Chapter 365: Disbanding Root

Chapter 365: Chapter 365: Disbanding Root

Feeling guilty, Danzo avoided the Third Hokage’s piercing gaze.

Danzo had always kept the First Hokage’s cell transplantation experiments hidden from the Third Hokage and the village, conducting them secretly in the shadows. Even after Orochimaru defected, the experiments had never been halted.

Thus, faced with the Third Hokage’s sudden questioning, Danzo found himself momentarily unable to respond.

Koharu Utatane, who was standing nearby, asked, "Hiruzen, what happened?"

The Third Hokage replied with a grave expression, "During this recent assault, I encountered a mysterious shinobi capable of using the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai."

The Third Hokage had considered many possibilities regarding Obito’s identity.

In his view, the most likely possibility was that Obito was a shinobi who had successfully undergone a transplantation of the First Hokage’s cells. The possibility that he was a member of the Senju Clan who had somehow been left outside the village was extremely low.

After all, even among members of the Senju Clan, the only person who had ever possessed the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai was the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama. Even the extraordinarily gifted Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, had been incapable of using Wood Release.

This alone showed that the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai was not an ordinary Kekkei Genkai that could simply be inherited through blood.

"Wood Release Kekkei Genkai?!"

Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado were both startled, countless thoughts flashing through their minds.

Danzo’s face darkened as he deliberately put on a helpless expression. "It was my failure to properly supervise him. Orochimaru found an opening and took advantage of it."

The Third Hokage said nothing. His gaze remained firmly fixed on Danzo.

Seeing that the Third Hokage had no intention of letting the matter go, Danzo had no choice but to continue, "Before Orochimaru defected, he had been secretly conducting transplantation experiments with the First Hokage’s cells behind my back. And... he even obtained a child who successfully fused with the First Hokage’s cells."

"What?!"

Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado were so shocked that they shot to their feet from the sofa.

The Third Hokage’s expression turned so gloomy that it seemed as though water could drip from it.

Originally, the Third Hokage had only been somewhat suspicious. Danzo’s Root had already become completely independent of his control, and even as Hokage, he remained unaware of many of Root’s operations. Because of this, he had been worried that the mysterious Obito might have obtained the First Hokage’s cells from the village, or perhaps acquired the village’s technology related to transplanting those cells.

He had never expected that after a single question, he would discover that Danzo really had been secretly conducting transplantation experiments with the First Hokage’s cells behind his back—and had even produced a child who successfully fused with them.

Suppressing his anger at having been kept in the dark, the Third Hokage took a deep breath and asked, "Where is that child?"

Danzo shook his head. "Orochimaru took him away."

The Third Hokage immediately said, "I want every piece of information you have on that child!"

Without a doubt, the Third Hokage had mistakenly assumed that the child Orochimaru had taken away was Obito, the man who had intercepted him outside Amegakure.

After all, Orochimaru had once been a member of Akatsuki, and the Allied Forces were currently unaware that Orochimaru had already defected from the organization. Therefore, from their perspective, it was perfectly reasonable to assume that the child Orochimaru had taken with him had eventually become a member of Akatsuki.

Now that the matter had already been exposed, Danzo stopped trying to hide it and directly handed Yamato’s files over to the Third Hokage.

After taking the files concerning Yamato, the Third Hokage said coldly, "Danzo, you violated the village’s regulations and secretly conducted forbidden experiments without authorization. As Hokage, I hereby impose your punishment. Effective immediately, Root is to be completely disbanded, and all Root members will be placed under the unified command of the ANBU!"

Danzo snapped angrily, "Hiruzen, that was Orochimaru—"

Before Danzo could finish, the Third Hokage waved his hand dismissively.

"Enough with these tricks."

Trying to shift all the blame onto Orochimaru, who had defected long ago, was such a crude little trick that it obviously wasn’t going to fool the Third Hokage now that he had already made up his mind.

Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado exchanged a glance before ultimately choosing to remain silent.

Under normal circumstances, Koharu and Homura would undoubtedly have raised objections. But with the village currently facing an enormous threat, and Danzo having committed such a serious offense, they had nothing to say about the Third Hokage reclaiming his authority.

With a cold expression, Danzo left the Hokage’s office and immediately returned to Root’s headquarters.

Inside a secret laboratory located in the deepest reaches of the Root base, Danzo urgently questioned one of the researchers working there.

"How are the experiments progressing?"

The researcher replied, "Lord Danzo, according to our experiments, the Sharingan does indeed possess the ability to suppress the First Hokage’s cells. As long as we can obtain enough Sharingan, the success rate of transplanting the First Hokage’s cells will undoubtedly increase significantly. But..."

"But what?"

Danzo’s expression turned icy as chakra erupted from his body.

Under Danzo’s oppressive pressure, the researcher wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead.

"But we still need further experimentation to determine the proper balance between the two. The data we currently possess is nowhere near sufficient."

Thud...

Danzo slammed his cane heavily against the floor.

"There’s no time. If you cannot perfect the transplantation procedure within one week, you and your families will all disappear!"

With that, Danzo turned and left the secret laboratory without looking back.

Only after Danzo’s figure disappeared from the laboratory did the researcher collapse onto the floor, his face deathly pale.

For a transplantation experiment of this level, one week was nowhere near enough.

Meanwhile, Danzo strolled through the Root base after leaving the laboratory. The corner of his mouth curled upward, revealing an eerie smile.

"Hiruzen, you’ve grown old!"

As the Third Hokage’s closest comrade-in-arms, Danzo had increasingly begun to sense the deterioration of Hiruzen’s body. This was particularly obvious when it came to his chakra reserves.

That was why Danzo had placed his hopes on the First Hokage’s cells.

Only by successfully transplanting the First Hokage’s cells could he maintain himself at his peak and replace the Third Hokage as the next Hokage.

Moreover, only after successfully transplanting the First Hokage’s cells could the Sharingan he had hastily transplanted into himself truly be put to use, instead of remaining sealed for the vast majority of the time as they were now.

As for Root being disbanded, Danzo wasn’t particularly worried.

Root had been under Danzo’s control for so many years that he had long since turned it into an impregnable fortress.

Although the Third Hokage wanted to reclaim his authority, as long as Danzo himself refused to willingly relinquish control, the mere process of transferring Root’s personnel and authority could keep both sides entangled for a long time.

And that amount of time would be more than enough for Danzo to transfer Root’s core secrets and elite personnel elsewhere, allowing him to rebuild another Root outside of Root itself...

...

After resting inside the air fortress for two days and barely suppressing the natural energy’s encroachment on his body, Hyuga Kagami left the fortress and quietly returned to the village.

Using a ninja crow to communicate, Kagami contacted Itachi, who had been impersonating him, and the two headed toward Konoha Hospital together.

Since Itachi had needed to impersonate Kagami, he had deliberately injured himself during the battle in Amegakure.

Therefore, as far as everyone else was concerned, Hyuga Kagami should have returned from Amegakure wounded. And since Kagami’s actual body was partially petrified, he could technically be considered injured as well.

That made a trip to the hospital perfect.

He could officially register his injuries there, making them part of the record, and then use them as justification to apply to the Third Hokage for a period of medical leave.

After entering a private examination room, Kagami glanced at the medical-nin in front of him before beginning to remove the bandages wrapped around his arms.

As the layers of bandages were gradually unraveled, Kagami’s petrified arms were slowly revealed. There was no trace of flesh-colored skin left on them.

Kagami, however, paid it little mind and calmly told the medical-nin, "My arms and legs suffered external injuries. The bleeding won’t stop, so they need to be medically treated and bandaged."

At that moment, Itachi’s dark eyes suddenly turned scarlet, and three tomoe slowly began revolving within them.

"Yes. Your arms suffered external injuries, and the bleeding won’t stop. I’ll bandage them immediately."

Kagami’s exposed arms were clearly dull gray without even the slightest trace of blood, yet the medical-nin, his eyes vacant, repeated Kagami’s words while recording them in the medical chart.

Kagami continued with a smile,

"My injuries require at least three weeks of medical leave."

The medical-nin nodded woodenly as he continued writing.

"Your injuries require three weeks of medical leave."

Kagami said calmly, "Start bandaging me."

The medical-nin put down his pen and immediately rewrapped Kagami’s four limbs in bandages.

After Kagami left with Itachi supporting him, the medical-nin returned to his seat and suddenly froze.

The clarity gradually returned to his eyes, and he muttered to himself in confusion, "Why did I space out just now? Did I not get enough rest last night?"

After leaving the hospital, Itachi asked Kagami, "Senpai, your body...?"

"It’s fine. I’ll recover after resting for a while." Kagami smiled before continuing, "You Uchiha really do have some useful genjutsu. If it weren’t for you, I honestly would’ve had a headache figuring out how to get medical leave!"

Itachi shook his head. "Senpai, you’re joking."

Although Itachi had not personally participated in the previous assault, he had learned what happened afterward from Shisui, as well as Kakashi and Guy of Team 11.

He knew that Kagami had single-handedly fought against the leader of Akatsuki and had ultimately intimidated the entire organization into retreating without daring to continue the battle.

By this point, Itachi was thoroughly convinced that Hyuga Kagami, the leader of Kamigami, had already surpassed the Kage level and was rapidly approaching the realm of a supreme powerhouse like the First Hokage, the man who had brought an end to the chaotic era.

Kagami then asked, "Did Lord Hokage make any arrangements after returning to the village?"

Itachi hurriedly replied, "Lord Hokage immediately convened a Jonin Assembly and publicly announced the details of the assault on Akatsuki. It caused a huge uproar throughout the village."

Kagami nodded.

That much was within his expectations.

An assault personally led by three Kage had ended without accomplishing its objective. It would have been strange if that hadn’t caused an uproar.

Itachi continued, "I heard that Lord Hokage subsequently dispatched two more delegations. One was sent to the Land of Water, while the other was sent to the Land of Earth. However, I haven’t been able to find out what their specific missions are yet."

Kagami chuckled. "He moves fast."

"Lord Hokage has also issued several orders within the village." After a brief pause, Itachi continued, "His first order was to gather everyone who participated in the assault and conduct a large-scale intelligence debriefing. I attended the debriefing in your place."

Kagami nodded again.

For a major shinobi village like Konoha, procedures had already been established for many situations.

Take the recent assault, for example. Although the operation had failed, nearly all of Akatsuki’s main combat forces had revealed themselves in battle. Therefore, gathering and consolidating all the intelligence obtained and then devising appropriate countermeasures for the next confrontation was only natural for Konoha.

Itachi pondered for a moment before saying, "Lord Hokage’s second order was to require retired shinobi from the major ninja clans to reclaim their shinobi identification or register for new identification, officially restoring their status as active shinobi."

Kagami was momentarily taken aback before gently nodding.

"Mm."

At present, Konoha actually had only a few thousand officially registered shinobi.

Kagami’s own shinobi registration number was 010012, meaning that he was the ten-thousand-and-twelfth shinobi to be officially registered by Konoha.

Yet among the shinobi whose registration numbers came before his, more than half had already been killed or wounded over the course of the three unprecedented Shinobi World Wars.

In other words, Konoha likely had only around six or seven thousand registered shinobi remaining.

Even by Naruto’s era, Naruto’s own shinobi registration number was only 012607.

However, during the Fourth Shinobi World War in the original timeline, the Allied Shinobi Forces mobilized a total force of eighty thousand. Excluding the samurai of the Land of Iron, the Shinobi Alliance alone numbered more than seventy thousand.

Averaged out, each of the Five Great Shinobi Villages contributed roughly fourteen thousand shinobi.

But the strength of the Five Great Shinobi Villages was not evenly distributed. Villages such as Sunagakure and Kirigakure were clearly weaker and would have had difficulty assembling more than fourteen thousand combatants. Therefore, the number of shinobi deployed by Konoha, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure should have been higher than that fourteen-thousand average.

Konoha had only six or seven thousand officially registered shinobi, yet after a full mobilization, it could field more than fourteen thousand.

The difference between those two figures came from retired shinobi belonging to the major ninja clans, as well as retired civilian-born shinobi.

Therefore, the number of retired shinobi hidden within the major ninja clans should never be underestimated. They represented an extremely powerful reserve force.

Take the Hyuga Clan, to which Kagami belonged, for example.

The strongest members of the Hyuga Clan belonged to the Main House, yet members of the Main House rarely went onto the battlefield. The vast majority had never even registered for shinobi identification. Their existence could only be found within the clan’s internal genealogical records.

Most of the time, they effectively lived in retirement, possessing almost no presence within the village’s active shinobi forces.

There were also some members of the Hyuga Branch House who served as guards and attendants to the Main House. Although they had undergone rigorous shinobi training and possessed strength no weaker than an ordinary Chunin, they had likewise never registered for shinobi identification with the village and therefore were not officially counted among Konoha’s active shinobi.

This was also why Kagami had been able to fabricate the identity of the nonexistent "Uchiha En" without arousing too much suspicion from either Uchiha Shinichi and Uchiha Obito, or even outsiders like Orochimaru.

After all, among the major ninja clans, there really were quite a few clan members who possessed the strength of shinobi despite never having formally registered as shinobi with the village.

By mobilizing these people, the Third Hokage was clearly infringing upon the interests of the major ninja clans. But with the enormous threats posed by Akatsuki and Kamigami, the Third Hokage had little choice.

After hesitating for a moment, Itachi said, "Senpai, Lord Hokage has invited me to join the ANBU again. What do you think?"

Following the heavy casualties suffered by the ANBU during the recent operation, many of the village’s outstanding young shinobi had received invitations from the Third Hokage.

And Itachi, who had already built quite a reputation for himself, was naturally among them.

Kagami said, "This is your personal matter, so strictly speaking, I shouldn’t interfere. But considering the freedom you’ll need to act, I suggest that you decline Lord Hokage’s invitation."

Itachi said worriedly, "Senpai, I’ve rejected Lord Hokage’s invitations several times already. I’m worried that this might affect the relationship between the clan and the village. After all, I’m the clan head’s son. Lord Hokage may very well assume that my repeated refusals were made at the clan’s instruction."

Kagami patted Itachi on the shoulder and smiled.

"Don’t worry. At this point, the village can no longer afford to do without the Uchiha!"