Chapter 20

Hiruzen and Danzo quickly realized what was happening. Their first thought was to root out whoever had spread the news, but the culprit had long since covered their tracks, leaving nothing behind.

"Who the hell did this?!" Danzo was so furious he stomped his feet, his voice cracking.

Just then, a Root ninja led an ANBU operative over and reported in a low voice, "Lord Danzo, Lord Hokage requests your presence."

Danzo's face darkened like the bottom of a pot. He suppressed his voice and replied, "Understood." Then he strode out. As he passed a Root ninja, he gave a harsh order, "Xiao, before today is over, I want to know who's behind this. Send people to investigate immediately."

"Yes!" Xiao accepted the order at once.

At the Ninja Hospital, inside Tsunade's office.

Bang!

After reading the report, Tsunade smashed her desk to pieces with one punch. Documents and papers scattered across the floor as she roared in fury, "Danzo, you deserve to die!"

Then she slammed the door open and stormed straight toward the Hokage Building. Everyone she encountered along the way shrank back and hurried aside. No one dared say a word to her.

Halfway there, Tsunade ran into Orochimaru. She had never liked this former teammate, who had grown increasingly gloomy and strange. Besides, Orochimaru had been close to Danzo these past few years. With his obsession with research, Tsunade had every reason to suspect he had a hand in this as well.

She clenched her fists and demanded, "Orochimaru, were you involved too?"

"Ha ha ha... how could I be?" Orochimaru glanced at Tsunade's fist and smiled somewhat nervously, hurriedly waving his hands as he explained, "It has nothing to do with me. I only just heard the news myself. If you're looking for someone, go find Danzo, the real culprit."

With that, he slipped away without hesitation. What a joke. If enraged Tsunade found out he had been involved too, he would never survive one of her monstrous punches. That fist was better left for Jiraiya, that idiot, to enjoy. Orochimaru had no intention of stealing his spotlight.

"Achoo—"

At that moment, in a small town in the Land of Tea, Jiraiya was drinking in an izakaya, chatting up and flirting with the hostesses when he suddenly sneezed.

Xuan wiped his nose and muttered in bafflement, "Who's cursing me? It must be that damned Orochimaru. When I get back, I'm definitely settling the score with him!"

Then he turned back to the women and called out, "Come on, come on, let's keep drinking—"

"Oh my, sir, are you all right? You're not catching a cold, are you?"

"How could I be? Some pretty girl must be thinking about me."

"Sir, you're awful. You already have us with you, but you're still thinking about someone else. You're breaking our hearts~"

"Haha, my fault, my fault. No more talk. Drink up, drink up..."

Tsunade kicked Danzo to the ground and shouted coldly, "You still dared lay a hand on my people?"

Hiruzen stood nearby, his face grim. "Danzo, stop this."

Orochimaru had gone quite a distance when he stuck out his long tongue and licked his lips. A playful smile curled at the corner of his mouth as he murmured hoarsely, "Who exactly did this?"

"Interesting. Very interesting. It seems Danzo has recently provoked someone he shouldn't have."

But the next second, he cast the thought aside.

He had no interest in such matters at the moment.

The Wood Release experiment had reached a critical point.

He was so close, yet he simply could not break through that final barrier.

The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became.

"If Tsunade were willing to help, the chances of success should increase considerably."

"Unfortunately, she absolutely cannot find out about this, much less get involved. Otherwise, she'll turn on me for sure."

"Still, I heard Tsunade recently took in a disciple with frightening talent. He picked up medical ninjutsu absurdly fast. I wonder whether he could be useful?"

More importantly, the boy was actually an Uchiha.

That piqued Orochimaru's curiosity somewhat.

But on second thought, Uchiha Yan was Tsunade's **. If he brought the boy in, he definitely would not be able to hide it from Tsunade.

"Forget it. I'll think of something else."

In the end, Orochimaru still did not believe that a child barely over three years old could help with something like this after studying under Tsunade for only a few months.

The threshold for medical ninjutsu could not possibly be that low.

Although the hospital had been making Uchiha Yan sound practically divine, Orochimaru only half believed it.

He had seen plenty of geniuses. Wasn't he one himself?

But even geniuses had to follow basic principles.

No matter how monstrous Uchiha Yan was, it would take at least several years, perhaps even a decade or more, before he could interfere in an experiment of this level.

That was assuming he lived that long.

Orochimaru knew very well that Danzo had his eye on that boy.

Thinking of Uchiha Yan inevitably reminded him of Nawaki, Tsunade's disciple.

Orochimaru tilted his head slightly upward and looked toward the distant sky. His lips curled as he whispered in a raspy voice, "Tsunade, I hope you can protect the people around you this time."

Inside the Hokage Office, Danzo pushed the door open, stepped inside, and shut it behind him.

Before Hiruzen could speak, Danzo struck first. "Hiruzen, it's time to clean out the rats in this village."

"They're already openly spreading rumors, smearing my name, and trying to throw the village into chaos. They've become utterly lawless."

The corner of Hiruzen's mouth twitched.

Do you take me for an idiot?

You can actually say that kind of bullshit?

He was just about to speak—

Bang!

With an explosive crash, Hiruzen watched as the office's wooden door shattered into dozens of pieces. A foot wrapped in splintered wood slammed viciously into Danzo's back.

"Puh!!"

Danzo was sent flying, spitting out a mouthful of blood in midair.

"You bastard—"

He forcibly twisted his head, trying to see who had attacked him.

Instead, he met Tsunade's icy, murderous eyes.

Danzo swallowed the curse that had reached his lips.

Of course he knew why this woman had come.

He knew that if he dared curse at her now, this madwoman would absolutely seize the excuse to kill him.

He could only swallow his fury, keep his mouth shut, accept his fate, and continue flying forward.

He thought Hiruzen would catch him.

Who would have thought that the old fox, pipe in his mouth, would use the Body Flicker Technique to dodge to the side.

Not only did he avoid the blood Danzo had sprayed, he avoided Danzo himself as well.

"Whew—close, too close."

Hiruzen secretly sighed in relief, then looked up and met Danzo's resentful gaze.

His eyes conveyed a single message: Danzo, I'm doing this for your own good.

Look at Tsunade right now. If I don't let her beat you up to vent her anger, I'm afraid she'll really kill you outright.

For the sake of your old life, endure it.

What?

You say you're innocent?

You didn't conduct Wood Release experiments? You didn't touch the First Hokage's cells?

Don't you know perfectly well whether you did or not?

Don't forget, we dug up the First Hokage's remains together back then.

Later, when the experiment failed, we put them back together too.

But I never expected that you would secretly make another move behind my back.

At that thought, Hiruzen felt anger toward Danzo as well.

His decision to dodge earlier might not have been entirely without the intention of giving him a warning.

After all, this man had crossed the line behind his back.

Danzo understood the meaning in Hiruzen's eyes, and his chest felt as though a boulder were lodged inside it.

He felt betrayed.

Hiruzen was always like this—stabbing him in the back while making him take all the blame for the dirty work. What a bastard.

It was precisely because of this that his determination to become Hokage grew even stronger.

Once he sat in that position, he would make Hiruzen experience what it felt like to be the scapegoat. He would dump all his blame and dirty deeds onto that old man and let him understand what true frustration felt like.

Bang!!

The moment the thought flashed through his mind, Danzo crashed through the wall in front of him and nearly fell from the third floor.

"Cough... cough!"

After taking a while to recover, he glared at Tsunade with a dark expression while coughing up blood. "It's fine if you offend me, but I must make one thing clear—I have shown no disrespect to the First Hokage. Those are all rumors."