Uprooting: Root

Minato held Little Nine-Tails and looked at Pero, his eyes filled with complicated emotions.

He recalled Kushina lying at home, on the verge of death.

"Pero..." Minato struggled to speak, his voice trembling slightly. "Could I trouble you... to save Kushina?"

Minato recalled how, back at Konoha's border, Pero had used his own chakra to save Rin's life after extracting the Tailed Beast.

Pero glanced at Minato, then focused his eyes, looking through layer upon layer of obstacles at Kushina, who lay beside Naruto, pale and barely breathing.

Madara Uchiha had forcibly extracted Nine-Tails. Having a Tailed Beast removed was deadly for a Jinchūriki.

When Pero gave no response, Minato grew increasingly anxious.

"Easy enough," Pero said casually, as though it were merely a trivial favor.

Hearing Pero's answer, Minato breathed a sigh of relief, his body relaxing.

Pero vanished with a Body Flicker Technique, and Minato was just about to follow.

Hiruzen's voice came from nearby.

Minato turned and looked at Hiruzen as he landed before him.

"Minato, has that fellow come? He's powerful, and our village can't deal with him for now. Don't create any unnecessary complications."

Minato nodded.

"Nine-Tails and Madara Uchiha appeared just now. The alarm clearly sounded in the village, but reinforcements never arrived."

Minato froze for a moment. He had given no orders. With such a commotion in the village, there was no way reinforcements wouldn't come.

He used the Flying Thunder God Technique to appear at the village's highest vantage point and surveyed his surroundings.

Minato's pupils contracted. Nine-Tails hadn't yet begun destroying things on a large scale and had only destroyed two or three streets. Why were there so many injured people?

Looking closely, he saw that the injuries on these shinobi seemed to have been caused by Ninja Tools.

This could wait until afterward.

Minato said goodbye to Hiruzen and headed home in a flash of blue light.

Pero appeared inside Minato's home. Curious as to why Minato hadn't followed, he glanced back, saw him talking to Hiruzen, and shrugged.

He walked over to Kushina and extended a hand, his palm emitting a faint glow.

Blue light flashed as Minato hurried home. Seeing the violent glow of chakra around Pero's hand, his heart leaped into his throat.

"Mr. Pero..."

Pero raised a hand to interrupt Minato.

"It's fine. You underestimate the Uzumaki Clan's constitution."

He thought of that talented Nagato Uzumaki. In the original story, even after the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had drained his chakra for so long, he could still control the Six Paths of Pain and cause trouble everywhere. That was enough to prove just how extraordinary the Uzumaki Clan's constitution was.

Minato could only force down his anxiety and watch Pero work.

Vast, violent chakra flowed past Pero's hand like a surging river, pouring into Kushina's body and rapidly replenishing her lost vitality.

Golden light clung to her chakra pathways, repairing the damage caused by the forced extraction of the Tailed Beast.

Kushina groaned in pain, her brows tightly furrowed, but color returned to her face at a visible pace.

Her breathing also grew steady and strong, coming in soft pants.

Seeing this, Minato slowly let go of his anxiety, joy appearing on his face as he watched Kushina.

A moment later, Kushina opened her eyes. Though she was still rather weak, her life was no longer in danger.

Pero withdrew his hand and looked at Naruto, who lay beside her with his eyes still closed.

"Hey, congratulations." Pero looked at Naruto. "Now you might have to change your name to Menma, hahahaha."

His words stunned both Minato and Kushina. Why change his name to Menma? Then tears welled in Kushina's eyes, and she hugged Naruto tightly. Since it was their savior who said so, Menma seemed like a pretty good name.

Minato smiled in relief as he looked at Kushina, who was crying with joy, and Naruto.

He turned and bowed gratefully to Pero.

The warm atmosphere did not last long.

Seeing that things at home had settled down, he began reviewing the situation in the village after Nine-Tails' invasion, as the Fourth Hokage.

The shinobi had been injured on their way to provide support. Someone had deliberately obstructed the village's reinforcements, preventing them from arriving.

He suddenly remembered that there was a force in the village that had never been under the Hokage's control.

Minato's gaze turned cold. He vanished with the Flying Thunder God Technique, leaving only a few words behind.

"Kushina, Lord Pero, I have some matters to clean up. Please excuse me..."

Konoha's Anbu.

Minato appeared in a tree near the Anbu premises and looked down at the silent grounds.

It seemed everyone had gone out to provide support and hadn't returned yet.

Danzo's "Root." Although Danzo was already dead, remnants of Root still remained under him. Rumor had it that Danzo had been using this organization all along to try to weaken the Hokage's authority.

This time, they had taken advantage of the village's chaos to stir up trouble. They might have had some other purpose in mind.

Using Flying Thunder God repeatedly, he broke into Root's interior at lightning speed.

A flash of blue light lit up a dim room.

Minato appeared inside and looked around.

With his exceptional spatial awareness, he had always felt that something else seemed to exist within the Anbu premises. After breaking through a wall with a Rasengan, he had discovered a hidden space through the fist-sized opening, then entered using a Kunai and Flying Thunder God.

The room held many files and seemed to be a secret chamber for storing intelligence.

He picked up a piece of intelligence at random. The next moment, his pupils contracted, and he hurriedly began looking through the other files.

A short while later, Minato's face was dark, a dangerous gleam flashing in his eyes.

These files recorded most of the shady things Root had done.

As the Fourth Hokage, he would never allow such a parasitic presence to remain buried beneath Konoha's roots. Sooner or later, it would destroy the Shinobi Village.

He gathered all the intelligence there and vanished in a flash.

Konoha's office.

Minato stood in the center of the room, giving instructions to the trusted subordinate before him.

"Pass down the order. Investigate every Anbu member thoroughly. Follow the list in this intelligence, and deal with anyone connected to Root!"

Minato issued the order in a tone that brooked no argument.

A bloody purge quietly unfolded within Konoha. The remnants of Root hidden deep within were dug out and uprooted by Minato's ruthless, decisive measures.

Not one was spared.

Over the course of that night, Minato's mindset underwent a complete transformation. He had witnessed Pero's strength firsthand and learned of the darkness and conspiracies tolerated beneath Konoha's glorious surface.

With the Third's tacit approval, Danzo had used Root to turn Konoha into a complete mess.

He realized that his own strength alone would hardly be enough to face the disasters that might come in the future.

He made his choice.

"Pero, I've decided." Minato took a deep breath. "I want to work with you. As Hokage, I'll secretly help the Akatsuki, but in return..."

"Konoha also needs to develop. I want to secure the greatest possible benefits for Konoha."

Hearing this, a smile curled across Pero's face. "Of course. Since you've chosen us, you're one of us now."

With that, Konoha's Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage, officially switched sides and chose to stand with Pero.