Danzo's Current Situation

It was already late at night.

The Land of Rice Fields, a small agricultural country located north of the Land of Fire where electricity is not yet widespread, is now fast asleep.

The rice paddies swayed gently in the night breeze, and moonlight filtered through gaps in the clouds, illuminating this small country in the darkness.

But in the shadows of this small country, hidden underground, the darkness still lingers...

The Land of Rice Fields, Root Branch Temporary Branch.

The base is located deep in an abandoned mountain area, with its entrance completely hidden by layers of rock walls and dense shrubs.

From the outside, this place looks like just an ordinary little rocky slope at the foot of the mountain, a place even wild animals wouldn't bother to build their nests.

But among the shadows of the trees swaying slightly in the night breeze, three figures, almost blending into the darkness, were hidden around the entrance, motionless, watching all the movements around them.

Their breathing was suppressed to a minimum, their Chakra was completely contained, and only their eyes, so cold as to be almost devoid of warmth, emitted a chilling light in the darkness.

Their eyes held no superfluous emotions, only unconditional obedience to orders.

Judging from the aura emanating from them, each of them was an elite ninja who had fought their way up from the battlefield.

In stark contrast to the deathly silence above ground, heart-wrenching wails echoed continuously from the depths of the underground base.

The underground base was very rudimentary in its construction. The original rough stone walls of the mine showed obvious signs of having been simply treated, and a few dim lights hung from the ceiling.

Deep within the base, the dueling arena

Several Root ninjas stood on the viewing platform, watching the battle unfolding below with expressionless faces.

They stood ramrod straight, hands behind their backs, their gazes as calm as if they were inspecting a batch of parts that had just rolled off the production line.

Below, in the dueling arena, lay dozens of corpses, mostly children under the age of sixteen.

Their clothes were tattered and thin; some had their throats slit with Kunai, while others had their necks snapped.

Several headless corpses lay at the edge of the dueling arena.

The wounds on their necks were extremely neat, clearly indicating that they were casually executed by the Root ninjas above while trying to escape.

Dark red blood was slowly seeping from the severed necks of those headless creatures, dripping down the rough ground along the cracks in the stone slabs.

After round after round of brutal fighting, of the nearly one hundred children who were originally standing in this dueling arena, only a handful remained.

They clutched their blood-stained Kunai, panting heavily, and glared at each other with hostility.

One of the youngest children, who looked no more than seven or eight years old, was holding a kunai so tightly that his hand Kunai hold it.

But his eyes no longer held any childlike innocence; only numbness and the instinct to survive remained.

The Root ninjas on the viewing platform took it all in, and a hint of undisguised disappointment flashed in their empty, lifeless eyes.

"C, what were the selection results?"

Just as the Root ninja was about to announce the end of the assessment, an old and indifferent voice slowly rang out from Root him.

The Root ninja codenamed "C" instantly transformed from a lifeless expression to one of respect upon hearing the voice.

"Danzo."

He immediately turned around, knelt on one knee, lowered his head, and spoke in a respectful, low voice.

The old man stood directly in front of "C", his body, no longer young, wrapped in layers of white bandages, with only narrow gaps left around his left eye and lips.

His face was very weak, and the few patches of skin he had exposed were unnaturally pale.

But his left eye, which was visible outside the bandage, still looked terrifyingly sinister.

The frail old man before me, who looked as if a gust of wind could blow him over, is the current leader of the remaining members of the Root.

A former Konoha High Command, the longest-serving assistant to the Hokage, and a direct disciple of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju.

Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's old classmate and political rival, was known as the "Dark Knight" who controlled the underworld of Konoha for decades and struck fear into the hearts of countless ninjas.

--The current Konoha S-rank missing-nin, Shimura Danzō.

Danzo stared expressionlessly at the Root elite before him, who had followed him on his escape since the Night of the Uchiha Massacre.

He remembered the man in front of him.

Bing was an elite recruited by him from the Anbu many years ago.

He is silent, loyal, and has extremely high execution ability; his only flaw is that he is getting on in years.

Due to long-term, incurable internal injuries, and the rigorous training at Root that came at the cost of overdrawing one's life force, his strength was no longer at its peak.

In a few years, this loyal subordinate will probably be bedridden and on his deathbed.

In the past, Danzo would have unhesitatingly removed Hiro from the front lines before he completely lost his usefulness, sending him to mentor inexperienced juniors.

While he is still able to move, send him on several high-risk missions with a high probability of not surviving, so that he can contribute his last bit of energy to Konoha.

But now, I clearly no longer have the right to be picky.

Once commanding a massive Root with hundreds of elite ninjas under his Hokage, and able to challenge the Hokage face-to-face, he is now reduced to a mere dozen or so remnants and a makeshift base huddled like a rat's nest in a foreign land.

For me now, this subordinate, who I used to squander and discard at will, is now a precious fighting force that I must cherish carefully.

Bing looked at Danzo respectfully, seemingly unaware of Danzo's assessment of him at that moment.

Even if he knew, he would accept it without batting an eye.

To accept being used as a tool, having one's last bit of value exhausted, and dying silently in some unknown mission.

Because all of this was a "creed" that had been thoroughly instilled into his very bones from the day he joined Root.

"From 500 eligible children, through five rounds of elimination assessments, we have selected 30 candidates with the potential to join the Root."

C's voice was steady and respectful, as if he were giving a very ordinary report:

"With several years of systematic training, they can definitely reach a combat level of Chunin or above."

At that time, these children will dedicate all their strength to Danzo's return to Konoha.

As Danzo listened to Bing's report, he coldly looked down at the bloodied children in the dueling arena below, who were still wary of each other.

His left eye gleamed with undisguised disdain, as if he were looking at a batch of defective weapons that had failed quality inspection.

"... Is that all?"

"Terribly sorry!!"

Bing lowered his head even further, his voice filled with deep self-reproach.

Danzo slowly shook his head, refraining from uttering any further harsh words.

He actually knew this would be the outcome.

The Land of Rice Fields is just a small place, and being able to select thirty Chunin from the captured civilian children has already far exceeded his initial expectations...

Moreover, he is no longer qualified to use the selection standards from his Konoha days to measure all of this.

Thinking about this, Danzo couldn't help but feel a sense of irony.

As the Second Hokage's direct disciple, the longest-serving assistant to the Hokage in Konoha's history, and the master of the Root's dark secrets for decades—

Now, they've been reduced to working in an underground base in a foreign land, struggling to assemble a decent team with a few tools that aren't even considered defective.

Thinking about his current situation, Danzo felt a deep sense of gloom rise in his heart.

Danzo stood at the edge of the viewing platform, looking down at the blood-soaked floor beneath his feet.

The dim light cast his long shadow on the opposite stone wall, making him appear particularly hunched.

He couldn't help but recall the night that had led him to his current predicament.

He had already made thorough preparations for the Uchiha Clan's plan to exterminate them.

After Itachi leaves, he will lead his men into the Uchiha Clan Compound as quickly as possible, and before Hiruzen can react, he will retrieve the Uchiha corpses that still have Sharingan.

Those Sharingan will become his important trump card for Konoha, and his biggest bargaining chip to rival Hiruzen in the upcoming power struggle!

Everything was proceeding smoothly according to plan.

But at the very last step, when he was about to personally collect the Sharingan and make the Uchiha, who had threatened Konoha for decades, sacrifice their final value for him and Konoha... a fatal problem arose!

The corpses of all the Uchiha Clan members have vanished!