It's better to be a rebel ninja than to be a Hokage

Since the founding of Konoha, there have been three recorded incidents of enemy invasions of Konoha.

One of them is naturally the battle between the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara at the Valley of the End, which directly led to the death of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.

The second is the Nine-Tails Rebellion that occurred in Konoha on the night sixteen years ago.

And three years ago, Orochimaru, one of the original three ninjas, teamed up with the fourth Kazekage to attack Konoha with the combined forces of the Otogakure Village and the Sand Village.

Each of the above invasions caused serious damage to Konoha that took a very long time to heal.

During the first and second invasions, the First and Fourth Hokage both paid the price of their lives to control the enemy's damage to Konoha to the lowest threshold.

Even the third invasion of Konoha led by Orochimaru was successfully controlled by the third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen. It should have been that way, but Uzumaki Naruto took advantage of the chaos in Konoha and guided the One-Tail in the body of the Jinchuriki of the Sand Village and the Nine-Tail in Uzumaki Naruto himself, the third Jinchuriki of Konoha, to run wild and expand the damage to Konoha.

And now, Uzumaki Naruto, who defected from Konoha three years ago, actually took the lead in designing the fourth invasion of Konoha. The damage and threat to Konoha have far exceeded the previous three invasions related to Konoha.

The violent vibration caused by the explosion on the ground of Konoha was proof of this. Even in the headquarters of the "Root" organization built deep underground in Konoha and protected by heavy barriers, one could feel the astonishing shock.

Danzo Shimura, the elderly man who was one of the elders of the Konoha Advisory Council along with Koharu Utane and Enmi Mitokado, squinted his only remaining left eye, and remained calm and dozing despite the turmoil.

Beside Danzo Shimura, there were several Root ninjas who were dressed similarly to the Konoha Anbu and wore animal masks to hide their true faces, providing him with close protection.

"Danzo-sama... the enemy's attacks are becoming more frequent. Do we really not need to provide support?"

One of the Root ninjas felt the vibrations that were present all the time and finally couldn't help but ask out loud.

"Don't be too anxious. Don't underestimate Tsunade. She is not one of those useless female ninjas. Her summoning beast can save many people even in the current situation of Konoha. This is her duty as the Hokage. All we have to do is wait for the ninjas of the Hokage faction headed by Tsunade to cause sufficient damage to Uzumaki Naruto, and then I will seal him."

Danzo held the crutch in his left hand in front of him. His main means of dealing with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was still the Sharingan. If he acted too early, it would be very likely that the Sharingan in his right hand and right eye would be exposed to a large area.

Moreover, the Mangekyō Sharingan in Danzo's right eye, which originated from Uchiha Shisui and whose exclusive eye ability is called "Kotoamatsukami", is not a eye technique that Danzo can use continuously.

To take the Nine-Tails back from Uzumaki Naruto's body, he can only use "Kotoamatsukami" once.

If he fails, even if Danzo has implanted the cells of the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, into himself, it will take a very long time for him to accumulate enough eye power to release "Kotoamatsukami" again.

This is Danzo's most important secret, which even the third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen did not know.

He could not give a reasonable explanation for the source of the large number of Sharingan that Danzo possessed. He could suppress the rumors, but if the secret about the Sharingan was pointed out as a fact, it would affect his progress in winning over the surviving ninjas of the Hokage faction when he was impeached for dereliction of duty as the Fifth Hokage after the crisis in Konoha.

His right eye is not capable of performing "Bie Tianshen" on a large scale.

That's why Danzo was willing to remain patient, and all his forbearance was for the purpose of becoming Hokage.

Although Danzo had a premonition of the invasion of Konoha led by Uzumaki Naruto, he was surprised, like other Konoha ninjas, at how fast Uzumaki Naruto acted.

But Danzo quickly took advantage of this opportunity to gather the ninjas of the "Root" organization, retaining enough power for Konoha, with him as the leader, to prevent the other four major countries from coveting Konoha after the crisis.

Furthermore, this crisis was also an opportunity to destroy the reputation that the Sannin had accumulated over the years.

Whether it is Tsunade or Jiraiya, this crisis is destined to end in them losing the support of the people and the trust of the daimyos of the Fire Country.

After the crisis, Konoha was leaderless, and the only one left was Danzo, who had been active in Konoha's high-level circles since the time of the second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, and had decades of reputation and was qualified to become the new Hokage.

At that time, as long as the Nine-Tails is controlled again and facing the other major countries that have lost their tailed beasts, Konoha, which seems to be still strong but is actually weak, will be pushed to its true peak again.

All the plans are so beautiful and exciting.

But the man hiding in the darkness of Konoha and the darkness of the ninja world - Danzo Shimura, he knew very well that the plan was just a plan after all, and only by using any means necessary could the plan become a reality.

"Well, Sai... now tell me the information you got from Yamanaka Inoichi."

Danzo finally stopped pretending to sleep, he opened his left eye, and looked sinisterly at the pale-skinned black-haired boy who was kneeling on one knee in front of him with an obvious fake smile on his face.

The ninjas of the "Root" organization do not show their true faces and real names. There is only one situation where they take off their masks and have names, and that is when they receive orders from Danzo Shimura, prioritize Danzo Shimura's interests, and blend into the crowd to carry out espionage missions.

"I understand. The detailed information is in the scroll. As for the key points, I will simply tell you orally..."

A young ninja from the "Root" organization named Sai took out a scroll from his tool bag and handed it to Danzo, and summarized the information he had obtained from Yamanaka Inoichi to the other members of the "Root" organization.

"…The Sharingan that Uzumaki Naruto transplanted into his left eye was the eye that he had previously taken from Hatake Kakashi. Its pupil technique is of the same nature as the Flying Thunder God Technique that Uzumaki Naruto is proficient in, both of which are a kind of space-time ninjutsu."

Sai's words caused some commotion among the other ninjas of "Root".

But Danzo just silently used his left hand to flip through the more detailed written information handed to him by Sai.

Three years ago, shortly after the third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen was killed by Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi, who joined Akatsuki, briefly sneaked into Konoha.

At that time, the one who fought against Uchiha Itachi was Hatake Kakashi, who also had the Sharingan.

Kakashi, who only had an ordinary three-magatama Sharingan at the time, spent a lot of time and energy to evolve his three-magatama Sharingan into a Mangekyō Sharingan after feeling the terrifying power of Uchiha Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan.

The eye technique of his Mangekyō Sharingan is the space-time ninjutsu called "Kamui".

Not many people in Konoha knew this information, and Danzo happened to be one of them.

So Danzo was not surprised.

What he was concerned about instead was the battle between Uzumaki Naruto and the leader of the Akatsuki organization in the intelligence scroll given to him by Sai.

The intelligence scroll records in detail the information that Yamanaka Inichi obtained directly from the brain of the female ninja from the Hidden Rain Village who was brought back to Konoha by Jiraiya through the secret techniques of the Yamanaka clan.

Danzo had no doubt about Yamanaka Inichi's ability to gather intelligence. Yamanaka Inichi's terrifying control over the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques made him trusted and given high positions by the Fourth, Third and Now Fifth Hokage since the time of the Fourth Hokage.

The performance of Yamanaka Fuu, who used to belong to the "Root" organization and also came from the Yamanaka clan, also indirectly confirmed this for Danzo.

The intelligence that Yamanaka Inoichi discovered recorded in detail how Yamanaka Inoichi directly glimpsed through the mind of a member of the Akatsuki organization named Konan and saw how Naruto used the ability of "Kamui" when fighting against Akatsuki.

This is very important information. No wonder Uzumaki Naruto was so eager to implement the plan to invade Konoha.

But Naruto did not expect that his direct "beheading" operation against Yamanaka Inoichi still allowed Yamanaka Inoichi to survive by chance, and he successfully passed the information to the Konoha high-level officials.

This intelligence gap will greatly increase the Root organization's chances of winning against Uzumaki Naruto at the critical moment.

But Danzo didn't look as relaxed as one might imagine.

"That guy is indeed on guard against 'Otoamagami'."

After carefully reading all the information in the scroll, Danzo rarely showed an expression of feeling that he was having a hard time dealing with the enemy.

Of course, Danzo already had some speculations as to why Uzumaki Naruto was so keen on the Sharingan.

"Namikaze Minato...it was indeed a pity that he died."

Danzo put away the intelligence scroll, but stopped talking about Naruto. Instead, he suddenly changed his attitude and murmured a word of praise for the Fourth Hokage who had passed away many years ago.

Even if Orochimaru's will of fire had not been distorted, the position of the Fourth Hokage would probably have been entrusted to Namikaze Minato by Sarutobi Hiruzen.

He is a true genius. Danzo can even see the overlapping shadows of the First and Second Hokage in him.

In terms of strength, public opinion, coordination, political means, and inheritance of the Will of Fire, he had no shortcomings at all. At the time, he was only in his early twenties and even had a growth ceiling of several decades.

Even during the Nine-Tails Rebellion sixteen years ago, he still had enough strength left after the crisis was over. However, because he could not bear the reality of his wife Uzumaki Kushina being stripped of the tailed beast and dying alone, he chose to seal the Nine-Tails into his child's body and commit suicide with Uzumaki Kushina.

If Minato Namikaze had been more rational at the time, and had lived to the age of the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, the second God of Ninja might have appeared in the Ninja World.

However, although he had died long ago, he disrupted Danzo's plans for the Nine-Tails twice after his death.

In order to prevent the Nine-Tails from going berserk and to protect his children, the Fourth Hokage left enough backup plans in the Eight Trigrams Seal that sealed the Nine-Tails. Danzo also heard about this.

The Fourth Hokage's "backup plan" allowed Uzumaki Naruto to break free from the control of Kotoamatsukami twice.

After his first attempt to induce the Nine-Tails in Uzumaki Naruto to run wild and thereby influence public opinion to deny Sarutobi Hiruzen's attitude towards the Jinchūriki failed, Danzo was unable to attack Uzumaki Naruto again for a long time.

During the joint Chunin Exam three years ago, although Danzo and Orochimaru did not say it explicitly, they had a "tacit understanding" that did not affect each other's "cooperation", and Danzo finally got a second chance to attack Uzumaki Naruto.

Everything went well at first.

But in the end, the Eight Trigrams Seal that Uzumaki Naruto used to seal the Nine-Tails was reinforced again... allowing that guy to successfully defect from Konoha.

Apart from the fact that the Eight Trigrams Seal itself has other backup plans that only the caster, the Fourth Hokage himself, knows, Danzo really couldn't think of how Uzumaki Naruto was able to break free from Kotoamatsukami's control three years ago.

It was the unnecessary behavior of this Konoha hero that made Uzumaki Naruto a real trouble.

But this trouble won't last long.

Just like this violent explosion that shook even the ground beneath Konoha, there will always be an end.

"It looks like the attack on the ground has come to an end."

Danzo raised his head and looked upwards. The headquarters of the Root organization was a tall tower-style building with hollow cylindrical structures.

The apex of the vertical hollow is the entrance and exit of the ground.

"Next, it's Root's turn."

The roots that have taken root in the dark land are finally about to break through the soil and show themselves in the light.

But before that, we also need to prevent rats in the dark underground from tearing the rhizomes of the "roots".

But what reached Danzo's ears was not the squeaking sound of a mouse.

It was a shrill cry.

Like the sound produced by thousands of birds gathering together and singing at the same time.

Is it really possible that a bird flying in the sky could appear underground?

However, these chirping sounds were definitely not hallucinations.

Not only Danzo, but other Root ninjas also heard this sharp sound.

"Master Danzo, please step back!"

Sai, who was originally kneeling in front of Danzo, has stood up again. He didn't know when he pulled out a roll of pure white canvas and used a brush dipped in ink to decorate the canvas.

The lifelike beast was painted on the canvas in just a moment.

Ninja Technique·Super Beast Fake Painting!

The white tiger made of ink "came to life" on the canvas, transforming from a flat surface into a three-dimensional object, and pounced towards the source of the cry!

Where the chidori is singing is a black-haired boy wearing a white kimono.

He slowly raised the Kusanagi sword that was wrapped in lightning, and the dazzling lightning illuminated his scarlet eyes.

"I was still wondering why I couldn't see you, but I didn't expect you to come to me on your own initiative - Uchiha Sasuke."

Danzo looked at Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan with hexagram patterns on both eyes and couldn't help but sigh.