Shimura Danzo immediately ignited the signal flare embedded in his body, alerting the Root operatives stationed nearby.
By the time the signal went off, the Root ninjas had already surrounded Kazuki's group.
It was only then that the Root squad commander realized something was amiss.
Just now, he had felt that this "Danzo-sama" was behaving oddly—far too suspiciously!
"Lord Danzo, please wait a moment."
"Why was your signal flare fired from a different location? Could you explain this to us?"
"If you have nothing to hide, please present the flare you carry on your person for verification."
The Root commander's tone shifted immediately—his voice became sharp and commanding, laced with suspicion.
His piercing gaze locked onto Kazuki's every movement.
Kazuki realized he could no longer maintain the deception.
Without hesitation, he moved!
His eyes widened as he channeled chakra, activating the specialized function of his hidden mask—modifying its properties to trigger an invisibility technique.
"L-Lord Danzo… just disappeared?"
The surrounding Root operatives were momentarily stunned, their bodies stiffening in shock.
However, their discipline did not waver. As expected of warriors trained directly under Shimura Danzo, these elite operatives were not to be easily deceived.
Whether in intelligence or in combat ability, Root agents surpassed most shinobi.
The commander was the first to recover, his instincts kicking in.
"The man before us wasn't the real Danzo-sama!" he declared.
His voice was cold, yet filled with certainty.
"Stay sharp! He must have used a high-level concealment technique to escape our sight."
"He hasn't gone far—spread out immediately and begin a thorough search!"
"Yes, Captain!"
The Root operatives instantly abandoned whatever tasks they had been handling.
They swiftly moved, forming a wide perimeter outside the Uchiha district.
Hundreds of elite-chunin-level Root ninjas fanned out, methodically closing in on the forest, creating an inescapable net.
"I sense his chakra—southwest direction!"
The three-minute duration of Kazuki's invisibility came to an end.
His form flickered back into visibility, and his mask entered a one-minute cooldown.
At that moment, the sensory-type Root ninja locked onto his presence, detecting the chakra disturbance caused by his reappearance.
"There he is—pursue him!"
At the command, the entire Root force sprang into action.
The stillness of the forest was broken by the sound of rustling leaves and shifting branches.
Hundreds of Root operatives, clad in their signature animal masks, moved with seamless coordination.
Their silhouettes became a blur of black streaks as they leaped from tree to tree, closing in from all directions.
However, as the pursuit dragged on, the expression of the sensory-type ninja darkened.
Something was off.
"Why haven't we caught up yet?" The Root captain's voice was sharp. "You said he was only 500 meters ahead—so why is there still no sign of him?"
The sensory ninja's face twisted with unease.
His voice wavered as he hesitantly responded:
"Captain… his distance from us is now… 1,000 meters!"
"What did you say?!"
The Root captain froze.
With a bitter smile, the sensory ninja repeated his findings:
"Captain, he's pulling further away. His speed far surpasses ours—we have no chance of catching him at this rate!"
The commander's eyes widened in shock.
His mind raced as he silently assessed the situation:
"A concealment technique advanced enough to evade our detection… And speed that even an elite jonin like myself cannot match… Could his abilities already be at Kage-level?"
The realization was unsettling.
He swiftly made a decision.
"I will report this matter to Danzo-sama immediately."
"The rest of you, continue along the target's path—search for any trace he may have left behind."
"Yes, Captain!"
The Root operatives acknowledged the order without hesitation.
And so, the hunt for Kazuki continued…
…
Dark Night
The moment Kazuki's identity was exposed, he acted without hesitation. In a flash, he transformed into a black blur, vanishing into the depths of the pitch-black night.
His current strength was far from enough to challenge the entire force of Root. He knew that once his identity was compromised, escaping from Konoha would not be the end—Danzo's operatives would hunt him down to the ends of the earth. That was a price he could not afford to pay.
Beneath the cover of darkness, Kazuki swiftly removed the weighted sandbags strapped to his body, tossing them into his storage ring.
Two hundred jin, one hundred and fifty jin, one hundred jin, fifty jin…
As the weight diminished, he felt his body becoming lighter and his speed increasing dramatically. With every stride, the wind beneath his feet seemed to propel him forward with greater ease. The cold night air howled past his ears like the edge of a blade.
His slender figure streaked through the darkness like a bolt of lightning.
Kazuki kept his breathing steady, his entire focus locked on the presence behind him. Though he had yet to master the Eight Gates Release Formation, removing his training weights had already propelled his speed beyond the level of an ordinary jōnin.
It would take considerable effort for the Root operatives to catch up with him. Moreover, his Stealth Mask's cooldown period was only one minute.
One more minute.
The moment he could activate the mask again, concealing his presence completely, not even the most skilled sensory-type ninja from Root would be able to track him.
"Huh? They haven't caught up?"
Kazuki glanced back and noticed that the distance between him and the pursuing Root ninjas was steadily increasing. Their speed was nowhere near enough to match his.
A sense of relief washed over him—he had overestimated them.
Reflecting on his miscalculation, he realized the only jōnin he had ever sparred with was Might Guy, an elite jōnin renowned for his mastery of taijutsu. Subconsciously, he had assumed all jōnin possessed a similar level of speed. However, the reality was far from that. Not every jōnin was as physically adept as Guy.
In all of Konoha, the number of ninjas who could match Guy's speed was close to zero.
With Kazuki's current taijutsu prowess, he could exchange hundreds of blows with Guy in battle. For the average Root ninja, keeping up with him was nothing short of impossible.
[Ding! The Stealth Mask has cooled down!]
A system prompt echoed in his mind.
The tension in Kazuki's chest dissipated entirely. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he glanced in the direction of his pursuers.
Hah! Idiots from Root, Young Master isn't playing with you anymore!
Without hesitation, he activated the Stealth Mask.
His presence vanished completely, as if he had never existed in the first place.
Root Headquarters
"How did this happen?"
Shimura Danzo's expression was as dark as the night outside. His cold, piercing gaze bore into the kneeling Root ninja before him.
Beneath his mask, the operative trembled, struggling to suppress his fear. Sweat trickled from his temples as he forced himself to speak.
"Lord Danzo, all the Sharingan we previously collected have been stolen by the intruder."
"…What?!"
Danzo's voice erupted in fury. His chakra flared, suffocating the air in the dimly lit chamber.
"Incompetent fools! How could you let someone steal from right under your noses?!"
The kneeling commander gritted his teeth. "My lord, I accept full responsibility. None of us expected the intruder to disguise himself as you. There were no flaws in his transformation—none of our ninja noticed anything suspicious."
Danzo's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Excuses for your failure mean nothing to me."
The commander's complexion turned deathly pale beneath his mask. Without hesitation, he unsheathed his blade. With a swift motion, he slashed downward, severing his left arm from the shoulder.
Blood gushed onto the cold stone floor.
This was the price of failure within Root. Even the commander was not exempt from its iron discipline.
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