Chapter 7: The Root That Doesn't Burn.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.

Tick-tock… tick-tock…

As the seconds ticked by, hours passed by like a breeze. In the middle of the room, Naruto lay motionless on the floor, sweat oozing out from every pore of his body.

!

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes snapped open, revealing his moist, hazy lavender eyes. For some reason, tears trickled from his unfocused eyes but he barely noticed. His mind whirled as he tried to discern the events that transpired.

"What… was that?"

After removing the foreign chakra deep inside his head, Naruto passed out. Glancing at the clock hanging on the coffee-colored walls, Naruto noticed that only hours had ticked by.

Naruto was puzzled. Although forcefully "devouring" foreign chakra inside one's body had repercussions, he should only feel weak for a couple of days and not faint.

'Did the chakra knock me out as a last-ditch effort?

Naruto felt uneasy. Closing his eyes, Naruto hastily scanned his entire chakra system, but he found no anomaly.

'What happened?'

Naruto was truly confused now. Having no other idea as to what could've happened to him, Naruto entered his mindscape.

[Inside Naruto's mindscape]

Facing the appalled fox, Naruto was baffled. Never in a million years would he have expected that the mighty and fearless Kyuubi no Youko would be capable of showing fright.

Naruto asked, "Fox, tell me what happened."

"…"

For a while, the fox was silent.

Seeing that he was contemplating, rather than refusing to answer, Naruto gave the fox time to ponder. Although his willpower was strong enough to bind the nine-tailed fox, he couldn't force the fox to spill the tea.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I want to make a deal with you."

Hearing the deep, majestic voice of the nine tails, Naruto realized the seriousness of the matter and replied solemnly.

"Okay. What do you want?"

Seeing that Naruto took his words seriously, the nine tails nodded his giant fox head.

"The deal is simple. You can use my wisdom; in return, you can't use your chains to bind me."

"Chains? Aren't you already bound by chains?"

Naruto was taken aback. He used his willpower to create chains inside his mindscape to restrain the unruly fox. But now, the fox was asking not to be chained. What kind of wordplay is this?

"These chains are different. They're like ordinary ropes made using your willpower. I'm talking about your chakra chains."

'Chakra chains?' Naruto thought for a while before trying to summon the "chakra chains" that the nine tails mentioned. Guessing by the name of the technique, Naruto summoned his chakra and focused on summoning chains.

As his chakra spun around his body, Naruto felt his back becoming hot and itchy. It was like a new set of limbs was trying to grow from his back.

Clang! Clang!

Then, as if someone was scratching his back, Naruto felt the itch subside and he felt like he had just grown wings. Opening his eyes which had unknowingly closed in pleasure, Naruto saw red chakra chains sprouting from his back.

"Are these the chakra chains you are talking about?" Naruto asked.

Seeing the chakra chains, the nine tails paused before answering. He had too many bad memories of those chains. "Yes."

"Then, I agree to the deal, but I want your chakra's help during my training. I read that the tailed beasts desire freedom very much. If you agree to my conditions, then I will help you regain your freedom in the future. You already know that I want to become a seal master," Naruto stated.

Hearing the proposal, the nine tails thought for a while and nodded.

"All right, I'll cooperate with you. But remember the deal. You shall grant me my freedom before you die. If I sense that you are going back on your part of the deal, I will cut off our cooperation," the nine tails said, trying to swing his tails around to look imposing but remembered that they were still bound by iron chains.

"Deal," after striking a deal with the giant nine-tailed fox, Naruto smirked and left his mindscape.

[With Naruto]

Back in his room, Naruto moved his chakra to summon the red chakra chains.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Wow…"

He was mesmerized by the chakra chains. To say that it was a work of art would be an understatement, at least according to him.

The chains were blood red with strands of gold, like his hair that resembled the sunset. The chains glimmered when light struck them, and glowed when he turned off the lights. The chains were thin, as thin as a pencil and it felt light whenever Naruto held it.

However, he was aware that it was far from light. When he summoned a three feet long chakra chain and dropped it on the floor, the floor of his apartment broke.

"… great, now how do I explain that? Do I just say that I tripped and fell so fast that the floor broke?"

No way, are you kidding me? The floor was made out of concrete!

While Naruto was worrying about the broken floor tiles, somewhere in an underground basement, an old man rubbed his temples. Suddenly, he picked up the cane on his lap and tapped it on the ground.

Thud!

Swoosh—swoosh—swoosh!

Not a moment after his cane touched the ground, dozens of ninjas appeared in front of him, and each of them was wearing a white mask.

"Who was it?!"

Seeing the entire ROOT kneeling before him, the old man was enraged. For someone who preached about human emotions being unnecessary, his behavior was nothing else but uncharacteristic.

"Lord Danzo! The new recruit of ROOT, code name: Yomu, caused a commotion in the village and provoked the—"

"I KNOW!"

Before the ROOT ninja could finish, he was interrupted by his master.

Danzo took several deep breaths to calm himself and thought, 'The original plan was to intercept the ANBU guarding the jinchuriki to let the civilians provoke him so that he will feel the evil of human nature, giving me an opportunity to pull him into ROOT, but some meddlesome recruit just had to ruin the plan and unleash the Kyuubi's chakra!'

'Damn it! Hiruzen won't like this…'

"So that's how it is," inside the Hokage Tower, Hiruzen looked at the kneeling ANBU in front of him.

He's the captain of ANBU team four, and he had just finished reporting to Hiruzen.

"Have your team call Shimura Danzo into my office!" Hiruzen ordered, his tone unyielding, leaving no room for argument. Not that the ANBU would dare argue with their master.

"Yes, sir!" Then, the four members of ANBU team four turned into shadows that disappeared in an instant.

Not even ten minutes later, ANBU team four returned and told Hiruzen that Danzo was coming.

"All right, you are dismissed," Hiruzen waved his hand and waited for Danzo's arrival. He didn't wait for long before he heard the sounds of footsteps outside the office.

Creaaak!

The moment the door opened, "Danzo, explain," Hiruzen said calmly, but his gaze was colder than ice.

Greeted by Hiruzen's cold tone, Danzo didn't answer directly but instead looked around the office. Seeing that they were alone, Danzo secretly sighed in relief before sitting on a couch on the left side of the office.

"Hiruzen, I am not involved in this matter," Danzo said.

Having known Hiruzen long enough, Danzo knew that he would only get a warning this time as there were no ANBU or ninjas nearby.

Hearing Danzo's poor excuse, Hiruzen raised his brow and asked, "Oh? Then that ROOT ninja must be a spy. After all, how dare a dog bark without the master's permission?"

Danzo's lip twitched and he felt cold sweat covering his back. He narrowed his eyes. Hiruzen's words hid a threat. The "dog" was actually referring to him, instead of the ROOT ninja, and the "master" was obviously Hiruzen. Basically, Hiruzen was asking why Danzo already knew what he was going to talk about when he hadn't even spoken yet.

"Hiruzen, I really wasn't involved in this matter," despite the hidden threat, Danzo was adamant in his refusal to admit his fault.

Sure, the recruit of ROOT might've acted on his own, but if you look from another perspective, it meant that Danzo's methods were getting sloppy as he let a recruit run wild in the village.

"Hmm."

Seeing that Danzo ignored his threat, Hiruzen's eyes narrowed. The atmosphere in the room suddenly turned cold, but the two old men were unflinching.

"Then, explain to me why the ANBU's routine was intercepted by an 'unknown' ninja?"

Hiruzen almost sneered at his sentence. He was aware that the ninjas who intercepted the ANBU guards were from ROOT. Most of the time, he would turn a blind eye to this.

After all, to him, Danzo was a necessary evil.

Unfortunately, the matter this time was too severe and it involved the village's tailed beast.

Danzo's face remained expressionless as if he truly had nothing to do with the matter and spoke, "Then it must mean that the ANBU's methods are inadequate. I suggest ROOT take over as guards of the jinchuriki."

Danzo's arrogance was displayed in full. He had been allowed to run free for too long and now, he even dared to mock the Hokage's elite ninjas.

Hiruzen snorted after hearing Danzo's suggestion.

"No. After all, the ROOT division doesn't even know how to handle their recruits, how can they guard the village's jinchuriki?"

Hearing that, Danzo's face finally changed. In his view, he was allowed to mock the ANBU, but no one was allowed to mock his ROOT! Not even the hokage! ROOT was his pride!

"Hiruzen, watch your tone—!"

"Humph! Danzo, don't forget who the Hokage is."

"That's all, you are dismissed."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and smiled, but his smile didn't reach his eyes which were cold as ice.

"Also, as Hokage, I ought to help my subordinates. I will be sending three teams of ANBU to watch over ROOT for you so that this matter will not be repeated again."

It took Danzo two seconds to pick up his jaw which fell to the floor. It took him another two seconds to process Hiruzen's ridiculous statement.

Imagine this, you were a king living the life of an emperor, but then another king came in and said, "Hey, I will send over my troops to monitor your troops and you can't do shit to stop it."

Danzo's hands were clenched into a fist, shaking in rage. He wanted to stab a kunai through Hiruzen's heart, but alas, he was too weak to pull it off.

Returning to ROOT's hideout, Danzo sneered in his heart and thought, 'Hiruzen, you've gone senile. If you think that it's so easy to suppress me, then you're sorely mistaken. I'll pay you back for this humiliation.'