After leaving, Naruto moved quickly, slipping ahead of the Root operatives and quietly taking a few Sharingan from fallen members of the Uchiha before making his escape.
He had confirmed it now—Danzo's Root were collecting Sharingan. And so was the masked man, Uchiha Obito.
But in the end, most of the eyes still fell into Danzo's hands. Naruto dared not linger too long. If his killing intent toward Obito leaked out, his plans might be discovered too soon.
That would ruin everything.
Naruto tunneled out from beneath the Uchiha compound, carrying with him several of the clan's younger children, the bodies of Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto, and an unconscious girl.
If Itachi had seen her, he would have recognized her instantly—Uchiha Izumi.
The girl who loved him.
Naruto had saved her for a reason. Despite not being a core member of the clan, Izumi was remarkably gifted. At her age, she had already awakened the Three Tomoe Sharingan without receiving many resources or support. If she were placed under Shisui's guidance, she could grow into a powerful ally.
After quickly settling them in a safe place, another thought struck Naruto. If Root's forces were concentrated at the Uchiha compound tonight, then Danzo's base would be left poorly defended.
And Danzo's base was filled with treasures.
"Earth Style: Subterranean Voyage!"
Naruto sank underground once more, heading toward Root's hidden base. But when he arrived beneath it, his eyes widened in surprise.
The barrier had been strengthened. Worse still, a powerful sealing technique had been laid out beneath the earth.
Sealing Technique: Earth Hardened to Steel!
The soil and stone had been transformed, making the ground as hard as forged metal.
"Danzo, you old dog… you've gone too far," Naruto muttered under his breath. He hadn't expected him to cover such a vast underground area with a seal like this.
Resolving himself, Naruto quickly formed a series of rapid hand seals.
"Combination Ninjutsu: Flowing Lava!"
Chakra surged, feeding into the technique. The combined ninjutsu shifted in nature, becoming a molten torrent that slammed forward with devastating force. The blazing heat corroded even the steel-like ground.
If Root's full forces had been stationed here, it might have been impossible to break through. Fortunately, almost all of them had been dispatched to the Uchiha massacre.
Almost all.
A few Root operatives still inside quickly noticed something wrong.
"Not good! Someone's using high-level ninjutsu to breach the defenses!"
Though their numbers were few, Root's brutal training ensured they remained calm under pressure.
Molten rock and iron surged as Naruto forced his way upward, carving through the barrier. He sensed chakra signatures approaching—two strong ones. Jonin-level.
Naruto smirked.
He could deal with two Jonin.
He poured more chakra into his technique, rotating the lava flow, increasing its piercing power.
This demanded flawless chakra control.
[Chakra Control +5. Ninjutsu Proficiency +3.]
The notifications flickered in his mind, but Naruto ignored them. His attention stayed fixed on the thinning layer of earth above.
Almost there—
The ground burst open.
The moment Naruto surfaced, several coordinated jutsu were launched at him. The combined strike was powerful enough to annihilate most Jonin instantly.
But Naruto had been expecting this. His hands flashed through seals.
"Earth Style: Enhanced Earth Flow Wall!"
A massive wall of stone rose to absorb the barrage. Dust and flame washed over it harmlessly.
Slamming both palms into the ground, Naruto released another surge of chakra. From the shattered earth, a colossal dragon of stone erupted upward.
This was his own refinement of the Earth Style: Super Earth Dragon Bullet—streamlined to the point where it required no seals, only direct contact with the ground.
The dragon surged forward, engulfing the Root operatives in an unstoppable wave.
When the jutsu dissipated, their mangled remains were all that remained.
Naruto exhaled, finally relieved. Against the enhanced Earth Dragon, these Root shinobi hadn't stood a chance.
He stepped past their corpses and continued deeper into the base.
Having infiltrated it once before, Naruto made his way directly to a laboratory. Rows of massive glass containers lined the walls. Within, corpses floated in formalin—twisted, mutilated remnants of experiments.
On the nearby tables lay stacks of records, filled with dense writing. Test logs.
Naruto's eyes narrowed as he scanned the grim evidence of Root's cruelty.
Naruto didn't find much of value at first, but eventually he entered another chamber. This one resembled an archive room. Rows of shelves lined with folders stretched before him.
He opened a few at random—mission reports from Root. Another folder contained records of Danzo's black-ops assignments, each more ruthless than the last.
After skimming through several files, Naruto shook his head. There was no way Danzo would keep true top-secret information in a place this exposed.
Moving on, Naruto stepped into another chamber—and his eyes lit up. A library.
He pulled down a scroll. It contained training notes for Wind Release. Another held an actual Wind Style ninjutsu.
Naruto glanced around. The shelves were organized by category. One particular section caught his eye: sealing techniques.
He unrolled another scroll. Inside was a detailed explanation of fūinjutsu principles and barrier formations. Shelf after shelf held scrolls filled with the theory and practice of sealing arts.
One contained the method for a basic Restrictive Seal, a common technique used to bind limbs. Others described step-by-step exercises to build up a foundation in sealing.
Most were elementary, but the sheer amount of knowledge made Naruto's scalp tingle. To master sealing, one had to study an overwhelming breadth of techniques and theory.
Still, excitement stirred within him. These were fundamentals—principles, exercises, even references to the One Hundred and Eight Sealing Methods.
If he mastered these basics and applied his own talent, could he not one day deduce his own powerful sealing techniques? With effort, he might even rival the great sealing masters.
Suppressing his thrill, Naruto stopped himself from lingering too long. Danzo could return at any moment, and Root might already be aware of the disturbance.
He pulled out a prepared storage scroll—one he had crafted beforehand using sealing methods he had obtained from Shisui.
Perfect timing.
Naruto quickly stored away every scroll he could. Still, the storage scroll filled up before he could take them all. That stung. So much knowledge left behind.
But he couldn't bring himself to destroy them. They were too valuable, even if they remained in Danzo's hands for a while longer.
"Let them sit here. A few years with Danzo won't erase their worth," Naruto muttered with a sly grin. "I just hope the old dog coughs up blood when he sees what's missing."
Satisfied, he closed the library behind him.
He had been careful—using only Earth Style techniques during his infiltration. Nothing that could tie back to him directly. Let Danzo stew and guess who dared rob his Root base.
Naruto chuckled as he departed.
"No wonder people say robbery is the fastest way to get rich—it's true."
...
TN:
Enjoy~😊