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"How can you help me?" Danzo asked, his suspicion evident.
Sasuke smiled calmly. "Quite a lot, actually. Financial and intelligence support, the resources of my security company, and most importantly, I can vote on behalf of the daimyo for you at critical moments. Are these conditions sufficient?"
Danzo remained silent for a long time, contemplating Sasuke's offer.
"I'll need more funds," he finally stated, his voice firm.
"Then, I look forward to a successful partnership," Sasuke replied, standing up and extending his hand towards Danzo.
"Hmph!" Danzo scoffed, ignoring the handshake as he turned around and stormed out of the room. Fū, the Yamanaka, followed him silently.
Once Danzo had left, Fū approached Sasuke.
"Sir, is this really wise? I'm worried that his two personalities might merge," Fū expressed, clearly uneasy.
Sasuke leaned back in his chair and nodded thoughtfully. "That's why you must supervise him at all times, Fū. Use your vampire techniques to deepen the split between Danzo's personalities. Don't worry, I've altered his perception. Even if you're standing next to him, he won't be able to see you. To him, there will always be another 'shadow' by his side to assist him."
Sasuke returned to his desk and sat down, a thoughtful expression on his face. "His external personality will forget everything recent, including the fact that his subordinates have turned into ghosts. In his heart, he still believes he is the Hokage's assistant."
"Sir, I don't quite understand," Fū admitted, voicing his doubts. "If you hate Danzo so much, why not just kill him? Even if you don't want to kill him, there are plenty of ways to torture him. Why go through the trouble of splitting his mind into two?"
Sasuke didn't need Fū to ask the question—he could have easily read his thoughts. But he chose to answer anyway.
"The main reason is to prevent the Third Hokage from detecting anything wrong with Danzo. The previous methods were too dangerous. Hiruzen isn't easily fooled—he's known Danzo his entire life. If I directly controlled Danzo, Hiruzen might eventually notice something off."
Sasuke paused, letting the implications sink in.
"With the external personality now being Danzo's own, there's nothing for Hiruzen to notice. It's all Danzo's actions."
The key to this plan lay in Kotoamatsukami. Sasuke had only possessed Shisui's right eye, a weakened version of the technique. The control from a single eye was limited and could be easily detected by skills like the Byakugan. Sasuke hadn't dared use it on someone as cunning as Danzo.
"So, instead, we imprisoned his true self and let you, Fū, handle Danzo's public actions," Sasuke explained.
But now, with Shisui's left eye in his possession—though its full power had been used on Itachi—Sasuke had managed to strengthen the right eye's abilities. He had devised a setup, using his eye power and his control over Danzo's mind, making his resistance to Kotoamatsukami nearly non-existent.
"The strengthened right eye allowed me to manipulate his external personality," Sasuke continued. "The blood phantom mist you use, along with my influence from the Ghost King, has allowed us to tear Danzo's consciousness in half."
The original Danzo was still locked inside his mind, sealed away so tightly that only Sasuke and Fū could access him.
Meanwhile, the new external personality had most of Danzo's memories, but his hatred toward Sasuke had been erased. His memories had been altered and replaced. Now, he was the Danzo who willingly collaborated with Sasuke.
"Killing him would have been easy, and torturing him could have been amusing," Sasuke admitted with a smirk. "But this? This is much more interesting."
Sasuke's eyes gleamed with amusement as he thought about what was to come.
"My plan is to have Danzo willingly betray the Third Hokage—of his own volition."
This was more satisfying than any torture. Especially because Danzo's original self was still inside, forced to watch "himself" destroy the village he once sought to protect, pushing it deeper into chaos.
"And when the time comes, I'll make sure his two personalities confront each other. Now that, Fū, is true torment," Sasuke added, almost laughing at the thought.
Danzo returned to his usual duties, and the various actions of the Third Hokage continued to be reported to Sasuke through Root.
The Third Hokage had sent the elite ninjas of the village to search for traces of Muzan Kibutsuji, but this was all a fabrication by Sasuke. Naturally, Hiruzen wouldn't find anything.
Instead of Muzan, the Hokage's search turned up evidence that Kumogakure and Iwagakure had been sending ghosts into the Land of Fire to cause havoc. Though the evidence was weak, it was enough to convince both Hiruzen and Danzo that the two rival villages were behind the attacks.
Danzo suggested creating their own ghosts to retaliate by sending them into the Lands of Thunder and Earth. After all, it would be dishonorable to allow an attack without a proper response.
Hiruzen, however, refused, fearing it would escalate into a conflict among the three great nations.
Danzo, naturally, disregarded this and began creating ogres in secret, sending them to the Lands of Thunder and Earth. Little did he know that each ghost he created was being enhanced by Fū behind the scenes, transforming them into higher-level creatures with vampire techniques.
In this regard, Konoha had already fallen behind the other villages. Without Fū's intervention, neither Danzo nor Konoha's current knowledge of ghosts would have allowed them to activate these techniques, as they still lacked their own Ghost King.
In contrast, other villages were already producing jonin who could suppress their desires and maintain their sanity, even after turning into ghosts. These individuals could become Ghost Kings, creating subordinates without harming their own nations.
Without Sasuke's intervention, Konoha would have been at a severe disadvantage.
Sasuke, however, ensured that the ghosts on both sides remained balanced, sending them against one another. To him, it was all a game.
Meanwhile, the popularity of breathing techniques in Konoha began to spread to the surrounding towns, carried by traveling merchants.
At the same time, Sasuke suggested that the Fire Daimyo train a new set of guards.
In addition to the Guardian Twelve Ninjas, the daimyo had other guard units, but compared to the ninjas, these guards were no match—even in large numbers. If Sasuke had made this suggestion six months ago, the daimyo would have likely dismissed it, thinking his current defenses were sufficient.
But the rise of ghosts, especially in the capital, had caused panic. Several attacks had taken the lives of civilians, leaving the daimyo desperate for stronger protection.
Thus, a branch of the Breathing Technique Training School was established in the capital. Sasuke even assigned members of the Demon Slayer Corps to protect the city while serving as instructors.
The first students were the daimyo's bodyguards. If there weren't enough young men, they would recruit from the commoners, ensuring a force capable of defending against the ghosts.
Once their training was complete, they would pass on the knowledge to the citizens of the Fire Capital.
Sasuke's plan was for the breathing techniques to spread across the entire Fire Country, allowing every town and city to benefit from the Uchiha Clan's power. By then, the ghost invasion would become uncontrollable, forcing cooperation across the nation and cementing Sasuke's role as a key figure in its defense.
Perfect.
In his mind, Sasuke gave himself a silent thumbs-up.
(End of the Chapter).
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