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It was a week of rest for Takuma, devoid of the things he usually did. Aside from light warm-ups and walks around the neighbourhood, he was forbidden from doing any physical training. It was a much-needed vacation that he, to his surprise, managed to spend without actually doing any work.
In truth, it was a boon as he spent most of his time visiting friends and acquaintances. He spent a night at the Nenro, Masaaki, and Ai's house, watched a movie with Taro, gambled on horses with Anko, learned flower arrangement from Mikoto, and watched fireworks at a festival with Arisu and a couple of the old Narcotics Taskforce folks.
He even managed to visit Inenpachi an unprecedented three times in one week to continue their research. He had the chakra to support a third clone and wanted to improve his skill with memory management to make it viable as soon as possible. A third clone was going to be huge for him.
It was a busy week that allowed him to relax his shoulders and heal up.
"How about we extend the break for a month?" Grey whined. "I want to bet on the ponies again. I'll make the money back, I swear."
"We can do it the next break," Takuma replied to his new friend and unique companion while tying the laces of his boots. He wasn't that interested in gambling, so he allowed Grey to choose his bets and lost a week's pay as a result.
"We both know that's never going to happen," Grey sighed. Who knew when Takuma would take his next break?
Takuma got dressed in the standard Leaf uniform and left for his new workplace.
His paperwork for his promotion to squad leader, under the direct command of ANBU Captain Weasel, was finally processed, and his team members were officially transferred to his squad. Today was the first time they were meeting as a team. His new workplace was the ANBU Headquarters, and his latest cover identity was that of the Head of Security for a protected facility in a restricted zone.
He walked into one of the numerous secret entrances of the maze in the cliffside that housed the headquarters and followed the path he was told to memorise to arrive at the headquarters.
"You have arrived."
A staff member waited for him inside to guide him. Unlike operatives, Takuma didn't have control over the staff attached to his squad. The general administrative branch of the ANBU selected them based on availability and skill.
"How are you doing today, Goshiro?" Takuma asked the man, in his early thirties, who wore his forehead protector like a bandana over his head and a long beard that looked as though it had been well-groomed. "Your beard looks as magnificent as ever."
"I'm doing well, Ratel. Thank you for your compliment," Goshiro said with a slight bow. He was the head of the staff for his squad and was a fairly experienced administrator whom Itachi had acquired for him by putting in a word with the general administrative branch.
"Have the others arrived?" Takuma asked.
"Yes, sir. They're waiting for you," Goshiro replied as they made their way through the headquarters, which was a rather dull place, wholly illuminated with sterile lighting. It had a cooler temperature than outside because it was located underground.
Takuma had set the reporting time half an hour before he arrived, allowing the squadmates to introduce and mingle with each other without the presence of their boss. While he had handpicked them, he had no way of knowing how they would work with each other. One of the things he was most concerned about was managing the relationships within the team because he wasn't very skilled in that area.
'I wish Arisu had been an ANBU,' he thought with a sigh.
In the Narcotics Taskforce, Arisu had been more people-oriented while handling the work aspect of the team. They worked together and played to their strengths. This was his first time leading a team since leaving the Police Force, which was already a couple of years ago.
"When should we leave for you to introduce the team to others?" Goshiro asked.
People or groups didn't exist in a vacuum. A significant amount of work was accomplished through collaboration, requiring the assistance of various departments and teams. For example, if they needed quick access to information, they would need to build a connection at the information desk, hoping that they would be prioritised over other squads or units. For the new team to be effective, they had to build connections with others in the ANBU ecosystem and establish relationships with the right people. The first simple step was to go around introducing themselves.
"It depends on how the introduction goes. Maybe an hour? If you feel that the conversation is stalling, feel free to pull me out," Takuma said.
"Understood," Goshiro nodded.
They reached the offices of the Anti-ROOT Squad. The last time Takuma was there, the entire space was barren, but now it had been equipped and furnished with everything needed for a squad to get started. It was still empty as the members hadn't filled it with files and personal artefacts, but it surely looked like a place of work.
Inside, a group of five people gathered around a desk, chatting amongst themselves. They immediately noticed Takuma enter and assembled to greet him.
"It's nice to see all of you together," Takuma said as he gazed at the five.
"How are you, Ratel?"
The words came from a diminutive woman in her thirties who barely cleared five feet and had hair longer than her height, which she wore in two giant buns. Just like everyone in the room, she was dressed in the standard Leaf gear, but wore an owl motif mask with her ANBU gear and went by the codename Boobook.
"Did you take enough days off for rest?" she asked.
"Thank you for asking. I'm feeling good and well," Takuma replied with a smile.
They knew each other from the anti-ROOT initiative. He had seen Boobook's work closely and was impressed by it. The rest of the team didn't have prior experience working on ROOT cases, so her presence as a guide alongside Takuma was going to be essential to get the ball rolling.
"We heard what happened. I mean, everyone did. ROOT assassins, coming after an operative; it's all anyone can talk about these days," said a stylish and handsome man in his mid-thirties who wore a peacock-motif mask and was codenamed Mor. "It has caused a sizeable commotion everywhere. I heard that even the forces at the border are moving differently as a show of power."
Mor was recommended to Takuma by his former captain, Tachanid. In fact, Mor was a former member of the Inquisitor Unit and had been part of one of the other squads under Barbary before he moved out due to reassignment.
Boobook and Mor were both from minor shinobi clans. And from what he knew, Mor's clan was deeply allied with the Aburame clan and shared a similar relationship to how Arisu's Fuma clan was allied to the Uchiha clan.
"We were only told that there were no casualties on our side. I wanted to contact you to ask about your health, but Goshiro informed us that you weren't taking any messages. Captain's orders," said a stout man in his mid-thirties with aggressive sideburns on his square face.
Itachi's recommendation, just like the man, was different from the others in Takuma's team.
Hippo was a genin operative.
Genin operatives held an interesting position within ANBU. Most of them were scouted relatively late in their shinobi careers, usually in their late twenties. They were career genin with low chances of rank advancement due to a lack of talent in combat necessary for a chūnin. They usually had less-than-impressive chakra reserves, which ironically made them valuable to the ANBU because genin operatives were often field operatives who went undercover. Their low chakra reserves ensured they wouldn't attract attention if scanned by sensory-nin and thus were frequently overlooked as threats.
The individuals scouted for the position of genin operatives were those who, despite their weak combat potential, had done something that caught the attention of the ANBU through their work, reputation, or unique skill set. In many ways, the requirements for genin operatives were more stringent than the general recruitment because they were arguably in more danger, and ANBU needed to know if they were getting someone who could perform under pressure.
A vast majority of Genin operatives were employed by the ANBU's Foreign Branch and were posted on foreign soil, where invisibility was key; however, the Domestic Branch also had some operatives.
Hippo was one of them and had worked with ANBU for a whopping decade.
"I appreciate your concern, Hippo. Weasel wanted me to rest and made sure I wasn't disturbed," Takuma said.
He then turned to face the most controversial member of the squad: the Hokage's recommendation and a shinobi who bore the same clan name as the traitor Shimura Danzo.
The woman, in her early twenties, had sharp features and slick, black hair tied in a thin ponytail. From the get-go, she seemed nervous and had been standing a step apart from the rest of the team. The squad was set up to hunt down an organisation set up by her traitorous clan leader, whose agents had tried to kill her new boss just a week ago. She was in a more than awkward position.
"During the break, I went to watch the movie you talked about during our interview with my friend. It was a great recommendation, Tern," Takuma said with a smile.
Tern seemed visibly relieved upon hearing his words. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, Ratel," she said.
While he was still slightly concerned and suspicious about her connection to Danzo and the fact that she's an ANBU-nin, which made her a perfect candidate for a mole, he had looked into her past, and her work as an operative spoke for itself. Even the background check he ordered came out as clean as an ANBU operative could have. He trusted that the Hokage wouldn't sabotage ANBU's efforts against ROOT and decided to focus on what was in front of him, which was her good work and clean record.
The final member of Takuma's squad was the one with the least experience and accomplishment in the team. In fact, he had only been an ANBU operative exactly as long as Takuma. Usually, he wouldn't have been able to get out of the initial application submission stage because he just didn't have enough to make it on the team.
But he made up for his lack of experience and accomplishments with something else.
Takuma raised his hand for a handshake as he stared into a pair of eerie, pupilless, pale white eyes.
Hyūga's Byakugan. One of three great dōjutsu, the bloodline limit of arguably the current strongest clan in the Hidden Leaf.
"It's nice to see you again, Aquila."
Codename Aquila, real name Hyuuga Kojuro, known to Takuma as Seven, belonged to the same recruitment batch as Takuma.
He now had a Hyūga in his team. Just thinking about it made him ecstatic.
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