Mokuton Root Agent #11

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Mokuton Root Agent

Chapter 11

–Fugaku Uchiha–

As he lay witness to the apocalyptic scene in front of him, he thought of how the day in the life of a shinobi could go from zero to a hundred so quickly.

Just a few short minutes ago, he was equal parts happy and relieved, thinking that the biggest hindrance to the continued prosperity and survival of the clan was taken care of and now, here he was standing at the site where the village lost another one of their precious Kage-level shinobi and also put their strongest shinobi out of commission.

He had never seen Sandaime-sama acting like that. He was always so reserved, so steadfast. But he had also gone through so much. Suffered the losses of his loved ones one after the other.

The thought of losing another one of his loved ones, especially his closest son, must have been too much for him to bear.

The scene he had seen had sent chills down his spine.

The despair-inducing scream of Sandaime-sama would echo in his ears for years to come.

This was overall a net loss to the village. Nobody from the barrier corps who mainly handles the village’s Fuinjutsu requirements could tell what had happened to the garrison.

Shisui told him that he was one of the ANBU squads tasked with ransacking all of Danzo’s bases all over Konoha and the one where the ANBU Commander was present was supposed to be the biggest vault of Danzo’s root.

Maybe, in an act of desperation, Danzo did this? Or did Shinnosuke stumble on a trap? Or Maybe somebody else took advantage of the chaos and took out Konoha’s Monkey Spear, their hidden Kage-level shinobi.

One of the precious few that Konoha had access to and only one of two known ones that resided in the village.

All the other ones were always gallivanting outside the village so they could not be trusted with the more urgent tasks at hand.

Now? With Shinnosuke missing, Sandaime-sama in no position for combat, and the Nine-tails Jinchuriki being a kid, the village officially had no other Kage-level Shinobi to offer.

That was bad. That was really bad.

The other villages would soon know of this and would waste no time in pressuring Konoha. Not to mention even the Daimyo could get involved since Konoha’s image of stability had taken a bit of a hit because of the back-to-back disasters they were hit with.

No.

They could not afford this. War, in any condition, was bad enough but to fight one without having enough Kage-level shinobi on their side? That was pure suicide.

Even in the previous wars, they had more Kage-level shinobis than all the other villages combined, and even then they had to suffer heavy losses in order to emerge as the de-facto winner of the war if you could even call losing an entire generation of genin, a “Win”.

The thought of revealing himself as the sole user of the Mangekyou Sharingan in the entirety of Konoha didn’t even occur to him. Not to mention the village higher-ups, the clan elders themselves would fall all over themselves in a frenzy to prop him up as the Hokage. Then, even the elders who were on the fence previously would join the radical faction since the entire clan grew up believing in the fact that an Uchiha with a Mangekyou Sharingan is invincible, as was proven by their ancestor, Madara Uchiha. What these people didn’t realise was that Madara had the even more advanced Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and he was sure that even with his eyes closed, Madara would have a Kage-level shinobi able to contend with most of the ninjas alive.

But that was something he knew only due to reading the Stone Tablet left in the Nara Shrine by their ancestors. He suspected that there were more levels to the tablet but he didn’t have enough ocular prowess for that.

The clan elders, also, would not get the fact that using the Mangekyou only makes you blind.

No, as much as it pained him to admit that, he was not fit to become Hokage, at least not the Yondaime Hokage.

Maybe, Itachi or Satsuke could become the Hokage of their generation. And for that to happen, he needed to make sure that Konoha remained standing till then.

The only option left was the Sannin, of which Orochimaru was clearly not an option.

That left Tsunade Senju and Jiraiya.

Jiraiya’s spy network was invaluable to the village but the village’s continued prosperity necessitated the presence of a strong leader and they could do with a partially formed or even a weak spy network for a while if it meant that Konoha as a whole came out of this ordeal hale and whole.

Tsunade Senju would be the better option for the village’s morale with her being the Last Senju, especially with her charisma. She would be the perfect leader for balancing the politics required for the village to function properly.

Her no-nonsense attitude would work against the clans, including his, but at this point, he couldn’t bring himself to care more about the clan than the village. Adding her medical skills on top of that would also help the clan in a lot of ways, including bringing the strongest shinobi in their village back up to combat standards.

He couldn’t emphasise that more. Hiruzen Sarutobi was the rock of the village and the undefeatable wall that even their enemies recognised and respected. He needed to be brought back in fighting shape.

It would seem that he would have to bring back both of them to the village.

The only question was: How?

Undoubtedly, the news would soon reach them anyway and Jiraiya at least would come rushing back to his teacher to make sure he was okay. He was sure that he would go right back into his wandering days when his teacher would recover but he needed both of them to stay.

Tsunade would undoubtedly revolt if she heard of the continued experiments Danzo was conducting on her grandfather’s cells and probably kill Danzo on the spot(and how unfortunate would that be?).

Yes, that was the best way he could go about things.

Guilting her into accepting the seat of Hokage whilst simultaneously making sure that Jiraiya didn’t leave the village to go off gallivanting on his own would be the optimal outcome of the whole saga.

“Inabi, make sure Shisui sees me first thing when he wakes up,” He ordered Inabi, who looked quite shaken from the ordeal. It was understandable, as he did carry the Hokage back to the medical ward. That would be stressful for anyone to do.

“Yes, Clan Head,” Inabi replied.

“Also, make sure every able-bodied Uchiha is seen patrolling in the village. No Police Duties for today as a curfew has been declared. Make sure no spy gets in or out of the village. I’ll make sure the ANBU coordinates with you,” He commanded.

Inabi nodded, “I understand,” and left the scene.

He went back to the perimeter established by the Barrier Corps as they were examining the huge hole that had been dug smoothly into the ground.

Last he heard, they had sent shinobis down the hole but after a hundred metres or so, it ended.

He could also see slight crystallization of the surrounding sand of the hole, making him wonder how hot it must have become and increased his doubts about the survival of Shinnosuke.

With his Sage mode and enough preparation, maybe he could have survived something like this but being caught unprepared would most certainly spell doom for anyone he knew. He had neither when he saw the white light coming out of the garrison.

“Captain, what can you tell me?” he asked the captain of the Barrier Corps who was looking at a report with bloodshot eyes and a haggard face.

At my question, he looked towards me and after staring for a few seconds too long, he responded, “Ah, yeah. Any updates. All I can say is the chakra is ancient and vast, nothing we have seen before. It was neutral somehow and contained traces of spatial ninjutsu, similar to that of Yondaime’sama’s jutsu.”

He hummed in interest at that particular tidbit of information.

“So, you are saying there’s a chance the people down there are still alive?” he questioned the captain.

The captain instantly shook his head and said, “No, not a chance. The amount of heat that was generated would vaporise anyone before they could even feel it. Sorry to say but I don’t believe anybody survived.”

He was afraid of that, “Still, keep looking and make sure that the council is made aware of it as soon as you have an official update on the matter. This is a life and death matter for the village.”

The captain nodded seriously and went right back to his work.

Now, he had to attend the council meeting, again.

This was certainly the most lively council meeting he had ever attended and probably the day with the highest number of meetings called.

He just hoped that it was not the same person who killed Minato that day. That would just be a political nightmare that he did not feel like dealing with today.

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Word Count - 1570