The Hokage Office.
Sarutobi was looking at a document in front of him.
This is a special Anbu squad, after taking Satsuki’s corpse they extracted some memories from his brain and some messages.
“The targets were Naito and Kushina… this is a problem.”
Sarutobi had a sharp look on his face.
“Although the incident of Naito killing Uchiha Samui was hidden from the public, he has been given the nickname ‘genius of the school’ and maybe they saw that this was worth the assassination.”
“But Kushina also… it’s strange.”
The special Anbu squad found out a lot of information about Satsuki.
And they found out that Satsuki’s target wasn’t only Naito.
Uzumaki Kushina was the second target!
“Could it be that other villages guessed the identity of Kushina?”
“It is possible.” the man next to him said.
The person who was standing next to Sarutobi was Sakumo Hatake.
“Then we might already rush our plans, without mentioning that Mito-sama’s body won’t last any longer.”
Uzumaki Mito is the wife of the first Hokage and also the first Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi.
“Ok.”
Sakumo nodded gently.
Uzumaki Kushina was the next Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, only a few people knew about this.
And they cannot be sure that there will not be another assassin after her.
He kept quiet for a moment, then Sarutobi said: ” How’s Naito?”
“He’s fine.”
Sakumo gently smiled and said: “This child is not just an excellent ninja with a great talent but also you should know Hokage-sama that he got an extraordinary mind.”
“Yeah.” Sarutobi nodded then he suddenly continued: “Are you gonna make him an official member of the Anbu?”
“Well… let me review the situation again.”
Hatake Sakumo slightly hesitated, then he said: “Although this incident of assassination that he dealt with was a very difficult situation and the outcome was very beautiful, but we cannot be sure if he reached the standards of an Anbu.”
“Yeah.”
…….
The Anbu department.
Naito went to the Anbu department to report everything happened, how he approached him, the techniques he used… after that Naito left the tactical room.
After all, he’s one of the Anbu, they just needed him to fill the blanks.
After leaving the tactical room Naito wanted to leave the department, but he suddenly received a convening order.
He was a little bit surprised, Naito immediately thought that this is should be a regular training for the Anbu members.
The regular training is mandatory and it cannot be rejected.
After he received the call, Naito walked toward the meeting place.
Alternate members are different from the officials.
Because the alternate members do not perform too many tasks, they will have a specific training session on a regular basis.
Meeting place, in a special hall.
When he arrived, Naito noticed that there were too many ninjas with masks gathered there.
Basically, they were all alternate members.
In other words, the alternate members of both the Anbu and the root got called to have a training session.
In fact, the training of the Anbu alternate members was the same training of the root alternate members, Danzo was forbidden to train them himself.
After all, Sarutobi didn’t trust him enough!
So the roots and the Anbu are nominally together but actually are completely separated.
Training of the alternate members is still performed inside the walls of the Anbu department and has nothing to do with the root.
When Naito walked into the crowd, he attached a lot of eyes.
Although he was wearing a mask and cloak.
Everyone could guess his age.
Just by looking at his appearance, you can guess right away that he is a teenager.
Can such a small kid become an Anbu candidate?
Some ninja couldn’t hide their surprise.
He might be just an alternate member but this is not an ordinary thing too.
But those privileges of having unlimited resources, free equipment… won’t last long if they stopped being here.
The Anbu training is, on one hand, a training, and on the other hand is a way of elimination!
Eliminate the people who are not improving and who are no longer qualified to become an official member of the Anbu, and also recording the improvement of the excellent Ninjas.
An excellent ninja is, of course, a qualified one.
As for those who have been eliminated they will no longer enjoy the privileges of the Anbu, they will return to being regular Shinobi.
Some of the candidates felt when they saw Naito, that the Anbu got too picky this is a place for the special and the most talented ninjas.
I am afraid that he won’t even complete the first round, he will just get eliminated directly.
That’s what everyone thought, after that, they were no longer concerned about Naito.
After a while, a ninja came in with a cloak of a different color.
In a flicker, he appeared in front of them.
He wasn’t the dark captain, but he was one of the three division captains in the Anbu department.
He’s one of the top-levels in Konoha.
“This time, the three persons who achieve the lowest score they will be eliminated from the Anbu, hoping everyone will take this seriously.”
“The first round of the training will be in the Valley of the End, follow me.”
The captain’s face was hidden under the mast, but he sounded very calm and husky.
After that, he turned directly and left the hall.
Everyone followed him.
Naito as well followed him.
“Valley of the End? a familiar place.”
His eyes were flashing under his mask.
The place he chose gave the test another meaning to Naito due to the important events that happened in that place.
Naito got surprised while he was following the captain, they continued on advancing under the ground.
Unexpectedly, there is a direct access to the Valley of the End under the grounds of Konoha.
However, the idea is reasonable.
Naito didn’t know how far they were under the ground, but he felt like they were almost under the forest.
It was extremely narrow in there, with only one channel.
Everyone did the same when the captain stopped.
Then they went up with the captain.
They went up directly in the middle of the Valley of the End.
After everyone reached the place the captain with calm eyes he looked at the candidates and began to explain the first round of the training.
“We’ve hidden a lot of trails in the Valley.”
“Along these trails, you can always go looking for the special task items, which are these scrolls in my hand.”