"Hmph. Let you Uchiha strut around a little longer. I'll uproot your evil family one day!"
After venting his resentment, Danzo gave an order to the man behind him:
"Go to the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi Clans. Demand one jōnin from each to join Root."
Root's losses this time weren't exactly devastating, but Yamanaka Fu, one of his right-hand men, had fallen to that Uchiha Genya brat.
Still, this was a good opportunity. He could use it to demand more people from the major clans and expand Root.
Sooner or later, he, Shimura Danzō, would make the Uchiha Family pay for this!
Aburame Torune received the order and immediately headed for the three clans.
Root operatives cared nothing for the late hour. He went straight to their doors and brazenly demanded people.
Before long, however, Aburame Torune returned with bad news.
"What did you say?"
"Root asked the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans for people, and they refused?"
After giving his report, Aburame Torune stood quietly to one side.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered taking a jōnin by force to complete Lord Danzo's assignment.
But he couldn't possibly do that alone. His Kikaichū were better suited to killing people than capturing them.
He wasn't reckless enough to cause trouble openly in another clan's compound.
With no other choice, Aburame Torune had returned to report to Lord Danzo first.
A ruthless glint appeared in Danzo's eye.
"Fine. I'll visit them myself tomorrow."
"Let's see if they still refuse to hand anyone over when I show up in person!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's daily routine had barely changed. Every morning, he went to work at the Hokage Building and watched over Namikaze Minato as he handled official business.
As for Hiruzen, he lit his pipe and sat off to the side, puffing away.
The entire Hokage Office filled with the choking smell of tobacco.
Namikaze Minato didn't smoke, yet he spent every day steeped in secondhand smoke and went home reeking of it.
Lately, even Kushina had started to look at him with distaste.
But there was nothing he could do. Sarutobi Hiruzen was his teacher's teacher, and Namikaze Minato was the sort of man who respected his elders. As a result, despite being the Fourth Hokage, he sometimes couldn't even bring himself to protest.
Bang!
Another familiar kick sent the door open. Namikaze Minato didn't need to look to know who had arrived.
"Hiruzen!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen reluctantly set down his pipe and looked at Shimura Danzō.
"What is it this time? Have you stirred up more trouble by targeting the Uchiha Family again?"
The Uchiha had been making a lot of noise lately, and it seemed the Konoha Security Division had handed all its authority to that young man.
What was Fugaku thinking? Did he trust the young man that much?
And then there was Uchiha Genya. Hiruzen truly couldn't make sense of how the younger generation operated. They never played by the rules.
Not one of them gave him a moment's peace.
Why couldn't they just let me work them to the bone like Namikaze Minato did?
Danzo faltered and, unusually, shook his head.
"This time it has nothing to do with the Uchiha. It's the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen gave Shimura Danzō an odd look.
Well, that's new. Instead of targeting the Uchiha, you've gone after Ino-Shika-Cho?
Those three clans have never offended you, have they? They're staunch supporters of the Hokage Faction, and you're targeting them too?
Sometimes Sarutobi Hiruzen genuinely wanted to crack open Shimura Danzō's skull and see whether it was full of mush.
"Tell me exactly what happened. Don't try any of your usual tricks and frame someone."
This time, Shimura Danzō had an explanation, and he delivered it with complete confidence.
"Yesterday, I sent people to eliminate that troublemaker Uchiha Genya. The mission failed. The Uchiha must have been prepared, because not one of my men came back."
Namikaze Minato couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward and said:
"Elder Danzo, how can you attack a ninja from our own village without cause?"
Unlike the older generation, Little Sun had never witnessed the terror of Uchiha Madara. Naturally, he had no clear idea of the Uchiha Family's true power.
He knew the Konoha Hokage Faction had always suppressed the Uchiha, but openly assassinating a ninja from their own village? Wasn't that going too far?
What village leader would weaken his own side like that?
Shimura Danzō glared fiercely at Namikaze Minato with his one visible eye.
"When we're talking, what gives a youngster like you the right to butt in?"
Namikaze Minato might now be the Fourth Hokage in name. If he wanted to, he could kill Danzo in an instant.
Yet Danzo remained just as arrogant.
He had seen that Namikaze Minato respected his elders too much to lay a hand on seniors like them. That was why he acted without restraint.
The absurd scene made one thing perfectly clear.
If you were a good person, people would point a gun at you.
Just look at what would happen if the hot-tempered Tsunade took office. Would Danzo dare make a peep?
If Tsunade lost her temper, she really would hit him. One blow from her Strength of a Hundred Fist would leave him half-dead, if not kill him outright.
That was why Danzo never dared raise his voice at Tsunade.
Just as Danzo expected, Namikaze Minato sat back down among the stacks of documents with a headache and continued working.
How could being Hokage still feel this stifling?
What was the point of becoming Hokage, then?
If I'd known the position was such a burden, I might as well have let Senior Orochimaru have it.
After hearing Shimura Danzō's account, Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't immediately condemn his actions. Instead, he asked, somewhat puzzled:
"What does any of this have to do with the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans?"
Had that troublemaker Danzo picked a fight with the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans too?
At the mention of it, Shimura Danzō grew even angrier.
"A very important subordinate of mine, Yamanaka Fu, died. I planned to select one jōnin from each of the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans to join Root."
"But even when I went to them in person, all three clans refused!"
Danzo simply couldn't accept it. How dare a few clans that depended on Konoha refuse his demand?
Danzo even slammed his cane against the floor, looking furious, as though his dignity as the Hokage Assistant and the Darkness of the Shinobi had been trampled underfoot.
But Sarutobi Hiruzen breathed a sigh of relief.
Good. As long as it had nothing to do with the Uchiha Family.
"Danzo, keep your head down for a while. The Ino-Shika-Cho Clans have always been allies of the Hokage Faction. Do you want to alienate even your own allies?"
Shimura Danzō looked thoroughly unconcerned.
So what if I offend them? What are they going to do, turn the world upside down?