One month. Thirty days. Seven hundred and twenty hours.
For Kenji, time had never passed so slowly and yet so heavily. Every second that ticked by was a grain of sand in the hourglass of the Leaf Village's destiny.
His hunt began immediately. But his prey, Danzō Shimura, was the most cunning old fox. He quickly realized that all attempts to directly track members of Root were futile. They were like ghosts, vanishing into thin air the moment he got close. Their bases were concealed behind the most powerful barriers, and Danzō himself almost never left his heavily guarded hideout.
Kenji knew he couldn't break down the front door. He had to find a side entrance, a crack, no matter how small, in Danzō's perfect wall of defense.
And that crack, he speculated, wasn't in the present. It was in the past.
He began to dig through old files in his memory, missions and reports he had read back in his Anbu days. He searched for anything related to Danzō, no matter how faint. Finally, he found it. A brief, almost forgotten report about the closure of an orphanage in the northern outskirts of the village years ago. The reason for closure was "insufficient funds." But there was a small note from the investigator, stating that the orphanage had an unofficial connection to Danzō Shimura.
It was a place where helpless orphans, children with no clan, with no one to care for them, were "looked after."
A chill ran down Kenji's spine. He knew this wasn't an orphanage. This was a nursery. A recruiting ground for the Root organization, where emotions were erased and absolute loyalty was forged from childhood.
That was his next target.
The orphanage was perched on a barren hill, long abandoned. The wooden buildings were decaying, crooked like skeletons under the moonlight. The place exuded a gloomy, deadly aura.
Kenji slipped inside. Dust was thick, and cobwebs hung everywhere. He moved through the dormitories, past the empty bunk beds and old, discarded toys. Everything seemed normal, but it was that very normality that unsettled him.
He knew Danzō was a careful man. He wouldn't have left any evidence behind.
Kenji didn't search for the obvious. He used his chakra-sensing ability, scanning every inch of earth, every wall. Finally, in the director's office, he sensed an anomaly. A very weak chakra flow, concealed behind a complex seal under the floorboards.
He carefully neutralized the seal. A wooden plank popped up, revealing a secret cellar.
Inside the cellar was a single, rusted iron chest. Kenji opened it. Most of the documents inside had been burned to ash. Danzō had cleaned up thoroughly.
But in that pile of ashes, there was a small notebook that had somehow not been completely incinerated. One corner was charred, but most of the pages were still intact.
It was the diary of the orphanage director.
Kenji flipped through the pages. Most were just tedious daily entries. But then, he found the last few pages. The director, perhaps consumed by guilt, had written down things he should have taken to his grave.
"Date X, Month Y. Danzō-sama visited again. He selected three more children. Kabuto, Torune, and another boy... a boy with a special talent for Wood Style. He said they had 'potential' to serve the village. But I saw it in his eyes, they were just tools..."
"Date A, Month B. That Wood Style boy... died during 'training'. They said it was an accident. But I know. Their experiment failed. Danzō-sama only ordered the body buried and all records erased. As if the boy had never existed."
And then, the final page. The handwriting was shaky and full of fear.
"I can't take this anymore. I have made a copy of the Wood Style experiment reports. I've hidden it. If I die, I hope that someday, someone will find it and expose this crime. I've hidden it in the safest place I know... inside that boy's 'grave'. Under the old cherry tree behind the hill."
Kenji closed the diary, his heart pounding.
He had it. An unbelievable lead. Proof of a crime even more terrible than treason. Illegal Wood Style experiments on children, an absolute taboo, an act that went against every value of the Leaf Village.
This wasn't just evidence to use against Danzō. This was something that could utterly destroy him.
He rushed out of the cellar, heading for the hill behind the orphanage. He saw the old, gnarled cherry tree, standing alone and stark.
But as he approached, he froze.
Someone else was already there. A figure in a black cloak, wearing a white mask with purple patterns. An Anbu member.
No. Not a regular Anbu. That silhouette... was very familiar.
The person was standing before a nameless, hastily made grave, also seeming to be looking for something.
And when the figure looked up, the moonlight illuminating the mask, Kenji recognized him instantly. The genius boy from years ago, who had been on the same team as him in the Chunin Exams. The boy who had once been considered the hope of the Leaf Village, before joining the Anbu and disappearing into the shadows.
Hatake Kakashi.
Why was he here?