(AN: Sorry for the short chapter I had planned for it to be longer but i was doing it on my phone on a whim. I plan to start posting a little more regular and all that. The chapters should start to grow in size as i knock off some serious rust. Thanks to those still reading and I hope you all like my story. Ok on with the show.)

"So I am in prison."

This was the first thing the young blonde said once he opened his eyes. Naruto was only ten but he felt like an old man at that moment. The weight of that mans death hung heavy on his young mind. Now Naruto was no fool. He knew in his profession killing someone was bound to happen. However, he had not even graduated from the academy. Hell he was only a year into his training and while the Kage Bunshin helped move things along, there was only so much knowledge that could be gained from books. Not to mention the bitch of a headache that fooled dispelling a large group of clones.

Naruto looked around the small room and took in his surroundings. The bed he was on was comically small, with a thin mattress and plain blanket. There was a small desk in the corner and a large metal door. There was no window and a small door that led to what he assumed was bathroom. Well he hoped.

"This is bullshit," he muttered under his breath. Naruto swung his bare feet over the edge of his bed and stood up on the concrete floor. As soon as he walked towards the large metal door it suddenly swung open to reveal an ANBU member in a bear mask. He was a truly massive man and Naruto would swear to this day he never squeaked.

"Recruit, you are to report to testing area four at 0300 tomorrow. All directions and gear you need will be in this scroll." The massive man then produced a rolled up scroll. Naruto quickly took the scroll and had turned to say something only to find the man gone, and the door closed again. This caused the boy to frown, but he quickly forgot that as his eyes set upon the scroll.

"Place on ground, unfurl and apply chakra," he read, "Well that seems easy enough."

Naruto quickly put the scroll on the ground and unrolled it. He could barely contain his excitement and all but forgot about his situation as he applied chakra to the scroll. A large poof of smoke filled the room and his eyes nearly bugged out at everything that suddenly appeared. There were books of all types, A notebook, two smaller scrolls that read - supplies and weapons, and a simple grey outfit consisting of sweats and grey shirt. The blonde immediately formed what was quickly becoming his favorite hand sign and summoned four clones.

"Ok guys lets get to work, I need to know where to go tomorrow, and anything else that can be learned about our situation. Now that I think about it," Naruto walked over to the pile of books and his hand seemed to gravitate towards a thick black book with gold trim. He picked it up and read it out loud. "Fuinjutsu basics volume 1 thru 8."

Naruto looked at the clones and nodded towards them. " I will start working on this. Lets get to work we are burning time."

The blonde looked back at the book in his hand and left the clones to their own devices. He was going to start on whatever fuinjutsu was and pray he didn't stay up too late. Actually, the blonde suddenly thought, he had no idea what time it was and that seemed important to know. Naruto frowned at that and suddenly put the book down and walked towards the door. He tugged on the handle and was surprised to learn that it was in fact not locked.

"Huh,"

He poked his head out of the room and there in front of his door on the wall was a clock. it read ten. Well it was safe to assume it was most likely not in the morning so with that in mind the boy changed his plans up a little.

"Ok guys change of plan," Naruto strolled in the now kind of cramped room and spoke again. "I am going to go to sleep, I need you all to stay out in the hallway and do your research out there. When... I think 0300 is three am... I am not sure so say two thirty someone wake me up."

He received a mock salute from his smart ass clones before they filed out into the hallway to begin learning everything the boss needed for tomorrow. It was going to be a long night for them they just knew it. The original Naruto sighed as he turned off the light in the room and laid down on the small bed. He figured he was a recruit, most likely ANBU judging from the ANBU who delivered the scroll. He sighed then rolled over on to his side. Tomorrow would most certainly explain everything.

Two thirty came too fast in the young boy's opinion. However, with much reluctance he rolled out of bed, and got dressed. As it turned out the other smaller door did lead to a small bathroom and that was a good thing. Naruto already knew where to go thanks to the clones pouring over the directions that were left.

Naruto walked through the double metal doors into a small class room like area. He was surprised by all the grown ups in the room. In fact he was by far the youngest person there and was about to turn and leave when the man standing up front spoke up. "Recruit take a seat and listen well."

This froze him mid step. He quickly turned on his heel and took the closest seat turning his attention to the front. The man up front with out skipping a beat continued talking, " as I was saying before. You are all here because we think you have the talent to be in the elite of the elite. However, from this point forward we will begin to weed out the less than worthy."

His attention suddenly squared on Naruto and a small smile spread across his lips. "Since you seem to want to be the center of attention you will go first pint size."

Naruto simply nodded and walked to the front. He felt every single eye in the room focused on him, but he felt nothing. If anything he was starting to get excited. He stopped in front of the man up front and waited. However, it would not be a long wait for almost as soon as he walked up there and stopped the other man had become a flurry of action. The blonde barely had time to dodge the attack as a fist went racing by his head. The blonde reacted quickly lashing out with a kick to create room from the large man. It would be for the most part an useless jester. The large man simply caught his leg and threw him like a rag doll.

The blonde child flipped gracefully into a back flip before getting back to his feet. Sharingan eyes bled into view causing the larger fighter to grin. He had been here when Itachi had come through like a hurricane, and he could feel his excitement crashing through his veins. It was time to see what the kid could do.

Naruto frowned at the man's grin. The boy wasn't even sure of the rules of this fight, what was ok, what wasn't and the man attacking him didn't seem too interested in telling him what was up so it looking like trial and error it was. With out further thinking about he snapped his hands into the cross ram sign and spawned three clones. They raced forward as soon as they were created and began to attack with kicks and punches from all angles. Meanwhile the real Naruto watched his Sharingan taking in everything with super precision.

Now while he may of only had two tomoe in each eye, he could still follow every move, every muscle twitch the other man did, or even thought of doing. However, it was becoming obvious quickly that he was much stronger and faster than the child was. So a plan was needed and needed fast. Naruto had studied many books by some of the most fabled tacticians. Surely he could come up with...

All further thought ceased when Naruto's face suddenly deformed. Some would say it was the extreme thought crossing his mind, or the sandal-ed foot buried into his cheek. No body would ever know for sure, except Naruto whom at that moment was sent flying into a healthy looking wall.

"Ha, barely felt that." Naruto had spoke for the first time, before slowly sliding down the wall and on to the floor in a slump. He was strong for a ten year old sure, but he was no monster. Not yet.

"Not bad kid. You have a long way to go, but you have some serious potential." the man who had still yet to name himself turned towards the others and spoke louder, "If you impress me, you get to stay. This kid just set the bar ladies and gentlemen. Do not disappoint!"

Later that day after everyone had tried their best to top the tester, A scant six people including Naruto were all that remained. The man whom tested them had barely broken a sweat.

"Well recruits, let me be the first to say welcome to the ANBU training program. Today begins your journey into the Elite of the Elite. From this point forward you will act with a level of professionalism befitting of ANBU." He stopped talking and looked over at the six sur... Er remaining recruits and smirked. "I hope you all get a good nights rest. Tomorrow we start training."

He turned and started walking out of the room before he stopped and spoke again, "Before I forget, you all are to report back to this room at the same time tomorrow." and he was gone after that. Naruto grinned before exhaling a sigh of relief. He looked around at the five others and they each sported a similar relieved look.

"Well, my name is Naruto, what are yours?"

"Aiko."

"..."

"Rey."

"Jaku."

"Areela."

Naruto frowned but did not say anything when one of them simply stood up after they introduced themselves, and left with out saying a word. However the other four two men and two women had stayed.

"I know I am quite young, but I was hoping we could all be friends?"

The other four seemed to shrug at the idea and a collective why not passed through them. It would seem they figured Naruto had earned his spot in just as they did and thus would be a comrade in the future anyways. So why not give the kid a chance? This of course was another huge weight lifted off the ten year old's shoulders. It would suck to have to deal with assholes day in and day out because he was either too young or they hated the Kyuubi. Hell with that, it was how people ended up dead.

"Well I am going to train for a little bit, anyone interested in joining?"

That was how it began. Every morning the six of them would meet at the testing room and begin their "class" for the day. This covered a wide range of rules and expectations of an ANBU. Alot more politics than Naruto was really prepared for. However, it was a good thing he got at least some of the basics down when it came to politics and the one main thing he learned which he was sure was true for everything was, 'becareful with whom you trust'.

Even at the tender age of ten Naruto knew that people will look you in the eye and make a deal they never intend to keep. It was the nature of the beast one that the small boy was glad to have learned. It would seem even in the ultra professional world of the ANBU politics had sunk their dirty claws into it. So he would play nice, eat the proper shit sandwich and learn all he could learn from this.

The days went by in a blur of waking up early, going to the class and sitting there for a few hours, then the small group would walk to the outside field attached to the room and begin training. Naruto at first had thought it weird that did not do a single team based exercise but he quickly moved on pass that. No he would put his nose to the grind stone and get as much strength as he could in the small time.

The Third sat in his office and took a long draw on the wood pipe that sat between his lips.

"What do you want?"

A nameless Chuunin poked his head through the door and sputtered, "Hokage-sama, a message arrived for you with an urgent notice."

Hiruzen motioned the man in whom quickly delivered the scroll and quickly left the office. He glanced down at it, the red seal keeping it shut showed the urgency of the message. With practiced ease the old man bit his thumb and put the small droplet of blood that came out over the seal. It glowed for a second before seemingly unlocking the scroll.

"Sensei, I have found out about a group that will pose a very real problem. Orochimaru has joined them and that is never good news. Please keep a look out for a group called 'Akatsuki'."

The Third frowned. Orochimaru was most certainly going to come back to bite him some how, but that was neither here nor there. He was irrelevant. No the Third was more worried that there was a group of people strong enough to get the snake, and that had Jiraya worried. This would require much more investigation, so Hiruzen picked up a pen and scroll and began to write his response.