Danzo

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Shimura Danzo (团藏; also rendered Danzō) 1
Alias(es)	“Darkness of the Shinobi” 1
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Shimura Clan; Konohagakure; Root; later the Land of Light’s original Konoha faction 1 4 361
Occupation/Role	Shimura Clan head; Hokage Assistant; founder and leader of Root; intelligence and foreign-espionage operative 4 196 261
Status	Main-world Danzo: alive in his later appearance. Parallel-world Danzo: killed by Kizaru during the attempted assassination of Tsunade 373 473
First Appearance	Chapter 1, “Shimura Kizaru” 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Mastery of Rasengan and Wind Style: Rasengan	138	Learned both techniques under Kizaru’s instruction, expanding his established Wind Release repertoire.

Background / History

Tobirama’s disciple and Konoha’s shadow

Danzo was a disciple of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. Tobirama considered both him and Hiruzen Sarutobi potential Hokage successors, but favored Hiruzen, with Danzo as the backup candidate 242 260.

After Hiruzen became Hokage, Danzo was appointed Hokage Assistant and founded Root. His responsibilities centered on intelligence and foreign espionage rather than village administration or logistics. He spent more than twenty years operating as Hiruzen’s shadow, a role that also shaped the Shimura Clan’s conduct 237 261.

The Shimura Clan made enormous sacrifices to support his rise and Root’s operations. Its earlier peak included more than eight hundred members and nearly two hundred ninja 4.

Raising Kizaru

Kizaru is the son of Danzo’s younger brother. Danzo initially wanted the prodigy trained in Root, either as his strongest weapon in a bid for the Hokage position or as a future Hokage himself. Clan elders opposed this arrangement, leading to Kizaru’s enrollment at the Ninja Academy 1.

Finding Academy instruction inadequate for Kizaru, Danzo required daily training after school. He taught the boy his Wind Release techniques, only to see his lifetime’s repertoire mastered in less than a month 7 8.

Danzo’s political ambition increasingly centered on making Kizaru the Fourth Hokage. Although he resented Hiruzen’s interference, he recognized that becoming the Third Hokage’s direct disciple would give Kizaru a faster route to succession than studying under Orochimaru 24 56.

Taking in Minato

Danzo cultivated the image of a stern but kind mentor while observing and advising Namikaze Minato’s training. He subsequently took Minato as his foster son and envisioned him becoming Kizaru’s right-hand man, mirroring his own partnership with Hiruzen 34 97.

Recognizing that Root’s training could produce elite operatives but was unsuitable for developing a truly exceptional powerhouse, Danzo sought an outside teacher for Minato. He initially preferred Hatake Sakumo, then accepted Kizaru’s recommendation of Jiraiya because of the latter’s access to senjutsu 97 98.

Personality

Danzo maintains a cold, controlled exterior, frequently concealing pride, anxiety, or anger. Kizaru’s achievements nevertheless draw out smiles and thinly disguised boasting, especially when Danzo competes with Hiruzen over whose connection to the boy matters more 1 38 40 98.

An iron-blooded hawk, he favors unifying the Shinobi World under Konoha rather than preserving the existing balance between villages. His ambitions can outrun his understanding of governance: Kizaru has to explain that conquering territory does not supply the institutions needed to administer it 98 144.

His loyalty is highly selective. He explicitly places Kizaru’s survival above military glory and offers to bear the consequences if his nephew must retreat. He also shows pain at the injuries suffered by the Root spy Zen-hiko. Conversely, he is willing to expose civilians to danger when he considers them outside Konoha’s interests 56 212 220.

Greed and possessiveness complicate his support for reform. He wants the Shimura Clan to monopolize the lucrative civilian Hashirama Cell business, but can be persuaded that sharing benefits will strengthen Kizaru’s political position 154.

The parallel-world Danzo treats kinship more instrumentally. He recruits Kizaru through promises of recognition while planning to use him against Tsunade—and potentially eliminate him afterward if his loyalty remains uncertain 365 371.

Abilities & Skills

Wind Release

• A specialist who spent much of his life perfecting Wind Release ninjutsu; the Shimura Clan also specializes in this element 8.
• His teaching repertoire includes Vacuum Wave, Vacuum Sphere, Super Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves, Super Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere, Wind Style: Shuriken, and Wind Style: Kunai 8.
• Uses Vacuum Sphere against Kizaru and Gale Palm to injure multiple Sunagakure ninja during a confrontation 26 199.
• The parallel-world counterpart uses Vacuum Serial Waves to wound Tsunade during the assassination attempt 373.

Rasengan

• Masters the basic Rasengan and its wind-nature derivative through Kizaru’s instruction 138.
• His knowledge of both techniques allows him to reason that Kizaru’s next derivative may combine additional nature and shape transformation at S-rank difficulty 138.
• The supplied context does not show Danzo learning Rasenshuriken 138.

Combat experience and defensive techniques

• Uses the Substitution Technique, Shadow Clone Technique, and Body Flicker Technique during his assessment of Kizaru 26 27.
• Is explicitly described as a Kage-level powerhouse while fighting alongside Orochimaru against Karatachi Yagura 242.
• Despite his experience, Kizaru’s light-based speed overwhelms his reactions; their early spar leaves him with an injured arm, damaged eyes, and tattered clothing 26 27.

Sensory techniques — parallel-world counterpart

• Possesses useful sensory abilities despite not being a specialized sensory ninja 369.
• Attempts to detect invisible opponents through their chakra flow, then searches the training ground with a subtle breeze created without hand seals 369.
• Neither method locates Kizaru, whose presence concealment and elementalization defeat Danzo’s assumptions 369.

Sharingan techniques — parallel-world counterpart

• Kotoamatsukami: attempts to control Kizaru using Shisui’s transplanted Mangekyō Sharingan; the genjutsu fails 373.
• Izanagi: attempts to rewrite reality and escape a fatal injury; Kizaru nullifies it through his superior spiritual energy 373.
• Preparation limitation: during their earlier spar, Danzo cannot remove the bandages and seals over his Sharingan quickly enough to activate it under pressure 369.

Intelligence, diplomacy, and coercion

• Directs Root’s espionage network and evaluates threats such as the multinational ambush planned against Kizaru 196 212.
• Negotiates favorable military-deployment and intelligence-sharing terms with Hanzo while preserving Amegakure’s stability 87.
• Uses Kizaru’s reputation as a deterrent during negotiations with Sunagakure 160.
• Employs disguised operatives, political loyalty tests, assassinations, and purges to advance Kizaru’s control over the Land of Fire and Land of Wind 288 309.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

The following items are documented for the parallel-world counterpart, not established as possessions of the main-world Danzo:

• Cane — carries it while waiting to assess Kizaru at the training ground 369.
• Bandages and seals — cover and seal his Sharingan before combat 369.
• Sharingan-covered right arm — serves as a major trump card until Kizaru severs it 373.
• Shisui’s Mangekyō Sharingan — transplanted into his right eye and used for Kotoamatsukami 373.

Relationships

Main world

• Shimura Kizaru — biological nephew, Wind Release student, and political successor. Danzo shifts from seeking power for himself to backing Kizaru’s Hokage succession and wider ambitions 1 8 56 194 207.
• Namikaze Minato — foster son. Danzo values his talent and temperament, arranges his future training, and hopes he will support Kizaru 97 98 138.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi — longtime friend, political partner, and ideological rival. Their relationship improves after they begin representing the original Konoha faction together within the Land of Light 15 146 361.
• Tobirama Senju — former teacher whose approval matters deeply to him. Their reunion brings both praise for his contributions and criticism of his extreme suppression of the Uchiha 261.
• Uchiha Clan — longstanding target of distrust and suppression. Danzo’s hostility also causes the clan to resent the Shimura and question Kizaru 15 150.
• Hanzo — negotiated ally retained as Amegakure’s leader for stability; later leans toward Danzo’s faction in the Land of Light 87 361.
• Chiyo — negotiating counterpart and later collaborator. Danzo helps purge opposition to her leadership and Sunagakure’s merger with Konoha 160 266 309.
• Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya — battlefield subordinates whom Danzo decides to train as repayment for Hiruzen’s support of Kizaru’s succession 77.

Parallel world

• Kizaru / Shimura Wuxing — supposed returning relative whom Danzo names his successor. Kizaru fabricates his background, secretly cooperates with Tsunade, and ultimately kills him 365 366 373.
• Tsunade — Fifth Hokage and assassination target. Danzo frames her removal as correcting Konoha’s course 371 373.
• Fu Yamanaka and Torune Aburame — trusted Root operatives selected for the assassination attempt; Fu is incapacitated, while Torune abandons resistance after Danzo’s death 373.
• Sai — Root subordinate placed in Team 7. Danzo pressures him to report Naruto’s team’s whereabouts despite his growing attachment to them 364 366.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Preparing Kizaru’s succession

• Encourages early graduation so Kizaru can gain merit, fame, and status in the approaching war 8.
• Challenges Kizaru to curb what he considers excessive arrogance, but the resulting spar forces him to reassess his nephew’s strength 24 26 27.
• Helps arrange publicity for Kizaru’s solo defense against the Land of Lightning while privately insisting that he retreat if necessary 56.
• After three years of village reform, urges Kizaru to accept the Hokage position, judging him ready in both combat and management 194.

The Land of Rain and Sunagakure

• Leads Konoha’s Anbu deployment to the Land of Rain with Shinnosuke assisting and Jiraiya and Orochimaru serving as major combat assets 56.
• Concludes a peace and alliance agreement with Hanzo, then uses Hanzo’s report of a Sunagakure approach to plan a counterambush led by Kizaru and Sakumo 87.
• Arrives in Sunagakure with one thousand shinobi and demands annual peacekeeping and education payments, influence over mineral sales, and educational arrangements favoring Konoha 160.
• Refuses to yield during a later garrison confrontation and injures Sunagakure ninja before Fugaku’s delivery of Kizaru’s message calms the situation 199.

Reform and revolutionary ambition

• Fully backs Kizaru’s reforms because increased revenue and independence from noble funding would strengthen Konoha’s war-making potential 98.
• Comes to understand that unification would require confronting the Feudal Lords and nobles as well as rival villages 144.
• Enthusiastically supports Kizaru’s proposed replacement of aristocratic rule with direct shinobi government over the continent 207.
• Accepts Kizaru’s instruction that the Hokage’s relatives must move out of the shadows and promises to change the Shimura Clan’s position 237.

War and Tobirama’s return

• Receives costly intelligence about an allied ambush involving the Six Paths Tools and works with Hiruzen and Kizaru to investigate the threat 212.
• Fights Yagura alongside Orochimaru and briefs the reanimated Hashirama on Madara’s survival and activities 242 244.
• Admits knowing about Koharu and Homura’s corruption; Tobirama assigns him to recover the stolen funds 261.
• Escorts the two Advisors to an underground Root base, where Tobirama obtains confessions totaling more than two billion ryo in embezzlement 262.
• Is entrusted with obtaining a captured Uchiha ninja for the operation involving Madara’s resurrection 266.

Consolidating the new order

• Tests noble loyalty in the Land of Fire’s capital, then orders Root ninja disguised as rogues to attack the Feudal Lord’s family and selected noble houses 288.
• Leads five hundred Konoha ninja to Sunagakure and joins Chiyo’s loyalists in eliminating opposition to the merger 309.
• Later works alongside Hiruzen to preserve the original Konoha faction’s influence in the Land of Light. When Hiruzen goes missing in a suspected parallel-world incident, Danzo immediately offers assistance 361.

Parallel-world downfall

• Attempts to intercept Naruto’s team and capture the Nine-Tails jinchuriki to advance his bid for Hokage 364.
• Recruits Kizaru as a presumed Shimura descendant, brings him into Konoha under the name Shimura Wuxing, and mistakes their sparring encounter for an opportunity to secure a powerful pawn 365 366 369.
• Develops a plan to assassinate Tsunade, using Kizaru’s supposed grievance against him as cover for gaining her trust 371.
• Names Kizaru his clan successor and sends Jiraiya away through a false mission before launching the ambush 373.
• Loses his Sharingan-covered arm to Kizaru’s betrayal. Kotoamatsukami and Izanagi both fail, leaving him unable to escape death 373.

Notable Quotes

“But remember, your life is more important than being a hero! I demand that if you sense danger, you retreat immediately! I will bear the consequences of any retreat myself!” 56

“Leave it to me! Within half a year, I will ensure that only your voice remains in the entire Land of Fire.” 288

“No, I am merely correcting a mistake! The village has strayed too far down the wrong path.” — Parallel-world Danzo, during the attack on Tsunade 373