Uprooting Tree from its ROOT

CH6 Uprooting Tree from its ROOT

Konohagakure

Yakushi Kabuto was about to make a short return to the Otogakure base to prepare the upcoming Konoha Crush plan. His identity as an Orochimaru henchman was already spilled by the time he fought against Kakashi Hatake, and so he had no place in this village. Funny that it seems Konoha still withholds that information and has no intention of capturing him or seeking his trails. After all, he could still leisurely roam the village just as is.

He was on his way to the Root base, to meet the collaborator of this plan. The draft was all proposed by the ambitious old man, Shimura Danzo, the leader of ROOT himself. He wanted to uproot the half-baked and soft way of ruling that his friend and comrade, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had done all this time and took the Hokage position himself. 

When Kabuto was about to enter the hidden entrance of the ROOT base, he heard the sound of battle not far from this place. Intrigued and also bewildered as he felt a strong chakra signature, Kabuto sneaked his way and then observed the ongoing battle steps away and hid behind a huge tree.

The battle was between an ANBU with a Snake mask against four cloaked ROOT anbus. Despite the odd, the snake-masked anbu prevailed to be superior, and with ease, he neutralized them all with a flaming sword. The anbu deflected throwing weapons and even cut through ninjutsu with his red sword. 

"What is the meaning of this, Danzo-sama?" asked the snake-masked Hayate with a cold tone.

Danzo was surprised seeing how his elite ROOT ninja got defeated in just a split second. And he never heard anything about this ninja, is this shinobi some sort of Hiruzen secretly cultivated trump card? 

"You, who are you? I have never seen a Konoha anbu with such a skillset. Open that mask, I order you!"

"Cough cough... you have no authority to order me. Sandaime-sama has ordered me to supervise the disbandment of ROOT, but seeing what happened just now. I think it's okay if I assume that you didn't want to cooperate. Is that correct?" Hayate said between his chronic cough.

"Foolish, think you got the upper hand in this? This is my territory, I have the higher ground!" At that moment, around twenty or so ROOT ninjas appeared in the vicinity. "Neutralize him! His talent is good, I want this ninja to join root and bolster our ranks!"

"Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu." a ninja with orange hair used a ninjutsu art unique to the Yamanaka clan.

Hayate felt a slight discomfort in his head but he waved it off by flaring his chakra outward. The mind transfer failed and Yamanaka Fu held his head in pain because of the backlash of failed jutsu.

"Attack!"

Fun as it was to see the ongoing conflict from far away, Kabuto sensed something slithering in the tree. It was a small white phosphorus snake, Orochimaru used this small summon to exchange intelligence or just send a message. The snake opened his jaw and spit out a scroll. Kabuto kneeled and took the scroll before reading it. His face was grim and he now looked at the Snake-masked ninja who wielded a flaming sword with doubt and fear.

'Orochimaru sama lost against this guy? But how?' Kabuto asked in his heart trying to not believe what was written in the scroll. But Orochimaru is his master, and there's no need to doubt him when this scroll was written from Orochimaru's blood.

'I still don't know who that ninja is, but I need to leave this place.' Kabuto stored the scroll containing the instruction from Orochimaru on how to proceed with the Konoha Crush plan and left the woods.

Back to Danzo and ROOT who was facing lone Anbu. 

"You've forced me to do this, Danzo!" Hayate looked at the old cyclops with sharp eyes. He held back a lot during this time, but even he felt annoyed if they started ganging up on him like this.

In a flash succession, he activated three jutsu. Shadow Clone which generates 4 clones, Transparent Jutsu, and casted Flame Sword Formation consists of 5 swords for each clone. His clones fought against the ROOT ninja, and he launched an attack on Danzo. Hayate chopped off his head easily as the old man was caught off guard. 

He didn't have any qualms about killing Danzo and his men, fellow villagers. Instead, he felt it was odd that the Third Hokage didn't confront Danzo and went into a full bloodbath. After all, Danzo has plotted to destroy Konoha and wants to assassinate him. Why does the old Hokage still have the heart to spare a traitor like him?

'Hmmm ... if, this is a what-if scenario. Yugao-san betrayed me and then wanted to assassinate me, will I kill her or will I spare her life?' Hayate pondered as he put himself in the same position as the Third Hokage to understand his perspective. 

'I can't, I don't think I could kill her myself. But still, this is not just about personal grudge. Danzo wanted to plunge the village into chaos, and if he was left to his device. It might cause hundreds of casualties. He's a greedy, ambitious, delusional madman who stopped for nothing until he gained that ambition.'

His overthinking of the scenario was short-lived as he saw Danzo's corpse disappear from the ground and the figure of the old man reappeared a few meters ahead. Running away from this place. Hayate sent a transparent flame sword and stabbed Danzo from behind. Killing him for the second time.

But his body disappeared once again and Danzo was running out of breath looking around him, he opened the eye cover, revealing a three tomoe sharingan. He also unsealed the metal gauntlet and revealed the unhealthy pale of hands with five implanted Sharingan eyes, two of which were already closed permanently. 

"This is impossible! How could my sharingan perception cannot see through your invisibility art!?" Danzo shouted with a shocked tone. 

He's already started panicking when the unknown Anbu becomes invisible. He couldn't sense anything, chakra signature, smell, sound, heat, or even movement, it's all gone. Even his sharingan can't capture it. He wanted to believe that it was a dream, that it was impossible, sharingan is the greatest pupil kekkai genkai, but the reality is often disappointing. He got beheaded and he was forced to use one Izanagi. Escaping the death by nullifying any injury by making his body a physical illusion. 

He ran away from this unknown anbu shinobi, but then his heart was stabbed by that invisible scorching hot sword. Danzo has lost two of his implanted sharingan as the price of using Izanagi is the loss of light in the Sharingan eye, total blindness of the eye. A huge loss, as there was no way he could replenish his sharingan eye with how the Uchiha clan was no more. 

Biting his tongue, he used a summoning jutsu to summon his psychic beast. 

"Summoning Jutsul Baku!" a huge tapir-like creature appeared from the thick white cloud. Danzo commanded the summoned beast to use a heavy suction to suck the air in the surrounding.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" 

Danzo used a wind-style release empowered by Baku and unleashed a gust of wind strong enough that it flattened the woods. His root anbu also got inside the blast area and some of them got flown away by the great wind. The potent cutting aspect of the wind release sliced every grass, tree, and flesh all the same.

"Ha, found you!" Danzo shouted after he noticed a spot where his wind style didn't cause an effect.

SLASH!

Hayate slashed Danzo's pale right hand as he connected the dots that Danzo's immortality might had something to do with the sharingan in his arm. Four flying swords pierced the huge summoned beast, sending him back to his habitat realm.

"Aaaaarrrghhhhh!!!"

'Even if you find me, so what?' Hayate thought as he proceeded to stab his heart and sever his head. 

Danzo's body dropped lifelessly, just like an unkillable cockroach, he got resurrected. Now, because his sharingan implanted arm is gone, he could only sacrifice his last sharingan in his right eye socket.

"W-wait!! Young man, we can talk about this! Let's talk about this, I will disband ROOT for good, I will give you any information that you want, I will give you everything, money, support, women, anything you want. What do you want, young man? I'll give it to you, but don't kill me!!" Danzo's previous arrogance was no more, at this moment he was desperate. 

All of his prized sharingan were gone in just a few bouts, and to make it worse he couldn't perceive his opponent. Even Minato Namikaze or his mentor Tobirama Senju was not this scary. An invisible enemy that cannot be seen by the ultimate dojutsu? It was horrifying.

Hayate undo his transparency jutsu revealing himself with four flying swords stationed behind him and one in his hand. He made a sheathing motion and the sword disappeared into a wisp. 

"... alright, I'll let you live. But you have to come with me to the Hokage after this, you had to address a few questions regarding those sharingan." 

"Of course, of course, young man." Danzo nodded hurriedly. He wanted to command the ROOT shinobi to stop fighting but he just realized that they're all dead. 

Some become tiny slices of meat pieces scattered about because of his Baku-enhanced Wind Style: Great Breakthrough and some others were killed with either beheading, stab in the head, or dissected from the waist. He felt his scalp go numb as he now knew the threat that this young anbu posed. Danzo then led him into the ROOT base, pretending to be completely under this snake-masked anbu.

But suddenly, Danzo moved and activated his last, suicidal trump card!

"Reverse Tetragram Sealing Jutsu!"

From his chest four seal symbols which consist of lesser yin, greater yin, lesser yang, and greater yang shone, and from this symbol blackened blood burst out. The blood forms a large black sphere around himself, a great suction force can be felt all around as if Danzo has a gravitational force on his own. The seal tries to capture everything inside the sphere area and then it would seal along with the user's corpse. 

"HAHAHAHA! DO YOU THINK I WILL LET YOU GO JUST LIKE THAT, YOU ARE A MAJOR THREAT TO KONOHA VILLAGE! I WILL SACRIFICE MYSELF AND KILL YOU!" Danzo laughed maniacally while looking at Hayate.

POOF!

Hayate who was inside the area of effect of this fuinjutsu simply poof-ed out of existence as all this time it was a clone all along. Danzo dumbfoundedly widened his eyes and despair swallowed his whole being. He was played, he had been played all along. 

"Hahaha ..." the bloodied one-eyed old man chuckled and the seal finally completed. Sealing everything inside the sphere, and even his corpse is gone as if he was consumed by its suction force.

"Your master Danzo is dead, there's no need for further conflict!" said Hayate to the ROOT member who came too late into this area.

They had some pregnant pause for a moment before one of them threw a kunai and shuriken before slashing his tanto toward Hayate.

"... so be it." 

Hayate re-entered the transparent state and then started killing those who brandished their weapon. He left those who just struck in shock or those who had surrendered by raising their hands in the air. In the end, some minutes later ... the majority of the ROOT, those who had been brainwashed to be unquestionably loyal to Danzo was killed. Those who tried to escape were neutralized by slicing their heels tendon, and those who surrendered all had their weapons confiscated. 

"Snake, I'm Kinoe, this is Fox and Cat. We were tasked by the Hokage to assist you. But what is this? What's happening."

Asked a young Anbu after observing the field who screamed like there was a huge battle just a moment ago.

"Ah, you guys are here. Danzo refuses to cooperate and so I'm forced to use the hard way. Can you help me restrain them, afterward we need to send them to the T&I department. Also, Fox, come with me, we'll go and see what else Danzo has been hiding in this base."

"Understood."

——— 

Kabuto was inside an apartment near the red-light district of Konoha village. He was drawing an intricate seal around an unconscious purple-haired Konoha kunoichi. The kunoichi was Anko Mitarashi, Orochimaru's former disciple before he betrayed Konoha and became a missing nin. Before he left, Orochimaru began researching the cursed seal, and Anko was the first batch of those who got it, the first to survive it.

'But who is that guy, really ...' 

Kabuto was surprised, flabbergasted, when he read the scroll. Orochimaru was defeated by that shinobi with transparent jutsu. While he didn't see the full fight between ROOT forces against him, he knew that the snake-masked Anbu would win against them all. That's why he decided to go away before he got caught in the mess of a battle.

All the seals were placed, and some flesh of a white phosphorous snake from Ryuuchi Cave was placed on top of Anko's cursed seal mark. The last thing to do is to activate the fuinjutsu.

"Reverse Seal: Evil Release Jutsu!" 

From the right side of Anko's neck, a huge snake head grew and then opened its jaw to let Orochimaru get out from inside the snake. As expected of the Snake Sannin, his obsession with immortality makes him cease to be human.

"Orochimaru-sama, what should we do, most likely Suna and Danzo won't be able to cooperate."

"No need to worry, Kabuto. The plan must go on, with or without them." said Orochimaru gravely. "Have you learned who is the shinobi that defeated me in Suna?"

"He is an anbu, I know his codename he goes with the snake mask. But there's no information about him anywhere. It was as if he's been hiding this whole time, and only appeared just now."

"I see, but don't mind it. He might be strong, but can he fight against not one, but two Bijuu?"

"Orochimaru-sama, you mean?"

"You will go to Ichibi jinchuuriki and render him asleep. I will tamper the seal on Kyuubi's brat."

Orochimaru then proceeds to divulge the improvised plan. He adjusted the plan and decided that tonight, chaos would plunge Konoha. A catastrophe that will be much worse than the Kyuubi attack 13 years ago, and now, there's no Minato Namikaze who will stop it.