12 Introductions

The entrance to ANBU headquarters, it turns out is just an inconspicuous wall in an out of the way alley, well, at least one of the entrances. Even then I don't doubt that we were only shown an expendable one.

Either way once we are out and he's told us to return tomorrow, at 07:00, which I think should just be a crime in and of itself, Ocelot turns around and disappears back behind the not-a-wall.

We don't bother talking to each other, each with our own preparations to make, as for me, i head home.

Taking the roofs of course, I wouldn't want anybody to see me like this, not that they'd recognise me, (the masks have little hoods that cover our hair).

When I get home, both my parents are out, which makes sense, since they would have opened the shop by now. I make my way through my bedroom window and head straight to the shower.

Cleaning my ANBU clothes took more effort than cleaning myself.

After a most heavenly shower, I grab some more food and head to my room to eat and then sleep.

If I'm going to be waking up for seven in the morning, then it'd be best to get some sleep now, so I can spend some time with my parents later.

When they do get back and wake me up, I tell them how I'm going to be gone for even longer this time, and this time they actually seem sad, which makes sense. Six months is a long time, and it's like a twelfth of my life.

We end up playing some board games 'till about midnight before I started getting sleepy.

It was nice.

I was asleep before even getting off the sofa.

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Waking sandwiched between a grown man and a grown woman wasn't something I ever wanted to experience.

Quickly extracting myself from the tangle of limbs I check the time, six in the morning, good.

I have plenty of time then, yawning I make my way upstairs, where I have yet another shower (somehow, I doubt I will have many opportunities to have a nice shower soon).

I get dressed and with one last look at my parents sleeping on the couch, I take off for ANBU.

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When I arrived, I was directed down some moor twisting corridors, before arriving in one giant open hall.

I notice that I'm not alone, with me are my fellow numbers, minus one, as well as a few ANBU that I've never seen before.

I join the line and take a seat, leaning back on my hands.

Everyone else is still standing, and now their staring at me too.

"what"

It's going to take some getting used too, my new voice.

A scoff draws my attention, as well as the attention of everyone else's,

"what's a little kid like you even doing here anyway? the least you could do is show some respect to your betters"

Wow number three, I didn't know you felt that way, how sad. I don't bother looking at him when I respond.

"Politeness is expected, but respect is earned, my friend, and a dog that only knows how to bark earns no respect."

Collectively most of the people around me do a double take and I heard five mutter a quiet "damn" besides me, clearly not expecting a burn or philosophy from a child, however it seems that I have angered Three. How sad.

Unfortunately, Three's response is cut off by the sound of One entering the hall, scratching the back of his head,

"am i the last to show up? sorry, my little sister didn't want to let me go haha."

Sheepishness doesn't really translate well with distorted monotone, but he seems like a chill guy regardless.

"shut up and line up."

We do, I even stand up, how respectful of me.

"you will each be assigned a mentor of sorts for the next six months, this person will not be required to train you, they will advise you, if you need anything you ask them, if you want to train in anything, you ask them and if they tell you to do something, then you do it."

That said he (dont know what his mask represents) starts pairing people up, until he gets to me.

"six, your temporary mentor is swallow."

His piece said he just disappears, and one of the few female ANBU present approach me,

"as bear said, I'm swallow, now follow me, first things first I need to get a grasp on your abilities"

Well that's embarrassing, I don't have many 'abilities', unless you count my charming wit. Obviously, I didn't say that out loud.

Ignorant of my thoughts Swallow leads me to one of the corners of the hall, where there are matts set up.

...I'm about to get my ass kicked, aren't I?

"come at me with everything you've got until I tell you to stop."

"i, uh... don't really 'have' a lot."

As I finish speaking I also finish moulding my chakra, and as I can feel her raised eyebrow, I just hope that even passes as a distraction, as I launch a stream of lightning at her, only for her to jump to the side and dodge it completely.

Damn.

She continues to stare at me, and with a sigh of resignation, I approach.

Without adrenaline driving me I can't really find the motivation to move too fast or attack her physically, so I just keep sending elements at her, where my lack of elemental control really shows itself.

Eventually she seems to get tired of this and actually stops being defensive,

"your file did say you need proper motivators."

That said she kicks me in the back, sending me tumbling forward, so that we've swapped places.

heh.

"yeah, that's true"

As I feel the pain blossoming on my back, adrenaline starts flowing into me, not a lot, but enough to make me feel tingly, and more importantly, motivate me and so I stand up, raise my arm and give the universal emote of 'come at me'. While positioning my other arm ready to punch out forward.

She obliges, which is where I prove that I wasn't just randomly throwing elements, hoping for something to work.

I only know three jutsu, and in a fair fight, only the clone jutsu can really do anything, that said, I had to set the stage a little, and as Swallow appears behind me in a move that was entirely too predictable, so I swap place with a piece of debris my elemental onslaught caused, that I had locked onto before standing up, leaving behind a clone in my place.

And I punch out for her open back, unfortunately for me, Swallow is significantly faster than Tame-whatever his name is from my graduation, and with a casual, almost insulting ease she turns around and catches my hand.

Except I had already swapped back with the same rock as soon as I started throwing my punch, expecting her speed. She is ANBU after all, a single feint would never work, so what about a double feint?

The answer is still no, evidenced by Swallow catching my leg, i substitute again, further away this time, before she can throw me.

haah haaah, i think i new a new plan.

"impressive use of kawarimi, but if that's all you can do then you really don't stand a chance."

Ok, rude.

I have a new plan, first the old plan,

"haaah yeah, you must be proud, a child doesn't stand a chance against you, all your training was worth it. Maybe if you'd been born a man you wouldn't need to beat up kids to prove to yourself that you're competent?"

Her whole body twitches.

Plan: piss her off to throw her game. Success! Exciting!

Before she decides to vent her anger on me, I once again substitute behind her, leaving a clone behind, only this time instead of substituting in front of her again, this time I just make a new clone in front of her, and dampen my chakra at the same time, and throw my punch.

Once I silence my chakra, she spins already throwing a kick at my clone, which predictably does nothing but create a big gust of wind.

oi are you trying to kill me?

Still my fist strikes clear on her back.

Success!

Silence.

Shit.

She didn't even stumble from my punch, despite being on one leg.

Slowly. Ever so slowly, she relaxes from her kicking stance, bringer her leg back to the ground, and turns around to face me, as I also lower my fist down.

We stare at each other for a moment.

"um... sorry?"

*Bang!*

"OW!"

"follow me"

After smacking me so hard on the back of the head that I face planted, She just started walking off, leaving me running to catch up with her, like a lost duckling.

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Swallow eventually leads me to the cafeteria, where she grabs some food, I obviously grab some too, before she sits down on a small empty table, I join her, sitting on the opposite seat so we can face each other.

"tell me about yourself six, what can you do, what do you want to learn and where can you improve?"

"well, the only jutsu I know are the academy three, though I can throw elements, that is, without much control, and with the exception of earth. I don't know any fighting styles, no one's told me how I'm supposed to train my chakra, and I don't really know if my stealth works or not, also my sensing abilities are limited to a few metres around me and exhaust me almost immediately.

"so I could do with improving in basically everything.

"as for what I want to learn, well, I want to learn some more jutsu, specifically genjutsu, I want to learn proper stealth techniques and I want to learn that super-fast movement thing you guys like to do, I'd also like to learn a bit about poisons and medical jutsu, specifically just enough to dispel poisons and to close wounds. Oh and the chakra scalpel seems interesting too so that as well."

Swallow's looking at me funny.

"I was expecting more along the lines of 'please teach me cool jutsu swallow-sama', aren't you supposed to be a kid?"

"do you think a typical kid would be allowed to wear this mask?"

"fair enough, though, couldn't that all have been surmised to 'I suck at everything, please make me not suck'?"

...I'm probably gonna get my ass kicked again but I can't help myself, it's too easy.

"why shouldn't I suck? how else would I 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸?"

*wink* *wink*

...

You could hear a pin drop.

*Snicker*

Unexpectedly Swallow burst out in laughter which makes me very happy since the alternative was likely her punting me across the room.

Still, after a while she gets a hold of herself.

*Sigh*

"aren't you too young to make these kinds of jokes?"

"i won't tell if you don't"

"whatever brat, go get some sleep, training starts tomorrow"

And with that my first day in ANBU comes to a close, and my six months of hell begin.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Ok! next chapter the training begins! by the end of the six months hes not going to be some super sage op manny or anything, really he won't technically be that much stronger.

Also next chap will probably have a lot of chakra theory. like, a lot, im writing it right now and im on one and a half thousand words and ive only explained one of the things i wanted to lol

These six months are just going to turn him into a ninja, give him everything he lacked due to his civilian upbringing. so at the end he will just be a talented shinobi kid, instead of a talented kid