The Root of the Matter

A/N: Just a reminder, new chapter here officially means new chapter over on the P atreon now, where my patrons are currently voting on the future direction of this story!

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No… no, he needed to stop and think. Danzo was too much of a threat to take anything less than seriously. To that end… Naruto needed to involve Tsunade. There was a reason that Danzo had waited until the Fifth Hokage was off the clan compound premises before striking, after all. He might not have feared Tsunade, but he at least respected her enough to avoid her.

Too bad he didn't have enough respect for Naruto to avoid him either. That… Naruto would make sure that was Danzo's downfall, if it was the last thing he did. Still, there were right and wrong ways to go about things, that much Naruto knew.

Summoning more of his Nature Chakra-infused Clones, Naruto makes sure there's absolutely nobody else watching the Clan Compound or lying in wait waiting to strike. Thanks to his training under Jiraiya, he's almost one hundred percent confident that the Root agents have all pulled back at this point. And so, he henges up a half dozen clones, and sends them on a roundabout way to Tsunade and the Hokage's Tower.

At the same time, he sends a clone to wake up Ino Yamanaka. Danzo wasn't an idiot by any stretch of the imagination. And he certainly wasn't ignorant of the abilities of Konoha's clans, especially not the Yamanaka Clan and their Mind Walking. Naruto knew this, because he'd found a clause specifically tailored to them in the Cursed Seal he'd unraveled without hesitation.

If even the most skilled Yamanaka tried to Mind Walk a member of Root, they were in for a very bad time. As in, never getting back to their body, mind unraveled in some hellscape sort of deal. It was a very bad end. But then, it made plenty of sense. Danzo's Cursed Seal wasn't all that much like Orochimaru's. Orochimaru's Cursed Seal, from what Naruto had gleaned, was designed to give power to its recipient.

While it DID have some protections in place that allowed Orochimaru to exert some control over its bearer's when he was close by, the true purpose of his Cursed Seal was to increase the power of its victim in an effort to prepare their body for Orochimaru's eventual takeover. Every single one of his Cursed Seal recipients were a potential host for the parasitic, body-hopping Snake Sannin.

In comparison, Danzo's Cursed Seal had none of that. It neither provided increased power to its recipients, nor made them more susceptible to a body hopping technique. Instead, Danzo's Cursed Seal was all about control, both of the bearer, and of the information that said bearer might have. However, with the Cursed Seal unraveled and the Root Agent unconscious…

"Who is this?"

Looking to Ino, Naruto smirks.

"This right here is an enemy agent who tried to infiltrate the Clan Compound alongside several other ninja. They were aiming for Sasuko."

Ino's eyes widen, the blonde's head whipping over to him.

"Wait, Sasuko's back?!"

Shrugging, Naruto nods.

"She is… though almost no one should know about it yet. And yet…"

Trailing off meaningfully, Naruto gestures at the unconscious kunoichi at their feet, as well as the bodies of her fellows still scattered around. After a moment, he frowns and has a couple of his clones go about policing the bodies, lining them up and covering them with sheets. He should have done that earlier, but he'd got caught up in his own head.

"Can you do a Mind Walk of this one, to find out what she knows? I can assure you; I've already taken care of the defenses."

Ino blanches at even the mention of defenses, looking at the masked kunoichi with no small amount of trepidation. The Yamanaka Clan was one of Konoha's more valuable clans, because of their Mind Walking abilities. For the purposes of interrogation, they were unparalleled. However, that had in turn resulted in the rise of defenses AGAINST said abilities, ranging from walls to keep Yamanaka Ninja out entirely, to deadly traps that could suck a Mind Walking shinobi or kunoichi in and never let them go.

That Danzo had chosen the latter for his Cursed Seal, rather than the former, spoke to how paranoid and monstrous the old shinobi truly was. While it was true that a straight defense like a mind wall wasn't nearly as effective as a mind trap, it still implied that he was happy to let loyal Konoha Ninja die in truly gruesome ways to protect his secrets.

Regardless, with Naruto's assurances, Ino swallows thickly before nodding and stepping in front of the unconscious kunoichi. Kneeling across from her, she goes through a set of symbols and then slumps, clearly in the midst of Mind Walking. Naruto watches with his arms crossed over his chest and a slight tic in his jaw. Truth be told, he'd rather be moving right now, rather be doing anything even if that thing was inadvisable.

But no, he controls himself and waits, staying at the ready, but ultimately doing nothing in this moment. He has to learn he can rely on other people. He has to-

"Report."

Tsunade's arrival is as sudden as it is anticipated and appreciated. Back straightening in the presence of his Hokage, since she's very clearly not acting in the role of his lover at the moment, Naruto speaks clearly and concisely.

"I have several deceased members of the unauthorized organization Root bearing Danzo Shimura's Cursed Seal, as well as one living member… who's Cursed Seal I unraveled. Currently, I have Ino Yamanaka Mind Walking in the prisoner's mind to find out what she can about their mission."

Tsunade's eyes narrow at first, before widening at the mention that he's unraveled a Cursed Seal. Immediately, the Fifth Hokage is beside one of the corpses, opening the mouth and pulling out the tongue to observe the Cursed Seal still present there. After doing a similar check of every other body Naruto has gathered, she sucks in a deep breath.

"This is… unprecedented. It's unlike Danzo to leave bodies behind to be identified."

Smirking at that, Naruto rolls his shoulders.

"I'm pretty sure they weren't expecting me and all that I was capable of. Perhaps I haven't been as subtle as I could have been since arriving back in Konoha, but I also haven't been shouting my new abilities from the rooftop. They underestimated me. Danzo underestimated me."

Just as Naruto is saying that, Ino finally comes out of the Mind Walk with a gasp, eyes wide as they dart over to Naruto, as if to make sure he's still there. When she registers the presence of the Hokage however, she flushes and immediately bows her head.

"H-Hokage! Ma'am!"

Waving a hand dismissively, Tsunade just grunts.

"Report."

"R-Right! It's like Naruto thought. Their mission was to either apprehend or kill Sasuko Uchiha for betraying the village. However… they did have a secondary objective…"

Naruto was nodding along, right until that final sentence. Then, he frowns, furrowing his brow right alongside Tsunade as the two wait for Ino to explain. Fidgeting under their gazes, the blonde eventually forces herself to speak.

"There was an expectation that Naruto would be capable of stopping or interfering with their mission through his demonstrated Chakra-Sensing abilities. In the event that he got involved, they were to perform a fighting retreat, using either Sasuko… or her corpse to draw Naruto back to Root Headquarters, where this kunoichi believed that overwhelming firepower would see him neutralized and captured."

Both Naruto and Tsunade go wide-eyed at that. It seemed that Naruto had been smart not to follow his first impulse. While he had clearly disrupted the plan enough that it wasn't fully functional, if he HAD gone through with his initial idea of rushing straight to Danzo's base of operations, he would have been walking right into a trap.

To be fair, it wasn't entirely clear whether the trap would have been enough to take Naruto down anyways. He didn't exactly know what sort of bullshit someone like Danzo had up his sleeves, but obviously he HAD underestimated Naruto's abilities somewhat.

"Fuck."

Tsunade's exclamation takes Naruto by surprised. Glancing over at the cursing Hokage, he finds her looking deeply contemplative. When she notices his attention, her lips thin out and she sighs.

"On the face of things… Danzo going after Sasuko wouldn't be enough for me to do anything about it. She's still a Missing Nin after all. But him going after YOU… that changes things. We need confirmation, because if Ino's findings can be authenticated, then we have options for moving ahead."

Frowning for a moment in thought, Tsunade glares down at the unconscious Root Kunoichi at their feet.

"… Are we confident Danzo has no idea that Naruto would be able to unravel his Cursed Seal?"

The question, meant for both Naruto and Ino, draws a shrug from the former and a hesitant nod from the latter.

"This one, at least, didn't know that was a risk. And you'd think Danzo would have warned them, if that was even a possibility…"

Hm, true. And Tsunade agrees, nodding sharply before looking to Naruto.

"Can you get a discrete message to Inoichi Yamanaka?"

"You want to bring in dad?!"

Ino's exclamation causes Tsunade to nod again, before explaining.

"If Danzo finds out we're involving him, his suspicions will likely be raised to the point of action. Unfortunately, we ourselves cannot take more action unless we have a second Mind Walker to corroborate Ino's report."

It makes sense. Ino is… young and altogether untested. Danzo could cast aspersions on her abilities with little issue. But doing the same with her father, Inoichi Yamanaka… yeah, Naruto would like to see him try.

"I can do it, yeah. Of course, the best way to be quiet… is to get a little noisy, right?"

Before Tsunade can ask what he means by that, Naruto is already acting. Summoning a hundred MORE Shadow Clones infused with his Nature Chakra would have killed most shinobi, but for Naruto it's a drop in the bucket. Sending them out in all directions, he explains his intentions to the Hokage and Ino.

"Danzo clearly expects me to go off half-cocked here. But I surprised him, by being a little too good, and annihilating the initial team. Still, he probably thinks I know enough to recognize the Cursed Seal as his own. Which means… I SHOULD be searching for Root HQ right now, right?"

As his clones spread all across the village, two of them henge in a back alley, before making his way towards Inoichi Yamanaka's chakra signature.

Tsunade slowly nods her agreement, seeing where Naruto's strategy is going.

"Smart. It should force Danzo to keep the vast majority of his forces at Root's headquarters, especially if he wants to have any hope of containing a Jinchuriki rather than causing a rampage. HOW he exactly intended to bring you under his control without destroying the village in the process, I'd be very curious to find out… but not the hard way."

Naruto inclines his head in agreement. His two clones find Inoichi and after getting the Hokage's message to the man, one replaces him with his help, so no one is any the wiser. The other begins leading Inoichi back to the Uzumaki Clan Compound via a path that Naruto's other clones have already made damn sure is clear of any enemy ninja.

Soon enough, Inoichi Yamanaka stands before them, looking confused… but then increasingly serious as he has the situation explained to him by his Hokage and daughter. Dropping to his knees before the unconscious Root kunoichi, Inoichi begins his own Mind Walk.

The ensuing silence is a touch stifling, with Naruto not sure what to do with himself once again. But Inoichi is a Master at his craft and is finished much quicker than Ino was.

"Her name is Hinoto. She remembers no other. And… Hokage… she was once part of a failed mission to try and kill the Third Hokage."

Tsunade's head whips around at that, her eyes widening and her nostrils flaring.

"Explain."

And so Inoichi does. He explains Hinoto's mission, which took place alongside nine other Root members, in great detail. Disguised as foreign ninja, they had been ordered to assassinate Hiruzen Sarutobi before he could be reinstated as Hokage after the death of Naruto's father. They had only been stymied because of just who was guarding him at the time… a young Kakashi Hatake, still in Anbu at that point.

It was more than that though. Inoichi had been able to do a deep dive in less than the amount of time it had taken Ino to skim the surface level of Hinoto's mind. Put bluntly, he could speak on every single crime that Danzo had committed against Konoha and her people, including the way Hinoto and her comrades were brought up and trained within Root in the first place.

Danzo had been treating Root as his own personal fiefdom for a long, long time, using methods that none of the last three Hokage had ever approved of. Tsunade's hands clench and unclench as she breathes angrily through her nose at hearing the atrocities Hinoto was ordered to commit, as well as the ones visited upon her over the course of her so-called training. Being raised in pairs, only to be forced to kill your other half before you could 'graduate'… that was some Bloody Kiri shit right there.

"… This is much more than I thought I would get. And now we have a decision to make together, Naruto."

Startling at the sound of his name, Naruto looks to see Tsunade looking quite serious.

"If Inoichi could corroborate his daughter's findings, then I would have reason to allow you to challenge Danzo to an honor duel. For invading your Clan's Compound, for endangering your Clan, you would have cause to force him to fight you… or be exiled from Konoha. But this is much more than that. We now have evidence of conspiracy against a former Hokage, as well as dozens of examples of Danzo going far, FAR further over the line than even Hiruzen ever thought possible."

Straightening her spine, Tsunade looks every bit the Fifth Hokage in that moment as she stares at Naruto imperiously.

"I leave it up to you, Lord Uzumaki. As the Head of the Uzumaki Clan, do you wish to take matters into your own hands? Or will you leave this to me, as the Hokage?"

Ah. Naruto saw what she was saying now. They had enough evidence here to bury Danzo, and enough reason to finally rip Root out from underneath the village once and for all. But if Naruto left it in Tsunade's hands, he would probably only be a bit player in the conflict to come. He wouldn't face off against Danzo personally.

… Did he really need to though? Or was it enough just to be able to help Konoha, his home, in this way? Should he let Tsunade take the reins, or should he demand that duel and his own personal satisfaction after all?

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