The ACR

Chapter One

Hello everyone! I've decided to post this little thing and I hope you all like it! This can stay a one-shot if people dislike it or want it to stay that way, but if you guys like it I have a 2nd chapter written and a 3rd in progress. Enjoy! (By the way: I don't own Naruto.)

The ACR, formally known as the ANBU Common Room, was a place for ANBU to meet and talk to each other. The idea for the room was started when ANBU death rates began rising, and not all of them were war casualties. Surprisingly to some, once the ACR, then known as the ANBU Coffee Room, was built those rates began to drop. After all, ninjas are only human and all humans need contact with others, especially when those humans are in ANBU. Nowadays, however, the ACR is no longer a coffee room but a common room and just a place for ANBU to sit, talk and stave off any boredom during leave when going back to normal society felt a bit off.

Today there wasn't much to talk about other than pestering a new recruit to stop using her voice modifier, at least in the common room. Tiger stood her ground and stayed in the corner of the room with her dog, away from any sneaking hands attempting to steal the device.

Suddenly, Lion, the head captain of ANBU, burst in. "I need at least two fast trackers, it's another RP."

As soon as his statement was out almost all of the ANBU seemed to shrink and try to blend in with their surroundings. Only the two new recruits in the room were left standing, Tiger and Bat. If they didn't have their masks on their faces, they probably would have been ones of confusion.

Lion growled, "Is that all? Well, that's to be expected." He turned his attention directly on the new recruits, "Are you two fast and good at tracking?"

Tiger stepped forward; a monotone voice filled the room, "Aoki is capable of tracking well like all Inuzuka dogs," at this, several ANBU wondered, not for the first time, how an Inuzuka ended up with a feline name. "I also consider myself quite fast."

The ANBU captain nodded and turned to Bat, "And you?"

Bat spoke without use of a voice modifier, "I am adept at sensing chakra signatures and even though I am fast I am most likely much slower than Tiger."

Lion looked at the two ANBU up and down before saying, "Good enough. Come with me."

All three ninja left the ACR and the mood lightened.

Snake all but cackled, "They'll never know what hit them, literally!" Seeing as see forewent the bandana, the chakra neutralizer, and the voice modifier, everyone, even new recruits, knew her identity of Mitarashi Anko. All it did was give her treats an extra edge and make most of the ANBU population hope that she would get transferred to the T&I division soon.

"It's like he knows when there are new recruits and he's initiating them in." commented Ram. The whole room shivered, that was too creepy a thought to dwell on.

In an attempt to change the subject Mouse piped up, "Do you think either of them will quit like Horse did?" All the ANBU remembered Horse. The ninja had gone on a RP and never came back. The next day they had been informed that she had quit.

"Nah," Spider spoke, her lazy way of speaking suggested the possibility of her being a Nara. "Tiger's too strong headed and Bat isn't the type to throw an emotional fit and quit. Anyway, what do you think the new recruits think RP stand for?"

Mouse said, "I don't know what they thought, but when I first heard of it I thought it was something along the lines of Red Panic."

Ram nodded, "Same for me."

"Ha! Well I thought it meant Rabid Pooch, which would stand for a lunatic was on the loose." Snake thought for a moment and continued, "Or at the very least a wanted criminal."

The three other ANBU stared at the kunoichi. Eventually Spider shook her head slowly and said, "Even I can't understand why you would think that."

The door to the ACR squeaked and all the ANBU turned toward it, it had been at most seven minutes since the three other ninja had left and no one had ever finished a RP that fast. Wolf had finished at twenty-one minutes and Weasel had at twenty-five. Everyone else never came close.

But, when the door fully opened it was only Eagle on the other side and the ANBU in the room sighed in relief.

"You all sound delighted to see me." remarked Eagle as he made his way to the coffee 'maker.' It was really just a set of complicated seals that none of the ANBU really tried to figure out.

"Tiger and Bat just went out for their first RP a few minutes ago. "Mouse offered as an explanation.

"Ah." Eagle brought his coffee with him as he sat on a couch, next to Spider. "They'll never guess it stands for Ramen Preparation."

The other ninjas all nodded in agreement, except for Ram. He asked, "Ramen Preparation? Last I checked, it was Ramen Procedure."

Snake waved a hand with a smirk on her face, "Some smart-ass thought of a new name and it was approved. Something to do with double meanings. I didn't bother paying attention after that."

Mouse thought, 'That definitely sounds like something Snake would do,' and picked up on the explanation, "One part of the meaning is linked to the previous name of Ramen Procedure, because it signifies that someone should tell the ramen stand owner to start preparing for a large batch of ramen." The ninja looked to Spider for a continuation.

Spider did, "So, the other part is a bit less literal. It requires you to think of the ninja world as a bowl of ramen and all the ninja in it are ingredients." Snake snickered a little at this and only laughed more openly when Eagle shot a look at her.

Spider paid no mind to the two and continued to speak, "Our little 'golden boy' has a perfect name and you can think of him as narutomaki. What we are doing is cutting the narutomaki up, or preparing him so he can enter the ninja world easily."

Ram nodded and said, "That's a good idea. Whoever thought of it must be pretty creative."

Snake started to snicker again and this time no one bothered to stop her.

Five hours later left only Eagle and Spider in the common room.

The door opened and in trudged Tiger, Bat, and Lion. Lion immediately went to the coffee stand with Bat following, while Tiger decided to collapse on one of the sofa chairs in the room with Aoki curled up by her feet.

Spider observed, "You look like you had a lot of fun."

Tiger moaned in response. "I am never doing a RP again."

Eagle and Spider were surprised when they heard Tiger's real voice. Spider had failed at convincing the kunoichi to go without the device and Eagle had heard from Spider.

Lion offered as an explanation, "Someone stole it."

There wasn't really a need to guess who that 'someone' was.

Bat sat down with his coffee, Lion had decided to stand behind the couch Eagle and Spider were sitting on, and had his turn to moan. "My wallet..."

Eagle shared his pain, as he had been the one to pay during his RP.

"How can one kid eat so much ramen?" Bat uttered and then Tiger commented, "How can he be so hard to catch? The kid wears a kill-me-now-orange jumpsuit."

Lion sighed, "Actually, I was the one to give him the jumpsuit."

Both of the new recruits turned to their captain in surprise.

"He was harder to catch before that even though he was younger," Spider chimed with a small smile at the looks on their faces.

"You mean, he used to be worse?" Tiger stared, almost dumbly, at the other kunoichi.

Eagle would've snorted, had it not been too coarse for his upbringing, and said, "You got it lucky. Judging from your looks he didn't set off any major pranks on you."

"He pranks you back?" Bat asked in almost the same way as Tiger had.

"Yup," Lion nodded a lazy affirmative. "You know, that kid is going to be a menace when he joins ANBU." They all knew it wasn't just a possibility, they were sure that they'd be seeing him in their ranks soon enough.

"Well, look at it this way," Spider offered, "If he's in ANBU he wouldn't have a chance to pull more pranks."

The room relaxed with chuckles and Tiger laughed, "That brat would certainly make a good ninja."

"Good? You mean legendary I'm sure." Lion corrected her in a light voice and brought more chuckles about.

They all knew Uzumaki Naruto was going to go far and they would help the boy on his way to becoming the greatest ninja he could be.

The Data Book: The ACR

Built by an uncertain Hashirama Senju at the suggestion of his wife, Mito Uzumaki, the ANBU Common Room (formerly ANBU Coffee Room) is a popular gathering place at the ANBU headquarters to relax. Inside there are a variety of seats and a set of seals on a table that is somehow able to produce coffee, also courtesy of the Shodai Hokage. Surprisingly, the room has never been destroyed so far.

The room is located next to a large training room from the hallway behind it, and there has been talk of a door connecting the two rooms, although no real plans for it have been made yet.

Thank you for reading! Please leave a thought about whether or not you would like it to continue, if you want. And if there are any problems please tell me!