Chương 325: CH_9.10 (325)

"Six recruits is double the usual admission size… again," said ANBU-nin, codenamed Tapir. He was a middle-aged man in his forties with short, salt-and-pepper hair and more wrinkles on his face than someone his age should have. As ANBU's Master Instructor, he oversaw all the new recruits' training and that took a toll. He was once a field operative but had transitioned into his current role after retiring from active combat.

For the past year, his workload had more than doubled as ANBU ramped up recruitment since the ROOT's banishing from the Hidden Leaf. Regardless of what ROOT did, it couldn't be denied that the Hidden Leaf relied on them with various responsibilities, and their exit had left a hole that needed to be filled.

"You know we need the numbers," said Ant, who was involved in the latest round of recruitment. Tapir scowled.

"This is the limit. Any more and we'll have trouble with integration."

"Training six shinobi is not a lot, Tapir."

"My training isn't the issue. They'll join their teams after this, and someone there will have to take time out of their schedules to teach them the team's ways—and you know how much everyone cherishes their free time." Ant sighed, knowing there wasn't much he could say to that. The one thing every ANBU-nin had in common was that they were busy, and when they got free time, they would either use it to catch up on work or shut it out altogether to rest.

Bringing in additional people meant more helping hands—but at the start, it actually meant teaching them, double-checking their mistakes, often redoing it themselves. All of which would ultimately slow down the team. The aforementioned benefits only came later when the recruits would become full-fledged operatives, which was why no one liked training new guys.

"And then, those team leaders blame me when the recruits make mistakes at work. Saying, "You didn't train them properly," Tapir spat in irritation.

"Come on, don't be like that. Let's go drinking, my treat," said Ant. Tapir sighed, seemingly appeased for the moment. They were currently in an ANBU training facility located within a restricted area in the village. It was a state-of-the-art facility reserved for any ANBU employee, operative or staff, interested in training. It had anything a shinobi could ask for, and if they needed something else, Tapir could reserve it in advance.

"What do you think about this batch anyway?" Tapir asked Ant.

"What about them?"

"Do you think they'll stick?" Not everyone could handle working for ANBU. A stringent selection process ensured their operatives were up for the task, but it wasn't completely foolproof. Even after passing the testing, some people couldn't keep up or simply did a poor job at it. ANBU letting people go wasn't uncommon, but as a rule, turnover was avoided as much as possible since it required a recruitment cycle.

"Give them the right jobs, and they'll thrive," Ant replied.

"That's helped me with absolutely nothing," Tapir sighed. It was his job to observe the recruits during their training period to see where they would fit the best. He always got shit from the different ANBU units if their new rookies didn't pick up their jobs instantly.

"What about this Takuma kid? Isn't he too young for us? Or is he like Weasel?" asked Tapir. ANBU didn't take anyone under the age of thirteen; realistically, they rarely considered those below sixteen as viable candidates because people didn't want to work with a kid. It was always extra shitty when a young kid died on a mission, however, they had gone and broken that rule by taking in an eleven-year-old Uchiha Itachi, codenamed Weasel, into their ranks.

"No one is like Weasel," said Ant, taking a moment to snort.

"But the kid is smart enough to deserve the shot; he managed to outreason Eisbar in an argument—and he can fight. I was pissed off at how he gave us the slip, and that's saying something." While useful, the information didn't make Tapir feel any better because he could already see the ANBU unit he was thinking of pitching Takuma to bitching to him because dumping a kid on them was malicious behaviour. As if he had some kind of grudge against them. Bullshit!

He cursed under his breath as he entered the room where the six recruits were waiting. ———. Takuma watched the two men introduce themselves as Ant and Tapir. He knew Ant from his recruitment test, but Tapir was new and introduced himself as the Master Instructor, who would be overseeing their training for the next three months. Although he and the others had not received their codenames or masks yet, seeing the two ANBU-nin barefaced made him feel like he was already part of ANBU.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Let me start by saying that all of you are shinobi who passed the recruitment test—you are not academy brats who need to have everything spoon-fed to them," Tapir addressed the six recruits.

"You were hired with the expectation that you will be ready from day one, but that's unrealistic, and no one's perfect. Consider this training as putting on the finishing touches before you're shipped off." According to Tapir, they wouldn't be forced to train if they didn't need it. For example, if they could pass the expected physical requirements, they wouldn't have to undergo a conditioning course to bring them up to speed.

Similarly, they wouldn't need a surveillance course if they could collect information without being noticed. If they wanted to complete the training, they had to pass a certain list of criteria before they could be approved for official duty.

"You must pass the tests if you don't want to train. You can apply at any time, any number of times, but if you fail twice in a row, you will have to go through training. And once you start a course, you can only apply to be tested after it's finished—no exceptions allowed," said Tapir. He motioned to a staff member sitting in the corner, who distributed a thick document to them. The document listed many criteria they had to pass to complete the training.

Most interestingly, each criterion had difficulty levels; some had three levels, while others had as many as a dozen. Each criterion had a particular difficulty level marked in bold.

"You must pass each criterion; the level is up to you. The bolded level is recommended, but you aren't required to follow the recommendation."

"I have a question. What are these recommendations based on?" Yaya Utamatsu asked after Tapir nodded.

"Good question. Not all missions are ideal; they require different skills from the operative. Your leader or the mission supervisor might look at these levels, which will be part of your record, to determine if you're suitable for the mission. Not everyone relies on them, but depending on the person or mission, they can be mandatory, so I recommend that you update them by getting tested every once in a while." Takuma read the document as Tapir spoke.

The document included a mix of criteria, from combat to intelligence skills. One basic criterion was shurikenjutsu, which tested throwing skills with projectile weapons such as the shuriken, kunai, senbon, among others. It had seven levels, but the recommendation was at the second level. He turned the pages and eventually arrived at the page with a heading titled "Other/Optional." One of the reasons he joined ANBU was to get better training.

They promised to invite former ANBU-nin and specialists for training if he wanted them. When he heard the training period was three months, he wanted to use all of it for training. But Swine recommended they complete their training as soon as possible. Takuma realised that if he spent the entire three months, he would be setting a bad first impression on his eventual team, who would think that it took him all three months to pass "basic training", whereas his peers were already zoomed past ahead.

And that first impression was important. If he was mistakenly perceived as incompetent, it could ruin his progress as his B-rank jutsu compensation would be influenced by the subjective opinion of superior shinobi who would look badly on him if their impression of him was negative. He needed a reason to stay in training to justify the extra time, and he seemed to have found one.

"What about these?" asked Takuma, pointing to the "Other/Optional" section. The other recruits glanced at his document before flipping to the same page.

"From experience, a good ANBU-nin is an all-rounder because that allows them to slot into any mission, making them a valuable asset. You also need something special that makes you stand out from everyone else. Iryōjutsu and fūinjutsu are massive undertakings, but if you know them, your value shoots up the roof as everyone wants an iryo-nin or a fuin-nin on their team.

Your special skill doesn't have to be scarce due to difficulty; it can be something niche not many people in ANBU can do, such as speaking a region's dialect or street slang; being skilled at a card game, instrument, or sport; or being good at another nation's traditional folk song or dance. You might be surprised that what you once thought was useless might come in use here. You can browse a thick folder in the library that lists other skills that we can test you on."

"There won't be any training for most of these optional skills," Ant said.

"My advice would be to focus on completing the mandatory criteria on the recommended levels and start working as soon as possible. You can get other things later after you've settled down and get the hang of the work." Takuma was disappointed when he heard there was no training for most skills. Ant's advice mimicked Swine's words, which worried him that getting the training over as soon as possible might be better. He needed more information to make a decision.

For the rest of the meeting, they set up a schedule for the first week to get the things everyone was confident about tested. That way, they could move on to test and build skills the group of six weresn't confident about. ———. Takuma returned home in the evening. Home. It should have felt strange calling Maruboshi's house his home when he had only been living there for close to two months, but he was living with Maruboshi—and perhaps that was the reason it didn't feel strange.

The elderly man's wise presence was like a warm embrace over the house.

"There's a package for you," Maruboshi said as Takuma entered the living room.

"Oh? From who?" asked Takuma.

"Jōnin Might Gai."

"Pardon?" Takuma was startled. It had been two weeks since his promotion ceremony, and while he thought about the experience of meeting Might Gai and the Third Hokage from time to time, he didn't think they had connected enough for either to send him something.

"Where is it?" he asked.

"Outside. It's took four shinobi to bring it here and they said not to bring it inside if the flooring isn't solid. I didn't want to risk it." Maruboshi opened the sliding door to the garden, where a box big enough to fit half a washing machine sat in the grass.

"Do you know what it is?" asked Takuma as they stepped outside.

"They didn't say and I didn't open it." Takuma tried to lift the box. His face flushed with exertion, but he could only lift it a foot off the ground for a couple of seconds before his spine threatened to snap. He took out a kunai and cut the tape and outer cardboard box to reveal half a dozen shinobi-grade hard cases of varying sizes. Maruboshi muttered, "This is..."

"... Weighted gear," Takuma finished for him. There was a complete set of the highest-grade weight gear money could buy, along with a heavy vest; ankle and wrist weights; and special gloves and shoes. Everything looked custom-made. There was an option to increase the weight by adding absurdly heavy blocks that reminded him of the ones Rock Lee wore during his fight with Gaara. The equipment Takuma had was a joke in comparison. Outgrowing these would be a pipe dream for quite a while!

"You talked to him about your energy balance," said Maruboshi, handing him the letter with the weighted gear.

"It seems he wants to help you with it." Takuma read the letter handwritten by Gai, who congratulated him on his promotion and said he was sending a gift to help solve his problem and told him not to waste his youth and to be the best shinobi he could be.

"Fucking hell," said Takuma, amazed.

"Language," Maruboshi rebuked.

"Sorry."

"We should store it in the shed because this will not be coming inside by the looks of it." Takuma rubbed his protesting lower back.

"Sounds like the smart choice."