At the Fire Country border line—
The sight of Hanzō the Salamander fleeing in defeat was witnessed clearly by Root.
Root's people felt completely stunned.
Wasn't Uchiha Yusuke supposed to lose for sure?
How did everything flip the other way around?!
The Root squad leader recovered first.
"Mission failed."
"Withdraw!"
The moment the order was given, Root didn't hesitate— they slung the wounded over their shoulders and bolted.
Danzo's subordinates were extremely rational.
If even Hanzō had lost, there was no point in stubbornly staying.
Continuing to fight Uchiha Yusuke would be nothing but suicide.
Root might be arrogant, but they weren't brain-dead.
Before the clash, they thought "a mere Uchiha" was nothing.
After the clash, they understood just how terrifying Uchiha Yusuke truly was.
Loyalty to Danzo was one thing—
but knowing when to retreat was also part of surviving.
As the saying went: So long as the green mountains remain, you'll never run out of firewood.
Right now, getting word back about the failed mission mattered more.
Of course, it was basically cowardice—
but they still insisted on dressing it up with a noble excuse.
Root's people had perfectly inherited their leader's essence:
Anything goes—because it's for Konoha and the shinobi world!
I can be despicable and I'm "right," but if you're despicable I'll curse you.
Yusuke sneered at Danzo's so-called "dark rules."
Maintain Konoha's peace?
Don't make him laugh.
"If someone threatens the village, eliminate them"?
That was just an excuse to purge political enemies.
If Danzo and Root were truly about "threat removal,"
why didn't they go after the leaders of the other four great nations?
Who posed a bigger threat to Konoha than the Kazekage, Raikage, Mizukage, and Tsuchikage?
As for Root's assassins escaping—
Yusuke didn't care much.
They were just minions.
Once he dealt with Danzo, Root would collapse on its own.
Besides, Yusuke's relationship with Konoha's major clans was good now,
and many Root members came from those very clans.
Sparing them was also, in a way, showing those clans some respect.
Danzo was the true priority target.
If, after Danzo died, anyone still dared to stir trouble—
Yusuke would send them to the grave without mercy.
If you don't uproot the weeds, spring wind will bring them back.
Danzo and Root had to be erased from Konoha—completely.
After the battle, Yusuke rested briefly and resumed his journey toward Iwagakure.
Since the start of the Third Shinobi World War, Konoha had sent many intelligence operatives into Iwa.
In the past, Konoha's spies were under Danzo's control.
Now that Danzo had been stripped of the Hokage Advisor title and Yusuke had risen—
those operatives naturally fell under Yusuke's command.
Yusuke didn't really want Danzo's old subordinates,
but since the Third Hokage only handed him "this much," he could only pick through them—
absorb the best parts into his new organization.
Once this was done,
he could openly claim "manpower shortage" and recruit elite Konoha shinobi to serve him.
Before departing, Yusuke had already reviewed the list of sleepers.
Danzo's people were a mixed bag.
The ones that genuinely interested Yusuke numbered fewer than three—
but even so, he was satisfied.
Soldiers weren't about quantity; they were about quality.
And Yusuke preferred "quality refined to the extreme."
Danzo had lost his title, yet he still operated in the shadows.
This assassination attempt was proof enough.
Yusuke chose to personally go to Iwa precisely because he feared Danzo would pull something nasty.
Danzo was the type who would rather kill the wrong person than let a target go.
As long as it disgusted Yusuke, Danzo would do it.
Even if it was "one of our own"—so what?
If they couldn't be used, why keep them around to leak information?
On this point—Danzo's ruthlessness—Yusuke had zero doubt.
Under the Third Hokage's era, Danzo had practically turned into a butcher.
The sleeper agents in Iwa were important to Yusuke.
They were capable—
and they also held many of Danzo's secrets.
Once Yusuke secured them, collecting evidence of Danzo's crimes would become effortless.
In Yusuke's eyes, Danzo was like a grasshopper after autumn—
he didn't have many jumps left.
The day Yusuke returned to Konoha
would be the day Danzo's name was erased from the shinobi world.
After two days of travel, Yusuke finally arrived near Iwagakure.
Iwa stood among mountain ranges, surrounded by cliffs and sheer rock walls.
A natural fortress—enemies found it hard to break into.
Of course, every advantage carried a drawback.
Because of its harsh terrain, Iwa's contact with the outside world was difficult.
Ordinary travelers and merchants struggled to reach it.
That made Iwa's economy painfully weak.
Iwa's population and military strength were among the top in the Five Great Nations—
yet they were always poor.
During the Third War, Iwa's leaders had gambled everything to attack Konoha,
only to collide with the "Yellow Flash," Minato Namikaze.
They were crushed, their vitality shattered.
After years of recovery, Iwa had largely stabilized again—
but the aging Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, no longer had the same boldness.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have simply watched while Kumo fought Konoha.
No big moves, sure—
but small moves never stopped.
With Kumo defeated this time, Ōnoki even sent people to extort the Fourth Raikage for a massive sum.
If Kumo weren't filthy rich, the Raikage probably couldn't have swallowed that humiliation.
As one of the Five Great Nations, Iwa was heavily guarded like Konoha.
It also had a village-wide sensory barrier.
If Yusuke forced his way in, it would cause a major incident.
He was confident in his strength—
but he had no intention of clashing head-on with an entire hidden village.
He only came to absorb sleeper agents.
There was no need to provoke Iwa's shinobi.
If his presence leaked, it would create endless trouble.
After all, Ōnoki's Dust Release wasn't a joke.
Iwa's current core combat strength was the middle generation led by Kitsuchi.
As for "art genius" Deidara, "Leg Shadow" Kurotsuchi, and the super-strong Akatsuchi—
they were still only about six years old.
Sneaking in was easy for Yusuke—
but he still moved with extreme caution.
He first used Summoning Jutsu to call an eagle.
Then he used a size-reduction technique and hid inside the eagle's mouth,
entering Iwa from the sky.
Birds were common in the area.
This method was hard to notice.
When Jiraiya infiltrated Amegakure, he also used a concealment technique—hiding inside a toad—to break through Ame's barrier.
Unfortunately, Pain didn't "play fair."
He mixed chakra into the rain and used a technique to sense everything through rainfall—
that's how he detected Jiraiya.
But Iwa didn't have a monster like Pain,
so Yusuke's chance of exposure was low.
Before coming to Iwa, Yusuke had already planned his future expansion.
After Danzo's destruction, he would rebuild an organization fully under his own command.
Konoha was full of talent.
Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, and Yūhi Kurenai were already on his shortlist.
Kakashi—"the man who can go fifty-fifty with anyone"—could scrap with anyone and was the future Sixth Hokage.
His strength needed no explanation.
Guy… a mortal body that could rival gods.
A bit simple-minded, sure—but his taijutsu made even Madara look twice.
Kurenai was also one of Konoha's future "four elite jōnin," with exceptional genjutsu talent.
She couldn't do much against Uchiha Itachi—
but she could handle Kisame well enough, and her combat ability was solid.
As for Sarutobi Asuma, Yusuke wanted him too—
but the Third Hokage would never give him up.
Asuma had already been placed as one of the "Guardian Ninja Twelve," protecting the Fire Daimyō.
The Third Hokage made it look like a good posting—
but it was actually planting a time bomb.
Those Guardian Twelve carried massive bounties on their heads.
Without that, Kakuzu wouldn't have targeted Asuma at all.
Beyond Konoha's future elite, among the sleeper agents in Iwa there was one person Yusuke truly wanted:
Yakushi Nono—the foster mother of Yakushi Kabuto.
Nono was a medical-ninjutsu specialist—known as a "walking shrine maiden"—and she'd been a top Root intelligence operative long ago.
Later, because she couldn't extinguish her compassion and couldn't become the cold machine Danzo demanded, she left Root.
After leaving Root, she became the head of an orphanage,
taking in children displaced by war.
Kabuto—Orochimaru's future right-hand man—was one of them.
Nono not only sheltered Kabuto,
she gave him the first pair of glasses in his life.
To Kabuto, Nono was a mother.
By the timeline, Nono had already been forced back into working for Danzo for four or five years.
Kabuto had also left the orphanage for four or five years—
trained by Danzo into a skilled spy, moving between Kumo, Iwa, Kiri, Suna, and more.
Danzo's order for Nono was long-term infiltration in Iwa,
feeding Root a constant stream of intelligence to judge whether Iwa was preparing large-scale war.
Nono wanted to finish her assignment and return to the orphanage as its director—
but Danzo would never allow it.
To Danzo, a "retired spy" was a spy he would silence.
You knew too many secrets and still wanted to walk away?
Only the dead kept secrets forever.
"Konoha's darkness" didn't do mercy.
Long-term infiltration was brutally difficult,
and spies often met unexpected accidents.
The fact that Yakushi Nono could survive alone in Iwa for five years
proved her caliber.
Danzo praised her as Root's finest intelligence operative.
Yusuke agreed completely.
Kabuto was talented—
but compared to Nono, he was still not fully ripe.
For Yusuke, who wanted a new power base, Nono was an excellent choice.
And Yusuke wasn't Danzo.
If Nono was willing to serve under him,
he would grant her wish and let her return to the orphanage as director.
Yusuke had no intention of binding subordinates with coercion the way Danzo did.
He preferred sincerity—so that people served him with their whole hearts.
He genuinely liked Nono as a person.
Capable, and full of justice—
the complete opposite of Root's cold-blooded butchers.
With enough sincerity, Yusuke believed Nono would become loyal to him.
A good general was priceless.
And Danzo… couldn't compare to the Third Hokage when it came to winning hearts.
The Third used "righteousness" and the Will of Fire to inspire people into sacrificing everything.
Danzo did "brainwashing" too—
but mostly he held a blade to their throat.
To be blunt, plenty inside Root didn't truly submit to Danzo.
They served because they feared him.
Yamato was a perfect example.
Raised by Root, yet under Kakashi's influence he betrayed Danzo easily.
Danzo intended to execute Yamato—
but the Third Hokage, brought in by Kakashi, intervened.
After leaving Root, Yamato quickly became the Third's direct ANBU.
Danzo couldn't beat the Third—so he swallowed it.
Iwagakure's streets—
A disguised Yusuke wandered about, appreciating the foreign scenery.
Iwa's architecture was distinctive—solid stone blocks stacked into sturdy structures.
It wasn't as prosperous as Konoha,
but it was still decent.
At the village center stood a towering stone spire reaching into the clouds—
the Tsuchikage's office through the generations.
Yusuke had already left a message at the rendezvous point according to his intel,
but daytime wasn't a good time to meet.
The infiltrators would only appear at night.
There was still time before evening.
With nothing else to do, Yusuke continued moving around.
Iwa had many bloodline clans.
The most famous were Dust Release, Lava Release, and Explosion Release.
Only two people had ever possessed Dust Release:
the Second Tsuchikage Mu, and the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki.
Lava Release was the specialty of the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, Rōshi.
And currently the most skilled Explosion Release user was Gari.
Yusuke had encountered both Rōshi and Gari on the battlefield before—
neither was easy to handle.
Recently, though, rumors said Rōshi had left Iwa after clashing with Ōnoki.
By the timeline, the Akatsuki should be starting to grow active.
Before the main story even began, Yusuke needed to prepare as much as possible.
Otherwise, when the Fourth War arrived and "cheat-code monsters" flooded the battlefield—
it would be dangerously easy to flip over and die.
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