Standing in front of s.h.i.+kamaru were two new, white faces: a cat and a monkey.
Of course, the animal faces were only masks, and from the neck down the two Anbu were completely human. They wore jet black uniforms that clung to their skin, as well as the recently redesigned flak jackets of Konoha.
The old flak jackets used to have pockets on both sidesof the chest for s.h.i.+n.o.bi to keep scrolls or ninja tools, but the new design had done away with those and kept itself relatively simple. It was a side-effect of the peaceful era that had come into being after the end of the war.
Where there would have been eyes painted on the two Anbu’s masks, holes had been pierced like deep, dark caves. Both the masks had thin mouths painted on, curving from cheek to cheek. The cat’s mask had thin red markings under its eyes. The monkey’s mask had thickly drawn red eyebrows that made it look like it was scowling in temper. Both the Anbu had their hands linked behind their backs, and the eye slits of their masks gave off such a feeling that s.h.i.+kamaru felt like he was being sized up.
“If it’s these two, I think they can do everything you’ve been hoping for.” Kakas.h.i.+ said from where he was seated behind his desk.
From where s.h.i.+kamaru was standing, the cat-masked Anbu was on the right, and the monkey-masked was on the left. The two Anbu had a very large height difference. The Monkey was 176 cm, slightly taller than s.h.i.+kamaru, while the Cat barely came up to s.h.i.+kamaru’s shoulders.
So, monkey-mask was male, and cat-mask was female…
Even without the height difference, their body structure made that much evident.
“Both of you, take off your masks.” Kakas.h.i.+ instructed.
The Anbu’s hands both lifted to reach for their masks at Kakas.h.i.+’s command, slowly lowering them to reveal the human faces below.
It was an Anbu custom to wear the masks with animal faces. Since they mainly dealt in shady missions such as a.s.sa.s.sination or causing disturbances in foreign countries, they loathed to let anyone know of their ident.i.ties. Even most of Konoha’s own citizens didn’t know who was and wasn’t in Anbu.
‘People who come and go from the village without eating anything are Anbu.’ There were lots of rumours and speculations like that.
“The man is Rou, and the girl is Soku.”
The two Anbu bowed their greetings to s.h.i.+kamaru in time with Kakas.h.i.+’s introduction.
“To have such a young girl in Anbu…“
“It’s unthinkable, right?” Soku cut into s.h.i.+kamaru’s murmuring. “But in the world of s.h.i.+n.o.bi, competency is everything, and I entered the Anbu by proving the worth of my abilities, y’know.”
“She’s right.” Kakas.h.i.+ agreed with Soku.
s.h.i.+kamaru couldn’t deny that he was surprised. Soku was extremely young. She was at least 5 or 6 years younger than s.h.i.+kamaru, and must’ve only just come out of the Academy. She had slightly red cheeks, plump with baby fat, but also a thin mouth set in a grim frown that radiated determination. Her thin eyebrows were arched, and her eyes s.h.i.+ned with self-confidence.
Something about her made s.h.i.+kamaru feel like this was what Temari had looked like as a child.
“Hinoko was recognised for her abilities and scouted into Anbu the minute she graduated from the Academy. Despite only being 14 years old, she’s accomplished a great number of missions.” Kakas.h.i.+ said. “She’s very relied upon in the Anbu.”
“It’s not good to judge someone’s abilities based solely upon their appearances, y’know.” Soku said, puffing out her cheeks a bit. “And, Hokage-sama, I keep telling you not to call me by my real name, y’know.”
“Hinoko… It’s a very nice nam-”
In a blink, Soku had disappeared from s.h.i.+kamaru’s line of view and before he knew what was happening, a finger glowing orange with barely restrained chakra was pressed against his forehead.
“I hate being called by my real name, y’know. Be careful not to do it.”
s.h.i.+kamaru could feel a sort of frizzing static from the edge of Soku’s index finger. It felt like an incredibly small version of Kakas.h.i.+’s raikiri.
Chakra was bursting from the edge of Soku’s fingertips…
“Stop that at once, Soku.”
The one who spoke was the man who’d carried the monkey mask. Kakas.h.i.+ had introduced him as Rou. He had thick eyebrows, a strong jaw and stubborn, one-lidded eyes that were glaring at Soku in disapproval.
“I have to make this clear from the start, y’know.” Soku retorted. “I won’t allow being looked down on for being a kid, y’know.”
“My bad. I’ll be careful in the future.” s.h.i.+kamaru gave a simple apology. There was no need to aggravate the situation any further, and he didn’t have the time to deal with the young girl’s temper.
Soku turned her gaze away from Rou and back to s.h.i.+kamaru.
“As long as you understand, y’know.” She turned her back on him and stomped back to where she had originally stood, taking on the same position with her hands behind her back.
“Rou can freely manipulate the quality and quant.i.ty of chakra; both his own, as well as that of anyone he targets and recognises.” Kakas.h.i.+ said, and Rou gave a small nod.
“Does that mean you can increase chakra as well?” s.h.i.+kamaru asked.
“A smart question.” Kakas.h.i.+ commented.
“The chakra which I can change is only that which is perceived by others.” Rou said. “To explain, if I increased your chakra, Lord s.h.i.+kamaru, I would not be able to change the actual fighting potential in the least. Your chakra would only seem larger in the perception of other persons. In other words, my jutsu cannot be efficient in the practice of deceit if the subject of my chakra manipulation does not partic.i.p.ate in the deception.”
Rou had a very old-fas.h.i.+oned speech pattern, and coupled with his round, boulder-like appearance, he seemed more like a samurai than a ninja.
s.h.i.+kamaru gave the man a nod to show him he understood his explanation, and then opened his mouth to speak again.
“When you say you can change the quant.i.ty of perceived chakra, does that mean that you can completely erase it as well?”
No matter how you looked at it, Rou was definitely in his forties. He was at least twenty years older than s.h.i.+kamaru.
“That is certainly possible. I can make the chakra of any target disappear in the manner you’ve described, while also allowing you to trace them, Lord s.h.i.+kamaru.”
With the man’s old fas.h.i.+oned way of speaking, s.h.i.+kamaru had half-expected the word ‘track’ instead of trace, and felt a little fazed at the random modern word.
“I thought his jutsu would be the best suited for this job, but what do you think?” Kakas.h.i.+ asked.
“It’ll work. And the little one?” s.h.i.+kamaru asked, turning to look at Soku.
The girl’s eyebrow twitched at being called ‘little one’. The child didn’t seem to be aware that she was a child. s.h.i.+kamaru wasn’t sure yet if that was a good or bad thing for how useful she’d be on the mission.
“A demonstration would be good, wouldn’t it?” Kakas.h.i.+ said to Soku.
The girl nodded and turned around. She stretched out her left arm so it was facing the open window across Kakas.h.i.+’s office. In line with the direction she was pointing, s.h.i.+kamaru could see a single swallow flying outside.
“My jutsu is all about Chakra needles, y’know…” Soku murmured, and an orange flash of chakra burst out of her index finger.
At that moment, the swallow which had been startled by the loud sound had quickly swooped to hide behind a pillar outside the window.
If Soku had fired her chakra with this timing, there was no way she could hit her target. Her chakra would hit the pillar and just leave a scratch on its surface instead.
But…
There wasn’t a single scratch on the pillar, and from outside, the swallow gave a shrill, sharp cry.
s.h.i.+kamaru hurried to the window. Leaning out and twisting his neck around, his eyes searched the ground around where swallow had been flying, and found the bird on the ground. It did indeed look dead.
“I don’t want you to misunderstand, y’know. I’m against a meaningless waste of life.” Soku spoke from behind him.
As she spoke, s.h.i.+kamaru stared as the swallow slowly came back to its senses, waddling to its feet and getting up. Soon, it’d taken off again, flying even higher than before.
“I made my chakra revitalising when it pierced through the target this time, so that swallow probably feels much more energetic than it did a while ago, y’know.”
“How did you get it past the pillar?” s.h.i.+kamaru asked, taking his hand off the window sill and turning to face Soku.
The little girl let out a delighted laugh that sounded her age for once, sticking out her tongue in childish mockery.
“Once I’ve aimed at my target, it doesn’t matter if they go out of my sight or not, my chakra needle will follow it anywhere, y’know. My needle won’t ever stop in its path until it hits its target.”
So.
Rou’s jutsu would erase their chakra’s presence, and let them infiltrate the enemy’s ranks undetected. When they came within reach of Gengo, s.h.i.+kamaru would use his kagemane to bind him. And then the killing blow would come with the foolproof aim of Soku’s chakra needle.
It was alright.
They could really do it…
“Can I just ask you one thing?”
“You can, y’know.” Soku gave a smile br.i.m.m.i.n.g with confidence.
“Can you stop tacking ‘y’know’ onto the end of your sentences?”
They were coming.
The enemy.
Oto-nin.
Orochimaru’s underlings.
No, wait…
Since when was I being chased?
I was the one who was supposed to be chasing someone.
Someone who had to be saved.
Uchiha Sasuke.
A cla.s.smate who could do anything perfectly, with a nasty personality.
…But he was a comrade. He absolutely had to be saved.
I was leading a team for the first time. Failure wasn’t an option.
My comrades…
My comrades were being felled down, one after another.
Chouji.
Kiba.
Neji.
And then Naruto…
We were surrounded by sneering oto-nin.
I’m sorry…
I’m sorry, everyone.
Next time, I won’t fail again.
So please- please don’t die-
“PLEASE!”
s.h.i.+kamaru woke up to the sound of his own desperate shouting, twisting out of his covers in a panic. His whole body was drenched with sweat.
He’d been dreaming…
It had been his first mission after making chuunin: to retrieve the missing-nin Uchiha Sasuke who’d left the village under Orochimaru’s guidance.
His comrades had been several cla.s.smates, and Neji. They’d lessened, one by one, as they chased after Sasuke. s.h.i.+kamaru had made the decision to entrust everything to Naruto and take on a sound-nin in a fight.
And the result of that decision had been Sasuke leaving the village, and all his comrades sustaining serious injuries.
As a chuunin, as a leader, his first mission had ended in despairing failure.
s.h.i.+kamaru placed a palm to his sweat soaked forehead, and slowly took in a deep breath.
Why did he see a dream like that?
Until now, he’d never seen those events in a dream.
Although, it was a fact that scars from that incident were still left in his heart. s.h.i.+kamaru saw the Sasuke Retrieval mission as his biggest disgrace, and never failed to think of it whenever he was judging himself.
He’d never again been cornered like he had been on that day…
Dreams were a manifestation of your subconscious.
Then, do I feel like I’m being cornered right now?
“It’s alright…it’s alright, s.h.i.+kamaru…”
Although it was unlike him to try and soothe himself, the words slipped out of s.h.i.+kamaru’s mouth before he could stop them. His heart was still hammering, blood roaring against his ear drums like a steady warning bell.
It didn’t look like he’d be able to fall sleep again tonight.
They were going to set out at sunrise.