Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI - Chapter 227 - ANBU Leader.

[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.]
Third Person POV
Konoha, Year 42.
...

...

"Minato Namikaze, you are here." Hiruzen commented upon seeing the young ninja in front of him in his office.

"Yes, Lord Hokage, I came as soon as the messenger arrived at my house this morning." Minato spoke.

Hiruzen nodded before continuing. "There was a discussion I was having with your leader since we were deciding to change the structure of your squad." The Hokage said while Minato raised an eyebrow, not understanding why he was here in the first place—after all, it was an administrative decision that should be made solely by the Kage and Alpha, Minato's squad leader.

"And what would that be, Lord Hokage, if I may ask?" Minato questioned.

"Well, first we decided that we’re going to split your squad. Instead of 24 ninjas made up of six teams, since each team has 4 ninjas, we’re going to form two ANBU squads. That means 12 ninjas in each squad." He explained.

To finish his thought, Minato was surprised, about to ask what that meant for him, but the Hokage continued.

"And, for that, we need a new leader for one of the two squads, with Alpha continuing to lead the other. We’ve reviewed the mission performance reports from the last six months, you’ve always been the fastest in executing your duties under your leader’s orders, and, even though you're young, you already have leadership experience, like during the war. We were looking to appoint you as the leader of the second squad." Minato was surprised by the information.

"So that means...?" he murmured, but the Hokage interrupted him before he could finish his reasoning.

"It means I’m here to assign you the leadership of your own team, separating you from Alpha. After all, all ANBU teams generally have a squad of 12 people. Yours was the only one with 24, since we didn’t quite know where to reassign the new ANBU after the war, and some teams were almost completely destroyed during the Second Great Ninja War." He paused before continuing.

"That is why I am here to offer you this opportunity to lead your own team. I know the responsibility is great, but I believe you will do well. You have already proven that in the war, taking care of camps, which was an even greater responsibility than leading an ANBU team."

Minato nodded upon hearing this, understanding the situation.

"I see... Well, I will accept the proposal. But may I know who I will be leading?" Minato asked.

The Hokage nodded. "All the information you need is inside this scroll. Your team, your missions, your new base. Alpha himself should already be waiting for you after this to guide you, so you will spend the whole day with him and begin tomorrow." Hiruzen said.

Minato nodded again. "Alright." He stepped forward and took the scroll from the Hokage.

"I wish you good luck, Minato. I am sure you will not disappoint the Leaf." The Hokage said.

Minato nodded before leaving the place, disappearing with Raijin. He landed on the head of Hashirama’s statue and, with a seal placed there, quickly opened the scroll to check the information.

He was relieved to see that Wind and Valkyria were also in his team, along with other ninjas he had already worked with during the war. This would not be a problem, and it seemed that the Hokage had given him preference over Alpha, even though Alpha had led these same people for a longer time.

With everything in mind, Minato headed toward what was now his former team's hideout, where Alpha awaited him, and vanished from Hashirama’s head the next moment.

"Do you think giving him leadership would be good at this moment?" Meanwhile, back in the Hokage's office, a voice emerged from the darkness.

A man stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to be none other than Danzo.

"You were the one who suggested it, Danzo." Hiruzen responded without hesitation.

"Yes, but that was before the meeting. With his bond to the Uzumaki girl, this could become a problem. As the leader of his squad, he will be obliged to obey our orders..." Danzo spoke, his expression grim.

"You changed your mind after what happened in the meeting? That was not exactly how you and I had discussed it would be." Hiruzen said.

"Yes, but you heard what happened while we were inside the castle. He took down two Swordsmen of the Mist in mere seconds before our ninjas arrived. No one managed to gather information on how he did it, but it doesn’t seem like it was the Second Hokage’s Raijin." Hiruzen responded.

"Besides that," he continued, "the boy also used some kind of jutsu that went out of control and spread throughout the camp, with wind and yellow lightning, either some kind of Genjutsu or another unknown technique. He took down more than a dozen men, making them faint, and our sensors couldn’t even detect what truly happened."

"Do you know what he used?" Seeing Hiruzen in silence, Danzo asked at the end, while the Hokage shook his head.

"I have no idea. The reports say it happened exactly as you described, but I don’t know what took place there."

"I'm telling you, Hiruzen, that boy possesses one or more Kekkei Genkai." Danzo insisted. "You heard the Raikage expressing his fury when he briefly commented on his fight against the boy. He said that Minato moved at a speed even he couldn't compare to while glowing the entire time."

"..." Hiruzen remained silent as Danzo continued.

"He even mentioned that, soon, the boy could disobey us. We have to be careful with this."

"And what do you propose, Danzo?" Hiruzen asked. "He is already under our surveillance, and we will put him on missions that will test whether he truly follows the Village’s orders like a true shinobi."

"I want you to transfer him to another team. Assign him as the leader of an ANBU squad, but with Root members. We will see if he betrays the Village, and if that moment comes, he will be eliminated by my men." Danzo said.

"You want to eliminate him before that, don’t you?" Hiruzen questioned, narrowing his eyes. "We cannot do something like that. It’s no coincidence that I couldn’t even include any of the names mentioned by the Kages as part of the agreement. We had to sacrifice the Uzumaki for this. After all, they are outside the country, and all the people in the Leaf Village will understand that we cannot get involved in this—they will prefer peace." Hiruzen stated.

"But if he shows any sign that he won’t obey the Village, we will have ninjas ready to eliminate him at his side. Don’t you agree with that, Hiruzen?" Danzo insisted, trying to convince him.

Hiruzen remained thoughtful for a few seconds before responding. "We will see about that in the future. When the time comes, we will act according to the situation."

Elsewhere, outside the Hokage's building, Minato had arrived at the location where he was received by the 23 ninjas of his former squad. It seemed that Alpha had already spoken to them, as they all looked at him with attention.

"Looks like the brat became a leader. It’s a shame to lose our mascot." Mirage commented behind her mask.

"I think you shouldn’t call him a brat now. He’s our leader." Echo responded. "Besides, he hasn’t been our mascot since the war."

"Hey, let’s stop this discussion and focus on the matters at hand." Alpha suddenly spoke, already anticipating the argument between the two.

It was a rather recurring event. One was an alcoholic from the Kurama clan, the other a glutton from the Akimichi clan. Even though everyone already knew there was something going on between them, Minato shook his head as he observed them, not offended by their words. He knew the two had become lovers, yet they continued treating each other like cat and mouse in front of the others.

Mirage talked too much, and Echo always contradicted her. After six lines, an argument would always start. Despite that, it never interfered with missions.

Now, Minato would be leading them.

"Well, I assume you accepted the proposal. You’ll now be leading half of our squad." Alpha spoke, and Minato nodded.

"Listen up, everyone. I will now have a conversation with Lumen." Alpha turned to the other 22 ninjas. "From now on, I want everyone keeping watch over the Village. Tomorrow, we will discuss everything in our separated teams." Alpha announced.

Everyone nodded and disappeared, heading to their surveillance positions around the Village.

Alpha began talking with Minato after that. They spent the entire day discussing strategies, and Alpha asked a few questions about how Minato would handle certain situations. However, Minato was already familiar with most of the protocols, as he was used to that kind of work.

It was interesting for him to become an ANBU leader, as it would be a new experience.

At the end of the day, he met with the team again. Those who would be part of his squad gathered with him in another location the following day because Minato needed to take them to the new hideout, which Alpha had shown him during their time together.

Minato would begin training them to operate in specific missions. His squad would now be more active externally than internally in the Village, even though their primary function was still to protect Konoha from dangers, like any other ANBU squad.

After training, he ended up going to Ichiraku Ramen once again with the girls, where he met his friends from the academy days.

The night was peaceful, and Minato returned to his apartment along with Mikoto.

The girl was already used to sleeping in his arms, like a couple.

Everything seemed normal until, in the middle of the night, Minato suddenly opened his eyes, tensing up.

The sudden movement caused Mikoto to wake up as well, alert as she saw Minato in that state.

"Something wrong?" she asked, watching him get up.

"I have to go. I’ll be back soon." Minato simply replied before disappearing using Hiraishin, leaving Mikoto surprised and alone there.

Minato appeared in another place, which was also a room, as the doors quickly opened. His eyes scanned the environment and first focused on the girl trembling in bed, her eyes filled with fear.

Before he could react, she jumped on him and clung to him tightly.

"Minato!" Kushina exclaimed, crying.

Tsunade approached quickly, wearing pajamas, observing the scene with attention. Tsuna also reappeared at the door, her expression surprised and alert.

"Tell my brother not to come in here," she said to her daughter, as Nawaki was also approaching.

Tsuna closed the door, spoke with Nawaki, and then returned her gaze to the scene, watching as Minato was hugged by Kushina in front of her mother. The red-haired girl trembled and seemed nervous, tears in her eyes.

"Tell me, what happened?" Minato asked, knowing that Kushina had activated the seal to call him.

"Sorry... I just had a terrible dream." She murmured while still crying.

"It was the Nine-Tailed Fox, wasn’t it?" Minato murmured, looking at her.

"It seems the seal is starting to weaken," Tsunade commented in a serious tone, looking at Kushina.

Until that moment, Kushina had never truly come into contact with the Kyuubi, at least not directly. But, by the looks of it, that situation had changed that night.

Minato observed her carefully. This would be another problem he would have to deal with. Perhaps the time had finally come to start facing the issue of the Kyuubi.

The beast was filled with pure hatred in this era, and Minato had never addressed this issue directly. He knew that any interference could affect Kushina, which is why he had avoided provoking the bijuu inside her, as he knew it would cause her to suffer from that moment on.

The only time the Kyuubi had really reached out to Kushina was when she mentioned hearing an external voice while she was being kidnapped.

It seemed that the moment to start dealing with the fox could no longer be postponed.

'It’s reaching out to Kushina for the first time, probably whispering the idea of being freed…' Minato thought.

Fortunately, the seal had not been broken, and its chakra was not leaking. Additionally, since no ANBU had appeared, that was a relief.

However, if Kushina started having visions of her previous jinchuuriki, Minato knew he had to act before the situation spiraled out of control. He needed to talk to Kurama—either by trying to negotiate or by facing it directly. After all, he was not Naruto, and he couldn’t solve everything just with words.