To Danzō, although "Root" was written as a single word, its meaning could be equated to three words: that legendary vital point, which also had a very Eastern-style name… his life root.
Nominally, Root was a training institution for the Anbu. In reality, it was a private armed force completely controlled by Danzō, independent of the Hokage system. It could not be said to stand on equal footing with the Anbu, but it could indeed influence Konoha's policies to a certain degree.
Root was an enormous force that could not be ignored.
From the perspective of high-level decision-making, it was precisely because of Root and Danzō's existence that the two Konoha advisers, who survived entirely by relying on Talk no Jutsu, could live so comfortably. Because such "coexistence" created a need for balance, the advisers would sometimes join forces with Danzō to pressure the Third Hokage, and at other times stand on the Hokage's side to restrict Danzō. They were having quite the busy life.
In fact, after the Uchiha incident, the Third had once ordered Danzō to disband Root. But not long afterward, with the support of those two advisers, this organization was rebuilt. So ordinary methods were ineffective. "Root" was simply not a power that could be erased with words.
That was also why this more resolute action came about.
Assuming all of Konoha's military force was placed in the Hokage's hands, then those two advisers would truly become advisers. As for their blind nonsense, if the Fifth Hokage was willing to listen, she could listen. If she was not willing to listen… she still had to listen, since the village had such regulations. However, after listening, she could then tell those two to go cool off wherever they pleased.
In other words, whether or not they expressed opinions was the advisers' right. According to Konoha's constitution, the Hokage had to hear them out, since there was a system for reflecting public sentiment and opinion. But after hearing them out, whether the Hokage followed their suggestions or not was entirely the Hokage's business. They could participate in political discussion and had the right to make suggestions, but if they wanted to participate in decision-making? Please, heh.
And now, Hagoromo's mission was to turn the above "assumption" into an established reality. Originally, Konoha had no such institution as Root. This was power and force that Danzō had gradually separated from the Third Hokage's hands. Now Hagoromo was going to recover that power for the Fifth Hokage. From a legal standpoint, there was no room for argument.
Therefore, the things happening during this Chūnin Exam had already made it difficult to say who was the chess player and who was the chess piece. Several sides were all using one another, or "borrowing" one another, to achieve their own objectives. The ones caught up in it "innocently" and without warning were probably Sunagakure and Danzō.
To the Third Hokage, the identity of "Fifth Hokage" weighed even more heavily than the combined identities of "his teacher's granddaughter" and "his own disciple." When all three identities overlapped, she was practically ten thousand times closer to him than his own daughter. Therefore, for Tsunade's sake, the Third could do many things. Even slightly violating his own principles of conduct did not matter.
From the Nine-Tails incident, the Fourth Hokage's death, and the various situations in the shinobi world over the following years, the Third had always had the feeling that a storm was approaching. He himself might not live to see that day, but he had to integrate Konoha's maximum strength for Tsunade, so she could face all the problems that came later.
Tsunade was going to ascend to the p—position, and she also had to grasp absolute authority. Certain obstacles had to be smoothed over. This was something the Third Hokage had resolved to do.
Probably starting from Shisui's incident, the Third had thoroughly understood that Danzō was not merely extreme. Rather, his "wholehearted devotion to the public good" came with preconditions. Whether it was appropriate to say he "prioritized self-interest" or not, at the very least, his actions were narrow-minded. Therefore, Root would become an obstacle to Tsunade in the future. He had to use the opportunity of Orochimaru's invasion to retrieve this power.
Of course, although the Third Hokage had tricked Danzō this time, it was not as though he wanted to kill this former teammate. In the battle against Orochimaru, if these two from Konoha lost, the result naturally went without saying. But if they won, there would basically be two possible outcomes. First, both the Third and Danzō survived. Second, the Third died and Danzō survived. There would absolutely not be a situation where Danzō died while the Third lived alone.
Winning would naturally be cause for joy. But if they lost, then for Konoha and the Fifth Hokage, that would be dying in the right place. The Third Hokage aspired to that, and if he died in battle before his companion, no one would have any complaints.
That was his resolve.
And what about Danzō now?
Was he dissatisfied? Perhaps he was, and to quite a considerable degree.
But humans were complex creatures. Someone like Danzō especially could not be described simply with "good" or "bad." He was indeed gloomy, and sometimes even calling him sinister would not be excessive. However, since he had been drawn into this, whether he had actively participated or passively accepted it, this sinister old man was not without a spirit of sacrifice.
At this very moment, the actions of the Third Hokage and Danzō could be called "old soldiers' fight to the death." No one could deny the resolve these two possessed at this moment.
Because the cards in Orochimaru's hand were too good, the Third Hokage had previously anticipated that he might once again use Impure World Reincarnation to summon the First Hokage. He had even factored in the Second Hokage's combat strength. However, he had not expected the existence of the Third Raikage and the Fourth Kazekage as well.
Two against one?
No. It should be two against five. That was far too strenuous.
Although Orochimaru's one-two-three-four series was a "motley crew" gathered from all over the world, when they were alive, every last one of them had been the strongest of their village and top-class figures in the shinobi world.
For someone like the First Hokage, even if his independent will had been completely erased, who would dare underestimate his strength?
As for the others, take the Third Raikage. Even breaking through his defense would require a huge amount of effort… It would be rather unfair to pin the fact that he had been reincarnated through Impure World Reincarnation on Hagoromo's head, but it did seem that back then, Hagoromo really should not have brought the Third Raikage's corpse back.
Leaving aside the situation inside the barrier for now, outside it had already fallen into complete chaos. The Sunagakure guests who had come to Konoha as visitors instantly turned into enemies. At the same time, infiltrated Otogakure shinobi were stirring up trouble, while several large-scale summoning arrays Orochimaru had set up in advance began activating one after another.
Team Six was following Hagoromo's request and holding back Gaara and the others. Hagoromo's original plan had been to use some method to stimulate Shukaku and make him go berserk while Gaara was taking his exam.
A jinchūriki going berserk in Konoha? In that case, even if Hagoromo "accidentally" killed the tailed beast, Sunagakure would have nothing to say.
However, now that Orochimaru had created an even better opportunity, Hagoromo's plan was shelved accordingly. As long as the juicy meat already at his mouth did not run away, that was enough.
As for Konoha's overall battle situation? At this moment, Tsunade was dealing with Chiyo while commanding the Konoha shinobi in battle. Jiraiya, meanwhile, was eliminating the giant snakes rampaging through Konoha one by one.
Outside, everything was in chaos. Yet without Danzō's orders, even though the village was facing this kind of crisis, the Root shinobi were still squatting in their old nest… This situation reflected the correctness of the Third's decision from another angle. Root was a power that had to be taken back.
They were serving Danzō personally, not Konoha. Although Danzō nominally waved the banner of "everything for the village," after going around that bend, everything had changed in flavor.
It was impossible to expect much light in a deep, cold underground space. But in this environment, the tap-tap of footsteps could travel very far. It touched every corner and drilled into everyone's ears.
This was Root's headquarters, and Hagoromo had made no attempt to hide his arrival.
"Lord Hagoromo, what business brings you here?"
A person appeared in the empty passageway and blocked Hagoromo's path.
Based on the information given by the Hokage, Hagoromo knew this person's name. He was Aburame Torune, a jōnin from the Aburame clan, and he possessed abilities similar to his father's.
"Aburame, gather the members of the assassination division," Hagoromo said directly, wasting no words.
"What?" the other party asked back. Whether he truly had not heard clearly or was pretending not to have heard clearly was unknown.
"By order of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi; the Fifth Hokage candidate, Tsunade; Konoha adviser, Hokage Assistant, and Root leader Shimura Danzō; and Konoha advisers Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, the Root assassination division is now required to assemble… Did you hear me clearly this time?"
"Do you people not understand what is happening in the village right now? Do I need to repeat myself again? Move quickly!"
Hagoromo began firing off Talk no Jutsu. Where would he have gotten that much authorization?
However, his words were highly credible. Root's people naturally understood the crisis the village was facing right now, so coming to mobilize manpower was reasonable. The only problem was: why was the person coming here not their leader, Danzō?
"Understood. Please wait."
After thinking it over briefly, Aburame still obeyed this half-true, half-false order. First, he disappeared from Hagoromo's sight. A moment later, he reappeared with Root's assassination division.
The fewer than one hundred shinobi before him were all the members of Root's assassination division. They were also the elites among elites of this armed shinobi group, the very essence of Root.
For example, Uchiha Itachi had once belonged to this unit. To control Root, he first had to start with them.
"Is everyone here?" Hagoromo asked again. At this moment, his face had actually become somewhat serious.
"They are all here," Aburame replied.
But just as everyone was waiting for Hagoromo to convey specific combat orders on behalf of the Hokage and Danzō, Hagoromo completely refused to play by the usual routine. He stated the true purpose of his visit.
"I now announce the Third Hokage's order: from this day forward, Shimura Danzō is relieved of his position as Hokage Assistant. Root is hereby completely disbanded and merged into the Anbu directly under the Hokage."
This was freaking wrong. Wasn't this supposed to be a field mission? How had it turned into an organizational transfer?
Nominally speaking, the Hokage was the leader of all Konoha shinobi. But that was only nominally. The order before them was clearly not accepted by these Root shinobi.
"Next, I will correct the cursed binding techniques on each of you one by one. Please do not move around carelessly, because any action will be regarded as that of a missing-nin, and you will be killed on the spot."
Danzō controlled Root through cursed binding techniques. Of course, this was not absolute, but it was undeniable that the cursed bindings were extremely important. As for the so-called modification of the cursed binding techniques, naturally, it meant taking control back from Danzō's hands. This also explained why the Third had Hagoromo carry out this mission. He was the only choice. Only he could do this kind of thing.
As for Hagoromo claiming he had the Hokage's kill-on-sight order, that was true, because the Third had become serious.
The Hokage's only requirement for Hagoromo was… he could not kill all of Root's people. Otherwise, what would even be the point of this operation?
When Hagoromo heard this requirement at the time, he was speechless. Was he that kind of person…
People always found it difficult to understand themselves completely. Sometimes, he really was that kind of person.
Naturally, Root would not obediently listen to Hagoromo, an outsider. After realizing that Hagoromo was not joking, they naturally began to resist.
Aburame retreated slightly, preparing to counterattack.
This was a bit suicidal. Hagoromo's hand rested on the chakra blade behind him… The last person it had stabbed was the First Hokage, so for a Konoha shinobi, dying under this blade should be honor enough, right?
However, unexpectedly, Hagoromo did not get the chance to make a move.
Just as Aburame's cloud of insects appeared, an orange-red flash of fire instantly flared. The surging heat immediately burned his kikaichū into a mass of ash.
"Don't move. To be honest, I really don't want to be enemies with this person… because you really will die."
A clear female voice sounded from behind Aburame.
Those words were far too correct. People die when they are killed. That was a universal truth.
So she had finally shown herself?
Now Hagoromo was a little amused. Honestly, he had not expected that there would actually be an "ally" from another village mixed into Root. Although they had not met for many years, fortunately, the other party had not forgotten him…
Pakura, konnichiwa.
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