Chapter 1 - Inception

"Sokkenai Hitori. You have been summoned." the ANBU operative spoke in their usual commanding tone, showing no emotion. They disappeared in a whirl of leaves immediately after she nodded in understanding.

Hitori stood up from her small table, where she had been reading a book and enjoying a cup of her favourite tea. So far, today had been uneventful, until now. She had returned from month long, arduous mission that took her in the far north of Cloud Country, escorting a Fire Country noble to their in laws house. It wouldn't have taken so damn long if they didn't want to stay in hotels and inns every single night. If the weather was too hot or too humid or if it was raining, they had to stay put until it cleared. Since Cloud was a much colder climate, she tore her hair out when they got further up north and were only able to travel in the middle of the day when it was warmer. But unfortunately that choice was removed from her hands. She did also get fed very well, but the lack of exercise made her bored very fast.

Luckily, she compensated by scouting ahead and doubling back once or twice per day, as well as going through all her memorised kata before she went to bed at night. Yet, it had been a boring mission, and the fact that it was a month long made it worse. Tsunade had forced her into a week of time off, since that was usually standard practice after missions that reached a month in duration. Normally it was two weeks, but she argued that she hadn't done enough to warrant the extra weeks rest.

The young woman took her chances to train while she could, but not having many friends to train with didn't help. Sometimes she would approach some of the other people she knew or the jonin, but she didn't know any of them well enough to ask. Usually they were nice enough to spar with her on occassion, but most of the time, they were out of the village on missions.

Since the Fourth Great Shinobi War was over, all the five villages were trying to rebuild, which luckily had kept them all in each other's good books. When they met each other in the field, they didn't try to kill each other any more. There was even reports of some Kumo ninja who healed a Konoha team who had run into bounty hunters and Konoha sharing supplies with Kiri ninja. There had been more peace talks, and more diplomats being sent to Taki and even Ame was growing in size. Luckily, Konan was in charge of the village and her friendship with Naruto meant that they would always be a strong ally.

Even though there was plenty of people who were trying to make a difference, there was always those who still wanted to tear down those above them. The Daimyo of each nation still had not heard the concerns of the shinobi who wanted to be treated like people, not weapons of war. They would still send them into missions meaning certain death, and respected them about as much as a rock. Hitori knew that Tsunade had been tearing her hair out over the meetings with the Fire Daimyo, who was notorious for not listening to her. They still had a ways to go to change the shinobi world.

Changing into a tidier shirt, she put her shoes on before she headed to the Hokage Tower. While she was on her way, she pulled her mid back length, black hair into a more comfortable ponytail and stretched this way and that as she strolled there. This was more than likely a mission assignment meeting, so she wasn't too worried about rushing. The Hokage was quite busy dealing with a thousand other things, and rarely noticed if you were late anyway. Either that or she didn't care enough to yell at you for it. She was still trying to convince The Copy Nin, Hatake Kakashi, to take over her role and become the Rokudaime Hokage so she could retire, but she hadn't seen to wear him down enough yet.

Hitori pushed the door open lazily with her shoulder, keeping her hands in her pockets, and headed up to the top floor. Shizune was seated at her desk outside the Hokage's office and gave her a smile when she approached.

"Hey Shizune. How are you?" Hitori asked politely, returning the older woman's smile.

"Good, thank you. And yourself? I hear your last mission was rather...boring," she chuckled softly and Hitori rolled her eyes.

"It took me a whole month to escort this noble to the north of Cloud because they were so picky about when we could travel." she threw her hands up. "Ugh. I don't even want to talk about it," she said as she shook her head.

"Well, I'm sure you'll get more excitement soon. You can head in in a minute. She's just having a meeting with Ibiki."

Shizune indicated to the seats against the wall, and Hitori flopped down into one of them. She got the feeling from Shizune's tone earlier that she knew something about what was going to happen in this meeting and suddenly got nervous. It was fairly rare for her to be called to the Hokage's office for anything but a mission, but now she wasn't so sure. It didn't seem like she was in trouble. Usually you could tell from the expression on her assistant's face if you were going to get torn to ribbons or if you were going to get good news.

The door to the office opened a few minutes later, and Morino Ibiki stepped out, bowing before he shut the door behind him. He said goodbye to Shizune, and saw her as he turned towards the stairs. She bowed her head politely, surprised when he returned it after taking a moment to recognise her. Hitori had only worked with him once before, and she did not expect for him to return her greeting, let alone even remember who she was.

"Hitori? You can go in now." Shizune's voice snapped her from her trance and she smiled awkwardly as she headed over to the door.

After stepping inside, she bowed low until the Hokage noticed her.

"Sokkenai." She didn't look up from her paperwork as she spoke. "You were almost going to be late."

For lack of not knowing how to respond, Hitori pursed her lips and stayed silent as she rose back to her full height. Hopefully that would mean that the Sannin wouldn't rip her to shreds. She stepped forward closer to her desk and clasped her hands together behind her back, standing as tall as she could. Although she only reached 5 foot, she tried her best anyway.

"Tell me, have you ever considered trying out for ANBU?" Tsunade asked her abruptly, and finally looked up at her, just in time to see the shock come across her face.

"I have not." she managed a response, and couldn't help her brow knitting together in confusion. Surely she didn't mean…

"I want you to try out. Your skills need to be honed better, and you aren't getting the right missions to improve them and I don't have any to offer. You also have decent medical skills, although you are utterly useless when it comes to illnesses and check ups. I can't even imagine how you would cope doing the yearly physicals for the shinobi again." she shook her head, "However, you are good at dealing with severe wounds and poisons. Exactly the sort of skills suited for an ANBU medic." Tsunade had linked her fingers together on the desk, and was resting her chin atop of them. The older woman waited quietly for her to think of what to say.

"I'm not sure if I am good enough for ANBU, Hokage."

Self-doubt was always the first thing that crossed her mind, and this moment was no exception. She had experienced the same thought process when encouraged to test for jonin. She hadn't even thought about ever being in ANBU, because she didn't think that her abilities were up to scratch for such a thing. However, if the Hokage herself had suggested it to her, maybe it was something for her to try her hand at. She had been a chunin for years now, and not many chunin got invited into ANBU. That was not due to a lack of skill, but ANBU shinobi required certain skills and abilities to be suitable. Some shinobis style of combat wasn't suited to the job.

"As I said, you still need to try out first. They may knock you back, but I think your potential is there. You need the right environment to unlock it." she leant back in her chair and smirked faintly. "I doubt you are getting the chance to do that on escort missions that last a month." Hitori huffed in response and relaxed a little.

"Anyway. My point is, I think that ANBU would suit your skill set. You prefer and specialise in reconnaissance missions, don't you?" Hitori nodded in confirmation. "ANBU is where they are at right now. The jonin are getting missions like the one you did simply for the paycheck we get. ANBU are currently low on members, and they need medics desperately." Tsunade noticed her uncertainty and raised her hands in a defeated gesture.

"Just...consider it, at least. Hmm?" the blonde sighed at her delayed response and Hitori finally nodded in reply. "Now, get out of my office."

"Thank you, Hokage."

Something in her tone made the older woman give her a warm smile, and she hoped that she had made her gratitude for the praise she was given obvious. It was rare that Hitori interacted with any higher ranking, more experienced shinobi. Even on her last mission, the shinobi she worked with was a decently-talented, older chuunin. So she supposed that due to this, she hadn't really had a chance to get the increase in skills that she probably should have by her age. She was 19 now, and would be turning 20 in a few months, which was decent, but nothing outstanding. Maybe she was being overly critical of herself.

She wasn't like the Copy Ninja, who made chunin when he was 6, let alone someone like the Yondaime, who became Hokage at the young age of 24. Her abilities as a shinobi were good, but her biggest problem was the lack of knowledge with her jutsu.

Hitori was an orphan and had grown up in the Konoha orphanage until she was old enough to enter the Academy. It was all she had wanted to do when she was a child, and she was lucky that she had some ability with chakra and was accepted. She spent the normal amount of time there and didn't stand out for any reason, until she went for the chunin exam where she discovered that she was able to disappear into shadow. She had scraped through, but made it somehow after instinctively unlocking her ability and her opponent had knocked himself out when her physical form disappeared. Unfortunately, due to her lack of knowledge regarding her heritage, she didn't know how to use her ability or even what it was. She wasn't born in Konoha and there was only a record of her mother, and her father was unknown. It left a lot of questions unanswered.

After making chunin, she stayed at the orphanage and helped out as much as she could, while she saved her money that she got from her simple C and B rank missions so she could buy her own place. When she was 16, a small hole in the wall apartment had gone up for sale after the previous tenant had died on a mission, and she was able to rent it. After that, since learning that she had inherited some sort of ability from her parents, whom she knew nothing about, she had excelled over the last few years and offered the chance to test for jonin at the next exam, which was in a little less than a year.

When she lost her entire genin team that had trained with, and gone through the chunin exams with her during a messy B-rank mission, she was beside herself with grief, and almost quit being a shinobi together. Luckily, she had been treated by someone in the hospital who saved her life without breaking a sweat, and after seeing them having such control over life and death, she had knuckled down and learned as much medical jutsu that she could to try and prevent that from happening again.

Unfortunately, she was terrible at first and failed all the exams regarding illnesses and diseases, but her ability to stop bleeding, treat shock, and metabolise poisons was acceptable and had gotten her through. She wasn't exactly great at working in the hospital, but being a field-medic suited her skills well.

Now she was almost 20, and a Konoha chunin who had been recommended to try out for ANBU. Certainly not what she expected when she entered the Academy as a child.

Lost in her thoughts, she strolled around the village mindlessly, and sat down at Ichiraku to eat something before she headed back home. Teuchi took her order and started making it as she sat quietly, staring into space until someone nudged her shoulder. She turned to see someone with pink-hair staring at her expectantly.

"Ah, Sakura. Sorry, I was spaced out. Did you say something?" Hitori asked politely, scratching her head awkwardly.

"I figured as much. I asked if you had thought more about Tsunade's recommendation?" she replied and sat down next to her. Teuchi took her order with a beaming smile. Hitori looked at her with a questioning gaze, and she smirked before she answered. "Shizune told me this morning."

"Uh, I'm not quite sure what to do. I've been wanting to train for the jonin exams, but I doubt I would get the chance to if I join ANBU." she handed a pair of chopsticks to Sakura, whom she only knew in passing until recently. They had always gotten along well though, and Hitori had a lot of respect for her and her abilities. Their bond had increased lately as they had trained together a few times and had become friends.

"Well, think about it this way. Maybe the ANBU training and missions will be enough for you to be ready for the jonin exams. I know that I am always crazy busy at the hospital, but I'm happy to train with you when I get the chance." Sakura smiled at her and shuffled in her seat when Teuchi brought their bowls to them. Both girls passed him their money and he thanked them politely.

"Thank you for that. Hey, if I try out and get knocked back, at least I had a go. Then I can focus on jonin training anyway." Hitori shrugged nonchalantly and began to eat.

"Exactly right. You always have options, but I hope you decide to try out."

Sakura began to eat as well, and their conversation changed from ANBU and jonin to the happenings in the hospital before discussing a few different things she had been researching over the last few weeks. Hitori was glad for the conversation, and she had had minimal social interaction since she got back from her mission last week. She didn't count a snotty noble as enjoyable company either.

Hitori finished first, and stood up to take her leave before Sakura stopped her.

"Hey, I have a mission so I won't see you for a week or two. I'll let you know when I'm back so we can train though. Okay?" the pink-haired girl smiled at her and she returned it as best she could and nodded.

"Take care on your mission," she bowed her head and walked away, putting her hands in her pockets and strolled towards home.

Instead of arriving home, she found herself wandering towards the ANBU headquarters. She took a seat on the ground so it was about 50 metres away and stared. So far both Tsunade and Sakura had encouraged her to try out, and both opinions came from people she had a great deal of respect for. The small part of her brain that constantly tried to push her down was a little louder in this moment, but she scrunched up her nose and tried to block it out.

Sakura was right. She did have options. If she didn't make ANBU, she could work towards jonin and try her best. The jonin exams were only held once a year, and she wasn't exactly expecting to pass the first time around. Experience was a brilliant teacher, and she would be glad for the learning curve. As terrifying as the idea of the jonin exams was, it was exciting to test herself.

Taking a deep breath of cool, evening air, she resolved to at least try. She would report to the Hokage tomorrow and accept her offer to try out.

The young woman eventually made her way home and had an early night. She had done far too much thinking today and wanted to get as much rest as she could while she had the chance...

Thank you for reading! I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter.

I will be updating on a fortnightly basis, and I would love any feedback you can offer.
I've been working on this story for over a year and I'm finally brave enough to post it, so please enjoy!