Naruto: The Outsider’s Resolve

CH_9.23 (338)

Two days later, Takuma sat in Barbary's office, facing the humongous man who would be his boss in the Inquisitor Unit. Neither the man nor his team had delivered a good first impression, and the messy office with paperwork, files, and boxes stacked and towered all around the table and room wasn't helping it at all.

"I hadn't laughed like that in a while," Barbary grinned as he sat on his throne of a chair fitting for his size. "You got us good with that clone. It was funny to see the team so mad after being given the slip by a clone! They all wanted to go home so they wouldn't have to talk about it."

Takuma didn't know what to say because he hadn't done anything to deceive the team. The clone was on a grocery run when they decided to mess with him. Who knew how he would've reacted if he was there in the flesh when there was an actual sense of danger...

"I hope you won't take our little thing to heart. It was just a fun little exercise to welcome you to the unit."

He wanted to take it to heart because of the concentrated bullet of stress he received when the clone's memories and experiences flooded his mind. Takuma had sat in his room for an hour to process what had happened to the clone during the day.

That said, he couldn't isolate himself from everyone before he even started working.

"No, it's alright. I'm glad this is a fun place," he replied.

Barbary laughed. "We work hard, but we party harder. I don't like to brag, but our parties are legendary."

"I look forward to the next," Takuma offered a smile.

"Then, let's have a welcoming party for you and Amami soon. We haven't had one of her because of scheduling issues," said Barbary, sounding excited before tempering himself. "But let's talk about work for now. Since you're new not only to our unit but also to the ANBU, you will shadow someone experienced. They’ll act as a mentor of sorts and teach you how we operate. It will involve helping them with their work until you're ready to be independent, so for now, just do what's asked of you, and if you don't understand anything, don't hesitate to bother your mentor."

"Who's going to be my mentor?" asked Takuma.

"One of your senior squad mates, so you get to build a rapport and slot right into the team when you're ready. Now, you must have some idea about our cover identity when you walked in here," said Barbary, pointing to the banner hanging on the wall behind him that said—

[Ironwood Protection Company]

For his meeting with Barbary, he was asked to visit an office building away from the main road, which looked absolutely mundane from the outside. Beyond the unguarded front gate, there was a secondary set of gates guarded by two shinobi guards that could only be unlocked with a key in the form of fūinjutsu seals.

He was no stranger to such locks, having seen them in the Police Force to secure evidence storage and armouries. But to lock an entire building down made it clear enough that they didn't want anyone who wasn't supposed to be there inside.

"We are a protection service unit under the command of Jōnin Aburame Seinpachi," said Barbary.

"So, bodyguards?" Takuma asked, noting that Barbary used the jonin's real name instead of an ANBU codename.

"Essentially, yes."

Their cover was working in a specialised shinobi unit focused on protection. Such specialised units existed across the villages and were popular as they allowed a group of shinobi to gain a large amount of experience and expertise in a single field, making them better at handling tasks than others.

As a unit that was supposed to offer protection services, they took commercial jobs from private clients but also worked internally with Leaf diplomats or anyone requiring their services during their travels—or they were supposed to if they were a legitimate shop and not an ANBU front. Every person in the building, from the guards at the front gates to the person who had served coffee to Takuma, ANBU-nin as staff or operatives.

"Is everyone under Jōnin Seinpachi part of ANBU?" he asked.

Jōnin were rarely deployed to the field as matters that required a jōnin were rare. Instead, a majority of a jōnin's duty was to serve as a leader, commanding hundreds and even thousands of shinobi troops. Many jōnin were part of formal entities such as the Police Force and the Leaf Intelligence Division and had a workforce under their command—but not all jōnin were part of such formal entities.

Toridasu was a jōnin who wasn't part of a formal department or division. Yet he directly commanded double-digit chunin and a couple of tokubetsu jōnin who served under him when he was not at war. The tokubetsu jōnin and experienced chunin oversaw other chunin who had one or multiple genin teams under them. The chunin themselves also teamed up for B-rank missions or higher.

As a jōnin, he had access to good jobs to pass on to his subordinates and profit from them. By his lonesome, Toridasu gathered talented subordinates who completed jobs with high completion and satisfaction rates, gaining him the trust and reputation of the administration and high-profile clients.

"No, Jōnin Seinpachi has more units like ours under his command. Most of them are all regular force shinobi unrelated and unaware of our status. Their legitimacy acts as a camouflage, allowing us to hide from prying eyes," Barbary replied before explaining more about the Aburame jōnin.

Jōnin Aburame Seinpachi was an ANBU-nin. His cover job had him remain part of the regular forces and take regular shinobi under his banner before forming ANBU units. While Takuma was only going to pretend to be to do his cover job, Seinpachi's cover involved him being responsible for both his cover and actual duties—it was an elaborate setup supported by ANBU to ensure secrecy.

"It's difficult to hide a jōnin," sighed Barbary.@@novelbin@@

Not only were the popular figures within the Hidden Leaf, but they were also on foreign watchlists—making them very noticeable and a massive problem if they one day fell off the face of the earth. ANBU devised ways to disguise such high-profile people by surrounding them with legitimate walls that cast shadows for ANBU to operate within.

"Every ANBU cover job has some level of travel built into it. Ours is no different. We have the excuse of leaving the village to protect a client or secure a shipment—read the literature and module; it will clarify everything for you. If you have doubts, you can always ask your mentor or squadmates."

Takuma gazed at the banner and thought about how he would explain and justify the new job to his friends and acquaintances.

"From police to private security seems natural," he half-muttered to himself. Even though he had never been part of a protection detail in his time at the Police Force, as far as people were concerned, this move would seem natural.

"Yes, it works well, doesn't it." Barbary smiled. "I'm glad you came to work under me, Ratel. I have been following your career since you were a newbie in the Ring brought in by Enomoto."

Takuma's fists clenched up when he heard those words. The Ring and Scars were not a problem for him anymore because those were part of his file, and ANBU knew all about it—but this was the first time someone had brought up Enomoto, which wasn't a reach because he was his introducing sponsor into the Ring.

But if someone knew him, there was a high chance they knew about the man's other interests.

"...You're surprisingly knowledgeable about the Ring if you know Enomoto," said Takuma.

"It would be strange if I didn't know about the Ring. I was a fighter there myself. Well, I technically still am on the roster, but you know, I've outgrown the place just like you," said Barbary, his expression laced with nostalgia.

"...Pardon? You were a Ring fighter?" asked Takuma, surprised.

"I was. In fact, we met when you were in the Ring. I always wanted to work with you, so my wish came true, but we could've worked together much earlier, albeit in a different capacity, if you had accepted my offer back then. I must say, you're one heck of a fighter, Scars."

Takuma was flabbergasted. His new boss was apparently a Ring fighter, and they had met before. He racked his brain to recall when he met Barbary, but nothing came up.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Barbary laughed.

"... I don't, sorry."

"Don't worry. I brought this in knowing I would be meeting you today."

Barbary opened a drawer on his table and pulled out a porcelain mask. The moment Takuma saw the mask, memories hit him like a truck, rushing in like a flood. He recalled a night after a fight when he was invited by one of Ring's groups with an offer to join them. That was his first time, but he had forgotten about it because several groups had approached him as he grew more popular.

He was rather fed up as he had no intention of ever joining a group and didn't bother to remember any of them.

"Slash Baron?"

"That's the one!" Barbary clicked his finger as he held the mask before his face. "I was so disappointed you didn't join my group back then."

It was then Takuma realised that ANBU had their eyes on him way before he thought they were interested. He was a nobody when he met Slash Baron; he hadn't joined the Police Force. If he remembered it right, it was before his first C-rank outside the village that had taken him to the Land of Frost, which was perhaps the first time he had been part of something important due to the ambush and deaths.

There was no reason for them to be interested in him back then other than that he was an up-and-coming prizefighter... and a drug dealer.

"...I also brought your friend Copperhead into ANBU as well."

Copperhead was Sango's ANBU codename. Takuma silently gulped, wondering if Barbary knew about that part of his life. Even though his identity as Scars had made it to his file, he had managed to keep his drug dealing a well-guarded secret. Sango was once Enomoto's apprentice—but he wasn't sure if she knew about his drug dealing because they had never talked about it and she had never brought it up in any conversation.

But Takuma wouldn't be surprised if she knew due to her relationship with Enomoto.

If she knew and told Barbary or anyone in ANBU, it would be terrible for him because if they knew his relationship with Enomoto extended beyond the Ring, it could lead to them looking into his work at the Police Force, which was much more dangerous to him than some street-level drug dealing.

He had to know if there was something about that in his file at ANBU.

"Well, now you are here, so let's make the best of it. Moving on, here you go," said Barbary before handing over a sheet of paper.

Still busy with his thoughts about Enomoto, Takuma looked down at the sheet and saw what seemed to be a list of ANBU codenames.

"What is this?"

"The point of your induction was to allow your team to get to know you by seeing how you react to a stressful situation—but I also allowed them to look into your personnel file so they would know your background. That list is the people who requested and looked at your file.

"And because they looked at your file, you can look at their files," Barbary added—

—but Takuma was no longer listening.

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