Ch247. Uprooting 1

"Today is a good night." Tsunade remarked with a cat-like glee, "The Konoha Council is having a mandatory meeting discussing this year's taxes so it seems I have two hours for my little uprooting project." She smirked, standing up from her crouch and looking around.

She was currently in the centermost part of Konoha's underground tunnel system, perched high up on a metal beam near the roof of what appeared to be a wide training room that simply should not exist underneath Konoha. Tsunade somehow really doubted any plans of underground tunnels actually contained any sort of mention of the room below and wondered how could Hiruzen Sarutobi overlook it. How could he not know it was there, right under his beloved village. The same village filled to the brim with ANBU under his command who patrolled it on a daily basis, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

She really didn't like the conclusion her mind was delivering though... It was simply yet another thing to be disappointed about when it came to her sensei.

Lazily putting her fingers into a cross-shaped seal, rather because of habit than any real necessity, Tsunade summoned a singular shadow clone and instantly dismissed it, giving a signal to her wood clones stationed near every single entrance to the Konoha tunnel system.

It took her entire day of stealthily scouting via the abusive overuse of the wood clones' ability to meld themselves into the terrain, not unlike the Iwa's Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique. Fortunately for Tsunade, these clones came with an ability to suppress their chakra to an incredibly undetectable degree, superb senory prowess, and actually transmitted their experiences otherwise her five hundred clones would be detected by some ROOT ninjas who, after all, specialized in assassination and stealth, or it would have taken her months to map all of the underground tunnels if she couldn't make effective use of the clones.

The second Tsunade's wood clones got the signal, they instantly approached the entrances and used a Mokuton Jutsu to change themselves back into the wood. Ten feet thick wooden lid covering the entire entrance made of chakra-enhanced Mokuton fixed in their place, blocking their respective tunnel thanks to large spikes that penetrated deep into the walls, to be perfectly precise. Upon dispelling back into wood, each clone sent Tsunade feedback, confirming the blockage was in place.

Tsunade got the memories of the last clone and excitedly grinned in anticipation of what was to come, "Well, then..." She punched her palm, "today, nobody is leaving here alive! Let's see how Danzo fares without his loyal minions!"

Tsunade's shout instantly alerted the ROOT ANBU members practicing under her but before they could react in any meaningful way, she was already quickly dropping down from the metal beam. Her fist impacted the ground and all hell broke.

In that instant, the citizens of Konoha experienced a minuscule earthquake. It wasn't anything to worry about and only caused them a bit of imbalance for a short period of time but the village certainly felt it.

And while the citizens shrugged it off almost instantly, the unfortunate ROOT members in the underground training room had to put in a lot of effort to keep standing on their feet through all the shaking as the walls cracked. This was only made more difficult as they also had to avoid the big spiderweb-like cracks forming in the ground that made for great pitfalls where feet could get stuck quite easily with just a single misstep. The occasional shrapnel made of earth sent flying by the impact of the punch didn't help their cases either since they had a hard time standing, much less dodging.

From sixty-three members of ROOT present in the room, two got crushed because of a slab of earth rising due to the punch and burying them underneath. Twelve were unlucky to be hit by the earth shrapnel in fatal places while an additional five were currently helplessly bleeding out as their arteries were struck. One poor lass showed his immense skill by tripping on his own foot during the quakes and breaking his own neck.

Sixty-three versus one instantly became forty-three versus one who proved to be a badass. Tsunade quite liked those odds. Especially since another twenty-two opponents had various degrees of injuries on their bodies, ranging all the way from missing balls... earth shrapnel doesn't discriminate... to a few insignificant bruises because of losing balance and hitting the ground.

Tsunade straightened out and rolled her shoulder to alleviate some tension from the punch while also restraining her rapidly growing bloodlust. She knew how to hold grudges and ROOT tried to assassinate her on a weekly basis when she was in the village during the Third Ninja War. She might not have had a chance to return the favor then... but now? Oh, she was going to enjoy this!

The air stilled as the uninjured and injured ROOT ninjas emotionlessly readied themselves for the upcoming battle, showing just how effective Danzo's training was. Tsunade had no doubt neither of them would ever hesitate from delivering a lethal strike. Not when they completely disregarded their own injuries and even the injuries of their supposed comrades in favor of taking down their assailant... her.

As she lowered her stance, she idly thought it was a somewhat sorry sight. Not that her pity would make her hesitate. She came here today to enact slaughter, not play a caretaker. For now, her medic-nin self had to take unpaid vacation. It was time for a more brutal part of her personality to take over.

The moment of suspense passed as quickly as it appeared, and the ROOT ninjas charged at Tsunade with abandon. Tsunade, on the other hand, simply stood in her place and waited for them, opting to take a more defensive approach.

The first wave of her would-be attackers finally reached her and all three of them sprang to the offensive like a well-oiled machine. One from the front while two others attacked her from the sides.

As she was ducking under the high kick from her right side while also tilting her body to narrowly avoid the stab from her left, Tsunade had to admit the teamwork and organization of these ninjas was quite polished. There were over forty of them and yet, only three attacked at a time, knowing to not overcrowd her, and instead, they spread out in the room in fear of being taken out by some large-scale ninjutsu while also limiting her available place for dodging.

Or at least, that was the general idea...

Tsunade quickly hooked her arm around the elbow of the ninja in front of her whose punch she evaded, and then she twisted. With a resounding crack, the ROOT ninja's arm snapped at the elbow, and yet, he and his comrades didn't even flinch. The only thing indicating the man even felt his bone-breaking was a single muted grunt as his other hand already whipped towards Tsunade's temple while he used his now broken limb as an anchor to keep Tsunade in place. Worse yet, the two other attackers recognized the opportunity for what it was and Tsunade found herself about to be knifed to the neck from her left side and kicked to sensitive muscles on her thigh from her right. She could also see seven other ROOT members taking advantage of her positioning by throwing kunai in her direction in a way that would not pose a threat to her three attackers.

Tsunade found herself almost impressed by the flawless coordination...

Then again, she was not a normal kunoichi. What would in another situation work as keeping the opponent in place, didn't really work on her. Exerting her muscles to an inhuman, even for the ninja standards, degree, Tsunade grabbed the shoulder of the man in front of her and effortlessly lifted him into the air, causing him untold pain as his broken bone ground against her steel-hard biceps, before throwing him to the right as if he was yesterday's trash. The thrown body impacted the knife-wielding attacker on her left, sending both of them tumbling on the floor. Tsunade might or might not have used a bit too much force, judging by the cracks that resounded every time the bodies hit the ground. Ah, well, spilled milk and all that.

The third attacker wasn't much of a threat, to be honest. His kick aimed at her thigh missed because of the spin necessary to throw her first attacker. Unfortunately for him, Tsunade didn't stop after the throw and used the momentum to swap into a punching motion, caving the third attacker's face before he flew back, right into another ROOT member who experienced how it felt having his brains paint the ground from the sheer force of impact.

It was then that the ROOT members momentarily stopped, realizing this would not be as easy as they previously envisioned while Tsunade huffed at her inability to get a rise out of them despite her apparent brutality.

'Heh... let's see if I can pull a genuine emotion out of these human machines.' Tsunade smirked, enjoying the situation as the kunoichi side in her stirred awake.

The fight continued...