"Stay back or she dies!" the malnourished, scraggly bandit yelled out in warning. The woman he was using as a human shield was sobbing, begging me not to attack.
Konoha had received reports of bandits raiding farms in the eastern province. The bandits hadn't covered their tracks very well. Tora Inuzuka, the tracker Misaki and I had been paired with in a three-man chunin team for this mission, had caught their scent early. We'd found their base of operations within a week. There were cages filled with women and children in the camp. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were planning to do with those they captured.
We moved through the camp, taking out almost all of them before they even realized we were there. Dispatching them was easy. After training to combat enemy nin, taking out thugs with no ability to use chakra in combat was child's play. The only bandit left had been underground in a basement with the woman he was now using as a shield. Her state of undress didn't leave much to the imagination as far as what the man had been doing to her prior to our arrival
I stopped moving, standing perfectly still across from the last living bandit, Misaki and Tora landing on either side of me to flank me.
The bandit grinned, revealing crooked, yellow teeth. "Good, little ninja. Now! You three need to…" He trailed off, looking down in confusion as his limbs stopped obeying his commands, moving without his prompting to mirror my posture. I opened my left hand, and the blade in the bandit's hand fell to the ground.
The woman was whisked away by Misaki the moment the knife was clear from her throat. Tora and I remained in the basement as Misaki took the woman up to the surface.
"You had caged civilians in your camp. Who were you going to sell them to?" Tora asked coldly. As the senior chunin on this mission, she was in command.
The bandit was straining against my shadow possession, trying to flee. It was futile. I could hold multiple hostile nin simultaneously. This weak scumbag was nothing by comparison.
"I… I don't know what you're talking about." the bandit said weakly.
"Nara-san, please help him remember." Tora said coldly, a furious scowl on her face. Her partner, Kai, growled at the bandit from where he stood at her side. The chakra hound was as furious with the bandit as his master was.
Following my orders, I bent over, the bandit copying me. I picked up nothing while the bandit recovered his discarded knife. A swift slashing motion had the bandit screaming, a red line left in his cheek.
"Shall we continue?" Tora said, stepping directly in front of the bandit to glare into his eyes.
The bandit sang like a canary after that. We took detailed notes of everything he told us then killed him, sealing his body in a scroll that we would return to Konoha as part of the mission.
We hadn't been expecting the bandits to have captives – our intelligence had suggested they were thieves and murderers rather than slavers – so we weren't prepared to deal with them. Tora sent Misaki back ahead of us to report to friendly ninja and ask for aid. Tora and I debated trying to move the civilians, but they were in rough shape, so we fortified the bandits' old base and waited for backup. I looked over the most grievously injured while we waited for Misaki, treating their wounds and watching for signs of disease or infection.
Misaki returned with two Konoha patrols a day after she'd left. Between us, we had enough food to get the civilians back to Konoha, so we started moving.
The return trip to Konoha was uneventful. We were met at the gate by a large group of nin and civilian coordinators who led the civilians away. One of the teams Misaki met had sent a runner back to Konoha so they'd know to expect us. The administrative personnel would see to their temporary accommodations and eventually have them escorted to the various farms and villages they were taken from. No bandit would be able to kidnap a civilian from Konoha, so they were all from different villages within the Land of Fire that were patrolled less often.
This had been Misaki and I's most eventful C-rank mission to date. When we first started going out on C-ranks, I was cautious of the C-rank curse. I didn't want to encounter Sasori of the Red Sand for seemingly no reason, but my fears were unfounded. Many of our missions had no combat, with the most dangerous fighting we'd faced being against bandits.
Misaki and I had been drifting between teams for the last few months. Chunnin were typically sent out in teams of three or more, and there were only two of us. We'd filled in on teams where nin were taking leave or were absent for some other reason. This was actually the first mission we'd gone on together. Both of Tora's teammates were assigned mandatory medical leave after a training accident. They would both be fine, but Tora was on her own for a while.
In between missions, Misaki and I had a lot of downtime. We'd get together to train and keep our skills up, but I also spent a lot of time alone. There were several jutsu I was working on making right now. I'd spread myself too thin to finish more than one of them, but that one would increase my odds of living in this world drastically.
I called it 'Shadow Armor'. Take three guesses on what it does. The first two don't count.
That's right, it allows me to mold my shadows into protective armor around myself. Rather than going with an eastern, samurai-esque look, I decided to make it more like western plate armor. Since it was made from my shadows, I didn't need to worry about weight or maneuverability, so I made it to cover as much of myself as I possibly could. The only gap in my armor was a slit for my eyes so I could see unimpeded. I hadn't intended it to come out like this, but the finished product made me look like Berserker Lancelot from Fate/Zero.
The armor wasn't perfect. It still took a lot of concentration for me to keep it active, but it was getting easier. The control requirement to even summon it was so ludicrous that Shikaku hadn't been able to pull it off yet. He had helped me test it out. Each hit it absorbed drained my chakra proportional to the damage I would have taken, but that was also improving as I got a better hold on the technique and ironed out the kinks. It was slow going, but in time, it would be as easy for me as tree-walking and water-walking were now: Like breathing.
"Well done, Team 67." Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a proud smile on his face. "You have performed exceptionally well."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Tora, Misaki and I said in unison, bowing at the waist.
"The intelligence you recovered will be distributed to our patrol teams. With luck, they will be able to discover the remainder of this group you uncovered." Hiruzen said.
The bandit had given up his slaver buddies pretty quickly. They were based in Kiri and had tried to expand. Unlike Kiri, Konoha wasn't torn apart by infighting at present. They would have no freedom to practice their trade here.
"I am giving you all a bonus for going above and beyond the needs of the mission by recovering the civilians and uncovering the wider operation."
Tora smiled wide as she heard the news, but Misaki and I didn't react much. Neither of us were really hung up on money. My parents had left their house to me when they'd died, leaving me with a place to live and sufficient funds to feed myself. I didn't have expensive hobbies thanks to my foresight in growing my own poisons, so all of the reward money I'd gotten from completing missions was just getting thrown in the bank. Misaki's situation was similar. She still lived with her parents and only spent her money to buy kimonos, a fact I'd learned after our embarrassing 'celebration' dinner a while back. She liked to dress up and there was nothing wrong with that.
"Tora, you are dismissed. Misaki, Shinto, please remain behind." Hiruzen said.
"Hokage-sama." Tora said, bowing. She gave us both a thumbs up then turned and left the office.
"How can we help you, Hokage-sama?" Misaki asked after Tora left. There was a small frown on her face.
I was a little concerned as well. Had we screwed up somehow?
Hiruzen was frowning, looking between Misaki and I with something akin to regret in his eyes. What was going on?
The Hokage had a small frown on his face as he leaned forward, steepling his hands in front of him. "I am considering placing the two of you into ANBU."
You could hear a pin drop in the silence created by his words. Misaki's breath had caught; her eyes were wide.
I was frozen. ANBU? He wanted to make me an ANBU? I was a kid. If he thought I was already skilled enough to be an asset to Konoha's black ops… That was an incredibly flattering offer. And also a pants-shittingly terrifying one.
"This decision will include you." Hiruzen explained, his expression grave. "No one is forced into ANBU. If you do not wish to join, no repercussions shall befall you."
Beside me, Misaki fell to a knee, bowing her head low. "I would be honored to join ANBU, Hokage-sama." She sounded positively radiant with pride.
Hiruzen's eyes fell upon me. Misaki was looking up at me strangely, like I was an idiot for not having already accepted, for hesitating to pledge my service to ANBU.
Why was I hesitating? Let's see, I didn't want to be Hiruzen's weapon, liable to be tossed aside whenever he wanted. I kind of already was by being a ninja in the first place, but ANBU's whole thing was being faceless entities that can die without anyone caring.
My eyes flicked down to Misaki. She was still staring up at me in confusion.
I really didn't want her to do this alone.
Okay! Let's try to find some positives here. ANBU received the best training and resources available to the village. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to have political clout, an ANBU career would be a great foundation for making allies both in ANBU itself and once I left. This was the single best path to strength for me. Having strength meant I would eventually have control over my life. A few years working as a weapon in exchange for being able to stand on my own feet for the remainder of my life would be a good trade if ANBU didn't wind up getting me killed.
As much as I didn't like it, this was probably the best thing that could have happened. Outside of making my shadow armor, I hadn't been improving in the months Misaki and I had gone on missions. I'd tried to network with my temporary chunin teammates, but I never spent enough time around them to get to know them, and even if I had, not many of them were interested in talking to a kid years younger than they were. ANBU would let me improve at a rapid rate as well as gain much needed combat experience with a deadly team of Konoha nin around me to support me.
Slowly, I knelt and bowed my head. "I would be honored to accept, Hokage-sama." I said, making my choice.
"Rise." Hiruzen said, a sad frown on his face. "Hawk, Boar." he said as we stood.
Out of the ceiling, two ANBU appeared.
"Shinto, Misaki, you will begin in processing immediately. Your training will begin tomorrow. Thank you for your service to the leaf." Hiruzen said.
Hawk and Boar walked forward. "Follow us." Hawk said, exiting the office without another word.
The two of us rushed to follow him. I shot a glance back at the Hokage. His head was in his hands. He looked tired. Boar closed the door to his office before I could see anything other than that.
I hurried after Hawk.