5
It had been in the middle of Naruto's break when he had been called for a mission, this time A chunin named Aoi Nakamura had abandoned his village, betraying it. He was a member of the barrier patrol and had attacked one of the guards on the village wall before escaping.
He had assaulted several other shinobi and civilians, shown constantly a short fuse or rather no fuse at all, putting many of them in the hospital for simply not agreeing with him, he had been reprimanded several times before and now had left the village and turned traitor after being dishonorably discharged from the barrier patrol and the shinobi forces.
Usually, Nakamura would not be the biggest of concerns but he had stolen a copy of the barrier formula, this means that anyone who gets their hands on that copy could find a way to alter the barrier. If he was allowed to escape, their enemies could find a way to bypass village security allowing them to attack Konoha and they would be non the wiser until the last minute.
He had been placed onto a team made up of a black haired Inuzuka wearing porcelain dog mask with red squares instead of triangles, three grey fured with white underside canines, Shisui or Crow and finally a cat masked Anbu Captain many call 'Zo'.
All of them were dressed in the black clothing and grey armor of Anbu except Zo who was dressed in the white cloak.
"Nakamura, is not to be taken lightly, he has shown violent tendencies and is heading towards Tea country, eliminate him before he reaches his location," ordered the Commander as they rushed off.
"Dog, can you the ninken find the scent?" asked Naruto.
"Not yet, Hound, we have to reach his last known location," said the young Inuzuka. They arrived at the wall where they found two chunin guards. The dogs started sniffing.
"Is this your first tracking mission, Hound?" asked the Captain.
"Ah yes, taichou," said Naruto. Everyone was curious about why Naruto had been placed into Anbu and even more so as to what the Commander saw in him, what had made the Commander abandon many rules to have him.
"Have you ever killed?" asked Zo, receiving a shake of his head. Zo knew that they had to complete the mission but the boy had not yet gotten his first kill, and the Commander had told them if they are able, to help him understand the concept of killing and get him his first kill.
"I guess we can use this like a learning experience," said Dog.
"Learning experience?" asked Naruto.
"Hound, Anbu have to kill, it is part of Anbu's job, of Anbu's function, this is what it means to serve in the dark," said Shisui.
"We've got the scent!" exclaimed Dog, excitedly.
"Good, let's get moving," ordered Zo, as they jumped through the trees. Naruto had mixed feelings on killing, one hand, it was the idea that Naruto had end another living being, on the other hand, it was what he was going to have to do eventually, everyone in academy had been taught that they would one day have to kill if they wanted to survive.
The Anbu black ops eventually found the man, calmly walking towards the border to Tea Country. He had black hair, pale skin and a konoha headband with the symbol scratched out.
'Those idiots will never underestimate me again, they kept reprimanding and all types of shit for no reason but no more, now I'll prove them wrong, Sound will make a jounin when I give them this,' thought Aoi with a smile as pulled out, the scroll holding the copy of the barrier formula. What however Nakamura didn't notice were the 4 kunais racing towards him.
They hit him in 4 spots, in his shoulders and legs, making him drop the scroll which rolled forward, as he fell to the ground. As soon as Nakamura hit the ground, Naruto came out of the trees and walked towards the weakened traitor.
Naruto was holding a kunai, he approached the lying body of the Aoi, who looked up to see the Anbu member, there. Naruto knelt down next to the man whose eyes turned to horror.
"Wait, wait, please-" begged Nakamura but it fell upon deaf ears as Naruto used the kunai to quickly slice the man's throat. He bled to death as Naruto began to process what he had done. Zo walked over and picked up the scroll as Naruto still kept kneeling next to the dead man. All the other members remembered their reactions to their first kills and it was similar.
No-one except the sickest person, would enjoy the feeling of a person dying, people may feel pleasure in the fantasies of killing someone but to really kill someone is completely different, it is to feel their life ebb away due to your actions.
"Hound, did that feel good?" asked Shisui, as Naruto turned to him.
"No," said Naruto.
"That's good, we all have done this at one time or another," explained Shisui to which Naruto turned towards the others who all gave a nod.
"You might not like it, kid, but this is the truth of the world, this is what the shinobi world is truly like, we have to be the murderers so that civilians don't, even if you leave Anbu nothing changes, you still have to kill people," said Dog. Naruto got up, he will still horrified by his actions but understood the basic fact.
"Let's go," ordered the Captain, as they turned to leave but suddenly all 4 Anbu jumped out of the way, as 4 kunai had been thrown in the spot that they just were. All 4 Anbu turned to find a squad of 14 shinobi waiting for them. These shinobi all were wearing masks, face and head covering masks which only showed their eyes and dressed in the same outfits. They wore headbands with musical notes on them.
"Sound village shinobi?" asked Shisui, confused.
"Konoha scum, prepare to die," said one of them excitedly.
"You have crossed the border," said Zo, hoping to avoid conflict, "leave or suffer the consequences."
2 of the oto shinobi, pulled out kunai and jumped at the Anbu Captain. Zo had pulled out 2 of his own kunai and as soon as they reached him. He slashed both of them, killing them.
Zo had 2 kunai in his hand while, Naruto, Shisui and Dog all pulled out their tantos. The sound village shinobi split into groups of 3 and attacked each Anbu member.
Naruto, placed his tanto into the ground before going through hand signs.
"Wind release: wind bullets," said Naruto as he shot out 6 shots of compressed air, 2 going towards each member. 2 jumped out of the way while the 3rd one got hit in his head with 2 shots compressed air. It drilled into his head killing the poor man. Naruto's hand latched onto his tanto as he faced the 2 oto nin in kenjutsu, both of which having kunai.
He dodged a strike and blocked another one, pushing the oto nin back before jumping back before going through hand signs.
"Wind release: great breakthrough," said Naruto as a gush of wind hit one of the oto nin sending him flying back.
The poor Oto nin was sent through a tree, with the impact snapping his neck and killing him. The last Oto nin rushed at Naruto who had been preoccupied with his companion.
He kicked Naruto who went flying at the tree.
"You brat! You killed my friends!" shouted the Oto nin as he walked over to Naruto who was still on the ground with a kunai. The oto nin strike down at Naruto and the kunai entered Naruto's stomach.
But Naruto had been replaced with smoke revealing a piece of wood.
'Oh no' was the only thought in the shinobi's head before he noticed that Naruto was right next to him.
"Earth release: earth mud river," said Naruto as a path made of mud pushed the Oto nin away, as Naruto did even more hand signs.
"Earth release: earth dragon bomb," said Naruto as the mud took the form of a dragon and start to shoot balls of mud at the opponent, removing his focus and splatting him with mud, which he couldn't escape.
"Fire release: fire dragon bomb," said Naruto as he released flames from his mouth in the same direction as the mudballs which quickly caught fire, making them even more dangerous, burning the opponent, who let out screams of pain as his body was burnt by flaming balls of mud.
Then a wave of mud drowned out everything. Naruto looked there to find the charred remains of his opponent before looking around to find corpses. Naruto had finally understood what he had done, he had killed 4 people. The rest of the team dealt with their opponents and looked at Naruto who was clearly shaken by his actions, if his rigid form was anything to go by.
"What have I done?" asked Naruto.
"Let's get back," ordered the captain.