Using an earth jutsu to pull the body of the Aburame clan ninja out, Kozue stored it in a storage scroll before joining the girls to gather the loot.
Soon, a large number of shadow clones appeared and spread throughout Root's now-destroyed base, beginning to store the heads of dead Root ninjas in storage scrolls and searching the vaults where money, Jutsu scrolls, and other materials Root used for ninja training were kept.
And the rest?
Kozue didn't need it and decided to leave it here.
Besides keeping the heads of all the dead ninjas, Kozue also went to see the children that Root was training in the underground part of the base.
Sensing more than 200 presences underground, Kozue sighed.
He had a long job ahead of him.
Just 10 minutes after the mountain split in two, the base was empty.
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.
.
The first to arrive at Root's base were a few ninjas, but most quickly retreated when the Daimyo's samurai army arrived, and only the Leaf Village ninjas remained.
And when the Daimyo's army arrived, they had to clarify that they had also arrived at that time.
Listening to the Leaf ninjas, the leader of the samurai group, and seeing the remains of the mountain and headless bodies scattered around, apparently from ninjas hiding inside the mountain, the samurai leader knew he would have a headache in the following days.
Like a mountain hundreds of meters high, it could be seen from several kilometers away.
Perfectly from the capital city of the land of fire.
And one could imagine the surprise of many outside the city when they saw that this mountain was split in half vertically by a gigantic sword beam.
And the most incredible thing was that this gigantic bundle of swords continued on its path, creating a ravine several hundred meters long.
It was a surreal image.
And even more surreal was that this did not end there, as this time they clearly saw when part of the mountain was cut into pieces and crumbled away.
The Daimyo's samurai army quickly surrounded the city to protect it from any danger, while a group headed towards the site of the incident to try to find out what happened.
Of course, someone went to warn the Daimyo.
Meanwhile, the city's exit was filled with people who wanted to go out and see what had happened, because the news had quickly spread throughout the city and they wanted to see if it was true.
And just like them, when it was confirmed that there was no danger and the Daimyo arrived at the place, his eyes opened like never before at the sight before him.
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The news quickly spread throughout the land of fire and all neighboring countries, and was on its way to reach the entire continent via messenger birds and summoning animals.
In the Leaf Village, a large number of people had gathered in a large hall in the Hokage building.
Besides Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, there were also the 2 advisors, the Jonin commander and the clan leaders of the village.
"Everyone, these are the photographs of the incident site," said Shikaku Nara, Jonin Commander of the Leaf Village and leader of the Nara clan, as he began handing out envelopes containing photographs to everyone present.
"At 10 a.m. yesterday, a mountain near the capital of the land of fire was destroyed," Shikaku said after handing over the last envelope and walking over to a projector and turning it on.
"Obviously, this isn't something that would normally grab our attention and prompt an emergency meeting."
"But the photographs will prove that the attack is not simple," Commander Jonin said as he looked at the screen in front of him where the projector formed an image.
And just like in the photographs, a mountain of rubble was shown.
And if some of the clan leaders didn't already know, which Shikaku didn't think was possible since they all had their own channels of information, the Jonin commander showed the following photograph of the ravine that formed behind the mountain and extended for several hundred meters in the distance.
As Shikaku suspected, everyone already knew about the incident through their own channels and were not taken by surprise.
But it was still surprising to see again what a person had apparently done, and they wondered where such a monster came from.
None of them could produce destruction of that magnitude.
Only the leader of the Akimichi clan could attempt to do it by expanding his body with his clan's secret jutsu, but even then he lacked the confidence to face such an opponent.
"What most people know is what the witnesses saw."
"A gigantic sword beam sliced vertically through the mountain before the front portion was cut into multiple pieces," Shikaku said before pausing for a second and continuing when he was sure he had everyone's attention.
After all, this information was obtained through their ninjas stationed near the Fire Capital who arrived at the location first, before it was surrounded by the Daimyo's samurai army.
Suspecting that Shikaku had more information, the clan leaders paid attention to him.
"What few people know is that equipment was found inside the mountain's remains and a training base in the underground section."
"It was obviously a base of an unknown organization, but one that operated in the territory of the Land of Fire."
Here Shikaku showed other photographs depicting human-made equipment, before showing photographs of mangled bodies.
And since everyone present had seen worse things, they didn't flinch as Shikaku continued with the explanation.
"All the bodies are missing their heads, so we can't get any information with the help of the Yamanaka clan," Shikaku said as he looked at his friend Inoshin, who nodded at him.
"And if nearly 100 unknown ninjas inside the Land of Fire weren't bad enough, numerous children's footprints were found at underground training bases."
"Based on the number of rooms found that appeared to be recently occupied by children, this base had 200 children training to be ninjas."
Shikaku's words silenced the room in response to the news they had just heard.
Training ninjas in secret was a capital crime throughout the ninja continent if it was not approved by the Daimyo of that territory.
For example, in the land of fire, in addition to the Leaf Village, there are also numerous ninja clans that did not join the Leaf Village and ninja clans that work directly for the Daimyo.
If another ninja force appeared in the land of fire without the Daimyo's permission, everyone was obligated to obey his call and destroy this new force.
And according to the photographs, this base was far too organized for them to be novices at this.
They have obviously been operating for a long time and have experience in training ninjas.
The Daimyo was definitely not happy to learn of such an organization, and even less so when there was a blatantly large training base so close to the capital of the Land of Fire.
Therefore, the Daimyo has ordered the entire land of fire to search for all bases of this organization and destroy them.
And obviously this meeting was to discuss that, and Shikaku continued.
"In this operation, we'll need ninjas with search skills."
"The Hyuga clan, the Aburame clan, and the Inuzuka clan must provide a certain number of ninjas who will be distributed into several groups that will travel throughout the territory of the Land of Fire."
In response, the leaders of the 3 clans nodded in agreement.
"Meanwhile, the other clans will provide assistance through their information channels."
"If anyone has information to share, it will be beneficial to the operation," Shikaku said, looking at the clan leaders in front of him.
But as expected, none of them had anything to report.
However, someone asked something else.
"What do we know about the person who carried out this attack?"
The person who asked this was Tsume Inuzuka, the leader of the Inuzuka clan.
When Tsume asked the question, everyone paid attention because they were also interested in the one who could destroy a mountain in that way.
While powerful ninjas like the Third Hokage could accomplish that, man could not do it in the same way.
A single sword cut had never been so powerful, and everyone wanted to know everything about the person who achieved this.
"No"
"No one could see or find a clue that would give us information about this person's identity."
"Obviously, all we know is that he uses a sword, and that seems like useless information."
"But traces of lightning element chakra were found in the mountain and the ravine."
"Therefore, if someone with these characteristics appears, they will be our first suspect."