AN: This isn't a normal story but more of a place for me to write character profiles from my very old and dropped story about ANBU. These are stories of lost souls and shadows in the dark.
His name was Rat. But that wasn't always his name.
Once upon a time, he held the name Hayashi Moronobu. He was one of the lucky civilians who made it through the Academy, who didn't get stuck in the genin corps. Maybe it was because his genin team was full of clan kids - one Inuzuka, one Uchiha - and even their jounin sensei was someone from a renowned family, a Hyuuga with the off branch seal on his head, worn proudly.
He hated his team with passion, for he always felt like he stood at the border, just outside of the prowess his teammates have shown. He let that rage motivate him and with a surprise, no one seemed to notice. He had to admit, he liked the Inuzuka a bit (pack behaviour, nin-dog who behaved like a puppy, honest words of encouragement), much much more than the Uchiha. (condensing looks over his shoulder, looks of pity, words of discouragement, of superiority) Somehow their team doesn't break apart in the first year, nor in the second.
Their teacher nominates them for the Chuunin exams. There are high expectations, even higher bets, their team seems to be in the spotlight all the time. The Inuzuka defeating the favourite from Suna in the first round, the Uchiha unlocking his Sharingan in second, all three of them making it to the final tournament. Hayashi is scared because he feels like he got carried by his teammates because he is getting told by the Uchiha that's exactly what happened. (it's a wonder no one noticed the hate that stood at the centre of their team) Moronobu gets eliminated in the first fight, after standing in the battle circle for half an hour, battling one genjutsu after another, barely making any dent in his opponent skin, instead received several scars in his soul.
The Chuunin exams change them all because somehow it's only Hayashi who gets promoted. The Hokage never gives an explanation of why you weren't promoted, only if you were. Their team falls apart, because of the disbelief from the clan ninjas, because of the blame they seem to throw at their third member, as if it was somehow his fault they won their fights but still didn't get the flak jacket.
Congratulations, Moronobu-kun, for the chuunin title, that is being given for keeping your head calm at all times, for showing prowess in withstanding genjutsu even Yamanaka would be proud of. For showing that ninja isn't only made from his skill in battle, but also in knowledge when to retreat to lower the casualties. That was the speech the Sandaime has given him when getting his promotion. Hayashi knew at that moment, that his team-mates would never understand, for they always focused on themselves (even the Inuzuka).
Their team falls apart very quickly after that. Different rank is the last excuse that they all needed and even though there are traces of sorrow in the Inuzuka eyes, there is nothing but pure dismissal in the Uchiha's and Hyuugas'. Moronobu feels free for the first time in the last two years. He is free to join with different ninjas for missions, free to train on his own pace, free from doujutsu that seem to follow his every move. He starts coming home to his parents with smile on his face, with stories from work that he is proud of telling. Once he dares himself to go to the Inuzuka compound, to talk to his former teammate, to learn about news about his former acquaintances. He regrets it immediately because he is only greeted by blame, the teenager poisoned by words of others.
His skillset is fairly simple, for he never dabbled into flashy jutsu, instead trying to make the most from simplest jutsu. Substitution was always thought to be the simplest and most useless ninjutsu there is. Hayashi begs to differ, as he substitutes himself with the person he is meant to protect, surprising the assassin.
He always hated the clan ninja, especially the Uchiha, but he never wanted them dead. There might have ever been some kind of respect he held for few of those from clans. The Cat, for how he never seemed to look down upon his subordinates, even though he was so much more better than them, even though he was a child genius and Captain. The Racoon, for his prowess with the sword, because he was the one who taught him, with patience and small words. Even his genin teammate, who he hasn't seen in so long, because there was no opportunity, no need, no wish to see him. And now he will never get a chance.
His name was Rat and while he has never seen Cat murder everyone in his clan except his brother, he hated him with passion and he swore to never become someone like that.
x
His name was Fox and he wasn't always male.
His (hers) name was Yuki, because she was born in the winter, when the snow covered Konoha in it's crispy texture. Her name was chosen to her by the Hokage, because her widowed mother (her father no longer walked the world, his life lost while defending the village - at least that's what she was told) left her behind, alone to experience the life. It wasn't her fault her mother took one look at her the moment she was born and started screaming, of how this isn't her child. It sometimes happens, the nurses were whispering, that a mother refuses the maternal bond, lost in the sorrow of their partner.
And that's how Yuki was born, without last name, without a clan or family to back her up, instead becoming a child of the village. There were a lot of children like her, without parents since birth, since their early years, forced to become wards of the Hokage. Even though this village prided itself of how it takes care of it's orphans, it didn't change how they had more thorny path in front of them. There wasn't much how to untagle themselves from it.
Become a ninja, or go to the streets. That was the harsh truth and Yuki knew it. Orphans were always allowed to go to the Academy, as far as they passed the preliminary health check. Some people liked to think of it as mercy, as giving them a way of life, but some knew better. A cheap workforce that won't stain the streets. Yuki knew she had to be ready for both of these options. The days were spent attending the Academy, studying, training. The nights were spent pickpocketing, socializing, learning who to go if you wanted something very specific done.
She worked hard and suddenly she was twelve and hitai-ate on her forehead and suddenly it was not.
Her team failed. Their jounin sensei deemed them incompatible (no teamwork, no communication, no traces of even trying). He didn't even look sad when he told them the verdict, when he told them they aren't ready. She wanted to scream at him, at everyone, of how this isn't fair, of how other people shouldn't influence your future. She knew that was naive.
They were given two options - return back to Academy for another half year or go to genin corps, become cannon fodder, become an almost untrained ninja. She chooses the second option, because it doesn't need to be always the end of the road, and she knows going back to her nightlife is going to be much harder after she became an official ninja.
The next few years pass in a blur of patrol missions, of hunting cats, of taking care of Konoha, of transporting not that valuable scrolls. She trains on the side, by herself, in the evenings, in the mornings, when she has time. The patrols are the most eventful out of all these missions because she gets to find friends there. Valuable friends that are stuck at the path with no end like her. Somehow those stray souls flock to her, to her motivation, to her drive and they start having regular meetings where they share their small strengths. They make two three-person teams and request to get nominated to Chuunin exams, a feat normally only undergone by those in proper genin teams with a jounin sensei. It's a year when the exams are held in Konoha, which is very very lucky for them, because it means there are more teams allowed in. After all, only the best from the best are meant to go to the foreign exams.
Those six underdogs don't take the exams by a storm, definitely not, but they still prove themselves and while most of them don't get promoted, it still means they are noticed and a bit more closer to get out of the infinite loop that is genin corps. Yuki along with Hoshi, another orphan, gets promoted to chuunin for their leadership skills, quick thinking and something called a will of fire.
Their group still meets regularly, even if they are not all genins anymore. Someone notices, someone follows them around, unseen by all of them until - until Yuki forces the genjutsu around the ninja away, exposing him. She only gets a flash of mask until he shunshins away. Why are they being watched by ANBU, she wonders?
It never crosses her mind it wasn't all of them they were watching, observing, but just her. That someone noticed the hidden potential. That someone noticed the way she had with words. The never knew of the contacts she gained at the side, of the way she greets the okasan of the Konoha okiya by first name, and it all comes as a very pleasant surprise when they give her the option to join. You seem to already know the way of the night, why not becoming a full shadow.
They say foxes are sly and tricksters. They say they will stray you away from your path. Fox liked to hide behind henges, behind chakra-less camouflage so good, his own captain wouldn't be able to recognize him. He, she preferred to be entirely different person each day, able to slip into another mindset almost instantly. It's no wonder it doesn't take long for him to get pulled to the infiltration squad, to get the hardest missions, never known, forever forgotten in perfect anonymity.
x
Her name was Owl and she was born to a Wolf and Butterfly.
She was born weak, weaker than she should be, considering the parentage, considering of how good ninjas her parents were. Her early birth put a strain on her mother, forcing her to a desk job, no longer able to serve in the active corps. She never knew it, never realised it, never seen it, but her father blamed her daughter for it, for taking the seemingly only pleasure her mother had - the pleasure of hunt, of a swordfight, of stalking the prey.
It took Owl (Yoshido, that was the name they gave her) several years to realise of how her father liked to manipulate people, of how he liked to stay in power. The ANBU Captain, Commander in several years, was sly and should have been called Fox instead, not a Wolf who belonged to a pack. The doctors told the Katsurou's (for that was their family name) that their daughter will never be a ninja, that her chakra pathways aren't working properly, of how she might not even survive the first year.
But Yoshido was born as a fighter, to a family of fighters, to a caring mother who only wanted the best for her, to a father who wanted to see someone as successful as himself. Where Wolf put a strain on future Owl, forcing her to train, to push her limits, to try to expand her chakra network, there was also Butterfly who explained chakra control, who helped poor future Owl to refine herself, how to hold the sword and senbon.
The passion for poisons came from neither of them.
As a suprise to everyone, Yoshido graduated early, just when she was only nine years old, three years before the normal age, two years before they enforced the age limit. She never got a proper team, instead was a chosen as a lone apprentice to a special jounin who took a liking to her. Those were rare, but there were exceptions, exceptions made for talent, for geniuses, for special cases. Anko Mitarashi was ANBU through and through, but she was put on passive duty after an injury, and she met her squad captain's daughter by pure accident. It was like a match made in heaven. The shy girl had nothing of the impulsiveness of the hebi ninja, but something between them just sparked.
It took two years for her to be recommended to ANBU, for her to undergo the entrance test, the physical and most of all, mental evaluation. There would be forever written in her file of how she is unable to make friendships, of how she works better alone, of how she seems to feel no remorse. They almost throw her out into the wild without the mask again, when Itachi Uchiha murders his clan, putting a black veil over trust in genius children. Instead she gets stationed in Land of Rivers, told to serve as a spy there, to hide there, to stay there for months, to collect information. She is recalled back a year later, the network she left behind practically able to function on it's own, coming to Konoha as entirely different person.
She is thirteen and presented with an offer.
Her name was Owl and she held the owl summoning contract and the future of the nukenin in her hands, because she was a hunter, who had no problem to stick her fellons deep inside her prey.
