Nawaki had gone missing.
The next morning, Sarutobi Hiruzen waited and waited in the Hokage's office, but Nawaki never came to report in. He sent someone to the Senju compound to check, only to discover that Nawaki hadn't even gone home the night before. That was when the truth sank in—Nawaki had disappeared.
At first, Hiruzen thought it was just the boy throwing a tantrum and didn't take it seriously. But when his ANBU came back with their report—saying they had searched all of Konoha and found no trace of Nawaki—Hiruzen finally began to panic.
After all, Nawaki wasn't just some ordinary ninja. As the direct grandson of the First Hokage, his identity was special. If word got out that the First Hokage's own grandson had disappeared in Konoha for no reason, how could Hiruzen save face? How could he ever face Tsunade—or Hoshiyomi?
With that thought, Hiruzen immediately launched a manpower-heavy search. He summoned Sakumo and the retired Torifu Akimichi, and placed the two of them in charge of squads. Under their command, over half of the ANBU in the village were dispatched to scour the Land of Fire for Nawaki's whereabouts.
In an instant, large numbers of ANBU were mobilized. Naturally, such a movement drew the attention of Root. It took less than ten minutes for Danzo to receive the intelligence.
Danzo knew Hiruzen would inevitably come to question him about whether he was involved, so he prepared his answers in advance.
When Hiruzen arrived with his inquiries, Danzo responded smoothly:
"Nawaki is missing? Probably just a youngster fooling around. Didn't we also sneak out of the village all the time when we were kids?"
"How could I possibly capture him? And what would I even do with him if I did? Brainwash him into being my subordinate? Experiment to see if he could use Wood Release?"
"Don't worry, Hiruzen. I know my limits. I'm more aware than you of what can and can't be done."
Looking at his old comrade speaking so calmly, Hiruzen couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, though he couldn't pinpoint what. And since he had no idea Danzo had secretly obtained Hashirama's cells, in the end he chose to trust his old comrade and refrained from barging into Root's base.
As Hiruzen's figure disappeared into the distance, Danzo's smile quickly faded.
"Pass down my order: have the Root shinobi heavily guard all the routes out of the village toward the Land of Wind. Not even a bird or a fly is to be let through. If anyone dares sabotage my work, drag them out and feed them to the dogs."
With his trembling subordinates nodding, Danzo turned and strode straight toward the laboratory.
"How did last night's 20% concentration injection go?"
Hiruko smiled as he reported:
"The success rate was quite high. Out of ten test subjects, eight showed no signs of tree transformation. The two who died were civilians—our preliminary judgment is that their deaths were due to lacking the chakra reserves necessary to resist the 20% Hashirama cell erosion. But further observation is still needed to confirm whether there will be side effects."
Danzō nodded slightly.
"Leave the data collection and daily monitoring to the assistants. You start arranging trials with 40%, 60%, and 80% concentration reagents. If there are no issues within a week, proceed with preparing the second batch at 40% concentration."
Hiruko froze for a moment.
"So fast?"
Danzō's expression darkened:
"It has to be fast. Nawaki is Gekko Hoshiyomi's little brother-in-law. No matter what, news of his disappearance will reach Hoshiyomi eventually. All I can do now is delay and seal the news for as long as possible."
"We must be prepared for the possibility that the news will leak out in a very short time."
——
While all of Konoha was thrown into chaos, Senju Kōhei quietly returned to the village. He hadn't even had the chance to rally the remaining Senju clansmen when he already learned of Nawaki's disappearance.
Not daring to waste time, he followed Hoshiyomi's prior instructions and immediately released a messenger pigeon to deliver the news. Ever since Hoshiyomi and he had intercepted a Root spy and discovered Danzō's communication method, they had copied the system to use it themselves.
Watching the pigeon flap its wings and disappear into the sky, Kōhei thought to himself: This time, it should work without issue.
But what he never expected was that even after half a month of waiting inside Konoha, after sending out three separate batches of pigeons, Hoshiyomi still hadn't returned.
At first, Kōhei assumed Hoshiyomi was simply being delayed by matters of negotiation. But as time went on, even he couldn't deny the truth anymore: someone was deliberately intercepting the messages.
And who could that someone be? As Hoshiyomi's trusted aide, Kōhei didn't need to think hard. It had to be none other than Shimura Danzō.
If it really was him, then things had become far more difficult. With Danzō's relationship with the Third Hokage, relying on Hiruzen to rescue Nawaki was nearly impossible. Root's reach extended everywhere—even messenger pigeons in the sky were being intercepted. Even if Kōhei tried to deliver the news in person, it was unlikely the message would get through.
What to do? With each day wasted, Nawaki's danger only grew. They could not afford to delay any longer.
Clenching his teeth, Kōhei gathered a few Senju clansmen he trusted most, explained his suspicions, and finally declared:
"If we want to lessen Nawaki's risk, there's only one option left—we must find Lord Sakumo, who is currently searching the Land of Fire."
Only with Sakumo's strength could they hope to get the message through.
The plan received unanimous support. Under Kōhei's coordination, more than ten Senju clansmen each took on different missions as cover and left the village.
Pretending to be on assignments, the group spread out across the Land of Fire, searching for Sakumo. But in such a vast country, with both sides constantly on the move, it wasn't easy to encounter him.
Another half a month passed before, by pure chance, the two groups finally met.
After hearing Kōhei's account, Sakumo chose to believe him without hesitation. Instead of reporting back to the Third Hokage, he followed Kōhei's advice and headed directly toward the Land of Wind.
There, he indeed encountered heavy interception from Root shinobi.
Root's operatives were formidable, but in front of Sakumo they were nothing. During the battle, countless Root shinobi fell under the brilliance of the White Fang's blade.
The blockade of the route to the Land of Wind became a farce. Sakumo directly broke through the defenses and rushed toward the border, carrying the message to Hoshiyomi.
Meanwhile, a handful of Root shinobi who survived the crushing defeat fled to report the breach to Danzō—that Sakumo had broken through their defenses and was hurrying toward the Land of Wind.
Hoshiyomi and Danzō received intelligence about each other almost at the same moment.