Akikogakure's Anbu

The **Anbu** (暗部, *English:* Anbu Black Ops, *Literally meaning:* Dark Side), short for **Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai** (暗殺戦術特殊部隊, *Literally meaning:* Special Assassination and Tactical Squad) are covert operatives of capable ninja that are dispatched by their village leader. There are apparently no true ranks within the Anbu, however there is one specific overall leader; team leadership and hierarchy seem to be based on merit and experience. The leaders of the teams are called Squad Leaders (分隊長, *Buntaichō*), a position held in high regard. The Head of the Anbu in Akikogakure is a woman named Kumiko Kagayakimasu.

## Overview

Because of the darkness involved in an Anbu's career, one's personality determine their eligibility into the force, leading to exceptional skilled shinobi whose personalities don't match the organisation to be rejected. Well, that would normally be the case in other Hidden Villages. In Akikogakure, while the Anbu still take on incredibly dark and important missions, they usually have more emphasis on staying alive rather than completing the mission, and as such avoid some of the cruelly hard decisions they would face in any other Hidden Village's Anbu. No children are allowed to join Anbu, no matter how skilled they are, for fear of someone so young losing their life. Once joined, they undergo training including studying of the human body, and some also begin wearing masks to mostly conceal their identity. The Third Suishōkage hopes for this rather unique set of rules to be carried on for as long as possible after his passing.

Akiko Anbu nearly always make an appearance on important missions inside and in the vicinity of their village, but are mainly tasked with assassinations or disturbances in foreign countries.[2] The assignments that they conduct to protect the village from exceptional threats include high-risk infiltration into enemy territory, dealing with extremely strong ninja, tracking, surveillance, interrogating enemy ninja to learn information and missions requiring specially trained ninja. Due to the actions of the group, one can appear changed and corrupted of kindness. Once again putting an emphasis on life over the mission, no matter how dangerous or sensitive the mission turns out to be, Anbu are encouraged to only destroy Anbu members corpses as a last resort, as it is preferred for the members corpse to be brought back for a burial, or if they are only severely injured, for them to have a chance to survive. If the body of an Anbu member is destroyed, it is a decision left up ultimately to the Squad Leader, and if the decision is made then inquires are made into why and their circumstances, as to make sure there really was no other way.

## Uniform

* Almost all Akiko Anbu wear some kind of mask to conceal their identities, which is a similar mask to the shinobi Kakashi Hatake in Konoha
* They also have standard uniforms which, for Akiko Anbu, consist of black clothing, a grey flak jacket, metal arm guards and gloves, ninja sandals with spikes for travelling into mountainous regions and three ninja pouches on their back-waist. Some Akiko Anbu wear black hoods over their heads, and squad leaders may wear dark purple hoods. Most of them carry a sword, which is usually strapped to their backs.