Back from the Death

CH2 Back from the Death

It wasn't until morning that a leaf ninja found Hayate Gekko lacerated bodies. His breath was gone and surprisingly, no odor can be smelt from his corpse. The leaf ninja brought him to the hospital for autopsy. They notified his family, and the only family he had was the little girlfriend Yugao Uzuki. The purple-haired girl who's still in her anbu gear cried bitterly upon seeing his corpse. She then listlessly walked away and swore in her heart that she would revenge to whoever done this.

When everyone have leave the morgue, Hayate Gekko's corpse twitched and his heartbeat returned. He was revived. But not only that, he saw something in front of his vision. It was a block and string of texts.

[Apprenticeship System has been successfully installed]

'This must be the system they talked about ..., the things that made me an Anomaly. I'll study about you later, first priority is to complete my mission.'

Hayate used his prized Transparency Release and snuck out from the hospital straight to the Hokage Office. It didn't take that long, and luckily all of his wounds were already healed. He knocked the door to the Hokage office.

"Enter." an aged voice come from inside the office.

Hayate Gekko opened the door and see the Third Hokage already working on paperwork this early in the morning.

"Hayate-kun, what happened to you!?" Hokage stood up seeing the battered Hayate Gekko.

"I'm sorry for the slight delay and my unsightly appearance Hokage-sama. Cough, cough ..." said Gekko with serious tone, also his chronic lung disease has returned.

"That's not the point, are you alright?"

"I'm more or less fine. Sandaime-sama, reporting: Orochimaru is colluding with the Sand Village and they planned to invade Konoha! Their plan is to release a Tailed Beast inside while the Oto and Suna shinobi will attack from the outside!"

"What?!"

"I've tailed Yakushi Kabuto, and he is indeed Orochimaru's right-hand man. He had a conversation with the jonin Baki of the Sand Village. Unfortunately, I didn't get the exact date of the plan. But most likely it would be in the onset of the final stage of the chunin exam."

"I was exposed and I tried to flee, but I was intercepted by Baki. We had a skirmish in the abandoned Uchiha Clan compound, he defeated me with his Futon: Wind Blade. I don't know how and why, I thought I was finished, but this morning I woke up in the morgue. Very much alive, with all of my wound and injury healed."

Hayate explained, making the old Hokage expression turn solemn. This information was vital, and he knew why the sand ninja is relentless in chasing after him. Still, to think that his student has turned this deep into the dark path. Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't help but sigh.

"Good work Hayate-kun, you may receive your reward and return back home."

"Saindaime-sama. People in the hospital already know that I'm dead, and they maybe have already notified my companion. Most likely, sand village and Orochimaru's lackey also assumed that was the case. If they see me return back home as if there's nothing happened, then they'd immediately know that their intel is leaked. If they know that we already know about this plan, they might changed their plan anyway."

Hiruzen widened his eyes in realization. His melancholy after thinking about his beloved student made him overlook this matters. 'I'm getting old, sigh.'

"You're right Hayate-kun, I will proceed with your funeral. In the meantime, you will go on a mission outside of the village."

Hiruzen took a scroll from the side, write something and then handed it to him. "Your mission is to go undercover to the Sand Village and gather how many manpower they prepare for this attack. Time limit is one month, and you may retrieve gears for your journey from the ANBU armory. Even if you have gathered enough information and returned, you will still considered as 'deceased' until we overcome the invasion. Any question, Hayate-kun?"

'After escaping the jaw of death, and now I was sent on a espionage mission again. Ugh, I want to rest at home.'

"No, Sandaime-sama."

Hiruzen grabbed another scroll and an ANBU mask with the pattern of Snake. "Here is your payment for successfully tailing Kabuto, you will receive the A-rank reward. Now go, and remember to keep your identity hidden at all time."

"It will be done. Cough."

"Dismiss."

Hayate Gekko nodded and with a shunshin he left the Hokage office. Hiruzen still in his chair called the anbu who guarded him.

"Rat, Eagle!"

Two shadows appeared in the middle of the room, kneeling.

"Call the advisors to come to my office. Also keep Fox uninformed about Hayate's situation."

"Ha!"

Hiruzen nodded and waved his hand, the two left as quickly and silently as they appeared. He needed to prepare for the so-called invasion, and he wanted to informed his trusted advisor for this. Blissfully unaware that one of them had always been colluding with these invader.

Hayate went to the ANBU armory as a member of the special ops guide him, he was handed ANBU gear and he changed his gear to it. He stored the tattered jonin vest, ninja gear, and also his prized token on a sealing scroll. When he was ready he walked out from the changing room.

But blocking his way out, there was a female ANBU. She had a long flowing purple hair. His step halted and he stared at the fox mask for a second. Already knew that behind those mask, her eyes were flowing with tears. Despite how he wanted to hold her, hug her and calm her down, he know that this is not the right time. Hayate passed through her and didn't say anything.

"Wait!" Yugao called.

"Do you need something, cough, senior?"

"Who are you, why I haven't seen you before?" Yugao knew everyone in the ANBU, but she never saw him before. However, she felt like had seen him somewhere.

"I just got appointed today by Sandaime, and I'm in rusg for my mission. If there's other time, I'll catch up with you senior. Good bye."

Hayate quickly leave the ANBU HQ and walked to the village's gate before heading out to his mission. He jumped frkm branch to branch through the dense forest of Land of Fire.

'Lucky that I took my bandana off. She would definitely recognize me back then.' Hayate mused in his mind.

After finished dealing with his mission, he now had time to study the so-called System.

[Apprenticeship System]

[The ultimate apprenticeship system! Roll the gacha, hug thigh of strong person, get accepted as a disciple!]

'Hmmm?' Hayate was puzzled with the strange introduction. He read at the detailed description after knowing that it operated just the same as the device back in the Chief's office.

[Apprenticeship System provides a special dimension called 'Training Space' where the User can summon a strong men from the multiverse to be mentor. The duration of the apprenticeship varies and the subject taught by the mentor depends on their decision. Mentor can be summoned if the User had a Mentor Card which can be obtained from Apprentice Gacha. To roll the Apprentice Gacha, User need to pay 1,000 Points or use 1 Apprenticeship Ticket. Aside from the basic gacha, there's also basic system function like status, quest and reward, and inventory.]

[You have received a Apprenticeship Ticket x1 as a newbie reward.]

[Completed B-rank mission in Konoha village, rewarded with 100 Point]

'Multiverse, this word pop out again ... I wonder what is the meaning. I need to ask that Chief lady if I meet her later.' Hayate mused after seeing that word. He then continue familiarize himself with the System.

[Training Space]

— Available Mentor: None

[Status]

— Name: Hayate Gekko

— Age: 26

— Rank: Tokubetsu Jonin

— Health: 980/980

— Chakra: 987/1,050

— Parameters:

—— Strength: 3

—— Intelligence: 3.5

—— Speed: 3

—— Stamina: 2

— Jutsu:

—— Ninjutsu: Shadow Clone, Clone, Body Flicker, Substitution, Transformation, Transparent Body, Fire Style: Explosive Kunai, Fire Style: Flaming Arrow, Fire Style: Fiery Spike Wheel, Wind Style: Wind Bullet

—— Taijutsu: Leaf Style: Hard Fist

—— Kenjutsu: Leaf Style: Crescent Moon, Secret Sword: Moonlight

[Quest & Reward]

— Active: Infiltration & Espionage Sunagakure

— Completed: Trackdown the Suspicious Genin: Kabuto Yakushi

— Total Points: 100

[Inventory]

— Apprentice Ticket, Copy of MBCC-S-104 Contract

And then there was the Apprentice Gacha. The name is a bit misleading, but Hayate didn't care about that. He recalled the previous bout with Baki. And he gritted his teeth as he still found it hard to swallow such failure that resulting in his death. If not because he awaken this System and become an Anomaly, he maybe already on his way to the Pure Land.

'If I can get a strong shinobi like the First Hokage as my mentor, I will definitely be much stronger.'

Using the Apprentice Ticket, he rolled the gacha. An animation played in his system interface and he received a glowing card, the glow on the card subsided and revealed a portrait of of a slender woman with long pale hair.

She wears a black blindfold with a silver crescent moon detail in the middle. Her clothing consists of an elegant dress with a palette of black, dark blue and white with designs of moon phases, along with a blue ribbon in her hair and a red ribbon on the hip and back of the dress, in addition to some details of clouds. She also wears dark boots.

At the bottom of the card there was a name, her name was ...

"Jingliu?"