Provoking Shimura Danzō

Having persuaded Kurama Hidechi to accept the intelligence mission, the defense system of the Rising Sun Organization was essentially complete, allowing it to operate independently without the direct leadership of Yamanaka Chujiu.

However, Yamanaka Chujiu always felt there were countless details left to instruct, though fortunately, he managed to restrain himself.

Since he had decided to entrust the Rising Sun Organization to the children, he had to let go decisively and avoid excessive interference.

Chujiu finally said to the five squad leaders, "I leave everything that follows to all of you."

"I hope that when the war ends, Rising Sun will have grown strong enough to influence every aspect of Konoha and realize our dream of peace!"

The five children stood up, placing their right fists over their chests: "Please rest assured, Leader!"

After saying goodbye to the children, Yamanaka Chujiu still felt uneasy in his heart.

After much deliberation, he concluded that the problem lay with that bastard Shimura Danzō.

Having delved deep into Danzō's mind several times, Chujiu had seen the man's evil clearly, as well as the chaotic and disordered logic of his thoughts.

He could strike at the Akatsuki for no reason, just as he could abandon Yakushi Nonō without any justification.

Perhaps it was to turn the children into Root ninja, or perhaps his mind was simply stuck, viewing the children as a threat to Konoha; no one could be certain if Shimura Danzō might suddenly have a mental breakdown and strike at the Rising Sun Organization.

Yamanaka Chujiu thought for a moment and sneered, "I can't be sure if Shimura Danzō will have a breakdown, but I can ensure he has no time to have one!"

Thanks to that old friend Danzō, he had recently acquired quite a few living puppets.

With the help of these living puppets, he had mastered half of the secret bases of Root and had also figured out the patterns of Shimura Danzō's activities.

Spending two days scouting seven or eight underground bases, Yamanaka Chujiu locked onto Shimura Danzō and waited silently for the right opportunity.

On the fourth day, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura found Shimura Danzō, which caught Yamanaka Chujiu's attention.

He soon discovered that after the three found Danzō, they scolded him until he was drenched in shame.

Interesting, then let's make things even more interesting!

Yamanaka Chujiu's mental threads permeated the underground secret chamber, winding around Shimura Danzō with practiced ease and skillfully agitating his emotions.

Shimura Danzō's emotions gradually rose; the pride he held onto in the darkness made him increasingly disdainful of his old classmates' questioning.

Mitokado Homura: "Danzō, the accounts for Root don't add up at all. Where exactly have you been spending the money?"

Shimura Danzō: "That is a secret."

Hiruzen Sarutobi: "A secret? Not even I can know?"

Shimura Danzō: "Hiruzen, you are a retired Hokage, not the incumbent. You have no right to know."

Hiruzen Sarutobi: "You!"

Shimura Danzō: "You don't need to waste your time. To protect Konoha, I will not tell you!"

Utatane Koharu frowned: "Keeping secrets even from us? Danzō, how did you become like this?"

Shimura Danzō: "I have never changed; it is you who have changed!"

"Hiruzen, twenty years ago, the Second Raikage and our teacher both perished. You and the Third Raikage both ascended to power at the same time, and he didn't even have the courage to challenge you."

"Who could have imagined that today, you would actually plan to bow your head to the Fourth Raikage?"

"Have you ever thought that it is your bowing that gave the Fourth Raikage A the courage to attack Konoha!"

"Homura, how long has it been since you were on the battlefield?"

"You did muster the courage on the Night of the Nine-Tails to launch an attack against the Nine-Tails, but did you even manage to knock off a single hair from it?"

"And you, Koharu! On the Night of the Nine-Tails, you didn't even dare to enter the fray!"

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura were furious, and they roared almost simultaneously: "Danzō, you didn't appear that night either!"

Shimura Danzō lifted his chin: "I was confronting the Uchiha clan who were manipulating the Nine-Tails. The danger I faced was not something a mere Nine-Tails could compare to!"

Driven by his heightened emotions, Danzō truly convinced himself to believe it, so he proclaimed his achievements with righteous indignation.

It was clearly complete nonsense, yet his aura actually stunned his three old classmates, leaving their minds in a state of confusion.

System crash, restarting, reading raw data...

Hiruzen Sarutobi was the first to react, slamming the table and shouting: "Pure nonsense!"

"If it were truly the Uchiha manipulating the Nine-Tails, and if those three hundred Uchiha ninja had hostile intent, you would have been dead and buried long ago!"

Shimura Danzō did not yield an inch: "Hiruzen, you actually think the Uchiha are loyal to Konoha? They are the inherently evil Uchiha!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi was even angrier: "You still have the face to repeat the teacher's words? Have you forgotten that Kagami Uchiha was your classmate?"

Shimura Danzō stalled; even with Yamanaka Chujiu agitating him with all his might, he could not shake the image of absolute kindness and friendship left behind by Kagami Uchiha.

Danzō struggled for a long time before squeezing out: "Kagami is an exception."

A brief silence eased the tense atmosphere between the two sides, and Hiruzen Sarutobi lowered his voice: "Kagami is an exception, but is Obito, who sacrificed himself at Kannabi Bridge, also an exception? Is Kagami's grandson, Shisui, also an exception?"

"When so many Uchiha are exceptions, it proves that the Uchiha are not beyond saving."

"Your hostility toward the Uchiha is not absolutely correct, so how can you be sure that your secrets elsewhere are necessarily correct?"

"Think about it carefully!"

Having said this, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood up, and Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura followed him out.

The Third Hokage had already stepped out, but he turned back to add, "Danzo, the three of us—we are waiting for your answer!"

Yamanaka Chujiu marveled inwardly; Hiruzen Sarutobi was truly worthy of being Hokage for twenty years. His eloquence was exceptional, and his grasp of the atmosphere was perfectly calibrated.

Even though Danzo had been so agitated that he had torn off his mask of civility, Hiruzen Sarutobi had managed to forcefully salvage the situation, using the memory of the late Kagami Uchiha to soothe his emotions.

His strategy of retreating to advance had given Danzo room to breathe, miraculously gluing the torn mask back together.

The Konoha F4 remained locked in a struggle, yet unbroken.

But Yamanaka Chujiu did not feel disappointed; the fact that he could hear the Konoha F4 tear into each other today proved that his previous instigation had been a success.

Without the thorn he had planted in their hearts a few days ago, no matter how much he provoked Danzo today, it would not have been enough to make him lose his composure.

Besides, how could a broken mirror be made whole again? How could a torn face ever be seamless?

Things like tearing off one's mask are just like domestic violence: there is only zero times, or countless times!

As long as Yamanaka Chujiu seized every opportunity and persisted in provoking Danzo, he would surely dismantle the Konoha F4 into scattered sand.

It was a pity that he was about to head to the battlefield, leaving him no way to maintain such high-density provocation.

He would have to do the opposite and apply an encouragement buff to Danzo instead.

Yamanaka Chujiu let out a cold snort, "He got off easy."

After the three old classmates departed, Shimura Danzo sat dazed in his chair, Hiruzen Sarutobi's final words circling in his mind.

With years of schooling together and decades of fighting side by side, both Danzo and Hiruzen prided themselves on having dedicated everything to Konoha, yet they remained deeply divided in their philosophies.

The bonds between them were impossible to sever, and tangled beyond measure.