The word "root" has not been officially mentioned in Konoha for six or seven years.
Mitokado Homura He slowly turned his head and made a little sound in his throat before speaking out.
"Senju Chen. Shimura Danzō has been dead for several years."
"Seven years." Senju Chen said, "I brought the body back from Land of Rain, and it was placed in the morgue under this building at that time. Yamanaka Clan had it tested, Anbu also had his blood tested, Council of Elders three people were present at the time."
Mitokado Homura said, "So what I want to ask is - for a person who has been dead for seven years, why was his subordinate number canceled only five years ago?"
There was silence in the office.
Shikaku Nara took his hand out of his sleeve and tapped two fingers on the edge of the table.
"There was a gap of two years," he said.
Jiraiya Lift your back up from the wall.
"You mean, during those two years, someone was still handling the entry and exit procedures for that batch of numbers?"
"It's not just about the entry and exit procedures." Senju Chen put the seven pieces of paper back into the roll, pulled out another one, and spread it out in the middle of the table. "When I took over Root, I had to share the roster. At that time, the three One hundred and twenty-seven people, all registered as Public Security Department, not a few. In the past eight years, nineteen died, 11 were retired, four were transferred to the Medical Department, and the rest are still on duty at the Public Security Department."
His finger slid down and stopped at the end of the list.
"But these seven numbers were not on the roster at that time."
"What do you mean not on the roster?" Utatane Koharu asked.
"These people are not on Root's roster, nor on Anbu's active duty roster, nor on the death register. Their files are all in the 'destruction pending approval' box in Anbu's laboratory." Senju Chen said.
"Since it is pending approval for destruction--"
"The number of the box has been changed." Senju Chen said, "It turned out to be 'Yi-Qi', but it was changed to 'Yi-Xi'. Box No. 10 was written 'empty box' on the booklet. So no one has discovered them in the past few years."
"Who approved the cancellation?" This time it was Tsunade who asked.
"The head of the third section of Anbu at that time, his surname was Manami." Senju Chen said, "A year ago, he died on the Land of Grass border. Six people died in the same mission. The report said that they were ambushed by Iwagakure wandering ninjas. I pulled up the report and read it, and he was the one who signed it."
"That means death without evidence." Shikaku Nara said.
Jiraiya reached out and scratched his hair, and suddenly cursed.
"I'm familiar with this taste."
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Jiraiya.
"At the time of Orochimaru," Jiraiya said, "He set up four laboratories underground in Konoha, and no one in the village knew about it. Later it was found out that the signatories on all the material allocation orders were all dead people."
"So, everyone, I want to make a correction on this matter."
"These seven people are not the remnants of Shimura Danzō back then." Senju Chen said, "They are people who were raised by someone using the 'root' shell. When Danzo was alive, they blocked it for them; when Danzo died, they didn't even want the shell. They just canceled the number and became a non-existent person."
Tsunade stood up directly supporting the table.
"Check." She said, "We must find out the purpose of these people and who is behind them."
Senju When the lights in the mansion came on, it was already dark.
A frying pan was making noise in the kitchen. Shizune tied an apron around her waist, used a spatula in one hand and a spoon in the other, and turned on the two stoves at the same time. Yamato stood next to her cutting radishes, her posture was straight, and the radish pieces were the same size, which was a bit annoying.
"Yamato." Shizune said, "You don't need to cut vegetables into cubes."
"... Yes."
"This is home, not a laboratory."
"Yes." Yamato cut the next piece into a rectangular parallelepiped.
There was movement in the front yard. Anko rushed in without even knocking on the door, followed by Kurenai Yuhi.
"Chen! I'm here to get the storage scroll - wow, it smells so good!"
Kurenai Yuhi took off his coat at the door, glanced at the bag of fried scorpions on the table, and moved his eyebrows.
"What is this."
"Land of Rain special product!" Anko grabbed a handful and stuffed it in. "It's very fragrant and crunchy."
Kurenai Yuhi took a bite.
Yeah.
She expressionlessly put the half of the scorpion back on the plate.
"This hardness can be used directly as Kunai."
"I said this is called texture!"
"Anko." Senju Chen said, "You said the same thing last time, and then Lord Jiraiya almost broke half of his tooth when he took it."
"That's because he has bad teeth--"
Tsunade was the last one to come back. As soon as she entered the door, she threw her Hokage robe on the hanger, walked to the table, and bent down to smell the soup pot.
"Shizune, you were very aggressive today."
"Because Little Chen is back."
"Oh." Tsunade sat down and looked at Senju Chen, "Tell me, did you not eat well at Land of Rain?"
"Eat for three meals."
"Lost weight."
"Sister, I went away for a month and when I came back you said I lost weight three times."
"That means you are really thin." Tsunade put a large piece of meat into his bowl, turned around and reached for the wine bottle.
The meal lasted very late. Before leaving, Anko stuffed a bag of fried scorpions into Yamato and said, "I'm giving it to you Public Security Department as an overtime snack." Yamato took it with both hands and solemnly thanked him. After everyone left, he asked Senju Chen in a low voice, "Minister, can this really be eaten?"
"Yes." Senju Chen said, "Soak it in water for two hours and it can be used as a soup base."
"Then don't take a dip."
"If you don't soak it, it can be used as a ninja tool."
The dishes and chopsticks were put away in the kitchen, and the sound of water could be heard.
Senju Chen dragged the two cushions to the porch and poured two glasses of wine - one for him and one for Tsunade.
"Shizune is watching." Tsunade whispered.
"She's washing the dishes."
"... You have learned it." Tsunade picked up the cup, took a sip, leaned against the pillar, and looked at the old tree in the yard, "Land of Rain."
"What do you want to ask me?"
"More than three hundred people, the red carpet was spread from the city gate to the entrance of the mansion." Tsunade said, "This paragraph is written in all Shinobi World's intelligence scrolls. The leader of Akatsuki said in front of the envoys from the four countries that Konoha is his most important ally."
She turned her head.
"Little Chen, tell me, when did Konoha ever make such a bet on Land of Rain."
Senju Chen Put the cup on the floor.
"Konoha has never been downloaded."
"That's--"
"I did it."
The insects in the yard suddenly seemed very loud.
Tsunade The cup in his hand did not move.
"Since when."
"Third Shinobi World War." Senju Chen said, "I followed the teacher to Land of Rain to find Hanzo of the Salamander. I met three people by chance and gave me a welcome ceremony in the abandoned factory - Water Release, Paper Shuriken, Wind Release assistants, the trinity, they cooperated beautifully."
"And then."
"Then I found out that their teacher is Lord Jiraiya."
Tsunade put the cup down.
"I later learned that Jiraiya taught Ninjutsu in Land of Rain for three years." Senju Chen said, "He left after teaching, leaving nothing behind, not even paying for food."
"Then he hasn't mentioned it once in the past few years."
"I guess he thought those three children were dead long ago." Senju Chen said, "In his heart, it was an unfinished business. So when Land of Rain saw Nagato, he laughed three times and his eyes were red."
Tsunade was silent for a while.
"So from that point on, you were sending them stuff."
"Well, are they considered half Konoha people? In fact, after contacting me, I quite agree with their ideas. After that, I sent them some supplies, information and so on." Senju Chen said, "Usually there is a batch every three months. It goes to my own account and no money from the village is touched."
"When you sent them the first supplies, did you ever think about what if those people died the next year?" Tsunade said, "The things you sent out would become evidence in Hanzō's hands. Konoha was funding anti-government forces in other countries, not to mention that the village was still on good terms with Hanzo of the Salamander at the time. This was enough to drag the village into the quagmire."
"Don't worry, sister, half of that batch of things was picked out by me from Iwagakure's trophies." Senju Chen said, "Explosive Tag is Land of Earth's standard medicine. The bottle is sealed by Sunagakure, and even the oil paper used to wrap the goods is the batch commonly used by Iwagakure caravans. If something really happened, it turned out that it was Iwagakure who was raising rebels in Land of Rain."
Tsunade sat down again, grabbed the wine glass, and took a sip, "When the information about Land of Rain came back, I really couldn't understand why they were so respectful to us Konoha. At first, I thought they wanted to use us Konoha as a shield."
"Now that I hear you say it, I realize that this is the case."
"So the whole Shinobi World has been guessing about Konoha's layout for twenty years."
"Their guess was not wrong, hahaha." Senju Chen said
Tsunade put the empty cup on the floor. She didn't say anything. She reached over and brushed the hair on Senju Chen's forehead.
"Little Chen, how many things do you have that I, as a sister, don't know..."