Hashiramas Heir

Chapter 20: It Begins

The sun was rising over Konoha as a lone figure sat atop the Hokage's Mountain. The figure looked like the spitting image of the Yondaime Hokage with only whisker marks and violet eyes to distinguish between the two. It was Naruto sitting atop his father's stone head wearing his Anbu uniform, though his mask was situated on the side of his head. The young Anbu Captain woke up early this morning to clear his head, just like every morning since the Sky Ninja raid.

"Sasuke." thought Naruto as he watched Konoha beginning to come to life, with people moving to work and completing errands. Several weeks passed since the Sky ninja raid and Naruto was still thinking about his conversation with Sasuke on the Sky Fortress.

(Flashback: 3 weeks ago)

"Tsukyomi (Moon Reader)" thought Sasuke.

(In a pitch black world)

Naruto was dragged into a pitch-black world where his body was inverted in colors. Naruto looked around the world slightly as he noticed he was in a genjutsu.

"Sasuke knows that I can easily get out of Genjutsu? Even with this technique, I'd still be able to get out of this." thought Naruto as he channeled his chakra, cracking the pitch black area that he was in. Naruto was prepared to do it again until he broke the Genjutsu but Sasuke's voice stopped him.

"Naruto wait. There's something I need to tell you." said Sasuke appearing in the field next to Naruto beside his Susanno. "Do you know the reason why I left the village? Because if not, then I'll tell you right now as I hope you remember your promise of helping me."

Naruto shook his head no. "Yes I remember what I promised you I'd do whenever you went after Itachi. But I always knew there was a reason that you left the village since that squad of Anbu attacked me before I could leave. Was it an S-rank mission that ba-chan sent you on?" said Naruto.

"You're right that it was an S-rank Mission but Hokage-sama didn't sanction it." said Sasuke as Naruto looked confused. "What do you know about Root?"

"Never heard of it." said Naruto as he sat down cross-legged in Sasuke's Tsukyomi world. Sasuke also sat down as he prepared to tell his friend everything.

"Root is an officially disbanded branch of Konoha's Anbu founded by Danzo Shimura. We in Root carry out missions that Danzo believes will benefit Konoha but only in total anonymity and without the village's authorization. Missions that wouldn't normally be done as some of them are very dirty and could paint a bad image on Konoha. It's a very secret organization and only the Hokage and the village elders knew of it's continued existence." said Sasuke as Naruto stopped him to poise a question.

"If it's so secret then why tell me about it?" said Naruto before adding, "And if it is so secret, I'm sure there would be countermeasures to ensure no one would talk."

"You're right, normally there would be a cursed seal on a member of Root but due to the mission I was sent on, he took it off so that I wouldn't be found out. Plus he never figured I'd meet you in a situation like this." said Sasuke answering the last part of Naruto's question first. "I'm telling you this now because of Danzo. The reason I joined Root was due to his promise of helping me grow strong enough to face Itachi and learning the truth of his actions during the massacre. It also gave me a way to protect Konoha. But Danzo is not someone I trust, so I'll need assistance from someone just in case he ever turned his back on me."

"So what is this mission exactly? To get in with Orochimaru and bring back any secrets he may have learned in his stint away from Konoha. While also leaking back information to Konoha to use for sacking his bases?" said Naruto as Sasuke nodded his head. "I was tasked as the leader of an Anbu squad assigned with dealing with their destruction. I did always wonder how we got their location as they were placed in areas of extreme secrecy and difficulty to access to the outside world."