Hiss... rustle, rustle...
The snakes looked like balls of tangled thread. Their severed, charred bodies were already dead, yet under the pull of dying nerves they continued to writhe and twist madly.
The scraping and hissing blended together into a sound that made one's skin crawl.
Standing on opposite sides of the writhing snake pile, Sasuke and Anko's group stared at each other in silence, each waiting for the other to open Root's gate.
Second by second, time passed.
The looks in everyone's eyes gradually shifted from anticipation, to impatience, to visible confusion.
You people, open the door already.
For once, Sasuke and Anko's group shared the exact same thought.
Before anyone could speak, however, three shinobi in ANBU uniforms came leaping swiftly through the forest from afar, each wearing a different patterned mask.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Their bodies flashed through the trees in overlapping afterimages. There was no ninjutsu enhancement at all. They were relying purely on taijutsu, yet they were no slower than Sasuke under the boost of Lightning Release.
More experts.
Everyone's heart tightened.
Thump.
The three of them landed in perfect unison, producing only a single faint sound. That effortless coordination made Mori no Ibiki's eyes light up at once.
A shinobi squad's composition was never random.
The standard size of a shinobi team was three or four people, because three well-coordinated ninja with complementary abilities could contend with someone one full level above them.
In other words, three genin could be treated as one chūnin, and three chūnin could be treated as one tokubetsu jōnin.
Judging purely from these three men's movement speed and coordination, this was clearly a standard three-man jōnin team. Their effective combat power was equivalent to that of a powerful elite jōnin.
Ibiki, Anko, and Genma were all jōnin-level themselves, but they were not members of the same squad. Their abilities did not naturally complement one another, so they were nowhere near as dangerous as a team like this.
If he had chosen to help Anko gang up on that Uchiha just now, then once this Root squad arrived they probably really would have been beaten to their knees.
Thankfully.
Ibiki secretly rejoiced and raised his assessment of Root yet another level.
"Uchiha Sasuke..."
After stepping up before them, the leader of the three finally spoke.
He wore a bear-faced mask, and his build was even more imposing than Ibiki's iron-tower physique. His low voice rasped like sand scraping over stone. He was the iron-blooded instructor in charge of the training department, Panyan.
Behind him,
Die stood at the rear right, wearing a purple mask, while Lan, a short blade strapped to his back, stood a little forward on the left flank. The three formed a slightly uneven triangular formation.
"What do you want?"
Sasuke pressed a hand to the hilt of the sword at his lower back and eyed the three masked Root shinobi warily.
His Sharingan was still active. The chakra radiance around all three of them was dazzling. These were clearly three more jōnin.
Jōnin in Root really did seem to grow like weeds.
It looked like his guess had been completely right. Jōnin in Root really were only the mid-tier. The woman he had just beaten really was nothing special.
After belittling Anko a little in his mind, the brief flash of pride he had felt vanished completely.
"By our lord's order, we've come to bring you into Root. Try not to use your dōjutsu inside the base. You might die."
Keeping his gaze lowered to avoid meeting the Sharingan, Panyan warned him in a low voice.
Since the day it was founded, Root's primary target had always been the Uchiha. Methods for countering the Sharingan had long been drilled into their bones.
On top of that, Danzo's Kotoamatsukami was now an open secret within Root. With Sasuke walking around with his Sharingan activated, most Root shinobi would instinctively tense up.
The mental state of Root operatives was unstable to begin with. If something bad happened because of it, they would have no way to answer to Konome.
The three tomoe slowly turned. Sasuke saw that these three stood clearly apart from Anko's group. The two sides were obviously not together. He nodded, listened to the warning, and deactivated his Sharingan. His eyes returned to black.
On the other side,
Anko and the others were even more confused.
They had definitely heard that this boy had been sent by Yato, but why did he seem completely unfamiliar with these three Root shinobi?
"Gentlemen, we were sent by the Hokage to meet Lord Yato and discuss the Chūnin Exam."
Since he could not make sense of the situation, Ibiki did not dare let Anko, that walking disaster, speak recklessly again. He stepped forward and explained why they had come.
So they are not Root shinobi. They thought I was one.
Only now did Sasuke finally understand who these people were. Thinking back over everything that had just happened, he suddenly felt a little speechless.
Yato...
Panyan's trio froze for a second.
When Konome had called a meeting earlier, she had worn her crow-face mask and specifically said that when outsiders were present, they were to address her as Yato.
They had found that strange at the time.
Now they understood. It was because of the Chūnin Exam.
"Lan, Die. Same procedure."
"Yes." "Yes."
Die took half a step back and clasped his hands, beginning to gather chakra. Lan, meanwhile, pulled several rolls of bandages from his sleeve and tossed them to the four visitors.
"The location of Root's base is top secret. No one may know it. Blindfold yourselves. Tie them tight so our methods won't have to get rough."
"The rules in Root are really something..."
Anko wanted to sneer a few words, but after suffering badly at Sasuke's hands earlier, she no longer dared push it in front of these obviously fiercer three. She obediently undid her own bandage and wrapped it over her eyes.
Once the biggest troublemaker had fallen in line, the others cooperated even more readily.
While saying he understood, Ibiki wrapped the bandage twice over his eyes. Genma did not even say a word before tying his on.
When it was Sasuke's turn, he hesitated with the bandage in hand.
He trusted Konome without question, but facing this powerful and secretive Root organization, he still could not fully let his guard down.
"Our lord specifically said you don't need one."
Seeing his hesitation, Panyan jerked his chin, signaling that there was no need to worry about it.
Sasuke was naturally happy to accept this privilege through the back door.
So Konome really did have some standing within Root. With her as backing, things would definitely go much more smoothly for him here in the future.
He casually stuffed the unused bandage into his pocket.
Ever since he had started learning swordsmanship under Hatake Kakashi, this former top-tier rich kid of Konoha had finally gotten a taste of poverty.
Precious chakra metal that was nearly impossible to buy, daily sword maintenance and repairs, meat and nutritional supplements, medicine for easing fatigue and injuries, all of it demanded a huge amount of money.
It had forced him to become careful with every little expense in everyday life.
"Don't resist. I'll guide you into Root through a genjutsu."
Die had sweat beading on his forehead from maintaining the illusion. Even though he had warned them in advance, controlling three jōnin-level shinobi at once was still exhausting for him.
The instant Die finished speaking, Sasuke saw Anko's group start running deeper into the forest.
Though their eyes were blindfolded, the three of them moved over the uneven terrain as smoothly as if it were level ground, and at astonishing speed. In a blink, they disappeared among the trees.
"Come. Uchiha..."
Remembering the girl once surrounded by thunder who had been received here before, Panyan cast Sasuke a deep look, then took Die and Lan in pursuit of Anko's group.
Crackle.
Electricity surged along his legs. Sasuke followed at once, and in an instant the only thing left in the woods was the writhing mass of severed snakes.
Root Base, Underground Level Three.
The corridor was narrow and oppressive. The walls were rough and cold, etched with countless sealing patterns. Orange wall lamps were set into the walls at fixed intervals, their firelight barely illuminating the path ahead.
At the end of the corridor stood a vermilion door.
At this moment Anko's group still had their eyes covered, immersed in the genjutsu, while Sasuke took in the mysterious Root base and came away with an entirely new impression of just how secretive it was.
No wonder he had never even heard of this organization before.
The entrance to the base had been hidden behind a barrier, disguised as a small mound blanketed in dead leaves. If Die had not undone the seal, Sasuke could have overturned this entire forest and still never found it.
"You'll have plenty of time to look later. Our lord is waiting for you."
Lan glanced back at Sasuke, whose eyes kept wandering, his expression unreadable.
He had never liked the Uchiha much before. A clan that rebelled so often naturally inspired distaste. But there was no disputing the fact that Danzo had been the one to stir up the conflict between the Uchiha and the village.
Now Danzo had become Root's number one wanted criminal.
All three of them had taken part in the Uchiha massacre. Back when Danzo had brainwashed them, they had felt nothing about it. But now that the truth was out, seeing one of the clan's survivors left Lan feeling strangely conflicted. Even his voice and manner were less hard than usual.
"I understand."
Sasuke, unaware of any of this, simply assumed their friendliness came from the fact that they knew Konome. Not wanting to cause trouble for her, he behaved very obediently.
"Release."
Die, still maintaining the illusion, wiped at his brow. It seemed the strain was really getting to him.
"Mn."
"This is..."
The blankly moving Anko, Ibiki, and Genma all trembled. With their eyes still wrapped, they showed a flicker of panic.
"You can remove the blindfolds now."
Panyan's rough voice sounded like iron scraping over stone. His words immediately eased the tension in their bodies.
Once the blindfolds came off,
Anko narrowed her eyes as she examined the mysterious Root base, turning her head left and right exactly the way Sasuke had done earlier.
The atmosphere here felt wrong. She could not explain how, but it made her skin crawl.
"You chose a bad time. Root is currently holding an important meeting. So once we enter the meeting hall, do not look around, do not speak, and absolutely do not act recklessly..."
Faced with Anko's group, Lan's tone grew much more casual, cold as winter wind.
"You..."
Anko had just started to complain that they should simply call Yato out here, but Genma clamped a hand over her mouth from behind before she could finish. That left only the far more tactful Ibiki to do the talking.
"Will Lord Danzo be attending the meeting as well?"
Though Mori no Ibiki always wore a cold face, he now forced three parts of a smile onto it.
He was very familiar with corpses and criminals. Some Root operatives came to his department in masks to take condemned prisoners, but the only one he truly knew was Danzo Shimura, the man at Root's helm.
He sensed the unpleasant attitude coming from these Root shinobi and wanted to use Danzo's name to give himself some room to maneuver.
But swish.
All three of them turned their eyes on him at once.
Through the empty black holes of their masks, their gazes seemed to carry a different sort of chill.
"You know Danzo?"
Panyan's coarse voice sounded like a saw grinding metal. This was a lingering aftereffect from the time he had once taken a Fire Release attack meant for Danzo twenty years ago and had his throat badly burned.
Danzo's methods had always been too ruthless. A few children laughing had been enough for him to brutally punish both Panyan and the entire training department. Years of loyalty and service had meant nothing. The pain in his throat and body, together with the memory of the children he had been ordered to execute, had finally turned Panyan's feelings toward Danzo into murderous hatred.
Lan and Die also stared fixedly at Ibiki. The killing intent they gave off was as obvious as a venomous snake wrapped around his throat, making every hair on his body stand on end.
"I..."
Ibiki, who normally specialized in putting pressure on prisoners, now felt a pressure unlike anything he had ever known. It was as though one wrong sentence would throw him straight into the abyss.
"Only met him once."
He sensed the murderous intent in Panyan's voice the moment Danzo's name came up, and dared not play familiarity anymore.
Panyan's gaze shifted to Anko, and she too immediately began shaking her head so hard her high ponytail whipped around and smacked Genma in the face until he could barely keep his eyes open.
"That is for the best."
After confirming that the three had no connection to Danzo, Panyan shook his head in disappointment.
"One warning. Do not casually mention that name inside Root."
Now that they understood the situation, Anko's group was eager enough to swear it on the spot. Sasuke, who had watched the whole thing, also nodded along and mentally filed away the name Danzo.
Fifty thousand and an A-rank secret technique. That bastard is worth a fair bit.
The strange breeze died away inside the sealed corridor, and the flickering shadows on the walls grew still again.
Panyan shot one glance at the shadows pooled in the corners, then looked toward the vermilion door at the corridor's end.
"Come. Don't keep our lord waiting."
"May I ask one thing..."
Anko raised her right hand, like an obedient academy student asking a question in class.
"Who is Root's leader now?"
Clack, clack, clack.
Panyan's group walked toward the crimson door at the end of the hall, their hard steel soles ringing crisply against the floor.
"The person who dislikes waiting... is Lord Yato."
"Move."
Anko's group clicked their tongues. At last, they understood just who this mysterious Yato really was.
None of them noticed that Sasuke's eyes had suddenly widened
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