Decided to edit this story a little. I really like the concept, but I rushed into it too fast. It should be better now.
I am Become Death
Prologue – Do Ghosts Exist?
Team Ro, the Hokage's personal ANBU cell, housed multiple shinobi who were considered… more than ordinary ninja.
The dog-masked operative nodded, giving his crow-masked teammate the go-ahead.
From Hatake Kakashi, the boy wonder who graduated the academy at only five, and became a chūnin at six. The only surviving student of the Lord Fourth Hokage. To Uchiha Itachi, the youngest ANBU agent in history. A boy unbound by hatred. A child prodigy far beyond any other that came before him.
The crow-masked ANBU simply sat there.
Team Ro was famous amongst the other ANBU, having housed some of the most deadly shinobi that had ever come out of Konohagakure no Sato. An ANBU cell that didn't take their orders from the ANBU-Commander, but the Hokage himself. The best of the best.
The two ANBU, codenames Dog and Crow, stood on the hillside that overlooked the fortress before them, their mission within the powerful stone walls.
It was said—whispered, really—that there was a ghost on this team, on Team Ro. And that this ghost served the Lord Hokage, taking the lives of Konoha's enemies without them ever knowing anything was amiss until they left this world, dead.
A defector, a shinobi who abandoned the village. A traitor. His name wasn't important. His actions, though, were. Selling village secrets was high treason. A death sentence.
Most who hear this story simply brush it off, paying no mind to rumors and gossip. It was mostly other ANBU who heard this story anyway, and most ANBU weren't afraid of childish nonsense like tales of ghosts.
The Lord Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had summoned his personal ANBU unit, Team Ro, and issued an assassination order for the man who dared to cross the God of Shinobi. Hatake Kakashi, the captain of Team Ro, only took one shinobi with him.
But when confronted, the members of Team Ro neither denied nor confirmed the whispers of their peers. They simply smiled, leaving others to only wonder… What if?
Dog was a powerful shinobi, a jōnin. He was taught by the Lord Fourth Hokage himself, and had both participated in, and survived, war. He was hailed as a prodigy, a child genius. And maybe he was.
What if the stories told in the barracks weren't just to scare the newbies? What if there was an actual ghost on Team Ro?
But when he stood next to Crow, the unofficial youngest ANBU operative in history, he couldn't help but snort at the claims of him being a child prodigy. The crimson-haired agent was by far, unequivocally, the most dangerous person in Konoha—maybe even in the world.
But it couldn't be. A ghost? They didn't exist… right?
It wasn't because Crow possessed flashy, S-ranked ninjutsu that he could throw around like it was child's play. It wasn't because he was ungodly intelligent, or able to concoct unbeatable strategies within seconds. In truth, Crow wasn't particularly skilled at all. When it concerned his shinobi attributes, he was, maybe, at an experienced genin level.
But when mission reports were made classified, and explanations for impossible assassinations never came to light, it would make the ANBU of Konoha wonder…
"It's done," Crow whispered, turning to face Dog. "The target has been eliminated."
"And Kuro?" Dog asked.
"Faded to black," Crow answered.
"Then let's leave this place before they discover the body," Dog ordered, getting a nod from his young teammate.
Before leaving, Hatake Kakashi looked back at the fortress, the silence stinging his ears. There had to be at least three dozen shinobi within, and yet…
And yet, Crow had killed a jōnin without anyone knowing, without making a sound, and without even moving a muscle.
Do ghosts exist?
This is a story in which Naruto is an Ajin, though in this world, he won't be called an Ajin, and he will be the only one. People will conclude that it is some kind of Bloodline Limit, but it's not. Not really.
Special thanks to Dreaming of the Phoenix for all the help.
hyvnn.
