Snakes and Foxes
By: roterritter
A/N: Nothing new to say. Enjoy!
Chapter 03: ANBU
The word Anbu meant dark.
It was an appropriate word. The Anbu of Konoha had various duties, including assassinations, which was one of the darker duties a ninja could perform.
At the moment a particular Anbu wasn't very happy. It was a full moon tonight and while ninja fighting on the rooftop in the moonlight might be described as a beautiful thing, it really made stealth difficult especially on open ground and around those with sharp eyes.
The Anbu crouched from his position high on a tree limb. He wore his black robe despite the situation. He would have preferred the freedom of access to the sword on his back, but for the moment the black robe provided better camouflage in the dark than his gray and black Anbu uniform.
With the robe's hood over his head the only distinguishing feature about this particular Anbu was a mask in the shape of a dog's face with red strips across it. It was the only mark of individuality of a rather ordinary looking Anbu, if an Anbu could be described as ordinary. Of course there was little ordinary about this particular ninja.
The mission was rather simple, at least for him. It was an A ranked mission requiring him to assassinate a merchant with an unsavory reputation. The merchant had hired ninja from a rival ninja village to protect him from assassination. There was at least one Jounin level ninja in the group, thus the reason for the high mission rank.
It was a solo mission. Even after three years Konoha lacked the manpower to send extra people. They may have caught up on their contracts and convinced everyone they were still strong, but manpower was still an issue. So if a full team wasn't really needed on occasions the more independent, reliable ninja such as himself were sent off on their own.
Yet it was so easy in his mind he saw no need for a full Anbu team and lately he preferred the solitude. It gave him time to think about the past, present, and future. It gave him time to think of his failure three years ago, when he had given up the Anbu mask for short time. In had only proved he still wasn't good with others.
He had returned to the Anbu after his failure was complete. It was easy to return. Once you were an Anbu you were always an Anbu, or else they wouldn't be putting a permanent red tattoo on your arm. Yet he still missed that time in-between when he once again had precious people in his life again before he even realized it. Then again, before he realized it they were gone. Not really dead, but gone from his life.
"Everything had started out so well!"
Like a cat he leapt off the tree limb and ran toward his first target as silent as a leaf caught in the wind. The first ninja had been a guard outside the mansion. His back was turned and he made a sleepy yawn that was cut short literally by a kunai through his throat.
The Anbu ignored the pouring crimson blood and the metallic scent that quickly filled the air and he silently caught the body before it noisily fell to the ground. With a quick, smooth motion he moved the body to the shadows, careful not to drag the dead man's heals in order not to create any tracks or signs that he had been there.
The Anbu only paused long enough to take note that the man's forehead protector had the symbol of the Grass Village, but it wasn't unique or worrisome enough to disturb him.
"What was my first mistake?"
The mansion's shadow in the moonlight filled darkness that served him better than the treetops. He looked for the next few guards. They all seemed terribly relaxed. Was their client so undeserving of their full attention or were they just fools?
"I tested them with the bells the same way I was taught. It was a test that was past down from some of the greatest ninja in Konoha. They were first group of students the Hokage had tried to give me that eventually acted as a team. They passed, but what went wrong?"
The Anbu moved again. His thoughts were carefully kept in rein so not to interfere with the mission. This somehow made him more focused.
He ran again, as quickly as the wind and his robe made him only a shadow against the wall. He prepared his kunai again. It was best to conserve chakra. There was no point in wasting it against these weak guards and for safety of the mission it was best to anticipate the Jounin bodyguard was more skilled than his companions.
"Perhaps it was the eraser? One lone practical joke was responsible for a spiral of events from the very beginning."
Despite the seriousness of the mission, the Anbu couldn't help smiling under his mask at his internal joke. He remembered being surprised by a falling school eraser. It was embarrassing, a Jounin being surprised by a practical joke set up by the dead-last student of a ninja academy.
"When did it change? When had I started ignoring the brat, focusing on the other, and given up on her? From the very start of the exams everything had started going by too fast. I couldn't even keep up with how fast they were changing."
There were two more guards outside the mansion, walking together talking about some triviality that the Anbu didn't care to listen to. He waited above them, attaching himself to the walls with his chakra and cloaked in shadows by his robes and shadows. When they finally walked right under him he dropped.
He fell right between them. They looked at him in shocked surprise, perhaps not yet registering what the black robed shape really was, but it was too late as he quickly extended both arms, jabbing a kunai in each of the men's chest.
They both died with a scream, but he shrugged it off. If it did alert someone then maybe it would keep these idiot guards from being lambs to the slaughter. If the target ran he would track him down, but most likely he would just hole himself inside the mansion. It was unavoidable to kill the ninja. They could only cause trouble later as a group. It was better to take them out one by one.
"The others are so proud of how their students have all become Chuunins now. Even Gai's gloating is getting annoying. Sure, mine are now each being taught by a member of the Legendary Sannin, but they are now separated across the world and no longer mine."
He heard them before he even saw them. Their footsteps weren't even being careful about being heard and instead were running toward where the sound of the comrade's scream had been heard.
"Finally," he said.
The first ninja threw three shuriken from his pouch. As they flew through the air, the other performed a technique that caused the three to multiply into a dozen.
"That seal sequence," he muttered to himself.
The Anbu prepared a kunai in each hand and slashed in the air three times just as the shuriken reached him. The men could hear three metallic hits as the other shuriken flew right through the Anbu, harmlessly like the illusion they were.
"What! He blocked only the three real shuriken? How?"
The other ninja answer was silence and then death as the Anbu quickly pounced on him, ramming a kunai into his chest and then swiftly throwing the other right between the other man's eyes, hitting so hard it snapped his head back. The ninja with the kunai sticking out of his chest wasn't quite dead yet, but all it took was a simple taijutsu to break his neck.
The Anbu certainly had an answer for how he blocked only the real shuriken, but it was no use telling it to dead men. He more than just recognized the technique by the seals used to form it. He had seen which ones were real and which ones were the fakes. Since the others were simple visual illusions there was no reason to dodge them. All he had to do was block the real ones and let the men's confusion buy him time to close the gap between them and end it.
He had to assume his presence was known, but once he had started it wouldn't be long now. The merchant couldn't have hired many ninja. He counted the five he killed and the once Jounin he assumed was guarded the merchant up close. There could only be a few left.
The Anbu ran up the mansion's wall and to the roof. It was better to check the parameter, to make sure he got all of the outside guards to ensure they won't be coming up behind him later. With no one with him to guard his back he didn't want to find a kunai in it.
To his surprise there was someone already on the roof, with their back to him and hidden in the shadows. However, that person's bright blonde hair wasn't really hidden in the light of the moon.
It was familiar hair, but instead it was an eyesore. Like a living ghost from his thoughts had come out. However, it didn't bother him, blonde hair was hardly unique. It couldn't have been him.
He prepared a kunai again and walked with lethal silence toward the man. The man hardly looked alert, crouched over like he was asleep. One cut across the throat would be enough.
"I am just as much of a fool as these guards. I didn't see the signs. I knew to look for them, but I missed them or ignored them. He told me the first time we met what his ambitions were and yet I couldn't stop him. Did I try hard enough? Worse, I gave him a tool to further those ambitions. I gave him a taste of power before he was ready."
With a meditative move he grabbed the blonde hair, yanking the head up. The motion was swift, but in his mind it was incredibly slow.
"I ignored the brat. I knew who he was…who he really was. I didn't even tell him. Not a hint. I let him live in happy ignorance of his past while others told him he wasn't special."
The Anbu angled his kunai so it would take one good slash to end the man's life.
"All the while I---!""Hey, Anbu-san. That isn't very nice to sneak up on sleeping person like that," said a voice behind him. The Anbu didn't even need the voice to alert him to a presence because a sharp end of a kunai was pushed against his head. He could almost feel the point past his hair and the robe. He silently cursed himself and his errant thoughts no allow someone to sneak up on him.
The sleeping form in front of him suddenly exploded into smoke, the blonde hair between his fingers vanished and he could feel the force of the smoke through his fingers. The Anbu's eyes went wide with shock from behind his mask.
"Kage Bunshin?" he said in surprise.
"Hey, Anbu-san why don't you turn around?" asked the voice behind him. It was young, but had a certain amount of familiar boldness.
When the Anbu turned around what he saw hadn't really surprised him and yet it had. A teenage, more accurately described as a young man with spiky bond hair, three whisker-like scars on each cheek, and a confident fox-like smile.
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
Author's Note: I figured once an ANBU always an ANBU. They don't put an ANBU tattoo on you for nothing. Maybe they can be called to assignment if needed. What I really wanted was Kakashi in full lethal ninja mode, which you never see in the anime.
Version 1.3
1.0: Originally this was Chapter 2, but that was confusing because chapter 1 was a flashback, but people didn't realize it.
1.1: Moved to Chapter 3.
1.2: Cleaned up the header. Added "Author's Note".