Chapter 252 - Capturing Root Ninjas

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Tao and Enji were tense as they looked at the Genin standing nonchalantly in front of them. The older Root ninja remembered the order that was given by their superior. 'We weren't supposed to be discovered. All of us were given orders to operate with discretion. If we're captured, it would bring trouble to Lord Danzo.'

Daichi had a smile as he looked at the two. "That's a cute pet bird you have. Mind if I keep him? Don't worry. I'll make sure to take good care of him while you two are in a deep dark hole somewhere."

The two Root ninjas kept an emotionless face as they heard the Genin's mild threat. Mind games of such level wouldn't affect them.

Tao/Future Sai had his hands on his tanto and was tense. 'It's a good thing we don't have any identifiable objects on us. For all this Genin knows we are two enemy shinobi trying to kill their client. Still… We need to leave. Based on the information we have, Daichi Hekima is already much stronger than the average Chunin. There is only one possible path to escape.'

Tao and Enji glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes. A silent communication passed between the two.

Daichi noticed the silent exchange and the smile vanished. 'They're about to make their move. But you two won't escape me.'

The three were in a stand-off but a second later Tao swiftly threw three smoke bombs a few feet in front of him while Enji threw several kunai aimed at Daichi. The small balls exploded and thick green smoke covered the area in between Daichi and the two other ninjas. A fraction of a second after the smoke bomb exploded several kunais came out of the smoke speeding in Daichi's direction.

The older Root ninja threw the kunais in a way that forced Daichi to leap backwards and up to a tree branch. The next second two ink lion beasts burst out of the ground near the tree Daichi was standing on and headed straight for the Genin with their jaws wide open. He easily evaded their attacks and destroyed them in seconds.

Despite being forced backwards Daichi wasn't distracted from his targets. He had his chakra focused on the two Root ninjas and sensed them escaping higher into the air. He jumped high up and saw a black and white bird carrying the two ninjas getting further and further away from his position. The gamer ninja stood atop the large tree and his eyes narrowed as he gazed at the escaping ninjas.

Right then as if time was reversing, the events started playing backwards faster and faster and in less than a second Daichi was standing in front of the two Root ninjas. They were still glancing at each other from the corner of their eyes trying to decide on their next move.

From Daichi's perspective even a second was several minutes long. 'Brain Augmentation plus Hypercognition skill in conjunction with Parallel Processing. One hell of an OP combo.'

As a single second passed in the real world Daichi's mind was going through several simulations of his battle with the two ninjas. Daichi's brain created these mental simulations based on the information acquired from Observe, their body and muscle structure, their weapon pouch and its position on their body and the environment. His mind also took the information he had on Sai from the past life and used what he knew as reference. After multiple variations Daichi finally came to the most likely strategy the duo was going to try.

'The last version is the most likely one they would use.'

The Genin had multiple thoughts running through his mind. 'I could let them escape without making it look like I let them. If I capture these two, then I'd have to take them back to Kakashi and the Hokage would have solid proof of Root's activities by the end of this mission. It will definitely create a conflict with Danzo and that one eyed geezer could do something drastic. Desperate people like him might try stupid things. Not to mention Naruto's graduation is in a couple days. All this mess…'

Daichi was in a precarious position. 'If I let them go, the status quo won't change. I'll just tell Kakashi that the attacker escaped and complete this mission without any trouble. But if I capture them, it might bring Danzo's attention to me more than it already has.'

At that moment the image of Reo and her parents came to his mind. And along with that image came blood boiling anger. The gamer ninja clenched his fist as he thought about what had happened to his friends Ren and Kimiko Uchiha.

'If that useless geezer hadn't fanned the flames of hate between the Uchiha clan and the village, then Obito wouldn't have taken advantage and killed the clan like he did. Reo would still have her parents. Not only that, then the bastard had the gall to send his Root after Tsunade sensei and injure Shizune senpai... All to get to me.'

[Skill Gamer's Mind has activated]

The Gamer's mind was doing its job keeping Daichi from doing anything impulsive but the anger was palpable around the Genin.

'Calm down Daichi. Think this through. How can you use this situation to your advantage?'

Daichi's various mental Mana abilities were active. He went through several scenarios and the outcomes of his decisions. How capturing the Root affected him, the village.

'Kensei told me that there is already friction between the Hokage and Danzo and it's only getting worse. With this I'll put the nail in the coffin. Directly interfering with a mission assigned by the village and killing someone like Ryoma. The Hokage won't tolerate that. Even if Danzo knows I'm the one who took down his agent and brought them in he won't be able to do anything about it. He'll be too busy dealing with the fallout of his actions. His Root will be busy protecting their master. If Danzo comes for me or tries to use Naruto then it's game over for him. I'm a rising prodigy, student of Tsunade and Kakashi and Naruto is the Jinchuriki. Even if I bring these two in, Danzo won't be able to retaliate unless he plans to start a civil war. One that he won't win.'

Daichi even took into account how removing Danzo from the board would affect Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. 'If I'm right, Itachi's number one concern is Sasuke. He knows that at the moment Danzo is the greatest threat to his brother. If Danzo is taken care of, then Itachi will turn his attention to Obito and the Akatsuki. Itachi might be able to gather more intel on that Organization and maybe… If it's possible… I can use Itachi as a proxy to wage war on the Akatsuki. Or at the very least gather intel on their group…'

Daichi's thoughts and calculations were moving faster than ever, going through various possibilities. His eyes were still on the two Root ninjas standing in front of him, oblivious to their fate. 'All the possibilities… With the capture of two pawns…'

Daichi thought hard about his next step and he made a choice. A choice he wasn't going back down from. 'Fuck Danzo. Fuck Obito, fuck Zetsu, Fuck Orochimaru. Fuck all those fucks. If I get the chance to make their lives harder I'm gonna do it. What's the point of becoming strong if I'm just scared and can't do what I want?'

Daichi's rage vanished. Despite the anger he felt he wasn't going to make such a decision based on emotions. He had a calm neutral face as he looked at the two Root ninja. Having made a decision he exhaled and focused. Time started to flow normal for him and just as he predicted, Daichi saw Sai reaching into pouch to take smoke bombs and holding them between his fingers while his teammate was taking out several kunai.

Just as they moved, Daichi took out several shuriken from his back pouch. He threw them with greater but precise force at the weapons hurled at him by the enemy. All their actions took place at the same time. Just as the smoke bomb exploded covering the area, Daichi's shuriken hit the kunias and changed their directions. They flew back towards the two enemy shinobi with greater speed.

Tao and Enji had jumped back to a new spot a split second after Tao threw the smoke bomb. But their hidden movements were well within Daichi's calculations. The two Root ninjas didn't expect to have Enji's kuani redirected and Daichi's shuriken flying at their new location. The two barely defended against the surprise attack but they couldn't deflect all weapons.

Daichi followed after the two Root ninjas just as the smoke exploded. It wasn't harmful so the Genin went straight through the green smoke. Daichi used chakra ‘Sense skill’ and knew exactly where those were. He increased his speed and got behind Tao.

Before the pale skinned ninja knew what was happening he felt several blows on his back. Daichi hit several pressure points and knocked the shinobi unconscious before he even hit the ground.

Enji turned his head just in time to see Tao's eyes roll up to his skull and his body falling to the ground. The Root ninja was shocked to see their tactics fail so easily.

'I need to kill Tao and make my escape. He can't fall into enemy hands. Otherwise Lord Danzo will be displeased.'

Enji gripped his tanto and tensed his leg. Even with keeping his complete focus on Daichi he still couldn't follow the Gamer ninja's movements. Daichi vanished from his sight and the next second he felt a pressure on his neck and then everything went blank for him.

Daichi looked at the two unconscious root shinobi and sighed. He created a shadow clone and dispelled it, alerting his other two clones. One clone accompanying Ryoma and the other hiding in Ryoma's room.

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With Ryoma's group: A few minutes before…

The two organizations were arguing the pros and cons of a merger. The discussion had been going on for about an hour. Seeing a stalemate the mediator decided to implement the next step in his plans to bring the two rival companies together.

Ryoma spoke. "From both of your arguments, I can tell that you love your families a great deal. This rivalry started with two family members and I believe we can end it with two as well."

Tsuyoshi leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "What are you talking about?"

His rival Yamamoto was also silently paying close attention to Ryoma.

The mediator chose his next words carefully so as to not offend anyone. He looked at the head of the Satoru corporation. "You have a daughter. Middle child. Mika Satoru. 24 years of age I believe."

Ryoma then turned to Yamamoto. "Your youngest son. Yamaha Hideshi. 25 years I believe. I heard that both of them play quite an important role in your organizations. Is that true?"

Tsuyoshi nodded. Yamamoto Hideshi narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Dealmaker. "What of it?"

"The best way to solve this conflict and make sure it doesn't reignite is to remove the rivalry between your two families. What I'm proposing is a marriage between your daughter Mika Satoru and your son Yamaha Hideshi." Ryoma said as he looked at the two presidents. The two advisors and the guards present in the room were shocked when they heard the idea.

Tsuyoshi slammed a fist into the table. "You can't be serious. My daughter isn't some commodity you can use in a business negotiation." Everyone could see the anger on his face.

"Hmph! While I don't agree with much of anything Tsuyoshi here says, I'll agree with him on this much. Yamaha isn't some bargain chip you can use to leverage me. I'm not gonna force my son into a marriage he doesn't want to." Yamamoto gave his reply.

Ryoma had a calm smile and spoke to the two. "I wasn't implying any such notion. The reason I suggested marriage is so that there is a medium between your two parties. Both of them are similar in age, good looking, intelligent and an integral part of your corporations. They would both have reasons to protect their families and if they were to get married then the two would also be more motivated to work together for their heirs and safeguard their future. Your profits would increase and so will the strength of your organizations."

Hearing that, the two presidents glanced at each other with a stoic expression.

Seeing them interested, Ryoma continued. "Now aside from that, I've seen that in most love and arranged based marriages, both partners end up happy, satisfied and financially blossomed. This is a win-win scenario for all those involved. Right now all I'm asking is for you two to consider this a possibility. Discuss it amongst your family. If you're not interested, if your children aren't interested, then we can forget it and move on… "

Tsuyoshi and Yamamoto silently looked at each other, unable to make a mission. Ryoma smiled as the seeds he planted slowly sprouted. He looked at Daichi and the Genin gave a small discreet nod. A minute ago the real Daichi sent information to his clones updating them on the situation.

The mediator smiled. 'Looks like he captured the enemy. Now I can use him or her to my advantage tomorrow.'

"I would suggest that we take a break for today. Let's continue in the morning. I have a feeling we're going to make a lot of progress tomorrow. I'm excited." Ryoma said with a mysterious grin.

The people soon exited the meeting room and Daichi walked near his client. Kakashi also joined the two and soon they were in front of Ryoma's large suite.

"So Daichi…  Did it work? Did they take the bait?" Kakashi asked his student.

"Yup. I have our culprits in custody."

Kakashi didn't doubt his student. He knew Daichi would have completed the task without any problems. 'Time to see who they are.'

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Author's Note:

Tao is Sai. 'Sai' was originally a codename given for the duration of the team 07 mission. Tao is a codename similar to Sai.. (just In case there was any confusion)

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