Konoha's alert level was already high due to the war, so the localized seismic activity and explosions were detected by patrols almost immediately.
"What's happening out there?"
In Saiki's eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi was a hypocrite, but as Hokage, the man was at least diligent.
Dinner time had long passed, yet he was still in his office, buried in paperwork.
When the sounds of battle echoed from the distance, he snapped into full alertness. In a village at war, even a minor tremor could signal a foreign infiltration.
He stood up and rushed to the window, staring at the distant smoke and flashes of fire. His brow was a map of deep, anxious lines.
"Dispatch a squad to investigate! Now!" Hiruzen barked at the Anbu standing outside his door.
The Anbu vanished, and Hiruzen returned to his desk, pulling out a topographical map of the village to analyze the location of the disturbance.
Minutes later, an Anbu operative blurred into the room and dropped to a knee. "Lord Hokage! The disturbance is originating from the Root headquarters. A high-intensity engagement is currently underway."
"Root?" Hiruzen's heart skipped a beat.
Root was Danzo's personal fiefdom, handling the village's classified, "un-sanctioned" operations. For a battle to erupt there... had an enemy squad managed to infiltrate the very heart of their shadow-ops?
"Do we have identifications?" Hiruzen demanded.
"Unknown, Sir. But based on the battlefield analysis, one of the combatants is overwhelmingly powerful. Root's defenses are being systematically dismantled with zero effective resistance."
Hiruzen's worry intensified.
He knew Root's strength. Their operatives were cold-blooded, highly trained killers. For them to be slaughtered like cattle implied an opponent of legendary proportions.
"Alert all Anbu units and patrol squads! Maximum readiness! The rest of you, follow me to the Root sector!" Hiruzen ordered.
The roar of battle hadn't just alerted the Hokage. Tsunade and Nono'u had also sensed it.
Despite being a time of war, Tsunade—having recently suppressed her hemophobia—was determined to protect her home.
Nono'u was in a state of pure panic.
Danzo had only just left. She was still sitting on the floor, trying to find a way to save her family, when the explosions started. And Saiki was gone.
A dark, gut-wrenching premonition drove Nono'u to her feet. After ensuring the children were safe with the staff, she sprinted toward the sounds of violence.
By now, Saiki had already breached the outer perimeter and was deep into the Root complex.
Saiki's Divine Sense, far more potent than any sensory Ninjutsu, was locked onto Danzo's chakra signature. No matter how many tunnels or secret passages the old man used, he couldn't shake the boy.
The primary defensive barrier had been activated. At the main blast doors, a dozen Root elites stood in a defensive formation, staring down Saiki.
They watched as Saiki blurred through their ranks like a rabid beast. Every time his blade caught the light, a life was snuffed out.
The Root operatives were paralyzed with a mix of terror and disbelief. They had never seen anyone so brazen as to assault the Root headquarters in broad daylight—and they had certainly never seen anyone do it so easily.
Saiki ignored their fear. He looked at the massive, reinforced barrier protecting the mountain interior. He began condensing his chakra into 'Thunderstorm'. He intended to cleave the entire facility out of the mountain.
As his aura reached a terrifying crescendo, the surviving Root guards, crushed by the pressure, launched a suicidal final charge.
"KILL HIM!"
With a collective roar, they converged on Saiki, their hands a blur of signs as they dumped their entire chakra reserves into a final, desperate barrage.
Saiki didn't move. His eyes remained fixed on the barrier.
As the elemental storm neared him, Saiki idly flicked 'Thunderstorm'. A series of moon-white slashes shredded the Ninjutsu like paper, the residual heat and energy absorbed and neutralized by the rain of his Auspicious Cloud.
"How... how is he doing this?!"
They had seen the reports, but experiencing the gap in power firsthand was a soul-crushing experience.
Against Saiki, there was no "tactics." He was the ultimate spear and the ultimate shield. Standard Ninjutsu was just a visual distraction.
In a flurry of blood and muffled screams, the guards fell. Saiki's blade had reached its structural limit; the steel was beginning to groan and micro-fracture under the weight of the Senjutsu chakra.
Saiki stood before the main gate. He raised 'Thunderstorm' high above his head.
"HAA!"
With a primal roar, he brought the blade down. The white light of the strike collided with the Root barrier with a sound like tearing silk.
The barrier, designed to withstand a siege from a Sannin-level opponent, was shredded into glowing fragments in a single heartbeat.
The strike didn't stop. The column of white light tore through the blast doors, the access tunnel, and the very bedrock of the mountain itself, reaching deep into the facility with an earth-shattering boom.
BOOM!!
The seismic shockwave triggered a localized earthquake. The earth, the forest, and the mountain range itself groaned and trembled.
Hiruzen and his Anbu, still several kilometers away, nearly fell as the ground buckled. They looked at the distant mountain peak and went pale.
A pillar of white light was still visible, reaching for the clouds. The mountain itself looked like it had been struck by the hand of a god.
However, Saiki was feeling the burn. That single strike had consumed nearly a month's worth of his carefully accumulated Senjutsu chakra.
His Senjutsu reserves were precious. He had been hoarding them for years, and he only had about three years' worth of "total" output stored. In the past week alone, he had burned through nearly a year's worth of savings. It made his heart ache.
The only reason Saiki looked like a god right now was the combination of the Cloud's defense and the Senjutsu multiplier. Without those, he was "just" a high-tier Elite Jonin.
"Damn it!" Tsunade's voice echoed through the trees as she caught sight of the iconic white blade-qi. She didn't need a report to know that Saiki was out there committing mass murder.
With the barrier gone, the core of Root was exposed.
This was Danzo's masterpiece—a facility of shadows, secrets, and blood. To most of the world, it was an invisible myth.
To Saiki, it was just a slaughterhouse waiting to be cleaned.
He didn't wait. Once the dust settled and the structural integrity of the tunnel stabilized, he dove in.
Inside, the lighting was dim and the corridors were a chaotic labyrinth.
But Saiki moved as if he had built the place himself. He navigated the tunnels at high speed, every turn calculated, his Divine Sense providing him with a 3D map of the entire base.
Without an order from Danzo, the remaining Root agents poured out of their "rat holes" to intercept the intruder.
In the massive central subterranean hall, Saiki and Danzo met for the final time.
Previously, this hall had radiated an aura of cold, organized power. Now, with Saiki's "skylight" cut into the ceiling and half the architecture crushed by the mountain-cleaving strike, it looked like a ruin.
Surrounded by nearly a hundred Root operatives and backed by the facility's internal traps, Danzo finally stopped running. He stood behind his human shields, his face a bloody mask of fury.
"Saiki Shiroya! Do you really believe you can stand against the entire might of the Leaf alone?! You are a cancer, a volatile variable that should have been excised at birth! Today, you die!"
Saiki remained unmoved. He spared a bored glance at the hundred killers standing between him and his target.
"Danzo," Saiki said, his voice echoing through the ruined hall. "Do you really think these pathetic trash are going to save your dog's life?"