"Listen to my orders. Everyone, check your equipment. Come with me to rescue Commander Danzo and Lady Hi Shin."
Now that defeat was certain, Nonō, as Root's first assistant, thought for a long time with her delicate brows tightly furrowed. Then she suddenly made the decision, ordering the Root members present to go back and save them.
A leader as easy to fool as Danzo was impossible to find these days even if you searched with a lantern. If the next superior had even the slightest bit of brains, wouldn't all the tricks she had pulled with Root's accounts be dug up in minutes?
"Understood!"
The moment she said this, it instantly ignited the wavering flames in the hearts of all the Root members. Filled with loyal sincerity, each of them flushed red with excitement.
"Saimon, you stay behind."
Nonō looked around, then fixed her gaze on the youth in the crowd wearing a Pig Head Mask.
"Why? I'm going too, to save the old... plant."
Shinnosuke, who was sorting out Exploding Tags, froze when he heard this. How could saving his old man, the supreme commander, not include him, the good eldest son?
"Commander Danzo said that when he is absent, I am in charge of the entire department. If I tell you to stay, you stay. There aren't that many whys."
The two of them had, after all, once been classmates. Nonō knew this trip was likely to be dangerous, and considering that she and Shinnosuke knew each other, and that he was Danzo's own son, she forcibly left him in the relatively safe rear.
"We should set out too. If we can help even a little, then we help a little."
Minato looked at the Root members preparing for battle with a complicated expression. He clenched his