Earthworm gave a short nod to Spider and walked out. Shota's first lesson with Spider was about to begin.
The heavy door closed behind him with a soft click. The moment he was gone, Spider let out a long breath and slumped his shoulders.
"Finally. That old sandworm is gone. I always have to stand straight and talk like a robot when the other commanders are around. They still treat me like I stole the job yesterday. Bunch of stinky old men who smell like mothballs and are sore about the fact that I rose through the ranks so fast. But it is not my fault that I was born with such great talent that I surpassed them easily."
He stuck out his tongue and made a gagging face.
Shota's eyes went wide. He had never heard an ANBU speak like a normal person, let alone and Anbu Commander insult another commander. His mouth hung open.
Spider noticed and laughed softly. "Why the shocked face, Raven? You know exactly how it feels. Pretending to be one thing and saying something else while thinking something completely different."
Shota blinked. "What do you mean?"
Spider leaned against the wall and counted on his fingers. "You bowed to the Kazekage and said you would serve anywhere for Sunagakure. Inside you were screaming about more work. When Earthworm said most missions are solo, you looked scared for half a second, but your eyes were happy suggesting that you liked the idea of going to missions alone, perhaps to hide something. Little details that matter and people could read you like a book. We would have to correct that going forward."
Shota felt cold sweat run down his back. This guy was scary. He thought that Spider could read his mind but he did not believe that even Yamanaka could do it without the target knowing about it.
Spider saw the panic and waved his hand. "Relax. Everyone curses the Kazekage in their head. I am pretty sure that he himself recognised what you were doing. He doesn't care as long as the job gets done and you don't say it to his face. And we all hide things. That's why we wear masks." He winked.
Shota swallowed hard. A sudden thought hit him like a brick. He had been treating these people like characters from a show he watched in his old life.
He knew the future. He knew big events. But these were real people who had survived years of blood and sand. They read faces the way he read bingo books. They had been born in this environment and were shinobi for decades longer than him.
One tiny twitch could give everything away. He would have to be much more careful from now on.
Spider pushed off the wall and looked at the bruises he had left on Shota earlier. He whistled. "I really did hit you hard. Sorry about that."
He snapped his fingers. Another ANBU appeared, placed glowing green hands on Shota's back and cheek, and fixed everything in seconds. The pain vanished. The new ANBU bowed and disappeared just as fast.
Spider grinned. "Congratulations, Raven. You are my first real student. We have a lot to teach you."
He walked in a small circle around Shota. "First, we will fix the darkness problem. And how your Erasure does not work in such an environment and how you can't sense anyone in there. If Iwa knew about such weaknesses of yours, they would lure you into some underground cave and deal you with there."
"Since you are not a sensor, I will teach you a jutsu I made with Lady Chiyo. It lets you feel living things in a small area around you. It works for defence and attack. It has various stages and is very useful."
Shota's eyes sparkled. A personal jutsu from Spider and Grandma Chiyo? Yes please.
Spider saw the excitement and laughed. "We will make it your last lesson so that you don't giveup midway due to some much of workload. Today your first lesson is stealth."
Shota groaned inside his head.
Spider continued. "Stealth is not just hiding in shadows. Good assassins become part of the background. Imagine you need to kill a rich daimyo. You cannot walk in wearing black and a mask. You become a servant. You wear the same clothes. You copy how they walk. You keep your eyes down. You carry trays and smile like you are happy to clean toilets."
"If the target is in another shinobi village, you become a normal civilian. You buy cheap clothes from the market. You eat street food. You complain about taxes. You laugh at bad jokes. You must look boring. Boring people are invisible."
Shota nodded slowly.
Spider kept talking. "You change your voice a little. You add a small limp or a cough. People remember strange things, not normal ones. One time I killed a merchant by pretending to be his new accountant. I wore big glasses and carried too many scrolls. He never looked at my face once. Too busy counting money."
He smiled at the memory.
"Another trick is to copy someone real. Find a random guard. Watch him for two days. Learn his walk. His favourite curse words. How he scratches his nose. Then you wear his face with a light henge and nobody questions you."
Shota raised his hand. "What if someone asks your name?"
Spider shrugged. "You give the most common name in the country. Nobody remembers common."
Shota thought about it. "So I become the human version of background sand?"
"Exactly!" Spider clapped once. "Perfect background sand. Nobody looks at sand twice."
Spider walked to the centre of the room. "The most important part of blending is chakra control. You must lower your chakra signature. Make a chunin feel like a genin. Make a genin feel like a civilian. The best assassins can fool almost every sensor. Only the Hyuga can see straight through such deceptions because of their eyes."
He looked proud. "I will teach you that too. But first, let's see what you can do right now."
Spider stepped back and crossed his arms. "Little test, Raven. Hide somewhere in the base. I will come find you. You have ten minutes to disappear. If I find you in less than thirty minutes, you clean the training hall toilets for a week."
Shota's face fell. Cleaning toilets sounded terrible.
Spider's smile grew bigger. "Begin."
Shota realised something very sad. Even with all the cool new training coming, his afternoon naps were officially cancelled forever.
He sighed loudly. "I knew peace was too good to last."
-------Author Notes---------
For every 250 power stones. I would be posting an additional chapter. So gimme those power stones!!!
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