Life in the Anbu

The Anbu Tobirama had established had begun to take shape. Its members were outstanding shinobi selected from each Ninja Clan. Following Tobirama's adaptation of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, they were organized into four-person squads, each with one captain and three members. Their uniforms had also been modified to make Anbu operations easier.

During the Warring States period, shinobi wore Light Armor into battle. While it provided excellent protection, it also placed a certain burden on their movements. Of course, for masters like Hashirama and Madara, Light Armor hardly mattered, but Tobirama had redesigned their combat attire with changing forms of warfare in mind.

He had further reduced the weight of the Light Armor while retaining a degree of protection. To Kazemori Masaki, it looked like a transitional design between the armor of the Warring States Period and the Anbu Combat Uniform of later years. Presumably, as the Anbu developed, their Light Armor would grow lighter and lighter until it resembled the uniforms they would wear decades later.

To Kazemori Masaki's relief, the Anbu did not yet have any undercover espionage duties, so there was no need to wear those animal-patterned masks. Honestly, they really did not look good.

Kazemori Masaki felt he ought to leave before the Anbu developed those masks. It was not that he could not wear one, but he did not particularly like them. Ideally, he would never have to.

Once the Anbu members had been selected, Tobirama began putting them through repeated training sessions, focusing primarily on coordination within squads and cooperation between squads.

Although Kazemori Masaki and the others were the Hokage's students, they were very young by Anbu standards. The others were older shinobi from their clans, so they were not qualified to serve as captains and were instead assigned to squads as members.

Just as he had promised Satomi, Kazemori Masaki asked Tobirama to let her fight alongside him. Tobirama had already been considering transferring Satomi to the Anbu. Now that Kazemori Masaki had brought it up himself, asking only that they fight together, Tobirama naturally agreed and assigned them to the same squad.

Another member of their squad was Kagami Uchiha. Tobirama had presumably taken into account how close Kagami Uchiha and Kazemori Masaki were. They had often practiced together at the Konoha Academy and already worked well together, which was likely why he had placed them in the same squad.

Perhaps because of Satomi, their Anbu captain turned out to be Senju Toka, an outstanding kunoichi of the Senju Clan. Satomi was delighted to see her. Having a familiar elder as her captain was very reassuring.

Kazemori Masaki had a somewhat harder time. Senju Toka treated Satomi as her own daughter, so she held this "son-in-law" to very high standards. During training, she was always assigning Kazemori Masaki troublesome tasks.

Satomi knew Senju Toka was not merely making things difficult for Kazemori Masaki, but also helping him grow stronger, so she was happy to watch. Kagami Uchiha said nothing either and simply enjoyed the show alongside Satomi.

Their behavior left Kazemori Masaki both annoyed and amused. Although Senju Toka had certainly piled plenty of extra work on him, it really did help improve his strength, so he kept his complaints to himself. After all, she was both Satomi's elder and his instructor. He could show her some respect.

Senju Toka was exceptionally skilled and renowned for her Genjutsu. Having survived years of conflict with the Uchiha Clan, her mastery of Genjutsu was naturally remarkable. Even Kagami Uchiha admitted he could not get the better of her with Genjutsu. If he let his guard down, her illusions could fool him. Though they caused only subtle misperceptions, those were enough to turn the tide of a battle.

Kazemori Masaki marveled inwardly. These shinobi who had survived the Warring States period truly could not be underestimated. Even the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan had merely been two of the forces active in that era. Elsewhere, there had been plenty of Ninja Clans that could stand alongside them. The only people who had truly surpassed their era were probably Hashirama and Madara.

Anbu training was grueling. Beyond sheer strength, they had to observe the responsibilities of a shinobi, making its focus completely different from their training at the Konoha Academy or under Tobirama. By the time they took a break, Kazemori Masaki, who received Senju Toka's special "attention," had done even more training than everyone else and was naturally more tired.

Of course, with Sage Art at his disposal, Kazemori Masaki would not actually collapse from exhaustion. Still, he deliberately acted as though he was utterly spent. However much Satomi enjoyed watching his predicament, at times like these she would feel for her husband and stay by his side.

Kagami Uchiha could naturally see Kazemori Masaki's true condition, but he did not expose him. He was simply a little envious, sighing over why his own wife was not there—if she were, he could imitate Kazemori Masaki and put on the same act.

Kagami Uchiha's wife, Maki Uchiha, was a gentle woman, but for those born into the Uchiha Clan, fighting was already in their blood. She should have been able to join the Anbu. However, out of caution toward the Uchiha Clan, Tobirama would only admit Uchiha he trusted. Taking into account what he had discovered about the clan's temperament, he had not allowed Maki Uchiha into the Anbu, assigning her to the Konoha Military Police Force instead.

Kazemori Masaki supported Tobirama's decision. If Maki Uchiha died in the war, the intense psychological shock would surely twist Kagami Uchiha's personality. Just because Kagami Uchiha's Sharingan had already reached the pinnacle of its ordinary form while he remained gentle did not mean he was different from other Uchiha. Kazemori Masaki believed the only reason Kagami Uchiha's personality had not yet become warped was his greater talent.

After the Konoha Military Police Force was established, Kazemori Masaki noticed certain patterns among the Uchiha he encountered on patrol. Ordinary Uchiha already showed clear changes in personality when the markings in their eyes had only two tomoe—arrogance, coldness, extremism, madness, and so on.

More gifted Uchiha, however, reportedly did not undergo such drastic personality changes while the markings in their eyes still had only two tomoe. Only once their ordinary Sharingan reached its fully developed stage did their personalities begin to veer toward extremes.

Kazemori Masaki speculated that the more talented an Uchiha was, the less intense the psychological shock needed to evolve their Sharingan. Thus, those with the potential to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan would not seem warped even when their Sharingan reached its fully developed stage.

The Mangekyō Sharingan, however, was a power that truly required profound grief to awaken. Only then would the intense psychological shock drive its wielder mad. Kagami Uchiha's exceptional talent allowed him to reach a level that ordinary Uchiha could never attain in their lifetimes without enduring such grief. But once he entered the realm of the Mangekyō Sharingan, he too would be cursed by the Uchiha Clan's bloodline.

Kazemori Masaki had once asked Kagami Uchiha whether he wanted the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan. After giving it some thought, Kagami Uchiha told him a piece of the Uchiha Clan's secret history, which he had learned from reading the Clan Records after becoming Clan Head—

He said the Uchiha were a clan that delighted in battle. Throughout their history, fierce competition had often brought the Uchiha Clan to the brink of extinction. Whenever that happened, someone possessing the Mangekyō Sharingan would emerge and lead the clan back to prosperity.

Essentially, wielders of the Mangekyō Sharingan were seen as signs of the clan's resurgence. When two such wielders, Madara and Izuna, emerged within the Uchiha Clan near the end of the Warring States period, the clan believed they could finally defeat the Senju Clan. Yet, for some reason, the Senju Clan had also produced two outstanding figures: Hashirama and Tobirama.

Kagami Uchiha said that the Mangekyō Sharingan was indeed an immensely powerful ability, but he always had a feeling that it brought some kind of curse. If possible, he hoped that power would never appear in the Uchiha Clan.

Kazemori Masaki sighed inwardly. In some respects, Kagami Uchiha truly was different from his fellow Uchiha. Although he did not yet understand much about the secrets of the Mangekyō Sharingan, he had vaguely sensed the curse behind it and rejected it. But it would not disappear simply because Kagami Uchiha said he did not want it. Once the moment came, he would inevitably awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, because he had the potential.

If that day ever came, Kazemori Masaki hoped Kagami Uchiha would not become completely warped. At the very least, he hoped Kagami would not abandon the entire world as Obito Uchiha had. He even harbored an unrealistic hope, one with very little chance of coming true—that Kagami Uchiha would not end up like the other Uchiha.

After several months of Anbu training, while Tobirama was continuing his efforts to develop the village, unfortunate news arrived from the Capital.

The Daimyo had passed away.

(End of chapter)