Sunlight pierced the leaves, scattering mottled shadows across the ground.
A spiky haired boy and Ryūma, wearing tiny sunglasses, squatted side by side, digging into the soil and pulling out earthworms one after another.
"Why are we digging up worms?"
The boy had helped Ryūma for quite a while. Only after they'd dug a deep pit did he remember to ask.
"They always burrow into the dirt," Ryūma answered. "I want to help them bask in the sun."
Possessed by his future self, Aburame Ryūma watched the child he used to be pinch each worm into a straight line and lay it under the sunlight to dry. Even the cold corner of his mouth couldn't help curling into a faint smile.
"If you leave them in the sun, they'll die," the boy said with the same gentle smile, then scooped up a handful of dirt and covered the suffering worm.
"But if they can't even see sunlight," Ryūma murmured, head lowered in a loneliness too heavy for a child's frame, "isn't that… pitiful?"
He let Danzō bury the worms he'd worked so hard to dig out.
His voice sank even lower.
"Is a bug's fate to live in damp, lightless darkness forever? To never touch brightness?"
"Is that what you think?" the boy asked.
He flipped the buried worm back out again and placed it atop the loose mound.
The red worm touched the blazing sunlight and immediately twisted, curled, and convulsed, its head stabbing frantically into the dirt, its body inching and wriggling downward, burrowing for its life.
"Isn't it?" Ryūma watched the worm flee the sun and hugged his arms around himself as if he could feel its pain. "Isn't that how it is?"
"Of course not."
The spiky haired boy laughed softly. He lifted the mound with both hands and held it under Ryūma's lowered face. Then he rubbed the soil between his palms until it loosened. The red worm vanished into the cracks, drilling downward.
"Look," he said. "It's searching for its own sun too."
"Sun?"
Two Ryūmas, one big and one small, raised their heads in perfect sync, as if time itself aligned at that instant.
"Even insects have their sun," the boy said, smiling. "But their sun isn't in the endless sky. It's in the damp cold underground."
He pointed at the worm disappearing deeper and deeper.
"Ryūma. Darkness is a bug's sunlight."
Darkness is sunlight.
Aburame Ryūma chewed the words again and again. His violet eyes grew brighter and brighter, identical to the child he once was.
Before he could think further…
Shhh.
The memory fragments shattered, and countless flashes of light streaked past.
Until the childish Ryūma stood up and grew taller, and the scene froze.
Thump.
Ryūma stared blankly at what lay ahead.
A silent underground room drenched in darkness.
Flickering candlelight painted harsh contours across a man's hard face. Orange firelight trembled in his eyes, as if he were making a painful decision.
"What's wrong?"
The voice came from his own mouth, beyond his control.
Ryūma understood. He'd been dragged into another memory.
The man's expression eased when he saw him.
"Hiruzen wants me to establish another organization. To help him manage Konoha."
"Isn't ANBU enough?" Ryūma couldn't understand the Third Hokage's thinking at all.
"You don't understand."
The man shook his head, gaze fixed on the darkness ahead.
"ANBU are mostly the teacher's old subordinates, plus people from the major clans. Hiruzen has no powerbase of his own. His strength and achievements can't truly make everyone submit."
"In our current situation, only the two of us working together can press the clans down."
"So he wants me to build an ANBU within ANBU. He in the light, me in the dark. We erase everything that threatens Konoha's stability."
"I don't understand politics."
Ryūma lifted the ANBU mask from his face and placed it on the table, pushing it gently toward the man.
Firelight flickered in his purple eyes.
"If you need anything, just say it."
"Straight to the point."
The man grinned. Even in this dark room, that smile still carried sunlight. The present day Ryūma stared at Danzō, feeling that face both familiar and strangely distant.
"I've decided! We'll call it Root. The roots of Konoha!"
Young Danzō looked proud of his naming sense, almost smug as he glanced at Ryūma.
"Mm."
The flat reply made Danzō's laughter choke off instantly. His smile faded.
"If you join, then how about you become Root's captain?"
"Whatever."
The same coldness as always made Danzō sigh helplessly and shake his head.
"Then our Root captain should pick a new codename!"
Codename?
Ryūma frowned. He remembered never having a codename in Root. If he needed to hide his identity, he simply wore a mask on missions, and everyone called him Captain.
"Earthworm."
Young Ryūma answered without thinking.
"Absolutely not!" Danzō waved him off in panic. "Root's captain called Earthworm? What are you thinking? How am I supposed to recruit anyone?"
"I think your real name already sounds imposing. From today on, your codename in Root will be Ryūma!"
"Same thing."
"Where is that the same thing?!"
Watching the spiky hair on Danzō's head practically explode as he grabbed at his own sanity, the future Ryūma scratched his scalp.
Even now, he still didn't understand why Danzō got angry.
It was the same.
Clearly the same.
Crack. Crack.
The scene froze, spiderwebbed with fractures.
Old memories splintered apart, and a new scene rose from the shards.
Ryūma had experience now. He didn't panic. He simply stood still and waited.
Light shifted.
Soon, everything became bright.
Rows of fluorescent lamps glared overhead. Cold wind hissed through the corridor. The air reeked of disinfectant.
"Ryūma sama, excuse me."
Ryūma snapped back to awareness and quickly stepped aside.
Glass bottles clinked in clear, crisp collisions as a nurse pushed a medical cart past him. She nodded, then hurried toward a ward.
Ryūma's body moved naturally after her.
He followed her down the hall.
Click.
The door opened, and they entered one after the other.
A man lay on the bed with his upper body bare. His chest was a mess of flesh and blood, rising and falling weakly. His breathing thinned with each second.
Chihaya Tōru, skinny as a monkey and drenched in sweat, had both hands over the wound. Emerald Yang Release power poured in relentlessly.
Beside them…
Danzō sat with a gloomy face, silent, staring at his unconscious friend.
"He is?" the Ryūma from countless years ago asked for him.
"He is Uchiha Kagami. My closest friend." Danzō folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes dulled into ash.
The Second Hokage's student?
The present Ryūma stared at the blood smeared face on the bed, shocked. Who could do this to him?
Soon…
He answered his own question.
Ryūma pulled out an intelligence report.
"Uchiha Kō, male. Elite jōnin. Skilled in kenjutsu. His father was once the hawkish leader of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Setsuna."
"After his father attempted to incite Uchiha rebellion, the Second Hokage discovered it early and imprisoned him. Since then, Uchiha Kō has harbored hatred toward Konoha, often spreading words to drive a wedge between the Uchiha and the village."
"Recently he has been seen near Konoha Prison frequently. His intent is unclear."
Hearing the report, Danzō's eyes filled with brutality.
"Untrained dogs. That's what they are."
"Back then, when Setsuna rebelled, Kagami was the one who discovered it first. The teacher showed mercy and spared him once. And he doesn't repay it with gratitude? He dares lay hands on Kagami?"
"We have no evidence," Ryūma said. "And he's Uchiha. Strictly speaking, it's clan business. Hard to arrest him."
"They don't deserve to share Kagami's surname."
"And Root doesn't need evidence."
Danzō rose slowly.
Blood red light burned in his eyes as he stared at Uchiha Kagami's fading breath.
Kagami's chakra weakened by the second. Chihaya Tōru was sweating in desperation, but he still couldn't heal a heart that had been pierced through.
Blood streamed along the bed frame. The green glow dimmed further and further.
"Gather the men," Danzō said. "I want him dead."
The low voice carried hatred that chilled the bones.
Young Ryūma lowered his head and said nothing more.
Night.
Boom.
Thunder detonated in the dark. Rain fell in buckets, fat drops like poured water.
Ryūma and more than a dozen shinobi wearing masks etched with complex patterns formed a half circle. The unreal and the real Ryūma overlapped until they became one.
Danzō stood at the center, gripping Uchiha Kō by the head and smashing his face into the ground again and again until the man became a bloody ruin.
A woman clutched two crying children and knelt in the mud, soaked through, shaking uncontrollably.
"Didn't you say you had nothing to do with it? Then say it! Where were you that day?"
Boom.
Even thunder and rain couldn't cover Danzō's fury.
Uchiha Kō's handsome face had collapsed into pulp. Blood and mud fused into something monstrous and faceless.
"U… Uchiha Kagami… betrayed the clan… Konoha's dog… deserved to die!"
His teeth were gone. His speech leaked air. Even on his knees, he still craned his neck in defiance.
"Good," Danzō said, nodding. The killing intent in his eyes surged. "It's enough that you admit it."
"Murdering a comrade. I sentence you to death."
"You don't have the right…" Kō spat.
Scream.
Two fingers pierced his Sharingan like talons. Danzō clamped down on the man's skull and lifted him from the ground.
Kō shrieked wildly, body jerking from the pain.
"I exist to deal with filth like you," Danzō snarled. "Do you understand?"
Splash.
He threw Kō into a puddle. Muddy water mixed with blood and flowed outward.
"Kill them."
The command cut through the rain. A kunai drove cleanly into Kō's chest.
The screaming stopped.
"Waaah! Waaah!"
The babies cried even harder. The woman's lips turned blue. She trembled so badly she couldn't even beg, only bowed her head and sobbed.
The Root members exchanged looks in silence. Hands rubbed against kunai hidden in their pouches, yet no one moved.
Uchiha Kō had killed a comrade. He deserved death.
But his wife and children were innocent.
They couldn't bring themselves to strike an innocent woman and small children.
And it didn't match Konoha's rules.
Whoosh.
Whoosh whoosh.
Three shuriken cut through the rain in a neat triangle and pierced three throats with precision.
The children's cries stopped instantly.
Blood spread across the puddle, washed outward by the rain.
The Root members stood frozen, stunned.
Danzō drew his hand back and clasped it behind him. His eyes were sharp enough to cut souls.
"The teacher's mercy spared Setsuna's child."
"And that mercy brought Kagami's death."
"I will never make that mistake again."
"Since the day Root was founded, we have had one purpose."
"To ensure Konoha's harmony and stability."
"For that, I will pay any price."
"I know you find this hard. If so, then I'll do it myself."
"From today on, you are blades in the hand of Shimura Danzō."
"All sins will be borne by the one who holds the blade."
"You are innocent."
"In the end, the only one who should go to hell is me."
"Do you understand?"
The force of his words shook them.
Root's eyes shifted from confusion into firmness.
"Yes, Leader!"
"Now!" Danzō shouted. "Raise the blades in your hands and carry out my command!"
"Yes!"
Boom.
Lightning tore across the sky again and again.
In the rain soaked night, Root shinobi roared and stabbed down at the corpses until the puddle turned completely red.
Danzō turned and walked away slowly.
Behind his back, his fists were clenched so tight they trembled, uncontrollable.
Ignoring the bodies that had been reduced to something barely human, Ryūma left the crowd and stepped behind Danzō, using his own body to shield those shaking hands from view.
Neither of them spoke.
They simply moved forward, one behind the other, through the pouring rain.
"Ryūma."
"I'm here."
"The only person I trust… is you."
"My honor."
Two low voices echoed, one after the other, through the storm.
"If…" Danzō began.
"If what?"
"If one day I drown in darkness and can't pull myself out," Danzō stopped and turned to Ryūma, a strange, unshakable resolve in his eyes, "you must kill me."
Lightning flashed, illuminating their faces for a single instant.
For the first time, Ryūma didn't answer the sun that belonged to him.
"This is my order," Danzō repeated.
"…Yes."
The voice was hoarse and nearly inaudible.
From the future, Ryūma bit down hard, lowered his head, and said nothing more.
Lightning froze in the sky.
The rain seemed to hang like beads in midair.
The world spun again, and endless darkness swallowed Ryūma whole.
Crash.
Ice cold water slammed down over his head and jolted him awake.
A whip cracked with a shriek, slamming into his body. Barbed hooks on the lash stabbed into his chest like needles.
Yank.
His chest tore open, blood pouring as the barbs ripped flesh away. The pain burned like fire.
"Ghh!"
Ryūma sucked in a sharp breath. Before he could react, a thick hand seized his wet hair and forced his head up.
He saw a cold, sealed chamber.
His hands and feet were bound to a stone pillar.
Knives, needles, branding irons, instruments of torture covered the room.
An Iwagakure shinobi in a red uniform stared down at him with savage eyes. One hand gripped his hair. The other held a dagger, its icy blade pressed tight against Ryūma's right cheek.
"I ask, you answer. Make it easy for everyone. Understand?"
"I don't know anything… AHHH!"
The blade drove into Ryūma's cheek. The torturer twisted it, grinding, digging out bloody flesh until even his gums were exposed.
"What organization are you from? Who's your leader? That Wind Release shinobi who blew up our armory, what's his name? Which way did he run?"
Ryūma panted violently, trying to endure the agony flooding his face.
"I… I don't remember!"
Each word sent pain ripping through his skull.
Shnk.
The dagger yanked free. Blood mixed with milky white insect eggs clung to the blade.
"Don't remember? Doesn't matter. We've got time. We can play slowly."
The Iwagakure shinobi tossed the dagger into a basin, then picked up a steel needle and pressed the tip into the seam of Ryūma's fingernail.
Ryūma trembled from head to toe.
"If you remember, just call me anytime," the man said with a cruel grin, then bent Ryūma's finger back hard.
Crack.
The long finger snapped.
Then the needle punched into the nail seam.
Ryūma screamed and thrashed like he'd been struck by lightning, but he couldn't escape the bindings. Even chakra, once as natural as breathing, was sealed away.
He couldn't draw a single thread of it.
His teeth ground until they clicked.
Ryūma shook his head, refusing to speak.
Then the real nightmare began.
Water poured down his throat.
Whips.
Flesh cut away.
The chair of electricity.
Everything collapsed into bottomless darkness, where only soul deep pain remained.
Time, space, even the meaning of life itself dissolved under endless torment.
He no longer knew how long it had been.
Only one belief remained.
He could not reveal anything about Danzō.
Then, boom.
A blood stained door shattered open.
White light flooded in for the first time in forever. Dust danced through the air.
Locked in an iron cage, Ryūma's body was in tatters. He squinted into the light.
A man stumbled in.
His arm was charred black, burned to carbon.
His right eye was a horrifying hole of blood.
A black cloak hung from him like it had been soaked in gore.
"Ryūma. I'm here."
"I… I don't know."
Ryūma stared at the man approaching. Terror seized him, his body shaking violently.
"I don't know. I really don't know anything…"
"Y… you don't recognize me anymore?"
The man stared at the mangled shape that used to be a person.
From beneath the only intact left eye, a thin wet line slid down.
"I don't know…"
Ryūma repeated it over and over, like a fool.
Even the one belief that had kept him alive was gone now.
"It's okay."
A blade of wind sliced open the cage.
The charred right hand reached out and gently stroked Ryūma's blood matted hair.
On that blood stained face, a smile bloomed, warm and bright, the same as the day they first met.
"Let's meet again properly."
"My name is Shimura Danzō."
"And you?"
"I don't know…"
"I know," Danzō said softly. "You are Aburame Ryūma."
"…Aburame… Aburame… Ryūma…"
He whispered his own name.
Ryūma lifted his head, staring up at the figure lit by faint light.
A humble insect that could never reach the sun had, in that moment, found the sun that belonged to it.
The figure faded.
The mottled blood on the floor turned into black shadow.
The red moon climbed back into the sky.
Tears filled Ryūma's eyes.
Ahead of him was only darkness and nothingness.
I remember!
I remember everything!
Danzō!
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