Retreating to Avoid Conflict

After returning from the Yamanaka Clan, Shinichi set a new rule for himself.

The rule had only four words—"one kill a month." It was not because he was afraid. It was because he had done the math. The destruction of the tracking team would definitely trigger a chain reaction within Root—Dog Face, Crow Face, and Snake Face had all gone missing, on top of the previously eliminated Cat Face. Four peripheral members had been lost in succession within two short weeks, three of them jonin-level specialists in tracking. No matter how slow Danzo was, he could tell this was no coincidence. Someone was systematically harvesting Root's peripheral forces.

What happened next could be predicted. Danzo would temporarily curtail the independent movements of peripheral members, increase patrol density, change all nighttime missions to teams of at least two, and upgrade tracking teams into anti-hunting squads. The intelligence assessment would rise from "suspected infiltration by ninja from another village" to "suspected inside job." Anyone who had recently requested access to Root-related files would be placed on the investigation list. Anyone who was not on the roster yet frequently appeared near Root activity zones would be secretly monitored.

Continuing the hunt at the previous pace under those circumstances would mean walking straight into Danzo's gunsight.

So, in the fourth week after school began, Shinichi turned past the page in his notebook titled "Root Peripheral Elimination Plan" and flipped to a fresh blank page. At the top, he wrote a line—"Phase Two: Silent Period." Beneath it, he divided the page into four sections and listed the precautions.

First section: operational frequency. The original plan had been to destroy six key nodes in the peripheral contact network this month. Four had been completed. The remaining two nodes—the northwest supply station and eastern covert post in Snake Face's network—would not be handled for now. All active hunts were suspended. Priority would be given to observing Root's response patterns after the disappearances and recording patrol density, team composition changes, and the locations of newly established covert posts.

Second section: identity cover. Attend classes normally during the day. At night, leave a Shadow Clone in the dormitory to ensure the real body did not leave the orphanage. All nighttime operations would cease for at least two weeks. After two weeks, if Root's patrol routes had stabilized, he would reassess the timing of intervention. At school, his theory test scores would remain within the top three of the class, but never surpass Sasuke's—Sasuke possessed the Uchiha Clan's characteristic competitive streak when it came to studying. Outdoing him would be like sticking a needle into his pride. During sparring in taijutsu class, he would keep his strength just barely above Sasuke's without making it obvious. He had maintained that balance for some time already, so he only needed to continue.

Third section: skill integration. This period was perfect for digesting everything he had gained from the previous phase and systematically incorporating his newly acquired Fire Release, Scorch Release Kekkei Genkai, assassination techniques, and trap-setting experience into his combat system. He had not had time to calmly sort through his skill tree while chasing Root, and now he could settle the debt—he needed to refine the coordinated attack pattern between Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Fire and Wind Release: Wind Blade, repeatedly practice the timing for releasing Scorch Release's high-temperature steam in close combat, and test whether combining Assassination Art: Silent Step with Gale Body Flicker caused any waste of chakra.

Fourth section: warning signs. If any of the following occurred, the silent period would automatically be extended and his activity frequency reduced even further—Root began setting up covert posts around the orphanage; the Third Hokage suddenly summoned him to ask about Root's missing members; Mizuki's behavior pattern changed abnormally; Naruto Uzumaki was followed by someone who was not ANBU.

After writing it all down, he closed the notebook and pulled out the kunai from beneath his bedboard. Its edge had become somewhat dull—after all the consecutive hunts, the blade had suffered considerable erosion from Wind-nature chakra, and several faint hairline cracks could be seen along it. He dug out a whetstone from the drawer, wet it, and began sharpening the blade stroke by stroke. The sound of grit scraping against metal was soft and monotonous, yet calming. It was a little like the water dispenser that had hummed endlessly in the office when he worked overtime in his previous life—practically meaningless, but enough to help him focus. As he sharpened the blade, he considered something: restraint did not mean refusing to act. It meant postponing action from "now" to "the most advantageous moment." Naruto had taken more than ten years in the original story to learn that lesson, and Sasuke still had not learned it even now. But Shinichi was different. The most useful thing he had learned from living to thirty-three in his previous life was this—impulse was efficiency's greatest enemy.

The silent period entered its fifth day. During class, Iruka Umino spent the entire afternoon explaining the principles of basic genjutsu from the podium. Shinichi listened more seriously than usual and filled several full pages with notes. Genjutsu was the part of the ninja system he used least—the Sharingan possessed innate resistance to genjutsu, but did not itself directly create genjutsu. If he could build a solid foundation in genjutsu, then paired with the Sharingan, he could form a mental system that combined offense and defense. During the break, Naruto leaned over and asked, "Why aren't you squinting and thinking about stuff today?" Shinichi said he was catching up on his genjutsu notes. Naruto stared for a moment at the waveforms and chakra-flow arrows in the genjutsu theory notebook, then offered his assessment. "Your drawings are even better than Iruka-sensei's writing on the board. I just can't understand any of it."

After school, he took Naruto to train by the riverbank as usual. Naruto could now reliably create several Shadow Clones, and his water-walking had progressed from "able to stand for a little while" to "able to walk some distance across the surface without falling in." His improvement was visible to the naked eye. Shinichi added a new exercise for him—Shadow Clone water-walking pursuit. He had two clones chase each other across the same stretch of water, training the stability of chakra under multitasking conditions. Naruto initially insisted it was easy, but after being knocked into the water by his own clone several times, he obediently shut up. Even soaked from head to toe, he still pushed himself upright with his hands on his knees and continued training. Shinichi sat on a large boulder by the shore, watching while sharpening shuriken in his hand. He had set himself the goal of improving from ten consecutive throws at stationary targets to ten consecutive throws at moving targets during the silent period. He had replaced his kunai with a new one, but he could not bring himself to throw the old one away.

The silent period entered its second week. Root's situation matched his predictions—the patrol density had noticeably increased, and the changeover gap that used to occur at two in the morning had been reduced by more than half. A new covert post had appeared near the old water tower on the western side of the village, hidden in the shadow of an electrical substation. It was impossible to spot without looking carefully. Two trigger-type alarm seals had also been installed in the narrow alley by the drainage channel. As long as someone passed through, they would automatically send a signal to the base.

Shinichi crouched atop an old camphor tree and recorded each of those new developments in his notebook. He did not approach the new covert posts, only observed from afar and recorded their positions and shift-change times. At the same time, he noticed a new phenomenon—Root's covert posts were all concentrated along the village's outskirts and abandoned areas. There was no infiltration at all into densely populated places like residential districts, the school, or the orphanage. That meant Danzo's investigation was still focused on "outside-village infiltration" and had not shifted toward "internal investigation." The silent strategy was working.

The silent period entered its third week. He began going out at night again, but he no longer carried out any hunting missions. His sole purpose for leaving was to reinforce his observational data and confirm whether Root's newly added patrol routes and covert posts would remain in place. At the same time, he gradually resumed intensive physical training and increased the intensity of his chakra-control practice, catching up on the skill integration he had fallen behind on.

The silent period entered its fourth week. He took out the notebook he had carried against his chest when Inoichi had caught him at the cemetery, then flipped to the pages related to the Yamanaka Clan. Inoichi had yet to fulfill his promise of mental defense training, but the silent period was the perfect time to take the initiative and ask for guidance—the Yamanaka Clan would not come to the orphanage looking for him, but he could visit again under the excuse of "going to do homework with Ino."

Ino showed remarkable enthusiasm about it—since last week, she had already borrowed Shinichi's homework answers twice. Each time, after borrowing them, she said, "I'll repay the favor." Afraid that her way of repaying him would be to hand his chakra samples to Inoichi for analysis again, Shinichi hurriedly told her there was no need. Ino took that as a challenge.

One month without killing anyone. At the time when Root was at its most nervous, he chose to do nothing. That required stronger self-control than a string of consecutive hunts. But he managed it. Every day, he reread the line in his notebook: "Restraint does not mean refusing to act. It means postponing action from 'now' to 'the most advantageous moment.'" Translated into the language of ninja, it meant—when the enemy believed you would never appear again, the best opportunity would arrive.

On the final night of the silent period's fourth week, he sat on his bed and sharpened his kunai until it gleamed brightly enough to reflect the moonlight. Then he closed the notebook and lay flat. Outside the window, the leaves of the old locust tree rustled in the night wind. In the distance, the stone faces of the three Hokage on Hokage Rock silently watched over the village beneath the moonlight. Everything was as usual.