Chapter Text
The council chamber was unusually full.
It wasn't just the fact that the elders (sans Danzo) were there. The Hokage was present in full ceremonial uniform. The ANBU guarded the doors in full view. And every major clan head was present after receiving Hiruzen's emergency summons.
The atmosphere was brittle and tense.
Multiple stacks of reports sat in the center of the table with one stack per clan head. Each copy was fresh and clean as no one had been informed or given warning of what the meeting was about.
An ANBU agent emerged to hand them out to each clan head before disappearing back into the rafters.
No one seemed eager to touch them.
Hiruzen finally broke the silence. "...Root still exists."
The words landed like a stone in still water.
Hiashi Hyuuga's expression hardened. "I thought it had been dissolved."
"It was." Nara Shikaku spoke before Hiruzen could continue. "It was ordered to dissolve by the Fourth Hokage."
That was an important distinction.
The reports suggested Shimura Danzo had interpreted that order with characteristic creativity: he had dissolved ROOT, filed the paperwork, transferred the budget to a new committee, reorganized the chain of command, and then quietly continued operating every member under an entirely different administrative structure.
Technically... ROOT no longer existed.
In practice, it had merely changed names and filed its expenses to a new charge code.
Akimichi Chouza rubbed his forehead. "That's..."
"Insubordination." Aburame Shibi stated it simply.
Shikaku sighed. "It was predictable."
No one argued because it was. If there was one thing Danzō excelled at, it was obeying the letter of an order while cheerfully murdering its intent.
Hiruzen pushed the first report toward the center of the table. "I had hoped..." His voice trailed away in disappointment. "...that perhaps the investigation had exaggerated."
Silence stretched.
No one volunteered to answer.
Then—
"...He has children." Fugaku opened the folder and his eyes quickly scanned through the first page with sharingan eyes. Then they slowed and he repeated again, "...He has many children." It brought to mind of Orochimaru's defection a few months ago and the lab he left behind which was discovered to be full of children used for unauthorized experiments.
Another folder was opened.
"Forty-seven."
The page turned.
"Including six below Academy age."
A murmur rippled through the chamber.
Hiruzen closed his eyes. "They were believed to have been relocated following Root's dissolution."
"They were." Shikaku grabbed the pages that the Uchiha had already looked through and flipped through them himself. "Back into Root in fact."
"..."
Hiashi's voice cooled several degrees. "This says he has continued recruiting."
"It says," Hiruzen corrected quietly, "he has been collecting orphans."
"...Collecting. How lovely."
"The wording comes directly from the investigators."
"There's clan children."
That earned everyone's attention. There were Aburame children among Inuzuka and even a Hyuuga branch child. Two civilians with dormant bloodline traits were a stunning find while three war orphans getting mysterious whisked away from orphanages wasn't a terrible surprise. The many abandoned infants that Shimura picked up before paperwork was filed was impressive. And—
An Uchiha.
Fugaku frowned. "...We have no record of a missing child."
"The child in question was declared dead."
Another silence.
Then—
"...Excuse me?"
Hiruzen slid over the investigative summary.
"The boy survived."
"He was removed from his household." Fugaku read. Then he reread it again. His brows knit together.
"...His father."
"Yes."
"..."
"..."
"He was beating the child."
The room went quiet with the heavy silence of clan leaders recognizing failure in the internal workings of the clan. No one spoke because they all suffered at the hands of the same internal political dynamics.
The report continued listing out repeated injuries of malnutrition, minor and major burns, medical neglect, and broken bones.
There were multiple witness statements and several anonymous complaints.
Two requests for intervention were filed while two written dismissals hid the requests below even more paperwork thanks to the father possessing some amount of political influence within the clan to bury the report beneath higher priority clan politics.
Fugaku's jaw tightened and he closed the report. "...I wasn't informed."
"No." Hiashi quietly folded his hands, somehow managing to not look faintly ill like some of his fellow clan heads. "...Internal politics." Every clan had politics and every clan had looked the other way at least once. Even the Hyuuga clan had been implicated with such reports, so there was moot point in claiming Hyuuga superiority over the rival Uchiha clan.
No one liked hearing that.
The Nara clan head rubbed his forehead, his fingers itching for a smoke. "So Danzo kidnapped him."
"...Rescued the pup." The Inuzuka clan head corrected.
"...Legally questionable rescue."
No one argued.
Hiruzen pinched the bridge of his nose.
"There are seven similar cases."
Seven children had been quietly removed from abusive homes with no authorization, no warrants, no approval from the Hokage or the clan heads.
Danzo had simply... taken them. Like one would whisk away a stray dog from the streets.
The council shifted uneasily.
"He cannot simply steal children."
"No."
"He also cannot ignore abuse."
"No."
"He should have informed the Hokage."
Shikaku looked up. "...Would it have changed anything?"
No one answered because they all knew the answer. They were all aware of how long investigations could take and how political they became. Evidence magically disappeared because influential shinobi protected their own and clan elders wished to hide clan shame from being aired out to the public. Abused children remained exactly where they were until they were able to climb to freedom when they earned their head protectors.
Hiruzen quietly opened the next report. Although he had already read the reports and was well aware of the contents inside, his shoulders visibly sagged. "The training curriculum..." Hiruzen hesitated.
The room stiffened. Here it was. Here was the proof that the old ROOT still remained.
The Hokage's voice grew quieter and more severe. "The final examination... requires each recruit to kill their closest companion."
Several clan heads shut their eyes.
Hiashi's jaw clenched.
Fugaku looked ready to stand.
Chouza muttered a curse.
"Personal attachment must be overcome. Assigned companion designated as termination target. Recruits who hesitate repeat conditioning."
Someone quietly swore. "Monstrous."
"Brainwashing."
Fugaku shut the folder with more force than necessary. "They make them murder their friends and allies. How is this considered shinobi training?"
No one noticed that nowhere in the report did it explicitly say the companion was human.
The reports simply referred to "assigned partners, companions, and permanent attachments."
The investigators had assumed. The council assumed. The conclusion seemed obvious.
Inoichi too also looked sick. "...And afterwards?"
"They continue serving."
"As if nothing happened."
The Hokage flipped to one of the red sticky notes in his stack of reports. "This section is about the missions, specifically intelligence gathering."
Hiashi frowned.
"...And how young are these Root agents on these intelligence gather mission?"
Fugaku was the fastest reader. "Mission report on page 48. Five years old."
The first section of the report looked normal.
Mission Report: Land of Water Infiltration
Objective: Gather intelligence regarding civilian routines, economic patterns, and regional security measures.
Duration: Seven days.
Results:
- Identified three major trade routes.
- Confirmed local patrol schedules.
- Collected information regarding fishing industry.
- Determined preferred local cuisine.
Additional Findings:
Grilled squid is highly recommended.
But scanning the rest of the report... Fugaku's lips twitched. He had prepared itself for horror - that was what everyone expected when reviewing the records of Root. He slowly lowered the page. "They infiltrated a foreign territory, gathered intelligence, spent government funds. But what they really did was eat seafood and purchased information from the restaurant owner."
"The restaurant owner." Hiashi didn't sound impressed.
"Is that not considered a valuable civilian contact." Of course it would be the Akimichi who would jump in to say that. "Apparently, he was very knowledgeable about local politics."
"Because he was a gossip."
"That is another word for an intelligence asset."
"No," Fugaku said flatly. "That is another word for an old man who talks too much while making noodles."
Shikaku rubbed his forehead. "No matter the process, this is still about Danzo sending children alone into foreign territory to spy."
Someone slammed a fist onto the table. "This is insanity. Espionage missions run by children with no backups."
"But the pup had fun." Tsume shrugged. "Look here: 'Agent reports feeling satisfaction after successful completion of mission' and 'agent reports positive memories of local cultural experience.' If that's not a field trip, then I don't know what it is."
Someone read aloud the next parts of the report. "Agent expresses desire to return someday. Agent reports that the mission was 'fun.'"
Nobody spoke.
"Children on espionage missions are describing them as fun." Inoichi's expression became deeply suspicious. With his expertise in psychology, he wouldn't have expected such results from a child soldier being sent solo on their first mission in enemy territory.
"Apparently."
"That is concerning."
The clan heads flipped the page to the mission expenditures.
The accounting was... Odd.
"...What."
"There's..."
"...What?"
"...An unusually large food budget."
Everyone leaned closer.
The restaurant receipts were expected given that the resturant owners were apparently the intelligence assets used on the mission, but the expense report from sweet shops? The festival admission ticket? Souvenirs and toy purchases and museum tickets?
That was more than could be justified as "maintaining cover".
Another page was yet another expense report showing purchases of confectionery, street food, local crafts, amusement park entry...
"..."
Chouza slowly looked up."...Is... Is he..." Nobody else wanted to say it. "...sending children on a school trip?"
Silence.
The last page of the expense report was one last receipt for ice cream.
"They spent..." Chouza checked again. "...Three days in the Land of Water."
Fugaku grunted. "Mhm."
"...Half the budget is restaurants. There's even a visit to the local aquarium."
Mission Activity Report:
Observed marketplace.
Learned local customs.
Tried grilled squid.
"They're educational field trips."
Hiashi looked over. "...Excuse me?"
"They're filed as infiltration missions, but they're written like civilian school excursions."
Objective:
Blend with civilian population.
Result:
Successfully attended summer festival.
Won goldfish.
Fireworks excellent.
Recommend return next year.
No one knew what to do with that.
Finally Chōza quietly asked—
"...Is Danzo..." He searched for the words. "...Using black-ops funding... to take orphans on holidays?"
Silence.
Shikaku summarized the meeting succinctly. "Are we here to condemn Danzo for failing to shut down an illegal paramilitary organization or for embezzlement and misappropriation of mission funds?"
Fugaku rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming up from all the reports he had quickly scanned through in the one hour they had spent in this room so far. "I came prepared to discuss child soldiers."
"So did I."
"Now we're discussing whether criminal conspiracy includes festival games."
The next report contained medical records - every recruit received quarterly physicals, dental care, eye examinations, psychological evaluations, nutrition plans, and vaccination schedules.
"He's documenting their growth in more detail than I do for the clan pups." Tsume frowned. "...Height, weight, shoe size, favorite foods-"
"...Favorite foods?"
There was even sections dedicated to preferred meals, favorite colors, known allergies, academic strengths and tutoring plans.
Chouza slowly looked up from the report.
Then he looked at Hiruzen then back down at the report. Then he at Hiruzen again - the Third Hokage had personally summoned every major clan head to the emergency meeting chamber on a Saturday morning.
"...Is Danzo running..." He hesitated. The words seemed impossible. "...a paramilitary organization or the strictest and most well funded orphanage in Fire Country?"
The reports refused to fit together in a neat picture. Psychological conditioning was immediately followed by mandatory reading hour. Weapons drills was combined together with vegetable gardening. Assassination theory came after music lessons. There were lessons on field medicine, cooking classes, foreign infiltration, but also mandatory reading hour and museum visits. It was perhaps even more well rounded lesson plan than clan heirs received.
It was supposedly an underground assassination organization, a place where children were stripped of identity, loyalty was forcibly implanted, and emotions were removed like weaknesses. What need was there for the war hawk to document which children disliked mushrooms? But the report was in front of them all to see.
"I don't understand Danzo anymore." That was the only appropriate conclusion Chouza could come up with.
Hiruzen quietly closed the final folder. "It changes nothing."
Every eye turned toward him.
"Root remains illegal. Danzo ignored direct orders and removed children from their legal guardians without authorization. He trained shinobi outside village oversight and inserted them into ANBU with conflicting allegiance." Allegiance to the Hokage to be more precise.
No matter how strange the reports were, there were still crimes.
The clan heads couldn't disagree there. Regardless of how many vegetables the children had grown, regardless of how many birthday celebrations had been organized, regardless of how many museum visits appeared in classified mission reports, the foundation was still wrong.
"He will answer for that."
Fugaku folded his hands, face unreadable on how he felt about Hokage's proclamation.
"And the children?"
Hiruzen looked toward the window.
"They'll be brought in for evaluation and rehabilitation. After that, we determine whether they can integrate into normal shinobi forces. Or whether alternative arrangements must be made."
No one verbally objected, not even Shikaku. The first report on the final exam - the ones where recruits were forced to fight the person closest to them - it was clearly a test designed to prove attachment was a weakness. It was a test designed to create weapons and to determine that loyalty to the war hawk was prioritized beyond all else.
The plan was made carefully.
A small team of ANBU would be sent to map out the compound and gather additional intelligence of the best way to handle the Root operatives. After then, a larger ANBU force would move in to capture the potentially hostile agents.
Medical teams would be stationed nearby.
Psychologists would conduct evaluations.
Interrogators would gather information.
Root agents would likely be psychologically abnormal, likely aggressive, potentially armed with suicidal pills, and possibly unable to function without Root's structure.
They prepared for resistance.
They prepared for fear.
They prepared for broken children who had spent their entire lives being shaped into weapons.
The council prepared for the worst.
Nobody could had imagined forty-seven children sitting in the courtyard loudly arguing over whose turn it was to brush the teeth of an enormous purple skeletal dog.
"You're using too much toothpaste!"
"It's a giant monster dog!"
"That doesn't mean you waste supplies!"
The ANBU operative named Hound watched from the wall and did not know how to proceed with the mission He wanted to pet the skeletal dog.
The council marched toward a nightmare.
Instead, they were about to stumble into the strangest childcare program in shinobi history.