This is the story of a world where the actions of a soul getting shoved into a dying person's...
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Naruto - Mokuton Root Agent
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Mokuton Root Agent #1
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 1
Hashirama Senju. Also known as the God of Shinobi
The first shinobi ever to gain that title.
The strongest, baddest ninja to exist in his time period.
No one but one could come even close to his power.
It was none other than the Ghost of the Uchiha, Madara Uchiha.
The last known wielder of the vaunted Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, the peak of the doujutsu that can be wielded by the prestigious Uchiha Clan.
Together, they brought about an end to the warring clan's era and built the first-ever shinobi village, Konoha (The Hidden Leaf Village).
But tragedy struck soon after, Uchiha Madara fell into the Uchiha clan's curse of madness and betrayed Konoha.
At that time, the only ones who could barely match him were Sasuke Sarutobi and Uzumaki Ashina, with Hashirama being the only shinobi known to be able to soundly defeat him.
Hashirama took it upon himself to bring his best friend, the only one who ever truly understood his dream, to heel.
Then, after a battle of titanic proportions, which ended up creating the valley known as The Valley of the End, Hashirama finally killed his best friend with his own hands.
It is said that that event was the single biggest battle that Hashirama ever had to do and he was bedridden for weeks afterward, as a direct consequence of their massive unbridled battle.
Soon afterward, for reasons unknown, Hashirama passed away.
It was a shock to the shinobi world.
After all, he was very much middle-aged and he was known to heal from even the most critical wounds without the application of medical Ninjutsu, all by himself.
The repercussions of this death could be felt throughout the shinobi world.
The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, took charge of the Village Hidden in the leaves and with his tactical genius, catapulted it to be the strongest ninja village.
Hashirama Senju's death and his brother's rise to the role of Hokage came with bad tidings for the village.
The beginning of the first shinobi war.
The bloodiest war to ever happen, eclipsing any ninja conflict before it, including all the battles that happened during the clan wars.
In a way, Hashirama Senju failed to bring about his desired changes.
He brought about a respite of peace with his overwhelming strength but any such gains were swiftly wiped out when the first shinobi war began.
All of the villages were involved in the first shinobi war, damaging all of them critically.
Many Kages lost their lives during the First Shinobi War, including Tobirama Senju.
In the end, the villages signed an armistice to stop the war that was haemorrhaging all the village's resources and had gone on long enough that almost all of them were assured to come out of this as losers rather than winners.
The only thing was that some villages came out with fewer losses than the other villages.
Konoha being one of them, as Tobirama Senju, in his last act, managed to send away his subordinates safely and named Hiruzen Sarutobi as the Third Hokage.
As is the norm, exceptional ninjas manage to shine during times of extreme duress. That described the initial situation of Hiruzen Sarutobi accurately.
Thrust into the position of Hokage in his teenage years while all his contemporaries were old fossils with decades of experience under their belts.
Despite his precarious situation, The Third Hokage, with the help of his fellow ninjas, managed to weather the storms that were the Second and Third Great Shinobi Wars.
Of course, no one is without flaws and Hiruzen was certainly not without them.
He had made many mistakes, as was expected, in his role as the Hokage for the decades that he led Konoha.
One such mistake was the free hand he gave to his dear friend Danzo.
That one mistake could be said to have been the reason for both, a lot of losses to Konoha and also the reason for a lot of progress in Konoha.
Danzo committed many crimes, the latest in which was the series of human experiments he did on the subject of Kekkei Genkais in conjunction with Orochimaru.
Having lived through all three of the great ninja wars, the perspectives of Danzo and Hiruzen had been warped considerably from when they were students of Tobirama Senju.
Hiruzen had grown considerably softer in his dealings, having grown weary of back to back wars.
Danzo had grown all the more darker for it. Having lived through the first shinobi war and then contributing heavily to Konoha's war-machine in the second and third ones, his worldview was even more warped.
He began to view shinobis as just tools.
Mere tools to complete his goals.
Expendable for the greater good.
The greater good was the reason that Danzo gave to Hiruzen when he was justifying the darker deeds he committed in the name of helping Konoha.
The same reason he gave to himself when he started helping Orochimaru conduct human experiments to give someone the Kekkei Genkai of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
The Kekke Genkai had been consistently absent in the Senju line ever since Hashirama passed away.
Orochimaru's fascination with the Kekkei Genkais was also due to the death and destruction he had seen in the shinobi wars.
Deep down, he was just someone who wanted to run away from the inevitable, their eventual death.
So he dove into the human experimentation route to find out a way to become immortal, to learn all the jutsus of the shinobi world.
A foolish but commendable goal.
When confronted with the possibility of capture, Orochimaru instead chose to defect from the village and Danzo, seized the opportunity to blame all the blame for the human experimentations on Orochimaru, thus, clearing his own name.
Watching innocent people getting involved in wars was always sad for the Sage of the Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsutsuki.
Watching innocent children needly dying in a vain attempt to recreate the power that can only be harnessed by one of his son's reincarnations was even more saddening.
________________________________________________________________
Outside time and space
–Hagoromo Otsutsuki–
Watching over the shinobi world and seeing what his teachings had amounted to in the end was always saddening.
Not as heartbreaking as watching his children getting sealed in ninjas and being used as just weapons of war, bringing about death and destruction on a level he had never foreseen.
Oh, how they must hate him for giving the humans the ability to use chakra.
Equally heartbreaking was seeing what Indra and Asura had done after his passing away. It made him want to curse himself for not setting Indra and Asura straight after I had seen the signs of their conflicting ideologies turning violent.
Sure, at that age, discipling them would have hastened his inevitable death but it might have saved thousands more from dying till today.
Nowadays, he watches over the shinobi world as a mere spectre more as a form of penance rather than with the hope that a savior, the child of prophecy, comes and helps save the world.
Watching the Senju clan disappear slowly and seeing it getting whittled down by threats from both inside and outside the village was very much disheartening.
How Hashirama would weep at its state.
The Uchiha clan was no better. Seeing their current position in the Village Hidden in the Leaves had made one thing very much clear to him. He might not have the future-seeing capabilities that some of his mother's clansmen might have, but he could predict the same fate that had befallen the Senju with the Uchihas, complete and utter destruction.
Their name becomes dust in the wind, a mere footnote in the history of the Shinobi world.
However, watching young Tenzo run around the rooftops on the homes of Konoha gave him some hope that the Senju clan could be revived one day, that is if he could survive till adulthood.
Young Tenzo was the latest victim in the long list of people who are the victims of war crimes.
Crimes that the villages and their heads committed to come out on top in the next war, to increase their overall prowess before the next inevitable war breaks out.
The best way to increase the combat power was through the use of Kekkei Genkai and what better Kekkei Genkai than the one used by the man who managed to make the old warring clans submit?
The person who made the warring clans stop fighting and come together to create a village in fear of him.
Mokuton.
That was the best Kekkei Genkai that Konoha had access to.
They disturbed the slumber of their First Hokage and used his tissues to experiment on people.
When it became clear that people with fully developed chakra networks were incompatible with the process of implanting Kekkei Genkai, they detestably moved on to kids.
71
That was the number of kids they killed in the name of the greater good before Orochimaru was found out and stopped by the Yellow Flash of Konoha, Namikaze Minato.
________________________________________________________________
To be continued….
Word Count - 1534
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 1
Hashirama Senju. Also known as the God of Shinobi
The first shinobi ever to gain that title.
The strongest, baddest ninja to exist in his time period.
No one but one could come even close to his power.
It was none other than the Ghost of the Uchiha, Madara Uchiha.
The last known wielder of the vaunted Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, the peak of the doujutsu that can be wielded by the prestigious Uchiha Clan.
Together, they brought about an end to the warring clan's era and built the first-ever shinobi village, Konoha (The Hidden Leaf Village).
But tragedy struck soon after, Uchiha Madara fell into the Uchiha clan's curse of madness and betrayed Konoha.
At that time, the only ones who could barely match him were Sasuke Sarutobi and Uzumaki Ashina, with Hashirama being the only shinobi known to be able to soundly defeat him.
Hashirama took it upon himself to bring his best friend, the only one who ever truly understood his dream, to heel.
Then, after a battle of titanic proportions, which ended up creating the valley known as The Valley of the End, Hashirama finally killed his best friend with his own hands.
It is said that that event was the single biggest battle that Hashirama ever had to do and he was bedridden for weeks afterward, as a direct consequence of their massive unbridled battle.
Soon afterward, for reasons unknown, Hashirama passed away.
It was a shock to the shinobi world.
After all, he was very much middle-aged and he was known to heal from even the most critical wounds without the application of medical Ninjutsu, all by himself.
The repercussions of this death could be felt throughout the shinobi world.
The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, took charge of the Village Hidden in the leaves and with his tactical genius, catapulted it to be the strongest ninja village.
Hashirama Senju's death and his brother's rise to the role of Hokage came with bad tidings for the village.
The beginning of the first shinobi war.
The bloodiest war to ever happen, eclipsing any ninja conflict before it, including all the battles that happened during the clan wars.
In a way, Hashirama Senju failed to bring about his desired changes.
He brought about a respite of peace with his overwhelming strength but any such gains were swiftly wiped out when the first shinobi war began.
All of the villages were involved in the first shinobi war, damaging all of them critically.
Many Kages lost their lives during the First Shinobi War, including Tobirama Senju.
In the end, the villages signed an armistice to stop the war that was haemorrhaging all the village's resources and had gone on long enough that almost all of them were assured to come out of this as losers rather than winners.
The only thing was that some villages came out with fewer losses than the other villages.
Konoha being one of them, as Tobirama Senju, in his last act, managed to send away his subordinates safely and named Hiruzen Sarutobi as the Third Hokage.
As is the norm, exceptional ninjas manage to shine during times of extreme duress. That described the initial situation of Hiruzen Sarutobi accurately.
Thrust into the position of Hokage in his teenage years while all his contemporaries were old fossils with decades of experience under their belts.
Despite his precarious situation, The Third Hokage, with the help of his fellow ninjas, managed to weather the storms that were the Second and Third Great Shinobi Wars.
Of course, no one is without flaws and Hiruzen was certainly not without them.
He had made many mistakes, as was expected, in his role as the Hokage for the decades that he led Konoha.
One such mistake was the free hand he gave to his dear friend Danzo.
That one mistake could be said to have been the reason for both, a lot of losses to Konoha and also the reason for a lot of progress in Konoha.
Danzo committed many crimes, the latest in which was the series of human experiments he did on the subject of Kekkei Genkais in conjunction with Orochimaru.
Having lived through all three of the great ninja wars, the perspectives of Danzo and Hiruzen had been warped considerably from when they were students of Tobirama Senju.
Hiruzen had grown considerably softer in his dealings, having grown weary of back to back wars.
Danzo had grown all the more darker for it. Having lived through the first shinobi war and then contributing heavily to Konoha's war-machine in the second and third ones, his worldview was even more warped.
He began to view shinobis as just tools.
Mere tools to complete his goals.
Expendable for the greater good.
The greater good was the reason that Danzo gave to Hiruzen when he was justifying the darker deeds he committed in the name of helping Konoha.
The same reason he gave to himself when he started helping Orochimaru conduct human experiments to give someone the Kekkei Genkai of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
The Kekke Genkai had been consistently absent in the Senju line ever since Hashirama passed away.
Orochimaru's fascination with the Kekkei Genkais was also due to the death and destruction he had seen in the shinobi wars.
Deep down, he was just someone who wanted to run away from the inevitable, their eventual death.
So he dove into the human experimentation route to find out a way to become immortal, to learn all the jutsus of the shinobi world.
A foolish but commendable goal.
When confronted with the possibility of capture, Orochimaru instead chose to defect from the village and Danzo, seized the opportunity to blame all the blame for the human experimentations on Orochimaru, thus, clearing his own name.
Watching innocent people getting involved in wars was always sad for the Sage of the Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsutsuki.
Watching innocent children needly dying in a vain attempt to recreate the power that can only be harnessed by one of his son's reincarnations was even more saddening.
________________________________________________________________
Outside time and space
–Hagoromo Otsutsuki–
Watching over the shinobi world and seeing what his teachings had amounted to in the end was always saddening.
Not as heartbreaking as watching his children getting sealed in ninjas and being used as just weapons of war, bringing about death and destruction on a level he had never foreseen.
Oh, how they must hate him for giving the humans the ability to use chakra.
Equally heartbreaking was seeing what Indra and Asura had done after his passing away. It made him want to curse himself for not setting Indra and Asura straight after I had seen the signs of their conflicting ideologies turning violent.
Sure, at that age, discipling them would have hastened his inevitable death but it might have saved thousands more from dying till today.
Nowadays, he watches over the shinobi world as a mere spectre more as a form of penance rather than with the hope that a savior, the child of prophecy, comes and helps save the world.
Watching the Senju clan disappear slowly and seeing it getting whittled down by threats from both inside and outside the village was very much disheartening.
How Hashirama would weep at its state.
The Uchiha clan was no better. Seeing their current position in the Village Hidden in the Leaves had made one thing very much clear to him. He might not have the future-seeing capabilities that some of his mother's clansmen might have, but he could predict the same fate that had befallen the Senju with the Uchihas, complete and utter destruction.
Their name becomes dust in the wind, a mere footnote in the history of the Shinobi world.
However, watching young Tenzo run around the rooftops on the homes of Konoha gave him some hope that the Senju clan could be revived one day, that is if he could survive till adulthood.
Young Tenzo was the latest victim in the long list of people who are the victims of war crimes.
Crimes that the villages and their heads committed to come out on top in the next war, to increase their overall prowess before the next inevitable war breaks out.
The best way to increase the combat power was through the use of Kekkei Genkai and what better Kekkei Genkai than the one used by the man who managed to make the old warring clans submit?
The person who made the warring clans stop fighting and come together to create a village in fear of him.
Mokuton.
That was the best Kekkei Genkai that Konoha had access to.
They disturbed the slumber of their First Hokage and used his tissues to experiment on people.
When it became clear that people with fully developed chakra networks were incompatible with the process of implanting Kekkei Genkai, they detestably moved on to kids.
71
That was the number of kids they killed in the name of the greater good before Orochimaru was found out and stopped by the Yellow Flash of Konoha, Namikaze Minato.
________________________________________________________________
To be continued….
Word Count - 1534
Mokuton Root Agent #2
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 2
–Hagoromo Otsutsuki–
Yamato was the only one of the kids who had a significant enough Senju ancestry, that too directly from Hashirama.
That was the reason he was able to get a significantly weakened version of the famed Mokuton.
It was also the reason he was dying.
His soul is not able to handle the power of the Mokuton without his soul having been touched with the chakra of six paths.
Sadly, that chakra was only available to the reincarnations of his sons.
Danzo hiding him from Hiruzen and training him in secret only made the matters worse.
In Root, he was trained that weakness means death.
Showing pain means weakness which leads to death.
Complaining about pain is weakness.
Exhibiting weakness is a surefire way to die in the field.
Due to this upbringing, young Tenzo never told anyone of the random fainting sessions when he used Wood Release or the excruciating pain he must feel in his mind every time he tried to bring about even more of the prowess of the Wood Release, straining his soul even more in the process.
The sad truth was that he had very little time left.
Soon, his soul would be crushed under the weight of the growing power of Mokuton and his body would be overrun by its power and turn into a tree.
Hagoroma was keeping a watch on the poor boy as his soul kept fracturing more and more each passing day that he trained his power, desperately hoping that somebody would find out about his situation and grant him some measure of reprieve before his unfortunate death.
He was just another innocent soul caught up in this cycle of hate and violence.
And after a few days of watching over him, what he feared came to pass.
Watching his soul just dissipate after being crushed under the Mokuton's weight was very depressing.
Even then he held on to the hope that he might feel his soul enter the Pure Land, even in a partially broken state. But after a few scans, he could see that his soul had truly just withered away, unable to hold onto its form long enough for it to enter the Pure Land.
He mourned his passing in silence.
He cursed himself for his inability to interfere in the workings of the world before it was time.
Hmm?
Just then, as if some higher entity had decided to send some reprieve for him in this situation, a tear in space appeared right at the edge of his senses.
From that tear, came an extremely battered soul.
It had traces of void energy on it that continued to burn it to nothing but the soul somehow valiantly tried to fight it off for its survival.
Interested in the soul and the peculiar timing of its arrival, Hagoromo summoned it near him.
Upon closer inspection, to his astonishment, he could see the soul slowly winning against the void energy.
Not only that, it seemed to adapt and assimilate the void energy as if it were his very own.
The only individual that he knew of who could do that was Shibai Otsutsuki, the head of the Otsutsuki clan.
But he was an aberration in the natural order of the universe.
Someone who became extremely strong because of his mutation.
He was the reason the Otsutsuki clan wandered around planet to planet freely, digesting genetic information and killing off local inhabitants en masse, and committing genocide frequently.
If this soul could somehow reach Shibai's level, he could help the universe get rid of the scourge of the Otsutsuki clan, rather than just hoping for them to leave Earth alone.
His eyes lit up as he thought of the perfect way to introduce this soul into the shinobi world.
That would help him accomplish both his plans: Driving off the Otsutsuki and stopping the cycle of hate and violence using Chakra.
Coating it completely in a layer of his spare chakra that he had gathered in the millenia of being a husk of his previous self, burning off any remaining void energy in the process, he cocooned it and sent the soul towards the dead body of young Tenzo.
With the hope that with the six paths energy present around the soul and its own special properties of assimilation, it would be able to use the Mokuton to its fullest and stop the shinobi wars.
Watching the soul float through dimensions and land into the body of Tenzo, he fought the urge to pace around in the dimension where space was meaningless, worrying about the consequences of his decision.
At this point, all he could do was hope that he had made the right decision.
________________________________________________________________
Near ANBU headquarters
–Inabi Uchiha–
Watching the ANBU hop around on rooftops, heading towards the nearby ANBU headquarters was extremely frustrating.
Ever since the Kyuubi attack, they have been increasingly sidelined from their very jobs.
They were literally sidelined to the edges of the village as well.
On top of that, the entire Uchiha clan district was on round-the-clock surveillance.
The nerve of the ANBU, thinking the Sharingan wouldn't be able to detect them snooping on them with their pesky seals.
Did they forget that the Uchiha clan has records of hundreds of years of dealings with the Uzumaki clan?
After so long, people tend to pick up on skills.
Especially the Uchiha clan members with the advanced Sharingan.
It was the ultimate tool for accelerated learning.
Reading the reports of yet another case being solved by the ANBU that should have actually been in their jurisdiction was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Fugaku was being extremely pathetic in the way he had been dealing with the Uchiha clan's situation.
All of this arose from his decision to follow Danzo's orders despite the Hokage ordering otherwise.
The civilians never saw them fighting the Kyuubi, just running away from it.
Never mind that they were the ones who carried the most civilians away from the battle sites, thereby saving them.
But no. They only remember the martyrs.
Just as he was about to head to HQ to give Fugaku a piece of his mind, he sensed a fluctuating chakra signature.
Being one of the few natural sensors of the Uchiha clan, he was trained extremely hard since his birth to be able to detect any chakra signatures to the most minute levels.
The higher-level chakra signatures were easy. He had the Sharingan for that.
For the highest level of chakra, like the tailed beasts' chakra, you wouldn't even need sensory abilities of any kind. Your own body warns you to run as far as you can from those monsters.
What his abilities were honed for were the smaller ones. The chakra signatures that were hard to find or were being actively hidden.
Through the mastery of those abilities, he was able to hone in on one of the smaller ANBUs jumping wobbly from one rooftop to the other.
Their chakra signature was extremely weird.
It was strong, above average even, for a moment and then it became as weak as a newborn baby.
It was like nothing he had ever seen before.
But seeing that it was the ANBU and considering the already rocky relationship between the Uchiha clan and the higher-ups of Konoha, he wisely decided to not stick his nose where it didn't belong and prepared to head to HQ.
Just as he turned around and jumped onto the next rooftop, he felt the ANBU's signature turn weak, even weaker than before, and then simply disappear.
Shocked, he looked back only to see the ANBU falling down from the rooftop.
Activating the Sharingan on instinct, he was shocked as he saw that the body had no active chakra flow anymore.
Which could only mean one thing.
Death due to chakra exhaustion.
But how could it be? Their chakra appeared strong before.
Deciding to get to the bottom of the situation, he turned back and went slowly towards the gathering crowd that had surrounded the ANBU that were checking on the small ANBU.
He recognized Kakashi Hatake between them, giving out orders swiftly to the gathering ANBU.
Last he heard, he was being promoted to the position of ANBU Captain.
How he gets any shinobi work done is beyond him. What with his silver hair being out in the open and it being an extremely recognisable trait.
Trying to find any clue regarding this incident, he activated his Sharingan to see if he could see anything that he might have missed before.
Focusing on the body and the rooftop where he fell down, he couldn't find anything.
Before he could look further though, he felt a pin pricking feeling on his neck.
Searching around for its source, he looked only to see Kakashi Hatake looking straight into his eyes.
He turned off his Sharingan and looked away immediately, breathing heavily.
Damn, that bastard was terrifying.
I guess he wasn't called an S-rank ninja for nothing then.
Wiping his sweat, he turned around when he heard his name being whispered but he had already sensed him coming from far away.
It was hard not to sense him. It burned even brighter than Kakashi's chakra signature. Then again, the clan leader was known to be in the race for the Hokage seat.
"What happened here?" asked Fugaku Uchiha in an authoritative tone.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1591
For extra chapters - Patreon
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 2
–Hagoromo Otsutsuki–
Yamato was the only one of the kids who had a significant enough Senju ancestry, that too directly from Hashirama.
That was the reason he was able to get a significantly weakened version of the famed Mokuton.
It was also the reason he was dying.
His soul is not able to handle the power of the Mokuton without his soul having been touched with the chakra of six paths.
Sadly, that chakra was only available to the reincarnations of his sons.
Danzo hiding him from Hiruzen and training him in secret only made the matters worse.
In Root, he was trained that weakness means death.
Showing pain means weakness which leads to death.
Complaining about pain is weakness.
Exhibiting weakness is a surefire way to die in the field.
Due to this upbringing, young Tenzo never told anyone of the random fainting sessions when he used Wood Release or the excruciating pain he must feel in his mind every time he tried to bring about even more of the prowess of the Wood Release, straining his soul even more in the process.
The sad truth was that he had very little time left.
Soon, his soul would be crushed under the weight of the growing power of Mokuton and his body would be overrun by its power and turn into a tree.
Hagoroma was keeping a watch on the poor boy as his soul kept fracturing more and more each passing day that he trained his power, desperately hoping that somebody would find out about his situation and grant him some measure of reprieve before his unfortunate death.
He was just another innocent soul caught up in this cycle of hate and violence.
And after a few days of watching over him, what he feared came to pass.
Watching his soul just dissipate after being crushed under the Mokuton's weight was very depressing.
Even then he held on to the hope that he might feel his soul enter the Pure Land, even in a partially broken state. But after a few scans, he could see that his soul had truly just withered away, unable to hold onto its form long enough for it to enter the Pure Land.
He mourned his passing in silence.
He cursed himself for his inability to interfere in the workings of the world before it was time.
Hmm?
Just then, as if some higher entity had decided to send some reprieve for him in this situation, a tear in space appeared right at the edge of his senses.
From that tear, came an extremely battered soul.
It had traces of void energy on it that continued to burn it to nothing but the soul somehow valiantly tried to fight it off for its survival.
Interested in the soul and the peculiar timing of its arrival, Hagoromo summoned it near him.
Upon closer inspection, to his astonishment, he could see the soul slowly winning against the void energy.
Not only that, it seemed to adapt and assimilate the void energy as if it were his very own.
The only individual that he knew of who could do that was Shibai Otsutsuki, the head of the Otsutsuki clan.
But he was an aberration in the natural order of the universe.
Someone who became extremely strong because of his mutation.
He was the reason the Otsutsuki clan wandered around planet to planet freely, digesting genetic information and killing off local inhabitants en masse, and committing genocide frequently.
If this soul could somehow reach Shibai's level, he could help the universe get rid of the scourge of the Otsutsuki clan, rather than just hoping for them to leave Earth alone.
His eyes lit up as he thought of the perfect way to introduce this soul into the shinobi world.
That would help him accomplish both his plans: Driving off the Otsutsuki and stopping the cycle of hate and violence using Chakra.
Coating it completely in a layer of his spare chakra that he had gathered in the millenia of being a husk of his previous self, burning off any remaining void energy in the process, he cocooned it and sent the soul towards the dead body of young Tenzo.
With the hope that with the six paths energy present around the soul and its own special properties of assimilation, it would be able to use the Mokuton to its fullest and stop the shinobi wars.
Watching the soul float through dimensions and land into the body of Tenzo, he fought the urge to pace around in the dimension where space was meaningless, worrying about the consequences of his decision.
At this point, all he could do was hope that he had made the right decision.
________________________________________________________________
Near ANBU headquarters
–Inabi Uchiha–
Watching the ANBU hop around on rooftops, heading towards the nearby ANBU headquarters was extremely frustrating.
Ever since the Kyuubi attack, they have been increasingly sidelined from their very jobs.
They were literally sidelined to the edges of the village as well.
On top of that, the entire Uchiha clan district was on round-the-clock surveillance.
The nerve of the ANBU, thinking the Sharingan wouldn't be able to detect them snooping on them with their pesky seals.
Did they forget that the Uchiha clan has records of hundreds of years of dealings with the Uzumaki clan?
After so long, people tend to pick up on skills.
Especially the Uchiha clan members with the advanced Sharingan.
It was the ultimate tool for accelerated learning.
Reading the reports of yet another case being solved by the ANBU that should have actually been in their jurisdiction was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Fugaku was being extremely pathetic in the way he had been dealing with the Uchiha clan's situation.
All of this arose from his decision to follow Danzo's orders despite the Hokage ordering otherwise.
The civilians never saw them fighting the Kyuubi, just running away from it.
Never mind that they were the ones who carried the most civilians away from the battle sites, thereby saving them.
But no. They only remember the martyrs.
Just as he was about to head to HQ to give Fugaku a piece of his mind, he sensed a fluctuating chakra signature.
Being one of the few natural sensors of the Uchiha clan, he was trained extremely hard since his birth to be able to detect any chakra signatures to the most minute levels.
The higher-level chakra signatures were easy. He had the Sharingan for that.
For the highest level of chakra, like the tailed beasts' chakra, you wouldn't even need sensory abilities of any kind. Your own body warns you to run as far as you can from those monsters.
What his abilities were honed for were the smaller ones. The chakra signatures that were hard to find or were being actively hidden.
Through the mastery of those abilities, he was able to hone in on one of the smaller ANBUs jumping wobbly from one rooftop to the other.
Their chakra signature was extremely weird.
It was strong, above average even, for a moment and then it became as weak as a newborn baby.
It was like nothing he had ever seen before.
But seeing that it was the ANBU and considering the already rocky relationship between the Uchiha clan and the higher-ups of Konoha, he wisely decided to not stick his nose where it didn't belong and prepared to head to HQ.
Just as he turned around and jumped onto the next rooftop, he felt the ANBU's signature turn weak, even weaker than before, and then simply disappear.
Shocked, he looked back only to see the ANBU falling down from the rooftop.
Activating the Sharingan on instinct, he was shocked as he saw that the body had no active chakra flow anymore.
Which could only mean one thing.
Death due to chakra exhaustion.
But how could it be? Their chakra appeared strong before.
Deciding to get to the bottom of the situation, he turned back and went slowly towards the gathering crowd that had surrounded the ANBU that were checking on the small ANBU.
He recognized Kakashi Hatake between them, giving out orders swiftly to the gathering ANBU.
Last he heard, he was being promoted to the position of ANBU Captain.
How he gets any shinobi work done is beyond him. What with his silver hair being out in the open and it being an extremely recognisable trait.
Trying to find any clue regarding this incident, he activated his Sharingan to see if he could see anything that he might have missed before.
Focusing on the body and the rooftop where he fell down, he couldn't find anything.
Before he could look further though, he felt a pin pricking feeling on his neck.
Searching around for its source, he looked only to see Kakashi Hatake looking straight into his eyes.
He turned off his Sharingan and looked away immediately, breathing heavily.
Damn, that bastard was terrifying.
I guess he wasn't called an S-rank ninja for nothing then.
Wiping his sweat, he turned around when he heard his name being whispered but he had already sensed him coming from far away.
It was hard not to sense him. It burned even brighter than Kakashi's chakra signature. Then again, the clan leader was known to be in the race for the Hokage seat.
"What happened here?" asked Fugaku Uchiha in an authoritative tone.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1591
For extra chapters - Patreon
Last edited:
Mokuton Root Agent #3
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 3
–Inabi Uchiha–
He rolled his eyes internally at that.
As if he had any real authority here.
Before he could reply though, the ANBU gave out orders for the crowd to disperse and for only ANBU members to stay.
They gave the last orders while looking straight at him and Fugaku.
Fugake nodded at him and they jumped to the rooftops, on the way to HQ.
Before Fugaku could start grilling him for any information, especially since the incident involved the sensitive matters of the ANBU, an overwhelming sensation slammed into his very being.
He fell down to one knee, completely overwhelmed by the chakra signature.
He looked behind him, towards the corpse from which the chakra signature was coming from.
The chakra was of such quantity that it was physically manifesting around the body.
The nearby ANBU realised something was wrong and jumped away from it.
Standing up with extreme difficulty with the help of Fugaku, He could see Hatake jumping away from the corpse and lifting up his headband to open his three-tomoe Sharingan.
It had always fascinated him that a non-Uchiha was able to bring a Sharingan to such an advanced state and actually function perfectly fine.
GASP!
He clutched his chest as a veritable tsunami of chakra exited the body which registered to his sensitive senses like a sledgehammer.
He felt someone searching his clothes and then felt something coarse and dry slam into his forehead.
After a while, his senses suddenly became very much more muted than before,
He opened his eyes only to see that Fugaku had put a suppression seal on his forehead, sealing off the majority of his senses yet even then he could still sense the signature somewhat.
It was a testament to its potency. He didn't think even the Hokage had chakra signatures as heavy as whatever that was.
Granted he had never personally seen him in action before.
By this point, a veritable army of ninjas had gathered around the area.
Looking around, he realised that it would be impossible for even the Hokage to sweep this event under the rug, provided we had any clue regarding what was happening here.
Another wave of chakra slammed into his senses, however mute it was.
Hatake must have felt something unusual as he shouted for everyone to take cover.
He jumped back with great difficulty along with Fugaku because he felt something was wrong with the recent chakra wave.
It was tinged with something. Something dangerous that he couldn't identify with his muted senses. He had a hunch that even with his full senses, he wouldn't be able to make heads or tails about the chakra signature.
The answer to his questions were cleared soon enough though as the following scenes in front of him robbed him of my ability to think properly.
_________________________________________________________
–Fugaku Uchiha–
News traveled fast through the Uchiha police force headquarters.
Hearing that an ANBU had somehow collapsed near the secretive ANBU HQ was interesting but not enough to warrant a visit from him, a clan head level figure.
Especially not in the current political atmosphere.
But when he had heard that Inabi was present there and was openly using his sensing abilities in close proximity to the ANBU HQ, he was up and running through the HQ doors like his life depended on it.
Because in a way, it did.
Lives would actually be at risk should Inabi manage to somehow worsen their relationship with the higher-ups of Konoha, what with Danzo already looking for any excuse to punish the Uchiha clan.
Inabi was one of the strongest ninjas he had under his command and usually, he was a dependable guy but ever since the Uchiha clan compound was relocated to the outskirts of the village, he had become increasingly vocal with his opinion against the clan policies..
In a way, he could understand his frustration.
He could hear the whispered discussions that the clan members had behind closed doors. They were of the opinion that he had ducked out of the competition. That he was a coward for allowing the administration to force the Uchiha clan to move from their rightful central location.
The sentiments turned even worse when they found that the land was divided between the clans that the council members belonged to. The Shimura clan got the lion's share of their land and they only had a single member by the name of Danzo.
Was it unfair? Yes. But what could they do?
What they didn't understand that was should Sarutobi wish us harm, we would not have been alive.
People forgot the old monster was someone who had lived through not one but two shinobi wars and at the same time, made sure that Konoha was the one who won, if there were even any winners in something as horrendous as War.
Running at full speed, he reached the street near the ANBU headquarters in less than 5 minutes.
By the time he reached there, a large crowd of both civilians and ninjas had gathered around the downed ANBU.
Flashing silently near Inabi, he asked him even as he turned around as if he was already expecting me, "What happened here?"
His sensory abilities really were the best in the clan.
Before he could reply though, the ANBU began herding the civilians away from the ANBU.
The ninjas soon followed suit without anybody needing to order them.
On the way back to the HQ, a dark cold chakra washed over the surrounding areas.
It seemed to affect Inabi infinitely more so than him as he simply dropped down to his knees.
Only then he remembered that he was a natural-born sensor who could not actively shut down his senses, only mute them.
He probably couldn't even do that now that he was disoriented to such an extent.
GASP!
I heard a gasp and looked down to find Inabi on his last legs, clutching his chest in shock.
SHIT!
He hurriedly checked his pockets for the emergency suppression seals he was ordered to always keep in handy in case he had another chakra sensitivity episode.
He found it and hurriedly slapped it on Inabi's forehead.
He breathed a sigh of relief when black lines extended from his forehead, effectively bringing down Inabi's senses to 1% of what they were before.
Despite the reprieve Inabi got from the seal, he seemed to be in extreme pain and yet he looked behind us with bloodshot eyes shot wide open in fear.
He followed his gaze only to see a cloud of chakra physically manifesting around the corpse.
Kakashi Hatake was the first who leaped away from the corpse, warning others to do the same.
Another wave of chakra seemed to burst out of the dead ANBU, somehow even colder this time.
He activated his Sharingan on instinct and what he saw blew his mind.
Somehow, chakra was overflowing from the body.
It was surprising because none of the chakra was from the ANBU. He could tell as the pathways it was flowing through would have killed any ninja within seconds and the second clue was the lack of movement from the body despite it probably being in mind-numbing pain due to its destruction of chakra pathways.
Whatever that chakra was, it was flowing through the body without a path, rampaging inside the body and eventually flowing out.
Without his Mangekyo Sharingan, all he could see was that the chakra seemed to come out of the ANBU's head and overflowed from there.
He couldn't even identify the type of chakra it was.
It wasn't Sage chakra as he had seen Jiraiya of the Sannin in action but nowhere in his life had he seen such dense, heavy chakra.
Even the Sandaime's chakra paled in comparison.
Keeping Inabi firmly behind him in case of an attack, he looked on towards the huge crowd that had gathered because of the commotion.
Any sensor worth their salt must have felt that chakra from half the village away.
Good, let the people come.
It would make it all the more harder for Sarutobi to hide this incident.
Finally, he had something to pin down Danzo.
He recognised the seals the ANBU had on his head.
He was another one of those mindless drones that Danzo had managed to get inducted into the ANBU.
The same ones that always loiter around the clan compound, conducting surveillance on the Uchicha clan members.
He had refrained from saying anything because that would just deteriorate any chance of dialogue he would have with the Sandaime but this?
This gave him the perfect opportunity to have them removed from the area. Safety hazards and all.
Who's to say that all the other people with the same seal wouldn't have the same reaction? It would probably shock the elders and the children.
As he was thinking of all the ways he could take advantage of this situation, something within him forced him to look at the ANBU just in time for the chakra cloud around it to disperse.
As he was looking at it with his three-tomoe Sharingan, he could see the chakra being slowly molded into hyper-dense chakra tendrils that were so bright they hurt to even look at.
Then they slowly exited the body and drilled themselves into the ground.
His eyes widened slowly as he thought of the chakra escaping through the ground, without anyone being the wiser.
The only ones with a three-tomoe Sharingan around who weren't already incapacitated were himself and..
The next moment, Hatake's and his eyes met and they both nodded towards each other, ready to take action.
_________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1630
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon.
I already have upto 8 chapters uploaded there.
A/N : Sorry for the delay guys. The training for the job took a lot out of my time and I guess, I just didn't get enough time and energy to keep writing for both my fanfics at once. Now, though? I have made a timetable that I have been able to stick to for the most part and hope to reignite this story.
So, expect regular updates(3 chapters a week) from now on.
Thank you for reading!
Toodles!
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 3
–Inabi Uchiha–
He rolled his eyes internally at that.
As if he had any real authority here.
Before he could reply though, the ANBU gave out orders for the crowd to disperse and for only ANBU members to stay.
They gave the last orders while looking straight at him and Fugaku.
Fugake nodded at him and they jumped to the rooftops, on the way to HQ.
Before Fugaku could start grilling him for any information, especially since the incident involved the sensitive matters of the ANBU, an overwhelming sensation slammed into his very being.
He fell down to one knee, completely overwhelmed by the chakra signature.
He looked behind him, towards the corpse from which the chakra signature was coming from.
The chakra was of such quantity that it was physically manifesting around the body.
The nearby ANBU realised something was wrong and jumped away from it.
Standing up with extreme difficulty with the help of Fugaku, He could see Hatake jumping away from the corpse and lifting up his headband to open his three-tomoe Sharingan.
It had always fascinated him that a non-Uchiha was able to bring a Sharingan to such an advanced state and actually function perfectly fine.
GASP!
He clutched his chest as a veritable tsunami of chakra exited the body which registered to his sensitive senses like a sledgehammer.
He felt someone searching his clothes and then felt something coarse and dry slam into his forehead.
After a while, his senses suddenly became very much more muted than before,
He opened his eyes only to see that Fugaku had put a suppression seal on his forehead, sealing off the majority of his senses yet even then he could still sense the signature somewhat.
It was a testament to its potency. He didn't think even the Hokage had chakra signatures as heavy as whatever that was.
Granted he had never personally seen him in action before.
By this point, a veritable army of ninjas had gathered around the area.
Looking around, he realised that it would be impossible for even the Hokage to sweep this event under the rug, provided we had any clue regarding what was happening here.
Another wave of chakra slammed into his senses, however mute it was.
Hatake must have felt something unusual as he shouted for everyone to take cover.
He jumped back with great difficulty along with Fugaku because he felt something was wrong with the recent chakra wave.
It was tinged with something. Something dangerous that he couldn't identify with his muted senses. He had a hunch that even with his full senses, he wouldn't be able to make heads or tails about the chakra signature.
The answer to his questions were cleared soon enough though as the following scenes in front of him robbed him of my ability to think properly.
_________________________________________________________
–Fugaku Uchiha–
News traveled fast through the Uchiha police force headquarters.
Hearing that an ANBU had somehow collapsed near the secretive ANBU HQ was interesting but not enough to warrant a visit from him, a clan head level figure.
Especially not in the current political atmosphere.
But when he had heard that Inabi was present there and was openly using his sensing abilities in close proximity to the ANBU HQ, he was up and running through the HQ doors like his life depended on it.
Because in a way, it did.
Lives would actually be at risk should Inabi manage to somehow worsen their relationship with the higher-ups of Konoha, what with Danzo already looking for any excuse to punish the Uchiha clan.
Inabi was one of the strongest ninjas he had under his command and usually, he was a dependable guy but ever since the Uchiha clan compound was relocated to the outskirts of the village, he had become increasingly vocal with his opinion against the clan policies..
In a way, he could understand his frustration.
He could hear the whispered discussions that the clan members had behind closed doors. They were of the opinion that he had ducked out of the competition. That he was a coward for allowing the administration to force the Uchiha clan to move from their rightful central location.
The sentiments turned even worse when they found that the land was divided between the clans that the council members belonged to. The Shimura clan got the lion's share of their land and they only had a single member by the name of Danzo.
Was it unfair? Yes. But what could they do?
What they didn't understand that was should Sarutobi wish us harm, we would not have been alive.
People forgot the old monster was someone who had lived through not one but two shinobi wars and at the same time, made sure that Konoha was the one who won, if there were even any winners in something as horrendous as War.
Running at full speed, he reached the street near the ANBU headquarters in less than 5 minutes.
By the time he reached there, a large crowd of both civilians and ninjas had gathered around the downed ANBU.
Flashing silently near Inabi, he asked him even as he turned around as if he was already expecting me, "What happened here?"
His sensory abilities really were the best in the clan.
Before he could reply though, the ANBU began herding the civilians away from the ANBU.
The ninjas soon followed suit without anybody needing to order them.
On the way back to the HQ, a dark cold chakra washed over the surrounding areas.
It seemed to affect Inabi infinitely more so than him as he simply dropped down to his knees.
Only then he remembered that he was a natural-born sensor who could not actively shut down his senses, only mute them.
He probably couldn't even do that now that he was disoriented to such an extent.
GASP!
I heard a gasp and looked down to find Inabi on his last legs, clutching his chest in shock.
SHIT!
He hurriedly checked his pockets for the emergency suppression seals he was ordered to always keep in handy in case he had another chakra sensitivity episode.
He found it and hurriedly slapped it on Inabi's forehead.
He breathed a sigh of relief when black lines extended from his forehead, effectively bringing down Inabi's senses to 1% of what they were before.
Despite the reprieve Inabi got from the seal, he seemed to be in extreme pain and yet he looked behind us with bloodshot eyes shot wide open in fear.
He followed his gaze only to see a cloud of chakra physically manifesting around the corpse.
Kakashi Hatake was the first who leaped away from the corpse, warning others to do the same.
Another wave of chakra seemed to burst out of the dead ANBU, somehow even colder this time.
He activated his Sharingan on instinct and what he saw blew his mind.
Somehow, chakra was overflowing from the body.
It was surprising because none of the chakra was from the ANBU. He could tell as the pathways it was flowing through would have killed any ninja within seconds and the second clue was the lack of movement from the body despite it probably being in mind-numbing pain due to its destruction of chakra pathways.
Whatever that chakra was, it was flowing through the body without a path, rampaging inside the body and eventually flowing out.
Without his Mangekyo Sharingan, all he could see was that the chakra seemed to come out of the ANBU's head and overflowed from there.
He couldn't even identify the type of chakra it was.
It wasn't Sage chakra as he had seen Jiraiya of the Sannin in action but nowhere in his life had he seen such dense, heavy chakra.
Even the Sandaime's chakra paled in comparison.
Keeping Inabi firmly behind him in case of an attack, he looked on towards the huge crowd that had gathered because of the commotion.
Any sensor worth their salt must have felt that chakra from half the village away.
Good, let the people come.
It would make it all the more harder for Sarutobi to hide this incident.
Finally, he had something to pin down Danzo.
He recognised the seals the ANBU had on his head.
He was another one of those mindless drones that Danzo had managed to get inducted into the ANBU.
The same ones that always loiter around the clan compound, conducting surveillance on the Uchicha clan members.
He had refrained from saying anything because that would just deteriorate any chance of dialogue he would have with the Sandaime but this?
This gave him the perfect opportunity to have them removed from the area. Safety hazards and all.
Who's to say that all the other people with the same seal wouldn't have the same reaction? It would probably shock the elders and the children.
As he was thinking of all the ways he could take advantage of this situation, something within him forced him to look at the ANBU just in time for the chakra cloud around it to disperse.
As he was looking at it with his three-tomoe Sharingan, he could see the chakra being slowly molded into hyper-dense chakra tendrils that were so bright they hurt to even look at.
Then they slowly exited the body and drilled themselves into the ground.
His eyes widened slowly as he thought of the chakra escaping through the ground, without anyone being the wiser.
The only ones with a three-tomoe Sharingan around who weren't already incapacitated were himself and..
The next moment, Hatake's and his eyes met and they both nodded towards each other, ready to take action.
_________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1630
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon.
I already have upto 8 chapters uploaded there.
A/N : Sorry for the delay guys. The training for the job took a lot out of my time and I guess, I just didn't get enough time and energy to keep writing for both my fanfics at once. Now, though? I have made a timetable that I have been able to stick to for the most part and hope to reignite this story.
So, expect regular updates(3 chapters a week) from now on.
Thank you for reading!
Toodles!
Mokuton Root Agent #4
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 4
–Fugaku Uchiha–
The next moment their eyes met, and they burst into action.
The crowd was startled as Hatake and he burst into action, leaping over the crowd of the gathered shinobi.
Hatake drew out his tanto and he took out his kunais.
He coated the kunai with wind nature chakra and Hatake covered his tanto with the special white chakra that the Hatake clan had.
Their eyes met midway and they threw out their respective weapons towards the invisible chakra tendrils with all their might.
But the next moment, just as his kunai was about to hit the ground, something burst from the ground to protect it.
His eyes widened comically as it was clearly a tree root that had stopped his kunai.
They were not just any kunais, they were high-grade ones coated in wind chakra.
Even the Hashirama trees that littered Konoha would be shredded with those kunais.
The only wood that could stop this level of an attack was the wood created by…
His eyes comically widened as he realised what the tree was.
He turned towards Hatake only to see him looking towards the roots as if he had seen a ghost.
He must have realised what it was as well.
Mokuton.
The coveted kekkei genkai of the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
Inferring from the seal on the ANBU's head, it would seem that Danzo and even the Sandaime had been playing with forces beyond their ken.
This was huge.
This was just the thing he needed to hammer in the final nail in Danzo's coffin. With this, Sandaime-sama will have to make Danzo back off.
After all, Kekkei Genkai theft is the most severe crime you can commit in Konoha.
All of this happened in a split second as Hatake and him both landed near each other a distance from the corpse.
The other ninjas had not yet gathered what had happened.
The only ones who realised must be the nearby ANBU.
That would not be ideal for him.
This news should spread like wildfire. Everybody should know that one of the ANBU possessed Mokuton, preferably the news would reach The Slug Princess, Tsunade Senju.
Just as he was about to consider shouting about it, an unexpected chakra build-up in the roots caught his attention.
Seeing what was happening, he smirked.
"Ma Ma, why are you smiling, Fugaku-san? If I am right about this, this situation is the opposite of a smiling one," Hataka said with a casual tone of voice but he could see the white-haired ninja's shoulders tensing as he was able to see the same chakra movement he was.
He just smiled at him and jumped back towards the crowd, "You should get back if you know what's good for you." he told Hatake.
Hatake narrowed his eyes on him but ordered the other ANBU to retreat as well.
He was sure that this news must have reached the Hokage by now.
He just hoped everyone was able to see what had happened before the Hokage arrived and ordered everyone to disperse.
His worries were unfounded though as the next moment, a massive tree bark emerged from the back of the face down lying ANBU.
A smile threatened to split his lips but he held it down and instead started helping the mesmerized ninjas get out of the area and occasionally cut the various roots that had emerged from the surrounding ground.
It had yet to be registered in the minds of these ninjas that the tree they were seeing was also trying to kill some of them.
Oddly, it was trying to kill a few members of the ANBU.
And going by the broken masks that lay nearby, it was successful in doing so.
He could see Hatake nearby trying to cut down the roots that were threatening to kill his team but he was having difficulty in doing so.
They were oddly strong. Having wind nature chakra weaponry helped but even then he was burning through chakra like crazy.
He could only imagine the problem for Hatake as his Sharingan was the biggest drain on his chakra reserves.
But soon the attacks stopped and the roots receded back into the ground.
The only ones who could fight at this point were him and Hatake and even then he was breathing heavily. The fight with the continuous use of his Sharingan and lightning-natured attacks must have drained him completely.
It was a testament to his willpower that he was still standing with his tanto drawn, ready to defend his comrades till his last breath.
Before he could tell him to relax though, a massive chakra signature made itself known to every ninja in the area.
The next second, the Sandaime in his battle armour crashed in front of them.
It had taken him less than a minute since the tree sprouted from that ANBU.
That was impressive speed for his age.
All the more proof that the Uchiha clan going against him would only result in one less clan in Konoha.
________________________________________________________________
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
The first sign that something was wrong was that one of Danzo's ANBU was reporting to the regular ANBU HQ without informing me.
The second sign was that same ANBU being suspiciously small and then somehow fainting right across the HQ building.
Even still he had assigned one of his personal guards to get to the bottom of the matter and resolved to go meet Danzo later to get his reasons.
But then, the first chakra spike came and he had a horrible vision of the Kyuubi attack.
Malevolent chakra being thrown around everywhere, people crying and dying, ninjas burning due to the corrosive nature of the Kyuubi's chakra.
The second wave was much much colder and darker in nature, making him snap out of his thoughts.
He then immediately signalled the ANBU to follow him and donned his battle armour.
The time between him donning his armour and reaching the site was less than 5 minutes and yet as he crashed between the tree and his men, to his horror, he could already count a dozen ANBU dead.
Kakashi was barely standing straight and his tanto was shaking.
Fugaku was in fighting shape but he could see signs of strain on him.
It must have been a high-intensity battle here.
Unfortunately, he arrived too late as he could see that the battle was over.
"What happened here?" he asked Kakashi before Fugaku.
Despite believing that Fugaku himself was not at all involved in the Kyuubi incident, it was undeniable that the Kyuubi had the Sharingan eyes before Minato sealed him in Naruto, not to mention the message Minato gave him before he died.
It was undeniably an Uchiha clansman who initiated the Kyuubi attack which devastated Konoha on many fronts.
Standing straight despite his exhaustion, Kakashi told him what happened here.
With each sentence that came out of Kakashi's mouth, his eyes widened more and more in horror.
The tree that he had thought to be the work of an attacker turned out to be the attacker itself.
The more shocking thing was that the tree came out of an ANBU dead body, Kakashi confirmed it himself using his Sharingan.
After listening to the whole report, he robotically turned his head towards the tree which had a face jutting out of its bark.
Then his eyes narrowed as a thunderous crack rang around as his chakra rampaged around him, cratering the surroundings.
Noticing that Kakashi was having trouble standing, he visibly restrained himself and ordered one of his personal guards to summon Danzo at this moment.
The ANBU nodded and then disappeared in a blur.
His mind whirled furiously at the implications.
The first thing that came into his mind was to order everyone to disperse but he immediately banished that thought upon taking a look at the tree.
It was still growing.
Already, it towered over every building of Konoha and was probably visible from the village gates now.
"Kakashi, you are dismissed. Somebody make sure he goes to the hospital and stays there this time," he ordered Kakashi.
Kakashi must have been even more exhausted than he thought because he didn't even protest at the thought of essentially being hospitalized.
"Clan Head Fugaku" he greeted Fugaku as he went towards the duo of Uchiha clan members present nearby.
One of them seemed pretty out of it.
He remembered him. It was Inabi Uchiha.
The strongest sensor ninja present inside the village, since Minato passed away.
Thinking of Minato, he felt a pang in his heart.
Minato wouldn't have allowed Danzo this much leeway and wouldn't have believed him at every turn.
If what he suspected was the truth, then this was going to haunt Konoha for generations to come.
He desperately hoped that it wasn't actually what he thought it was and Danzo actually had some sort of excuse this time, however flimsy it may be.
Inabi actually tried to stand up and bow despite being clearly out of it. He had bloodshot eyes and his legs were trembling even as he tried to stand up.
Finally, Fugaku knocked him out and placed him properly in the hands of one of the many medics that had flooded the site.
Fugaku then bowed to him and said, "Sandaime-sama, what can I do for you?"
His words seemed innocent and helpful but the glint in his eyes said anything but that.
This was going to be such a pain in the ass to deal with.
Let's just hope Tsunade doesn't hear about this and come back immediately.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1621
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 4
–Fugaku Uchiha–
The next moment their eyes met, and they burst into action.
The crowd was startled as Hatake and he burst into action, leaping over the crowd of the gathered shinobi.
Hatake drew out his tanto and he took out his kunais.
He coated the kunai with wind nature chakra and Hatake covered his tanto with the special white chakra that the Hatake clan had.
Their eyes met midway and they threw out their respective weapons towards the invisible chakra tendrils with all their might.
But the next moment, just as his kunai was about to hit the ground, something burst from the ground to protect it.
His eyes widened comically as it was clearly a tree root that had stopped his kunai.
They were not just any kunais, they were high-grade ones coated in wind chakra.
Even the Hashirama trees that littered Konoha would be shredded with those kunais.
The only wood that could stop this level of an attack was the wood created by…
His eyes comically widened as he realised what the tree was.
He turned towards Hatake only to see him looking towards the roots as if he had seen a ghost.
He must have realised what it was as well.
Mokuton.
The coveted kekkei genkai of the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
Inferring from the seal on the ANBU's head, it would seem that Danzo and even the Sandaime had been playing with forces beyond their ken.
This was huge.
This was just the thing he needed to hammer in the final nail in Danzo's coffin. With this, Sandaime-sama will have to make Danzo back off.
After all, Kekkei Genkai theft is the most severe crime you can commit in Konoha.
All of this happened in a split second as Hatake and him both landed near each other a distance from the corpse.
The other ninjas had not yet gathered what had happened.
The only ones who realised must be the nearby ANBU.
That would not be ideal for him.
This news should spread like wildfire. Everybody should know that one of the ANBU possessed Mokuton, preferably the news would reach The Slug Princess, Tsunade Senju.
Just as he was about to consider shouting about it, an unexpected chakra build-up in the roots caught his attention.
Seeing what was happening, he smirked.
"Ma Ma, why are you smiling, Fugaku-san? If I am right about this, this situation is the opposite of a smiling one," Hataka said with a casual tone of voice but he could see the white-haired ninja's shoulders tensing as he was able to see the same chakra movement he was.
He just smiled at him and jumped back towards the crowd, "You should get back if you know what's good for you." he told Hatake.
Hatake narrowed his eyes on him but ordered the other ANBU to retreat as well.
He was sure that this news must have reached the Hokage by now.
He just hoped everyone was able to see what had happened before the Hokage arrived and ordered everyone to disperse.
His worries were unfounded though as the next moment, a massive tree bark emerged from the back of the face down lying ANBU.
A smile threatened to split his lips but he held it down and instead started helping the mesmerized ninjas get out of the area and occasionally cut the various roots that had emerged from the surrounding ground.
It had yet to be registered in the minds of these ninjas that the tree they were seeing was also trying to kill some of them.
Oddly, it was trying to kill a few members of the ANBU.
And going by the broken masks that lay nearby, it was successful in doing so.
He could see Hatake nearby trying to cut down the roots that were threatening to kill his team but he was having difficulty in doing so.
They were oddly strong. Having wind nature chakra weaponry helped but even then he was burning through chakra like crazy.
He could only imagine the problem for Hatake as his Sharingan was the biggest drain on his chakra reserves.
But soon the attacks stopped and the roots receded back into the ground.
The only ones who could fight at this point were him and Hatake and even then he was breathing heavily. The fight with the continuous use of his Sharingan and lightning-natured attacks must have drained him completely.
It was a testament to his willpower that he was still standing with his tanto drawn, ready to defend his comrades till his last breath.
Before he could tell him to relax though, a massive chakra signature made itself known to every ninja in the area.
The next second, the Sandaime in his battle armour crashed in front of them.
It had taken him less than a minute since the tree sprouted from that ANBU.
That was impressive speed for his age.
All the more proof that the Uchiha clan going against him would only result in one less clan in Konoha.
________________________________________________________________
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
The first sign that something was wrong was that one of Danzo's ANBU was reporting to the regular ANBU HQ without informing me.
The second sign was that same ANBU being suspiciously small and then somehow fainting right across the HQ building.
Even still he had assigned one of his personal guards to get to the bottom of the matter and resolved to go meet Danzo later to get his reasons.
But then, the first chakra spike came and he had a horrible vision of the Kyuubi attack.
Malevolent chakra being thrown around everywhere, people crying and dying, ninjas burning due to the corrosive nature of the Kyuubi's chakra.
The second wave was much much colder and darker in nature, making him snap out of his thoughts.
He then immediately signalled the ANBU to follow him and donned his battle armour.
The time between him donning his armour and reaching the site was less than 5 minutes and yet as he crashed between the tree and his men, to his horror, he could already count a dozen ANBU dead.
Kakashi was barely standing straight and his tanto was shaking.
Fugaku was in fighting shape but he could see signs of strain on him.
It must have been a high-intensity battle here.
Unfortunately, he arrived too late as he could see that the battle was over.
"What happened here?" he asked Kakashi before Fugaku.
Despite believing that Fugaku himself was not at all involved in the Kyuubi incident, it was undeniable that the Kyuubi had the Sharingan eyes before Minato sealed him in Naruto, not to mention the message Minato gave him before he died.
It was undeniably an Uchiha clansman who initiated the Kyuubi attack which devastated Konoha on many fronts.
Standing straight despite his exhaustion, Kakashi told him what happened here.
With each sentence that came out of Kakashi's mouth, his eyes widened more and more in horror.
The tree that he had thought to be the work of an attacker turned out to be the attacker itself.
The more shocking thing was that the tree came out of an ANBU dead body, Kakashi confirmed it himself using his Sharingan.
After listening to the whole report, he robotically turned his head towards the tree which had a face jutting out of its bark.
Then his eyes narrowed as a thunderous crack rang around as his chakra rampaged around him, cratering the surroundings.
Noticing that Kakashi was having trouble standing, he visibly restrained himself and ordered one of his personal guards to summon Danzo at this moment.
The ANBU nodded and then disappeared in a blur.
His mind whirled furiously at the implications.
The first thing that came into his mind was to order everyone to disperse but he immediately banished that thought upon taking a look at the tree.
It was still growing.
Already, it towered over every building of Konoha and was probably visible from the village gates now.
"Kakashi, you are dismissed. Somebody make sure he goes to the hospital and stays there this time," he ordered Kakashi.
Kakashi must have been even more exhausted than he thought because he didn't even protest at the thought of essentially being hospitalized.
"Clan Head Fugaku" he greeted Fugaku as he went towards the duo of Uchiha clan members present nearby.
One of them seemed pretty out of it.
He remembered him. It was Inabi Uchiha.
The strongest sensor ninja present inside the village, since Minato passed away.
Thinking of Minato, he felt a pang in his heart.
Minato wouldn't have allowed Danzo this much leeway and wouldn't have believed him at every turn.
If what he suspected was the truth, then this was going to haunt Konoha for generations to come.
He desperately hoped that it wasn't actually what he thought it was and Danzo actually had some sort of excuse this time, however flimsy it may be.
Inabi actually tried to stand up and bow despite being clearly out of it. He had bloodshot eyes and his legs were trembling even as he tried to stand up.
Finally, Fugaku knocked him out and placed him properly in the hands of one of the many medics that had flooded the site.
Fugaku then bowed to him and said, "Sandaime-sama, what can I do for you?"
His words seemed innocent and helpful but the glint in his eyes said anything but that.
This was going to be such a pain in the ass to deal with.
Let's just hope Tsunade doesn't hear about this and come back immediately.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1621
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Last edited:
Mokuton Root Agent #5
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 5
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
He sighed internally.
It would seem that day-by-day the issues that plagued Konoha continued to increase.
He was partly to blame here as well for allowing Danzo to continue doing his tasks free-handedly.
But alas, Danzo was right. He had become too weak, too soft to do the things that truly mattered.
To do the right thing and not the easy thing.
He then looked at the smirking Uchiha clan head and said, "What does your Sharingan show you, Fugaku-kun?"
He had been Hokage for so long that most of the clan heads were his juniors in some way or other.
Uchiha Fugaku bowed at him and said, "The chakra signature of that tree is weird. According to Inabi here, " he gestured to the Uchiha clansman behind him, "He was able to sense the ANBU's chakra signature", he didn't miss the way Fugaku emphasized on the ANBU part of the statement, especially in everybody's earshot, " and did a spot assessment of the ANBU being either diseased, a child or very much chakra exhausted but due to certain orders, he did not rush to help him."
He grimaced internally at Fugaku's statement. Each and every one of his sentences painted the village in a bad light. He was going to have to answer some tough questions after this.
"Then the chakra signature somehow was extinguished and Inabi, in his shock, rushed back, only to witness the aftermath of the ANBU dying." Fugaku continued.
Fugaku had a straight face while reporting all of it but he could see what he was doing.
Purposefully making sure that the gathered ninjas hear the bad side first will make sure that he will have the upper hand in the next council meeting. It would seem that Danzo and he had made a pretty formidable enemy in the Clan head council for themselves, especially in this delicate time.
Speaking of Clan heads, he could sense the unique twin chakra signature of Hiashi and Hizashi.
Soon, they landed right in front of him, looking at the towering tree that was still growing, slowly, but still growing.
"Hokage-sama, what is this abomination? The chakra I am seeing inside it should be impossible and yet.." Hiashi asked him, aghast at what he was probably seeing through his Byakugan eyes.
Hizashi assumed a guarding position behind his elder brother, not speaking a word. But with the way his face paled as his Byakugan was activated, he was certainly seeing the same thing his brother was seeing.
He signaled one of his personal ANBU guards to summon all the village elders.
The only reason he didn't single out Danzo was because of the presence of so many of the civilian ninjas in the hearing range. Anything he could say would have ended up on the shinobi grapevine in mere minutes and no amount of banning the spread of information would have truly stopped it.
He had learned his lesson from Naruto's example. He just wished he had known it earlier.
Now, to deal with the matter at hand here.
"What are you seeing, Hiashi?" he asked the Hyuga Clan head.
The veins around Hiashi's eyes protruded from his skin, showing that he was using his clan's doujutsu.
"Hokage-sama, I don't know how to describe it. The chakra I am seeing is something I have only seen a handful of times and even then, it was nowhere near as dense as the one I am seeing now. The potency of the chakra is such that I had to order everyone below Jonin level in the clan to stop using their Byakugan. Even some Jonins have a very high chance of going blind if they look at this tree directly." Hiashi replied.
"What is it, Hokage-sama?" Hiashi looked at him intensely. If he wasn't as experienced as he was, the sight of a Byakugan staring you down would have certainly been a very intimidating sight but wasn't very useful on him when he had stared down multiple generations of the Hyuga in his long long tenure as Hokage.
Being a Hokage with academic inclinations did have its benefits after all. He had been heavily involved in the academic activities of students, especially the clan heirs, not due to political reasons but due to the fact that the clan heirs tended to lead the most interesting academic lives.
"Hokage-sama Hokage-sama?" Genma's questioning brought him out of his thoughts.
It was a good thing he arrived right on time.
It saved him from answering some uncomfortable questions. It was an opportunity he didn't think the clan heads of the largest and the second largest clan of Konoha would let go from their hands.
"What is it?" he questioned Genma.
He bowed and replied, "Hokage-sama, we have informed all the elders about the meeting. Everyone said yes but.."
Seeing Genma's hesitation, he gestured for him to go on.
Genma nodded and replied, "Danzo-sama, he ordered me to arrange for the meeting to happen an hour from now and not immediately as you ordered."
His face darkened at the implied insult.
How dare he!
His chakra thundered, pushing nearly everyone around him onto their knees.
This included Kakashi as he was on the verge of fainting due to chakra exhaustion already.
Seeing the state of the weaker ninjas surrounding him, he reined in his chakra and ordered, "ANBU! Have Danzo brought in for the council meeting that will happen right NOW and tell him that he has no other choice? His Hokage commands so!"
All the surrounding ANBU kneel at his commands and dash onto the rooftops, soon disappearing from their sight as they rush to Danzo's office.
Then, he turned to Hiashi and said, "As for your question, Hiashi."
At his outburst, Hiashi audibly gulped.
Why wouldn't he, anybody else in his position would arguably be shaking and trembling in terror. After all, they were standing against the intimidating visage of The Professor, someone who had managed to reach old age in a profession where the majority die young. The strongest person in the village.
He then continued in a much calmer tone of voice, "That tree might have a weird chakra signature but look closely and tell me what you see."
Hiashi complied and looked again at the tree using his Byakugan. Just that this time, he tried to look past the sea of otherworldly chakra that permeated the entire body of the tree. Soon, he was able to see it. It was faint and growing fainter still but he could see traces of earth nature's chakra in the bark of the tree. It seemed to be converging around the upper center area of the bark.
Concentrating more on the bark, he was able to make out something..
He was waiting for Hiashi to report back his findings but didn't expect him to look shocked and then determined. He then took out a few Kunais and coated them in his chakra and threw them at the tree bark with all his might.
Alas, his taijutsu may have been strong but he was only jounin at best when it came to chakra manipulation. But his work was done.
The kunais got stuck into the bark, revealing something underneath.
Fugaku realised something and swiftly, before he or anybody else could interrupt them, flung his chakra-coated kunais towards the same spot Hiashi had thrown his kunais.
Fugaku, being a true S-Class combatant, managed to pierce Hiashi's kunai along with piercing the tree bark, ripping off a layer of the bark, and revealing what was underneath.
He was too late to stop Fugaku or Hiashi, too stunned at their actions to do anything.
Before he could berate them for unnecessarily endangering everyone around them, he saw the face that seemed to be carved out of wood, jutting out of the bark. It was hidden behind a layer of tree bark.
GASP!
All around him, he could see the same sound echoing, perhaps signalling a period of great turmoil within the shinobi community of Konoha.
For what was hidden underneath that small piece of bark was a face, a face that seemed to be in immense agony.
He looked towards the Uchiha clan head only to receive determined stares from both him and Hiashi.
It would seem that his past decisions had come back to haunt him at the worst possible time.
Not having the support of the two biggest and strongest clans of Konoha in the upcoming council meeting could possibly have him removed from the seat of Hokage.
The only guarantee he had on his side was the fact that they had no one strong enough or popular enough to put on The Hat.
Now, every ninja, civilian, and trader would know of this incident within hours. Come tomorrow morning, every village would hear of it.
"Hokage-sama?" he heard Genma call for him.
"Hmm?" he replied.
"The council has assembled, sir. All the clan heads have either assembled in the meeting room or are here with us" Genma replied while glancing at Hiashi and Fugaku.
He nodded and then replied, "Very well. Let's go."
Glancing at Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Hiashi, he said while walking ahead, "Come on, gentlemen, we have a lot to discuss and not a lot of time before the situation gets out of hand."
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1572
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 5
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
He sighed internally.
It would seem that day-by-day the issues that plagued Konoha continued to increase.
He was partly to blame here as well for allowing Danzo to continue doing his tasks free-handedly.
But alas, Danzo was right. He had become too weak, too soft to do the things that truly mattered.
To do the right thing and not the easy thing.
He then looked at the smirking Uchiha clan head and said, "What does your Sharingan show you, Fugaku-kun?"
He had been Hokage for so long that most of the clan heads were his juniors in some way or other.
Uchiha Fugaku bowed at him and said, "The chakra signature of that tree is weird. According to Inabi here, " he gestured to the Uchiha clansman behind him, "He was able to sense the ANBU's chakra signature", he didn't miss the way Fugaku emphasized on the ANBU part of the statement, especially in everybody's earshot, " and did a spot assessment of the ANBU being either diseased, a child or very much chakra exhausted but due to certain orders, he did not rush to help him."
He grimaced internally at Fugaku's statement. Each and every one of his sentences painted the village in a bad light. He was going to have to answer some tough questions after this.
"Then the chakra signature somehow was extinguished and Inabi, in his shock, rushed back, only to witness the aftermath of the ANBU dying." Fugaku continued.
Fugaku had a straight face while reporting all of it but he could see what he was doing.
Purposefully making sure that the gathered ninjas hear the bad side first will make sure that he will have the upper hand in the next council meeting. It would seem that Danzo and he had made a pretty formidable enemy in the Clan head council for themselves, especially in this delicate time.
Speaking of Clan heads, he could sense the unique twin chakra signature of Hiashi and Hizashi.
Soon, they landed right in front of him, looking at the towering tree that was still growing, slowly, but still growing.
"Hokage-sama, what is this abomination? The chakra I am seeing inside it should be impossible and yet.." Hiashi asked him, aghast at what he was probably seeing through his Byakugan eyes.
Hizashi assumed a guarding position behind his elder brother, not speaking a word. But with the way his face paled as his Byakugan was activated, he was certainly seeing the same thing his brother was seeing.
He signaled one of his personal ANBU guards to summon all the village elders.
The only reason he didn't single out Danzo was because of the presence of so many of the civilian ninjas in the hearing range. Anything he could say would have ended up on the shinobi grapevine in mere minutes and no amount of banning the spread of information would have truly stopped it.
He had learned his lesson from Naruto's example. He just wished he had known it earlier.
Now, to deal with the matter at hand here.
"What are you seeing, Hiashi?" he asked the Hyuga Clan head.
The veins around Hiashi's eyes protruded from his skin, showing that he was using his clan's doujutsu.
"Hokage-sama, I don't know how to describe it. The chakra I am seeing is something I have only seen a handful of times and even then, it was nowhere near as dense as the one I am seeing now. The potency of the chakra is such that I had to order everyone below Jonin level in the clan to stop using their Byakugan. Even some Jonins have a very high chance of going blind if they look at this tree directly." Hiashi replied.
"What is it, Hokage-sama?" Hiashi looked at him intensely. If he wasn't as experienced as he was, the sight of a Byakugan staring you down would have certainly been a very intimidating sight but wasn't very useful on him when he had stared down multiple generations of the Hyuga in his long long tenure as Hokage.
Being a Hokage with academic inclinations did have its benefits after all. He had been heavily involved in the academic activities of students, especially the clan heirs, not due to political reasons but due to the fact that the clan heirs tended to lead the most interesting academic lives.
"Hokage-sama Hokage-sama?" Genma's questioning brought him out of his thoughts.
It was a good thing he arrived right on time.
It saved him from answering some uncomfortable questions. It was an opportunity he didn't think the clan heads of the largest and the second largest clan of Konoha would let go from their hands.
"What is it?" he questioned Genma.
He bowed and replied, "Hokage-sama, we have informed all the elders about the meeting. Everyone said yes but.."
Seeing Genma's hesitation, he gestured for him to go on.
Genma nodded and replied, "Danzo-sama, he ordered me to arrange for the meeting to happen an hour from now and not immediately as you ordered."
His face darkened at the implied insult.
How dare he!
His chakra thundered, pushing nearly everyone around him onto their knees.
This included Kakashi as he was on the verge of fainting due to chakra exhaustion already.
Seeing the state of the weaker ninjas surrounding him, he reined in his chakra and ordered, "ANBU! Have Danzo brought in for the council meeting that will happen right NOW and tell him that he has no other choice? His Hokage commands so!"
All the surrounding ANBU kneel at his commands and dash onto the rooftops, soon disappearing from their sight as they rush to Danzo's office.
Then, he turned to Hiashi and said, "As for your question, Hiashi."
At his outburst, Hiashi audibly gulped.
Why wouldn't he, anybody else in his position would arguably be shaking and trembling in terror. After all, they were standing against the intimidating visage of The Professor, someone who had managed to reach old age in a profession where the majority die young. The strongest person in the village.
He then continued in a much calmer tone of voice, "That tree might have a weird chakra signature but look closely and tell me what you see."
Hiashi complied and looked again at the tree using his Byakugan. Just that this time, he tried to look past the sea of otherworldly chakra that permeated the entire body of the tree. Soon, he was able to see it. It was faint and growing fainter still but he could see traces of earth nature's chakra in the bark of the tree. It seemed to be converging around the upper center area of the bark.
Concentrating more on the bark, he was able to make out something..
He was waiting for Hiashi to report back his findings but didn't expect him to look shocked and then determined. He then took out a few Kunais and coated them in his chakra and threw them at the tree bark with all his might.
Alas, his taijutsu may have been strong but he was only jounin at best when it came to chakra manipulation. But his work was done.
The kunais got stuck into the bark, revealing something underneath.
Fugaku realised something and swiftly, before he or anybody else could interrupt them, flung his chakra-coated kunais towards the same spot Hiashi had thrown his kunais.
Fugaku, being a true S-Class combatant, managed to pierce Hiashi's kunai along with piercing the tree bark, ripping off a layer of the bark, and revealing what was underneath.
He was too late to stop Fugaku or Hiashi, too stunned at their actions to do anything.
Before he could berate them for unnecessarily endangering everyone around them, he saw the face that seemed to be carved out of wood, jutting out of the bark. It was hidden behind a layer of tree bark.
GASP!
All around him, he could see the same sound echoing, perhaps signalling a period of great turmoil within the shinobi community of Konoha.
For what was hidden underneath that small piece of bark was a face, a face that seemed to be in immense agony.
He looked towards the Uchiha clan head only to receive determined stares from both him and Hiashi.
It would seem that his past decisions had come back to haunt him at the worst possible time.
Not having the support of the two biggest and strongest clans of Konoha in the upcoming council meeting could possibly have him removed from the seat of Hokage.
The only guarantee he had on his side was the fact that they had no one strong enough or popular enough to put on The Hat.
Now, every ninja, civilian, and trader would know of this incident within hours. Come tomorrow morning, every village would hear of it.
"Hokage-sama?" he heard Genma call for him.
"Hmm?" he replied.
"The council has assembled, sir. All the clan heads have either assembled in the meeting room or are here with us" Genma replied while glancing at Hiashi and Fugaku.
He nodded and then replied, "Very well. Let's go."
Glancing at Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Hiashi, he said while walking ahead, "Come on, gentlemen, we have a lot to discuss and not a lot of time before the situation gets out of hand."
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1572
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent #6
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 6
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
Arriving at the council meeting hall, he sat on his seat at the center of the table, flanked by the two empty seats that signified the importance of the founding clans of Konoha, the Uchiha clan, and the Senju clan. He looked at the empty seat on his right and a melancholy feeling filled his heart. He could only imagine how his sensei would feel about the actions he had allowed to happen under his reign as Hokage.
Fugaku and Hiashi soon arrived and sat on the two seats on his left. He then waited for Danzo and the others to arrive even though he knew for a fact that they were in the building.
The atmosphere charged with chakra was nearly suffocating for all the clan heads present in the meeting. They had never seen their Hokage this angry. Even during all the tragedies that happened to him in his long life, they had never seen him express himself so openly outside of private quarters. All of them were tense as they waited with bated breaths for the reason for the meeting.
Finally, Danzo and the other councilmen arrived with Danzo leading the charge with his walking stick.
Danzo entered the room and paused slightly at the pressure in the room but with barely a hitch in his walking, he took his seat offered at the other end of the table, right in front of the Hokage seat with the other councilmen following suit.
"What do you have to say for yourself, Danzo?" He thundered out.
"I have no answer that will satisfy your question," Danzo replied.
"N-No answer? Are you kidding me?" Hiruzen stood up and slammed his hands on the table, cracking it. His chakra visibly flowed outwards into a ring around his body, making it an intimidating sight for anyone. But Danzo remained calm even as everybody else shuffled away from the clearly irate God of Shinobi.
He understood that Danzo had lied to him when he had ordered the experiments to stop once he realised that moving forward would have meant Human experimentation and according to the tests, the survival rate was abysmal.
"H-How many?" he questioned Danzo, his voice breaking.
Danzo remained stone-faced and said nothing in reply to his question, "How many died in your quest for power? How many lives did you destroy in pursuit of power?" he asked once again.
Seeing that Danzo was not replying, all the energy left him as he slumped back into his seat, "Guards, take him away. Make sure he is stripped of all his duties and remains under house arrest until I say so."
Danzo remained tight-lipped, assured of the rightness of his actions, even when he was being taken away by the ANBU commander, Monkey.
________________________________________________________________
–Tsume Inuzuka–
The first time the wave of cold chakra washed over her, her hair raised in bone-chilling fear as she remembered the last time something like this happened. She didn't know for how long she stood there, still like a statue, as the events of that dreadful night replayed in her mind.
Then the ANBU broke into her house and informed her about the council meeting. She barely managed to nod her head and collapsed immediately after the ANBU left, breathing heavily.
She somehow straggled to the bed where she took her pills and after circulating her chakra with the help of the Yamanaka pills, she calmed down.
"Nina, take care of Kiba for the night. I have a meeting to attend," she ordered Nina, the househelp.
Sometimes she cursed her sensory abilities. For some reason, she was born with the most sensitive nose as well as chakra sensitivity. Not as sensitive as Inabi, that man was a legend even among the Sensor Corps of Konoha, but more sensitive than almost all regular shinobi.
Hokage-sama must have called for this meeting in response to whatever that was. As she stepped out of the house, clad in her gear, she came face to face with the village silhouette, which was normal but what was not normal was the giant tree that towered over the village now.
She was so stunned that she forgot to watch out for her next step and almost fell face-first onto the ground. Luckily she was a Jonin so she swiftly regained her balance and rushed to the Hokage Tower.
When she arrived at the tower, the atmosphere in the tower was drastically different from normal.
The ANBUs that were normally hidden were now standing guard in front of the meeting room in the open.
She could feel their gazes on herself as the wartime barrier of the tower pinger her chakra and marked her as 'identified' in the sensor nets. As soon as her identity was confirmed, the secretary imperceptibly relaxed and opened the meeting room for me.
Inside, the atmosphere was even more charged as all the clan heads save for the Uchiha and the Hyuga along with the historically empty seats like Hatake or Senju seats, were present.
Likewise, everybody seemed tensed about the huge tree outside and the cold chakra issue. She could understand that. She was frozen stiff when that chakra hit her. It was so full of hate, that she almost thought it was the Nine Tails situation again.
Before she could ask anybody about it, her senses prickled as she felt the particular five-natured flavored chakra of Sandaime-sama ripple violently before it began to head in their direction.
All the heads in the room snapped towards the door as Sandaime-sama entered the room, bringing with him a wave of pressure that seemed to settle over everyone present. Fugaku Uchiha and Hiashi Hyuga followed suit.
The next scenes were something she had never thought she would see in her lifetime.
Sandaime-sama actually punishing Danzo for doing something horrible was long overdue.
Guess it only took a very public event that brought up extremely traumatic memories for every single person here was just the thing Sandaime-sama needed to finally look at his dear friend's flaws.
She looked at Danzo as he was escorted out of the meeting by the commander of ANBU himself. Seems like Hokage-sama was actually serious about the punishment this time since he assigned his own son to do the task. That was important since she had attended a similar clan head meeting held by Yondaime-sama when he was still alive. He had suspected Danzo to have long infiltrated ANBU and after his passing, under Sandaime-sama's reign, Danzo had only grown more and more brazen in his attempts to gain control over ANBU.
Monkey was also one of the only two Kage-level shinobis that Konoha had access to and assigning one of them to Danzo meant he shouldn't be able to contact his agents in the ANBU and do something drastic.
The atmosphere in the room turned from tense to curious after Danzo was escorted out of the room. Sandaime-sama must have realised it as well as he slumped in his seat and gestured to Fugaku, "I guess as the first of us to arrive on site, you can report the incident better. They'll know everything through the grapevine by tomorrow morning anyway."
Fugaku nodded stiffly and stood up, "An Uchiha policeman who is also an excellent sensor," he glanced at her at that statement, " on a regular patrol encountered an ANBU with an unusual chakra signature. Choosing not to engage in that situation, he chose to continue his patrol but then he felt the chakra signature slowly vanish from his senses which is consistent with people dying. Now he had worked in the hospitals to accurately identify chakra worms in the last war so he knew dying people's chakra signatures and as such, immediately rushed to the aid of the ANBU who had collapsed in the middle of the street, cold and unmoving. After arriving near the ANBU, he…"
As she heard more and more about the incident, the more she realised that the incident reeked of Danzo's involvement.
When she heard the part about the ANBU's probable age, she growled at the travesty of the minimal rights that the village afforded children. Similar expressions could be seen on the faces of all the others as well.
Sandaime-sama must have felt their anger as his shoulders slumped even further even though he had pulled his Hokage Hat over his face.
"That damn bastard. I always knew he couldn't be trusted," the Akimichi clan head growled out as his body unconsciously increased in size. Noticing that, he took deep breaths and reigned in his chakra, returning to his normal size. Inoichi and Shikaku both sported rigid expressions on their faces but their chakra belied the rage they must have felt inside.
She winced in sympathy for them as she had been witness to the fierce fight the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had put up with Danzo when he had come knocking on their clan doors asking for children to put into his advanced training program.
They had sensed something was wrong at the moment but with Sandaime-sama on his side, Danzo got his way.
In the end, 6 children from their clans were pronounced dead from the burden of the training. That had served as a wake-up call for the other clans and together they had put enough pressure on Hokage-sama to stop that practice altogether. Faced with their collective pressure, he had been forced to cave to their demands and pass the law regarding the minimum age for active duty in the ninja corps which could only be subverted by ANBU recruitment or the Hokage's express permission along with council from the council head.
But that was not the thing that was the most important thing she heard at that meeting. The next thing she heard was what chilled the very air of the council meeting..
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1658
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 6
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
Arriving at the council meeting hall, he sat on his seat at the center of the table, flanked by the two empty seats that signified the importance of the founding clans of Konoha, the Uchiha clan, and the Senju clan. He looked at the empty seat on his right and a melancholy feeling filled his heart. He could only imagine how his sensei would feel about the actions he had allowed to happen under his reign as Hokage.
Fugaku and Hiashi soon arrived and sat on the two seats on his left. He then waited for Danzo and the others to arrive even though he knew for a fact that they were in the building.
The atmosphere charged with chakra was nearly suffocating for all the clan heads present in the meeting. They had never seen their Hokage this angry. Even during all the tragedies that happened to him in his long life, they had never seen him express himself so openly outside of private quarters. All of them were tense as they waited with bated breaths for the reason for the meeting.
Finally, Danzo and the other councilmen arrived with Danzo leading the charge with his walking stick.
Danzo entered the room and paused slightly at the pressure in the room but with barely a hitch in his walking, he took his seat offered at the other end of the table, right in front of the Hokage seat with the other councilmen following suit.
"What do you have to say for yourself, Danzo?" He thundered out.
"I have no answer that will satisfy your question," Danzo replied.
"N-No answer? Are you kidding me?" Hiruzen stood up and slammed his hands on the table, cracking it. His chakra visibly flowed outwards into a ring around his body, making it an intimidating sight for anyone. But Danzo remained calm even as everybody else shuffled away from the clearly irate God of Shinobi.
He understood that Danzo had lied to him when he had ordered the experiments to stop once he realised that moving forward would have meant Human experimentation and according to the tests, the survival rate was abysmal.
"H-How many?" he questioned Danzo, his voice breaking.
Danzo remained stone-faced and said nothing in reply to his question, "How many died in your quest for power? How many lives did you destroy in pursuit of power?" he asked once again.
Seeing that Danzo was not replying, all the energy left him as he slumped back into his seat, "Guards, take him away. Make sure he is stripped of all his duties and remains under house arrest until I say so."
Danzo remained tight-lipped, assured of the rightness of his actions, even when he was being taken away by the ANBU commander, Monkey.
________________________________________________________________
–Tsume Inuzuka–
The first time the wave of cold chakra washed over her, her hair raised in bone-chilling fear as she remembered the last time something like this happened. She didn't know for how long she stood there, still like a statue, as the events of that dreadful night replayed in her mind.
Then the ANBU broke into her house and informed her about the council meeting. She barely managed to nod her head and collapsed immediately after the ANBU left, breathing heavily.
She somehow straggled to the bed where she took her pills and after circulating her chakra with the help of the Yamanaka pills, she calmed down.
"Nina, take care of Kiba for the night. I have a meeting to attend," she ordered Nina, the househelp.
Sometimes she cursed her sensory abilities. For some reason, she was born with the most sensitive nose as well as chakra sensitivity. Not as sensitive as Inabi, that man was a legend even among the Sensor Corps of Konoha, but more sensitive than almost all regular shinobi.
Hokage-sama must have called for this meeting in response to whatever that was. As she stepped out of the house, clad in her gear, she came face to face with the village silhouette, which was normal but what was not normal was the giant tree that towered over the village now.
She was so stunned that she forgot to watch out for her next step and almost fell face-first onto the ground. Luckily she was a Jonin so she swiftly regained her balance and rushed to the Hokage Tower.
When she arrived at the tower, the atmosphere in the tower was drastically different from normal.
The ANBUs that were normally hidden were now standing guard in front of the meeting room in the open.
She could feel their gazes on herself as the wartime barrier of the tower pinger her chakra and marked her as 'identified' in the sensor nets. As soon as her identity was confirmed, the secretary imperceptibly relaxed and opened the meeting room for me.
Inside, the atmosphere was even more charged as all the clan heads save for the Uchiha and the Hyuga along with the historically empty seats like Hatake or Senju seats, were present.
Likewise, everybody seemed tensed about the huge tree outside and the cold chakra issue. She could understand that. She was frozen stiff when that chakra hit her. It was so full of hate, that she almost thought it was the Nine Tails situation again.
Before she could ask anybody about it, her senses prickled as she felt the particular five-natured flavored chakra of Sandaime-sama ripple violently before it began to head in their direction.
All the heads in the room snapped towards the door as Sandaime-sama entered the room, bringing with him a wave of pressure that seemed to settle over everyone present. Fugaku Uchiha and Hiashi Hyuga followed suit.
The next scenes were something she had never thought she would see in her lifetime.
Sandaime-sama actually punishing Danzo for doing something horrible was long overdue.
Guess it only took a very public event that brought up extremely traumatic memories for every single person here was just the thing Sandaime-sama needed to finally look at his dear friend's flaws.
She looked at Danzo as he was escorted out of the meeting by the commander of ANBU himself. Seems like Hokage-sama was actually serious about the punishment this time since he assigned his own son to do the task. That was important since she had attended a similar clan head meeting held by Yondaime-sama when he was still alive. He had suspected Danzo to have long infiltrated ANBU and after his passing, under Sandaime-sama's reign, Danzo had only grown more and more brazen in his attempts to gain control over ANBU.
Monkey was also one of the only two Kage-level shinobis that Konoha had access to and assigning one of them to Danzo meant he shouldn't be able to contact his agents in the ANBU and do something drastic.
The atmosphere in the room turned from tense to curious after Danzo was escorted out of the room. Sandaime-sama must have realised it as well as he slumped in his seat and gestured to Fugaku, "I guess as the first of us to arrive on site, you can report the incident better. They'll know everything through the grapevine by tomorrow morning anyway."
Fugaku nodded stiffly and stood up, "An Uchiha policeman who is also an excellent sensor," he glanced at her at that statement, " on a regular patrol encountered an ANBU with an unusual chakra signature. Choosing not to engage in that situation, he chose to continue his patrol but then he felt the chakra signature slowly vanish from his senses which is consistent with people dying. Now he had worked in the hospitals to accurately identify chakra worms in the last war so he knew dying people's chakra signatures and as such, immediately rushed to the aid of the ANBU who had collapsed in the middle of the street, cold and unmoving. After arriving near the ANBU, he…"
As she heard more and more about the incident, the more she realised that the incident reeked of Danzo's involvement.
When she heard the part about the ANBU's probable age, she growled at the travesty of the minimal rights that the village afforded children. Similar expressions could be seen on the faces of all the others as well.
Sandaime-sama must have felt their anger as his shoulders slumped even further even though he had pulled his Hokage Hat over his face.
"That damn bastard. I always knew he couldn't be trusted," the Akimichi clan head growled out as his body unconsciously increased in size. Noticing that, he took deep breaths and reigned in his chakra, returning to his normal size. Inoichi and Shikaku both sported rigid expressions on their faces but their chakra belied the rage they must have felt inside.
She winced in sympathy for them as she had been witness to the fierce fight the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had put up with Danzo when he had come knocking on their clan doors asking for children to put into his advanced training program.
They had sensed something was wrong at the moment but with Sandaime-sama on his side, Danzo got his way.
In the end, 6 children from their clans were pronounced dead from the burden of the training. That had served as a wake-up call for the other clans and together they had put enough pressure on Hokage-sama to stop that practice altogether. Faced with their collective pressure, he had been forced to cave to their demands and pass the law regarding the minimum age for active duty in the ninja corps which could only be subverted by ANBU recruitment or the Hokage's express permission along with council from the council head.
But that was not the thing that was the most important thing she heard at that meeting. The next thing she heard was what chilled the very air of the council meeting..
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1658
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent #7
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
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Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 7
Previously
Faced with their collective pressure, he had been forced to cave to their demands and pass the law regarding the minimum age for active duty in the ninja corps which could only be subverted by ANBU recruitment or the Hokage's express permission along with council from the council head.
But that was not the thing that was the most important thing she heard at that meeting. The next thing she heard was what chilled the very air of the council meeting..
________________________________________________________________
–Fugaku Uchiha–
While he was regaling the council with the happenings of the evening, he was internally shocked at the fact that Sandaime-sama was allowing it to happen.
He was even more shocked when he saw that he had finally done the unthinkable and gotten rid of Danzo from his elder position. He knew that it was only a stop-gap measure and eventually, Danzo would have found a way to become a problem again but when that happens, he and the Uchiha clan would be ready.
The only reason they were not able to retaliate till now was due to them not having any rational reason to. On the surface, all the actions the current Konoha administration took seemed correct but if you looked underneath, everything would become clear.
Delayed promotions, rejections based on outrageous reasons, literally relocating the founding clan of the village to the outskirts, visible surveillance to rile up the more hot-headed members of the clan..
The list went on and on. Sometimes, he wished that it wasn't Minato but Sandaime-sama who died to seal the Kyuubi. It would still have been tragic but the Uchiha clan, the strongest clan of Konoha, would not have been sidelined like this, and with Minato alive, they would have still been the strongest village by miles.
Now, they were barely tied with Cloud Village and with war looming on the horizon, the village could ill afford any infighting. Thinking of this, he had refrained from taking any sides in the slowly but surely growing dissent within the clan.
Finally, he came to the important part of the evening, "Now, when Hiashi-dono's Byakugan discovered something important, I was startled to find him flinging multiple kunais at the bark of the tree. Suspecting that something was wrong, I too attacked the exact spot and to my horror, the tree bark fell off, revealing a face in agony."
The silence in the room was deafening.
The most pronounced reaction was from Shikaku. He had been stone-faced until now, aware of the atrocities Danzo had committed on the clan children but was blissfully unaware of another atrocity that Danzo was committing right under their noses and was now staring with his mouth agape at Sandaime-sama.
"How dare you? You promised me it was stopped. Y-You What have you done?" Shikaku whispered in a haunted tone.
"For those who have not yet caught on, according to the many records we have of the Shodai's famed Kekkei Genkai, if the user wasn't skilled enough, any bearer of Mokuton could be overrun by their own Kekkei Genkai and become a tree, just like the unfortunate soul whose demise we stood witness to outside," Hiashi Hyuga spoke from his seat.
"I didn't know. Danzo lied to me as he did to everybody else but I realise how hollow that sounds. So, effective immediately, I officially give my resignation and would suggest you all to find a new Hokage because I don't think I am worthy of this hat anymore," Sandaime-sama stood up with a sigh and flashed out of the room, too ashamed to face anyone.
"Hmph, running from one's own responsibilities is the highest form of cowardice," Hiashi Hyuga harrumphed.
But this was good for him.
Now, they could find someone who wouldn't lead the village right into a civil war with his clan.
"The question we should be asking ourselves is who will be the new Hokage?" Inoichi asked everybody else.
Simultaneously, everybody turned to him, the question evident on their faces.
As tempting as that might have been, "No, I don't think I am fit to be Hokage right now. The village is not in the best of states and even if it is hard to admit, the clan is not as popular with the village as it needs to be for me to become Hokage," he shook his head and denied the Hokage recommendation.
He could spy Inoichi and Shikaku nodded subtly at him, aware of the real reason he had given for his rejection of the prestigious seat of Hokage.
It wouldn't have worked out. Even if he took the offered seat, which it was not, he would at best be the Hokage for a few years and then someone, probably from the remaining loyal Sannins, would become Hokage. That would be a huge insult to their clan which might result in instant retaliation.
"I think we should just reject his resignation at this point in time since the search for a new Hokage candidate would take years at this point. Unless anybody here has any ideas on bringing Tsunade back to the village and making her Hokage?" Shikaku asked the room.
He had one but that would sooner have one of Tsunade's fists in his gut than her back in the village.
"Not to mention that the village's ninja reserves had taken a severe hit after the last war and were further depleted during the Kyuubi incident. Projecting strength at this point is crucial for the well-being of the village and as much as it pains me to say this, Sandaime-sama has been the face of a strong Konoha for decades and it would be unwise for the village to go through an important shuffling so soon after the greatest tragedy our village has ever suffered." Inoichi spoke up, his voice grave.
That was the reason they couldn't afford to replace him.
"A compromise, then?" he found himself speaking up.
All of them looked up at him, "We have him stay as Hokage but ask him to refrain from making any significant decisions until the next Hokage is elected. In the meantime, we search for Hokage candidates and go from there."
The majority of them nodded, agreeing with my idea.
________________________________________________________________
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
Flashing out of the meeting room, he went straight to the grave of his beloved Biwako.
Oh, how she would just slap him right now to make him get out of his funk, as she called it.
But, she was not here right now. He had to admit that, in addition to the natural paranoia that his teacher instilled in him, he wanted to get revenge for his Biwako.
When he first learned about the Sharingan pattern in the Kyuubi's eyes, the image of Madara Uchiha popped up in his head and he was instantly terrified of the possibility of someone even close to Madara appearing in the Uchiha clan.
And so, when he heard Danzo give that borderline treasonous order of hindering Uchiha forces from participating in the battle, he turned a blind eye to it and jumped into the battle with Minato, ignoring the future implications of that disastrous order.
After the battle, when he had some time to think it over, he realised his foolishness of that particular day and lamented over the loss of the trust of the Uchiha clan because, by the time he came to his senses, it had been too late.
Danzo had used his busy schedule against him and sent orders to the rehabilitation teams to relocate the Uchiha clan, a founding clan, to the edge of the village. By the time he came to know about it, the damage was already done. The Uchiha, in their pride, didn't even contest it and left spiteful for the edge of the village, going so far as to construct their own little town, separating them from the village.
That was the day it all went downhill.
By that time, he was certain it was not Uchiha Fugaku, with his Mangekyou Sharingan, who was responsible for the Kyuubi incident. It was somebody else with the Mangekyou Sharingan. Fugaku was too smart to do that. Arguably, the Uchiha clan was the one who suffered the biggest loss after the Kyuubi incident, after Naruto of course.
"Oh, Biwako. I've grown too old, too weary of this life. Sometimes, I wish it was me instead of Minato. He had a long life ahead of him. Naruto could have had his father with him instead of this sorry excuse of a Hokage!" He was gnashing his teeth in the end, his chakra flaring around him.
He reigned in his chakra and took deep calming breaths to calm his raging heart.
He was the only known Kage-level individual in the village right now. The village needed him. He would die for the village but right now, he needed to live for it and that seemed infinitely harder to him.
As he was about to leave, ANBU Monkey appeared before him on his knees, "Father."
His eyes softened as he replied, "Shinnosuke, I am no longer your Hokage. But before I pass on the hat-" he shifted into his battle gear and called forth the Adamantite Staff, "-I have some affairs to settle."
He had grown lax in these past few years, resulting in multiple tragedies. The least he could do was bind the one who was responsible for said tragedies.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1593
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent (SI)
Chapter 7
Previously
Faced with their collective pressure, he had been forced to cave to their demands and pass the law regarding the minimum age for active duty in the ninja corps which could only be subverted by ANBU recruitment or the Hokage's express permission along with council from the council head.
But that was not the thing that was the most important thing she heard at that meeting. The next thing she heard was what chilled the very air of the council meeting..
________________________________________________________________
–Fugaku Uchiha–
While he was regaling the council with the happenings of the evening, he was internally shocked at the fact that Sandaime-sama was allowing it to happen.
He was even more shocked when he saw that he had finally done the unthinkable and gotten rid of Danzo from his elder position. He knew that it was only a stop-gap measure and eventually, Danzo would have found a way to become a problem again but when that happens, he and the Uchiha clan would be ready.
The only reason they were not able to retaliate till now was due to them not having any rational reason to. On the surface, all the actions the current Konoha administration took seemed correct but if you looked underneath, everything would become clear.
Delayed promotions, rejections based on outrageous reasons, literally relocating the founding clan of the village to the outskirts, visible surveillance to rile up the more hot-headed members of the clan..
The list went on and on. Sometimes, he wished that it wasn't Minato but Sandaime-sama who died to seal the Kyuubi. It would still have been tragic but the Uchiha clan, the strongest clan of Konoha, would not have been sidelined like this, and with Minato alive, they would have still been the strongest village by miles.
Now, they were barely tied with Cloud Village and with war looming on the horizon, the village could ill afford any infighting. Thinking of this, he had refrained from taking any sides in the slowly but surely growing dissent within the clan.
Finally, he came to the important part of the evening, "Now, when Hiashi-dono's Byakugan discovered something important, I was startled to find him flinging multiple kunais at the bark of the tree. Suspecting that something was wrong, I too attacked the exact spot and to my horror, the tree bark fell off, revealing a face in agony."
The silence in the room was deafening.
The most pronounced reaction was from Shikaku. He had been stone-faced until now, aware of the atrocities Danzo had committed on the clan children but was blissfully unaware of another atrocity that Danzo was committing right under their noses and was now staring with his mouth agape at Sandaime-sama.
"How dare you? You promised me it was stopped. Y-You What have you done?" Shikaku whispered in a haunted tone.
"For those who have not yet caught on, according to the many records we have of the Shodai's famed Kekkei Genkai, if the user wasn't skilled enough, any bearer of Mokuton could be overrun by their own Kekkei Genkai and become a tree, just like the unfortunate soul whose demise we stood witness to outside," Hiashi Hyuga spoke from his seat.
"I didn't know. Danzo lied to me as he did to everybody else but I realise how hollow that sounds. So, effective immediately, I officially give my resignation and would suggest you all to find a new Hokage because I don't think I am worthy of this hat anymore," Sandaime-sama stood up with a sigh and flashed out of the room, too ashamed to face anyone.
"Hmph, running from one's own responsibilities is the highest form of cowardice," Hiashi Hyuga harrumphed.
But this was good for him.
Now, they could find someone who wouldn't lead the village right into a civil war with his clan.
"The question we should be asking ourselves is who will be the new Hokage?" Inoichi asked everybody else.
Simultaneously, everybody turned to him, the question evident on their faces.
As tempting as that might have been, "No, I don't think I am fit to be Hokage right now. The village is not in the best of states and even if it is hard to admit, the clan is not as popular with the village as it needs to be for me to become Hokage," he shook his head and denied the Hokage recommendation.
He could spy Inoichi and Shikaku nodded subtly at him, aware of the real reason he had given for his rejection of the prestigious seat of Hokage.
It wouldn't have worked out. Even if he took the offered seat, which it was not, he would at best be the Hokage for a few years and then someone, probably from the remaining loyal Sannins, would become Hokage. That would be a huge insult to their clan which might result in instant retaliation.
"I think we should just reject his resignation at this point in time since the search for a new Hokage candidate would take years at this point. Unless anybody here has any ideas on bringing Tsunade back to the village and making her Hokage?" Shikaku asked the room.
He had one but that would sooner have one of Tsunade's fists in his gut than her back in the village.
"Not to mention that the village's ninja reserves had taken a severe hit after the last war and were further depleted during the Kyuubi incident. Projecting strength at this point is crucial for the well-being of the village and as much as it pains me to say this, Sandaime-sama has been the face of a strong Konoha for decades and it would be unwise for the village to go through an important shuffling so soon after the greatest tragedy our village has ever suffered." Inoichi spoke up, his voice grave.
That was the reason they couldn't afford to replace him.
"A compromise, then?" he found himself speaking up.
All of them looked up at him, "We have him stay as Hokage but ask him to refrain from making any significant decisions until the next Hokage is elected. In the meantime, we search for Hokage candidates and go from there."
The majority of them nodded, agreeing with my idea.
________________________________________________________________
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
Flashing out of the meeting room, he went straight to the grave of his beloved Biwako.
Oh, how she would just slap him right now to make him get out of his funk, as she called it.
But, she was not here right now. He had to admit that, in addition to the natural paranoia that his teacher instilled in him, he wanted to get revenge for his Biwako.
When he first learned about the Sharingan pattern in the Kyuubi's eyes, the image of Madara Uchiha popped up in his head and he was instantly terrified of the possibility of someone even close to Madara appearing in the Uchiha clan.
And so, when he heard Danzo give that borderline treasonous order of hindering Uchiha forces from participating in the battle, he turned a blind eye to it and jumped into the battle with Minato, ignoring the future implications of that disastrous order.
After the battle, when he had some time to think it over, he realised his foolishness of that particular day and lamented over the loss of the trust of the Uchiha clan because, by the time he came to his senses, it had been too late.
Danzo had used his busy schedule against him and sent orders to the rehabilitation teams to relocate the Uchiha clan, a founding clan, to the edge of the village. By the time he came to know about it, the damage was already done. The Uchiha, in their pride, didn't even contest it and left spiteful for the edge of the village, going so far as to construct their own little town, separating them from the village.
That was the day it all went downhill.
By that time, he was certain it was not Uchiha Fugaku, with his Mangekyou Sharingan, who was responsible for the Kyuubi incident. It was somebody else with the Mangekyou Sharingan. Fugaku was too smart to do that. Arguably, the Uchiha clan was the one who suffered the biggest loss after the Kyuubi incident, after Naruto of course.
"Oh, Biwako. I've grown too old, too weary of this life. Sometimes, I wish it was me instead of Minato. He had a long life ahead of him. Naruto could have had his father with him instead of this sorry excuse of a Hokage!" He was gnashing his teeth in the end, his chakra flaring around him.
He reigned in his chakra and took deep calming breaths to calm his raging heart.
He was the only known Kage-level individual in the village right now. The village needed him. He would die for the village but right now, he needed to live for it and that seemed infinitely harder to him.
As he was about to leave, ANBU Monkey appeared before him on his knees, "Father."
His eyes softened as he replied, "Shinnosuke, I am no longer your Hokage. But before I pass on the hat-" he shifted into his battle gear and called forth the Adamantite Staff, "-I have some affairs to settle."
He had grown lax in these past few years, resulting in multiple tragedies. The least he could do was bind the one who was responsible for said tragedies.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1593
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent #8
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 8
Root Base
–Danzo Shimura–
Curse that Kinoe!
He had instantly recognised the culprit after seeing the huge tree growing right in front of the ANBU HQ.
He had been preparing to go there personally to collect anything that remained of Kinoe for future research only to receive a summons from Hiruzen.
He had dismissed it at first, believing Hiruzen to be too busy to deal with him only to be proven wrong minutes later as hordes of ANBU invaded his base and personally escorted him to Hokage Tower.
Normally, nobody in the ANBU had the right or the strength necessary to do so save a few. Unfortunately, Hiruzen's spawn was the one who had donned the mask of ANBU Monkey and he was one of the 2 kage-level individuals in the village. Even if he could, he would not hurt Monkey because it concerned the very survival of their village.
So, with immense loathing, he followed Monkey to the Hokage Tower.
On the way, he glanced at the tree that was the root of the problem. (get it?)
There was no way that he could sweep this under the rug now. Not with all the information out into the open.
Soon, the Hokage Tower came into view and he entered the meeting room, only to find the entire clan head council assembled there.
He got a very ominous feeling when he looked at Hiruzen's face and found him coldly staring at him like he was just waiting for something to rip him apart.
And sure enough, the feeling turned out true as he was ousted from his position for doing good for the village and given indefinite house arrest.
Oh, the words were coated in sugar but that didn't change their poisonous nature. Sending Monkey with him for his supposed house arrest further reinforced his opinion that Hiruzen truly wanted to take away all his power and throw all the work they had done together down the drain.
He could not let that happen. Not while he still drew breath.
Hiruzen, that fool, had gone soft. He could see it now, that fool might even resign at such a critical point in time.
Couldn't he see that all he did was only for the good of the village?
He had to contact his forces, to make sure that all the truly important stuff was safely stored so that the fools in the council wouldn't destroy it.
He might have to sacrifice a few of his pawns but he could always freshly populate them once he gets out of this stupid punishment Hiruzen had imposed on him.
He got the opportunity when Monkey left for something, leaving only a single ANBU squad outside his house to make sure he didn't leave.
He scoffed internally at that. As if he would disobey an express order from Hiruzen. Circumvent it, bend it? Sure but he never disobeyed Hiruzen directly.
He had just finished sending Fu all the details when the door opened and a raging chakra wave he had not felt in years came roaring inside.
Despite the immense suffocating pressure, he smiled as Hiruzen entered his house donned in his battle gear and holding his signature staff.
Even when Hiruzen came face to face with him and increased the pressure to the point that even breathing became a difficulty, he smiled.
He smiled because he had seen Hiruzen slowly losing the spark that he was once known for. If he had to guess, it started happening ever since the Second Shinobi War ended and intensified when he lost his wife, Biwako. So, seeing The Professor back in action was always a welcoming sight, even if he seemed intent on finishing him off today.
"You lied to me. You disobeyed my express orders, Danzo. I trusted you. How could you?" Hiruzen practically shouted at him.
He frowned at that. But before he could justify his actions, Hiruzen sighed and seemed to have come to a conclusion.
He had a sinking feeling regarding that.
"Doesn't matter why you did it. What matters is that you did. So, effective immediately, I arrest you here and now and order the forces under your command to be absorbed back into the ANBU for reeducation. You are to remain under house arrest for all your life. All Root bases will be searched for. Anything of value will be confiscated and used for the betterment of the Leaf and its citizens." He then waved his hand and the last thing he noticed before darkness overtook him was the complex Fuin formula that was engraved on the flooring underneath him.
When did he have time to–?
________________________________________________________________
–Shinnosuke "Monkey" Sarutobi–
He was used to dealing with Danzo by now. Once feeling incredibly slimy after accepting his tasks, he now did it like it was a particular chore he was reluctant to do. He would do it but it wouldn't feel good doing it.
In the beginning, he had tried communicating with his father regarding Danzo's activities but his complaints led him nowhere so he learned to accept the situation as it was.
He completed the mission and made sure that all his teammates returned with him in one piece. He also made sure that the civilian casualties were minimal, something he knew Danzo didn't care about.
Being a Kage-level shinobi granted him nothing but burdens. Especially, being the son of the Third Hokage meant that taking on tiresome responsibilities was taken for granted rather than being acknowledged for the incredibly burdening duties that they were.
He had found hope when Yondaime Hokage-sama had tasked him with finding Danzo's off-the-books activities but before he could actually finish the report, the Kyuubi incident happened and they lost two of the strongest fighters the village had access to.
After that, completing back-to-back missions became his mission, and the report was forgotten, kept in some deep dark corner of his mind. At that time, nearly half his time was spent in making sure that Kakashi came out of his next mission alive. He owed the Yondaime that much.
So, he was pleasantly surprised when Father ordered someone to specifically come find him and escort Danzo to the Hokage Tower. With their history, Father was aware that Danzo and him didn't get along so he was confused at first at the orders.
But after getting the full story from Rat, his mind churned furiously as he connected the dots. His pupils contracted and a sharp gasp left his mouth as he realised the enormity of what Danzo had done and what he had managed to achieve where hundreds had failed.
The very fact that Danzo had created someone with the Kekkei Genkai of Shodaime Hokage-sama was terrifying. Add in the fact that the result of that partially successful endeavour was now towering over Konoha and was visible for miles away for enemy spies to see was bone-chilling.
Just imagining the combined army that would knock on Konoha's doors should they realise the full truth raised the hair on his arms. No, the news could never come out. If it did, the army that they would have to fight would put the coalition that destroyed Uzu to shame.
That was why he welcomed his father's decision to strip Danzo of all his power.
Right now, he was wading through one of the many root bases that littered the underground network that ran underneath all of Konoha. It was used for pedestrian uses like emergency electricity lines along with telecommunication wires laid out for important offices and clan offices but also for shinobi uses like stealth travel in and out of the village along with space for transporting high-value items unseen to the civilian populace of the village.
He always wondered why Danzo kept shutting down more and more of these routes but now he had the answer to that question.
As he went through the fifth root base, he realised what had been nagging him since the first raid.
Everything had been going too well in this mission. They encountered no resistance and seemingly no retaliation in the form of shinobis or traps. The fact that raised alarm bells in his mind was the fact that he managed to recover nearly everything from every base.
That was supposed to be impossible. From the absence of traps waiting for them, he could guess that Danzo had foreseen this outcome and ordered his agents to stand down and surrender rather than fight the village forces and eventually, himself. He knew that was a futile exercise.
He might not have the might and infamy of his father, The Professor, but there was a reason he was the reigning ANBU Commander for the past decade and nepotism was not the reason.
At the last base, he realised something. There was a corner of the storage shelf that looked way too organised from the rest of the shelving. Looking closely, he seemed to find something only for something else to take away his attention. It was only during the third such occurrence he realised what was going on.
A chill ran down his spine as even after being very careful, he was still caught up in a Genjutsu. After much difficulty, he was able to dispel the genjutsu that was laid upon the Fuinjutsu that was actually fueling the main Genjutsu.
With his limited knowledge, he could tell that this type of Fuinjutsu was once the specialty of the Uzumaki village and he could not recall such type of Fuinjutsu being in the Konoha Library of Jutsus.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1615
To be Continued….
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 8
Root Base
–Danzo Shimura–
Curse that Kinoe!
He had instantly recognised the culprit after seeing the huge tree growing right in front of the ANBU HQ.
He had been preparing to go there personally to collect anything that remained of Kinoe for future research only to receive a summons from Hiruzen.
He had dismissed it at first, believing Hiruzen to be too busy to deal with him only to be proven wrong minutes later as hordes of ANBU invaded his base and personally escorted him to Hokage Tower.
Normally, nobody in the ANBU had the right or the strength necessary to do so save a few. Unfortunately, Hiruzen's spawn was the one who had donned the mask of ANBU Monkey and he was one of the 2 kage-level individuals in the village. Even if he could, he would not hurt Monkey because it concerned the very survival of their village.
So, with immense loathing, he followed Monkey to the Hokage Tower.
On the way, he glanced at the tree that was the root of the problem. (get it?)
There was no way that he could sweep this under the rug now. Not with all the information out into the open.
Soon, the Hokage Tower came into view and he entered the meeting room, only to find the entire clan head council assembled there.
He got a very ominous feeling when he looked at Hiruzen's face and found him coldly staring at him like he was just waiting for something to rip him apart.
And sure enough, the feeling turned out true as he was ousted from his position for doing good for the village and given indefinite house arrest.
Oh, the words were coated in sugar but that didn't change their poisonous nature. Sending Monkey with him for his supposed house arrest further reinforced his opinion that Hiruzen truly wanted to take away all his power and throw all the work they had done together down the drain.
He could not let that happen. Not while he still drew breath.
Hiruzen, that fool, had gone soft. He could see it now, that fool might even resign at such a critical point in time.
Couldn't he see that all he did was only for the good of the village?
He had to contact his forces, to make sure that all the truly important stuff was safely stored so that the fools in the council wouldn't destroy it.
He might have to sacrifice a few of his pawns but he could always freshly populate them once he gets out of this stupid punishment Hiruzen had imposed on him.
He got the opportunity when Monkey left for something, leaving only a single ANBU squad outside his house to make sure he didn't leave.
He scoffed internally at that. As if he would disobey an express order from Hiruzen. Circumvent it, bend it? Sure but he never disobeyed Hiruzen directly.
He had just finished sending Fu all the details when the door opened and a raging chakra wave he had not felt in years came roaring inside.
Despite the immense suffocating pressure, he smiled as Hiruzen entered his house donned in his battle gear and holding his signature staff.
Even when Hiruzen came face to face with him and increased the pressure to the point that even breathing became a difficulty, he smiled.
He smiled because he had seen Hiruzen slowly losing the spark that he was once known for. If he had to guess, it started happening ever since the Second Shinobi War ended and intensified when he lost his wife, Biwako. So, seeing The Professor back in action was always a welcoming sight, even if he seemed intent on finishing him off today.
"You lied to me. You disobeyed my express orders, Danzo. I trusted you. How could you?" Hiruzen practically shouted at him.
He frowned at that. But before he could justify his actions, Hiruzen sighed and seemed to have come to a conclusion.
He had a sinking feeling regarding that.
"Doesn't matter why you did it. What matters is that you did. So, effective immediately, I arrest you here and now and order the forces under your command to be absorbed back into the ANBU for reeducation. You are to remain under house arrest for all your life. All Root bases will be searched for. Anything of value will be confiscated and used for the betterment of the Leaf and its citizens." He then waved his hand and the last thing he noticed before darkness overtook him was the complex Fuin formula that was engraved on the flooring underneath him.
When did he have time to–?
________________________________________________________________
–Shinnosuke "Monkey" Sarutobi–
He was used to dealing with Danzo by now. Once feeling incredibly slimy after accepting his tasks, he now did it like it was a particular chore he was reluctant to do. He would do it but it wouldn't feel good doing it.
In the beginning, he had tried communicating with his father regarding Danzo's activities but his complaints led him nowhere so he learned to accept the situation as it was.
He completed the mission and made sure that all his teammates returned with him in one piece. He also made sure that the civilian casualties were minimal, something he knew Danzo didn't care about.
Being a Kage-level shinobi granted him nothing but burdens. Especially, being the son of the Third Hokage meant that taking on tiresome responsibilities was taken for granted rather than being acknowledged for the incredibly burdening duties that they were.
He had found hope when Yondaime Hokage-sama had tasked him with finding Danzo's off-the-books activities but before he could actually finish the report, the Kyuubi incident happened and they lost two of the strongest fighters the village had access to.
After that, completing back-to-back missions became his mission, and the report was forgotten, kept in some deep dark corner of his mind. At that time, nearly half his time was spent in making sure that Kakashi came out of his next mission alive. He owed the Yondaime that much.
So, he was pleasantly surprised when Father ordered someone to specifically come find him and escort Danzo to the Hokage Tower. With their history, Father was aware that Danzo and him didn't get along so he was confused at first at the orders.
But after getting the full story from Rat, his mind churned furiously as he connected the dots. His pupils contracted and a sharp gasp left his mouth as he realised the enormity of what Danzo had done and what he had managed to achieve where hundreds had failed.
The very fact that Danzo had created someone with the Kekkei Genkai of Shodaime Hokage-sama was terrifying. Add in the fact that the result of that partially successful endeavour was now towering over Konoha and was visible for miles away for enemy spies to see was bone-chilling.
Just imagining the combined army that would knock on Konoha's doors should they realise the full truth raised the hair on his arms. No, the news could never come out. If it did, the army that they would have to fight would put the coalition that destroyed Uzu to shame.
That was why he welcomed his father's decision to strip Danzo of all his power.
Right now, he was wading through one of the many root bases that littered the underground network that ran underneath all of Konoha. It was used for pedestrian uses like emergency electricity lines along with telecommunication wires laid out for important offices and clan offices but also for shinobi uses like stealth travel in and out of the village along with space for transporting high-value items unseen to the civilian populace of the village.
He always wondered why Danzo kept shutting down more and more of these routes but now he had the answer to that question.
As he went through the fifth root base, he realised what had been nagging him since the first raid.
Everything had been going too well in this mission. They encountered no resistance and seemingly no retaliation in the form of shinobis or traps. The fact that raised alarm bells in his mind was the fact that he managed to recover nearly everything from every base.
That was supposed to be impossible. From the absence of traps waiting for them, he could guess that Danzo had foreseen this outcome and ordered his agents to stand down and surrender rather than fight the village forces and eventually, himself. He knew that was a futile exercise.
He might not have the might and infamy of his father, The Professor, but there was a reason he was the reigning ANBU Commander for the past decade and nepotism was not the reason.
At the last base, he realised something. There was a corner of the storage shelf that looked way too organised from the rest of the shelving. Looking closely, he seemed to find something only for something else to take away his attention. It was only during the third such occurrence he realised what was going on.
A chill ran down his spine as even after being very careful, he was still caught up in a Genjutsu. After much difficulty, he was able to dispel the genjutsu that was laid upon the Fuinjutsu that was actually fueling the main Genjutsu.
With his limited knowledge, he could tell that this type of Fuinjutsu was once the specialty of the Uzumaki village and he could not recall such type of Fuinjutsu being in the Konoha Library of Jutsus.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1615
To be Continued….
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Last edited:
Mokuton Root Agent #9
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 362
- Likes received
- 10,042
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 9
–Shinnosuke "Monkey" Sarutobi–
It was the Uzumaki strategy to use Fuinjutsu for everything. They used it for their Ninjutsu and their Genjutsu to drastically amplify the prowess of their jutsus.
A basic C rank Genjutsu backed by a C-ranked Fuinjutsu often managed to trap even seasons chunins.
What he was seeing here was nothing less than an A-ranked Genjutsu powered by a B-ranked Fuinjutsu seal array. He was not even sure it was B-ranked since trying to unravel the seal would bring down the whole room on him.
He was not even sure why. This room held some important documents but nothing that Danzo would risk killing me for.
He knew that I knew he would not hurt me. Not when doing so would leave the village infinitely more vulnerable.
There was a reason why the average ninja was not aware of me. I was the head of Konoha's ANBU, the most secretive organisation of the Hidden Village. It was literally my job to make sure nobody knew of me.
I was the one who battled the Raikage in a Taijutsu battle and came out of it alive. The higher-ups of the other villages were well aware of my existence and my propensity to disregard my own life in favour of winning at all costs. The only reason I was not in the Bingo Books was a tacit understanding between enemy villages to not advertise their ANBU prowess since all it would end up doing is increase the village's infamy and divert more and more missions to their village.
While he was trying his best to find a way to unravel the Fuinjutsu since that seemed the only way to figure out what was behind the Genjutsu, Kakashi snuck up behind him.
Well, snuck up would be generous since the brat was fine but he still had a ways to go to reach someone of his level, "So, what's gotten our esteemed commander stumped?" Ah, he had momentarily forgotten about the snark.
"Ah, Hound, I was wondering why it was so peaceful recently but then you had to remind me of your existence." He said.
Kakashi just deadpanned at him.
He shrugged and said, "Well, I was trying to decode this Double-Genjutsu Fuinjutsu array that Danzo had set up in this room before you came in with your silver-ass shining hair."
Kakashi had the audacity to move a hand through his hair and say, "Well, thank you. I do take extra care of them. Nice of you to notice and people say that you are a robot."
He waved his hand at Kakashi and said, "Come, take a look at this. I know you were taught at least this by your teacher and his wife. You should know the significance of today's fiasco so let's get to work."
He nodded seriously and went to work, injecting small streaks of white chakra into the outermost points of the Fuinjutsu array.
Eventually, the outermost array began to fade away, making way for the next array. Kakashi kept at it though. The closer the array was to the center, the more finely tuned chakra Kakashi had to expend to make sure that the array didn't implode and take the evidence with it.
The complexity of the array reminded him of the security measures he had seen in the Uzumaki village when he had visited the country as an exchange student of sorts when he was but a teenager.
The existence of this array raised some concerns in his head because as far as he knew, Mito-sama refused to teach anyone the signature Uzumaki Fuinjutsu to anyone but Kushina-san and he knew for a fact that Kushina-san didn't teach the core Fuinjutsu to anyone. Even Yondaime-sama only had limited access to her notes from time to time and self-learned most of the way.
He had asked her once, why she refused to do so and the answer he received was most enlightening.
Turns out that the reason advanced Fuinjutsu was not as common among the major villages, despite them getting getting significant amount of the Uzumaki inheritance, was that normal shinobi literally could not learn the more esoteric aspects of Fuinjutsu and the reason they were this few of Fuinjutsu Grandmasters was more due to the absence of adventurous Uzumaki who left a few kids outside rather than it being an actual talent issue. Fuinjutsu, at least the advanced aspects of it, could actually be termed as a Kekkei Genkai rather than something that could be learned.
Apparently, having funky hair colour was actually a sign of being of Uzumaki descent since the clan was known for having all sorts of colourful hairstyles. Naturally occurring Yellow, White and Red hair was the most common of the hair colours.
She had confided in him about the significance of this information since she believed that there were still some pure-blooded Uzumakis roaming the continent and while most of them will never give birth to the next generation as a form of spite, making sure that the art that the major villages coveted so much died with, some might not have been given a choice in that matter and as such, this information was supposed to be kept secret.
Yondaime-sama himself made it an S-class secret. He hadn't even revealed this to his father because frankly, he still had some doubts about Konoha's involvement in the fall of Uzu.
The existence of this array only further solidified his suspicions.
While he was ruminating on his newfound suspicions, Kakashi finally decoded the array and promptly fell down, now dangerously low on chakra.
He caught him and threw him to Rat who caught him easily, "Take him to the hospital. Tell him that I'll destroy his entire book collection if he tries to leave without my say-so."
Rat nodded silently and left the base.
The Fuinjutsu that was powering the Genjutsu had fallen apart from Kakashi's ministrations, leaving behind a potent but well within his means to deal with, Genjutsu.
As he approached the corner once again, this time, he felt the Genjutsu take a hold of him before he flexed his chakra two times in a row for the redundancy to fall apart and reveal a shelf, an ordinary shelf but given all the smokes and screens, he would be foolish to believe that.
Nearing the corner of the shelf, he found a card stuck behind the shelf's lining. Carefully checking for any traps, he slowly removed the card from the back of the shelf's metal lining.
Looking it over, he couldn't find anything special about it other than it being made of chakra metal which was prohibitively expensive but had the added benefit of having any seals engraved on it to be completely invisible and permanent.
He tried injecting some of his chakra into the card to check if it reacted in any way. Even cycling through all the 4 chakra natures he had access to didn't give off any visible reaction.
Maybe it needed a different identification procedure?
He tried to coat the entire card in his chakra, trying to pinpoint any areas where his chakra fluctuated. He was essentially using his chakra and his exceptional chakra control to form a chakra radar of sorts.
His brows furrowed as the task at hand took all his attention to make sure that the chakra threads didn't snap. Soon, he pinpointed about a dozen different points where chakra went in but didn't come out. That could mean a number of things but with all the clues he had gathered in the past hour or so, it meant that the card had an identification network but it was incomplete.
There were about a dozen connection points where the other part needed to be connected and from there it would carry out its intended function.
As if having an epiphany, he suddenly stood up ramrod straight and looked towards the decoded Fuinjutsu array.
The center of the array looked suspiciously rectangular to him. Carefully crouching over, he held up the metal card with chakra threads and floated it above the Fuinjutsu array.
As soon as the card was dropped in the centre array, it lit up in a blinding white light.
The last thing that went through his mind as he felt himself being transported somewhere through means similar to Yondaime's Hiraishin was the fact that the bastard Kakashi was as useless as ever.
________________________________________________________________
–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
As he looked upon the prone form of his once dear friend, he thought about what the future would bring upon them.
He would be the first person to admit that he was not the right choice for the position of Hokage after Minato died. Not with Biwako dead, his successor gone and the village having gone through the biggest tragedy of its life. Then his son in all but blood, the one whom he loved even more than Shinnosuke and Asuma, Orochimaru, had betrayed him and the principles upon which the village was built upon, and suddenly, it was as if he was alone in the world, shouldering the burden of ensuring safe lives for tens of thousands of people all by himself. People he could look to for support, his students, his sons, all thought of him as the unshakable pillar and he never had the heart to go looking for their assistance.
Every day that he saw people looking up at him for guidance, for reassurance, for help, for support, for strength, he broke up a bit inside.
Honestly, after forsaking the hat, he felt lighter than he did in decades.
________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 1621
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my Patreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 8 extra chapters uploaded there.
Mokuton Root Agent
Chapter 9
–Shinnosuke "Monkey" Sarutobi–
It was the Uzumaki strategy to use Fuinjutsu for everything. They used it for their Ninjutsu and their Genjutsu to drastically amplify the prowess of their jutsus.
A basic C rank Genjutsu backed by a C-ranked Fuinjutsu often managed to trap even seasons chunins.
What he was seeing here was nothing less than an A-ranked Genjutsu powered by a B-ranked Fuinjutsu seal array. He was not even sure it was B-ranked since trying to unravel the seal would bring down the whole room on him.
He was not even sure why. This room held some important documents but nothing that Danzo would risk killing me for.
He knew that I knew he would not hurt me. Not when doing so would leave the village infinitely more vulnerable.
There was a reason why the average ninja was not aware of me. I was the head of Konoha's ANBU, the most secretive organisation of the Hidden Village. It was literally my job to make sure nobody knew of me.
I was the one who battled the Raikage in a Taijutsu battle and came out of it alive. The higher-ups of the other villages were well aware of my existence and my propensity to disregard my own life in favour of winning at all costs. The only reason I was not in the Bingo Books was a tacit understanding between enemy villages to not advertise their ANBU prowess since all it would end up doing is increase the village's infamy and divert more and more missions to their village.
While he was trying his best to find a way to unravel the Fuinjutsu since that seemed the only way to figure out what was behind the Genjutsu, Kakashi snuck up behind him.
Well, snuck up would be generous since the brat was fine but he still had a ways to go to reach someone of his level, "So, what's gotten our esteemed commander stumped?" Ah, he had momentarily forgotten about the snark.
"Ah, Hound, I was wondering why it was so peaceful recently but then you had to remind me of your existence." He said.
Kakashi just deadpanned at him.
He shrugged and said, "Well, I was trying to decode this Double-Genjutsu Fuinjutsu array that Danzo had set up in this room before you came in with your silver-ass shining hair."
Kakashi had the audacity to move a hand through his hair and say, "Well, thank you. I do take extra care of them. Nice of you to notice and people say that you are a robot."
He waved his hand at Kakashi and said, "Come, take a look at this. I know you were taught at least this by your teacher and his wife. You should know the significance of today's fiasco so let's get to work."
He nodded seriously and went to work, injecting small streaks of white chakra into the outermost points of the Fuinjutsu array.
Eventually, the outermost array began to fade away, making way for the next array. Kakashi kept at it though. The closer the array was to the center, the more finely tuned chakra Kakashi had to expend to make sure that the array didn't implode and take the evidence with it.
The complexity of the array reminded him of the security measures he had seen in the Uzumaki village when he had visited the country as an exchange student of sorts when he was but a teenager.
The existence of this array raised some concerns in his head because as far as he knew, Mito-sama refused to teach anyone the signature Uzumaki Fuinjutsu to anyone but Kushina-san and he knew for a fact that Kushina-san didn't teach the core Fuinjutsu to anyone. Even Yondaime-sama only had limited access to her notes from time to time and self-learned most of the way.
He had asked her once, why she refused to do so and the answer he received was most enlightening.
Turns out that the reason advanced Fuinjutsu was not as common among the major villages, despite them getting getting significant amount of the Uzumaki inheritance, was that normal shinobi literally could not learn the more esoteric aspects of Fuinjutsu and the reason they were this few of Fuinjutsu Grandmasters was more due to the absence of adventurous Uzumaki who left a few kids outside rather than it being an actual talent issue. Fuinjutsu, at least the advanced aspects of it, could actually be termed as a Kekkei Genkai rather than something that could be learned.
Apparently, having funky hair colour was actually a sign of being of Uzumaki descent since the clan was known for having all sorts of colourful hairstyles. Naturally occurring Yellow, White and Red hair was the most common of the hair colours.
She had confided in him about the significance of this information since she believed that there were still some pure-blooded Uzumakis roaming the continent and while most of them will never give birth to the next generation as a form of spite, making sure that the art that the major villages coveted so much died with, some might not have been given a choice in that matter and as such, this information was supposed to be kept secret.
Yondaime-sama himself made it an S-class secret. He hadn't even revealed this to his father because frankly, he still had some doubts about Konoha's involvement in the fall of Uzu.
The existence of this array only further solidified his suspicions.
While he was ruminating on his newfound suspicions, Kakashi finally decoded the array and promptly fell down, now dangerously low on chakra.
He caught him and threw him to Rat who caught him easily, "Take him to the hospital. Tell him that I'll destroy his entire book collection if he tries to leave without my say-so."
Rat nodded silently and left the base.
The Fuinjutsu that was powering the Genjutsu had fallen apart from Kakashi's ministrations, leaving behind a potent but well within his means to deal with, Genjutsu.
As he approached the corner once again, this time, he felt the Genjutsu take a hold of him before he flexed his chakra two times in a row for the redundancy to fall apart and reveal a shelf, an ordinary shelf but given all the smokes and screens, he would be foolish to believe that.
Nearing the corner of the shelf, he found a card stuck behind the shelf's lining. Carefully checking for any traps, he slowly removed the card from the back of the shelf's metal lining.
Looking it over, he couldn't find anything special about it other than it being made of chakra metal which was prohibitively expensive but had the added benefit of having any seals engraved on it to be completely invisible and permanent.
He tried injecting some of his chakra into the card to check if it reacted in any way. Even cycling through all the 4 chakra natures he had access to didn't give off any visible reaction.
Maybe it needed a different identification procedure?
He tried to coat the entire card in his chakra, trying to pinpoint any areas where his chakra fluctuated. He was essentially using his chakra and his exceptional chakra control to form a chakra radar of sorts.
His brows furrowed as the task at hand took all his attention to make sure that the chakra threads didn't snap. Soon, he pinpointed about a dozen different points where chakra went in but didn't come out. That could mean a number of things but with all the clues he had gathered in the past hour or so, it meant that the card had an identification network but it was incomplete.
There were about a dozen connection points where the other part needed to be connected and from there it would carry out its intended function.
As if having an epiphany, he suddenly stood up ramrod straight and looked towards the decoded Fuinjutsu array.
The center of the array looked suspiciously rectangular to him. Carefully crouching over, he held up the metal card with chakra threads and floated it above the Fuinjutsu array.
As soon as the card was dropped in the centre array, it lit up in a blinding white light.
The last thing that went through his mind as he felt himself being transported somewhere through means similar to Yondaime's Hiraishin was the fact that the bastard Kakashi was as useless as ever.
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–Hiruzen Sarutobi–
As he looked upon the prone form of his once dear friend, he thought about what the future would bring upon them.
He would be the first person to admit that he was not the right choice for the position of Hokage after Minato died. Not with Biwako dead, his successor gone and the village having gone through the biggest tragedy of its life. Then his son in all but blood, the one whom he loved even more than Shinnosuke and Asuma, Orochimaru, had betrayed him and the principles upon which the village was built upon, and suddenly, it was as if he was alone in the world, shouldering the burden of ensuring safe lives for tens of thousands of people all by himself. People he could look to for support, his students, his sons, all thought of him as the unshakable pillar and he never had the heart to go looking for their assistance.
Every day that he saw people looking up at him for guidance, for reassurance, for help, for support, for strength, he broke up a bit inside.
Honestly, after forsaking the hat, he felt lighter than he did in decades.
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Word Count - 1621
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