Chapter 724: The crimes exposed, the innumerable Danzo (asking for monthly tickets)

B1 arena.

“Third round, contestant number nine Ay versus contestant number thirteen Makui!” the referee shouted.

Fourth Raikage Ay heard his name and strode onto the stage.

Makui had already prepared himself to face Fourth Raikage Ay, and quickly followed him onto the stage.

Although his opponent was the Raikage Candidate from the Village, as an elite member among the Hidden Cloud Village Jonin, Makui was not prepared to concede directly, but chose to fight seriously.

Even if he lost this way, he might still discover his shortcomings during the battle and thus improve.

“Battle start!”

As soon as the referee finished speaking, Makui burst forth with Chakra and charged forward.

During his sprint, Makui concentrated Chakra in his hands, and a large amount of lightning appeared in his palms, activating Makui’s hands and enhancing his physical strength.

Fourth Raikage Ay looked calm, his body suddenly erupted with a fierce blue light, and he easily caught Makui’s incoming hand blade.

Lightning Release Ninja Body Technique is prevalent in Kumogakure, and the Lightning Release Chakra Mode developed by the Second Raikage is the culmination of Lightning Release Ninja Body Technique.

A Ninja who has mastered Lightning Release Chakra Mode is superior to a regular Lightning Release Ninja Body Technique Ninja.

Bang!

Fourth Raikage Ay swung his left fist at extreme speed.

Although Makui noticed this and defended, Fourth Raikage Ay’s heavy Lightning Release fist still sent Makui flying, slamming heavily onto the ground.

Sizzle!

Crackling!

Lightning continued to flash across the battle arena; Fourth Raikage Ay’s attacks were not only fast but also very powerful. In just over a minute, Makui found it difficult to continue.

“What a youthful battle!”

Might Guy, watching the match, felt a surge of excitement as he saw this close-quarters Ninja Body Technique combat.

This was the kind of powerful opponent he wanted.

Thinking that it was already the third round of the preliminaries, Might Guy felt a bit regretful.

The third round was the final round of the preliminaries; victory automatically qualified one for the knockout stage.

If he wanted to fight Fourth Raikage Ay, he would have to see if they could meet in the knockout stage.

“Third round, contestant number twenty Might Guy versus…” the referee continued to read the match list.

Might Guy’s opponent in the third round was a Mist Village Jonin.

Might Guy did not use Eight Gates; he quickly defeated the Mist Village Jonin by merely using Rock Breathing.

“Compared to ordinary Taijutsu, Kumogakure’s Lightning Release Ninja Body Technique is superior,” Fourth Raikage Ay thought, withdrawing his gaze.

Might Guy was one of Konoha’s most famous geniuses of the new era, and since he was a Taijutsu Ninja, Fourth Raikage Ay took a brief look, but he didn’t pay too much attention.

Who wasn’t a genius? When his name as a genius spread throughout the Ninja World, Might Guy might not have even graduated from the Ninja Academy yet.

“Contestant number twenty Might Guy advances.”

After securing his spot, Might Guy left the B1 section and went to Area A to find his other Konoha companions.

Might Guy first went to the A4 section, which was where Kakashi and Rin Nohara were located.

When Might Guy arrived, Rin Nohara’s battle had just begun.

Might Guy scanned the contestants and saw that Obito and Shisui had also come.

After some discussion, they found that everyone except Asuma, who had encountered his own father, and Rin Nohara, who was still fighting, had successfully advanced to the knockout stage.

“Asuma-senpai is truly a pity,” Yamato said with regret.

If he hadn’t run into Hiruzen Sarutobi, it wouldn’t have been difficult for Asuma to enter the knockout stage with his strength.

“The rewards increased, and the competition became too great,” Obito sighed.

Originally, his idea was to win first place, but now Obito felt that reaching the top eight was already a great success.

After all, this Martial Arts Tournament, besides the Five Kage, also had many renowned masters from the Ninja World.

After Rin Nohara’s battle ended, the group returned to their hotel together.

…

At eight in the evening, Hiruzen Sarutobi was in his room, recalling his battle with Asuma, analyzing Asuma’s shortcomings displayed in the fight, and noting them down on paper.

Knock knock.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said.

“Lord Third, Lord Fourth wishes to see you,” an Anbu said, opening the door.

“I understand,” Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, then stood up and walked towards the door.

“Why is he looking for me at this hour? Has something happened?”

Hiruzen Sarutobi made a thoughtful expression and couldn’t help but quicken his pace.

He worried that the plan to assassinate Sōsuke had gone awry.

However, Hiruzen Sarutobi thought carefully; it shouldn’t be that serious.

After all, this was the Shinobi Sect’s headquarters; if something truly went wrong, there would definitely be a big commotion.

“Lord Fourth, Lord Third has arrived.”

Upon reaching Muzuki’s room, the Anbu knocked on the door and announced.

Muzuki walked to the door, opened it, and invited Hiruzen Sarutobi in, while the Anbu did not enter, standing guard at the door. “Muzuki, is there some urgent situation?” Hiruzen Sarutobi asked after sitting down.

“It is an urgent situation, but it’s unrelated to the plan here. The training team found some Root remnants of information within the base,” Muzuki explained.

“Root remnants of information!” Hiruzen Sarutobi was somewhat surprised, both astonished and curious.

Could the mystery of Danzo Shimura’s death finally be revealed?

Danzo Shimura had been dead for several years, but his death remained a mystery in Konoha.

No one knew why Danzo Shimura went to the Land of Rain, nor did anyone know why Danzo Shimura attacked Sōsuke.

“There’s quite a lot of content; please see for yourself.”

Muzuki handed several scrolls and documents to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded slightly, then eagerly began to examine these Root remnants of information that might contain the mystery of Danzo Shimura’s death.

He casually opened a scroll, and after two minutes of reading, his brow furrowed.

This was a classified document regarding Root’s Ninja training.

The number of Root Ninja was controlled, and to enhance Root’s strength, Danzo Shimura came up with a good method.

That was to cultivate multiple reserve members simultaneously, and after training was complete, a final test would be conducted. Only the one who survived could become a true Root Ninja.

“This Danzo, he always messes things up,” Hiruzen Sarutobi cursed.

Undoubtedly, this severely violated Konoha’s laws.

In Konoha, Ninja from the same Village killing each other was a grave crime, and Danzo Shimura actually forced his subordinates to kill each other. Just this one point would be enough to strip Danzo Shimura of all his positions and earn him a lifelong retirement package in Konoha’s prison.

Moreover, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not believe that such a training method could cultivate the Ninja Konoha needed.

This twisted and bloody training mechanism would never produce Ninja with The Will of Fire.

Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced at Muzuki, feeling a bit fortunate in his heart.

When Danzo Shimura thought of this training method, Muzuki had already completed Root’s old training process and was not harmed by this training mechanism.

Then Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up the second scroll, and after reading it, Hiruzen Sarutobi remained silent for a long time.

This was a record of the Hashirama cells experiment.

What did Danzo Shimura do in this scroll?

Stealing the First Hokage’s body tissue, stealing children from Konoha and nearby Villages for Hashirama cells experiments, and then taking them to conduct Hashirama cells experiments.

He’s crazy, Hiruzen Sarutobi’s first reaction was that Danzo Shimura had gone mad.

To recreate Wood Release, Danzo Shimura actually did such heinous things.

Konoha’s official channels had indeed conducted Hashirama cells experiments, but Konoha invited volunteers from the public for the experiments.

And because of the 100% mortality rate, the Hashirama cells experiment was quickly halted.

Hiruzen Sarutobi continued to look at the scrolls and documents.

After reading through the records of Danzo Shimura’s many evil deeds, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally found information related to the Land of Rain and Sōsuke.

The reason was simpler than he imagined: Uchiha Madara and Danzo Shimura conspired together to obtain the Rinnegan of Sōsuke’s disciple, and thus clashed with Sōsuke.

However, it was clear that Danzo Shimura underestimated Sōsuke’s strength and lost utterly.

In fact, at this point, Hiruzen Sarutobi no longer cared about the mystery of Danzo Shimura’s death; it wasn’t important.

Because Danzo Shimura deserved to die too much.

Just based on the things Danzo Shimura had done, even if Sōsuke hadn’t killed Danzo Shimura, Hiruzen Sarutobi would have personally locked Danzo Shimura in prison and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Looking at the silent Muzuki, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn’t know what to say.

Muzuki must have seen this information earlier than him, so what feelings did Muzuki have towards Danzo Shimura now? And what would he think of him?

Moreover, as a former Root member, was Muzuki truly only just finding out about these things now?

It was possible he wasn’t clear about top-secret matters like the Hashirama cells experiment, but Muzuki should have had some understanding of the training mechanisms.

Hiruzen Sarutobi’s thoughts were incredibly chaotic for a moment.

“I truly didn’t expect Danzo to have done so many heinous things in secret. It was my dereliction of duty,” Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed and said.

Whether Muzuki was aware of it now or not was irrelevant; what was important was that Muzuki had always done things beneficial to Konoha, always strived to develop Konoha, and truly made Konoha stronger.

As Hokage, that was enough.

The bigger problem was himself; as Hokage, he failed to discover Danzo Shimura’s crimes in time, which was an unforgivable mistake on his part.

If he had known about Danzo Shimura’s inhumane actions, Hiruzen Sarutobi would never have sought trouble with the Shinobi Sect for Danzo Shimura’s sake.

Sōsuke killing Danzo Shimura was essentially eliminating a scourge for Konoha.

“After we return, we will announce the news. We cannot let those who died because of Danzo die with grievances,” Hiruzen Sarutobi proactively stated.

His dereliction of duty was already great enough; if he were to conceal it further for the sake of his own reputation, how could he face the First Hokage and Second Hokage after his death?

“I have arrangements for that,” Muzuki nodded and replied.

Danzo Shimura had done too many terrible things in his life; even if he died early, his sins were more numerous than ordinary people could imagine.

Muzuki would not allow such a person to gain a good reputation just because he sacrificed himself early.

The reason it wasn’t revealed before was simply due to other considerations.

Hokage Assistant who sacrificed himself on a mission? Danzo Shimura doesn’t deserve it.

PS:

Double update today, another chapter coming, should be before midnight.

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