Hikaru already had a pretty good guess as to who these ninja were.
They most likely belonged to the most infamous organization in Konoha.
And unpleasant as it was to admit, their deterrence and combat strength were genuinely terrifying—especially within the village itself.
Compared to ANBU, Root was far more despair-inducing in the role it played.
On the surface, ANBU and Root seemed to overlap in function, but in reality, they were fundamentally different.
ANBU, at the very least, would verify whether one of their own had truly defected before taking action.
Root did not.
Root existed precisely to deal with those ANBU couldn't move against—or those for whom there was no conclusive evidence.
Placed side by side, the difference became stark.
ANBU was like a towering tree bathed in dim light.
Root was buried deep beneath the soil, forever trapped in darkness.
The most dangerous missions were theirs.
The most unspeakable, disgraceful work was also theirs.
The infamy ANBU sometimes carried—Root bore it in full.
In many ways, the contrast mirrored the relationship between Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura.
One stood in the light as Hokage.
The other lurked in shadow as "the darkness of the ninja world."
While Hikaru was reflecting on this, he noticed something else.
The chakra fluctuations around them were growing more pronounced.
The hidden observers had clearly noticed the reactions of Hikaru and Kakashi—and were beginning to respond.
That realization made Hikaru shake his head slightly.
Root really has taken heavy losses… and rebuilding them hasn't been smooth.
He wasn't unfamiliar with Root.
Once, after completing a mission, he and his squad had returned with enemy corpses—only to be intercepted the moment they entered the village.
Even now, he remembered just how cold those Root operatives had been.
Calm.
Emotionless.
Lifeless—like walking corpses.
They had felt even more dead than Kakashi did now.
And yet, in Hikaru's eyes, the Root ninja lurking here were… sloppy.
Utterly unqualified.
That, at least, gave him a bit of reassurance.
Root had once tried to recruit him.
The current Root was not yet the utterly unrestrained organization it would later become. Danzo still cared about appearances—still needed to accumulate political capital.
Danzo's ambition to become Hokage was no secret. Every high-ranking figure in Konoha knew it.
And Danzo was the type who acted on his ambitions.
Why had Orochimaru's human experimentation scandal been exposed right during the Hokage selection?
The implication was obvious.
Danzo had used his authority to manipulate things behind the scenes.
First, he leveraged public pressure to force Hiruzen to step down after the peace treaty with Iwagakure.
Then he selectively leaked information about Orochimaru, sabotaging his candidacy—clearing the way for himself.
What Danzo never expected was the catastrophic loss of Root forces in the Land of Rain.
That disaster forced him to go all-in on supporting Orochimaru.
And what he really didn't expect was that his own interference would make it impossible for Hiruzen to appoint a scandal-tainted Orochimaru as Hokage.
At the same time, Hiruzen—crushed by pressure over the treaty—intended to step back.
But with Orochimaru eliminated as an option, Hiruzen had no intention of relinquishing power.
In the end, Danzo was betrayed once more.
Orochimaru was rejected.
A junior—Minato Namikaze—rose to prominence.
Danzo lost everything.
"Hmm?"
As Hikaru was mentally reviewing Danzo's long history of self-inflicted disasters, several figures clad in ANBU-style gear silently emerged.
Fully armed.
Weapons in hand.
Chakra surging.
Both Hikaru and Kakashi froze for a moment.
Hikaru hadn't expected them to reveal themselves—this formation was openly hostile.
Kakashi, meanwhile, drew his blade without hesitation.
He didn't understand why fellow ANBU would take such a stance—but when facing potential enemies, he never held back.
"Stop. What do you think you're doing?"
A sharp voice rang out.
A figure emerged from the ground nearby, stepping out from a concealed underground passage.
Only now did Hikaru realize something alarming.
"There's an entrance here…"
His brows knit tightly.
He was certain he had already scanned the surroundings the moment those chakra signatures appeared.
Back then, he had sensed only sealing arrays and the rough positions of the Root ninja.
He hadn't detected this entrance at all.
What terrifying sealing techniques…
These weren't ordinary concealment measures.
They were designed to hide critical secrets.
Then this underground facility—
"I apologize for the misunderstanding," the man said calmly as the hostile Root operatives melted back into the shadows.
"You're ANBU, correct?"
He stepped forward and addressed them directly.
"I'm the captain of ANBU First Division, Fifth Squad," Hikaru replied evenly, maintaining his guard.
"You can call me Nightingale. This is my subordinate—kakashi."
"We just returned from a mission and were heading back to the village when we were suddenly locked onto. Which division are you from?"
"Nightingale… kakashi…"
The man ignored the question, studying the two of them carefully.
He knew both codenames.
Nightingale was a promising talent—one Root had tried to recruit before, only to be rejected.
And kakashi…
That codename had once belonged to Hatake Sakumo.
If this boy carried it now—
Then there was no doubt.
As his gaze lingered, the man confirmed it.
That white hair.
That eye.
There was no mistaking Kakashi Hatake.
With a quiet sigh, the man felt a surge of irritation toward the newly recruited Root operatives.
Idiots.
Do you intercept every ninja who passes by?
With so many sealing arrays here, how could they expose themselves so carelessly?
If it were an ordinary ninja, fine.
But these two?
Especially Kakashi—
The direct disciple of the Fourth Hokage.
They were absolutely not targets Root could casually deal with.
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