5.5th Hokage Danzō—What a Joke!

He had little respect for Danzō. Everything he did was only for the village.

Especially after seeing what Kitahara Kaede had revealed about Danzō's actions, he could not help but frown. It was far worse than he had imagined.

The person he had returned to Konoha to intimidate was none other than Shimura Danzō.

But when he saw that Shimura Danzō had transplanted Hashirama Cells and implanted an entire arm full of Sharingan, he could no longer hold himself back.

Uchiha Itachi had been praised by the Third Hokage as someone who possessed the mindset of a Hokage at a young age. In other words, unlike those who were more naïve, Uchiha Itachi was capable of viewing matters from a ruler's perspective. He would never believe there was no darkness at all within the village.

After all, this was an enormous organization built on violence. No matter how much a militarized organization like Konoha emphasized the Will of Fire on the surface, some things would still run contrary to it.

Everything for the village.

That was the core of the Will of Fire, and also what Uchiha Itachi believed the Will of Fire should be.

Yet Danzō's actions had already touched Uchiha Itachi's bottom line. Hashirama Cells and Sharingan involved the two great clans that had founded Konoha.

To put it bluntly, Konoha had been founded through the efforts of those two clans. But where were those two clans now?

The Senju Clan had vanished without a trace, while the Uchiha Clan had been massacred overnight.

What Danzō had done now filled Uchiha Itachi with fury, but he quickly calmed down. He knew anger was useless and could not solve anything.

However, the information revealed in the Diary was extremely dangerous. Why would Konoha let Danzō serve as the acting 5.5th Hokage? That alone defied normal logic.

The Fourth Hokage had already been at the level of the Third Hokage's grand-disciple. The Fifth Hokage would be even further removed, so it was even less likely to be Shimura Danzō. And did 5.5th mean that the person originally meant to take office was the Sixth Hokage?

If that was the case, just how badly had Konoha's talent pool withered by then for an old fossil like him to still receive everyone's recommendation when it came time to decide on the Sixth Hokage?

For a moment, Uchiha Itachi felt a deep sense of unease.

Could this be related to Pain of the Akatsuki invading Konoha earlier?

When he saw the scene of Pain destroying all of Konoha with Shinra Tensei, he nearly could not stay seated.

The village he had sacrificed his entire clan to protect had simply been destroyed like that?

Could Danzō becoming the 5.5th Hokage be related to this?

He did not know much about the leader of the Akatsuki. He only knew that his name was Pain and that he possessed a pair of Rinnegan said to have belonged only to the Sage of Six Paths.

But he knew absolutely nothing about the Rinnegan's abilities. That short video had not shown much, only proving that Pain could fly.

And there was that ninjutsu, Shinra Tensei.

What nature transformation was that? It looked like Wind Style because it had no color, but it did not seem like Wind Style either.

Wind Style ninjutsu was characterized by cutting and storms.

But the ninjutsu Pain had unleashed possessed none of those traits. Instead, it seemed like some kind of force centered around his body.

The video was too short—far too short to analyze any further information.

But if that was truly the case, it explained many things. For example, why the succession had suddenly jumped to the 5.5th Hokage. The Fifth Hokage had likely died in that battle as well.

Uchiha Itachi was anxious, but he did not act rashly.

Though he had never fought Pain, he knew he was absolutely no match for him. The Akatsuki had so many S-rank Rogue Ninja, each of them at least Kage Level.

Outside, any one of them would have been an arrogant super expert. Yet all of them were obedient within the Akatsuki, which said a great deal in itself.

If he acted recklessly, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Especially when the leader of the Akatsuki did not trust him much, he had to be cautious in everything.

[After all, everyone in Shippuden still had to conserve Chakra. It was nothing like later on, when they were piloting Gundam and Fighting Aliens—there was no need to worry about Chakra at all.

But before everyone had fully developed, it was better to play it safe. After all, Danzō would become the 5.5th Hokage in the future. Though he only briefly served as Hokage, he then fled the Five Kage Summit like a rat in a gutter. While the other four Kage were busy pursuing and intercepting Sasuke, he was the only one who ran away. What a joke.

None of the previous Hokage had ever fled all over the place like that.

So back then, before the Second Hokage, he had been one step slower than the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. That one step left him forever behind. Why should someone who could only stir up trouble in a hell of schemes and shadows for his entire life become Hokage?

After crawling through the darkness underground for so long, he must have forgotten his battle instincts. That was why there was such an iconic scene of him trying to stab Susanoo with a kunai. Dying at Uchiha Sasuke's hands was already the most dignified ending he could have hoped for.]

Hatake Kakashi read the contents of the Diary. It was still filled with resentment toward Danzō, but the amount of information contained in this passage was utterly explosive.

Just as he had previously guessed, the reason Danzō could be called the 5.5th Hokage was because he had once served as Hokage, even if only briefly.

And the reason he was merely the 5.5th was likely because he had died at Uchiha Sasuke's hands not long after taking the position.

But under normal circumstances, even if someone had been Hokage for only a day, they were still Hokage. What was this half-generation supposed to mean?

There was only one possibility: he had been stripped of the Hokage title afterward.

As for the reason, it was probably easy enough to guess. The Hokage, Konoha's representative, had actually fled from the Five Kage Summit?

Since the beginning of shinobi history, the previous Five Kage Summit had basically taken place shortly after Konoha's founding, when the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama, established the order of the ninja world and distributed the nine Tailed Beasts.

For the five villages that had fought each other to the point of bloody chaos to sit down and talk this time, either an even greater crisis had emerged, or perhaps the Fourth Shinobi World War mentioned by Kitahara Kaede had exhausted everyone, prompting them to sit down and negotiate.

Either way, for the Hokage to flee from the Five Kage Summit was an extremely disgraceful act.

He must have done something utterly inappropriate at the Five Kage Summit. If it had been someone else, perhaps it would not have come to this, but based on Hatake Kakashi's understanding of Danzō, it really was entirely possible.

He was the Darkness of the Ninja World, after all.

"Died at my hands?" Uchiha Sasuke saw that the Diary mentioned Shimura Danzō dying by his hand.

Though he had already resolved to kill Danzō and avenge the Sharingan stolen from his clansmen, he had never expected to be told so directly that he would succeed in the future.

In the future, he would personally avenge his clansmen.