Chapter two.

After being 'captured' by the masked ninja, Hunter was dragged off to a base hidden in the large mountain that overlooked the village. Once there he'd been chucked into a small bare cell with only a small table and two chairs. With nothing else to do Hunter sat down in the chair furthest from the door and waited. He could probably have tried to escape but he thought that if he played his cards right he might just get some information out of these people.

Twenty minutes later the cell door opened and a man walked in. He took the seat facing Hunter. He was dressed the same as the people who'd captured him, except he wore no animal mask.

"Ok, then." he said in a flat, even voice. "Let's start from the beginning. Who are you?"

Hunter gave him a broad smile and said "Hi, I'm Hunter. That's not my real name but it's all I've got right now."

The man's right eyebrow twitched slightly but other than that he showed no reaction. "What village are you from?"

"I don't know where I'm from. Sad but true."

"What is your purpose in the Hidden Leaf village?"

"Ah. So that's what this place is called. 'Hidden Leaf'. Weird name but it does have a ring to it." he noticed that the man was starting to grind his teeth. 'He's cracking.' thought Hunter

"Listen here kid!" he boomed "You obviously don't know just how much trouble you're-"

"Ouch! Indoor voice, man! Indoor voice. I'm not deaf over here."

The man was now very agitated and going red in the face.

Hunter smiled even wider 'He's cracked.'

"You are going to tell me what I want to know or-"

Before he could finish Hunter reached forward and placed a finger over his lips. "Shhh. Don't speak." he said in a exaggerated romantic tone "Your eyes say it all for me."

The interrogator finally lost it. He leapt up from his seat, reached down into one of his trousers many pockets and brought out a kunai. At the same time two more people burst into the room, Tiger Mask and another who wore a boar mask. The two quickly restrained their friend who rapidly calmed down.

"What do you think you're doing?!" demanded Tiger Mask, letting go of the interrogator. "You let this kid manipulate you with school yard level insults. Your dismissed Duzo."

Duzo looked ashamed and meekly nodded. He flashed Hunter a last angry look before leaving the room.

"Well, it's been real man, but I've got to go. I still have a job to do, unlike your friend."

Hunter got up and went for the door only for Boar and Tiger to bar his way. "You're not leaving until we get a straight answer out of you." said Boar in a gruff voice.

"Either get out of my way or I warn you , you'll suffer far worse than you can possible imagine." warned Hunter.

Both Tiger and Boar prepared to draw their swords. "Just try it." said Tiger.

Hunter gave them both the best evil smile he could muster.

Half an hour later, still inside T&I's base.

Anko Mitarashi wasn't a happy woman. As one of the Hidden Leafs top level special jōnin she liked it when her day went according to plan. Right now she should be monitoring the teams participating in the chunin exams, instead she was matching into the T&I headquarters to interrogate some unlucky sap who was apparently too much for anyone else to handle.

Finally she reached the cell where her latest victim was held. An ANBU wearing a Tiger mask was waiting outside for her.

"He's in there I take it?" Anko asked.

Tiger nodded. "Yes M'am. He calls himself 'Hunter' but even he admits that's not his real name. So far he's avoided every question we asked. Or just given a non-sensical answer."

Anko sighed heavily "Still, did you have to send for ME specifically. There have to be other interrogators that can handle this?"

"Well...I think it would be best if you just listened to this."

Tiger opened the cell door just a little.

"AND A HEY HO, HE'S PLOUGHING A TROLL! THE GODS ONLY KNOW HOW THE KEY FITS THE-"

Tiger shut the door again, cutting off the rest of the 'song'. "He's been singing like that for the past half hour. He just won't shut up!"

Anko sighed again. This was going to be one of those days.

What the two ninja didn't know was that their 'prisoner' could hear every word of their conversation. Apparently enhanced hearing was yet another Heartless ability and while it had been difficult to control (he'd nearly been deafened by the sound of scuttling insects) Hunter could now hear people talking all over the building.

That was only the tip of the iceberg though. Hunter could also see everything that was going on in the building. People walking around going from point A to point B, interrogations being carried out and all the secret meetings that no one was supposed to know about. And inside every person he could see a Heart, filled with a mix of light and dark. A human mind would have overloaded and shut down with all this information but Heartless minds don't work in the same way.

The cell door opened and Anko walked in. She didn't say anything, she just slowly walked up to the table Hunter was sitting at then she slammed her fists down on the table in an effort to scare him. It didn't work he just sat there with the same contented smile on his face.

He hadn't even said anything to her yet and Anko already disliked him. "Think you're pretty smart don't you?" asked Anko rhetorically. "You probably think it's funny to play your little games?"

"Yes to all the above." answered Hunter. "Now why have you styled your hair after a pineapple?" he added.

Anko smirked at him. "Cute. Well guess what, you're-"

"Why are they afraid of you?" asked Hunter.

Anko was so surprised by the question she almost lost her train of thought. "What?"

"All the people you passed on your way here, they were afraid of you. Some even hated you."

Anko hadn't been expecting this 'How could he possibly know THAT!?' she wondered. Hunter's gaze wandered to her neck, the exact spot where her curse mark was. Anko instinctively placed her hand over the mark in an effort to cover it, despite the fact that her trench coat normally hid it from view.

"Does it have something to do with that mark on your-"

Anko quickly produced a kunai and slammed it point first into the table close to Hunter's hand.

"Touchy subject?" he asked.

"Just who are you?" Anko demanded, deciding to go for a more direct method of interrogation. "You're obviously a ninja from another village, what is your mission here? Espionage? Assassination? Out with it or-"

"Anko, I can say in all honestly. I am not a ninja. I do however have an important mission and I've wasted enough time here. So if you'll excuse me." Hunter stood up and took a few steps back from Anko.

"You're not leaving this room until you tell me everything." she spat out venomously.

Hunter gave her an 'oh really' smirk before closing his eyes and focusing. A black portal appeared right behind Hunter. He opened his eyes just in time to see the shocked look on Anko's face before saying "Catch you later!" then he jumped backwards through the portal. Anko tried to follow him through but the portal closed before she could reach it and she ended up slamming into the wall.

'Oh just great!' she thought ' A prisoner escape on my watch. I'm never going to live this down'.

"Tiger!" she yelled. The ANBU rushed into the room. "The prisoner has escaped! Round up every ninja you can and find him! He used some kind of teleportation jutsu to escape so that means he's at least jōnin rank, got that!?"

Tiger nodded then ran off to assemble his team. Anko wasn't far behind him, she was determined to find that little jerk first and drag him back here, dead or alive.

On the other side of the village.

Hunters latest attempt at using the corridors of darkness was more successful that the previous ones. He actually appeared where he wanted to this time, on the roof of the ' Ichiraku's Ramen' building. The only problem was that the portal was horizontal instead of vertical so Hunter ended up crashing face first into the roof.

"Oooff! Well...getting better." me muttered into the concrete. He picked himself up and walked over the ledge to get a better view of the street below. The place was utterly deserted. Hunter briefly wondered why until he saw a sign that (once translated) read 'Welcome all to the Chunin Exams!'

"Some kind of festival?" he wondered aloud. "That would be as good a place to start as any...hang on!"

Hunter noticed movement down on the street below. Two people, both women dressed in plain kimonos. There was nothing particularly interesting about them, except that neither of them had a heart.

"Nobodies." said Hunter quietly. He took a few steps back from the ledge. 'Let's see where they're going'.

Hunter kept to the rooftops as he followed the two 'women'. A couple of real people would pass by them every now and then but none of them noticed anything amiss, and why would they? What was strange about two women walking through town having a friendly chat? If anyone was interested enough to listen, they would have discovered that the two were repeating the same conversation over and over on a loop.

'Hiding in plain sight. Clever girls' Hunter thought. That was when he bumped into someone. He'd been so focused on the Nobodies he hadn't noticed that Anko had found him again.

"Oh, come on! Not now, I'm busy."

"Doing what?" asked Anko, threateningly drawing a kunai.

"Following those two-" Hunter pointed down at the street only to find that the two Nobodies had disappeared. "Snap!"

"Hey Anko." Both Anko and Hunter looked round in surprise and saw a man with spiky silver hair standing on a chimney overlooking the two of them. The man was wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face and he wore a headband that was angled to cover up his left eye. He was also reading a book that was titled 'Icha Icah Paradise'.

"Kakashi." said Anko. "What are you doing here!?"

"I just wanted to see it for myself." Kakashi leapt down from his perch and landed between Anko and Hunter. "So this is the one who got away from you Anko. You must be slipping." he said jokingly.

"How did you find out already!?" asked Anko, barely controlling her anger.

"It's a small village, word travels fast."

Hunter decided to interrupt "Hi Kakashi, I'm Hunter. Nice to meet you, goodby- wait." Hunter raised both his hands and started looking left and right. "I sense...something..." he suddenly ducked down just in time to avoid a flying kick from another ninja.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" the ninja yelled. He landed right next to Kakashi. "I missed! That doesn't normally happen!"

Hunter got back up again "Who are you?"

The new ninja gave him a wide smile, showing off all his teeth. "Might Guy. The Hidden Leaf's Magnificent Green Beast!"

Hunter blinked a few times before saying "OK. Er, I'm Hunter." He looked at the three ninja's heads "I can't imagine your hair product bills. Kakashi, how much gel does it take for your hair to stand up like that?"

"Ha! This Kids got spirit." said Guy.

"He'll have a lot less when I'm done with him." growled Anko.

"Whoa, she's bit fierce isn't she?" said Hunter.

Both Guy and Kakashi winced at that, they both knew what would happen next.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!" roared Anko. as she jumped at Hunter, trying to slashing him with her Kunai, but he managed to avoid her by side stepping.

"Ahh, cripes! Take it easy. AH!" Hunter ducked to avoid another slash. "Will you all please just STOP!"

Much to Hunters surprise that's just what everyone did. Anko paused mid swing while Guy and Kakashi stood where they were, not moving in the slightest.

"What the...?" then Hunter noticed the strange rings that had appeared around the ninja's waists. The rings were a translucent purple in colour and were surrounded by roman numerals from one to twelve. Hunter felt strange as well. Like he'd been drained somehow.

Hunter walked up to Anko. She seemed totally frozen. He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes a few times. Nothing. He tried the same thing with Guy and Kakashi with the same result, not so much as a twitch.

"I...froze them...in TIME!" he yelled. "How...what...ahh!...How do I un-freeze them!? Is this permanent? Oh, please don't let it be permanent!"

That was when the spell wore off and time resumed for the three ninjas. For them it was as though Hunter had just disappeared and reappeared.

'Huh? This kids fast!' thought Kakashi.

"Ha! The fires of youth burn strongly in this one!" said Guy.

Hunter gave him a confused look. "The fires of-whoa!" He ducked to avoid a kunai that Anko threw at him.

"Ok, let's try this again."

Anko saw Hunter's eyes suddenly turn glowing yellow. 'Is that...a kekkei genkai?!'

Hunter raised both his arms and yelled "STOP!" Once again everyone froze in place. "Hehehehe. I am going to have soooo much fun with this-whoa..." Hunter suddenly felt the draining feeling again. Only it was much stronger this time. "Ok, so this has a down side. I'd better use this sparingly."

Hunter quickly had a rummage through the three ninjas pockets. Apart from various weapons he didn't find anything interesting, except a pen which he used to apply some 'artwork' to their faces. He also took Kakashi's book, tore out the first page and lodged it between two of the man's hair spikes.

"Well, my work here is done." said Hunter as he proudly admired his handiwork. "That spell should wear off any second now. Time to book out." Hunter jumped off the roof and landed on the street below before running off to the left.

The stop spell on the three ninja wore off seconds later.

"Where did he go this...what the!?" The first thing that Anko noticed was that once again Hunter had vanished, the second thing was that Guy now had a large walrus moustache drawn on his face. He was also giving her a strange look.

"He's drawn something on me to hasn't he?" she asked. Guy nodded. Anko had been given a small moustache and a little goatee beard.

"AAAARRRGGHHH!" Anko and Guy looked over at Kakashi. "My book!" he yelled. "He's taken my book!"

"Ermm, Kakashi." Kakashi looked over at Guy who pointed at his head. Reaching up Kakashi found the piece of paper that Hunter had placed in his hair.

"He...he ripped out the first page! He defiled MY BOOK!"

"How did he do all this?" wondered Anko aloud "There's no way he could have moved that fast."

"Maybe he used some kind of paralysis jutsu?" suggested Guy.

"A jutsu powerful enough to work on all three of us. I was right, this kid is defiantly jōnin rank, at the very least. And then there's those eyes..."

"I don't care how powerful his jutsu are. He has my book!" yelled Kakashi, who was still hysterical. "And I'm going to turn this whole village upside down until I find him!"

Back with Hunter. Elsewhere in the village.

Once he'd gotten away from the ninjas Hunter had tried to find the Nobodies again but they were nowhere to be found. After his search had failed he'd decided to go to plan B : gather information. He was currently hiding in an alleyway across from a grand, important looking building called 'Hokage Tower' which he hoped might have some useful information stored inside. The problem was that the place was heavily guarded. Two men stationed at the doors and a whole lot of ninjas hiding all over, the only reason that Hunter knew they were there was because of his Heartless vision.

'Now is probably a good time to ask for help' he thought. Reaching into his trouser pocket he brought out the small phone that DiZ had given to him. He pressed it's one and only button and raised it to his ear.

Moments later DiZ's voice crackled out from the speakers "Hunter."

"Hey DiZ. Listen...I'm in a bit of a jam here. There's this building that I need to break into but it's swarming with guards so I was wondering if...maybe...Riku could swing by and clear them out?"

"Riku has more important things to do right now. You are perfectly capable of dealing with this on your own."

"You're joking right!? I can't take these guys, I don't know how to fight!" Hunter yelled into the phone.

"Heartless are made to fight, just let your instincts guide you. If you want to take a more stealthy approach then you can alter your appearance as well."

"How?"

Hunter heard DiZ sigh on the other end of the line "Just focus on what you want to look like then use the Power of Darkness."

"Ok, now how do I use the Power of...DiZ?...DiZ? Hello!? He hung up on me!" Hunter put the phone away and started to focus on changing his shape. He conjured up a mental image of the tiger masked ninja from earlier then tried to imagine himself as that ninja. Anyone watching him right now would have seen his form fade to a black silhouette, then change and re-from into an ANBU ninja wearing a tiger mask.

Hunter opened his eyes and found, much to his surprise, that he'd successfully transformed. "Awesome!" he said to no one in particular. With his new disguise Hunter found getting into the tower very easy, the two guards at the door let him in with no questions and once inside no one challenged him.

One ninja noticed him and said "Tiger! How's the search coming?"

Hunter said nothing because that would have given him away instantly, instead he just kept walking. His super hearing picked up someone behind him saying "What's up with him? Not so much as a 'hello'."

"ANBU. Think their better than everybody else."

'Awkward' thought Hunter as he headed for a flight of stairs.

Hunter explored the new building floor by floor looking for anything that might help on his mission. Finally he found a room on the top floor marks as 'Hokage's Office'. Seeing as how the building was called 'Hokage Tower' Hunter guessed that this room belonged to whoever was in charge, so there must be something he could use in there.

He carefully opened the door and peeked inside. Seeing no one he entered the room and close the door behind him, dropping his disguise and returning to his normal appearance. It was a large office with a single window in the back wall, a long desk with a tone of paperwork piled up on one side and a crystal ball on the other.

There was a strange shimmering light coming from the ball, which probably meant it was somehow magical. Hunter ignored the desk and went for a row of filing cabinets on the left wall.

"Ok, let's see...Nobodies...N...N...Here we go, M to P...Nothing on Nobodies. Drat." Hunter closed that cabinet and thought back to what he'd seen in the village.

"Chunin Exams...C...C...A to C!...Aha!" There was a whole bunch of files in a section marked 'Chunin'. Hunter started pulling them out one by one.

"Let's see...List of Chunin. No. Chunin Missions. No. Sorry can you hold these, thanks." Hunter passed the two files to the old man who was standing next to him. "Chunin Exams, sco- um..."

Hunter slowly turned round. Standing just to his left, holding the two files he'd just handed him was an old man, definitely in his seventies. He wore red and white robes and a large diamond shaped hat, despite his age Hunter could sense that he was a powerful opponent. He wasn't alone either, two of the masked ninjas were with him, one wore an eagle mask, the other a cat mask.

"Hi, um...I guess you're this 'Hokage' person right?"

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, nodded slightly "You would be correct. I assume that you are 'Hunter'. I've heard much about you."

"I deny everything."

At that moment there was a poof of smoke on the other side of the room and Anko appeared. "Lord Hokage, there's been no sign of- YOU!"

Hunter looked from Anko to the Hokage, then back again. "Hi honey. What's for dinner?"

"You...YOU. Lord Hokage, this man is a dangerous criminal. He has powerful jutsu and an unknown kekkei genkai!"

"Kec-what? Are you making these words up?" asked Hunter.

Sarutobi looked at the moustache and beard drawn on Anko's face. "I take it that the moustache is your doing?"

Hunter shrugged "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Now-OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT!" Hunter pointed over at the other side of the room.

No one turned round.

"Ah, I was rather hoping you'd fall for that. Oh well" Hunter jumped over the Hokage and his guards and bolted out the door. Anko was right behind him, followed by the two ANBU ninja and the Hokage. Hunter ran up a flight of stairs, looking up he could see through the ceiling that Kakashi and Guy waiting just beyond the roof access door. Quickly he shape shifted so that he now looked just like Anko.

The transformation finished just a second before he burst out the door and onto the roof. Kakashi and Guy looked round and saw their comrade running at full speed towards them.

"Anko, what's..?" began Guy.

"Can't stop! Excuse me!" yelled Hunter.

Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly "That voice! IT'S YOU!"

Hunter changed back into his normal form still running straight for the roofs ledge. The group of ninjas were only a few steps behind him as the jumped down off the roof. As his pursuers reached the ledge they were in for a surprise. Hunter was crouching on the side of the building, facing them with his palms outstretched

"STOP!"

From the ninjas perspective it was as though Hunter just vanished but Anko, Guy and Kakashi knew the truth. He paralysed them all AGAIN.

"Up here lads and ladies!" they all looked up and saw Hunter was now on the roof of the building opposite, twirling a pen in his left hand. "Hope you all like your new looks. Definite improvement!"

Anko looked at the other ninjas. Both the ANBU guards now had moustaches drawn over their masks while Sarutobi had a pair of drawn on spectacles.

"Oh, and Kakashi, catch!"

Hunter threw a paper aeroplane at Kakashi. The sliver haired ninja caught it and opened it up. "ARRHGG! This is the SECOND page of my book! You ripped out another page!"

"Hahahahah! I know what your all thinking! 'Does he have it all planned out? Or is he just making it up as he goes along! Ha!"

Anko clenched her fists, trying to keep her temper in check. "Just who are you!" she yelled.

"My friends call me Murphy. You call me Robocop!" He smiled at their confused looks. Hunter lifted up the file he'd stolen and waved it at them. "Thanks for the gift by the way. This 'Forest of Death' place sounds like fun!"

Anko's expression changed from anger to afraid 'The Forest of Death? He's going after the genin teams!'

Hunter tossed the file away "Hahaha. Oh life is going to be a wow wow weeeee!" A dark portal started appearing around him. "For my shadow AND MEEEEEEEEE!" Before anyone could get to him he was gone.

Elsewhere in the Village. Danzō Shimura's private office.

Danzō let out a long sigh as he signed off yet more paper work. As an elder of the village and a candidate to be the next Hokage he had to wade through a seemingly never ending sea of red tape and burocracy. The thing that kept him going through all this boredom was his determination (some would say obsession) to protect the Hidden Leaf Village, even if that meant sifting through all this paperwork and doing other, less pleasant things.

"Hey there." Danzō looked up and saw a man standing in front of his desk . He had dark, grey streaked hair, a scared face and a patch over one eye. He wore strange black cloak. "My you are a busy little bee Danzō." he continued.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my office?" he demanded in an authoritative voice.

"Name's Xgibar. I'm here to...retrieve something. Something that your little secret organisation found in a crater, and brought back to you. Ringing any bells"

Danzō's uncovered eye widened. This man knew about the 'artefact' and about his ROOT organisation.

Xigbar saw his reaction and smiled "Oh yeah. We know all about you. We've been watching for some time." he looked at the bandages that covered most of his body. "You always claim that everything you do is for your village. Are you sure that it's not just to surpass that old coot Sarutobi?"

"Guards!" commanded Danzō. He was shocked when no ANBU ninjas appeared.

Xigbar laughed. "Oh we've already 'dealt' with your guards. They put up quite a poor fight actually. Didn't they, Thorn?"

It took Danzō a second to realise that he was addressing someone else. Before he could move he felt an immense pain in his chest. Looking down he could see two jagged lines, one black, one white, protruding from his chest. Danzō couldn't move his head but he knew that his attacker must be behind him.

Xigbar moved round the desk so that he was now standing next to Danzō. He carefully opened up the top right had draw of the desk and took out the artefact that ROOT had discovered, a small white box covered in black lines that occasionally glowed with a strange light.

"There's a homing beacon inside this." said Xigbar "That's how we found it, and this world. I supose I should thank you for bringing us here. There is a lot of potential for the Organisation. That boy, what's his name...Naruto. Now he is very interesting. You know, he kinda reminds me of someone I used to know."

Danzō snarled at him but apart from that he couldn't do anything. Xigbar just laughed "Sorry got a little carried away there. Thorn. Finish him."

'Danzō' vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by a log. The a kunai aimed at Thorn passed right through the Nobody's head.

The real Danzō was not standing at the door to his office and after his failed counter attack he made a run for it. He needed time to open the seals on his right arm and right now time was something he didn't have. He was almost at the end of the corridor when a black portal appeared, barring his path. From it emerged Thorn, as cold looking as ever.

Danzō lashed out with a kick aimed at Thorn's head which passed harmlessly through him.

"Fira." several fireballs formed around Thorn and launched themselves point black at Danzō He avoided the first two, just but the third struck home, blasting the old man back. Now wounded and with some very severe burns Danzō was not in a good position. Thorn was closing in for the kill, charging up a thunder spell.

There was a slight 'thunk' as a kunai embedded itself in the wood floor at Thorn's feet. he looked down just in time to see the explosive tag before it detonated with a loud BOOM!

Five masked ROOT ninjas appeared next to Danzō, once carefully helping their leader to his feet while the rest kept thier eyes on the flames and smoke where Thorn use to be.

"Lord Danzō." began one of the ROOT ninjas "We need to get you t-ah!" A lance of bright red light pierced the man's chest and het fell to the ground, dead.

"Oh, sorry. Did you forget about little ole' me?" taunted Xigbar, who was standing in to doorway to Danzō's office holding a strange gun like weapon in each hand.

That was when Thorn came out of hiding, walking calmly out of the fire raging at the other end of the corridor. One of the ROOT ninjas ran at him, drawing a katana from his back. With a casual flick of his wrist Thorn launched out another line that sliced right through the man before he even got close.

"Pull back." ordered Danzō. He and his operatives vanished in separate puffs of smoke.

Thorn was about to give chase when Xigbar held up a hand from him to stop. "Nah, leave 'em. We got what we came for and they won't be any trouble." He looked down at the cube he now held in his hands. Pressing a hidden button a small hologram appeared out of the box. It showed designs for a new ship, a massive, square ship.

"The designs for the Dreadnaught." said Xigbar, almost absent mindedly. "Thought we'd lost these to that Heartless attack. Instead it ends up leading us here. Funny."

He turned his attention back to Thorn. "You know what you have to do here."

Thorn nodded "For. Organisation. Thirteen."

Xigbar rolled his eye "Yeah, sure. Whatever." then he disappeared into a black portal.

The flames behind Thorn were spreading fast and it wouldn't be long before people started to investigate. Ignoring the fire he went back into Danzō's office. After a short search Thorn found something of value, a file on a certain young genin that Thorn was now very interested in.

By now the fire had made it into Danzō's room, flames had crawled up the walls, spread across the floor and rolled over the ceiling. Thorn just stood in the inferno seemingly ignorant of it. He looked over at a mirror hanging on the wall. He saw himself in his human disguise. He had pale skin, jet black spiky hair, a light blue scarf wrapped round his neck and black cloths with the white symbol of the Nobodies emblazoned on his shirt.

The mirror shattered from the heat, shards of glass flying all over the room. Thorn summoned his own black portal and disappeared, leaving the building to burn.

Outside Danzō was furious. Begin attack in his own office was not something he would tolerate. Inwardly he cursed himself for not destroying that blasted cube when he had the chance. If he'd had know it would bring those two here...

"Spread word of this to the rest of our operatives!" ordered Danzō the remaining Root ninjas all nodded quietly and body-flickered away save one who stayed by his side.

"Lord Danzō? We need to get you to a medic nin, your wounds are-"

"I know!" Danzō snapped at him "I may have lost today but I am not done fighting. And I will remember who my enemies are!" with that Danzō turned away from his burning office and started walking in the general direction of one of his secret ROOT bases. Once he was healed he swore there was going to be a reckoning.