Deep beneath Konoha, Root's base.
In the corridors that never saw daylight, torches burned low-grade animal fat with faint crackling sounds. The air was thick with the moldy scent of earth and the lingering stench of old blood.
At the center of a stone chamber, Shimura Danzō sat upright in a broad wooden chair. Half his bandage-wrapped body was concealed in shadow, while his one remaining eye stared fixedly at the investigation report spread across the table.
"Wind Release tearing wounds, a crushed chest from Super Weighted Rock Fist, Lightning Release Explosive Tags resulting in mutual destruction..."
Danzo's shriveled lips curled into a cold smile, and his bony finger tapped heavily on the name "Baishi" in the report.
The Root ninja kneeling below wore a Raccoon Dog mask. He bowed so low that even his breathing had been suppressed to the limit.
"Sarutobi, that naïve old fool, believed it. That brat Namikaze Minato believed it too." Danzo's voice scraped against the stone like rough sandpaper. "But I do not."
"Lord Danzo, no third party's chakra traces were found at the scene," the Root ninja reported quietly. "That ANBU called Baishi suffered an abdominal stab wound only two millimeters from his liver. Dragging himself back to the village boundary in that condition was something the medical team called a miracle."
"A miracle?" Danzo snorted, a venomous gleam flashing through his eye. "There are no miracles in the world of shinobi. Only schemes."
He rose and walked to the stone table.
"Too perfect. A perfect scene, perfect logic, a perfect survivor. That alone is the greatest flaw." Danzo's fingertip traced the words on the report. "Wildcat went to intercept Minato and disappeared. Venom Fang went to silence him, only to perish alongside Iwagakure. Yet this cannon fodder bait, who should have died first, crawled back with fatal wounds and even brought back intelligence on Iwagakure."
"Too many coincidences make a conspiracy. Whether this Baishi is truly useless or a wolf in sheep's clothing, a piece that has slipped out of control does not belong on the board."
Danzo turned, drew a black wooden plaque carved with the character for "Root" from his sleeve, and casually tossed it onto the bluestone floor.
It struck with a crisp smack.
"Immediately initiate Class-A surveillance." Danzo's voice held unquestionable coldness. "Twenty-four hours a day, no blind spots. Test his limits and uncover his true background."
The Root ninja abruptly raised his head and met Danzo's eye, which was brimming with tangible killing intent.
"If he shows any signs of hidden strength, do not report back. Bring me his head directly. Konoha's Root has no need for unknown variables."
"Yes!" The Root ninja blurred and transformed into a mass of shadow that melted into the darkness underground.
Konoha Hospital, third-floor intensive care ward.
The pungent smell of disinfectant filled the room. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the blinds, casting mottled patterns across the white sheets.
Baishi lay flat on the hospital bed with his eyes closed.
The anesthetic was rapidly wearing off. A dull, saw-like pain tore through the crudely stitched wound in his abdomen. In the crack in the bone where the Poison Blade had pierced his left collarbone, it felt as though thousands of ants were gnawing away.
The unbearable pain soaked his undershirt with cold sweat, making it cling stickily to his back.
But he did not move. Even his breathing remained short and weak, just like that of a severely injured patient.
Because he had "seen" them.
Even with his eyes closed, the terrifying sensory ability granted by the Uzumaki Clan's incomplete Sage Body, combined with Max-Level Lightning Release stimulating his cellular activity, made the chakra fluctuations within a hundred meters as clear in his mind as candles in the night.
Three concealed presences had silently locked onto this hospital room at some point.
One was in the crown of the old locust tree outside the window; one clung to the ventilation duct in the ceiling; the other, disguised as a low-chakra orderly, lingered in the corridor outside the door.
That cold, oppressive chakra texture, utterly stripped of personal emotion, definitely did not belong to the Hokage's direct ANBU.
It was Root.
That old fox really wasn't so easy to fool. Baishi sneered inwardly.
Sarutobi Hiruzen needed a heroic example of the Will of Fire to soothe the common people, while Namikaze Minato had temporarily been deceived by the staged logic of the scene. But Shimura Danzo, that ultimate scheming bastard, would never let even the slightest doubt go.
Class-A surveillance. They were putting him under a microscope.
Baishi knew full well that if he used even a trace of extra chakra to heal his wounds now, or showed any vigilance beyond that of low-level cannon fodder, the Poison Senbon outside the window and the Explosive Tags in the ventilation shaft would take his life in an instant.
He still could not turn against Konoha's entire upper echelon.
Max-Level Lightning Release and his incomplete Sage Body had indeed given him the means to protect himself, but against Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God, the Third Hokage's Five Release Barrage, and the suicidal loyalists in Danzo's hands, he still had no chance of winning.
He had to lie low.
He needed to dispel Danzo's suspicions with an even more convincing display of weakness, then find a chance to take black-market jobs, stockpile Chakra Crystals, and begin the next simulation.
As long as he intercepted another great stroke of fortune, he could finally break free from this damned noose!
Baishi deliberately relaxed control over his muscles and let the pain in his abdomen trigger instinctive spasms. He let out a weak, pained groan, squeezed a few physiological tears from the corners of his eyes, and perfectly played the part of a grievously wounded Genin on the brink of death.
The Root spies hidden in the darkness watched everything coldly without the slightest emotional fluctuation, merely recording Baishi's reactions in their intelligence scrolls.
Time passed second by second.
The pressure in the ward was so low it felt suffocating. Amid the agony and the battle against his taut nerves, Baishi silently calculated the resources he had to break the deadlock.
Then, at that moment.
A sudden commotion erupted from the end of the corridor.
Bang!
A heavy object slammed into the wall with a dull thud.
"Stop! This is the intensive care area. Without an order from Lord Hokage, no one may—" The duty nurse's cry had barely begun before it abruptly cut off, like a duck whose throat had been squeezed shut.
Then came an utterly terrifying chakra pressure!
This chakra was unlike that refined by shinobi. It was violent, scorching, and carried a savage aura that wanted to destroy everything. Tangible red waves of chakra poured through the gap beneath the door, abruptly raising the room's temperature. Even the glass water cup on the table began to crack under the strain.
Baishi's eyes flew open, his pupils contracting violently.
The Root ninja disguised as an orderly outside the door did not even let out a muffled groan before his presence plummeted off a cliff. He had clearly been severely injured in an instant, perhaps even knocked unconscious.
The Root presences outside the window and in the ventilation duct also became visibly disturbed. It was the instinctive trembling of prey that had encountered a superior predator.
Nine-Tails Chakra!
Baishi's breathing stopped instantly.
In all of Konoha, only one person could unleash Nine-Tails Chakra at this level and dare to rampage through a hospital.
Boom!
The ward's heavy solid-wood door, along with its metal frame, was kicked apart by a terrifying burst of Chakra Enhanced Strength!
Wood chips and stone fragments sprayed in every direction like bullets.
Dense red chakra flames churned at the doorway.
A slender figure radiating absolute dominance stepped over the wreckage and entered the ward one step at a time.
Her blood-red hair whipped wildly in the raging currents of air, like red spider lilies blooming in hell. Kushina's once-clear eyes had become beastlike vertical pupils, and faint, sinister red markings had emerged at the corners of her eyes.
She stared fixedly at Baishi on the hospital bed.
Her gaze swept over his pale face before finally settling on his collarbone wrapped in blood-seeping bandages and the horrifying stitched wound on his abdomen.
"Baishi..."
Kushina gritted her teeth, her voice hoarse as though she were weeping blood. Behind her, Nine-Tails Chakra faintly condensed into an illusory tail, and its violent pressure shattered every medical instrument in the ward.
With a backhanded sweep, she slammed the remaining half of the door shut with a bang, sealing the entire ward with chakra.
Within the cramped space, the Red-Haired Witch approached the hospital bed step by step.
Baishi looked into those eyes filled with sickly obsession and unbearable anguish, and his scalp went numb.
The plan had completely fallen apart.