Konoha, underground, inside Root.
Under the flickering candlelight, Shimura Danzo's face shifted between brightness and shadow. He spoke abruptly.
"That squad vanished?"
"Yes. We can't contact them." Aburame Ryoma knelt on one knee before him.
Ryoma was one of Root's oldest members, a veteran on the same level of seniority as Orochimaru once had been.
"Judging from the situation, they were most likely killed. Their bodies haven't been found."
"Useless."
Danzo spat out the word without emotion.
He never once considered betrayal a possibility. Every Root member carried a binding seal. Running away was impossible. Attempting to flee meant instant death.
Root operatives were trained to be emotionless weapons. If Danzo ordered them to kill the Hokage, they would.
If they'd gone missing, the only explanation was death.
His first suspicion landed on Kaede Kitahara. But then he remembered Kaede's supposed strength and hesitated.
Kaede's entire team were just ordinary Chunin. Could they really do it?
Unless… Kaede was a spy from another village. If he didn't have the strength himself, could he have called in outside help?
"Whether he did it or not, keep him under constant watch."
"Yes."
Ryoma bowed.
—
After dinner with his teammates, Kaede returned home.
The Kitahara family wasn't a large clan. They didn't have a compound, just a small suburban courtyard house. His father had taken out a loan to buy it and spent years paying it off. Before Kaede became a ninja and started earning his own money, they'd barely scraped by.
When Kaede became a Chunin, the income finally became enough to cover the remaining payments. His father was only a Chunin himself. This was the reality they lived in.
A transmigrator still paying a mortgage years later… only him.
The world of Naruto was a strange mix of old and new. Some places didn't even have electricity. Others had bright lights, movies, televisions, and a few years later even computers.
And of course, scientific ninja tools. All sorts of flashy nonsense.
Kaede didn't inherently hate them. The biggest difference between humans and animals was tool use. But this was still the ninja world. A terrifying place where the greatest powers were literal gods who walked among mortals. The Otsutsuki Clan could cross entire star systems through sheer personal power. Their existence was so overwhelming that native shinobi were never supposed to be able to resist them.
If not for Otsutsuki Kaguya giving birth to Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Otsutsuki Hamura, and the birth of chakra users through them, the shinobi world could never have pushed back.
Sage Arts existed, but the system was vague, difficult to enter, and nothing like ninjutsu, which could be taught en masse.
Kaede slipped off his shoes and helped his mother, Fangko Kitahara, tidy up the house. A thought crossed his mind.
If only I knew the Clone Technique. Cleaning would be so much faster.
A true salaryman's dream jutsu.
Then he snorted to himself. What kind of fate was this? He learned ninjutsu, and the first thing he thought was how well it suited manual labor.
"Bro Kaede!"
Evening had just fallen when someone knocked on the gate. Kaede opened it and saw Uzumaki Naruto standing there, dirty and exhausted but radiating excitement.
"You came all the way here?" Kaede asked.
Naruto's clothes were smudged with grime. He'd clearly just finished a trash clean-up mission, one of the most common and cheapest D-rank jobs.
Genin were cheap labor, after all.
Not that it was normal trash. Civilians could only handle easy spots. Genin were sent into cramped, dangerous corners where chakra enhanced their mobility.
"I asked around and found out this is your house. I just finished my mission and wanted to stop by!"
"Come in."
Kaede pulled him inside.
"Kaede, is this your friend?" Fangko Kitahara stepped out and spotted Naruto.
"Mom, he's one of my juniors. His name's Uzumaki Naruto."
"We just finished cooking. If you don't mind, you're welcome to sit and eat."
"No, no, I'm not hungry."
Naruto's stomach growled loudly.
He froze in embarrassment.
Kaede dragged him into the dining room.
"It's so good!"
Maybe it was exhaustion. Maybe it was the simple warmth of being invited into someone's home. Naruto devoured bowl after bowl.
"If you like it, eat more. Come by anytime," Fangko said gently.
She'd heard the rumors, of course. The so-called Demon Fox in human form. But looking at Naruto now, she didn't see any monster.
Her husband and son were both ninja, so she had more perspective than most. And since Kaede treated Naruto like a normal person, so would she.
Naruto nearly cried again. People who weren't in his situation could never understand how overwhelming a little kindness could be.
After dinner, while Fangko cleaned up, Naruto pulled Kaede outside into the courtyard.
"Bro Kaede, look! I learned a super awesome jutsu today. They say it's a forbidden one."
He formed the hand seals.
"Ninja Art, Multi Shadow Clone!"
In an instant, the courtyard filled with dozens of Narutos.
Kaede let out a small breath of relief.
Good. The story was still on track. Nothing had derailed this point.
"That one's impressive. Shadow Clones are jutsu only Jonin can normally learn. Multi Shadow Clone is a forbidden technique sealed by the Second Hokage."
Kaede nodded.
A single Shadow Clone was manageable. But Multi Shadow Clone drained normal people dry. Their chakra couldn't handle it.