Peel
Snakes shred their skin when they are hurt too much. Don't you think that is interesting, that they can let something of theirs go so easily?
Me and my master had finished our exercises for the day, my final push up accompanied by a ping:
Strength: 69 - 70!
I checked all of my stats.
Stats:
Strength: 70
Agility: 69
Perception: 78
Intelligence: 64
Chakra: 102
Luck: 27
Perks:
No pain no gain!:
Working out until your body cannot move gives you increased regeneration when resting in a bed.
Miracle strength:
Allows the user, at deaths door to gain an inhuman strength and burst of stamina. They might think you are done, but you are only getting started.
Flying body:
Your body can move around much more mid air. You can twirl around attacks as if gliding, and anything that gives you upwards momentum can have its direction changed somewhat.
Bendy figure:
When dodging attacks, people's attacks seem to go right past you. Grazes will not hit, you can only be nailed by direct blows.
Analytical adept:
Allows the user to figure out what actions, requirements and purpose a move has by looking at it. Doing this will allow that same user to copy those actions, but with their own analysis.
Predictive Prowess:
Allows the user to see what will happen based on a movements properties, enabling foresight into a person's actions. In short, a person's punch can be predicted by the muscles tensing on their body.
Book worm:
Any book you read is recorded so you can read it later. Some books when fully understood can give bonuses.
Seeing those stats, me getting stronger day by day, made me happy, though there was one problem.
Attribute points:
70
70 whole points I had saved up, but I think one day I would need them. I didn't want to skip my training after all, and I did like the idea of gaining an insane amount of power in a last, crucial moment. I am hoping that is foreshadowing.
Orochimaru called me over, bringing me away from my stat menu. I didn't check it often when he was here, I didn't want him to think I was an airhead.
He had a serious expression. It freaked me out a bit honestly, I could only imagine him making this face at the 3rd's funeral or something like that, and then I think the last thing to worry about would be the lack of a snake's twisted smile.
"Kizashi. You, really, were my first student, and you have a lot of potential for the future. Unfortunately, because of that, I have to let you go."
I was confused, looking at him head turned to the side.
"If I am as talented as you say, why would you want to stop teaching me?"
It did not make sense, him wanting what? A dumber student? One who was brass and insane? I guess Anko fit that bill, but that was years down the line, and pretending she wasn't smart is a disservice to her. Even if she isn't even born yet.
"I need to stop teaching you, because soon you will be a chunin, and after that a jonin. And if that happens, I will be forced to teach fools for the rest of my life. Yes, 1 jonin out of 3 genin isn't ideal, but it is far above average. Imagine if out of every genin that died half of them became jonin? We would have won the war, the continent, and the entire world by now. It sets a bad precedent. I know you can become strong, if I was a little more humble I would say as strong as I, but I can't be the one responsible for that. I have my own ambitions, my own things to fulfil."
And so I swallowed my tongue. I was angry, very, at my master leaving me, at the fact he didn't think training me was worth the sacrifice, at that I would lose him, but nothing I could say would change his mind. It was unfair, I thought. Deeply unfair.
"Well what am I to do then? Become a regular chunin?"
"I have called in a favour. Given you an opportunity. ANBU. Black ops, strong, strict. A good way to drill you into a powerful ninja and a smart one both. And it pays well too. You just have to get through the interviews."
And my word, I could have hugged the man if I wasn't afraid he would swallow me whole.
…
My mask was blank, as was everyone else's.
It was easy to leave home for the interview, which I was realizing now was more of a euphemism than a description, all of us candidates lined up, rank and file. We were given numbers, me #31, last of the group. Everyone here was clearly older than me, and the size difference annoyed me somewhat. I still needed to hit my growth spurt. And puberty. Annoying.
"You are here because you are meant to be our finest. Your sponsor was probably lying, so we have to check. We have to break your bones, strip your skin, maybe even kill you to check wherever you are worth our time or not, so before we actually go ahead, you can either stay and get your asshole opened wider than the kyubii's mouth, or leave, pride demolished and face intact."
Nobody budged. I wondered how many here were chunin. God, how many here were jonin? Was I honestly the only genin?
We were split into 5 groups of 5, and 1 group of 6. My group of course. I was the lucky number 6, and we were lead to some secluded forest by a tiger faced mask holder.
We entered the middle of some large expanse, trees flanking the edges of a circle of clean grass, before the tiger mask turned around, back handing a recruit in the face, flipping him mid air like a macabre ragdoll.
He wasted no time, dashing into the stunned crowd, read to grapple another unlucky fool, when I threw a kunai at where his hand was aiming. He retreated, and, assuming he was at least a jonin, was probably taking it easy on us. Looking at the unresponsive man on the floor, his version of easy wasn't the same as ours.
The he vanished.
And I ducked, just as his kick spun above my head, barely grazing the hairs. I sprung back on my hands, as another nin, some Kunoichi from her curves, engaged the man, long legs launching ineffectual kicks. But I saw something.
I threw yet another kunai, which would force him to leap into the air, then blasted a charge of lightning into the air. As expected, his attention on the woman, when he jumped over the kunai and to the side of the leg, my lightning strike was poised to hit him.
And then he countered it with a small blast of wind. And then his mask turned to me.
Shit.
He predicted my jump after body flickering, grabbing my torso with one hand and throwing me into the floor. I was barely able to twist my smaller around so I rolled away instead of getting crushed. He didn't stop though, his knee about to smash into my skull an instant later. But, I had thought about this, a rock wall going up, and his knee smashing into the structure and creating spider web fractures.
Shit again.
Thankfully the remaining 3 managed to find their balls in time to distract him from barreling down my barrier, but they quickly regretted it, the elite shinobi picking one up by the leg and swinging him like a bat into another, then charging into the last, lifting him by the neck and smashing him down.
And I realised what I needed to do.
The ANBU's grip had its contents replaced with a log of wood, and I had landed with my allies body in my arms. Then we both stood, kunai's raised, as the others came too as well, all prepared to deal with the experienced shinobi.
Then he clapped. "Congratulations. You lasted 3 minutes, and none of you got knocked out or pussied out. That means you all pass. Let's go back."
And returning, we were on edge the entire way. We didn't make a sound, but we wondered, was this part of the test too?
…
By the end of the day, we had been cut in half twice, and then some. Only 6 of us remained, battered and beaten and bloody. Yet, our faces were not of defeat, but grim determination.
We were stood in the hall where we started, before a tall black haired man in a dragon mask walked up to the podium. We coughed, and then began speaking in a somewhat raspy voice.
"To all those preliminary recruits that are still here, you have passed. That does not mean you are true ANBU, it means we are going to try to train you. If we find you sub-par, you will be removed. If you fail egregiously at any point, you will be removed. If you do not support the core tenants of this force, you will be removed."
The guy seemed uptight, and stricter than anyone else I had met as a shinobi.
"I am the ANBU commander, Dragon, and you from now on will be under my command. All of my orders are approved by the hokage, and we must operate under the utmost secrecy. To keep your identities under check, you must spend some time milling about with other shinobi. You must talk to them about some of the missions you were on together. You must live every moment of your life as both a ninja, and a member of ANBU.
Oh, and congratulations. Dismissed, you will be led to your quarters by one of the ANBU near the passageways."
…
Training was gruelling, sprints and battles and chakra exhaustion in the muddiest and most filthy conditions I could stand. It was slightly harder than working under Orochimaru, though I am sure if he was trying harder he would have given me a worse time, the sadist.
I couldn't disapprove of the progress though. Only a weak had netted me:
Strength: 75
Agility: 76
Perception: 81
Intelligence: 70
Chakra: 130
Luck: 42
The luck seemed to only increase after hard battles, or ones where I got 'lucky'.
I will admit, I saw my fare share of losses. They taught me how to fight with my back against the wall, substitutions made at the last second, jutsu traps and deft dodges and the riskiest manoeuvres I could manage all making me slightly more defensible.
Some of the other ANBU made fun of my height. It didn't annoy me. That much. But it did grate on me. I was getting better and better, better than them I think, and they still didn't respect me. Just they wait. Until they die or I get taller, I guess.
At the end of the week, we had a test. I didn't cheat, didn't want to It was callsigns, handsigns for communication. Protocols and team formations and identifiers and more. Ways to stop spies, ways to spy, ways to tell your commander to fuck off and choose a better plan without pissing him off. The criteria for how unprofessional you could be (spoiler, from what I saw, in the test itself, you are encouraged to talk to your teammates in the foulest way imaginable and to your superiors like gods), a criteria for how badly you kill an enemy (Stabs to the neck and other main arteries are considered killing moves, cutting someone until they are dead demands a kunai to the skull or neck, and major disfigurement demands identification if enough time is at hand).
I passed (Of course I did, that intelligence stat is as high as it is because I hit the books like crazy, and being able to literally read the book using Book Worm made it impossible to fail, though I didn't actually need to use it.)
100% was needed, if you failed they made you stay for a week to try again.
So I walked to a group of 3 ANBU behind a desk.
They looked down at a sheet of paper. There was no information on there about me, simply my identification number.
"You pass, #31. You may replace your blank mask with this one, and use your new callsign, Yurei."
Interesting. The patterns on these Shinobi's mask were all indicative of symbols, faint ideas and mythologies and such. The mask I picked up was blank, and so they directed me to a room with another ANBU, equipped with a paint brush and a canvas.
"What design do you want?"
I walked out with a cherry blossom on the mask, accompanied by wisps of smoke or steam, fog sticking to and dripping off the pink petals as dew. It fit the name, and my hair colour, as pink and cherry blossom-like it truly was. He was also a tattooist, so he had but the ANBU seal on my arm, a way to signal any nearby allies.
And then I reached Dragon's room.
I knocked, once. He told me to come in, like he had known I was there before I even thought to touch the door.
I sat in his front, and noticed how dark the shroud of personage around this man truly was. It was as if the people he had killed, ally and enemy alike, weighed him down, a deadly atmosphere gripping him like dead ghosts.
"Take of your mask."
I hesitated for an instant, before ripping it off. He knew who I was already, he was the fucking commander. What I didn't expect was for him to take his off too.
And for it to be Shimura-fucking-Danzo.
…
A/N: Headcannon, danzo was ANBU commander during the second shinobi war. You will see why that is important later.
Also, I have this idea that the different generations of ANBU had different types of mask. The first generation had concepts, like fire or ice and such, as they existed as a way for older shinobi to do stealth missions without the drama accompanying it, Like Sarutobi Sasuke for example donning a mask of nature and gutting a royal family.
The second wave has mythological creatures and myths. Danzo was second generation, so hence he is dragon. The position of ANBU commander only existed from the second generation, where the org became more than a smokescreen for legendary shinobi to act in secret.
The third generation has normal animals, but Dragon still works. He is mythological, yet a dragon is still an animal.
Also, spoiling this so you guys don't have to figure it out. Orochimaru made a deal with Danzo to accept Kizashi. This is a masterstroke from him. He doesn't have to teach him anymore, he gets to not have to teach anyone in general, and because Danzo gets another soldier, he has a little more pull with him now.
Also note, Kizashi is very naïve right now, He things he is going to join ANBU and not have a single casualty.
That is simply impossible.
Anyway, cya. Remember to review, and thanks for reading.
Also I had a small hiatus because I am in pain. An extraordinary amount. Bruised my jaw bone by laying on it funny, which has the side effect of inflaming my teeth nerves too, and you know how much they hurt (Like a big booty bitch). I cracked down on it though, I should be alright in a week or so, but till then it is taking paracetamol (acetaminophene for you americans) and being in pain when I have to wait 4 hours for the next dose. I used to be taking Ibuprofene, but then I realised that would make the bruise last longer, so I decided to soldier through it. If the chapter is sub par, tell me so I can make it better when I return (I am not a perfectionist but there is a certain amount of quality I want from my writing.)
Btw my attitude to this fanfic is to see if I can do something like the 'greats'. Your jordinio's and your kenshi's, people I respect a lot able to make simply addicting stories under a tight schedule. Because of that, compared to Rainfall and Firestorm, I do not care for the quality of the fics that much. I just let it happen.