Their triumphant return to Konoha was cutoff at the gate when the guards spoke quietly to Asuma, stating that they were required to make their way to see the Hokage at their best speed. With a quick nod to the guard they hastily took to the rooftops and were at the Tower within only a few minutes. They were ushered inside without delay. Even in their swift travel through the village they had observed the subdued attitude of the villagers. It was mirrored in the bearing of all of the ninja in the Tower and the serious demeanor of the Sandaime.

"Jounin Sarutobi and Chunins Nara, Uzumaki and Haruno reporting." Asuma resorted to protocol in the face of such solemnity.

The Hokage gave them a grim smile.

"Congratulations Team Strife, however, I am afraid that your remarkable accomplishment is not the cause for celebration that I would have wished for."

"What's happened?" Asuma demanded.

"Two days ago Teams Hunter and Discord were graduated to genin early. For your information Asuma that would be Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino in Team Hunter; in Team Discord we have Yamanaka Ino, Deushi Benjiro, and Akimichi Chouji." This last was directed solely at Asuma before once more addressing them all.

"Uchiha Sasuke was apparently enraged at being overlooked again for early graduation and blamed his teammates. He attacked them with intent to kill. While he did not manage to do so due to the interference of one of the jounin instructors, one was maimed and will never be able to serve in the field, and the other is never likely to want to do so after his comrade turned on him."

"What is happening to him now?"

"He is in the psych ward at the hospital for treatment and rehabilitation. I have just been reliably informed that he is unlikely to ever be ready to serve Konoha as he has apparently been rather separated from reality for some years even before this incident. It is unfortunate, but at this point while we will be doing everything we can for the boy, we will now be looking in to what our options are for recovering the Uchiha line with only minimal cooperation at best from him."

Asuma shot a look between the new chunin and his father. Surely this was more information than the Uchiha's former classmates needed to hear. He looked again to Team Strife. While they looked grim and faintly repulsed neither did they look surprised at what they were hearing.

"This was disturbing news for the village as a whole. You are all aware of how he was practically worshipped by the civilians?" He was given several nods of confirmation.

"They are looking for someone to blame. Right now your team's successes will look like the Uchiha's failures and we cannot allow that to happen. I plan to keep all three of my new teams busy out of the village. As you are all three now chunin I will be assigning you to C and B rank missions as consecutively as possible. I want to keep you out of public eye as much as possible for several months."

"Asuma, will you agree to take responsibility for Team Strife as its nominal leader? Allowing them as much freedom to grow and your support for their learning as you can?"

"I've grown pretty fond of the little brats and they are very impressive for their age. I won't have a problem working with them."

"We won't even need to return between missions if you think that is best." Naruto volunteered.

"How do you plan to report in or to get your next mission? I was not aware that you had become a summoner." The Hokage was intrigued. What else did his young friend have up his sleeve?

"Only of clones, mine just happen to be very versatile." With those words Naruto created a clone that immediately transformed into a small hawk and flew out the window. He then explained the system Shikamaru had helped him to devise for contacting his teammates even when he was far away from them, as well as the nature of his infiltration of both Konoha and Iwa.

"I didn't realize how many tunnels we had under us to disguise the secondary ANBU that live in them."

The Sandaime froze. Root was still in operation against his express orders. He had his suspicions but never any confirmation until now.

"Tell me Naruto, have you mapped Iwa and Konoha? I would be very interested in going over such a map as you detail your observations before you are sent out on your first mission. I have arranged for all three teams to stay in the Tower until you are set to leave on an appropriate mission." With that he shooed the others away and waved Naruto forward.

In the end all of Team Strife wound up spending a week and a half in secret meetings with the Sandaime first learning the origins and supposed demise of Root, and then making a plan with their own unique flare for optimizing their abilities. The team was then sent out of Konoha on a B rank only to slip back in several days later through one of the security holes they had mapped.

They had spent their time out of Konoha using Naruto's clones under Sakura's supervision to create enough of the drug they needed and Shikamaru and Asuma creating a technique that would cause a very soft yet persistent wind to blow through the tunnels. The first time they used it all four placed their caches and used the technique very gently to distribute the fast acting knock out gas, then after ten minutes they used it again, and a stronger version, to clear the tunnels of the drugs. After that they stepped back and allowed the actual ANBU to capture all of the tunnels occupants. They left through a different gap in security and went to their checkpoint to await the outcome of the operation.

As for the Root's Leader, Danzo, the Hokage called for his advisors on a pretense and kept them with him until he received the report from his ANBU. When he received confirmation of all three advisors complicity he had all three taken for interrogation. He had never believed when he first had his suspicions about Root validated that taking them all prisoner could be done without any loss of life and only a few minor injuries from the few traps that were active.

He briefed the clone Naruto had left with him and then had it disperse, it would let them know that they could continue on with the B rank that they were supposed to be doing now that the A rank had been completed.

Their first B rank went exactly according to plan. The second and third required a little fast readjustments to the plan on the fly. Even Asuma was impressed with Naruto's improvisational skills. While he would have done things differently he had to admit that Naruto's plans had a more positive outcome than his would have. It was that realization that had Asuma feeling more comfortable with allowing the blond his leadership role. He took on more of a mentor role for all of them; helping them to develop their natural talents and shore up their weak points.

They took a remote cabin in a village a day away from Konoha as their home base for the duration of their voluntary exile. In between missions they spent their time training and learning all that Asuma could teach them. With the Professor as his father he could at least give them the basics if not up to a mid-level in a lot of disciplines, where he left off his father could guide them forward. The Sandaime had taken to sending a clone out to their cabin, when he knew that they were there, to direct them in their training.

By the time of their fourth mission they had comfortably integrated him into the team and he had been 'introduced' to their motivational methods. He joined Sakura in cursing what Naruto and Shikamaru could do when they put their minds to a problem. As it happened Shikamaru had found a genjutsu that would work for Naruto better than it ever would for anyone without his chakra levels. It allowed for incredibly detailed scenarios to be played out as the caster specified, the trick to it is that the more chakra you poured into it the lifelike it became and the more it was believed. This allowed a training genjutsu to take on nightmarish proportions for those Naruto targeted.

For the rest of their lives both Sakura and Asuma would shiver when Naruto was complimented on his creativity. They had been on the other side of it and wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Their eighth mission out, however, truly cemented their team. It was supposed to be a vacation, a simple C rank, pick up a bridge builder in Konoha and protect him until he had completed his project. Things were going to plan and they were laughing and joking with one another, ignoring the occasional complaints of the hung over client. Then when they saw the obvious genjutsu, with an exchange of glances and a few flickering hand signs as they continued to laugh and joke, they set out the plan.

As expected when they targeted Asuma first he faked his death, leaving only the 'genin' of the team to fight off the attackers. Needless to say the attackers were quite surprised to be stopped in their tracks several yards distant of the target that the genin had left seemingly unprotected. The prisoners were quickly secured by more conventional means and handed over to the resurrected Asuma for interrogation.

Not much intelligence was gained, only the confirmation that Tazuna was the target, before they both managed to commit suicide.

Asuma grimaced to himself, now that the mission was confirmed as being a higher rank he should technically return to Konoha with the team. He was, however, quite sure that his team were ready to stretch their abilities some more. A B rank mission was well within their skills at this point. The only thing he needed to consider was if the mission was likely to turn into an A rank. His kids might be ready for a lower A level opponent, but definitely not a higher one. It was time to ask the client a few questions.

A few answers later and Asuma was reassured that no higher level ninja was needed for a simple civilian assassination job. A greedy civilian like Gato wouldn't be willing to pay what a higher ranked ninja would charge for pulling such a low level assassination. They would continue with the job and get the kids a little more experience against enemy ninja; they had wiping out ordinary bandit camps down to an art form by now.

They continued on, taking a boat across the water to the island nation. The bridge builder taking the time to explain how Gato's shipping monopoly had devastated the island's economy and his hopes for breaking that monopoly with his bridge. Soon enough they were on land again and making their way through a light mist and under attack again almost before they knew it.

"Get down!" Asuma barely had the time to call out before a giant sword went flying through the space they had all been standing in bare heartbeats before.

The group looked up to see that the sword was lodged in a tree trunk and had a large bare-chested man standing on it. He looked prepared to give a speech but Asuma didn't give him a chance as he immediately attacked, trying to knock him away from his sword.

It didn't work; as he recovered it, as he dodged Asuma's attack he gave a harsh laugh.

"Not much of one for talking are you?" He asked rhetorically as he backed up quickly to give himself space to move. "That's alright; I can kill you without another sound being made."

He started a technique with an unknown purpose. It became obvious as the mist abruptly began to thicken unnaturally.

"Shell game!" Asuma called out. They could not rely on hand signs in the thick fog.

Naruto quickly spammed several hundred clones that rapidly transformed into the rest of the team and the bridge builder. The real trick to the shell game was not to hide which group was where, but to cause enough distraction to remove the actual target from the table without being seen. The real Sakura was left with the job of staying with the client, Naruto and Shikamaru would stay and look for openings to try and help their comrade in arms.

"I can't help with my shadows with this mist in place. Is there anything you can do about it?"

Naruto had been working with Asuma to master his wind nature, but he had only reached the point of sending out directed gusts of wind. He gave it a try, letting loose several blasts that cleared the fog for several feet before it came swirling back in. This gave him an idea that he was desperate enough to try. He could hear Asuma locked in battle with the original attacker, but his clones were being taken out by what had turned out to be water clones of their opponent when his clones had managed to return the favor and take one out.

He created one clone directly opposite to him from several feet away and at the same time they sent continuous blasts of air almost directly at each other. The key here was the almost, the blasts hit each other and started to swirl together becoming stronger and faster than he was capable on his own. It swiftly started to form into a cyclone and was able to lift the heavy fog. Naruto concentrated on maintaining his creation safely, trying to fine tune his control over it.

This left Shikamaru free to use his shadow abilities to capture the ninja that Asuma was fighting.

"Nice job Shikamaru…" was as far as Asuma got before a new factor in the battle made itself known by attacking Shikamaru with several senbon, forcing him to let go of his technique to dodge.

Things had reached a stalemate. While Naruto's clones took out the large man's clones, Asuma was a match for the man himself – his knives against the sword and his wind techniques against the water that was favored by his adversary. Shikamaru was holding his own against the slight young man that had come to his elder's aid. Naruto himself was kept busy trying to keep the cyclone he had created from taking on a life of its own or from dying out completely and giving the advantage back to their foes.

Slowly all of Naruto's clones were destroyed making it obvious that they had managed to spirit their client away. The two attackers broke off from the battle and retreated into the trees.

"Until next time." The large one said as he gave an irreverent salute before turning and disappearing into the trees.

Naruto and Shikamaru maintained their ready state until Asuma signaled that they could stand down. Naruto allowed his cyclone to finally die down and turned back to see that he was being stared at.

"A cyclone?" They both asked simultaneously.

"What?" Naruto asked defensively. "It worked didn't it?"

"Sometimes, Naruto, I forget what a very scary place your head is. Then you do something like that." Was Shikamaru's only response.

Asuma felt the need to address the issue more fully. "Don't do it again. You had very little influence on that thing. Use a little restraint."

"Well, of course I won't use it again until I can get it to do exactly what I want, I know better than that. It was a desperation move to try and get us an even playing field." He defended himself.

Naruto started to walk in the direction of the bridge builder's house again as it was the designated meeting spot. His voice was excited as he continued. "I mean it will take a lot of work to do it but once I get it working right it'll be great for taking on large groups. I was thinking that it would be even better if it was made up of sharp wind blades…"

Shikamaru and Asuma shared a horrified look before hurrying after the crazy blond.

Asuma was able to decide extremely quickly that he had two choices. He could train the kids like crazy trying to build their skills up, or he could do the same thing after they take out the only reason someone would want to kill their client. It would also be yet another good training experience for his chunin team. He would have them gather all the information possible on the Gato Corporation and its founder - and then kill him.

It would be doing a good deed for the people here, but also allow them to complete their mission to protect the bridge builder without too many further complications. Without Gato to pay for it, no one would be attacking the man.

The team gave it their full effort. Naruto went into full infiltration mode sending out dozens of clones to find the best avenues of approach. With Naruto acting as the hub of incoming information and giving it to Sakura and Shikamaru they plotted the fall of the entire corporation from the dinner table in the bridge builder Tazuna's house. Naruto had recently discovered a new use for the training genjutsu that Shikamaru had found and helped him learn, he could use it to show his teammates everything that one of his clones read and experienced. The previous limitations on the speed of the flow of information from Naruto to his teammates now bypassed it took them barely two days to plan out how to take control of the Gato Corporation upon the 'accidental' death of its leader.

The implementation of the plan took a full day and a half to complete, but most of that was completing the paperwork to finish the takeover. Sakura used an ijutsu to put Gato's regular bodyguard into a deep sleep for a few hours allowing Shikamaru to take his place standing behind Gato. He first used his shadow technique in a reversed fashion allowing himself to learn by feel how to sign Gato's name. Once he had mastered the signature and handwriting of his target Gato had an unfortunate accident - slipping on his spilled tea and falling against his desk in such a way as to break his neck.

They decided what Gato would have wanted for the corporation and created a faked will that divided it between a Trust for the betterment of the Land of Wave - controlled by a board to be headed by Team Strife, Team Strife itself, and the final third was left to the Daimyo of Wave. The team had decided that they would have some of Shikamaru's retired family members take up the running of the remaining two-thirds that they controlled. It would give them a chance to stretch their intelligence again, and Shikamaru was sure that some of them would welcome the opportunity

There was a massive celebration held in Wave when they heard the news of Gato's death, it would be a matter of days before the contents of his will would be heard and another massive celebration held. The Daimyo would be understandably quick in having the will ratified and the change of ownership made official.

One of the outstanding issues that needed to be taken care of was the matter of their two attackers, the elder of which Asuma had recognized as Zabuza the Demon of the Mist, and the younger they found out was his apprentice Haku. They decided that to avoid the possibility of being attacked again in outrage to go ahead and pay them for their services, funding the next possible Mizukage was worth doing in Team Strife's collective opinion. The package of money was delivered, just after the news of Gato's death made the rounds, to their hide out by a shadow clone that was dispersed barely within sight of it; leaving the package to drop to the ground and which was then the subject of a cautious examination. Said exam revealed a payment far higher than they had negotiated for and a note with the best wishes of Team Strife to a future Mizukage, and a polite request for them to go away. Zabuza roared with laughter and Haku let loose a string of nervous giggles.

The bridge to the mainland was completed in record time as each citizen wanted to have a part in the new prosperity after Gato's death broke his hold on the people. On the day of the bridges completion Team Strife was packed and ready to leave. There was a large group waiting to see them off. After saying their goodbyes the ninja left but their sensitive hearing kept them well within earshot as the bridge was given the name The Great Naruto Bridge. Naruto reddened slightly as his teammates giggled and gave him little digs with their elbows. Only moments later a shout went up in the crowd and they could hear the news of the contents of Gato's will spreading through the crowd.

"Why exactly was I left out of the list of beneficiaries?" Asuma asked bewildered. He was only then learning of the disposition of the corporation, having been kept busy with guarding Tazuna as they were planning and executing their task.

"Well, if you are going to be too lazy to even oversee the operation, then you are going to get left out of the will. You are, after all, supposed to keep us from making such small little oversights in our planning." Shikamaru teased him with a trace of self-mockery, fully realizing the slight hypocrisy of his words.

All three chunin broke into laughter and started running as Asuma gave a howl of outrage and started to give chase.

Author's note: Whoops, I really had intended for the Sandaime as their teacher but things developed differently as I wrote the story. As such, would catgrl106 and Neko-Renku please give me their fic prompts? If I missed anyone else who said Asuma please let me know. For my previous winner I have posted their fill already.