The Cost of Six Jonin

Danzo's eyes flickered.

"What about ANBU?"

"They won't be deployed for now."

"And Root is to be restricted as well?"

"The village cannot disrupt its normal operations over a single rogue ninja."

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at him, his voice growing heavier.

"But this time, I won't stop you."

"Seal all investigation results for now."

"Do not leak any information to the Uchiha Clan."

Danzo understood what he meant.

Lie Yang had already defected.

But whether the Uchiha Clan knew about it remained uncertain.

If the news were made public now, the Konoha Police Force would likely react in advance, perhaps even causing the already tense 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 in Root's underground base were opened in succession.

Four elite squads assembled at the same time.

Each squad was led by a jonin or special jonin, 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—everything was fully prepared.

Danzo stood atop a high platform, looking down at the people below.

"The target is Uchiha Lieyang."

"His corpse and eyes must be brought back."

"Yes!"

Their unified response echoed through the base.

Danzo handed each of the four captains a sealed scroll.

"Besides the pursuit mission, you are to carry out the orders within these scrolls as well."

The four captains did not inspect them, directly putting the scrolls away.

On the surface, they were leaving the village to hunt down a rogue ninja.

In truth, each squad also carried a different mission.

Contact Root's agents stationed outside.

Establish new secret bases.

Transfer supplies.

Recruit usable forces within the Land of Fire.

Danzo would not waste this opportunity to legitimately deploy Root beyond the village.

Hunting down Lie Yang was merely the most important of those tasks.

The expansion of Root's power outside the village could not stop either.

After the four squads left the base, they swiftly vanished beyond Konoha.

No one believed the mission would fail.

"Two squads will surround and kill him together, one will seal off his escape routes, and the last will provide support."

A special jonin captain scanned Lie Yang's latest intelligence report.

"Even if the target possesses elite jonin-level 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 a killing opportunity."

"As long as we find his real body, the Shadow Clone Technique is meaningless."

"We've even surrounded and killed renowned experts from other villages."

The captain put away the report.

"An Uchiha barely twenty years old can't possibly turn the world upside down."

But reality swiftly shattered their judgment.

As Lie Yang continued his journey, he encountered three Root squads in succession.

The first squad had barely completed its encirclement when a Shadow Clone lurking underground tore through their formation from within.

The second squad tried to seal off a valley with large-scale ninjutsu, but several Shadow Clones charged out of the dense 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 grown tired of these repetitive encirclements.

He did not even need to act personally.

The Shadow Clones used Lightning Body Flicker to break through the blockade, formed hand seals with one hand 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 jonin captain was pinned to a tree trunk by several kunai.

Looking at the corpses strewn across the ground, his breathing beneath the mask became completely ragged.

"Just how much strength have you been hiding?"

The Shadow Clone did not answer.

Lightning flashed past.

The short blade severed his throat.

The corpse slid down 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 through the battlefield and only gave it a glance.

"Collect the supplies."

"Got it."

Several Shadow Clones swiftly gathered the usable ninja tools, scrolls, and supplies.

After dealing with the spoils, the group did not linger and continued onward.

Root's scheduled communications were cut off one after another.

The three signals representing the squads' status also vanished completely on the same day.

When the intelligence returned to Konoha, the upper ranks were thoroughly shaken.

In this age of peace, Konoha had not suffered casualties on such a scale 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 slapped the casualty list onto the desk.

"Three Root squads were wiped out within the Land of Fire."

"Twelve elite ninja, including three jonin."

"Danzo, what exactly did you send them to do?"

Mitokado Homura's expression was equally grim.

"These people left the village without going through an upper-ranks meeting."

"The mission details were never disclosed to us either."

"You have overstepped your authority."

Leaning on his cane, Danzo remained cold and unyielding.

"Root missions are classified."

"I have nothing to disclose."

Utatane Koharu snapped, "So many people have died, and you still intend to fob us off with classified information?"

"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 low voice, "Losing three elite squads at once in peacetime is enough to affect the village's mission assignments."

"If you continue moving Root in secret as you please, who will keep it 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.

In the end, Hiruzen Sarutobi raised a hand and tapped the desk.

"Enough."

All three looked toward him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up a sealed file and pushed it to the center of the desk.

"I authorized this matter."

Utatane Koharu frowned. "Hiruzen?"

"Root's target is not a ninja from another village."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was low.

"It is Uchiha Lieyang."

Mitokado Homura's expression changed slightly.

"That special jonin from the Uchiha Clan?"

"That's right."

Hiruzen Sarutobi told them everything that had happened four days earlier.

The A-rank mission going 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 jonin..."

She raised her head, her voice tightening.

"They all died at Uchiha Lieyang's hands?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly nodded.

Mitokado Homura immediately asked, "Are you certain he was alone?"

"We are certain."

"No ninja from another village assisted him?"

"No."

Mitokado Homura looked at that string of names and said nothing for a long while.

Six jonin.

The rest of the dead had not been ordinary genin either, but chunin and special jonin with extensive training and experience.

Such a force would have been enough to influence the situation in any small nation.

Yet they had pursued a single person and all died within just a few days.

Danzo stood to one side, his expression terrifyingly dark.

At first, he had believed Lie Yang possessed strength at most equal to an elite jonin.

Four fully equipped Root squads, even against a powerful enemy, should have been able to accomplish a mutual kill through coordination and sacrifice.

Yet three squads had been annihilated, while Lie Yang's side had not left behind a single body.

This was no longer a record that elite jonin strength could explain.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the report on the desk, his aged face heavy with guilt.

Konoha's upper ranks had gravely underestimated Uchiha Lieyang.

Every mistaken 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 jonin level."

"From this moment on, regard Uchiha Lieyang as a Kage-level powerhouse."

The office instantly fell deathly silent.

Kage level.

Everyone present understood the weight those two words carried better than anyone.

It was not an existence ordinary jonin could easily surround and kill through sheer numbers.

It was a true powerhouse standing at the pinnacle of the ninja world, capable of contending with a small nation alone and crushing vast numbers of ordinary ninja head-on.

Among Konoha's four high-ranking leaders, only Hiruzen Sarutobi was unquestionably a Kage-level powerhouse.

As for Danzo, he had only barely touched the threshold of that level.