Third Hokage: Danzo Did It All

"Obito Uchiha! I'll investigate the attempt on your life thoroughly and give you a satisfactory answer!

"Konoha is one united family. No one should ever be assassinated because of their surname! That is absolutely unacceptable! But that doesn't give you the right to trespass into Root's headquarters and attack people!" the Third Hokage declared righteously as he stepped forward.

Danzo, you're always good at screwing things up. Now I'll have to make you take the fall for this.

"Fine. I'll take Lord Hokage at his word and trust that he'll give me a satisfactory answer. Konoha is our shared home. We must never tolerate the evil acts of excluding and murdering our fellow villagers for the selfish interests of a few individuals!

"Lord Hokage is the representative of the entire village and the embodiment of justice, not the representative of any one clan. I expect Lord Hokage to give me justice, and to give the Uchiha Clan justice!"

"As for why I came to Root, Lord Hokage can ask Danzo what he's been up to!"

"...Damn it! Since when did the Uchiha Clan have such a monster?" The Third Hokage's face was as dark as water. In his heart, he cursed Danzo thoroughly, then glanced at the Uchiha clan members watching with gleaming eyes and excited expressions. This was going to be difficult!

The shock and pressure Obito had brought him today were unprecedented. His strength was beyond imagination. What a load of nonsense about a young genius! He was young, all right—but this genius could bring the heavens crashing down! And then there was the mind and political savvy he shouldn't have had at his age.

Well, it was just as well. Danzo had become more and more brazen, no longer taking me, the Hokage, seriously. He could hardly wait to kick me out and seize the Hokage Position. Root had become his private army, too! I could use Obito Uchiha's influence to take Danzo down a notch and bring Root under my control. It would at least limit the damage.

There were no eternal enemies, nor eternal allies! It was all for Konoha's prosperity. A small personal sacrifice was entirely worthwhile! Danzo should have the resolve to give his life for Konoha's prosperity.

The Third Hokage had no intention of disbanding Root. There were too many dark and dirty matters in the shinobi village that needed Root's attention. Replacing Danzo with someone who would obey his orders without hesitation was what would benefit both him and the village most.

Hidden underground, Danzo had naturally heard what the Third Hokage said. A foreboding filled his heart. They had been playmates since childhood, classmates, and colleagues. He knew all too well what kind of person Hiruzen was.

He'd lost count of how many times he'd taken the fall for him over the years! But what could he do? Hiruzen was the Hokage. Without all those scapegoats, there would be no Root—and Danzo would never have gained such immense power!

He could guess what the satisfactory answer the Third Hokage had mentioned would be without even thinking. Hiruzen would dump the whole blame on him! I've had enough! If you won't show me any kindness, don't expect me to show you any loyalty!

Danzo formed hand seals, then disappeared from the spot.

The large-scale operation was eventually dismissed by the authorities as nothing more than a fire drill the previous night. There was no need to panic! Konoha was still prosperous and stable! Everyone, carry on with the music and dancing!

But things looked very different among Konoha's High Command. Danzo had been stripped of all his positions by the Third Hokage for attempting to assassinate innocent villagers, despite Homura and Koharu's mediation. Orochimaru, one of the Sannin and a disciple of the Third Hokage, became Root's new leader!

Danzo disappeared that very night, and no one knew where he had gone.

In secret negotiations with the Hokage, Obito got what he wanted. His business gained the official backing of Konoha, and as compensation for the assassination attempt, he received two plots of land in Konoha for free.

Most important of all, he won the Uchiha clan members' support and influence within his clan! He went from being a nobody to one of the few people in the Uchiha Clan with a say in its affairs. From then on, no one would treat him like a child.

The Third Hokage hadn't lost, either. His Hokage Position remained secure, and he had reached an agreement with Obito. Obito would keep his clan members from staging a coup, and in return, they would receive the village's support for their business ventures. Danzo, whose power had been growing unchecked, had been brought down. Most importantly, Obito, a powerful shinobi, was still in Konoha! A sword had two edges, but he would serve as a nuclear deterrent against the other shinobi villages. It would be even better if the Third Hokage could bring him under his control. Obito would be an incredible safeguard for the continued legacy of Konoha's Will of Fire!

Outside Konoha, a hidden cave served as the secret base for Orochimaru's forbidden experiments.

Orochimaru was in the prime of his youth, but his complexion was pale, and the purple eyeshadow gave him a sinister aura.

The base was fully equipped with all kinds of electronic instruments and medical supplies. Transparent, person-sized cultivation tanks held various experimental materials...

The Naruto World had a deeply unbalanced level of technological development. It had electricity, household appliances, televisions, and even computers...

But biological research seemed crude and simple... You could just pluck out an eyeball and put it in, and it would work...

Madara had simply bitten off a piece of Hashirama and grafted it onto himself to obtain Hashirama's cells...

It was even easier than grafting fruit trees.

It took Lu Ming a year after coming to this world to understand why things were like this.

Because chakra was just too useful!

It was practically a cure-all. Chakra of different natures could do all sorts of things.

And in the Naruto World, advanced technology meant advanced shinobi technology. Ordinary people still lived relatively primitive lives!

That was why the Naruto World felt so divided: ordinary people and shinobi really did live in two different worlds.

At that moment, Orochimaru was concentrating on adding a tube of purple solution to another tube containing a green solution. They were gene fluids he had extracted from different species. Orochimaru was most interested in genetic research.

In his view, genes determined everything! Natural deficiencies and acquired damage could all be corrected through genetic modification! Some people were born extraordinary, their bloodline giving them superhuman abilities with ease, while others were utterly ordinary from birth! Orochimaru wanted to make everyone equal!

A year ago, with Danzo's help, Orochimaru had obtained sixty newborns as experimental subjects.

He injected the First Hokage Cells into all sixty newborns, but the experiment failed. Not one of the children survived. This made Orochimaru realize how difficult it was to transplant the First Hokage Cells, so he took a step back and began studying cell fusion between other species before returning to the First Hokage Cells.

What Orochimaru didn't know was that one of the sixty children had survived. It was Yamato, who Danzo had secretly taken in... The very same person who would one day use Wood Release to make everything green.

Orochimaru's hands suddenly paused. His vertical pupils turned toward the space behind him, and he licked his lips with his long, thin tongue before sneering:

"Danzo... You shouldn't have come here."