CH 8 Surviving Assassination

'Who---?' was all Alcor could think before he was attacked by shadowy figures from all sides. The nauseating sound of weapons piercing flesh echoed in the silent training ground.

The next moment, the scene on the training ground became clear. Two shurikens had struck Alcor, and at the same time, four of the six assassins sported slashing damage on their chest and arms.

"Who are you guys?!" Alcor asked angrily. The assassins recovered from Alcor's retaliation and immediately started attacking Alcor again.

Alcor used his Ghost Wire Style to the best possible extent and dodged their attacks while counterattacking.

But he knew that this was not going to work for long. These guys were at least Chunin level or higher. One on one he could defend against any of them, but six at once? Not until he gets to Chunin level in physique and chakra and unlocks elemental affinity.

'I need to find an opportunity to escape.' Alcor thought as he scanned all the six people around himself. He was surprised by the names he saw on their status.

Tera(Root), Dajimu(Root), Terai(Root), Tsuchinoe(Root), Tsuchinoto(Root), and Kino(Root). Alcor's eyes grew cold on seeing this. Not only were these 6 people from Root but they had also been brainwashed to the point that they had forgotten everything about their identity except the code name given to them by Root.

'Just another reason why I am going to make sure you are destroyed completely Danzo.' Alcor vowed as he gritted his teeth at a Kunai that hit him.

'I have not revealed the Thousand Illusion Flash Step yet. It ought to catch them by surprise long enough for me to reach a more populated place like Konoha hospital.' Alcor thought as he prepared this last-ditch plan.

Molding most of his chakra into the Jutsu, Alcor cast it right at the moment the six attackers were going to attack once more.

"Thousand Illusion Flash Step!!" Alcor said as hundreds of Alcor seemed to burst out of him and attack the six root members. As Alcor expected, he caught them by surprise and made them freeze up for a moment, thinking this was Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu.

As the clones surrounded the attackers, Alcor used the opportunity to run away at maximum speed. He even used the remaining chakra to strengthen his legs to the max so that he could have increased speed.

By the time the Root assassins realized what had happened, it was too late and their target had long escaped their clutches.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Konoha Hospital was enjoying a rare day of peace. There were 70% lesser patients as compared to usual. Nurses and doctors that were free even relaxed in the garden enjoying the sun.

Suddenly, this peace was broken by a bloody figure that came at incredible speed and crashed on the garden floor like a meteor. The nurses and doctors could not help but retreat backward hastily at this unexpected intrusion.

However, one of the female doctors gained the courage and went forward to look at the intruder. Her hesitant look soon became one of shock and horror as she saw a Young Genin with deep wounds all over his body, a few shuriken,s and a kunai still embedded in the boy.

"Get a stretcher right now!! This is a Konoha Genin hurt badly! It is a Grade B emergency!!" she shouted "And make sure someone informs Hokage office about this too!!!"

Hearing her instructions, the other nurses and doctors immediately ran to fulfill them. One of the shinobi guards was informed of this and he ran to the Hokage office to report.

Alcor was taken to the emergency room and three doctors immediately started performing the necessary treatments. They could not let this boy die after he had worked so hard to get to their doorstep.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"What?!" Hiruzen sat straight with eyes flashing. The attack inside Konoha and a young Genin in critical danger? Which Genin would be alone however without a team to ---

"Alcor!" Hiruzen's eyes widened. Someone had attacked this Young Genin and that too inside Konoha. Based on the young lad's progress, Hiruzen was sure that no single attacker could make him get to this point unless it was an Elite Jonin or a Team of Experienced Chunin.

'But why would a Team of Chunin attack a Genin all of a sudden?' Hiruzen was puzzled. But suddenly he remembered Alcor's recent contribution and achievements. The fog of mystery suddenly started clearing up.

"Danzo---!!" Hiruzen muttered with gritted teeth. 'Are you really so paranoid now that you see conspiracy and threat to your power in all geniuses are born, Old Friend?'

Since Hiruzen knew his old friend very well, he also knew that he would not leave a trace that would make it's way back to him. He long suspected Danzo in the matter with Sakumo as well, but without proof, Koharu and Homura would not listen to him.

Hiruzen was pretty sure that even this time the bastard would have made sure nothing leads back to him even if it is obvious as a shadow in the bright day that he was the only one who would have done something like this.

'Sigh, the safety of the young lad is more important than this mess. I will have to send a message to make sure he receives the best treatment.' Hiruzen decided with a sigh before sending an ANBU to the Konoha Hospital Chief with the instructions.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It took a week before Alcor was well enough to come back to consciousness. It seemed that without Tsunade, the quality of Konoha medical experts was too low. Plus experts like Kabuto won't show their heads because most of them worked for Danzo.

'I can't imagine just why would a Hokage willingly fracture his power and make the chain of command so messy. Moreover, he actively lets Danzo poach the top talents for his ROOT. The old man really is going senile in his old age.' Alcor thought with a grimace on his face.

The drugs he had been given made his body extremely sluggish. Not to mention his injuries still had not completely healed. However, the result of this experience was not all bad.

Maybe from the stimulation of the life and death battle, Alcor's mental strength had finally crossed the barrier and directly went up to Mid-Chunin level. This in turn affected his chakra, making it reach the Low-Chunin level.

This had advanced the card extraction ability of the system to a new level. Alcor could finally extract affinities and install them into himself.

Not only that, it seemed that card fusion worked for Affinities too. Once he maximizes two or more affinities, he could give himself a fused affinity like Lava, Wood, or Steam.

As Alcor lay on his hospital bed with these thoughts, His doctor came for a regular checkup and medicine he had to eat.

'Ah yes, what better target to extract from than a medical expert. My first elemental affinity and Elemental Jutsu will be Medical Jutsu.' Alcor thought as he extracted cards from the doctor. His eyes glittered as he looked at four cards he really wanted.

In the end, he extracted the two affinity and two Ninjutsu cards successfully before the Doctor left.

Affinity: {Yang(Low)}, {Yin(Low)}

Ninjutsu: {Mystical Palm(Low)}, {Medical Mode: Body Analysis(Low)}

As the pain and healing medicines he was given took effect, he relaxed back to go through the rush of new information in his mind. His new cards, especially Medical Mode: Body Analysis was extremely helpful in keeping track of his body's condition.

Just as he was about to try Mystical palm to accelerate his healing, the door to his room was opened and a person entered. As Alcor looked up, a wave of volcano-like rage erupted from deep within him, but he controlled himself in time and suppressed his feelings deep within his heart.

Instead, he morphed his expression to one of confusion as he gazed at the bandaged man with a walking stick who had walked into his room.

"Excuse me? Can I help you, sir? Are you in the correct room?" Alcor put on his pure-hearted Genin persona.

"Oh yes, Young Hero of Konoha." the man said with a calm gaze at him, as if he was a king and Alcor his subject "I am here to visit you."

"Me? Sir, I am sure you know, but only friends and family are allowed to visit a patient. Anyone else first has to get permission from both the staff and the patient. I don't know about staff, but I surely have not given permission for this, neither do I know you."

"Trust me, boy, if I want to go somewhere in Konoha, no one can stop me," Danzo said haughtily. Alcor roared with unbridled rage deep within himself. Oh, how he would love to punch that smug face until its bones and teeth are shattered to pieces.

"Umm, okay. Maybe you can sir. But why here?" Alcor asked, maintaining the persona to perfection.

"Don't you find it weird that you were attacked within Konoha? The very place that you should have been safest at?" Danzo asked.

"Yes, it does feel weird, but without more information what can I say? All I can do within my power is to train even harder so that next time I can make clowns like that taste dust." Alcor said.

He noticed that Danzo grit his teeth slightly at the statement before schooling his expression, making Alcor grin internally.

'Go on you bastard, try to be pretentious. I will insult you and your forces just like that in return. Two can play this game after all.' Alcor thought as he waited for Danzo to give his sales pitch.

After all, he had been waiting for this moment for months. He would act to perfection and make this perverted bastard give him the best condition possible for joining ROOT.

'After all, you need me more than I need you, and unfortunately for you, bastard, I know that.' Alcor thought viciously as he waited for Danzo and his infamous speech.