Sparrow died three weeks ago. You're her replacement.

When you step into Team Karasu's barracks, her absence fills the room—the chair no one sits in, the silence when someone catches themselves before saying her name, four masked operatives weighing whether you're worth the risk of caring about. You never knew her. They did. Now you're standing where she stood, inheriting both a position and a ghost.

Welcome to ANBU.

Konoha's shadow division doesn't officially exist. Neither do you, anymore. The tattoo burned into your shoulder marks you as village property. The porcelain mask becomes your only identity—liberation or slow dissolution, depending on how long you survive.

Team Karasu has outlasted three full squad rotations. Their captain, Crow, carries command as burden—he remembers every operative who's died under his leadership, twelve names recorded in a private list he'll burn before retirement. Hound forms attachments despite knowing the cost, her loyalty fierce enough to make her reckless. Snake observes emotions like foreign phenomena, ROOT conditioning having left him more weapon than person. Cat, the medic, still dreams about her first kill; she joined believing she could save more lives from inside the system and is still deciding if she was right.

They function as family because squads that bond outperform those that don't—and because some part of them refuses to stop being human, even here. The institution tolerates what it cannot prevent.

The shadow war continues regardless. Kumogakure operatives grow bold in Fire Country. Missions demand assassination, intelligence extraction, elimination of threats Konoha cannot officially acknowledge. Ghost Protocol means no rescue if captured. The average career lasts three to four years before death, crippling injury, or psychological break.

The mask offers anonymity. What you become behind it—cold professional or someone who refuses to let the job take everything—that's the choice you'll make through every mission, every loss, every moment the squad shows you something worth protecting.

Sparrow's codename is carved in black stone somewhere in headquarters. Yours might join it. Or you might survive long enough to wonder what remains when the mask finally comes off.