"Next!" A gruff voice called out at the front of the line.
Naruto inwardly sighed to calm his nerves. It had been a few days since the initiation rite. Today was his first official day, and at the end of the line was the quartermaster with his standard-issue gear and would tell him which squad Naruto was going to. From there, he would receive his orders from his captain.
"Next!" The man called again, and Naruto found himself just barely looking over a desk at a man with a blank mask. In Konoha's ANBU, blank masks represented non-combat roles filled by those who couldn't perform missions but still wished to stay in the ANBU.
The masked man looked at Naruto for a second, then shrugged and handed the boy his gear, along with a piece of paper.
"Room 4, Locker 5." He grunted.
Naruto nodded in thanks and left the line.
"I swear they're getting younger every damn year." He heard the quartermaster mutter.
The HQ wasn't exactly what Naruto would have called an aesthetic experience. The walls were a grey drab, and the only material that was present was concrete. Still, they served their purpose, Naruto mused. This was a barrack, after all, not a palace.
Naruto pushed his thoughts away as he turned the doorknob to room four and paused as he saw the occupants turn from their lockers and conversations to look at him. The only recognizable one there was Anko.
For a moment, no one said anything. Then Anko's face split in half with a grin, and laughed. "Hey, kiddo, so you got stuck with us?"
Naruto returned her grin with a warm smile. "Well it depends," He drawled, teasing her. "Is this your room, or did you just get lost and decide to molest the poor men here." The other shinobi snickered at his jibe.
"Quiet brat!" Bonking him over the head with a soft karate chop. "Just cuz you're cute doesn't mean I won't beat your ass if you ask for it."
"Sorry, I'm not into that kinda thing," He shot back.
"Why you damn-"
"Children, please, calm down."
Naruto and Anko both looked at the door as Kakashi entered. He eyed the pair with an exasperated expression.
"Hey, it ain't my fault she's easy as hell to tease!" Naruto protested.
"You're gonna get it, kid, if you don't shut the hell up." She growled.
"You wish nee-chan!" He returned, the squad guffawed and laughed at seeing the usually scary and intimidating woman get made fun of by a kid.
"Why you-"
"By the sage, will you two shut the hell up?" Kakashi borderline pleaded.
The pair looked at Kakashi and stopped, sensing that they had just about reached his limit (at least for work). He sighed and shook his head. "First, I get landed with this psycho, and now I get Naruto? This place isn't going to last a week!" He sniffed.
Naruto chuckled and turned to his locker that he had just been assigned minutes ago. It wasn't a pretty sight, the metal was worn and banged up, and the dull green paint had been chipped away in places. However, he didn't mind and smiled, finally calling something in this place his.
"Before the mission, we'll need to get your ANBU seal on you first." Kakashi called from the other side of the room."
"ANBU seal? What for? what even is that?" Naruto returned curiously.
Kakashi pulled up his sleeve, revealing his red ANBU seal on his arm. "It is used for communication in squads. Basically, you'll channel chakra through it, and it'll allow you to communicate with the rest of the team. If the need arises, Hokage-sama can communicate through it as well."
Naruto nodded in understanding. "So, who's the seal master?"
Kakashi pointed to the other side of the room. "He is."
Naruto looked and saw a Hyuuga laying a calligraphy set on a folding table next to him, his headband marking him out as a branch member. His white eyes zeroed in on Naruto, and he motioned for Naruto to come over to him.
"Don't worry, Naruto, Shyryu is an expert with seals. He'll get the job done," Kakashi reassured him.
Naruto shrugged and walked over to where Shyryu was sitting, his pale eyes never leaving Naruto's form.
"Remove your shirt." He said tonelessly.
Despite being somewhat uncomfortable with the man's demeanor, Naruto nevertheless pulled his white t-shirt over his head and placed it on the table. Shryryu then pulled a kunai from his pocket and grabbed Naruto's hand, slicing it over his ink.
"Do not worry, Naruto-san, I merely require your blood for the seal to work," Shyryu murmured.
Naruto nodded, though slightly taken aback by the sudden movement, and winced at the pain, realized he wasn't trying to harm him.
After a few seconds, he put his arm down again, and Shyryu dabbed his tool in the bloody ink and started on his craft.
After a few simple strokes with the brush, Shyryu was done, and he moved back from the boy. "Channel your chakra into it." He said.
Naruto did just that and felt his mind "expand" somewhat. "What the hell is this?!" He said in his head
"Shut the hell up, brat! You're gonna give me a headache!" The voice of Anko reverberated in his skull as he jumped in fright at the "sound" of her voice.
"Sorry!" Naruto returned sheepishly.
"You'll be able to hear us through this." Kakashi butted in. "And when the need arises, you'll be able to hear Hokage-sama as well."
"This is pretty sweet," Naruto said out aloud. He turned to Shyru, "Am I good to go?"
Shyru nodded. "Yes," he stated tonelessly.
Man, he kinda gives me the creeps. Naruto thought. He shivered as he walked back over to his locker. He cleared, his head realizing that the rest of his new team was gearing up for a mission.
He put on his equipment, got his armor on and placed his wakizashi on his waist. Naruto looked at his mask, admiring the design and meditating on it. Naruto gulped, keeping his nerves in check as he looked into its eyes. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't worried. In truth, he was terrified. What if something happened? What if he screwed up? Would he get kicked out?
A foreign person placed a hand on his shoulder, which made him jump. Naruto spun his neck to the side, wincing at the whiplash, and saw that Kakashi had been the one to come up behind him.
"I can't promise you that everything will be fine, but I can promise you that everyone in this team is here to back you up to the best of their ability. All we ask is that you do the same." Kakashi murmured.
Naruto looked at him for a second and then nodded. He looked back at the mask one last time and pulled it over his head.
"Alright, boss, where we going, What we doing?" An ANBU member that he wasn't familiar with piped up. Kakashi turned to face her.
"Well, we've been on the patrol and security roster, so today it'll just be a routine patrol of the city. It should take us around six hours before the next shift gets in."
Naruto widened his eyes behind the mask. Six hours? Quite a long time.
"We'll be taking border patrol today, so we'll be watching the gates and the walls for any suspicious activity and/or deal with threats. Taicho will be leaving with us; however, he is going on an extended mission, so I'm your commanding officer until he returns." Tenzo replied to Neko, taking control of the group.
Nothing too exciting, but since we've got a rookie today, it probably wouldn't hurt to have anything too extreme."
Naruto was fine with that, at least for now.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The darkness of the tunnels was somewhat comforting to Naruto once he got used to them. It was easy to keep calm when everything was one uniform color.
Kakashi had set a brisk pace, but Naruto was able to keep up with him. The nearly silent pit-pat pit-pat of his teammates' feet hitting the cold concrete was all that he could hear.
The team came to a stop at the foot of a rebar ladder built into the concrete. Kakashi pointed at the ladder and pointed to Naruto. He was to climb first.
Naruto inwardly shrugged and clambered up the ladder, wincing at being in the sunlight again after being in a tunnel for so long. The autumn breeze ruffled gently against him as he surveyed the surrounding area.
The manhole opened up to a large forested area that was seemingly outside the walls of Konoha. Naruto had no time to reflect on his first time outside the walls as his teammates were soon out of the hole as well.
Kakashi pointed to the south. "You'll head near to the gate and perform surveillance on the travelers as they come and go. Make sure to stay hidden while you are on duty, Kitsune go with Owl."
They all nodded, and Naruto moved over to the ANBU with the Owl mask, as Inu disappeared into the trees, not to be seen for a while.
He noticed that Owl seemed to be missing the eye holes on his mask. Naruto didn't pay any attention as he followed the silent member through the trees, nor did it occur to him that behind that mask was Shyryu. Once the masks were put on, it was business time, and no one was anything more or less than their code names.
After moving through the forest for a few minutes Owl held his hand up, signaling to stop moving. Naruto peered ahead.
A few dozen feet in front of them, they could see the road. Owl pointed up at the tree above them. Naruto nodded and walked up to the tree.
After the pair had sufficiently hidden themselves among the tree, Naruto quietly whispered, "Do you have a good view of the road?"
Owl silently nodded. Naruto turned to watch the road.
The most annoying part about the whole mission wasn't actually the waiting. Kakashi had beaten patience into the boy early on. It was more that any stranger or person could be an enemy trying to get in, and there could be a chance that they could slip by. From the smallest child to the oldest man, from the poorest beggar to the most wealthy merchant, anyone could be a spy, shinobi, or terrorist.
Of course, there were chunin standing guard at the gate, but any spy worth their salt could get through them without much trouble, which was obviously why they were posted there.
As such, Naruto and Owl kept their watch, closely monitoring the passersby and the foreigners who entered the city.
A few hours into the watch, something caught Naruto's eye.
A train of refugees had come from a nearby village for some reason or another. But... to Naruto, there was something off about them. Their eyes were glazed, and they shuffled like the walking dead. But more than that, Naruto could sense something, like their emotions were somehow being suppressed or controlled. But under the blanket of static, Naruto could feel one thing.
They were terrified.
"You noticed it too," Owl whispered.
"Yeah, something is off about them," Naruto murmured. He placed his hand on his hilt.
Then Naruto spotted something else weird. Inside the crowd, there was a man, but unlike the rest of them, he wasn't acting like the rest of them.
"Back of the crowd, male, sandy blonde hair, tall, he isn't acting like the rest."
"I see him, genjutsu."
Naruto gripped his wakizashi with a force that would have hurt like hell if he had been paying attention.
"Wait, the civilians have explosive tags on their bodies!" Owl exhaled sharply.
Naruto gritted his teeth. "How the hell do you know that?" he softly returned, his voice no less conveying his shock at the bold claim.
"Byakugan," Owl said simply.
Naruto turned back to face the man controlling the train. "What should we do?" He rasped harshly.
Owl paused before pressing his palm into his ANBU tattoo and generated a burst of chakra. After a few seconds, he responded. "Taicho wants you to take him out, wait for him to get inside the village so that he thinks he's through, then kill him. You'll have the least chance of being suspected due to your age".
"Is he insane?! Why the hell don't we take them out here?" Naruto didn't like the plan, and in fact, he hated it. It would be the first time he would have to kill somebody, and many people could end up dead in such high stakes. But he knew Tenzo was right. He was the best one suited for the job, but why inside the village?
Owl channeled chakra into his seal again. "Captain says they don't have enough time to send for backup out here. If something goes wrong out here, they'll sprint past the guards because they won't be able to catch them all."
"Fuck this mission." He muttered under his breath. Naruto turned to leave to go back into the town when Owl grabbed his arm.
"Good luck!." He whispered.
Naruto stared at him for a few seconds and then nodded and left, intent on finding the perfect place to take his quarry.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Naruto understood that as an ANBU, he would have to kill people. Perhaps it would be unsavory, some sort of assassination mission or killing thugs out in the ass-end of nowhere.
But he never expected his first kill to be in the middle of the village.
Naruto was sitting on a bench in a park, bent over with his hands clasped. He sat there waiting.
Clones had been set up among the rooftops to see where the target was. As soon as one dispelled, their memories would come, and Naruto would be ready to execute the plan the clone had created.
It wasn't so much the idea of killing somebody that terrified him. It was the fact that so much was at stake if Naruto didn't kill him.
If I don't do this, many people will die today. He thought frantically,
Suddenly he felt his ANBU tattoo give a slight burst of chakra.
"Kitsune, are you in position?" Tenzo's voice rang out in his head.
"Yes, Taicho, I'm just waiting for the moment to strike."
"... Are you ready to do this? I can always have another-"
Taicho, with all due respect, you asked me to back you guys up. Consider this being my first time doing so, oh and fuck this mission."
"...Alright, in that case, don't hesitate." Tenzo sounded somewhat reluctant.
"I won't. I promise, Kitsune out." With that, Naruto ended the connection.
Just then, a flurry of memories hit Naruto. He stiffened, seeing the plan that his clone had come up with. Naruto took a deep breath and tried to relax his shoulders.
"Alright, let's do this!" He muttered harshly. With that, he was gone with a Shunshin.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
His disguise wasn't much. His henge wasn't too dissimilar from his everyday looks. Naruto's spiky hair had become a dull brown, his whiskers were hidden, and his eyes were uncovered and had turned standard green color, but other than that, he still looked like Uzumaki Naruto.
He could see the refugee train heading straight for the Hokage tower, their zombie-like shuffling never ceasing as they marched onwards. However, now, the man was in front of the crowd.
All the easier for me, I suppose. Naruto thought. He had stashed most of his gear in a trash bin in an alley nearby to be as unassuming as he could. All he had on him currently was the wakizashi that he had hidden in his pants on his backside.
On a corner street in front of the crowd was where Naruto stood waiting—tapping his foot incessantly while watching the group without drawing attention to himself.
Slowly, second, by the second, he watched them as they approached them. The first one passed him, then a second, then a third. Finally, the man controlling the refugee train passed him. Naruto waited a few seconds and then swung in and joined the procession.
It was an agonizing slow movement up to the bomber. He couldn't walk too slowly; otherwise, the bomber would get to his target before Naruto could. At the same time, he couldn't risk moving any faster than a shuffle so as not to arouse suspicion.
With the patience of a predator stalking its prey, Naruto crept through the crowd, slowly weaving in between the hostages, and after a few minutes found himself staring at the back of his target.
The upper spine. Naruto thought. That's where I'll strike him.
Quick as a flash, Naruto drew his blade and, with a silent hiss, thrust his sword into the man's back and lodged it between his vertebrae, killing him instantly.
Without even a sigh, the man dropped to the ground, dead. Naruto sighed with relief, glad that the mission was over.
Or at least that's what was supposed to be the case.
As soon as it registered to the refugees what had happened, they started screaming. One sprinted towards the Hokage's office while roaring. "Long Live the Daimyo!"
Gritting his teeth, Naruto ran after him, and he created four other clones to deal with the rest. Naruto quickly caught up to him despite his size.
With a grunt, Naruto lunged and buried his blade deep in the man's kidney, who moaned in pain and dropped to the ground.
Naruto turned around to see what was happening. It wasn't a pretty sight.
His clones were fighting with a few of the other refugees. Among them, it seemed that some had tried pulling off the tags on them, but it seemed to be to no avail.
"What the hell is going on?" Naruto exclaimed in horror.
Suddenly the rest of his team appeared and cut down the rest of the combatants, all for one who had taken a child hostage.
"Lay down your weapons!" The lady screeched frantically as she held a knife to the boy's throat. "Or the child dies!"
Neko, however, appeared behind her and skewered her through the neck with her sword.
Naruto suddenly fell on his behind as his mind finally caught up with his body. "What the hell was that?" He panted.
"That," Tenzo said, turning to Naruto, "was your first mission done."
"Clever bastards," Neko grunted while wiping her sword, "hid some of their own in with the hostages in case something went wrong."
"Damn, I guess what they say about first missions is true," Tenzo muttered, inspecting the tag of the woman that Neko had killed. He turned to Naruto. "Sorry, that was your intro into the ANBU. Usually, stuff like that doesn't happen until your first infiltration mission." He awkwardly laughed.
"I-its alright I g- I guess," Naruto replied, wincing at his stutter.
Tenzo stood up, switching back into business mode. "We need to cordon off the area. He could have had a deadman switch on him, Owl you're in charge of the bomber's corpse. Kitsune use clones to gather up all the bodies and people into one area in case they go off." He turned to the rest of his team and the two supporting teams that they had called for. "The rest of you need to escort the civilians out of here and notify the higher-ups. Am I clear?"
"Hai Taicho!" They all shouted and went about their messy cleanup.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I wonder how much of the village's coffers I would have to empty for the rest of the world to give us some damn peace and quiet for more than a few months," Hiruzen grumbled under his breath.
He surveyed the street that the ANBU had cordoned off, inside he could see the bodies of the terrorists still laying in the street, tags long defused. Tenzo appeared at his side, kneeling at the Hokage's feet.
"Report." Hiruzen grunted.
"Hokage-sama, the terrorists entered the village at roughly fifteen hundred hours. Kitsune killed what was assumed to be the bomber at the time. It appeared as if he was casting a genjutsu over the entire group."
"But he wasn't, and he had other men mixed in with those who had been put under a genjutsu. Hiruzen guessed.
"Yes, Hokage-sama, they all had explosive tags on them, but some were willing suicide bombers."
The old man turned back to the grizzly but familiar scene. You didn't become Hokage without becoming intimately close with death after all.
"Motive?"
"Currently, we have a few leads. The intel division thinks that it was possibly another Iwa-sponsored attack. However, our primary suspect is a group called the 'Royal Pillar.', A group whose stated goal is the subjugation of Konoha to the Fire Daimyo."
"The Daimyo, hmm? How much more do we have on this group?" Hiruzen asked.
"Not much, they're prevalent in the Fire capital, and they seem to have wealthy benefactors along with experienced shinobi and chakra practitioners in their ranks. It is also unknown what this group's origins are."
"The problems keep piling up, don't they?" Hiruzen growled. "Orochimaru and now possibly the Daimyo himself?"
He turned to Tenzo, "Tell the intelligence division that I want every available spy to head to the Fire Capital. The main priority is finding out anything and everything about this group."
"Hai Hokage-sama!" And with a flicker, he was gone
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
A few weeks later...
Danzo inspected the children and parents of the prospective shinobi with his lone eye as they filed into the Academy grounds.
Today was the first day of the new school year, and as such, the Academy's Headmaster was expected to give a speech to the new and returning students.
When he agreed to take the post that Hiruzen had so mercifully given him, Danzo assumed that the task was a glorified retirement that he was being forced into. However, he did not expect how low the standards had fallen even since the Third Shinobi War. The fact both he and Hiruzen had overlooked this major problem within the village troubled him.
"What's the point of maintaining The Will of Fire if no one is there to inherit it?" Danzo mused internally.
So for the past few months, he had been hard at work restructuring the Academy's curriculum. Of course, he had yet to see if his efforts would pay off in the long run.
Danzo was playing a dangerous game, that much he knew. It was a delicate balancing act of trying to make sure that talented civilian-born shinobi made it into the force and making sure that the clans of Konoha were satisfied with the progress that their next-generation had been achieving while also making sure that any who were unfit to be shinobi were rooted out.
As such, he probably would be stepping on people's toes for however long he would be headmaster. But for someone like him, it mattered little. After all, Danzo was merciful in his own sadistic way. Would the student rather die on his first mission out of the village, or would he instead be ousted from the program?
He shook his head. It was for the best that they left and left quickly. After the dead weight was mostly cut from the Academy, they would move quickly into their studies. The basics needed to be drilled into them while they were young. A tree can only grow so big with shallow roots. Danzo remembered how Tobirama-sensei had spent nearly a month with him, beating into him to throw a shuriken properly. "Good days," he chuckled.
A clear and concise understanding of chakra was the first thing they would focus on without it. After that, the students would be taught general applications for it. Danzo was furious upon learning that they did not teach the students the water-walking technique or the tree-walking process. Then they would focus on physical fitness and taijutsu until they were at acceptable levels. Then they could concentrate on specializing the individual students.
Speaking of which, Danzo had requested a few of his former ROOT members be transferred to be made instructors. Hiruzen had hesitantly granted his wish.
But of course, the real first step to fixing the Academy was here and now.
He took a step forward and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Prospective shinobi of Konoha!" Danzo called out imperiously. Immediately he gained the attention of most of the crowd.
He tapped his cane hard on the concrete of the sidewalk. "Today, you stand in front of the Konoha Shinobi Academy. Among you, I see much promise for the future of this village. However, I must first ask you a question. What is a shinobi?"
The crowd went silent, stunned by his imposing aura. Finally, a hand shot up. "Are they people who learn how to use chakra?" A boy asked.
"An educated guess, but nonetheless incorrect," Danzo replied.
The Hyuuga heiress' hand was timidly raised in the air. "Uh, T-to gain honor for our family?"
"No." He flatly replied, much to her dismay
Another hand shot up, this time from a pink-haired girl. "Is it to serve the village?"
"A bit closer." Danzo conceded. "But I shall give you the whole truth. Hear me now! The way of the shinobi is resolute acceptance of death! As a shinobi, you will be asked to fight! Bleed! Exhaust yourselves and even die!"
At the crowd's shocked silence, he carried on. "Some among you perhaps might be questioning why I am being so harsh on children your age. I am harsh because the world will be harsher. What I have described for you is the reality of the shinobi. It is a constant sacrifice of everything and anything mundane and trivial for The Will of Fire. This self-perfection in the face of death will be all you know from the time you put on the hitai-ate of Konoha to the time you take your last breath, which, for some of you, may only be a few years from now.
Again the crowd was wholly stunned into silence. Some of the children were even crying as their parents attempted to comfort them. Nevertheless, Danzo continued.
"Anywho do not wish to travel this path may leave. There is no shame in it. We all have our purpose to play in life, and if the Way of the Shinobi
is not yours, then so be it.
Slowly some of the parents pulled their children away from the Academy, some of the orphans who had come left by themselves, though the vast majority of the orphans stayed. Danzo was not surprised by this. Generally, they had nowhere to go except to the Academy.
Over the course of roughly fifteen minutes, the Academy grounds thinned considerably to the point that less than half of the prospective students remained standing nervously in front of the grizzled war-hawk.
"Are there any more who wish to leave?" Danzo called. The children stood their ground as the parents of those who were there, primarily clansmen.
"To those of you who stayed. I congratulate you, and I welcome you to my Academy. I promise to never give up on making you shinobi, even if you yourselves have given up!"