Sound Waves Enter the Wood, the Hidden Task Reveals Itself

"The paper is moving."

The moment Iruka touched Chiba's pocket, the heat on the gray paper faded. The fourth mark left behind only half a pinprick, and the residual chakra within scattered as well.

"Don't touch it with your hands."

"I just barely survived poison, and you're still ordering me around?"

"Your hands smell like antidote."

Iruka withdrew his hand and nodded toward the Anbu.

"Then have them seal it away."

"If it's sealed, we won't be able to see it."

The arriving Anbu captain dropped into the room. He first checked the condition of the three Sound Ninja, then looked at Iruka, who was being supported by Bone Vines.

"Who subdued them?"

"My student."

"Senju Chiba?"

"Is there another person in this room who can use Wood Release?"

The Anbu captain did not respond. His palm hovered beside his ninja tool pouch.

"Why was a student here in the middle of the night?"

Chiba withdrew the Poison Vines wrapped around the Sound Ninja, leaving only Bone Wood supports binding their limbs.

"I was out night-running. I heard fighting and came over."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Leaning against the wall, Iruka coughed so hard that his shoulders shook.

"You ran from the Senju Clan Grounds to beneath my bed, and you even planted sensory roots beforehand?"

"The route was a little long."

"Say that again?"

"Endurance training."

The Anbu captain lowered his head to finish writing. His pen paused over the page for half a beat.

"You carried large-scale Wood Release traps while night-running?"

"Habit."

"This statement will be delivered to the Hokage exactly as it is."

"That's fine."

"And the communication code we found."

"I'll hand it over myself."

Kinoe extended his hand.

"Evidence cannot be kept by a student."

Iruka shifted half a step sideways, placing himself between them. The movement tugged at his left shoulder, and his newly recovered arm drooped again.

"Captain Kinoe, the Sound Ninja mentioned Root in my room, and they recognized you. It wouldn't be appropriate for you to take custody of the evidence now, would it?"

"He is a rogue ninja. His testimony cannot be trusted outright."

"That's why he needs to be interrogated."

"Root excels at interrogation."

"Tonight, what you excelled at was standing outside the window."

Kinoe's gaze passed over Iruka and landed on Chiba's chest pocket.

"The Hokage will require you to hand it over."

"Let him ask me himself."

The Anbu captain closed his notebook.

"Send Iruka to the medical department first. The rogue ninja will be taken over by the Anbu. Captain Kinoe and his men are to avoid the scene. Everyone who came into contact with the evidence tonight will be questioned."

"You have no authority to order Root."

"This is on-site handling by the Hokage's direct Anbu."

Neither side drew their blades, but Chiba saw the member to Kinoe's right press his thumb against a signal tube, then remove it before the captain turned around.

"He wants to send word."

The Anbu captain looked where Chiba pointed.

The man lowered his hand to his side.

"I was checking my equipment."

"Checking who you should send a message to?"

"Chiba."

Kinoe cut off his subordinate and turned toward the broken window.

"Someone will be held responsible for tonight's outcome."

"Make sure Danzo gets a good look at that paper."

Kinoe stepped onto the windowsill.

"Make sure you keep it first."

After the Root squad left, medical ninja brought in a stretcher. Iruka took one look at it and walked around it.

"I can walk."

"The meridians on your left side haven't recovered yet."

"It'd be more embarrassing to lie on that."

Chiba had a Bone Vine support his elbow from behind.

"Then don't fall."

"Tonight, you disobeyed Root's orders, attacked two Konoha ninja, and concealed evidence. Go back and prepare to write a report."

"I haven't finished Naruto's yet."

"You can stay after class with him."

"I saved you."

"So write one less."

Iruka took two steps, then turned back to look at the three Sound Ninja being carried away by the Anbu.

"Leave that copper tube behind. The way its sound waves disrupt meridians may be related to your Wood Release."

"I want that."

"What are you taking it for?"

"Analysis."

"Let the medical department check it for poison first."

Chiba picked up the broken half from the ground. When the Bone Wood Vine touched the copper tube, the pale framework within transmitted a faint tremor.

The World Tree panel lit up.

[Sound-wave chakra residue detected.]

[Sample activity insufficient. Cell extraction cannot be completed.]

[Residual imprint can be preserved through Wood Release conduits.]

A thin vine slipped into the hole of the copper tube, drawing the chakra clinging to the inner metal wall into its framework.

At first, the vine only twitched lightly. A few breaths later, a piece of broken wood beside it split apart on its own.

The Anbu captain looked at Chiba's hand.

"What did you do?"

"Just tried something."

"Was that the Sound Ninja's technique?"

"Not yet."

"Hand me the copper tube."

"The residue is already gone."

The captain took the metal tube and examined it. Only a few shallow marks remained inside, cleared by the vine roots.

"Senju Chiba, go to the Hokage Tower tomorrow morning."

"I have class."

"The Hokage's questioning is more important than the Ninja Academy."

Iruka supported himself on the stair railing outside the door.

"He'll go. So will I."

As Chiba passed the captured ninja with the copper tube, the man cracked his eyelids open.

"You absorbed my chakra?"

"There wasn't much left."

"That was sound waves, not something you can grow."

"I'll try again tomorrow."

"What kind of monster are you?"

A Bone Vine tightened half an inch beside his neck.

"Quiet."

By the time they returned to the clan grounds, it was already past the Hour of the Ox. Bai Ye sat on the warehouse threshold, with three cleanly sharpened bone spikes laid out before him.

"If you'd come back any later, I would've gone looking for your corpse."

"I'm not dead."

"I can see that. Whose blood is that?"

"Sound Ninja."

Bai Ye sniffed the copper tube casing Chiba handed him.

"One of the people chasing me used this. Every time he blew it, my bones shifted out of place inside my flesh."

"Can it be restored?"

"After killing him, take apart his mouth. There's another tube sewn inside."

"He's alive."

"Then keep him for questioning."

Chiba walked into the cave. Bone Wood Vines spread along the stone walls, and the sound-wave chakra he had just preserved dispersed through their internal framework.

The first wave of vibrations only shook loose a little stone dust.

When the second wave reached the vine tips, several cracks appeared across the rock face ahead.

Bai Ye raised a bone spike and tapped the vine.

"The framework carried the sound to the front."

"The range isn't enough yet."

"You want to shatter bone armor through wood?"

"First, I'll break kunai."

The World Tree skill diagram unfolded above the framework enhancement node. A branch that had once been gray lit up with the sound-wave imprint.

[Sound-wave chakra sample acquired.]

[Evolution preview unlocked: Wood Release: Resonance Vibration.]

[Wooden conduits can transmit vibrations at specific frequencies, gaining internal destructive capability.]

[Current sample completeness: 17%.]

[Full evolution requires active cells, or defeating a target who possesses a similar ability.]

Bai Ye could not see the words, so he reached out and tapped the vine again.

"It vibrates."

"Yeah."

"Planning to complete it with that guy from earlier?"

"He'll be locked up by the Anbu."

"Then break in and take him."

"Too expensive."

"You know how to calculate costs too?"

"Danzo is worth more."

The branch on the system panel extended upward. A black mission node appeared where only evolution requirements had previously been displayed.

The node was not connected to the sound-wave branch. Instead, it bypassed framework enhancement and landed directly on the World Tree's trunk.

[Detected that the host has broken a manipulative killing scheme aimed at himself.]

[Special mission triggered: Sever the Root Behind the Scenes.]

[Mission objective: Defeat the planner of this attack.]

[Target identity: Shimura Danzō.]

[Mission reward: Additional evolution points ×10.]

[Target threat level far exceeds the host's current tolerance limit.]

Chiba stared at it for several breaths, then recorded the new mission separately on the last page of his notebook.

Bai Ye leaned against the stone wall.

"Is ten points a lot?"

"Enough to open two evolution paths."

"Then kill him."

"Going now would be suicide."

"You know that too?"

Chiba placed the gray contact paper into the Bone Wood box. Roots pierced in from all sides, copying every crease and pinprick.

"Danzo has the Sharingan, Izanagi, and Root."

"That sounds stronger than you."

"For now."

"How long can you endure?"

"Until I can kill him."

Bai Ye retracted the bone spikes into his arm. Two drops of blood seeped out before the wound closed.

"Kaguya's people won't wait."

"So that only leaves you."

"Will the Senju wait?"

"The First won't. The Second will."

"Who are you learning from?"

Chiba closed the wooden box and wrapped another layer of Poison Vine around it.

"The winner."

The sensing roots outside the clan grounds relayed the sound of footsteps. Two Anbu stopped at the main gate without entering. One of them placed the Hokage's writ on the threshold.

Chiba dragged the paper scroll back with his roots. Its contents only ordered an inquiry the next morning and the surrender of evidence, but an additional dark-red seal that did not belong to the Hokage's Office had been stamped at the end.

After the seal touched the gray paper copy, the mission node lit up again. A countdown appeared beneath Danzo's name.

[The hidden objective has detected the preserved evidence. The cleanup operation will begin before dawn.]