Chapter 49: Anbu Training (Edited)

The Hokage's office.

Hiruzen was looking at a document in front of him with a somber face.

This was a document sent from the Anbu department, after taking the assassin's corpse, they extracted some memories from his brain and some messages.

"The targets were Naito and Kushina... this is a problem," Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, with a piercing look in his eyes, "Although the incident where Naito killed Uchiha Samui was hidden from the public, he has been given the nickname 'genius' at the Ninja Academy and maybe they saw it was worth the assassination."

"But Kushina too... it's strange."

The special Anbu squad in charge in information extraction also discovered a lot of information about the assassin.

And they discovered that the assassin's target was not only Naito.

Uzumaki Kushina was the second target!

Hiruzen contemplated for a moment and muttered "Could it be that the other ninja villages guessed Kushina's identity?"

"It's possible." said Sakumo, beside him.

"Then we might as well rush our plans, not to mention that Mito-sama's body can't last much longer." said Hiruzen in a deep voice.

Uzumaki Mito is the wife of the first Hokage and also the first Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi.

"Good," Sakumo nodded softly.

Uzumaki Kushina was the next Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi, only a few people knew about this.

But that didn't mean there weren't spies from other ninja villages, getting clues about the next Jinchuriki.

After a moment of contemplation, Hiruzen said, "How is Naito?"

"He's fine," With gentle smile, Sakumo and said, "This boy is not only an excellent ninja with great talent, but, Hokage-sama, you should know that he has an adult mind like Minato."

"Yes." Hiruzen nodded and suddenly continued, "Then, is he ready to become an official member of the Anbu department?"

"Well... let me review the situation again," Sakumo hesitated a little, and then said, "Although this incident was resolved perfectly, we can't be sure if he reached the standards of an Anbu."

"Hmm," Hiruzen simply nodded.

...

Anbu Department.

Naito went to the Anbu department to report everything that happened, how he approached him, the techniques he used... After that, Naito left the intelligence department.

After all, he is a substitute Anbu, they only needed him to fill in the blanks.

After leaving the intelligence department, Naito wanted to leave the Anbu department, but he suddenly received a summoning order.

Slightly surprised, Naito immediately thought that this should be a regular training for the substitute members of the Anbu department.

Regular training is mandatory and cannot be refused.

After receiving the summons, Naito walked to the meeting place.

Alternate members are different from official members.

Because substitute members do not perform too many tasks, they will have a specific training session on a regular basis.

The meeting place was a special room.

When he arrived, Naito noticed that there were too many masked ninjas already gathered there.

Basically, they were all substitute members.

In other words, the substitute members of both Anbu and Root were called to have a training session.

In fact, the training of the alternate members of the Anbu department was the same as the training of the Root alternate members, since Danzo was forbidden to train them himself.

After all, Hiruzen did not trust him enough!

So, the Anbu and Root department are nominally together, but in reality they were completely separate.

So the training of the substitute members still took place within the walls of the Anbu department and had nothing to do with the Root.

When Naito entered the crowd, he attracted many stares.

Although he was wearing a mask and a cloak.

But they could not hide Naito's age.

Just by looking at his appearance, one could immediately guess that he was a child.

Can such a young boy become a candidate for Anbu?

Some ninja could not hide their surprise, as they shook their heads.

It was not easy to become an Anbu, but it was not so easy to become a substitute member either.

The resources provided by Hiruzen to the substitute members were not to be wasted.

Anbu training is, on the one hand, training, and on the other hand, it is a form of elimination!

Eliminating people who are not improving and are no longer qualified to become official members of the Anbu department, and also recording the improvement of excellent ninja.

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 department and will return to being normal ninja.

In the eyes of some ninja, Naito was too young to become an alternate member of the Anbu department.

They feared that he would not even complete the first round, and would simply be eliminated directly.

After this thought passed through their minds, they stopped looking at Naito.

After a while, a ninja wearing a cloak of a different color entered.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of them.

He was not Captain Anbu, but he was one of the three divisional Sub-Captains in the Anbu department.

It was one of the highest levels in Konoha.

The Sub-Captain's face was hidden under a mask, but his voice was very calm and slightly husky, "This time, the training will be based on a point system, and the three people with the lowest scores will be eliminated from the Anbu department, so I hope everyone will take it seriously."

"The first round of the training will be in the Forest of Death, follow me," When he finished speaking, he turned directly and walked out of the room.

Everyone followed him.

Naito also followed him.

"Forest of Death? What a familiar place," With his eyes glittering slightly, the corners of Naito's mouth, hidden under his mask, lifted slightly.

The place he chose gave the test another meaning for Naito because of the important events that happened in that place in the anime.

Following the Sub-Captain, to Naito's surprise, they did not come to the surface, but continued to advance underground.

Unexpectedly, there was a shortcut to the Forest of Death in the underground of Konoha.

But it made sense.

After walking underground for who knows how long, they arrived almost at the center of the Forest of Death.

It was extremely narrow there, with a passage to the surface.

They all did the same when the Sub-Captain stopped.

Then they went up to the surface of the ground with the Sub-Captain.

Immediately, they entered the high tower in the middle of the Forest of Death.

It was also the place where the preliminaries of the third test of the Chuunin examination were held in the anime.

After everyone arrived at the place, the Deputy Captain calmly looked at the candidates and began to explain the first round of the training, "Inside the Forest of Death, there are many traces left by other ninja."

"By following these traces and constantly searching for them, you may end up finding a special mission accessory, a scroll like the one in my hand."