Chapter 25

"What brought this on?"

"Just answer my question."

I took some time to contemplate on what my answer should be.

"The Leaf village is the strongest out of the 5 hidden villages. I am proud to belong to the leaf. Everyone in this village is a righteous human being and would give their lives to protect the village as per the will of fire that has been passed down--"

"Shut up and give me your honest opinion." Sensei intervened in my answer.

One look on his face, and it looked menacing. I could tell that he was genuinely angry. But all that anger doesn't feel like it's directed at me. He is angry at my answer.

"I want to know what your true thoughts are about the village and its leaders, specifically what you think about Danzo." Anger was practically leaking out of every single one of his words.

This is the first time I have seen him like this. Wait-Danzo! I see, so that's it!

"They are all just overgrown parasites who are going to lead the village to ruin due to their uncontrollable and unending hunger for power and dominance." I said this while looking straight into Sensei's eyes.

"As I thought." "So you know about the dark side of this village."

I gave him a nod and asked, "Do you think that Danzo is responsible for eliminating the team that was responsible to meet them and provide them backup?"

"I do. I was the one who came up with the plan to infiltrate Takigakure and proceed to the Kanabbi bridge. And the plan was perfect. They shouldn't have been detected entering Takigakure at all."

"So meaning that Danzo is the one who gave them a tip that they will be coming through this route. But why? What was his motive?"

"....To berate me. The election of the next Hokage is going to happen in a couple of days and I am the most likely to win. He wanted to defame me so that he could make Orochimaru-san the Hokage, to do his bidding.

Fucking Danzo. He would make Leaf incur so many losses just for small victories that are practically meaningless.

He must have believed that there was no way that his subordinates would fail in eliminating the team sent for their backup. He wanted to make Sensei look like a fool who got his own students killed by making them follow a terrible plan.

He would later send this very team of his subordinates to destroy the Kanabbi bridge and take all the credit.

"What are we going to do to him then?" I asked

"The absolute worst. But for that, I need your help."

"Absolutely. Tell me what you need me to do."

***

3 Months later

Somewhere far in the forest outside Konoha.

5 silhouettes could be seen moving at a very high pace through the forest. Everyone of them were wearing completely black cloaks with a hood and a plain white mask to cover their faces.

The one leading the group stopped on coming across a small clearing.

"Let's rest here. We will rush back to Konoha as soon as daybreak.We will take turns keeping guard at night. Make sure to get enough rest we have to pass the message to Loed Danzo at all costs."

"Right!" The rest of the 4 replied

They set up traps around the surrounding area, took few ration bars and soldier pills for dinner. They made sure to not make any noise or do anything that would reveal their location to anyone. After all they are trained root shinobis, if they can't even do this much they wouldn't have even survived the root's training program where they literally try to hunt you down like a dog and expect you to survive for at least 2 days.

Unfortunately for them they were already being observed from a distance by a figure clad in black from head to toe easily blending in with the darkness of the night. He wore a black coloured armour sticking to his body, a black mask and also had black hair.

'Let's see. 5 targets in total, 3 Jonins and 2 special Jonins. Seems doable.' The figure thought

Concentrating chakra into his legs and releasing it, he leapt from the tree trunk and flew towards his target at a very high speed. Manoeuvring his body mid-air he was able to dodge most of traps they had set up which were mainly just strings.

However, the immediate burst of chakra from the soul of his feat destroyed the tree which was enough to wake up all 4 of the people who had been resting.

But even if they were alerted, his speed was so fast that they were not able to react until one of their members was killed by a sword that came in his hand out of nowhere.

The one whose head flew just now was a Jounin who was sleeping just moments before. Such a situation left all of the team members flabbergasted. To take down even an injured Jounin sometimes prove to be a hassle but to take down one that easily really speaks about a person's strength or in this case, their speed.

"Formation 5!"

The leader yelled and all of the remaining members of the group including him created shadow clones and started to move in complex patterns. The formation 5 of the said group was created to retreat in case of running into an enemy who is impossible for them to defeat.

Even after looking at the figure and determining him to be only a kid, the leader didn't hesitate at calling a retreat. He knew that there were people in this world who were young but much more stronger than him. He was made aware of this bitter truth through countless missions he had performed.

Even after going through Root's training regimen for so many years, he was never able to reach the level of an elite jounin.

His swift decision making was important for the team since if it wasn't for that, all of them would have been dead for sure. But now, at lease one of them has a chance at escaping and delivering the scroll to Danzo.

Normally their strategy would have worked however they weren't dealing with an ordinary situation nor an ordinary ninja. No matter in how much complex patterns they move, the traps that they had spread around them will not let them move freely which cut down their options.

The figure's sword glowed in blue hue and lightning danced beneath his feet. In just a few second, all of their shadow clones had been taken care of as well as one of the special jonins had died leaving them with only three members.

The figure then decided to chase after the fleeting members of the group.

On catching upto them, the one and only special jonin left among them jumped at their assailant. He got close to him and then made a hand sign.

The figure's eye's shrank under his mask on releasing what he had done and lightning flashed beneath his feet again but this time just to escape.

BOOM!!

The place where he previously stood was replaced by a huge crater. Had he not dodged this, he would have for sure been severely injured.

This gave the other two only a couple of seconds of time only for them to again be intercepted by their assailant. The relentless press by their opponent forced one of them to properly engage him in battle.

The battle however lasted only half a minute before their member was defeated and the figure caught upto the only survivor i.e. their leader once again.

The leader manoeuvred his body mid air and spat back a huge fire dragon at the approaching figure. However surprisingly the fire dragon swirled and then dissipated.

What was left was the fast approaching blue ball of chakra spinning on one hand of his opponent.

The ball struck him directly at his chest and then exploded severing his upper body from his lower. Immediately killing him.

'That was easier than expected. I tough they would have at least a few tricks up their sleeve considering that they are Danzo's lackeys but whatever. Still I guess I should move away fast since the fight did cause a lot of unnecessary commotion.' The figure thought

He searched the remains of the members of the group and secured a lot of scrolls which he will check later but he specially took away the one scroll that was in the leader's ninja pouch. The scroll they were tasked to give to Danzo.

He took all of these things and left the place without a sound and disappeared into the black of the night.

***

<In an underground facility somewhere in Konoha>

Danzo's face suddenly cocked towards a certain direction.

"Mantis!" he yelled

"Yes lord Danzo"

A figure landed in front of him so silently that one would think that he had already been there.

"Kisuke's team has been eliminated while travelling from The Land of Rain to here. Find who did that and take care of him after retrieving what they were bringing here."

He was practically gnashing his teeth together as he said this. This after all had been the third time this month that the root's shinobis performing missions were eliminated due to unknown reasons.

He could sense the cursed seal placed on their tongue deactivating which confirmed that they had died.

Never had he been so enraged in his life. He was being humiliated by an unknown assailant and The Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze was paying close attention to his every move. One slip up and he could end up losing a lot of authority and control over the matters of the village.

Luckily for now, he could still go undetected for now due to the on going war. But it is coming to an end with the battle of Kanabbi bridge. And it won't be long before the war ends. What then?

What will he do afterwards? Will he continue to walk on egg shells for the rest of his life?

Hell No.

This is Danzo. The man who believes himself to be more righteous than anyone else. The person who according to him should become the Hokage, untie all 5 great nations and the rest of the world and rule them as their only owner.

"Take anyone you like but I want the bastard caught. This time he has interfered in an <S> rank mission. We can't allow someone like him to know about this or the details of the scroll to spread . Take anyone you want. Use any resource you like. But I want him caught and killed immediately."

Mantis was surprised when he heard this. Well surprised would be an overstatement since he really didn't feel emotions anymore but this was unexpected. Never before had Danzo given him full access to all the available resources.

This just proves how important the mission is for him.

He quietly flickered away and began preparing for his mission.

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