Chương 486: CH_13.5 (486)

As the sun rose on Fune, the members of ANBU began trickling out of their beds around wake-up time. They had gone to sleep restlessly, knowing that a dangerous battle awaited them, but all had fallen into a sound sleep from the day's fatigue. When they arrived at the main hall, they found Weasel and Hopper already awake with multiple maps spread around the room.

"Good morning," Hopper greeted them with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"The orders came in an hour ago. There isn't much in there; High Command probably had to rush to get them to us in time. We have the location to rendezvous with the main force." Hippo looked at the wall clock.

"The main force would've left the village around now. We still have some time before we leave. Freshen up, eat your fill, and finish the checks on your gear." Tern looked around the room and found her squad leader missing.

"Captain, have you seen Ratel? He isn't up in his room."

"Out by the gate, taking delivery of a weapons cache," Weasel replied while mapping out the route they were going to take from Fune to the rendezvous location. He then looked up at her, and she felt just a bit conscious under his sharp gaze.

"Your efforts until now and what you'll do today won't go unnoticed. You were integral to getting us here. Your deeds towards the good of the village will be the first big step towards recovering the reputation of the Shimura clan." Tern straightened as a rush of feelings tried to overwhelm her. The day before, when they were discussing the battle, every time Danzō was mentioned, the operatives from other squads gazed at her.

She could feel the caution and doubt they kept to themselves because she was the subordinate of Weasel and Ratel. She knew they hadn't seen the months and months of work spent working off the Shimura clan's image; but even if she understood that, it didn't mean she didn't feel hopeless that things would ever change. So hearing a captain—a jōnin—acknowledge her efforts and their impact on her clan's reputation meant a lot.

"Thank you, sir," she said. Weasel nodded but then asked, "Will you be alright?"

"Yes?"

"The clan most impacted by Danzō and ROOT is perhaps the Shimura." ROOT had its reach into almost all the Leaf's distinguished clans, having turned their members into agents. However, out of all of them, none had more participation than the Shimura. Most clans only had a couple to a few members in ROOT, but when ROOT had fled, the number of shinobi gone missing from the Shimura clan alone was in the double digits.

"You must've read the reports: ROOT trainees are chosen and start their training in their early formative years…" Tern clenched her fists. ROOT brainwashed and manipulated children into agents and developed intense devotion towards Danzō as their leader when they were still learning what was right and wrong. They grew up with his twisted ideology and were thus molded by it.

Being the clan leader for decades had allowed Danzō to degrade the Shimura clan's youth into unquestioning soldiers who would be willing to sacrifice everything, including themselves, for him. No clan had suffered more than the Shimura clan because of Danzō and ROOT. And now, she had to fight those who were her clan members, people she knew. They were ROOT agents who had done unspeakable things, but they also could've had different lives if they hadn't come into contact with Danzō.

It created a sense of conflict within her.

"…There'll be no problems, sir. We must do the tough things for the betterment of the village's future," she said. Weasel nodded.

"I didn't expect anything less." Ratel walked into the house, wheeling a trolley with cartons and boxes of weaponry sourced from the Hidden Leaf presence in Fune.

"Gear up!" he yelled before walking up to his boss and subordinate.

"Good morning, Tern. I hope you're well-rested."

"Ready to go," Tern said.

"Aquilla?"

"Should I wake him up?"

"Give him another fifteen. He was out there the longest yesterday. We can afford it," Ratel said. The ROOT base was farther from Fune than it was from the Hidden Leaf Village, but because they were a much smaller group than the main force, they could move much faster and cover a larger distance in a shorter time.

"It's finally happening." Tern rubbed her arms.

"Even now, it's hard to believe that we're so close. I don't think it's going to feel real for me until we join the main force." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Ratel nodded in understanding.

"Speaking of main forces. We're sending our ten jōnin against the enemy's suspected six jōnin—five if we exclude the one captain who fought yesterday. I don't believe ROOT has any chance of survival against that difference in power," she said. For a rogue entity not associated with a hidden village, ROOT was possibly among the strongest independent forces across the lands—though they had only recently gained that power.

They could take over a small country with the military power they possessed, but it paled against the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

"It won't be a direct confrontation." Both of them looked to Weasel.

"The moment ROOT sees us coming, they'll flee because they know that if they engage, the Hidden Leaf would survive even if they suffer heavy losses and even recover, but they wouldn't. Like ANBU, ROOT wasn't built for large-scale frontal battles…" This was why only two ANBU jōnin were participating in the operation, and a vast majority of forces across all ranks were made up of general shinobi.

In fact, aside from assault squads, most operatives' field visits were far more irregular, and they relied on regular shinobi for much of their fieldwork.

"…It's going to be a hunt. We're going to chase while they run. That's why we have an Inuzuka and a Hyūga among the jōnin; they're expert trackers who will make it harder for the enemy to escape. Fox himself has excellent tracking abilities…"

"Ah, through his summoning contract," Ratel uttered with a nod.

"Yes, I'm surprised you know that," Weasel said.

"Oh, he's very famous, and well, I looked into him more when I found out he had that." Ratel tapped his face below his left eye. It took Tern a moment before she realised he was talking about the Sharingan. Copy Ninja Kakashi is the true identity of Fox. He had the Uchiha's dōjutsu in his left eye despite not being remotely related to the clan, which was one of the most bizarre things considering how much bloodline limits are guarded by the clans.

She looked at her squad leader and captain and was once again reminded that the two before her were acquainted from before ANBU. She had done some digging, and it wasn't a secret that Ratel was a student of Lady Uchiha, Weasel's mother.

"Can he really use a thousand jutsu?" Ratel asked Weasel, who was placed in one of Fox's units when he joined ANBU and had risen through the ranks under Fox's umbrella until he was promoted to captain and split away.

"I believe the Third Hokage knows more," Weasel said.

"That's crazy," Ratel whistled.

"It's an exaggeration, as most things like these are, but the reason he got the name is from the bingo book. People who survived him or saw him fight reported more and more information on him, but they rarely reported the same jutsu, so people started to say that he knew a thousand jutsu," Weasel said. Ratel nodded, seemingly impressed. Weasel turned to Tern to continue the conversation they had been having before.

"The Aburame clan head can also operate as a tracker through his insects; he also volunteered some of his members who are good at tracking. And we have a Yamanaka, who will provide great value indirectly."

"The Hokage's jōnin commander is a strategic genius," Tern commented. Technically, every jōnin commander was the 'Hokage's jōnin commander', but that title went to the highest-ranking jōnin commander. The Nara clan head, Nara Shikaku, currently holds that position and title.

"A hunt, huh?" Ratel had a faraway look before he smiled.

"Whoever gets the head of the spider will be the hero. Be that hero, captain. A hero who brings evil to justice. All of us here will be your sidekicks." Weasel gazed at Ratel for a moment before nodding with a small smile on his face. ———. The ROOT agent had a thin cotton sheet around her as she sat on a dusty roof with a metal water canteen sitting on a portable burner. When the soup inside reached a boil, she removed it from the flame and ate her first meal, and perhaps her only warm meal of the day.

Her mission was to keep an eye on whoever came to Fune following their setup. After what had happened the day before, she had kept watch on the guest house where the ANBU were staying through the night. At first, after everything was done, she was of the mind that further observation was unnecessary, but with the whereabouts of Jōnin Kinoto unknown, she had to keep an eye on them even though she wanted to look for him because he could be in mortal danger after his fight with Uchiha Itachi.

Through the night, she increasingly considered abandoning the ANBU and going after Kinoto. It would get her in trouble, but the loss of a jōnin would be too much for ROOT to bear currently. She was willing to take punishment if it meant that the Foundation would remain strong. But then an hour ago, she noticed what she believed to be a weapons cache delivered to the guest house. If they were going home, they wouldn't need to refresh their weapons, which meant that they had other significant plans.

If it involved Uchiha Itachi, it would be something ROOT would want to know, even if it had nothing to do with them. She finished her soup, washed her canteen at a working tap on the roof, and then filled it with boiled water. Just as she was done, there was more movement at the guest house. She instantly backed away and hid her presence when she saw all the ANBU come out. They were on the move. She packed her stuff and then followed them for ten minutes until they arrived at the Leaf's Fune headquarters.

She remained outside but guessed that they were there to meet the jōnin before they left. And it seemed that she was right because they were only in the building for another ten minutes before they set out. Soon, they left Fune, and she was on the road with them, following them from a distance.

They were heading west, which was in line with their route if they wanted to head back to the Hidden Leaf Village, but her assumption was challenged when they ran past the southwest turn that would've put them on a trade route that ran to the village. An hour later, she felt a pit form in her stomach as they continued to head east and then switched to another eastbound road that put them further north. Her heart began to beat faster because it was a route she would've taken if she were going home.

Two hours later, they stopped for a water break. In that time, she whipped out a route map from her backpack and nervously looked to confirm their location.

"No…" She didn't need to look at the map because she already knew that her fears were true. She simply wished that the map would say something else. Alas, it said what it was always going to say. ANBU was heading towards ROOT's new village.