Konoha's Root

The sky was already bright when Kato Osamu dragged his still somewhat weary body out of bed.

He stared blankly at the smiling dolls beneath the eaves, feeling as though they had somehow changed. He did not know whether it was merely something he had never noticed before.

He stood on the windowsill and took them down.

"Why... can I feel warmth from these...?"

He was now somewhat certain that it was not an illusion. The two teru teru bozu hanging by the window seemed to carry a faint warmth.

"So warm, like being wrapped tightly in a quilt filled with the scent of sunlight, happy from the inside out."

He rubbed the two teru teru bozu, savoring that subtle warmth.

Specks of fluorescent light slowly rose from the two teru teru bozu and drifted, bit by bit, into Kato Osamu's mind.

Kato Osamu watched those points of light in surprise. It felt like an illusion; he only sensed two warm hands gently hugging him before fading away with smiles.

He had not seen anything, yet two smiling faces involuntarily appeared in his mind. In that instant, he understood who they were.

"These are... my parents..."

Kato Osamu stood blankly by the window, feeling a warm, tender affection.

Though he no longer retained any memory of them and had never considered them his true parents, the emotion still made his nose sting slightly.

"Osamu, are you up...?"

Kato Yuan's voice interrupted Kato Osamu's inexplicable melancholy.

He came back to himself and felt as though his spirits had improved a little. The fluorescent light that had entered his mind seemed to have increased his spiritual energy by the tiniest amount. Had his senses not been so sharp, he might not have noticed.

"Uncle Yuan, I..."

"I'm already up... I went to bed a little late last night..."

Having stepped outside intending to ask something, Kato Osamu inexplicably kept his mouth shut. He merely sat down and ate breakfast in silence.

Over the past few days, he had thoroughly studied the clan's secret techniques, yet he had never seen anything like this described. He did not know whether it was some ability of his or something else, so he temporarily buried it in his heart.

Kato Yuan ate silently as well, occasionally offering him a few reminders. Kato Osamu's thoughts remained fixed on those motes of light, and he only responded now and then.

"Osamu... don't be afraid. Remember what Uncle told you..."

Seeing Kato Osamu like this, Kato Yuan hesitated. He set down his bowl and chopsticks, intending to say more, but abruptly stopped. His gaze gradually turned stern.

Kato Osamu suddenly sensed two Chakra presences behind him. A killing aura made him halt his movements.

"By Lord Danzo's order, Kato Osamu is to be brought into Root..."

"Kato Osamu, come with us..."

"So soon..."

Kato Yuan sat in his wheelchair, murmuring weakly to himself.

Yet his gaze remained fixed on the somewhat helpless Kato Osamu, his eyes full of worry.

"Uncle... I'm leaving..."

Kato Osamu said nothing more. Meeting Kato Yuan's eyes, he slowly calmed down and gave a faint smile.

He had to face his life head-on. Fear and escape would be useless; Kato Osamu could only face it with a smile, like an adult.

"Osamu..."

Kato Yuan said nothing, but Kato Osamu could understand what he meant—survive.

The two masked ninjas continued to watch everything coldly. In Kato Osamu's perception, their emotions were like stagnant water. Even if ripples appeared, they vanished without trace in an instant.

What clearly distinguished them from ANBU ninja was their aura: sharp, gloomy, and filled with the deadly, bloody air of poisonous snakes.

Thud...

As Kato Osamu briefly observed them, the Root ninja wearing an owl mask struck directly, knocking him unconscious.

"Identity confirmed..."

Whoosh...

The two vanished from the bamboo house with Kato Osamu, leaving only Kato Yuan clutching the armrests of his wheelchair as he stared at the distant mountaintop and sighed for a long while.

Konoha's ground level seemed like a dividing line. Above it stood towering mountains beneath the sun—honor and disgrace, friendship, struggle, and hearts carrying tender love, flowers, rain, and dew.

Below that horizon were darkness, decay, dampness, pain, and—death.

The Root base was enormous. When he awoke, the only person before him was a one-eyed middle-aged man with one arm wrapped in bandages.

Kato Osamu did not know where in Konoha he was. He only knew that this place was likely underground.

"Mi, from now on, your name will be 'Mi'..."

The one-eyed middle-aged man looked down at Kato Osamu. Dim firelight flickered around them, creating an eerie atmosphere.

"Do you remember, Mi!"

The one-eyed man's cane struck the ground with a thud, and it seemed as if the entire underground chamber had grown darker.

Kato Osamu merely stood there in a daze. Then pain suddenly shot through the bend of his knee, and he collapsed facedown on the ground. A fierce pressure swept over him, making it hard to breathe.

Two masked Root ninja stood on either side of the middle-aged man. They silently watched Kato Osamu lying on the ground without uttering a word.

Kato Osamu could feel that their emotions did not fluctuate in the slightest.

"I-I remember..."

If he had truly been a five-year-old child, he might have felt terror and fear, perhaps even planted a seed of dread in his heart from then on. But Kato Osamu felt only humiliation. Remembering Kato Yuan's words, he spoke in a halting voice.

"A-Three, take him away..."

"Yes, Lord Danzo..."

So he was Danzo... There was something about the man named Danzo that Kato Osamu deeply disliked—a dark, decaying stench.

Kato Osamu had no time to think further. The Root ninja called A-Three grabbed him by his clothes and took him away.

"Mi, this is where you will live from now on. Without Lord Danzo's orders, you are not permitted to leave the base."

There was only a small bed and scarcely any necessities. Only then did Kato Osamu have a chance to roll up his trouser leg. His calf was already red and swollen.

"Do not trust anyone's words. Disguise yourself, and survive..."

Kato Osamu sat on the small bed. The cramped living quarters made his mood sink even lower.

On the first day, no one paid him any attention. Starving, Kato Osamu desperately pounded on the door to his room, calling for the food a normal child should have received, but there was no response.

It was not until the morning of the second day that the tightly shut door slowly opened from outside. Kato Osamu's wary eyes instantly turned toward the entrance.

"Mi, you will enter the taijutsu class for training..."

"Follow me..."

So A-Three is my handler? Seeing that it was still A-Three, whom he had met once before, Kato Osamu relaxed slightly.

"Yes, Lord A-Three!"

Kato Osamu followed A-Three into Root's taijutsu training class.

A few days later, Kato Osamu finally seemed to have gained the slightest understanding of Root.

He no longer remembered what he had been like when he first entered the taijutsu training class, though only a few short days had passed.

He only remembered a towering gate. Once it opened, there were many people inside, filled with the sounds of whips and screams.

And now, he was one of those being whipped.

This was a place where tears were not permitted.