Unlike the Fire Daimyo, the Hokage was a military leader. He didn't need others to handle the military for him. However, one person couldn't manage the tens and thousands of shinobi and the hundred thousand civilians around them who worked as the support structure.

A hierarchy was established to manage the Hidden Leaf shinobi organisation. In that hierarchical structure, Jonin Commanders were one step below the Hokage. They were the leaders and representatives of regular shinobi forces members of the Hidden Leaf council, giving them considerable power in the village.

Nara Shikaku, head of the Nara clan, and a Jonin Commander, was reading mission report summaries in his office. There was a knock on his door, and his secretary stepped in.

"Jonin Uchiha Itachi has arrived for his meeting."

"Send him in."

Itachi soon entered the office; he was dressed in simple dusty black clothes with his forehead protector around his head. Shikaku gazed at the young prodigy, who was recently promoted to the position of ANBU Captain. He thought about what he was doing at Itachi's age and could only recall lazing around at home all day long when he wasn't on missions.

It was hard not to be impressed by the sheer talent before him.

"Sit," he said.

However, he wondered if he should be worried about the look in his eyes.

"May I know why I was summoned? I'd appreciate it if we could hurry if it's not important," asked Itachi.

Shikaku appreciated him skipping all the niceties and formalities—they were such a drag. Even though he was a Jonin Commander, he didn't have the authority to order Itachi as the young Uchiha served under an ANBU Commander—a Jonin Commander in charge of ANBU—but it'd be rude on Itachi's part if he refused a Jonin Commander's summon without proper reason.

Shikaku retrieved a two-flap file folder from his desk drawer and placed it before Itachi.

"I received some information from the Steam-Frost war front that might interest you... ROOT was spotted," he said.

Itachi, reaching for the file, paused before calmly picking it up.

"Is the intel verifiable?"

"A shinobi came across a group of ROOT agents hunting for him. He managed to escape while killing one and stealing his weapons belt. There, he found a knife with a variation of a blacksmith's touchmark associated with ROOT."

Itachi removed the confidentiality seal from the file and opened it for reading.

"How did the shinobi know to look for the touchmark and that it's related to ROOT."

"Because he has had contact with ROOT once before, he recognized the gear. And apparently," Shikaku sighed, "he found the same touchmark on a knife he pulled off the corpse of another ROOT agent."

Shikaku was impressed when he heard the claims in the file forwarded to him by the war commission. To escape alive from ROOT agents once was a rare feat; to escape from them twice was something special. That wasn't even including killing four of them—that was something only very few could claim they had done.

"Genin Takuma of the Police Force... I know him," said Itachi.

"Through your mother, I suppose," said Shikaku. When the ROOT claims were made, it was protocol to run background checks on everyone involved.

Itachi nodded. "My mother's student. If I remember correctly, he's currently participating in the Steam-Frost war and was involved in an assassination attempt before his deployment." He looked up at Shikaku. "Why did you put it that way? That he apparently found the touchmark."

"According to Genin Takuma, he passed on the knife with the touchmark to the case officer handling his assassination case. However, I'm sure I'd heard that ROOT had performed an operation inside the village against one of our own. Seeing that I wasn't aware of it until his report can only mean a few things..."

"Either someone made the evidence disappear, or the Police Force held back information," said Itachi as he flipped through the file. "It's the latter."

"Why do you say that?"

"There was an assassination attempt on one of their own; that's not something they'll let go."

"So, why not share the information with ANBU? That would've been revenge even if it took the case from them," said Shikaku.

The Police Force couldn't claim to be ignorant about ROOT as they were regularly given information because of their position as enforcers. But he already knew the answer to that question. The relationship between the Police Force and ANBU was in a ditch. The reason sat before him even though he didn't know the details. He asked the question to see if Itachi would answer it. Unfortunately, Itachi stayed quiet.

"So he was targeted for raiding one of ROOT's drug farms," Itachi sounded doubtful as he continued, "and they followed him to the Land of Hot Waters?"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"According to his account, it doesn't seem like they recognized him, but he could be wrong."

Danzo and ROOT were marked as rogue shinobi upon their defection, and ANBU were responsible for hunting them down and dismantling their network. It would take years, perhaps even decades, to get rid of ROOT, but it was a top-priority task as they possessed sensitive and confidential information pertaining to national security.

Upon his promotion to ANBU Captain, Itachi was among those responsible for seeing the extermination of ROOT—which was why Shikaku called him when he received the intel regarding a possible ROOT spotting.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Unfortunately, that's confidential ANBU information," he eventually said.

"Are you going to send anyone there? It might disrupt the mission being conducted in the city, which will affect the invasion to liberate the city from the Hidden Frost's control."

Itachi didn't reply and continued to read the file.

"Do you think Orochimaru's student might be secretly working with ROOT?" Itachi asked.

"Chunin Mitarashi?" Shikaku hummed as he stared at the ceiling. "Taking her track record before and since Orochimaru's defection into consideration, I don't think she's involved with him or ROOT. Of course, it'd be wise to run a background check—if you have the time and resources for it, that is." ANBU would, of course, have the resources for it—they had nearly unlimited resources—the question was if it was wise to spend those resources on something not required.

"Anything else?" asked Itachi.

"Keep us in the loop if you decide to take action from your side. I don't want my shinobi, who are risking their lives, to be blindsided by a clandestine ANBU operation."

Itachi wrapped up the file before standing up from his chair. "I'll take my leave now. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

Shikaku saw Itachi out before returning to his office. He didn't know ANBU's stance on the matter; ROOT's defection was fairly recent, and ANBU chased after big names associated with ROOT. There was a chance ANBU wouldn't take any direct action if they confirmed the lack of a big name in Yu. However, one thing was for sure. Uchiha Itachi would soon be visiting the Police Force in his position as an ANBU-nin.

It was also convoluted and complex, and Shikaku's mind couldn't help but chase several possibilities and scenarios. It was so tiring that he looked forward to the evening when he could have a drink to escape his own mind by dulling it with alcohol.

He sighed.

He wanted to retire, but then his wife would call him a jobless bum—not to mention his son would surely take the wrong lesson from it.

———

.

"Say it again."

Kon stood up from his patio chair with a wild look in his eyes. His shoulder was held together in a tight cast; it was almost healed, but there was still a strenuous rehabilitation process ahead of him. However, he wasn't concerned about anything but what he had just heard at that moment.

"Genin Takuma was deployed to the Frost-Steam war and is stationed at Camp Banana, which is one of the closer Hidden Leaf bases to the city."

Kon felt his heart swell at his subordinate's report. The kid who had ruined his hard-built reputation in ROOT was participating in the same war as him. Not only could he regain his reputation by completing his mission, he could also get revenge.

"And?" Kon asked. "Is he in the city?"

"Unfortunately, we haven't been able to confirm that. The organisation no longer has a source close to the war commission with a high enough clearance and we don't have permission to use any of the remaining undercover agents present in the village to gain access. The risk has been deemed unacceptable."

Kon felt a wave of displeasure and anger rise, but he pushed it down quickly. He stood up straighter and took deep breaths. It wasn't the time to be angry; he had just received good news after all.

"I don't need the confirmation. I know he's in the city. Augmentations like that are rare, after all, and his deployment status is all the proof I need."

Kon turned around to look at the city centre in the distance. His mortal enemy was somewhere out there, so close that all he wanted to do was set out to find him. It was so unbearable that he wanted time to skip ahead to the day when he had Takuma on his knees before him.

"What next, sir?" asked his subordinate.

"Find me the best sketch artist this city can offer," Kon replied. "I want that little shit's face on every street corner. I want every shinobi in this city to memorise his face. I want a hefty reward on him—taken alive! Whenever anyone in this city steps out of their houses, I want them looking for one face in the crowd. He's a shinobi far from home; I want him to feel every ounce of hostility about where he is."

———

.

Takuma stared at himself in a full-length mirror. He had made a mistake. His communication with Motohiro's group taught him that he could've just used the Transformation Jutsu instead of using a mask to hide his identity. He had mistakenly applied his previous experience to a different situation.

He had used the mask in the Hidden Leaf because the Transformation Jutsu wouldn't cut it due to the dense shinobi population—but Yu didn't have that problem (excluding the enemy shinobi), and he could've freely used the jutsu to disguise himself from civilians who weren't equipped to see through it.

He had even taken Iori disguised as Gaku to deliver the stolen food to Motohiro's group, and not one person had said as much as a peep about noticing something off in Gaku. But it was too late now, and he couldn't go back. He was going to meet the Kumi family, and with Motohiro acting as the introducer, he couldn't disguise himself or put on a mask.

The Kumi Family was the other criminal group based in Yu. Before the Hidden Frost invaded Yu, the Goharu and the Kumi families stood on equal ground and kept each other in check through intense competition. Between the police and the two criminal families, there was an equilibrium maintained in the city—which was shattered the moment the city was invaded. The Goharu Family allied themselves with the shinobi and gained enough power to overthrow both their rival gang and the police force.

The team was aiming to gain the support of the Kumi Family. Like Motohiro's group, what Takuma and the team primarily wanted from the Kumi Family was their sway in the city, which they used to influence the larger populace. They wanted an atmosphere of support against the invading shinobi, and using the vocal and influential groups to gain that support was the way to go. If things went well with the Kumi Family, the team could move on to the next stage of the plan, where they were planning to be much more active in their actions.

Takuma heard footsteps and frowned when he heard multiple sets of footsteps. Only Gaku was supposed to meet him in the base so they could leave together. He turned to see the entire team, including Gaku, walking towards him. Something was wrong because there was always someone with Chinatsu.

"What is wrong?"

"The situation has just changed drastically," said Anko, holding up a poster.

Takuma looked down at it and saw a sketch that looked a little off, but it was, without a doubt, him. That wouldn't have been that much of a surprise, given that he had revealed his face to several people a couple of days back but then looked down at the name below the sketch.

[Takuma]

He blinked his eyes, wondering if he had somehow misread Tobi as Takuma—but there it was—his real name was printed on a wanted poster.

He looked up at his team.

The situation had indeed changed drastically.