Chapter 11: Testing
The invasion was over. Konoha still stood, damaged, but proud.
Konoha suffered minimal losses. Only a few dozen dead men and women, compared to the hundreds of Oto and Iwa nin that lay scattered inside Konoha.
Now, the hardest part was the clean up. Buildings were damaged, roads were destroyed, and bodies lay everywhere.
With Sarutobi incapacitated for the moment, his old teammates, Koharu and Homura, took command of the reconstruction efforts.
Genin and civilians were assigned to move the debris from fallen buildings off of roads so that others could begin rebuilding the vital streets. Chuunin were assigned to gather up the dead bodies, loot them for supplies, and then check for bounties (as the money would be vital for reconstruction). Following that, the bodies were then to be burned by simple uses of various Katon jutsu that Konoha was known for. On the other hand, jounin and ANBU members were stressed to their limits as they were sent out on unending high ranked missions, to show to other countries that despite this major invasion of two villages, they could still stay strong.
Of course, other things happened during that time.
Like, for example, the promotion of several Konoha genin to chuunin.
"Congratulations. Uzumaki-san. Hyuuga-san. You two, due to your efforts with the invasion, have been promoted to the status of chuunin. Take these vests now, and bring glory to Konoha!" Homura told the two new chuunin.
With a glance, the two then bowed, showing their thanks, before departing from the office of the step-in Hokages.
As soon as they left, an ANBU member appeared in front of Koharu and Homura.
"Koharu-sama. Homura-sama. May I speak freely?"
The two elderly councilors nodded.
"I would suggest enlisting them in the ANBU program. The boy was able to take on three jounin, killing two of them before I managed to eliminate the third. The girl, I heard from several of my comrades, could fight well above the level of chuunin, but her talents were redirected towards helping with the evacuation, so they were unable to catch a full glimpse of her prowess. With those two in the ANBU, I'm sure they can rise much farther than ever."
Koharu glanced at her teammate. "What do you think, Homura?" she asked.
"Hmm...I think it would be a good idea. Their talents are being underemployed as a chuunin. I'm sure their talents could be properly used if they were to join the program...And I know that Hiruzen has a soft spot for the boy. If they are to ever join the ANBU, now would be the time before Hiruzen returns to his position, or else he would not allow those two children to join..."
"But we must also think about the consequence. What if they were to turn out like Itachi?" Koharu responded.
"They won't," he answered confidently. "Itachi was sent into the program too early. The horrors he witnessed must have affected him deeply. These two have already experienced killing and have passed tests by our psychologists! Not only that, but they aren't loners like Itachi was. I did a little research on them, and I've found that neither the boy nor the girl are friendless. Granted, they aren't exactly...popular with others, but they do have friends. Or at least, the boy has other friends while the girl has just him."
The elderly woman sighed. "Alright." Turning back to the ANBU standing at attention, she told him, "Get the two and bring them back here."
The man nodded once before leaving.
-
It had only been five minutes since Naruto and Hanabi left the tower when a man with an eagle mask appeared in front of them.
"Homura-sama and Koharu-sama wish to speak to you again," he told the two.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Again?"
The man nodded.
Shrugging, Naruto and Hanabi returned with the man to the Hokage tower.
Entering the office, Eagle closed the door behind them and put up a silencing seal before disappearing from sight.
"My colleague and I were discussing your futures," Homura started, "when we came to the conclusion that you two could be better fit somewhere else. How would you like to join the ANBU program?"
Naruto was shocked. Promoted to chuunin, that was something he could've expected. Promoted to ANBU? That was a bit far off...
Hanabi too, was also shocked. She knew she was an excellent kunoichi, but she didn't think she was already at the level of ANBU.
"Don't let that go to your heads," Koharu warned. "The ANBU program you're joining is a like a junior program. You will be assigned a mentor or mentors, who will train you in the ANBU ways. When they deem you ready, you will become a full fledged ANBU member, with your own specialized masks and your own ninjato. It is similar to the genin system, where a team of genin is assigned to a jounin instructor."
"Now, Eagle will take you to get acquainted with headquarters and your duties. You will be excused from any reconstruction efforts, so try not to get yourself roped into doing them anyway. Once you are doing getting acquainted, your training will begin immediately," Homura stated. Waving his hand, Eagle appeared at their side. "Go now."
Eagle bowed, and beckoned the two new junior ANBU members.
-
Leaving the office, Eagle continued down the hall, moving past the stairs that would've led them to the floor below.
Despite seeing that Eagle was walking into a dead end, neither Naruto nor Hanabi said a word. It was just better to say nothing and follow your leader than question him and lose respect.
The ANBU member went right up to the wall, and the two newly promoted children expected him to hit it, but instead, the man went right through it. Following him, they passed through the fake wall, feeling signs of a discreet genjutsu.
Hanabi, with her Byakugan on, looked at the wall, fully expecting to easily unravel the genjutsu, but she saw nothing. She asked, "How is it that my Byakugan does not see the chakra in the genjutsu on the wall?"
"Seals," Eagle replied curtly.
Moving a little bit more forwards, he then stepped onto a platform, followed by the two children, and pressed a button.
The platform began to fall. It moved quickly, but not enough to be dangerous. Within twenty to thirty seconds, the platform stopped, and Eagle walked off. With a glance, the two ANBU guards that stood in front of a pair of metallic doors stepped aside, allowing the trio to pass. The door opened, and they stepped through.
"This is the ANBU headquarters," Eagle told them. "The armory is over there, dormitories over there, training room down that hall, and the ANBU interrogation chambers over there," he pointed out. Continuing, he said, "Those rooms over there are for each squad. Squad 1 has the room labeled '1', Squad 2 has the room labeled '2', and onwards. Members are placed in a squad based on their skill in a particular field, so Squad 1 members consist of the most talented members in taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, assassination, stealth, information gathering, etc, while Squad 10 consists of the weaker members. But make no mistake, even the weaker members of the ANBU are stronger than most jounin. When you are all outfitted and prepared, you'll be given a few tests to let us know where exactly you stand in terms of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, so that we can classify you accordingly. Now, any questions?"
"Are we expected to sleep here?" Naruto asked.
"No. The dormitories are here for members without families, or for those who come back from missions too tired to return to their own homes. Basically, you can come in and use the beds here whenever you want."
"Can you explain the deal about the masks?" Hanabi spoke up.
"All ANBU members receive masks, and are required to wear them during a mission or when they're on duty, at all times. Junior members, like you two, will get blank masks that denote your status. Once you become a fully fledged member, you can pick or make your own mask to wear. Not wearing a mask while on duty will result in a severe punishment and possible ejection from the ANBU. However, when you're here at headquarters, you are free to wear or not wear your mask. But you must remember, revealing things that you learn here to non-ANBU will, at best, get you memory wiped and ejected from the program, and at worst, get you and whoever you told executed."
Naruto and Hanabi nodded at the seriousness of that last statement.
"Now, is that it? Nothing? Alright. Now, it's time for you to get your basic equipment." Eagle went up to the armory, and pushed the metal doors open, revealing rows upon rows of weapons.
Seeing their questioning glances, Eagle responded, "We buy bulk amounts of weapons from the local blacksmiths and keep them here. All ANBU personnel receive a standard ninjato, a mask, and black form-fitting clothes that help on all kinds of missions. There are also various kinds of swords, axes, clubs, poles, spears, poisons, throwing weapons, knuckles, exploding seals, soldier pills, and just about anything you might want or need to bring with you on a mission. During training, you guys will experiment with some of this stuff, unless you already know what you're good with. Now, follow me while I get your things."
Walking down one of the aisles, Eagle grabbed two blank masks and threw them over his shoulder to his trainees. Moving to the next aisle, he took a glance at Naruto's body and grabbed an outfit.
"Here, put this on. Dressing room is off to the side," he commanded.
He then glanced at Hanabi, also grabbing a smaller outfit. "And you try this one."
When they came back dressed in their uniforms, he informed them, "These will be your standard on-duty uniforms. If they get damaged, you are welcome to come back here and get replacements. When you have a mission, you can come here to stock up on anything you need, including the basic kunai and shuriken, easily carried rations, exploding seals, detection seals, soldier and blood pills, or whatever," he ended flippantly.
"Alright. You guys are done with getting outfitted, so now we need to give you code names. You two will be known as...you know what? Just tell me the first letter of your last name."
"U."
"H."
"Alright, so you," Eagle said, pointing at Naruto, "will be codenamed Yuu." Pointing at Hanabi, he continued, "And you will be known as H. When you guys become real ANBU, you'll get your own original codename, which usually ends up matching your mask. Now with that done, we will begin with your ANBU testing," Eagle informed them.
Walking over, he knocked on one of the doors that he had not named, before he looked back over his shoulder. "I forgot to mention, but there are also some ANBU who don't get sent out on any missions at all. Instead, they have jobs as researchers, inventors (who invent new jutsus, seals, or other technology), and medics. Of course, every single one of them are excellent shinobi..."
The door opened, and someone with a bear mask peeked their head out.
"We have two new members who need their taijutsu tested, Bear. This is Yuu and H."
"Hai, Eagle."
Bear exited the room, calling out to the people in the room behind him, "Two newbies, gotta test them. You guys wanna come?"
A chorus of acknowledgments sounded, and three other ANBU members came out of the room.
"What was in that room?" Naruto asked.
Eagle responded, "Break room."
"So, you two are the newbies? Hey H, you're awfully...short, aren't you?" Bear asked casually as the walked down a hallway.
Hanabi, hearing that, immediately stopped, turned around, and kicked the much larger man as hard as she could in the shin. Satisfied with her revenge, she spun back around and continued to walk, ignoring the laughs coming from Bear's teammates. A Jyuuken strike would've been much more satisfying, but she didn't want to give away her identity as a Hyuuga so easily. Besides, since they were about to get their taijutsu tested, it would be a smarter idea to display her status as a Hyuuga then.
Upon reaching the entrance to the training room, Eagle opened the door and stepped through, followed by Naruto, Hanabi, Bear, and Bear's teammates.
Eagle and Bear's teammates then went over to a booth in a corner of the room, where a barrier seal protected them from being hit by any stray techniques or weapons during the testing.
"So," Bear started off, stretching his legs and arms. "How shall we do this? Both of you against me, or one on one?"
Immediately upon asking that question, he was assaulted by ultra quick punches and kicks from both Naruto and Hanabi. Their teamwork, which happened to be excellent, was timed extremely well and gave Bear a hard time defending.
Grunting from a kick to his chest, Bear then decided to forgo his defense in favor of offense. When the blond boy approached Bear with a punch, Bear didn't put up a guard. He took it straight in the face, and quickly responded with a backhanded fist to Naruto's stomach, sending the smaller boy flying off to the side. The punch had hurt, no doubt, but pain could easily be shrugged off.
When Hanabi waited for Naruto to get back up before continuing to attack, Bear commented, "Well, you guys definitely have teamwork down. If I wasn't so good at taking punches, I wouldn't have been able to counterattack at all! Very nice, indeed!"
Taking the compliments in stride, Naruto said aloud, "Let's take this to the next level." His gloves immediately morphed into its gauntlet form, and the claws slid out.
Hanabi, following Naruto's command, shifted her stance into her advanced Jyuuken style.
"Oho! A Hyuuga! That's a surprise! But what's this? Your stance...it's not like any other Jyuuken stance I've seen before," Bear commented. "And Yuu, those claws look a bit sharp. You sure they aren't too big for you, kitty?" he asked with a playful purr.
Ignoring the taunt, Naruto started first, slashing at Bear with his sharp claws.
Blocking the blows with his armguard, he then twisted aside, dodging Hanabi's Jyuuken strike.
Weaving in and out of the attacks, Bear quickly stepped into Naruto's guard and tried to sledgehammer him aside with his fists. Naruto threw both arms up to block, but he was still sent flying a few yards away. Rolling the moment he hit the ground, Naruto used the momentum of his roll to push off the wall and speed back towards Bear twice as fast.
Bear, ignoring Hanabi in favor of the seemingly more dangerous opponent at the moment, took Naruto's kick to the chest and responded by grabbing his leg and throwing him in Hanabi's direction. With a quick Kage Bunshin and Henge, Hanabi made a clone and transformed it into a giant trampoline lying vertically, so that Naruto could bounce off of it. Naruto hit the trampoline with so much force that he actually sunk into it for a few seconds before being shot back at Bear at an incredible speed, even quicker than when he had used the wall.
With such speed, the power he hit Bear with increased tenfold.
Bear, who as his name suggested, was a bear of a man, and thus, even with the shoulder charge from a flying Naruto, the large ANBU just grunted and was pushed back several yards, with Naruto caught in a bear hug.
Hanabi, at that moment rushed in with her clone, who had dispelled the Henge. When Bear spotted this, he threw Naruto, again, at Hanabi, although he did not know if it was the real one or the clone. The blond merely smashed into one of the two Hanabi's, causing her to dispel.
So that meant the one who was still charging was the real one! Crouched to get ready to deflect her Jyuuken strikes, he was then surprised when she lashed out with her foot, as the Jyuuken style was meant to be used with the hands.
The kick, not a normal one in the least, connected with a tenketsu in Bear's stomach, causing him to bend over immediately and hack. When he brought his eyes up, all he saw was the sharp claws that belonged to Naruto.
Jeers were suddenly heard from the corner, where the ANBU spectators emerged from the booth.
"Haha, they kicked your ass, man!"
"You got your ass beat by two midgets!"
"Shut up, fool!" Bear responded, playfully pushing his teammates aside.
"Bear, report," Eagle commanded.
Sobering up, Bear stood at attention and did as told. "Their teamwork, as I said before, is superb. I'd recommend for them to be put in the same squad."
Eagle nodded, and said, "I'll be sure to take note of that."
Continuing, Bear reported, "Yuu has a nice strong taijutsu style, and when combined with those claws of his, his taijutsu could be on par with someone on Squad 4 or 5."
"Continue."
"The Hyuuga, H, has a complimenting non-Jyuuken style that fits with Yuu's style, which is why they make such a good team. H's Jyuuken, though, is totally different from the normal Jyuuken style I've seen. She not only uses her hands to deliver Jyuuken strikes, but she uses her feet as well, so any opponent who knows about the Hyuuga will be totally caught off guard when she fights. Of course, if her surprise kick somehow does not totally incapacitate her enemy, then she might be more easily defeated."
"Very well," Eagle acknowledged. "Dismissed."
Bear nodded and left with his teammates, who were still making fun of him for having lost.
Turning to face the new junior ANBU, Eagle told them to wait here before he left the room.
When he returned five minutes later, he was accompanied by two people.
"Yuu and H, this is Chameleon and Rabbit," Eagle introduced.
"Hi guys! Call me Cham!" Chameleon chirped brightly.
"Yo, I'm Rabbit," the thin and wiry man grunted.
"We'll start off with your genjutsu test, so, if you will, Cham. Don't forget, genjutsu only."
The moment Rabbit and Eagle entered the booth, Cham created three genjutsu simultaneously. There was one to hide her from sight, one to deafen them, and one to erase their sense of smell. Unfortunately for her, Eagle had not told her that one of the two she would be testing was a Hyuuga.
Both Hanabi and Naruto flared their chakra for a brief moment, breaking the grip the genjutsu had over their minds.
"Not bad," she complimented, still unaware of the fact that Hanabi was a Hyuuga. "Now try this." She created several more genjutsu, each designed to inflict mental pain, but again, they were shrugged off.
Counterattacking, Naruto created a genjutsu that made Cham think her arms were on fire, but since she was the genjutsu expert in ANBU, she broke it quickly.
Hanabi stood next to Naruto, idle, as she was not too good at making genjutsu than she was at breaking.
Cham made a few seals, before she disappeared once more from sight.
Unluckily for her, Naruto recognized it, as it was Kurenai's favorite.
"Magen: Jubaku Satsu (Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death)!"
Without a pause, the blond rolled forwards and away from Cham's incoming kunai, spinning around so he could retaliate with his trump genjutsu.
"Magen: Gokusotsu (Demonic Illusion: Hell's Tormenting Devils)."
To Cham, she had suddenly been sucked up by the earth and dropped into the fiery pits of hell, with only the screams of the tortured and the cackles of the devils to accompany her. Sweat started to break out on her forehead, and she was almost tempted to scream. Luckily, she remembered that it was just a genjutsu and bit her lip, so that the pain broke through the intense genjutsu.
"What was that?" she gasped out.
"My favorite genjutsu technique," Naruto replied with an unseen smirk. "It shows the victim a hell that the user can create."
"Cham, report," Eagle commanded from the booth.
Taking a deep breath, she reported, "Both of them have excellent genjutsu detection and dispelling skills. Yuu has excellent control over his genjutsu, and his last one was very powerful and convincing. H, however, seems to be the exact opposite, as she didn't seem to be any use at creating the illusions."
"I'm a Hyuuga. We break genjutsu, not create them," Hanabi replied in response to the indirect slight against her talents.
"Very well. Now, Rabbit, it's your turn," Eagle said. To the two kids, "Rabbit will test your ninjutsu in battle. Remember, you can only use ninjutsu."
Cham quickly hobbled over to the protected booth, asking Eagle if she could stay to watch. When he nodded she sat down with a great sigh.
"...So. Show me what you got," Rabbit said lazily.
"You're not going to fight back?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nah, I don't really feel like it. Besides, I just have to make sure that you guys are good at ninjutsu," he replied with a great yawn.
Shrugging, Naruto started off with a regular fireball.
Rabbit batted it aside without even flinching. "Gotta do better than that," he drawled.
Unexpectedly, the blond's next jutsu was a large roaring dragon.
"Whoa!" the ANBU shouted. He quickly countered the giant dragon with a wall made of earth.
Hanabi then ran up to the ANBU and grabbed him around the waist.
He almost seemed to sweatdrop, saying, "Err...I'm not a pedo-"
His sentence was cut off when she exploded, blowing him backwards into the wall.
"Bunshin Daibakuha," Hanabi muttered from next to Naruto.
"Oww!" Rabbit's voice rose out from the smoke. "My head..."
Bear stepped out of the booth, followed by Cham, and sighed. Rabbit was a good soldier when necessary, but any other time, and he was as useful as a genin in a kage-level fight.
"I can see that you both have advanced jutsus mastered, so I'll just say you passed. However, now we will combine all three elements into a normal shinobi spar. Come at me and show me what you got."
Cham, quickly dragging the moaning Rabbit back to the booth, hurriedly dropped him on the floor, anxious to watch the fight start.
Dashing forwards, Hanabi went in with taijutsu while Naruto hung back to back her up with ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques.
Seeing as how he already saw her spar with Bear, he was thus prepared when Hanabi struck at him with a Jyuuken kick. He pushed her shin away as she neared him, but then jumped as fireballs were spat at him. Flipping over Hanabi, he landed and immediately tried to leg sweep her, but the young Hyuuga ignored Eagle's offending leg in favor of trying to seal off his tenketsu points as a small earth wall rose out of the ground, courtesy of Naruto. Eagle saw the wall, and cursed, knowing that he didn't have the momentum to stop his sweep, so his leg smashed into the wall, causing him some amount of pain in his lower right leg.
Backflipping away, Eagle had no time for a respite as Naruto slapped his hands together, made a few handseals, and pressed them to the earth. From the ground erupted several large spikes, all intent on impaling the older man.
The technique itself was not too advanced of a move, as it was one of the most common Doton jutsus out there, frequently used by Iwa shinobi. Despite being a low-ranked move, with large chakra reserves and a high amount of skill, this basic Doton jutsu could be turned very lethal.
In a flash, Eagle unsheathed his ninjato and sliced through the spikes, rendering them harmless. It didn't matter though, as Hanabi then leapt onto the decapitated spikes and launched a hail of throwing projectiles at the masked man, forcing him to deflect them with the blade of his weapon.
With a somersault, Hanabi landed in front of Eagle and sent a combined mule kick and Jyuuken kick at the man, but the eagle-masked man merely stepped to the side, grabbing the pale Hyuuga's ankle and putting her in an ankle lock.
Hanabi yelled in surprise and pain, before the pressure on her leg was let off, thanks to her teammate's sudden appearance behind her attacker. Stabbing at Eagle with his claws, he wasn't too surprised when the man flickered away across the room, standing in a relaxed stance and watching the two carefully.
"...Not bad," he relented. "But not good enough."
Eagle suddenly disappeared, and in a second, Naruto felt a fist being buried in his stomach, sending him flying backwards. He hit the wall with a large boom, and Cham in the booth could hear horrendous cracks. Whether the cracks were of the wall breaking or the boy's bones breaking, she couldn't be too sure of.
Groaning, Naruto picked himself up and spat the blood that was pooling inside his mouth onto the floor. He wiped the excess blood off onto his arm and glared at Eagle.
"Katon Goukakyuu. Katon: Kasen," Naruto breathed out quickly, forming the necessary handseals to perform both techniques quickly. The newly shaped fire arrow hovered in the air for a split second before Naruto sent it forward, aiming to impale Eagle.
"Suiton: Suijinheki," Eagle countered, making a barrier of water. It was a natural thing to assume that water would win against fire, so Eagle was most surprised when the arrow pierced his wall with a sizzle and sunk right through his shoulder, cauterizing the wound immediately.
At that moment, the remains of his wall collapsed, and Hanabi darted forward, preparing to seal him tenketsus.
"Alright, stop. That's enough," Eagle commanded them, holding onto his injured wound.
Cham left the room immediately, looking for a medic.
"As Bear said, you have amazing teamwork," he grumbled sourly, annoyed at his loss. "It would definitely be a shame to break you to up..." he trailed off as he thought. "Anyway, you two are dismissed for today. Come back tomorrow and you'll receive your squad. However, you'll still be considered juniors when compared to your teammates. You'll probably be taking orders from the until you prove yourselves to them. Now, dismissed!"
The two nodded and departed immediately.
A minute later, the medic came hurrying back into the room, followed by Cham.
"Eagle!" the medic cried out, seeing that the man had collapsed against the wall and slid down, clutching at the wound in his shoulder. She quickly rushed over, and her hands began to glow green.
"Damn, those new kids are good," Eagle muttered. "That Katon arrow jutsu he used was something I've never seen before...Sure as hell surprised me when it pierced my shield."
"Yes, I can see that, Eagle. Your wound is completely cauterized!...Wait! Are you saying that a new recruit defeated you? " the medic asked incredulously.
Eagle seemed to pout under his mask, before he replied, "It was the two new recruits...and you better not say anything, Slug. I'm serious..."
Slug nodded her head, holding back the giggle that was threatening to escape.
"Same goes for you, Cham!" Eagle snapped at the other ANBU member, who was also giggling.
"Yeah, yeah, got it Eagle."
"I'm serious! Or else I'll give you D ranked missions for the next year! Both of you!"
Cham gulped and immediately nodded fearfully. "Yes sir!"
-
A/N: I don't remember what mask any of the ANBU or ex-ANBU wore (except for Kakashi), so if a mask belonging to a canon char is used, don't assume it's the same person.
Original Techniques:
Magen: Gokusotsu - Demonic Illusion: Hell's Tormenting Devils
Shows the victim what it would be like to suffer at the hands of the devils of hell.