Konoha.
Early morning.
Snowflakes fluttered and the north wind blew as Danzo walked alone on the cold street.
His right eye was wrapped in a white bandage, and his right hand is also covered by a white bandage. His figure is slightly slumped, his face is old and weather-beaten.
Passing through the streets, the streetscape was gradually replaced by a layer of snow-covered forests, and after another section of the road, it was not far from the Root's Headquarters.
Pata.
Danzo paused, stepping on a tree branch that was half buried in the snow.
"Who?" Danzo's left eye was opened, shooting a fierce and ruthless look.
In the next instant, three figures flickered and surrounded Danzo.
Don't get me wrong, they are Root's Shinobi, responsible for protecting Danzo's personal life.
The three Root's Shinobi vigilantly pulled out the blades on their backs, and the veins on their hands holding the knife were completely shown, ready to move.
Clap, clap, clap.
"As expected of Danzo-sama, you can find me so quickly."
A Shinobi with a grim mask clapped his hands and walked out in a comfortable and unrestrained posture. His words showed the sense of superiority of a senior officer looking down on a brick mover.
"Who are you? What do you want by stopping me?"
Danzo stared at this man coldly, and suddenly noticed something strange.
On the grim mask on the other side, there is no eye holes!
'Blind?'
A strange and ominous premonition welled up in Danzo's heart.
Then the premonition came true…
"A bag of rice has to resist how many floors, a bag of rice has to resist the second floor, a bag of rice has to be given too much, I have to wash a bag of rice, there is mud everywhere!" (Subtitle: Feel pain, think about pain, accept pain, understand pain, from now on!) (T/N: The one about rice is Chinese transliteration, which is a meme in China.)
The grimacing masked man spit out a series of lines emotionally, and then rushed to Danzo outrageously.
Danzo is so afraid of death, so how could he fight such an unidentified person?
He quickly retreated on tiptoe, and sternly ordered his subordinates: "Catch him!"
"Yes!"
The figures of the three subordinates turned into afterimages and rushed towards the grim masked man resolutely.
After Danzo jumped onto a tree branch, he squatted down and calmly observed the battle ahead.
Plak plak plak!
Plak plak plak!
Under the siege of three Root's Shinobi, the grim masked man struggled to support himself with a pair of fleshy palms, and was already at a disadvantage!
'With such lowly ability, you dare to stop me?'
Danzo's face sank, but then, he looked towards the other party's grim mask: 'There was indeed no eye hole.'
'Is he really blind?'
'Or…'
Danzo suddenly remembered Hyuga Clan's Shinobi infiltrating the Root's Headquarters.
As soon as he thought of this, he saw the grim masked man suddenly began to counterattack, and with a set of Gentle Fist - Sixty-Four Palms, he actually forcibly forced back the three Root's Shinobi!
'Hyuga Clan!'
'Sure enough!'
Danzo realized it instantly!
'Orochimaru, it's you, you finally have to retaliate against me directly!'
When Hyuga Clan's Shinobi infiltrated Root's Headquarters, Danzo was convinced that Orochimaru used the temptation to 'remove the Caged Bird' to collude with the Shinobi of Hyuga Clan's Branch House!
Now that he is attacked by Hyuga Clan's people, he believed that tehy must also be instigated by Orochimaru!
'But…'
Danzo frowned: 'With Orochimaru's character, once he retaliated, he will definitely not only have this method.'
Danzo started to look around!
The three Root's Shinobi recognized the other party's Gentle Fist, and also guessed that the other party is Hyuga Clan's Shinobi, but they did not question, threaten, or even release a beep. They followed Danzo's orders, and continued to besiege the grim masked man like puppets, trying to capture him!
Plak plak plak!
Plak plak plak!
The grim masked man relies on the Gentle Fist - Sixty-Four Palms, which has been passed down by the Hyuga Clan for thousands of years, to control the situation steadily, and fight with the three Root's Shinobi with vigor and sensuality!
The three Root's Shinobi have extremely rich combat experience. After being caught off guard by the Gentle Fist, they quickly adjusted and quickly absorbed the fighting experience, gradually turning the situation back!
As for the grim masked man, he went back and forth, over and over again, from beginning to end, he only uses Gentle Fist - Sixty-Four Palms, so after five or six minutes of fighting, the grim masked man fell into losing again end!
Bang!
Whoosh!
Two swords turn into two afterimages, flickering in an instant from under the neck of the grim masked man!
Bamg!
A light smoke flashed by, and the grim masked man suddenly turned into smoke and dissipated.
'Shadow clone?'
Danzo squinted his one eye and his muscles tensed: 'It's just a shadow clone?'
'Probing?'
'No, Orochimaru must have follow-up actions!'
Thinking of this, Danzo's heart aches: 'Orochimaru, you bastard, you were obviously the one who leaked my information and betrayed me first, yet you dare to come back to take revenge, I will never let you go!'
With a gloomy old face, Danzo hurried to the Root's Headquarters, and immediately expanded his guards, from three to six!
He originally wanted to add more people, but the Elite Jonin of Hyuga Clan's Branch House has left Konoha. So the Hyuga Clan's Shinobi can be controlled by Orochimaru are only Jonin at best. In Konoha, with six Root's elites protecting him, he did not believe that Orochimaru could kill him!
'But how to find out Orochimaru?'
Danzo squinted his eye and thought about it. Now that his power is not enough to cover the entire Konoha, he can only ask Minato to find Orochimaru!
Can Minato refuse?
Of course not!
Because Orochimaru is not only Danzo's enemy, but also Konoha's S-Rank Missing-nin, so Minato has the right and obligation to catch him!
And once the investigation is launched, the collusion between Hyuga Clan's Branch House and Orochimaru will also be exposed!
When the time comes, as Yondaime Hokage, what should he do to deal with Hyuga Clan's Branch House?
If it's light, he can't suppress the voices of other Shinobi. If it's heavy, Hyuga Hiashi will definitely have opinions.
Regardless of the ending, Minato can no longer cooperate with Hyuga Clan!
Danzo smiled after he thought of this.
Having made up his mind, Danzo left the Root's Headquarters immediately, returned in the same way calmly, and prepared to go to the Hokage Tower.
When passing by the small jungle where he was attacked before, Danzo stopped again, and there was only one thought in his mind: 'Isn't it too arrogant?'
"Danzo-sama, a bag of rice has to withstand several floors, a bag of rice has to resist the second floor, how tired should I be with a bag of rice, and I have to wash a bag of rice, and there is mud in my mouth!"
The grim masked man jumped out from behind the tree, shouting his slogan, and waving his palms, rushing towards Danzo aggressively.
Danzo didn't jump back this time. With a big wave of his hand, six Root's Shinobi landed from all directions, besieging the grim masked man.
The grim mask man still used Gentle Fist - Sixty-Four Palms, but now that the number of enemies doubled, it took less than half a minute for him to be killed cleanly, and finally dissipated into smoke.
"Let's go!" Danzo continued to Hokage Tower with a calm face.
At the same time.
Forest of Death's underground base.
Kanpū slowly took off the grim mask. As for the one sent out to attack Danzo, it is naturally his Byakugan shadow clone, but in order to conceal his identity, and at the same time, in order to better sharpen his Gentle Fist Art, he did not light up the Extraordinary Strength this time, nor did he light up Minato's nerve reflexes. He also did not allow the shadow clone to use Ninjutsu and Taijutsu other than Gentle Fist, otherwise, it would not be a training, but massacre.
"Should we continue?"
A shadow clone next to him said, "Now that Danzo's guards have increased to six, Byakugan shadow clone can only last for half a minute."
The half-minute battle has little effect on tempering the Gentle Fist.
Kanpū stroked his chin and thought: 'In this case, I can only create a few more shadow clones!'
put on the mask again with a regretful face, and created three Byakugan shadow clone.
'If this happens then, with three-on-six situation, they will surely be able to fight for half an hour!'
...
Hokage Tower.
Small conference room.
Minato and Danzo sat looking at each other, each silent.
After a while, Minato asked: "For Advisor Danzo to come to see me this time, what's the matter?"
Danzo nodded and said: "I have information about Orochimaru. I'm here this time to discuss it with you, Yondaime."
'Orochimaru?'
Minato looked at him suspiciously.
'Orochimaru has already joined the Missing-nin organization named 'Akatsuki', and Shisui has not returned any information from being an undercover agent there for so long, so how can Danzo have it?'
Minato didn't believe it, but just in case, he still solemnly asked: "What information?"
"Just now, I encountered two assassinations from Orochimaru in succession!" Danzo said gloomily.
"Assassination?!"
Minato looked at Danzo in amazement. Seeing that he had no missing parts, he subconsciously thought that Danzo was lying.
Orochimaru is also legendary Sannin at any rate, as famous as his teacher, Jiraiya. With such a character initiates the assassination, how can Danzo survive the assassination?
'You don't care about acting, at least you still care about your body!'
Minato's expression hurt Danzo's self-esteem, so he gritted his teeth and growled, "Yondaime, I don't have to deceive you with matter regarding Orochimaru!"
"Don't get angry, Advisor Danzo, I believe you, but you know the strength of Orochimaru best, if he assassinates you…" Minato said with a smile.
Only then did Danzo snort, and explained: "It's not him who did it, it's Hyuga Clan's Shinobi!"
Minato frowned when he heard this: 'Sowing dissension?'
Danzo glanced at him, gloating in his heart, but his face was extremely solemn, and he said: "Yondaime, I will not hide the matter anymore. More than half a year ago, there was a Hyuga Clan's Shinobi infiltrating Root's Headquarters and secretly stole Shodaime's cells and a large amount of experimental data and information about the cell's transplants!"
Minato's expression turned serious. Of course he knew about this, and even suspected Uchiha Clan and Hyuga Clan cooperate, and suspect that someone from Hyuga Clan has joined the Abyss.
'But now, it seems that all my guesses are wrong?'
'Moreover, the item stolen from the Root turned out to be Shodaime's cells and the cell's transplant data.' Minato's head felt hurt.
"The secret mastermind of this matter is Orochimaru!"
Danzo said in an unquestionable tone, "Only he knows that there are Hashirama's cells in Root's Headquarters, it is impossible for other people to know!"
Some Root's people know about it too, but they have all been marked with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, so it is impossible for them to disclose information that is closely related to Danzo, that means, there is only Orochimaru!
Minato focused himself, and asked: "But why did Hyuga Clan collude with Orochimaru?"
"Accurately speaking, the one who colluded with Orochimaru was Hyuga Clan's Branch House who was enslaved because of the Caged Bird!"
Danzo solemnly shared his 'hard-won' information, "Orochimaru's research ability is very strong. If he uses cracking the Caged Bird as a bait to confuse the Branch House's Shinobi… Even if he can't win over all the Branch House's members, he can definitely win over part of the Branch House's members for his use!"
Minato knows the contradiction between Hyuga Clan's Main House and Branch House, and after listening to Danzo's analysis, he subconsciously nodded in approval.
And the events that spanned more than half a year finally became clear in his mind.
'Orochimaru used the temptation to remove the Caged Bird to collude with part of the Hyuga Clan's Branch House's Shinobi, and then used those people to steal Shodaime's cell and the cell's transplant experimental data from the Root's Headquarters!'
'Orochimaru wants to restart the Shodaime's cell transplant experiment, he wants to get Wood Release, and he wants to take revenge on Konoha!'
'Now that Danzo encounters the assassination of Branch House's Shinobi… Has his revenge already begun?'
Minato showed thoughtful look: 'At the time Orochimaru defected, the one who stabbed the deepest was Danzo.'
'For Orochimaru, being betrayed by a close partner, the grievance, anger and hatred are definitely far beyond the rest, so the priority of revenge must also be Danzo first!'
'Danzo should also know this, so he wants to unite with me and fight Orochimaru together!'
Minato pondered for a while, and nodded slowly: "I will send Anbu to track down Orochimaru in the village."
Although he hates Danzo, the existence of Orochimaru must not be ignored!
"What about the Hyuga Clan's Branch House?" Danzo asked in a low voice, his one eye is flickering.
Minato smiled slightly and said: "At present, there is no definite evidence that the Shinobi of the Hyuga Clan's Branch House with Orochimaru, so I will not take any action against them, and I hope Advisor Danzo will not be impulsive!"
Danzo snorted , got up and said: "Then, I'll leave first."
Leaving Hokage Tower, Danzo went back the same way arrogantly, but halfway there, he found that it was getting late, so he chooses to eat first.
So he diverted to a nearby tavern, had a leisurely drink for an hour, and then quietly returned to the Root's Headquarters.