The sudden blanket of flames was too 'large' to simply dissipate in the air as fire 'spilled' around the infrastructure that suddenly popped into existence and it quickly pulled attention. By the time Tsunade and Kai reached the area of devastation, they found many children apprehended by a dozen of Anbu Shinobi with even more Jonins and Chunins surrounding the perimeter and giving the Anbu their needed distance.

It wasn't long before Yata and Fugaku themselves arrived, with the former having changed into a more combat-oriented outfit under his flak jacket. Being the Chief of the Uchiha Police and holding great authority when it came to matters of conflict within Konoha's borders, the man was quick to question the anbu shinobi with a porcelain hawk mask, "Hawk-kun, be quick about it."

Just because Yata was more 'tame' than other Uchiha did not mean he was a presence that could be pushed around as Yata walked towards Tsunade and Kai with Fugaku in tow and let Hawk explain the situation with more and more individuals arriving in this location and even more strengthening the guard around the village.

"This is... an unsanctioned base with non-registered children, orphans, most likely being trained. Their skills... are reminiscent of Anbu—"

Without waiting for Hawk to complete his explanation, Tsunade tore through the encirclement that surrounded the unconscious children and four Anbu members in varying masks instantly appeared around her.

"Matriarch Senju, we cannot let you—"

Before Hawk could tell his men to stand down and before a few clan leaders gathered around could cool the situation, Tsunade suddenly grabbed the neck of the one in front of her and flung the man away while the three around her instantly unsheathed their swords only for them to hear a minute 'zap' of electricity and the next second, their bodies revolted against their control. Some found this left arm waving and the final fool squatted in an embarrassing position.

Hawk's and Fugaku's gaze instantly fell on Kai who had let out a small trickle of lightning, too 'weak' to be even called a Jutsu. But it was.

[Lightning Release— Distant Body Pathway Derangement (5/5)]

The only difference between this and the original one created by Tsunade was that Kai added shape manipulation of chakra to give the lightning chakra a shape so that it could travel a small distance. Given that he had mastered shape and nature transformation to the extent, Kai would rather not use the hand seals in front of Uchiha.

Of course, the Sharingan did not copy the seal alone but the internal working of the chakra, too. But at least, the hand seals gave the Uchiha a moment to focus on copying the jutsu itself. Kai didn't risk that until he had a good solution for it...

"What?" Kai smiled as he met Hawk's gaze, "I'd suck as a Legacy Guardian if I let any Dog, Monkey, and Boar encircle my matriarch."

Tsunade didn't bat an eyelid to his words as if this was expected and finally reached one of the children to part the boy's lips and see his tongue marked with a rather rectangular set of stacked seals.

There were many with trained gazes who saw it and their eyes went wide for a second.

"Deliver them to the hospital," Tsunade narrowed her eyes and barked coldly yet the Anbu flinched but didn't move.

Out of the shinobi present, everyone thought that Tsunade had lost her mind to actually order the Anbu Corp yet, the one who was actually called out gave a chipper response seeing how things were unfolding.

"Of course," Kai stepped up with a pleasant smirk and unfurled a scroll with long black scribbles.

"Stay your hand!" Hawk finally spoke out with a sharp tone, "Senju-san, this is—"

"Your job is to sweep unsanctioned territories like this. If the 'Intelligence' department needs to interrogate them, they can do so in the confined hospital cells. Any problems with that?" Tsunade turned to look at a particular platinum-blonde-haired man with a long scar running down from the center of his face as he smirked, "Of course, not. The interrogation won't bear any result because of the cursed seals on their tongues... so I do suggest trying to fix the situation."

'Hawk', or better known as 'Enma' Sarutobi by a few close colleagues and a few higher-ranking members of the clan stifled his groan. He may be influential but when faced with the sudden unity of so many clan heads including the Yamanaka Clan Head who WILL pull Akimichi and Nara clans in tow made it very clear that they were willing to rise on the tide and get some answers instead of letting another incident getting swept under the rug.

The main reason why Tsunade was so riled up was only one.

Danzo.

The only reason why Danzo never got under major suspicion was how he 'valiantly' took accountability for Root's actions and dismissed it entirely in a prompt manner. This had certainly lowered the man's authority but the credibility he gained, as a result, was great and this was used to form many policies that Danzo reasonably advocated over the years.

But here it was.

Unsanctioned infrastructure. Orphans marked with cursed seals...

And many quarters where blood had been spilled. From the looks of it, only two quarters were damaged greatly by the fire jutsu but Anbu will investigate its content in time.

Still... what made Tsunade a little suspicious was that if Danzo was still a shadowy cunt... then surely, all his past credibility and 'honor' needed to be questioned, and since she'd herself been attacked twice, once by the Root members and the other time by 'Kiri' Hunter Nins, she wanted some answers! All of this was, again, speculation at best. But, IF Danzo had the balls to try having her assassinated then would he have stopped with just that?

And if he didn't have Root after its disbandment to carry out such tasks, he surely had such means before all this 'darkness' came to light... and there were certainly a number of Senju who have died under mysterious circumstances.

---

As Kai liked things, the entire village's military force was in an uproar because of the way how everything was brought to the light.

Anyway, the Hokage and the elders weren't home. What were they gonna do? And this by itself put things into perspective why the Kages don't easily leave the village cause there may just be a crazy fucker out there ready to disrupt their peace and control, this time, that beautiful mind and intent belonged to Kai himself.

But he was humble.

There was no point in taking the credit for his patriotic actions for the village.

And... Kai couldn't wait to check the 'goodies' he got from Danzo's Angels.

Sure, Uproot was a nice name, but Danzo's Angels was better. And as for that laboratory...

Kai's lips curled at the thought while he idly had the access to the mouth of one of the boys in the hospital to check the cursed seal that was applied to their tongues. According to Tsunade, the seal is called the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal which would prevent anyone from taking information out of the individual's mind directly, and if the individual speaks out the information deemed secretive by the user of this seal, the body of the individual will be paralyzed.

"So... what did Mikoto's father want?" Kushina, who was observing the seal alongside Kai muttered with a short pout. She'd been a little... frustrated lately. After spending years with Kai, in THEIR home... she just found herself a little reluctant that... he would rather be with Mikoto than the ones he'd actually been sleeping with and having massive boners against. It was almost a ritual at this point, the latter half that is.

"Well, he had some conditions," Kai shrugged with a smile, "What's gotten you so down and low?"

"Hmph, as if you care about me..." Kushina's gaze grew somewhat complicated and she silently used a few unsealing techniques on the tongue of the 7-year-old child.

"I thought I told you I did?" Kai frowned and Kushina blushed, hissing, "That isn't the same!"

"Ah... so it's that day..." Kai sighed as Kushina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, putting away the severity of the situation aside and much more interested in having her 'just' tantrum, "Kai-chan, why... haven't you asked me yet?"

"Ask what?" Kai blinked.

"You know!"

"If I knew, do you think I'd be asking you about it?" Kai retorted, not really interested in unsealing such an unremarkable jutsu himself. This was just a makeshift alteration of the Will of Fire seals used on Anbu by the Hokage and since Kai purchased this private skill from his trait using 250 SP, he was more than aware of the workings of the seal.

Kushina glowered, "Nono-san... Mikoto-san, and Tsume... you asked everyone out!"

"Well, I have to work for it, you know? How else am I going to know if we're a good fit otherwise?" Kai inquired. He had indeed asked Nono and Tsume out after rocking Mikoto's world with his lips. Was there a need to 'stop' now that Mikoto's problem wasn't his dream but her clan's restrictions?

Heck, he even asked out Tsunade only to get laughed at in return. But no worries about that. Most can't even make a women smile.

His words, however, made Kushina glare harder at Kai as she bit her lower lip, feeling that Kai was teasing her again as cheeks grew beet red and she stammered, "W-what about me, dattebane?!"

Kai blinked and narrowed his eyes, "Uh... what do you think our 'training' was?" He quickly realized that the redheaded hoe inhibiting The Pad alongside him and his 'bro' was truly just a pretty face when it came to this matter. More so than him.

Noticing her confusion, Kai spoke slowly, "It's not like I go to women and say— Hey, let's eat and make out later. Although, I should try scoring with that line... anyway... do you even remember what we did in our 'training?'"

Kushina grew dazed for a moment before her eyes widened and she yelped, "Ah... we couldn't get any work done and your clones just trained at the side while giving us stinking eyes..."

And then she realized why the clones were so angry with the original as he grinned, "Exactly. It's kind of funny. Even Tsume-chan understood what I wanted to achieve..."

Kushina pouted and muttered, "Couldn't you have made things more direct?"

Chuckling in response, Kai held Kushina's hand and asserted her wishes, "Well, how about we get home early today, I take you out of your clothes and give you the scrubbing I used to give you when we were younger... Is that direct enough?"

By the end of it, Kushina was more embarrassed than happy as she averted her gaze and grumbled, "You're a perv... dattebane..."

"Well, it was certainly direct from my perspective..." A raspy and amused tone interjected, making Kai's eyes go wide as a saucer, and Kushina yelp in surprise as she snatched her hands back from Kai's hold and turned to look at the chalk-skinned, dark-haired man leaning against the entrance of the cell with his pale-yellow slitted eyes narrowed with a hint of sincere humor and his thin lips... somewhat... thicker than usual?

But Kai couldn't observe any longer as he realized another thing.

Even if seeing the man directly, Kai couldn't sense him... or his intent.

It was as if Orochimaru here was just a specter of some sort.

Not minding their turbulent emotions, Orochimaru hummed, "Tsunade sent for me. It seems... someone created quite a ruckus. And this timing is nothing short of coincidental..." his gaze gently drifted over to kai as his lips curled further... making it seem even more prominent than usual, "I hope, that is."

---

The Daimyo... is certainly a controversial position. Well, in the eyes of more 'radical' shinobi meant to serve the country's militaristic desires, the fact that mere humans could direct their decisions was not well-appreciated. But Daimyo and their civilian nobility would not have managed to remain seated for as long as they did and even survived the warring states era if they weren't smart enough.

While some Noble lines did have heirs more... physically inclined, all countries had their own more personal and motivated troops that would defend the royal line from the radical shinobi. For the Daimyo of Fire, a stern but calm and gentler persona than his ancestors, he had a group known as the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Each of them specialized in their own manner to defend against a vast majority of attempts at the Daimyo's life and to show the royal trust in the Konoha, one of these 12 Shinobi include a member of Konoha's forces.

Garbed in a rather flamboyant red cloak that covered his more than untrained, coddled body that did not reflect his intellect, the Fire Daimyo silently stared at the three individuals seated not far off of one of those '40-seater' tables.

Not a single guard was present in the room as the man eyed the Hokage sitting to his right rather than the opposite side of the table that some pompous merchants in over their heads would choose.

"Sarutobi-san, as usual, I am glad that you could take the time to make a trip to the capital."

For all the significance of this room, it was barely decorated and this itself made the situation, no matter how light, somber.

Letting a low chuckle escape his lips, Hiruzen shook his head. His Hokage's hat was set down on the table in a show of 'peace.'

"It's quite fine to travel to the capital once in a while."

"Oh, that is nice. I do wish that I could keep you in the capital longer," the Daimyo chuckled, "But I can appreciate that you are willing to stick to traditions. Let's first get past the usual business before we meander our way to the royal courses I have prepared for you and the elders, yes?"

"Indeed, that would be better," Hiruzen nodded.

"Hmm," the Daimyo leaned forward on the table with his elbows set on the surface and he questioned seriously, "Did the Uzushiokage return to any of our messages?"

If the Uzumaki cutting off the connection with the world worked with everyone since EVERYONE 'figured' out that they'd be the first large casualty of the war that will feed others the sense to stop then with the Uzushiogakure ending the war by decimating a large force organized by three villages made others wish they'd open up their communications. Of them, the Country of Fire was the most 'desperate' since they wouldn't want all the years of good faith to disappear into a puff of smoke.

The Daimyo's words made Hokage sigh while Danzo's eyes briefly twitched.

"Not yet, but we have continued to persist to contact them so that we can build a trade relationship once again before formulating anything... concrete once again."

The Daimyo shook his head slightly. This was an international case and if the Uzu had shown the slightest bit of 'less' strength then by now, a new war had already been waged with Konoha joining the fray AGAINST Uzu to eradicate the 'fear' of getting targetted by those they'd slighted before.

Konoha was no longer the strongest. Even with Ninetails, they could not guarantee to eradicate an invasion force of more than 10000 units at once. A Jinchuriki is not geared that way. Not to mention the fact that their Jinchuriki was an Uzumaki which complicated the situation by multiple times.

But that was all they could do.

Talk.

Reassure. Not others, but themselves.

Betting on Uzumaki's generally passive and kind nature, that would have caused them to cease existing, to now hoping that it would stop another war to rise.

Just as the Hokage and his advisors moved for their village, they were surrounded by a team of shinobi led by Yata Uchiha who had his Sharingan activated alongside Enma Sarutobi under the Hawk's mask.

"Danzo Shimura," Yata remarked with many Anbu already readying their swords to not only incapacitate Danzo but his guards that were Anbu, too, "To have abducted the children of Konoha and planted them with Juinjutsu, you are—" Before Yata could even read out the man's 'rights', Danzo's bandaged elbow struck Hiruzen's throat in a second that sent the unsuspecting man having age caught up to him holding his neck on his knees before many, many tanto's swiped in his direction, charged with elemental chakra— a few of them, but all they landed was upon a log and while Yata disappeared even before the strike landing, having noticed the substitution, Enma hurried to his father to check his condition.

---

'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!'

Noticing Yata while forcing himself not to think how his newly established Root was Uprooted so quickly, Danzo began forming a plant to escape to one of his 'backups' that he'd thought out long ago. And for reasons known only to him, Danzo was quite 'adept' at sensing at times, too.

He realized Yata tailing him but the moment he weaved the hand sign for the wind release, he added a little something else fully expecting the results.

Concealing his expression somewhat, Danzo kept the range of Great Breakthrough in check and as expected, Yata the 'Chainbearer' had massive chakra chains, each lock as thick as a knuckle, layered with lightning chakra. One was the aftereffect of the great breakthrough and the other was the striking vibrational force of lightning chakra passing through heavy load-bearing chains.

The result was obvious.

'Cutting' out a path for himself, the massive chains disappeared Yata was decorated with a weight-bearing chained sickle that he suddenly threw towards Danzo.

*Puff*

Before Danzo could scoff at the 'ridiculously' short range of the weapon with some chakra in it...

The chain remained in Yata's hand while the sickle tore towards Danzo and puffed 'out' to revert to their shape of windmill shurikens that Danzo barely deflected with a kunai enhanced using wind 'expelling' out to form a vacuum. Instead of using the cutting power of the wind chakra, Danzo utilized the vacuum around the blade of kunai to deflect the shurikens as he threw three shurikens in return that cut past odd locations...

Yata scowled seeing this. The strings attached to the shuriken were cut and he could no longer manipulate them.

Yet, the moment Yata's gaze locked with Danzo who had a scornful expression, his lips parted to speak something— an insult, most likely, Danzo's expression froze while a trickle of blood slid down Yata's eyes. The next second, as Yata's tomoes were still furiously revolving and melding into his red irides, Danzo disappeared as if the one in front of him was a mirage and then Yata exhaled in a gasp. One of his hands clutched his right eye while he looked around alertly, "What the...?"

Danzo was...

Just gone.

'Damn that Bandaged fucker...' Yata scowled, and rightly so.

For the moment Kushina, Kai, and Orochimaru unraveled the seal on the members of the root, they had their minds swept, and what they realized without Hiruzen acting as an 'interpreter' was not pretty at all.

***

Shoutout to Lucas Fasquelle, Curiouskenny, Danner Yach, and Deividas Seputis!!

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