Chapter Four: Life as Root Operative (2)

Note: So Kinoe, or Tenzo, is now a part of Team Ro under Kakashi's command. Apparently he gets moved from Root when Naruto is four, but in this story, its one year early. So Naruto and the others are three years old, or soon to be turning three. Haruto is five, Shunsuke is ten while Kaito is 13 years old.

Kakashi was 14 during the kyuubi attack, so he's now a few days away from turning 17 years old. Kinoe is 14 years old, by the way.

Please give me your comments and reviews about this story! So far, I have received none, so I don't know whether people actually like my story or not, and whether I should continue writing this one.

Warnings: AU. OOC.

Haruto, Shunsuke, and Kaito sat on the ground in one of the rarely used training rooms of the Root headquarters. All three of them were thinking deeply about the 'Kinoe Incident', as it was now being called in Root, and each of them had different opinions and feelings about it.

"Shunsuke, Kaito." Haruto started to speak as he hugged his knees to his chest. "Did I really do the right thing?"

Shunsuke and Kaito glanced at each other, before Kaito motioned for Shunsuke to be the one to reply.

"You did nothing wrong, Haruto." Shunsuke inwardly sighed before he answered. "It's because you intervened that Danzo didn't Kinoe. You saved his life; that's something you should feel proud of."

To be honest, Shunsuke felt that Haruto should have just allowed Kinoe to be killed. Kinoe was a selfish person, who only thought about himself. It was obvious that in order to replace the gap Kinoe made when he left Root, Danzo would either take another child from their home or family, or he would make one of the Root Trainees go through that despicable graduation exam and be inducted into Root ANBU. Either way, people, children, would end up suffering because of what Kinoe did. Yet Kinoe didn't care; he only thought about himself and simply because he didn't agree with Danzo, he no longer wanted to stay in Root.

There were tons of people in Root who didn't think Danzo was right, Shunsuke, himself, was one too! But they all stayed – because they knew what would happen if they left! Kinoe hadn't even gone through the same Root training as the rest of them did. He was treated specially by Danzo, so Kinoe didn't even understand or know what Root really was like, what kind of harsh training they had to endure, all in order to avoid causing any more casualties, any more children to suffer.

But then, Haruto was a really kind person. Shunsuke had never met someone who was as self-sacrificing and devoting as Haruto.

So Shunsuke couldn't really be surprised that Haruto had stopped Danzo from disposing of Kinoe. Haruto did everything and continued to do everything he could, in order to protect Konoha and the King; Shunsuke felt nothing but respect for him. Even though Haruto was only five years old, he shouldered so many burdens on his small body, and gave up so much. Yet there was Kinoe, who was almost three times the age of Haruto, and still, he could only think about himself, and was even creating more trouble for Haruto!

"But…it's only temporary," Haruto protested. Kinoe had betrayed Danzo, he had betrayed Root, and thus, there was no way Danzo would be satisfied unless Kinoe was out of the picture. "Sooner or later, Danzo will give the order for Kinoe to be eliminated."

"Of course, there's nothing that you can do about that, Haruto." Kaito said, displaying none of his true feelings on his face. "If Danzo orders you to kill Kinoe, you should just do it. You have a reason to continue to be a shinobi of Root, don't you, Haruto?" Kaito reminded. "Then you should just follow what Danzo says. Not to mention, if you don't kill Kinoe, then Danzo will simply order another Root operative to kill him, and then there's no guarantee that Kinoe will have a quick and painless death. So really, there's only one path for you to take, Haruto."

If anything, Kaito wanted Kinoe dead; he wished that Haruto hadn't intervened.

Kinoe was just like the Sandaime, both of them were selfish people who cared only about making themselves happy and content. Kinoe chose himself over the rest of the people in Root, not caring about what kind of consequences his actions would have. What 'I am a Shinobi of Konoha. Everyone in Konoha is my comrade'. That was just total nonsense. Root was part of Konoha, the children were part of Konoha. Yet Kinoe had abandoned them, while knowing that another Root Trainee or another child of Konoha would be the one to pay the price and lose their innocence. What a hypocrite!

The Sandaime was the same; he was in no way fit to be a Hokage. The Sandaime was Kaito's father! Kaito was his biological son, related by blood! Yet the Sandaime so easily believed that Kaito was dead and didn't even try to search for him or obtain his dead body. Kaito was here, suffering at the hands of Danzo as a Root operative, and the Hokage made no action to save him. But when Kakashi asked the Hokage to save Kinoe, his father agreed. Why!? Was it because Kakashi was the student of the Yondaime, his successor, that's why the Sandaime found Kakashi to be more important than Kaito? There's no way the Hokage didn't know what kind of things Danzo did, yet he allowed Danzo to get away with everything, simply because Danzo was his old friend.

In the end, the Sandaime was a person who thought that remaining friends with Danzo was more important than protecting Konoha or the King. He was a failure as Hokage; there was no way Kaito would ever acknowledge such a person as his father.

"I thought Kinoe was admirable, though." Haruto spoke up, making Shunsuke and Kaito look at him appalled. "Kinoe, he refused to kill Kakashi even though it was the mission. He disobeyed the mission in order to protect a fellow comrade from Konoha. Kinoe's a good person, he's a good shinobi. I don't want to have to kill such a person."

Shunsuke and Kaito shared a glance, both of them knowing that it was impossible for them to agree with Haruto. Kinoe deserved to be dead, Shunsuke and Kaito thought. Haruto is too forgiving. It was probably impossible for someone like Haruto to even feel hate. After all, Toshio was dead because of Danzo, yet instead of blaming Danzo, Haruto blamed himself. Haruto suffered so much in Kirigakure because he was kekkei genkai user, and instead of blaming Kiri, Haruto blamed himself for being born with such power.

"You don't have to make a decision now," Shunsuke tried to reassure Haruto. "Danzo probably won't make a move to eliminate Kinoe until a few months have passed, in order to avoid being suspected. So you should just decide what you want to do then, Haruto."

Both Shunsuke and Kaito would never reveal to Haruto what they truly felt about Kinoe. It was better for Haruto to assume that the two of them thought the same as him.

If Haruto couldn't bring himself to kill Kinoe, then Shunsuke or Kaito would be the one to do it.

XXXXXX

Haruto stood in the centre of a training room in the Root headquarters and did his best to ignore Danzo's stare boring into his back. Haruto fluidly sped through hand seals – Tiger, Dog, Snake.

Mokuton: Moku bunshin no jutsu.

A wood clone formed in front of Haruto, who immediately leapt back and formed the hand-seals for another technique. Tiger, horse, tiger, snake.

Mokuton: Daijurin no jutsu.

Haruto stretched out his right arm, which transformed into big trees and lengthened and sped towards his wood clone, impaling it and causing his clone to dispel.

"Good," Danzo remarked as he watched Haruto perform his mokuton techniques. "Yuurei, perform the next jutsu."

Haruto made a snake seal with his hands, and cracks in the ground started to form as trees started to grow out all around the room at a tremendous speed.

Mokuton: Jukai Koutan.

In a matter of mere moments, the training room had been turned into a vast forest, complete with trees and there was even grass growing on the ground. Haruto grimaced inwardly when he noticed that some of the trees were a transparent ice-blue colour, instead of the usual brown and green colours.

"Next."

Haruto formed a ram seal with his left hand and channelled chakra, while flinging out his right hand.

Kai.

Ice started to coat on the surface of the trees before it spread at a terrifyingly fast speed and the vast forest that filed the training room was totally encased in ice. A shattering sound filled the room, as the ice covered forest broke and dissolved into many small pieces, leaving nothing behind except a cold, chilly air.

Haruto then took a deep breath, before he once again formed a snake seal with his hands, in order to perform an extremely advanced technique.

Mokuton: Kajukai Kourin.

The ground started to buckle and crack as trees were forced to grow out at a rapid pace, and soon, the room was once again filled with a dense forest of flowering trees. The flowers started to open and release yellow, sandy, pollen into the air. Haruto made sure to control where the pollen spread, so that he and Danzo would not be affected.

"Excellent," Danzo nodded from his position in the training room. Haruto's talent in the shinobi arts was nothing short of phenomenal. At such a young age, he was already capable of using the same magnificent techniques that Danzo had only seen the Shodai Hokage perform before. It didn't matter to him whether Kinoe was in Root or not, or whether he was dead or alive; Haruto was much more useful. "You can take a rest, Yuurei. Report to me tomorrow morning"

"Hai, Danzo-sama." Haruto answered in acknowledgement, bowing slightly.

Danzo walked out of the training room and Haruto collapsed on the ground in relief, his legs no longer having the strength to support him. It was a good thing Danzo then, Haruto thought, as he panted and desperately tried to catch his breath.

Ever since the Kinoe incident a bit more than four months ago, Danzo had been extra strict and demanding when it came to Haruto's mokuton practicing, and Haruto was seriously at his limit.

He was five!

Haruto didn't even have that much chakra and stamina to perform so many ninjutsus, yet Danzo seemed to not understand that. Danzo asked for a mokuton jutsu one after another, never appearing to be satisfied.

But there was nothing Haruto could do except meet Danzo's continuously rising expectations.

Close to five and a half years old, Haruto had risen to become Root's top assassin, and there were no Root operatives that had not heard the name Yuurei before. Haruto was close to earning Danzo's full trust, and if he just persevered a little longer, then Haruto would soon be able to become Danzo's right hand.

That's why Haruto couldn't not meet Danzo's expectations, regardless of how much he had to push his body to do so, as then that would cause Danzo to be dissatisfied and Haruto would no longer be trusted.

Lying on the ground, Haruto groaned as he tried to move and get up, but couldn't. He had used up too much chakra, that his body was way past the stage of exhaustion. It looked like he wouldn't be able to visit Yuuto today either, Haruto sighed inwardly. He hadn't seen Yuuto since early December, and it was now mid-January already.

The last time Haruto visited Yuuto, it had been a day after the Hyuuga affair and Haruto had raced to check on Yuuto, full of worry. Despite knowing that Yuuto was in Root headquarters, and there was no way an enemy could get in and hurt him, Haruto couldn't help but be anxious. After all, the kumogakure ambassador had been able to kidnap the hyuuga heiress straight from the Hyuuga compound. Haruto had gone to see Yuuto, even though he had not received permission from Danzo. Luckily, Danzo didn't discover that he had done so, and so Haruto was not punished.

Been a month and a half, huh, Haruto mused.

Haruto wanted to ask Danzo if he could be allowed to visit Yuuto, but Haruto was concerned that if he brought up Yuuto, then it would cause more attention to be drawn to Yuuto. Yuuto was almost three and a half years old, and was almost the age in which Root trainees started their ninja training. Danzo had yet to mention anything about making Yuuto start his Root training, and Haruto wanted to keep it like that. Yuuto will just have to be a bit more patient.

XXXXXX

The next day, before the sun had even risen, Haruto rolled out of bed and put on the ANBU set of gear. Black shinobi pants with the standard shuriken pouch and kunai holsters, a blank tank top that showed the ANBU tattoo on his left shoulder, a grey flak jacket that went over the tank top, black gloves that had metal plates on the back of their hand area and went a bit over the elbows, and grey metal arm guards. Lastly, Haruto strapped the tip-less tanto onto his back, put on his ANBU mask, and headed out of his room for Danzo's office.

"You called for me, Danzo-sama." Haruto said, kneeling on the floor with his head bowed.

"Operative Yuurei, I have a solo mission I want you to do." Danzo announced. "You will be gathering information on your targets – Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi, specifically the latter, and reporting directly back to me with it. No detail is insignificant. Your two targets are due to arrive at Training Ground 44 for a training exercise in a few minutes. Start spying on them from there, and then return here once the exercise is finished."

"May I ask about the necessity of assassination?"

"I'll leave it up to you. Do not disappoint me, Yuurei."

"Hai, Danzo-sama." Haruto bowed lowly, before disappearing in a shunshin.

Haruto reappeared at Training Ground 44, and perched himself on a tall tree branch. He felt glad that this time's mission wasn't an assassination mission, and normally, Haruto wouldn't mind intelligence gathering missions. But Haruto was not very happy with this time's mission targets.

Uchiha Shisui, also known as Shunshin no Shisui due to his overwhelming speed and skill in the use of the body flicker, and was recently promoted to Jonin and said to be one of the most talent members of the Uchiha clan. Uchiha Itachi, said to be a ninja of prodigious talent, and had been able to graduate from the Ninja Academy in one year at the mere age of seven, along with awakening his sharingan a week ago at the age of eight years old.

In other words, both of Haruto's targets this time were Uchiha, people from the same clan as Toshio.

In fact, Uchiha Shisui, was Toshio's older brother, and that made Haruto feel even worse.

Haruto was supposed to protect the Uchiha, yet here he was, having to spy on them and give away information about them. At this rate, how was he going to keep his promise with Toshio?

Seeing Shisui and Itachi arrive at the training ground, Haruto pushed away all his thoughts and focused on the mission. If he failed to complete the mission, then not only would the promise to Toshio be unfulfillable, Haruto would also become unable to protect Yuuto and the 'King' of Konoha.

Haruto leapt from tree branch to tree branch, following Shisui and Itachi from behind, while ensuring that he was not spotted.

"What are the details of the training exercise?" Itachi asked, as he ran across a branch and swung down on a vine.

"There are three parts," Shisui explained while swinging on a vine. "The first part is to find the traces left by the fugitive, and then track him down." Shisui spun around, still holding onto the vine, and watched as Itachi cross-slashed a giant snake with a tanto and a kunai held in his hands. "You're good!" Shisui commented, receiving a smirk from Itachi.

After travelling for about five more minutes, Shisui and Itachi stopped in a small clearing and jumped down onto the ground. Shisui bent down and lightly traced his hand over a footprint left in the moss, while Itachi watched from behind, silently admiring Shisui's skill in noticing such small details. Itachi glanced slightly to the left and ran over, noticing something that caught his attention.

"This is…" Itachi murmured, as he held up a small piece of branch.

"Ooh, so our guy stepped on a piece of branch, huh." Shisui remarked as he looked at the branch. "Good job noticing it," Shisui praised, as he patted Itachi on the shoulder. "But that is a decoy. For a piece of wood to break after being stepped on, it has too much moisture. Also, see this clean cut? It's obvious that the guy was in a hurry to make a decoy; what sloppy work." Shisui explained, before the two of them headed further into the forest, in the opposite direction from where the decoy was laid at.

The sun was starting to set and so the sky was a beautiful reddish-orange colour. Itachi bent slightly over on a rock in the middle of a small river, and examined the small mark on the bottom side of the rock.

"That was probably left by a fish," Shisui noted.

Itachi sighed in disappointment, "So it's not even a decoy?"

"Yeah, that's the main purpose of making decoys – everything starts to look like one." Shisui pointed out. "The more confused the pursuer side is, the easier it is for the fugitive."

Shisui laughed at something Itachi said, and for a moment, all Haruto could see was the smiling face of Toshio. He rapidly tried to shake away the image, but it was near impossible. From the very start, the way Shisui talked, the way he moved, the way he praised Itachi, the way he explained and taught Itachi things.

It was exactly like Toshio.

Haruto's breath caught in his throat as he heard what Shisui said. "It's nice to have a meal with someone you can trust." Shisui was a compassionate person, very perceptive and intuitive that he could see through the emotional nature of others.

Haruto forced himself to look away from the heart-warming scene of Shisui and Itachi eating together. He desperately hoped that they finished the training exercise soon, because Haruto couldn't stand it anymore. Shisui reminded him too much of Toshio, that Haruto didn't think he could handle it anymore.

"Is this my punishment, Toshio?" Haruto silently asked. "Is this what I deserve for killing you that day? For not being strong enough to protect you? Is it your wish to see me suffer, Toshio? If that is your wish, then I will accept it, Toshio. Because it was my fault you died. No matter what Shunsuke and Kaito say, it's an unchanging fact that it was my hand, my kunai, that killed you."

The sound of metal clashing startled Haruto and he hurriedly went to check it out, a few steps behind Shisui and Itachi. Root ANBU? What are they doing here, Haruto thought, as he saw three Root ANBUs chasing after and attacking a Konoha ANBU with a bird mask. Shisui and Itachi jumped in between, and Shisui cut the wire to help the Konoha ANBU escape.

I see, so the bird mask ANBU has a scroll containing information about a traitor of Konoha, which the Root operatives want. Haruto deduced, as he observed from behind a tree.

As Shisui demanded answers from the Root operatives, Haruto debated on what he should do. There were two choices for him to take – he could use Shisui and Itachi as a distraction while Haruto himself disposes of the bird mask ANBU, or he could knock out the ANBU and retrieve the scroll. Between the two choices, the first choice was obviously the easiest and most logical decision, but also one that would cause Shisui and Itachi to be place in danger. No, no. Haruto shook his head. There weren't two choices; Shisui and Itachi were part of the Uchiha clan and Haruto had promised to protect the Uchiha.

There was only one option for Haruto to take – knock out the Konoha ANBU, retrieve the scroll, and stop the other Root operatives from fighting against Shisui and Itachi.

Forming a ram seal with his left hand, Haruto slowly manipulated the water beside where the ANBU was at. The water rose silently and gently trailed into the bird mask ANBU's pocket. Haruto made the water wrap around the scroll until it was totally encased in water, then he froze the water-wrapped-scroll.

Running through a couple of one-handed seals, Haruto created an ice mirror in front of him and a small one in the ANBU's pocket. Haruto stuck his hand through the mirror in front of him, only for his hand to come out of the mirror inside the pocket of the bird mask ANBU. Haruto gently grabbed the frozen scroll, before pulling his hand back out from the ice mirror, the scroll now in his hold.

Sealing the scroll away, Haruto took out a few senbon and threw it at the Konoha ANBU, aiming for the place at the neck that would put the ANBU in a false-death state. Seeing that Shisui and Itachi's attention were on the assumingly ANBU, Haruto decided to make his move. He quickly made a shadow clone, and then both shunshined behind the three Root operatives. Haruto grabbed two of the Root operatives and quickly leapt away from the clearing, with his shadow clone doing the same with the third Root member.

By the time Shisui and Itachi turned back to look at the Root ANBUs, they were no longer there, leaving the two quite surprised and confused.

The three Root operatives immediately tried to attack Haruto, but stopped when they recognized his mask.

"Yuurei…"

Haruto nodded and handed over the scroll he had taken from the Konoha ANBU to them. "Deal with the traitor and report to Danzo-sama accordingly."

The Root member in the middle stepped forward and took the scroll, before all three bowed slightly in thanks and then shunshined away.

Haruto sighed in relief, he had somehow been able to complete his mission and keep his promise to Toshio. Now that the problem was solved and the training exercise was over, Haruto headed back to the Root headquarters to report to Danzo.

What do you guys think so far? ~~