Backstory headcanon inspired by @lynvaren‘s Klance ANBU AU...shared with the artist’s blessing to keep this AU-verse growing:
Keith followed the rules and played the good soldier. Kill your emotions, stay on task, don’t stray from the path and never ask questions—especially about the mysterious cataclysm that left him an orphan in an unfamiliar hidden shinobi village. All that mattered was that Shiro had taken him in, loved him and raised him as his own blood. For that kindness, he vowed loyalty to his adoptive brother and their village. He planned to follow in Shiro’s footsteps. His path was clear and with Keith’s ascent to ANBU, he was on target. Until the day his trust and loyalty to the village that forged him was betrayed.
Learning he was assigned to the legendary Takashi Shirogane’s team along with his best friend Hunk and tech-nin prodigy Katie Holt was the best day of Lance’s life. And then there was the worst day—even worse than losing to Keith way back when during the chūnin exam finals—the day Shiro, Matt, and Sam Holt disappeared. Lance’s dream team fell apart and the tensions in the village grew amid a compulsory silence. When shinobi report sightings of Shiro, his idol is rumored to have abandoned the village and is branded a traitor. An enraged Keith leaves the village and an embittered Katie gives up hope for answers on her brother and father’s rescue. Meanwhile, in Keith’s absence, Lance is promoted to ANBU, but it feels a hollow victory.
On a routine mission with his new team—strangely reminiscent of his old team, of course it’s Pidge and Hunk—Lance spots his missing-nin rival Keith and instructs his team to pursue--disobeying the directive to not wander the lands between settlements. Lance’s defiance leads them to the Cave of Lions, where ancient legends, a terrorist group calling themselves the Galra, and his friends’ storied destinies are revealed.
