The air in the circular debriefing chamber deep within ANBU headquarters was cold enough to bite. It had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with the suffocating pressure emanating from the single figure seated at the head of the black steel table.
The proctors—Raven, Bear, and Cat—stood at rigid attention. Itachi and Kakashi, their mission reports submitted, stood slightly behind them, equally still. Their masks were off, revealing grim, tired expressions. The room felt smaller, more dangerous than ever before.
Seated at the table was the ANBU Commander himself. A man whose name was a state secret, known to the organization only by the codename 'Tatsu' (Dragon). His mask was a fierce, ornate dragon's visage, a stark contrast to the utilitarian animal masks of his subordinates.
Beside him stood a Snake Masked ANBU, whose own authority was second only to the Commander.
Tatsu's gloved fingers tapped a slow, deliberate rhythm on the table. In front of him were nine data slates, each detailing the outcome of the fourth trial. Three of them were marked with a stark, crimson symbol.
"Ten candidates entered the fourth trial," Tatsu's voice was a low, resonant rumble, utterly devoid of warmth. It was a voice that had condemned traitors and ordered assassinations for decades. "Three are dead. Two were gravely wounded and forced into mission abort by their supervisors. One—Unit 001 in Iwagakure—was compromised and had to be extracted after uncovering an experimental new sensory barrier, a mission far beyond the scope of a recruit's trial. And two," his gaze, burning with cold fury behind the dragon mask, fell upon the Raven Mask, "faced down a Legendary Sannin and his elite guard in their own fortress."
He paused, letting the weight of the failures suffocate them. "This selection cycle has been a catastrophic failure of intelligence, a grotesque miscalculation of risk, and an utter dereliction of duty. Explain this to me, Raven."
Raven Mask did not flinch, though the pressure was immense. "Commander, the initial mission parameters were based on intelligence gathered by the 'Badger' division over the last six months. They were deemed low-to-moderate risk infiltration and intel-gathering operations suitable for assessing candidate initiative."
"The 'Badger' division," Tatsu repeated, his voice dangerously soft. "The division whose chief, code-named 'Mongoose,' vanished without a trace week ago, precisely after these missions were dispatched."
The unspoken implication slammed into the room. Treachery. Sabotage. These weren't miscalculations, they had been deliberate suicide missions, designed by a traitor to either eliminate Konoha's most promising young talent or embroil the village in unwinnable, covert conflicts.
"Mongoose had access to the full unvetted intel," Snake Mask added, their voice a chilling rasp.
"He likely fed you altered reports, downplaying the threat levels of each target zone while knowing full well he was sending our children into meat grinders. The Iwa mission was a honeypot. The Kirigakure mission targeted a black site protected by a rogue Swordsman, resulting in the deaths of Units 005 and 006. And Otogakure…" Snake Mask looked at Itachi and Kakashi. "...was Orochimaru's den, a fact Mongoose must have known and deliberately concealed."
"He fed us lies, and we were complicit in our negligence," Tatsu stated, his voice now a blade of ice. He stood up, the full weight of his authority pressing down on them.
"The failure is absolute. Your division, Raven, is on probation. Every intel source from Badger is to be re-vetted. Every current operation planned on their data is suspended. I am taking this report directly to Lord Hokage. He will need to make a decision on how to handle the political fallout from a high-ranking ANBU defection and an attempted sabotage of our recruitment pipeline. You," he looked at Kakashi and Itachi, "are commended for your judgment in extracting your charges and securing invaluable, if unexpected, intel. The loss of valuable specimen with Kaguya clan's Kekkei Genkai is a significant blow to Orochimaru. The capture of the Genjutsu specialist, Tayuya, provides a direct line into his organization for Ibiki's unit."
He turned to leave, Snake Mask falling into step behind him. "And what of the surviving candidates, Commander?" Raven Mask asked. "Specifically, Unit 003 and Unit 007?"
Tatsu paused at the door. "Their mission was a catastrophic failure, through no fault of their own. They engaged an S-rank threat and survived. They performed beyond any reasonable expectation. They passed. Both of them. So did the Iwa survivor. Their induction will be… complicated by the events. The living ones have proven their worth. Ass for the dead…" He took a deep breath, sighing heavily for the first time since the meeting started.
"Inform their relatives and make sure to give them proper…"
He didn't finish his words, his sharp eyes closing in deep thought. The other's didn't speak, knowing that their Commander was a sentimental person. Actions after all spoke louder than words.
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[POV Shift – One Week Later – The Uchiha Clan Compound Outskirts]
Ryuu sat on the worn wooden porch of a small, secluded house overlooking a quiet pond, staring blankly at the rippling water. The late afternoon sun cast a warm, golden glow, but he felt none of it. It was odd, it was different from what he was used to.
He no longer had to hide behind layers of cloth just so he could be protected from the sun's glaring rays. It honestly made no sense as to why this change had happened after he awakened his Shikotsumyaku, but he didn't mind it.
Maybe it was an inherent trait of the Kekkei Genkai, making his body that much stronger as to completely negate his originally weak and unique constitution.
It had been a week since the extraction from Otogakure. A week of forced medical stand-down, of deep, dreamless sleep haunted by the phantom pain of shifting bones, and the ever-present, chilling memory of Kimimaro's placid face and Orochimaru's covetous, serpentine eyes.
His mind was a maelstrom. The debriefing with Lord Minato and his mother had been a tense affair.
He had been officially inducted into ANBU, given the codename 'Tsuru' (Crane).
He had also been given the full truth by his mother. He sat on the porch, replaying the conversation in his head.
Kasumi, her face calm but her eyes holding the weight of unshed tears, had finally undone the last of her deceptions. She told him of her true past in Kiri, of the brutal experiments. She told him of his father, a man she had loved, who had died so they could have a chance. She said his name was Kenzo, tall and delicate man. She explained her long-standing alliance with Minato, the real reason for their and the truth of the Cursed Seal—a piece of political theater they had willingly staged.
The world Ryuu had carefully constructed from memory and observation didn't just crack, it had been systematically dismantled and rebuilt before his eyes. The cursed mark on his mother's arm wasn't a leash he had to resent Konoha for, but a shield she had chosen to wear.
Minato wasn't a cold, calculating leader who had enslaved his mother, but a fiercely protective ally playing a dangerous game of 4D chess against his own village's shadows. The betrayal was not his, but his mother's sacrifice, and the relief was dizzying.
Yet, beneath it, a new, heavier burden settled. The truth of his lineage. Yuki and Kaguya. Ice and Bone. Two warring, tragic histories lived within him.
And with that truth came another horrifying realization, born from his knowledge of the Naruto world and his new personal experience. The Shikotsumyaku.
Kimimaro's placid acceptance of his fate, the mysterious illness that had been killing him… it wasn't mysterious at all. Ryuu could feel it now, a subtle, corrosive ache in his bones after the forced awakening, a phantom lethargy that his own chakra struggled to push back.
The Kekkei Genkai was a death sentence.
A self-devouring power, a derivative of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's own All-Killing Ash Bones. It granted terrifying offensive power, but it eroded the user's body from the inside out. That was the secret illness. That was the Kaguya clan's curse, why they were so suicidally battle-crazed—perhaps they sought a glorious death in combat before their own bones betrayed them.
And now, that curse was his.
This was the source of his current torpor. He was no longer just thinking about external threats like Akatsuki or the Otsutsuki. He was now facing an internal one, a ticking clock embedded in his very DNA. The path forward was no longer a straight line of simply "getting stronger." He couldn't just train his way out of a genetic disease.
'So that's it then,' he thought, his gaze lost on the ripples in the pond. 'The ultimate power Orochimaru coveted is a poisoned chalice.'
He needed more than just raw strength. He needed knowledge. He needed to become a scientist. A biologist. A seal master. He needed Orochimaru's capabilities, but wielded with a healer's intent, not a monster's.
He had to understand cells, DNA, the very fabric of life and chakra, so he could tear apart his own genetic code and rebuild it without the self-destruct mechanism. A task that seemed even more impossible than fighting a god. He knew he could start with the scroll he acquired from Kimimaro's corpse, something Kakashi had given him under Minato's orders.
The Kaguya Clan's heritage scroll, containing all their skills. He had to first understand his limits.
"You are thinking too loudly, Tsuru."
The voice, quiet and calm, pulled Ryuu from his spiraling thoughts. He didn't startle. The auras of the three shinobi had been a steady presence nearby for the last hour.
Itachi sat at the other end of the porch, a cup of tea held gracefully in his hands. Kakashi leaned against a post, his visible eye crinkled in what might have been a smile behind his Icha Icha book. And walking towards him from the doorway of the small house, his presence warm and grounding, was Shisui Uchiha.
This was Shisui's private safe house on the outskirts of the Uchiha district, a place of sanctuary Minato had quietly arranged for Ryuu's "acclimation period." The three of them had been assigned, unofficially, as his watchers, his mentors, his… support system.
The Hokage understood that a boy who had just faced a Sannin and awakened a cursed bloodline couldn't simply be left to his own devices.
"The thoughts are heavy," Ryuu admitted, his voice quiet, devoid of its usual detachment. It was the first time he'd truly spoken to them since the mission.
Shisui sat down near him, not too close, giving him space. His smile was gentle, but his eyes held the deep wisdom of someone who had stared into the abyss and chosen to step back. "Burdens are lighter when they have a name. We are here to listen, Ryuu. Not as ANBU. Not as superiors. But as comrades."
Itachi took a slow sip of his tea. "The debriefing concluded this morning. Mongoose's betrayal has been confirmed. Lord Hokage is implementing new security protocols for the entire intelligence division. Your... deviation from mission parameters... has been officially classified as 'appropriate field judgment under unforeseen S-rank threat conditions'. It will not be held against you."
"The dead Kaguya is a bigger prize than a live Sannin, strategically speaking," Kakashi added from behind his book. "Studying Kimimaro's body has already confirmed the Konoha medical division's worst theories about the Shikotsumyaku. A cellular decay accelerated by chakra use. The information from his corpse, along with the scroll we recovered, is your best starting point for finding a counter."
Ryuu finally looked up, his crimson eyes meeting Shisui's. "It's killing me, isn't it? The Kekkei Genkai." It wasn't a question. It was a statement.
The three older shinobi were silent for a moment.
Surprisingly it wasn't one of them that spoke first, but rather Genma, jumping off one of the tree's in the yard.
"Every powerful jutsu has a cost, kid," he said, his usual sarcastic tone gone, replaced with sober honesty. "The Akimichi's pills destroy their bodies. Gai's Eight Gates are a suicide technique. The Mangekyō Sharingan leads to blindness."
He looked towards Itachi, a flicker of shared, grim understanding passing between them. "Yours is just... more insidious. But knowing the enemy is the first step to defeating it." Genma gave a curt nod towards Kakashi and the others. "My time as your direct sensei is over, Ryuu. You're ANBU now. You're playing in a different league." With a final look, he vanished in a swirl of leaves, the official transfer of responsibility complete.
It was an anticlimactic way of ending a student-teacher relationship, but Ryuu understood that was just how Genma was.
"He's right," Shisui said gently. "Konoha has the best minds in the world. And Lord Minato... he does not abandon his shinobi. Especially not his students."
That was the truth Ryuu had been grappling with.
After Kasumi's confession, Ryuu understood that his induction into ANBU, this 'special training', wasn't just about his potential as a weapon. Minato had quietly been cultivating a new generation of operatives directly loyal to him and his vision, bypassing the village's more archaic or treacherous power structures.
Shisui and Itachi, who had averted the Uchiha coup and were now working to reform their clan from within under Minato's protection, were the prime examples.
Kakashi, bound to Minato by history, grief, and an unshakeable loyalty, now had a renewed, personal war to fight against Akatsuki and the ghost of his teammate.
And now, there was him.
"Hokage-same is forming a new unit in the Anbu," Itachi stated, cutting directly to the point, answering the question Ryuu hadn't dared to ask. "One where only those with the best potential will be added. You and I Ryuu-kun are the first and only members so far. We will be given special resources and training to make us stronger."
Ryuu nodded in understanding. It made sense, he and Itachi were just a year apart in age. Minato making a unit composed of the youngest and most talented and trained them thoroughly, Konoha's strength would increase rapidly. Though Ryuu couldn't compare to Itachi at all when it came to talent, he was at least considered decent.
It was stupid comparing himself to a genius that was beyond understanding, especially one that awakened his mangekyo at age 12-13.