"A mission?"
Konome froze for a moment.
Since joining Root, she'd been enjoying their resources in the experimental division. Danzo had never assigned her a single field operation. Hearing those two words now almost felt unfamiliar.
"My Sharingan research is at a critical stage," Konome said carefully. "I might not be able to get away."
Her most important task was still the Reverse Eight Gates. Every scrap of time and focus she had was being poured into it. Where would she find room for some Root errand?
Danzo frowned. "Your research is excellent. When you return from the mission, you can pick out a pair of Sharingan as your reward."
A reward… Sharingan?
Konome's eyes shifted.
Then it circled back around.
She was only a shadow clone. Even if she went out on a mission, the main body and the other clones could still keep researching in Konoha. The overall progress wouldn't slow much.
And the Reverse Eight Gates project urgently needed the Yin Release chakra inside Sharingan for life-force purification tests. Root's Sharingan were usable, but she couldn't take them out of the lab. Everything had to be done under Chihaya Tōru's supervision.
That made many experiments painfully inconvenient. Even if she succeeded, she would still have to find a way to obtain a Sharingan for herself.
So wasn't this… the perfect opening?
Konome cleared her throat. "Ahem. My experiments really can't afford delays, but since it's my teacher's mission, that takes priority."
Watching the entire exchange, Chihaya Tōru curled his lips, then lowered his head and went back to studying the Sharingan.
"The interrogation unit dug up a lot from that man's brain," Danzo said.
He lifted his cane and pointed toward the corpse on the bed, the one missing its heart.
"Kumogakure has an important mining site near the edge of the Land of Lightning. The ore they produce is said to be extremely valuable.
After long investigation, our people have finally pinpointed the mine's exact location."
"Time. Place. Who do I kill?" Konome asked bluntly.
"Leave the village tomorrow. Go to the border of the Land of Lightning. Destroy every mine."
"Just destroy it?" Konome tested, studying Danzo. With a man like him, it was hard not to suspect a deeper angle.
"Of course not!"
Danzo's eyes flashed with killing intent. His lips pulled back, showing teeth pale as bone.
"Slaughter everyone guarding the mine. Not one survivor.
Take the ore if you can. If you can't, blow up the tunnels with it.
Kumo dared to charge into Konoha and kill our people. Do they think they can trade a few words with that soft Hiruzen and have this swept under the rug?
Not that cheaply.
No one provokes Konoha without paying the price!"
So it really was that simple?
Konome glanced at the emotional light above Danzo's head. His fury and bloodlust were so pure they looked like red-black ink, thick and heavy.
She'd always assumed Danzo only targeted Konoha's own, that he excelled at internal conflict and manufacturing tragedy.
But if she thought about it, it made sense.
Hiruzen had tolerated Danzo and Root for years. Shinobi like Arashi had joined from ANBU. Even after Danzo died, many still acted under Root's banner voluntarily.
Root could not be just a cruel horror organization. It had to possess some sort of "positive meaning" in the village's shadowed logic.
"If you get the chance, bring back a few experimental materials for me," Chihaya Tōru said, immediately cutting in when he heard the mission was to the Land of Lightning. "Subjects who train Lightning Release Armor are especially effective."
"I need to ask Iruka-sensei for leave," Konome said, ignoring Chihaya Tōru's request as she grabbed the black cloak hanging nearby and draped it over her shoulders.
Danzo's expression soured.
Hiruzen was one thing, but who was this Iruka-sensei? She needed permission from him just to carry out a Root mission?
"Iruka is who?" Danzo asked.
"My homeroom teacher at the Ninja Academy."
Danzo's grip on his cane tightened. In the end, he could only close his eyes and nod, resigned.
"Tomorrow morning at seven. Meet at Konoha's equipment division."
"Understood."
Her cloak spun once and settled behind her. Konome strode out of the operating room.
Root's intelligence network wasn't blind. Danzo knew she could use the Shadow Clone Technique.
Normal shadow clones shattered from a touch and could hold at most half the original's chakra. And because most shinobi strength was built on chakra, ordinary clones were weak, used mainly for scouting.
Konome was different.
She specialized in ninjutsu-enhanced taijutsu and didn't rely heavily on chakra output. The Shikotsumyaku could not be used actively, but its passive bone hardness carried over to her clones. Combined with Lightning Release Chakra Mode's defense, most attacks couldn't even break her guard.
She sidestepped the two biggest weaknesses of shadow clones.
And with the high-quality chakra from the Nine-Tails and Three-Tails fusion, her clones operated at roughly eighty percent of her main body's strength. That was how she had easily killed three tokubetsu jōnin under Root's siege, leaving Danzo without reason to doubt her "true identity."
Later, the transmissive nature of the Nine-Tails chakra solved the usual clone-chakra shortfall altogether.
Konome's shadow clones now reached ninety percent of her main body's combat power.
The way she "instant-killed" three jōnin in the underground base hallway had effectively nailed down the illusion that she was the real body.
Using a shadow clone to erase three jōnin in moments was something even Danzo might not manage.
No one would believe a six-year-old could be an opponent on his level.
That was how she slipped into Root without raising suspicion.
But Danzo could not be allowed to discover that even while she was "leaving the village for a mission," she could still attend school inside it as normal.
That kind of "hiding in plain sight" was hard to conceal once the timing overlapped.
Her fingertip tapped the false chakra core at her heart.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Eight hearts linked through the void.
Her Yang Release clone instantly sent the memories of the experiment and mission back along the chakra chain to the main body, who then relayed it to the other clones.
At the Academy, the Konome clone packing her bag stiffened as the memory arrived. She slung the bag over her shoulder and went straight to ask Iruka for leave.
It went absurdly smoothly.
She hadn't even started her fabricated excuse before Iruka approved it.
After killing Yotsuki Yū and saving countless students, after becoming Konoha's number-one prodigy, her status in the academy had reached the peak. The only person who could outshine her in popularity was the Hokage, who also served as part-time principal.
Who needed a reason to grant a genius a day off?
A genius gets tired. Taking two days to play, what about it?
Before the Yang Release Konome even walked out of Root's gate, the leave was already secured.
She simply turned and went to see Hiruzen, claiming her new technique had made some progress and she planned to seclude herself in the Forest of Death for at least a week. Next week's one-on-one lesson would have to pause.
Hiruzen hurriedly extinguished the pipe in his hand the moment she arrived.
"Don't research Yin and Yang secret techniques. And absolutely do not research them when you're alone!"
A breeze carried the smoke and dust out the window.
"Just Five Nature Transformations," Konome replied. "And smoke less."
She waved and left the Hokage's office, giving him only the silhouette of a black back.
"So noisy," she muttered.
Hiruzen rolled his eyes. He reached to light the pipe again, hesitated, and sighed, setting it down on the desk instead.
Back at the Hatake compound, the main body Konome paused her sealing-jutsu tests against Shikotsumyaku and packed all the Hashirama cell samples from the basement into sealed scrolls.
If she was claiming seclusion in the Forest of Death, the act had to be complete.
With large supplies of food and water, Konome dispelled every clone except the Yang Release clone, then went alone to the waterfall deep inside the Forest of Death.
Roar!
Spray exploded, thunderous as galloping horses.
But Konome was no longer the same person.
Her right arm lifted across the air.
Sharp Wind Release chakra gathered along the outside of her forearm. With extreme shape transformation, the Wind Release chakra formed something like a fin.
She swung.
Buzz.
A transparent ripple, nearly tangible, cut through the air.
The instant it touched the waterfall, the endless curtain of water split cleanly in two.
That wasn't all.
The cliff wall behind it was carved open by the leftover force, leaving a terrifying gash over twenty meters long. Konome simply followed the tear her Wind Release had made and used Earth Release to hollow out a huge cavity.
She slipped into the "waterfall cave."
The severed waterfall immediately crashed back down, hiding both the entrance and the absurd scar in the cliff face.
She carved sealing formulas identical to the ones in her basement on the cave's outer stone, and with the waterfall's cover, it was ten thousand times more concealed than the Hatake basement.
Yang Release Konome would leave the village on a mission to exchange for Sharingan.
Academy Konome would cover her absence.
Reverse Eight Gates research would continue as usual and would not slow even a fraction. The Forest of Death was rich with resources, and the "animal friends" made excellent test materials. Progress might even accelerate.
Notifications made. Loose ends tied.
The next morning.
Yang Release Konome arrived swiftly at Root's third base.
Step. Step. Step.
She descended the spiral stone stairs.
She wore a mask and Root's black cloak, and her silver hair was fully hidden beneath the hood. Aside from her small height, she looked like a standard ANBU operative.
The most unsettling part was her eyes.
Through the two holes of the patterned owl mask was a pitch-black blindfold.
To anyone who didn't know, it looked like she had two pure black eyes with no pupils at all.
Terrifying.
"Mm…!"
After passing several intersections, she arrived again at a fork with left and right tunnels. As always, the right tunnel carried faint screams and muffled sobbing.
Now that she had the map memorized, she knew exactly what it was.
A dungeon for death row prisoners and "test subjects."
Here, there was no difference between the two.
The Kumo shinobi who died on the operating table yesterday had been kept there.
Nothing interesting. Just filth and despair.
With the mission time approaching, Konome didn't linger. She moved through the twisting underground corridors and reached the equipment division.
She pushed open the door.
Sixteen brilliant chakra signatures flared at once, lighting up her vision.
The Panda Woman propped her chin with one hand, recording something in a thick kraft-paper ledger.
Fifteen shinobi in black cloaks and hoods, each wearing a different mask, were selecting gear from the racks.
No one spoke.
The only sound was steel clinking against steel as weapons were tested and returned.
Whoosh.
One shinobi formed hand seals at high speed, and a cluster of tools vanished in smoke.
Konome's Byakugan clearly saw small sealing scrolls wrapped around the shinobi's wrists beneath the cloak.
"Konome-sama," Chō said, sensing that unique chakra and looking up quickly.
Beside her, Arashi and Iwakuma, who were still organizing their gear, followed with greetings.
Admiring strength was human instinct.
After two battles, they had been completely beaten into submission.
Danzo had also taken Konome as his disciple in front of everyone. The gulf in strength and status made her young age easy to ignore.
Even Arashi, who had clashed with her the most at first, now bowed his head obediently.
"Call me Yowatari," Konome corrected.
"Yes. Yowatari-sama."
After fixing Chō's address, Konome scanned the shinobi assigned to the same mission.
Besides the Iwakuma three-person unit, there were twelve tokubetsu jōnin.
Add her, an elite jōnin-level combatant, and this was… just to destroy a few mines?
This was sixteen Konoha jōnin-class shinobi.
In the original Snow Country incident, the rebels' main fighting force was basically three tokubetsu jōnin and one regular jōnin, and even then, they relied on Ice Release in the cold to reach that level.
Using a force this large to wipe out a mining site at the edge of the Land of Lightning suggested something else was hiding underneath.
Was the ore truly that precious, and the defenses that heavy?
Or did these people have additional tasks?
Seeing Root shinobi silently preparing tools without a word since she entered, Konome abandoned the idea of chatting.
In the past month, she had already figured out much of Root's structure.
Root was officially called "ANBU Training Division," but its internal configuration was basically identical to ANBU.
Seventy official members.
Several hundred trainees in reserve.
Whenever someone among the seventy died or became disabled, a reserve member who met the standard would fill the vacancy.
People like Sai and Aburame Torune were still only reserves, training on the third level of the base, forced to fight other children their age.
Among the official seventy:
Danzo functioned as the Hokage. He was Root's absolute leader.
Aburame Ryūma, the only elite jōnin before Konome joined, corresponded to an ANBU captain. When Danzo wasn't present, Ryūma managed the day-to-day operations.
Iwakuma and another jōnin served as squad commanders, managing the other jōnin-level operatives. Those jōnin acted as team leaders and managed the lower ranks.
A strict hierarchy, top to bottom.
Root members also fell into three primary types.
The first were children taken from Konoha's orphanage. After layers of indoctrination and training, they had lost humanity and autonomy, becoming tools for missions.
The second were gifted children with secret techniques Danzo gathered from unknown places, coerced and lured through countless methods into Root.
Some became tools like the first group, but a few still retained traces of their own will.
The third were those who had been strong already, or possessed rare talents, and joined Root for various reasons. They were older, and even after indoctrination they remained comparatively "normal."
Arashi and Chō were part of the third category, which was why they still looked somewhat human.
Konome turned to Chō.
"What's your assignment on this mission?"
"Root mission details can't be casually shared," Chō said, carefully educating Konome, who was on her first mission.
"Even with teammates on the same mission?"
"Even then. No."
Chō refused without the slightest room for negotiation.
"Fine," Konome said. "Then when do we leave?"
"When Ryūma-sama arrives, we depart."
Aburame Ryūma?
He's going too?
Konome's gaze sharpened.
Two elite jōnin, three jōnin, and more than a dozen tokubetsu jōnin to erase a mining region?
This lineup could be sent to assassinate the Raikage and I'd believe it.
What exactly was Danzo planning?
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