I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Recruitment
Ryuu walked along next to Yugao and grinned from ear to ear. Despite the nature of the missions he would have to do, and the fact that he had had a complete psychotic break from killing and nearly killed Sasuke in the process, he couldn't help but be happy. Tsunade had agreed to let him join the ANBU, though, only as backup for Yugao, who had basically been his babysitter since the incident.
"Alright mister Big Shot," Yugao grinned as they reached the store that unofficially gave all new recruits ANBU masks. "Pick a mask."
Ryuu looked up at the wall of masks, eyes quickly scanning the rows upon rows of animal and demon masks without seeing any that piqued his interest. Then, his eyes fell on one near the bottom. It wasn't an animal mask, it was a skull. A skull with one of the creepiest grins Ryuu had ever seen, narrow eyes, and the left side largely covered with connecting red lines that almost looked like blood.
"No, you can't have the skull," Yugao spoke up, knowing he was looking at it.
"Aaww, come on," Ryuu complained. "You're no fun at all. Give me that one then."
The shop owner handed him the mask he pointed to and Ryuu looked down at it grinning. The mask had two ears on top, a bit like a dog's, most likely, and four red ovals on it, one over each eye, one on the forehead, and one on the chin, each with a second oval inside the first, and then a filled red oval inside that one for the head and chin with the ones over the eyes having small oval openings instead. The one on the forehead also had a red line extending from the bottom of it to between the eyes and from the top to the edge of the mask. The mouth was a red triangle with red lines going from the outer corners diagonally to the edge of the mask.
"A kitsune mask?" Yugao asked.
"Is that what it is?" Ryuu asked. "I wasn't sure. Anyway, it's the only thing I like beside the skull."
"You know you don't have to see it right?" Yugao asked.
Ryuu held it up to his face, activating his Sharingan and smirked. Small as the eye holes were, they didn't hamper his vision very much.
"I know," Ryuu said removing it from his face. "But others do. And imagine the looks on my targets faces if they saw the skull. They might even surrender without me having to kill them."
"That actually makes sense," Yugao nodded. "Fine, get the skull."
Ryuu grinned and handed the kitsune mask back, taking the skull mask and slipping it on. This one didn't impede his vision at all.
"Take it off," Yugao said holding out her hand. "Don't wear it in the village. The last thing we need is you scaring people."
He rolled his eyes but handed it over just as Sasuke landed beside him.
"There you are," Sasuke grinned. "I call rematch, this time without the genjutsu thing."
Ryuu looked to Yugao who nodded and the three of them left the village, stopping in her and Ryuu's training clearing. Sasuke drew his sword and Ryuu drew his tanto, both activating their Sharingan. Just as Sasuke began forward, Ryuu put his tanto away and began making hand seals.
"Fire Style, Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Ryuu shouted firing a massive dragon head shaped fireball at Sasuke.
Sasuke leapt over it just as Ryuu appeared over him, slashing at him with a Flame Sword. Sasuke formed one of his own, copying Ryuu's and blocked it, then held his other hand out and extended a Chidori Spear at Ryuu. Ryuu held his hand up, forming a Chidori and when the Chidori Spear hit his hand it stopped.
"Now that's cool," Sasuke grinned before they both kicked off each other's feet, landing a distance from each other and letting both jutsus disappear.
"Fire Style-" but that was as far as Sasuke got before Ryuu had paralyzed him with Genjutsu.
"My family was always good with Genjutsu," Ryuu grinned. "Bet you don't break out of that for a few seconds."
After a moment, Sasuke twitched then straightened up and smirked at Ryuu.
"Nice try," Sasuke commended. "That was actually pretty difficult to break out of. Anyone else would have lost the fight. I'm not anyone else though."
He sprinted forward, Lightning streaming along his chokuto and Ryuu drew his trench knife, streaming his Wind Nature Chakra along it and block the blade in a shower of sparks. Ryuu shoved the sword away, then spun, slashing at Sasuke. Sasuke blocked it again then put Ryuu under a Genjutsu of his own. As his sword descended, however, Ryuu exploded into a flock of crows and Sasuke staggered back a step before looking around.
"You can summon crows?" Sasuke asked. "Damn. I was hoping to learn Itachi's best jutsus."
"Like this one?" Ryuu asked as his upper body formed out of crows in front of Sasuke and the sky above them turned red, giving everything a bloody hue.
"Is this Tsukuyomi?" Sasuke asked.
"No," Ryuu smirked. "Just a very interesting genjutsu Itachi showed me. Cool huh? I can also do this."
Crows suddenly began dive bombing Sasuke, exploding into balls of flame the size of a water mellon as they hit. When they were all gone, Sasuke was covered in painful burns and collapsed, the genjutsu ending and taking the damage but leaving the pain, and the weakness it caused. Sasuke fell to his hands and knees and Ryuu extended a Chidori Spear into the ground below Sasuke's head.
"I win," Ryuu grinned. "And now you know what to expect next time."
Sasuke sighed and sat up then grinned.
"Next time I'm going to use my Mangekyo," Sasuke stated.
Ryuu shrugged then turned to Yugao.
"Now you just need the rest of the outfit," Yugao stated. "Come on."
The two of them headed back to the village and bought Ryuu a dozen sets of the standard ANBU uniform and a cloak. In order to make sure the mask would fit right, Yugao also gave him a haircut, winding up making him look almost exactly like Shisui Uchiha in the process. After Ryuu had put on his uniform, she gave him his mask, to which she had attached a black elastic strap to go around the back of his head.
"We got a mission yet?" Ryuu asked.
"Actually yes," Yugao nodded. "We're supposed to investigate Akatsuki activity in the Land of Water. This will test our teamwork and give you the chance to test yourself."
"I agree," Ryuu smirked putting on his mask. "Oh the things I could do to the villagers with this mask."
"And you won't," Yugao stated. "Now take it off and let's go."
Ryuu rolled his eyes.
"I'll meet you outside the village," Ryuu stated tossing the mask into the air and vanishing.
He found Kakashi fairly easily and slowed to normal speed as he sat beside him at the sushi bar.
"Hey Kakashi," Ryuu smirked. "I assume you heard."
"I did," Kakashi nodded. "You sure that's what you want?"
"I'm already being sent after the Akatsuki with Yugao so yeah," Ryuu nodded. "I am excited to test myself against them and if we capture the leader...no, never mind."
"Part of you hopes the leader will have a way to return Fu to life," Kakashi guessed. "If there were a way to restore her body, she could in theory be returned to life with a reanimation jutsu. But I don't know of any way to return her body to a state that could survive."
"Maybe Lady Tsunade could with Medical Ninjutsu," Ryuu thought. "Anyway, the reason I came to find you is, I wanted to see if there were any jutsus you could teach me."
"Well," Kakashi thought for a second. "You seem to have a knack for learning jutsus after you copy them. Alright. I can show you two."
Kakashi stood, leading Ryuu to a relatively empty spot in the village and demonstrated first his Lightning Blade for Ryuu, which was just a concentrated form of the Chidori. Then, he created a ball of blue chakra, with the chakra inside spinning in multiple directions and pushing outward all at once. Ryuu copied both jutsus perfectly, shocked at how tiring the Lightning Blade was.
"Just so you know, Lightning Blade I can't do without my Sharingan even if the Sharingan wasn't a requirement because I have Fire and Wind Nature chakra."
"I see," Kakashi nodded. "Interesting. Anyway, those are the only two I can show you right now. My food should be waiting. I'll see you when you get back."
Ryuu nodded and sank into the ground, rising back out a few moments later beside Yugao who handed over the mask. Then, the two of them left and headed for the port.
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