“Captain, let me handle it.”
“Vulture’s” voice was cold and calm, making it impossible to discern his emotions.
His scrutinizing gaze moved over Shiranui Rei, as though he wanted to see through the mask and figure out exactly what kind of person was hiding behind it.
Shiranui Rei slightly furrowed his brows.
He keenly sensed that beneath that scrutinizing gaze was a deep-seated hostility.
He racked his brain but couldn’t remember ever offending someone with such distinctive characteristics.
Wolf nodded.
“Vulture, you haven’t been in the ANBU for long either. Going a few rounds with a newcomer is just right for you.”
“I won’t hold back. Any injuries are your own responsibility!”
Vulture’s low voice rang out like a warning in advance.
If Rei ended up crippled because he wasn’t strong enough, he shouldn’t blame Vulture.
Hearing this, Wolf pondered for several seconds before looking at Shiranui Rei.
“Newcomer, what’s your opinion?”
“You haven’t officially joined the ANBU yet.
If you want to back out, now is the time.
“The ANBU has the highest death rate of any military unit in the village. Even a newcomer’s assessment may draw blood, so think carefully.”
Wolf saw that Shiranui Rei wasn’t particularly old and therefore offered him one extra warning.
Rei knew this perfectly well.
Every year, some new members joined the ANBU, yet the number of ANBU shinobi had never exceeded three digits, generally remaining around seventy or eighty.
Some members certainly left the organization, but the more important reason was that many died while carrying out missions.
A special forces unit of this nature naturally wasn’t going to be particularly gentle when assessing newcomers.
“Me?”
Shiranui Rei grinned.
“I have no objections.”
After answering Wolf, Rei’s gaze sharpened without the slightest attempt to conceal its edge.
He looked at Vulture, who clearly seemed hostile toward him.
“However, Vulture-senpai, you should be careful too. Don’t join the ANBU only to retire ahead of schedule.”
If someone respected him, he would return that respect.
But if someone showed him hostility, he wasn’t some pushover either!
The moment Vulture heard this, his aura instantly turned cold and fierce.
Anger flashed across his face beneath the bird-beak mask.
“Brat! Don’t get ahead of yourself!”
The atmosphere became as tense as a drawn bow.
Wolf and Moon exchanged a glance, but neither made any attempt to ease the tension.
The ANBU wasn’t some warm, harmonious family that demanded everyone get along.
Here, there were only orders and execution.
As long as it didn’t interfere with the completion of a mission or violate discipline, whether ANBU members got along peacefully or constantly clashed was none of their concern.
Even the captain had no authority to interfere.
Wolf’s expression was hidden behind his mask, revealing nothing.
His calm gaze swept over the two men.
“Then Vulture will conduct this assessment. The results will be recorded in the ANBU archives.”
There was no call to begin.
There was none of the ceremonial atmosphere of exchanging opposing seals before a spar at the Ninja Academy.
The instant Wolf finished speaking, Vulture was already moving, a flash of drawn steel tearing through the darkness.
This was the ANBU.
To achieve their objective, they could use any means necessary!
“Good!”
Shiranui Rei laughed heartily.
The eyes visible through the two openings in his mask burned with blazing fighting spirit.
He had been waiting for his ANBU appointment during this period, refraining from taking missions and instead burying himself in training.
On top of that, he had been completely suppressed when he faced Teach last time.
He had been itching for a good fight.
A satisfying battle was exactly what he wanted.
Rei didn’t draw his sword.
Instead, he pulled out the kunai he was more accustomed to using.
A mysterious mark composed of a circle and several runic patterns was engraved on the kunai’s handle, but it was inconspicuous in the dimly lit ANBU training ground.
Neither the approaching Vulture nor Moon, who was watching the battle, noticed the detail.
Only the more experienced Wolf was slightly taken aback.
He hadn’t seen that pattern in a long time.
More accurately, it was something that couldn’t easily be forgotten.
Could this newcomer possibly…
Clang!
The sound of the kunai blocking the samurai sword rang through the training ground.
Both Shiranui Rei and Vulture felt their hands tremble from the impact.
“Jonin-level strength!”
The same thought flashed through both of their minds.
Not every ANBU member was a jonin.
After all, jonin were already the elite of a village.
If all seventy or eighty ANBU members were jonin, every other department that needed manpower would have collapsed long ago.
Even within the ANBU, only a small portion were jonin.
Most of the remaining shinobi were at chunin level, though there were also some Special Jonin who possessed exceptional skills in specific fields.
Seeing this, Vulture twisted his wrist and pushed off the ground, instantly creating distance between himself and Shiranui Rei.
He knew that the fierce surprise attack just now would only achieve a decapitation against an opponent weaker than himself.
It wouldn’t work against an evenly matched enemy.
“Not a bad whetstone.”
From that simple exchange, Shiranui Rei had already roughly judged Vulture’s overall level based on his strength, timing, and reactions.
For Rei, who had improved considerably during this period, Vulture was practically a whetstone delivered straight to his doorstep by the Sage of Six Paths!
Whoosh!
He calmed his mind.
After locking his eyes onto Vulture’s position, he flicked his wrist and released the kunai in his hand.
It tore through the air.
“Heh.”
Vulture sneered.
He shifted his body to avoid the kunai’s trajectory while continuing to form hand seals.
“Lightning Release: Earth Walking!”
After completing the seals, Vulture slammed one hand against the cold floor of the training ground.
A violent current of lightning spread forward from the point where his palm touched the ground.
“Shadow Clone Technique!”
Shiranui Rei’s response nearly made Vulture laugh out loud.
A mocking curve appeared at the corner of his mouth beneath the bird-beak mask.
Even Wolf and Moon, who were watching the battle, wore puzzled expressions beneath their masks.
They began wondering what Rei could possibly be intending.
Someone who had reached jonin level couldn’t make low-level mistakes.
Otherwise, they would have died on the battlefield or during a mission long ago.
Therefore, they wouldn’t casually judge his actions.
Even so, responding to Lightning Release with a Shadow Clone still left them completely baffled.
In the blink of an eye, the electrical current had already spread beneath Shiranui Rei’s feet.
Crackle!
The unpleasant sound of electricity reached Rei’s ears even before the violent lightning itself.
Yet under Vulture’s incredulous gaze, Rei stood rooted to the spot, neither dodging nor retreating.
Under the astonished gazes of the other three people present, the dense electrical current passed over Rei’s heels.
But something strange happened.
The area directly beneath his feet seemed to become a vacuum.
The instant the lightning touched it, it vanished.
Only the currents on either side continued past Rei, spreading farther into the distance.
“Hmm?”
Wolf slightly furrowed his brows.
Perhaps it was only an illusion, but he vaguely sensed that the shadow beneath Shiranui Rei’s feet seemed darker and deeper than the surrounding shadows.
Yet when he looked carefully, that area appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary shadow cast by the lighting, indistinguishable from the others.
A faint black gleam flashed through Shiranui Rei’s eyes, visible through the two openings of his mask.
The darkness beneath his feet gradually receded.
As expected of that man.
Even such an imperceptible detail had been noticed.
The power of the Yami Yami no Mi really was deeper and more profound than ordinary shadows.
And the lightning produced by Lightning Release happened to fall within the range of energy that the black hole could absorb.
This was an experience Shiranui Rei had discovered after developing his Devil Fruit abilities over the past week.
Beside Rei, the Shadow Clone he had created earlier had disappeared at some point.
Meanwhile, Wolf stared silently at the figure that had suddenly appeared directly in front of him, the two of them practically staring each other in the eyes.
For a moment, he was completely speechless.