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Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_280
🕑 Added 2024-07-30 01:37:46 +0000 UTCThe location of the ANBU headquarters wasn't a secret. It was common knowledge within the village that the headquarters was inside Hokage Mountain. A single path carved into the mountain led to the entrance, which was restricted through several security checkpoints manned by regular shinobi.
Takuma walked that path and passed through all the checkpoints, using a seal drawn inside the recruitment scroll, which served as his security pass. He was extremely nervous as he passed through the simple twin-door entrance that had several signs bolted into the thick metal warning people that unlawful entry could result in death. He was given no time to prepare for his first interview as it was scheduled the very next day he received the scroll; he barely had the time to update and modify his resume, which would appeal to the ANBU, which was a problem because he didn't know what they were looking for. It wasn't like he could ask someone for advice on the matter.
Beyond the entrance lay a sizeable front lobby area with a single reception desk and two receptionists sitting behind a long, high desk. They were dressed in the standard Leaf uniform like him, which was a surprise, but it made sense that not everyone in ANBU would be masked operatives.
The hall was shaped like a dome and lined with a thick layer of metal for structural integrity and fortification. It was spacious and clean, giving it a sanitary look, but the illumination was on the warmer side, projecting some light into the space.
Two regular shinobi guards stationed inside the headquarters flanked him as he approached the reception desk.
"How may I help you?" asked a middle-aged kunoichi with a tight bun wrapped with a mesh cloth.
"I am here for my interview," Takuma said and presented his recruitment scroll as instructed within the scroll.
The kunoichi handled the scroll as though she had seen several of them and unfurled it to a point with a fuinjutsu seal. She weaved hand seals and pressed her thumb in the middle of the seal for the ink to reassemble into a pattern.
"I have confirmed the authenticity of the scroll," she smiled and returned it to him before reaching underneath the table to retrieve trays like one would see at an airport. "Please deposit all of your weapons and belongings in here. You can collect them when you exit."
"I don't feel comfortable parting with my weapons," said Takuma. He had vowed not to leave home without the necessary weapons after the assassination attempt.
"Genin Takuma, you are a shinobi. We are taking your weapons away, not your ability to protect yourself," the receptionist said in an assuring manner. "I'm afraid there'll be no exception. If you don't wish to submit your weapons, you're free to leave, and we will consider our recruitment offer rejected."
Takuma bit the inside of his cheeks and stared at the uncompromising receptionist before relenting. He unbuckled his utility belt and weapons pouches and set them inside the trays.
"Please allow the guards to check you," said the receptionist.
The guards checked him, and Takuma wasn't embarrassed when they found a tiny dagger and a few rolled-up explosive tags hidden on his body.
The kunoichi asked him to follow her and looked completely unbothered by his attempt to hide weaponry. They entered a circular staircase with multiple exit points on each floor. Takuma looked down into the well; it was deep enough that he would fracture a bone if he tried jumping. He looked up, and there were fewer floors above than below.
"May I ask a question?" Takuma said as he observed the kunoichi.
"Please do, but I might not be able to answer the question."
"How did you end up working at ANBU?" he asked. Takuma noticed a weapon pouch with an open flap hanging from her waist.
"I was recruited for the position just like you're being for your position," the kunoichi replied.
Their voices echoed in the staircase. He couldn't take the pouch off her, and if he tried to pick something, the sound of metal would get him caught. He glanced at the railing along the stairs and felt the metal beneath the white paint.
"Oh. Any advice?"
"I don't know if my experience will help you, but if I had to say something, I'd say: be true to yourself. Let them know exactly what they're getting; if they like what they see, they'll take you. The work done here is of the utmost importance, which is why they need people who fit the bill. Presenting a false version of yourself will only get you in trouble when they find the real you."
Takuma charged his ring finger with a sliver of chakra and then flicked the metal railing. The metal sang like an instrument, filling the stairwell with a metallic, semi-melodious trill.
The kunoichi stopped and looked back at him in surprise.
"Sorry about that. Intrusive thoughts won," Takuma put on an apologetic and embarrassed look. "Good advice, though. I'll be sure to apply it."
The kunoichi gazed at him for a moment before turning around with a sigh.
Takuma followed her down the stairs but couldn't help but be disappointed because he had only managed to get a few senbon, a smoke bomb, and a small loop of metal wire. The smoke bomb was useful, but he didn't like senbon much and usually didn't even carry metal wire. But anything was better than nothing.
They got off the stairs, and the receptionist stopped at a large, heavy-duty yellow door with a rectangular cutout of frosted glass. Light filtered out through frosted glass.
"They're waiting for you," the kunoichi said.
Takuma stepped into an empty workspace. The floor was at least four times the size of the Narcotics Taskforce's new space. One half was converted into rooms and offices, while the other half was an open workspace. The walls and ceiling were white, with every light on the floor switched on.
Two masked ANBU-nin sat behind a desk in the middle of the floor. They were the only pieces of furniture on the entire floor. One of them was a large man so jacked that it felt like his muscles wanted to pop out of his skin; he wore a boar mask with black and red markings. The other one was a tall woman with brunette woman with white streaks and wore a hornet mask with yellow markings.
"Welcome, Genin Takuma. Please call me Swine," said the large man. His voice was quite for his size.
"Thank you for having me," Takuma said as he sat opposite them. He thought it was funny that the boar-masked ANBU was codenamed Swine.
"Have you settled down since your return? I know that you stopped renting your home when you were deployed and that we had to deliver your recruitment offer to your mentor's home," said Swine.
"It's in process. He has been kind enough to open his house for me," Takuma said shortly. Frankly speaking, it was creepy that they delivered the scroll to Maruboshi's home. He briefly glanced at the hornet-masked woman who silently stared at him.
"I wish you the best in that regard. I know it can be jarring to return home from war," said Swine. It made Takuma wonder if they knew about his breakdown, which he didn't want strangers to know about. "Please consider meeting as a simple introduction. This isn't part of your testing process, so you aren't being judged now."
"I see," Takuma nodded.
"Now, before we start, we have to clear the most important question," said Swine. "Are you interested in joining the ANBU? There's no sense in continuing if you don't want to join. Of course, I understand you might have doubts, so we will dedicate this meeting to clearing them. By the end of this meeting, you'll have to give us an answer—which won't be a final commitment, mind you. We are interested in you and want to see if you feel the same.."
"Fair enough. I'll give you my answer after you have cleared my doubts," said Takuma, appreciating their straightforwardness. He could tell they wanted him to say something in the vein of being interested in the offer, but he withheld his answer.
"Excellent. How do you wish we proceed? I recommend you ask us questions, and we'll answer them to the best of our abilities."
"Hmm... I don't know anything about the ANBU. You said this meeting is an introduction; give me an introduction," said Takuma, pushing the ball in their field.
This question-and-answer system didn't sit well with him because they would only need to answer what he asked, and if he didn't ask the right questions, he wouldn't get the correct answers. He didn't think they were doing it on purpose because, as Swine said, they were interested in him—or maybe they were doing it on purpose, and they lied about him not being judged, and this was some kind of test.
"The Department of ANBU is in charge of matters pertaining to national security. It's our responsibility to keep domestic and foreign powers in check to protect our great nation. You have worked for the Police Force; a good portion of our work is not dissimilar to yours—and it can often look much like we're doing the same thing as them, but our scope is on a higher level with a reach that goes beyond the Leaf Shinobi institution and our borders."
ANBU sounded like a traditional intelligence agency. Takuma knew their existence wasn't a secret from living in the world, but he didn't know much beyond that, as there was not much about them in his incomplete meta-knowledge about this world.
Swine continued, "It's a misconception that there's no war if there aren't boots on the ground. The Five Great Nations are always at war with each other. Peace is a deadlock achieved by the great powers constantly trying to preempt threats from others."
"Peace is a deadlock," Takuma couldn't help but whisper as goosebumps rose. He had never considered it that way, but he couldn't help but feel those words were especially true in this world. "That is a grim outlook on the concept."
"It's the reality," said Swine, heavily. "The ideal future would be for the deadlock to persist through eternity, but we know that isn't possible, so it's our job to ensure that when this deadlock breaks, the Hidden Leaf will be on top. No matter what people might say— we aren't in the business of control; we simply exist to protect."
Takuma didn't believe that last part. Wasn't control the best way to achieve protection? There was no need to protect against the threats if one could control them.
"Why me? Why do I interest the ANBU?" Takuma asked. He kept his questions short to get as wide an answer as possible.
"We have been following your career since you started in the Police Force. Thriving in an environment controlled by a few who only allow certain people inside and decide who gets to succeed and doing it as one of the first outsiders is impressive. Establishing and running the Narcotics Taskforce as you did was a highly impressive feat. In fact, you were so impressive that we thought it would be a waste to recruit you as you could've been a catalyst of change in a closed system that is the Police Force."
"What changed your mind?"
"Your demotion and deployment to the war," said Swine.
"I see." Takuma's lips pressed into a thin line. He had promised himself to let go of his bitterness, but it was an ongoing journey, a difficult one.
"Once we discovered that the Police Force didn't value you as much as we did, we decided we wanted to work with you. We were planning to approach you as soon as you returned from the war... and then you went ahead and showed us something that blew away any of our doubt."
He expected his war contributions to factor into ANBU's assessment of him. He didn't hold his experience in the Steam-Frost war in high regard, he would rather forget it ever happened, but there was no denying that he had worked his ass off to accomplish what he did.
"You and your team were responsible for bringing down an oppressive power controlling that city. We read the reports, and we know how important your role was. The cherry on top is that you killed a jonin," said Swine, openly showing how impressed he was.
Takuma simply blinked as he was transported back to Yu for a moment. The sounds of explosions and screams echoed in his ear as he sat in the back of the banquet hall. He smelled the scent of blood and felt the weight of Rikku's body in his arms.
"...Thank you for the compliment," he said as he shifted in his chair to make it so that he was finding a comfortable spot, but in reality, he didn't want them to notice in case he was showing what was happening inside his mind. "The killing of a jonin wasn't received well by many."
"Of course, the way you did it shouldn't be done lightly by anyone, and I'm sure it was a difficult choice for you..."
"It was."
"But there are times when someone has to make those choices. You made that difficult choice, and it had real measurable benefits. You not only saved the lives of our shinobi, but you also damaged a foreign nation by killing one of their jonin, who could've escaped during the invasion," said Swine.
"I chatted with two of your ANBU-nin when I was in Yu. I don't think they liked me very much. How will that affect my chances of getting in?" asked Takuma. He didn't want to get his hopes, go through whatever arduous testing process they surely had, then only to have the door shut in his face and waste his time.
"If you're implying what you're implying, then I feel insulted. If you fail to get in, it'll be because we don't think you can survive here," Swine said with the seriousness of a principal addressing students.
"That's great to hear," Takuma nodded.
"Though I must say, the so-called chat you had with our operatives was interesting in itself. I think if you manage to pass, you'll do well in ANBU."
Takuma thanked Swine for his confidence in him and swiftly moved on to the next question, "What will be my role here?"
"We don't know that currently. The Department of ANBU is divided into two sub-departments. One handles domestic affairs and the other deals with foreign threats. We will decide where to place you depending on your skills and how you perform in our testing process."
Takuma took his resume scroll out of his pocket and placed it on the table. The scroll got him on Iruka's team when he was doing D-rank missions. Iruka himself had used a semi-updated version of his scroll to get him into the Police Force. It had worked with Anko when he joined the team when it was already established.
"These are my skills for your reference," he said.
"I like the initiative," Swine said as he received the scroll.
"Now that I know why ANBU wants me," said Takuma as he sat up straighter, "it's time for you to tell me why I should join the ANBU."
"ANBU is the best there is. It's an honour for anybody to serve with the best because you'll be among the best; I can promise you that you'll grow here—"
Takuma raised his hand to stop Swine from speaking. "On the risk of crude, I understand how valuable ANBU is in protecting the village and our nation, and the prestige that has been developed over decades of hard service, but the last time I joined a place because of its prestige and the promise of growth, they stripped me of the fruits of my effort and shipped me off to war.
"If you want me to be interested by the end of this meeting, I want you to tell me what tangible, measurable benefits ANBU can offer me."
———
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"Payoff is on the horizon" — FictionOnlyReader
Comments
Eldar Zecore
I feel like that’s more to do with the fact Kakashi only really hangs out with (and only really see him around) the highest level of Jonin, and less because its some open secret. I mean Itachi’s parents and Clan Elders know, but his mom’s a retire high level Jonin and his dad is the Uchiha Clan Head & was a Hokage Candidate. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a couple of Genin or Chunin discussing how Kakashi was ANBU. See what I mean?
Lucaman_P
takuma get ANBU and assign to police as cover,this sound about right.
Mohamud Mohamed
Im surprised T & I hasnt thrown their hat in the ring yet. And for those saying that anbu is stereotypical, i disagree. The only stereotypes with Anbu stories is the stereotypes that an ANBU agents deeds are unwritten and unknown. Otherwise, anbu can be whatever the author wishes it to be. I personally don't like some recurring themes when it comes to anbu stories, like a hokage anbu guard hiding in walls, or how anbu all need to weild swords or some such whatever. So long as you write something Unique and Insightful as you have been, then go ahead with the ANBU saga.
Teo
That's a fair point - but I'm thinking that if he doesn't necessarily want to be Anbu, he can still the use the Anbu offer back at the Police force to get more benefits from them - he wins either way, and Anbu wins either way
Barney The Dyno
He can't really leverage the police force against the anbu after all the only reason the anbu are pursuing him is cause he lost his position in the force if he regains a similar status then they'll just switch back to their original plan they may very well resend their offer to force him into the police force
Barney The Dyno
That wouldn't really work here The anbu wants Takuma to stay relevant and in the spotlight of the police force if he gets a good enough offer from the police force anbu would actually see it as a win and would probably even recend their offer. After all they wanted him for a while it was only his loss of relevance that made them persue him if he regains status among the force then theyll just switch back to the original plan
Joan Casado
Maybe I just have bad memory but I feel like that’s never explained in story. Like the amount of people that knew Kakashi was in the Anbu felt strange considering what Anbu is supposed to represent. That idea is a lot better.
Lazybeep
I predicted it brooooo
Kameron Dias
Gracias por el capítulo 👍
FictionOnlyReader
All ANBU-nin have a cover job, something that requires travel so they have an excuse to go away for a while without people asking question. They also have an administrative staff that help them keep their personal and private lives separate.
Dark Oak
Since ANBU hide their identity via masks does that mean no one outside can know that they are in ANBU? Would Takuma have to take normal missions as well to keep appearances?
Javier Ricaurte
Honestly if ANBU can promise to teach him the Shadow Clone Jutsu then it's over for the Police Force, he will do everything in his power to enter ANBU, with Takuma's high quantity of chakra reserves the option of using the Clone Memory Transfer training is a real possibility, obviously not to the extent of Naruto, but just having his training be 2x to 3x faster, having the clones focusing on Chakra and Jutsu training or even new Taijutsu form and katas while he wholly focuses on increasing his physical strength would be a game changer for him.
TysonG
But what more is there for him to do at the Uchiha Police. Its clear he won't get his old job or even the level of autonomy he once had. Also a major reason for his success in the force was his connection with Enamoto. With that gone is he really going to be more effective than he once was or even another employee. The ANBU offer while stereotypical, in the world Fiction has created seems extremely logical to be the next step. His efforts in the war realistically would've (and have) caught the ANBUs attention. It feels like a natural progression in the story. Takuma is the only one in the world with knowledge of what will happen in the future. ANBU feels like a step up compared to the police force, and a place where he can hone and train his skills more to get ready for what's to come.
SwiftFate
ANBU may not necessarily guarantee B-rank Jutsu straight up, but it certainly provides the path for it (and more). Constant training, experienced mentors and potentially unlimited resources if required. Not to mention being a part of and having access to the most secretive and informed division of the Leaf. Just by being a 'part' of that gives him the opportunity to learn some serious jutsu by accident, let alone on purpose.
Joan Casado
Takuma I think is in a place where he’s not leaning for the Police Force or Anbu. To him, what really matters is going to the place where he could be pushed to the metaphorical and literal limit in preparation for a dangerous future. Both can give him that, there are no wrong answers here.
Nate Drees
While “joining ANBU” on its own may be stereotypical, I feel that FOR is very good at taking things we may deem standard fanfic faire and spinning them in new and innovative ways. Also he shouldn’t play with his food too much. Fighting for benefits is one thing, playing both sides is a good way to end up alone and on neither of them.
Teo
Yeah I'd love to see him leverage the Anbu offer to get more concessions from the police force and vice versa - I've never seen that in naruto fics
Green0Photon
I really don't want him to join ANBU. Too stereotypical. Vs the police force which was new, since he's not Uchiha. But I said this before. What I'm really hoping, now, is for him to play the offers against each other, like a super savvy person might do IRL. ANBU wants him and police wants him. That's the key to getting higher offers. The hiring manager then has something to tell their bosses in terms of how valuable the hiree is. So they're able to get more benefits than otherwise. And that can go back and forth between jobs until someone folds. So I'm really hoping Takuma finds out the job roles and gets more WLB and other benefits, and does a proper comparison. And pushes each to give him more. Now, what would be really stellar would be a secret third option popping up.
Barney The Dyno
Honestly I wasn't expecting anbu just yet but i have yet to see you cook anything less than a 5 star meal so ill just have faith in the process
Lazerate
And not to forget B-rank jutsu, I don't think that getting into ANBU guarantees it
