Chapter 610: Raging Danzo

“Wood Release: World of Trees Advent!” As Danzo Shimura rapidly formed hand seals, the large amount of Chakra within his body quickly transformed into Wood Release Chakra.

Bang, bang!! Centered around Danzo Shimura, a large number of trees continuously burst forth from the ground and rapidly grew, forming a small forest.

“Although it’s still not as good as the First Hokage, it should be enough to deal with Sōsuke,” Danzo Shimura said, a smug smile appearing on his face as he looked at the hundreds of large trees surrounding him.

After more than twenty days of training, his Wood Release had improved significantly.

This gave Danzo Shimura a feeling that he was a once-in-a-million Wood Release genius.

It wasn’t that Danzo Shimura was narcissistic, but that was simply the reality.

If it wasn’t his own talent, could it be because of “Uchiha Madara’s” experiment?

That would be too illogical; why would “Uchiha Madara” be so kind as to help him improve his strength?

Danzo Shimura now had a strange confidence, feeling that even without the sage art inheritance and Rinnegan, if he continued to train like this for another year, he could surpass Hiruzen Sarutobi in strength.

Of course, Danzo Shimura would certainly not let go of the sage art inheritance and Rinnegan; the more good things, the better.

After his training, Danzo Shimura returned to the Root Base and summoned all the Root Ninja in Konoha.

Now, there were only six days left until the agreed-upon assassination date. Root’s forces in other areas had all been deployed to the Land of Rain, leaving only the Root Ninja in Konoha on standby.

“Lord Danzo, everyone is here and ready to execute the mission at any time,” a Root Ninja reported to Danzo Shimura.

“Give this to Muzuki,” Danzo Shimura nodded, taking out a scroll and handing it to the Root Ninja.

The safest option would be to give Muzuki the mission right before he departed, but Danzo Shimura was worried that cutting the time too close would lead to unexpected issues.

If it were anyone else, it wouldn’t matter, but this time, his own safety was at stake, so he couldn’t be careless.

Then, Danzo Shimura selected the weakest newcomer to guard the Root Base, and subsequently ordered the Root Ninja to leave the village in batches and head towards the Land of Rain.

As for Danzo Shimura himself, he did not leave immediately but instead went to the Hokage Building.

He wouldn’t be able to appear in Konoha for the next few days, so before leaving, he had to show his face to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

He had been doing this for the past few days, showing his face to Hiruzen Sarutobi every four to six days to maintain his presence.

Danzo Shimura walked to the door of the Hokage Office, and as he was about to push the door open, his hand stopped mid-air.

Knock, knock. Danzo Shimura knocked on the door of the Hokage Office.

After all, they had been old classmates and comrades for so many years. Thinking about what he was going to do in the future, Danzo Shimura felt that he should give Hiruzen Sarutobi more respect now.

“Come in,” Hiruzen Sarutobi’s voice came from inside the office.

Danzo Shimura pushed open the wooden door and entered the Hokage Office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Danzo Shimura with some surprise. Hearing the knock, he had thought someone had come to report a mission, but he didn’t expect it to be Danzo Shimura.

“Danzo, what’s the matter? If it’s about the previous matter, you don’t need to say anything,” Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, putting down the documents in his hand.

Although knocking was a good habit, this was Danzo Shimura after all, and Hiruzen Sarutobi always had a premonition that an uninvited courtesy indicated ulterior motives.

“Of course not,” Danzo Shimura said, feeling a little displeased that his rare polite gesture didn’t receive a good response.

“It’s after work hours. I just wanted to see if you had finished your official duties. If you have, I’d like to invite you for a drink,” Danzo Shimura said indifferently.

Hiruzen Sarutobi showed a surprised expression, even more surprised than when he had first seen Danzo Shimura knocking on the door.

“My official duties are indeed almost done, but are you sure you want to invite me for a drink?”

Although Danzo Shimura was not born into poverty and had good strength, he also had no lack of earning potential, but Danzo Shimura was inexplicably frugal.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had never seen Danzo Shimura treat anyone to a meal.

This was uncommon among Ninja because Ninja had high incomes, and it was common to invite friends to dinner after missions.

Compared to the expenses of Ninja tools and training potions, treating someone to a meal really didn’t cost much.

“If you don’t want to drink, then forget it,” Danzo Shimura said, his face darkening as he turned to leave.

“Drink, of course I’ll drink,” Hiruzen Sarutobi agreed with a chuckle.

If anyone else invited him, Hiruzen Sarutobi would likely be too lazy to go, but Danzo Shimura’s invitation was something Hiruzen Sarutobi had to accept at least once.

Considering the implications, the two did not eat at a restaurant but instead had someone buy sake and snacks, and ate at Danzo Shimura’s house.

“Why did you think of inviting me for a drink today? Let’s agree now, no talking about work during dinner,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said leisurely, picking up a skewer from the bowl.

Danzo Shimura’s actions were a bit unusual, and Hiruzen Sarutobi felt that Danzo Shimura might be trying a different approach, to get his proposal approved over drinks.

“I just felt like inviting you,” Danzo Shimura said indifferently.

In the past, his reason for never treating others was simple: he didn’t want to spend money on others, and Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others weren’t short on money anyway.

As for why he was treating him today, Danzo Shimura couldn’t quite explain it; it was just a whim to treat Hiruzen Sarutobi to a meal.

Seeing that Danzo Shimura seemed to genuinely be just treating him to a meal, Hiruzen Sarutobi put down the unfinished skewer and picked up his sake cup.

“This is truly rare. Since becoming Hokage, it seems I haven’t had a drink with you and Homura,” Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed.

Hiruzen Sarutobi became Hokage in a time of crisis. For a long time after becoming Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi was so busy that he rarely went home, let alone had meals with friends.

Later, he wasn’t as busy, but by then everything was different. Hiruzen Sarutobi was Hokage, and Homura Mitokado and Danzo Shimura were elders and Hokage Assistants.

Although they were still friends, for various reasons, their way of interacting gradually changed, and they couldn’t joke and drink as freely as before.

“Hmph,” Danzo Shimura couldn’t help but let out a cold snort.

In his opinion, Hiruzen Sarutobi was completely being a hypocrite. If the position of Hokage were given to him, he would be willing to live in the Hokage Office every day.

“If our teacher hadn’t sacrificed himself back then, the outcome might not have been like this.”

Danzo Shimura felt that the situation at the time was too critical, causing Senju Tobirama to lose some judgment, which was why he directly appointed Hiruzen Sarutobi as the Third Hokage.

If it were a fair competition, he might not have lost to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

“Indeed, if our teacher hadn’t sacrificed himself, the current Konoha would be even more prosperous,” Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded and said.

Whether as Hokage or as a master of Ninjutsu development, the loss of Senju Tobirama was a huge blow to Konoha.

Seeing that Hiruzen Sarutobi had misunderstood his meaning, Danzo Shimura didn’t bother to explain and continued to chat desultorily.

“Hiruzen, sometimes you need to be more decisive. We are the strongest Ninja Village, and we should show our prestige.”

“Establishing prestige is necessary, but it shouldn’t involve assembling a large army to invade other countries.”

As they chatted, the two began to argue due to their differing political views. Neither of them compromised, both sticking to their own opinions.

Danzo Shimura believed Hiruzen Sarutobi was indecisive, while Hiruzen Sarutobi believed Danzo Shimura was too aggressive.

When the sake bottle was empty, Danzo Shimura immediately began to pack things up, silently announcing the end of their small gathering.

Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a wry laugh, stood up, and bid farewell.

After Hiruzen Sarutobi’s figure was out of sight, Danzo Shimura returned to the Root Base.

“I wasted eight hundred ryo,” Danzo Shimura thought, feeling that inviting Hiruzen Sarutobi was not as good as using those eight hundred ryo to buy something for Yamato to eat.

If he bought food for Yamato, at least Yamato would be grateful to him. Inviting Hiruzen Sarutobi for a drink only brought him annoyance.

At this time, there were only four Ninja in the Root Base. Besides the one Ninja left to guard the base, the remaining three were waiting for Danzo Shimura to depart with them.

Upon returning to the Root Base, Danzo Shimura went to a secret room.

“This time is too dangerous; one safeguard isn’t enough,” Danzo Shimura thought, taking out a box filled with an unknown liquid from a secret mechanism in the room.

Danzo Shimura quickly opened the box and pulled out a blood-red eye from it.

He was preparing to transplant a second Sharingan.

Because he was not from the Uchiha Clan, he couldn’t deactivate the Sharingan after transplanting it. Even though Danzo Shimura had mastered the Uchiha forbidden Ninjutsu, Izanagi, he had only transplanted one Sharingan.

Firstly, an active Sharingan would continuously consume Chakra, and secondly, if both eyes were transplanted, he would have to cover both, which would look too strange.

Now that he had transplanted Hashirama cells, Chakra was no longer an issue. Most importantly, the struggle with “Uchiha Madara” for the Rinnegan would be very dangerous, and Danzo Shimura wanted an extra layer of protection.

The transplant surgery was completed quickly. When Danzo Shimura opened his eyes, he felt better than ever before.

“Is there some connection between Senju and Uchiha? Why does transplanting the Sharingan feel like this now?” Danzo Shimura wondered.

When he transplanted one Sharingan, Danzo Shimura felt that he had gained a life-saving trump card while also adding a permanent negative status.

In terms of combat ability alone, with one Sharingan, he was weaker than before he transplanted the Sharingan.

But now, with Hashirama cells, he transplanted an additional Sharingan and actually felt stronger, which surprised Danzo Shimura.

He just wanted to increase his fault tolerance, but he didn’t expect to get a power-up.

“Lord Danzo,” a Root member handed him a specially made cloth strip.

Danzo Shimura didn’t think too much of it. He picked up the gauze and covered his eyes. These things could be studied later; the most urgent matter now was to obtain the sage art inheritance and the Rinnegan.

In terms of causing trouble, Danzo Shimura was very decisive and quickly led the Root Ninja to the Amegakure.

“Danzo, your eyes?” Hanzo noticed that Danzo Shimura was no longer wrapping his head and right eye with bandages but was instead covering both eyes with an opaque cloth.

“Just a minor matter, it won’t hinder our plan,” Danzo Shimura said calmly.

These Sharingan were his trump card; he wouldn’t reveal them until it was time to assassinate Sōsuke.

“There haven’t been any problems with Sōsuke, have there?” Danzo Shimura asked.

“He has agreed to the Chunin Exams viewing invitation,” Hanzo replied with a nod.

The event Hanzo chose to host was the Chunin Exams.

However, to minimize the impact, Hanzo did not hold a joint Chunin Exams; it was just a normal Chunin Exams.

“Now we just need to wait for Sōsuke to arrive in five days, and the plan can proceed as scheduled.”

“However, you Konoha have only sent so few people?” Hanzo looked around, observing the thirty Konoha Ninja around Danzo Shimura, and narrowed his eyes.

“Sometimes, a small number of elites are more effective,” Danzo Shimura said calmly.

This was all the Ninja Danzo Shimura could mobilize without alarming Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Some of these Ninja were not even registered Konoha Ninja; they were Ninja Danzo Shimura had trained outside Konoha.

“After all, Konoha is not like the Amegakure. Too much commotion at once would attract a lot of attention.”

Hanzo frowned slightly but didn’t say much.

He had no intention of using Konoha’s power to get rid of Sōsuke, so he wasn’t particularly concerned about the strength of Konoha’s forces. It was just Danzo Shimura’s words that made him a little unhappy.

Over the next few days, Danzo Shimura was not much different from when he was in Konoha.

Most of his time was spent researching Wood Release, and then checking for any oversights in the plan to encircle and kill Sōsuke.

When there was only one day left until Sōsuke arrived at the Amegakure, Danzo Shimura received two pieces of bad news.

The first bad news was that his Wood Release was improving slower.

Danzo Shimura could actually accept this; it might be due to absorbing too much knowledge recently, so it wasn’t a big problem.

The second piece of bad news was very upsetting to Danzo Shimura.

“Hayate Mugetsu actually messed up at this time!” Danzo Shimura exclaimed, looking at the information sent by the Konoha Root Ninja.

According to the plan, Muzuki was supposed to leave immediately after finishing his class today and rush to the Amegakure.

Given Muzuki’s strength, arriving at the Amegakure before midnight while traveling at full speed was not an issue.

This way, Muzuki would only need to take two days off for “rest” and could serve as his trump card in the Land of Rain to help him deal with Sōsuke and “Uchiha Madara.”

However, for some unknown reason, Muzuki was invited by Hiruzen Sarutobi to his home for dinner today, and Hiruzen Sarutobi was even going to explain Ninjutsu to Muzuki.

Given Muzuki’s persona as presented to Hiruzen Sarutobi, refusing this invitation would require a suitable reason.

Thus, Muzuki didn’t leave Konoha until 8 PM that night.

Danzo Shimura was furious. He could understand that a poor refusal could indeed expose weaknesses.

But no matter what, Muzuki had failed to complete his mission.

As a Root Ninja, everything should revolve around him, and no cost should be spared.

“I’ll reprimand him after this is over. At his speed, he should still be able to arrive before Sōsuke does,” Danzo Shimura exhaled.

To prevent such an accident, he had reserved some time for Muzuki. Even if Muzuki couldn’t arrive before the battle started, he would definitely arrive shortly after it began.

Danzo Shimura gradually calmed down. His plan was still under control.

PS:

Except for the time of the Second Hokage’s last stand, I noticed that Danzo Shimura almost always had bandages on his face, so I think he probably transplanted the Sharingan quite early as a life-saving resurrection token.

However, that Sharingan arm definitely isn’t from this period; it must have come after Orochimaru’s Hashirama cells research yielded results and the Uchiha Clan was annihilated.