A day later, in the Hokage Office, Uchiha En detailed his experiences in Amegakure to Minato Namikaze.
Minato Namikaze frowned deeply after hearing this. He hadn't expected Hanzou to team up with Danzo to deal with Jiraiya-sensei's three disciples.
"Hokage-sama, it's more than just that. Danzo's Root is much harder to deal with than we imagined."
"Much harder to deal with? Are there particularly strong individuals among the Root Ninja?" Minato Namikaze quickly asked.
"Individual Root Ninja aren't necessarily strong, but the coordination and discipline of the Root Ninja are far superior to the Anbu. Moreover, they include Ninja from various Secret Technique Clans. When these Ninja coordinate, even a Kage-level expert might suffer a loss if careless."
After hearing Uchiha En's account, Minato Namikaze's expression turned grim.
He hadn't expected Root to have developed to such an extent.
What was even more outrageous was that the Third Hokage hadn't taken any action regarding this previously.
"En, do you think the Sandaime knows about Root's expansion? Or did he intentionally indulge it?" Minato Namikaze asked after a long period of contemplation.
Uchiha En thought for a moment and gave his answer: "I think he must have known something. Without the Third Hokage's tacit approval, Root couldn't have developed like this. It's just that the Third Hokage underestimated Danzo's ambition, and Root grew under his indulgence to a point he can no longer control."
Uchiha En's view coincided with Minato Namikaze's. After hesitating for a moment, Minato Namikaze instructed the guards behind him: "Go notify all Konoha high-ranking officials; we are holding a high-level meeting tonight."
Minato Namikaze's guards immediately sprang into action upon receiving the Hokage's command.
Uchiha En also bid farewell to Minato Namikaze and Shunshined to Orochimaru's laboratory.
In the past few days, Orochimaru had already begun human experiments on these children.
Uchiha En arrived at the second floor of the lab and happened to see Orochimaru looking excitedly at Yamato inside a glass vessel.
From Orochimaru's expression, Uchiha En knew that this change was likely heading in a good direction.
"Asana, how is the situation?" Uchiha En asked Asana, who was recording data next to Orochimaru.
"This child's condition is unexpectedly good. He has passed the most difficult hurdle, resisting the consumption by the first hokages cells.
Furthermore, judging by the powerful life force emanating from his body, he seems to have begun fusing with the first hokages cells.
Now, as long as the cell fusion process goes smoothly, he should be the first person to successfully integrate the first hokages cells."
After hearing Asana's words, Uchiha En activated his Sharingan and scrutinized Yamato.
Yamato's current state was like being asleep; his body, consciousness, and even the first hokages cells within him had fallen into slumber.
During this slumber, however, Yamato's physique was gradually changing towards a state that could fully adapt to the first hokages cells, though the speed of change was very slow. It would likely take about another year to complete the transformation.
Uchiha En then turned his attention to the other children. Their situation was completely different from Yamato's; they were all struggling to resist the consumption by the first hokages cells and had not begun fusion at all.
Orochimaru had clearly lost interest in them, placing all his attention on Yamato.
Uchiha En subsequently spoke to Orochimaru about Danzo's matter, mentioning that a high-level meeting would be held tonight.
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