Danzo's gaze flickered.
"What about ANBU?"
"They will not be deployed for now."
"And Root is to be restricted as well?"
"The village cannot disrupt its normal arrangements over a single rogue ninja."
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at him, his voice growing heavier.
"But this time, I will not stop you."
"All investigation results are to be sealed for now."
"Not a word is to be leaked to the Uchiha Clan."
Danzo understood what he meant.
Lie Yang had already defected.
But whether the Uchiha Clan knew anything about it internally had yet to be confirmed.
If the news were made public now, the Konoha Police Force would likely react in advance, perhaps even causing the already strained relationship between the Uchiha and Konoha's upper ranks to spiral completely out of control.
"I'll handle it."
Danzo picked up the intelligence report from the desk and turned to leave the office.
With the Hokage's tacit approval, he no longer had any reservations.
That night, four sealed chambers were opened in Root's underground base in succession.
Four elite squads assembled at the same time.
Each team was led by a Jōnin or Special Jōnin, while the remaining members were all seasoned elite Chunin.
Sensory detection, tracking, Earth Release restraints, Wind Release suppression, close-range assassination, sealing, and medical support—they had been equipped with everything.
Danzo stood atop the platform, looking down at the people below.
"The target is Uchiha Lieyang."
"His corpse and his eyes must be brought back."
"Yes!"
Their crisp response echoed through the base.
Danzo handed a sealed scroll to each of the four captains.
"Besides the pursuit mission, the orders within these scrolls must also be carried out."
The four captains did not inspect them, simply putting the scrolls away.
On the surface, they were leaving the village to hunt down a rogue ninja.
In truth, each squad carried a different additional mission.
They were to contact Root's covert operatives stationed outside.
Establish new secret bases.
Transfer supplies.
Recruit useful forces within the Land of Fire.
Danzo would not waste this opportunity to legitimately deploy Root outside the village.
Hunting Lie Yang was merely the most important of those tasks.
Expanding Root's power beyond the village could not be allowed to stop either.
After leaving the base, the four squads quickly vanished beyond Konoha.
No one believed the mission would fail.
"Two teams will encircle and kill him together, one will seal off his retreat, and the last will provide support."
A Special Jōnin captain scanned Lie Yang's latest intelligence report.
"Even if the target possesses elite Jōnin strength, he cannot possibly deal with all of us at once."
A Root ninja beside him said calmly, "If necessary, we can trade two lives for an opening to kill him."
"As long as we find his real body, the Shadow Clone Technique is meaningless."
"We have even hunted down renowned experts from other villages."
The captain put away the report.
"One twenty-year-old Uchiha cannot turn the heavens upside down."
But reality swiftly shattered their judgment.
While traveling without pause, Lie Yang encountered three Root squads in succession.
The first squad had barely completed its encirclement when Shadow Clones lying in wait underground tore through their formation from within.
The second squad tried to seal off the valley with large-scale ninjutsu, but several Shadow Clones charged out of the thick fog at once.
The third squad did not even have time to confirm Lie Yang's location before their sensory ninja was beheaded.
Each battle was shorter than the last.
Lie Yang had already grown tired of the repeated encirclements.
He did not even need to act personally.
The Shadow Clones used Lightning Body Flicker to break through the blockade, formed seals one-handed to interrupt ninjutsu, and cleanly harvested lives with blades and kunai.
Root's vaunted coordination meant nothing before absolute speed and an intelligence gap.
The last Jōnin captain was pinned to a tree trunk by several kunai.
He looked at the corpses scattered across the ground, and his breathing beneath the mask fell completely into disarray.
"Just how much strength have you been hiding?"
The Shadow Clone did not answer.
Lightning flashed past.
A short blade severed his throat.
The corpse slid down from the tree trunk, blood soaking into the ground.
Three elite Root squads had been completely wiped out.
Severed limbs littered the forest, and the heavy stench of blood lingered for a long time.
Lie Yang walked past the battlefield and gave it only a glance.
"Gather the supplies."
"Got it."
Several Shadow Clones swiftly collected usable ninja tools, scrolls, and provisions.
After dealing with the spoils, the group did not stop and continued on their journey.
Root's scheduled communications were cut off one after another.
The three status signals representing the squads also vanished entirely on the same day.
When the intelligence reached Konoha, the upper ranks were thoroughly shaken.
In an age of peace, Konoha had not suffered casualties this severe in a very long time.
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura arrived at the Hokage's office at the same time.
Danzo was forcibly summoned as well.
"Now, you must explain this clearly."
Utatane Koharu slammed the casualty list onto the desk.
"Three Root squads were wiped out within the Land of Fire."
"Twelve elite ninja, including three Jōnin."
"Danzo, what exactly did you send them to do?"
Mitokado Homura's expression was equally grim.
"These people left the village without approval from the high-level council."
"The mission details were never disclosed to us either."
"You have overstepped your authority."
Danzo leaned on his cane, his attitude cold and hard.
"Root missions are classified."
"I have nothing to tell you."
Utatane Koharu said angrily, "So many people died, and you still want to brush this off as classified?"
"Root answers directly to the Hokage."
Danzo looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"I do not need to explain myself to you."
"But Root is also part of Konoha's strength!"
Mitokado Homura said in a deep voice, "Losing three elite squads at once in peacetime is enough to affect the village's mission arrangements."
"If you are allowed to keep mobilizing forces in secret, who will keep Root in check?"
Danzo did not yield.
"The mission is not yet over."
"Revealing the details now will only give the target more time to prepare."
"Who is the target?"
Utatane Koharu stared at him.
"What elite from which ninja village was worth dispatching so many Root ninja?"
"Or are you using this mission to expand your own power again?"
Danzo's gaze turned cold.
The argument in the office grew increasingly heated.
At last, Hiruzen Sarutobi raised a hand and tapped the desk.
"Enough."
All three looked toward him at once.
Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up a sealed file and pushed it to the center of the desk.
"I authorized this."
Utatane Koharu frowned. "Hiruzen?"
"The target Root is hunting is not a ninja from another village."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was low.
"It is Uchiha Lieyang."
Mitokado Homura's expression shifted slightly.
"That Special Jōnin from the Uchiha Clan?"
"That's right."
Hiruzen Sarutobi recounted everything that had happened four days ago.
The A-rank mission spiraling out of control.
Takeno Sota and Ayakawa Yukina's deaths.
The forest fire.
Uchiha Lieyang's defection.
The battle memories the Yamanaka Clan had extracted from the dead men's brains.
And the repeated, grave misjudgments of his strength.
Utatane Koharu flipped through the report, her fingers stopping on the casualty statistics.
"Six Root squads."
"Three regular Konoha ninja teams."
"Six Jōnin..."
She raised her head, her voice tightening.
"They all died at Uchiha Lieyang's hands?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded slowly.
Mitokado Homura immediately asked, "Are you certain he was alone?"
"It has been confirmed."
"There was no assistance from ninja of another village?"
"None."
Mitokado Homura looked at the string of names and remained silent for a long while.
Six Jōnin.
The other dead were not ordinary Genin either, but seasoned Chunin and Special Jōnin who had undergone long-term training.
Such a force, placed in any small country, would have been enough to influence its situation.
Yet they had only hunted one person, and within mere days, all of them had died.
Danzo stood to the side, his face dark and terrifying.
At first, he had believed Lie Yang possessed, at most, elite Jōnin strength.
Four fully equipped Root squads, even against a powerful enemy, should have been able to complete the exchange through coordination and sacrifice.
But three squads had been annihilated, while Lie Yang's side had not left behind a single corpse.
That was no longer a record that elite Jōnin strength could explain.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the report on the desk, his aged face heavy with sorrow and guilt.
Konoha's upper ranks had severely underestimated Uchiha Lieyang.
Every wrong judgment had been paid for with ninja lives.
He slowly raised his head, his tone solemn.
"Reassess Uchiha Lieyang's strength."
"His strength had long since surpassed the realm of Jōnin."
"From this moment on, regard Uchiha Lieyang as a Kage Level expert."
The office instantly fell deathly silent.
Kage Level.
Everyone present understood the weight of those two words better than anyone.
It was not something ordinary Jōnin could easily surround and kill through sheer numbers.
It referred to those capable of contending with a small nation alone, crushing vast numbers of ordinary shinobi head-on, true powerhouses standing at the peak of the Shinobi World.
Among Konoha's four top officials, only Hiruzen Sarutobi was a genuine Kage Level expert.
As for Danzo, he had merely just touched the threshold of that level.
Before you continue