"This group of combat personnel, probably two to three hundred people were blown to death," After Zetsu finished speaking, he looked at Konan.
The meaning was obvious. How could she have had the ability to plant such a wide range of explosive tags inside Konoha Village?
Konan didn't answer, nor did she respond.
She simply said calmly, "Everyone's condition isn't good right now, let's all rest and disperse for now."
"I'll wait for Kisame to return."
Since Konan said so, Kakuzu replied in a muffled voice, "Just right, some bounty ninjas escaped, I'll go replenish my hearts."
This time, the Akatsuki Organization could be said to have suffered a rare Waterloo.
After all, once everyone joined the organization, they were basically doing missions on their own.
This time after entering Konoha, everyone had different tasks.
But the betrayal of Juzo was something Konan hadn't expected.
As for Kakuzu, Konan originally only wanted him to gather some intel and return.
But Kakuzu got a bit greedy, and happened to run into Sannin Jiraiya in his prime, getting beaten up badly was inevitable.
"I'll go with you," Sasori joined in.
Sasori only needed a body, not hearts. His puppets were thick-skinned and tough, so they could assist a little, so long as Sasori didn't use poison.
Kakuzu, already feeling uneasy due to the loss of a heart, felt much more relieved upon hearing Sasori was coming along.
After the two left, only Konan and Zetsu remained in the cave.
"Where is he?", Konan asked, clearly referring to the masked man.
"Who knows," Zetsu replied vaguely, half true and half false.
Because sometimes Obito wouldn't even take him along when he wanted to do something. He only knew that Obito had gone to Root to deal with Danzo.
Whether he was still there or not, Zetsu wasn't sure.
———
This time, it started with Konan detonating explosive tags, and even a Tailed Beast Bomb had randomly entered the scene.
Many bounty ninjas and other investigative personnel had escaped during the chaos.
Root had been hit pretty hard this time too, although at least no one had invaded the inner core... or so it seemed.
Even though Root was covered with detection barriers and had measures to prevent Earth Style intrusions, they were completely useless against Kamui-style intrusions.
After all, space-time ninjutsu had always been extremely rare in the ninja world, and no one had developed specific countermeasures for it.
Though it wasn't as easy as strolling through a garden, Obito indeed bypassed Root's defenses.
Especially as things outside calmed down, the interior of Root gradually relaxed as well.
They had already started normal experimentation again.
Shigaraki Tanuki and Fujiwara were currently standing in front of a transparent glass panel.
Looking below at a row of breeding tanks, where various kinds of beasts were being injected with Hashirama cells.
But in almost all cases, once injected, the beasts would scream in agony, swell up, and explode to death.
Some would grow trees out of their bodies, tearing their original forms into strange shapes.
Danzo needed to find the creature most compatible with Hashirama's cells, to later use in his "Gyuttenko" plan.
The previously docile Uchiha were now becoming forceful.
And this time, Danzo had been pushed into an extremely passive position, he'd lost his authority.
So Danzo had to try every method to strengthen his own cards.
"Senior Fujiwara, at this rate of experimentation, the consumption of Hashirama cells is too high," Tanuki said while watching the experiments.
Fujiwara, knowing how passive Root's current position was, said, "This can't be helped either. Lord Danzo is already working on a solution."
"We just need to do our own jobs properly."
Both of them were ordinary people, and didn't know that a figure was stealthily eavesdropping on their conversation from the high wall nearby.
'What kind of experiments is Danzo doing that needs so many test subjects?', Obito's eyes glimmered with contemplation.
He didn't have researchers on his side, or more accurately, even if he had them, Obito wouldn't know how to use them.
Hashirama cells were too versatile and could be used for many things.
But naturally, experiments also cost a lot.
Obito didn't linger here, but continued searching inside.
For him, the most cost-effective thing wasn't anything related to Hashirama cells, it was the Sharingan.
Ever since Shisui's death two years ago, the Uchiha Police Force had been continuously infiltrated.
Those who left the force were only sent on missions.
But how could the targeted Uchiha possibly get any decent missions?
Many elites met with "accidents" during missions.
And often they weren't found dead or alive.
Naturally, that had the marks of Danzo's black-ops handiwork.
The Third Hokage wanted to weaken the Uchiha, and Danzo wanted their Sharingan, the two sides struck a deal.
As the number of "missing bodies" increased, even the Uchiha started to realize.
Otherwise, a hesitant man like Fugaku wouldn't have agreed to a coup.
Now within Root, there was still some stock of three-tomoe Sharingan.
The outer perimeter of Root had guards every three and five steps, but once inside the core area, there were actually fewer people.
In contrast, there were many more barriers and seals.
After some exploration, Obito finally found a large sealed door full of seals.
This required a matching key, chakra, and secret hand seal to open.
One could say it was very secure.
However, Obito was never one to follow normal methods.
He passed through the wall beside it at high speed.
Once inside, he saw rows upon rows of shelves.
Obito's gaze was quickly drawn to a row of nutrient tanks.
He walked over and examined them carefully, eyes showing joy, there were a full six tanks containing three-tomoe Sharingan.
Obito grabbed one and directly stored it in his Kamui space.
Nothing was safer or more convenient than Kamui's dimension.
However, just as he picked up the sixth one a large amount of poisonous gas suddenly erupted in the secret chamber.
Outside the chamber, alarms blared loudly.
Turns out, these items required a special retrieval sequence.
But Obito had Kamui, after all.
At the last moment, he stored all the tanks into Kamui space.
Just when Obito was feeling triumphant, he suddenly experienced stabbing pain in his left eye, and interference in his right Mangekyo's Kamui.
At that moment, surrounded by gas, Obito accidentally inhaled a bit.
He shook his head violently, then dove into Kamui space.
In the next moment, as the poison gas filled the chamber, Obito disappeared.
By the time Root personnel arrived, everything was gone. The items were stolen, the thief nowhere to be found.
———
"BASTARD!", Danzo's eyes flashed with icy murderous intent.
"Someone invaded the secret vault and none of you knew?"
The Root ninjas below broke out in cold sweat, "Lord Danzo, we had no idea what method the intruder used to get in."
"There were no signs of the door being opened, and none of the surrounding seals or jutsu barriers were triggered."
Danzo's lone eye was bloodshot. His precious Sharingan stock in the secret vault was stolen. This was a deadly blow.
His situation was already extremely difficult, and now someone had even robbed his home.
Danzo closed his eye slightly, then waved his hand, two men dragged a kneeling person away.
"Lord Danzo, please spare MEEAHHHH…"
A heart-wrenching scream echoed, but Danzo remained expressionless.
Things had taken a serious turn for the worse. Looks like he'd have to resort to outside help.
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