Chapter 249: Continue Weakening Root
Yakushi Nonou’s tone was filled with worry and anxiety.
“Do you know where the 7 children from the orphanage went?”
Hearing her ask this, Yoru said: “Of course I know, they are receiving training in Root.”
“I can’t enter Root, can you tell me what training they are undergoing in Root?”
“What training can Root conduct? Nothing more than some routine training.” Yoru continued:
“For example, routine dissection of corpses, routine mutual killing, routine eradication of emotions, and the like.
Unfortunately, they no longer have parents, otherwise they would all be trained to go home and exterminate their own families.”
Yoru added in his mind, just like Uchiha Itachi.
Yakushi Nonou’s heart suddenly tightened.
In the eyes of the Anbu Fox, these trainings were all routine, but to a normal person, which one of these trainings was not utterly heartless.
They were all only 4-year-old children.
Yakushi Nonou only felt a wave of dizziness.
She asked again: “Root training has an elimination rate, of my 7 children, how many will Root ultimately admit in the end?”
Yoru said: “Root has 10 official ninja spots, Orochimaru occupies one spot, leaving 9 spots.
From what I heard from Prop, 5 spots will go to adult ninja, and 4 spots to ninja trained in Root from childhood.
This training involves 20 children, and ultimately 4 will be left.
The remaining 16 will serve as opponents for the final 4 to bloody their ninja swords.
Having trained together for years, there is bound to be some emotion, and as long as they kill their companions, they can complete the final step of Root training, thoroughly eradicating their own emotions.”
Yoru remembered that Sai from the original story underwent years of Root training and finally killed his brother Shin to become a qualified Root ninja.
“In other words, of the 7 children contributed by your orphanage, ultimately 4 will survive.” Yoru said after a pause:
“If things go badly, it might be 1 plus 4, or 9 plus 5; sometimes disabled ninja can also have surprising effects, don’t you think?”
Yakushi Nonou knew the Fox was cruel and terrifying, but she didn’t know the Fox would state the children’s tragic fate so bluntly.
“I want to save those children.”
Not everyone was Tsunade; Yakushi Nonou did not have Tsunade’s privileges.
“Haha.” Yoru laughed: “Walking Witch, I admit your spy skills are decent, but your combat power is lacking.
What, are you going to disguise yourself as Danzo and enter Root to release those children?
Not just you—even if it were me in Root, I’d have to stay put obediently.
Unless…”
Yakushi Nonou grasped the last straw: “Unless what?”
“To let those children live, unless we continue to weaken Root.”
“How to weaken Root?”
Yakushi Nonou hated Root to the bone, but her strength was insufficient to confront Danzo, so she could only repeatedly trade intelligence to get Danzo to spare the orphanage.
Yoru said: “Yakushi Nonou, secretly opposing Root means you could be killed by Danzo at any time—how am I supposed to trust you?”
Multiple schemes flashed through Yakushi Nonou’s mind; her intuition told her that at this moment, she should seek sympathy.
She always felt that the Fox’s surface cruelty was a disguise for surviving in Anbu, so she said:
“I know you’re opposing Danzo for Lord Kiiroinu, to seize power over Anbu from Danzo.
You have formidable strength, as well as the support of the Hokage and the Anbu Deputy Minister.
I have nothing; I only want the orphanage to take in more children, only want the children in the orphanage to grow up safely.
I only want to cultivate more children like Zhen Li.
I have nothing at all—doesn’t that make me worthy of trust?”
Sure enough, after Yakushi Nonou finished speaking, the Fox asked no further questions.
Yoru said: “I want intelligence on all ninja of the Shimura Clan, especially the jonin.”
Yakushi Nonou said straightforwardly: “Come back here in five days.”
Five days passed quickly, and Yakushi Nonou indeed brought intelligence on the Shimura Clan jonin.
Yoru said: “Go back and wait for news; Lord Kiiroinu will continue to weaken Danzo until Danzo can no longer control Root and cannot continue serving as Anbu Minister.”
In the izakaya basement, Yoru looked over the intelligence.
The Shimura Clan currently had 15 jonin.
Among them, about 8 were jonin in name and deed, while the strength of the remaining 7 was questionable.
These 7 had no standout battle records; they were all hastily recommended as jonin after some fluke S-rank mission.
Fake jonin, watered down—not even top-tier among special jonin.
After promotion, these 7 jonin had low mission completion rates and were gradually assigned by the high-ranking officials to important management positions.
Departments in the Hokage Building, guardian ninja, and so on—all positions with low danger but great power.
It’s the same in any world: administrative posts are full of connections.
The workers slave away, take crap from clients, take crap from bosses; go to admin finance, and you still take crap from the connection holders—infuriating, isn’t it?
Yoru looked at two special names.
These two were the jonin guardian ninja of the Daimyo of the Land of Grass: Shimura Kabi and Shimura Ryo.
Good luck—Shimura Ryo was one of the fake jonin.
A few days later, Yoru received a contract chakra notification in the middle of the night.
He quickly arrived at the underground training ground and summoned Bai Ci and Bai You.
Bai Ci and Bai You were already very proficient.
After Bai You reverse summoned to beside Yuka, Yoru appeared on the grassland.
Kappa Oni, Oni, Aiki—the three were waiting for Shiroki.
Yuka said: “We found the migrating Kyoto of the Land of Grass.
Tonight, the Daimyo of the Land of Grass is temporarily stationed not far away.
This kind of temporary camp during migration has weaker defenses than after settling the capital; it’s the best opportunity for a raid.”
At the same time, Yuka handed over a map.
The map showed the layout of the temporary camp, the tent of the Daimyo of the Land of Grass, and the positions of the guardian ninja.
Yuka continued: “The Daimyo of the Land of Grass has 12 guardian ninja, of which 8 are Leaf Ninja and 4 are confidants recruited by the daimyo.
Among the 8 Leaf Ninja, there are 2 Shimura Clan jonin, 2 Shimura Clan special jonin, 1 Hyuga Clan ninja, and 3 other ninja.
The trouble is that Hyuga ninja.”
Kaicho Uzumaki’s investigation was thorough; tent layout, personnel composition—all obtained.
Now needed was for Yoru to deliver the final strike, killing these four Shimura Clan ninja.
“Indeed troublesome.” Yoru said: “But not without a way.
The Byakugan of the Hyuga Branch Family has blind spots in its field of vision.
We can use the Byakugan blind spots to design a feint attack.”
No one understood the Hyuga Clan’s Byakugan better than Yoru; his Byakugan was the main family version without the caged bird seal.
After looking at the map, Yoru said: “This time I need your help; if it’s just me, I can’t complete the sneak attack.”
Kaicho Uzumaki said: “We’ve long been prepared for battle and revenge, Shiroki—please state your battle plan.”
