Root Uses Iruka as a Pawn, Turning Him into a Dead End

Yotsuki did not knock on the storeroom door. He merely bent down, picked up the empty bowl, and wiped the medicinal residue from its rim with his thumb.

The medicine contained hemostatic grass and bone-replenishing powder, in quantities exceeding what Chiba alone needed. Half of an unfamiliar footprint remained in the mud nearby.

"Who are you hiding?"

There was no response from the courtyard.

The sound of pages turning came from the main house. Chiba knew he had entered, yet did not even open the door.

Yotsuki placed the empty bowl upside down in the lunchbox and spoke toward the main house.

"There won't be any sweet rice dumplings tomorrow."

"Get meat instead."

"You wish."

"Buy two portions."

Yotsuki left the clan grounds with the lunchbox. Only after walking two streets did he tuck the short hair stuck to the bottom of the bowl into his textbook.

The strand was white, carrying traces of Wood Release medicine and unfamiliar chakra. Its source could not be determined.

If he reported it to Root, the Anbu would search the clan grounds before dawn, and whoever Chiba was hiding would be exposed.

If he said nothing, that footprint would become evidence of his negligence.

Yotsuki stood at the entrance to the drainage channel for a while before tossing the white hair into the water and watching it get swept away by the filth.

"If it isn't confirmed, it isn't intelligence."

The person at the bottom of the channel had been waiting for a long time, wearing an unpatterned white mask.

"You're late."

"Chiba told me to buy meat."

"How are his injuries?"

"The Gentle Fist residue has been cleared, but his chakra still hasn't recovered. There will be no training tonight."

"Did he leave the clan grounds at night?"

"The Anbu found nothing."

"I asked what you found."

Yotsuki set the lunchbox on a stone platform. Inside was only the cleaned empty bowl.

"The roots extend toward the western cave. The exit lies beyond my sensing range. He may be preparing a new escape route."

"May?"

"I can't enter the clan grounds and search."

The masked ninja stared at him for a moment, then reached out and took the record scroll.

"Lord Danzo wishes to question you personally."

"Now?"

"You may go tomorrow instead, provided you want the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal to answer for you."

Yotsuki stuffed the textbook into his clothes and followed the other man through the drainage channel, entering Root's concealed entrance beneath Konoha.

The farther they went, the fewer lamps there were. By the final stretch, he could only make out the stone tiles beneath his feet.

Danzo sat behind a long table. Spread across it was the full record of training in the Forest of Death, with the part covering Chiba's fight against Neji copied separately three times.

"The toxin invaded in reverse through Gentle Fist chakra. Wood Release can even maintain a clone's scent."

Danzo tapped a line in the record with his cane.

"Who taught him that?"

"No one."

"An orphanage couldn't provide him with poison formulas, and the academy never taught Wood Release."

"He borrowed books from the pharmacy. The poison spores used Sleep Vine Flower and Fire Rat Grass. He may have figured out the proportions himself."

"May?"

Yotsuki looked at the paper without touching the textbook hidden in his clothes.

"I never saw him make medicine."

"You lived in the same orphanage. Why would he guard against you?"

"Because I report to Root."

"He knows?"

"Yes."

"And he still keeps you close?"

"He likes watching how I report."

Danzo's cane lifted from the table and fell beside Yotsuki's feet.

"Explain."

"Whenever Chiba discovers surveillance, he deliberately releases information mixed with truth and falsehood. He wants to see which version Root chooses."

"Which kind did you send back?"

"I can only report what I see."

"And tonight?"

Yotsuki took another record from his sleeve and placed it beside the training report.

"Chakra recovery is slow. His appetite has increased. He bought ordinary iron ore. Root activity in the western cave is frequent."

"Anything else?"

"No."

Another Root ninja beside the table opened a medicine purchase order.

"He bought two portions of hemostatic medicine and three portions of bone-replenishing powder. Why didn't you write that?"

"His Wood Release has just completed skeletal reinforcement. The medicine could be used to cultivate vines."

"Bone-replenishing powder can't be fed to wood."

"Wood never grew skeletons before, either."

Danzo raised a hand to stop his subordinate from pressing further.

"Leave."

The Root ninja put away the medicine order and entered the passage behind him.

Only the soft sound of a cane tapping the floor remained in the room. Yotsuki waited a moment before Danzo turned to the last page of the training record.

"Senju Chiba is growing faster than expected."

"So you intend to bring him back?"

"The sapling is still thin. Transplant it too early, and its roots will break."

"You plan to keep waiting?"

"Wait until he realizes Konoha has no place for the Senju. Wait until the people around him encounter danger one after another. Wait until he understands that only Root is willing to protect him."

Yotsuki looked at the map. A section of the eastern forest had been circled in red, with records of three Land of Rice Fields ninja operating nearby.

"Who are they?"

"Hidden Sound Village defectors who escaped an underground experimental site in the Land of Rice Fields. They stole a batch of Orochimaru's poisons and are also searching for Kaguya clan test subjects."

At the mention of Kaguya, the fingers gripping the edge of Yotsuki's textbook paused for a moment before quickly loosening.

"They'll come to Konoha?"

"They will."

"And Root will let them in?"

"A patrol route will be left empty for half an hour."

"Is Chiba the target?"

"If we kill him now, we gain nothing."

Danzo picked up a Ninja Academy personnel list from beside the map. Iruka's name had already been circled in red.

"Have them assassinate Iruka."

Yotsuki did not reach for the list.

"Iruka is only a teacher."

"He registered Chiba's toxins at the training ground and prevented the Anbu from directly taking the student away. The Hidden Sound people will believe he has Chiba's Wood Release samples."

"That reason isn't enough."

"Give them a fake experimental record as well. State that Iruka will deliver the samples to the medical department tomorrow night."

"What if they kill him directly and take the scroll?"

"The scroll contains a tracking technique. Root will stop them before they leave."

"What about Iruka?"

"Leave him one breath."

Danzo took a narrow medicine case from beneath the table. Inside were three pale blue antidotes.

"The Meridian Poison used by Hidden Sound will take the medical department half a day to analyze. Iruka won't last an hour."

"Root has the antidote."

"Chiba doesn't."

Yotsuki stared at the three doses.

"You want him to come beg Root?"

"He will first try his own Poison Vine. Once he realizes it can't save Iruka, bring him to the old shrine on the eastern side."

"What if he suspects Root arranged it?"

"When people are trying to save someone, they don't first investigate who handed them the medicine."

"He will."

"Then Iruka must be injured badly enough."

Danzo took out a forged mission order. It already bore the Ninja Academy's seal.

"Tomorrow afternoon, Iruka will go to Warehouse Seven to check the training ninja tools. The Hidden Sound defectors will strike on his way back."

"Chiba won't be there. The crisis won't affect him."

"Go to the clan grounds and tell him Iruka is waiting at the warehouse for him to submit his overdue training record."

"He may not go."

"Use Naruto's name."

Yotsuki raised his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Tell Chiba that Naruto secretly experimented with the Shadow Clone Technique. Iruka has detained him in the warehouse and needs Chiba to come retrieve him."

"He'll verify it first."

"The academy's messenger hawk will be replaced, and Iruka's name will remain on the warehouse duty roster. By the time he reaches the halfway point, the attack will already have begun."

"What about Naruto?"

"He'll be locked in a classroom writing a report. He won't appear."

Yotsuki flipped through the mission order. The paper was from the same batch used daily by the Ninja Academy, and even the note Iruka habitually wrote at the end had been imitated.

"Who do you plan to have intervene in time?"

"Kinoe will wait at the old shrine with two squads. Once Chiba arrives with the poisoned Iruka, ask him first what he is willing to trade for the antidote."

"He won't join Root."

"The first time, we only take a Wood Release blood sample."

"And then?"

"The second time, we take a mission. The third time, we take a name. Once he becomes accustomed to coming here for what he needs, joining Root will be no more than changing clothes."

Yotsuki placed the mission order back on the table.

"What if the Hidden Sound people fail?"

"There is another group on the road from the academy to the clan grounds."

"What if Chiba kills them all first?"

"Then have Kinoe appear a little later and tell him another attacker went to the orphanage."

"There are no attackers at the orphanage."

"He doesn't know that."

Danzo closed the medicine case and pushed one of the antidotes toward Yotsuki.

"You are responsible for making him believe Root saved Iruka and can save the others at the orphanage as well."

Yotsuki did not take it.

"If I'm exposed, Chiba will kill me first."

"Then don't be exposed."

"Is that an order?"

"That is the value of keeping you by his side."

A burning pain flared from the Cursed Seal beneath Yotsuki's tongue. He reached out and picked up the antidote, its cold glass pressed against his palm.

"When does Iruka leave?"

"At a quarter past the Hour of the Monkey."

"When will the Hidden Sound people strike?"

"At three quarters past the Hour of the Monkey."

"When will Root save him?"

"After Chiba asks."

"What if he doesn't ask?"

Danzo pushed Iruka's personnel list beneath the lamp. The paper's corner quickly curled black with fire.

"Then let him watch his teacher draw his last breath."

Three days later, Iruka would have only one final breath left in front of Chiba.