Upon reaching the base, the Bear-masked shinobi compiled a full report of the incident and presented it directly to Danzo.
As Danzo stared at the report, his expression unreadable, the subtle narrowing of his lone visible eye was the only hint betraying the storm of thought behind his mask of composure.
A corpse lay before him, one of his ninjas. Danzo's gaze shifted to Mantis's remains— more than ten pieces, each carved with terrifying finesse. His loyal tool killed within the borders of Konoha, by someone impersonating him.
Unacceptable.
Who would dare wear his face within the village? Who possessed such audacity?
The witness report was vague, but disturbing.
Mantis had been eliminated in seconds, and the assailant had transformed into him. Not in panic or in confusion, but with calculated intent.
They knew these were my shinobi.
Danzo's thoughts sliced through possibilities. "Their strength shouldn't exceed that of a Chunin, considering they ran and chose to hide rather than engage. But their Wind Release was… sharp. Too refined for that level, genjutsu control was also skilled. And their sensory ability must be significant since they avoided Mantis. That shouldn't be luck. It means their concealment skill should be very high, either they're a genius or it could be their bloodline ability."
He paused.
And silence… The attacker never spoke once. Does that mean they've seen me but never heard my voice? Or… are they mute by nature?
Danzo's mind raced. No such operative existed in his records—not in ROOT, not in the village. Unless... they were buried deep. Hidden. Or worse, part of Hiruzen's Anbu.
That narrowed the list. And raised dangerous questions.
"But why now?"
"I haven't made any moves recently," Danzo murmured aloud, the words low, meant only for himself. "There's no direct provocation. Nothing he could respond to... unless this is something else."
His fingers curled tightly around the cane at his side, his grip firm, contemplative.
'Could it be a foreign operative? A spy from another village? But if they're only Chunin-level… how would they even know about ROOT? Unless their rank is higher than we assumed. Or… they weren't meant to engage at all. Just a shadow caught in the wrong place, wrong time?'
Danzo didn't let the questions cloud his judgment—but this was no longer just an operational concern. It was personal.
An attack on Root was an attack on Konoha's unseen backbone. Anyone bold enough to impersonate him was either a fool…
…Or someone who believed themselves untouchable.
His eye narrowed sharply.
"Bear," he said, voice steady and sharp, "explain to me—why didn't you identify that he was a transformed clone? Why didn't you recognize it wasn't me?"
Bear, kneeling before him with unwavering posture, responded at once.
"Danzo-sama, our sensory unit was killed in the first clash. Neither I nor Cat possess chakra-sensing abilities. And I was five meters from the clone—too far to detect the transformation. By the time I realized the anomaly, it was too late."
Danzo's thoughts churned. ' If it happened once, it could happen again. I require countermeasures for this scenario.' This operation was not a complete success, yes—but the loss was bearable, which was the only consolation.
Still, ROOT had failed. And failure always came with consequence.
His lone eye hardened.
"You both will receive punishment. Four days."
The air thickened. Even Bear, emotionless and long broken of fear, shivered beneath the weight of the word. In ROOT, punishment was absolute. They would be sealed in an isolation chamber with no light, sound or any other senses and most cruelly…no chakra. Their connection to the energy that defined their existence would be sealed by advanced fuinjutsu. Time would become meaningless. Identity, erased.
For a shinobi, it was a slow death stretched across days. Bear offered a silent nod, accepting the sentence without any thought of resistance before he and his recovered teammate turned and departed.
Danzo remained seated, motionless, already shifting his mind toward strategy. The impersonator had made a bold move.
A dangerous one.
But Root would answer in kind.
"If this is a ploy to draw Root into the light… I must uncover it before it festers."
He would lure them out and crush them.
------
Next day: Hokage's Office — Afternoon
The door clicked open with a heavy silence as Danzo stepped into the Hokage's office. His gait was calm, calculated, the usual emotionless weight he carried followed him like a shadow.
Hiruzen sat behind the desk, arms folded, his pipe lying untouched by his side—a rare sign. The moment Danzo entered, Hiruzen dismissed the ANBU in the room with a curt wave.
They bowed and vanished into the walls.
Danzo's eye swept over the room before settling on Hiruzen, who didn't said a word—just tossed a file across the desk. It slid and stopped near Danzo's hand.
"Why did you do this?" Hiruzen's voice was low, but laced with restrained fury.
Danzo picked up the document and flipped through it with cold precision as his eye narrowed. "Where did you get this?"
"That's not what I asked." Hiruzen snapped, his fingers curling into a fist. "I asked why you did it."
Danzo reached into his robe and calmly placed a yellow-edged document on the table. Red wax sealed it shut.
"She was a spy," he responded flatly. "This document proves it. She was preparing to leak ROOT personnel data—recruitment details involving the orphanage."
Hiruzen broke the seal as he opened it, his eyes moving swiftly across the contents and, for a brief moment, he chuckled. But there was no humor to be found in it, only disbelief.
"You expect me to believe an old woman, a civilian who's dedicated her entire life to raising orphans—was a spy?" He leaned forward, placing both hands on the desk. "A woman who never even had a family of her own because she gave everything to Konoha's children?"
Danzo remained silent.
"Let's entertain that fantasy." Hiruzen continued, his tone sharpening. "How did she even know about Root? A program so buried in secrecy that even most jōnin don't know it exists? And how, Danzo… did she see your agent's faces—something only possible inside your base?"
Danzo's face was unreadable. His voice didn't falter.
"I don't know. I only know she was carrying that document. That was enough."
Hiruzen closed his eyes for a brief moment. He wanted to stay composed but the knot of anger and sadness inside him boiled over.
"You're a terrible liar." he muttered. "You always were. Why even try?"
Whether Danzo truly couldn't lie or if that was simply what he allowed Hiruzen to believe remained a secret known to only Danzo. In Hiruzen's case, years of shared struggles and the subtle manipulations by Danzo, whether intentional or not—had gradually worn down his suspicion of his old comrade's ability to deceive. In time, he chose to believe in him… perhaps more than anyone ever should.
Hiruzen stood up, walking slowly toward the large window, the village sprawling below. He took a deep breath, then continued, his voice lower now, more pained.
"I ordered memory scans for all orphanage caretakers. Every ten years. No one but me and two others knew about it. She passed each test. She was clean, Danzo."
A heavy silence followed. Danzo didn't blink, didn't shift.
Hiruzen turned, his eyes now piercing. It was only his suspicion but he still said it. "You didn't kill her because she was a threat to Konoha. You killed her because of that boy."
Danzo finally spoke, a hint of edge in his voice. "Kazeo."
That single name turned the atmosphere into ice. Hiruzen's eyes widened slightly, the puzzle pieces falling into place.
"So that's it…" His voice cracked. "You killed her to break and traumatize him. So you could mold him."
Danzo didn't deny it. "The boy is exceptional, you know it and pain is the best motivator."
The words cut deeper than a kunai. Hiruzen stepped forward, fury now uncontained.
"Exceptional?! What the hell happened to you, Danzo? We were supposed to protect our people—not turn everyone of them into broken weapons!" Danzo didn't react. Just stared—stone-faced, cold before replying quietly, "I suppose you're reacting this strongly because of Yamato."
That struck a nerve as Hiruzen froze. The name brought back the face of another child—stolen from comfort, reshaped in the shadows. A memory Hiruzen buried but ensured he never forgot.
"You think I'd let you do that again?" he whispered, voice trembling with rage.
Danzo's eye narrowed slightly, a hint of challenge flickering there. "You let me do it the first time." The room fell silent again. Not peaceful but dangerous. Like the quiet before a storm.
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, his voice cold.
"This has nothing to do with Yamato, Danzo. This is about you murdering a Konoha citizen without reason."
Danzo scoffed, sarcasm dripping like venom as he spoke. "No reason, huh? Wasn't your precious student, Orochimaru, the first to kill Konoha citizens in the name of 'science'? And if I recall correctly, you gave both him and me permission to experiment on the Senju's ."
He bent forward slightly, lowering his voice.
"Don't act like a saint now, Hiruzen. We both have blood on our hands."
Hiruzen's face hardened as Danzo's words reminded him of the old sins and regrets, weighing him down, but he refused to let it show. "Let's not dig up the past, it will not end well for either of us." he countered coldly.
"From this moment forward, you're not authorized to take any life in this village—civilian or shinobi, unless they are confirmed traitors by my office. I won't tolerate another stunt like yesterday."
He walked around his desk, facing Danzo directly, his presence commanding.
"And stay away from the boy. I will judge for myself why you're so fixated on him… and whether he deserves your brand of 'guidance.' Don't forget who holds this village together, Shimura Danzo."
That final address, the use of his full name, made Danzo stiffen slightly. Hiruzen only used that tone when his anger had reached its limits.
Danzo bowed his head, not out of respect, but calculated discretion. "Understood, Hokage-sama."
He turned and walked out, disappearing into the shadowed hall as the door swung shut behind him.
-------
Hiruzen lowered himself back into his chair, pipe resting against his lips as he lit it with chakra and took a slow, thoughtful drag.
'Danzo, you're a liability in anything outside of espionage and assassinations. Always trying to turn children into disposable weapons, with no care for the consequences of doing so. Kazeo's emotions will be in turmoil once he learns about her death especially considering his special case. If I don't guide him, he may fall into darkness—just as you hoped.'
He gazed out the window, watching the faint wind stir the leaves.
'One and a half weeks... That's what I'll give you Kazeo. Time to feel, to break and to understand yourself. If you finds your own reason to grow stronger... good. If not, I'll give you one.'
And I'll be watching you, Danzo. Every step so you don't disturb the kid in this timeframe.
--------
A week later -
The room was too quiet. The kind of silence that didn't feel peaceful—it felt heavy. Like grief itself had weight, pressing down on Kazeo's small chest, squeezing air out of his lungs.
He sat with his knees to his chest, his forehead buried into his arms, the walls of the small apartment closing in on him.
Kaori was gone and he had killed someone.
The only person who made this new world feel like home... was now dead.
He wasn't crying anymore. Not because he didn't want to—his soul screamed with grief, but after seven days his tears had run dry.
That's when he heard it.
"You can't stay like this, Kazeo."
The voice wasn't spoken aloud. It echoed through his mind, like someone whispering from within his own skull.
He jolted up, his eyes scanning the room. It was empty and yet—
"You're not just a child. You've lived once. You know how this world works. And you know that this pain doesn't go away on its own."
"Shut up…" Kazeo whispered, gripping his hair.
To be Continued....
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[ A/N : Hello readers!
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