Chapter 6: Uchiha

Whistling, Izuryu walked up the stairs of his house to his room while spinning his mask, where he opened his door to the Anbu uniform and a scroll placed on his bed.

The Anbu uniform was the standard pink-white breastplate with a full-body reinforced tights. Izuryu already had his mask so it was not there with the uniform.

Izuryu sat next to the two items, put his mask to the side and picked up the scroll.

As he unfurled it, only a small amount was unfurled, the rest seemingly 'locked'.

Izuryu tried forcing it open yet it wouldn't work no matter how much strength he applied to it. Yet while the scroll didn't unfurl, Izuryu didn't dare to use any jutsu in fear of ruining the scroll.

He observed the unfurled part of the scroll to see a outline made up of tiny seals, each no less that 1mm long to form the outline of a mask.

His mask.

Izuryu laid the scroll down on the floor and placed the mask on it.

The mask fit perfectly with the outline, and once placed, made the sound of a lock opening, to which the rest of the scroll rolled on the floor to reveal its contents.

The first thing Izuryu saw, was that there was a certain kanji right below the mask.

It was the kanji for 'Fox'.

As Izuryu finally observed the mask with closer detail, he noticed that the mask had a very high resemblance to Kakashi's dog mask, only that the nose of Izuryu's mask was a little longer, with the eyes a lot longer and narrower.

'It seems my code-name will be Fox…' thought Izuryu as he looked down at the contents below the kanji.

It was a map. Specifically, a map with the location of the Anbu Base on it.

Below the map:

'Burn After Memorizing' were written in blood red letters.

Izuryu then got to memorizing the location, after which, he subsequently burned the scroll, turning its ashes into dust. He then sprinkled the ashes over his plant, making for a good disposing site.

He looked outside the window, to see the sun setting.

Izuryu cleaned his room up, put the mask on the table and went downstairs to prepare the dinner for him and Teuchi

Teuchi's ramen was delicious, but eating something over and over again everyday would make you sick of it, no matter what it was.

A few hours later, dinner was ready as Izuryu ate alone but left Teuchi's portion on the dinner table, covering it with plastic wrap.

He went to sleep, readying himself for the day that would be tomorrow.

***

The sun was situated at the centre of the sky as Izuryu moved to the location in the map that was in the Anbu scroll.

It was under the hill range of the great forest that surrounded The Hidden Leaf. The base was spread across a large part of the hill range.

The entrance was a tree at the centre of the hill. Yet even before you got near the base, tens of Anbu members would have already noticed and surrounded you.

Izuryu took out his mask and placed in front of the tree. The earth buried the mask for a few seconds as a large part of the soil near the tree shapeshifted into a large stairway.

The mask reappeared in front of him as Izuryu walked down the stairway.

Darkness was spread all around for a while as a large gate appeared in front of him.

The gate had a few hundred seals spread around it, making it almost impossible to break.

Yet above the gate was an equally imposing sign with the kanji of darkness engraved on it. (Yami)

The door opened with a large creaking sound as an Anbu member was standing right in front of the door.

He was wearing a bear mask and the standard Anbu uniform as he stood imposingly with hands behind his back.

"I presume you are Izuryu Tsukisumi?" spoke the man in a deep- almost growl like voice.

Izuryu nodded in agreement as he walked into the gate, the gates closing up to reveal the inside of the Anbu base.

It was a very large place, spreading kilometers on each side, with different departments, stores, facilities line up in an organized fashion, akin to a military barrack.

"Welcome to the Anbu, the shadow of the Hidden Leaf."

"Now then, let's get rules here straight.

"Once you're in Anbu, your past, present or future doesn't matter, your clan doesn't matter, your family doesn't matter. The only thing that exists is you.

"Here, everyone is in the shadow, your identity in the light doesn't matter. You have no name, no face. Just your Code. In short, always put your mask on."

"The Anbu is directly under the Hokage. As such, Hokage's orders always come first, even before your life.

"Accordingly, the mission is top priority, your life doesn't matter. Each mission that the Anbu does could lead the village to conflicts of massive size and scale, as such, completing the mission without fail is top priority."

The man stopped and beckoned at Izuryu as he walked in a certain direction, then he spoke again.

"The minimum age to join the Anbu is 13. But, because the Hokage has made an exception for you, you're able to join at almost half the minimum required age. But, no matter the age, fresh recruits go through a series of training and studying. Think of it as the Academy but a few tiers higher than the stuff taught in the Academy. You'll be taught standard Anbu information and jutsu. Most of it will Kenjutsu and Taijutsu training, with a mix of stealth and reconnaissance techniques. The same will be taught for you."

Izuryu nodded in realization as he waited for the man to continue. A minute later, he spoke again.

"You'll be introduced to everything during the studying. Come back tomorrow, but with your mask and uniform on."

The man waved his hands as the gate opened once again.

Izuryu walked out the door as his silent and serious persona broke down. A large sigh of relief was released from Izuryu's lungs as he sat down on the wall.

"That environment was so damn suffocative, and it was just one person too."

Izuryu shook his head as he stood back up and went back home, continuing his routine of:

Chakra Circulation

Physical Training

Sharingan Training

Jutsu Training

Yet the cycle of 4.5 hour training a day would be broken by his Anbu duties.

***

The day quickly passed as Izuryu put on his uniform, mask and went to the Anbu base.

As he entered the door, the sight was a lot different than yesterday. While not bustling, a lot more Anbu members were stationed all around the base, walking to many stores, departments and base.

Yet when Izuryu entered, all the hustle and bustle stopped, as all eyes focused on Izuryu.

It was for a simple reason.

No child had ever joined the Anbu at the Izuryu had. There had been a lack of geniuses who were very powerful at a young age in the Hidden Leaf, yet no one had ever joined in such a young age.

***

While this happened in the hidden base, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu stormed into the Hokage's office.

"Hiruzen! Why the hell did you let a six-year-old child join the Anbu!?" shouted Mitokado on the top of his lungs as he slammed his fists onto Hiruzen's table, ruining the paperwork.

"First of all, you'll be fixing this mess, and to answer your question, follow me."

Hiruzen gestured to the paperwork as Mitokado showed an expression of subtle despair. Fixing such a mess wouldn't be easy, yet the perpetrator of that mess was himself so he had to fix it.

The two of them followed Hiruzen into the council room and sat on the seats positioned at each side with a dominant chair for the Hokage.

Hiruzen walked near the shelves as he opened the glass blocking a compartment and brought out an item covered by a maroon-pink cloth.

"What's this?" asked Utatane in slight bewilderment on why Hiruzen would bring something like that out.

" 'This' is the answer to all your questions." Replied Hiruzen as he removed the cloth.

The cloth's removal revealed a circular piece of almost perfect spherical glass. While looking like it was made of glass, the sphere looked foggy inside it, bringing a certain sense of mystery.

"Is this not a crystal ball that those quack fortune tellers use?" quipped Mitokado with a frown.

"Indeed Hiruzen, I don't think how this 'toy' will answer our question." Added Utatane.

"Well, this 'toy' is the latest research project of the research department."

A slight hint of happiness and pride appeared on Hiruzen's face as he continued,

"This is the Telescope. A chakra artifact that, when added the chakra nature of a certain shinobi, the Telescope will show what is happening to them in real time."

"Yet, my question still stands, how will this Telescope answer why you let Izuryu Tsukisumi enter the Anbu?"

"Let me continue. This Telescope can not only see what is happening to them, it can also record what happened to them for a certain amount of time."

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura listened attentively.

"Izuryu Tsukisumi… this child is confident in himself; he has pride in himself and is in fact in a sense… Arrogant. I wanted to let this child face the harms of the battlefield by sending him in a mission as a reserve Anbu corp, let him know what an actual battlefield actually is, to tone down his pride and bring him down to earth in a sense."

Hiruzen stopped and for a moment had uncertain expression.

"Yet something unexpected happened…"

"What happened then?"

"He met with Danzo."

Silence took over the room as Utatane Koharu eventually sighed.

"He has changed ever since he lost his eye and arm. That incident got to him to a point that he has never recovered ever since."

"Indeed, perhaps only those who have fallen from having a lot of power to an almost disabled state like himself can feel what happened to him. And the fact that it was done by a Iwa shinobi made it even worse. He thought that only after uniting the whole world with the hidden leaf in the middle as the power was the only way the leaf could prosper. That led his actions to be more…sinister. Yet his contributions still remain, as such we can do nothing about him."

All three sighed at the same time as Hiruzen shook his head and once again spoke.

"What happened after that is more important. Now look."

The telescope showed the scene of Danzo meeting with Izuryu as he invited Izuryu to Root.

""Izuryu Tsukisumi, join Root. It is the only place you will be able to properly grow. While Hiruzen is a good Hokage, he is not a good leader for an organization like the Anbu. Sensei was, yet Hiruzen, his disciple is not""

Both Homura and Koharu and became livid at Danzo's statement, utterly mad at what he spoke.

"How dare he talk of such to the Hokage! Has he forgotten that he himself is someone under the Hokage?!"

While Mitokado raged at Danzo's statement, Hiruzen merely shook his head with a saddened gaze at his friend's statement.

Koharu, who was at the side looked at Hiruzen with a deep look.

Perhaps Hiruzen Sarutobi, the God of Shinobi after Hashirama Senju had become too old. Perhaps he had gone from being a great warrior, from The Professor to a man who was simply old, who had shed off the warrior he once was.

The 'clip' kept playing to the point where Izuryu put Danzo in a genjutsu, immobilizing him for the while he sent him the message.

A chilling silence appeared in the room once again, yet it was for a completely different reason.

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura looked into each other's eyes, both seeing a mixture of different emotions, yet in both their eyes were fear.

They knew what such prowess in genjutsu in such a young age meant.

Yet their fears were realized in an even worse fashion when the angle changed.

While the clip had been playing on the view point of Izuryu's back, it finally showed the front view.

The two councilmen felt cold sweat as their gaze fell on the 6 year old child's eyes.

Blood-Red irises surrounded by three tomoe that were connected by a circular line around the pupils.

Hiruzen sighed and with a deep voice and announced.

"Izuryu Tsukisumi is an Uchiha."