Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai

[Morishige]

Nobuyuki turned the handle on the door and entered. The pile of papers stacked on his desk were sizable enough for him to considered filling the empty desk in the hallway with a secretary of some kind. But as with all his actions, there came a plan. Today was a day of reform and restructuring for the branch. In light of what happened with Hayata Shin, and what happened at the gates regarding the Yakuza, it was clear that treachery ran deep within the blood of Kumogakureans. He was going to oust whatever he could, at least within the ANBU branch.

He grabbed a dusty folder off of one of the shelves to his left and blew air across the laminated cover. Special Assassination and Tactical Squad Nobuyuki then sat down in the old looking chair and placed the regulations on the desk. He was about to open them up before shifting around in his seat. "Just how old is this thing?" he pondered, reaching over to grab a pen and a post it note. --Get New Chair--

After writing himself a reminded, Nobuyuki opened up and the handbook and started going line by line, reminding himself of the code he memorized long ago. It was going to be a tedious process, but all in all for the better.

Old ANBU Regulations

Spoiler

I. Fraternization between ANBU of any rank, from Trainee to Grand Commander, is a source of discord and weakens the organization from within. Thus, ANBU who are proven to have engaged in illicit relations shall be punished by demotion, exile, or death, should the liaison have invited treachery into the ranks.

• The above rule on fraternization has been suspended indefinitely. ANBU are expected to conduct themselves according the same standards of discipline as the rest of the corps whether in a personal relationship or not. –RCSR

II. ANBU Trainees shall not be needlessly endangered and potentially squandered in battle due to a lack of sufficient equipment. They are now issued the standard uniform, armor, and face mask assigned to mempo and above. Their masks are to be blank until promotion.

III. ANBU of mempo rank or above may voluntarily tender resignation from the corps to the Regent Commander without fear of punishment. Upon completion of this process, the former operative will be permitted to:

• Rejoin their previous branch if applicable, with the approval of the Sennin responsible for that branch (rank and duties to be determined by the accepting branch).
• Apply to transfer to a new branch with the approval of the Sennin responsible for that branch.
• Be allowed to retire to standard, monitored civilian life in accordance with village law.
  III. A. ANBU who have retired above the rank of mempo in good standing are permitted to rejoin at their previous rank provided they still pass mandatory screening and proficiency tests. Former ANBU whose retirements were more than 10 years prior to the current date are required to undergo a trainee period before resuming their former rank.

IV. ANBU Trainees who voluntarily withdraw from or are removed training, or who decide to transfer branches before promotion to mempo, are forbidden from re-entering the selection process again. The same applies to ANBU of any rank who are expelled.

• Trainees who are forced to take a hiatus from training due to injury are not subject to this regulation.

V. Escorting any non-ANBU, non-trainee individual into the Sileo Tempestas without 1.) authorization from the Commander or Vice Commander or 2.) the purpose of interrogation or 3.) the purpose of incarceration is considered treason and will result in execution.

• Knowingly permitting any individual without a valid passport into the village without a direct order from a Sennin or the Raikage is considered treason and will result in execution.
• Aiding, abetting, or knowingly permitting such unauthorized access to the village or Sileo Tempestas is considered treason and will result in execution.

VI. Hunter-nin are obligated to make a good-faith attempt to return with the head of a target and destroy the other remains & all carried objects/items unless those are the object of a direct order from the Commander, Vice Commander, or current captain of the division.

VII. Diversion of ANBU resources and assets (money, space, intelligence, jutsu, equipment, etc.) for any purposes but the work of the Corps will result in discipline up to and including execution for treason depending on the severity of the offense.

• Representation of one's self as an ANBU, when intended to intimidate, misrepresent, or lend illegitimate authority to non-ANBU purposes, is defalcation.
• Teaching ANBU secret techniques to non-ANBU is treason and will result in execution.

VIII. Un-Kumogakurean activities intended to subvert, undermine, or damage the system of government laid down in law and upheld by the Raikage are treason and will result in execution.

IV. All candidates for ANBU training must be approved by the Regent Commander or Vice Commander. Only Taichou-rank ANBU or higher may have trainees. Otherwise, such trainees are formally considered part of Training Squad 1.

V. An ANBU may only be out of the village for up to 60 days at a time without special permission from the ANBU Commander or the Raikage. Any ANBU gone beyond this time will be tracked and captured back to Kumogakure and face demotion or imprisonment.

• AiT may only leave the village with ANBU, for a maximum of up to 1 week, without special permission such as a mission or patrol assignment.
• Vacation time must be applied for in advance to a Captain or higher and approved with proper paperwork before an ANBU may leave the village for non-assignment reasons.

VI. A masked ANBU represents a challenge to gate security. Of course, to enter, their identity must be verified, but at the same time they cannot remove their mask. The solution is the ANBU tattoo. This unique tattoo is only given to ANBU of Kumogakure and cannot be reproduced in any way due to it's nature. The tattoo is invisible naturally, but the entering/exiting ANBU can make it appear for verification at will, or another ANBU can cause it to appear with their touch. The tattoo will have an image or symbol which changes monthly and the ANBU's codename. The ANBU must still hold a passport, though the information may obviously be redacted if the ANBU is masked, to protect their identity. It would contain their codename rather than actual name, and the reason for leaving may be classified, as well as any information regarding the appearance of their face or distinguishing marks. The tattoo serves as the main method of verifying that the passport belongs to the ANBU, and the passport shows that the ANBU is permitted to leave.

New ANBU Regulations

Spoiler

I. ANBU of any rank, from Trainee to Grand Commander, are not to consort among civilians or shinobi. It is seen as a sign of distraction from ANBU's goal of being the elite ninja of Kumogakure. Thus, ANBU who are proven to have engaged in illicit relations shall be punished by demotion, exile, or possibly death, should the liaison have invited treachery into the ranks.

II. ANBU Trainees shall not be needlessly endangered and potentially squandered in battle due to a lack of sufficient equipment. They are now issued the standard uniform, armor, and face mask assigned to mempo and above. Their masks are to be blank until promotion.

III. ANBU of Mempo rank or above may voluntarily tender resignation from the corps to the Regent Commander without fear of punishment. Upon completion of this process, the former operative will be permitted to:

• Rejoin their previous branch if applicable, with the approval of the Sennin responsible for that branch (rank and duties to be determined by the accepting branch).
• Apply to transfer to a new branch with the approval of the Sennin responsible for that branch.
• Be allowed to retire to standard, monitored civilian life in accordance with village law.

III. A. ANBU who have retired above the rank of mempo in good standing are permitted to rejoin at their previous rank provided they still pass mandatory screening and proficiency tests. Former ANBU whose retirements were more than 10 years prior to the current date are required to undergo a trainee period before resuming their former rank.

• 3-A is only effective if an ANBU member has put in five years or more in service to the ANBU branch.

IV. ANBU Trainees who voluntarily withdraw from or are removed training, or who decide to transfer branches before promotion to mempo, are forbidden from re-entering the selection process again. The same applies to ANBU of any rank who are expelled.

• Trainees who are forced to take a hiatus from training due to injury are not subject to this regulation.

V. Escorting any non-ANBU, non-trainee individual into the Sileo Tempestas without 1.) authorization from the Commander or Vice Commander or 2.) the purpose of interrogation or 3.) the purpose of incarceration is considered treason and will result in execution.

• Knowingly permitting any individual without a valid passport into the village without a direct order from a Sennin or the Raikage is considered treason and will result in execution.
• Aiding, abetting, or knowingly permitting such unauthorized access to the village or Sileo Tempestas is considered treason and will result in execution.

VI. Hunter-nin are obligated to make a good-faith attempt to return with the head of a target and destroy the other remains & all carried objects/items unless those are the object of a direct order from the Commander, Vice Commander, or current captain of the division.

VII. Diversion of ANBU resources and assets (money, space, intelligence, jutsu, equipment, etc.) for any purposes but the work of the Corps will result in discipline up to and including execution for treason depending on the severity of the offense.

• Representation of one's self as an ANBU, when intended to intimidate, misrepresent, or lend illegitimate authority to non-ANBU purposes, is defalcation.
• Teaching ANBU secret techniques to non-ANBU is treason and will result in execution.

VIII. Activities intended to subvert, undermine, or damage the system of government laid down in law and upheld by the Raikage are treasonous and will result in execution.

• Non-treasonous crimes committed by operatives are considered one tier higher when it comes to members of the ANBU branch. They are held to a higher standard.

IX. All candidates for ANBU training must be approved by the Regent Commander or Vice Commander. Only Taichou-rank ANBU or higher may have trainees. Otherwise, such trainees are formally considered part of Training Squad 1.

X. An ANBU may only be out of the village for up to 60 days at a time without special permission from the ANBU Commander or the Raikage. Any ANBU gone beyond this time will be tracked and captured back to Kumogakure and face demotion or imprisonment.

• AiT may only leave the village with ANBU, for a maximum of up to 1 week, without special permission such as a mission or patrol assignment.
• Vacation time must be applied for in advance to a Taichou or higher and approved with proper paperwork before an ANBU may leave the village for non-assignment reasons.

XI. A masked ANBU represents a challenge to gate security. Of course, to enter, their identity must be verified, but at the same time they cannot remove their mask. The solution is the ANBU tattoo. This unique tattoo is only given to ANBU of Kumogakure and cannot be reproduced in any way due to it's nature. The tattoo is invisible naturally, but the entering/exiting ANBU can make it appear for verification at will, or another ANBU can cause it to appear with their touch. The tattoo will have an image or symbol which changes monthly and the ANBU's codename. The ANBU must still hold a passport, though the information may obviously be redacted if the ANBU is masked, to protect their identity. It would contain their codename rather than actual name, and the reason for leaving may be classified, as well as any information regarding the appearance of their face or distinguishing marks. The tattoo serves as the main method of verifying that the passport belongs to the ANBU, and the passport shows that the ANBU is permitted to leave.

XII. ANBU are to be of sound mind. Should a Trainee lose their sanity during the rigorous trials of the ANBU branch, or a mission push a Mempo past his own mental fortitude instilled in him by that said training, then they will be decommissioned and sent to the Mental Ward of the Aesculapium. This will not result in a dishonorable discharge, but the individual has proven to not be up to the standard required by the ANBU and it will be suggested for them to either retire or find a home in another branch.

XIII. An ANBU's hidden identity is it's greatest asset. Should an ANBU operative have their identity be exposed by any means, they will immediately be removed from the ANBU branch for the safety of their comrades, village, and themselves.

 

[Morishige]

Nobuyuki looked down at what he had written on the paper and cleared his throat. With the changes he made coming into full effect soon, it was time to make an announcement to the branch.

"Good Afternoon ANBU Operatives,

This is Matsuura Nobuyuki, your new sennin speaking on our encrypted channel. I come to you with information regarding the changes I have made recently to our regulations and other parts of our order. If you have not seen them yet, then you can find them posted in most common areas of the sileo.

I am here to announce that some of you joined far before these changes, and are used to a different type of ANBU. It is my belief that the changes I have made will help us all become what our Raikage has dictated we should be. Elite Shinobi. If you no longer wish to be apart of the ANBU branch, simply submit your resignation and you will be dismissed without tarnishing your record.

It is understandable that some of you may not be up to that standard I have set for the branch, for whatever reason. You will be asked to resign in good standing, without the ability of rejoining the ANBU branch.

If any of you wish to discuss the changes, or believe you are an exception to the rules and regulations, my office is open. Please make an appointment with my secretary Cho." he finished, pushing the microphone away from his face and unplugging it.

He then turned to the paper work before him...

Spoiler

He knew this needed to be done sooner rather than later. It would be better for the village as a whole if he were to have this investigation performed and completed as quickly as possible. That way he would be seen as being on the side of right by more of the populous and could act more the way a Raikage should.

Pulling together his notes he put them all into a folder.

The first series of documents were a group of different papers, each which claimed to be official, but each was different. There were differences in the details of different aspects of the case and each tended towards the safety of either an individual in the council or council as a whole. There weren't enough of these papers to count for every member of council, but there were still a few. Akira had included them clipped together with a note on the front of them saying that these had been found during a search of every council members office conducted after the takeover. The irregularities within them compared to each other were in their own way a type of evidence, these had been created by individuals wanting to attempt to cover their own ass, not a council who had acted towards the benefit of the village.

Hoshikata worked with Ai and Haruka against Shin and Daisuke.

The councils notes were on the following page which indicated the guilt of those involved as they had effectively all participated in covering up the events. Akira couldn't help but agree with them, though there were no notes on the page to indicated this.

On all these pages in the bottom right hand corner was a note which stated that Akira had only accessed this information after acting against council.

After all this came the results from the original autopsy.

A note with them was that Akira had gained access to these through his encounter with Junko, Daisuke's apprentice and the man who conducted the autopsy.

The evidence regarding the type of damage, that the damage had been attempted to be covered up was obvious, where the bodies had been found were detailed. However another note existed by Akira's hand stating he had a recording which showed Junko's jutsu in action which showed the exact details of the room as it was when Junko entered it.

This was followed up by a page with a drawing of what was shown generally. Lines drawn where the attacks were received, that a bow weapon was likely to have direct angles, and where it didn't there would have been a mark where it might have deflected into its target instead. The lines showed that the majority of damage shown came from a very small area, indicating that the projectiles came from a single source. Likely this was Ai.

There were other damages of course and these came from only one further source. Which meant that only two people had been the cause of the damage done to Shin, Daisuke, Ejji and Hoshikata. The second source was likely to be Hoshikata as where he died was close to the source location of the second set of damage, all the damage he took once more coming from the first source.

The next page was a report on what Akira felt might have occurred. It started its description after everyone was in the room, stating that the order in which people entered was unproven and so he wasn't certain on anything to do with this (this had been written before he gained the latter information). It seemed that fighting had broken out and that based on where damage was directed and where objects had been moved that there were three likely groups of people.

The first were the murderers, the second those being murdered and the third were those who were not taking part either way. He noted that of the three groups only Ai and Hoshikata were definitely part of the first group, and Shin and Daisuke part of the second. Ejji who died was standing aside, closer to where Akira felt the third group were, indicating that the youngsters death was probably caused due to a late in the piece interference, likely vocally.

Akira also noted a potential theory in that Hoshikata wasn't involved in the fight at all and potentially was the first one shot down. Describing how if he were where he had been shot down there was enough difference for someone to have been standing behind him, that this person could have waited for his being shot down before beginning their assault on Shin and Daisuke. This would likely mean a third person involved in the attack.

Next were a series of mission records. Each of them was council issues, all hours before Akira was recruited as ANBU Sennin. They each had an ANBU and a Harvester working together on a variety of missions. An influx of missions like this was unusual to say the least, but they were all there. In addition to this oddity the Harvesters all reported back, mission accomplished. The ANBU's had all been killed on mission.

Although the Harvesters had a higher than average (much higher) death rate with allies during their missions it was far from 100% historically. This was unusual and with Keiji as the head of the Harvesters it linked Keiji with the murders as well. The Harvesters being a medical branch meant that Kitsune was also potentially linked.

He had ANBU accessed reports on the different shinobi involved, their relationships with each other and with other shinobi in general. Their clans, anything the village held on them were in the folder. In the files of Haruka and Ai he highlighted that her and Ai's connection was the strongest, they had a clan bond, Ai being the next head of the clan, Haruka being one of the highest ranked shinobi in the clan. They had a strong bond outside of that as well by all accounts. This bond could work with his second theory with Haruka being the mystery second person.

In Hoshikata's files he noted that there were many things identifying his desire to join Cloud. He had come to Cloud many years ago as part of what ended up being Kushin's wedding to Hoshikata's sister, and the arrangement was in both villages best interest. Yet after the fall of Mist it seemed that Hoshikata had attempted to join Cloud and Shin had denied him, instead having the man take on several missions. Each time he returned it seemed he brought up the topic.

Another paper was after this voicing Akira's concerns.

It was a written version of his thoughts, he had written it at the time to try and work out what he needed to do. It was however an official document, dated and sealed mentioning “in case of his death” which was because should he have died during the investigation the letter would have been found by his successor.

Akira noted in this that he was concerned about the depth of the involvement of Haruka, Kitsune, and the council. ANBU had seemed to be killed by the Medical Branch, the likely successor to the Main Branch was now Raikage, and the Council seemed to be in on everything as well.

He mentioned that his concerns were to do with if he moved openly that he could easily be the target of assassination. His enemies were too many and if he brought his findings to the attention of the ANBU at large that this might start a civil war, pitting the ANBU against both Main and Medical, a battle which they would certainly lose and would cripple the village.

It continues as he has decided to bring in a single ANBU Captain, one he could trust to only let on what he told her, her name (Rega) and that he would be taking her to visit Kitsune. Keiji had gone missing which showed some dissention in the Medical Branch, that this issue might have been part of the cause. He hoped that by meeting her she would be able to tell him what happened, that he would do this when she was meeting with another medical shinobi so that there would be two witnesses to the events which would unfold. He would likely know if she were lying based on the information he already had, only certain events required her accounts and none of his suspicions had her as a likely participant in the murders.

He hoped that she would cooperate, and if she should then he would move against the council immediately. Haruka had gone as well as Keiji, though her leaving the village wasn't recorded. This meant that time was of the essence, the next likely group to leave being the council themselves, but someone needed to be held accountable for their actions.

After this was a page with notes written down by Akira after the confession of Kitsune. He had her describing effectively what happened. It was all three of his suspects working together, not just two of them, Kitsune described the events as to what happened that day. Below this were a list of witnesses to the discussion, Junko, Rega, Kitsune and himself.

He had Junko and Kitsune as his two key witnesses, Kitsune as one who witnessed the events themselves, Junko who performed the autopsy. All other witnesses had been silenced apparently by the council's order.

With this folder before him he waited for Nobuyuki to appear to hand it over to him, and let him know that Ayumu would likely also want access to it. The information found after his take over had confirmed to Akira that he had acted justly, it confirmed both his suspicions and Kitsune's retelling of events.

Nobuyuki began to read and marked down who he needed to interview, and what evidence he needed to verify.

• The Councilors and their 'Official' documents
• Junko and the Autopsy report, Kitsune's Testimony
• Kitsune, Her testimony, and evidence regarding the Harvesters
• Rega's Testimony, why she agreed to be involved
• Interview Ai
• Find Haruka
• Find Keiji
• Interview Akira, various evidence