Starring:
Date: April 19th, 2010
Summary:
ANBU recruit their latest members.
"Recruits"
Konoha
Night. Each Uma and Yuzuna would find a note attached to their door-
'Jounin training grounds. Tonight, right after the moon leaves sight over the horizon. Do not allow yourself to be followed.'
The note would be simple and crumble into ash once they were finished reading it. The note would somehow appear in the evening time on their front door.
Strange notes that burst into flames upon reading. Cryptic messages stating for Uma not to be followed. Whatever was going on had to have been important, as one does not simply receive such notes for no particular reason.
As such, Uma finds herself dressed in all black, slipping in between shadows while remaining utterly quiet. Her facial features are shrouded in billowing darkness as she wears a shinobi mask to conceal her face. Moving between shadows, the Hyuuga Chuunin slips into the training grounds considerably early. While she waited for whatever to happen, Uma crouched low in the shadows, watching everything with her perceptive Byakugan.
After training in solitude that night, Yuzuna approaches the front steps of her household as dusk just begins to settle, night comfortably falling over the village as the quiet stillness couples with the soft shadows. Seeing the note pinned to her door, she narrows her pale opal eyes at it, pausing briefly as she glances over her shoulder for a cautious moment. Pressing her lips together, she reaches up and easily pulls out the sebon from the wooden door, opening the piece of parchment between her fingertips and reading the brief note. The Hyuuga heiress frowns some at it just before the seal activates and it starts to burn away, turning into ash quickly as she lets go of the last, falling into open air and disappearing completely. Without turning, Yuzuna glances to her surroundings out of the corner of her eye for another cautious moment before sliding the door open, disappearing wordlessly inside.
Hours later she travels noiselessly through the treetops to the training grounds, the moon visible on the horizon only by inches among the midnight blue sky and the endless diamond stars. Dressed in dark clothing very similar to her cousin, as is the Hyuuga way, her long ebony hair is pulled back into a tight bun, features stoic as pale lavender eyes scan her surroundings. Approaching the edge of the Jounin grounds, Yuzuna slows to a stop amongst the treetops, subtle chakra coursing through her hands and feet as they stick to the rough bark beneath her.
Uma and Yuzuna were not near one another. Within the darkness of night, and under the precepts of Byakugan, a figure appears quite quickly within 'sight' behind Uma. The chakra coursing through the chakra network of this being was quite strong. A mechanical voice from behind an alabaster white mask with no markings or shape variant from a plain mask with small holes for the eyes. The only mark on the mask is a red '0' on the left temple. The same as the mask he holds in his right hand. "Hyuuga Uma. You have been selected."-
Yuzuna would meet the same with another ANBU operative, the number on his mask would be the number '3'. Three.
Yuzuna would be met with nothing obvious at first. Her Byakugan not used, she would appear alone in the wilderness at night. Was it a trick? Perhaps, but there did appear to be something odd. The slight glint of something against the moonlight that hung from a several feet in the air, likely from a tree branch. The shimmer of it seemed to catch Yuzuna's peripheral gaze whether she wanted it to or not as it slowly turned about in the air from what ever held it there. Nothing more would happen until she would act.
Uma's initial reaction when something suddenly appears behind her is to spin around, a kunai being drawn with the faintest *shink* as it's dislodged from her pouch. It was, of course, just her initial reaction, for it doesn't take too long to realize that the person was friendly. With another
Dropping her Byakugan, she peers for a long moment at the masked operative trying to figure out who or what exactly the person was. A glance is offered to the mask in 0's hand, and her eyebrows arch at his words. Chosen? Instead of asking for what, Uma simply nods, remaining quiet, listening and waiting for further explanation.
After several quiet moments of nothing seeming to happen in the quiet of the night, Yuzuna slips from the branch and noiselessly falls through open air, twisting lightly and landing in a slight crouch as the impact is absorbed. With something unknown hanging from a tree branch, she snaps her gaze up at the smallest shimmer of the line. Certainly must be metal. Her gaze focuses on it for a moment longer as her right hand moves at her side, snapping open the pouch on her side as she slips a throwing star into her palm, resting between her fingers with a comfortable weight. Whatever this thing was, the Hyuuga girl doesn't doubt that it was left for her. Curling her arm, she throws it with a flick of her wrist, aiming for the wire.
The line is hit and the object falls with a hollow thud, face up. The mask would bare a number on it and would seem to begin to levitate in to the air before the strange parting of the very air or reality around a ebon clad figure would begin to reveal the covered digits of the hand before peeling away to display the rest of the body. Stepping out from his cover and reeling the mask up to his hands as he now walked out in to plain sight would be a man of an average build and height. The mask on him would have a slight, featureless muzzle with a golden three drawn in a design that nearly seemed like an outline of the almost feline features. There were no ears however, and the eye sockets told nothing as they were bare rectangular slits. The voice would come from him, and it seemed to be many tiny voices making one large, even toned one as he would state, "You have been chosen, number Eight."
As Uma would calm, the figure known as Zero would toss the mask toward her. The lavender number 'Six' would be imprinted on the left temple. The face of the alabaster mask, The Dragon. "You are no longer a person. You are now the shadow cast by Konohagakure," the nearly metallic voice continued, "meant to serve in the darkest of situations. Never beside, but beneath and to the side, always trailing and seeing everything, but being nowhere at the same time. No one is to know both of your identities, as Hyuuga Uma, or as 'Six'. Nor any other operative you will know other than their given number-name. Should you know them outside our operations, it will be merely speculation within your mind."
A hand reaches out to touch the trunk of the tree he was standing on a branch of, and a poof in the extremely dim light of the stars would appear a set of black armor. ANBU issue. "We do not fail. We die in pursuit of gathering information and passing it along a direct line to the Hokage. Your own morals have no regard to your decisions from this point forward. For everything is for the Village, and the future generations." With that, a single finger is lent to 'follow me' gesture, as he turns, nodding his head towards the armor. "Put it on, and follow." As a finger clad in an armored black leather glove touches the side of his mask, and some faint whispering can be heard beneath the mask.
Yuzuna harrows her intense pale eyes with suspicion as the object falls, only to float in midair, face up. She stares at the featureless mask before the ANBU operative becomes visible, as if space itself parts around him. She blinks with the mildest hint of surprise at the man, Three, glancing him over before settling on the detail of the mask. The subtle frown forms her expression as she remains silence, a hand not even reaching for her pouch, as she knows who he is and what he stands for. At least, who he is concept. Blinking once as he holds out the mask towards her, Yuzuna watches him quietly before glancing back down at it, silent for a moment or so before her expression firms as she lowers her chin just the slightest hint. "Chosen…" Yuzuna murmurs lightly, as if it were more of a statement than a question.
Within a few minutes, Zero leads Six to where Three and Eight were standing. Carry the two, and you have yourself a party! Really though. Landing next to Three, Zero nods. "Three, you have the briefing for the mission from the Hokage I passed on to you." Nothing was used in paper, save those that deteriorate after mere moments, for anything else could spell lost or compromised information. "From here, you are in charge. Succeed." With that, he bowed a bit, and disappeared from view a few moments later. Whether he jumped away or just vanished is up for debate.
Yuzuna watches Three in silence, listening before her pale eyes look down to his hands, now the mask and scroll offered to her. Moving forward, she reaches out to take the pair, holding the mask gingerly in her slender fingers as she turns the face towards her. The large number eight painted in a deep crimson and precise against the white behind it as its only feature. Releasing a slow breath, she turns her pale eyes up at the operative again, "I will be the shadow within shadows, ensuring the future for others and our loved ones." she murmurs in agreement. Slipping the scroll wordlessly into her knapsack that is strapped over her back, silent as Yuzuna reaches up and pulls on the mask over her head, covering her hair and every facial feature beneath it. She looks up just in time to see Zero leading Six to where she and Three are.
