The day after his promotion.
Kitahara Kaede finished his training and headed back toward his apartnt along the usual route.
Soone was standing at the mouth of an alley.
The figure wore a grey cloak, their face concealed beneath a deep hood. They leaned against the wall, appearing as though they were waiting for soone, or perhaps simply taking a mont to rest.
Kaede didn't change his pace, continuing forward. The figure didn't move either.
As the distance between them closed to three ters, the cloaked person spoke.
"Kitahara Kaede?"
"Hmm?"
"Soone wants to see you."
The figure turned and began walking deeper into the alley. Kaede stopped and watched for a couple of seconds.
The stranger wasn't wearing a forehead protector. Their clothes were clean but bore no insignia, and their movents were highly disciplined, every stride perfectly asured.
A textbook "ghost."
'Root,' Kaede thought.
He didn't follow imdiately. The figure took five steps, then stopped.
"It's not far."
Kaede glanced left and right. "Passersby" were stationed at both ends of the alley. Their positions looked casual, but they effectively blocked both exits.
Kaede stepped forward and followed.
They wound through a maze of turns, the alley growing narrower and the light dimr with every step. Finally, they stopped at the end of a dead-end street.
The grey-cloaked figure stepped aside, rging into the shadows. In the darkness of the corner stood another man. Half of his body was shrouded in gloom, and his only exposed left eye was half-closed.
Kaede recognized him instantly.
Danzo Shimura.
The leader of the Hidden Leaf's ANBU "Root," a contemporary of the Third Hokage, and the puppet master of the village's underbelly. If Hiruzen Sarutobi was the face of the Hidden Leaf, then this man was its shadow.
Kaede had read far too much about him in the original story. The mastermind behind the Uchiha massacre, the manipulator of intelligence, the assassin of dissidents, the builder of private armies. All the dirty work in the village flowed through this man's hands.
"...Who is the senior?"
Danzo's lone eye opened a fraction more.
"It is normal that you do not know . My na is Danzo. I perform so rather inconspicuous work for the Hidden Leaf."
'Inconspicuous.'
Kaede almost laughed. He suppressed the urge, instead donning an expression of confusion.
"Lord... Danzo?"
"There is no need for formalities."
Danzo took a step forward, leaning against the opposite wall to bring himself within speaking distance of Kaede.
"I saw yesterday's Chunin exams. Four seconds to resolve the fight—the fastest in the field."
Kaede remained silent.
"I have also seen Dan Kato's recomndation letter. Multiple B-rank missions, zero casualties, and intelligence quality so high that the frontline commanders personally wrote comndations."
Danzo paused, his lone eye staring intensely at Kaede.
"Fifteen years old, born a civilian, no clan, no master. To achieve this level of competence... it is not easy."
Kaede kept his expression neutral, rely bowing his head slightly.
"I was lucky."
"You aren't lucky. Lucky people don't survive after three total squad wipes. Lucky people don't consciously manipulate their scores during an exam."
Kaede's gaze flickered for a split second. The two questions he had intentionally missed on the written test had been noticed.
Seeing this montary change, the corner of Danzo's mouth twitched.
"The Hidden Leaf needs talent like you."
Here it cos.
"The path the Hokage has given you is too narrow. A Chunin, taking missions, saving money—and then what? Waiting in line to beco a Jonin? Climbing one step at a ti from the very bottom of the mission assignnt list?"
Danzo's voice was steady and unhurried.
"Do you know how long it takes soone with no background to climb the Hidden Leaf's hierarchy?"
Kaede didn't respond.
"Co with , and it will be different. Higher clearance, more resources, a faster track. Everything you desire—money, strength, status. I can give it all to you."
"The price?"
"Work for the Hidden Leaf."
'Work for the Hidden Leaf.'
Kaede translated those words in his mind: 'Work for .'
Silence stretched for several seconds. Danzo didn't rush him; he waited quietly, his lone eye never leaving Kaede's face.
Kaede looked as though he were seriously considering the offer.
"What kind of work... is Lord Danzo referring to?"
"When you need to know, you will be told."
Kaede nodded slightly, appearing either convinced by the answer or pondering the next question. Then, he asked sothing that seed unrelated.
"If I join, will my previous mission records remain? Or will a new set of files be created?"
Danzo's hand moved slightly.
That was a technical question. Kaede was confirming one thing: if he joined Root, would his original identity still exist? In other words, he was weighing whether he would still be able to extricate himself later.
"Your mission records will be preserved. However, so things will not appear on any piece of paper."
Kaede was silent for a while.
"May I think about it?"
Danzo stared at him for three seconds.
"You may."
He didn't ask for a deadline.
"However—"
Danzo straightened up from the wall and began walking out of the alley. After a few steps, his voice drifted back.
"Think carefully. The Hokage cannot look after everyone in the village forever."
The footsteps faded. The grey-cloaked figure vanished.
The alley was empty. Kaede stood perfectly still. A breeze swept in from the entrance, fluttering the hem of his clothes. His face remained expressionless.
'May I think about it'—to soone like Danzo, those words were a rejection. There was no way he hadn't realized that. Soone who truly wanted to join wouldn't need to "think."
Danzo had given him face by allowing him to say those words, but that didn't an he accepted the answer.
Kaede leaned against the wall, looking up at the narrow strip of sky above. He was slightly perplexed.
He had indeed suppressed his scores during the exam, but he hadn't hidden them that deeply. A person with a recomndation from a frontline commander performing slightly above average shouldn't have attracted this level of attention.
Furthermore, his records should have been scattered across different scrolls and ti periods. To string them together and synthesize them into today's conversation could not have been a whim sparked by the exam.
Danzo had noticed him long ago.
When?
Kaede thought about it but couldn't guess. But surviving three total squad wipes was a record that was eye-catching in its own right. Then, suddenly, this person began to change. He started taking high-difficulty missions, completing them perfectly, and earning personal comndations from commanders.
If he were Danzo, he would have noticed too. And he would have reached a conclusion: this person wasn't incapable before; he had been hiding his strength all along.
Danzo viewed him as soone who had been concealing his true power from the very beginning.
The problem was, Kaede couldn't explain that. He hadn't been hiding. He had suddenly beco strong. But that explanation was even less believable than "hiding it."
Therefore, in Danzo's eyes, every step—from survival to sudden rise to sandbagging the exam—ford a complete chain. He saw a lone wolf, skilled in disguise, adept at endurance, silently accumulating power in the dark.
Precisely the kind of person Danzo loved most.
Kaede closed his eyes. He had no background, no clan, and no faction to rely on. In this village, he was a bare tree. Whichever way the water flowed, that was the direction he had to grow.
That was exactly what Danzo was banking on.
Things had beco complicated. A direct refusal would make Danzo view him as a potential threat.
Delaying an answer would only invite more pressure sooner or later.
Without a clan to protect him, he was in the light while Danzo remained in the shadows; no matter how he played it, he was at a disadvantage.
Kitahara Kaede straightened up against the wall.
At the very least, one thing was certain.
From this day forward, every step had to be taken with extre caution.
The missions he chose, the routes he took when leaving the village, his daily activities—he couldn't leave a single shred of leverage for that man to exploit.
Danzo's specialty wasn't direct confrontation; it was "accidents."
Intelligence leaks during a mission, ambushes during a retreat, or the sudden appearance of soone who shouldn't be there during an operation.
All accidents. All untraceable.
Kitahara Kaede walked toward the exit of the alley. After a few steps, he paused.
'If Danzo truly stands in my way...'
'If his hand reaches into my missions, my wallet, or anything that affects my survival...'
'Then, I wish you Lord Danzo the best of luck.'
He stepped out of the alley, the sunlight washing over his face.
***
Root. Underground tunnels. The candlelight flickered.
Danzo sat at his desk, replaying every one of the boy's expressions in his mind.
Confusion, contemplation, hesitation, and the final "let think about it."
A good performance.
Anyone else would have believed that a fifteen-year-old child had been intimidated and simply needed ti to consider the offer.
"Let think about it" was a stalling tactic.
And stalling was a veiled refusal.
However, this boy understood propriety better than most—he hadn't stord off rudely; instead, he had provided a graceful exit.
For himself, and for Danzo.
Danzo's fingers tapped the table three tis.
The boy had asked a seemingly unrelated question—how the records would be handled after joining.
On the surface, he was inquiring about the process, but in reality, he was assessing the cost of exit.
A fifteen-year-old civilian Genin. The mont he was recruited, his first thought wasn't what he could gain, but whether he could ever get out.
Such a person must either be put to use, or—
He could not be allowed to stand on the opposing side.
"Enter."
An expressionless figure erged from the shadows.
"Keep an eye on him," Danzo's voice was flat. "Record every movent, every social connection, and every mission choice. Note everything."
"Yes, sir."
The figure retreated into the shadows.
Danzo leaned back in his chair, his single eye half-closed.
Since the boy was unwilling to walk through the door...
He would make sure he understood that the outside was no safer than the inside.
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