Life in Konoha's ANBU by Shezza

Chapter 32: Initiation

Before Naruto went to sleep that night, he made a quick call into the Mission Assignments Desk and met up with one of the clerks taking night duty. She was somebody that Naruto had met before, and had only been too happy to add a pile of small envelopes to the mailroom- letters that would be distributed throughout that night. As a Hidden Village, Konoha never slept, and there were always stores and shops open and services provided throughout the night. Then, after that, Naruto went back to the Hokage's Residence for some rest.

Naruto woke up at six the very next morning, and after attending to his normal duties, he put in his Jonin vest and strapped on his weapons and tools and left. Sometime during the night, some mail had arrived for him, and Naruto had been able to look at his schedule. For the past month, he had been on leave. Each shinobi was allocated a certain amount of days a year to keep up with their physical and chakra-based training. This training was mandatory, and depending on the shinobi, the number of days varied- an administrative clerk would be allocated far less days than an ANBU operative, for example. Despite the fact that Naruto had just spent a month in training, he still had weeks of leave left, so he had arranged for the next week off for both him and the rest of Sigma Squad. They would need some time to catch up and readjust their techniques and training with each other.

That had been one of the letters. The others had been addressed to the former members of Sigma Squad.

Naruto travelled through the streets of Konoha, moving from Sector One to Sector Eleven. The sun had barely begun to rise over the horizon, and the stars and moon continued to twinkle in the darkened sky. Nonetheless, there was still a significant shinobi presence throughout the village. The Kage and the Feudal Lords had left Konoha yesterday, but there were still a significant number of tourists and dignitaries- many who had bought their own guards, or who required some discrete surveillance to make sure that they didn't get up to anything.

As the civilian population of the Village began to stir, Naruto had passed two ANBU Recon Squads and a strong contingent of Chunin Military Police. The smell of baking bread began to fill the air and workers had begun to set out the market stalls on the streets. Naruto walked past them all, smiling politely at the few who greeted him, and continued on. He could have easily sped through the streets, or used the designated rooftop passages- as a shinobi with ANBU clearance, he had access to the best ones, after all- but there was something about walking through the Village at dawn that he liked.

He arrived in Sector Eleven some time later. It was a huge, sprawling sector, filled with restaurants, food stalls, museums, galleries and other areas of interest. Sector Eleven was where people went out for the night. Naruto had made a booking at one of the local restaurants, a little corner shop that served to both shinobi and civilian customers. It was a small shop, filled with booths and round tables. Behind the counter by the door, the kitchen was visible and the sound of sizzling food could be heard. The server at the counter blinked owlishly at him, as if he was trying to remember where he had seen Naruto's face before, but luckily he didn't remember and he gestured at the booth that Naruto had booked. Naruto walked over, striding past a bickering couple who spoke to each other in hushed tones, and eyed the booth.

He hadn't been the first to arrive. Kage sat there, reading a newspaper with a pen in hand. The older ANBU agent was in his early to mid-twenties, with dark hair, dark eyes and a very ordinary face. There was nothing remarkable about him, either in features of personality, but Naruto knew that he was a strong Jonin with a flair for using visual illusions to hide his vector of attack. The former recon member glanced up at Naruto for a brief moment and nodded his greeting. Then, he went back to his newspaper as Naruto sat down next to him.

Apart from the background noises, there was silence at the table. Naruto helped himself to the bottle of water on the table and poured himself a glass. Then, he peeked over Kage's shoulder as the man did the crossword. He was tapping his pen repetitively as he thought for a few moments, but was filling in the blank spaces rather quickly. Naruto read one of the clues, frowning.