This mistake cannot happen again.

On the way back to Konoha Hospital, Sakai warned himself this more than once.

After two consecutive mission failures, his evaluation in the hearts of his superiors has dropped a level.

If the mission of tracking Asami Masumi failed, it can be considered excusable. He is a very powerful medical ninja, at least an expert at the ANBU captain level, and has very keen anti-reconnaissance capabilities. Even if his ability is special,

It is also impossible to achieve perfect tracking.

But this time it was different, and Naruto was kidnapped by a group of criminals. Such a mistake was far more serious than the failure of the mission to follow Asami Masumi.

The jinchuriki is an important military force in the village. Regardless of Naruto's own will, from the moment he becomes the nine-tailed jinchuriki, he is the war weapon that the village must control.

His existence is indispensable to Konoha, just like Naruto is to Konoha.

Especially in this day and age, tailed beasts are even more valuable military resources.

If something unexpected happened to Naruto and he was kidnapped by outsiders, even if he died ten times, he would not be able to make up for such a mistake.

I am just a shadow in the darkness.

Thinking of the contagious smile that appeared on Naruto's face from time to time, and the warm spring-like chakra that gave him the feeling, like the shining sun in winter, dispelling the cold. Sakai couldn't help but fall silent.

Such an existence is quite unfamiliar to me.

Maybe you should have less contact with Naruto in the future to avoid being infected by his chakra aura.

Giving up feelings, name, and life is the meaning of his existence.

If you can't even do this, the roots have no value in existence.

While thinking this, Sakai put his palm into the ninja tool bag and rummaged through the contents, and suddenly his face froze.

——The picture book is gone!

◎

"Hey, isn't Sakai here?"

In a single ward on the third floor of Konoha Hospital, Naruto, Sakura and Tenzo came here. After seeing that there was no one in the single ward, they couldn't help showing surprised expressions.

But compared to Naruto and Sakura's confusion, Tenzo became thoughtful.

Did he go to meet Danzo? Tenzo could only guess this.

Sakai is not an ordinary genin, and there is no record in Konoha's ninja archives. Just like those orphan ninjas who were secretly trained by the roots, except for the records in the roots, the village knows nothing about their past.

Even the name Sakai is false.

This shows how well Danzo controls the roots.

After such a major incident happened, Saoi's first priority was definitely not to recuperate, but to apologize to Danzo.

Tianzang sighed helplessly. Although he knew that the root organization was very harmful, with his strength, he was really unable to compete with such a behemoth.

Even though Tsunade, who seemed extremely tough at this moment, could only overwhelm the roots openly, but if she wanted to attack the roots secretly, it would definitely cause a disaster.

The current root, not only the root itself, has also gathered the power of the martial arts faction. From the perspective of power, it is not much weaker than the Hokage faction...

It is simply impossible to change Zuo Jing's situation.

The root is not a charity, they are the dark side of Konoha, and what they do has nothing to do with kindness.

Bloody, cruel and unscrupulous are their synonyms.

Just like the original selection of more than 20 babies with excellent qualifications to become experimental subjects, and conduct experiments with Orochimaru using wood escape.

They really have no lower limit to rules and human ethics.

What they want is the end result, not the process.

As long as he is strong, in their eyes, the Hokage may be sacrificed and betrayed at will.

"Could he have gone for a walk? Is his health okay?"

Here, Naruto guessed again and placed the basket of fruits in his hand on the cabinet next to the hospital bed.

"However, his injury does not allow him to move freely for too long..."

As a medical ninja, Sakura naturally knew how serious Sakai's injuries were. Although he could move, for health reasons, she still did not recommend him to get out of bed so quickly.

Therefore, Sakura frowned and a look of worry appeared on her face.

"Don't worry, you two, something may have happened to Zuo Jing. I believe he will be back soon."

Tian Zang comforted him from the side.

In fact, he didn't have the confidence in his heart, because the crime of causing the Jinchuriki to disappear was very serious. Fortunately for him, although Tsunade's punishment for him was serious, it was also a punishment within the rules.

But what is implemented at the root is not the rules of the village, but a set of regulations that run by itself.

Whether Zuoi can come back safely depends on his own value.

If his own value is not high in the eyes of his superiors, and he commits such a major mistake, he will never be easily spared, or even let the rest of his peers in the root department replace him and be reclassified into the seventh class.

"Really? It's really troublesome. Doesn't he know that we are coming to visit him?"

Naruto went to the window to open it and ventilate the room.

"I also said that if it weren't for you, Zuo Jing wouldn't have suffered such serious injuries. You have to thank them properly."

Sakura gave Naruto an accusing look.

"I, I understand, I feel a little bit sorry now."

Naruto stiffened.

"I can't tell at all. Moreover, your performance in the previous mission was too poor. According to Captain Yamato, the strength of those few people should not be much greater than your own. They can completely entangle them for a while, and the result will be all of a sudden

Got slapped with a sap."

"Damn it, who knew they could be so insidious. They didn't give me a chance to suit up for battle, and they didn't follow the rules! I almost wet my pants at that time!"

Naruto became angry when he thought of this. He was urinating at the time, and was suddenly attacked at that moment. If he hadn't reacted quickly enough, he would have almost peed on his pants.

"Hey, don't say such embarrassing things! Besides, this is not a chunin exam. It requires a one-on-one fair showdown, and you need to say hello before the war starts. Are you thinking too much?"

Sakura was speechless.

Is Naruto very strong? To a certain extent, he is so strong that even ordinary Jonin cannot easily hold him...

But the other side is very weak.

His nerves are too thick, and his alertness to encounters is too poor. He is almost the same as a normal genin, and his performance is even worse.

But there is no way, the actual battle is different from the exam.

The exam is a practical assessment of candidates, but there are still many differences from real combat.

In an encounter in the wild, it is normal for both sides to sneak attack on each other.

A real battle will not be a one-on-one duel, and there will be no rules against killing the opponent, and there will be no referee to tell the truth and stop the test when the candidate is in danger to ensure that the candidate's life is safe.

Being lectured by Sakura, Naruto shrugged and did not refute.

At this time, Sakura took out something from her ninja tool bag, attracting the attention of Naruto and Tenzo.

"What is this? Why does it look so familiar? It seems to belong to Sakai..."

Naruto saw clearly what was in Sakura's hand. It was a palm-sized drawing book.

The cover and bottom of the illustrated book are two cute Q-version characters.

One of them looks very much like Sakai, and the other one is unknown, but his hair style is very similar to Sakai's, except that his hair color is white.

"This is Zuoi's drawing book. I remember that Zuoi accidentally dropped it when he was chasing the Four Elephants."

Tianzang thought about the origin of this picture book and said.

"Well, I think this picture book should be a very important thing to Sakai. I asked him not to let us see it before, so I brought it with me."

Sakura nodded, she was still very curious about this picture book.

Sakai's form of ninjutsu appears in the form of ink painting, and creates physical objects to attack or restrain the enemy, with significant effects.

In addition, it also has extremely strong detection and transmission intelligence capabilities.

In actual combat, its functions are very comprehensive, and it can almost be said to be a secret technique without any weaknesses.

"What's in it? That guy was mysterious before. He kept holding this picture book in a daze, and he didn't know what was interesting in it."

Naruto asked very curiously.

"I don't know, I haven't read this picture book yet."

"Then open it quickly and take a look. I want to see what that guy drew inside."

Naruto took the drawing book from Sakura's hand and flipped through it to himself.

"Isn't it a bit unethical to look through other people's things without their permission?"

Having said that, Tenzo's body came up very honestly, and like Naruto and Sakura, he focused his eyes on the drawing book.

He thought that it would be great if he could learn something about Sakai through this picture book.
To be continued...