Naruto and its characters were created by Masashi Kishimoto. This is fan fiction.

Author's Note: This story is a direct sequel to my other story The Vulpine Rabbit and begins where Shippuden does. If this story interests you, really should read The Vulpine Rabbit first.

This story features fem!Naruto, confident!Hinata, and non-jerk(mostly)!Sasuke as Team Seven. Naruto is the transmigrant of Kaguya instead of Asura. Due to an accident involving Zetsu directly after the Mizuki incident, Naruto looks like Kaguya with whisker marks and non-mutilated eyebrows. She also has the Byakugan, Rinne-Sharingan, and Shikotsumyaku bloodlines, but the only one she's mastered is the Byakugan. Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke have apprenticed under Tsunade, Anko, and Jiraiya, respectively, in order to make themselves into a new version of the Sannin.

The title does not imply actual godhood for Naruto (although she will be quite powerful by the time this is over).

Sixteen-year-old Uzumaki Naruto gave a pleased sigh as she tossed the last of the Hokage's paperwork into a pile. A not-insignificant portion of her time as the Hokage's apprentice involved acting as her administrative assistant. She had complained about it at first, but Shizune, the Hokage's former apprentice, had pointed out that it was good training for being Hokage herself and she had let it go. She absently formed several Shadow Clones. Most of them took piles to the various shinobi departments and one took the return-to-sender pile to the Hokage's actual secretary. She smiled as she took two piles herself: one two drop on the Hokage's desk and one to take up to the roof of the Hokage Tower.

The Hokage, Senju Tsunade, was asleep at her desk. Naruto shook her head. She would wake her when she came down again. On paper, the Hokage was very busy as the leader of the village and the head of the shinobi hospital. In actual practice, her former and current apprentices and Shizune's apprentice, Haruno Sakaura—Tsunade's unofficial second apprentice, ran the hospital, and Shizune and Naruto over a lot of the burden of being Hokage. She placed the pile of papers on her master's desk and went to the staircase that led up.

At the top of the tower she used a weak Fire Release Technique to perform her favorite ritual of the day, the burning of the paperwork that did not even merit being returned to sender. She always burned the pile in view of the village in order to discourage frivolous requests being sent to the Hokage. There had been protests at first, but Tsunade had put her foot down. The ritual had helped and paperwork had gone down. Secretly, Naruto hoped that the burn pile never went away completely. For the first year of her apprenticeship, Shizune or the Hokage had checked the sorting of the two reject piles, but for the last two years, they had not bothered.

She stood overlooking the village and looked down at her clothes. She had changed her outfit a few weeks ago. Whereas before she had worn dark colors as was customary for Konoha shinobi, her new clothes were pale without being bright. The style was similar to her the outfit she had picked out with Hinata before their second C-rank mission. It emphasized her figure without being slutty. Her bust was now moderate sized and she had very nice hips, if she did say so herself. Occasionally, she would have brief bouts of jealousy over Hinata's figure, but she was glad that she did not have to cart around Tsunade-sized breasts. She wore brown pants, an orange long-sleeved shirt, and a green vest. She had brown holsters on her thighs that matched her pants. They were empty except for the storage seals she had inked onto the insides. She still wore her Leaf Badge as a belt, but the sash that held it was the same orange as her shirt. Her hair was tied into a loose ponytail by a green ribbon that matched her shirt.

She had two reasons for changing her shinobi outfit. First, she preferred to be different. Wearing similar clothes to everyone else had bugged her, but she had gone along with it because her unusual appearance caused her to stand out enough. Second, the dark clothing had contrasted too much with her albino-like coloring. While she had initially liked the contrast, over time she had tired of it. The only color she naturally had since her Shinobi Academy graduation fiasco was the light brown of her rabbit-ear-like horns, the pale blue of her eyes, and the pink of her lips. She thought that the new color scheme made her look better and it did not really hurt her stealth, since she usually ended up using her Disguise Technique when she wanted to hide.

Sakura and Ino had actually convinced her to start wearing makeup. Most of her makeup was understated—just to add a small amount of color to her cheeks and around her eyes. However, they did talk her into wearing Sharingan-red lipstick. It was the one highly-contrasting feature she currently wore, but she had to admit that she rocked it—especially when she opened her third eye.

It still sometimes surprised her that she had become good friends with Sakura, and by extension Ino, after the antagonism of their Academy days, but the bit of advice that she had dropped during the Chuunin Exams seemed to have gotten to her. It also helped that she was Sakura's senpai as the apprentice of her master's former master.

She headed downstairs to wake up Tsunade. She was mildly surprised to find Sasuke and Jiraiya there. Both of them looked much the same as she had seen them last. Sasuke had grown taller and more muscular—although he was still slender—in the three years since he had left on the trip. Although he had been back for a few weeks eight times, they had never had the time to do more than say "hi" in passing and exchange a few ideas on Rinne-Sharingan techniques.

"Emo-chan! Ero-sennin!" she exclaimed.

"Bunny-chan," Sasuke replied with a smirk.

"Brat! Don't call me that!" Jiraiya said.

"You're late, Ero-sennin," she said, ignoring his complaint. "You were due back here six months ago to give me more fuuinjutsu lessons."

"Well, you know. . . things happened," he said.

"Let me guess," she said to Sasuke. "He got caught up doing his research."

Sasuke grunted in agreement.

"Bad Ero-sennin!" she exclaimed.

"Brat," Jiraiya said, "my research is important for the literary future of the Elemental Nations!"

"Whatever," she replied.

"I've sent for Hinata-chan and Kakashi-san," said Tsunade. "Now that Sasuke's training trip is officially over, it's time to decide what to do next."

"Well then," said Jiraiya. "I'm out of here. See you around, Hime, Brats."

He was gone before anyone could complain.

Naruto scowled. "He still owes me fuuinjutsu lessons!"

Naruto's fuuinjutsu skills were solidly in the intermediate range, other than medical seals. Despite having Uzumaki blood, Tsunade's fuuinjutsu knowledge was fairly specialized due to lack of interest in other aspects of sealing. She had passed on most of her sealing knowledge to Naruto once she had been taught the basics by Jiraiya. The proof of that was the Yin Seal on her forehead above where her third eye opened. Naruto felt that she was missing a few key concepts that would enable her to really understand fuuinjutsu and start creating her own seals in areas outside of medicine.

Before Naruto could really build up steam in complaining about her godfather's habits, Hinata entered the room.

"Hi, Hinata-chan!" Naruto greeted her.

Sasuke grunted in acknowledgement.

While they waited for Kakashi, they made inconsequential small talk. What Naruto really wanted to do was brag about her skills and find out how her old teammates had improved, but they had agreed at the beginning of the apprenticeship period that they would not talk about their new skills until they had a chance to show off in a spar, so she held her tongue. She still sparred regularly against Hinata, since they had both kept mainly in the village, but she was sure that the Hyuuga was keeping some surprises in reserve, just like she was. The only exception to this rule was that Sasuke and Naruto exchanged any information they had on their doujutsu whenever they saw each other.

When Kakashi finally appeared, forty minutes later, Naruto was about ready to start bouncing off the walls. While she was much more restrained after training with Tsunade, she still had bouts of impatience.

"So nice of you to join us, Kakashi-san," Tsunade snarled at her jounin.

"I'm glad to be here and see my cute little genin again," Kakashi said with an eye smile. Naruto was certain he was deliberately ignoring the Hokage's sarcasm.

"We're hardly little and we haven't been genin for three years," she said, irritated at her always-late jounin sensei.

"You'll always be my cute little genin to me," he said with another eye smile.

Tsunade huffed. "I'm reforming Team Kakashi with you four. I'd like to be able to have you available to take care of Akatsuki and similar dangers, but I need to evaluate the three of you to see if you're up to it. Kakashi, set up an evaluation exercise for tomorrow. If you're late I'll delay the next Icha Icha release from Konoha for the number of days that you are minutes late. I don't have time to deal with your nonsense. Jiraiya, Anko, and I will also be there to watch you."

"Nine o'clock at the usual place," Kakashi said. He disappeared with a Flicker Technique.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow.

Naruto sighed. "Training Ground Seven."

Naruto showed up at Training Ground Seven, five minutes before nine o'clock. She had already seeded the training ground with Shadow Clones while she ate breakfast and got ready. She was idly curious to know if Tsunade's threat would make her old sensei show up on time. Hinata, Sasuke, and Anko were already there. Within a few minutes, Tsunade showed up. Jiraiya appeared right after the Hokage.

As Naruto was about to bug her godfather about continuing her fuuinjutsu lessons, Kakashi showed up precisely on time with a Flicker. He had in his hand two familiar bells which he tied to his belt.

"You really think you can keep those bells from the Neo-sannin?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi eye smiled and said, "The Neo-sannin, is it? Maybe I should put a time limit on this exercise?"

Naruto shrugged her shoulders. Sasuke grunted. Hinata smiled pleasantly.

"So nonchalant?" he asked. "Okay then. You have 15 minutes to get the bells."

"Fine," Naruto said with a grin. This exercise was as good as won.

"And. . ." Kakashi drawled with an eye smile, "to make it about skill and not power: no upper tier doujutsu—vanilla Sharingan and Byakugan only, no Kyuubi, and no Rabbit Goddess techniques."

All three chuunin nodded. With the Heavenly Attraction Technique that the Rinne-Sharingan and Tenseigan could do, it would be too easy.

"I see that you're only handicapping us," Sasuke said smugly.

Kakashi moved his Leaf Badge to reveal his Sharingan which morphed into a three-bladed shuriken with sickle-like extensions on the blades. "Oh really?" he said, equally smugly.

"Mangekyou!" Sasuke hissed. "How?"

"It's something I don't like to talk about," Kakashi said. "You'll have to get me really drunk before I'll tell the story."

"Why haven't we seen this before, Sensei?" Hinata asked.

"It used to take too much out of me to use," he replied. "Even after three years of training to not get left behind by you three, I can only safely use it three times a day."

"What techniques can you do with that eye?" Hinata asked.

"I'll tell you later," he said. "You guys ready?"

"Let's do this!" exclaimed Naruto

Sasuke grunted.

"Ready, Sensei," said Hinata.

"Go!" Kakashi said.

Naruto felt one of her clones pull her away with a Replacement Technique. She ended up in a small clearing some distance away with her two teammates.

"I've got some distractions all lined up," she told her teammates.

They rolled their eyes as she started to cackle evilly.

She looked around and saw her clones already in their Disguises. "Just tap out a clone that you want to replace and use a Disguise to take on its role," she said.

"Team Gai?" Hinata asked Sasuke.

"Sounds good," Sasuke said with a nod. "I assume you want your cousin?"

Hinata nodded.

"I'll take Tenten-san then," Sasuke said. "You going to join us, Bunny-chan?"

"Why not?" Naruto said. "I'll take Bushy Brows Junior."

They each took the place of one of the clones. Each team of clones spread out around the clearing where Kakashi and the observers were waiting.

Suddenly a mob of cats ran through the clearing with Tora in the lead. Konohamaru and his pals were running after them with their sensei chasing after them. Tora swerved toward Kakashi, but he leaped out of the way, only to almost get clobbered by Konohamaru.

"Really?" Kakashi called out. "This trick again, Naru-chan? I expected better from you."

Three horse-sized nine-tailed golden foxes surrounded him and then leaped at him. He used Replacement to get out of their way to find another three waiting for him. He Replaced himself again. In all, nine miniature Kyuubis stalked him.

That's not how I look, Stepmother, the real Kyuubi complained.

If I used the real you, we'd have this place covered with ANBU before we could blink, she responded. Relax, I'm just having fun.

The Kyuubi sent her a mental eye roll.

The next group to attack was Zabuza, Haku, and the Demon Brothers.

They were followed by a younger version of the Sannin.

Naruto signaled her teammates that it was their turn. The clone acting as Gai leaped into the clearing followed by the Disguised chuunin.

"Kakashi!" the Gai-clone yelled. "I challenge you to a contest of skills. I will show that my Youthfulness is more powerful than your cool, hip ways!"

"Gai-sensei," Naruto-Disguised-as-Lee yelled. "If you cannot win, I will run backwards around Konoha on my hands five dozen times!"

"Lee-kun!" the Gai-clone exclaimed. "If you cannot do that I will carry you and your teammates up and down the Hokage Monument 75 times using only my teeth!"

"Hey, leave us out of this!" Sasuke-Disguised-as-Tenten yelled.

"Tenten-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "Where are your Flames of Youth!? Tenten-chan! Neji-kun! Join me in lending Gai-sensei the strength of our Flames so that he can overcome his Eternal Rival!"

Naruto posed in Standard Nice Guy Pose Number One with a broad smile complete with teeth sparkle and a thumbs up.

"Lee-kun!" the clone called.

"Gai-sensei!" Naruto responded.

"Lee-kun!"

"Gai-sensei!"

The clone rushed toward Naruto and they enveloped each other in a manly hug, each of them shedding tears of joy. She cast a genjutsu of the sun setting over the Hokage Monument and the sound of waves crashing in the background. The way those two acted, she always thought that their man hugs needed something extra to emphasize their "Youth."

Kakashi was staring at her and her clone in thinly disguised disgust and horror. Unfortunately, so were Hinata and Sasuke in their Disguises. Naruto did not know whether to be pleased or annoyed with the response. She made hand signs behind the clone's back so that only Hinata with her Byakugan and her own clones could see them.

Hinata-Disguised-as-Neji started and began to back away, clutching Sasuke's arm. Their path took them toward Kakashi. Kakashi started at the movement and watched them warily.

The last five minutes of the test consisted of Kakashi dodging the clones and the chuunin using Replacement. The alarm rang, signaling the end of the test.

They met in front of the posts that Kakashi had threatened to tie them to during the Bell Test. Their three masters were waiting and watching.

Kakashi rattled the bells. "It looks like you failed."

"We would have gotten you eventually, Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke growled. "You would have made a mistake or run out of chakra."

"You don't always have the luxury of time, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi pointed out.

"Who says we failed?" Naruto said smugly. The bells at Kakashi's waist disappeared in puffs of smoke. One of Naruto's clones appeared and then tossed her and her teammates each a bell. Naruto was pretty proud of her Replacement skills. To pull that off without Kakashi noticing took fabulous chakra control—she did not know of any other shinobi that could do it.

"How did you pull that off?" Jiraiya asked. "Your clone would already have to be Disguised as a bell when she did the Replacement. Bells don't have eyes!"

"I've discovered that my clones and I can communicate if we extend our chakra while we are touching," Naruto explained. "I simply had another clone using the Byakugan hold the bell-clone in order to show her where to go."

"Dare I ask when you had the swap done?" Kakashi asked.

"Not long after you showed up," Naruto said smugly.

Kakashi looked irritated for the first time since she had met him. He sighed and composed himself. "How very shinobi of you, Naruto-chan. Well done."

"As entertaining as this was," Tsunade said, "it wasn't what I was looking for. I want you to do individual spars, so that I can see your combat skills."

"I want to fight Bunny-chan," Sasuke said.

"Think you can handle me, Emo-chan?" she said with a smirk.

He grunted dismissively.

"Very well," Tsunade said. "Sasuke-kun against Naruto-chan and Hinata-chan against Kakashi-san. I want to see a wide range of your combat skills."

As Naruto stood across from Sasuke, she said, "Same rules as what Kakashi-sensei said?"

Sasuke grunted in agreement and added, "How about we up the ante?"

"Oh?" Naruto inquired. "How?"

"No doujutsu at all," Sasuke replied. "I want to see if you've gained any actual skill, Dead Last."

It had been years since Sasuke had called her that and she knew he was just trying to rile her up, but she had to admit that it was working—a little. Plus, she did want to show him and everyone else that she was more than just the bloodline abilities that she had inherited from Kaguya. Technically, what he was proposing still left her the Shikotsumyaku, but it was not her preferred close-range technique and she had only figured out a few ways to use it.

"You're on!" She turned to Tsunade and said, "Start us off, Baa-shishou?"

Tsunade got the put-upon expression that she got whenever Naruto called her any form of "granny," but since she did not have anything on-hand to throw, she only said, "On my mark. . . go!"

Naruto seallessly created 12 Shadow Clones which surrounded Sasuke in a circle about five meters in radius. Sasuke was content to let her make the first move.

"You aren't going to do a freaky collaboration move that will destroy the forest, are you?" he taunted.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she taunted back.

She left him in anticipation for another 15 seconds before whipping out a rubber ball from one of her holster seals. Each of her clones did the same. She hurled it at him and clapped her hands together to activate the Gale Palm Technique and accelerate it. She formed a Tiger seal and called out, "Missile Shadow Clone Technique!" Her clones all did the same. Walls of rubber balls converged rapidly on Sasuke. Officially this was the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique, but she felt silly calling it that when she was not throwing a shuriken and even sillier calling it Rubber Ball Shadow Clone Technique. This was one of her best new offensive techniques that she had learned from Asuma. She had to admit that it suited her, due to its similarity to what had been and still was her signature technique. She had practiced it in secret until she could get it down from the original eight hand seals to one.

The balls went flying everywhere once they reached Sasuke's location. A contingency clone Replaced her in order to prevent her from becoming a mass of bruises.

Once the mass of cloned balls dissipated, leaving only one behind, Sasuke called out from the edge of the clearing, "What was that!? Who was idiot enough to teach you that technique?" A log with chunks of bark missing was lying where Sasuke had been standing.

"That was a pretty impressive Replacement, Emo-chan!" she said.

"I practiced it until I could do it seallessly, since I knew I would be sparring with you and you don't know the meaning of the word 'overkill,' Bunny-chan!" he accused.

"Sure I do," she said with a foxy grin. "'Overkill' is a word used by lesser shinobi when they get jealous of awesome shinobi like me!"

At that point, a running long-range ninjutsu and missile engagement began. The two of them were pretty evenly matched at the long-distance range. Sasuke knew a wider range of offensive ninjutsu, as would be expected of the Toad Sage's apprentice, but Naruto knew a decent amount and had abused Shadow Clones to make sure she had mastered the ones she knew.

"Want to see how you do up close?" Sasuke called.

"Getting low on chakra, Emo-chan?" she taunted.

"Not yet," Sasuke admitted, "but I know it's impossible for anyone to outlast you in a ninjutsu stalemate, no matter how careful they are in spending chakra."

"Ah," she said. "You're making me blush, Emo-chan." She laughed. "I'm up for it."

They jogged toward each other, stopping a meter apart. Naruto seallessly formed Chakra Scalpels and took a stance reminiscent of the Gentle Fist.

"I thought you weren't going to learn the Gentle Fist?" Sasuke commented.

"I haven't," Naruto replied. "Not really. I have used the Sharingan in fights with Hinata-chan enough that I've picked up the physical part of it and I've found that its stances and some of the movements work well with Chakra Scalpels, which are my current favorite of my close-up techniques. I could easily reverse engineer the chakra component of the Gentle Fist if I wanted to, but I don't want to tick off Hinata-chan's family nor do I need it. Between Chakra Scalpels, the Rasengan, Shikotsumyaku, and Baa-shishou's strength-based taijutsu style, I have plenty of close-range options. I prefer Chakra Scalpels because they give me the most flexibility. They also have good synergy with the Byakugan."

"But you aren't using the Byakugan," Sasuke commented smugly.

"I'm the apprentice of the most accomplished medic currently alive, Emo-chan," she said, rolling her eyes. "I don't need the Byakugan to be able to take you apart piece by piece."

The raw skill advantage that Sasuke had previously had in taijutsu had been closed by Naruto's years of fighting with the Sharingan active. Sasuke still had more experience and better taijutsu instincts, but this was offset by the fact that Naruto had contingency clones rescue her whenever she got into too tight a spot. He had gotten her a few times, but she simply swarmed him with clones while she healed herself.

"I admit that you're still better than me in straight-up taijutsu," she said after the latest skirmish ended with her getting a nasty bruise on her shoulder. She could wait for it to heal with her natural regeneration, but Sasuke was good enough that she needed to be in peak condition, so she used the Mystic Palm on it. Sasuke was panting with the effort of having to avoid her Chakra Scalpels for so long. "But when are we ever going to be in a straight-up taijutsu fight outside of silly tournaments?"

"I miss the days when I could taunt you into doing something stupid," Sasuke said with a sigh. "Your freakish physical endurance, chakra reserves, and healing make you impossible if someone doesn't finish you off all at once."

"It's great to be me!" Naruto said with a cheeky grin.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "One final go?" he asked.

"Let's do it!" she exclaimed.

Sasuke flashed through 11 hand seals ending on Monkey. Lightning chakra covered his arm and continuous chirping filled the air. "Kakashi-sensei taught me this in case I needed to face Gaara in the Exams," he commented. "It's his signature move."

Naruto formed a Rasengan in her hand. Chakra Scalpels would not be able to deflect the technique that Sasuke was using. Sasuke charged toward her. Surprisingly, the charge had no subtlety to it. Naruto easily blocked the technique with her Rasengan and hammered him with a kick to the ribs.

"Okay," Kakashi said. "I'm stopping this match. It's starting to get out of hand."

Naruto crouched down and started to heal Sasuke's bruised ribs.

"Why did you use the Thousand Birds Technique, Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi asked. "I told you to never use it on a comrade."

"I knew that Naruto-chan could handle it if it hit her," Sasuke said. "I didn't aim for anything vital."

"And the tunnel effect using it without the Sharingan?" he asked.

"Uh, I forgot?" Sasuke said, embarrassed.

Naruto cracked up laughing.

"I'm proud of both of you," Kakashi said. "That was an impressive spar until Sasuke-kun's questionable decision to use the Thousand Birds Technique."

"Ero-sensei doesn't know any close-range offensive techniques except Rasengan and he won't teach it to me," he complained.

"It's Naruto's inheritance," Jiraiya said. "It's up to her to teach it to you, if she wants."

Sasuke tried to use puppy dog eyes on her. She almost agreed on the spot due to the ridiculousness of the broody Uchiha with pleading eyes.

She laughed and said, "Let me think about it—okay, Emo-chan? I'm trying to get away from making all my decisions spur of the moment when I don't have to."

Sasuke pouted in response, which almost had her on rolling on the floor again. "When did you get so responsible, Dead Last?"

"When Baa-shishou started making me handle her paperwork," she said with a mock glare at her master.

"You're the one that wants to be Hokage," Tsunade said in response. "I'm just making sure you won't be incompetent if it somehow happens."

"I feel the love, Baachan," Naruto said.

Tsunade snorted in amusement.

Hinata and Kakashi's match was fast-paced and furious. Kakashi spent much of it fleeing from Hinata using Replacement and trying to position himself for ninjutsu barrages. Kakashi was an expert at close-range fighting, but Hinata's Gentle Fist peppered with Snake Style and her own unique moves was very tricky. Kakashi was used to high-speed battles with Gai, but Hinata's flexibility and agility were quite different than the Strong Fist's straightforward moves. Hinata tried to box him in with precision kunai strikes, but Kakashi was too tricky to be caught.

"Hinata-chan has him on the run by herself, almost as much as all three of together did," Sasuke said, speaking loudly to be heard over Anko alternately cheering for and threatening her apprentice.

"Fighting Hinata-chan is no joke," Naruto said. "The only reason I can win a fight with her is that the Byakugan can't tell the difference between me and my Shadow Clones. Honestly, Kakashi-sensei will probably win, but only because he specified no Tenseigan."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow.

"If you think she's fast now, you haven't seen anything yet. When she uses her glowy mode. . ." Naruto shuddered, then she smirked. "Plus she can fly."

"She can fly?" Sasuke said incredulously. The Third Tsuchikage was the only shinobi that most people knew of that could.

"She figured it out using her gravity powers," Naruto said. "I was able to do the same with my Deva Path after talking with her and observing her. I'll show you how to do it later. The only real drawback to flying besides chakra cost is that it limits you to using Deva Path abilities. Hinata-chan, of course, doesn't have that drawback since all of her Tenseigan abilities are connected."

"Does Hinata-chan use ninjutsu?" Sasuke asked after the fight had progressed.

"Yes," Naruto said, "but she prefers taijutsu or kunai techniques. She's not using any now because she knows that Kakashi-sensei is trying to drag the match out and she's trying to conserve chakra."

After another ten minutes, Kakashi succeeded in wearing Hinata out enough to trap her and force her to yield.

"I have to admit, I'm impressed with all three of you and your teachers," Tsunade said.

The three chuunin smirked—even Hinata. Anko cheered.

"You are all clearly jounin level, as far as fighting ability goes," Tsunade continued.

"Does that mean you're promoting us?" Naruto asked excitedly.

Tsunade shook her head. "Jounin also need to show leadership ability."

Naruto pouted. "You promoted Neji-san to jounin."

"He showed the necessary leadership qualities," Tsunade said, "and there were no political consequences to promoting him."

Naruto frowned. "Is this about the Kyuubi?" she asked.

Tsunade shook her head. "No, this is about my plans for your team. Promoting Neji-san freed up Gai-san to take separate missions and they could clearly handle it. I want the four of you together as Team Kakashi. If I promoted you, I couldn't justify keeping you all together as a team and I need a team like yours as an anti-Akatsuki taskforce. The Daimyo, the Council, and the Clan Heads would all complain if I tied up four jounin like that over hearsay and an isolated incident."

Naruto pouted again.

"Not even to take out a missing nin like Itachi?" Sasuke asked.

She shook her head. "Not unless he causes more problems. He's left Hi no Kuni alone for the most part since the Massacre. They would be afraid that he would cause more problems if we 'riled him up.'"

"Does that mean I won't be able to go after him?" Sasuke asked with a frown.

"It just means that I can't send you out after him as the stated mission at this point," the Hokage said. "If I think you're ready, I'll send you out under a pretext."

Sasuke nodded understanding.

"Obviously, Kakashi will be team leader," she said, "but I expect great things from all of you."

"You got it, Baachan!" Naruto exclaimed. She paused and then asked, "What now?"

"I'll send you out on some short A and B-ranks until we hear news of Akatsuki," the Hokage said. "Jiraiyi-kun, I want Akatsuki to be the primary focus of your network, okay?"

"You've got it, Hime," he responded with a thumbs up.

Author's Note: Yes, I did have Naruto create the fanon Sunset Genjutsu for kicks and giggles. No, this version is not unbreakable, but it is distrurbing-especially to Kakashi.

This chapter was extra long due to not having another decent place to stop. Most chapters will be my normal length.