55 Chapter 55: ANBU Appartment Complex

The first thing that happened this morning was being dragged by Yamato to the ANBU Apartment Complex where his new home would be located. Tekku stared at his new apartment. With the help of his new team members, he managed to store his things away, at least temporarily.

Of course, his more private things, like his tools and machines that he always kept with himself, remained untouched in his seals as he didn't want to show them off. He didn't want his hard work to land in the hands of others, especially Danzo. Not to mention, his research samples like the Uchiha and their Sharingans, his sample of an Explosion Release user, and the other corpses he had from his research remained closely sealed away.

But this apartment building made him realize a new problem. His research time would become much harder from now on. Not impossible, but a lot more difficult, as his neighbors were highly ranked shinobi or ANBU, and his apartment wasn't a safe, private place anymore.

"Captain Tenzo, do you know who my neighbors are?" asked Tekku towards the older man as he stored his spare ANBU uniforms into a drawer.

But before Tenzo could answer, he got interrupted by Ryota, who had a wide grin on his face for some reason, "Oh, I have heard of this place. It stood empty for a long while since for some reason nobody wanted to move in here. Even though your neighbor is such a nice GUY."

In the way he said the last word, Tekku realized where this was going and frantically turned to Tenzo, as he definitely wasn't liking where this was going, "Eh, Captain~ Is there another free apartment I could move in to? The shade of that tree in front of the balcony is quite disrupting, as I enjoy the sun more."

"Sorry, this was the only free apartment in this building. It's better if the whole team lives in the same apartment. This saves us some valuable time. I am sure it won't be so bad here," replied Tenzo calmly, with a polite smile. But behind his eyes, Tekku could clearly see amusement, "Also, these are orders from Dragon. Even if you are in your training phase, Team Ro will still have to complete some missions as it is a very high-profile team. So we won't be able to always train you during this time and will need additional teachers."

'Oh, hell no. This wasn't part of the contract,' thought Tekku as sweat ran down his forehead.

"Kakashi's fine - he's on your right and stays quiet as a mouse. But to your right…" Yugao trailed off as she hugged herself.

As if he heard her, an excited voice interrupted her sentence, "YOSH! I HEAR I HAVE A YOUTHFUL NEW NEIGHBOR TO BASK IN THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH WITH!" loudly appearing in his doorway, accompanied by the most horrible sight imaginable - a green spandex alien. The alien gave a thumbs up and made his teeth sparkle. "I am the extremely youthful Maito Gai, Konoha's youthful green beast! Welcome youthful friend! It is most youthful to be an ANBU so young!"

'Hell no.' Tekku looked pitifully at Tenzo who had already disappeared, the whole rest of his team was no longer here, having escaped to their own apartments.

"Eh, nice to meet you. I am Tekku, your new neighbor," he introduced himself awkwardly, backing slowly away from the green beast. Why did he have to be him? Mighty Guy was a person he wanted to avoid as much as possible.

"Maa, maa, Gai. Don't kill our neighbor before I meet him," the voice was accompanied by a cyclops reading the perverted orange book, Icha Icha Paradise. When he saw Tekku, he froze for a moment.

A short while ago, Kakashi was still a member of the ANBU, but since Itachi's betrayal, he retired. He and Itachi were with Tenzo and Yugao, the former Team Ro, which was led by him. Seeing that there was now another child part of this high-profile team brought back some unpleasant memories about his own childhood and the aftermath of Itachi snapping.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake. Who are you? You're awfully young to be an ANBU. You're what, nine?" He bantered, fishing for any scrap of insight.

"No, I am thirteen. Or I couldn't have joined the ANBU. I am just a bit on the smaller size," replied Tekku, keeping to the story he and the Hokage had agreed to after tweaking his paperwork to fit the requirements for ANBU, "Hokage-sama thought it would be for the best if I disappear for a few years since I got a Bingo Book entry with a high bounty."

Kakashi could only nod in understanding as it made sense from some perspective, but at the same time, it wasn't the best choice to keep a future talent safe and let him develop. Although the training and experience he would gain were great, they were also very hard. Already, the standard ANBU drill pushed each recruit beyond their limits.

But this wasn't the worst. ANBU were the kind of ninja who often experienced the darkness of the shinobi world, far more often than those in public duty. At some point, they could reach a breaking point. ANBU wasn't a fit for everyone, especially not someone so young. But there was nothing Kakashi could do right now, as it wasn't his choice.

His old team arrived then, no doubt hiding from the horrors that were his best friend. Looking at his old junior, Kakashi said, "Ah Tenzo, so Tekku is part of Team Ro?"

"Yes, sempai. After he is finished with his training, he will join us in active duty," explained Tenzo to Kakashi.

"How far is he in? Is he any good?" asked Kakashi with curiosity. He didn't keep an eye on village rumors while being in ANBU and didn't know about Tekku. His focus was more on Naruto, the last remaining thing of his dead teacher.

"That's why I am here, Sempai. We want to start now," explained Tenzo, "As for his potential, he is counted as a genius on the same level as you. Not one of these every year geniuses that graduate at the top of their class."

"RIGHT, TRAINING. I ALMOST FORGOT!" shouted Guy as he overheard what Tenzo said to Kakashi before turning towards Tekku, "I EXPECT YOU TO BE READY TOMORROW MORNING. DRAGON TASKED ME TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR PHYSICAL CONDITIONING. YOSH! YOU WILL BE TRAINING WITH ME EVERY MORNING!" Guy explained in his very loud voice.

"This is an order, isn't it?" Tekku asked as he looked at Tenzo who only nodded, pointing upwards, indicating that it was an order from above.

"YOSH! THEN I WILL WAKE YOU AT FOUR TOMORROW, MY MOST YOUTHFUL NEIGHBOR!"

'Oh, please kill me.' Thought Tekku as he saw Guy and Kakashi disappear through his door as they said goodbye.

"Are you ready? It's time for us to start your training!" announced Tenzo as they were gone while Ryota was patting Tekku's shoulders to comfort him. Of course, he had a shit-eating grin on his face.

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