Chapter 195: Shadows in the Land of Iron
"Satoshi, can you draw the map of this base? I want the precise location of each and every person inside this."
"Okay," Satoshi said and started making the map of the base. Even though Byakugan and Mangekyo Sharingan have nearly the same visual power and range, there was one thing that Byakugan excelled at.
The capability of Byakugan was very much perfect, whereas the Sharingan could see through some objects like armor and earth walls, but nowhere at the level of Byakugan, which could see through thousands of kilometers.
Neji Hyuga and Hinata were able to see more than 10 kilometers with their Byakugan, and Satoshi, being an elite jonin, could also do the same.
After half an hour, a detailed map was present in front of team Shadow, with the location of each root ninja and the places where they had kept the captives. The location of the experiment room and the room where they had kept the reports of the experiments were also marked.
Everything of any value had to be transported back to Konoha, whereas everything else had to be removed without any trace.
With 40 root ninja on the watch, it would be foolish to do anything even remotely related to saving the captives. Since this base was this deep in the Land of Iron, Danzo must have made some preparations to handle any situations where someone may attack this base and point fingers at Konoha.
So the most important part of this mission would be to silently subdue the root ninja, as according to the orders, not all of the root ninja were enemies. They were just ordered to do those things and would go through a series of mental and physical training by Lord Third himself and ultimately get recruited in ANBU.
That's why team Shadow couldn't just kill all of the root ninja in the base; they had to somehow transfer them back to Konoha alive.
But considering the location of the mission, this condition was a little lax. They had to try to do it, but if they couldn't do it without alerting the Land of Iron, then they could proceed as they wished.
"Here is a plan. I will..." Shisui started sharing the plan he came up with after meticulously analyzing the map Satoshi had drawn.
"Any doubts?" Shisui asked.
"No sir," all other members of team Shadow said and dispersed themselves.
Shisui made a shadow clone, and that shadow clone used transformation jutsu to transform into a wolf and went in the direction of the entrance of the root base.
Since the base was inside a naturally hidden cave and most of it was underground, Shisui planned to use the wolf for luring out the root ninja guarding the entrance of the cave from inside.
After reaching 25 meters away from the entrance, the same distance from which the whole land was covered in seals to sense any intruder, the wolf started circling the area like it had sensed someone inside the cave.
Two root Ninja were on guard duty like always. If there was someone else at their post, he or she may grow complacent after years of watching the same scenery and not getting a single intruder in that time.
But due to the training the root ninja had received, which almost killed all the emotions in them and made them something akin to a machine, there was no room for slacking in their life. They completed all of their missions with complete dedication and preciseness.
If we compare them to a normal ninja from any major village, they would be winners 10 out of 10 times considering their efficiency in completing any mission.
A textbook example of Ninja, cold and merciless killers. If not for their high death rate and high talent requirement, which only a village like Konoha could afford, every village would most definitely have a division similar to root in their ranks.
Those Seals present around were very particular in their working. At first, only the guard would be notified of any intruder. Once they checked if they could handle that intruder or not, they could either take care of the intruder themselves or activate the second part of the seal, calling each and every root ninja for the fight.
When the guards sensed that there was movement near the entrance, both disappeared from their position and appeared at the opening of the cave. Both of them were still hidden and would not be noticed by someone unless they knew what to search for.
Seeing that there was only a wolf circling around the cave, they let their guard down a little. Though rare, such situations happened from time to time. Many wild animals wanted to make such a well-hidden cave their home, only to die without knowing how.
"I will take care of that. You go back to your location," the one on the left said. The wolf started growling as soon as he heard the voice of that ninja.
With the growl, a small amount of chakra also started coming out of its body.
"No, that wolf is not normal. I think it will be better if we both handle it. There is no need to take any unnecessary risks."
After getting agreement, both of them used body flicker jutsu to appear to the left and right of the wolf, with their kunai pointing at vital points of the wolf.
When they were about to make a move, someone suddenly appeared a little away from them. They looked up to check who was the second intruder, only to find deep red glowing eyes with a revolving shuriken inside them.
Before they could do anything or even think about their next move, they both lost consciousness. Seeing that, the shadow clone dispersed itself.
Shisui picked up both of the unconscious root ninja and disappeared from the area.
Team Shadow was waiting for him a little away from the base, mainly an ANBU ninja who was a seal master in fuinjutsu. Though he was still not a grandmaster, he was very close to that level. After Shisui and Satoshi, he was the most powerful person in the team, both politically and physically.
"Shingi, it's your turn now," Shisui said.
Shingi nodded and placed his hands on the head of a root ninja. Even though removing the Root seal would be impossible for a Grandmaster, Shingi could now do that to an extent thanks to the methods Hiruzen had taught him before he went out for the mission.
Even though getting information out of their heads was still not possible, Hiruzen had made sure that Genjutsu could affect them now. This was specially done because Shisui was the one in charge of the operation.
Shingi removed his hand after 5 minutes and then did the same for the next root ninja as well.
"Sir, I have weakened the seal. You can proceed," Shingi said.
"Okay," Shisui said and released his genjutsu. Both of them woke up from their slumber ready to attack, but to their bad luck, once again they only saw a pair of dark red glowing eyes.
(A.N: Last three days of practical, after that the release Schedule will be back to normal ^~^)