Chapter 72

Yoshiro Kinoshita has died.

Died in the arms of Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto stared in frenzy at Yoshiro's lifeless body in his arms as his orange clothes were covered in streams of red blood.

“Mission accomplished,” shaking the scroll in his hand, the Root member indifferently informed his partner, who was blocking Kakashi.

Kakashi's own face twisted in annoyance under his mask. After all, he was aware that the death of an obviously significant figure for Kirigakure at the hands of a member of the Root would entail consequences.

- Well, stop, you two! – Meanwhile, carefully placing Yoshiro’s body on the ground, Naruto raised his head and growled angrily at the Root members.

As if in unison with the roar, the same evil chakra gushed out of his body.

Feeling this, one of the leaving Root members unnaturally froze in place, and the other sharply turned back and saw an angry guy surrounded by a thick stream of red chakra.

Kakashi didn't pay attention to their movements, because he had already rushed towards Naruto, who was gushing with the Nine-Tails' chakra.

Placing one hand on his shoulder and the other on his head, he looked reassuringly into Naruto's blue eyes.

- Naruto, calm down! – when Kakashi’s voice sounded in his ears, the ominous chakra that enveloped Naruto’s body began to gradually recede.

“Kakashi-sensei...” he whispered uncertainly, with traces of anger on his face and tightly clenched fists.

Kakashi sighed in relief when he saw that Naruto's transformation into the Nine-Tails had stopped.

The fact is that the Anbu Root shinobi stand apart from the rest of the Konoha shinobi, and a conflict with them would cause headaches even for the Hokage.

But there is a limit to everything...

- I will report to the Hokage about what happened! – Raising his head sharply, Hatake said coldly towards the stopped members of the Root.

But they calmly turned around and continued walking away, as if they didn’t care about this at all.

Literally a few seconds and they were out of sight.

“Yoshiro-san...” Sakura whispered sadly, approaching Naruto and Yoshiro’s body following Kakashi.

“They were Konoha Anbu, weren’t they?” – Sasuke raised his head and asked the Jounin after a short thoughtfulness.

To which Kakashi responded with silence.

After all, he couldn’t just go ahead and tell him about the Anbu Root, whose existence was kept secret from ordinary Konoha shinobi.

It wasn't that he was too concerned about secrecy in such a situation, he just kept his mouth shut for the good of his charges.

As they say, the less you know, the better you sleep.

Team 7 is too sensitive to contact the Root Anbu.

Meanwhile on the other side.

The so-called Root members stopped at a safe distance from Kakashi and his Genin.

After which one of them stretched relaxed, casually threw the porcelain mask on the ground and immediately crushed it with his foot.

“Phew, that was really cool. But I could reveal myself if it came to a battle with the Jinchuriki... we need to warn about this in advance!” – Suigetsu muttered under his breath.

Pooh!

Then there was a dull bang, and his figure was surrounded by clouds of white smoke from the removal of the Transformation Technique.

“But whatever you say, he is a real shinobi, at the cost of his own life he removed all suspicion from the target!” – Suigetsu sighed in admiration, unrolling the scroll he received from Yoshiro.

Once he was sure there was nothing there, he put the scroll away and looked at the second, completely motionless member of the Root. Unlike Hozuki, this one was a true member of the Root Anbu under the control of Genjutsu.

Here it is worth thanking the special masks of the Root and the arranged meeting of Kakashi with this member of the Root exactly on the eve of the incident.

Otherwise, the Jounin might have doubted what was happening.

"Your mission is accomplished, idiot!" – Suigetsu grinned and without hesitation plunged a kunai into the heart of Root’s motionless member.

He then destroyed the body, carefully making it look like a battle had taken place here, and only then walked away.

***

“Kakashi-sensei, what are we going to do with Yoshiro-san’s body?” – After a while, Sakura cautiously asked, unable to stand the heavy silence of Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke.

And she mentally complained: “Okay Sasuke, but even Naruto has quieted down!”

Hearing this, the Jounin finally broke away from his thoughts about what had happened. Everything that happened caused strange feelings, and no matter how much Kakashi thought, he could not find anything to cling to.

Yoshiro was acting a little strange, but now he's gone.

The members of the Root also behaved strangely, but what else can you expect from the Root.

With such thoughts, Kakashi sighed gloomily and decided to leave this matter to the discretion of the Hokage upon returning to Konoha.

“We’ll bury Yoshiro-san here,” he answered Sakura.

Yoshiro's body itself may have considerable value, but we must not forget that this is the body of a high-ranking shinobi of Kirigakure.

In addition, the memories of the Head of the entire Kinoshita Clan were almost guaranteed to be destroyed or sealed before death. So returning the corpse to Konoha to extract memories is also pointless.

There was genuine sadness on the faces of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Despite the fact that their acquaintance was short, the trio of Genin still managed to sincerely become attached to Yoshiro, even Sasuke.

And especially Naruto, who received some of the fatherly love he needed from Yoshiro.

Knock-Knock...

And then from afar came the sound of leisurely steps.

Kakashi immediately turned towards him along with the Genin.

There they saw two young men.

A gloomy girl with dark red hair and twin swords behind her back, who looks to be about eighteen years old.

And a young man with long black hair wearing clothes with a combination of blue and green colors.

It was none other than Ameyuri and Haku.

The Swordswoman of the Mist immediately fixed a warlike gaze on Kakashi. She was very interested in the Jounin from Konoha who defeated Zabuza.

On the other side, Kakashi began to look for the forehead protectors of the suddenly appearing couple and soon narrowed his eyes sharply... Kirigakure shinobi!