Mokuton Root Agent #13

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Mokuton Root Agent

Chapter 13

Clan Head Council Meeting Room

Fugaku “Wicked-Eye” Uchiha

The atmosphere in the meeting room was as if someone had died.

And it could very well be true.

Come tomorrow morning, every village worth their salt would be informed that The Professor was out of commission and the strength of the village they had been portraying to the outside world as a false stand would swiftly come crumbling down. Soon, they would also realise that Shinnosuke himself was dead, effectively doubling their troubles.

This would not have happened during their heyday, he mused as he thought of the era where he fought alongside legends like Sakumo Hatake, Minato Namikaze, Orochimaru and even Kushina Uzumaki for a small period of time. Those days seemed so far away now. Now they barely had 5 Kage-level individuals in the village, of which nobody knew he was one and the only two who are in any fighting condition have refused to come back and stay in the village for longer periods of time repeatedly even after being requested by their Hokage.

No, he could not count on them being the Hokage for as long as the Sandaime was Hokage. They could, at best, be a stopgap measure.

Somebody to hold the hat while they honed the next generation and waited for someone who could take over the seat of Hokage.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, his mind went to his prodigy of a son, Itachi. He was nearly perfect in every way as a shinobi.

But he was that. A shinobi. Itachi was a perfect tool and not someone who could become the perfect Hokage if he followed the same path of development as he does now.

He had to admit that it was his mistake that made Itachi the way he is now. He had thought that by exposing Itachi to the cruelty of the world earlier, he would learn that the shinobis tread a fine path of darkness and motivate him to become stronger for his own survival.

That backfired, spectacularly. His wife, Mikoto, had not spoken to him for months after that and even now, when Itachi struggles with particular social cues, she glares at him.

Truly, he wished to go back and slap his younger self was such a stupid idea. Exposing a child to such bloodshed would obviously have some sort of negative effect on their mind. He was just lucky that Itachi seemed to have mostly taken it to heart and maintained his balance, not becoming a crazy psychopath.

A crazy psychopath with the potential to reach Kage-level shinobi status before even reaching his twenties. The only people he knew of with the same potential were Hatake and Minato, of which only Minato managed to reach his potential because Hatake could not get past his inner demons.

The clan elders certainly seemed to like the situation more and more and of late, they had begun to circumvent his orders to order Itachi to train more and more, pressuring him to become stronger to maintain the so-called “Uchiha Pride”.

“So, what do we do from here?” He was taken away from his thoughts by the grim question posed by Shikaku Nara, the Nara Clan Head.

He surveyed the room only to see almost everyone with dark looks on their face as if they were not ready to believe the truth even if it was right in front of them.

He scoffed internally, the situation was not that dire yet.

“We have no other option. We need the Sannin back in the village,” Choza Akimichi, the current Akimichi Clan Head said, his visage scarred due to the corrosive effects of the Kyuubi’s chakra he experienced when he fell the Kyuubi once by pulling on its tails effectively.

“But how? I assume that Jiraiya is already on the way here after what has happened but bringing him here is not the issue. Making him stay is. The same goes for Princess Tsunade as well. Both of them love the village and would not let anything happen to it in their presence but the village’s continued survival hinges on a lot more than just that. We need more missions, more money to flow to our coffers, more mid-level ninjas, something to fill our depleted coffers after the Kyuubi reparations. We were on track to recover from the damages within a decade but now we would be lucky if we could maintain the current level. What we need is a continued strong presence for the world to see so that our overall projected strength remains the same.” Iniochi said.

That was the longest he had ever heard Iniochi speak ever since he became the Yamanaka Clan head. He must truly be stressed this time.

Before anybody could speak though, he stood up abruptly as he sensed something change within Konoha.

Alarmed by his actions, the other clan heads stood up in confusion as well. He looked out of the window with his Sharingan active, prompting Hiashi to activate his Byakugan as well.

Whatever they saw made them grimace simultaneously. They looked at each other and shook their heads, deactivating their respective Doujutsus.

“What happened?” Shikaku asked them the question that was in the minds of every single person present there.

“It's the tree. Just now, I sensed an abrupt shift in the ambient chakra levels of the village. That tree now has its roots connected to the vast network of roots that comprise the millions of Hashirama trees that litter Konoha’s borders.” He said in reply.

The clan heads’ faces mirrored in shock and horror at that.

That was understandable as it was an open secret among the higher-ups in Konoha that the unseen reason for high-level talent to appear in Konoha was due to the presence of the Hashirama trees. The trees appeared simple on the surface but they were anything but.

If not for the Hashirama trees, Konoha wouldn’t have nearly the same number of high-level shinobis it does now. The trees acted as a safe conduit for Nature Energy,i.e., the Chakra that is necessary to become a Sage. Someone who can change the very nature of the surroundings around them.

The two sages that Jiraiya taught, Minato and Shinnosuke, both got their first nature energy exposure in the presence of Hashirama Trees. The trees used the nature energy they absorbed from their surroundings and either stored it in their roots, which helped increase the overall food quality of Konoha, or dispersed it out into the atmosphere at regular intervals.

Shinnosuke was the one who figured out that a Sage Wood Release user could essentially manipulate the entirety of Konoha as a puppet if they wished to. He himself could manipulate the trees in such a way that they acted as a huge nature energy reserve for him that he could draw on at any moment as long as his main body was connected to any Hashirama tree.

That was Shinnosuke’s real value to the overall military might of Konoha. It was to become the single largest nightmare of any enemy that might have invaded Konoha and reached the inner parts of the village. He could, in essence, sit under a Hashirama tree under meditation and essentially spam hundreds of clones who would all be stronger than the average Elite Jonins due to their use of Senjutsu. Essentially, he would double the overall fighting strength of Konoha if the need ever arose.

But with him gone, they needed someone with Kage-level strength to stay in the village. It would seem that he would have to make some uncomfortable decisions then, for the sake of a safe Konoha that Itachi and Sasuke could eventually grow up in.

So, with a heavy heart, he stood up and said, “All we can do is to make sure that Konoha remains standing for the next generation to thrive safely. To that effect, we need the Sannin back in the village. So, I’ll have someone from the ANBU sent to the last known location of Tsunade. In the meantime, we can discuss on ways we can make Jiraiya stay for longer as I have received confirmation that he is on his way here.”

“Oh, yeah? Who went and made you Hokage?” Inuzuka Tsume said.

He smirked internally. That was exactly the opportunity he needed.

He looked down at Tsume as he unleashed his chakra on the building. It was nowhere near the potent chakra that the Sandaime released but it was also an irrefutable fact that it was the chakra of a Kage-level individual.

His Three-tomoe Sharingan spinning ominously, he looked at each and every clan head's face and noted that aside from Shikaku and Inoichi, every single person in the room was looking at him in shock and awe.

“Wh-How? When?” Tsume stuttered as she bore the full pressure of his chakra.

“We need at least a single Kage-level shinobi to guard the village in case anything happens. In his current condition, Sandaime-sama would die fighting someone of even my strength let alone the true monsters that roam outside Konoha. That is why I must remain here, to make sure the village remains safe. We’ll talk more in the morning with a good night’s sleep. In the meantime, I’ll stay guard and have the routine patrol units doubled.” he said as his chakra receded.

He just hoped that Jiraiya would get here sooner rather than later because from what he had heard back from the hospital, it would seem that the Sandaime-sama had lost all his will to live.

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Word Count - 1616

A/N - Sorry for the late release. My computer died overnight and I had to edit this chapter on my phone and release it. If there are any more mistakes, please inform me and I’ll have them edited right away. Don’t worry, the laptop should be done repairing by tonight so the release schedule won’t be affected.

Happy Reading!

Toodles!