Chapter 14: Meeting the Hogo Squad

A/N: This week's chapter, enjoy :)

15/50 Power Stones. Reach 50 for an extra Chapter!

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The man turned away from where Gamamaru vanished and looked up at the sky and spoke softly,

"I have fulfilled my side of the contract... it is your turn, ██ , ██..."

Just as he said that, he was enveloped in a flash, though, the flash wasn't an ordinary one.....

It was a spiraling combination of two polar opposites, white and black, as if opposing forces had come to a truce and coexisted momentarily.

And soon, the man disappeared from the clearing, leaving behind the amazed and terrified Uzumaki to deal with the unimaginably huge tsunami coming towards them, eating all the land it came across.

Luckily, the man had prepared them for it and soon, the water collided with the massive barrier and didn't cause much damage to the Uzumaki or their lands.

Tsunamis don't travel very far on land in the first place, at most, a couple kilometers inland.

Not to mention, this barrier had been strengthened by the man to be able to withstand any left over Annhilating shockwaves.

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Present day, Konoha

"Right away? Isn't there supposed to be some kind of induction?"

Hiruzen chuckled and said, "You've been trained by some of the best anbu over the past two years. I don't think it necessary to introduce you to the kind of work you'll be doing. Although...." 

Dragon picked up after Hiruzen, "You're assigned to the Hogo squad that too, to the Uzumaki. So, there are bound to be somethings that are different from the regular anbu. But...."

Lion continued after Dragon, "We're confident that you will be able to integrate into the team just fine."

Kagaku nodded and said, "I see, so will I not be going on missions?"

Hiruzen responded, "No, you will be going on missions. Usually the Hogo squad doesn't have any missions other than investigations, patrol and escort missions, but, for you, we have made an exception.

You will follow other anbu squads into missions and learn from them."

Dragon continued, "Of course, you won't be placed immediately into the assault squads, at first, you will have to perform regular missions with the Hogo squad and even after that, you will start out with logistics and recon missions."

"I'm sure you already know this but let me tell you once again. Your potential is extremely high, Kagaku. We can not lose you just because you got in over your head and overestimated yourself.

So, only once all three of us approve will you go into combat missions. Is that understood?"

Kagaku straightened up and replied, "Yes sir!"

Hiruzen chuckled and said, "Alright then, looks like your guide is here. Go with him."

Kagaku saluted and picked up his newly obtained anbu gear and headed out of the meeting room.

The guide gestured to follow him through a different door than he entered and Kagaku followed him, now alert to any surprises.

He had learned the hard way that anbu had a tendency to 'test' each other to keep them on their toes. This was especially the case with new recruits like Kagaku.

The guide was a tall and lean man who wore a mask resembling a Crow. His eyes were a brilliant blue and his hair white.

Kagaku glanced at him again and wondered, 'Who is this guy? Gojo? I don't remember anyone with white hair and blue eyes.....

Then again, he could just be from the Hatake clan, not to mention, there are lots of people who have blue eyes even in Konoha, and the white hair could be due to some medical condition, after all, not every white haired, blue eyed guy is Gojo plus, I'm in Naruto, not jjk.

You know what? From now on, to me he is Gojo 2.0!

.....I'll keep an eye on them though. He looks strong.'

While he was immersed in his thoughts, he still kept an eye out for any signs of trouble, but to his surprise, nothing of that sort happened.

Just as he was starting to get relaxed, he noticed something flicker from the corner of his eyes, when he looked behind, he saw nothing there.

But, when he turned back around, he found that Gojo 2.0 had vanished.

'Huh? Wher-' Kagaku's train of thought was abruptly derailed as noticed a sliver of chakra enter his system.

Just as he was about to instinctively dispel the genjutsu, he stopped himself.

'Wait.... it would be better to let them think I'm in the genjutsu no? Alright! Let's do this, I'll prevent it from controlling my sensory input fully, just half.

I'll have to process two different sets of sensory input but, well, after using shadow clones to train all this time, I'm used to it.'

And Kagaku did exactly as he decided to, he let the left side of his body's sensory input be controlled by the genjutsu, while preventing it from spreading to the right side.

Soon, he saw through his right side people coming out of hiding from the rooftops, alleyways, and streets.

There were 5 of them, including Gojo 2.0 and they were all watching him with intruigue.

Gojo 2.0 was standing on the rooftop a little ahead of him on the right side, looking down on him as if he was a subject that came in front of a king.

There was a cloaked man with a bear mask in the adjacent rooftop. His giant muscular build could be seen upon closer look even through his cloak. His eyes covered by the shadow of his hood.

Behind him, he could sense another person, by the shape of the chakra density, he could tell it was a girl about his height, or a bit smaller. She was particularly radiating chakra at the moment, the chakra was connected to him and her hands were raised in a snake handsign.

'So, she was the one who cast the genjutsu...' Kagaku noted.

He could sense two more people on the rooftops to the left of him, but couldn't see them either.

The people in the bustling streets didn't seem to pay much attention to the cloaked figures on rooftops, they had become accustomed to it after living in a ninja village after so long.

While in the genjutsu, he could see all the people on the same streets vanish.

He looked around frantically to pretend he was confused and suddenly, the scenery faded out and changed to a battlefield.

He looked around. The ground was on fire, bodies of leaf anbu, ninja as well as enemy shinobi lay lifeless, set ablaze by the lingering flames.

A familiar, yet weak and hoarse voice came from infront of him and Kagaku's shaking eyes turned towards it, "K- Kagaku..... run..... run now while you still have the chance....."

It was.... Axolotl.... His mask was gone, his face... no, his entire body was covered in wounds and blood.

Blood leaked from his mouth as he spoke, "I SAID RUN GODDAMMIT FORGET ABOUT US!"

He stopped and continued while smiling weakly, it was as if he was using every bit of energy he had left just to speak,

"...we're dead anywa-"

He was cut off abruptly. A kunai burried itself into his skull and..... he died.

Kagaku's eyes dilated as he slowly looked up to see people, lots of them. His vision was blurry, he couldn't make out anything except.....

They had killed him.

And..... they will pay.

Just as he was about to act out on his rage, he realised he was still in the genjutsu and promptly dispelled it.

Kagaku shook his head to get out the lingering visions of Axolotl dying infront of him.

'That..... was so.... real..... I messed up huh? I've been under many genjutsu but that... '

Just as he was dwelling over his mistakes, a slow, quiet clap resounded in his ears.

He turned around to see the source of the sound, the 5 cloaked anbu operatives. His new teammates, they were all now standing inside an alleyway.

"Impressive. You managed to break out of one of Fox's best genjutsu. Believe me, not many can boast of that." The bear masked anbu spoke.

The girl in question huffed and added, "That's because not many are alive to do so."

Gojo 2.0 chopped them on their heads and they let out groans of protest.

Kagaku interrupted them before they went off topic, "Is this some kind of initialization?"

They all finally turned to him and apologized while one of the guys he hadn't been able to look at before said, "Yes. This is tradition among the anbu."

Kagaku raising an eyebrow asked, "Is that it? A simple genjutsu? I thought it would something like a chase and lots of fighting."

The Frog masked anbu who had been talking laughed boisterously and responded, "Well.... that was how it was supposed to go, but in the end we decided it wasn't worth the trouble and instead used genjutsu."

"I.... see..." Kagaku said awkwardly while thinking, 'Man this world is filled with weird people.... I suppose that's what happens when you have to kill or nearly die so many times, it's a coping mechanism for them, it's certainly much better than what some people used to do, so I guess it's fine'

Gojo 2.0, much like his original, couldn't stand the silence for long and said cheerfully, "Hey, captain, we're done with the initiation right? Can I take my cute little kohai to teach him how cool I- *cough* I mean, how cool we are!"

Frog, who seemed to be the captain side eyed Gojo 2.0 before reluctantly agreeing.

Gojo 2.0 clapped and jumped up while exclaiming, "Yaaayy!! Come on, my cute little kohai, let senpai show you how we do things!"

Kagaku watched his antics and wondered, 'No shot bro is actually Gojo right? His personality is definitely on point though...'

The rest of the members seemed to be used to his behavior, by the way they simply sighed in resignation.

~ Kagaku's POV ~

By the time I came out of my reverie, Gojo 2.0 was already dragging me away by my arm while giggling to himself, I could almost see a chibi version of him doing the same with a hand on his mouth.

I turned to look at my teammates for help and Fox was giving me a thumbs up and I could tell there was a shit eating grin on her face behind that fox mask.

The sloth masked anbu, the only other girl of the group, who hadn't spoken yet was leaning on the side of the alley walls with her eyes closed, ignoring the whole ordeal.

Bear was giving him an understanding look as if saying 'Don't worry, you'll get through this!'

Frog was looking away while whistling, pretending not to have noticed.

'You goddamn traitors! I swear I'll get you back for doing this!!'

~ Meeting room, ANBU Headquarters ~

Lion turned to Dragon and said, "Quite the recruit, wouldn't you say?"

Dragon nodded and said, "Indeed. I had expected him to be decent, but he surpassed my expectations. It's good that he isn't all hype."

Hiruzen chuckled and added, "Well, I didn't assign some of the best in the anbu just to teach him for nothing."

Dragon's demeanor suddenly turned serious and he said, "While all that is true, Holage sama, he's still a small child who hasn't seen war. As smart as he may be, he's still naive."

Hiruzen turned to him and responded in an equally serious tone, "There's a first time for everything. We didn't want to risk him going out too early. Now that he's capable, he will go out on missions."

Dragon responded, "I understand, Hokage sama, but.... is it wise to not have him get his first kill? It's reckless to have him in the anbu when he could freeze at the sight of death."

Hiruzen took a brief pause before speaking up again, "Indeed. But... one of his wishes was to not have to kill until before he went on missions.

Of course, we can't take the risk of waiting that long, and so we agreed that he would have his first kill a month after he officially joins the anbu."

"I see, that is reasonable."

Meanwhile, Gojo 2.0 was dragging Kagaku while telling him how awesome he was...