Natsuhiko suspected that the ninja they had encountered likely came from one of Konoha's most notorious organizations.
And he had to admit—
That organization's deterrence and strength were deeply frightening.
Especially within Konoha, the role Root played was far more despair-inducing than that of the ANBU.
To be honest, ANBU and Root seemed to overlap in function in some ways—
But in reality, they were completely different.
For example, when ANBU acted against their own people, they would at least confirm whether the target had truly betrayed the village.
Root would not.
Their very purpose was to deal with those whom ANBU could not directly act against—
Or those for whom there was no absolute evidence.
By comparison, ANBU were like a great tree bathed in sunlight—
While Root was buried beneath the soil, forever remaining in darkness.
They took on the most dangerous missions.
They handled the dirtiest, most disgraceful tasks.
They bore the infamy that even ANBU could not.
In many ways, this contrast mirrored the relationship between Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō Shimura.
One stood as the noble, radiant Hokage.
The other was the shadow of the shinobi world—cunning and ruthless.
As Natsuhiko was thinking this, he suddenly noticed—
The chakra fluctuations around them were becoming more obvious.
Clearly, those people had also noticed the movements of Natsuhiko and Kakashi.
They were reacting.
That reaction made Natsuhiko shake his head inwardly.
It seemed Root had suffered heavy losses recently.
And rebuilding had not gone smoothly.
It wasn't as though Natsuhiko had never dealt with Root before.
Once, after completing a mission, he and his squad had returned with the enemy's corpses—
Only to be stopped at the village gate.
He still remembered how cold those Root ninja had been.
Calm.
Emotionless.
Lifeless—like corpses.
In fact, they had seemed even more corpse-like than Kakashi did now.
But the ones before him now—
In Natsuhiko's eyes as an ANBU—
Were clearly underperforming.
Then again, most of Root's main forces had been wiped out.
That was precisely why Natsuhiko felt slightly safer.
After all—
Root had once invited him to join.
Back then, Root wasn't yet the reckless organization it would later become.
Danzō still cared about appearances.
He was building his reputation.
His desire to become Hokage was no secret.
Almost all of Konoha's high-ranking officials knew it.
And Danzō was the type who acted on his ambitions.
Why had Orochimaru's human experimentation scandal surfaced during the Hokage selection?
The answer was obvious.
Danzō had used his authority to manipulate events behind the scenes.
By leveraging public pressure,
He forced Hiruzen Sarutobi—already criticized for signing a peace treaty with Iwagakure—to step down.
Then he ambiguously leaked information about Orochimaru,
Attempting to sabotage Orochimaru's candidacy and benefit himself.
However—
He had not expected Root to suffer catastrophic losses in the Land of Rain.
That forced him to fully support Orochimaru.
But what he also failed to foresee—
Was that his own interference would make it impossible for Hiruzen to elevate a scandal-tainted Orochimaru to Hokage.
At the same time,
Burdened by the fallout of the peace treaty,
Hiruzen had initially intended to retire.
Yet without Orochimaru as an option—
He reconsidered relinquishing power.
In the end—
Danzō was backstabbed once again.
Orochimaru was eliminated from contention.
And a disciple's disciple—Minato Namikaze—stepped into the spotlight.
Danzō, in a sense,
Had suffered complete defeat.
"Hmm?" Just as Natsuhiko was reflecting on Danzō and Root's changing history—
Several ninja dressed in ANBU uniforms suddenly stepped out from the shadows.
They were fully armed.
Weapons in hand.
Chakra circulating intensely around their bodies.
Seeing this, both Natsuhiko and Kakashi froze for a brief moment.
Natsuhiko hadn't expected them to reveal themselves at all.
And their posture—
Was clearly hostile.
Kakashi, on the other hand, immediately drew his ninja blade.
He was puzzled as to why fellow ANBU would act this way—
But when facing potential enemies, he would never hesitate.
"Stop! What do you think you're doing?"
At that moment, a figure suddenly emerged from the ground nearby.
He shouted sharply at everyone present.
Natsuhiko turned his head slightly.
Only then did he notice—
Not far from them, there was actually an entrance leading underground!
"The sealing here is incredibly strong…"
Natsuhiko frowned.
He was certain that when he had sensed the surroundings earlier—
He had already scanned the entire area.
At that time, he had only detected the seals and the approximate positions of the Root ninja.
He hadn't sensed that underground entrance at all.
Such a sealing technique was terrifying.
It was clearly designed to conceal highly classified secrets.
Which meant—
That underground entrance…
"Apologies for the misunderstanding. It seems we've caused some trouble for the two of you. You're members of ANBU?"
As the man spoke, the Root ninja who had seemed ready to attack immediately stopped.
They slowly melted back into the shadows.
The man then walked toward Natsuhiko and Kakashi, calmly asking his question.
"I'm the captain of Squad Five, First ANBU Division. You can call me Nightingale. The one beside me is my subordinate—White Fang."
Natsuhiko replied gently.
But he remained cautious.
After all—
These people were Root.
"I just returned from a mission and was on my way back to the village. I didn't expect to be locked onto halfway through. Which division are you from?"
"Nightingale? White Fang?"
The man did not answer Natsuhiko's question.
Instead, he carefully observed the two of them.
He recognized both codenames.
Nightingale was considered a promising talent.
Root had once attempted to recruit him—
But he had refused.
As for White Fang—
That codename once belonged to Sakumo Hatake.
Now this young man bore it.
Did that mean—
This boy was Kakashi?
As the man continued observing, he quickly confirmed it.
The white-haired youth called White Fang was indeed Kakashi.
That Sharingan eye could not be hidden.
There was no way he could mistake it.
Thinking this, the man sighed inwardly.
He truly despised the newly recruited Root members.
They were idiots.
Were they planning to intercept every ninja who passed by?
With so many sealing arrays here,
How could this place possibly be casually exposed?
If it were that careless, they would have been discovered long ago.
Ordinary ninja might have been manageable.
But these two—
Clearly were not.
Especially that boy, Kakashi.
He was the disciple of the Fourth Hokage.