"How are things?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi asked with a grim expression. The rescue operation had gone on for a day, consuming enormous amounts of manpower and resources. Konoha Hospital was packed with the wounded, and the medical ninja and medical supplies that should have been sent to the front in the Land of Rivers had to be delayed.
"Seventy-three members of the Shimura Clan died. Everyone else has been sent to Konoha Hospital. The Root Base has been completely cleared out. Only thirteen people survived, including Lord Danzo, but Lady Tsunade is personally treating him."
After reporting the casualties, the ANBU continued, "The explosion probably occurred at the ANBU Base. The Interrogation Department has examined the brains of all the dead, and the survivors have been questioned as well. Nothing abnormal was found."
The Root Base was highly confidential; even within the ANBU, few knew about it. With an explosion occurring there, Hiruzen Sarutobi gave it some thought and concluded that someone had leaked information about the Root Base. Yet after examining both the living and the dead, they seemed to have found nothing.
If Root had not leaked the information, could it have been his ANBU? How else would the enemy have known about the Root Base?
And then there was the culprit behind it all. That familiar feeling, combined with Danzo's operation a few days earlier, had left Hiruzen Sarutobi pondering over the past few days whether he should simply declare Karn an enemy and gather all of Konoha's strength to eliminate him.
But he quashed the thought as soon as it arose. If he did that, the first to oppose him would be Kushina, who could use the Nine-Tails' power, and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire. Karn was too slippery. Without concrete evidence, no one would