Just as Yuta was about to activate his time-travel ability a moment before he would be forced to witness his teammates die, Koichi appeared and blocked both kunai attacks of the two shinobi in white masks of unknown origins, and they were forced to jump back.
‘Is what I see is real?! Did Koichi had just appeared from nowhere and saved the day just like that?!’ Yuta thought in shock, ‘I don’t’ believe in miracles, what is even going on here?! First those Chunins but that much was expected, then armored tank that somehow was considered a shinobi, then those guys on the level of Jonins that are most likely Root members and now even Koichi appeared… What would happen next? A fricking Madara would show up and start blasting or what?! I want to go home and rest from this bullshit…’
At the same time as Koichi blocked the attacks on Itachi and Hikari, a bunch of shurikens hit the spot where the Nara shinobi was maintaining a shadow paralysis jutsu, forcing him to dodge and break the jutsu, letting everyone free.
Koichi standing in front of his students enraged by what happened here, he yelled angerly, “Why the Konoha ANBU of the Root subdivision trying to kill my students?! You better give me a good explanation, or else…”
As the paralysis jutsu was canceled, Yuta, Itachi and Hikari were regrouped behind Koichi, Itachi and Hikari were exhausted, Yuta dispelled his last shadow clone and faked that he also tired, to not expose his much bigger chakra reserves than it should be.
‘So, they are the Root members after all if Koichi recognized them. That complicates things for me, this shows that Danzo targeted us for some reason. He didn’t do that to Itachi in the original story, so what changed now? Well, Itachi became Chunin earlier than in the original story, and he already refused Danzo’s invite into the Root, and he also didn’t join the ANBU yet, so the sum of this changes make Danzo want to eliminate Itachi huh…’
Yuta glanced at Itachi and saw that he was calm and a little puzzled, then he saw Hikari, who on the other hand looked very worried for some reason.
‘What bothered Hikari I wonder, she not even shown any fear facing that armored tank of a shinobi earlier, and now Koichi is here, there is no apparent reason for that. Well, the fact that Danzo targeting us is the good reason for being worried, but it’s not like anyone beside me and Koichi knows what exactly the Root actually is, it’s a secret subdivision of the ANBU after all.’
Hikari noticed that Yuta was looking at her and she looked back, some dangerous glint flashed in her eyes, but the next moment she appeared as her usual self as if nothing happened and Yuta started to think if that was just his imagination or something.
The three Root shinobi on the other side glanced at each other and nodded, after that they encircled Koichi and his students and launched an all-out attack.
Koichi seeing that become even more angry and said, “You dare attack even while I’m here? So be it….”
The two Root shinobi attacked with powerful fire and wind jutsus from the opposite sides while the Nara shinobi tried to catch Koichi with his shadow paralysis jutsu, but Koichi with a grave expression on his face make a few hand seals and slammed his hands into the ground. Yuta stood close to him and felt an immense and unmeasurable amount of chakra that exploded from Koichi’s body and went into the ground.
What happened next was shocking for everyone present, as all hell break loose and the ground beneath became more like raging ocean waves with the height more than dozens of meters, it easily washed away the incoming wind and fire jutsus, as well as overwhelmed the three Root shinobi in an instant and crushed their bodies into a paste and buried them deep underground.
They didn’t stand a chance to fight back at all, and it happened too fast for them to run away, and the area that was affected by Koichi’s jutsu covered the entire territory around the mansion and even ruined the walls on the perimeter of it, only mansion that were protected by the barrier survived unharmed, but it’s likely that it was because Koichi’s control over his jutsu than the barrier itself.
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The earth waves calmed down and now the whole territory around the mansion is a complete mess, there were no more gardens, trees, or benches that were everywhere before, not even grass, just ravaged ground.
‘Damn he is strong, is that was S-rank jutsu? I thought Koichi was a Jonin, but it looks like he is an Elite Jonin. What an immense power! If me, Itachi, and Hikari would fight a Jonin, then we would have a good chance to win, like we did with that armored gorilla earlier, but if we were to fight someone on this level of strength… There would be no chances at all… Damned, and he is probably not even on the Kage level, what is the Kage level of power looked like then?! And the Kage level is not even the top tier in this world…’
Yuta became depressed with these thoughts, realizing that he is only in the very beginning of his path to power, and this path will not be easy. Witnessing the Koichi’s jutsu that was on a completely different level than everything he saw before, Yuta starts having doubts if he was able to achieve his goals at all…
Itachi and Hikari were also dumbfounded by the scene. Koichi with a grave expression turned to his students and said, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw here, that is for your own safety!”
“Who was that?” Itachi asked with a serious expression.
Koichi sighed tiredly, calming down a little, “That was Konoha’s Root shinobi, Root is the ANBU subdivision that operates separately from the regular ANBU and in the utmost secrecy. Don’t ask any more questions, you know too much already! Don’t tell anyone about what happened here, I will report this to the Hokage as soon as we arrive to the village, and you don’t have to worry about anything, it must be some sort of misunderstanding, you did nothing wrong!”
‘Huh, what a joke, as if reporting the incident to Hiruzen will solve anything… At most Danzo will receive a slap on the wrist and continue to cook his schemes as if nothing happened. Damned, even when Danzo tried to assassinate Hiruzen in the original story, there was no consequences for him whatsoever, all that Hiruzen did there was threatened Danzo to not do that again.
I should speed up my own move against Danzo, knowing him he wouldn’t back down if he already ordered our elimination once, but what should I do?’
With that gloomy thought Yuta and his teammates went back to the mansion, reported to the scared shitless with all the commotion outside Yuichi Nakamura and his guards, that the attack was successfully intercepted, and they are safe now. Then Yuta deactivated all his seals in the area, they will dissipate in a few days on their own after that, as they are designed in this way from the start.
Then the team uncovered and collected the bodies of the four Iwa shinobi and stored them in the sealing scrolls.
After that the team left in the Konoha’s direction, Koichi was following them while staying hidden for the part while they are still in the land of grass territory, and after the team crossed the border and returned to the land of fire, Koichi was escorting them openly.
After two days of travel, they returned to Konoha late at night, Koichi ordered the team to rest and report their mission on the next day as if nothing happened, and went to the Hiruzen’s apartments, that was located on the second floor of the Hokage Tower.
A few minutes later Hiruzen and Koichi entered the Hokage’s office and Hiruzen activated the privacy seals, sit in his chair, and said showing a slight dissatisfaction with him, “Now tell me, Koichi, what is there so urgent to make you disturb my rest?”
“The Root squad tried to kill my students on the last mission” Koichi stated right from the start with a grave expression on his face, “I eliminated all three of them.”
A shocked expression appeared on Hiruzen’s face, then it slowly turns into angered one as he said while clutching his fists, “How dare he!”
After a few more seconds, Hiruzen started to calm down and said, “Did you really have to kill Konoha’s shinobi, Koichi, is there no other way?”
“That is correct, Lord Hokage! All three of my students were exhausted and defenseless at that point, and the Root shinobi was going decisively for the kill, I had no other choice, they continued attacking even after I showed up.” Koichi stated.
Hiruzen sighed tiredly after hearing that, grabbed his pipe, and start smoking, then after a minute he said, “If that’s all, you are dismissed.”
“What about my students, will they be safe?” Koichi asked worriedly with resolve to protect his students, as he after being in the ANBU for many years knows quite well what the Root is and who Danzo is.
Hiruzen looked up at Koichi with a surprise, “You get attached to them this much in less than a year, you even went along with them secretly on their first mission as a Chunin team, and not long time ago you didn’t even want to become their sensei.” Hiruzen stated that, being deep in thought, “I can assure you that your students will be safe, I will resolve this issue. For whatever reason Danzo did that, he won’t do that again!”
“Thank you, Lord Hokage!” Koichi said with a deep bow and left the office.
If Yuta were to witness this conversation, he would laugh hard and be willing to bet his time control ability against a hundred ryo on the fact that Hiruzen won’t solve shit.