The room was quiet.
Shinra stepped inside and looked around. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the building. No decorations, no unnecessary furniture, and no windows that he could see. It was exactly the kind of place someone would choose if they wanted a conversation that wasn't meant to be overheard.
His eyes eventually settled on the old man sitting behind the desk.
Bandages covered the right side of his face, while his remaining eye watched Shinra with an unsettling calmness.
Shinra already knew who he was. In fact, he had met him a few days ago.
'Shimura Danzo.'
His eyes moved towards Danzo's bandaged arm.
'I don't think he has transplanted Hashirama cells into himself yet.'
Shinra could also feel dozens of eyes watching his every step.
'Root.'
Danzo didn't immediately speak. He simply looked at him, his gaze moving over Shinra as if he were comparing the boy standing in front of him with the reports he had read.
He had already met Shinra a few days ago when the boy had reported the Land of Wind mission. At the time, Danzo had been skeptical of the report. Naturally, he had sent a squad to the area where Shinra claimed the encounter had taken place, and they had confirmed traces of Iron Sand.
That was when his interest in Shinra had grown.
Shinra didn't fidget or look away. He simply stood there and waited.
After several seconds, Danzo finally spoke.
"Come closer."
Shinra was a little apprehensive, but he still walked forward until he was several meters from the desk. Standing this close to the man was uncomfortable, especially knowing that he had a hand in creating at least half of this world's problems.
The other half was Black Zetsu.
"So you're Kamikaze Shinra."
"Yes."
"Do you know why I called for you?"
"I have a few ideas."
Danzo's expression didn't change, but there was a subtle shift in his gaze.
"And?"
"It concerns my mission in the Land of Wind, right?"
The old man didn't respond. Instead, he gestured towards the chair opposite him.
"Sit."
Shinra did so.
"You've performed well," Danzo said. "Very well, considering your age."
"Thank you."
"Yet you don't seem satisfied."
Shinra remained silent, waiting for Danzo's next words. He had a feeling the old man wasn't complimenting him for the sake of conversation.
"I have seen your records. You spend the majority of your free time training or studying fuinjutsu. You were selected as part of Team Eight due to your abnormal sensory range, and that's when your battle talent began to bloom."
Danzo paused for a moment before continuing.
"That's why I want to make you an offer."
Shinra's eyes narrowed slightly.
"An offer?"
"I want you to join Root and protect Konoha from the shadows."
Shinra didn't immediately refuse. That would be foolish considering Danzo's personality. The man sitting opposite him was currently one of the most powerful political figures in Konoha, even though most people had never heard of him.
'The Uchiha massacre still hasn't occurred, so Root is actually still a legitimate organization of the village.'
Shinra quickly contemplated his next move. He couldn't simply reject Danzo without knowing what he was offering, especially when the man had gone out of his way to bring him here personally.
"Root?"
He deliberately pretended to be completely unaware of such a term within the village.
"It's a special force even among the ANBU, reserved for those with potential."
Danzo's voice remained calm as he continued.
"You will receive elite training designed to maximize your potential. Most jutsu in the village will be available for you to learn, with the exception of clan secret techniques."
Shinra listened carefully.
Danzo was openly presenting Root as an elite training ground, one that could turn him into an elite shinobi far faster than normal.
'That's… tempting.'
He couldn't deny it.
Access to elite instructors and techniques was exactly what he needed if he wanted to continue improving at the rate he had become accustomed to. His current instructor was capable, but there was only so much Yogi could teach him compared to an entire organization. Even obtaining the C-rank techniques Yogi had requested from Inoichi had required a personal favor.
Higher-ranked techniques would only become more difficult to acquire.
Root could potentially solve that problem.
But accepting immediately would be foolish.
"…What about my team?"
Shinra didn't have the courage to outright refuse Danzo's request, so he opted for the next best choice.
Stall.
Danzo studied Shinra with his remaining eye.
"It appears that you haven't heard yet."
Shinra remained silent.
"Your sensei, Yamanaka Yogi, has woken up from his coma and was successfully treated by medical ninjas."
Shinra's expression remained unchanged, but he was inwardly shocked.
Yogi was alive.
That much was already a relief.
But if Danzo was bringing this up now, there was more to it.
"He is no longer an active shinobi. Your team will most likely be disbanded after the Chūnin Exams."
Shinra's fingers tightened slightly against the armrest before relaxing again.
'So that's the result, but at least he is still alive.'
He had expected Yogi's injuries to eventually become an issue, but he hadn't expected them to outright force him into retirement. He also hadn't expected Danzo to be the one to bring it up.
And now his strongest excuse for refusing the offer had just disappeared.
"What happens to Hyori and Inumaki?"
"They will be reassigned."
Danzo paused for a moment.
"You as well."
Shinra lowered his gaze slightly.
The answer didn't surprise him. If Yogi was no longer capable of leading Team Eight, there was little reason for the village to keep the three of them together.
Still, hearing it from Danzo made the situation feel more immediate.
He had spent the last several years adapting to the people around him, from his time in the academy to almost an entire year with Team Eight. Hyori and Inumaki had gradually become reliable teammates, and Yogi had become someone Shinra genuinely trusted.
Now that was coming to an end.
Shinra looked back at Danzo.
"You mentioned clan techniques are unavailable."
"Correct."
"What about high-ranked jutsu?"
Danzo's expression remained unchanged.
"If the technique belongs to Konoha, and its use can be justified, you will have access to it."
Shinra went silent.
'That's insane.'
He had been contemplating how to solve the issue of not having enough resources to improve, and now an answer had practically been placed in front of him.
For a moment, he was seriously tempted to take the offer. Then he sighed inwardly.
'But I would be a fool to sacrifice my freedom and potentially my life for power.'
That was the problem.
The offer itself wasn't unreasonable.
It was everything surrounding it that made Shinra cautious.
Root was a force that operated in the shadows. Whatever training Danzo was promising came with responsibilities, and Shinra had little doubt that those 'responsibilities' would eventually turn him into nothing more than a killing machine for Konoha.
No.
For Danzo.
Danzo watched him silently.
Shinra realized that the old man wasn't going to fill the silence for him.
He was waiting.
Waiting to see what Shinra would do with the information he had been given.
"So, what is the goal of Root?"
Danzo's eye narrowed slightly.
"Protect Konoha."
The answer came without hesitation.
Shinra almost smiled.
It was such a simple answer.
Too simple.
"That's all?"
"For now."
That answer was exactly what Shinra expected.
'So he isn't going to tell me everything.'
Of course he wasn't.
Danzo wasn't stupid enough to explain the entirety of Root's operations to a ten-year-old who hadn't even agreed to join.
'Still, this is better than him sending a squad to kidnap me and force me to join. The reason he hasn't done that is probably because of how high-profile I've become after the Land of Wind mission and the Chūnin Exams.'
Shinra remained silent for several seconds before asking, "Would I still be able to participate in the Chūnin Exams?"
"No, the moment you join, any trace of your existence in Konoha will be erased."
Shinra nodded slowly.
He was never going to take the offer, even if Danzo offered him the Scroll of Seals itself. He just had to make sure to convince him that he wasn't against the idea as a whole.
'Danzo is crazy enough to kidnap Konoha's residents and conduct experiments on them. Antagonizing him is a sure way to spell trouble.'
Danzo leaned back in his chair.
"You have talent, Shinra. Talent alone will only take you so far. If you want to continue advancing, you will eventually need access to resources beyond what is normally available to you."
Shinra looked at him.
"I know."
"Then you understand why I made the offer."
"I understand."
The two stared at each other.
Shinra could feel the Root operatives surrounding the building, their chakra signatures hidden throughout the area. The sensors among them could feel Shinra's field probing them, but they didn't act without orders.
Danzo had brought him here to this secluded area because he wanted to recruit him.
But the old man had also made sure Shinra understood something else.
There was nowhere in Konoha that Danzo couldn't reach.
Shinra didn't know whether that was meant as a threat.
Perhaps it didn't matter.
"So, what's your answer?" Danzo asked.
Shinra remained silent for several seconds.
He could accept.
The benefits were immediate, but he would be throwing his life away.
He could reject it.
That would keep him away from Root, but it would also mean having Danzo scheme against him from the shadows, which might lead to an even earlier death.
There was a third option.
Delay.
"…I would like some time to think about it."
Danzo watched him for a moment before nodding.
"…Very well, you have until the end of the Chūnin Exams."
Shinra stood from the chair and nodded.
"Understood."
He turned towards the door.
"Shinra."
He stopped and looked back.
Danzo's expression remained calm.
"Think carefully before you make your decision."
Shinra studied the old man's face for a moment.
"I will."
He opened the door and stepped outside.
Only after the door closed behind him did Shinra allow his expression to change.
'That went better than expected. Now it's only a matter of how to keep Danzo off my back.'
After making sure that no one was secretly following him, Shinra looked towards the sky and formed a single hand sign, his body turning into a puff of smoke.
On the other side of the village near the gates, Shinra received a flood of information from his clone. He had noticed that he was being heavily monitored during the second phase, so immediately after it ended, he formed a clone to accompany his team and snuck out after everyone had left.
On the off chance that he was attacked by Root, Shinra would have immediately run away. He didn't have the confidence to sleep in the village with Root hunting for him. Now he had a bit of time to prepare himself and proceed with the next part of his plan.
'But before that, I need to make a trip to the hospital.'
Shinra flickered away from his position, reappearing dozens of meters away before flickering again.