Danzo

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Shimura Danzō (Danzo; 团藏)
Alias(es)	Konoha’s Dark Shinobi; Konoha’s darkness 60 206
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Konohagakure; Shimura Clan; Root 12 13 198
Occupation/Role	Root leader; former Hokage advisor; unsuccessful candidate for Fourth Hokage 13 27 210
Status	Alive; leading Konoha forces against the Land of U in his latest documented appearance 255
First Appearance	Chapter 5

Background / History

Danzo was a student of Tobirama and a companion of Kagami Uchiha. According to Danzo, Kagami activated his Mangekyō Sharingan to cover Danzo’s escape but died despite using it. Danzo subsequently took Kagami’s Sharingan and implanted it in himself. He also violated his deceased companion’s memories to obtain information about the Uchiha’s ocular powers, justifying the act as a sacrifice for Konoha 39 110.

As Root’s leader, Danzo controlled an organization formally called the ANBU Training Department, responsible for training ANBU reserves. Root also handled external intelligence and covert operations. Hiruzen protected Danzo partly because he depended on him to perform work that could not be acknowledged publicly 13 14 26.

Danzo became interested in recruiting Uchiha Chuan early in the story. When Hiruzen initially refused to interfere in the Uchiha clan’s affairs, Danzo departed with the warning that Hiruzen would regret his decision 5.

Appearance

• Bandaged right eye: Conceals Kagami Uchiha’s transplanted Sharingan, which Danzo reveals selectively during negotiations 109 137.
• One normally visible eye: Frequently described as sharp or threatening, despite its murky appearance 137 207.
• Cane: Uses it while walking and strikes it against the ground during confrontations 139 204 207.
• Scars and robes: His scars are associated with his past service; his robes feature prominently during his angry confrontation with the village elders 139.

Personality

Danzo regards coercion, indoctrination, and forced sacrifice as legitimate means of protecting Konoha. He dismisses concerns about losing the loyalty of established clans, arguing that wandering orphans could replace them. His hostility toward the Uchiha extends beyond immediate security concerns: he repeatedly labels them evil and treats their independence as a threat to village authority 39 60.

His temper is especially volatile when his authority is challenged. He berates Root operatives, reacts furiously to Hiruzen’s apologies, and interprets restrictions imposed by former allies as betrayal. Nevertheless, he can construct patient, elaborate schemes rather than relying exclusively on intimidation 12 61 137 139.

Becoming Hokage remains his overriding ambition. He enjoys summoning Hiruzen during confinement because it makes him feel like the Hokage, designs a film portraying himself as Konoha’s savior, and rejects Hanzo’s alliance proposal to concentrate on the succession. Even after losing the election, he refuses to abandon the goal 60 166 204 214.

Danzo’s desire for control also creates vulnerabilities. He manipulates desperate Uchiha hardliners while privately despising them, yet his jealousy of Hiruzen allows Shanhuo to redirect his actions. When confronted with Chuan’s growing military influence, he chooses withdrawal rather than risk forces he cannot afford to lose 137 230 232.

Abilities & Skills

Transplanted Sharingan

Danzo possesses Kagami Uchiha’s eye in his right socket. Although the eye is a Mangekyō Sharingan, Danzo states that he can use only its Three-Tomoe form because he is not an Uchiha 109 110 137.

• Concealment: Keeps the eye bandaged and reveals it to demonstrate his access to Uchiha power and knowledge 109.
• Vision damage: Prolonged use has severely damaged the transplanted eye’s eyesight 137.
• Izanagi objective: Seeks additional Sharingan for use with Izanagi; the provided events document his intention, not a successful activation 200 203.

Psychological Manipulation

Danzo identifies opponents’ ambitions and fears, then offers selective information or assistance to make them dependent on him 109 120 137.

• Exploits Shanhuo’s desperation to help Tieyue awaken the Mangekyō and recover the Hardliners’ influence 109.
• Uses mockery, praise, threats, and the revelation of his implanted eye to control their conversation 109.
• Promises Orochimaru access to Chuan in exchange for helping Danzo become Hokage and Shanhuo become Uchiha clan head 120.
• Gains the Uchiha hardliners’ political support by promising to restore their control over the clan 137.

Intelligence and Propaganda

Danzo retains access to Root’s intelligence network even while confined. He knows about Koharu’s manipulation of Tieyue because she used Root’s systems 60.

• Engineered mission failure: Designs an operation involving false identities, leaked intelligence, an enemy ambush, and public scapegoating 61.
• Election campaign: Divides Root into six propaganda groups to attack rival candidates and promote his own credentials 206.
• Film propaganda: Commissions Konoha Crush Plan to glorify himself and exploit the political impact of a dramatized village disaster 166 171.
• Limits: Chuan’s public broadcasts expose operations that depend on secrecy; intimidation also fails to secure the major clans’ electoral support 12 207.

Tongue Root Calamity-Severing Curse Seal

Danzo places Tongue Root Calamity-Severing Curse Seals on Shanhuo and eight other Uchiha operatives 209.

• The seals impose control over the operatives, and removing them outright would alert Danzo 209.
• Madara circumvents them by transferring their curse roots to White Zetsu while leaving the seals apparently intact 209.

Ocular-Power Research

Danzo combines information taken from Kagami with Root research and Orochimaru’s expertise 39 120 121.

• Mangekyō knowledge: Knows about trauma-based awakening and the progressive loss of eyesight caused by ocular-power consumption 39 140.
• Uncertain deductions: Exaggerates his theory that newly awakened Mangekyō ocular power can restore another user’s vision, despite not knowing whether the explanation is correct 110.
• Hashirama Cells: Reports that experiments replenished consumed ocular power and proposes transplantation as an alternative route to Mangekyō awakening 137.
• Research limit: A safe transplantation method remains unresolved; Danzo relies on Orochimaru to overcome the cells’ invasive nature 120 137.

Equipment / Items

• Cane — Carried during travel and political confrontations 139 204 207.
• Right-eye bandages — Conceal the transplanted Sharingan 109.
• Infection Technique copy — Retains the technique for analysis but forbids Root from practicing it, fearing it might contain a means for Chuan to control its users 230.
• Konoha Crush Plan script — Presented to director Oda Wenshi as the basis for Danzo’s propaganda film 166 171.

Relationships

• Hiruzen Sarutobi — Long-standing political ally and rival. Hiruzen protects his covert work but removes him from office and confines him; Danzo increasingly resents Hiruzen’s authority and suspects him of manipulation 14 27 139 232.
• Uchiha Chuan — Recruitment target turned principal adversary. Chuan exposes Root’s attempted abduction, humiliates Danzo publicly, and later becomes powerful enough to make him retreat 5 12 13 230.
• Uchiha Fugaku — Political opponent. Fugaku challenges Danzo’s account of the Root incident and exposes unequal restrictions on Uchiha education 26 27.
• Uchiha Shanhuo — Uchiha recruit and intermediary. Danzo exploits his factional ambitions, but Shanhuo later serves Madara and Black Zetsu while continuing to influence Danzo 109 120 209 220 232.
• Kagami Uchiha — Former companion who, according to Danzo, died covering his escape. Danzo appropriates his eye and extracts information from his memories 39 110.
• Orochimaru — Transactional research partner. Their cooperation centers on Hashirama Cells, Mangekyō limitations, and later Impure World Reincarnation 120 121 236.
• Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura — Fellow schemers whose cooperation is strained by competition and distrust. They assist his anti-Uchiha planning but become alarmed by his recruitment and research alliances 61 121 139.
• Hatake Sakumo — Target of political hostility and scapegoating. Sakumo refuses to endorse Danzo’s accusation of Uchiha rebellion, and Danzo later plans to exploit his concern for his comrades 13 29 61.
• Jiraiya — Rival for Fourth Hokage. Danzo attacks his reputation during the campaign, loses the election to him, and later participates in the mobilization following his removal 206 210 250.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Failed Recruitment and Public Exposure

• Sends two Root ninja disguised as ANBU to seize Chuan. Chuan broadcasts the attempted kidnapping throughout Konoha, prompting Danzo to order a retreat 12.
• After the operatives are captured, Danzo accuses the Uchiha of rebellion. Chuan instead frames him as the head of an illegitimate spy organization and orders the Police Force to kill him if he attacks 13.
• Hiruzen intervenes and acknowledges authorizing an approach to recruit Chuan. The operatives are released, but Danzo’s authority is publicly undermined 14.

Removal from Office

• Recasts the recruitment incident as an act of concern for Chuan’s development during a Jonin meeting 26.
• Treats Fugaku’s proposed second Ninja Academy as evidence of separatism and orders his arrest, provoking an armed Uchiha standoff 26.
• After further challenges over private training, Hiruzen removes Danzo as Hokage advisor, orders Root restructured, and imposes one year of house arrest 27.
• Hiruzen subsequently forbids him from targeting the Uchiha during confinement and directs his future attention outside the village 29.

Explosive-Tag Mission Scheme

• Uses an offer of up to 100,000 Explosive Tags at 20% of normal cost to reopen discussion of the Uchiha threat 60.
• Proposes selling the intelligence to Kumogakure and arranging an S-rank interception mission involving Sakumo and representatives of the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Nara 61.
• Plans to have Root impersonate Fugaku, convince Tieyue that the mission is an attempt to eliminate him, and manipulate him into leaking intelligence 61.
• Expects Sakumo to abandon the compromised mission to save his comrades. The resulting scandal would damage Sakumo and the Uchiha while allowing Hiruzen to gain support through a staged defense of the Will of Fire 61.

Recruiting the Uchiha Hardliners

• Has Root isolate Shanhuo during patrol and lure him into a private meeting with information about Mangekyō awakening 107 109.
• Receives Shanhuo and eight defecting Police Force members, creating a group of nine Three-Tomoe Sharingan users 119 121.
• Partners with Orochimaru on Hashirama Cell transplantation and obtains the hardliners’ support for his Hokage ambitions 120 137.
• Initially dismisses the elders’ anti-eavesdropping barrier as surveillance against himself. Learning that Chuan can speak beside them undetected forces him to reconsider his earlier assumption that Chuan possesses precognition 139 140.
• Suggests compensating the Uchiha with the Flying Thunder God Technique and Soul Transformation Art rather than committing enormous sums of money 140.

Propaganda Film

• Develops Shimura Kirito Chronicle: Konoha Crush Plan, casting himself as the mentor and savior of a hated jinchūriki 166.
• Writes fictional deaths for Jiraiya, Hiruzen, and Orochimaru so that his screen counterpart becomes the obvious choice for Fifth Hokage 166.
• Recruits Oda Wenshi to direct the production and demands a spectacular depiction of Konoha’s destruction 171.
• Further reshapes his fictional narrative to portray Chuan as a conspirator and Shanhuo as a defender of the village 180.

Uchiha Extermination Operation

• Receives Hiruzen’s instruction to eliminate the remaining Uchiha held in Kirigakure after a hostage exchange 198.
• Privately intends to use surviving Uchiha as breeding stock for a Shimura-named clan with Sharingan 198.
• Anticipates harvesting eyes for Izanagi, but the apparent Uchiha victims destroy themselves and their eyes through explosive seals. His forces obtain no intact Sharingan and lose more than a thousand ninja 200 203.
• The supposed extermination is later revealed to have involved substitutes; the actual Uchiha clan survives 209 220.

Fourth Hokage Election

• Rejects Hanzo’s proposed alliance against Akatsuki to prioritize returning to Konoha and undermining his electoral rivals 204.
• Launches a six-part rumor campaign through Root, promoting himself while attacking Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru 206.
• Fails to secure endorsements from the Hyuga, Inuzuka, Aburame, or Ino–Shika–Cho. References to the Uchiha’s fate deepen their distrust rather than compel cooperation 207.
• Receives approximately 40% approval, compared with 90% for Jiraiya, who is selected as Fourth Hokage. These figures are approval levels, not shares of a single divided vote 210.
• Remains determined to become Hokage despite the defeat 214.

Land of Rain Incursion and Forbidden-Technique Arms Race

• Acts on information that the Uchiha survived and that Nagato possesses the Rinnegan, despite Jiraiya’s refusal to initiate war 220.
• Leads Root into the Land of Rain, where Sharingan-bearing villagers organize resistance and force his troops to withdraw 225.
• Refuses to adopt the Infection Technique and orders a retreat after learning that Sunagakure and Iwagakure have been defeated 230.
• Shanhuo reveals Hiruzen’s secret force of roughly three hundred Impure Reincarnation Jinchūriki. Danzo interprets this as proof that Hiruzen sent him on an impossible mission while building personal military power 232.
• Returns to Konoha and presses Orochimaru to develop an equivalent army, promising experimental materials. No completed Danzo-controlled reincarnation army is documented 232 236 251.

War Against the Land of U

• Receives orders to cooperate in taking control of Konoha and dispatching troops after Jiraiya is stripped of office and Hiruzen temporarily resumes leadership 250.
• Shanhuo encourages him to prioritize destroying the Land of U; Danzo agrees that waiting for Orochimaru’s research is too slow 250 251.
• Leads Konoha forces into the Land of U, kills civilians, and redirects his army toward U Hidden Village after learning that most inhabitants have gathered there 255.

Notable Quotes

“Hiruzen, you will regret this.” 5

“That’s right. I admit it—I was never a good person.” 110

“Kill them! Leave none alive! If we can’t have them, destroy them all!” 203