Chapter 12
Keigo was at his usual hiding place, his father's stone head.
After almost two weeks he still had not received an assignment and had not been sent on any mission.
Wasn't he strong enough? Was he too young? He knew being a jounin at fourteen was strange but Kakashi had become one at thirteen.
Doubts overwhelmed him.
That's why he hid among the stone spikes that must have been the fourth hokage's hair.
A surge of chakra warned Keigo that he was no longer alone.
"Was it Obito or Tenzou who spilled the beans?" He asked,
"Both" his father chuckled.
"Traitors" Keigo muttered as he turned to face his father.
They stood facing each other, the light evening breeze ruffling their hair and his father's cloak, he was still dressed as a hokage.
These must have been official business then.
"Keigo, for the taijutsu and ninjutsu skills you have demonstrated over the years, I, the fourth hokage, offer you the position of ANBU Duck, do you accept?" his father said as he handed him the mask.
Keigo understood the weight of those words. If he had accepted he would have been part of the elite shinobi forces, those who were the strongest and who were sent on the missions with the highest risk.
Keigo looked at the mask that was offered to him.
White with red details that mimicked his whiskered birthmarks and a small beak.
He was no longer the same child who was afraid of losing himself behind a name whose standards he had to maintain.
He was no longer afraid of being behind that mask.
He took the mask, put it on and knelt down, "ANBU Duck at your service lord hokage".
Keigo had his head bowed and didn't see his father approaching, he only felt a hand resting on his shoulder and one under his chin lifting his head. Slowly his mask was moved to the side until his entire face was visible once again.
"Get up Keigo, there's no need for all this here" Minato said.
"Well since we're so informal, did it really have to be Duck?" Keigo managed to complain even then.
"You're lucky I didn't call you Snail"
Being the hokage's son had its advantages sometimes, Keigo knew in advance that in a few hours he would be escorted to go to ANBU boot camp and wouldn't return home for at least a month.
He had to prepare Naruto for his absence, he had never been gone this long.
That morning before taking him to the Uchiha compound they stopped at the memorial stone to talk.
"You know I'll have to be gone for a long time, but dad will be there and Obito will always drop you off and pick you up" Keigo tried to reassure his little brother.
"But you won't be there bubba" Naruto said with tears in his eyes.
Bubba was the nickname Naruto had learned from his father and had never stopped using despite Keigo complaining that he was too old to be called that.
"I know but it's like when I go on the usual missions, I have to defeat all those bad guys, right?"
His little limpet wouldn't let him go.
"Come on Naruto don't you want to go and play with Sasuke?" Keigo tried again.
At that point Naruto's small hands had cupped the sides of his face coming closer to him, nose to nose, two pairs of the same ocean blue eyes staring at each other.
"I'll miss you bubba"
"Oh Naruto, I'll miss you too"
Keigo is soon tracked down and an ANBU leaves him a note before disappearing once again.
He barely has time to gather his bags and mask before he has to head to the place indicated by the note.
In the woods a passage opens the way to a series of underground tunnels. With the mask on he felt comfortable walking down those corridors.
The first person he encounters is behind a desk, an ANBU mumbling directions to the meeting place for the new arrivals.
The room is an old dojo that already hosts people. Keigo stood in formation at the end of the line next to another person and in front of two ANBU, those must have been their instructors.
"I am Cow and my assistant is Horse. we will guide you through this boot camp. While attending training you will be known as plebe agents even though you have already been chosen as ANBU. This means you will clean the facility, cook meals and mend uniforms"
'Great, we're ANBU genin' , Keigo thought.
"In this box you can find the tops, trousers and shoes of the uniform. Later the armor package will be delivered to you" Horse continued.
They had been informed that the length of the boot camp depended on each individual and would last until you reached ANBU standards and that they should choose an unconventional weapon such as the katana, staff or senbon.
Keigo chose the katana.
At the end of the initial meeting everyone was gathered so that the ANBU seals could be applied to their arms.
Keigo who already had one shifted uncomfortably towards the sides of the room, he didn't know how he could explain to his fellow recruits that he already had one without giving away his identity.
Not if they wouldn't find out.
Luckily for Keigo everyone was taller or more imposing than him and he was easily forgotten in the crowd, except by the instructor Horse.
"And why the little recruit is hiding here?" the question was asked from his right.
After a moment's pause Keigo slowly turned to show his left shoulder and the old seal that was already imprinted on it.
"You're the hokage's brat" the realization was clear in the tone Horse used.
Keigo hummed in confirmation and was left alone.
They were divided into rooms of two but were obliged to keep their masks on at all times.
The real tests would come the following day so Keigo decided to go to sleep. His room already had his roommate in it, a boy a little taller than him with brown hair that fell to his shoulders.
Keigo knew that boy, and he knew the chakra coming out of him even better.
"TENZOU" he shouted in a whisper throwing himself at him.
Tenzou who was now used to Keigo's antics managed to capture him without problems.
"You know that these masks are supposed to prevent us from recognizing each other" he said to Keigo.
"Well they didn't think about how amazing I am when they roomed us together".
Keigo and Tenzou, or rather Duck and Cat, flew through basic training, weapons training being the only thing keeping them from graduating on the first day.
Even that couldn't hold them back very long.
At the end of the week when all the recruits were in the locker rooms changing before starting their shift in the kitchen, Cow came in surprising them all.
"ANBU Duck and Cat step forward" he said in a monotone voice.
They headed in front of everyone. it was strange that he called them ANBU since up until that point they had been called plebe.
"Congratulations you finished the boot camp in record time. You will now be assigned to a team that will meet you in locker room two"
He dropped the rest of the uniform into their hands and left them. The light gray armor wasn't that heavy, but at that moment Keigo thought it was about to take him to the ground.
With a glare at Tenzou's Cat mask he headed out of the room and down the main hallway towards where they would meet their new team.
At least they were still together.
In front of them loomed the number two locker room in which their team was waiting for them.
"Should we knock?" Tenzou whispered to Keigo leaning towards him.
Keigo shrugs and squares his shoulders to hide his nervousness and pushes the door open.
The locker was smaller than the plebe's, fewer people were on the team. Four people turned to them.
Keigo recognized the only ANBU without a mask, a Nara he had seen while wandering around their compound.
"Welcome" an unknown ANBU welcomes them.
"Very well we get two children and only after a week of boot camp" another adds, taking off his mask. Ahh Keigo knows him, Shiranui Genma.
"Welcome to team Ro, an offensive assassination team, I'm your captain, Hound" the last one began to say, also taking off his mask, "as you can see inside the locker rooms the rule of keeping the masks on doesn't count"
It was Kakashi. Kakashi was his captain.
"You may know Genma, he is Lizard, specialized in poisons and fuinjutsu" Genma had his usual crooked smile as he chewed on some damn senbon.
"My second in command, Hisao Sarutobi, Frog, our team's doctor" Hisao wasn't what you considered tall but he was built like a closet, his face was kind though. Keigo could see the resemblance to the Third.
"Last but not least Nara Shoko, Hare, expert in taijutsu". Shoko was like all Nara, brunette with hair coming out of a ponytail.
Keigo and Tenzou bowed to greet everyone.
Deciding it was time to introduce themselves too, they took off their masks.
"The spitfire" Genma exclaimed.
Keigo stuck his tongue out at him as Tenzou introduced them.
"I'm Tenzou, Cat, ninjutsu user and my friend is Keigo Uzumaki-Namikaze, Duck, also a ninjutsu user"
"You are Shikaku's boys" Shoko breathed.
They just nodded in confirmation.
"But captain, both of them are like you, three ninjutsu users on the same team?" She continued
"Yes but they are special, Tenzou uses the mokuton and Keigo is the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox" Kakashi spoke again for the first time after the introductions.
Once the bomb was dropped they were looked at in a different light.