Chapter: 18

The tension between Danzo and Commander Raido escalated, both were powerful figures in their own right, and they emitted a formidable amount of chakra. 

Kaori watched the confrontation with anticipation burning in her eyes,

'Kill him! KILL HIM! NO BOTH OF YOU! KILL EACH OTHER!'

[I think the card may have done something to your brain...]

'KILL YOU!'

[Wait, what?]

Finally, Danzo's eyes narrowed, his expression tensing as his arm reached down to his waist.

*TING*

At once there came the sound of blades being unsheathed, the tip of the blade coming free from the scabbard making the slight 'ting' noise that gave away their numbers. 

It was not Danzo, but the ANBU members present in the room, even Kaori had drawn a kunai as well. It was a conditional reflex more than anything, training in the ANBU one learns that those who draw their blades against a fellow ANBU, are enemies and the body reacts accordingly.

The struggle in Danzo's eyes became visible as his gaze landed from one masked shinobi to the other, finally settling on Kaori.

'So the old bastard wants to take down the weakest one, eh? Bring it on old man!'

She was confident! Even if she couldn't defend against his attacks, she was confident in her ability to tank at least five of them.

By then the old mummy would be Iwa Cheese!

Finally, Danzo withdrew his chakra. A fight to the death against a numerically superior opponent would likely get him killed. Even if he does take more than half with him, what of it? What good is it to him who is already dead? This was not his style... he would get his chance. 

"I see,"

He calmly withdrew his hand from the inside pocket of his robe, withdrawing a scroll alongside his palm.

"No need to overreact, I was only trying to remember if I have any other place to be."

His smile was creepier than before, much creepier,

"As it turns out, I do have a meeting with the Hokage planned out for this noon. Pardon me then, please do continue with your work."

'Bullshit!'

It wasn't until after his footsteps had faded in the distance that the ANBU members finally relaxed their stances, sheathing their blades. Commander Raido was the last to let out a long sigh, finally relaxing his chakra to its normal level.

He straightened himself, well, more like cracked his back or something, and chuckled dryly,

"Well, that was unexpected,"

His tone had a bit of amusement to it,

"Let us return to the agenda at hand."

Kaori couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed, after all, if Danzo died this early in the game, a lot of pain could have been avoided. Heck, maybe 'Pain' could have been avoided too, but... 

"As reluctant as I am to admit it, Lord Shimura's words had some truth to them as well."

'Hmm?'

"Although, he was only right about one thing,"

The ANBU Commander chuckled ruefully,

"Uzumaki Kushina is strong, very strong."

Kaori listened intently, she had a feeling things weren't going to turn out too well for her.

"So strong, in fact, that our security details are merely a formality. That's why I assigned new members to her guard."

'I see! So that's what happened.'

The ANBU Commander probably assigned newbies to Kushina's guard and those kids didn't know that the Jinchūriki didn't need their protection so they sacrificed themselves in the line of duty... truthfully, the blame falls on Raido. He should have assigned a senior member who was privy to that particular bit of information to lead them. 

'Wait! Did the same thing happen with the sand merchant mission?'

Raido cleared his throat, well he pretended to so with all that coughing and 'harrumphing' it looked as though the poor man was suffering from some sort of throat fever,

"Right,"

Finally, he stopped sharpening his voice like a knife and spoke up,

"As I was saying before, while Lord Shimura's words do have merit, it's still important to keep up appearances. Having ANBU stationed around her residence to keep her safe is good for the common people's morale."

'Yup, the common people who have never seen the Nine-Tails and would probably die the next time they do so.'

Still, what was he getting up to? Maybe he would choose her for the mission? But then, she won't have time to go out and hunt for bandits. She hasn't got any cards, so it was particularly difficult to feel safe when two Kage-level shinobi were insulting each other,

The ANBU Commander continued,

"That being said, most of our forces are deployed around the borders due to the stressful situation. We have limited manpower as is and those Rank-A and above missions won't do themselves."

His eyes swept over the seats, finally landing on Kaori for a split second before moving on,

"Captain Hebi is the one in charge of the Jinchūriki's security. But she has already been dispatched to Hoshigakure, along with her entire retinue. That leaves..."

He turned to stare at Kaori,

'Is that why I am here?'

The Hokage had already told her to report in with Captain Hebi, and now she's the only member of her squad still in Konoha.

'Great, and here I thought I could bail out on babysitting the Jinchūriki.'

[There's no escaping a mission assigned by the system.]

Raido continued, 

"So until further development, Suzume will be on a 12-hour watch rotation."

Kaori sighed before nodding her head,

"Understood, Commander."

Raido acknowledged her response with a curt nod before making a shooing gesture at her,

"Alright then, off you go."

'Bastard!'

She knew that her rank didn't exactly warrant her presence in a top-secret ANBU meeting, but if she was invited to it, then she should have been allowed to sit through it, not dismissed right after the first agenda!

As she left the briefing room, she couldn't help but fume at the dismissal. However, she knew better than to voice her discontent openly. It would only get her berated and possibly demoted a rank or two. 

Instead, she returned to her room and decided to check up on Aiko, it had been some time since she last did so,

[Wow. That's sudden.]

'Just open the damn thing already!'

The system was beginning to respond in longer sentences and less mechanical ones too, perhaps it was learning from its interaction with her. If so, then perhaps it was some form of parasite.

[Parasite my rearview mirror!]

Sometimes, Kaori wondered if there was a person on the other side of the interface, watching her constantly... creepy. She swore that one day she would find out and if her suspicions were true... kill 'em!

[Template]

[Deck]

[Inventory]

'Deck'

[Deck]

- Aiko(Light Blue)

 - Milestone Achievement*

 - Advancement notification*

She stared at it for a moment, was her brain playing tricks on her or the system had cleaned up a bit?

'Open template: Aiko,'

[Name: Aiko]

[Age: 9]

[Chakra: 180]

[Physique: 195]

[Affinity: Water(Lv.0)]

[Chakra Control: 11%]

[Skill: 

- Ninjutsu: Clone(lv1/5), Substitution(Lv1/5), Transformation(Lv1/5)

- Bukijutsu: Elementary Shuriken Jutsu(Lv1/5)(Exp.4.1/100)

- Elementary Kenjutsu(Lv.2/5)(Exp.71/250)]

[Talent:

- Kenjutsu Instinct(Light Blue)

- Enhanced Speed(10%)(Light Blue)]

[Evaluation: An ordinary Ninja Academy Student with a minor affinity for Kenjutsu. However, she lacks any formal training.]

'Her Chakra control improved and both her Chakra and Physique increased by 70 points each!'

[It's common enough, at her age, and with the amount of exercise she undertakes, her physical elements will progress with leaps and bounds. That is until she hits her tier limit.]

'Tier limit?'

[Aiko is a Light blue or tier 2 subordinate card, she has an upper limit. For skills, it's Elementary(MAX) and for attributes, it's 1,000 points in both Chakra and Physique.]

'And how to increase that?'

[By merging another 'Unused' Light Blue subordinate card with her.]

'But aren't those rare?'

[The System never stated that Subordinate cards are rare. Their drop chances are much higher than some of the other cards.]

'What's the pool?'

[For that, the system would have to divulge the variety of cards there are, and that's against guidelines.]

'Not even a little bit?'

[The system does not understand the concept of 'A little bit.']

'Miser!'

The system's reluctance to tell her about the types of cards out there only made her more curious. Talk about a letdown!

'Open the Milestones and Advancement notifications,'

[Milestones Achieved!]

- [Shurikenjutsu Milestone 4: Throw 250 Shuriken or Kunai(Must hit the target)]

[Reward: EXP Points +25, Ninja Gear Set(New)]

- [Shurikenjutsu Milestone 5: Throw 500 Shuriken or Kunai(Must hit the target)]

[Reward: EXP Points +50, Physique Enhancement Card (+10), 10,000 ryō]

- [Ninjutsu Milestone 3: Perform 100 Ninjutsu(Must perform accurately)]

[Reward: EXP Points +10, Chakra Enhancement Card (+5), Chakra Control: D-Rank: Tree Climbing Technique.]

- [Combat Milestone 1: Defeat an Enemy!]

[Reward: Attribute Enhancement Card (+50)]

- [Uchiha Milestone 1: Defeat an Uchiha!]

[Reward: Rare Bloodline Card(Uchiha)(1-Tomoe Sharingan)(Violet)]

'What's she up to now?'

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