Chapter 38: Provoking Shimura Danzo

Having persuaded Kurama Hidechi to accept the intelligence mission, the Rising Sun Organization's defense system was basically complete and could operate independently, free from Yamanaka Chujiu's direct leadership.

Yet Yamanaka Chujiu always felt there were countless details left to instruct, though fortunately, he restrained himself.

Since he had decided to entrust the Rising Sun Organization to the children, he had to let go decisively and not interfere too much.

Chujiu finally said to the five squad leaders: "I leave everything that follows to you all."

"I hope that when the war ends, Rising Sun will have grown strong enough to influence every aspect of Konohagakure and realize our dream of peace!"

The five children stood up, their right hands balled into fists against their chests: "Please rest assured, Leader!"

After saying goodbye to the children, Yamanaka Chujiu still felt uneasy in his heart.

After thinking it over, he concluded that the problem lay with that bastard Shimura Danzo.

Having delved into Danzo's mind several times, Chujiu had seen the evil in this man clearly, as well as the chaotic and disorderly logic of his thinking.

He could strike at the Akatsuki organization without reason, and he could just as senselessly abandon Yakushi Nonou.

Perhaps to turn the children into Root ninja, or perhaps because his brain couldn't shift gears, he viewed the children as a threat to Konohagakure; no one could be certain if Shimura Danzo would suddenly have a fit and strike at the Rising Sun Organization.

Yamanaka Chujiu thought for a while and sneered: "I can't be sure if Shimura Danzo will have a fit, but I can make sure he has no time to have one!"

Thanks to Danzo, that old iron, he had recently harvested quite a few Living Puppets.

With the help of the Living Puppets, he had mastered half of the secret bases of Root and had also figured out Shimura Danzo's patterns of activity.

Spending two days investigating seven or eight underground bases, Yamanaka Chujiu locked onto Shimura Danzo and waited silently for the right moment.

On the fourth day, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura found Shimura Danzo, which caught Yamanaka Chujiu's attention.

He soon discovered that after the three found Danzo, they scolded him severely.

Interesting, then let's make things even more interesting!

Yamanaka Chujiu's Thought Threads infiltrated the underground secret chamber, wound around Shimura Danzo with practiced ease, and skillfully stirred his emotions.

Shimura Danzo's emotions gradually rose; the pride he held onto in the darkness made him increasingly disdainful of his old classmates' questioning.

Mitokado Homura: "Danzo, the accounts for Root don't match up at all; where exactly have you been spending the money?"

Shimura Danzo: "That is a secret."

Sarutobi Hiruzen: "A secret? Even I cannot know?"

Shimura Danzo: "Hiruzen, you are a retired Hokage, not the sitting Hokage; you have no right to know."

Sarutobi Hiruzen: "You!"

Shimura Danzo: "You don't need to waste your time; in order to protect Konohagakure, I will not tell you!"

Utatane Koharu frowned: "Keeping secrets even from us, Danzo, how did you become like this?"

Shimura Danzo: "I have never changed; it is you who have changed!"

"Hiruzen, twenty years ago, the Second Raikage and our teacher met their ends at the same time; you and the Third Raikage took office simultaneously, and he didn't even have the courage to challenge you."

"Who could have imagined that today, you would actually intend to bow your head to the Fourth Raikage?"

"Have you ever thought that it is precisely your bowing that gave the Fourth Raikage Ai the guts to attack Konoha!"

"Homura, how long has it been since you were on the battlefield?"

"On the Nine-Tails Night, you did summon the courage to launch an attack on the Nine-Tails, but did you knock off a single hair of the Nine-Tails?"

"And you, Koharu! On the Nine-Tails Night, you didn't even dare to go out to fight!"

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura were driven mad with anger; they roared almost simultaneously: "Danzo, you didn't appear that night either!"

Shimura Danzo lifted his chin: "I was confronting the Uchiha Clan who were manipulating the Nine-Tails; the danger I faced was not something a mere Nine-Tails could compare to!"

Driven by his heightened emotions, Danzo truly convinced himself to believe it, so he proclaimed his own merits with righteous indignation.

Even though it was complete nonsense, his aura actually stunned the three old classmates, leaving their minds in a state of confusion.

System crash, restarting, reading original data...

Sarutobi Hiruzen was the first to react; he slammed the table and stood up, shouting angrily: "Utter nonsense!"

"If it were truly the Uchiha manipulating the Nine-Tails, if those three hundred-plus Uchiha ninja had hostile intent, you would have died without a burial place long ago!"

Shimura Danzo did not yield an inch: "Hiruzen, you actually think the Uchiha are loyal to Konoha? They are the inherently evil Uchiha!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen was even angrier: "You still have the face to repeat the teacher's words? Have you forgotten that Uchiha Kagami was your classmate?"

Shimura Danzo stalled; even with Yamanaka Chujiu stirring him with all his might, he could not shake the image of absolute kindness and friendliness left behind by Uchiha Kagami.

Danzo struggled for a long time before squeezing out: "Kagami is an exception."

A brief silence eased the tense atmosphere between the two sides, and Sarutobi Hiruzen lowered his voice: "Kagami is an exception, is Obito who sacrificed himself at Kannabi Bridge also an exception? Is Kagami's grandson Shisui also an exception?"

"When so many Uchiha are exceptions, it proves that the Uchiha are not beyond saving."

"Your hostility toward the Uchiha is not absolutely correct, Danzo; then are your secrets elsewhere necessarily correct?"

"You should think about it carefully!"

Having said this, Sarutobi Hiruzen stood up, and Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura followed him out.

The Third Hokage had already left, but he turned back to add: "Danzo, I—the three of us are waiting for your answer!"

Yamanaka Chujiu marveled inwardly; Sarutobi Hiruzen was worthy of being a twenty-year Hokage, his eloquence was remarkable, and his grasp of the atmosphere was spot on.

Even though Danzo's emotions were so agitated that they had torn the mask off, Sarutobi Hiruzen was able to forcibly salvage the situation, using the late Uchiha Kagami to calm the emotions down.

His retreat as a means of advance gave Danzo room to buffer and miraculously glued the torn mask back together.

The Konoha F4 remained in a state of conflict but without breaking.

But Yamanaka Chujiu did not feel disappointed; being able to hear the Konoha F4 tear their masks off once today proved that the previous stirring was successful.

Without the thorn in the heart left a few days ago, no matter how he stirred Danzo's emotions today, it wouldn't have made him tear the mask off.

Moreover, how can a broken mirror be made whole, and how can a torn mask be seamless?

Tearing the mask off is like domestic violence; there is only the first time and countless times after!

As long as Yamanaka Chujiu seized every opportunity and stirred Danzo unremittingly, the Konoha F4 would surely be broken into scattered sand by him.

It was a pity that he was about to head to the battlefield immediately, so there was no way to engage in high-intensity provocation.

He could only do the opposite and apply an encouragement buff to Danzo.

Yamanaka Chujiu let out a cold snort: "He got off easy."

After the three old classmates left, Shimura Danzo sat blankly in his chair, Hiruzen's final words circling in his mind.

With years of life as classmates and decades of fighting side by side, both Danzo and Hiruzen prided themselves on dedicating everything to Konohagakure, yet they held severely divergent views.

The bonds between them were impossible to sever and tangled beyond reason.