Chapter 604: Konoha destroys the Ninja Clan?

Danzo Shimura’s reaction was beyond Lord Hanzo’s expectations.

He had thought that his attitude towards the Root Ninja would be enough to make Danzo Shimura retreat.

But Danzo Shimura did not give up; instead, he personally came to the Land of Rain.

“Lord Hanzo, Danzo Shimura wishes to see you,” a Rain Ninja Anbu reported.

Lord Hanzo frowned. Danzo Shimura’s initiative was a bit too abnormal.

He had only left the Root Ninja waiting for a few days, and as a result, Danzo Shimura personally came to the Land of Rain. Given Danzo Shimura’s status, this should not have happened.

“Bring him in,” Lord Hanzo said.

Danzo Shimura was, after all, the Hokage Assistant who could represent Konoha.

Even if he felt annoyed just hearing Danzo Shimura’s name now, he couldn’t treat Danzo Shimura like an ordinary Konoha Jonin.

The Rain Ninja Anbu nodded, quickly left the office, and soon brought Danzo Shimura into Lord Hanzo’s office.

After bringing the person in, the Rain Ninja Anbu silently exited the office and closed the door.

Lord Hanzo looked at Danzo Shimura with an expressionless face.

Danzo Shimura’s face was somewhat gloomy, his slender eye, not covered by bandages, stared at Lord Hanzo.

Lord Hanzo was displeased, and Danzo Shimura was equally displeased.

The ambush and killing of Sōsuke to obtain the Rinnegan was an action he kept hidden from Hiruzen Sarutobi. The longer he operated outside, the more likely he was to be discovered by Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Danzo Shimura had originally planned to come to the Land of Rain only when the plan was just short of the ambush, but Lord Hanzo’s attitude forced him to come early.

“May I ask what brings Assistant Danzo to the Amegakure?” Lord Hanzo asked indifferently.

Danzo Shimura was, after all, the Hokage Assistant. Lord Hanzo couldn’t really fight him.

Unless Lord Hanzo was prepared for a war with Konoha.

“Of course, I’m here to help you, Lord Hanzo,” Danzo Shimura replied, his expression softening considerably.

Danzo Shimura felt that he was indeed helping Lord Hanzo. If he were Lord Hanzo, the Shinobi Sect would never have survived to be established; it would have been wiped out during its travels in the Land of Rain.

What travels and lectures? Danzo Shimura only saw Sōsuke’s followers growing in number and his reputation expanding.

“Oh?” Lord Hanzo looked at Danzo Shimura with some confusion.

To help him? To help him die sooner?

“The Amegakure is in danger,” Danzo Shimura sighed.

“What makes you say that?” Lord Hanzo asked.

He wanted to see what tricks Danzo Shimura was trying to pull.

“Sōsuke is a wolf with ambitions, using various means to raise the Shinobi Sect’s reputation. Now, when many Ninja mention the Land of Rain, they no longer think of you, the Demigod, or the Amegakure, but rather Ninja Master Sōsuke and the Shinobi Sect,” Danzo Shimura continued.

“If this continues, the Shinobi Sect will gradually erode the Amegakure’s living space, eventually replacing the Amegakure and turning it into dust in history.”

Danzo Shimura was not talking nonsense. Ninja do not engage in production, so where does their money come from?

There are two main sources: one is military funds provided by the Daimyo, and the other is commissions issued by clients.

If the Shinobi Sect siphoned off the Amegakure’s commissions, then the decline of the Amegakure would be inevitable.

“Thank you, Danzo, for your warning. I am already prepared to compete with the Shinobi Sect, and I believe our Rain Ninja of the Amegakure will not lose to the Ninja of the Shinobi Sect,” Lord Hanzo said, feigning an air of being well-prepared.

Could the Amegakure truly compete with the Shinobi Sect? Lord Hanzo wasn’t very confident.

Sōsuke was younger than him, and Sōsuke also had Nagato, the Ninja World’s greatest genius, under him.

Nagato alone could ensure that the Shinobi Sect would not fare too badly for the next forty years.

Danzo Shimura’s narrow eyes slightly narrowed. This Lord Hanzo was not very cooperative.

However, Danzo Shimura also had some psychological preparation. If it were that simple, he wouldn’t have needed to come personally.

“Lord Hanzo, you are an upright person, but Sōsuke may not compete fairly with you. As far as I know, the Shinobi Sect has close ties with Iwagakure,” Danzo Shimura prepared to give Lord Hanzo one last chance.

If Lord Hanzo still didn’t agree, then he would have to directly state the matter.

“Is that so? As far as I know, Sōsuke’s character isn’t bad,” Lord Hanzo retorted.

Sōsuke was more than just not bad; he could earn the admiration of a large number of Rain Ninja even when the Rain Ninja and Shinobi Sect had grievances.

Upon hearing this, Danzo Shimura realized that his worst fear had come true.

The Shinobi Sect’s strategy of mending relations had worked. The current Rain Ninja and Shinobi Sect were not as antagonistic as they once were.

This further confirmed the correctness and necessity of Danzo Shimura’s plan.

If the Rain Ninja and Shinobi Sect united, they might indeed create a force capable of threatening the Great Shinobi Villages.

“That’s just the surface you see,” Danzo Shimura refuted Lord Hanzo’s rebuttal.

“The crisis of the Amegakure is not only in its competition with the Shinobi Sect but also in the Land of Rain itself.”

“Lord Hanzo, you don’t want the Land of Rain to relive the scenes of the last Shinobi World War, do you?” Danzo Shimura said sinisterly.

Whoosh!

Clatter!!

Lord Hanzo’s Chakra erupted, and a powerful, terrifying aura rapidly climbed to its peak, stirring up a gust of air that blew the papers off Lord Hanzo’s desk.

“Danzo Shimura, what do you mean?” Lord Hanzo’s gaze became extremely sharp, as if it wanted to pierce through Danzo Shimura’s body.

The Second Shinobi World War was Lord Hanzo’s greatest pain in his life. He wanted to seek more benefits for the Land of Rain, wanting to lead the Land of Rain to break the order of the Five Great Nations.

But he overestimated the strength of the Amegakure and underestimated the strength of those Great Shinobi Villages.

Ultimately, this led to the Land of Rain being devastated, the entire country engulfed in war, not only failing to develop but becoming even more backward.

Before the defeat in the Second Shinobi World War, the entire Amegakure was filled with Lord Hanzo’s fans, most of whom were fervent admirers.

After the defeat, however, the Amegakure saw quite a few rogue Ninja, which clearly showed the impact of the Second Shinobi World War on the Land of Rain and the Amegakure.

Danzo Shimura’s words truly touched Lord Hanzo’s bottom line.

“Heh heh,” Danzo Shimura sneered inwardly, not caring about Lord Hanzo’s terrifying, murderous aura.

His current power and status were also earned through his own struggles. Who wasn’t a Ninja who emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood on the battlefield? How could this scare him?

“What the Shinobi Sect has done has already touched Konoha’s bottom line. It is a threat that Konoha must eliminate, and during the elimination process, some unavoidable destruction will inevitably occur,” Danzo Shimura said in a deep voice, as if the Shinobi Sect had done something unforgivable.

The Shinobi Sect had touched his bottom line as the Hokage Assistant, which by extension, also touched Konoha’s bottom line.

Lord Hanzo frowned deeply. Danzo Shimura’s words were too harsh, and his tone was as if Konoha would send Ninja troops to eliminate the Shinobi Sect in a few days.

This was a bit beyond Lord Hanzo’s expectation. What had the Shinobi Sect done to make Konoha want to destroy it so badly?

Due to Danzo Shimura’s words and identity, Lord Hanzo subconsciously took Danzo Shimura’s attitude as Konoha’s attitude.

After all, Danzo Shimura, a high-ranking Konoha official, couldn’t possibly act in Konoha’s name for some personal matters, could he?

“What did the Shinobi Sect do?” Lord Hanzo couldn’t help but ask.

He was truly curious about what the Shinobi Sect had done to Konoha.

With Sōsuke’s character and wisdom, would he offend Konoha without reason?

“That involves Konoha’s secrets. I can only tell you it’s related to Iwagakure,” Danzo Shimura replied, acting like a riddle-speaker.

He couldn’t help but be a riddle-speaker; he couldn’t just say it was for Sōsuke’s sage art inheritance and Nagato’s Rinnegan, could he?

Moreover, bringing in Iwagakure would turn it into a confrontation between two Great Shinobi Villages, which would be difficult for Lord Hanzo to verify.

“Iwagakure…” Lord Hanzo showed a thoughtful expression.

Earlier, when Iwagakure stepped in as a mediator to facilitate peace talks between the Shinobi Sect and the Amegakure, Lord Hanzo felt that Iwagakure was plotting something. Later, Iwagakure and the Shinobi Sect remained close for so long, so it was normal for there to be something between them.

“Is it related to the war in the Land of Grass?” Lord Hanzo recalled the major battle between Konoha and Iwagakure in the Land of Grass a while ago.

Both sides won one battle, but in the end, Konoha still had the upper hand and drove Iwagakure out of the Land of Rain.

If it involved participation in a war between great nations, then Konoha’s attitude would make sense, as this was one of the things the Five Great Ninja Villages feared most.

“Since it’s a conflict between the Shinobi Sect and Konoha, what does it have to do with my Amegakure?” Lord Hanzo asked after some thought.

Danzo Shimura had said so much, but none of it involved his Amegakure.

The Shinobi Sect and the Amegakure were, at least, in a cooperative relationship. Even if the Shinobi Sect were truly caught in the great power struggle, the Amegakure would, at most, not help, rather than help Konoha step on the Shinobi Sect.

Danzo Shimura sighed, acting like a peace-loving person:

“I know, Lord Hanzo, that you are a Ninja who loves peace, and the Land of Rain is also a country that loves peace. To plunge such a country into war is not something I wish to see either.”

“Therefore, I argued vehemently and secured a plan that is more beneficial to both sides: only the ringleaders will be punished.

Aside from Sōsuke and Nagato, all others can be considered Ninja who were misled by Sōsuke, and Konoha will spare them.”

“The condition is that the Amegakure must help Konoha kill Sōsuke.”

Actually, Danzo Shimura’s initial idea was to have Root Ninja disguise themselves as Shinobi Sect Ninja to attack and kill Rain Ninja, then disguise themselves as Rain Ninja to attack and kill Shinobi Sect Ninja, provoking conflict between the two sides and then luring Lord Hanzo to ambush Sōsuke.

This was a common tactic for Danzo Shimura to instigate conflict.

However, upon careful consideration, Danzo Shimura realized that this plan was not applicable to the current Shinobi Sect and Amegakure.

The Amegakure and the Shinobi Sect were Ninja forces within the same country and had signed a friendly cooperation treaty. If the deceased were not important figures, both sides would definitely remain calm and cross-reference information first.

But killing important figures wouldn’t work either, because the Shinobi Sect had too few powerful Ninja, and the Land of Rain was too small, making it difficult to carry out disguised framing.

Furthermore, if something happened between the Shinobi Sect and the Amegakure, and Danzo Shimura immediately showed up, Lord Hanzo, if he wasn’t foolish, would certainly become suspicious.

If Danzo Shimura had enough time, this plan could also work. Given Danzo Shimura a year or two, he could definitely arrange it flawlessly.

But “Uchiha Madara” gave him too little time to act.

That’s why Danzo Shimura resorted to the tactic of exerting pressure, using Konoha’s deterrence to threaten Lord Hanzo with war, stating that if he didn’t want the Land of Rain to become a battlefield, he should join him in killing Sōsuke.

This plan, as long as it wasn’t discovered by Hiruzen Sarutobi, was also a rather perfect one.

“Kill Sōsuke, and the Land of Rain can avoid war…” Lord Hanzo understood Danzo Shimura’s meaning.

However, Lord Hanzo was not naive enough to think this was a benefit Danzo Shimura had secured for them. He only felt that Konoha didn’t want to expend too much power.

Sōsuke represented the present of the Shinobi Sect, while Nagato was its future. If both of them died, there wouldn’t be much difference between that and the Shinobi Sect being directly annihilated.

It wasn’t that Lord Hanzo looked down on Kakuzu; Kakuzu truly couldn’t compare to Sōsuke, whether in terms of strength or other aspects.

“Lord Hanzo, you haven’t forgotten the humiliation Sōsuke inflicted upon you, have you? After Sōsuke dies, everyone will only remember the living Demigod Lord Hanzo, not the deceased Ninja Master Sōsuke,” Danzo Shimura reminded him indifferently.

Now, Lord Hanzo no longer had the reputation of a Demigod. When Lord Hanzo was mentioned, people thought of Sōsuke, and of the Fire Dragon Dance, known as the strongest Fire Release.

Lord Hanzo said nothing.

Did Sōsuke bring him humiliation? Probably so. Thanks to Sōsuke, Ninja throughout the Ninja World knew that he, Lord Hanzo, had been defeated by an opponent with a reverse affinity.

Would Lord Hanzo agree to Danzo Shimura’s ambush of Sōsuke because of this? Yes, but not much.

It was impossible for him, the great Demigod Lord Hanzo, to have no resentment towards Sōsuke after falling to such a state.

But the lingering pride in Lord Hanzo’s heart made it impossible for him to blame everything on Sōsuke.

Did he lose to Sōsuke because Sōsuke used dirty tricks? No, it was because his own strength was inferior to Sōsuke’s.

Even the reason for fighting Sōsuke stemmed from a misunderstanding caused by his own misjudgment.

How could Lord Hanzo possibly blame everything on Sōsuke, and how could he harbor an all-consuming killing intent towards Sōsuke?

“Without Sōsuke, not only will Konoha not attack the Land of Rain, but the Land of Rain can also avoid civil war. This is a rare opportunity for peace,” Danzo Shimura continued to threaten and entice.

Danzo Shimura didn’t even know what Lord Hanzo was hesitating about. If he put himself in Lord Hanzo’s shoes, he would definitely agree.

His coveting of the Rinnegan and sage art inheritance was true, but this matter was indeed beneficial to the Amegakure.

“This is a serious matter. I need some time to think it over and discuss it with other high-ranking officials,” Lord Hanzo finally replied. He neither agreed nor refused.

Lord Hanzo’s request was reasonable, and Danzo Shimura did not refute it. But to prevent Lord Hanzo from being indecisive and unable to make a decision, Danzo Shimura said meaningfully:

“Although my plan has been approved, there are still high-ranking officials who have objections. If too much time passes, I cannot guarantee what might happen.”

A threat, almost undisguised.

Lord Hanzo looked deeply at Danzo Shimura, saying nothing.

The defeat in the Second Shinobi World War had taught him the power of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

Danzo Shimura was arrogant, but he indeed had the capital to be arrogant. Among the powerful Five Great Ninja Villages, Konoha was also the strongest.

After Danzo Shimura left, Lord Hanzo pompously convened a meeting of Rain Ninja high-ranking officials.

However, he did not mention Sōsuke’s matter at the meeting but made other resolutions.

When making the most important decisions, Lord Hanzo always decided alone.

At night, Lord Hanzo disguised himself and left the Hidden Rain Village.