Shisui, meanwhile, belonged to the Anbu.
Only Danzo knew what he was really planning.
Unfortunately,
Chiba was a transmigrator. A little trick like this could never shake him.
Danzo stepped forward and came to stand before Chiba, getting straight to the point.
"Uchiha Chiba!"
"I'll dispense with the small talk."
"I want you to join my Root. With your current abilities, you won't learn much at the Ninja Academy!"
"Only my Root can help you reach new heights."
"My organization is missing a genius like you. A true genius!"
Like Sarutobi Hiruzen's Anbu, Danzo's Root recruited outstanding individuals from every clan.
When it came to geniuses in the public eye, Root couldn't compete with the Anbu.
So, before Sarutobi Hiruzen could discover them, Danzo made a habit of bringing the geniuses he had his eye on under his own command.
Root had members from clans that possessed secret techniques, such as the Aburame, Yamanaka, and Nara. Danzo had even secretly gotten his hands on geniuses from the Hyuga Clan.
And now, Danzo was reaching out to the Uchiha Clan.
"Sorry, I'm not interested!"
Chiba refused without even having to think about it.
He knew exactly what kind of place Root was.
Danzo wasn't surprised by that answer. He simply smiled and spoke.
"Don't be so quick to refuse. As a member of the Uchiha Clan, it must be painful not to be able to see, right?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"I have a way to restore your eyesight."
Danzo was confident.
In his eyes, this was an offer Chiba couldn't possibly refuse.
Would a blind man really pass up the chance to see again?
"And I don't mean some low-level method like transplanting someone else's eyes!"
"I can restore your own eyes!"
"If you're interested, come find me at Root. You'll be welcome to join at any time!"
After saying this, Danzo left, thinking he had made a very stylish exit.
Despite what he'd said, Danzo believed Chiba would probably come begging to join Root.
As he left, he also took the bodies of the three Root shinobi Chiba had killed.
He had no intention of using force against Chiba.
After all, Sarutobi Hiruzen was still the Hokage of Konoha.
Besides, Danzo had confidence in himself.
He was certain Chiba would come looking for him.
What blind man didn't yearn for sight?
As it happened,
Chiba... didn't yearn for it at all!
Chapter 46
Danzo had always been cautious.
The scene of Chiba fighting his three subordinates remained vivid in his mind.
The strength Chiba had displayed was different from what Uchiha Shisui had reported to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
But Danzo didn't think Uchiha Shisui was lying.
It could only mean Shisui hadn't managed to test Chiba's true strength.
After all, a spar was nothing like a real fight.
A battle fought with the intent to kill your opponent gave you a much clearer picture of his abilities.
The strength Chiba had shown had left Danzo astonished.
Uchiha Shisui had already given Chiba a high evaluation.
But after witnessing Chiba fight, Danzo felt Shisui had vastly underestimated what he could do.
The squad Danzo had sent this time was modeled after Ino-Shika-Cho.
It was a combination proven by history.
In the Shinobi World War, it had played a crucial role.
Against a team like that, even a jonin couldn't be sure of escaping unharmed. Yet Chiba, a blind boy, had taken them down one by one.
The power-type shinobi from the Butterfly position had been beaten by Chiba head-on.
The idea that strength was Chiba's weakness, as Uchiha Shisui had claimed, was laughable.
Clearly, Chiba had some technique Shisui didn't know about that made up for the lack of strength in his five-year-old body.
And the way he had perfectly evaded Shadow Possession Jutsu was proof of his powerful perception.
Danzo could understand that. After all, with his eyes unable to see, Chiba's perception was effectively his eyes.
The one thing Danzo couldn't understand was...
How had the shinobi from the Kato Clan died?
That was the Kato Clan's secret technique, the Spirit Transformation Technique.
It allowed the user to release their soul in a corporeal form and attack.
It was somewhat similar to the Yamanaka Clan's Mind Transfer Jutsu, but much more suited to offense.
If the Kato Clan were a larger clan, Danzo thought they would have been a better fit for the "Pig" position.
That was a soul attack.
Ordinary physical methods couldn't defend against it.
In Danzo's eyes, Chiba could only dodge it.
His subordinate had used the Nara Clan shinobi's death to launch an attack, choosing a gap that Chiba couldn't possibly evade.
For a moment, Danzo had thought Chiba would be hit.
No, in that situation, he was certain Chiba would be hit.
But the truth was...
All his subordinates were dead.
As Danzo was thinking this over, a Root shinobi suddenly came before him. He dropped to one knee and spoke calmly.
"Lord Danzo, the analysis of the bodies is complete."
"What did you find?"
"That body is a little strange..."
"Speak!"
"The muscles throughout this Kato Clan shinobi's body were almost all seized up."
"It indicates that he endured unimaginable pain before he died."
"But there aren't any wounds on his body."
When they saw the results,
the elite medical shinobi in Root were baffled.
They had never seen such a bizarre corpse.
They couldn't even tell how the Kato Clan shinobi had died.
But when Danzo heard the report, his brow furrowed.
"No wounds, but he's dead!"
"He used the Spirit Transformation Technique."
"So... what was killed wasn't his body, but—his soul?"
The soul had always been an elusive thing.
Even the Kato Clan in Konoha had a secret technique dedicated to it.
But even so, no one had managed to study it well enough to understand it.
Its very mystery made it nearly impossible to counter.
And yet—
Chiba had cut down the soul of that Kato Clan shinobi.
"Was it... that sword?"
Danzo narrowed his eyes, a fierce glint in them.
A sword that could slay souls.
"Interesting."
He wanted that sword very much.
But Danzo wasn't in a hurry.
If he got Chiba, he would get the sword too.
He knew what mattered most.
Once Chiba joined Root, all his secrets would be laid bare before him.
"I'm looking forward to having you join us, Uchiha Chiba..."
Danzo was confident Chiba would join him.
But in the end, his wish would go unfulfilled.
As he waited, a month slipped by.
Danzo had waited so long that he was almost covered in cobwebs.
But there was still no sign of Chiba.
"Did Uchiha Chiba still not come today?"
He asked one of his subordinates.
Danzo was gradually losing patience.
Something that had seemed absolutely certain—how had it gone wrong?
The more you lacked something, the more you yearned for it.
You might even resort to anything to get it.