Faced with this old fossil Danzō's question, Uchiha Feiyu just shrugged and answered carelessly:
"You're overthinking it. 'Root of Konoha', 'Darkness of the Shinobi World'… Aren't we just a village of paid ninja mercenaries? What's with all the grand titles?"
"You pay, I work. As long as Root offers enough benefits, of course I'll do jobs for you. But if you're expecting me to be a disposable tool or cannon fodder… old man, maybe don't push your luck. That routine's way out of fashion."
Shimura Danzō was almost choked to death by that speech.
Even the two supposed emotionless Root operatives behind him stared at Feiyu, eyes wide with disbelief.
After a long moment, the Root leader finally came back to his senses and slammed his cane hard on the ground.
"You brat, do you have no Will of Fire at all? Are you even a Konoha shinobi?"
"With your current strength, you'd stand out even in the entire ninja world. Don't you have any dreams of world peace, becoming Hokage, shouldering the fate of the world, things like that?"
Feiyu rolled his eyes slightly.
"Heh. 'When poor, keep yourself intact; when rich, take wives by the dozen.' If someone wants to 'save the world', they can go ahead. I'm not applying for that job."
"You want me in Root? Fine. As long as the conditions are good and the pay is high, I'll work for you—dirty jobs, clean jobs, black ops, white ops, whatever. But ideals? Let's not talk ideals. It just ruins the mood."
"Summer insects cannot speak of ice!!"
Shimura Danzō slammed his cane again, snorted angrily, then turned and stalked off.
Feiyu chuckled, glanced at Orochimaru beside him, and murmured:
"That old man's control issues are intense. First thing he does when I walk in is try to brainwash me and slip a metaphorical leash on."
"Hehe, old men do tend to have that kind of problem," Orochimaru said softly.
"But Feiyu, you really do live very… lucidly."
"What can I say? People are supposed to live for themselves. Especially someone like me—no parents, no ties. I've got zero interest in spilling my blood for Konoha."
"Sensei Orochimaru, you're one of the Sannin, and a serious contender for the Hokage seat. Tell me honestly—do you really believe in the Will of Fire?"
At that, Orochimaru only gave a low chuckle.
He didn't answer—but also, in a way, he answered everything.
As they stepped into Root's underground base, Feiyu took in the expressionless ninja moving like robots through the corridors, his face wearing a faint, amused smile.
Only when Orochimaru led him up onto a raised platform overlooking a training ground—where a group of ten-year-old or so child ninja were "training"—did Feiyu frown slightly.
Shimura Danzō stood in the center of the platform. When Feiyu arrived, he only snorted, but Feiyu ignored him and looked down at the bloody scene below.
Those child ninja were swinging kunai and shuriken in live combat.
At least half of them were already dead on the ground; the survivors were still gritting their teeth and fighting each other.
"So this is how Root 'cultivates' people… brutal, huh."
"Brat, do you know why Root can support the great tree that is Konoha?" Danzō barked.
"Let me tell you. Every year, out of ten orphans Root takes in, at most one or two become true Root operatives. The rest are just stepping stones for them!!"
"The ordeals a Root shinobi goes through are beyond anything a greenhouse flower from the Academy—where you grew up playing games—can imagine!"
While Danzō was in full dramatic monologue, Feiyu just blinked and quietly asked:
"Then how many elite jōnin does Root have? How many kage-level ninja? Does anyone here match my strength?"
"Cough cough cough…!"
Danzō coughed hard a few times, utterly speechless.
Despite how harsh and "efficient" the training looked, the reality was…
This kind of brainwashing-and-culling system simply could not produce true kage-level ninja. Even jōnin were rare; at most it pulled the floor up to "elite Chunin".
And the orphans he recruited weren't very gifted to begin with.
A system this brutal needed a huge supply of orphans, and since even rabbits don't eat the grass at their own burrow, Root obviously didn't pick from Konoha's own. They combed the whole Land of Fire instead.
Because of Konoha's long history of ninja–civilian intermarriage, even "ordinary" kids in the village had higher potential than typical civilians.
These random orphans, even after some selection, couldn't compare to clan children—honestly, they weren't even on par with Konoha's commoner kids overall.
Lacking talent, then having whatever spark they had beaten and brainwashed out of them… the result was that Root's lower limit was high, but its upper limit was terrible. Aside from the occasional child stolen or poached from Konoha clans, the strongest orphans Root trained up were basically just special jōnin.
Feiyu's one simple question had jabbed Danzō right in the lungs.
The rest of the "demonstration", the old man's face stayed as black as the underground walls.
He'd originally planned to use the brutal training to cow Feiyu a bit—show him how "hardcore" Root was.
Unfortunately, this Uchiha in front of him was immune. He wasn't the least bit bothered by the carnage.
If Danzō had known how many people Feiyu had killed on the battlefield, he wouldn't have bothered with such a pointless show.
A bunch of strangers' kids?
Feiyu had killed young enemies before. Maybe not under ten, but twelve- or thirteen-year-old genin—he'd already sent about a dozen to the Pure Land.
When the training ended, only about one-third of the child ninja were still standing. The rest—some sixty or seventy of them—were corpses.
Orochimaru lightly licked his lips, then turned to Danzō.
"Elder Danzō, may I take these bodies?"
"What do you want their corpses for? They're hardly ideal materials for human experimentation."
Danzō frowned, then waved a hand.
"You're not feeding that summoning beast of yours, Manda, again, are you? You're its summoner; as a shinobi, you should really discipline that creature properly."
Orochimaru chuckled softly.
"Of course not for Manda. This time, I need a large number of ordinary ninja corpses to cultivate a special technique."
"I thought about it, and only your Root division can conveniently provide such numbers, Elder Danzō. If this jutsu succeeds, I will also offer you the method to stabilize and suppress Hashirama's cell rejection in return."
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