Fire Country Border
Root had seen it with their own eyes—
Hanzō the Salamander fled.
Wounded. Defeated.
The entire unit was frozen in shock.
Wasn't Uchiha Yusuke supposed to lose?
How did the result flip so completely?
The squad leader was the first to snap back.
"The mission failed. Withdraw!"
No hesitation.
They scooped up their wounded and retreated immediately.
They were ruthless, but not stupid—if even Hanzō couldn't finish Yusuke, staying would be suicide.
Before tonight, Root had believed the Uchiha were "manageable."
After tonight, they finally understood:
Yusuke was terrifying.
Loyalty to Danzō was one thing.
Knowing when to retreat was another.
As long as the mountains remain, you won't run out of firewood.
Right now, the priority was reporting the failure.
Of course, Root wrapped their retreat in the usual hypocrisy—
They were clearly running, yet they framed it as "strategic withdrawal."
That was Root in a nutshell:
Anything goes… all "for Konoha."
When they did it, it was righteous necessity.
When others did it, it was evil.
Yusuke despised that entire "darkness doctrine."
Maintain peace?
Don't make him laugh.
"Anyone who threatens the village must be eliminated" was just a slogan used to erase political enemies.
If that were true, why didn't Root go after the other great nations?
Who threatened Konoha more than the Kazekage, Raikage, Mizukage, or Tsuchikage?
As for Root escaping—
Yusuke didn't care.
They were minor pieces.
Once he dealt with Danzō, the rest would collapse on their own.
And many Root members came from Konoha clans.
Since Yusuke now had workable relations with those clans, sparing these people also preserved political goodwill.
But he was clear on one thing:
If, after Danzō fell, anyone still dared to stir trouble—
Yusuke would bury them without hesitation.
Fail to cut the roots, and spring wind brings it back.
Danzō—and Root—had to be erased completely.
Taking Control of Danzō's Assets
After a short rest, Yusuke resumed his mission toward Iwagakure.
Since the Third Ninja War, Konoha had planted many spies inside the Stone Village.
In the past, these assets answered to Danzō.
But now Danzō had been stripped of authority—
and Yusuke had risen to Hokage Advisor.
In principle, those intelligence assets were now under Yusuke's command.
Yusuke didn't want Danzō's leftovers.
But since the Third Hokage dumped the list into his hands anyway…
he would sift through it, select what was useful, and absorb it into a brand-new organization of his own.
When everything ended, he could openly claim "manpower shortages"
and begin recruiting Konoha's elite for direct service.
Before departing, Yusuke reviewed the roster.
The quality was uneven.
Only three names were truly worth his attention.
Still—
that was enough.
He preferred quality over quantity.
Even without official office, Danzō still moved in shadows.
Tonight proved it.
And one reason Yusuke personally came toward Iwagakure was to prevent Danzō from pulling hidden strings—
especially against spies.
Danzō's style was always the same:
Better to kill the wrong person than let anyone slip.
Even "his own people" weren't safe.
If you couldn't be used—
why leave you alive to leak information?
Yusuke never doubted Danzō's cruelty.
Under Hiruzen's era, Danzō had become a butcher.
And the spies inside Iwagakure mattered greatly to Yusuke:
They were capable—
and they held secrets.
If Yusuke controlled them, then gathering evidence against Danzō through the Police Force would become effortless.
To Yusuke, Danzō was a late-autumn grasshopper—
He wasn't jumping for much longer.
The day Yusuke returned to Konoha…
would be the day Danzō vanished from the ninja world.
Near Iwagakure
Two days later, Yusuke arrived near Iwagakure.
The Stone Village sat among mountains, wrapped in cliffs—a natural fortress.
Hard to invade.
But every advantage had a price.
With terrain like this, trade and travel were difficult, and their economy stayed tight.
Iwagakure had one of the largest populations and strongest militaries among the Five Great Nations—
yet they were famously poor.
During the Third Ninja War, Iwa once gambled everything on attacking Konoha…
and ran into the Yellow Flash: Minato Namikaze.
They were crushed.
Years later, Iwa had regained much of its strength—
but the aged Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, no longer held the same aggression.
That was why, when Kumo fought Konoha, Iwa watched from the sidelines.
No big moves—
but plenty of small ones.
After Kumo lost, Ōnoki even squeezed the Fourth Raikage for a payout.
If Kumo weren't rich, the Raikage would never have swallowed that humiliation.
Iwagakure itself was heavily guarded, covered by a wide-area sensory barrier.
If Yusuke forced his way in, it would spark a major incident.
He was confident—
but he had no intention of fighting a whole village head-on.
He was here to take control of assets, not start a war.
One mistake would bring endless trouble.
Especially because Ōnoki's Dust Release was no joke.
Iwa's current main combat power came from the middle generation, represented by Huangtu.
As for Deidara, Kurotsuchi, and Akatsuchi—
those future names were still only children.
Infiltration would be easy for Yusuke, but he stayed cautious.
He summoned a hawk.
Used a shrinking technique.
Hid inside the hawk's beak.
And entered the village from above.
Birds were common here—hard to notice.
Just like how Jiraiya once infiltrated Amegakure inside a toad.
But Pain didn't play fair.
He mixed chakra into rain to sense intruders—that was how Jiraiya was discovered.
Iwagakure didn't have a monster like that.
So Yusuke's risk of exposure was low.
The Foundation Yusuke Intended to Build
Before coming, Yusuke had already planned his expansion:
Once Danzō was destroyed, he would build his own power base.
Konoha overflowed with talent.
He already had candidates in mind:
Hatake Kakashi.
Might Guy.
Yūhi Kurenai.
Kakashi—the Copy Ninja—was future Hokage material.
Guy—who could match gods with a mortal body—was blunt sometimes, but his taijutsu was terrifying.
Kurenai—an elite jōnin in the making—was gifted in genjutsu.
Asuma Sarutobi…
Yusuke wanted him too, but the Third Hokage would never allow it.
Asuma had already been arranged into the Daimyō's guard unit: the Twelve Guardian Ninja.
It looked like a good post—
but it was also a buried landmine.
That unit carried massive bounties; without it, Kakuzu wouldn't have targeted Asuma in the future.
Beyond Konoha's elites, among the spies in Iwagakure there was someone Yusuke truly valued:
Yakushi Nono.
Kabuto's foster mother.
A master of medical ninjutsu, called the "Wandering Miko."
Root's top-class intelligence operative.
Later—because she couldn't erase her humanity and become the weapon Danzō demanded—
she would leave Root and become an orphanage director, sheltering war orphans.
Kabuto was one of them.
She gave him his first glasses.
To Kabuto, she was his mother.
By the timeline, Nono had likely been dragged into Danzō's service for years already.
Kabuto too—trained into an elite spy, moved across villages like a piece on a board.
Danzō's mission for Nono:
Long-term infiltration into Iwagakure.
Feed intelligence back so Root could judge whether Iwa was preparing a major war.
Nono wanted to finish her mission and return to the orphanage—
But Danzō would never allow that.
In his world, a spy who knew too much didn't retire.
Only the dead kept secrets.
That Nono survived alone in Iwagakure for years proved how exceptional she was.
Danzō called her Root's greatest intelligence operative—
And Yusuke agreed.
Kabuto had talent, but compared to Nono he still lacked polish.
For someone building a new organization, Yakushi Nono was a perfect recruit.
But Yusuke wasn't Danzō.
If she joined him willingly, he would grant her wish:
Return to the orphanage.
No chains.
No threats.
Win loyalty through sincerity—
so people served him by choice.
Waiting for Night
Disguised, Yusuke wandered Iwagakure's streets, absorbing the foreign scenery.
Their buildings were thick stone blocks—sturdy and practical.
Not as prosperous as Konoha, but not miserable either.
At the center stood a towering rock spire—
the Tsuchikage's office.
Yusuke had already left a message at the contact point.
But daytime was too risky for meetings.
The agent would only appear at night.
With time to kill, Yusuke continued observing.
Iwagakure had many bloodline families—
Dust Release, Lava Release, Explosion Release.
Only two people had ever mastered Dust Release: the Second Tsuchikage Mū and the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki.
Lava Release was tied to the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, Rōshi.
Explosion Release—Gari was the most famous current user.
Yusuke had faced Rōshi and Gari before.
Neither was weak.
Recently, rumor said Rōshi had left Iwagakure after clashing with Ōnoki.
And by the calendar, the Akatsuki should soon begin moving more openly.
Before the main storm arrived, Yusuke needed to prepare—
Because once the Fourth Great Ninja War came, cheat-level monsters would fill the battlefield.
One mistake could mean disaster.
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