The Establishment of Root

"Knock, knock, knock-"

"Come in..."

Hyuga Feng stood outside the Hokage's office and raised his hand to knock.

Hearing the reply, he pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside.

"Oh... the head of the Hyuga Clan... what brings you here?"

The Lord Third smiled when he saw who had come.

But he had no idea what had brought him here.

"Lord Lord Third..."

There was another man in the room besides the Lord Third.

"Is something troubling you, Clan Head?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi was still young then, looking not quite thirty.

Since the Lord Third had asked, Hyuga Feng voiced his request.

"Lord Third, there is an exceptionally gifted child in the Hyuga Branch Family," Hyuga Feng said solemnly. "I'd like to secure a place for her at the Ninja Academy."

Then Hyuga Feng collected himself and continued.

"Despite being only six years old, she has already awakened her Byakugan."

"Gasp-"

Hyuga Feng heard both the Lord Third and the man beside him draw sharp breaths at those words.

It seemed they had heard something unbelievable.

As far as they knew, the Byakugan could only be awakened through extensive training.

If she had done it at just six, she must have been exceptionally talented.

They seemed to see a genius of the next generation before them.

"Of course... we're more than happy to have children from the clans attend the Ninja Academy."

Hiruzen Sarutobi had never intended to refuse. Having clan shinobi join the Ninja Academy was a good thing in itself.

Besides, instilling the will of fire in the clans' children would strengthen their sense of belonging to the village.

"By the way, what's her name?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked. "I'll register her."

"Yui Hyuga. Female."

Hiruzen Sarutobi wrote down the information.

"Then have her come to the Ninja Academy tomorrow for classes."

"Very well, Lord Third. I'll take my leave."

After Hyuga Feng left, the two men in the office resumed their discussion.

"Sarutobi, I want to create an organization, one under my command."

"I'll call it Root. What do you think?"

"You are Konoha, basking in the sunlight, while I am the root buried deep underground."

Hiruzen Sarutobi fell silent for a moment.

"Phew-"

He took a drag on his pipe, rose, and stood by the window, gazing at the lights of Konoha.

In the end, he neither agreed nor refused.

But the man knew this was tacit approval, and he walked out with a smile.

Watching Danzo's retreating back, he sighed quietly.

"Danzo, consider this compensation..."

After all, an organization operating within the village outside the Hokage's control was itself the greatest threat to the village.

That evening, Yui went to the Training Ground as usual.

Sure enough, a little girl was waiting for her.

The moment Yui saw her, her face lit up.

She ran over to Nai Hyuga and told her everything that had happened that day.

"Nai, listen..."

After hearing the results of Yui's assessment, Nai was delighted too.

"Congratulations..."

"It looks like we can go to school together again tomorrow."

Yui was looking forward to it a little herself.

"Oh, Yui, you don't have any ninja tools yet, do you? I'll give you a pouch of them."

Nai Hyuga took a waist pouch from behind her and handed it to Yui.

Yui opened it and found three kunai and six shuriken inside.

"Thank you..." Yui said, lifting her eyes to meet Nai Hyuga's gaze.

Nai seemed unused to being looked at that way and quickly averted her eyes.

"Oh, right! I met so many interesting kids at the Ninja Academy today."

"They all look so distinctive."

"One has a bowl cut, one has pale blue hair, and another is cold and aloof."

"Oh, and there was a little boy with white hair, just like yours."

"But his hair is grayish-white, while yours is snow-white."

Nai Hyuga counted off the people she had seen on her fingers.

Listening to her, Yui already knew their names.

A bowl cut? At this point in time, wouldn't that be Might Duy?

Pale blue hair? She thought it over, but the answer was obvious. That should be Dan Katō.

The cold, aloof one must be an Uchiha, though I don't know which one.

The one with hair like mine is probably Hatake Sakumo, or perhaps Jiraiya.

Nai Hyuga told her everything she had seen and heard at the Ninja Academy that day.

Yui listened with keen interest.

Neither of them trained that night. Instead, they simply spent their time talking quietly.

Since she had to report to the Ninja Academy the following morning, Yui did not go to the lake to practice her chakra control either.

Time slipped by, moment by moment.

Late that night...

"Phew-"

Hyuga Feng jolted awake from his sleep, his Byakugan activating without him even realizing it.

His heart raced, and his forehead was drenched in sweat.

This was the third prophetic dream of his life.

The first had come when he was six. He had dreamed that the Warring States Period, which had lasted thousands of years, would be ended by a shinobi clad in dark red armor.

On the battlefield, that shinobi wielded enormous tendrils and defeated every enemy.

He controlled a giant formed from those tendrils, battling an enemy's blue giant.

In the end, his dream had come true. The shinobi wielding the tendrils was the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, while the shinobi controlling the blue giant was named Madara Uchiha.

Together, the two had brought that age of war to an end.

The second time, he had dreamed of a woman with white skin, two long horns, and a red eye on her forehead.

To his astonishment, she had the Byakugan, just like them.

She controlled an enormous tree that devoured everyone in the shinobi world.

That was why he had felt afraid when he saw a white-skinned girl born into the clan.

Fortunately, she had been branded with the Caged Bird Seal, so there should be no trouble.

But what he had dreamed this time was even more terrifying.

A group of white-skinned people descended from the sky. Their power was so terrifying that not a single shinobi in the world could defeat them.

They planted countless trees bearing scarlet fruit throughout the shinobi world.

Then, all life in the shinobi world ceased to exist.

It filled him with panic and fear.

A terror of the unknown welled up in his heart.

He dressed and opened the door to the secret chamber.

"Sano... how is the experiment coming along?"

Inside the secret chamber stood an enormous crystal ball.

A middle-aged man in a white lab coat stood before it.