A young man with black hair, dressed in ABNU attire and a raven mask stood in the door opening. For a few seconds he just looked Morino and Naruto up and down, clearly assessing the situation as he found it. Naruto jumped up and grinned at the man, but he only received a cold glare of the deep black eyes behind the masks.

The man stepped aside and motioned them to enter. When Naruto made no indication of moving, Morino practically pushed Naruto through the door, keeping a firm hand on Naruto's neck.

The room they entered had a grim atmosphere. Both Hokage were sat behind the desk with their backs to the window. The raven haired ANBU took his place beside the Fifth Hokage dutifully. A man with long white hair and red clothing, an older woman with blond hair and green clothing were standing a little to the side to let the new arrivals take the place directly in front of the desk. A pink haired girl stood on the other side of them. All had a concerned expression on their face and all of them were staring right at Naruto.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the sight and proceeded to ignore the room, instead going back to his lifelong habit of clawing at his collar.

Morino bowed to the Hokage, and when he noticed that Naruto didn't, he pushed Naruto into a bow. Not that Naruto was unwilling or resisting or anything. It was more a lack of learned social skills, but really, who could blame him for that? Morino was well aware, having raised the boy for four years, but even before that social etiquette wasn't something that was taught to him.

When Morino let go of Naruto again, they all watched his attention immediately wander through the room, seemingly never focussed on anything.

The first to break the silence in the room was Sarutobi. "Naruto. You seem well." There was a slight quiver in his voice. Happiness and sadness merged into one at seeing the boy he once set out to protect, but failed to in his own mind.

"I am not unwell." Naruto responded. He was still looking around, slowly turning around as he did so.

"That's... good." Sarutobi said with a furrowed brow. Somewhere he had expected Naruto to be a little more like he remembered, unstable but happy to see him. The room once again filled with an awkward silence.

"Ahum. Let's start with the business at hand." This time it was Kakashi who spoke, glancing at the papers in front of him. He sorted through them quickly, making sure all the information he needed was within range. "The Ame nin we caught in the village had some interesting information on the happenings around Amegakure. It seems that there is movement against other nations in search of the different Jinchuuriki. They have been gathering them under the organisation named Akatsuki. Since there hasn't been any real sign of our Jinchuuriki for at least four years, the Ame nin was sent here in order to find information about our Jinchuuriki. It seemed that it was presumed we either lost our Bijū after Uzumaki Kushina died, or that we have done an exceptional job at hiding our current Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto." Another silence filled the room. Most eyes were trained on Naruto again, watching for any kind of reaction from the blond, but he seemed to have found something rather interesting in the corner of the room, judging from the way he was staring into the corner with a slight smile.

He snapped out of his stare and faster than most could follow he was on Morino's back, leaning on Morino's shoulders with his hands and his arms straight. His legs clung underneath Morino's armpits and he was looking down, both eyes blazing, but the red one more prominent.

People around the room snapped to attention at the sudden movement, readying themselves in case the prisoner was going to act out. Even the fifth Hokage had stood up from his seat, hand hovering over his pouch and his eye in a dangerous glare.

Morino, however, casually looked up and raised an eyebrow, not at all surprised to suddenly have the weight of a 16-year-old on his shoulder, since it wasn't that uncommon for Naruto to get physical.

"Why didn't you tell me Cat was here?" Naruto asked, a slightly hurt but also an amused tone in his voice. He didn't get to see Cat that often and he hadn't seen Dog since she walked away from him at home. Cat had told him she was one of the people who had truly turned against him, siding with the counsel. He had been very upset over this for a while, but then decided to focus on those loyal to him instead of those who were against him.

"I don't think Cat is here, Naruto. He's not one of the Hokage's guards." Morino answered carefully.

Naruto cocked his head. "Huh, I guess you don't know, then..." He stared Morino dead in the eyes for a second. "Well, at least you didn't lie, Torture expert-sama." Naruto pushed himself further, summersaulting over Morino and ending up sitting criss-legged facing the Hokage table in one smooth motion. Another silence filled the room in which people stepped down, the relaxed attitude of Morino letting them know there was no threat from Naruto, but all of them surprised and puzzled at the random behaviour. All except Morino and Sarutobi.

Kakashi slowly sat down again and looked at Sarutobi. The old man also hadn't responded alarmed and sat there with a nostalgic smile on his lips. It was good to see Naruto still as energetic and happy as he always was.

"So, Jiji, why am I here?" A sudden wave of seriousness washed over Naruto as he looked at Sarutobi.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Like I just said, people are after you since you are the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. This involves you."

Naruto turned his attention to Kakashi, cocking his head like he was looking at something weird and distasteful. "I figured that out the moment you mentioned me by name, believe it or not. What I meant is, if I have been hidden for the past four years to the extent of becoming unknown by being kept in the department, why dig me up and bring me to light now? Why not let me remain hidden?"

"You may have been hidden, but you're not without trace. We cannot overlook the possibility that there are more infiltrators working their way in. We keep records of the criminals in our hold." Kakashi threw back with a slight glare.

Naruto answered the glare with one of his own. "I'm sure you do."

"Naruto, we want to assess how strong you are and see if we can use your strength to help resolve this issue. You'd be placed in a team consisting of Raven and Sakura." Sarutobi said, first pointing at the ANBU with the raven mask and then the pink-haired girl. "Jiraya and Tsunade will be your assessors for this."

The glare Naruto was giving Kakashi disappeared within a second, replaced by a happy expression aimed towards Sarutobi. "A team with Sasuke and Sakura-chan? Why them?" He asked curiously.

Sakura quickly looked at Sasuke. How had she not realised that the ANBU was Sasuke? Moreover, how did Naruto know it was him?

"How did you know?" Sasuke still stood in pretty much the same manner with his arms crossed in front of him. There wasn't any curiosity in his voice, or any emotion, but if Naruto had to name one, it would have been surprise.

Naruto looked back, grinning as he did so. "You smell nice." Was all he said, before turning his attention back to the Hokage table.

Kakashi decided to ignore the little interruption and ignore the fact that one of his ABNU's identities had been this easily guessed and continued the meeting. Instead, he brought up a sensitive issue. "I understand you know him, Sarutobi-sensei, but how could we as Hokage allow a criminal to walk out of containment? The last time he was allowed freedom he ended up murdering a woman. Multiple, if we go by the M.O."

"Wait, he murdered someone?" Sakura asked, taking a step back and looking at Naruto with fear. The room seemed to drop in temperature at that.

"I have not killed anyone since the incident in the woods. I did not kill that that woman." Naruto growled, his voice deep and dark and a dangerous aura around him.

"I can verify that. I 've worked with Naruto for four years now and I can honestly say that I am convinced he didn't do this. Yamanaka-san will be able to confirm this as well. Not to mention that I believe lord Third also believes in Naruto's innocence." Morino added, staring Kakashi down as much as Kakashi was staring at Naruto. Naruto seemed to mellow out when hearing the support from Morino, though, making the room a little lighter again.

"That doesn't change the fact that he is responsible for the massacre in the woods ten years ago. He is still a murderer, a criminal, even if it is less recent." Kakashi said. He couldn't just trust a criminal like that. There was no way the boy hadn't been involved in those murders from what he heard from people and Kakashi wasn't sure setting the boy free would end up as a good thing for Konoha.

Sakura took another step back, pulling her hands up to her chest. "Ten years ago? Is he the one who killed my mother? And you want to not only set him free, but also have him on the same team as me? No! I can't! Why?" Sakura yelled. She was near tears. She had never known who the killer of her mother was and to now learn she even spent time with him as a classmate made her sick to her stomach. Even Sasuke shifted in uneasiness. Naruto had always been weird and having an ANBU guard with him everywhere he went did seem strange, but to have gone to school with a murderer was something else.

Both Tsunade and Jiraya moved to speak up as well, but they were interrupted. "Alright, enough." Sarutobi said calmly. "There has been extensive research into the responsibility and liability of what happened that day ten years ago. I have personally seen the scene and I know why everything that happened, happened. That is one of the reasons why I allowed Naruto the freedom he had until the age of twelve. The murders around four years ago were not committed by Naruto, as the conclusion of the T&I department clearly states. Naruto was kept there, because he broke a different rule and I had no option but to comply by the ruling of the counsel, but that was merely a broken curfew." He stopped and took a deep breath, turning his attention to Sakura. "I understand it is difficult, but both you and Sasuke, in combination with Jiraya and Tsunade are the best options for the mission at hand. As your Hokage I must ask you to keep your personal issues out of your cooperation. I know this is a cruel thing to ask, but the thread of the Akatsuki and Ame is too great."

Sakura just looked away. She was dutiful enough to her village and Hokage to comply, but that didn't mean she liked it and it definitely didn't mean she was going to be friendly or forgiving towards Naruto.

She remembered the disturbing vision she had on the day they graduated. The images still haunted her dreams, but now the images were getting a different meaning. She was now able to add a face to the blurry images, specifically the face of the tormented boy. It had been Naruto. She was struggling to see the lie in the images; she could only see them as true no matter how much she pondered over them. Her mother had been cruel to the boy. A vision like that wasn't fabricated. There were too many details that were correct, like the clothing her mother had been wearing and the make and model of the kitchen knife in her mother's hand. She remembered being surprised at the fact that her mother hadn't been home when she came down for some water. Her mother had never left her alone without telling, so the fact that her mother had done so that night put more doubts about her mother into her mind. Still, it was her mother. She loved her mother with everything she had, and her mother had been cruelly torn away from her. She would not forget, and she would not forgive easily.

The others left her to her musings, the emotions on her face a clear sign she needed to process the information given to her. Even Naruto seemed to pick up on it, surprising most in the room and making Morino feel proud at Naruto's mature behaviour.

After the words from lord Third, most people in the room had decided to follow his words and not question the decision to give Naruto his freedom any further. The more technical part of the meeting was now discussed, and since it was more focussed on Morino and the administration needed to have Naruto leave the department, Naruto leaned back against Morino's legs and closed his eyes. He felt Sasuke staring at him and the others stealing glances at him but ignored them.

The conversation went on for almost half an hour and all of it was on how to get him out without getting involved with the counsel. Decisions were made and work-arounds were created, but Naruto had nothing to say in any of it even if he had wanted to, so he continues to relax.

"Hey, Papa, I'm hungry..." Naruto suddenly said, stopping the whole discussion. He was looking up at Morino with begging eyes and to drive his point home, his stomach growled.

Morino sighed in exasperation. "Will you stop calling me that already?" He said while rummaging through his pockets. He pulled out a meal bar and dropped it into Naruto's hands.

Naruto looked at the bar. "Yes! Chocolate. Thank you, Papa!" Naruto was happy and bubbly as he spoke, wrestling with the package to open it. As he did, he moved in a little dance, celebrating his treat in the most childish matter. Childish, but innocent and cute.

Morino pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes and letting out a tired grunt. "Ignore this. Please continue, Hokage-sama." He said turning his attention back to Kakashi.

"Where was I?" Kakashi looked down at the filled in files to see where they were and if anything was missing.

"The part where you sign for the removal of the collar and the cuffs". Surprisingly, or maybe not at this point, it wasn't Morino but Naruto that pointed that out, proving once again to Morino that nothing went past the blond, no matter how relaxed, distracted and unaware he seemed to be.

"Right, yes. Sarutobi-sensei. I think this is something you should do." A stack papers thick enough to be nightmare inducing for any Kage was shifted from Kakashi's side of the desk to Sarutobi's. Sarutobi glared slightly at Kakashi, silently cursing the laziness of the one-eyes man, but not really having a good reason to refuse it either. In the long run it would even be better if Sarutobi signed. Should the counsel work against them, the worst they could do was to remove him from his function as Hokage, but since Kakashi would be free to choose his counsel afterwards, it might even shift the balance even more in their favour.

With renewed vigour he started to sign the forms, that of course all came in three-fold, and with the practised ease of a true Kage worked his way through it in one go. Still, it took him more than a few minutes and the room was filled with and awkward silence that was only interrupted by the sounds of the wrapper from the bar and rather penetrating sound of chewing in contrast to the silence.

"Just a few more... aand... done." Three piled of filled out paperwork were now neatly stacked in front of Sarutobi. One stack for the administration of the Hokage, one for the administration of the T&I department and the last one for the counsel. They had chosen the most lengthy and complicated forms for this in the hopes that the counsel would only glance through it before filing it away.

Morino stepped around Naruto and picked up his stack. "Well, Naruto, it seems you are a free to go. Let's get back to remove your collar and cuffs."

Naruto slowly stood up and stretched lazily, popping his back and shoulder in the process. "No need, Morino-san." Naruto moved his hands into a few sighs and with a short flare, the cuffs began to glow, popping open and falling to the floor. He then did the same to the collar. Naruto ran his hands over the callous skin on his neck, tentatively feeling it for the first time again in four years.

"What?" He asked when he noticed everyone staring at him.

"How did you do that?" Morino asked flabbergasted.

Naruto looked puzzled himself, but soon realised Morino was asking about the removal of the cuffs and collar. "Oh, that. I've seen you do it and I remembered how." He said simply.

"Then why haven't you removed them before?" It was Sasuke to ask this. He would never admit it, but he knew how complicated the removal of the cuffs and collar was, so he was impressed Naruto had been able to do it so easily.

"Because I wasn't allowed to." Naruto said in the same tone as before, like it was glaringly obvious and very simple. He picked up the cuffs and collar and handed them to Morino. "So, where will I live now?" He asked, looking around the room to see who would respond.

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