edited chapter 8
It's been one month since Naruto officially joined the anbu. Like he expected, his training was like nothing he has ever done before.
After joining, his first day is a simple run-of-the-mill breakdown of the anbu and their duties.
After that was done, he spent the month doing their training regiment.
To say it was tough was an understatement. Naruto never felt this sore before in his life.
Thank kami, he recovers quickly and silently, Kurama.
He's sparing against Cat at the moment, learning the way of kenjustu.
Clang! He blocks another one of her strikes before slashing at her only to miss.
"Your getting better, Naruto. Pretty soon, your sword skill will be at a respectable level."
"Thanks, senpai. I know it will be some time before I can truly master this art."
"Well, I think that's enough for today," they both glance at the setting sun.
"So tomorrow is my first job as an anbu, so where will I be stationed?"
"Since you so young, you'll probably be stationed at the hospital or a courier."
"A courier?"
"Basically, your job is to deliver documents for the Hokage across the land of fire or throughout the village."
"Gotta start somewhere."
"Glad you understand well I'll see you tomorrow," she shunshin away, leaving him by himself.
With the shadow clone Jutsu, he conjures up 10 clones dedicated to helping him train his wind nature.
After about an hour, he manages to work the kinks out of the great breakthrough jutsu before calling it a day.
The next day
Hokage tower
In full anbu gear, Naruto stood before the Hokage, waiting for his first set of orders.
"I hope your time in the anbu so far has been beneficial. Tell me what your thought on the anbu?" the Hokage said.
"The anbu training is harder than I expected, but it's manageable, and I've grown in strength and speed."
"How do you like team, Ro?"
"They seem nice and accepting of me in the brief time I've known them, but it's hard to get a read on them then again when everyone is wearing a mask, to begin with," this got a chuckle from the two.
"Ok, your first assignment is to deliver these scrolls to the various clan head throughout the village, then report back for the next set of scrolls. Understood?"
"Hai," he took the scrolls in hand and shunshined away.
The first person on the list was Akimischi residents, who weren't too hard.
He landed at the clan compound's gates to knock off the front doors as this was all new to him, and he didn't want to bargain.
He didn't have to wait long before Choji's dad opened the door to see the pint-sized Anbu before him.
"I was wondering when you showed up. I take it you have a message from the Hokage?"
"Hai," he handed him his scroll.
"Thank you, anbu" those were his departing words as he closed to door.
Naruto headed off to the next clan and repeated this process until he reached the Hyuga compound the list's last name.
He was dreading this as he knew the Kekki Genkai could sniff him out in no time.
He landed at the front gates just as he was about to knock. They opened to reveal one of the many members to greet him.
"You must be the new Anbu we heard about. Lord Hiashi is expecting you."
Naruto is taken back at this as he never would of guess this from a Hyuga before.
"Very well, then lead the way."
Naruto was lead to the Hyuga clan office, waiting patiently after the one who leads him to hear only to knock on the door.
"You may enter," a masculine voice called out.
With as much grace as he can muster, they enter the room only to face Hiashi with his Byakugan active.
"CRAP," he said mentally.
"Relax, I was curious about who this new anbu was, considering he is one of its youngest members," he deactivated the Byakugan.
"Ok, then I have a message from the Hokage. If that is all, I will take my leave, and I hope you keep my identity a secret."
"You don't have to worry about that."
He let out a sigh of relief before a new question came to mind, "If you don't mind me asking, why would you keep this a secret as it's no secret? Everyone looks down on me because of the fox."
"Well, it's quite simple really as a member of the village anbu you work under the Hokage as such to disrespect you would be to disrespect the Hokage. But this doesn't give you a free pass. If you screw up, very few people will come to your defense."
"Don't have to remind me?" he said before he shunshin away.
Naruto landed in the Hokage office, waiting for his next orders "I've completed my task, Lord Hokage."
Both were thinking Naruto calling him by his title was going to take some time getting used to.
"Thank Kitsune, I have your next set of documents. The addresses are on the scrolls."
"Will I be doing this by myself? The reason I'm asking is I'm going out of the village. I don't want to be outmatched if I run into an enemy ninja." Hiruzen had a slight smile at this since it proved Naruto was learning.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give you some backup. I'll have a member ready to go with you be at the west gate in 30 minutes to depart."
"Hai"
30 minutes later
As he goes by now, Naruto, or agent Kitsune, is waiting in a nearby tree, practicing hiding his presence while waiting for his partner.
"Agent Kitsune?" he looks behind him to see a fellow anbu member wearing a monkey mask.
"Yes, that is me, and you?"
"Agent Monkey, I am to aid you in your delivery."
"Good, I assume you have a few days of supplies then?"
"Yes, I assume you as well?"
"Hai, the first delivery is near the border with Ame. All in all, it should take up three days to complete these deliveries.
"Hai" with that, they were off to border village.
Later the day
Thanks to their ninja speed, it only took them a few hours to reach their destination.
The location in question was the local commerce building.
Not wanting to give off the wrong impression, monkey stayed out of sight, so Naruto can do his job.
Naruto shunshin in a nearby alley before sneaking in to meet up with the contact.
It didn't take him long to find the man.
"Ah, you must be the courier I was told about," the older man said
"My name is agent Kitsune. These are the document I was told to deliver," he placed the scroll on his desk. I will take my leave now."
"Very well then, and tell the Hokage to stop by for a drink or two."
"Well, do, sir," he shunshin to his partner.
"One down, five more to go, monkey."
"Hai," and they were off to their next target.
It wasn't till the second delivery that Naruto realized the Hokage was sending him all over the land of fire.
It was a good thing he had back up as yesterday's battle proved he still has some way to go.
Flashback start
Naruto and monkey just finished their third stop and on their way to the fourth recipient before a sudden boom was heard.
"Damn, it looks likes someone is in trouble."
"Hai"
They followed the noise only to a large group of 20 or so bandit ransacking a village.
"Looks like I found the occasion to use these bad boys," he said, pulling out two trench knives to help channel his wind nature.
Moneky drew his sword, infusing it with fire chakra.
The two raced toward the group, successfully dropping one bandit each before.
Naruto bolted towards another, slitting their throat as he goes and slicing the weapons with ease.
Of course, mentally, with each bandit's life he ended, he was reminded of his first kill but after merging with his darkness.
He now understands that some people deserve to die and that death is in the job description when you're a ninja.
He looks at the monkey, and he was fairing just as well.
That was till Naruto accidentally set off a trap that blasts both of them, practically sapping them of all their chakra.
"Damn, I didn't think bandits were capable of this," monkey stated.
And it didn't help. Both collapsed to a knee, slightly paralyzed thanks to the electricity coursing through their systems.
"Hehehe, I knew it was a good idea to set up that trap," a loud, gruff voice stated, making its self known.
The two anbu look to the voice's origin to see a tall, muscular man where ninja-based clothing indicated by the scratched mist ninja headband.
"Shit Kitsune that Romulus, missing ninja from Kiri."
"Romulus, I heard about him when I went through the bingo book the other day. He's A-rank correct?"
"Yeah, and I hate to say, but I don't know if we can beat him in our condition."
"I know what you mean. I can tell you still a little green like me."
"That I won't deny, but we got to figure out a way to break his hold on us."
"I have an idea, but you're not gonna like it."
"Are you absolutely sure that's the only way out of this"
"Positive as he's taking his time to reach us," he watches the man approaching them at a leisurely pace.
"Make it quick."
"Alright, Kurama, think you can throw me some chakra.'
"Fine, but make it quick."
Suddenly Naruto's body was enveloped in orange, red chakra, giving him the strength to break the man's hold on him.
Romulus's eye nearly bulged out of his head in the presence of this new chakra.
Free from the electricity, he bolted toward the man with his nine tails infused trench knives.
With his newfound strength, he slashes at the man, who somehow manages to dodge his attacks.
He counters with his own chakra-infused sword.
But that didn't deter the young anbu agent. If anything, he drove him further to win this battle.
"Kit, I'm using my chakra to replenish your so you can use your wind Nature to slice through his sword and end this battle!"
"Whatever takes to win, I guess."
Naruto dodged his next slash before backflipping a quick way to revert to his usual chakra before infusing his wind nature.
"Now it time to end this," he charged at the man who brought his sword down on his, which he easily dodged before jumping overhead, slashing his neck before landing.
With the man dropped dead, he went to work dispelling the electric trap and strangely found it relatively easy to do.
"Thanks, Kitsune. I don't know what I could have done if it wasn't for the fox."
"Don't mention it, but this fight proves I still have a long way to go."
"Same for me, and when did you get the trench knives."
"A week ago, a jonin from a previous mission gave them to me as a gift to better utilized my wind nature."
"What about your sword?"
"I still use it as the knives are more for enclosed spaces where the sword I use for high-speed slash attacks like assassination."
"Since when did you do assassination request?"
"I haven't, but cat trained me to use it that way as my kenjutsu skills are at best just under respectable."
"Yep, that's cat for ya."
"Well, now we have a reward to collect when this is all over."
"Yes, we do. By the way, what was the reward anyway?"
"A-ranked missing ninja, I think his reward is 100,000 Ryo, to be expected for an A-rank target."
"Hmm, well, we better get going then."
"Hold it, are you sure you can continue since we were pretty much sapped of all our chakra?"
"I'm fine," he said, trying to stand up, but Naruto wasn't buying it since the monkey was still shaking in the legs.
"No, your not. You can barely stand. We'll stay here for the night to recover our strength."
"Fine," it was at this time all the villagers worked up the courage to approach the two anbu.
After a somewhat lengthy conversation, the two were treated to a free room and food for the night for stopping the bandits.
Flashback end
The night at that village was just what they needed to recharge their battery as conveniently a merchant entered later that night you had some food pills on hand.
It took some convincing from the townspeople despite the protest from Naruto and Monkey. They didn't need it but ultimately failed.
"Hopefully, these food pills will come in handy in the future, Kitsune."
"I'm sure they will as were anbu on that note I have to up my training when we get back to the village."
"Same here. Don't want to fall for another trap like that."
The rest of the trip was uneventful except for this strange feeling that washed over Naruto when they neared the land of lighting for their last stop.
Later that day, Kurama told him that the feeling was from the eight tails.
When they finally made it back to the village, it was nearing sundown.
They stopped by the Hokage tower giving the old man their report before also claiming the reward of Romulus.
Split between them 50,000 ryo for each of them.
This is where Naruto would have gone home, but monkey invited him to a bar with the few other anbu members.
It wouldn't hurt to get to know his fellow anbu members.
First, they got out of their anbu uniforms, and the agent by the name of monkey's real name was Zeke.
He had shoulder-length brown hair with a Konoha headband on with the usual ninja attire.
As for Naruto, he went with his pre anbu outfit.
Zeke lead him to a restaurant in what is considered by some the redlight district called iron rock bar,
It was built into the Hokage monument's side, allowing for a colder place to store alcohol.
It was also at this time he learned Zeke was 15 years old.
When they made it, they sat in a corner, giving their orders.
Zeke orders a steak and grilled rice with some water.
Naruto's order of ramen was trying different ramen was a hobby of his.
"So how long have you been in the anbu Zeke," he said in a hushed tone.
"Hey, relax, this bar is used mainly by anbu, so no need to be discreet with that information."
"So, how long have you been in the anbu?"
"Year and a half."
"Really that long, so what is it like being a member for so long?"
"Nothing much, the most significant difference between the anbu and the regular forces we only do B rank and above as far as a mission are concerned if it's outside the village.
"what about C-ranks" he silently was happy he didn't have to do the dreaded D-rank missions.
"We do C-ranks on occasion when the need arises, but that only when it one anbu agent doing it."
"So C-ranks are solo missions for anbu agents?"
"Yes, anything else you'd like to ask?"
What about inside the village beside courier work?"
"Mostly security along the village walls or hospital, you know, to help keep the peace."
"Hmm, that honestly sounds a little boring."
"You have no idea, but it's better than nothing."
It was at this time their food arrived, the two anbu ate in comfortable silence.
They were approached by what he can assume are their fellow anbu agents plus one jonin.
One had long purple hair, which Naruto deduced as agent Cat and the other had a metal headband that framed his face with almond-shaped eyes.
And lastly, the one-eyed ninja with gray hair.
"Sup Yugao and Yamato and Kakashi, what brings you here?" Zeke asked.
"We just wanted to see how our new member is fairing in the corps," Yugao said.
"We just got back from a mission delivering messages for the Hokage all over the land of fire," Naruto said with a sigh.
"Did you have any problems?" Kakashi asked.
"We had to deal with some bandits than a missing ninja, but nothing we couldn't handle."
"Please tell us more," Yamato informed.
Naruto and Zeke made some room for them to sit down to detail their mission outside the village.
Yugao sat next to Naruto, and Kakashi and Yamato sat next to Zeke.
"Wow, your pretty lucky you made it out ok," the one eyed ninja added.
"You can say that again, and it served as a reminder we need to get stronger right, Zeke!"
"Hai" was his response.
"So what have you guys been up to?" Naruto had to ask to take the tension of him.
For the next few hours, they talked about the recent mission.
Kakashi talked about getting a genin squad that he proceed to fail.
Yamato mentions something about some new recruits getting training for the corps.
And Yugao talked about her date with a chunin named Hayate and the latest mission on escorting caravan through the rough train.
Seeing that it was getting late, Naruto said his goodbyes before calling it a night.
The next day
Luckily for Naruto, the Hokage gave him a few days off to get some training to prevent someone from getting the drop on him again.
The training in question was detecting the paper bomb his clone planted in hopes of not walking into another trap.
Of course, the paper bombs were low yield, so he didn't have to worry about getting hurt or anything.
Using the trick kakashi taught him, he could detect what he would say are hot spots for chakra.
Why? Simple paper bombs require chakra for the explosive to go off.
By concentrating his chakra webs, he could find small concentrations of chakra.
Sadly it's easier said than done because other living creatures naturally have chakra of their own.
After his training period was done, he could detect smaller chakra concentrations, but it will take him some time to fine-tune it.
Now he was off to get another mission from the Hokage.
Standing before the Hokage in his anbu gear, waiting for his next assignment.
"Ready for my next assignment, Lord Hokage."
"Kitsune, I'm assigning you to a week-long period to the hospital patrol."
"Hai," he said before heading off to the hospital.
When he got there, he was sent to another anbu in charge of hospital duty.
Kitsune, you are to hide in the rafters in the ceiling and watch for any suspicious activity to prevent or stop civilian conflict pose to the staff and or its patients."
"Hai," his first post was the front lobby with one other anbu agent named hawk.
He sat the watch for several hours.
He had to admit he wanted some conflict since it didn't take long to grow bored with this task.
"Doesn't anything exciting happen here?" he said to himself.
"Not really most anbu take this time to catch up on some sleep or play games like shogi to sharpen their minds," hawk answered.
"Shogi?"
"Yes, you never played?"
"I've heard of it from some old times but never bothered to learn."
"Well, you in luck. I just so happen to have board and pieces on hand" pulled out a scroll before poof a shogi board, and pieces appeared.
"Woah, how did you do that?"
"What the seal? That's fuinjutsu or sealing. It quite handy when you need to carry a lot of gear.
"Think you can show me?"
"Maybe, but I'm not the best. I only know enough to hold my shogi board and pieces, so you want to play?"
"I've never played before, so I don't know where to begin."
"Don't worry, I'll show you."
For the next hour, Naruto learned the ways of the game called shogi.
"I'll have to get me a set of shogi to play with you guys."
"You can have this set."
"Really?"
"Yes, I have a few other sets at home."
"Ok, but can you teach me how to seal it back up?"
"Sure, but let's play a few games first."
For the remainder of their shift, Naruto and hawk played shogi, and Naruto lost every game.
"This is turning out to be harder than I thought," he said, scratching his head.
"Believe it or not, I'm not very good either, but you just happen to be a beginner, so lucky me," Naruto let out a snort at this comment.
When their shift was over, Naruto Hawk met up at HQ, where he was taught the ways of sealing or rather how to seal the shogi board and pieces.
"If you want to learn more about sealing or shogi, there are few books in the library you can check out or ask around for someone to teach you."
"I'll keep that in mind" with that, they went their separate way as tomorrow, for the remainder of the week, Naruto would be on the second floor of the hospital.
Three days later
Naruto setting in the rafter on the first floor when a civilian managed to fight his way past the nurses because they wouldn't let him see his son.
Now he had the excitement he was craving and tackles the man to the ground using his chakra unfused foot to keep the man.
"Calm down, oldtimer. Your son is fine. He just needs rest, and you causing a racket isn't helping," he commanded.
But the man just scoffed at his word and tried to force his way up but fail as Naruto was joined by another anbu keeping him in place.
They didn't have to wait long as the nurses administer a sedative to knock him out cold.
He was handed to some jonin for disciplinary action.
Unfortunately, that was the only excitement Naruto got for that week.
This went for three months on end, going to the Hokage getting knew orders anywhere from courier work to hospital details.
Or his now favorite guard duties for caravan carrying much-needed supplies to keep the village running.
He also did a lot of training with the other team Ro members increasing his strength and speed to that of a jonin.
Course the training was hell, and he learned he has a knack for fuinjutsu. His kenjutsu was brought up to a standard that made cat senpai proud.
At this moment, he was waiting in Anbu HQ, hoping Kukiko was accepted as a member of the villages Anbu.
He is pacing back and forth while Cat sat on a nearby bench, trying to calm him down.
Suddenly the door opens, revealing his sister in all but blood wearing the anbu uniform with a big smile on her face.
And behind her in the Hokage holding her mask.
"Kukiko, this day forward as a member of the anbu, you granted the code name trout with this fish mask. Now everyone, let's give her an anbu welcome."
Cheers could be heard all around as they celebrated another member.
Of course, the first to congratulate her was Naruto giving her massive thumbs up.
"Thanks, Naruto, and I promise not to let anyone down," she said with glee.
"Kukiko, would you like to join team Ro and looks like we get to train together now."
"Yes, I plan on showing how far I've come." everyone could see the fire in her eyes.
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