In front of an unremarkable shop beside the Hokage Building, Shigure crouched on the rooftop, eyes fixed on the drainage channel below.
The readings from his cloud fish were clear — the path from here went deep.
After slipping into the drainage system, the cloud fish had descended steadily, sinking deeper into the dark for nearly ten minutes before emerging into an utterly lightless chamber far below the village.
There was nothing in that first room, but one hundred meters underground… there it was — a sealed chamber. No need for guesses. This had to be part of the Root Organization's base.
Maintaining his Transparent Ninjutsu, Shigure leapt silently from the rooftop and landed on the wet ground.
The shop's owner was still inside. The door was shut, but the man kept glancing outside through the glass, his posture far too alert for a civilian. Shigure could sense no chakra from him — likely a decoy — but his watchfulness confirmed this location was suspicious.
Shigure slipped into a shadowed alley.
Among his Cloud Release techniques, there was one perfect for infiltration — though he had always thought it too slow and impractical to use.
"Cloud Release — Cloud and Mist Circumvention Technique."
Cold, dry-ice-like vapor curled at his feet, rolling outward in tendrils. In the heavy rain, it spread as a faint layer across the ground, completely invisible in the dark.
The mist flowed toward the drainage ditch, seeping inside. Shigure's body dissolved into that same cloud and drifted along with it.
A passing breeze scattered him further.
Shigure was now nothing but cloud and mist, traveling through the pipes, following the same route his cloud fish had taken.
When he arrived in the underground chamber, his scouts had already confirmed it was empty. From a crack in the wall, a wisp of vapor spilled into the room, twisting in the air before spiraling into a small tornado. Slowly, it condensed into Shigure's human form.
The process took half an hour.
In Shigure's opinion, the technique still hadn't reached its true potential. It was painfully slow, left him unable to act while in mist form, and required long recovery afterward. Useless in combat — but for tonight's purpose, it was invaluable.
Once his body was fully formed, Shigure immediately reactivated Transparent Ninjutsu, erasing his presence once more.
He sent two cloud fish through the crack in the door to scout outside.
What he saw made him suppress a laugh.
Yes, this was indeed the Root Organization's underground base — but it was in chaos.
The storm above had overwhelmed even this deep bunker. Water poured in through ventilation shafts and other gaps, leaking down the walls until the floors were ankle-deep in rainwater.
In the main hall, Danzo sat at the highest seat, overseeing his drenched operatives as they scrambled with buckets, mops, and sealing tools to keep the flood from spreading.
If the rain didn't stop before morning, the Root's headquarters might end up literally soaked.
Danzo's face was grim. Funds were tight — building the base had been expensive enough, and training his operatives, researching forbidden jutsu, and maintaining covert operations had drained even more resources. Repairs had clearly been neglected.
"Move faster!" Danzo barked. "No one rests until the storm ends! If even a single scrap of our data is destroyed, you'll all pay for it with your lives!"
The Root shinobi silently redoubled their efforts.
Shigure almost smirked. He had brought the storm to Konoha intending to mask his infiltration — and in doing so, he'd nearly wrecked the Root Organization in the process. Who would have expected that?
But there was no time to dwell on the irony. His real target tonight was far more important.
Senju Hashirama's cells.
Danzo wouldn't keep them anywhere but here in Konoha's base.
And Shigure intended to find them.
Shigure knew he still had to cross the main hall without drawing attention.
There was only one way — the Cloud and Mist Circumvention Technique again.
This was a trial of patience now, and patience was something Shigure had in abundance.
His form thinned into drifting cloud, gliding silently across the ceiling. Not even Danzo noticed his presence. Everyone's focus was on the flooding crisis; no one thought to glance upward into the shadows.
The Root's underground lighting was already poor — the storm had shorted much of the wiring, leaving the hall dim and unevenly lit.
Shigure drifted over the heads of the occupied operatives and slipped deeper into the base, where a heavy, sealed iron door barred the way.
But when you're made of cloud and mist, there are few barriers that can truly stop you — unless they're protected by a chakra barrier. This one wasn't.
Sliding through the tiniest gaps, Shigure bypassed the airtight door and emerged into the Root's inner laboratory.
And there, beyond what he had come for, was something that made him pause.
Sharingan.
Rows of sealed containers lined the shelves — Danzo had collected far more than Shigure expected. For a man infamous for his use of the Uchiha's dōjutsu, it wasn't entirely surprising, but seeing it in person was different.
In the corner sat a bottle containing a fully developed three-tomoe Sharingan. The rest were lesser — two-tomoe and one-tomoe variants.
Without hesitation, Shigure drew a storage scroll and sealed away the three-tomoe Sharingan. Then he turned to the preservation unit holding what he had truly come for — cells from the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
He secured a portion of the samples.
Two prizes in one night — the Hashirama cells he needed, and a Sharingan of the highest pre-Mangekyō form.
He couldn't help but wonder… if he studied the Sharingan deeply enough, could he unlock some of its unique powers for himself?
Meanwhile, atop the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage had been summoned by the Anbu.
"Lord Third, look!" one of them pointed skyward.
Hiruzen Sarutobi followed the gesture and saw it — a pale glow breaking through the night storm.
At a glance, it seemed like nothing more than the moon, but…
"Moonlight?" he murmured.
"Yes, Hokage-sama!" the Anbu confirmed.
Yet it was pouring rain, with thunder and lightning splitting the sky — how could moonlight pierce the thick storm clouds?
Still, there it was — a silvery glow cutting through the darkness.
Then, just as suddenly, swirling black clouds like great dragons coiled over the light, swallowing it whole.
The weather wasn't just strange.
It was unnatural.
...
TN:
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