I apologize for the lateness of the update but I promised two weeks and I try to keep my word whenever possible.

Sakura, Sai and Kakashi flickered out of existence and appeared beside Tsunade as Naruto and Jiraiya stood across from each other.

"So you still don't think I'm capable of being strong on my own?"

"I've always known you could be strong, Naruto. The level you're capable of without using the Kyuubi won't be enough. Every member of Akatsuki was acknowledged as a genius in their respective fields and are S ranked. I've heard of what you've done and you have made it to B rank in the bingo book but that isn't nearly good enough."

Naruto didn't react at all except to put his hands into what had once been his signature move. With a giant mass of smoke 30 Naruto's appeared quickly spreading out and surrounding the Sannin in a circle.

Jiraiya merely sighed, "This is exactly what I'm talking about Naruto, all this training and skill and you still fight like a kid straight out of the academy."

Behind Naruto's mask a vicious smirk covered his face, before this was business but now he was going to enjoy it. He had worked himself to the bone for years to gain this strength and here was his failure of a godfather mocking his strength.

Calmly he reached up and pressed a finger to the side of his mask, right next to the eye, and focused a small amount of chakra to activate the seal. All of the clones surrounding Jiraiya copying the movements and suddenly they all disappeared. All that was left was 31 slightly hazey splotches in the air as Jiraiya suddenly tensed.

As the seal fully activated the stored jutsu and they remained unmoving the clones and their originator became fully invisible even to Jiraiya's trained eyes. This still wasn't much of a problem though, he knew that jutsu too. The moment they start moving that haze will come back and I'll be able to see them, meaning the beset place to attack from would be. Behind!

Jiraiya focused his senses on the area behind him and barely heard the parting of grass as the nearly invisible clone came from behind. Waiting til the last second he suddenly went through the seals and crouched down launching his hair out in all directions as minature senbon. There were a few distinct pops but far less then he had hoped for.

Suddenly every instinct in his body was screaming to jump. He pushed off with both his hands and feet and barely left the ground before 4 blades burst from the ground. Using a split second to examine their positions he realized they were positioned as to cut both his achilies tendons and the tendons in his arms, effectively making him an invilid until healed.

A full second after he had left the ground another blade burst out of the ground, this one long and gleaming silver. Wondering why one of the clones timing appeared so bad he was answered when the blade suddenly shot out of the ground at breakneck speeds heading straight towards his chest.

Being in the air he had no way to dodge within the split second before the sword would skewer him. Acting quickly he swung his arm around towards the rapidly approaching blade and just barely managed to tap the tip with his armguard to send it off course. This didn't completely save him however as the length of the twenge still gouged a deep slice through his bicep as it passed him and continued into the sky.

Jiraiya winced but quickly started to form the appropriate handsigns for a Giant Fireball, even if he couldn't see them he could still get the clones above ground. However, halfway through the necessary seals he heard a loud popping sound from above him.

When he had deflected the sword its angle had changed enough to cause it to hit one of three clones that were now falling quickly towards his exposed back. The twin blue spirals of energy held in their hands collided with his back, interrupting his jutsu and sending him crashing into the ground causing a large plum of dust to rise up and obscure his fallen form.

Popping noises started echoing through the clearing one after another as the invisible clones were dealt with. As the dust settled Jiraiya was standing there looking only slightly worse for ware as Naruto stood across the clearing from him, having not moved from his starting position. He was twirling a small razor sharp folical of white hair that clearly had come from the sage's head. Just as he was about to try his hand at returning the sharpened folical to the man's skull a Jounin appeared in the clearing and rushed to Tsunade.

Both Jiraiya and Naruto relaxed as they watched curious as the man delivered his message.

"Hokage-sama! Someone has broken into the Hokage tower! The Anbu on guard found them within your office but they managed to escape. We are currently checking for any traps or listening devices."

Tsunade put on her game face and started barking out orders.

"This test is over with, Team Kakashi, Jiraiya come with me."

With barely a flicker of movement all of the shinobi disappeared, leaving the Jounin to try desperately to keep up.

When they arrived at the tower the place was a perfect example of well rehearsed chaos as anyone not with the Anbu were checked and rechecked before being sent home for the day so the shinobi special forces could do a proper sweep of the building. Tsunade had team Kakashi assist in sweeping the building while she managed the Anbu who swept the room Kage's library and other sensitive areas. Jiraiya meanwhile was checking how they intruder got through the security seals and trying to find any new seals they might have placed themselves.

After all was said and done the building was declared clean and nothing had been tampered with as far as anyone could tell. This fact more than anything set Tsunade on edge, no one would break into her officec without planning to do something.

She turned to Jiraiya with an expectant look, "How did they manage to get into my office?"

Jiraiya, for once, had a serious look on his face.

"Since you weren't in at the time the more powerful seals weren't active. They did set off the chakra sensing seal and the room wasn't under lockdown so getting in isn't much of a problem. It looks like they might have tried to place a listening seal of their own but the seals that your grandmother put in place for the First Hokage are still working and most likely erased them before they could even activate."

Team Kakashi was silent as they watched the two ex-teammates talk through the break in. After a while it became apparent to everyone that while the break in had been stopped and aborted they had no idea what the intruder had been doing or who they were. Late into the night Team Kakashi was released from active duty for a week to recover and train after their fight with Jiraiya.

Naruto and Sai walked together towards the apartment complex they now lived in together. When it was decided that Sai needed an actual home outside the root base Naruto had forwarded that since no one wanted to live in the same apartment complex as him that there were plenty of rooms he could have. Sai ended up having his own floor much as Naruto did.

They walked up the stairs to go to their own floors but as they turned a corner Naruto quickly made two shadow clones, one of which used a henge to appear as Sai, and sent them to their rooms. Meanwhile, Naruto and Sai opened a laundrey shoot and quickly slid down it sliding down several stories underneath the basement of the building into a set of tunnels.

Once they were within the tunnels they made a set of hand signs and 5 shadows detached from the walls and bowed to the two senior members.

Naruto and Sai continued walking through the underground of Konoha on a very specific path that only Root members knew, if even a foot was placed off the path traps would be set off with every intention of killing the intruder. After ten minutes of walking they entered the main compound. Naruto sent Sai to check up on Fu and see how she was doing.

The blond calmly walked up to the plain looking wooden door that marked his commander's office and knocked politely. Several seconds went by before a muffled enter was given through the door. Naruto opened the door and walked into the office going down on one knee after closing the door behind him.

Danzo looked down on Naruto knowing why he was here but deciding to ask anyway, it wouldn't be the first time Naruto had surprised him.

"Do you have a question, Naruto?"

The blond looked up into Danzo's eyes, "Why did you have one of your agents break into the Hokage Tower?"

Danzo smiled, he didn't even need to ask if it was Root. He had already figured that much out, it was good to see Naruto using that intellect.

"I decided I didn't want that baffoon seeing too many of your skills."

"Jiraiya?"

"Yes, although the man is a powerful shinobi and an excellent spy master the death of the Fourth and his failure to take you on as an apprentice weigh heavily on him. As such the drinking that had once been a disguise for information gathering has become more of an actual problem. It has dulled him considerably. Today you could have probably taken him had you not held back but if he still had the strength he did even 4 years ago you wouldn't have stood a chance. Had he seen those skills it is possible that later in a drunken state he might reveal your skills to a spy, I couldn't let that happen."

Naruto kept his emotions in check but did feel somewhat guilty that his refusal of the old pervert had helped to cause a drinking problem but that guilt was quickly eradicated by logic. He didn't make the old man drink, that was his own choice. The silence in the room stretched for a few precious seconds while Danzo watched Naruto work through his emotions.

"It is fortuitous that you came tonight, I have a mission for your team."

Naruto bowed his head lower, letting golden locks cover his eyes, "Hai, Old man."

"You will take your team and Theta squad. There have been reports of Kakuza formerly of the Hidden Waterfall village passing through grass country. Do not hold back, no capture expectation. Kill him and bring his head back, we can collect the bounty later and add it to Konoha's coffers the usual way."

Over the years Danzo had learned that transfering funds from no where directly into Konoha's coffers earned attention. Instead he had an operative who lived close to Konoha who masqueraded as a minor noble. When Root earned more money than they needed this operative would request a team of body guards for a vacation. They never went far or to anywhere dangerous but when the mission was over the operative would over pay for the team's 'amazing service and an apology for wasting the time of such skilled shinobi'. Everyone thought he was escentric but no one thought he was Root.

"I have a week's leave, I'll need to place a beta within the apartment and for training with my team."

Danzo nodded, "Has Hatake noticed any differences when you switch with a beta?"

Naruto took a moment to consider the question, tilting his head and rewinding through the memories of his clones.

"He has his suspicions but I don't think he is sure it isn't me, since the beta's can take a hit he most likely hasn't realized they're clones."

Fourteen months earlier Naruto had learned, through experimentation, that by going through the full hand signs of the Shadow Clone Jutsu to create a clone and then using a chakra transfer technique on the clone would cause it to become more durable and capable of doing more jutsu of its own, even creating a limited number of shadow clones. He had begun using these clones whenever the mission risk probability was low and a Root mission required his urgent attention. Within the caste of Root operatives Naruto was second only two Danzo and his two body guards, Fu and Torune.

Danzo nodded thoughtfully before returning to the manner at hand, "Your teams leave in 3 hours, inform your teams and make all necessary preparations."

Naruto nodded and a sealless clone popped into existence at his side for a split second before disappearing again. While sealless clones were exceptionally weak in combat they made for excellent ways to pass information. At the time of creation clones knew everything that he knew and when they were destroyed, if he wished it, all of their knowledge that they had gained in their limited lives were transferred to the original and the other clones that had already been created.

With his clone now informed of the intention to perform a chakra transfer he knew when to move to a specific part in the apartment where the transfer would take place. Naruto made another clone with slightly more chakra to go find Fu, Sai and team Theta and to inform them of the mission and that they needed to pack.

Danzo watched Naruto work in a pleased faction, he had become extremely efficient in comparison to how he had been when he first met the blond. With a final nod Naruto left the office of the Root commander and made his way to the tunnel that lead to his apartment.

Once there he climbed a small ladder that lead to a hollowed out portion of the east wall within his apartment. The inside of the walls were covered with seals, making it impossible for even a Hyuga to see that the latter existed.

Once to the top he ran through the handsigns for the transfer and pressed it against a chakra conductive pad that went straight through the wall, on the inside of the apartment it had been painted over to appear to be part of the wall and the clone would merely lean against it while reading to receive chakra. Since Naruto had become an avid reader within the last 5 years no one watching would find it odd for Naruto to be reading within his apartment.

Now that his clone had been transformed into a Beta he returned to Root base and picked up his equipment from his locker. When he walked out of the locker room he was flanked on both sides by Fu and Sai, behind them was team Theta.

*****************************3 days later****************************

They were almost to Grass country when they saw it, a small messenger hawk bearing the symbol of the Sand village. Acting quickly Naruto ordered that Sai bring it down, but unharmed. Danzo always said even false information is useful. Sai quickly drew a hawk of his own which leapt off the scroll and sped after the hawk on an intercept course. Right when they were about to collide the ink hawk exploded into a cloud of ink that soaked into the birds feather's weighing it down and forcing a landing where it was captured by Fu. The Green haired Jinchurikin used medical chakra to silently put the struggling bird into a light medical coma. Once the bird was unconcious she gently untied the message and handed it to her leader before returning to gently petting the unconcious bird.

The blond Root commander quickly memorized the seal before breaking it and reading the message. The message was two simple sentences.

The Kazekage has been captured by Akatsuki. Requesting Aid, Immediately.

Author's notes:

Finally into Shippuden! I realize that having all that fight between Team Kakashi and Jiraiya was long and I apologize but I wanted to show everyone what level each member is at in comparison with someone who is known to be powerful. I hope you guys enjoyed that one. I am starting two other fanfics, both Naruto based but are crossovers. If you enjoyed this fanfic please read my two new ones, they are a Naruto/Bleach and a Naruto/Supernatural/Dresden Files. I have alot of hope for all these stories and will try to update as often as I can. Have a good night. Questions and Comments are welcome as always.