20 Chapter 20: Root headquater

*Time skip 6 weeks*

*POV Anya*

It has been almost 6 weeks since the incident with Shisui Uchiha and Danzo. While there has been plenty of stuff happening, it is all preparations for what must come next.

About a week after the incident, Shisui Uchiha finally got the opportunity to use his ability on Fugaku. Ever since this time, the Uchiha clan has been in an uproar. Many conspirators were surprised by the change in stance and policy from the principal conspirator. To be fair, if they knew about Shisui Uchiha's ability they could have figured it out, or at least that is what Shisui tells me, the few times we have met up over the last few weeks.

As it is now, the Uchiha clan is pretty much divided into two camps. The once that follow Fugaku, who are trying to coexist with the village. This faction, if what Shisui tells me is correct, is by far the largest, and count about 80% of all Uchiha members. The second faction does not really have a leader, and is only composed of about 20% of the Uchiha members, however many of the young and many of the stronger Uchiha member are part of this faction.

Shisui estimates that within a month or so, the Uchiha clan and the village would have come to some agreement that most (if not all) of the Uchiha clan can stomach. It mostly is about granting the Uchiha clan more influence in the village, and from what Shisui tells me, an Uchiha clan member will be appointed as village elder. If this is a ninja elder or civilian elder is yet to be determined.

Another part of the deal will also be to abolish the Konoha Military Police organization. This organization has it purpose, but has also functioned to keep the Uchiha clan and the village separated. Thus the ANBU will take up the police role for ninja matters, and a civilian police force will be created to take care of civilian affairs. All previous military police ninja will be given the choice to enroll in ANBU or join the rotation of ninja jonin, chunin or genin depending on ability.

Further part of the deal, is that the ANBU will be restructured, and instead of once jonin commander, the ANBU will now have two jonin commanders, of equal rank and responsibility. Fugaku will become the second jonin commander, only answering to the Hokage.

From what I can gather, the deal seems to do a good job of trying to incorporate the Uchiha clan more into the village, while also giving them more influence. And with Fugaku's new outlook on life, I am pretty sure the Uchiha will agree to it in the end.

So as far as the Uchiha clan, that is what has been going on the last 6 weeks. I only know about this, because I am currently sitting in a meeting with Shisui Uchiha and the Hokage, where we have just been going over this.

The next part of this meeting, is what is really of interest to me. My goal is still the same as it has been for the last few years. Prevent the Uchiha massacre, expose Danzo's dirty dealings and to back it up with evidence. The first part is almost within reach, just need to stick the landing now. The second part was much easier after Danzo tried to kill Shisui Uchiha and take his eye. With an additional voice, the Hokage was much more willing to move forward with my objective. I actually even got some backup from time to time. However the mission is still mine, and even if the Hokage didn't insist, I want to bring this mission to an end myself.

Back to the meeting. I have not just been sitting idle over the last few weeks. To gather the needed evidence against Danzo, I need to get inside Root headquarters. However due to the incident where Danzo tried to kill Shisui, Root has been abuzz with activity.

They have changed their guarding schedule, and patrol in 5 man team, instead of the regular 3 man teams. They also changed the way the patrol, and it took me a couple of weeks of observation, to get the hang of the new patrols.

"So as you can see Hokage and Shisui, Root headquarters are very much active right now" I say to the only other two people in the Hokage office. I have just mentioned the patrol change around and in Root headquarters to them. Both of the just nod, and wait for me to continue briefing them of the intel I have gathered. After a moment I continue:

"In addition to the change in patrol, there are several other new and old feature of the headquarter, that worry me.

First is the barrier, that Root has around their headquarters. From what I have gathered, only Root personal or someone inscribed into the barrier, can enter and leave freely. If someone not authorized to go in enters, then everyone in the building will know where the intruders are. I even tested underground, and the barrier stretches all around the headquarters in a perfect sphere. There are no gaps to bypass the barrier.

Second is the internal layout of the headquarters. Every Root agent I have gotten a hold of over the last few years, are either unwilling to talk about headquarters, or incapable of talking about it. Every Root agent is inscribed with a seal, and I assume the seals prevents them talking about certain things. Either way, the layout of Root headquarters is completely unknown, and anyone entering will walk in blind. The barrier around Root headquarters is also blocking my vibration sensing jutsu, and there is no way to get an overview from the outside.

Third is the ninja inside headquarters. From the scraps of information I have gathered, it seems that Root headquarters is heavily guarded. There will be several Root agents inside, many of who we have no idea of their abilities.

Fourth and finally, we have the big man himself, Danzo. A few scattered reports, and scraps of knowledge, indicates that Danzo himself has an office in the headquarter. These same reports also indicate that Danzo's office is where we will find all mission reports and statements." I said. After talking for what felt life hours, I was dry in my mouth, and had to sink. I waited for Shisui and Hiruzen to absorb the information I just unloaded on them.

After a few moments Hiruzen said: "Those are some pretty big obstacles. I have a few ideas to how each can be dealt with, but lets first talk about the barrier. I assume, since you waved it of pretty quick, the patrols will not be an issue?" Hiruzen asked, while looking at me.

"No Hokage. The patrols are not something that worry me. I have observed them for weeks, and I should be able to get by with minimal effort" I answered him. He nodded with a "Hmpf" and we continued.

"For the barrier. I know of several ways to get past it, but most of them require either intimate knowledge of the barrier, or will make a lot of noise" Hiruzen said.

"I know of the methods you speak, and non are suited for this type of mission. However there is perhaps one way, if you will grant me a favor Hokage" I said to Hiruzen.

"Oh, and what would this favor be?" Hiruzen asked

"While I am not sure, I suspect that the barrier used around Root headquarters, is similar, if not the same, as the Konoha village sensing barrier. So with your permission, I would like to study the village barrier jutsu, to find a way inside without raising the alarm" I said to Hiruzen.

Hiruzen thought it over a few moments, before answering:

"Hmm, if you studied that jutsu and found a way around it, your would be able to enter and leave Konoha without anyone knowing. However I see your point, and trust you. I will allow you to study the barrier jutsu Anya" Hiruzen said.

With a big smile on my face, I continued: "Great. Then for the second part. Once inside the headquarters, I will use my original jutsu "vibration detection" and gather a layout from inside, before proceeding to the objective"

Both Hiruzen and Shisui nooded at this.

"What about the third obstacle? Many unknown ninja with no intel?" Shisui asked.

"I don't have a solution for this. There is no way to get this information. Thus I will just have to prepare for any situation. However I don't intend to fight on this mission, but to avoid all Root ninja if possible. So fighting is only a last resort" I answered to Shisui.

"And what of the last obstacle. What do you intend to do with Danzo?" Hiruzen asked.

"Actually this is where I need some help from you Shisui" I said.

"... me? What do you expect me to do about Danzo?" Shisui asked, while pointing at himself, as if to confirm that he was indeed Shisui.

"I don't need you personally to do anything against Danzo. However for the last 6 weeks, Danzo has not left Root headquarters, and I need him out of there for my mission. One of the only things that will move Danzo is the prospect of more power. So I was thinking that maybe you could talk with Fugaku, and have him invite Danzo over. Make Danzo an offer of an alliance with the Uchiha against the village. With a bit of luck, Danzo will jump at the opportunity, especially now when he is in his weakened state. The purpose is just to get Danzo out of the Headquarters, so there does not have to be a real offer" I said to answer Shisui's inquire.

"That might work" Shisui said, while looking like he was mulling it over. He then continued: "However it will take some convincing, and I will have to pull all the favors I can with Fugaku. It will do it, but it will take some time"

I nodded, I had expected it would take time to arrange this.

"That is fine, I need some additional time to prepare as well. Lets meet again in a week, and we can hash out the details" I said.

"Good. Just to remind both of you, none of what we discussed today leaves this office. It is vital for the future of the village. Also Anya, meet me here tomorrow again, and I will have the scroll with the village barrier jutsu ready for you. Dismissed" Hiruzen said, and clearly ended the meeting with this.

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*Time skip - 4 days*

I spend the last few days studying the village sensing barrier. After the first few days, I understood the barrier quite well, and formulated my own theory about it. When a person is inscribed into the barrier, the barrier will still detect that person, but will not raise the alarm. On the other hand, if something is detected that is not inscribed on the barrier, an alarm is raised to alert the barrier team. However, as the alarm is not constantly going of, the barrier can not detect everything, like critters or wild animals. Thus I tested and confirmed that the barrier detects and reacts to chakra.

This leaves an opportunity to fool the barrier, by sealing away ones chakra. No chakra, no alarm. However there is a problem with this. The barrier is constantly active inside the area it covers, so you would have to have sealed the chakra for the entire duration, which is not desirable. I expect that I would need my chakra to get inside Root headquarters, so sealing it away is not a good idea.

Thus I tried other ways to bypass the barrier, without raising the alarm. I spend about three days in total to test the barrier, but either I an not good enough in fuinjutsu, or there is no perfect way to circumvent the barrier. Thus on the verge of giving up, I decided to take a break and return back at a later time.

I was frustrated, and needed to vent on someone.

"Naruto sweetie, are you here?" I asked the air outside Naruto's apartment, making sure to sound as sweet as possible.

For some reason it didn't work, and a few moments later, I heard a loud crash. Like someone just jumped out a window without bothering to open it first.

"Fu fu fu, trying to run away are we" I said to myself, as I realized who it was that had just jumped out of a window. I kicked open the door to Naruto's apartment, making sure not to damage the door or anything in the apartment, just to catch a glimpse of some yellow haired youth landing on the street below. The youth was wearing his trademark orange jump suit, and took of as fast as his tiny legs could carry him. The youngster was the same youth I had come here to see: Naruto.

"So that is how you want to play it huh?" I again asked myself, before continuing: "Fine I will give you a few moments head start"

After a few moments, a red blur could be seen landing on the street below, where just a few moments before the yellow haired youngster landed. Without anyone noticing, the red blur took of, in the same direction as the yellow haired youngster. However most civilians on the street could hear a voice that sounded like a young woman saying: "Naruto come play with big sister", while a red blur passed by them. The same people would later swear that they could hear a young boy, in the distance answering with a "Uuuaaagghhh", but they were to far away to make out any specific words.

After half an hours, of chasing around Naruto in the village, the youngster was lying on the floor, hog tied. I was sitting on a rock, eating some fired meat on a stick. I could have ended the chase anytime I wanted, but running around the village after Naruto proved pretty fun. And to my surprise, Naruto had some clever tricks up his sleeve. Like transforming into other people or random objects, to try and throw me of. He even once tried to convince some random ninja to help him, telling them about the big bad ninja that was chasing him. However when the saw me charging at Naruto, the both just turned their heads to the side and started to whistle.

Naruto was squirming, and trying to get out of the ropes I had tied him up with, before he said:

"Big sister, come on, how many times do I have to say sorry for running away?" He was doing his best to make big puppy dog eyes. They almost worked. But I steeled myself, and just ignored him and focused on my meat.

Naruto then changed tactic, no longer confident in the success of his puppy dog eye jutsu:

"What is bothering you, Big sister? You usually only come around like this, when something is on your mind. Is it something I can help with?" Naruto said, trying this time to look and sound mature. The attempt was cute, and without meaning to, I let out a small laugh.

"I am just frustrated with a jutsu I can't understand as well as I wanted to, Naruto" I answered him, and continued: "It is not something you would understand currently, but thanks for offering".

"Aww, come on tell me" Naruto said.

"No, it would jut be a waste of time" I said.

"Tell me. Tell me. Tell me." Naruto kept repeating for at least 30 times. He even made a kind of melody out of it. With each new "tell me" I felt myself getting more and more frustrated.

"Fine!" I practically yelled at the top of my lungs, before continuing: "If it will shut you up, then I will tell you".

And to my bliss, Naruto shut up and looked interested in what I had to say.

"It's a jutsu called a barrier jutsu. The workings is much to complicated to go over now, but it is basically a jutsu that allows some people to pass through, but not others. I am trying to find a way to let me pass through, but no luck so far" I said, while looking back at Naruto.

"But big sister, if you can pass through, why don't you just get someone else to help you. Someone that can pass through it?" Naruto asked.

"That won't be possible. Everyone that can pass through are my enemy. There is no way the will help me through the barrier" I answered to Naruto. He took a few moments to think.

"What about transforming into on the enemy then? Will that let you pass through?" Naruto asked.

With a sigh I answered him: "No, the transformation jutsu only copies the look of a person. The barrier works by sensing chakra. The transformations jutsu does not copy the chakra signature of a person..." My sentence drifted off here, as I had a sudden inspiration. With no further wording I stood up.

"That is it" I said, more to myself than to Naruto.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

Ignoring Naruto, I suddenly took of towards my home, to test out my new idea.

Behind me I could hear Naruto yelling: "Big sister, don't leave mere here tied up like this!"

I smirked to myself, wondering how long it would take Naruto to realize that the ropes were already untied around him.

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*Time skip - 2 days*

With the sudden inspiration I got thanks to Naruto, I spend the next two days working on somethin new. While it is still a pretty early version of it, I just completed the first test of my new fuinjutsu. There are still a few kinks to work out, but it should be usable.

I call the fuinjutsu: "Chakra Imitation". I basically works by absorbing a small amount of chakra from someone, then storing it in the fuinjutsu. When the fuinjutsu is then activated, and placed on a person or object, the person or object will have the same chakra signature as the original source. I think white Zetsu had a similar ability in the anime, but this is just in fuinjutsu form instead. The fuinjutsu part is pretty simple actually, and there is not much to it, so that is why I could complete the first version in only a day or two.

I just completed the first test, with success and it should be work to fool any barrier, as long as I can get chakra from someone already included in the barrier. However there are a few downsides to this.

First the amount of chakra the fuinjutsu can hold is limited, and once activated the fuinjutsu can at most last 2 hours. I hope to improve this chakra storage amount in the future, but that is a problem for another time. For now, I can get by this problem with having multiple chakra imitation seals placed on my, and activating them one after another.

Second problem is that once activated, and the person it is attached to uses chakra, a small amount of chakra will leak out of the seal as well, decreasing the time the seal is active. The time decrease is proportional to the amount of chakra used and very hard to keep track of. Using it in real life, and not in testing, will be pretty difficult.

Third, and most significant for general usability. If you don't have some way to steal chakra from someone else, thank god for my adamantine sealing chains, there is no way to forcefully store chakra in the seal. Thus for most people, the chakra in the seal has to be given willingly. And it has to be pure chakra, chakra nature transformed will not work.

So with this, I just need to steal some chakra from anyone in Root, and I should be able to pass the barrier around headquarters.

After spending the last two days, cooped up inside my house, working on my new jutsu, I almost missed the monthly gathering of the former team 02. Luckily I finished it just in time, and after a shower, and picking an outfit, I arrived only 15 minutes late to the designated training ground.

As I arrive, there is no sign of anyone else. This is a bit confusing, as I am sure of the time and day for this meeting. So to make sure, I cast vibration detection. Oh yea, I can cast this without any hand seals now, just using chakra molding. So no one sees me casting this jutsu.

I wait to get the feedback from my jutsu, and smile to myself.

"I guess Yugao is not going to join us today Itachi?" I say to seemingly no one, but with my jutsu I detected Itachi hiding in the tree a few meters away. He jumps down, now that he has been found.

"She was here 15 minutes ago, but only to tell us she had a date, and couldn't make it today" Itachi said to me, while holding his hand up in a greeting.

"To bad. She must really like the guy then?" I ask.

Itachi doesn't answer, but just shrugs. He then get a more intense look in his eyes and says:

"So are you ready to loose to me today? After today there will finally be a clear winner between us."

"Don't be so sure, I have been practicing since last time. Now I am even more amazing than last time" I said, mostly to tease him. I know he has been practicing to, but today is my challenge, and there is no way Itachi can do better than me at it.

"Do you even know the jutsu were about to do?" I ask him.

"Shut up. I knew the shadow clone jutsu since I was a baby!" He answers back.

"Pff, like that is something. When I was born my first words were: "Shadow clone jutsu"" I tease him some more. For todays challenge, the winner will be the ninja who can make most shadow clones.

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Itachi and myself are completely drained of chakra. We used it all in one go, to try and up stage each other in clone numbers.

While there was never any doubt about who would win, as I have much much more chakra available than Itachi, the competition was much closer than I though it would be. Itachi pushed past his limit, and made almost 30 clones. Pretty impressive I must say. However I made almost 50 clones. The difference was clear in the quality of the clones. Itachi made them to only last a few seconds, so he could squeeze a few more clones out, while mine could last days if I wanted.

Right now, were both laying on our backs, gasping for breath, looking at the clouds passing by overhead. It is quite peaceful to do. This must be how the Nara clans has it all the time.

"Damn, that makes us tied again. 15 to 15." Itachi says.

"Told you, that I had this in the bag" I say back to him.

"Do you ever wonder, between the two of us, who is the stronger? What would happen if we really had to go all out between each other?" Itachi asked.

"Yes" I answered him truthfully.

An awkward silent few moments passed, before Itachi broke it.

"I challenge you to a Genjutsu performance, for our next time" Itachi says, with the trademark Uchiha smirk on his face.

"So unfair" I say back, not really having the energy to become upset.

We just stay there for a few moment in silence.

Then Itachi breaks the silence again:

"I talked with Shisui. He told me what you did. That you saved his life" Itachi says

I take a few moments to digest this information, while cursing Shisui in my mind. Was that information not suppose to be kept a secret.

"Shisui is one of my best friends, and my mentor as well. I only have two of these in the whole world. I have no idea what would have happened if I had lost him. So from the bottom of my heart, I thank you Anya Uzumaki. My other friend and rival" Itachi says.

I turn my head to look at him, and I can see in his eyes that he is serious. He has always had this confidence and bravado about him, but I can see the experience of his mentor and friend almost dying has changed that. At this moment Itachi is showing as much of the real Itachi as he has ever done.

"I would do it again anytime" I tell Itachi, and continue: "Not just the Uchiha clan, but the entire village. I will protect it all, to the best of my abilities"

Both Itachi and myself lock eyes.

After a few moments, it becomes somewhat awkward, and Itachi breaks the mood:

"Almost sounds like you want to become Hokage" Itachi said.

"Phff, hehe" I laugh at him and continue: "No that is a job for my little brother. That is his dream, and honestly, he is way more suited for it than me."

Itachi takes a few moments to take this in, and then says:

"I think my little brother would be better suited for the Hokage position"

Oh my god, here we go. What followed was a few hours of bragging about or brothers, and why each of them would make the better Hokage. As such the rest of the day fizzled out, and only when the sun set, did we both return home, each with the fire to teach our brother to be better then the other. A new rivalry, that was destined to happen, was about to be born, unbeknown to the two main actors.

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The next day, I meet up with Shisui and the Hokage as agreed. We needed to hash out the final plans for my infiltration of Root headquarters. Shisui updated us both, that Fugaku was on board, but he was only informed about this was a favor for Shisui. Fugaku was not informed about anything else of the operation.

However it would take a few more days, to have everything in order, and sufficient time for the Uchiha clan to have everything in place. So the fated day for the infiltration would be in one week. This would also give me time for the final preparations, like getting hold of a Root ninja chakra.

After the meeting this was the final plan:

The Uchiha clan, would distract Danzo, with a not real offer of an alliance. I will then infiltrate Root headquarters, using my bat summon to drop down from above, to avoid Root patrols. Using my new fuinjutsu, I should pass undetected into the barrier on top of Root headquarters. Once inside the barrier, I will use my vibration sensing jutsu to get a layout of the headquarter, and potential patrols inside the building. I will then stealthily make my way towards the best guarded office in the building. It is most likely to be where the information I need is kept.

After infiltration this far, I will take the sensitive information with me, back out and hand it over to the Hokage. Once the Hokage reviews the information, we can officially take Danzo's position as village elder, and head of Root away, and charge him with treason.

The punishment for treason is most likely death, depending on how sever the treason is.

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*Time skip - one week*

The fated day finally arrived. The week leading up to this day has gone pretty smooth. I managed to get hold of some Root ninja chakra, without raising any suspicion. I now have 4 seals of Chakra imitation ready. I could not take more chakra than this, to avoid raising suspicion.

The Uchiha also received the acceptance of Danzo to attend their meeting tonight. So once darkness descends, the operation will commence.

I have also summoned Bruce during the week, to explain his role in the upcoming operation. While he is primary there as transport, he will also act as look out, and my get away option.

As the darkness falls over Konoha, I don my outfit. The same black outfit I have been using over the years, however this time it has some additions. On my back I placed the 4 seals of Chakra imitation. Inside my loose fitting jacket, I have sewn in several Image recording seals. Enough to give me about 4 hours of 360º vision, if activated one after another.

I am also carrying a large backpack, filled with explosive seals, and storage scrolls. I don't think I will need them, but rather safe then sorry. I also bring anything that I think would help. So extra water and food rations. When I think about it, pretty much everything I own is on me at this point. Either in a storage scroll or in one of my bags. Only exception is the house, but there is no way to store a house in a storage scroll. Or is there? Something to investigate another time.

As the final thing, I leave my house, and give it one last look over. I get the nagging feeling, that when I return here, nothing will be the same.

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So far the infiltration has gone as planned. I am one Bruce about 10 meters above Root headquarters, about 5 meters above the barrier. As both Bruce and myself are dark, we blend in with the night, on this moonless evening.

About 20 minutes ago we saw a large group of Root ninja leaving the headquarters. I spotted Danzo among them, so I am pretty sure this group is heading towards the Uchiha clan. To make sure the didn't come back halfway there, we waited 20 minutes. However it seems they are really gone for good, so now is time for action.

"Wait for me here Bruce, and notify me if something goes wrong" I whisper to Bruce. As we have no way to communicate over a large distance, I have placed a Image recording seal on Bruce. If there is trouble he will activate it, and show me the trouble.

Bruce nods his head to confirm.

This is it, the real test of my new seal, and whether it is useful. I jump of Bruce's back, and fall towards the barrier, and the roof top of Root headquarters.

I pass by the barrier, and just before I activated the first of my four Chakra Imitation seals. I pass by the barrier. Nothing happens.

I keep falling, and eventually brace myself with chakra, and land silently on top of the building. I wait, ready to run away at any moment, if the barrier penetration failed. However after almost 5 minutes, I conclude that I have successfully infiltrate the barrier, without raising any alarms.

I then start mapping out the headquarters, with my vibration sensing.

The information I get back surprises me. Apparently Root headquarters stretches far below ground. The two stories building above ground, is only the first two stories of about 10 stories in total. 8 stories below ground. And of course from what I can gather, the best protected room, is a the lowest level of the compound.

This is going to take some time to move through.

To help me traverse, and maneuver around the compound, I summon 8 chains of my Adamantine sealing chains. Once they are summoned, they cost almost no chakra to maintain, in just their basic form. I pick a spot, that seems most likely to not be seen, and I start to use my chain and cut a hole in the roof. It takes some time, as I want it to be done with as little noise as possible.

While making the hole, I constantly use my vibration sensing, to ensure no one is near, and to learn the patrol pattern inside the building. The patrols above ground seem very few, so they are not going to be a problem, until I get to below ground levels.

After a few moments the hole is big enough for me to get through, so I do. I now find myself inside a standard office building, or at least it looks like one. Where I am now, seems like a kind of closet of office supply. It is right next to the stair well leading down to the basement. So when the coast is clear, I leave the closet and make my way down the stairs.

However from the first basement level, where I am now, and further down, the stairs are in different parts for the floor. Which means I have to make my way across each floor, to get below to the next level. And here at basement level, the patrols are more frequent. The patrols are also at minimum two ninja's. The one thing that is to my advantage here is that the lighting is pretty poor all over. We are below ground, and most of the lights here are candles. Also the candles are place with room between each, so each light cone from each candle just hits each other. This means that several places on the roof of room or hallways, it is almost entirely dark.

Taking inspiration from a certain wallcrawler, I start using my chains to grab the roof/walls, in such a way, that I basically crawl on the roof.

This works pretty well, for most of my decent down towards the lowest level. I do however have a few close calls, with a few patrols. Once even getting caught between two patrols, and having to duck into a side room to avoid getting caught. This was not done silent, however to my luck both of the patrols though the other patrol was the one making noise.

With that, I arrive at the bottom floor of the compound.

The lowest level is a bit different than the others. For once when I try to use my vibration sensing jutsu, there are several "blind" spots on this level. While it is not that I can't sense anything from this area, it is just that I have no idea what I am sensing the vibrations of. Not knowing what this is, I want to avoid this as much as possible, however just before the office I am aiming at, there is a large room, filled with several of the "blind" spots. This room is unusually big, almost as tall as 4 stories, and several 100 meters in length and depth. From what I gather, both this room is guarded by a few ninja, and the office at the end of the large room, is also guarded by ninja.

I make my way towards this room. Once more crawling on the celling and making no noise. The hallways here on the lowest level, are also much higher than the other levels, making it darker, and easier for myself to hide.

Finally I get to the hallway, that will lead into the large room. All in all it has taken me almost 2 hours to get to this point, and I am mentally exhausted. However the goal is within reach now, and after that I can rest a bit.

At the end of this hallway, I can see two ninja. They are clearly looking bored, standing about 1 meter away from the door, looking down the hall. The are making small talk with each other, not really paying attention to anything. The distance between myself and them, are about 50 meters, however I am on the celling, and it is pretty dark here, while they are standing in the light, which makes it harder for the to spot anything in the dark.

I use this to my advantage and make my way to them. A few times, I thought they caught on to me, but I eventually make it, and I am now hanging upside down, almost 4 meters above them, slowly making my way down towards them. If anyone of the would have bothered to look up, they would have seen a black figure hanging from 4 chains in the celling. However none of them do, and I eventually have my face at level with theirs, however just about 10 centimeters behind them.

Suddenly I strike out, and places my hand around each of their mouths. At the same time four chains strike out, tying them up with two each. As this came as a surprise attack, neither of them have any chance to react or cry out, and I use my Adamantine sealings chains to suck up all their chakra, before knocking them out. With no chakra, it will take hours, maybe even days, before they wake up.

Making sure they are both out for good, I turn my attention to the door into the large room behind it. This door seems the only way inside, so I have to enter through it.

I enter this big room, which looks very strange. The room is completely dark, but a little light bleeds into the room, when I open the door.

The room is vast, much more so then what I though. The floor and walls, that I can see, seem to be covered in completely blue tiles, with some white joint filler between each blue tile. I can only see about 5 meters in front of me, and the rest is just darkness. Quickly I get into the room, and close the door. The room is now in utter darkness.

I use my vibration sensing to guide me further into the room. I can sense the room through my vibration jutsu, and it is just strange. I gather that the entire room is filled with these blue tiles, however there are several platforms around. All of them in different heights, some only a few meters above ground, and some close to the roof of the room. Each platform is placed on the walls or from the celling. The floor of this room is entirely smooth. On top of each of these platform, there are these "blind" spots in my jutsu, that I have no idea what is. There is about 20 of these platforms around the room.

At the end of the room is the door to the office, that is my main objective here. However this door is not a ground level, but rather about 4 meters above floor level. There is yet another platform here, with yet another "blind" spot.

As I reach the halfway spot between each of the doors, there is a sudden voice that yells out over the room:

"So you finally came intruder!" ???? said.

I was shocked for a moment. There was no one else in here, or at least I could not detect them with my vibration jutsu, so is there some kind of speaker somewhere.

"Who's there?" I asked into the empty darkness. Or what I assumed was empty, because just as I said that, light turned on. After being in darkness for the last few minutes, the light was blinding. This light, compared to the previous in the building, was electrical, and plentiful. Enough to light up the entire room. I blinked a few times, and when I could see again I was none to happy with my situation.

All around me, I could see Root ninja. They were all placed on the platforms around the room, about one ninja on each platform. They were all discarding a kind of cloak or blanked that had covered them. From where I stood it seemed to be some kind of shock absorbent material. No wonder my vibration jutsu could not identify it.

"It seems you were right, her ability is depending on vibrations" Random Root ninja 1 said, as if to confirm some previous speculation.

Argh, crap, they got me good with that one.

The person who spoke initially spoke again, and my attention was drawn towards him:

"You break in here, and dare to ask us who's there? It is the master of this domain obviously!" Danzo said. Yes Danzo, how the hell did he get back here before me?

As if to answer my question, Danzo continued:

"Did you really think, you could outmaneuver me child? I have been doing this for decades more than you have been alive. I knew the Uchiha offer was fake. I was there when Shisui told us about his ability, and I know he got to Fugaku. There was no way the Uchiha would ever make such an offer, so I send a transformed ninja in my stead. I assumed you wanted me away from here, so I just stayed to see when you would make your move." Danzo said, looking pretty smug.

I didn't answer him, just made him spill his entire plan during his own stupid monologue. Meanwhile, with the shock absorbant material of, I could use my vibration jutsu to once again get an overview of the situation. 25 ninja other than me in this room, Danzo and two bodyguards, dead ahead of me, with 22 other ninja places at different levels above me. This is not going to be easy.

"When were done with you today, I will go after the Uchiha next. They might have avoided death once, but I need them out of the way, for a peaceful Konoha. Once they are gone, I will have gotten rid of two of the most problematic clans in Konoha" Danzo continued

At this last part I twitched a bit. Did he know who I was? But I was so careful. Danzo must have noticed my twitch, because he continued:

"Oh yes, child, you were not as careful as you thought. Anya Uzumaki" Danzo smiled. The kind of smile that anyone who saw it, would love to punch.

I removed my hood and helmet.

"Congratulations Danzo, you outsmarted a 17 year old girl. Happy with yourself?" I tried to taunt him, to maybe create an opening I could use. However no luck.

"Ohh, child, were not even done yet. While I made the mistake of underestimating you in the past, and it cost me the use of my right eye, I will make no such mistake this time" Danzo said, and with a smirk indicated to one of the Root ninja, that then hit a switch.

As result of the switch being hit, a hatch opened in the roof, and a cage started to descend down. The cage was hanging by a thick chain, and as it was lowered to be about 4 meter from the floor, I could finally see the inhabitant inside.

"Hiruzen was never to keen on my offer to take him as part of Root. But now I think I will just do so. After all it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right Naruto?" Danzo asked, addressed to the sleeping boy in the cage.

"Danzo!" I yelled enraged, and continued: "This time you have gone to far. I will kill you for this!"

"Relax girls, no harm has come to him. He is just in a genjutsu induced sleep. I can't have anything happen to my new weapon." Danzo said, with clear madness in his eyes. He then continued, in the voice and gesture, as if he just ordered someone to take out the trash: "Kill her".

Hundredths of shuriken, kunai and other throwing weapons flew towards me. This sobered me up a bit. Anger will just impede me right now. I need to protect Naruto everything else, is secondary. So I calmed down a bit.

"You never learn Danzo, you tried this last time and it didn't have any effect on me and Shisui" I said, trying to taunt him. With no apparent luck again. Fine then, the hard way.

"Earth style: Mud wall" I said, and placed my hands on the ground. However to my surprise, nothing happened. I had to dodge out of the way, and use my chains to block several of the thrown weapons.

"Hahaha, stupid girl. This room is build in such a way, that there is no access to the ground. Around us is several meters thick layer of metal, hidden behind the blue ceramic tiles. Not even you vibration sensing would have been able to sense that before. You have no access to earth in here. This room is the perfect counter to earth release users such as yourself" Danzo said, laughing like he just hear the funniest joke in the world. Meanwhile I was dodging for dear life. While I have had more weapons thrown at me before, these ninja were clearly at a level above that. I hade no time to do anything but dodge and block.

After a few moments, I successfully dodge in such a way, that I could block everything thrown at me, for a few moments. That freed me up to use my hands to cast another jutsu:

"Alright, if that is so, then I will do this instead:

Earth style: Iron Skin Technique" I said, as my skin turned grey. This should free myself up, to go on the offensive, as their weapons will no longer hurt me.

Just as I was about to launch myself at one of the platforms, a blinding pain originated from my shoulder. Crap. A kunai had burrowed deep into my left shoulder, bypassing my iron skin.

"Hahah, do you think we wouldn't know about the weakness of that jutsu either? You showed us it before, so I would have naturally made preparations against it. Several of the kunai and shuriken have lightning style chakra infused into them." Danzo said, once again laughing. He was really starting to grind my gears.

Damn, they prepared pretty well for all my usual tricks. I guess there is nothing to do for now, but block and dogde, until I can observe an opening or flaw.

Several minutes passed, with me barley avoiding death a few times. Two additional shuriken got through my defense, that had lightning release chakra in them. I am bleeding from my shoulder and my right arm now. I have some blood replacement pills with me, but I need a bit of time to take them. And that is one thing the enemy is not willing to give me.

It is not all bad however. My image recording justu has really proven its worth here. Having 360º vision lets me avoid most weapons, and observe more of the battlefield. They are also sticking to using weapons for now, instead of using ranged jutsu. And I finally found a flaw, or at least I hope I did. It is subtle but it seems all ninja here are directed by a single will. This is why they can attack with such a good coordination. There is no one else than Danzo who could be directing them. This also explains their formation, and why Danzo is not attacking me himself. He needs to be still to direct the Root ninja. So if I can disrupt him, I can catch probably catch my breath for a few minutes.

So I prepare my counteroffensive, while dodging around. On the next round of avoiding weapons, I move closer to Danzo. However he sees what I am doing, and makes the Root ninja act accordingly. This is however what I was counting on. With a mighty show of the ground, I move upwards, instead of close to Danzo, using my chains, I grab hold of a platform, and swing myself up to the root ninja placed there.

The root ninja moves to intercept me in taijutsu, however my chains are much faster, and before he is close I have him bound. I know from last time, that Danzo will sacrifice any Root ninja if he needs to, so there is no use for this one as a hostage. I start draining his chakra, while blocking the incoming fire with my other chains. At the same time, I get 10 kunai out of my pocket and throw them at Danzo.

Danzo himself makes no motion to block or dodge, but the two ninja around Danzo both take out a weapon, and deflect the kunai away from him. The kunai are now scattered around the platform Danzo is on. Perfect.

I finish draining the Root ninja and knock him out, but at a cost. Another kunai bypassed my defense, and leaves me with a open wound on my left leg. I make my way to the edge of the platform, and jump of. This time I am the one that is smirking.

"Kai!" I yell, and the platform I was just on explodes from the explosive seals I left on it. This give me a bit of cover from the thrown weapons raining my way. I then turn my attention to Danzo's platform. For a moment we lock eyes, or rather my two eye lock his one eye, and I can see he recognizes was is about to happen:

"Kai!" I yell again, and the 10 kunai I threw before, all explode. While Danzo is not in the explosion range, that was no the intention either. The large number of metal and debris that starts to rain down on his position, forces him to move, or get crushed.

To make it worse for him, I throw additional kunai with explosive seals behind him. So the land in the office that was my initial goal in coming here. I sensed before that there was an escape hatch in this room, and Danzo could use that to run away. However not on my watch, with another satisfied "Kai" the room goes un in flames, and collapse in on itself. Blocking of any escape Danzo had, but most likely also destroying any evidence I could have used against Root.

"No where to run to now Danzo!" I yell at him, to once more try and taunt him. This time however it seems to have an effect.

Danzo is forced to retreat into the room, and while he is distracted and cant direct the remaining Root ninja's are nowhere as efficient as they were before. They still throw weapons at me, even mixing ranged jutsu, but I easily block or dodge them. This gives me the time I need to take it up another notch.

"Adamantine sealing chains: 24 chains" I yell.

All of the ninja in the room, except myself and Naruto, look on in fear, as an additional 16 chains morph out of my body. It only takes a moment however, before the ninja's are back at it again. I can hear Danzo almost in panic now as well: "Use the boy as hostage and distract her, while I get away". Danzo then takes of to run towards the other end of the room, to the only remaining door out of the room.

Yea, like I will let that happen. Now that Danzo has forced me to use my most powerful form, I am not gonna let him get away. With almost no effort, I stretch 2 chains towards Naruto's cage, while stretching 4 chains towards the door leading out of the room. I use my other remaining chains to block and deflect the ranged attacks heading towards me or Naruto.

The two chains at Naruto's cage easily rips open the cage, and gently takes out Naruto, bringing him to me. The four chains at the door surrounds the door, and I whisper quietly to myself:

"Adamantine sealing chains - barrier"

Two overlapping barriers appear around the door, just as Danzo is about to pass through it. Instead Danzo runs head first into the double layered barrier, and realizes he is trapped in this room now. He desperately tried a few wind style jutsu on the barrier, to break it, but the barrier does not give.

It takes me only a few minutes to catch the first few ninja, with my chains and drain the of their chakra. After the first two are caught and down, it becomes easier, as not as many chains are now dedicated to defense, and I can catch more at once.

After an additional 5 minutes, every other ninja, expect me and Danzo is unconscious or asleep. I place Naruto safely at one corner of the room, placing a fuinjutsu barrier around him (from a scroll I have), that will stop all weapons and low level jutsu from passing through. I do this because I wont hold it above Danzo to try and attack Naruto, even if he has no chance to win. I then start walking towards Danzo, who has given up on the barrier and stands to face me.

We walk towards each other, and eventually stop about 4 meters from each other. I summon all my chains back to myself. If Danzo wanted to run now, he knows I could catch him before he reached the door.

"I promised that I will kill you today Danzo, and I intend to do so" I say to him. He is clearly not happy about the situation, but seems to steel himself for what is to come.

"You are arrogant girl. I will show you my full power, even if I can never use this power again." Danzo says, trying to sound intimidating.

While he is outclassed, and he know it, I am wounded and have used a great deal of chakra so far. It is anyone's guess who would win in a drawn out fight, however I don't intend to draw out this fight.

As if there was an agreed upon signal, we both start to move at the same time. I send all but 2 chains towards Danzo, and he does a surprisingly good job to avoid them. He uses a moment in between to chain attack to summon a powerful wind dome around himself. While it does not stop my chain attack from passing through, it will deflect the chain, if not attacking from the front. If my chains attack with an angle, they will be deflected by the wind dome.

I concentrate more, and aim the chains better, however Danzo uses the time he won, to use the summoning jutsu. A giant tapir-like creature appears in the room next to Danzo.

"Baku, keep her busy a moment, while I prepare something. And also watch out for those chains" Danzo yells to his summoned monster. However before Danzo can finish his warning, I have already pierced his summoned creature with 5 chains, unsummoning it again. Such a big creature cant avoid my chains, and even before he was finished summoning the creature, my chains were on the move. I know his summoned from the anime, so I can already send my attack towards it before it even appeared. At the same time several chains pierce his wind dome, and it is dispelled.

"Is guess it really can't be helped" Danzo says, and continued:

"Wood style"

Hundredths of wood beams and branches start to form from Danzo's right arm. They are all headed towards me, however I use all of my chains to block, and cut the wood beams and branches. Just as soon as a branch or beam is cut, it is replaced by a new one. My 24 chains can only barely keep up, and I am gradually getting pushed back.

I renew my vigor, and concentrate more on my chains, but if this continues I will loose. Suddenly I get an inspiration:

"Adamantine sealing chains - barrier"

I use 4 chains, to make two barriers between each two chains, and use the two barriers as a cutting tool, to cut and block several beams and branches at once. While more barriers would help out, two is what I can manage for now.

With the addition of the barriers, were pretty much even. And now it just becomes a struggle of who will run out of gas first. Several logs and trees start to litter the room, a lumberjacks wet dream.

After several minutes of this tug of war, in the end I finally held out, and Danzo runs out of steam. My naturally big chakra pool, and the chakra I absorbed through the fight, made the difference in the end.

Danzo's right arm is gone, and he looks at the verge of collapse.

"Go on, finish me then" Danzo say. His one remaining eye is only half open, due to exhaustion.

"Don't worry, I will" I anser him.

I know from the anime, that he has one final trump card, but I don't need to get close to him to finish him of. This is the optimal time, to try out my new jutsu, that this fight inspired, and is in no way stolen from Gaara.

I send 22 of my chains towards Danzo. Not to pierce him, or hold him, but I use them to create a dome structure around Danzo. It is a perfect sphere created by 22 chains, that is about the size of Danzo himself. The remaining two chains are used for ballast, and is placed into the ground. No escape is possible once inside, and I could activate my chakra absorption, however I have a quicker way to end his life:

"Adamantine sealing chains - Iron maiden"

As I say the jutsu's name, the end of all 22 chains pierce the sphere in different locations. Some of them covered in blood as they get out the other side of the sphere. I then open up the sphere again, and Danzo with several hole through his body, falls out of the sphere, dead.

Finally its over. Now I just have to fight my way out Root headquarters with a yellow sleeping bundle on my back. Great.

I dismiss 16 of my chains, and are back a 8 again. I need to preserve as much chakra as I can now, to get back out.

*********************************************************************************************************

Getting out of Root headquarters was much easier than I expected. It seems like most Root ninja knew that Danzo was dead, and they took of. Probably has something to do with the seal each Root ninja has. There were a few ninja left, that I had to get rid of, but nothing that I could not handle, even in my exhausted state.

I am now back in Naruto's apartment, putting him back in his bed. He will wake up tomorrow not knowing anything that happened this night. And that is the way I want it to be.

However before I dispel the genjutsu he is under, I need to think a bit.

While technically the mission failed, as I got no evidence to use against Danzo, I did remove a shadow over Konoha. A shadow that would poison the village in the future.

The problem is. I killed him, but what choice did he leave me? No one should go after my family and expect mercy. Some day I will even get that stupid fox back.

I had imagined that I would have to kill Danzo when I took the mission, but in every scenario I though the evidence would clear me of any charges.

However as it looks now, I just killed one of the village elders, and with no way to prove Danzo's dirty dealings. The village will have to brand me a traitor. I don't want that.

I stayed there for a few hours, pondering over my options. None were particular good, but I had to chose one. In the end, just as the sun started to rise over Konoha, I made a decision. I will leave the village. While Konoha has been my home so far, with the mess I am in now, there is no benefit for me or those close to me, if I stay here.

As such I set out to write a letter to Naruto, explaining that it will be some time before we meet again. To keep up his training, chase his dream and we would see each other again in the future. I also left instruction for some basic fuinjutsu in my letter.

I then placed the letter on the bed beside him, together with my small black book, that I got from my father. With any luck maybe Naruto would find a use for it, for me the book was not useful anymore, only a memento of a man I never meet. It should be safer here in Konoha.

With that I got up, dispelled the genjutsu on Naruto, and left his apartment, before he could wake up for real.

I then set my route towards the village gate. Passed the gate with tears in my eyes, never looking back out of fear that my resolve would crumble if I did.