Root

**Root** (根, *Ne*, *English TV:* Foundation) was a branch of Grigori's Anbu training subdivision. It was disbanded after the death of its founder, Danzō.

## **Summary**

Root carried out missions that Danzō believed would benefit Grigori.

Because of its core views as "the unseen ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth", some of these missions were less than respectable, such as eliminating individuals that were considered potential threats simply for expressing their detestation for Konoha, despite not actually having done anything against the village.

The organisation's top priority was its secrecy, and most of its missions were carried out in the dark - autonomous of Grigori's authority.

Root was officially disbanded after the Uchiha Clan Incident due to Danzō spearheading the tragedy but remained active as an underground organisation until Danzō's death.

Despite Azazel's orders to disband the group, the members remained loyal to Danzō, his orders being the highest priority over even the Azazel's.

After Danzō's death and Root's actions came to light, the members were forced to scatter as they became pariahs, such as Tanuki Shigaraki.

However, after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Tsunade and Kakashi prevented background checks of the villagers, partially hoping to protect Root members from being further ostracised.

This allowed the likes of Kido Tsumiki and Magire to integrate into the regular Anbu forces.

However, as a result of the lack of investigations, Tanuki's daughter, Sumire Shigaraki, was able to infiltrate Konoha in a bid for revenge on how the Grigori shunned Root.

Root was an extremely strict and secretive group, and as such, each member of the organisation had a cursed seal imprinted on the back of their tongues by Danzō which, when activated, would paralyse their entire body if they tried to speak anything about Danzō or the organisation, rendering them unable to speak or move.

Sai noted that this was done in an effort to prevent an information leak should any of them be captured and interrogated by enemy forces. The seal disappeared after Danzō's death.

Danzō had also trained its members to lose their emotions by growing up as brothers from a young age, only to later be made to kill each other.

This was done to kill any sense of sentiment or emotional attachment.

This method was extremely similar, if not identical, to the Kirigakure Academy's former graduation test.

Each member had a codename; even the members themselves apparently did not know their original names.

Unlike normal Anbu, they carried a tip-less tantō instead of a katana.

Also unlike normal Anbu, members of Root took orders only from Danzō instead of the Kage, unless ordered to otherwise.

Another specialty of the organisation was slow, long-term brainwashing.

In the case of one of their members, Nonō Yakushi, she was brainwashed through a series of photographs starting with photographs of Kabuto — one of her former wards at orphanage showing him growing up.

Eventually, Root slowly switched the person in the photographs entirely and then gave Nonō the order to kill the actual Kabuto.

This resulted in Nonō not recognising the young man in their final confrontation.

Though the members wore the standard cloak and mask of the Konohagakure Anbu, they didn't have an actual standardised uniform like the others.

Underneath the cloak each Root member wore personal attire.

The only single distinguishing garment they all wore was a short, black, midriff jacket with red straps over the shoulders along with the tip-less tantō.

In the anime, despite the harsh training of Root, Danzō had never trained any member himself apart from Yamato, something which greatly shocked the other members when he announced it.