Chapter 456: Bored
At the Leaf Village.
Underground, the descent into the belly of the Hidden Leaf was a journey from light into shadow. Alex walked with a measured, confident stride, passing through the hidden entrance located behind a nondescript waterfall in the training grounds.
This was the Foundation. Root. The dark underbelly of the village that Danzo Shimura had built to uphold the tree. Ever since Margaret defeated him, things here have fallen apart.
That was until Alex formed an idea for it.
He stopped at the first checkpoint. An ANBU operative wearing a porcelain cat mask stepped out of the shadows with a kodachi drawn.
Alex didn’t flinch; he simply raised his hand, channeling a specific frequency of chakra into the seal on the wall. The heavy iron door groaned as the locking mechanism tumbled open with a series of metallic clanks.
"Clear," the operative muttered, sheathing the blade and stepping back into the gloom.
Alex continued inward.
The facility was massive, like a labyrinth of tunnels, training halls, and archives that extended deep beneath the village crust. It still held the ghost of Danzo’s influence—the sterile, militaristic layout, the ominous silence.
Deeper down, however, was not the case. The darkness was now regulated.
After getting permission from the elders, the Leaf had raided everything. They had purged the experimentation labs, burned the records on illegal assassinations, and destroyed artifacts deemed too volatile for existence.
The elders had almost decided to collapse the entire structure, to bury the shame of Root forever. But Alex had intervened.