher than all of these: S-ranked missions which paid at a minimum of a million ryō*. It makes sense as to why I'd want those, no?? And then I know you're probably wondering: Naruto, you live at home with your family, where the fuck is all the money?

Don't worry about it. It's somewhere very safe and very secret, all my millions of ryō's. Someone had to buy Sasuke everything he looked at, and that someone was me. It's not like the money was hard to earn nor was it being spent elsewhere so I chose, am choosing to, dedicate it all to my love whether he wants it or not. The missions were mostly assassinations, giving people classified documents, and bullshit like that, easy money.

*MAYBE 15k USD AT THE LOWEST idkk a bunch of things were telling me different things so I just went with this! It didn't say a max amount but js assume a lot or something😭

Normally, suppressing ninja forces such as rebellions and things like underground rings were A-ranked, but because the terrorists were kamikaze losers as well as the poison they used, he promoted the mission to S-ranked for the safety of the other shinobi.

A lot of the shinobi who were around from back in the day were all kamikaze diehard ninjas as well, putting the mission over themselves, and there were majority of the ANBU who were as well, me somewhat included. I decided that if I was ever in a position where I was life or death, I would give my body entirely over to Kurama and let him handle it. Whatever happens after that happens.

While Sasuke was still talking to me a good amount, he was mostly involved in a conversation with the rest of them so I followed at the end of the group, talking to Kurama.

"Why isn't Sasuke talking to you?" He's been gone the past week doing God knows what. He was still in the village— he can't leave it without my permission— I just didn't know where. He's been acting really suspicious though.

'He's just being himself. I don't know if you know this, but I beat up the guy he made out with.' Kurama sucked his teeth, "Without me??" You weren't there and it was an in-the-moment kind of thing.

Our conversation lasted a while longer, just talking about random things, when I felt someone's eyes on us. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked around. No one. I smiled to myself a little, ideas about what it could be spawning in my head. The mission itself was relatively easy, going to a nearby village to bring back and guard a caravan, so no one should be here. Unless...

The main reason shinobi are assigned these missions are because of thieves and bandits, so maybe the person in the forest following us was looking to score some goods. I really hope it's one of those. But wait, if we get robbed, my dad's gonna be upset and probably think we have bad luck and is going to have us stuck baby sitting. I can't have that.

I quickly summoned a shadow clone and disappeared in the same instant. From the forest I watched as Kakashi turned around to look at my clone, narrowing his eyes. He probably felt the extra chakra, damn Kakashi. It's crazy how he can sense that but not the shadow that's been following us for almost ten minutes.

I on the other hand, climbed a nearby tree, masking my chakra and stilling my breathing. Who the fuck has the courage to tail not one or two, but all of the Hokage's kids? They don't know about me or anything, but regardless, I think that is truly a stupid idea.

"What if it's Kaito stalking Sasuke?" Fucking Kurama. He might be right. I swear to fucking god it better not be Kaito. The balls he would have to have on him to be following us after I beat his ass like that would have to be the size of watermelons and made of titanium steel.

But the problem is, I don't give a fuck if they were made of blood diamonds, I'm still going to chop them off and shove them up his ass for pursuing Sasuke like this. Fucking prick ass bitch. Ugh, I hate him. I really hope it is just so I can snap his neck and drag him far into these woods so he can rot away by himself where no one will ever find him.

My group was a ways ahead of where I was positioned, and I could feel the shadow creeping closer. When they were in my range of sight, I noticed they were wearing a mask and a hoodie, similar to a fucking thief. So no Kaito, fucking hell.

When they passed my tree, I silently dropped down, grabbing a kunai from my belt; it felt strange in my hand but memorable nonetheless.

I inched closer, my steps silent, my eyes fixed on the figure. The person was completely focused on my group, oblivious to my approach. It makes it so much more fun when they notice me, but it's still cool when they don't. With a swift movement, I pulled their head against my chest, pressing the kunai against their neck, feeling them freeze in place.

"Who the hell are you?" I hissed, applying a little pressure to the blade.

The figure stiffened, and then slowly raised their hands in a gesture of surrender. I noticed a familiar set of scars on their wrist and hand, lines going from one side to the next, diagonally crossing over each other as well. If I was correct, they'd be on the other side, twice as bad as well.

I let go a little, using my other hand to remove the hood. Dark black hair similar to Sasuke's. I turned and pressed him against a tree, kunai still sharp on his throat, I stared at him. Eyes just as black as Sasuke's. I removed his mask and sighed. Nothing like my Sasuke. Even so, I recognized the bastard.

"Sai?" I breathed out, lowering my weapon hesitantly. The pale face, the dark hair, the timid eyes—there was no mistake. This was Sai. I saved him from this weird old guy when we were younger and he's been kinda sticking around with me since. If I remember correctly he's like almost a year older than me. We were never truly friends and I saved him before I became an ANBU, I just found him one day and realized what was going on so I ran away with him into the Forest of Death.

Once the old guy realized he was taken by the son of the Hokage, he left him alone for the most part. To my recollection, he was involved in some shady ass business my dad had me put a stop to after my first year of being an ANBU.

He didn't know about my other job, and it's been a while since I last seen him, I'd usually check in with him every now and again, just to make sure he was okay. He creeped me out though, so I never told him I was checking on him. Maybe that was a bad thing because he started relying on books to solve all his problems and now he's a robotic guy which makes him creepier.

Don't get me wrong, we've had conversations, and I guess if needed I could consider him my friend, but not out of my own free will. If he sees me he'll invite me over and want to talk and everything and I feel bad saying no so I agree. He's not all bad though, he minds his business for the most part, so I guess he's okay enough.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, my voice still hard but less hostile now that I knew it wasn't someone I could kill. "And why are you sneaking around like this?"

Sai lowered his hands, his eyes darting nervously. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I got back from a longer term mission today and Hokage-sama assigned me to your siblings' team and told me to catch up and regroup with you guys... I was going to talk to you all, but it was awkward approaching you guys like that, and I didn't know anyone but you, and I didn't want it to be weird so I figured I'd just wait to do it conveniently..."

I stared at him, processing his words. Sai had always been quiet and reserved, but this was a new level of avoidance. This is the reason I tend to steer clear of him. Also because he can't read social cues to save his life. He's shy at first, but he's unbelievably blunt, blurts things out all the time, and can't take a hint for shit.

"You're supposed to be part of the team," I said slowly, trying to understand. "Why didn't my dad wait until we got back?" I asked myself more than him. My dad is so confusing. Why didn't he just tell me that Sai was joining and all this could've been avoided.

Sai didn't know I knew, but he was also an ANBU, just one of the lower levels. He only started a year or two ago and I instantly recognized it was him when I first seen him awkwardly standing in the background with a book tucked away in his cloak.

"He said something about team bonding," Sai mumbled. Of fucking course he did, it's my dad for crying out loud, and it's also probably because he'd feel better if there were a bunch of ANBU guarding his kids as well.

Three ANBU on one team, just call us the fucking three musketeers at this point. I hate working with other ANBU. I don't care if this isn't ANBU work, I still hate it. Besides, why the fuck are there six students with one sensei, make it make sense.

Wait...

Don't fucking tell me we're going to get another sensei. Watch, he's going to conveniently be another ANBU as well. How does no one see what my dad's doing?? How are they letting this man continue to be Hokage if he's puppy guarding his youngest children with a team full of ANBU? Me and him are definitely going to have a serious talk about this.

"Okay, well, it's inconvenient if you just show up, they'll probably think you're lying. Especially after what happened yesterday, yeah, no, everyone's still on edge. Just meet up with us in the village and I'll coincidentally recognize you and then you recognize me and then you show us your documents."

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and I paused. "Sai, you have documents, right??"

He averted his eyes and I internally groaned, there's no fucking way. "You came to join in the middle of a mission without any official documents that you're supposed to be on this team?? Did my dad even give you any or what, did you just forget them? You better not have fucking lost them, Sai."

"He didn't give them to me. He said you'd handle it..."

He what?? What the fuck, Minato, who do you think you are?? I'll handle it? Ugh!! I'm taking a mission. I'm actually starting to lose my mind, I can feel it.

"Okay, yeah, whatever, I'll just bring up how he was telling me about it. Push comes to shove, Kakashi might just keep you on standby until we get to talk to the Hokage. Just... follow us and don't do anything stupid, please."

He smiled and gave me two thumbs up to which I rolled my eyes at. I swapped places with my clone, leaving the old one standing with Sai before I dispersed it. Once again, Kakashi turned around to look at me, narrowing his eye when he saw my eyes on Sasuke and my hands in my pockets.

You're never gonna catch me doing shit, Kakashi.

He turned back around and scratched his neck.

Not too long after, I felt those same pair of eyes and sighed. I really want to take a mission. I can't do this.

Tbcccc