Chapter 7: Chuunin ANBU?

::1 Week Later::

"So have you decided on my offer yet Hiraku?" Hiraku looked at the Hokage in front of him with a huge frown on his face.

"But I can beat some jounin ANBU in combat, why are you making me be only a chuunin that works as an ANBU? That's so unfair!" The Hokage sighed out loud as he heard the child's words.

"Hiraku, we both know that while your fighting skills are at the level of jounin, your battle making decisions, and intelligence has some growing to do before you are ready for the rank of jounin. Not to mention the fact that you still have some maturing to do..." The Hokage smiled as he watched the defeated boy nod with a frown on his face. Children never ceased to amaze him with their attitudes and personalities, and Hiraku was no exception.

"Fine Hokage, but I want to be promoted like next week or something." Hiraku gave the Hokage one last defiant glare before leaving the room and reporting to the ANBU headquarters. It seemed that Hiraku was going to have to follow under a special leader and do missions for him. Sighing, Hiraku walked opened the door to the headquarters and stepped inside.

The first thing that Hiraku noticed was that everyone in the room was wearing the same ANBU outfit, and wearing an animal mask of some sort. Wondering what king of mask he would get, Hiraku quickly walked up to a group of leader's at a desk and decided to report for "duty."

"Hi, my name is Hiraku, and I'm supposed to join an ANBU team. Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do?" At first the three ANBU at the desk didn't respond, but after several seconds the one in the center of the desk answered Hiraku.

"Yes, you're the boy ANBU who was just recruited. Anyway, I have you on the list, and I have decided that you'll be under the supervision of Leoung Ysung. He is among my top ANBU captains, so I expect you to do well under his supervision. You should find Ysung in the team four room on the right wall." Pointing at a door ten yards away, Hiraku politely bowed to the ANBU leader, and then left to the door and went inside the team four room.

Misaru was shocked to find that he was now inside of a large auditorium type room that had around six members in it at the moment, including one leader ANBU at the bottom of the stairs. Feeling his excitement grow, Hiraku quickly walked down the stairs and greeted the leader by giving his name.

"So you are my new "hot shot" recruit. Well, go over to the locker over there with your name on it and get your ANBU clothing on. Normally we would present you with a selection of masks, and you would pick one, but it seems a man named Misaru has already done that for you." Giving the man a big smile as he heard Misaru's name, Hiraku quickly walked over to his locker and opened it up. Inside he found an ANBU uniform that would fit him perfectly, and a falcon mask that had a not inside of it. Hiraku read the note to himself as he put on his ANBU uniform.

Dear Hiraku,

Hiraku, it seems that you have chosen to join the ANBU, and I couldn't be any prouder of you for your decision. I myself was once an ANBU, and I can tell you right now that it won't be an easy life, but at the same time you will drastically improve all of your shinobi skills, and be protecting leaf village. I expect you to be very respectful to everyone you come in contact with while you are an ANBU, and that you will uphold all of the honorable behaviors that I have taught you. Never forget how proud I am of you.

Misaru

Hiraku felt tears form inside of his eyes as he finished the note, but the boy quickly wiped them away. He was sad that he was going to have to grow up quickly, but at the same time he was glad that his skills were now going to be very useful to many people. Smiling, Hiraku quickly put on the falcon mask that covered all of his face except for his hair and his eyes.

"Ysung, I'm ready for whatever you need me for." Hiraku said as he walked back over to were the rest of his ANBU group were gathered.

"Good, because I have a mission that I would life for you to go on tomorrow. In the mean time, I want you to come with me to the ANBU training grounds so I can get a feel for what skills you posses, and how you fight.

Nodding his agreement with Ysung's words, Hiraku followed the man as they left to the back of the ANBU headquarters where the training grounds were. Quickly passing all of the training equipment, the two shinobi soon found themselves in a sparring area that was covered in what appeared to be a natural forest environment.

"This area has been set up so that it perfectly resembles that of a normal forest area in fire country. Now, I want you to attack me with everything that you have, and make sure that you hold nothing back. I need to get a feel for how powerful you really are." Smiling, Hiraku activated his sharingan, surprised to find that Ysung didn't even flinch as he saw the bloodline appear in the boy's eyes.

Charging at the ANBU leader in a blaze of speed, Hiraku quickly began to send punch after punch at the older ANBU, forcing him to take the defensive. Feeling pretty cocky about his advantage, Hiraku jumped backwards several yards and formed hand seals while in the air. By the time the boy had landed, he had already finished the hand seals for his jutsu.

"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball Skill)!" Hiraku blew out an extremely large blaze of flames at the older ANBU, forcing him to rapidly make hand seals so that he could create a counter jutsu.

"Doton Doryuuheki (Earth Rising Wall)!" Ysung spewed out a large amount of mud that quickly solidified just in time to create a wall hard earth. The flames then collided with the wall of mud, forcing it to melt, but did not manage to break through the wall.

"Very impressive jutsu Hiraku. That is one of my most powerful shield jutsu, and you just managed to destroy it. Too bad you have lost." With that Ysung imitated Hirakus Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu and blew out a large stream of flames of his own.

Hiraku only smiled and rapidly created several hand seals as he saw the jutsu come towards him.

"Doton Doryuuheki!" Ysung stared in shock as Hiraku perfectly imitated his own jutsu and created a earth barrier just strong enough to block the fire attack.

"Seems you underestimated my sharingan, that is not a mistake many live to talk about." Ysung then noticed for the first time that the boy had three dots in his right eye, and two in the other.

"That boy is as close as he can get to the Mangekyou Sharingan without actually having it. This boy is far more impressive than I thought, Misaru must have trained him incredible hard to have him develop these fighting skills at such a young age." Waving his hand to signal to Hiraku that the fight was over, the older ANBU calmly walked over to the boy and pointed to the headquarters.

"I've finished my assessment of you. Go to your locker and put away your uniform and mask, and then you can go home. I expect to see you here at 3 a.m. tomorrow." With that Ysung walked away from the boy, leaving him to wonder what had just happened.