Click.
Panyan pushed open the vermilion doors with a gentle hand.
Beyond the square frame was nothing but darkness, like the mouth of a bottomless cavern. Compared to it, even the firelit corridor behind them felt bright.
Without giving the others a second glance, Panyan and the other two kept walking and let the black doorway swallow them whole.
Even Anko, who feared nothing and no one, swallowed hard. Her eyes stayed fixed on the darkness inside, as though some twisted, crawling monster was hiding there.
Her fear of Root had seeped into her bones. If Danzo had been dragged from power by Yato and even reduced to a Konoha missing-nin, then the new leader of Root was probably even more terrifying than Danzo.
Ibiki adjusted his drooping collar and realized his back was already damp with sweat. He had never imagined that trying to play the familiarity card could nearly drag him into hell.
Genma, who usually looked plain and unremarkable, was the calmest of the three. He had once served as the Fourth Hokage's guard, so he had seen bigger scenes than this. Even so, as he stared into the darkness beyond the doors, he could not help feeling a headache coming on.
Making someone on this level the chief proctor of the Chunin Exam felt like overkill.
All three were thinking different thoughts.
Only Sasuke stood frozen at the entrance, his heart pounding.
As he looked up at the figure seated beneath that starry canopy, a mixture of fear and excitement ran through him like electricity.
Just from that faint aura of terror alone, he knew exactly who sat upon that throne of darkness.
Konome was Yato.
Yato was the new leader of Root.
She had silently grown to this level without anyone noticing.
Could he one day reach the same height? Could he too sit on such a throne, gazing down upon all beneath him?
For the first time, beyond avenging his family, a different kind of yearning rose in his heart.
As though answering that yearning, the corners of Konome's lips curved beneath the mask. She crooked a finger at him.
"Come up."
Her commanding female voice echoed through the hall.
That made Anko, Ibiki, and Genma all twitch in surprise. This newly appointed leader of Root was actually a woman.
None of them were deeply shocked. It just felt unusual.
With chakra as a supernatural force, the physical differences between men and women mattered far less than in ordinary life.
Very few women ever rose to become leaders or Kage because pregnancy was such a long and exploitable weakness.
Still, female shinobi had advantages of their own.
All shinobi power came from the chakra seed within the heart, and that chakra seed was inherited from the mature chakra cores of one's parents.
A child absorbed strength from the mother while developing in the womb. Once the heart formed and began beating, it started generating a chakra seed. Because of that, the mother had an overwhelming influence on the child's ninja talent.
Unless the father's chakra was extraordinarily powerful, seventy to eighty percent of the child's chakra seed usually came from the mother.
A highly gifted kunoichi could very well give birth to three children of exceptional talent.
That was why female shinobi held respectable positions in every village. A woman with a bloodline limit was especially treated as a treasure.
Of course, Kirigakure was the exception. They specialized in killing women with bloodline limits.
Hearing the strange but majestic female voice, Sasuke abruptly looked up at the tall woman on the throne.
Earlier, the sea of Root shinobi and the distance had distracted him, and he had not paid attention to the difference in her size. Now that he looked carefully, he realized the figure was clearly larger than Konome's usual frame.
Her body was tall and long-limbed. Even seated, the legs in combat boots seemed over a meter long. It felt like looking at an enlarged version of Konome, or perhaps what she would look like as an adult.
It had to be a Transformation Jutsu.
Watching the faint light shimmering at her fingertips, Sasuke understood that others might mistake it for the reflection of the star-like glow above, but he alone recognized it for what it was.
It was the light of life radiating from Konome's body.
He had spent enough time around her to know.
Whenever that faint glow shone on him after exhausting training, his muscle recovery became far faster, and it cost him nothing.
A large part of his rapid progress came from that free "medicine."
"Her name is Torune Aburame. He'll be your teammate whenever you go on missions in the future."
Seeing Sasuke's gaze drift, Yang Release Konome pointed toward the shadowy figure standing behind her and introduced him.
The man hidden there wore a black mask over the upper half of his face, leaving only his mouth exposed. He was dressed in black combat gear with gloves, almost like a shadow given human form.
Torune gave Sasuke a slight nod from the darkness.
Sasuke was bursting with questions, but this was clearly not the place. He swallowed them and walked up to stand beside Konome, looking down with her over the countless pale masks below.
He had never seen the world from such a high vantage point before.
The novelty of it stirred a different kind of exhilaration in him.
"Sasuke, introduce yourself."
Hearing Konome's order, Sasuke stepped forward without hesitation.
His eyes turned a wicked crimson again as he looked down over the Root operatives below.
"I am Uchiha Sasuke. From today onward, I officially join Root."
A wave of commotion instantly spread through the gathered ranks.
Almost everyone present had taken part in the extermination of the Uchiha clan. Naturally, they all recognized the lone survivor who had been left alive.
The looks in their eyes immediately turned strange.
Many of them had Uchiha blood on their hands, yet now Uchiha Sasuke was openly declaring that he would join Root in front of all of them.
That was...
A strange feeling, no matter how one looked at it.
Of course, quite a few people shared Lan's line of thinking. In their eyes, both the Uchiha and Root had been victims of Danzo's schemes. It made sense for Sasuke to join Root and hunt Danzo with them.
But no matter what they thought, the hostility in their eyes softened considerably.
Unaware of what was passing through their minds, Sasuke finished his cool introduction and retreated to stand beside Torune on either side of Konome's throne, like two gatekeepers of the king.
With that, Sasuke had officially joined their ranks.
Konome nodded in satisfaction.
Once she caught Danzo and "questioned" him into giving up the truth behind the Uchiha massacre, she would be able to tell Sasuke everything in due course. Between years of built-up trust and the debt of vengeance, she did not believe he could help but become completely devoted to her.
Naruto was her loyal little brother, but his nature made him unfit to handle the darkest matters.
Sasuke joining Root filled that gap perfectly.
Now that Indra and Asura were both in her grasp, even if she lost against Kaguya in the future, she would still have another layer of insurance.
"Continuing from before. Panyan, you are responsible for monitoring the shinobi from the Land of Water. Die and Fuu, your sensory team will handle overall defense coordination and link the monitoring efforts of each squad..."
Konome calmly issued orders from the throne.
Below, Panyan, Die, and Yamanaka Fuu all bowed and answered at once.
This major meeting of Root's entire membership had not been called for Sasuke's sake.
His arrival was simply convenient timing.
That very morning, Hiruzen had finally announced the Five-Village Joint Exam to all of Konoha's jonin.
At the same time, Konome had received instructions from Suzaku.
Because so many foreign ninja would be attending, ANBU was critically short on manpower. Root had to provide personnel to help maintain order in Konoha and monitor the movements of each village's shinobi.
Protecting Konoha had always been Root's core purpose.
And after taking three forbidden techniques from Hiruzen and agreeing to make sure the exam ran flawlessly, Konome had no choice but to have her shadow clones continue practicing Flying Thunder God while she herself called this meeting to organize the village's covert defense network.
Then, right in the middle of it, her original body sent word that Sasuke had signed himself over with a "contract," lured in by the promise of the Thunder Swords and the method for further evolving his Sharingan, and that he was on his way to Root to retrieve the swords.
Before she even had time to enjoy the fact that Sasuke had officially joined, the sentries stationed on the perimeter sent another report. Anko and the others had arrived to discuss exam matters.
Being the King of Darkness was genuinely exhausting.
Time passed quickly.
Konome made arrangements for patrols, surveillance, inspections, and coordination, and at last the meeting was nearing its end.
"For now, that concludes the operational plan. The exact number of outside shinobi is still uncertain, so this layout is only provisional. Adjustments will be made later according to the actual numbers.
"Does anyone still not understand their task?"
She gripped the throne's armrest and swept her gaze across those below.
After half a moment, no one asked a question.
Konome nodded, pleased.
"Meeting adjourned."
"Yes."
The Root operatives answered in low voices.
Then came a burst of Body Flicker smoke from every direction. When the haze cleared, only Anko's group, still standing awkwardly at the entrance, remained.
Seeing that the lengthy Root meeting had finally ended, Ibiki quickly stepped forward and pulled out his scroll.
He had no desire to linger in Root's underground stronghold a second longer.
But before he could speak, the mysterious leader on the throne raised a hand to stop him, and the words died in his thro
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