Elsewhere.
Deep underground in Konoha.
In a bottomless chasm, a steel bridge connected the abyss's rocky walls to the four cardinal directions. In the center stood a steel tower built into the earth, resembling a water intake tower at a dam.
This was the organization known as the Hidden Leaf Anbu Training Division—
Root.
At this moment, inside an office located within the high-level quarters of the underground tower, two figures stood before a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the darkness.
One was an old man with spiky black hair, neat sideburns, and bandages wrapping his head and right eye. His face was gloomy and heavily wrinkled. He was currently reading an unfurled scroll. When his gaze fell upon the glaring word "Hyuga" in the employer column, he couldn't help but frown slightly.
This man was none other than the leader of Root, the man known as the "Darkness of the Ninja World,"
Danzō Shimura.
And the scroll in his hand was the very mission commission form that Hyuga Yu had signed in the Hokage Residence not long ago.
"Hyuga Yu... This old man remembers. This brat was already on the observation list."
Danzō glanced at Ryōma Aburame, who stood to the side, his entire body shrouded in a hooded cloak and wearing black sunglasses. Danzō commented indifferently:
"Born of humble origins, harboring resentment in his heart."
"It is a pity, however, that he is merely a sparrow with mediocre aptitude."
Beside him, Ryōma Aburame nodded.
"Indeed. The Chūnin Exams have already proven that his potential is nothing special."
"But if you ask why... the reason is that, now, this sparrow has come to us on his own initiative."
"He seems to have sensed our surveillance of him, and furthermore, he proactively proposed conditions to you."
"Hmph."
Danzō couldn't help but sneer, his laughter cold and sinister.
Since becoming the Hokage's assistant and establishing Root, people had avoided him as if he were a scorpion or a viper for so many years, wishing they could stay three miles away. This was the first time he had encountered such a bold brat.
"How should we handle this?"
Ryōma Aburame also felt a bit surprised. He reached out a finger to adjust his sunglasses and said:
"The strategic significance of the Byakugan is major. Even if this brat is just a mediocre Hyūga Branch House Genin, he possesses considerable value to us."
"It is just that..."
Ryōma Aburame's words came to an abrupt halt, and Danzō Shimura understood the implication behind his words—
The Caged Bird Cursed Seal remained an unavoidable issue.
A member of the Hyūga Branch House branded with the Caged Bird was, in a practical sense, a slave to the Main House. Everything about the Branch House—intelligence, bonds, wealth, power, status... all of it was controlled by the Main House, to be taken or given at their whim.
Under such circumstances, if Root were to recruit Hyuga Yu, even branding him with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal would make it difficult to ensure that intelligence would not leak.
And for shinobi, especially for the countless Root shinobi lurking in the shadows cast by the giant tree that was Konoha,
Intelligence was life.
Danzō couldn't help but furrow his brow, pinching his chin as he fell into thought.
At this time, Danzō Shimura and the Root organization he commanded were in a period of rapid expansion in strength.
Due to two successive Great Ninja Wars, Danzō had used the excuse of making up for flaws in the intelligence system to obtain special privileges from the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He was granted the authority to act as he saw fit and to recruit a large number of personnel independent of the standard Anbu.
Currently, the number of shinobi in Root, both on the surface and hidden, actually exceeded that of the Anbu directly under the Hokage.
However,
Such a massive organization had an extremely significant flaw—
A singular structure.
Or to put it more bluntly: there were too few powerhouses.
Those who could be called powerhouses were only Danzō Shimura, Ryōma Aburame, and Orochimaru of the Sannin, who listened to orders but not propaganda.
The personnel below the high command were basically composed of civilian shinobi absorbed from the Anbu and the Ninja Academy.
The future elites with unique characteristics—Kakashi Hatake, Tenzō, Fū Yamanaka, Torune Aburame, Shin, Sai, and others—were either not born yet, currently under the command of the Third Hokage, or still soaking in Orochimaru's laboratories.
To solve this problem, Danzō Shimura had already proposed to the Third Hokage that he recruit qualified children from the various major clans of Konoha for training.
The Third Hokage had agreed to this point, but with a smile, he required Danzō himself to negotiate with the various clans.
clearly,
The major clans of Konoha did not approve of Root's ideology, nor were they willing to hand over their own children to Danzō to be brainwashed into unfeeling tools who disowned their own families.
Every one of them guarded against Danzō Shimura like they were guarding against a thief.
Danzō had visited their homes several times. The results were either having the door slammed in his face, the clan head claiming to be out on business, or the eligible children in the clan suddenly contracting incurable diseases that made them unable to serve Elder Danzō...
Even the relatively close Aburame Clan used the excuse that there were no children with suitable aptitude in the current generation to decline Danzō.
The current Danzō did not lack cannon fodder, spies, or grassroots shinobi. What he wanted were elite shinobi capable of standing on their own; he wanted what ordinary people considered "geniuses."
Or rather,
Danzō Shimura, who aimed for the position of Hokage, wanted elites who could directly rival the specifications of the Hokage Guard Platoon.
Hyuga Yu, who was just a large piece of cannon fodder, obviously did not meet this criterion.
But...
"If used as a [stepping stone], this brat... barely qualifies."
Danzō mused to himself, then turned his head to make a decision—
He took out a cyan scroll stamped with the Shimura Clan crest from his robes and tossed it to Ryōma Aburame, speaking expressionlessly:
"Absorb that brat as a Root Peripheral Member."
"Peripheral Member?" Ryōma Aburame couldn't help but pause, a strange look appearing on his face hidden beneath the hood.
Danzō stared indifferently at Ryōma Aburame and said:
"Do not reveal any intelligence to him, do not let him participate in any missions regarding Root's operations, and do not give him any training regarding Root's plans."
Speaking up to this point, Danzō paused, his tone turning slightly colder.
"But... utilize that pair of eyes. Make him offer up everything to water the roots of Konoha!"
With that said, Danzō Shimura turned and returned to his desk to sit down, continuing to deal with the mountain of intelligence files and the majority of the tedious official documents that Hiruzen Sarutobi had thrown his way.
The incident with Hyuga Yu was nothing more than a small interlude for Danzō, who had aspirations for the Hokage seat. This method of handling it was merely a fleeting thought that had occurred to Danzō by chance.
Perhaps it would be useful, perhaps useless. But since the decision was made, Danzō would no longer care about the process, only the final result.
The gap in status between the two sides was like a massive chasm.
It was like flicking away a small bug that had crawled onto one's sleeve—
Hyuga Yu's destiny began to turn.
But as the saying goes,
The leader moves his lips, and the subordinates run their legs off.
Facing Danzō's impromptu decision regarding a "Root Peripheral Member," Ryōma Aburame immediately felt a headache the size of a bucket.
He couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth bitterly, thinking to himself: I can't do this, I can't do that, yet I have to perfectly utilize his Byakugan without letting that brat come into contact with any Root operational intelligence...
"How am I supposed to arrange this brat?"
But soon,
Ryōma Aburame suddenly thought of a post that seemed to perfectly meet Danzō's requirements.
"The research on the Zero-Tails project left behind by the Second Hokage has entered a bottleneck. The project team was dismantled by Orochimaru... Currently, all the members are holding idle positions."
"I could actually have this brat join [Tanuki Shigaraki]'s squad!"