Naruto: I, Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan Princess

Chapter 148 The Roots of Konoha
"Task?"

Hui Li was taken aback.

Since joining Root, she has enjoyed all kinds of resources from Root in the Experiment Department. Danzo has never assigned her any tasks, so hearing those two words now felt somewhat unfamiliar.

"My Sharingan experiment is at a critical stage, and I might... be unable to get away," Hairi reminded Danzo of her crucial research findings.

Her most important task right now is to reverse the Eight Gates, and all her time and energy are focused on this. How can she have time to carry out any root-related tasks?

Danzo frowned: "Your research is excellent. When you return from the mission, you can choose a pair of Sharingan eyes as a reward."

The mission reward is a Sharingan?

Upon hearing Danzo's words, Hui Li's eyes flickered.

Then again, she's just a shadow clone. Even when she goes out on missions, her main body and many more clones are still conducting research in Konoha, so her progress won't be much slower.

The research on reversing the Eight Gates requires the Yin Release chakra within the Sharingan to test and purify life force. Although the Root Sharingan can be used, it cannot be taken out of the laboratory and must be completed under Chihaya Toru's supervision.

This makes it difficult to conduct many experiments, and even if an experiment succeeds, she would have to find a way to get a Sharingan.

Isn't now a perfect opportunity?

Hui Li cleared her throat: "Ahem, my experiment can't be delayed, but since it's the teacher's task, it's more important."

Chihaya Toru, who witnessed the whole thing, pouted and continued studying the Sharingan with her head down.

"The interrogation department extracted a lot of information from that person's brain."

Danzo raised his cane and pointed at the man on the bed who had lost his heart.

"Kumakumo has an important mining site on the edge of the Land of Lightning, and it is said that the ore produced there is very precious."

After a long investigation, our team finally located the exact location of the mine.

"Time, place, and who to kill?"

Hui Li asked directly.

"Tomorrow we'll leave the village, head to the border of the Land of Thunder, and destroy all the mines."

"Just destruction?"

Hui Li looked at Danzo tentatively. Given his self-interested nature, it was hard for her not to suspect his motives.

"of course not!"

Danzo's eyes flashed with murderous intent, and a grin revealed his gleaming white teeth.
"Kill everyone stationed at the mine, leave no one alive! Take the ore if you can, and if you can't, blow up the mine along with it!"
He, the Hidden Cloud Village, dared to storm into Konoha and kill people, thinking he could just brush off the weak Hiruzen and let it go? There's no such easy way out.

No one can provoke Konoha without paying the price!

Is that really the reason?

Hui Li glanced in surprise at the emotional light above Danzo's head, the pure anger and killing intent appearing as a reddish-black color like blood ink.

She had always thought that Danzo only targeted Konoha ninjas, was skilled at various forms of infighting, and created tragedies.

But upon closer reflection, it becomes clear.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was able to tolerate Danzo and Root for so many years, attract ANBU ninjas like Arashi to join, and even after Danzo's death, many ninjas still voluntarily operated under the name of Root.

Root is definitely more than just a bloody and cruel terrorist organization; it must have some positive aspects.

"If you have the chance, help me capture some experimental subjects. The experiments with ninjas who have mastered the Lightning Release Armor are particularly effective."

Upon hearing that Hairi's mission was to go to the Land of Lightning, Chihaya Toru raised her hand and seized the opportunity.

"I need to ask Iruka-sensei for leave."

Ignoring Chihaya's request, Kairi draped the black cloak that was hanging to the side over her shoulders.

Danzo's expression was not good. Hiruzen Sarutobi was one thing, but who was this Iruka-sensei? Why did he have to ask for leave from Kairi to send him on a mission?
Who is Iruka?

"He was my homeroom teacher at the ninja academy."

Danzo tightened his grip on his cane, and finally could only close his eyes and nod helplessly:
"Meet at the Konoha Equipment Department at 7:00 AM tomorrow."

"understood."

With her cloak twirling behind her, Hui Li strode out of the operating room.

The Root's intelligence system did not malfunction, and Danzo also knew that she could use the Shadow Clone Technique.

Ordinary shadow clones shatter upon contact and can only hold half the chakra of the original body. Since most of a ninja's strength is based on chakra, normal shadow clones are very weak and can only serve as intelligence gathering tools.

What makes Hui Li special is that she is skilled in ninjutsu and taijutsu, and has very low chakra requirements.

Although the Corpse Bone Pulse cannot be used actively, the Shadow Clone Technique, which passively grants her strong bones, can also be inherited. Combined with the defensive capabilities of Lightning Release Chakra Mode, ordinary attacks simply cannot break through her defenses.

Avoid the two biggest weaknesses of the Shadow Clone Technique.

In addition, with the high-quality chakra from the fusion of the Nine-Tails and the Three-Tails, her shadow clones could possess about 80% of her original strength. This allowed her to easily kill three special Jonin during the Root's siege, preventing Danzo from suspecting her identity.

The transferability of the Nine-Tails' chakra later solved the problem of insufficient chakra in the shadow clones, allowing Hai Li's shadow clones to reach 90% of the original body's combat power.

The fact that she instantly killed three Jonin in the corridor of the underground base further confirmed her true identity.

Even Danzo himself might not be able to kill three Jonin instantly with Shadow Clones. No one would believe that a six-year-old child could become his equal.

That's how he managed to infiltrate Root using shadow clones without arousing anyone's suspicion.

However, she couldn't be discovered by Danzo, and even while on a mission outside the village, she was still able to attend school normally in the village.

That situation, which was originally in the dark, is now very difficult to hide.

Tap the heart's fake chakra core with your fingertip.

dong dong dong...

Eight hearts are connected to the void.

Yang Release: Gray Instantly transmitted her memories of experiments and missions to her main body via the chakra chain, and then the main body transmitted these memories to the other shadow clones.

While packing her schoolbag, Ninja Academy student Hairi paused upon receiving the memory transmission, then slung her schoolbag over her back and went to Iruka to ask for leave.

The process of requesting leave went very smoothly.

Before she could even voice her fabricated reasons, Iruka had already given his approval.

After killing Yotsuki Yu to save countless students and becoming Konoha's number one genius, her status in the school had reached its peak. The only one who could consistently surpass her in popularity was the Hokage, who also served as the principal.

What reason do you need to ask for leave?
Geniuses study too much, what's wrong with taking a couple of days off?
Before Yang-style Kairi even stepped out of the Root's gate, he had already requested a fake identity.

She simply went directly to Hiruzen Sarutobi, saying that her new technique had made some progress and that she would be going into seclusion in the Forest of Death for at least a week, and that her one-on-one lessons next week would be temporarily suspended.

Upon seeing his disciple arrive, Hiruzen Sarutobi quickly extinguished his pipe: "Don't study the secret techniques of Yin and Yang Release, and especially don't study them when you're alone!"

A gentle breeze carried the dust and smoke out of the window.

"It's just the Five Elements Escape Technique, and also, smoke less."

Hui Li waved and walked out of the Hokage's office, leaving only a dark silhouette in his eyes.

"Long-winded."

Hiruzen Sarutobi rolled his eyes at Hairi, and was about to relight his extinguished pipe when he thought for a moment, sighed, and placed it on the table.

……

While attempting to use sealing techniques to deal with the main body of the Shikotsumyaku at the Hatake family residence, he put down his work and sealed all the Hashirama cells in the basement into a scroll.

Since the intention is to go into seclusion in the Forest of Death, then the act must be carried out completely.

Carrying a large amount of food and water, Hui Li dispelled all her clones except for the Yang Release clone, and came alone to the waterfall in the Forest of Death.

Boom boom!

Water droplets flew everywhere, creating a sound as powerful as galloping horses.

But Hui Li was no longer the same person he once was. His right hand hovered in mid-air.

Sharp wind-style chakra gathered on the outside of his arm, the highly shape-shifting wind-style chakra resembling a fish fin.

Wave!

hum!
A solid, transparent ripple appeared in the air.

The moment the ripples touched the waterfall, the continuous curtain of water was instantly severed.

More than that.

The cliff inside was cleaved by the aftershocks of the wind jutsu, leaving a terrifying wound more than twenty meters long. Hui Li simply followed the crack torn open by the wind jutsu and used earth jutsu to carve out a huge hole.

They crawled into the water curtain cave.

At that moment, the severed waterfall plunged down, covering the cave entrance along with that outrageous scar.

The sealing technique used in the basement was engraved on the outside of the cave entrance, and with the waterfall providing cover, it was ten thousand times more concealed than the basement of the Hatake family.

Yang Release: Gray Glass leaves the village to carry out a mission in exchange for the Sharingan.

With Ninja Academy member Hai Li taking leave, she was able to fill in. The training for reversing the Eight Gates continued as usual, without slowing down in the slightest. The Forest of Death was rich in resources, and with animal friends available as experimental subjects, the progress might even be accelerated considerably.

All parties were notified and the matter was handled properly.

Early the next morning.

Yang Release: Gray Glass quickly arrived at Root's Base No. 3.

stomping on...

We descended the spiral stone steps.

She wore an owl-shaped mask, a cloak with roots covering her body, and hid all her silver hair in the hood. Apart from being a little short, she looked exactly like a member of the Dark Guard.

The most frightening part is the area around the eyes.

Inside the two holes of the patterned owl mask are extremely black black Ob eye patches. To the uninformed, all that can be seen are two pure black eyes without pupils, which is quite terrifying.

"Woo~"

After passing through several forks in the road, Hui Li arrived at the fork in the road with two cave entrances on the left and right. As always, screams and wailing came from the cave on the right.

After memorizing the map, she already knew what place it was.

That was a dungeon where death row inmates and experimental subjects were held. Of course, there was no difference between the two here. The Cloud Village ninja who died on the operating table yesterday was usually kept there.

It was just dirty and messy, nothing unusual about it.

With the mission deadline fast approaching, Gray Glass could no longer delay and made his way through the winding underground passage to the equipment department.

Push the door open.

Sixteen dazzling chakra rays instantly illuminated Gray Glass's eyes.

The panda girl rested her chin on one hand, writing something in a thick brown paper notebook.

Fifteen ninjas wearing black cloaks and hoods, with various masks on their faces, were selecting equipment from the ninja tool rack in the equipment department.

There were no words spoken; the only sound in the room was the clanging of steel clashing as ninja tools were being selected.

Whizzing!

A ninja rapidly formed hand seals, and various ninja tools disappeared in a cloud of dust.

With his white eyes, Hui Li could clearly see that his wrists, hidden under his cloak, were wrapped with many small sealing scrolls.

"Lord Hui Li."

Butterfly sensed that special chakra and quickly looked up. Arashi and Iwakuma, who were organizing their equipment nearby, also greeted her.

It is human nature to admire the strong.

After two battles, they have been completely defeated by Gray Glass.

Danzo then accepted Hairi as his disciple in front of everyone; the huge difference in their strength and status was enough to make people overlook her immature age.

Lan, who was initially at odds with Hui Li, now obediently lowered his head.

Call me Night Crossing.

"Yes, Lord Yoru."

Correcting the way she addressed Butterfly, Gray glanced around at the ninjas who were on the mission with her. Besides the Iwakuma trio, there were twelve special Jonin.

With her elite Jonin-level combat power, wouldn't destroying a few mines be a waste of her talent?

These are sixteen Konoha Jonin!

In the original work, the main fighting force of the Snow Country rebels consisted of only three special Jonin and one ordinary Jonin, and they could only achieve this through Ice Release in cold conditions.

With such immense power, how could they possibly destroy a mine on the edge of the Land of Lightning? Is there something special about it? The ore mined there is very precious, so the defenses are extremely tight. Or do these people have other missions to undertake?

Seeing the Root ninjas who hadn't uttered a word since she entered, silently preparing their ninja tools, Hairi gave up on communicating with them.

Over the past month, she has thoroughly understood many aspects of the roots.

Although the Root is nominally the 'Dark Team Training Department', its configuration is basically the same as that of the Dark Team.

There are a total of seventy official members.

Hundreds of prospective members are still in training.

If any of the seventy ninjas die or are injured, qualified reserve members will fill the vacancy.

People like Sai and Aburame Torune, whom Hai Li is familiar with, are currently only Root's reserve members, undergoing special training on the third floor of the base and fighting against other ninjas of the same age.

Of the official seventy people.

Danzo, acting as Hokage, was the absolute leader of Root. Ryoma Aburame, the only elite Jonin before Kairi joined, was the captain of the Anbu, managing all affairs when Danzo was not in Root.

Iwakuma and another Jonin were company commanders, responsible for managing other Jonin-level experts. These Jonin then served as squad leaders, managing the regular members below them.

It was a place with a very strict hierarchy.

The root members are also mainly divided into three types.

The first type consists of children taken in from the Konoha orphanage. After undergoing rigorous brainwashing and training, these children have completely lost their humanity and autonomy, becoming tools for carrying out missions.

The second type was children with talent and knowledge of secret arts that Danzo gathered from who-knows-where, and used coercion, enticement, and various other means to bring them into the Root organization.

Some, like the ninjas mentioned above, were completely reduced to tools, but there were still ninjas who did not completely lose their own will.

The last type consists of those who were originally powerful or had special talents, and who joined Root for various reasons. They are already quite old, but after brainwashing and training, they remain relatively normal.

Lan and Die both belong to the last category, so they look barely normal.

Gray Glass turned to look at Butterfly:
"What is your mission?"

"This... we can't just talk about the mission details at the root," Butterfly carefully explained to Gray Glass, who was on her first mission.

"Even teammates who went on the mission together are not allowed?"

"No."

Butterfly directly refused Gray Glass's visit, seemingly leaving no room for negotiation.

"Okay! So when do we leave?"

"We'll set off once Lord Ryoma arrives."

Aburame Ryoma?

Is he going too?
Hui Li's eyes sharpened.

Sending two elite Jonin, three Jonin, and a dozen or so special Jonin to destroy a mine? She'd believe it if they said they were going to assassinate the Raikage!
What was Danzo planning?
(End of this chapter)