"A mission?"
Hikari froze for a moment.
Ever since joining Root, she'd been holed up in the lab, soaking up their resources without ever being assigned a mission. The word felt almost foreign to her now.
"My Sharingan experiments are at a critical stage. I might not be able to step away," Hikari said, subtly reminding Danzo of her groundbreaking research.
Her top priority was reversing the Eight Gates. Every ounce of her time and energy was poured into that. Where would she find the bandwidth for some Root mission?
Danzo's brow furrowed. "Your research is impressive. Complete this mission, and you can pick a pair of Sharingan as a reward."
A mission reward of Sharingan?
Hikari's eyes flickered with interest.
Well, that changed things. She was just a shadow clone, after all. Even if she went out on a mission, her real body and other clones could stay in the Leaf Village to keep the research going. Progress wouldn't slow much.
Reversing the Eight Gates required Yin Release chakra from the Sharingan to test life force purification. While Root's Sharingan were available, they couldn't leave the lab and had to be used under Chihaya's supervision.
That made many experiments inconvenient. Even if she succeeded, she'd still need to find a way to snag a Sharingan for herself.
Wasn't this the perfect opportunity?
Hikari cleared her throat. "Ahem, I can't afford to delay my experiments, but since it's Sensei's mission, that takes priority."
Chihaya, who'd witnessed the whole exchange, pursed her lips and went back to studying the Sharingan.
"The interrogation team dug a lot of intel out of that guy's head," Danzo said, raising his cane to point at the heartless corpse on the table.
"The Cloud Village has a key mining operation on the border of the Land of Lightning. The ore they extract is supposedly extremely valuable.
After a long investigation, our people finally pinpointed the mine's exact location."
"Time, place, and who to kill?" Hikari asked bluntly.
"Leave the village tomorrow and head to the Land of Lightning's border. Destroy every mine."
"Just destroy them?" Hikari probed, eyeing Danzo. With his profit-driven nature, she couldn't help but suspect ulterior motives.
"Of course not!" Danzo's eyes gleamed with murderous intent, his lips curling to reveal stark white teeth. "Kill everyone guarding the mines. Leave no one alive! Take any ore you can carry, and if you can't, blow up the caves along with it!
The Cloud Village dared to invade the Leaf and kill our people, thinking they could brush it off with some half-hearted diplomacy with that softhearted Hiruzen? No way it's that easy!
No one crosses the Leaf without paying a price!"
Was that really his reason?
Hikari glanced at the emotional aura above Danzo's head, a deep red-black hue of pure rage and killing intent. She'd always thought Danzo only targeted Leaf shinobi, excelling at internal power struggles and creating tragedies.
But on second thought, it made sense.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had tolerated Danzo and Root for years. They'd attracted skilled Anbu like Arashi, and even after Danzo's death, many shinobi continued operating under Root's name willingly.
Root wasn't just a bloodthirsty, ruthless organization. There had to be some positive purpose behind it.
"If you get the chance, grab a few test subjects for me. Shinobi who've mastered Lightning Armor make excellent specimens," Chihaya interjected, seizing the moment upon hearing Hikari's mission was in the Land of Lightning.
"I need to ask Teacher Iruka for a leave," Hikari said, ignoring Chihaya's request and draping a black cloak over her shoulders.
Danzo's expression darkened. Hiruzen was one thing, but who was this Iruka? Why did Hikari need to ask him for permission to go on a mission?
"Who's Iruka?"
"My homeroom teacher at the Ninja Academy."
Danzo's grip on his cane tightened, but he eventually closed his eyes and nodded reluctantly. "Seven o'clock tomorrow morning. Meet at the Leaf Equipment Department."
"Got it."
With a swirl of her cloak, Hikari strode out of the operating room.
Root's intelligence network hadn't failed them. Danzo knew she could use the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Ordinary shadow clones were fragile, carrying only half the user's chakra. Since most of a ninja's strength relied on chakra, typical shadow clones were weak, useful only for reconnaissance.
Hikari was different. She excelled in taijutsu, requiring minimal chakra.
While she couldn't actively use her Kaguya Clan's bone manipulation, her shadow clones inherited her passively hardened bones. Combined with Lightning Release Chakra Mode's defensive boost, most attacks couldn't breach her defenses.
This negated the two biggest weaknesses of shadow clones.
With high-quality chakra from the Nine-Tails and Three-Tails fusion, her shadow clones retained about eighty percent of her real body's strength. That's how she'd effortlessly killed three special jonin during Root's ambush, convincing Danzo of her identity.
Later, the Nine-Tails' chakra transfer ability resolved the clones' chakra limitations, boosting them to ninety percent of her full power.
Killing three jonin instantly in the underground base had cemented her identity as the real deal.
No one would believe a six-year-old could rival Danzo himself, allowing her shadow clone to infiltrate Root without raising suspicion.
But she couldn't let Danzo discover that while she was out on a mission, she was still attending school in the village.
That kind of oversight would be hard to hide.
Her fingertip tapped the fake chakra core in her heart.
Thump, thump, thump.
Eight hearts linked through the void.
Yang Release Hikari instantly transmitted her memories of the experiment and mission to her real body via the chakra chain. The real body then relayed them to her other shadow clones.
At the Ninja Academy, Hikari's school clone, in the middle of packing her bag, paused as the memories hit. She slung the bag over her shoulder and went to ask Iruka for leave.
The process was smooth.
Before she could even spit out her fabricated excuse, Iruka approved it.
After killing Yagura Yozuki and saving countless students, becoming the Leaf's top genius, Hikari's status at school was unmatched. Only the Hokage, doubling as principal, outshone her in popularity.
Why would she need a reason for a leave?
A genius getting tired from studying and taking a couple of days off? No big deal.
Before Yang Release Hikari even left Root's base, the leave was secured.
She took a detour to see Hiruzen Sarutobi, claiming her new technique had made progress and she needed to train in the Forest of Death for at least a week, pausing their one-on-one lessons.
Seeing his disciple, Hiruzen quickly snuffed out his pipe. "Don't research Yin and Yang Release secrets, and never do it alone!"
A breeze carried the smoke out the window.
"It's just Five Elements techniques. Also, smoke less," Hikari said, waving as she left the Hokage's office, leaving only her dark silhouette.
"Bossy kid," Hiruzen muttered, rolling his eyes. He reached for his extinguished pipe but sighed and set it aside.
Meanwhile, Hikari's real body, working on sealing techniques to counter her bone manipulation at the Hatake residence, stopped and sealed all the Hashirama cells in the basement into a scroll.
If she was claiming to train in the Forest of Death, she had to sell the act.
With ample food and water, Hikari dispelled all her clones except the Yang Release one and headed alone to the waterfall in the Forest of Death.
Boom!
Water sprayed, the sound like galloping horses.
But Hikari was no novice.
She raised her right hand.
Sharp Wind Release chakra gathered along her arm, its high-level shape transformation resembling a fin.
With a swing—
Buzz!
The air rippled with a tangible, transparent wave.
The moment it hit the waterfall, the endless curtain of water split.
And that wasn't all.
The cliff behind bore a twenty-meter-long gash from the wind's residual force. Hikari used Earth Release to carve a massive cave through the wind-torn fissure.
She slipped into the water curtain cave.
The falling waterfall instantly sealed the entrance, hiding the absurd scar.
She etched the same sealing formulas from the Hatake basement onto the cave's entrance. With the waterfall's cover, it was ten thousand times more secure.
Yang Release Hikari would leave the village to complete the mission and earn a Sharingan.
The school clone would take her place, ensuring her Eight Gates reversal training continued without slowing. The Forest of Death was rich in resources, and with animal test subjects, progress might even speed up.
All parties were notified, and everything was set.
The next morning, Yang Release Hikari arrived swiftly at Root's Base Three.
Tap, tap, tap.
She descended the spiral stone steps.
Wearing a mask and Root's cloak, her silver hair tucked under the hood, she looked like a standard Anbu—save for her shorter stature.
The scariest part was her eyes.
Through the owl-patterned mask's eyeholes, black Obu eyepatches revealed only pupil-less, pure black eyes, terrifying to the uninformed.
"Woo~"
After passing several forks, Hikari reached the split with two cave entrances. As always, the right cave echoed with screams and whimpers.
Having memorized the map, she knew what it was.
A dungeon for death row inmates and test subjects—though here, the two were indistinguishable. The Cloud shinobi who died on the operating table yesterday was usually held there.
Nothing but filth and misery, nothing noteworthy.
With the mission's deadline approaching, Hikari didn't linger. She navigated the winding underground passages to the Equipment Department.
Pushing open the door—
Sixteen brilliant chakra glows lit up her eyes.
Panda Girl propped her chin on one hand, scribbling in a thick leather-bound notebook.
Fifteen ninjas in black cloaks and varied masks silently picked gear from the equipment racks.
No words were spoken, only the clanging of steel as they selected tools.
Whoosh!
One ninja's hands flashed through seals, and various tools vanished in a puff of smoke.
Hikari's Byakugan clearly saw the small sealing scrolls wrapped around his wrist beneath the cloak.
"Lady Hikari."
Sensing her unique chakra, Butterfly looked up, and Arashi and Rock Bear, organizing gear nearby, greeted her too.
Admiring the strong was human nature.
After two battles, they were thoroughly convinced of Hikari's prowess.
Danzo had publicly taken her as a disciple, and the gap in strength and status was enough to overshadow her youthful age.
Even Arashi, who'd initially clashed with Hikari, now lowered his head submissively.
"Call me Night Ferry," Hikari corrected.
"Yes, Lady Night Ferry."
Scanning the ninjas preparing for the mission, Hikari noted that besides Rock Bear's trio, there were twelve special jonin.
With her elite jonin-level strength, wasn't this overkill for destroying a few mines?
This was sixteen Leaf jonin!
In the original story, the Snow Country rebels' main force was just three special jonin and one regular jonin, relying on Ice Release in cold conditions.
Using such a massive force to destroy mines on the Land of Lightning's border—did the mines hide something special? Were the ores so valuable that the defenses were airtight, or did these people have other objectives?
Watching the Root ninjas, who hadn't spoken since her arrival and quietly prepared their gear, Hikari gave up on trying to talk to them.
Over the past month, she'd learned plenty about Root.
Though nominally the "Anbu Training Department," Root's structure was nearly identical to the Anbu.
Seventy official members.
Hundreds of trainees in reserve.
When an official member died or was incapacitated, a qualified trainee would fill the spot.
People like Sai and Torune Aburame, whom Hikari knew, were still reserves, training and fighting peers on the base's third level.
Among the seventy officials, Danzo acted as the Hokage, the absolute leader. Ryoma Aburame, the only elite jonin before Hikari joined, served as the Anbu captain equivalent, managing affairs in Danzo's absence.
Rock Bear and another jonin were squad leaders, overseeing other jonin-level experts, who in turn managed lower-ranking members as team leaders.
The hierarchy was rigid.
Root members fell into three categories.
The first were kids from the Leaf's orphanage, brainwashed and trained into emotionless tools for missions.
The second were talented kids with secret techniques, coerced or lured into Root by Danzo through various means. Some became tools like the first group, but others retained some of their will.
The third were already powerful or uniquely gifted individuals who joined Root for various reasons. Older and relatively normal despite brainwashing, Arashi and Butterfly fell into this group, which explained their semblance of normality.
Hikari turned to Butterfly. "What's your mission?"
"Well… Root mission details can't be shared casually," Butterfly explained cautiously, aware it was Hikari's first mission.
"Not even with teammates?"
"No."
Butterfly shut down Hikari's inquiry, leaving no room for negotiation.
"Fine. When do we leave?"
"When Lord Ryoma arrives."
Ryoma Aburame?
He was going too?
Hikari's eyes sharpened.
Two elite jonin, three jonin, and over a dozen special jonin to destroy some mines? This lineup could assassinate the Raikage, and she'd believe it!
What was Danzo planning?
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