In Danzo's eyes, the daimyo's so-called plan was nothing more than a laughable scheme. Danzo had dispatched nearly all the forces at his disposal to intercept the Land of Earth's troops and wipe out every force under the daimyo's command.
Root had practically mobilized in full. As a result, Danzo had retained only twenty or thirty elite Root members at the time. In essence, he truly had acted for Konoha's interests. He wanted to preserve Konoha's strength as much as possible amid the great turmoil, which was why he had chosen to act when both Jiraiya and Ueno Kei were away.
First, he did not want Tsunade's side to become too powerful, making it difficult to strike. Second, he genuinely did not want to weaken Konoha's strength any further. To the other villages, Ueno Kei and Jiraiya were immensely intimidating figures, top-tier forces even within Konoha. Unfortunately, no plan could account for everything, and even the most perfect scheme had its flaws.
For one, he had failed to properly judge when Ueno Kei would return. More importantly, what he had truly miscalculated was human nature. The human heart was complicated; it could not be calculated through some simple plan or formula. Even if Ueno Kei had not arrived in time, he would never have let the matter rest after returning to the village!
Still, it was thanks to Danzo's plan that the daimyo's scheme had failed. Honestly speaking, not only had the Land of Fire's daimyo failed to gain what he wanted this time, he had also paid a tremendous price. His own forces had been greatly weakened, and he had angered the Land of Earth's daimyo. It was said that after that esteemed daimyo learned he had been toyed with by the Land of Fire's daimyo—
—and used as