Chapter 119: I Shadow, You Regret

Danzo walked directly into the Hokage's office without knocking.

When Danzo entered, Hiruzen Sarutobi was standing before the huge floor-to-ceiling window of the Hokage's office, looking down over Konoha.

The Hokage Building was very tall, so tall that standing on it allowed one to take in the entire main district of Konoha at a glance.

"Hiruzen, is there something to discuss?" Danzo asked aloud.

Hiruzen Sarutobi turned around and nodded, saying, "Take a look at the documents on my desk."

Danzo walked over to the desk, picked up the materials, and began flipping through them. The name Hanyu Muyue immediately caught his eye.

Seeing Muyue's name, Danzo's eyes narrowed slightly, and a guess instantly flashed through his mind.

"I just warned him not to expose his identity, and he's already been found out. How incompetent," Danzo thought to himself.

But as an old actor, Danzo's expression did not change at all. He quickly finished reading the materials—there was nothing else in them, only some information about Muyue.

"Isn't it just a newly promoted Tokubetsu Jonin with outstanding teaching ability? Does it really need the two of us to confirm it together?" Danzo said calmly.

Since Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't spell it out, he would also pretend to know nothing.

Hearing Danzo's words, Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a laugh.

"Haha, Danzo, are you sure this is just an ordinary Tokubetsu Jonin?" Hiruzen Sarutobi grinned, staring intently at Danzo.

"Does he have some other special quality besides the strong teaching ability recorded in the documents?" Danzo continued to play dumb.

He would never voluntarily admit to having sent people to the Ninja Academy.

Hiruzen Sarutobi put his pipe into his mouth, puffed out a cloud of smoke, and said, "Danzo, there's no need to play dumb with me here. I know he's a Root member you trained in violation of the rules."

Then Hiruzen Sarutobi tossed another batch of documents to Danzo.

After reading them, Danzo's expression immediately changed drastically. These not only contained information on his secret training of Muyue but also details on the training of several other spies.

"How does he know?" Danzo was baffled, never expecting that his so-called spies were completely transparent to the Third Hokage.

Although Danzo had used the pretext of training for the ANBU to establish another ANBU, namely Root, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not stupid. He could not let Danzo's power expand infinitely, so he had restricted the number of Root members.

That was exactly why Danzo trained spies like Muyue—he wasn't allowed to do it openly, so he had to secretly train additional members.

"Everything I do is also to protect Konoha. With the number of Root members you've set, it's impossible to keep Konoha safe." Danzo not only refused to admit fault but instead tried to get Hiruzen Sarutobi to relax the restrictions on Root.

"Now that war is about to break out, Konoha needs more Root personnel to protect it. Hiruzen, don't tell me you think Konoha can stay out of it."

Danzo wanted to shift the topic from training additional members in violation of the rules to whether Konoha would be drawn into war and how to protect Konoha.

But Danzo was cunning. Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been Hokage for decades, was even more cunning. He understood Danzo's thoughts and was not fooled by his words. He tapped the desk and said:

"Let's put everything else aside for now. Let's discuss the matter of you training additional members in violation of the rules."

"There are five people in total here, three of whom are descendants of war heroes. How dare you lay hands on them, Danzo? Are you trying to destroy the Will of Fire in Konoha!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze turned sharp, and he stared at Danzo with a highly oppressive look.

So-called war heroes are ninjas who died in battle. For example, Muyue's deceased parents counted as war heroes.

Danzo said nothing. Normal children weren't so easy to trick and manipulate. A ninja descendant like Muyue usually wouldn't have poor talent.

"I was also training talents for Konoha." After thinking it over, Danzo offered a weak excuse.

"That Hanyu Muyue was promoted to Tokubetsu Jonin by you. Isn't he considered a talent?"

"Perhaps he would have been even more outstanding without your interference." Hiruzen Sarutobi said bluntly.

In his view, Muyue was indeed a worthy talent—outstanding teaching ability, a good aptitude for sealing techniques, decent Water and Fire Release, and very proper in his conduct.

"Muyue is not fit to stay in Root. Tomorrow, come to the Hokage Building and remove the curse mark on him." Hiruzen Sarutobi stated his ultimate goal.

Getting Muyue was his real objective today; reprimanding Danzo was incidental.

"What do you mean, Hiruzen? He's someone I spent effort training. I am the leader of Root." Danzo clenched his fists as he spoke.

Although Muyue was not a Root member he valued highly, having him taken away like this felt like someone else had picked the fruit after he had painstakingly planted the tree—infuriating!

"If you refuse, you will regret it." Hiruzen Sarutobi said calmly.

Danzo's face flickered with uncertainty, and he did not immediately respond to Hiruzen Sarutobi's words.

"Then what about the resources I spent on him?" Danzo spoke.

Sarutobi blew out a cloud of smoke and pointed at the documents on the table.

Danzo instantly understood Sarutobi Hiruzen's meaning: if you train them illegally, don't expect compensation.

Danzo took a deep breath and said coldly, "I'll come tomorrow."

After speaking, Danzo turned and left. When he reached the door, he spoke again: "Hiruzen, you'll regret this."

"I am the Hokage." Sarutobi Hiruzen reminded him from his chair.

Bang!

The wooden door of the office was slammed shut.

As soon as he left the office, Danzo's expression instantly returned to normal.

It was just one Tokubetsu Jounin being taken away; he might be annoyed, but definitely not particularly angry. The reason he put on such an enraged act in the office was simply to express his anger and make Sarutobi Hiruzen offer compensation.

Sarutobi Hiruzen did not want to compensate, but correspondingly, besides Muyue, he could turn a blind eye to the other four people trained illegally.

That was exactly the subtext of Sarutobi Hiruzen pointing at the documents on the table. So aside from Muyue, the two didn't discuss anyone else afterward.

The four besides Muyue would basically be defaulted as Root members from then on, but not on Root's official member list.

"Good thing A was not discovered," Danzo thought to himself.

When he saw the list of planted agents, Danzo's heart skipped a beat — he thought his hidden Wood Release ninja had been found.

As long as his Wood Release ninja wasn't discovered, even if all other agents were exposed, Danzo felt the loss wasn't too great. He believed in the power of Wood Release.

If he could just raise that Wood Release ninja to maturity, who would have the final say in Konoha in the future was still uncertain.

But on the way back to Root, Danzo still felt a bit angry. Just yesterday he had thought that after Muyue became a high-level officer at the ninja academy, he would have another area in Konoha where he could reach in. Yet today Muyue was directly taken away.

"Go summon Yoru to come over," Danzo instructed his subordinate after returning to Root's base.