Hiruzen Sarutobi Was Stunned

But Minato Namikaze was Hiruzen Sarutobi's grand-disciple, and a bona fide member of the Hokage Faction.

So there was nothing suspicious about him asking this question.

And if the person's identity didn't involve any genuine secrets, Hiruzen would probably tell him.

However, Hiruzen's reaction at that moment was somewhat beyond Minato's expectations.

No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't imagine why Hiruzen would wear such a "strange" expression.

"Minato, describe this ANBU's mask and physical features, such as his height, in detail!"

Hiruzen furrowed his brows and instructed Minato, his tone concealing a trace of urgency that even he didn't notice.

Minato, however, keenly picked up on it. He even faintly heard a slight tremor in Hiruzen's voice. But since he couldn't figure out what was going on, he simply relied on his memories and described the black cat pattern on Yin Jie's mask, along with the visible physical features he could recall.

After hearing Minato's description, Hiruzen's heart sank at last.

He knew his own ANBU, didn't he?

There wasn't a single Uchiha in ANBU!

So it was obvious: the "ANBU" from the Uchiha Clan that Minato had described actually belonged to the Uchiha Clan's Root.

And this Uchiha Root member was none other than Uchiha Yin Jie, whom he had regarded as a "bridge" to the Uchiha Clan in the future!

So at that very moment, no matter how hard it was to believe, he had no choice but to accept it.

Yin Jie's growth had already strayed from the path he'd planned for him, and his future development was slipping out of Hiruzen's control as well.

Damn it!

He seemed to have been played by his good buddy Shimura Danzo and his prized student, Orochimaru, working together!

The "bridge" he'd placed so much hope in had quietly become a member of Root without his knowledge!

What a huge surprise.

It had truly taught him what the hell a "surprise" was!

Ever since Orochimaru had taken Yin Jie as his student, Hiruzen hadn't spied on Yin Jie's daily life much.

For one thing, he trusted his prized student, Orochimaru, and had great faith in him.

For another, Yin Jie spent most of his time studying under Orochimaru or in Orochimaru's laboratory. And Orochimaru could sense when he was being watched by the Telescope Technique.

So for the past six months, he'd barely used the Telescope Technique to observe Yin Jie.

If not for Minato, it might have taken him much longer to learn about the "good deed" Shimura Danzo and Orochimaru had done to Yin Jie!

Hiruzen remained silent for a long while, his expression shifting again and again.

He felt like a clown who'd been thoroughly made a fool of by Shimura Danzo and Orochimaru.

In the end, though, he simply let out a long sigh and swallowed his anger without a word.

What else could he do?

What was done was done. There was no way Danzo would hand Yin Jie back.

Besides, Danzo was his good buddy, and Orochimaru was his prized student.

Well, of course he'd choose to forgive them!

After all, Root was still part of the Hokage Faction. Their relationship might have little to do with him, but the meat was still in the same pot.

That was all there was to it.

"Lord Hokage..."

"Lord Hokage?"

Seeing Hiruzen lost in thought, Minato called out to him repeatedly before finally bringing him back to his senses.

"Are you all right?"

Hiruzen's odd behavior left both Minato and Kushina Uzumaki worried.

"..."

Hiruzen shook his head, temporarily pushing the flood of thoughts out of his mind. "I'm fine! But this Uchiha isn't an ANBU member. He belongs to Root, which is led by Shimura Danzo."

"As for his identity, he's the Uchiha Clan's prodigy who graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of seven: Uchiha Yin Jie!"

Minato and Kushina were both shaken.

They had finally learned the identity of the person who had helped them, but the result wasn't quite what they'd expected.

Yin Jie's performance in last night's battle had led them to make the wrong assumptions from the very beginning.

Still, that was only natural.

Based on what Minato and Kushina knew, when this Uchiha Clan prodigy, Yin Jie, had graduated early from the Ninja Academy six months ago, he had only been strong enough to fight a Chunin.

In the time that followed,

Yin Jie returned to his previous routine. Aside from completing the minimum number of missions Root required of him, he spent most of his time studying various subjects under his teacher, Orochimaru.

However, in recent days, Orochimaru had suddenly become exceptionally busy. He spent most of every day deep in the laboratory, an area sealed off by another barrier.

As time went on, Orochimaru spent longer and longer inside. Sometimes he wouldn't emerge for several days in a row. On the few occasions when he did come out, he would deal briefly with essential documents or intelligence while looking exhausted, then return inside.

As a result, Orochimaru had even less time to create Shadow Clones to teach Yin Jie knowledge or ninjutsu.

During this period, Shimura Danzo also came by in person several times and entered the barrier deep within the laboratory to discuss something with Orochimaru.

So, taking the current timeline into account, Yin Jie easily figured out what the so-called highly classified experiment Orochimaru was working on actually involved.

That's right.

It was the famous Wood Release experiment, also known as the Hashirama Cells transplantation experiment.

Of course, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had initially approved the experiment.

But after too many people died from failed experiments, Hiruzen had ultimately ordered it stopped.

Shimura Danzo, however, had always coveted the power of Wood Release. After the experiment was halted, he secretly reached an agreement with Orochimaru behind Hiruzen's back and continued researching and experimenting with Hashirama Cells.