Threads of fate

I had been given a month off active duty to rest and recuperate and acclimate to the Leaf again. Sure, ninja were meant to be vicious destructive beings, but they needed civility and loyalty, and the beautiful green tree vistas and deep blue skies of fire country were good at inspiring that feeling of home. I never appreciated it when I was younger, too preoccupied by the want to become powerful, too in my own mind to rid that fog and just see the world for what is there.

Kushina joined me on the pine wood balcony exiting our house, naked. We were the only ones around, so she didn't mind if I saw her. She was so beautiful in the morning light.

The red head sat on my lap, pushing her body against mine as we hugged.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

…

Dragon was an intimidating man. Not as much as Danzo, or Hiruzen when he took of his maks of being a nice fatherly man, or even I with my physical image, but he remained dark, shadowy, like his powerful body could end your life and any moment if he wanted to. I was confident I would beat him, but the doubt was there.

He escorted me through and through the base, new location and make, ANBU more confident to take their masks off, jovial and joking even through the seriousness of their partners. I preferred it to the crushing isolation of the previous structure.

Eventually we reached a door, he opened it to let me in, and we both sat across from one another. It was a mirror of the first time Danzo had revealed his self officially, of when I first got my mask. I felt naked without it.

As if thoughts rose the dead, Dragon placed my broken mask on the table.

"I will not command you. Instead, I ask; will you join ANBU again?"

It was a stupid question. I didn't know enough about the organization, and I had just become jonin. If I ever wanted to see Kushina again, I couldn't have joined the second generation. But this was different. This Dragon was different.

"A few demands then. I will be able to walk around like a normal person, visiting whoever I please, with time off between missions to recuperate and recover."

Dragon put his hands together. "I take it these were not standard during your previous tenure?"

"You got a day to recover. If you were out of action your team either made up for you or did without."

He was silent for a moment.

Then, voice filled with a barely restrained fury, he spoke once more.

"Well, I am glad to say that things have changed. ANBU are allowed to have a life, they are allowed to recover after a mission, they are allowed to train. This generation, the third, was made with the goal of creating squads based on what the leaf is famous for, the teamwork that has allowed us to win 2 wars, and will win us a 3rd."

"Correct me if I am mistaken, but I believe my squad may have been the blueprint for that style of formation."

He laughed, sardonic, not for enjoyment but rather annoyance.

"I couldn't correct you if I wanted to. The hokage hasn't told me a thing about the ANBU that came before. The most I have learnt is from you."

"And I assume I am not allowed to tell you of the identity of the last ANBU commander."

That gave him pause.

"No, he has forbidden any discussion, but there is nothing saying you can't warn me of specific people."

I smiled.

"Then I would suggest you stay away from Shimura Danzo. He is a rotten old man, more loyal to his own idea of the leaf than the one that actually exists."

"Noted."

"Well, I also want a pay raise, my mask to get repaired, and a squad."

"Captain?"

"Yeah."

"Done."

I got up, shook his hand, and soon after the meeting was over.

…

I awoke to chaos. An unreal chaos, mist everywhere, scattering light rays and a stretching black darkness above, and a toe deep pool of water across the entire expanse.

I travelled through this purgatory, the mist's whips seeming to pull on me and my skin as I pushed past, further and further on.

And then it cleared, and I was on a cliff, and Orochimaru was there. He didn't speak though, just stood there, looking. I was so afraid to look too, so afraid to be just like him, but that little voice in the back of my head told me to, and all of a sudden I was 12 again, and I walked to the cliff, and I looked down.

There were so many dead. I couldn't even see their faces. They were too small to be adults. It wasn't just a pit, wasn't just a pile, it was the ground itself, an ocean of dead that went of forever.

I looked to my right to Orochimaru, who had sat down, and looked with a look of pain on his face.

"I didn't mean to. He just told me to. I had to do it to survive. Whatever I did, I did it to survive."

And then he got up, and walked over to a man, brown hair and aged face I had seen only the day before, and the 3rd hokage swung his pole and split him in half.

My body seized. I tried to run away, but there was a tri pronged kunai in my heart, and Kushina was being held by Minato, and she looked at me with so much hate.

I fell.

And then I woke up. Kushina was beside me. I was alive. She loved me. I was fine.

I breathed hard, heavy for a little longer, then got out of bed, to the balcony again.

…

"You're going into ANBU again?"

The blond was more shocked at my choice than Kushina was. It made sense to an extent. I could be a jonin like him if I wanted, train up my own students, but it wasn't the life for me.

"It is the only place I feel I belong, as a ninja. I am better trained for it anyway, more so based on stealth and espionage than just brute force."

Kushina laughed, nearly spitting out her tea.

"Sorry, that's just funny. Minato, this small petite girly boy is the heavy hitter, and Mr hunk over here is the stealthy man."

She had a point, I was larger, stronger physically, but Minato, I couldn't ever imagine being in ANBU. He was meant to be in the light. Me, I blended in with the dark.

Minato was appalled. "Hey! I'm not a girly boy."

"You've got the face of one at least."

I spoke up.

"Well at least we know who's the most ladylike out of all 3 of us."

"Kushina!"

"Minato!"

They answered at the same time.

I loved these fools.

"I start on Monday."

"You want to spar?"

"I'll practise with my team, when I meet them."

…

I entered the locker. Silence fell, no doubt from the 5 people looking right at me.

"No welcome? Harsh."

"Uh, excuse me but who are you?"

They were guarded. Good. They saw a person with a mask they didn't recognize, and had hostilities. Deserved, but annoying.

"Your captain of course. Designation 4571202, and if you check the notes you were told to memorize you'll be able to verify that."

A burly man in the back, an akimichi probably, his face the picture of a boar if I had to guess, had a question.

"Well if you are our captain, why is your mask different? Everyone I have had previous was an animal, and here you are, leaves?"

"Cherry blossoms. My name is Yurei. If you want to know why my mask and callsign is different in genre than yours. Simple, I am a second generation ANBU."

They were stunned for a moment, then a blond haired short woman with a lion mask spoke.

"Aren't they all dead? Killed in the last war."

"They were until I came back from being stranded behind enemy lines. 3 years I think, before I was able to get out. And now I am here, a legend in the flesh, and none of you know who I am. That was the point of the second generation really. Without us, we would have lost the war, but not a single person knows what we did."

"What did you do?"

I considered telling them. I really did. But it doesn't matter in the end. All that matters is who we lost trying to do that last doomed mission.

"I lost my friends. Not much else of note. But I did kill a lot of people, and I never failed a mission."

A blue haired man, medium frame, crane mask, spoke with a plucky voice.

"That's good enough for me."

…

A/N: Interitem chapter. Shorter than the other ones probably. We see Kizashi having some sort of guilt fuelled nightmare, and then Kushina comforting him. These scenes are in chronological order btw, so it is implied this keeps happening, over and over. A mark on his psyche as repayment for his sins.

Orochimaru is hinted at. He will be back soon.

Kizashi joins ANBU again. He likes it, I feel, likes the action and the feeling of being an elite ninja, of teamwork and battles and improv and plans.

Minato and Kushina are Kizashi's best friends. They create a nice contrast to Kizashi. I have always felt that Kush and Mina are more mature and realised versions of Naruto's two personalities.

Next chapter people die. Probably. Who knows.

As always, thanks for reading and remember to review.

Oh yeah, btw I removed the lemon. Apparently some accs have been deleted recently, and im not taking any chances. cya