Entering the Anbu

Senju Genma returned to Nawaki's side and looked back toward the area where Orochimaru was positioned.

Although the Rain Ninja had two jonin, Orochimaru was handling them with great ease.

Orochimaru was completely unscathed, while the two Hidden Rain Village jonin were already covered in wounds.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

Orochimaru formed hand seals with one hand, exhaling a violent gale from his mouth that sent the two Rain Ninja flying.

"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!"

Utilizing the Body Flicker Technique, Orochimaru closed the distance rapidly, gathering rapidly spinning wind in his hand like a blade to strike at the two Rain Ninja.

Deep wounds were carved into the backs of the two Rain Ninja, and their corpses slumped to the ground.

Orochimaru inspected the bodies before quickly arriving at the side of Senju Genma and Nawaki.

"Are you two alright?"

"We're fine!"

After Senju Genma spoke, he slapped Nawaki on the head.

"Hey! Snap out of it! Do you want to die by spacing out on the battlefield?!"

Nawaki came to his senses and hurriedly replied, "Oh, oh! I'm fine!"

"You guys are really amazing!"

Senju Genma said with annoyance, "Take this as a lesson and be more careful from now on! Let's head back."

Nawaki lowered his head, not daring to meet Senju Genma's gaze.

It had indeed been too dangerous just now; if not for Senju Genma, he would have certainly died from those Explosive Tags.

He answered in a muffled voice, "I know."

Orochimaru asked, "Is your chakra still sufficient?"

Senju Genma patted his chest. "Don't worry, it's perfectly fine!"

Seven days later.

Senju Genma woke up early and left the clan grounds, preparing for someone to come and collect him.

He had already received orders to report to the Anbu.

Just as the appointed time arrived, a figure wearing a fox mask, dressed in black tights with a white vest over them, appeared before him.

"Captain Tiger sent me to pick you up. Follow me!"

Senju Genma recognized the person's identity at a glance.

Although the other party wore a mask to hide his true face, the white ponytail and the short sword carried on his back allowed Senju Genma to identify him.

It was Sakumo Hatake, who had once participated in a mission to protect Senju Genma and Uzumaki Kushina.

The Anbu, short for Anbu Black Ops, was established by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, and operated under the direct command of the Hokage.

The Hidden Leaf's Anbu consisted of seventy members, with one captain-in-chief and one deputy captain. The current captain and deputy were Tiger and Ox, both of whom had been Anbu members since the era of the Second Hokage.

It was divided into four squads, each consisting of seventeen people.

Each squad had a squad leader and was divided into four teams, with each team composed of four ninja: one team leader and three members.

Sakumo Hatake was currently one of these four squad leaders.

The Anbu training department known as "Root," established by Danzo Shimura, was effectively a squad of the Anbu, led by Danzo and consisting of four teams totaling seventeen people.

Although Danzo held absolute control over Root, it was technically subordinate to the Anbu as a branch department.

"I didn't expect it to be you! It seems Your Majesty the Hokage takes my safety quite seriously," Senju Genma said with a nod.

"It seems you know who I am."

A flash of curiosity crossed Sakumo Hatake's face beneath his mask.

As an Anbu squad leader, his identity was classified; for the boy to be so confident in his strength, he must have recognized him.

Who could have told Senju Genma? Could it have been the Hokage?

That didn't seem right, though; the Anbu were the Hokage's direct forces, so how could he casually reveal his own information?

He suddenly recalled a blonde girl who had been in a ninja team he once served on, who used to act rather crazily toward Senju Genma during missions.

At that moment, far away on the battlefield in the Land of Rain, Tsunade seemed to have a premonition: "Achoo! Who is thinking of me? Is it Genma missing me?"

"Sister, can you please focus? I'm still bleeding here!" Nawaki said, lying on his hospital bed.

Tsunade slapped him on the head. "Who told you to be so careless? I don't think you're cut out to be a ninja at all; you should just go back to the village!"

Nawaki said stubbornly, "How can I do that? I'm the man who is going to become the Hokage."

Returning to the scene outside the Senju Clan Grounds in the Hidden Leaf Village.

Senju Genma said earnestly, "Actually, I have always been very interested in you!"

Sakumo Hatake replied slowly, "Well... while it's true that you're very good-looking, I'm really not interested in men, and I'm already married! So, I'm sorry!"

Senju Genma was speechless. He hadn't expected Sakumo Hatake to have such a goofy side, though considering he was the ninja who developed the Konoha secret taijutsu technique, One Thousand Years of Death, it seemed somewhat fitting.

"Where did your mind wander off to? I only heard that the Hatake family's swordsmanship is formidable, so I just wanted to learn a bit about it."

Sakumo Hatake let out a sigh of relief and patted his chest. "That's a relief. However, I'm afraid I can't teach you the swordsmanship; it's an ancestral technique of our family and isn't passed on to outsiders."

The two chatted idly as they began to weave through the woods and the buildings within the village.

Guided by Sakumo Hatake, Senju Genma arrived at a lodging house located next to the Hokage Building.

The corner of Senju Genma's mouth twitched. He knew this building; he sometimes slept here with Uchiha Mikoto.

Don't get the wrong idea—it was just that after playing on the streets until they were exhausted and it was too late, they would find a place to sleep.

The two arrived at the basement of the building together.

"The Anbu is one of Konoha's most important organizations. We've set up a barrier around the perimeter of the base, and I'll teach you the hand seals to dispel it in a moment."

As he spoke, Sakumo Hatake performed twelve hand seals toward the floor, and a passageway appeared in the ground.

After opening the barrier, Sakumo Hatake led Senju Genma into the passage.

The two walked through the winding, twisting tunnel for quite some time before finally seeing the glow of firelight, and their field of vision widened.

Sakumo Hatake dispelled another barrier, and the two continued deeper, soon arriving at a small room.

Inside the room were four Anbu members wearing masks.

"This is Senju Genma. I shouldn't need to introduce him too much, right?" Sakumo Hatake said, gesturing toward the person beside him.

They were, of course, well aware of who Senju Genma was, having performed protection missions for him more times than they could count.

Not to mention, Senju Genma had recently used the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God technique and a self-created A-rank ninjutsu to defeat a veteran jonin from the Sarutobi Clan, making him quite famous among the village's jonin.

Although the Anbu members were all geniuses among their peers, they had to admit that they were no match for Senju Genma.

"Hello everyone, my name is Senju Genma, and I am a newly promoted jonin," Senju Genma said.

Everyone was somewhat surprised. They had expected a genius who could defeat a jonin at such a young age to be arrogant and unruly, so they hadn't expected him to be so easygoing.