Danzo's Dark Scrutiny and Root's Initial Probe of Killing Intent

Deep beneath Konoha, in the base of Root.

In the tunnels that never saw the light of day, torches fueled by low-grade animal fat crackled with a faint, rhythmic sound. The air was thick with the musty scent of damp earth and the lingering, perennial stench of blood.

In the center of the stone chamber, Shimura Danzo sat upright in a large wooden chair. Half of his body, wrapped in bandages, was swallowed by the shadows, his only remaining eye fixed intently on the open field investigation file on the table.

"Wind Release to tear the wounds, Super Weighted Rock Fist to crush the chest, Lightning Release Explosive Tags for a mutual destruction..."

Danzo's withered lips curled into a cold, sinister arc as his gaunt fingers tapped heavily on the name "Baishi" written in the file.

The Root ninja kneeling below wore a raccoon mask, his posture hunched low, his breathing suppressed to the absolute limit.

"Sarutobi, that naive old softie, believed it, and that greenhorn Namikaze Minato believed it too." Danzo's voice sounded like coarse sandpaper scraping against rock. "But this old man does not."

"My Lord Danzo, no traces of any third-party chakra were found at the scene," the Root ninja reported in a low voice. "That ANBU named Baishi—the blade wound in his abdomen was only two millimeters from his liver. The medical team calls it a miracle that he could drag such a body back to the village border."

"A miracle?" Danzo let out a cold snort, a viper-like chill flashing in his lone eye. "There are no miracles in the world of ninjas, only calculations."

He stood up and walked to the stone table.

"It is too perfect. A perfect scene, perfect logic, a perfect survivor. That in itself is the greatest flaw." Danzo's fingertip traced the text on the file. "Wildcat went to intercept Namikaze Minato and went missing. Venom Fang went to silence the witness, only to perish alongside the Iwagakure ninja. Yet this cannon-fodder bait, who should have been the first to die, crawled back with fatal wounds and brought back intelligence on Iwagakure."

"Too many coincidences make a conspiracy. Whether this Baishi is truly a piece of trash or a wolf in sheep's clothing, a pawn that has slipped out of control should not remain on the board."

Danzo turned around, fished a black wooden plaque engraved with the character for "Root" from his sleeve, and tossed it onto the stone floor.

With a sharp, crisp clack.

"Initiate Grade A surveillance immediately," Danzo's voice carried an unquestionable coldness. "Twenty-four hours, no blind spots. Test his limits, uncover his background."

The Root ninja looked up sharply, meeting Danzo's eyes, which were filled with tangible killing intent.

"If he shows any sign of hiding his true strength, do not report it—bring his head to me directly. Konoha's roots have no need for variables of unknown origin."

"Yes!" The Root ninja's figure flickered, dissolving into a black shadow that merged with the darkness of the underground.

Konoha Hospital, third-floor intensive care unit.

The pungent smell of Lysol permeated the entire room. Sunlight from outside filtered through the gaps in the blinds, casting mottled light and shadows across the white bedsheets.

Baishi lay flat on the hospital bed, his eyes closed.

The effects of the anesthesia were rapidly wearing off. A dull, saw-like pain radiated from the crudely stitched wound in his abdomen. In the hairline fracture of his left collarbone, where the poison-tipped blade had pierced, it felt as if thousands of ants were gnawing at the bone.

The extreme pain soaked his undershirt in cold sweat, making it cling stickily to his back.

But he did not move. He kept even the frequency of his breathing at the short, shallow state characteristic of a critically injured patient.

Because he could "see."

Even with his eyes closed, thanks to the terrifying sensory perception brought by the incomplete Sage Body of the Uzumaki Clan, combined with the stimulation of cellular activity from his max-level Lightning Release, the chakra fluctuations within a hundred-meter radius were as clear as candles in the night within his mind.

Three subtle auras had, at some unknown moment, silently locked onto this ward.

One was in the crown of the old locust tree outside the window; one was pressed against the ventilation duct on the ceiling; and the third, disguised as a hospital orderly with faint chakra, was lingering in the corridor outside the door.

This cold, oppressive, and utterly emotionless quality of chakra was definitely not from the ANBU directly under the Hokage.

It was Root.

Old fox, you really aren't that easy to fool, Baishi sneered in his heart.

Sarutobi Hiruzen needed a hero of the "Will of Fire" to appease the masses, and Namikaze Minato had been temporarily blinded by the logic of the scene's camouflage. But Shimura Danzo, that ultimate old schemer, would never let a single doubt slide.

Grade A surveillance. This was putting him under a microscope to be roasted.

Baishi knew very well that if he were to circulate even a sliver of excess chakra to heal his wounds now, or show any alertness beyond that of a "low-level cannon fodder," the poison senbon outside the window and the explosive tags in the ventilation duct would take his life in an instant.

He could not afford to fall out with the entire Konoha leadership just yet.

His max-level Lightning Release and incomplete Sage Body certainly gave him the capital to protect himself, but against Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God, the Third Hokage's Five Release Barrage, and the suicidal fanatics in Danzo's hands, he still had no chance of winning.

He had to lie low.

He would play the role of the weakling even more perfectly to dispel Danzo's suspicions, then look for opportunities to take on black-market missions, accumulate Chakra Crystals, and trigger the next simulation.

As long as he could snatch one more great fortune, he would be able to completely break free from this damn noose!

Baishi deliberately relaxed his control over his muscles, allowing the pain in his abdomen to trigger an instinctive spasm in his body. He let out a weak, pained groan and squeezed a few physiological tears from the corners of his eyes, portraying a critically injured genin to perfection.

The Root eyes hidden in the shadows watched all of this coldly, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, merely recording Baishi's reactions into their intelligence scroll.

Time ticked by, second by second.

The air pressure in the ward was suffocating. Caught in a battle between the intense pain and his highly strained nerves, Baishi silently calculated his chips for breaking the deadlock.

Just then.

At the end of the corridor, a sudden and extremely abrupt commotion erupted.

"Bang!"

A dull thud of a heavy object hitting the wall echoed through the air.

"Stop! This is the intensive care unit! Without an order from Lord Hokage, no one is allowed to—" The nurse on duty's exclamation was cut off halfway, as if she were a duck whose throat had been grabbed.

Immediately following, a chilling wave of chakra pressure surged forth!

This chakra was unlike the refined energy of a ninja; it was manic, scorching, and carried a tyrannical aura of pure destruction. A tangible wave of red air surged through the door gap into the ward, causing the room temperature to spike instantly until the glass water cup on the table began to crack under the strain.

Baishi's eyes snapped open, his pupils constricting violently.

The Root ninja outside, disguised as a nurse, hadn't even managed a muffled groan before his presence plummeted off a cliff—clearly, he had been instantly incapacitated or knocked unconscious.

The Root signatures outside the window and near the ventilation ducts also fell into obvious disarray, a instinctive shudder in the face of an apex predator.

Nine-Tails chakra!

Baishi's breath hitched.

In this village of Konoha, there was only one person capable of erupting with this level of Nine-Tails chakra and daring to rampage through the hospital.

"BOOM!"

The heavy solid wood door of the ward, along with its metal frame, was kicked into splinters by a terrifying, monstrous force!

Wood chips and debris sprayed outward like bullets.

A dense, crimson aura of chakra churned at the doorway.

A slender figure radiating absolute dominance stepped over the wreckage, walking into the ward one step at a time.

Her blood-red hair danced wildly in the violent currents, looking like manjusaka flowers blooming in hell. Kushina's eyes, once clear, had transformed into beastly vertical slits, with eerie red markings faintly emerging at their corners.

She stared fixedly at Baishi on the hospital bed.

Her gaze swept over his pale cheeks before finally locking onto his collarbone, wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, and the shocking, stitched-up wound on his abdomen.

"Baishi..."

Kushina gritted her teeth, her voice so hoarse it sounded like she was weeping blood. Behind her, the Nine-Tails chakra faintly coalesced into an illusory tail, its violent pressure shattering every medical instrument in the room.

With a backhand wave, she slammed the remaining half of the door shut with a loud bang, sealing the entire ward with her chakra.

Within the cramped space, the Red-Haired Witch closed in on the bed step by step.

Looking into those eyes filled with pathological obsession and extreme heartache, Baishi felt his scalp go numb.

The plan had completely collapsed.