Stream of past

Bullet with a Name

Sakura made her way to the research facility inside the ROOT hideout. Her bear mask was firmly on her face, with her pair of sais strapped in and the standard issue tanto on her back. She opened the door to the lab and immediately went to her desk. She wasn't even allowed to greet her coworkers and having zero keepsakes on desk went without saying. She took a seat in her chair and began reading the reports. After the horrifying initiation of the ROOT, Danzo had stuck her in the lab. And while she was sometimes forced to go on a few assassination missions, the elder identified that her best asset was her mid. So he put her on the Mokuton project.

That's right, Sakura was the lead researcher on the reverse engineering of Wood Release. But was she going to give the senile old man a way to get it and give it to his most loyal underlings? Fuck no! It was already bad enough that he could use use Wood Release via his horrific Hashirama cells arm, she did not need his most loyal and obedient dogs to also have that power.

So for the past three years, Sakura has been fucking up numbers on purpose and ignoring the clues that might lead to the reverse engineering of Mokuton in order to stop Danzo. If he had stuck her on any other project, she could not have gotten away with it. But seeing how it was Hashirama Senju's very own Kekkei Genkai she was analyzing, weaponized incompetence still worked. And so she continued, fucking up numbers and purposefully throwing good ideas to the trash to stop a megalomaniac from acquiring power.

Putting away some of the finished reports Sakura began observing some of her fellow ROOT agents. She never saw any of their faces, as Danzo believed it would make them treat each other like humans instead of weapons. She also never knew their names or if they had any, since, some of them have been raised here since they were babies. All she knew was Parrot, Bull, Snake and Tanuki as her fellow researchers and Crow, her guard from the early ROOT days. Aside from them, there were Horse and Wolf, Danzo's personal guards and Tiger aka Sai. Those were the only ROOT members she ever interacted with.

The door opened and in strolled Wolf. "Bear, Danzo-sama requires your presence." was all he said before leaving. Knowing better by now than to make Danzo wait, Sakura got up and made her way to Danzo's office.

"Bear." said Danzo as she entered. "You are being sent to the Land of Bears to assassinate Edogawa Maka. As the future daimyō it is imperative she gets eliminated for the future of the Leaf."

"Of course Danzo-sama."

"Dismissed."

...

Kuma no Kuni was a relatively medium sized country located on the peninsula between the Land of Caves and the Land of Sound and sharing a small border with the Land of Fire, with it's most notable characteristics being the legendary Mountains' Graveyard and the relatively small Village Hidden in the Stars. The capital Tsumeato was where the daimyō's court resided and where Sakura was heading. Unlike normal missions given by the Hokage, Danzo tended not to say much. He gives them a few instructions and sends them on their way with a file to memorize on the road. This was what Sakura was doing as she stopped to camp in a forest near the border. ROOT agents were never allowed to sleep in inns, lest someone finds out about these unauthorized missions.

Opening up the file, she began reading. Edogawa Maka was a fairly young woman, only 25 years of age with a huge temper and a hatred for injustice. The exact type of person Danzo hated, as those he can't bribe or intimidate will not put up with his shit. Maka had long curly green hair, yellow eyes, freckles and a mole under her left eye. She tended to wear simple clothes and had been raised in a kunoichi temple near Hoshigakure. Tomorrow she will be on her way to the temple to visit the woman who raised her with a few Stars ninja acting as bodyguards. Her job was to kill her on the way back to Tsumeato.

From what she pieced together, if Maka died then the one to take her place as daimyō was her slimy little brother Utami. A fat pig with short green hair and blue eyes that spent his time partying and sleeping around with women. He lavished himself in riches and didn't have a care in the world. As the youngest and the so called spare, his parents had let him do whatever he wanted growing up, knowing his sister was the one to inherit the throne anyway. Seeing this, Danzo identified the weakness in the Kuma no Kuni court and planned to make Utami daimyō and then blackmail him into getting his ROOT agents easily in the country when needed.

Sakura sent the picture of Maka an apology as she closed the file. She wondered how many more lives she would have to ruin with her blood stained hands before she would be free.

...

Based on the information she gathered, Maka and her ensemble will take Relic Passage, through Giant's Forest rather than the more popular route through Sakata Road to avoid any potential danger. Little did they know, this choice would lead them to their death. Giant's Forest contained some of the tallest trees in the world, and it was the only other place in the world where you could find Hashirama trees. Nobody knows how they got there, as the First Hokage had been long dead when they appeared, but some theorize the forest was haunted by his spirit.

Regardless, the thick and tall foliage meant Sakura could perch on a branch and take out her target without being spotted. By the time the Hoshigakure ninjas realized their charge was dead, she would be long gone. She had to wait about three hours until they arrived. Maka could be seen in the center of a diamond formation, boxed in from all sides by 8 shinobi. Next to her were two maids and two regular guards. Channeling her chakra, Sakura began taking her mask off and doing the hand signs for Earth Release: Rock Gun Technique.

She spit out a single stone that traveled at high speeds and penetrated straight through Maka's skull. She was dead before she knew what happened. Panic began to overtake everyone, but Sakura didn't stick around to watch it. By the time anyone though to check the trees, Sakura was already out of the forest.

Making her way back to the Land of Fire, Sakura gave a small prayer to Maka's soul. May she reach the Pure Lands.