(formerly Root: The Kazegan)Chapter 10:

A/N: It has certainly been a while since I've updated and I apologize for any readers I may have lost due to inactivity, but I've had A LOT going on in my real life so I didn't have much time to update the story much. However, my motivation is back and I've got more free time so I'm back with a new(yet short) chapter just to let everyone know that this story is still alive and it can only get more exciting from here on out!

Also, some may have noticed the name change to the story from Root: The Kazegan to The Root Chronicles.I've changed the name of the story because I feel that as I developed the story, I realized that the focus wasn't entirely on Gikaru and his Kazegan per say but more on Root and its effect on Konoha and the differences from its former incarnation. It may not be apparent now but as the story progresses, obvious differences will emerge. For now, welcome back and enjoy The Root Chronicles!


She ran across the trees as quickly as possible with her two chunin teammates following closely behind. Naruto had received a distress call from Hijiri Hitomi saying that her genin team had been attacked by a group of rogue Sound operatives; her medic genin, Fukushima Takeru, was in critical condition. Naruto sent her being that she was the next best medic in the village aside from Sakura and assigned to her three man cell, Oedo Daisuke and Tomoko, the former also a medic.

It had already been an hour since they'd left and they were less than 30 minutes away from the team's given location. She was moving at an exceptionally fast pace. She had been giving a shortened version of the mission objectives. The team they were supporting was investigating disturbances by former Sound nins near the Valley of the End and they were to investigate and eliminate the source. It was a B-rank mission so the level of the nin wasn't expected to be very easy nor strong enough to bring down a member of Hijiri Hitomi's team; she was of course, Uchiha Sasuke's pupil.

"Ino-taichou, are we almost there?" asked Daisuke from behind.

"Close. Keep an eye out because we don't have an exact location. Hijiri might've left some sort of signal for us to catch on to."

"Just keep an eye out for her chest; you can spot that from miles away," snickered Tomoko.

"Hey there sis, just because you're not as well endowed as Miss Hijiri does not mean you should get offensive," said Daisuke in a sarcastic manner.

"Can you guys stop the bickering and focus on getting to Team 4 as fast as possible?" It didn't matter what they thought of Hijiri anyway. She was the prettiest woman in Konoha after all.


The Land of Rice Fields. She would start her search where all the treachery began. She refused to call it the Land of Sound because they never had any true claim to it. Only those who were either afraid or on the Sound's side referred to it as that. She was neither and she wouldn't hesitate to tear the small country apart to find Orochimaru; or what was left of him.

The first village she was going to investigate had some ties to former Sound and was right near the Valley of the End. The villagers had been complaining about attacks on merchants and slight pillaging on surrounding farms. The remnants of the militia must be scrounging for whatever resources they can get.

She walked through the village's entrance and realized she was a bit too late. There was a great deal of destruction to the village's terrain and she could see body parts littering the ground.

Tsunade reached into her equipment pouch and withdrew a kunai. She looked around to see if there were still any apparent threats, but she saw none. Slowly, she crept in between small houses which were nearly annihilated. She heard some voices coming from behind the house she was against. She pressed harder against the wall to try and hear.

"How much longer do you think they'll be Hitomi-sensei," exclaimed a worried voice. It was definitely a girl.

"I'm not sure. I sent the distress call to Naruto-sensei about an hour ago. He sent back the confirmation within seconds so I know he sent a team out to help us," responded another familiar, feminine voice.

Hitomi. Hijiri Hitomi! She ran into her as she was leaving Naruto's office!

"Don't be alarmed!" she yelled. "I come in peace."

As she finished her sentence, Hijiri Hitomi was already behind her. The girl's speed was absolutely astonishing. Uchiha was making her into a prodigy.

"Tsunade-sama!" she exclaimed. "Did Naruto send you?"

"No, but I overheard you guys talking. What's wrong?"

"It's one of the Root-nin I was assigned to watch over. He's incapacitated and his breathing is slowly becoming irregular. Follow me."

She turned the corner of the damaged house she was leaning against and followed Hitomi inside. She was surprised to see that it was Team 4. The only person missing was Gikaru. On the ground, she saw Inokuza and Yokama surrounding Takeru's body.

"Takeru! I've worked with him before," said Tsunade. "How did this happen?"

The legendary beauty knelt down beside the unconscious Takeru. She put her right hand over her left and began to hover her hands above his chest; a lime green chakra began to eminate from her hands and she slowly moved them across his chest.

"He was battling a sound-nin and he took a direct hit from a high level sound jutsu," answered Yokama.

"It's apparent that he took an extremely direct hit. He's bleeding internally from the severity of the blow and there is some bruising to his lungs which is causing the erratic breathing patterns. Now for reason for him being unconscious," Tsunade trailed off as she slowly moved her hands from his chest and slowly to his head. "He's cracked his skull. Part of his skull is putting pressure on part of his brain and fluids are leaking throughout his head. Treating a crack in the skull is tedious and difficult. Usually I'd have someone assisting me in the procedure but since I don't have anyone, I'm going to have to constantly switch my techniques so that I can simultaneously remove the excess liquid and heal the wound."

"Tsunade-sama, are you capable of all that?" asked Yokama.

"Is that even a question?" responded Tsunade as she grinned. She'd be lying to herself if she didn't admit that was a little bit concerned.


How amusing it was to run into Zetsu; of all people he considered he'd encounter on this Konoha tea party, he would have been the last. Despite working alongside him for several years while in Akatsuki, he knew little to nothing of the guy's abilities and to meet him again and act like old friends was certainly strange.

Even more strange though is where he found Zetsu; in a tiny Grass controlled village in the middle of nowhere is the last place he would have expected. He knew enough about the dual-minded freak to know he was never doing nothing. Playing devil's advocate was his favorite game and a Zetsu with no devil just wasn't Zetsu. After he was done helping the Konoha brats, he definitely wanted in on whatever the fly-trap was in on. Then again, that's if he was able to survive without these foolish flames making him shark bait.


Ino couldn't believe how the landscape had been so severely devastated. Blood, dismembered body parts, and destroyed buildings consumed the former terrain of the village. Laying not too far from her was the remnants of a sound-nin. Anything they suffered was more than deserved.

"Proceed with Caution. You two go right and I'll go straight ahead," she told her teammates.

"I'm stuck with the hopeless romantic," bickered Tomoko.

"You shouldn't talk about your twin like that Tomoko. Now go," replied Ino.

Ino proceeded with extreme caution as she examined the remainder of the village. She walked without making the slightest sound. She didn't want to be noticed in case there were any surprises left in the village.

However, it was obvious that whatever human life that once resided here had for sure evacuated. There was nothing noticeable until she spotted a light green aura emanating from one of the few intact houses.

Medical Ninjutsu.

Someone was being treated and they could possibly use her help. She picked up her pace and ran over to the house and leaned up against the wall; still taking even the slightest precautions. She looked to both of her sides and saw Daisuke and Tomoko leaned up on an opposing wall, also trying to get a view of what was within the damaged home.

"Please keep as quiet as possible," said a voice that the blonde bombshell vaguely recognized. "The amount of concentration that the surgery I'm performing requires is exponential. Stop."

Ino motioned for Daisuke and Tomoko to move in as she made her way to the front of the tiny damaged house. When she poked her head in, she was surprised to find a geared up Tsunade, Team 4, and Hijiri Hitomi around the battered body of Takeru. Hitomi motioned her hands for her to walk out of the house as she followed right behind her. Daisuke and Tomoko were walking up as she was leaving the hut.

"Hi there Miss Hijiri. How may I be of service to you?" said Daisuke foolishly as he bowed.

"Grow a pair kid," said Hitomi. Tomoko began laughing histerically. "You two are medic-nin aren't you? Lady Tsunade needs help."

"Right. Daisuke, lets go," Ino hurried over to Lady Tsunade's side and watched as she operated on Takeru. It seemed as if she was removing a fluid from his head. She made an incision on the side of his head so that she could remove the liquid, but even while she was removing the liquid, she would switch over to healing. She would then heal him while maintaining control over the liquids being secreted. It was truly an art to watch her at work. To have such precision and chakra control was inspiring. What exactly was she healing though?

She formed the proper hand seals and her hands began to glow a light green. She placed her hands over Takeru's head and saw the chaos that the sannin was trying to fix. The amount of damage and the displacement of his fractured skull was severe. For Tsunade to be maintaining the skull's position while at the same time healing it and removing the cerebral fluids by herself, was nothing but a testament to her skill. It had to be extremely tedious and dangerous though for her to be doing this caliber of surgery alone. Both Daisuke and herself had to assist.

"Tsunade-sama, I'll take over the removal of the cerebral fluids. That way you can focus on healing the fracture. Daisuke will hold the fracture in place so that it will have less of a strain on your chakra."

Tsunade took a quick glance at Ino and nodded. She was probably exhausted; she couldn't have anything or anyone disrupt her chakra control either. Had Sakura achieved such a level of medical prowess as well? She'd never seen Sakura do something at this level, but being Lady Hokage's apprentice would sure mean—Sakura outdid her again.

Daisuke had already began the seals to activate his healing ninjutsu and positioned himself behind Takeru's head. He hovered his hands on each side of the boy's head and began to hold the fracture's position. Even the slightest movement during the surgery could have devastating results. She got down beside Tsunade and placed one glowing hand on the motionless boy's forehead and placed her other hand right above the incision on the Takeru's head. There wasn't much liquid left; Tsunade had removed just enough so that it wouldn't interfere with the mending of the skull. She carefully removed the excess making sure she didn't obstruct anything during the removal.

"The lungs," Tsunade mumbled as she still focused on repairing the skull. Ino began wrapping up the fluid extraction and closed up the incision. She then moved to the other side of the boy's body and placed her focus on the boy's lungs.

From the looks of it, he had early signs of a pulmonary contusion. The distribution of oxygen was disrupted throughout his body and there was a slight hint of blue in his skin. His breathing pattern was not irregular; he wasn't having oxygen properly distributed throughout his body. Luckily, the contusion was in its early stages and the effects could be reversed.

She looked up at Tsunade—the legendary beauty. Her face was exhausted of emotion and there were tiny drips of sweat dripping down her face. She didn't let her exhaustion impede her though; she moved right down his body and began healing the rest of the boy's injuries. Daisuke moved right along side her, watching everyone of her techniques and learning from them.

Watching Tsunade at work was absolutely amazing. It's not only because her work is brilliant, but because of her sheer determination and love for what she does. She never gives up on a patient and till the day she dies, she never will.


In all his years as an ANBU, he'd never been on an infiltration mission this deep into enemy territory as he was now with a squad of non-ANBU. He definitely didn't expect to be on a mission of this gravity with a former Akatsuki either. What exactly had Naruto been thinking when he made such a rash decision? He knew the Rokudaime was unpredictable, but this brought it to another level.

What worried him even more was everyone on the team had knowledge of each other and their abilities except for one person—Gikaru. We saw some of his abilities in the Grass village and in the Rock town, but other than that everything about him was a mystery. He wondered what Kakashi-senpai felt about the situation and if he had advised Naruto at all.

He had to make sure everything went well with this mission—he had to; or else it'd prove detrimental to Konoha if they got caught. Too many important people from the Leaf were on this mission and war would no doubt be waged for any of their lives.



A/N:
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I definitely feel like the plot is picking up, I just need to set certain things in to place before anything really happens. I want to develop the characters some more and help readers get to know the Original Characters before we get into the main plot. Please Review and let me know how you guys liked the chapter. I look forward to reading all the reviews and be sure to make any suggestions and leave constructive criticism! Look out for the newest chapter; It'll be out soon!