Walking calmly through the main hall, Tatsukaze entered the Anbu meeting room alone.
Several ninjas were already waiting inside.
“Commander, we have finished grading all the candidates’ exam papers.
The results are as follows: twelve people left the paper completely blank, and thirty-three people failed to answer a single question correctly.
A total of ninety-four candidates have been eliminated.” A ninja directly subordinate to the Hokage reported to Tatsukaze with extreme submissiveness.
How could he not be submissive?
This was a man who murdered a fellow village ninja right inside the village on a whim, brushing it off with a completely nonchalant excuse.
Who would dare to act out of line in front of him?
‘However…
won’t Lord Second investigate this?’ the Hokage’s direct subordinate Jonin muttered silently in his heart.
Tatsukaze paid no mind to the Jonin’s inner doubts.
Instead, he half-reclined in his chair and asked casually:
“Did anyone get all the questions right?
If so, take note of them.”
“There is one person,” the Hokage’s direct subordinate Jonin nodded.
“It’s Lord Second’s student, your junior martial brother—Danzo.”
Hearing this, Tatsukaze didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He waved his hand dismissively and said, “Well, I suppose it’s to be expected of the man most frequently chosen for the role of the behind-the-scenes boss.
Danzo really went all out for this.”
“Bring his exam paper over here and let me take a look.”
“Yes, sir!”
Question 1: There was a girl who was the target of a Konoha Anbu threat.
She slept alone at night, with only an enemy ninja guarding her company.
In the middle of the night, she suddenly heard a dripping sound coming from the ceiling.
To ease her fear, she reached her hand out to the side of the bed and let the enemy ninja touch her hand, which finally allowed her to sleep peacefully.
The next morning, the girl found the enemy ninja’s corpse hanging from the ceiling.
According to the autopsy, he was killed in the middle of the night.
But wasn’t the enemy ninja still there when her hand was touched?
Please explain what happened.
Answer: The dripping sound was the blood dripping from the enemy ninja’s corpse hanging on the ceiling.
As for the hand that touched hers…
it was touched by our Konoha Anbu.
This nightmare will haunt the girl for the rest of her life, making it the absolute best form of psychological intimidation!
Question 2: There was a family consisting of a mother and two daughters.
The mother died, and the two sisters attended her funeral.
However, after the funeral, the Konoha Anbu vanished, and the younger sister couldn’t find him no matter how hard she searched.
A month later, the younger sister murdered her older sister.
Why did she do it?
What was the purpose of the Konoha Anbu?
Answer: Because if another person in her family died, they would have to hold another funeral.
At the funeral, the handsome Anbu would likely show up again, and the younger sister would get to see him.
If such a psychopathic talent like the younger sister is discovered, she must absolutely be recruited into the Anbu.
Question 3: A prince and a princess were escaping from a castle.
When they reached the exit, a Konoha Anbu appeared and said, “White is the direct opposite of the black that symbolizes the Anbu.
Therefore, the princess wearing the white dress cannot pass.
She must die right here!” Saying this, the Anbu pulled out a dagger.
In the end, the prince died, but the princess escaped.
Why?
Answer: The Anbu’s credibility is absolute.
Therefore, the princess must have taken the dagger provided by the Konoha Anbu and stabbed the prince to death herself.
The prince’s blood soaked her white dress, turning it completely red, which is why the Anbu let her pass.
“All questions answered correctly!
He even went a step further and expanded on the answers himself.
Truly worthy of a man born to lead the Anbu,” Tatsukaze nodded approvingly after reading the paper.
“Inform Danzo that, considering he achieved the highest score among all the candidates, the Commander has decided to establish a special squad composed of the elite among elites within the Anbu.
The squad will be named ‘Root’, and he is the Captain!
Tell him to go pick his own squad members.”
The Hokage’s direct subordinate Jonin hesitated for a moment before asking, “Um, aren’t you worried that he might seize actual power from you?
I’ve heard that Danzo seems to harbor deep rivalry toward you and Hiruzen…”
The only response he received was a cold, utterly disdainful snort from Tatsukaze.
Meanwhile, in Konoha’s Hokage Office.
“Hmph.
Even though his attitude is incredibly lazy, he actually does a pretty damn good job when he gets down to it,” the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, chuckled and shook his head as he read over the report.
Beside him, Hiruzen looked quite restless.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally asked:
“Sensei, wasn’t what Tatsukaze did during this exam…
crossing the line a bit?”
Tobirama cast a mild glance at Hiruzen, then continued with his paperwork, replying without even looking up:
“Crossing the line?
What line did he cross!”
The Anbu are the elite among ninjas.
With an assessment of this level, why should we care if one or two die?”
Hiruzen argued hesitantly, “But, I heard that the man from the Inuzuka clan was…”
“A ninja has never needed their own voice; the only thing that matters is the command of their superiors!
Ignoring a superior and failing to appreciate favors—it’s actually better that someone like him died in Konoha, at least he won’t drag down his teammates in the field!”
His cold words mercilessly passed the final death sentence on Mei Inuzuka.
The Second Hokage was absolutely not a goody-two-shoes like the First Hokage.
On the contrary, he possessed one of the heaviest killing intents in all of Konoha.
How could he possibly care about the lives of such garbage!
Compared to Tatsukaze, the entire Anbu was nothing but trash!
‘Tatsukaze, my expectations for you are incredibly high…’
‘The Inuzuka clan won’t let this go so easily.
They will definitely demand an explanation!’ Although Hiruzen thought this in his heart, he ultimately swallowed his words.
Hiruzen fell silent.
For a time, the only sound in the office was the swish swish of Tobirama flipping through his papers.
Suddenly, the Second Hokage’s hand paused mid-flip.
“Hmm?
Is something wrong, Sensei?” Hiruzen couldn’t help but ask.
However, Tobirama didn’t answer.
Instead, he stared intently at the document for a moment before suddenly saying:
“Hiruzen, if I recall correctly, Tatsukaze and Tsunade have only been training up to this point, they haven’t participated in any official missions yet, right?”
“That…
is indeed correct,” Hiruzen nodded.
In Konoha, master-disciple teams typically grew and matured through the tempering of actual missions.
But Tatsukaze’s team, which lacked any other members and focused solely on teaching Tsunade, hadn’t needed to take on missions yet.
Tsunade was, after all, the princess of Konoha, so she was granted somewhat of an exception.
“Then let’s issue them a mission.
Sending them away for a while will also serve to appease the Inuzuka clan.”
“Inform them to make a trip to the capital of the Land of Fire.”
“Yes, Sensei,” Hiruzen nodded.
He hesitated again before asking, “Sensei, why assign this mission to just Tatsukaze and Tsunade?”
“Hmph.
Didn’t the Daimyo of the Land of Fire agree to officially bestow the title of Princess upon Tsunade?
I’d say the timing for this is just perfect!” Tobirama snorted coldly, answering the question with his own reasoning.