Naruto: The Outsider CH9.10 (325)

CH_9.10 (325)"Six recruits is double the usual admission size… again," said ANBU-nin, codenad Tapir.

He was a middle-aged man in his forties with short, salt-and-pepper hair and more wrinkles on his face than soone his age should have. As ANBU's Master Instructor, he oversaw all the new recruits' training and that took a toll.

He was once a field operative but had transitioned into his current role after retiring from active combat.

For the past year, his workload had more than doubled as ANBU ramped up recruitnt since the ROOT's banishing from the Hidden Leaf. Regardless of what ROOT did, it couldn't be denied that the Hidden Leaf relied on them with various responsibilities, and their exit had left a hole that needed to be filled.

"You know we need the numbers," said Ant, who was involved in the latest round of recruitnt.

Tapir scowled. "This is the limit. Any more and we'll have trouble with integration."

"Training six shinobi is not a lot, Tapir."

"My training isn't the issue. They'll join their teams after this, and soone there will have to take ti out of their schedules to teach them the team's ways—and you know how much everyone cherishes their free ti."

Ant sighed, knowing there wasn't much he could say to that. The one thing every ANBU-nin had in common was that they were busy, and when they got free ti, they would either use it to catch up on work or shut it out altogether to rest.

Bringing in additional people ant more helping hands—but at the start, it actually ant teaching them, double-checking their mistakes, often redoing it themselves. All of which would ultimately slow down the team.

The aforentioned benefits only ca later when the recruits would beco full-fledged operatives, which was why no one liked training new guys.

"And then, those team leaders bla

when the recruits make mistakes at work. Saying, "You didn't train them properly," Tapir spat in irritation.

"Co on, don't be like that. Let's go drinking, my treat," said Ant.

Tapir sighed, seemingly appeased for the mont.

They were currently in an ANBU training facility located within a restricted area in the village. It was a state-of-the-art facility reserved for any ANBU employee, operative or staff, interested in training. It had anything a shinobi could ask for, and if they needed sothing else, Tapir could reserve it in advance.

"What do you think about this batch anyway?" Tapir asked Ant.

"What about them?"

"Do you think they'll stick?"

Not everyone could handle working for ANBU. A stringent selection process ensured their operatives were up for the task, but it wasn't completely foolproof.

Even after passing the testing, so people couldn't keep up or simply did a poor job at it. ANBU letting people go wasn't uncommon, but as a rule, turnover was avoided as much as possible since it required a recruitnt cycle.

"Give them the right jobs, and they'll thrive," Ant replied.

"That's helped

with absolutely nothing," Tapir sighed. It was his job to observe the recruits during their training period to see where they would fit the best. He always got shit from the different ANBU units if their new rookies didn't pick up their jobs instantly.

"What about this Takuma kid? Isn't he too young for us? Or is he like Weasel?" asked Tapir.

ANBU didn't take anyone under the age of thirteen; realistically, they rarely considered those below sixteen as viable candidates because people didn't want to work with a kid.

It was always extra shitty when a young kid died on a mission, however, they had gone and broken that rule by taking in an eleven-year-old Uchiha Itachi, codenad Weasel, into their ranks.

"No one is like Weasel," said Ant, taking a mont to snort. "But the kid is smart enough to deserve the shot; he managed to outreason Eisbar in an argunt—and he can fight. I was pissed off at how he gave us the slip, and that's saying sothing."

While useful, the information didn't make Tapir feel any better because he could already see the ANBU unit he was thinking of pitching Takuma to bitching to him because dumping a kid on them was malicious behaviour.

As if he had so kind of grudge against them.

Bullshit! He cursed under his breath as he entered the room where the six recruits were waiting.

———

.

Takuma watched the two n introduce themselves as Ant and Tapir. He knew Ant from his recruitnt test, but Tapir was new and introduced himself as the Master Instructor, who would be overseeing their training for the next three months.

Although he and the others had not received their codenas or masks yet, seeing the two ANBU-nin barefaced made him feel like he was already part of ANBU.

"Let

start by saying that all of you are shinobi who passed the recruitnt test—you are not academy brats who need to have everything spoon-fed to them," Tapir addressed the six recruits. "You were hired with the expectation that you will be ready from day one, but that's unrealistic, and no one's perfect. Consider this training as putting on the finishing touches before you're shipped off."

According to Tapir, they wouldn't be forced to train if they didn't need it. For example, if they could pass the expected physical requirents, they wouldn't have to undergo a conditioning course to bring them up to speed. Similarly, they wouldn't need a surveillance course if they could collect information without being noticed.

If they wanted to complete the training, they had to pass a certain list of criteria before they could be approved for official duty.

"You must pass the tests if you don't want to train. You can apply at any ti, any number of tis, but if you fail twice in a row, you will have to go through training. And once you start a course, you can only apply to be tested after it's finished—no exceptions allowed," said Tapir.

He motioned to a staff mber sitting in the corner, who distributed a thick docunt to them.

The docunt listed many criteria they had to pass to complete the training. Most interestingly, each criterion had difficulty levels; so had three levels, while others had as many as a dozen. Each criterion had a particular difficulty level marked in bold.

"You must pass each criterion; the level is up to you. The bolded level is recomnded, but you aren't required to follow the recomndation."

"I have a question. What are these recomndations based on?" Yaya Utamatsu asked after Tapir nodded.

"Good question. Not all missions are ideal; they require different skills from the operative. Your leader or the mission supervisor might look at these levels, which will be part of your record, to determine if you're suitable for the mission. Not everyone relies on them, but depending on the person or mission, they can be mandatory, so I recomnd that you update them by getting tested every once in a while."

Takuma read the docunt as Tapir spoke. The docunt included a mix of criteria, from combat to intelligence skills. One basic criterion was shurikenjutsu, which tested throwing skills with projectile weapons such as the shuriken, kunai, senbon, among others. It had seven levels, but the recomndation was at the second level.

He turned the pages and eventually arrived at the page with a heading titled "Other/Optional." One of the reasons he joined ANBU was to get better training. They promised to invite forr ANBU-nin and specialists for training if he wanted them. When he heard the training period was three months, he wanted to use all of it for training. But Swine recomnded they complete their training as soon as possible.

Takuma realised that if he spent the entire three months, he would be setting a bad first impression on his eventual team, who would think that it took him all three months to pass "basic training