Danzo frowned. "How did she find out?"
Hiruzen replied flatly, "Because Root is too weak. Your hands are sloppy. The operation was poorly executed."
"No," Danzo said sharply. "More likely Orochimaru leaked it. He and Tsunade share deep bonds.
Nawaki's death left him feeling indebted to her."
Hiruzen considered that possibility.
"Regardless of the reason, Root's weakness is real.
The Wood Release project cannot stop. It must progress quickly. We don't know when the Third Great Ninja War will erupt.
My proposal is to have Fox enter Root temporarily as 'Otsu' to help stabilize it."
Danzo immediately understood the intent.
"He can serve as Root's B in a dual capacity — temporarily. His primary role remains ANBU division captain."
Hiruzen's irritation surfaced. No one ever simply obeyed him.
"Do as you wish," he said curtly. "Just accelerate Orochimaru's experiment. No more delays.
If Tsunade finds evidence, who knows what complications will follow."
—
Inside a modest house in Konoha, Kazematsuri Yuzu sat slumped against the wall.
There were sofas and chairs — yet only the cold floor in the corner felt remotely safe.
Her husband had died in the Land of Whirlpool. She buried him and forced herself to live on for their son.
Raising him into a capable shinobi had been her sole obsession.
A month ago, he vanished. Just like that — from the park.
Since then, she had searched frantically. Ten, twenty hours a day.
The more she searched, the deeper the despair.
No clues.
A knock at the door startled her violently. Her lifeless eyes flickered.
Had the clan found something?
She scrambled up and rushed to open it.
Outside stood Senju Nan, a jōnin of the Senju clan.
"Yuzu…" He winced at her disheveled hair and pale, waxen face.
She was his niece. He had watched her grow up.
"I know you're suffering," he said gently. "But gather yourself. The clan has obtained new intelligence. We have leads. Come — I'll take you."
Hope returned to her eyes.
They widened the scope of their investigation — tracing descendants of Senju women married outside the clan over the past decades.
Soon they discovered other missing sons and grandsons.
Many were orphans. With no parents left to advocate for them, their disappearances had gone unnoticed.
Senju Nan's expression darkened.
"I've located several children with Senju blood who are still safe," he told Yuzu. "But they may already be marked.
I'm assigning you a mission. Watch over one of them in secret."
She nodded fervently.
The boy she protected was the grandson of a Senju woman.
He walked to school alone each day — a Konoha orphan.
He no longer bore the Senju name, only his given name inherited from his father.
As usual, Yuzu lingered nearby under the pretense of searching for her own son.
—
At Root headquarters, two squad leaders selected four recruits each from the trainees.
Tonight, the two squads would conduct a covert abduction.
The leaders weren't confident. The recruits were civilian-born shinobi — nothing exceptional.
Near the orphan's residence, Yuzu crouched and pressed her fingers against the ground.
It was a sensory technique devised by Tobirama — Earth Release detection. Vibrations traveled through the soil and formed a mental map.
She had learned it within the clan.
Suddenly—
Five signatures.
She vanished into an alley.
One squad leader and four Root recruits hid in the shadows.
The leader assessed them.
Two recruits crouched in the same treetop — fools. Sharing a spot only increased exposure.
One hid behind a tree trunk — better, though vulnerable if someone circled it.
The last used a Transformation Technique to disguise himself as a roadside stone.
Effective against weak opponents. Useless against jōnin-level perception.
They were targeting a first-year academy orphan. For such prey, the method sufficed.
The squad leader considered their approach.
Then the orphan stepped outside to discard trash.
The two in the treetop moved first — dropping down.
One secured the front of the street. One secured the rear.
The leader nodded inwardly.
Acceptable coordination.
The recruit behind the trunk advanced to seize the target. The transformed one remained as backup.
Not bad.
Then—
His eyes widened in horror.
A woman in a green dress appeared beside the orphan.
Tsunade.
Her presence wasn't catastrophic. There were contingency plans — invoke Konoha's greater good and direct her to the higher-ups.
But—
She struck without hesitation.
Two punches.
Two Root recruits were launched through the air.
Their chests caved in. Organs exploded outward.
The squad leader felt ice crawl down his spine.
How could Tsunade attack Konoha shinobi lethally?
Why?
He leapt from his hiding place.
"Lady Tsu—"
He never finished.
She appeared before him and crushed him with a single blow.
The remaining two recruits were struck from behind.
Spines shattered. Ribcages detonated.
Not everyone had Jiraiya's resilience to withstand Tsunade's monstrous strength.
The bodies flew, collapsing nearby walls with thunderous crashes.
Residents poured out — some leaping from windows, others rushing into the street.
Seeing Tsunade, they halted.
"It's nothing," she said calmly. "I apprehended spies attempting to abduct a Konoha child. Disperse."
Minutes later, Hiruzen, Danzo, Orochimaru, and numerous ANBU arrived.
Yako, close enough to sense the disturbance, appeared in a blur.
He stared at the mangled corpses… then at Tsunade… then at the orphan sheltered behind Kazematsuri Yuzu.
He understood.
Five masked shinobi — crushed on the spot.
Tsunade…
She had changed.
She had cast aside her hesitation for Konoha's political facades — and chosen to kill.
Now the question remained.
Would Hiruzen call these bodies Root?
Or would he call them spies?