Chapter 1.

Title meaning: Mikoto means Emperor or Empress. The rest should be self-explanatory.

Pairing: Naruto x Uchiha Mikoto.

THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM

Warning: The main character's age has been adjusted.

Outskirts of Hi no Kuni.

As the clouds parted, it allowed the moonlight to engulf the woods of Hi no Kuni. The tree crowns masked any presence as the green leaves shielded anything beneath it from the bright light emitting from the beautiful full moon.

Beneath the crowns of the trees, if you looked closely enough, however, and tried to spot it, you could see two dark blurs, racing across the forest on the large branches of the many trees making up the forest of this country.

Both wore the same black cloak with a hood covering their heads, but almost everything else was completely different. The one on the right was a teen with deep onyx eyes with long black hair made into a ponytail, except for the two bangs that framed his face, which was covered by a porcelain mask resembling a weasel.

The one on the left was a teen just like this partner, but his appearance was quite different. He was quite a tall teen for his age, with medium-length spiky blond hair and sparkling azure eyes. His face was also covered by one of these porcelain masks, the difference was just that instead of resembling a weasel, his mask resembled that of a raven.

The one on the right raised his hand, signaling for a halt at the next branch, on which they landed on with ease. "You ready for this, Raven?" He asked, his tone calm and almost monotone sounding.

"You know, it's only the two of us here, Itachi…" The one on the left sighed as he moved his mask into the palm of his hand, showing his facial features.

The one identified as Itachi removed his mask as well, "You do know that it is part of the ANBU code to always wear our masks and go by our codenames in the field, even if it is just the two of us, right, Naruto-kun?" Itachi sighed and put his mask back in place.

Naruto groaned at the mention of the rules and placed his mask back in place. "Yeah, yeah, whatever man. Just because it's the rules, doesn't mean I have to like them."

"It still means that you have to follow them, though." Itachi countered, and Naruto groaned in annoyance.

"Afraid so, so let's get this over with anyway. What's the plan again?" Naruto asked as he crouched down to stare at the camp located in a clearing about a hundred feet away from them.

Itachi crouched down beside him and looked the camp over as his eyes turned red with three onyx tomoe spinning in each. The Sharingan, also known as the Uchiha clan's precious bloodline limit.

"I spot ten guards, which is quite low, especially since this is such a high-value target. Considering their low numbers, there are quite a few things that can be the cause." Itachi informed.

"Yeah, like the assholes being stronger than mere guards, and more like Shinobi in terms of strength," Naruto added on, to which Itachi nodded.

"Correct, that is indeed a possibility, but on the flip side, our target might as well be going bankrupt, and this could be the only thugs he could afford," Itachi stated as he flipped a kunai into his hand.

Naruto sighed as he reached in and grabbed a kunai that would look odd to most people. It was a tri-pronged kunai, with a red wooden handle instead of the classic metal one that the usual kunai supported.

"But as always, we'll never figure it out unless the missions go bad and are categorized as 'FUBAR'; it's quite sad really. Unless the situation calls for it, we can never really go all out," Naruto mumbled to himself.

Itachi gave a quiet chuckle as he looked to his side to stare at his blond friend, "If that truly was a problem for you, then you would never have joined the ANBU."

"I know, I know, but still, we have to do everything so silent and quiet. It takes some of the fun out of it; like right now, we'll never know these guys' true strength. They could either be Jounin level in strength with some impressive skills, or some lowlife thugs for all we know." Naruto said as he rose back up from his crouched position.

Itachi nodded, somewhat agreeing with him. Despite being a pacifist, there was some excitement to the unknown at times. But he also feared it, being left in blind could be quite horrifying to some extent.

"The ANBU's job is to do things efficiently and quietly. It won't do us, or our village any good if we make this into some huge spectacle." Itachi informed the blond, but Naruto just found Itachi's lecturing to be quite annoying.

He knew this already. He had gone into the ANBU as a trainee as he had, and on the same squad at that! They had both been through the ANBU's upstart protocol together, so why was it that Itachi always felt the need to lecture him?

"But still, you do realize that it's doubtful that they are a group of Jounin, suppressing their chakra levels all the way to bandits. So keep your bloodlust down, you're going to reveal us, and if you do, I'm leaving the paperwork to you."

"Why is it you always feel the need to lecture me about everything, we went through the ANBU program together in case you've forgotten it," Naruto shivered, calming himself down as Itachi went up from his crouched position.

Itachi clapped Naruto's shoulder and chuckled, "Because if you are anything like your mother, then you can get reckless if you don't agree with certain things. I'm just doing my job as your partner, and that in your case involves me making sure that you stick to the rules." And then he shunshined away.

Naruto shook his head as he performed the shunshin as well. Itachi might be his best friend, but damn... the guy needed to chill sometimes. It wasn't like he had magically forgotten the importance of being ANBU, and what responsibilities that came with wearing these masks.

In the camp, things were quiet. Naruto crouched down in a bush as he slowly sneaked forward behind the first guard. Judging from the man's chakra level, he was around the level of a thug. So unless the gods decided to punish them for whatever reason, the mission should be a piece of cake.

The blond flew up from behind the man and held him in a chokehold with his arm, cutting off any oxygen from reaching his lungs. The man struggled quite a bit with his legs spasming as the blond dragged him to a bush, where his suffering ended with a quick twist and a broken neck.

Itachi was having an easy time as well. One of the perks of having the Sharingan was that a simple look in the eyes was enough to immobilize someone through the use of genjutsu. So, with a simple glance, and dragging one out of the clearing to slit his throat in his dazed state, he plowed through his guard.

The eight remaining guards were handled within two minutes, and the duo nodded to each other before quietly sneaking into the tent of their target.

Inside, an obese middle-aged man with short grey hair sat up in his bed, as he noticed that all the commotion from earlier was gone. "What's going on out there, I hope that none of you are sleeping on the job!" He grunted while standing up.

He pushed the tent front open and stared around the clearing. It was empty. There wasn't a single trace of any of his men that he had hired to keep him safe at all. It was silent, empty. It was as if they had disappeared into thin air without making a sound.

"To think I paid them for this, where the hell did they even go?!" He raged as he stormed around to enter his tent. But he quickly spotted something that made his blood freeze. Within spitting distance stood a man clad in a black cloak and a mask. The only noticeable feature about him was the piercing blue eyes.

"They're preparing for your arrival." The man stated simply, and before he could scream, he felt a jolt of pain and it got hard to breathe. He looked down with shaking movement and stared at the blade that was piercing his chest as his face went pale and he collapsed forward.

Naruto scoffed as he sidestepped so he wouldn't get hit by the disgusting man. "You know, you could have killed him and pushed him to the side instead. I don't really appreciate getting touched by such a pig."

As the corpse finally fell to the ground, it revealed Itachi standing behind with a bloodied sword. "At least his blood is on my sword, and not yours. I'd say I took the worse end of the deal this time."

Groaning, the blond waved his hand in front of his partner, "Whatever man, let's burn this place to the ground and return home. We've been hunting this drug lord kingpin wannabe the entire week, and I really feel like sleeping in my own bed for once." Naruto complained as he went inside the tent, followed by Itachi.

Itachi gave a quiet hn as he looked at a crate that was placed beside the bedroll on the ground, "For such a simple mission to take this long was quite unexpected. These guys weren't Shinobi trained, but they still somehow managed to avoid us for five days."

Naruto broke the crate open with a grunt, and said, "Well, that just proves that even weaklings without Shinobi training can be exceptional in some ways."

"I never said they couldn't or weren't," Itachi noted with a raised brow.

"I know, I know, I'm just making conversation as we are about to blow up a crate filled with drugs that may or may not be explosive, without the tags." Naruto shrugged as if it was the simplest thing in the world and placed a couple of explosive tags on the inside of the crate.

Itachi nodded, "I see, finish this quickly. I'll be waiting at the spot where we were; before we engaged the enemy."

"Sounds good," Naruto said and heard the tent front rustle as Itachi left the inside of the tent.

Naruto took his mask off and placed it on the inside of his cloak as he did this. He really disliked having to wear the ANBU mask, but it was an efficient way to disguise yourself in this line of work.

The blond looked inside the crate and noticed a piece of paper that looked like an IOU showcasing a large amount of money. Moving it out of the way, he found a stack of money at the bottom. Raising a brow, he reached down and grabbed the stack of money held together by a little cloth wrap. When he had retrieved the bundle of money, he saw another bundle and chuckled.

'Man, this criminal line of work must really pay well. This amount of money is what I get for doing an S-Rank mission with a last-minute notice of deployment.' Naruto thought to himself as he put the bundles inside his cloak and went out of the tent.

The moment he stepped outside, he took his mask and placed it on his face again before shunshining up beside Itachi. "Hey man, look what I found." He chuckled and pulled one of the bundles of money out from his cloak.

"Why did you take that, we were instructed to blow up the properties of the target." Itachi sighed as he stared at the cheerful blond.

Naruto waved his finger in front of his face and stuck the money inside his cloak again, "Actually, our orders were to blow up the drugs."

Itachi shook his head with a small smirk, "Why did you take it again? It's not like you need money."

"Meh, spoils of war." Naruto chuckled as the two leaped away from the scene as a massive explosion happened in the background.

The journey back to their village, Konohagakure no Sato, had been fast and uneventful. Nothing had occurred, and the duo was able to retreat back to the Hokage's office by dawn without any trouble.

The duo landed on the Hokage's floor and kneeled down, "Hokage-sama." They spoke simultaneously, and the old man turned around in his chair while puffing on a pipe. This was Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, also known as The Professor due to various feats he had accomplished in the glory days of his prime.

"At ease, you two, drop the masks." He ordered and lifted the pipe away from his mouth with a fond smile.

The duo got up from their kneeling position on the floor, and moved the masks away from their faces, and settled for placing them at their hip for the time being. "Mission accomplished, Hokage-sama." Itachi then spoke.

Hiruzen nodded and started to write on a piece of paper, "I trust everything went well, and the target dealing harmful drugs in Hi no Kuni has been eliminated, yes?"

Naruto took this chance to speak, "Yes, the target has been eliminated, and the crate he was bringing with him was destroyed. Though, I decided to retrieve this from the crate." Naruto informed, and pulled the two bundles of money out of his cloak.

Hiruzen nodded and took the two bundles and placed them in a drawer inside his desk, "Good job you two, this money will be used for the good of the village. And of course, the two of you will receive a generous bonus for bringing these much-needed funds to us. You are dismissed until further notice."

The duo nodded and shunshined out of the office, and landed on top of the Hokage tower, in which the Hokage's office was obviously located. "I knew it was a good idea to bring the man's money with us," Naruto smirked as he leaned against the railing with his arms crossed.

"If you really needed the money, then why didn't you just keep it?" Itachi chuckled as he leaned down and rested against the railing while looking over the village.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just ask that, mister, 'all for the rules' Uchiha. But to humor you, I didn't want to be branded a traitor for keeping information from Oji-san, and it's also going to please him knowing we bring stuff like this to him. Think of it as an investment in his trust and backup in any future matters." Naruto said with a smirk.

Itachi raised a brow at him and snorted, "You're smarter than you look."

"What was that?!" Naruto said with a tick mark throbbing on his forehead.

"Naruto," Itachi interrupted as he got up from his resting position, and looked at the blond.

"Hm?" Naruto grunted, not understanding what was going on.

Itachi clapped him on the back and said, "My mother said she would like to invite you over for dinner after our mission was done. What she means is that ever since you got the duty of overlooking the various security seals within the village, while Jiraiya-sama is away, she is displeased with how little you grant us your presence."

Naruto shivered at the thought. Mikoto could be really scary when she was angry with something, and he didn't even want to think about how scary she could be when she was mad about something.

"Yeah… I know, it just isn't really comfortable being in your home sometimes." Naruto sighed and closed his eyes while taking a deep breath.

Itachi's brow went further upon his forehead, "How come?"

Naruto opened his eyes and gave a snort, "Don't tell me that the almighty Uchiha Itachi hasn't noticed how displeased his father is every time that I'm around. I don't know why, but I must've done something to upset him."

"I've noticed, but I don't think it has anything to do with you as a person," Itachi said in a monotone voice.

Naruto's face adopted a confused look, "How can it not be my fault, it isn't like he acts like that when I'm out of his sight."

"He does actually; I suspect it has something to do with him still having sour feelings left after the Yondaime Hokage selection where you're father beat him to it. I've heard that Orochimaru was also displeased about the results." Itachi explained to the best of his abilities.

Naruto snorted as he palmed his forehead, "So, I get to take the blame for something my father has done. Great, that makes me feel so much better." Naruto said sarcastically while Itachi shook his head.

"Anyhow, my mother still wishes to see you for dinner. It would be delightful if you'd come, she misses seeing you around, and so does Sasuke. Shisui might also be there if that makes anything better for you." Itachi said with a small smile.

Naruto sighed and stared at the blue skies above him, "I'll think about it, but I want to go home and continue studying my father's notes… I almost have it. Sometimes I really wonder if Kaa-san taught me the sealing she could, so I'd be working closely with Tou-san since he was always so busy at the office. Maybe she thought of it as a way to get me closer to him, because I was quite sad about never seeing him."

"Where does this come from?" Itachi questioned.

Naruto sighed again, and pushed off the railing he was leaning against, "I don't know, it just comes out when I let my mind run loose."

"Dangerous mind you have then." Itachi meant as a joke, but Naruto just shrugged.

"Yeah, sometimes it gets the better of me."

The sun was setting in the distance as Naruto made his way out of the T&I department with one Ibiki Morino in tow. Naruto rubbed his shoulder as he gave a short but relieved sigh. He was finally done for today and looked forward to a meal and some much-needed rest.

"I'm sorry for dragging you out of your home so late, but Inoichi thought that the security seals inside the interrogation cells might've been too outdated, but it seems like everything was alright, no?" Ibiki asked with a grunt.

Naruto turned around and looked at the man that had scars covering the majority of his face, "Everything was quite alright, but the models are quite outdated compared to the one that has been placed at the ANBU holding cells."

Ibiki nodded, "I trust Hokage-sama will hear of this, and work on having some newer versions installed soon?" He asked afterward.

"I'll bring it to his attention, yes. And I have little to no doubt that I'll be the one to set them up before the week is over," Naruto informed with a tired smile.

"That is pleasing news, I'll inform Inoichi of this. Good evening Naruto-san." Ibiki said with a small bow, slightly reveling in Naruto's displeasure before he returned inside.

Naruto groaned in annoyance. Of course, this just had to happen! He had been on his way home after shopping and training for the day when a fellow ANBU member had told him that the T&I department needed a look, something that had taken a good three hours to finish.

"So, this is where you're hiding?" A voice called out from above him.

Naruto looked up as he noticed a form falling from above, and he took a step back when a teen with short black hair landed in front of him, "Shisui-sama?" he asked with a small wave of a hand.

"The one and only," Shisui smirked as he pointed a thumb at himself.

Grunting Naruto made his way down the stairs up to the T&I department, with Shisui following right after. "Any reason you're interrupting my evening Shisui?"

"Well, Mikoto-sama feared that you might ditch dinner with Itachi and co, so she sent me to make sure that you're coming. It starts in ten minutes, by the way... It took quite a while to hunt you down." Shisui informed him as they walked side by side through the streets of Konoha.

"I had work. Ibiki thought that some of the seals were broken in the T&I department, but they were just outdated." Naruto sighed as he walked up a few stairs to an apartment complex.

Shisui rose a brow as he walked up behind the blond, "Why're you living here again? You have your family's estate."

"Memories," Naruto said simply, and opened the door to his apartment, and walked inside.

Shisui walked in and closed the door after him, and watched Naruto for a few minutes as the blond unsealed several scrolls filled with groceries and supplies, and then started to put them away in the fridge and cabinets after.

"You're coming, right? Mikoto-sama is going to skin me alive if I don't bring you back with me." Shisui asked, hopefully.

Naruto sighed as he put a tray of eggs in the bottom of his fridge, "It isn't really that welcoming for me, there. Mikoto-basan might like me, but Fugaku-san resents the very sight, sound, or smell of me."

"Aren't you overexaggerating a little bit?" Shisui asked with a raised brow.

"He told me to be quiet last time I was over for breakfast because I talked with Itachi. He meant that I disturbed his reading of the morning papers." Naruto rolled his eyes after saying that.

Shisui chuckled and sat down on a chair, "That old man could just read that stuff on the toilet while doing the number two."

Naruto gave a few quiet chuckles, "If I had said that, I would probably be banished from the clan grounds, instantly."

"Mikoto-sama wouldn't have allowed that, she's really fond of you, you know? Especially your friendship with Itachi… that makes her really happy. She has secretly told me, in confidence, that she was afraid Itachi might've had a harder time making friends, because of his father's actions during his early childhood. But then you and I showed up to save the day." Shisui said while inspecting a net filled with oranges.

"Wouldn't that make her fond of you as well?" Naruto asked as he grabbed the net from Shisui's hand, and filled a glass bowl with the oranges and placed it on the circular wooden dining table Shisui was sitting at.

Shisui rested his head on the palm of his hand, "Meh, she thinks that I'm kind of a bad influence at times. What did you do to make her think so highly of you anyway?"

"Perhaps it's because I'm less irresponsible than you?" Naruto said. And then there was a moment of silence before they both roared out laughing.

"Come on, man! If she knew what kind of books you're hiding in here, then she'd kill you and feed you to Fugaku-sama!" Shisui roared out laughing.

That quickly shut Naruto up, because he was too busy feeling terrified. She would really kill him if she knew of his bad habit. His brother figure, Hatake Kakashi, and his godfather, Jiraiya, had really corrupted him as he grew up.

"I should just burn those books…" Naruto groaned and filled the bowl with some other leftover fruits from the week before that hadn't rotted away yet.

Shisui faked a horrified look, "No! You can't! Those books are my precious. If you want to throw them away, you could always just… give them to me."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto turned to stare at Shisui, "And you question why she thinks of you as a bad influence…"

"Don't be rude… I'm not the one ditching the family dinners." Shisui winked.

Naruto started throwing the empty fruit nets out in a trashcan placed in a cabinet under the sink, "A family dinner is for family, I don't really qualify as that."

"Come ooon! If you aren't family, then what are you?" Shisui said in an annoyed tone. The Uchiha clan, well, with the exception of Fugaku, all thought of Naruto as a friend of the family by now. The blond was quite often present with Itachi after all, either for missions, or training, so they had gotten quite familiar with him.

Naruto didn't bother to give a response as he went over and turned off the lights, "You coming?" He asked and walked toward the door.

Shisui grinned ear to ear and rushed out of the front door, "I knew you wouldn't abandon me!" Shisui smiled as he turned around only to get the front door smacked right in his face. And so he stood there, with a twitching eyebrow.

He was about to knock on the door when it opened and Naruto walked out, "I'm just kidding, no reason to look so pissed off." He smirked and locked the door and pocketed the key.

"That wasn't funny!"