It's a Hard Uzumaki Life For Us!

Chapter 2-1

=== GEDO MAZO CAVE ===

5 years later.

...

Two figures approached the guards standing watch over the safe.

"For every leaf out in the sun..."

"-is a root underneath the ground."

The code was exchanged and the two previous sentries departed once they were replaced by the new pair. They disappeared to the restaurant on the floor above, mingled into the civilian populace dining, then left under disguises out into broad daylight.

Such was the design of the satellite ROOT bases dotted around Konoha.

The two guards were alone for a couple of minutes before the third appeared.

The ROOT on the left stepped forth to confront the unknown newcomer.

"For every root underneath the ground..."

"-is a tree from which it came from."

The two guards didn't move.

Shink.

It was over in an instant.

The ROOT shinobi flashed his sword at the intruder- only to find himself stabbed in the back by his comrade. Trained from childhood not to express emotion, the ROOT shinobi expressed a small hint of surprise at his presumed ally.

"Tsk. The password didn't work." The intruder clicked his tongue in annoyance. ROOT was extremely secure, so much that he couldn't get his agents into deep positions. At best, they would infiltrate the bottom ranks.

For example, the second ROOT shinobi on guard duty for this particular safe.

Green venus flytrap jaws slowly emerged from the ground, wrapping around the dying ROOT shinobi. It swallowed the ninja whole, before slowly disappearing underground to digest its latest capture.

A few moments later, a white humanoid grew out of the ground. It replicated the chakra signature of the ROOT shinobi, then transformed its features to match the former guard.

White Zetsu wouldn't quite call it a success, seeing as he failed another attempt at bypassing ROOT's security. He needed the assistance of another Zetsu clone to secure entry to the vault.

Fortunately for White Zetsu, he had his only high-ranking officer scrounge for the ROOT vault sealing arrays. He couldn't sneak into the vaults because of the sealing barriers they placed. Sealing was not White Zetsu's strong suit, so he had to spend some time penetrating ROOT's ranks. The barrier arrays were advanced at best, but White Zetsu was nowhere near breaching them. Now that the second ROOT guard was also a Zetsu clone, he was free to enter the vault as he wished.

He had other plans for the vaults, but those could be used in the future.

Zetsu unsealed the vault array and opened the ninjutsu safehouse. It was one of many held by the secret force under Danzo. He was carefully scanned through the contents before grabbing a few scrolls. The contents were copied and White Zetsu departed after returning them back.

ROOT was none the wiser.

.

.

.

"Naruto, what about this jutsu?" Tobi excitedly pointed to another scroll.

"T-that's still too hard for me..." Naruto gulped.