Danzo's Sincerity
Kakuzu took a booklet out of his pocket.
"This is the Konoha Ninja Danzo that Danzo gave us..." Kakuzu said to Hidan as he flipped through the book.
"This is a secret mark unique to Konoha. Our intelligence personnel have confirmed that this booklet is genuine. Furthermore, the contents at the beginning have also been confirmed to be authentic."
Hidan leaned over and flipped through a few pages. "It looks like this thing is really real. Danzo really went to great lengths to gain our trust!"
The roster of Konoha's ninjas is a village secret.
Danzo's ability to produce genuine goods demonstrates his sincerity.
Akatsuki falls for this – for an organization like Akatsuki aiming to collect the Tailed Beast, any information about the village where the Nine-Tails Danzo is valuable. That's why the Zombie Combo believed Danzo's next piece of information about Orochimaru and rushed over. And indeed, Danzo didn't deceive them, but –
"It's not that simple," Kakuzu said, narrowing his eyes. "Apart from the first few ninjas, the information on most of the ninjas behind them is either heavily blacked out or has entire pages torn out. The information we can obtain is actually quite limited...! However, this method also proves that Danzo didn't try anything funny in this matter."
They really didn't use any tricks.
Kakuzu recalled the whole incident. It was clear that Danzo had used Akatsuki as a Danzo, wanting Akatsuki and Orochimaru to fight each other. However, the Zombie Combo didn't mind being used as pawns; taking down Orochimaru was their ultimate goal, and everything else was secondary.
Danzo hoped they would fight Orochimaru to a standstill, but what right did Orochimaru have to fight the Zombie Combo to the death? In Kakuzu's eyes, Orochimaru was nothing more than a cunning snake.
What does it matter how many schemes and tricks Danzo may have up his sleeve? Faced with Akatsuki's absolute power, such underhanded tactics are meaningless.
As a veteran of Akatsuki, Kakuzu witnessed far too many such incidents. Akatsuki were mercenaries, making them highly vulnerable to being used and then turned on. But so what? Those who dared to turn their backs on Akatsuki ultimately paid a heavy price for their foolishness.
In the world of ninjas, strength still reigns supreme, while cunning and treachery are the way of the world.
With the absolute strength of multiple Kage Level shinobi, Akatsuki was basically unchallenged in the Shinobi World, except for the Five Great Nations.
However, although Danzo had malicious intentions, he did not deceive or trick them with information. Both the ninja roster of Konoha and the information on Orochimaru's whereabouts were accurate.
The operation failed, which was clearly their own fault.
Orochimaru escaped, and then Kabuto Yakushi tricked him with a fake corpse.
Kakuzu could easily imagine the ridicule that the frivolous Deidara would give them after this operation.
He flipped through the roster irritably.
The rather thin roster clearly only contained information on some of the Konoha ninjas.
Amidst the rustling of pages turning, the text on the roster was clearly visible:
"Noriaki Sugiyama, Gender: Male, Age: 4, Height: 169cm, Weight: 64kg, Blood Type: A, Rank: Chunin, Specialized Ninjutsu: Fire Style, Lightning Release..."
"Chie Nakamura, Gender: Female, Age: 9, Height: 165cm, Weight: 48kg, Blood Type: B, Rank: Jonin, Specialized Ninjutsu: Water Release, Wind Release..."
This is the beginning; the information on the first few ninjas is very complete.
After turning these pages, the information about the ninjas is almost entirely blacked out, and what you can see is mostly trivial information.
Then, in a fleeting moment on the page, the following content appeared:
"Naruto Uzumaki, Gender: Male, Age: 1, Height: 157cm, Weight: 4kg, Blood Type: [Blacked out], Rank: Genin, Specialized Ninjutsu: [Blacked out], [Blacked out], [Blacked out]."
"Sakura Haruno, Gender: Female, Age: 1, Height: 16, Weight: [Blacked out], Blood Type: [Blacked out], Rank: Genin, Specialized Ninjutsu: [Blacked out], [Blacked out], Wind Release."
"Sasuke Uchiha, Gender: Male, Age: 1, Height: 159cm, Weight: 4kg, Blood Type: [Blackened], Rank: Genin, Specialized Ninjutsu: [Blackened], [Blackened], Sharingan Ninja Tool Manipulation Jutsu."
The contents of the roster flashed by, and Kakuzu had no inclination to stop and read them carefully.
He quickly flipped to the last page and slammed the booklet shut.
My mind calmed down as I stopped turning the pages.
"Unfortunately, Danzo and our plans have both failed..." Kakuzu calmed down and said in a cold tone, "However, Orochimaru's base is definitely nearby; he can't have escaped far!"
"Hey, Hidan..." he called to his partner, then turned and left. "The mission to hunt down Orochimaru continues!"
It is located in a secluded, dark cave not far from here.
"So, did Akatsuki and I both miscalculate when it came to Orochimaru?" The old man, leaning on his cane, squinted and said slowly.
His words were so flat that it was almost devoid of emotion; he seemed to have lost all joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and there was no trace of emotional fluctuation in his voice.
"Report, Danzo! Our reconnaissance ninjas have discovered that Orochimaru's Chakra has left the battlefield undetected by the Akatsuki duo," reported a Root ninja kneeling on the tidal ground. "Because their sensory range is too great, we dared not follow Orochimaru and do not know their current whereabouts."
Danzo frowned slightly. "So, what was the extent of Orochimaru's injury when he left? Did you discover anything?"
"Danzo, the reconnaissance ninjas report that Orochimaru's Chakra hasn't noticeably weakened, so it's deduced that Orochimaru hasn't suffered serious injury!"
"Were you not seriously injured?" Danzo's wrinkled face furrowed even more deeply.
He had to admit that he thought he had planned this matter very well, but the result was not satisfactory, which could only mean that there was some calculation error!
For example, Orochimaru's strength.
In Danzo's calculations, Orochimaru, having fought two Kage Level ninjas, Tsunade and the Third Hokage, six months prior, should have been severely injured and forced to disappear into the depths of a snake pit to recuperate. The outcome of a half-crippled "Sannin" facing off against the Akatsuki duo is obvious...
However, intelligence indicates that Orochimaru did not show any signs of serious injury during the battle... and once again escaped from a two-on-one situation!
Orochimaru's regenerative and escape abilities exceeded his expectations.
It seems that Orochimaru's unrestricted human experimentation has made great progress since he left the village!
Is this the effect of the Orochimaru-Style Substitution?
"Well, at least we've already passed on the village's information... and we've also obtained the latest information on Orochimaru and Akatsuki."
Danzo let out a soft breath and relaxed his furrowed brow.
"Danzo, why should we hand over Konoha's true information to Akatsuki? Isn't that very dangerous for the village?"
At this moment, the ninja who was kneeling on the ground suddenly spoke up and asked a question.
(1/. To celebrate the strong recommendation, three chapters today. Tomorrow, I'll finish this volume on Qixi Festival.)
(Seeing people on Longkong ramble on about how this book has been available ever since it was published, all I want to say is that it's not yet available on official websites... Readers of the best book-tracking app, please read the official version! I'm appealing again~)