Konoha—two or three months had passed since the turmoil of the Chunin Exams.
Konoha had long since emerged from the shadow of that war. Under Tsunade's leadership, Konoha remained one of the Five Great Villages. Especially after Tsunade and Jiraiya announced their forceful return, those in the shinobi world who had once bared their fangs at Konoha began to hesitate. Meanwhile, the Root led by Shimura Danzō gradually fell silent, showing no unusual movements.
Although this left Ueno Kei deeply puzzled, he still raised his guard against Danzō to the highest level.
After all, in Kei's eyes, Shimura Danzō would always be an ambitious schemer filled with aspirations, a ruthless man. For someone like that to suddenly change his way of doing things and start acting like a kindly gentleman—Kei would not believe there was no trick behind it.
Therefore, Kei intensified his surveillance of Danzō. Of course, this surveillance was conducted openly; the Anbu under Kei's command simply had no personnel capable of secretly monitoring the Root.
That was right—he was monitoring the Root. Trying to watch Danzō himself was practically impossible. Setting aside Danzō's strength, the vast Root alone would make it impossible for Kei's people to get close to him. Naturally, Kei's best option was to keep a close eye on Root members.
As long as the Root members made no major moves, he could more or less rest easy. Besides the first reason, there was another reason for conducting the surveillance openly: both sides were laying their cards on the table. With everything out in the open, it would not be so easy for anyone to make a move.
Of course, this was all Kei could do. Fortunately, both Jiraiya and Tsunade were highly wary of Danzō. As for the two advisors, though their attitude toward