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How did he get here?
Naruto contemplated this question as he flopped onto the ground. The sound of his own erratic heartbeat drowned out the sound of his surroundings. He stared up at the crescent moon above him surrounded by twinkling little stars and felt at peace. How wonderful it was to lay here and think about how he ended up in a clearing, in a random forest on the border of Konoha, lying in a pool of someone's blood. Some of it was his blood unfortunately, his opponent had caught him off guard and stabbed him with a kunai. It was nothing Kurama couldn't fix, so he wasn't worried about it. It was a stupid mistake though, and the captain was going to chew him out for making a careless mistake again. Of course Naruto didn't mind the captain's reprimands, because he knew the man cared for them all deep down. Somewhere. Hopefully.
As the adrenaline wore off and feeling slowly returned to his body, a jolting pain in his abdomen made Naruto realise that he had gone off a tangent. He was originally thinking about how he'd end up wounded in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night. His thoughts wandered back to a year ago, when Hokage sama summoned him to her office.
It was supposed to be his day off, so Naruto thought nothing off it as he strolled through the streets. The weather that day was sunny and comfortable. He smiled at the children playing around in the streets and returned every wave politely. What a stark contrast from how he used to be treated he had thought. But that was what he'd fought so hard for. For recognition. For peace. For his precious people. And he had achieved it, the akatsuki was defeated and Madara were defeated. The Hidden Villages were peaceful and cooperative. It was everything he could've hoped for.
His joyful mood was disrupted as he stood before the Hokage tower, the centre of the village. Normally the bright red walls would've brought him joy, and he'd imagine himself residing within those very walls protecting the village. However, today the walls seemed less bright. Less lively.
Naruto shook it off and happily walked up the walls instead of taking the stairs. Baa chan was used to it anyways, because Kakashi sensei does the exact same thing. He tapped the window to let her know he'd arrived, waiting for her to turn around with a fond smile. But today she looked solemn as she opened the window for him. He asked her if she felt alright with his signature grin and recieved the answer that she was fine. But even he could tell something heavy was on her mind. The guest chair creaked as Naruto sat down across from her. The silence stretched as Tsunade baa chan looked for something, worry marring her face.
Naruto couldn't bare the silence, and decided to speak. "Baa chan, what are you looking for? I can come back later if you want. I could also help you look." Just as Naruto stood up to help her, she placed a folder before her carefully. He sat down seeing she had found it, and awaited for her to speak.
Tsunade hesitated before opening the folder and sliding it towards him. Her eyes followed his movement to see his reaction upon seeing the document. Naruto's eyes flickered down to the document before him, it was a form he had to fill out. Questions and boxes filled the sheet. He raised his head to ask her what it was before his eyes landed on the title of the document 'ANBU Black Ops request form'.
Naruto's jaw slackened as he processed what she was asking of him. He raised his head and stared at her in disbelief. "The ANBU Black Ops? Tsunade baa chan I'm not suited to-" Tsunade's hand paused his speech about how he was not suited to the Black Ops and that he didn't understand why she was re-assigning him.
"I know you are confused, and I will explain it to you." She sighed as she spun her chair around to look out the window. Naruto suddenly noticed how tired she sounded. Instead of interrupting her, he decided to stay quiet and wait.
"Naruto I need you to understand that what I am asking of you is not something small. And ultimately it is your choice. But I strongly believe that you are the right person for this." Tsunade was standing now, her back towards Naruto as she surveyed the village. He stood up and stood besides her, curious as to what she was looking for.
She turned her head to look at him before looking back down at the village below. "What do you see when you look at the village? At the people?" She asked.
Naruto hesitated, unsure what baa chan wanted him to say. He spoke unsurely: "Peace? The people seem pretty happy...don't they?"
Tsunade nodded slowly hearing his response and asked "What do you think it takes to preserve this peace?"
Naruto was stumped. He'd never thought about that. To him, they'd saved the world and that was enough. The idea that measures would have to be taken to preserve this peace had crossed his mind before, but to him it'd seemed so far away. It wasn't necessary yet.
"I don't know." Was all he could say under her scrutiny.
Tsunade nodded hearing his response. She took a deep breath and sat back down in the chair, gesturing for him to do the same. He sat down and tried his best to not fidget or interrupt her. "There are many people Naruto, that will use the chaos that follow the war to cause further chaos. To gain something." Her hand reached over to tap the paper before him, "That is what the ANBU is for. They take care of the people and problems secretly. It maintains a semblance of peace." Naruto nodded slowly, understanding what she was trying to say. He looked down at his hands quietly.
Tsunade continued, "It's necessary. We are a shinobi village and this is a part of it. Even if we are at a time of peace, it is precarious. I know you recently made jounin a couple months ago, and it's a lot to ask. If you refuse, I will find other solutions. You have a week to think it over, I don't want to push you. Should you accept, your life will change. And I cannot promise it's for the better."
"I understand." Naruto nodded slowly and stood up. He bowed then jumped out the window, making his way to somewhere he can relax and think.
Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a kick to his stomach. His eyes opened to a mean looking weasel mask and a happy looking rat mask peering down at him. He grumbled as he stood up and brushed himself off, glaring at Rat for the shoe print on his armour.
"You're not supposed to sleep on a mission Toad. You know this." His captain reminded him sternly. Naruto pointed at the gaping hole in his uniform that now showed smooth skin underneath, "I was healing. Got stabbed." Weasel sighed in defeat at Naruto's half-ass explanation, choosing to simply hold out his hand.
Rat poked at the exposed skin with curiosity as Naruto handed Weasel the sealing scroll that contained one of their targets. Weasel nodded in satisfaction upon receiving the scroll and signalled for them to return to the village. The three man cell travelled quietly under the dead of night, careful to not draw attention. Naruto sighed as they sped back to the village, he was so tired from back to back missions, he missed his bed. How nice it would be to curl up in his bed, all warm and cozy, instead he's sticky from various bodily fluids and slightly chilly. ANBU really should provide their shinobi with more than a cape when they're out for missions.
They reached the village walls by morning, and finished reporting by noon. Naruto theorised that hokage-sama must have received alcohol from someone, because their team was given a week off. Not that he was complaining, a week off is a week off. He could finally get some well deserved sleep, take a proper bath, laundry and grocery shop. But he couldn't think of anything else to do. Since joining the Black Ops, he stopped contacting the rest of konoha 12 as often. It's been a year and he has seen them a couple times since, but didn't spend much time with them. Everyone has changed so much and he wasn't sure how everything fit together anymore. He wasn't allowed to answer questions about his missions so it was always very awkward when they asked where he'd gone, and he was always a bad liar.
Naruto sighed and decided to think about these later as he shimmied under the covers of his bed, it was a problem for tomorrow.