The more seasoned ANBU stood at attention, utterly silent and still.
The newer ANBU, all skilled and seasoned shinobi that they were, trembled as they stood at attention.
The cause?
At the head of the assembly hall stood the Commander, a single nin standing behind him.
And they were not happy.
"So..." The Commander finally spoke, voice soft and quiet. But in the large and silent assembly hall, he may as well have been talking loudly. "Not only did a pre-Genin brat run rings around all of you, again, after defacing the Hokage Monument in broad daylight without a single Shinobi noticing a thing, he then broke into the Hokage Tower and stole one of this villages most important and dangerous jutsu scrolls from the Hokage's personal Vault!" His glare deepened. The entire time he spoke, he did not once raise his voice above a soft, almost whisper.
"How was this possible?!" He then demanded, glaring around the room at the elite shinobi under his command, the very elite shinobi who's job it was to secure both the village and the very vault in question.
The villages' elite of the elite were silent, none of them wanting to be the ones to speak and bring attention directly upon themselves. Finally, one was brave enough to slowly raise his hand. "It's Naruto Uzumaki, sir, he- well-" He struggled to continue, not sure if he could find the correct words to lessen the Commander's ire and hopefully reduce the punishment they would all be facing.
"I am well aware of who the brat is and his history in this village!" The Commander finally raised his voice slightly. "What I want to know is why not a single one of you is able to capture him, why it takes an Academy Chunin to do what this villages' elite cannot do!" And oh, how that burned.
That a Chunin who had burned out of the field barely into his career was able to do what his carefully selected and highly trained shinobi could not do.
Now even the seasoned ANBU were shuffling their feet like errant school boys.
The Commander glared around the room one more time. "You will be retrained. Each and every one of you will report first thing in the morning, the only reason you will not is because of hospitalization or a mission. ANBU Hound will be in charge of whipping you back into shape." He indicated his second in command behind him, who stepped forward and tilted his head to the side.
Those who had been part of Hound's 'training' before thought the action looked more menacing than it had any right to.
The room collectively broke out into whimpers of fear and dread, made worse by the way Hound's Chakra curled around him in anticipation.
"Dismissed!" The Commander snarled. The room emptied in the blink of an eye, all of them eager to escape.
"You're late again!" Sakura yelled at her sensei, glaring.
Kakashi eye-smiled cheerfully. "So sorry, a black cat crossed my path, you see, and-"
"Liar!" The blonde and pinkette yelled.
Kakashi chuckled and shifted their attention to what he wanted them to do that day, still cheerful from the morning of ANBU tor- er, training.
He really should thank Naruto one of these days for making it possible.