They had all been gathered in a large classroom like chamber, there were only twenty people in the room despite the size of the place. Each was in there early twenties both male and female sat in the auditorium chairs.
Small murmurs could be heard from them, asking why they were here, who the other was, and when could they leave.
One of these people was Naruto Uzumaki, container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.
"Bah, I swear the old lady is keeping me from my ramen, this better be good." He said and looked toward the person beside him. He had no idea who they were. The young man had blue hair and green eyes that seemed just as confused as Naruto's own.
"Quiet!" Yelled a man, Naruto's eyes shot up to the podium, Ibiki Morino stood there glaring at them all, Naruto groaned at the sight of him.
"One word from any of you whelps and you will spend some time with me in the interrogation chambers." Naruto glanced around seeing that everyone else looked just as surprised as he was to see the man.
"Alright, you have all been called here today because you are being placed into consideration for Konoha's ANBU black ops." He paused and looked to make sure no one spoke out; when not a sound was heard he slowly smiled and continued. "Now there might be a small hope for you low life's yet, all of you file out!" they all stood and began to walk out of the auditorium, as soon as Naruto walked through the doors at the back his eyes widened, twenty ANBU stood there waiting for them.
"I want two single file lines, ten in each line, you have five seconds!" One of the ANBU up front yelled.
Naruto instantly jumped in a line that was forming his brain still not comprehending what was going on.
"Not fast enough! I want you all to follow me outside, do not break rank and file." They ninja, all Jonin now that Naruto had a good look at them.
He squinted as he jogged out the doors to the auditorium the change in light was huge.
Ibiki was waiting for them.
"If you're confused as to what's going on then you are on the right track. This ANBU here will be leading you on a run through the forest taking you to a secure location where you will be undergoing six weeks of training as ANBU. Only ten of you will pass this test the others will wash out and go about your lives as if this never happened." Naruto looked around at the competition; he didn't know any of the other ninja which wasn't good as he didn't know what he could expect from them.
They began to run, it wasn't really a jog like he had expected but a full out dead sprint, the ANBU that led them shot forward with a burst of chakra he was not far behind, Naruto looked over his shoulder one time and saw Konoha disappearing in the distance as he moved through the forest.
Naruto was utterly exhausted; the run to the compound was actually a marathon of multiple laps around the village. It was morning when they had begun now the hour was approaching ten at night, they never stopped moving.
The ANBU that was leading them never even seemed to tire just continued onward not slowing for a second.
"We are here." The male ANBU spoke, Naruto came to a stop just behind him realizing that he and a kunoichi with black hair were the two who led the rest. Naruto gave a small smile at that realization that he beat the rest.
The ANBU which had a rat mask on turned to them, and said in a slow deliberate voice that made the ninja that followed them strain to listen.
"We have arrived at the specified location; this will be your home for the next six weeks." With that he turned and walked into the forest, he didn't get far when he suddenly became invisible and was completely gone.
"Where did he go?" One of the ninja said. The girl with black hair chuckled at the question.
"Genjutsu." She stated, Naruto blinked at her, and nodded slowly. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and saw him staring, her face instantly transformed into a glare.
"Got a problem blondey." Naruto just raised one blonde eyebrow at her and slowly looked away not liking her attitude already.
She looked away from him after a second before putting her hands together and muttering 'kai' the forest wavered and finally shimmered into a massive military compound.
It was not tall but it was very long it had to have the village years to make the money to have the place built.
"The complex is much larger then it appears it goes down another three stories into the earth." The voice was that of a child, Naruto turned and looked at the speaker and saw it was indeed a boy no older than twelve years old. There was a blind fold wrapped around his eyes and he kept his head down.
"Why don't we stop jabbering and get inside." This came from the black haired girl, her glare turned to the boy.
"I think you could be a little nicer." Naruto said, but the woman didn't seem to listen just walked into the complex.
Naruto watched her go in then looked back at the kid.
"What's your name?" He asked the kids head raised up a little and looked in the general direction on Naruto.
"Blind kid." He said his voice lacking any tone as far as Naruto could tell he followed the woman inside on shaky feet. Everyone else was not far behind.
Naruto stood outside for another second; a new presence came into the clearing.
"None of them know who you are Naruto, that was done like that for a reason. You're just as anonymous as all of them; they don't know that you are the one who defeated Pain, Madara, and the other Akatsuki. It needs to stay that way." The voice was Tsunade's, the woman was standing on a tree branch above him.
"What do I need to do?"
"You are not to use the Kyuubi chakra, and you cannot use the sage arts. You must complete this as you are." Naruto sighed heavily, that made things difficult. At the same time though he knew that she was actually helping him by not allowing him access to his trump cards he would be forced to work harder.
"Okay." Then she was gone, probably already back in her office since she used shunshin.
He walked into the complex.
The complex interior was lit by bright overhead florescent lights shined down into the blank room the other nineteen ninja stood just inside talking quietly amongst themselves. It was a circular chamber that had a black door on the exact opposite side of the room.
The giant double doors of the complex entrance closed with a metal rattle and Naruto sighed knowing that he probably wouldn't be seeing the outside of this place for six weeks.
A new ANBU this one wearing a tiger mask walked through the door on the other end something that Naruto only realized when the ANBU actually spoke and he moved forward to see him.
"Form a line in front of this door." He said Naruto moved into place putting him fifth in line Naruto grimaced when he saw that the black haired woman from earlier stood in front of him her long hair draped down to the middle of her back. "You no longer have a name from this point on." He said and walked back to the door gesturing to the first ninja in line to follow him.
The ninja walked to the door which was opened and went through the ANBU stayed and closed the door behind him. Several moments went by no one spoke, finally there was a tiny spike of chakra and the ANBU opened the door once again allowing the second person go through.
This continued until it was the woman's turn. She looked over her shoulder at him and gave him a sneer; he rolled his eyes in reply. She jerked her head back and her hair slapped him in the face. He shook his head and gave a sigh of relief that she was gone.
Finally it was his turn, he quickly walked through the door and saw that there was a hall on the other side he quickly moved down it and came upon another door which he opened with the utmost care two more ANBU awaited him one wearing a rabbit mask and obviously female, the other was a hulking man with a bear mask.
"Welcome, please take the clothes on the table and exit through this door." Naruto looked down at the small table in front of the two ANBU. They had placed four sets of black sweats in front and a pair of black boots on the table, he reached for them and realized there was something stitched into the chest on the right side.
'KITSUNE'
He looked at it for a long moment before smiling.
"Fitting." He whispered, and grabbed the clothes and set the boots on top of the stack.
He walked toward the door and was beat there by the rabbit masked ANBU, she walked through just before he did he was apparently supposed to follow. He closed the door behind him and began to follow her they walked down a set of stairs when they reached the bottom the ANBU stopped and turned toward him.
She removed her mask and turned to him, Naruto's eyes widened.
"Ino?" He asked, the blonde haired woman smiled at him.
"Hey Naruto, your trying to become ANBU?" Naruto nodded still surprised to see the blonde woman here. "That's great, which faction are you trying to get in?"
"What do you mean?" The young woman smiled at him, and took a step back and looked him over.
"Well your too loud to be in information gathering, to nice kind to be in interrogation, so that leaves hunter nin." She said, Naruto took the minor insults for the truth that they were."
"Isn't there anything else?" he asked, though hunter ninja sounded like was something that he would do.
"Well yeah there is assassination dept. but only top of the class ANBU get that branch. Besides who would want to that, it requires you to go on missions that last can last months." Naruto smiled, gone for months at a time didn't sound bad to him except the lack of ramen.
"Hmmm okay, so are you going to be one of the teachers?" She smiled and nodded, she quickly slipped on her mask before continuing to speak, her voice now that of an emotionless ANBU.
"Yes Kitsune, I will be your teacher in interrogation here at the ANBU training grounds." She then turned and led him down that hall.
They finally came upon a door Ino opened it and beckoned him through, he went and she followed.
The room was the biggest he had been in yet, being two stories tall, in the center there was a large arena all around the walls there was doors on both the first and second stories. A balcony over looked the arena from the first level.
"This will be the location that you will be in for the next six weeks classrooms are on the first story, your quarters, cafeteria, showers, and library can be found on the second story. If you wish to challenge another trainee then it is to be done through the ANBU quartermaster, and all fighting is to be done within the arena you see before you and not unless it is approved by the ANBU quartermaster." Ino said in a monotone voice. Then she paused for a second and whispered in her normal voice, "Good luck Naruto." Naruto smiled at her encouragement.
"Thank you Rabbit-san." Then she was gone.
Naruto slowly walked across the room his eyes looked at each of the doors on the first floor he saw what appeared to be classrooms on each side.
He also saw several rooms that had large double doors he didn't know what they were but his curiosity was definitely raised.
He moved toward the center of the arena and noticed that there was no apparent set of stairs to get to the second level; he blinked at this how he was supposed to get up there. He pondered how he would get up there for several moments before he laughed a great bellow at his own stupidity and quickly jumped up a story to land on the balcony rail.
The stone walls seemed to be the same throughout the entire compound.
They almost stole the life out of the complex, heat seemed to leach out of the place because of the lack of insulation, and the place was definitely below ground. Naruto hopped off of the rail and moved with a slow gait down the walk this place reminded him of the Chunnin exam preliminary arena except it was much larger in scale.
He came finally came upon the clear marked quarters he was to stay in, he reached for the handle and slowly opened the door, he finally opened and he walked through, the room was long and not very wide on each wall was a row of ten cots four others were already in the room.
One of the guys was already lying on a cot close to the entrance looked up at him. "Hey…" he looked at Naruto's name tag. "Kitsune, grab a cot apparently we don't start till tomorrow." Naruto looked at the guy, it was the blue haired man he had seen at the auditorium he looked at the man's tag and it read 'wolf'
"Alright." Naruto replied slowly, he looked at the others in there and noticed the black haired woman from earlier, her name on her shirt was 'Raven'.
Naruto walked to the very back of the room and put his things as neatly as he could into the trunk at the foot of his bed.
He sighed as he closed it this would be a long six weeks; everyone seemed to be very to themselves and unwilling to talk.
"I guess I'll see you all tomorrow." He said, but didn't get a reply. Naruto removed his boots and placed them next to the trunk before getting into the cot and going to sleep.
There was the sharp crack of metal on metal and Naruto sat bolt upright on his bed he looked around the room and saw three ANBU standing at the entrance to the room. Tiger, Bear, and Boar were the animals of their mask Tiger stood in front while Bear and Boar were pn each side of him holding steel batons.
"I suggest you all make you way to the showers." His voice was usual monotone but it carried the weight of an order, the trainees burst into action jumping out of their beds and throwing on their boots.
"All of you are to be at attention at the foot of your beds." Tiger drawled again, and they were, the trainees almost as one moved to the front of their bed. Naruto noticed one person who had yet to get there and saw it was the kid from yesterday; his boots were not next to his bed the blind boy searched around franticly for them. Several seconds passed and Boar moved toward the bed with a gate of finality.
"Why are you not at the foot of your bed Mole?" Boar asked, his voice a deeps monotone.
"I cannot find my boots." The boy said quietly, looking in the general direction of Boar.
"Why is this Mole, this is the first day of your training yet you have already lost your boots." Boar drawled.
"I am very sorry Boar-san." The boy said.
"Sorry will not bring your boots back Mole." The boy stood and walked to the foot of his bed.
"I shall do my best without them Boar-san, I will not be held back by the lack of clothing." Boar was about to reply but stopped when tiger replied for him.
"If that is your wish Mole then you will do just that." Boar looked at the boy for a long moment before making his way back to his place beside tiger. "All of you to the showers." They moved quickly almost running out of the room bear led them down the hall and stopped just on the other side of a door and trainees filed in this room was almost identical to their quarters showers lined the walls ten on each side there was no separation between the showers, a fact that made Naruto raise an eyebrow.
"You have five minutes." Boar said and everyone quickly got a shower and got undressed, Naruto looked around at the others and saw them cleaning themselves he noticed that there was eight women in all. He sighed at the sight of them, Jiraya would have had a field day in this place there was no privacy here.
That thought made him sadden a little, the man had been dead for years now, he and Tsunade went out for drinking on the anniversary of his death every year, and he grabbed the shampoo off of the counter in front of him and quickly washed his hair, before grabbing the bar of soap. The anniversary was coming up actually; he would have to contact the old lady ASAP.
While cleaning himself he noticed women going through jutsu at different intervals in the shower, their hands would become green from chakra use and they would rub there hand across their legs apparently removing hair.
"Everybody out!" Boar yelled several minutes later.
Naruto quickly turned off his shower and grabbed the towel off the rack in front of his shower and dried off, after doing so he threw on his clothes and boots and ran over to the entrance to the showers.
Naruto was third in the line and once everyone was in place Boar walked out to the balcony and jumped off to the first floor the rest followed.
Once they all arrived on the first floor Boar turned to them, "everyday for the next ten days two of you will be tested in the taijutsu arena, to see where you stand amongst the others. If you wish to fight one another outside of these daily tests then you will speak to tiger during your free period and he will set it up. Today the two who will be fighting are Kitsune and Wolf, please step forward." Naruto stepped forward and sighed as he saw would shoulder his way through the others grinning madly.
"The two of you please make your way to the arena." Boar said.
A/N: There you go tell me what you think.
Love you vani!