Aftermath

"A member of the Hyuga Clan? Perfect timing!" Neji had barely been out on the street for two minutes when someone dressed in Anbu gear approached him. "Use your Byakugan to find someone immediately. He's wearing a black robe with red clouds and a Tiger-Pattern Mask."

Neji nodded. "Understood."

Neji activated his Byakugan and began searching with an air of concentration.

"Well? Have you found anything?" the man asked anxiously.

Neji shook his head. "Nothing. He may have already moved beyond my Byakugan's range."

"Damn it!" After muttering a curse, the man vanished from Neji's sight.

The streets were already under lockdown, and shoppers were being evacuated to safe areas. After coming up to the surface, Neji joined the group evacuating Konoha's civilians.

Ninjas leaped from rooftop to rooftop, every one of them in a hurry.

They seemed convinced that the intruder was still somewhere inside Konoha.

Watching all the traffic on the rooftops, Neji found it downright amusing.

It really is nice to sit back and watch the show! Neji went through the motions of helping the group evacuate the crowds. He was starting to enjoy being a spectator.

He was in an excellent mood. This operation had been a tremendous success, accomplishing his goal perfectly.

Overall, the operation had gone more smoothly than expected, without any surprises or close calls.

Once the evacuation was complete, Neji did not return to the Hot Spring Shop on the street near Root. Instead, he wandered Konoha's streets, pretending to search for a possible intruder.

At first, some ninjas saw that he was only a Genin and wanted to send him home immediately so he would not get in the way.

But once they realized he belonged to the Hyuga Clan and possessed the Byakugan, they let him join the search.

Neji spent most of the night roaming aimlessly around Konoha. Only after things gradually settled down did he return to the Hyuga Clan.

Neji had enjoyed himself, but the members of Konoha High Command, led by Hiruzen Sarutobi, were far from pleased.

Someone had infiltrated Root and plundered it. That was an unprecedented first.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi received the news, he could hardly believe it. He suspected Danzo had staged the whole thing himself so he could submit a report to him, the Hokage, and ask for more funding or something.

When he arrived at Root's underground base, the sight gave him a real shock. A quarter of the entire underground facility had collapsed, leaving Hiruzen Sarutobi thoroughly alarmed.

"Where is Aburame Ryoma? Where did he go?" Standing in the darkness, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the Root Ninja kneeling before him.

The Root Ninja bowed his head and answered respectfully, "Lord Ryoma went ahead of us to intercept the intruder, then went missing."

Hiruzen Sarutobi fell silent. Aburame Ryoma had most likely died without leaving an intact body. Calling him missing was merely a gentler way of putting it.

Just then, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, two of Konoha High Command's F4, also arrived at Root's base.

Utatane Koharu looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Hiruzen, how are things? Have you found anything?"

Feeling troubled, Hiruzen Sarutobi took a long drag on his pipe. "Nothing at all. I examined the traces left by the battle, but I've never seen the ninjutsu the intruder used."

Mitokado Homura was startled. "Even you don't recognize the ninjutsu he used?"

"Hiruzen, this..." Utatane Koharu was at a loss for words.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was known as the Ninjutsu Professor. He had mastered thousands of ninjutsu, and no one in the entire shinobi world could rival the sheer number he knew.

Yet now he was saying he could not even deduce what kind of ninjutsu the enemy had used.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. "The shinobi world is vast. There's no end to its wonders."

"What losses did Root suffer?" Mitokado Homura asked the Root Ninja standing by.

"Reporting to the advisor: after taking inventory, we discovered that the enemy stole several ninjutsu from Root's collection. They were the Four Symbols Seal, Five Elements Seal, Yin Seal, Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu, and Spirit Transformation Technique," the Root Ninja replied.

After hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi flew into a rage. "What is Danzo doing? Why did Root have the Yin Seal and Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu?!"

His chest heaved violently. Neither technique was ordinary. The Yin Seal was a medical Sealing Jutsu created by his student Tsunade. Without her permission, even Hiruzen Sarutobi could not authorize teaching it to anyone else. The Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu, meanwhile, was among the most strictly forbidden techniques. He had long since ordered that no ninja in Konoha was to research or learn it.

Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi's fury, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura did not dare interject. They merely watched in silence.

"Danzo is growing bolder by the day. He even dares to go behind my back as Hokage and meddle with something like the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu." Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was ice-cold.

Isn't your indulgence the reason Danzo dares to do this? It's not as if he hasn't done worse. He got away with trying to assassinate you, the Hokage. What's researching a few forbidden techniques compared to that? Utatane Koharu grumbled inwardly.

They knew perfectly well how Hiruzen Sarutobi indulged Danzo's antics, but they could not say such things aloud.

It took Hiruzen Sarutobi quite a while to suppress his anger. He looked at the Root Ninja standing by. "What were Root's personnel losses?"

"Reporting to Lord Hokage: Root currently has nine confirmed dead and nine missing."

After hearing the report, Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression darkened like a storm cloud. There was no need to think about it—the missing personnel were surely dead as well.

Root's role was to train personnel for the Anbu. Although it had effectively become relatively independent, a large proportion of Anbu personnel were still selected from Root. In that respect, Root was still fulfilling its duties.

Eighteen people—that was one more than an entire Anbu squad. And among the dead was an Elite Jonin like Aburame Ryoma.

"Devastating losses..." Mitokado Homura sighed.

Konoha's Anbu only numbered a few dozen. Even with Root included, there were only a little over a hundred personnel. They had just lost a tenth of them in one blow.

While losses on this scale were not crippling, they were by no means minor.

Training each Anbu member consumed considerable resources. Not just anyone could do the job. Besides formidable strength, they needed strong mental resilience, because their work involved deeds that could never see the light of day.

Without that mental resilience, even if they did not die at an enemy's hands, they would eventually buckle under the strain and break down.

"Have you determined exactly what the intruder looks like?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked coldly.

"Lord Hokage, he moved too quickly. The surveillance cameras only captured a few blurry images. We're still working to restore them," the Root Ninja answered.

"Restore the surveillance footage as quickly as possible!" Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered.