ANBU isn't a nice place
We dashed across the trees our hearts pumping with excitement. Our first mission as ANBU, full fucking ANBU. There were 3 of us, and a captain, yet we were jumping with a trio of other squads too.
Larger operations tended to be a good start for newer ANBU, more people to make up for if you make a mistake, or save you if you get wounded. If you are dead, you are dead, but having that back-up always helped. Mistakes weren't tolerated in ANBU, they couldn't be, but it never hurt to get a safety net.
I had several Kunai strapped to my body, chest, arms, etc. My vest had pouches for supplies, but stacking kunai in there never made much sense to me. It would take too long in a real battle. I ended up wrapping bandages around where I needed to keep extra projectiles, fastening them down. I was strong, but my balance didn't let me fight at my full strength because of my size, so it helped to have throwables as an alternative.
We were in grass now, pushing further and further. We were going past the frontlines, to engage an enemy force which was attempting to flank us. We were needed on very short notice, and as such our intel was limited, but with the number of high class ninja we had, it seemed that we would be fine just by ourselves.
Oh, and I turned 14 2 days ago. I didn't celebrate it. Didn't feel the need. Had nobody else to do it with either.
The wind flushed against my skin. It was cool, sharp. It didn't hurt, more reminded me it was there, the dragging compressions feeling like manic hands caressing my face. The steps below, knocks of thud against tree supporting me with no reward in sight kept me flying, and the innumerable rays of many reflected light, spinning around the trees with fracture and split letting me see the path forward.
Soon, we would come to a field. And when travelling, anything can happen in an open space.
All 4 ANBU squads burst from the foliage at full speed.
And another 4 squads burst out the other side. They were kumo ANBU, nicknamed CEDA, made for the sole purpose of killing us. And there were more of them than us.
I thought a retreat was needed, so I slowed myself, and that proved to be what saved me.
The two groups met, with silence. Then they ripped each other apart on impact.
Blades and sparks flew in unison as on all side clashes on clashes happened with resounding sharp screeches, some in the back sneaking past their allies to stab their opponents in the back, others leaping above and launching cutting lightning or powerful fire.
An ANBU tried to flank, sprinting behind, but being blown up by an explosive trap, walking out from the explosion with his skin peeling off, dead on the spot, collapsing as if possessed for a moment.
I was snapped out of my momentary paralysis by an enemy, sharp katana aimed at me for a deadly thrust. I could see through it though, and stepped to the side before palming a kunai and stabbing It into his neck. He stopped it at the cost of his hand, the blade piercing through and extracting a pained grunt. I kicked at his leg, dropping him to the floor where I picked up his dropped blade, slicing his head off with one deft swing.
[CEDA killed, 5000 xp]
I didn't have time to take a break though, as I ducked under a swipe from behind, having to slide, turning on the floor to block an overhead axe strike. They were locked with my blade, but her other hand held a twin axe, and came from the side, aiming for my ribs. I swapped my weapon with hers, stepping back, dropping the blade and then kicking her weapon into the air as it went past, swiping my grip into it. She might have smirked behind her mask, picking up the mid air blade and thrusting like the opponent before, with me deflecting and tripping her over me, then launching the head at her's, killing her instantly.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp]
[Level up! 10 points awarded]
Level 8
But again I had to turn, erecting a stone wall against a lightning strike. I still had to dash to the side though, as the electric arc ripping its way through. 3 CEDA burst through, chasing me with a deadly fervour. I body flickered back, launching a wind gust to disrupt their lightning laden pursuit, then using the Hiding beneath the earth technique to get behind them. Cracking open through the surface I used the Clone jutsu to spawn a 3 decoys who appeared with me, all flipping hand signs of different elements. They launched projectiles at the other 3 who were preparing fire, stone and wind jutsus, not expecting water to work, due to the lack of liquid sources nearby. I finished the jutsu, a well of water in the hole I had just dug out off emerging, me having left and opened a scroll at the bottom, filled with water. The transparent tentacle coalesced into a bullet, before being shot out like a cannonball from a ship's mast. They tried to stop the deadly projectile with their own lightning bullets, but it only spread the now electrocuted water out, hitting all 3 with a lethal shock.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp] [CEDA killed, 5000xp] [CEDA killed, 5000xp]
[Level up! 10 points awarded]
Level 9
Then more jutsus were shot at me, as I body flickered quicker and quicker, seeming almost like a spirit as I dodged between fire and lightning and rock scatterings like pebbles across a pond.
And I was smiling.
I stopped my bullet like movement with a monumental finale, jabbing a palmed blade into an unsuspecting foe, saving an ally from his immediate death.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp]
[Level up! 10 points awarded]
Level 10
"Wow. Thanks-"
His head exploded, impacted by a red hot bolt. I barely turned in time to recognize the man who spartan kicked me through a crowd of my fellow shinobi, my body skidding through the mud from the now rain covered field.
Oh, and looking up, I realised it was raining.
I rolled to the side to avoid a downwards thrust blade, then charged at the wielder still pulling it from the earth. He unsheathed it as I dashed to his right side, him swiping horizontally making me flip over the almost lightning fast arc unleashed. I then waved my hand around violently, forcing his eyes to be drawn to my now landing body, distracting him from my ally grabbing both of his arms with her own. I looked at her eyes, then body flickered into the man, digging a dagger into his heart.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp]
She dropped the body, then turned around, placing her back to mine as we looked at the battlefield.
We were losing.
"Swallow formation, target 3 o clock!"
I followed the order immediately sprinting with her in unison at the group of ANBU in front.
I needed to analyse, to predict, to push my brain harder than it had ever been before.
The first man, genjutsu, trick him into thinking I am to the right slightly, then flip over him and chuck a kunai into his neck.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp]
[level up! 10 points awarded]
Level 11, xp requirements increased
[0/30,000xp]
It worked well, so for the second and third I had already flipped through the hand signs required to blast a furious heat at them, killing them both in one hit.
The rest created a stone wall to protect against me, so I switched with my teammate who was flanking the structure with her taijutsu to take them out with speed. She was impressive, I didn't even need to tell her.
I landed then disappeared once more, into an opponent's knee. I lost the wind in my lungs, but managed to dodge the 3 killing blows sent my way by grabbing a 4th and substituting with them. Only 2 took the bait though, the man who kneed me flickering and grabbing me, a quick arm the only reason I didn't die from the knife he sunk right into the top layers of my flesh. I ripped it to the side, then shocked him slightly with a tiny amount of lightning chakra from my fingertips, finally leaning down, putting 30 points into strength, and then punching at his sternum.
Strength: 75 - 100!
Attribute points: 110 - 85
The fist damn near ripped through him, the punch crushing his entire chest with a singular impact.
[CEDA elite killed, 10000xp]
Didn't know I was that strong.
Hidden potential: The human body can only hold so much strength. Well, unless it is you. Your entire body has been strengthened to your own inputs, meaning doing feats liking punching a boulder and not having your fist explode like the rock you just destroyed possible.
The other 2 rushed at me, but with my increased confidence I caught their attacks, delivering bone crushing blows to their vitals in seconds.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp] [CEDA killed, 5000xp]
This power was invigorating!
I scried across the plain to see the female ANBU covered in blood, surrounded by near 5 dead. Ah, her mask, a Hanyama. Fitting.
Then I saw the cuts across her body, and she collapsed. Dead, probably. Fuck.
Fuck, because there were 8 of them left, and one of me. And because she was a damn good ninja.
They didn't bother trying to capture me. I was ANBU, even if they did capture me, I'd probably be better at killing myself in a cell than most ninja are at wiping their ass. They launched blade after blade, attached with explosive notes and different steel, and if there was any normal man, they would be riddled with cuts and stabs, and die.
But I wasn't normal. I had a system.
Perception: 81 - 100
Attribute points: 66
Radial vision: Allows your brain to process what your eyes are seeing at a ridiculous pace, such that even 1000 flies are countable with even a single look.
I took a deep breath, took out 2 kunai of my own, looked at every single blade coming my way, and jumped. Jumped in just the right place so that swiping my kunai left to right deflected projectiles down, causing a safe zone mid air where every possible interloper was prevented from reaching me by one of its brothers.
Then I landed, and everyone was stunned for a moment. Even me, I can admit. Then they began to rush at me.
I stood still, my own blades at the ready, right until the last moment, where I exploded at them with an insane speed, screaming a battle cry for whatever reason, adrenaline, fear, joy.
I ducked under the first blade, deflected a sword from the side, swiped a shallow cut on a taijutsu user's torse, cut across another's leg, deflected a katana and a kunai, jumped under a horizontal cut, then stabbed my kunai into the final one's leg. I then ripped it out, slashing the man's back legs, climbing up with my slashes, up and up across his body red lines appeared until I reached his throat, slicing with both blades.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp]
The first clash then. Then one of them sliced through their fellow soldier's body, cutting across my chest. It hurt, but it wasn't lethal. I pushed his overhead blow back with a clash, then chucking both kunai into his legs, leaping to his shoulders, and snapping his neck with a grip.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp]
I spun around mid air after breaking the leg, avoiding another swipe. I entered the kunoichi's guard, battering her with a few hits before jumping off her torso with a kick, rolling into giving the man behind me a donkey kick to the nose.
Standing straight, 3 swordsmen attempted to cut me down at the same time, but their lack of team work and practise made it trivial to avoid their blows using Predictive prowess. They were so predictable all I had to do was shift, and the course of one's katana intersected with the neck of anothers. I killed the traitor, accidental or no, with a stab through his jugular, turning and slicing through the final of the 3 musketeers' brittle blade, and his throat.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp] [CEDA killed, 5000xp] [CEDA killed, 5000xp]
[Level up, 20 points awarded]
Level 12
Attribute points: 86
Then a larger ninja came, grasping my throat and slammed me into the ground, stabbing me through the leg. I looked at his mask, pain running through my body, as I leaned up and bit into his shoulder. I pushed him off me, then flipped through hand signs, before launching the biggest fireball I could manage at him, decimating the foe completely
[CEDA elite killed, 10000xp]
Then I saw an object fly out, maybe caused by the explosion or maybe thrown, I don't know. It his me in my torso, just below my heart, and it sunk deep. The bottom half of a grip of a kunai stuck out of the wound.
Distracted, my head snapped to the side as a fist impacted it, with another shinobi grasping at the blade inside of my leg, twisting it, trying to split my thigh in two. I held onto his hand, blocking with the other, before the grabber decided to rip it out instead, following up by slicing my shoulder too, combo-ing with the other's drop kick, dropping me to the floor.
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
The dashed at me, hoping to finish the wretched child ANBU off, but at the last second I rose in a single moment, my fist punching through one of them, coming out the other end with blood and sinewy flesh in its iron grip.
The other stood, holding the sword soaked in my blood defensively. They were afraid, I could tell, but they were standing their ground. Admirable, if stupid.
I walked closer, step by step, but still they stood. What you have to understand is strength isn't just the attack your body can put out, it is the speed too, and the durability. I have no idea what my strength stat was, my mind too filled with pain and adrenaline to check, but I knew it would be faster than they could attack.
Then at the last possible moment, they swiped down.
And missed.
I crushed their wrists with a grip, then moved to their skull, crushing and crushing, their mask and their skin and their head between my grip, until it compressed sideways, squashed.
And then they dropped.
[CEDA killed, 5000xp] [CEDA killed, 5000xp]
And I looked around and saw little alive. Burnt forests, upturned mud, dead bodies, so many dead.
And I grasped at my wound, the metal sticking out of me, and I held it there. Then I started trudging away, back from where we came from. I needed a medic, if I didn't find one soon I would die.
Haha, maybe I should have become a medic, like my daughter, my delirious mind thought.
…
They saw me walking like a revenant, my body soaked in blood, mud, entrails. I had a far away look in my eyes, and huge wounds across my body. And I was a child, and an ANBU.
That was a good explanation for why about 12 people were in my tent, stunned at my revival. Then how I simply rose from my bed and started equipping myself as if nothing had happened.
"Where is your squad? Do they need help?"
"Dead. I need to report what happened. Rendezvous is the village-"
And then a jonin stopped me, putting his shoulder on my arm, looking into my eye holes with a sort of compassion.
"Follow me."
He handed me some bandages and pain killers, and some food.
"In case the bleeding starts again. I won't tell you to return, but this was your first mission, wasn't it?"
I didn't answer, classified after all, but I don't think he needed one.
"Here is the thing. ANBU, the current generation? Different from the last. Gen 1 ANBU couldn't die, they were all strong, legendary ninja who couldn't do ninja things and get recognized. Gen 2 however, were made to die. Made to sacrifice themselves. Unless you want to throw your life away kid, leave. You will just end up being sent to kill yourself over and over again, and our luck can't last forever."
I walked away without another word.
…
A/N: Main character bullshit saves this man, but he is still in the worst position possible. Is Danzo an asshole? Find out next chapter (But I think you can guess). Also, by the time canon, and by extension the 3rd shinobi war because the political landscape changes little from that time period in this story, rolls around, Dragon is no longer Danzo. There are your hints, have fun speculating.
Will Kizashi ever see his former sensei again? Probably, since you all seem to like his characterisation. I do to, but it will probably be in a number of arcs. (Hint: when Kizashi becomes an adult, or 18)
Also, I am starting some foreshadowing. The "Haha, maybe I should have become a medic, like my daughter," is basically Kizashi having a deluded view of his role from birth, which will be important later. His struggle with what he wants, and how he views the inevitable hand of canon gripping his life, like death itself.
I want him to feel something, and feel hollow when he can't get it again. I am cruel.
Anyway, I will respond to some reviews to pad for word count (This is a joke, every chap is a minimum 2000 but otherwise I can go over my however much I want)
To Araz Uchiha: Thanks for reading btw, you have been here for all of my stories so far and I can't say how much I appreciate that. My jaw will get better, and my progress is somewhat indicative of that. I have gone from somewhat fucked up completely, to semi functional, which is my normal.
Orochimaru will always be an interesting character, emblematic of all of the problems with the leaf, and an interesting question of how a person comes to be. Was he born evil, or became evil because the village made him that way? Hiruzen canonically uses child soldiers (I mean Naruto does too in Boruto but I consider that non-canon because I don't like it very much) and has probably killed some himself, so it is easy to see how he rubbed off on Orochimaru.
Danzo though, an interesting fellow. He isn't completely evil now, and since this is earlier on, I can claim that Danzo is actually intelligent right now because he is removed from his actions, like the Uchiha massacre, so I don't have to justify the stupid shit he does in canon. I think he represents the pragmatic shinobi, the one who will do anything necessary to secure victory, no matter what. ANBU exist as his own personal attack force who can get shit done and stop the Leaf from collapsing, but it is clear he misuses resources when he is blinded to certain things (like basic morality). There are many different angles you can take with him, so it will depend on what I make later.
To JaimonDosFendu: Kizashi will have character development, but based on removing his apathy. He already has the system to stimulate him and encourage his actions, but one of the main character struggles is finding something, anything to do that gives him enjoyment. Else he surrenders to nihilism. Which is bad.
I already responded to the Spanish reviewer. I still found it interesting to see how people observe my work though. Generally, I am self-aware enough to understand my character is a fucking idiot, and clearly incorrect. Like, Orochimaru, the main antagonist of several parts, has a philosophy that is the literal opposite of the protagonists. Big surprise. I think it is interesting to think of why he had that philosophy, which is basically abandonment and betrayal. Tsunade leaves, Jiraiya leaves, and Hiruzen doesn't even make him Hokage even though he is the best candidate (from his perspective). Of course he would hate Hiruzen's idea of teammates, his clearly didn't work, ignoring that it made them into 3 of the most powerful shinobi in the world. It also feeds into his own inferiority. He tries to be Hiruzen, but he hasn't mastered all 5 elements, isn't as strong, and the 3rd is still getting stronger by the day. How on earth can Hiruzen be this strong by himself, if it wasn't the fact he was strong by himself already? He concludes you don't need teammates, and Kizashi (The little runt rat bastard fucker he is) agrees. He will be proven wrong.
Orochimaru is a cycnic, but he isn't 100% wrong. Teams in naruto are shit, because you cant select people and work with them based on their abilities, because like 40-80% of your development is post academy for most shinobi. So yeah.
Anyway, cya, remember to review and thanks for reading.