Chapter 604: Konoha Destroys the Shinobi Sect?
Danzo Shimura's reaction was beyond Hanzō's expectations.
He had thought his attitude toward the Root Ninja would be enough to make Danzo retreat. Yet Danzo did not give up. Instead, he personally came to the Land of Rain.
"Lord Hanzō, Danzo Shimura wishes to see you," a Rain ANBU reported.
Hanzō frowned. Danzo's initiative was far too abnormal.
He had only left the Root Ninja waiting for a few days, yet Danzo had personally come to the Land of Rain because of it. Given Danzo's status, this should not have happened.
"Bring him in," Hanzō said.
Danzo was, after all, the Hokage Assistant, someone who could represent Konoha.
Even if Hanzō felt irritated just hearing Danzo's name now, he could not treat him like an ordinary Konoha Jōnin.
The Rain ANBU nodded, quickly left the office, and soon brought Danzo into Hanzō's office.
After escorting him inside, the Rain ANBU silently withdrew and closed the door behind him.
Hanzō looked at Danzo expressionlessly.
Danzo's face was somewhat gloomy. His narrow eye, the one not covered by bandages, stared at Hanzō.
Hanzō was displeased, and Danzo was no less displeased.
The ambush against Sōsuke to obtain the Rinnegan was an operation he had hidden from Hiruzen. The longer he operated outside Konoha, the more likely it was that Hiruzen would discover something.
Danzo had originally planned to come to the Land of Rain only when the plan was one step away from the ambush itself, but Hanzō's attitude forced him to come early.
"May I ask what brings Assistant Danzo to Amegakure?" Hanzō asked indifferently.
Danzo was still the Hokage Assistant. Hanzō could not truly fight him unless he was prepared to start a war with Konoha.
"Of course, I am here to help you, Lord Hanzō," Danzo replied, his expression softening considerably.
Danzo truly felt that he was helping Hanzō.
If he were in Hanzō's position, the Shinobi Sect would never have survived long enough to establish itself. It would have been wiped out while wandering through the Land of Rain.
Travels and lectures? Danzo only saw Sōsuke's followers growing in number and his reputation expanding.
"Oh?" Hanzō looked at Danzo with some confusion.
Help him? Help him die sooner?
"Amegakure is in danger," Danzo sighed.
"What makes you say that?" Hanzō asked.
He wanted to see what trick Danzo was trying to play.
"Sōsuke is a wolf with ambition. He has used various methods to raise the Shinobi Sect's reputation. Now, when many Ninja mention the Land of Rain, they no longer think of you, the Demigod, or Amegakure. Instead, they think of Ninja Master Sōsuke and the Shinobi Sect," Danzo continued.
"If this continues, the Shinobi Sect will gradually erode Amegakure's living space. Eventually, it will replace Amegakure and reduce it to dust in history."
Danzo was not speaking nonsense.
Ninja did not engage in production, so where did their money come from?
There were two main sources. One was military funding from the Daimyō, and the other was commissions issued by clients.
If the Shinobi Sect siphoned away Amegakure's commissions, then Amegakure's decline would be inevitable.
"Thank you, Danzo, for your warning. I am already prepared to compete with the Shinobi Sect, and I believe our Rain Ninja of Amegakure will not lose to the Ninja of the Shinobi Sect," Hanzō said, feigning an air of thorough preparation.
Could Amegakure truly compete with the Shinobi Sect?
Hanzō was not very confident.
Sōsuke was younger than him, and Sōsuke also had Nagato, the Ninja World's greatest genius, under him.
Nagato alone could ensure that the Shinobi Sect would not fare too badly for the next forty years.
Danzo's narrow eye narrowed slightly. Hanzō was not being very cooperative.
However, Danzo had been mentally prepared for this. If it had been so easy, he would not have needed to come personally.
"Lord Hanzō, you are an upright person, but Sōsuke may not compete fairly with you. As far as I know, the Shinobi Sect has close ties with Iwagakure," Danzo said, preparing to give Hanzō one last chance.
If Hanzō still refused to agree, then Danzo would have to state the matter directly.
"Is that so? As far as I know, Sōsuke's character is not bad," Hanzō retorted.
Sōsuke was more than not bad. Even though the Rain Ninja and the Shinobi Sect had grievances, he had still earned the admiration of many Rain Ninja.
Upon hearing this, Danzo realized that his worst fear had come true.
The Shinobi Sect's strategy of repairing relations had worked. The current Rain Ninja and the Shinobi Sect were no longer as hostile to each other as they had once been.
This further proved the correctness and necessity of Danzo's plan.
If the Rain Ninja and the Shinobi Sect united, they might truly create a force capable of threatening the Great Shinobi Villages.
"That is only the surface you see," Danzo refuted.
"Amegakure's crisis lies not only in its competition with the Shinobi Sect, but also in the Land of Rain itself."
"Lord Hanzō, you do not want the Land of Rain to relive the scenes of the last Shinobi World War, do you?" Danzo said darkly.
Whoosh!
Clatter!
Hanzō's Chakra erupted, and a powerful, terrifying aura rapidly climbed to its peak, stirring up a gust of wind that sent the papers on his desk flying.
"Danzo Shimura, what do you mean?" Hanzō's gaze became exceptionally sharp, as if it wanted to pierce straight through Danzo's body.
The Second Shinobi World War was the greatest pain of Hanzō's life.
He had wanted to gain more benefits for the Land of Rain. He had wanted to lead the Land of Rain to break the order of the Five Great Nations.
But he had overestimated Amegakure's strength and underestimated the strength of the Great Shinobi Villages.
Ultimately, that led to the Land of Rain being devastated, the entire country engulfed by war. Not only did it fail to develop, it became even more backward.
Before the defeat in the Second Shinobi World War, all of Amegakure had been filled with Hanzō's supporters, most of whom were fervent admirers.
After the defeat, however, Amegakure saw quite a few rogue Ninja emerge. That alone clearly showed the impact of the Second Shinobi World War on the Land of Rain and Amegakure.
Danzo's words had truly touched Hanzō's bottom line.
"Heh."
Danzo sneered inwardly, not caring about Hanzō's terrifying murderous aura.
His own power and status had also been earned through struggle. Who here had not crawled out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the battlefield? How could this frighten him?
"What the Shinobi Sect has done has already touched Konoha's bottom line. It is a threat Konoha must eliminate, and during the process of elimination, some unavoidable destruction will inevitably occur," Danzo said in a deep voice, as though the Shinobi Sect had committed some unforgivable crime.
The Shinobi Sect had touched his bottom line as Hokage Assistant.
By extension, that naturally meant it had touched Konoha's bottom line.
Hanzō frowned deeply.
Danzo's words were too severe, and his tone made it sound as if Konoha would send Ninja troops to wipe out the Shinobi Sect within a few days.
This was somewhat beyond Hanzō's expectations.
What exactly had the Shinobi Sect done to make Konoha so determined to destroy it?
Because of Danzo's words and his identity, Hanzō subconsciously took Danzo's attitude as Konoha's attitude.
After all, Danzo was a high-ranking Konoha official. He could not possibly act in Konoha's name for some personal matter, could he?
"What did the Shinobi Sect do?" Hanzō could not help asking.
He was truly curious about what the Shinobi Sect had done to Konoha.
With Sōsuke's character and wisdom, would he offend Konoha without reason?
"That involves Konoha's secrets. I can only tell you that it is related to Iwagakure," Danzo replied, deliberately speaking in riddles.
He could not help speaking that way. He could not very well say it was for Sōsuke's sage art inheritance and Nagato's Rinnegan.
Moreover, bringing Iwagakure into it turned the matter into a confrontation between two Great Shinobi Villages, making it difficult for Hanzō to verify.
"Iwagakure…" Hanzō showed a thoughtful expression.
Earlier, when Iwagakure had stepped in as a mediator to facilitate peace talks between the Shinobi Sect and Amegakure, Hanzō had felt that Iwagakure was plotting something. Later, Iwagakure and the Shinobi Sect had remained close for so long, so it was normal for there to be something between them.
"Is it related to the war in the Land of Grass?" Hanzō recalled the major battle between Konoha and Iwagakure in the Land of Grass not long ago.
Both sides had won one battle, but in the end, Konoha still held the advantage and drove Iwagakure out of the Land of Rain.
If it involved participation in a war between great nations, then Konoha's attitude made sense. This was one of the things the Five Great Ninja Villages feared most.
"Since it is a conflict between the Shinobi Sect and Konoha, what does it have to do with my Amegakure?" Hanzō asked after some thought.
Danzo had said many things, but none of them involved Amegakure.
The Shinobi Sect and Amegakure were, at least on the surface, in a cooperative relationship. Even if the Shinobi Sect had truly become involved in the great power struggle, Amegakure would at most choose not to help them. It would not help Konoha step on the Shinobi Sect.
Danzo sighed, putting on the appearance of a peace-loving man.
"I know, Lord Hanzō, that you are a Ninja who loves peace, and that the Land of Rain is also a country that loves peace. Plunging such a country into war is not something I wish to see either."
"Therefore, I argued strongly and secured a plan that is more beneficial to both sides. Only the ringleaders will be punished."
"Aside from Sōsuke and Nagato, all others can be regarded as Ninja who were misled by Sōsuke. Konoha will spare them."
"The condition is that Amegakure must help Konoha kill Sōsuke."
In truth, Danzo's initial idea had been to have Root Ninja disguise themselves as Shinobi Sect Ninja to attack and kill Rain Ninja, then disguise themselves as Rain Ninja to attack and kill Shinobi Sect Ninja, provoking conflict between the two sides before luring Hanzō into ambushing Sōsuke.
This was one of Danzo's common methods for inciting conflict.
However, after careful consideration, Danzo realized that this plan was not suitable for the current Shinobi Sect and Amegakure.
Amegakure and the Shinobi Sect were Ninja forces within the same country, and they had signed a friendly cooperation treaty. If the deceased were not important figures, both sides would definitely remain calm and cross-check information first.
But killing important figures would not work either, because the Shinobi Sect had too few powerful Ninja, and the Land of Rain was too small. It would be difficult to carry out a disguised framing operation.
Furthermore, if something happened between the Shinobi Sect and Amegakure and Danzo immediately appeared, Hanzō would certainly become suspicious as long as he was not a fool.
If Danzo had enough time, this plan could also work.
Given a year or two, he could definitely arrange everything flawlessly.
But "Uchiha Madara" had given him too little time to act.
That was why Danzo had resorted to pressure tactics, using Konoha's deterrence to threaten Hanzō with war, telling him that if he did not want the Land of Rain to become a battlefield, he should join Danzo in killing Sōsuke.
As long as this plan was not discovered by Hiruzen, it was also a rather perfect one.
"Kill Sōsuke, and the Land of Rain can avoid war…" Hanzō understood Danzo's meaning.
However, Hanzō was not naive enough to think this was some benefit Danzo had secured for them. He only felt that Konoha did not want to expend too much power.
Sōsuke represented the present of the Shinobi Sect, while Nagato represented its future. If both of them died, there would not be much difference between that and directly annihilating the Shinobi Sect.
It was not that Hanzō looked down on Kakuzu. Kakuzu truly could not compare to Sōsuke, whether in strength or in other aspects.
"Lord Hanzō, you have not forgotten the humiliation Sōsuke inflicted upon you, have you? After Sōsuke dies, everyone will only remember the living Demigod Hanzō, not the deceased Ninja Master Sōsuke," Danzo reminded him indifferently.
Now, Hanzō no longer had the reputation of an untouchable Demigod. When Hanzō was mentioned, people thought of Sōsuke, and of the Fire Dragon Dance known as the strongest Fire Release.
Hanzō said nothing.
Did Sōsuke bring him humiliation?
Probably.
Thanks to Sōsuke, Ninja throughout the Ninja World knew that he, Hanzō, had been defeated by an opponent with a reverse affinity.
Would Hanzō agree to Danzo's ambush of Sōsuke because of this?
Yes, but not entirely.
It was impossible for the great Demigod Hanzō to have no resentment toward Sōsuke after falling to such a state.
But the pride still lingering in Hanzō's heart made it impossible for him to blame everything on Sōsuke.
Had he lost to Sōsuke because Sōsuke used underhanded tricks?
No. He had lost because his own strength was inferior to Sōsuke's.
Even the reason he had fought Sōsuke came from a misunderstanding caused by his own misjudgment.
How could Hanzō blame everything on Sōsuke? How could he harbor an all-consuming killing intent toward him?
"Without Sōsuke, not only will Konoha refrain from attacking the Land of Rain, the Land of Rain can also avoid civil war. This is a rare opportunity for peace," Danzo continued to threaten and tempt him.
Danzo truly did not understand what Hanzō was hesitating about.
If he put himself in Hanzō's position, he would definitely agree.
His desire for the Rinnegan and sage art inheritance was real, but this matter was indeed beneficial to Amegakure.
"This is a serious matter. I need some time to think it over and discuss it with the other higher-ups," Hanzō finally replied.
He neither agreed nor refused.
Hanzō's request was reasonable, and Danzo did not refute it.
However, to prevent Hanzō from being indecisive and unable to make a decision, Danzo said meaningfully, "Although my plan has been approved, there are still higher-ups who object to it. If too much time passes, I cannot guarantee what might happen."
It was a threat, almost undisguised.
Hanzō looked deeply at Danzo and said nothing.
The defeat in the Second Shinobi World War had taught him the power of the Five Great Ninja Villages.
Danzo was arrogant, but he did indeed have the capital to be arrogant. Among the powerful Five Great Ninja Villages, Konoha was also the strongest.
After Danzo left, Hanzō grandly convened a meeting of Amegakure's higher-ups.
However, he did not mention Sōsuke at the meeting and instead made other resolutions.
When making the most important decisions, Hanzō always decided alone.
That night, Hanzō disguised himself and left Amegakure.
.....
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