Chapter 391: Danzo
"That guy Danzo..." Haruno Sakura examined the two corpses on the ground while pondering, "Just been quiet for a while, and now he's starting to play little tricks again?"
Sakura's heart moved, and without any movement from her hands, a girl exactly identical to the original appeared out of thin air in front of Haruno Sakura.
For many ninja proficient in ninjutsu, a clone technique of this level only required one seal, completed in a breath of chakra; but for someone like Haruno Sakura, no seals needed, chakra breathing in and out as if just naturally fluctuating, completing the ninjutsu as smoothly as an antelope hanging its horns (leaving no trace) and as effortlessly as floating clouds and mist without a hint of smoke and fire, was truly rare in the world.
Perhaps influenced too deeply by the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha, in the dialectical relationship between "technique" and "power," many ninja unthinkingly chose to strengthen their own power, longing to approach the unparalleled dominance of the First and Madara defeating ten with one force, rather than delving into technique development. As a result, Haruno Sakura often felt lonely on her own path.
Uchiha Itachi might be one of the few fellow travelers who had explored the details and essence of ninjutsu extremely deeply. Unfortunately, in the battle just now, the fight between the two was just a play on stage. Without a real fight to taste Itachi's exquisite ninjutsu skills, it was truly regrettable.
In any case, simply crushing the enemy with massive chakra seemed a bit unfair and not satisfying enough in her opinion. But if Kisame knew this thought in the underworld, who knows what he would think?
Perhaps because her mind relaxed after the fierce battle, Haruno Sakura's mind began to emit various boundless and unconstrained sighs.
The ice clone squatting at her feet examining the corpses tapped her calf, pulling Sakura out of this inexplicable sense of gratification that she was not alone on her path.
"Two corpses, one male and one female, both very young, about 25 to 30 years old."
"The corpses' eyes are wide open, expressions terrified, with bloodshot eyes, indicating they were hit by genjutsu before death."
"There is a sealing restriction on the root of the tongue. The moment of death, the restriction took effect, churning the corpse's brain into a paste. This is a typical Root practice. Even treating their own people's corpses so terribly, Danzo is ruthless. Sakurark-chan, I suggest you learn a bit."
"Limbs naturally straight, no flexion or extension, no signs of exertion, indicating they didn't struggle effectively from encountering the enemy to death. It seems the genjutsu effect was very powerful, and the two died in a daze."
"Except for the kunai fatal blow to the heart, there are no other wounds on the body. The wounds are fresh, blood just coagulated not long ago. From livor mortis and rigor mortis, the time of death should be not long ago, maybe less than an hour."
"From the muscle distribution, the male corpse specialized in taijutsu, with thick calluses on his hands formed by long-term gripping, also a good hand at kodachi-like sword techniques."
"The female corpse has a well-proportioned and slender physique, no imbalance caused by long-term use of one side of the body... Hn, still hard to say, but judging from the scrolls on her body, she should specialize in sealing jutsu..."
"Other information, such as what ninjutsu they specialized in, whether they were sensory ninja, is hard to see for a while."
The ice clone's clear and cold voice echoed in this small limestone cave, analyzing item by item.
"Sealing jutsu..." Haruno Sakura stroked her smooth chin and pondered, "This should be intended to seal the Seven-Tails... Could their target be Fuu?"
This was a very possible thing.
Master Tsunade could guess that the Land of Waterfalls might have the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, and Danzo probably could too. Knowing there was a Jinchuriki in the Land of Waterfalls, directly sending subordinates to snatch the person was exactly Root's consistent style of doing things.
Anyway, he never considered bad influence when doing things, as long as it was beneficial to himself. He belonged to the school of acting without a bottom line.
However, precisely because of this bottomless approach, through various swindling, burning, killing, and looting, Danzo had quite a few good things in his hands. So although Danzo was extremely annoying in the village, everyone could tolerate him because many people in the village needed those good things in his hands and were unwilling to dirty their own hands and make enemies out of thin air.
Many things were slowly understood by Haruno Sakura only after her strength became prominent and her status rose in the past two years, and she came into contact with more and more things.
Behind Konoha's glamour, many dark discords were hidden.
Danzo claiming to be the dark side of Konoha was not unreasonable. Many things that couldn't be put on the table could be handed over to Danzo to do, convenient, fast, highly efficient, and with few future troubles.
Just like her, Haruno Sakura, if she cooperated with Danzo, many things wouldn't need to be so troublesome. Need materials for developing ninjutsu? Danzo could snatch hundreds of living people from somewhere anytime for her to play with as she pleased. Ninjutsu stagnant and want more data? Danzo had a large number of ninjutsu secret scrolls, secret techniques, and even the ninjutsu notes of Hanzo, the leader of the Rain Ninja known as "Demigod"—that was the reward he got after he and Hanzo jointly strangled the "Akatsuki" back then. Want to do cloning? Danzo could also make a deal with Orochimaru to get cloning data from him. From technology to materials, Root could provide everything. Their ways were very wild!
Even information on the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai, he had quite a bit on hand—when Orochimaru went to the Land of Water as a human trafficker back then, he didn't just bring Kimimaro back.
Danzo's asking price wasn't high either, and he did all the hateful things, while others only needed to sit back and enjoy the benefits, purer than a white lotus. With such good things, no wonder Danzo and Root were always beaten but never fell. So even if the Third Hokage suppressed him time and time again, as long as the various ninja clans in the village had needs, Danzo could rise again and again. Root would be like an unkillable cockroach, hiding in the dark side of Konoha, absorbing the darkness of the village and growing constantly.
Even the Third and Fifth Hokage probably held the idea of keeping Danzo, just in case something happened, they could push him out to take the blame and thus preserve Konoha...
With such a mentality at the highest level, it's no wonder that although Danzo was hated by everyone, he lived quite comfortably...
Regarding this mentality, Haruno Sakura sneered inwardly.
When Danzo fanned the flames and caused trouble outside, did the victims really carefully distinguish that he was Danzo Shimura of Konoha, Root of Konoha? No, others would only think that Konoha was doing bad things. When retaliating, they would only target Konoha, not precisely separate Danzo from Konoha and only retaliate against him!
When an avalanche occurs, no snowflake is innocent.
The Hyuga, Yamanaka, Aburame, and other ninja clans who had traded with Danzo might think that those dirty things were done by Danzo and they were innocent, but others wouldn't think so. Seeing someone in Root possessing Byakugan, someone able to use Yamanaka secret techniques, someone able to manipulate bugs, they would only think that these ninja clans had colluded with Root.
Konoha, likewise.
Thinking of this, Haruno Sakura could only sigh heavily. The village tolerating the existence of people like Danzo was a way to court disaster, and sooner or later, it would bring evil consequences.
Unfortunately, she didn't have the ability to change anything for the time being.
There were too many things she couldn't stand in the village, and even the entire ninja world, but so what? She couldn't just defect... She had to wait for Haruno Sakura and the little friends around her influenced by her to grow up before they were qualified and capable of talking about change or even reform.
Before that, she could only endure silently and accumulate strength slowly.
"Has the battle stopped?"
Danzo Shimura, who was ruthlessly complained about by Haruno Sakura, was currently standing in the deepest part of a limestone cave, hidden in the darkness, asking slowly with a dry and hard voice like withered wood.
The watery and limestone-rich environment of the Land of Waterfalls created a large number of karst landforms. Caves and underground rivers were everywhere. The giant sinkhole where the Waterfall Village hid was a typical example, and the cave where the Root ninja temporarily sheltered was just one of the unremarkable thousands of caves.
"Yes," a Root ninja with half his face buried in a special chakra sensor instrument on his head stood at the cave exit, always facing the distance, answering without looking back, "Just now Uchiha Itachi suddenly burst out with extremely strong chakra, and then the chakra of both declined. However, Uchiha Itachi's stamina seems to have dropped more, so Haruno Sakura should have the advantage now!"
After observing for a while, the Root ninja said again: "But so far no chakra fluctuations have been sensed. The two should still be in confrontation, no battle occurred. Wait...!"
"Susanoo's chakra sense disappeared! Uchiha Itachi and the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki are moving rapidly, away from the battlefield! They are retreating!"
A deep frown appeared on Danzo's wrinkled face. He raised his head, light faintly flickering in his turbid eyes: "What about Haruno Sakura? She didn't chase?"
"No... she took Sasuke and moved in the opposite direction. The distance between the two sides is getting larger and larger. It doesn't look like flanking, the battle should be over!" A drop of cold sweat dripped from the head of the ninja wearing the sensor instrument. Sensing two targets whose distance was widening simultaneously was not a simple task for a sensor ninja.
"Hmph! Woman's benevolence!" Anger flashed across Danzo's face, and the cane in his hand paused fiercely, pressing a small pit into the ground.
If he were Haruno Sakura, with Danzo's character, he would definitely rush over and keep the enemy. As for abandoning a companion, in his view, it was a necessary sacrifice; sacrificing a current companion to kill the enemy's general, in exchange for fewer sacrifices of companions in the future, was truly a very cost-effective deal!
Of course, in Danzo's dark calculations, it would be best for Haruno Sakura to go up and fight Uchiha Itachi to the death, with both sides suffering heavy losses, and conveniently solve the White Zetsus nearby. His Root could then just go up and reap the benefits, capturing Itachi, Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki in one fell swoop!
Unfortunately, with the cease-fire between the two sides, Danzo's calculations also turned into bubbles...
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