One month later
It was early in the morning and Sasuke found himself free from his various lessons after his arduous month of training.
He was sprawled on his bed staring at the ceiling above him, reflecting on what he had gone through this month.
The perception training started all well and good, but later he had to practise using his perception in more 'practical' scenarios. This ended up with him dodging kunai that had chakra sealed within them, which was an attempt to recreate how he would have to try and dodge kunai equipped with explosive tags.
The stealth training unironically turned out how Sasuke had thought it, his final lessons ended up being him trying to prevent Neko's pet tiger from finding him. Unfortunately for Sasuke, most animals have much stronger senses than humans- increasing the overall difficulty of this exercise severalfold.
Finally, there was the assassination technique training. This ironically caused the least trauma for Sasuke as he got used to the lessons rather quickly, though it didn't make them any less gruesome.
On the bright side for Sasuke at least he had made significant progress in terms of the strange Fuinjutsu seal he had previously learned. He can now last 25 minutes outside of his body, Sasuke had also noticed the effects of increased spiritual energy.
He seemed to be able to take notice of changes in his environment far more sensitively than before this exercise, realising that his ability to intuitively sense people around him has also grown stronger.
With a tired groan, Sasuke propped himself up from his bed and he began thinking about what he had to do that day.
After donning his Anbu attire and mask, he set out from his home. This time not to his usual destination- no, this time he was heading to the Mission Section.
At the mission section, Sasuke found himself staring at several stalls- most of which were devoid of any visitors. They had various labels on them ranging from 'Induction Missions' to 'Intelligence Gathering'.
At first, Sasuke was baffled by this as he had thought that the Hokage ordered all the Anbu regarding their tasks. But he soon realised that would be far too time-consuming, this method where designated missions would be given to Anbu for completion through another channel seemed much more efficient.
However this didn't mean that the Hokage couldn't arrange tasks for Anbu, instead he would only do so occasionally or for important missions.
Approaching the stall marked 'Induction Missions,' Sasuke caught the attention of the seated Anbu.
The figure behind the stall, clad in the standard Anbu attire, noticed Sasuke in front of him as he lazily raised his head and spoke to Sasuke, "The new Uchiha recruit? I've been told that you have completed your training, if you have any specific preferences regarding your induction mission you should say them now."
"I only have one preference regarding this, could I have my mission slightly further away from the village..." Sasuke's words paused as he got to the end of his words, before swiftly continuing.
"For example, what about over near Kusagakure?"
As Sasuke spoke, his eyes behind his mask glowed with excitement- he was close to setting his first plan into motion.
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Sasuke found himself dashing through a forest outside the village as he made his way to conduct his induction mission. Details of the mission began flickering through his mind, as the cogs in his brain began turning- sifting through the finer details of his plan.
'My induction mission perfectly aligns with my goals, it is a bandit extermination request for somewhere near Kusagakure.'
Kusagakure Impressed Sasuke to no end on how useless they are, but he can't say much when he's the one benefiting from it.
'The first phase of this plan is for me to gain one thing. A White Zetsu corpse...
I still need a few backup plans in case this fails, however unlikely that will be.'
Yes, Sasuke had been looking to get a White Zetsu corpse which was the first step for him to empower himself. However, when he had first planned to do so he had come across quite a few issues but one stood out in particular.
Where could he find a White Zetsu?
He can't just search the entire ninja world for it, as that's simply not feasible. Instead, Sasuke began to dig through his memory of the anime until a certain detail stood out to him.
It was Obito. He was almost killed in the 3rd Shinobi War but was healed by Zetsu and brought back to Madara. But there is something here most people don't realise, Obito can't exactly be carried by Zetsu from the Land of Earth-Land of Fire border to somewhere else immediately to see Madara.
This would mean that an old base of Madara is likely to be found here, meaning he could find what he had been searching for there and possibly more.
There would also be no reason for a White Zetsu not to be guarding such a location, regardless of whether it was empty or not as such an intricate base hidden at this specific border would simply raise far too many questions.
Sasuke had been preparing for this for years, in the library alone he had scoured all available resources regarding the geography of the ninja world.
With this knowledge, he was able to narrow down where this possible hideout could be to a few select locations in the area.
'I'll have to quickly finish this mission so I can start searching...'
Sasuke's thoughts drifted as he kept on moving through the forest with his Lightning Style: Body Flicker Jutsu. After some time had passed on the road, Sasuke looked around and noticed how deserted it was around him. Satisfied there were no eyes on him, he quickly summoned Luna and jumped onto her back as she ran towards the bandit hideout's location.
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A few hours later
Sasuke stared at the hill in front of him, it wasn't exactly very tall but combined with the glow of the setting sun it exuded a rather eerie air.
'Kusa Vipers?'
The name of the bandit group flashed through Sasuke's mind, it was a group that had only become active recently. Normally, Konoha wouldn't care less if there was a bandit group off in a different country. But this specific group seems a bit... brain-dead?
Sasuke simply didn't understand why the bandit group had the genius idea of attacking the Land of Fire merchants, not even once or twice at that- before Sasuke had left the figure reached 7.
The most important thing was that they didn't even take hostages or simply wealth, instead, all members of the merchant caravans were slaughtered.
Worst of all, they had to just attack and kill a merchant group that was bringing in some luxurious items from across the ninja world to the Fire Daimyo.
Yep... that was exactly why a member of Anbu was deployed for this mission.
'The information I have been given indicates that the group has around 30 members, with only around five people there who can use chakra. The leader of the group has the strength of a Genin.
*Sigh*
I should just get this over with quickly, so I can have more time for myself to act here. As I'll have to return to Konoha within three days, otherwise there may be suspicions regarding what I was doing here.'
Sasuke quickly summoned 2 shadow clones and sent them to scout out the hideout, whilst he set up camp with Luna further away.
'Master, do I need to join in?' Luna asked Sasuke telepathically, unsure of what exactly she was to do.
'You don't need to directly join in the battle, but keep looking out for anyone that managed to escape- deal with them as you see fit.'
As they were talking, Sasuke received the memories from his shadow clones that dispelled themselves.
'Good. The information I was given didn't seem to be wrong.' Sasuke thought to himself. With his training from Anbu, he could discern chakra capacity through perception and was able to reduce his presence quite well- allowing him to quite easily collect information from this bandit group.
'I guess it's time to start...' Sasuke stared deeply at the sky above him which had now turned dark. The glow of the stars and whispers of the forest enveloped Sasuke as he tried to come to terms with what he was going to do.