Chapter 81: Danzou's Spirit of Sacrifice

Root base.

In Danzou's secret office, he pulled open a drawer and took out a glass bottle containing a swaying dark green liquid.

Pop.

The cap was opened, and a breath of pure chakra leaked out.

He rolled up his wide sleeve, revealing a heavy right arm; a sealing apparatus crafted from special Chakra Metal was locked tightly onto his bandage-wrapped arm.

The seal was undone, and the bandages fell away.

Danzou took a deep breath, stretching out his pale arm, which was covered in scarlet Sharingan, and revealed a look of relief.

"The Shodai's cells are too powerful; even the Sharingan cannot suppress them, and they require long-term sealing."

After the Uchiha clan was wiped out,

Danzou reached a deal with Orochimaru, and after a large number of human experiments, he finally transplanted ten Sharingan onto his right arm.

Including the eye previously gouged from Shisui, there were eleven in total.

Without the Uchiha Bloodline, transplanting Sharingan would cause a massive mental burden, so at Orochimaru's instigation, he fused Hashirama Cells into his right arm.

Although this allowed his physical energy and mental energy to reach a fragile balance.

It required constant maintenance afterward.

The glass bottle contained a potion concocted by Orochimaru, which could balance the Sharingan and Hashirama Cells, ensuring Danzou would not be devoured by the Hashirama Cells or crushed by the mental burden of the Sharingan.

However, this resulted in Danzou being unable to cut ties with Orochimaru.

Some time ago, he was even threatened by Orochimaru using the shortage of the potion, demanding the village's defense map.

Forced by necessity, he handed the defense map to the other party.

However, he had a spy lurking beside Orochimaru and had enough confidence that any movement by the viper hiding in the Sound Ninja Village would be detected by him; there would be no danger in the other party obtaining one defense map.

Furthermore, once the Chunin Exams ended, he would discuss changing the village's defense routes with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Orochimaru's schemes were destined to fail.

However, this matter had already touched Danzou's bottom line; he would never allow any incident that harmed Konoha to occur and must terminate the cooperation with Orochimaru as soon as possible.

Danzou thought to himself: "Laboratory No. 9 should be able to send good news soon, right?"

The experimental equipment and various data left behind after Orochimaru's defection were all quietly collected by Danzou and converted into a new laboratory.

Laboratory No. 9 was a secret base specifically for researching Hashirama Cells.

Most of the test subjects were death row inmates and bandits who disregarded human life.

Of course, when it involved potion injections that ordinary test subjects could not withstand and there were not enough wandering ninja, there would also be some ninja who suddenly went missing or died in the line of duty during missions.

Regarding this practice, Danzou had no psychological burden.

He snorted coldly and said: "I have already investigated; they were all people who had contact with ninja from other villages for various reasons and accidents while on missions but concealed it, and they did not have enough loyalty to the village."

Hearing the report from a Root member, the Elite Jonin Kakashi Hatake had actually let go of a female spy from the Land of Locks named Hanare who wanted to steal village intelligence, despite conclusive evidence.

How foolish, Hiruzen.

This kind of behavior of being unclear with ninja from other villages should be punished by having one's Sharingan gouged out and being thrown into prison.

As the leader of the village, you actually acted as if nothing happened; can someone like you really be entrusted with high hopes by the teacher to become a Shadow?

Thinking of this,

Danzou's emotions fluctuated violently, and even the Sharingan on his right arm began to spin crazily, with waves of numbness and stinging pain surging out.

He took out a syringe.

Most of the dark green liquid was injected into his right arm.

Clumps of muscle tightened, expanding like a balloon, and the pain made Danzou break out in cold sweat.

Two minutes later, the trembling muscles gradually fell silent, and the crazily spinning Sharingan also stopped, as if injected with a tranquilizer.

"Hoo."

Danzou let out a long sigh, nimbly wrapping the bandages and putting on the heavy sealing apparatus.

Everything returned to normal.

After the remaining potion was also locked into the drawer, Danzou tapped the table lightly.

A figure appeared quickly, kneeling respectfully on the ground.

Danzou lowered his eyelids slightly and asked: "Has the game merchant come to the village?"

"Yes."

The Root member's answer was very concise.

As the special Mobile Unit directly under Danzou, from the moment they became Root, they abandoned emotions and names, possessing only the will and mission to protect the village.

No past, and no future.

Danzou frowned and pondered: "Daring to appear openly, is it stupidity, or is there something to rely on?"

From the mouths of several players in the Shimura Clan, Danzou had vaguely made some speculations.

A game merchant from another world,

All abilities require the game to unleash their full power, and to bring them into reality requires very expensive Reward Points.

Possessing such terrifying abilities, the game merchant did not directly seize the ninja world, but instead chose to use the mode of games and transactions to slowly erode the money and Ninjutsu of the ninja world.

Does this mean that he also has to follow the rules?

That those various weird means have a very high price to be unleashed in the real world?

Once this speculation appeared, the idea of testing him could not be controlled.

Danzou said with a calm gaze: "Jackal, from now on you are not a ninja of Root, but a subordinate of Orochimaru lurking by my side."

A portion of Root ninja were children with good talent requested from Ninja Clans.

The other portion were seeds like Jackal, selected from orphanages and cultivated through slaughter.

The former, as a high-quality tool, naturally cannot be discarded as a pawn at will.

But tools like Jackal, whose strength barely reaches Chunin level, are as plentiful as one could want.

"Yes."

The voice of Jackal, who wore a mask, contained not a shred of emotion.

"I will undo your Cursed Seal, the Tongue-Sucker Root-Eater."

Danzou tossed him a bottle of blood-red potion and said, "Go kill the game merchant, force out his methods as much as possible; all of this is for the sake of the village, and at the critical moment, drink this potion."

This was an inferior potion once concocted by Orochimaru, which, after consumption, could frantically stimulate body cells, overdraw life force, and activate a state called Cursed Seal Mode.

It is just a pity that this state can only be maintained for a few short minutes before death occurs due to excessive consumption of life force.

With this potion, this attack operation can be framed on Orochimaru.

"Yes."

Jackal took the red potion, and his figure vanished from where he stood.

Danzou sensed Jackal's departure and sighed inwardly.

He was very clear that,

even if he were to take action personally, the probability of being able to kill the game merchant was nearly zero, let alone sending a Chunin to go and die in vain.

But this did not hinder his probing, and it could incidentally cause trouble for Orochimaru.

As for the lives of Root ninja?

From the day they joined Root, they had to disregard their own lives; supporting the great tree that is Konoha village from behind, they are the roots buried deep underground.

This is the will of Root.

If one day it required his own sacrifice, Danzou believed he would certainly not hesitate either.

That he was beaten to the punch by Hiruzen Sarutobi back then was absolutely not because of his own cowardice or timidity, but because the monkey was too cunning.

Bang.

Just at this moment, a Root secret scroll was transmitted out via Summoning Jutsu.

(End of this chapter)