Chapter 39: Konoha's Material Deficit

At some unknown moment, a new voice appeared in the heart of Shimura Danzo.

That voice seemed to possess infinite power, growing louder and louder, until in the end, it was like a giant roaring in anger.

That voice was saying:

"They all want to see you lose, but you must win just to show them!"

"Even if all of Konoha, or even the entire Ninja World denies you, you must not deny yourself!"

"You can lose to others, but you must never lose to yourself."

"Everyone is waiting for you to fall; that is the very reason you must stand firm!"

The voice itself was powerful, but the power of the words was even greater.

Shimura Danzo felt a shock that originated from his very soul.

He listened to these few sentences over and over again; all his self-doubt melted and evaporated like ice under a scorching sun, disappearing without a trace.

Shimura Danzo had never been so resolute; he stood up solemnly, and toward the direction where Sarutobi Hiruzen had left, as well as toward his own heart, he said:

"I am not wrong!"

Yamanaka Chujiu borrowed words from Professor Ai to cast a powerful buff on Danzo.

Shimura Danzo was known as the "Darkness of the Ninja," the Darkness Walker of Konohagakure; when he heard these incredibly correct and inspiring words, it naturally triggered a resonance in his heart, and he took the initiative to engrave them within himself.

This was the Thought Seal that Yamanaka Chujiu had cleverly designed specifically for Shimura Danzo.

Danzo was a bad seed; after committing all sorts of evil deeds, it was inevitable that he would doubt himself, which is why he always kept "I am doing this for Konoha" on his lips.

Encouraged by the most positive words, his heart became firm, making it almost impossible for him to be persuaded by Sarutobi Hiruzen again.

This excessive firmness turned Danzo into a hedgehog with raised quills, pricking his three old classmates who wanted to huddle together for warmth until they were in pain all over, forcing them to keep their distance.

But the dire situation forced them to huddle together, only to be pricked until they could no longer bear it.

Such back-and-forth tugging would greatly consume Shimura Danzo's energy, making his schedule tight and his work more difficult.

He would be so busy using all his time for work that he would have no spare time to commit evil.

Moreover, once this state of tugging lasted for a long time, the Konoha F4 would get used to the distance between them and get used to the state of no longer huddling closely together.

When the Konoha F4 huddled closely together, they were the strongest political group in Konohagakure, the Third Hokage Group.

But when they could not huddle closely, they were nothing more than two aging Shadow-level Ninja and two aging, cowardly Jonin.

By the time the war ended, Yamanaka Chujiu would surely have become stronger, while these four old things would have weakened drastically; perhaps the reversal of the offensive and defensive positions would happen then.

When that time comes, would Yamanaka Chujiu dare to hold a public rally?

Would he dare to give a speech in a beer hall?

Heh!

But his greatest gain today was the mind control over Shimura Danzo.

From the first time he took action against Shimura Danzo, out of wariness for a Shadow-level Ninja, Yamanaka Chujiu had been exceptionally careful and cautious, provoking Danzo's own emotions according to Danzo's own thoughts.

After several attempts, he discovered that this method of stroking the fur in the right direction to provoke emotions was effective, so today he boldly tried a new method.

Following his own understanding and transcending Shimura Danzo's cognition, Yamanaka Chujiu instilled more powerful language into his mind.

Shimura Danzo actually accepted the external language and took the initiative to interpret it as a leap in his own cognition, becoming exactly what Yamanaka Chujiu wanted him to be.

This was a crushing of intelligence, a transcendence of human nature, and a condescending look from above, bringing Yamanaka Chujiu an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

With his thoughts clear and his mind refreshed, Yamanaka Chujiu left.

But his good mood only lasted for a very short time, because he followed the Root ninja who were connected to Sarutobi Hiruzen, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura.

Through the ears of these Root ninja, Yamanaka Chujiu heard the whispers of the three Konoha high-ranking officials and obtained incredible intelligence.

In short, there was a huge deficit in the warehouses of Konohagakure.

Tens of thousands of Kunai, over a hundred thousand Shuriken, one hundred thousand Explosive Tags, as well as large amounts of food, medicine, bandages, and other supplies that existed on the ledgers did not exist at all in the actual warehouses.

Even the warehouses themselves did not exist!

Because the corrupt ninja's methods were crude, the investigation quickly caught most of the parasites and recovered quite a bit of the stolen money.

The problem was that the war had already started, and the money could no longer be immediately turned into weapons, food, medicine, and equipment; many purchasing channels had been cut off by the war.

Even if things could be bought, all prices were skyrocketing, and the recovered stolen money could not even buy half the amount of the original supplies.

Sarutobi Hiruzen racked his brains and managed to get another war budget from the Daimyo, but it was still far from enough to cover the deficit.

He was truly driven to a dead end, which is why he wanted to cut expenditures in various departments of Konohagakure to squeeze out some funds.

As a result, he investigated Shimura Danzo's Root and found a large amount of expenditures with unknown destinations.

Root was, after all, just a training department under the Anbu, but upon checking the accounts, it was discovered that the funds with unknown destinations alone were more than the entire expenditure of the Anbu.

In normal times, money in Konohagakure flowed like a great river, so Sarutobi Hiruzen could naturally tolerate it; after all, it was Shimura Danzo's department, and since he did so much dirty work, it was completely understandable that the accounts were unclear.

But these were not normal times; the war had already begun, and Konohagakure was so short of money that they were jumping with anxiety—how could he tolerate this now?

So Sarutobi Hiruzen pulled his two old classmates along and went straight to the Anbu, intending to force Shimura Danzo to cough up some funds.

The three of them rushed to Root aggressively, but not only did they not get a single cent back, Shimura Danzo instead ridiculed all three of them.

Because of Shimura Danzo's unexpected outburst, the three of them did not even have the chance to state the truth in person, and could only pass on their real demands on the way back through the ears of the Root ninja.

Thus, this intelligence fell into the hands of Yamanaka Chujiu.

Yamanaka Chujiu did not keep the intelligence to himself and turned to tell Orochimaru.

To his surprise, he found that Orochimaru was not surprised at all: "When the teacher held onto power and wouldn't let go, I knew there would be such a day."

"Fortunately, their methods of embezzling funds were too poor; not only did they fail to make up for the deficit in time, but they were also caught red-handed by Teacher Sarutobi."

"They deserve to die."

Orochimaru's meaning was very clear; he was also one of those who embezzled public funds, but his technical level was very high—the money was obtained, and the things the village needed were not lacking, so it was impossible for anyone to discover it.

But he didn't say so much just to show off to his student, but to pass secret intelligence to his student.

Yamanaka Chujiu couldn't help but grit his teeth; he hated riddlers who hid things when they spoke the most, but since this was the teacher he had formally kowtowed to, he had to take it no matter how much he hated it.

So he asked, "Teacher Orochimaru, just tell me what you want me to do."

Orochimaru laughed with a hoarse voice.

His smile was very satisfied.