Naruto : A Fool's Errand.

Tachibana was satisfied with Yamato's plan as they split up from Sakura and Naruto who both remained undisguised as they left their hiding spots and moved towards the mouth of the cave to begin the plan.

Tachibana used his spirit vision to carefully scan for people in his sight through the cave system but found it a little hard to spot anybody since the cave went rather deep and wasn't well staffed at least at the entrance level.

He did spot several secret entrances around the mountain that led deeper into the cave, but Tachibana didn't make any effort to reveal them since Yamato probably knew the layout better than him having been a regular here when he was younger.

Naruto quickly performed the multi-shadow clone jutsu and created several clones that immediately used the transformation jutsu to look like different shinobi, some of whom were exactly like the ones they'd fought.

Deep inside the cave, a man opened his eyes and looked at the small flying insect that landed on his finger. The insect slowly crawled into his skin and assimilated with his body.

As if having received new orders, the man quickly stood up from the floor and walked towards a particular room that was located deeper into the tunnels that bore through the mountain.

*Knock* *Knock*

A soft aged voice rumbled through the door-

"Come in."

The shinobi quickly entered and kneeled before Danzo who was sitting in the darkness, going through multiple information scrolls that lay on the low table in front of him and on the mat beside him.

"What happened Torune?"

"Danzo-sama, I have detected Team Seven standing at the cave's entrance."

Danzo didn't respond as he continued to read through the scrolls so Torune asked a new question after his short report.

"Should we enact the plan Danzo-sama?"

Danzo remained silent for a few more seconds before picking up a brush and signing the scroll on the table in front of him.

His lips twitched and trembled for a few seconds before he quickly folded the scroll and stuffed it into his sleeves for safekeeping.

Danzo then quickly stood up as he ordered in simple words.

"Order the personnel from group C to escape by blending into the village or going undercover into the black market. Leave the rest here along with all the children and unclassified experimental data. From group B, have Sai follow me."

"And immediately send an order to Hiruzen to come here with his ANBU."

Torune nodded and as Danzo was stepping out of the room he mumbled-

"Is it time for the ROOT to come into the light Danzo-sama?"

Danzo paused and looked at Torune with a stern gaze before he spoke-

"No. It is time to bury the ROOTs and give it the best manure we can serve it for its growth. Make sure there are no fail points in our plans. I want everything to go smoothly."

Torune nodded and within seconds, Danzo vanished. Although he stepped out of the room, no one else in the cave noticed him since he didn't take the main path leading towards the outside but a hidden pathway that moved underground and opened a little away from the cave's true entrance.

After Torune disseminated the orders, all relevant ROOT shinobi either escaped into the surrounding areas or left the vicinities of Konoha altogether, leaving only a few behind as Naruto on the outside worked his plan.

As soon as Naruto and Sakura entered the cave, they started to do everything to attract attention to themselves, with Naruto using the bold strategy of shouting about the children's kidnappings while Sakura under her transformation jutsu got into direct combat with the ROOT shinobi.

Sakura was having a hard time with the fights since she was fighting on enemy turf but with Naruto's loud distractions and a few well-placed explosive seals, she managed.

Meanwhile, Tachibana and Sasuke entered the cave as they followed behind Yamato who seemed to know where they had to go.

Tsunade and Shizune followed similarly as they continued to go deeper and deeper into the cave system.

Suddenly, however, both Tsunade and Yamato stopped.

Their heads turned quickly as they looked at the same spot in the cave.

To Tachibana, Sasuke and Shizune it looked like Yamato and Tsunade were just looking at the wall like they could see through it, but Tachibana quickly reasoned.

'Danzo is escaping!?'

'No! I can't let him do that!'

Tachibana's brain worked faster than it ever had as thoughts rushed into his mind while he tried to figure out what he could do to prevent the linchpin of his plan from escaping.

Tachibana's eyes locked on to Danzo's location through spirit vision and then he saw Tsunade running through the cave system towards him.

A sudden idea struck his mind at that moment.

Tachibana's head tilted backwards and he appeared to be looking at the ceiling of the cave before his eyes suddenly rolled backwards as he entered Cogitation.

Tachibana stayed in that posture for a few seconds creeping Yamato and Sasuke out.

But no sooner than twenty seconds was Tachibana out of his acting as a seer as he looked at Yamato and spoke in a hurry.

"Yamato-sensei! You go ahead! Make sure you get out of this cave after twenty more minutes along with Sakura and Naruto! I need to go help someone else!"

Yamato's eyes widened as he immediately understood who Tachibana was talking about helping.

'Another vision!?' Yamato exclaimed in his mind.

Without giving Yamato or Sasuke another chance to stop him, Tachibana rushed in another direction as he rushed past several ROOT shinobi who tried to stop him by simply transforming himself into one of them.

And given the state of sudden panic that had struck the ROOT base, no one questioned Tachibana who looked just like them, especially since he showed such familiarity in traversing through the cave when he was just moving around using the help of the other ROOT shinobi in his spirit vision.

Tachibana was moving slowly and calmly without showing any panic that might lead to him being questioned.

'So Mito-baa-san did plant all the explosive tags I asked her to.'

'That means the plan was executed without any errors on her end.'

'Then why hasn't Danzo still been sacrificed by Hiruzen?'

'I wanted to use this method to divide their friendship and deal emotional damage to Danzo while also stripping him of any power in the village and also if possible getting him a death sentence.'

'But now he's abandoning the ROOT base…'

'Are they planning something together?'

However, he always kept Tsunade and Danzo in his sight using spirit vision.

On the other hand, Tsunade spoke to Shizune quickly.

"Grab any research papers you find in this area and leave from this place. If Danzo is leaving from here, he likely has something planned for this place."

Shizune nodded and donned a serious look as she rushed away into the depths of the cave system.

Tsunade also kept running, following her senses as she encountered multiple ROOT shinobi, whom she easily beat up as she rushed towards Danzo.

After a few minutes, Tsunade finally cornered Danzo by cutting off his path by simply punching her way from one underground corridor to another.

Danzo's eyes first widened as he saw Tsunade entering his line of sight, but then they narrowed as his lips curled up in a smirk.

'I hadn't expected her to be here…'

'But this is better for my plan.'

'This way I will be able to take down two targets instead of one.'

Tachibana saw Danzo and Tsunade meeting up and slowed down since he saw Danzo's spirit body turn a deep shade of blue.

'He's currently calm, rational, and is thinking deeply…'

'Does Danzo have a plan of his own…?'

The gears in Tachibana's head turned as he slowly unravelled and realised what was going on.

'I see…'

A smirk suddenly formed on Tachibana's face.

'This will be better…'