Chapter 230: You think the one who brought you in is an old Senpai, but it might actually be a newbie who's only been here for a week.

"Leader."

"Leader."

Not far from the Konoha Experimental Base, Tatsuma, dressed in ANBU uniform with a beige hooded cloak, looked at the two team members who came to report, feeling a bit strange suddenly.

The title "Leader" always made him feel like this wasn't an ANBU team but more like an elementary school class. Nonetheless, he nodded, suppressing his discomfort, and looked at Minato, who wore an owl mask, introducing the other two:

"I am your new Leader, Yaksha. Both of you have seen me before. This is Owl, our new teammate."

Minato nodded to the two of them and said, "Nice to see you, Senpai."

They both nodded. One said, "Caterpillar."

The other said, "Vulture."

After introducing the ANBU information, Tatsuma lifted his mask and said, "Nice to meet you again. I'm Sakamoto Tatsuma, affiliated with Konoha Medical Emergency Team."

Although Tatsuma no longer worked at Konoha Hospital, this entry had already been added to his official records.

After his introduction, Caterpillar also lifted his mask, revealing a forgettable face that one would struggle to recall upon looking away. He said, "I'm Aburame Shicho, affiliated with Konoha Medical Corps Body Disposal Unit."

Vulture also lifted his mask, his appearance somewhat better looking than Tatsuma's in his opinion. He smiled and said, "I'm Shimura Akomo, affiliated with Konoha Medical Corps Body Disposal Unit."

Minato Namikaze was the last to remove his mask, revealing a sunny smile. He said, "I'm Minato Namikaze, formerly with the Combat Team, which has now been disbanded temporarily."

Minato Namikaze suddenly didn't know what words to use. Tatsuma smiled and said, "Unemployed wandering ninja."

"Hahaha~"

Aburame Shicho and Shimura Akomo both smiled at this joke. Tatsuma had played with this joke three years ago, and now, revisiting it, it had become even funnier after the passage of time.

At this moment, Tatsuma also introduced Minato, saying, "Originally led by Mandrill Senpai, our team was functionally oriented, primarily responsible for handling combat and mission traces during collective actions. But now, we are shifting our team's focus."

Upon hearing this, Shicho and Akomo became attentive. They looked at Tatsuma, who pointed to himself and then to Minato, saying, "We will become a versatile team. Minato and I are combatants, with me also serving as a medic. Owl will handle communications. As for Vulture and Caterpillar, you'll continue with your specialties, dealing with bodies, combat traces, and mission operations. Is that alright?"

"No problem." x3

The three responded simultaneously. Tatsuma nodded and said, "Then our briefing ends here. I'll go report and adjust our team's records, and see if there are any suitable missions for us. If there's nothing else, you're free to go."

"Yes!"

Shicho and Akomo quickly left. Tatsuma then looked at Minato, who had removed his mask, and asked, "Aren't you leaving?"

"Kushina is learning to control the power of the Nine-Tails."

Minato said somewhat dejectedly. Tatsuma understood—it was the loneliness of a long-distance relationship. He asked, "I'm planning to go to the ANBU base. Are you coming with me?"

"Sure, last time during the assessment, I was a bit nervous and didn't get to explore properly."

Hearing there was something to do, Minato readily agreed, smiling and putting on his owl mask. Tatsuma also fastened his Yaksha mask. The two quickly headed towards the ANBU base.

Using their ANBU ninja identification cards to swiftly enter the ANBU base, Tatsuma hadn't been here many times himself. Besides the assessment, in the past three years, he had only come three or four times, all to requisition new equipment sizes.

But in front of Minato, Tatsuma acted like a mature ANBU who treated the ANBU base as his home. He introduced several areas that were off-limits, of course, he made up the information. He didn't actually know what those places were for.

When Tatsuma felt he was stretching the truth too much, he gave up on making up stories and instead took Minato to the records department to submit an application to change the team's designation. After that, they went to the mission hall.

Although ANBU was a special force directly under the Hokage, not every mission was personally assigned by Sarutobi Hiruzen. ANBU Squad Captains needed to coordinate with the administrative department, the interrogation department, or the analysis team.

Some missions that couldn't be openly entrusted were brought back to ANBU and assigned to three ANBU Squad Captains and one Root Squad Captain. Tasks requiring functional teams were directly assigned by Squad Captains to the corresponding teams.

Routine tasks were posted directly within ANBU for small teams to pick up individually or collectively. High-profile, difficult tasks were led by Squad Captains with one or more teams.

Tatsuma looked at the mission briefs, aiming to select tasks suitable for his team. First, he eliminated tasks that required joint execution since Tatsuma had his own agenda.

The tasks he chose were, at present, most crucial for honing his and Minato's combat abilities to develop a new fighting style. Tasks involving too many participants would divide their focus and prevent them from fully concentrating.

Next, tasks with too low difficulty needed to be delegated. Without challenging tasks, completing them would merely add to their task count without meaningful progression.

Finally, Tatsuma focused on three specific tasks. All three involved clearing out foreign ninjas. Two were about eliminating Jonin who had defected from the Land of Water, while one focused on removing a Jonin who illegally entered the Land of Lightning.

After some consideration, Tatsuma chose the two tasks related to the Land of Water. He was quite familiar with the locations involved, one near Awa and the other not far, though he wondered if these two Mist ninjas had any connection.

Handing over the briefs for the two tasks to the kunoichi handling mission assignments, she checked Tatsuma's ninja ID card and asked, "Are you sure you want to take on these two tasks? The targets are both Jonin, and their relationship status with each other is unclear."

If it were just one Jonin, based on the information shown on Tatsuma's ninja ID card, their team could handle it perfectly fine. However, if the two were colluding, it would be very dangerous.

Tatsuma nodded and said, "They should not be connected; otherwise, it would be a joint mission."

It was impossible for one team to handle two renegade Jonin. Despite ANBU missions being far more dangerous than those of ordinary ninjas, the high success and survival rates demanded by ANBU meant that, unless necessary, missions were typically conducted with more operatives surrounding fewer targets.

With ANBU's intelligence capabilities, if these two Mist ninjas were colluding, it would have been discovered during the investigation. ANBU's decision to separate the tasks into two missions indicated that they likely assessed the two individuals as having no connection.

As for why they coincidentally appeared near Awa, it's quite understandable. Awa is by the sea, making it the easiest landing point for Mist ninja fleeing from the Land of Water to the coastline of the Land of Fire.

Between Awa and the Land of Water lies the remnants of the Land of Whirlpools, serving as a transit point. This makes Awa the primary route for fleeing Mist renegades.

Although some people have resettled in the remnants of the Land of Whirlpools, there's no established administrative system or officials there, making it a primitive settlement. This lack of governance has naturally made it a favorite spot for renegades.

However, the poverty and self-sufficiency of this primitive society make it difficult for these renegades to survive, unless they plan to live in seclusion in the mountains and wilderness. Otherwise, the Land of Whirlpools remains merely a transit point for them.

Of course, it's also possible they believe they can find something of value in the Land of Whirlpools. But after years of investigation by the ninja world, aside from the skeletal remains of the Uzumaki Clan in some underground areas, there's nothing left in the Land of Whirlpools.

The female ninja in charge of handing over the missions nodded as Tatsuma spoke. She had only reminded him out of duty. Swiftly, she recorded the mission assignment details and handed them over to Tatsuma, saying:

"The duration for both these tasks is two weeks, and they do not overlap. Please pay attention to the deadline. Return the mission completion evidence or report the reasons for failure within the specified time."

"Understood, thank you."

Tatsuma took the two scrolls and nodded lightly to the female ninja. Then, with Minato, he went to requisition some supplies. After changing back into their own clothes, they left the ANBU base.

Seeing that Tatsuma didn't immediately study the mission details, Minato changed the topic and asked, "Tatsuma, have you thought about variations of the Flying Thunder God technique?"

"Yeah, the technique is essentially an expression of Chakra. Variations of the technique fundamentally involve changes in Chakra form, shifting from three-dimensional transformations of normal teleportation techniques to two-dimensional transformations.

Of course, there are some subtle differences. The Flying Thunder God technique incorporates knowledge of sealing jutsu, so stability must be considered during transformations. Once a stable form of the technique is found, the transformation can be completed.

Otherwise, even if the variation is successful and the Flying Thunder God Jutsu can be used normally, the form of the technique will decay over time and cannot persist indefinitely like the conventional Flying Thunder God, as long as it is not destroyed."

Upon hearing Tatsuma's explanation, Minato nodded and asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

At this, Tatsuma smiled and said, "Certainly, and it's more than just an idea; it's nearing success."

Finishing his words, Tatsuma reached out and drew a trident-shaped kunai. On the handle, the jutsu engraving was no longer the symbol resembling the Senju clan's emblem, as Tobirama Senju had carved it, but rather, it was now inscribed with characters.

"Lake Toya? Transforming the jutsu into characters?" (Lake Toya is the inscription Sakata Gintoki from Gintama inscribes in his "Indestructible" Wooden Swords)

Seeing the characters condensed into the jutsu, Minato's face showed a look of astonishment. He hadn't imagined that a jutsu could be transformed like this, and in his mind, he began to envision characters flashing continuously.

The conventional form of the technique didn't inspire Minato as much as Tatsuma, but if using a textual form was viable, then Minato was confident that his naming skills could outshine Tatsuma by miles.

Maybe saying "by miles" was a bit too self-assured—let's say "by streets."

Unaware of Minato subtly downplaying his naming talent in his mind, Tatsuma nodded and said, "Hmm, the technique itself is mostly fine. It's just the details of the font that need further adjustment to stabilize completely."

With that, Tatsuma infused chakra into the kunai. Trident kunai wasn't good at conducting chakra, but he wasn't planning to use Wind Blade or similar techniques. He merely used chakra to corrode the technique. After a while, the technique began to tremble, then collapsed and reformed into its original form.

Witnessing these changes firsthand, Minato wore a thoughtful expression. He noted how the technique disintegrated and replayed the scene in his mind, starting to deduce the process of combining the technique and pinpointing minor inconsistencies.

At the same time, Minato quickly pondered how he could use Tatsuma's combination principles to reconfigure the original technique into various characters. Tatsuma watched Minato deep in thought without interrupting, and the two continued towards the Senju Clan's territory.

Feeling idle, Tatsuma kept experimenting with the technique variations using the kunai, gradually adjusting the font. Each adjustment made the technique more stable, reducing the remaining instabilities quickly whenever they arose, though occasionally they increased, Tatsuma swiftly adjusted to eliminate them.

Just as they were nearing the Senju Clan's territory, Minato's eyes lit up. Coming back to himself, it was clear he had deduced a promising technique in his mind. He looked at Tatsuma and said:

"I've come up with an excellent technique! Swordo of Ninja Love! What do you think?"

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