Chapter 604: Konoha's Eradication of the Ninja Sect?
Chapter 604: Konoha's Eradication of the Ninja Sect?
Danzo Shimura's response took Hanzo by surprise.
He had expected his dismissive attitude towards the Root ninja to deter Danzo from pursuing this matter further.
However, Danzo did not back down; instead, he traveled to the Land of Rain himself.
"Lord Hanzo, Danzo Shimura is here to see you," reported a Rain ninja from the intelligence division.
Hanzo frowned. Danzo's persistence was bordering on abnormal.
He had only intended to stall the Root ninja for a few days, yet Danzo had taken it upon himself to come to the Land of Rain. This was uncharacteristic of the Konoha elder.
"Show him in," Hanzo said.
After all, Danzo Shimura was a representative of Konoha's Hokage and his assistant.
Even though the very mention of Danzo's name irritated him, he couldn't treat Danzo like an ordinary Jonin from Konoha.
The Rain ninja nodded and quickly left the office, soon returning with Danzo Shimura in tow.
After escorting Danzo inside, the Rain ninja quietly exited the office and closed the door behind him.
Hanzo regarded Danzo with an expressionless face.
Danzo's face was somber, and his narrow eye, not concealed by bandages, fixedly stared at Hanzo.
Hanzo felt annoyed, and so did Danzo.
The ambush on Sosuke to obtain the Rinnegan was a covert operation Hanzo had kept hidden from Hiruzen Sarutobi. The longer he stayed away, the greater the chance that Hiruzen would discover his actions.
Danzo had originally planned to wait until just before the attack to come to the Land of Rain, but Hanzo's attitude forced him to come earlier than intended.
"May I ask why Assistant Danzo has come to the Rain Ninja Village?" Hanzo inquired in a neutral tone.
After all, Danzo was the assistant to the Hokage, and Hanzo couldn't very well start a fight with him.
Unless, of course, Hanzo was prepared to go to war with Konoha.
"Of course, I'm here to help you, Hanzo," Danzo replied, his face softening considerably.
Danzo genuinely believed he was helping Hanzo. If he were in Hanzo's position, he would have eradicated the Ninja Sect before it even had a chance to form. He would have crushed it during his tour of the Land of Rain.
Danzo saw through Sosuke's so-called educational travels. All he saw was Sosuke amassing more followers and growing in fame.
"Oh?" Hanzo's gaze at Danzo held a hint of confusion.
Help him? Help him pass away sooner?
"The Rain Ninja Village is in grave danger," Danzo sighed.
"What makes you say that?" Hanzo asked.
He was curious to see what kind of game Danzo was playing.
"Sosuke has grandiose ambitions," Danzo continued. "He is using all sorts of means to boost the Ninja Sect's reputation. Nowadays, when many ninjas think of the Land of Rain, they no longer think of you, a demigod, or the Rain Ninja Village. Their thoughts turn to Ninja Master Sosuke and the Ninja Sect."
"If this continues, the Ninja Sect will gradually erode the Rain Ninja Village's livelihood, eventually replacing it and reducing the Rain Ninja Village to a mere footnote in history."
Danzo wasn't just spouting nonsense. Ninjas didn't engage in production, so where did their money come from?
There were two main sources: military funding provided by feudal lords and commissions from clients who hired their services.
If the Ninja Sect were to siphon away the Rain Ninja Village's commissions, their decline was inevitable.
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Danzo," Hanzo said, feigning a calm he didn't feel. "I am prepared to compete with the Ninja Sect, and I believe that our ninjas in the Rain Ninja Village are more than capable of holding their own against the Ninja Sect."
But was the Rain Ninja Village truly capable of competing with the Ninja Sect? Hanzo wasn't so sure.
Sosuke was younger than him, and under Sosuke's leadership, the Ninja Sect had the First Ninja prodigy, Nagato, by their side.
Nagato alone guaranteed that the Ninja Sect would thrive for the next four decades.
Danzo's narrow eyes narrowed further, and he could tell that Hanzo wasn't fully grasping the severity of the situation.
However, Danzo had also prepared himself for this outcome. If it were that simple, he wouldn't have come here in person.
"Hanzo, you are an honorable man, but Sosuke may not play by the same rules," Danzo said, offering Hanzo one last chance. "As far as I know, the Ninja Sect has close ties with the Stone Ninja Village."
If Hanzo still refused to cooperate, Danzo would have no choice but to lay all his cards on the table.
"Is that so?" Hanzo countered. "From what I've seen, Sosuke is not a bad person."
In fact, Sosuke was far more than just "not bad." Even with the tensions between the Rain Ninja Village and the Ninja Sect, he had managed to earn the respect of a large number of Rain ninjas.
Hearing this, Danzo realized that his worst fears had come true.
The Ninja Sect's strategy to repair relations had worked, and the current relationship between the Rain Ninja Village and the Ninja Sect was not as antagonistic as it once was.
This only served to reinforce Danzo's conviction that his plan was correct and necessary.
If the Rain Ninja Village and the Ninja Sect were to join forces, they might very well create a force strong enough to threaten the Great Ninja Villages.
"That's merely what you see on the surface," Danzo refuted Hanzo's argument.
"The crisis facing the Rain Ninja Village is not just competition from the Ninja Sect, but also the Land of Rain itself."
"Hanzo, you wouldn't want to see the Land of Rain plunged into another Great Ninja War, would you?" Danzo said, his voice dripping with malice.
Huff!
Swish!!
Hanzo's chakra erupted, and a terrifying aura rapidly escalated to its peak, stirring up a gust of wind that sent papers flying from his desk.
"Danzo Shimura, what are you implying?" Hanzo's eyes narrowed, sharp enough to pierce through Danzo's body.
The Second Great Ninja War was the greatest pain of Hanzo's life. He had wanted to secure more benefits for the Land of Rain and disrupt the order of the Five Great Shinobi Countries.
However, he had overestimated the strength of the Rain Ninja Village and underestimated the power of the Great Shinobi Countries.
In the end, the Land of Rain was ravaged by war, engulfed in flames. Far from achieving development, the country had only regressed further.
Before their defeat in the Second Great Ninja War, the entire Rain Ninja Village had been Hanzo's supporters, most of them fanatical in their devotion.
But after the war, the Rain Ninja Village produced numerous missing-nin, a clear indication of the war's devastating impact on the Land of Rain and its ninja forces.
Danzo's words struck a nerve, touching on Hanzo's deepest fears.
"Hehe," Danzo coldly laughed, unfazed by Hanzo's murderous aura.
He, too, had fought his way to his current position of power. Who among them had not waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the battlefield? This display of intimidation was not going to scare him.
"The Ninja Sect has crossed a line that Konoha cannot ignore," Danzo said gravely, as if the Ninja Sect had committed some unforgivable sin. "It is a threat that Konoha must eliminate, and some unavoidable collateral damage may occur during the process."
The Ninja Sect had overstepped his boundaries as the assistant to the Hokage, and by extension, Konoha's boundaries.
Hanzo's brow furrowed deeply. Danzo's words carried a heavy weight, and his tone implied that Konoha was on the brink of sending in their ninja forces to wipe out the Ninja Sect.
This was somewhat beyond Hanzo's expectations. What had the Ninja Sect done to make Konoha so determined to destroy them?
"What has the Ninja Sect done?" Hanzo couldn't help but ask.
He was truly curious about what the Ninja Sect could have possibly done to Konoha.
Given Sosuke's character and wisdom, would he really offend Konoha for no reason?
"This involves Konoha's confidential information; all I can tell you is that it's related to the Rock Ninja Village." Danzo replied in a cryptic manner, akin to a riddle master.
He had no choice but to be vague; he certainly couldn't reveal that it was about Sosuke's Ninja Sect inheritance and Nagato's Rinnegan.
Additionally, by bringing up the Rock Ninja Village, it would appear as a clash between two major ninja villages, making it difficult for Hanzo to verify the truth.
"The Rock Ninja Village..." Hanzo furrowed his brows, deep in thought.
Previously, when the Rock Ninja Village had stepped in as a mediator for peace talks between the Ninja Sect and the Rain Ninja Village, Hanzo had suspected that they were plotting something. Now, with the Rock Ninja Village and the Ninja Sect spending so much time together, it was natural for some connections to form.
"Could it be related to the war with the Grass Country?" Hanzo wondered, recalling the recent conflict between Konoha and the Rock Ninja Village in the Grass Country.
Both sides had won a battle each, but in the end, Konoha had emerged as the victor, forcing the Rock Ninja Village to retreat from the Rain Country.
If the Ninja Sect had meddled in the affairs of a great nation, then Konoha's stance would make sense, as the involvement of the major ninja villages in such wars was one of their greatest taboos.
"Since it's a conflict between the Ninja Sect and Konoha, what does it have to do with our Rain Ninja Village?" Hanzo asked after some thought.
Danzo had said so much, yet he hadn't mentioned anything about the Rain Ninja Village.
While the Ninja Sect and the Rain Ninja Village had a cooperative relationship, even if the Ninja Sect were truly drawn into the power struggle between the great nations, the Rain Ninja Village could, at most, choose not to help instead of siding with Konoha against the Ninja Sect.
Danzo sighed, assuming the demeanor of a peacemaker:
"I know, Hanzo, that you are a pacifist ninja, and the Rain Country is also a nation that loves peace. To see such a country plunged into war is not something I wish to witness."
"So, I argued based on reason and managed to secure a solution that is more beneficial to both sides—only the ringleaders will be punished.
Aside from Sosuke and Nagato, the others can be considered as ninjas who were misled by Sosuke, and Konoha will spare them."
"The condition is that the Rain Ninja Village must assist in killing Sosuke."
In fact, Danzo's initial plan was to have Root ninjas disguise themselves as Ninja Sect ninjas to assassinate Rain ninjas, and then pretend to be Rain ninjas to attack Ninja Sect ninjas, inciting conflict between the two sides and luring Hanzo into a siege against Sosuke.
This could be considered Danzo's customary method of stirring up discord.
However, upon further consideration, Danzo realized that this plan was not feasible for the current relationship between the Ninja Sect and the Rain Ninja Village.
As the two ninja forces belonged to the same country and had signed a friendly cooperation treaty, if the casualties were not important figures, both sides would likely remain calm and investigate the matter first.
On the other hand, killing important figures wouldn't work either, as the Ninja Sect had too few powerful ninjas, and the Rain Country was too small, making it difficult to carry out the deception.
Moreover, with the Ninja Sect and the Rain Ninja Village being so close, Danzo showing up at their doorstep would inevitably arouse Hanzo's suspicion.
If Danzo had been given enough time, this plan could have succeeded. Given a year or two, he could have arranged everything flawlessly.
But "Uchiha Madara" had given him very little time to act.
Thus, Danzo resorted to using his position of power to pressure Hanzo, borrowing Konoha's intimidating influence to coerce Hanzo into war, threatening to turn the Rain Country into a battlefield if he didn't join forces with him to kill Sosuke.
This plan would be nearly perfect if it weren't for Hiruzen Sarutobi's potential discovery.
"Killing Sosuke will spare the Rain Country from war..." Hanzo understood Danzo's implication.
However, Hanzo wasn't naive enough to think that Danzo was doing this as a favor. He merely believed that Konoha didn't want to expend too much effort.
With Sosuke representing the present and Nagato the future of the Ninja Sect, their deaths would mean the end of the Ninja Sect as well.
It wasn't that Hanzo underestimated Kakuzu, but he knew that Sosuke was on a whole other level, whether in terms of strength or other aspects.
"Hanzo, you must not have forgotten the humiliation Sosuke brought upon you. After Sosuke's death, people will only remember the living demigod Hanzo; they will not remember the deceased ninja master Sosuke." Danzo reminded him calmly.
Nowadays, whenever Hanzo's name was mentioned, people would think of Sosuke, the one who had defeated Hanzo with his powerful Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique, despite his disadvantage in attributes.
Hanzo remained silent.
Had Sosuke brought him humiliation? Perhaps. Thanks to Sosuke, the entire ninja world now knew that Hanzo, the demigod, had been defeated by a ninja whose attributes were weaker than his.
Would Hanzo agree to Danzo's proposal to besiege Sosuke because of this humiliation? To some extent, yes.
Having fallen from his status as a demigod, it was only natural for Hanzo to harbor resentment towards Sosuke.
However, a sense of pride that still lingered in Hanzo's heart prevented him from blaming Sosuke entirely.
Had he lost to Sosuke because Sosuke had used underhanded means? No, he had simply been inferior to Sosuke in strength.
Even the reason for their battle had stemmed from Hanzo's misjudgment and misunderstanding.
How could Hanzo bring himself to blame Sosuke for everything and develop an unyielding desire for revenge?
"Without Sosuke, not only will Konoha refrain from attacking the Rain Country, but the Rain Country can also avoid a civil war. This is a rare opportunity for peace." Danzo continued his coercion and temptation.
Danzo couldn't fathom why Hanzo was hesitating. If he were in Hanzo's position, he would have agreed without hesitation.
While it was true that he coveted the Rinnegan and the Ninja Sect's inheritance, this matter was indeed beneficial to the Rain Ninja Village.
"This matter is of great significance, and I need more time to think it over and discuss it with the other high-ranking members," Hanzo finally replied, neither agreeing nor refusing.
Hanzo's request was reasonable, and Danzo had no grounds to refute it. However, to prevent Hanzo from remaining indecisive for too long, Danzo said meaningfully:
"Although my proposal has been approved, there are still dissenting voices among the higher-ups. If we delay this matter for too long, I cannot guarantee what might happen."
It was a veiled threat, barely concealed.
Hanzo looked deeply into Danzo's eyes but said nothing.
The failure of the Second Great Ninja War had taught him just how powerful the five great ninja villages were.
Danzo was indeed arrogant, but he had the strength to back it up. Among the five great ninja villages, Konoha was undoubtedly one of the strongest.
After Danzo left, Hanzo pretended to convene a meeting with the Rain Ninja Village's high-ranking members.
However, he didn't mention Sosuke during the meeting and instead made other resolutions.
When it came to making the most crucial decisions, Hanzo always did so alone.
Under the cover of night, Hanzo, disguised, left the Rain Ninja Village.
(End of Chapter)
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