I wrote this hurriedly (I hate the ending) and I apologise for any wrong information but there's not a lot about Genma to write on anyways. But I still really like his character! I'm not sure this piece worked (OOC af oops?), but hey - I hope you like it. Also, does anyone have suggestions on what shinobi I should include in this mini, introspective series?
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Naruto-verse :)
Read, review, enjoy! x
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Genma Shiranui is still young. The old matrons at the grocery stores still coo at him and the ladies at the bar still flirt with him. Shikaku Nara can't believe Genma's still got no wrinkles and Iruka Umino laughs at how all the Academy girls call him pretty.

Once, when Kakashi heard a little girl say that, the scarecrow had barked out a harsh laugh and said to Genma, "Hear that, Tiger? You're pretty."

Kakashi Hatake said it because Kakashi was Genma's captain and they both know no one at Anbu is pretty. (The word is too innocent; it's what Anbu use to describe a girl just before they slaughter her because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time).

So Genma knows he's not young. He's old enough to have fought in the Third Great Shinobi War, and he's old enough to have been in Anbu for many, many years.

There's no youth in that.

On record, Genma is Tokubetsu Jounin. On record, he is a former shinobi of the Hokage Guard Platoon for the Yondaime. Off record, he's an assassin, a wet work artist, a spy whose moral code is buried under ten feet of solid rock.

He's a captain now, has been for a while. Kakashi Hatake retired from Anbu (not that anyone ever leaves Anbu) and the heads made Genma a captain.

Years ago, if Genma could imagine himself as a leader of anything, it would be as a jounin teacher of a genin team.

He would be a teacher, just like Minato Namikaze was when he took Genma in, made him a personal guard and taught him the Hiraishin. (Genma has never tried perfecting it on his own because that legend is Minato's, not his)

Instead, he teaches Anbu rookies how to be unbreakable, unstoppable and a little inhumane. He teaches them what a massacre looks like and what an assassination really is.

At the end of the day, he also tries to teach them loyalty and honour.

On bad days, when Genma finds himself lying in a hospital bed, staring at a pale white ceiling, he thinks he's failed. He's scared Konoha is still fragile, scared his rookies are still naive. He dreams about being a regular jounin and instead he finds himself faceless with dozens of dead men staring at him as he sleeps.

Genma remembers their faces and their disgustingly human and broken cries.

On better days, Genma knows he's succeeded a little bit. He knows his rookies know what honour and loyalty is. (Or maybe they were just brought to him with a tougher shell and a brighter mind).

Make them unbreakable.

He knows they know what loyalty is, because one time Neji Hyuuga passed out from overusing his Byakugan after slaughtering an entire merchant caravan and Kiba Inuzuka carried him all the way back to Konoha.

He knows they know what honour is, because he's heard Shikamaru Nara whispering "Sorry, I have to do this. You hurt my home." to an already dead, corrupt man and he's seen Naruto Uzumaki burying pretty children in cold, hard soil.

So he stays.

He's messed up, he admits to his friends, but he's not broken and that makes him a great teacher. He laughs and he jokes and he has the same wry smile he had back when he was a genin. (It's why the girls call him young).

He stays and he takes more missions and all the while, he can feel the backbone of Konoha standing taller, and he can see Anbu fearless as ever.

He can feel stronger bricks and thicker cement and he knows he's a part of that.

to be continued.