Danzo

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Shimura Danzō (Danzo; 团藏) 4 9
Gender	Male 9
Affiliation	Konohagakure; Shimura Clan; Root; Konoha High Command 4 9 19
Occupation/Role	Konoha elder and Root leader; suspended from office but continues commanding hidden operatives 19 40
Status	Deceased; killed by Uchiha En 92 96 112
First Appearance	Chapter 4, “Framing the Innocent” 4

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Transplanted Mangekyō Sharingan	12 17 50	Obtains Shisui Uchiha’s stolen eye and implants it in his right socket. Already possessed when En awakens his own Mangekyō; grants access to Kotoamatsukami.

Background / History

Role in the Uchiha Massacre

Danzo participates in the leadership’s decision to destroy the Uchiha Clan. After the massacre, he publicly insists that Itachi acted independently and blames the Uchiha themselves, using Sasuke’s death to reinforce that account. Itachi overturns this explanation by naming Hiruzen, Danzo, Homura, and Koharu as the officials who ordered the massacre 9.

The same night, the Shimura and Sarutobi compounds are attacked. Danzo orders Root to secure the Shimura compound, treat survivors, and accompany him to the Sarutobi grounds. Separately, En—disguised as “Tobi”—falsely claims that Danzo commissioned the attacks on both clans 4.

En later tells Kakashi that Danzo spent more than a decade preparing the Uchiha’s destruction, including fabricating evidence linking them to the Nine-Tails attack, pushing them to Konoha’s outskirts, and manipulating Shisui and Itachi. This account is presented as En’s accusation, not as Danzo’s confession 50.

Exposure and Suspension

At the Clan Leaders’ Meeting, En accuses Danzo of stealing Shisui’s Mangekyō Sharingan and challenges him to uncover his bandaged right eye. Explaining that Kotoamatsukami can rewrite a person’s will turns the concealed eye into a threat to every clan represented. Danzo angrily denies the accusation and refuses to show it 17.

Root’s conduct worsens the confrontation: its operatives wait for Danzo’s approval rather than immediately obeying Hiruzen’s order to leave. Hiruzen subsequently suspends Danzo, places Root under the Hokage’s authority, requires its members to register again, and has the Anbu escort him out 18 19.

Danzo later violates his confinement to demand reinstatement. When Hiruzen announces plans to resign, Danzo briefly expects to inherit the Hokage position. Learning that Hiruzen intends to appoint Jiraiya instead prompts an argument in which Danzo claims he performed Konoha’s dirty work while Hiruzen maintained a respectable image 37.

Campaign Against Uchiha En

Despite losing official command, Danzo retains twelve loyal Root operatives who escaped absorption into the Anbu through overseas assignments or deliberate concealment. He uses them to investigate the leaflets undermining Konoha’s leadership, secretly abducting villagers and ordering genjutsu-assisted interrogations 40.

Witnesses describe cats carrying papers and bamboo tubes. Danzo identifies the Uchiha’s ninja cats as the likely delivery network and orders surveillance of En’s routine, followed by a decisive assassination. He rejects a request for more manpower, reasoning that a newly awakened Mangekyō user should be easier to defeat than Shisui 40.

The operation fails: En’s Wood Release and Susanoo overcome the Root squad, and all twelve elite jōnin are killed. Hiruzen blames Danzo for exposing En’s strength and forcing Konoha to allocate 100 million ryō to the Military Police Force 43 44 50.

Danzo reframes the loss as useful attrition. He estimates that En spent 10–20% of his Eye Power and proposes repeated attacks to force him toward blindness. When Hiruzen rejects sacrificing more village shinobi, Danzo threatens to use outside bounty hunters instead 51.

An anonymous 80-million-ryō bounty subsequently draws three assassins to En. The supplied account does not explicitly identify its client. After their defeat, Danzo nevertheless welcomes the result, believing their encounter consumed more of En’s Eye Power 71 73.

He also informs Orochimaru that En possesses the Mangekyō Sharingan, prompting Orochimaru to investigate the new Uchiha leader covertly 64.

Final Ambush and Death

Rumors linking Danzo to Tobi reach the Fire Daimyo, who withholds Jiraiya’s Hokage appointment and demands an explanation. Danzo denies sending Tobi but cannot identify the impostor or substantiate his defense. He suspects En of spreading the accusations and resolves to eliminate him 90.

Abandoning his plan to wait for En’s eyesight to deteriorate, Danzo sends an operative dressed as Anbu to summon him to Training Ground Three in the Hokage’s name. His intended outcome is control rather than immediate death: Kotoamatsukami would make En confess to Tobi’s crimes and provide a scapegoat for the Daimyo 91.

Danzo activates Kotoamatsukami and mistakes En’s vacant expression for success. En refuses orders to kneel and break his hands. By the ensuing confrontation, Danzo has lost access to the eye and resorts to Wind Release to cover his escape 91 92.

En intercepts him with space-time movement. Recognizing the technique, Danzo realizes that En was the “Tobi” responsible for the attacks on the Shimura and Sarutobi clans and the prince’s death. En then subjects him to Mangekyō genjutsu; Danzo is killed during the encounter 92 96 112.

En delivers Danzo’s body to the Daimyo and presents a different public account: Danzo had ordered the prince’s assassination through Tobi and was killed by the Military Police while fleeing punishment. The Daimyo rewards En with the position of Fifth Hokage 96.

Appearance

• Bandaged right eye — Conceals Shisui’s implanted Mangekyō Sharingan; Danzo loosens the covering before his final ambush 12 17 91.
• Cane — Uses it for support and repeatedly strikes it against the floor when asserting authority or expressing anger 9 37 40.
• Hoarse voice — Noted while addressing his remaining Root operatives and reacting to their deaths 40 50.

Personality

Danzo treats covert violence as necessary service to Konoha and resents being blamed when its consequences become public. His argument with Hiruzen exposes both his desire for the Hokage position and his belief that his hidden work entitles him to greater authority 37 91.

He regards people as expendable instruments. The deaths of twelve loyal operatives become acceptable once he believes they have weakened En, and his preferred follow-up is to send successive groups against the same target. His immediate desire to seize En’s newly awakened eyes likewise places their usefulness above the person possessing them 12 51.

His confidence repeatedly rests on incomplete knowledge. He assumes En’s recent awakening makes him vulnerable, treats estimated Eye Power losses as established results, and attempts Kotoamatsukami despite never having used it or witnessed its effects firsthand 40 51 91.

Abilities & Skills

Kotoamatsukami

• Source: Shisui Uchiha’s transplanted right Mangekyō Sharingan; Danzo considers it his greatest trump card 12.
• Effect: Can rewrite another person’s will, making it suitable for coercion and forced confessions 12 17 91.
• Documented use: Activates it against En at Training Ground Three, then issues commands to kneel and break his hands 91.
• Limit shown: Fails to secure En’s obedience. Danzo’s lack of firsthand experience prevents him from immediately recognizing that his apparent success is false 91.
• Countermeasure: En earlier believes his tenfold mental-power enhancement makes him immune; the later ambush demonstrates Danzo’s failure to control him 15 91.

Wind Release

• Vacuum Great Sphere: Launches a highly compressed wind attack that splits a tree after En evades it 92.
• Tactical use: Employs the technique as a delaying attack while fleeing, acknowledging internally that he cannot win the confrontation directly 92.

Intelligence and Covert Operations

• Maintains concealed operatives after Root’s official transfer to Hokage control 19 40.
• Directs secret abductions, witness suppression, and genjutsu-assisted interrogation 40.
• Orders detailed surveillance of a target’s routes, schedule, and companions before assassination 40.
• Uses a false Anbu identity and a summons supposedly issued by the Hokage to lure En into an ambush 91.

Relationships

• Hiruzen Sarutobi — Long-standing political associate and eventual adversary within the leadership. Hiruzen suspends him but later publicly shields him from responsibility for the Root ambush; their private arguments center on succession, blame, and acceptable sacrifices 19 37 46 51.
• Uchiha En — Principal enemy and coveted source of Mangekyō eyes. En strips away his authority, defeats his covert forces, survives his final ambush, and kills him 12 19 40 92 112.
• Shisui Uchiha — Victim of Danzo’s eye theft and the original owner of his Kotoamatsukami-bearing Mangekyō 12 17 50.
• Uchiha Itachi — Instrument of the Uchiha extermination plan whom Danzo later attempts to blame exclusively for the massacre 9 37 50.
• Kiyomizu Kensuke — Trusted Root captain assigned to investigate the leaflets and lead the assassination squad against En; killed with the other eleven operatives 40 43 50.
• Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu — Fellow members of the High Command. They initially welcome his Eye Power attrition theory but later press him to explain the allegations involving Tobi 9 51 90.
• Orochimaru — Recipient of Danzo’s intelligence about En’s Mangekyō Sharingan, which draws him toward Konoha 64.
• Jiraiya — Rival for the Hokage succession in Danzo’s eyes; Danzo objects when Hiruzen chooses Jiraiya as his intended replacement 37.

Notable Quotes

“Take him down, and the rest of the Uchiha will fall apart. We can do whatever we want with them.” 40

“We lost twelve Elite Jōnin today. But we also made Uchiha En expend some of his Eye Power. When you balance the books... it wasn't a loss.” 51

“From today on, you're my most obedient dog.” 91