Danzo

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

• Early appearance: A sturdy man in his prime, with both hands and an intact right eye. He is vigorous rather than elderly 25.
• Later condition: Still physically intact and possessing a powerful presence when Bieshu Feifan visits Root’s underground headquarters 101.
• Leg injury: Bieshu Feifan’s disguised Wood Clone breaks his right leg, leaving him using a cane during subsequent operations 145 146 148.
• After hospitalization: Noticeably thinner following half a month of illness and recovery 159.

Personality

Danzo’s overriding ambition is to become the Fourth Hokage. He treats military achievements, public opinion, and Hiruzen Sarutobi’s embarrassment as opportunities to advance that goal. After financing a performance that humiliates Hiruzen, he concludes that indirect attacks on his friend’s reputation may succeed where open confrontation has failed 55 60 102 109.

His confidence makes him particularly susceptible to flattery. Bieshu Feifan exploits his desire for recognition through both genjutsu and praise of his supposed leadership talents. Even after discovering that an impostor has manipulated him, Danzo admits that part of him had not wanted to leave the flattering illusion 110 141 162.

Danzo is deeply prejudiced against the Uchiha, insisting that none of them should become Hokage. He repeatedly interprets ambiguous events as evidence of elaborate Uchiha plots, including the name of Fugaku’s newborn son. He also justifies human experimentation and his activities abroad as being “for Konoha” 25 60 157 179.

Despite his aggressive rhetoric, he recognizes dangerous opponents. He avoids confronting Hanzo and withdraws from the front after capturing A because he does not trust himself to defeat the Third Raikage 54 70.

Abilities & Skills

Wind Release

Danzo specializes in lethal, compressed-air attacks. Bieshu Feifan regards his Wind Release as approaching the pinnacle attainable by ordinary shinobi and repeatedly seeks to copy it 112.

• Combination attacks: Supplies wind to more than a dozen Fire Release users, creating a wave of flame over one hundred meters across 54.
• Against Lightning Release: His ranged wind attacks help overwhelm A while avoiding the close combat A favors 141.
• Mobility limit: Can remain airborne briefly through Wind Release, but explicitly states that he cannot fly 79.
• Breathing vulnerability: Airborne chili powder interrupts his attempt to inhale and perform a technique 145.

Shadow Clone Technique

• Creates Shadow Clones to cover his retreat from pursuing Kaguya shinobi 145.
• Uses clones during the battle with an Iwagakure jōnin; the enemy cannot readily distinguish the real body from the strength of their techniques 148.

Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal

• Brands the captured Kitsuchi with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal after the joint ambush succeeds 149.

Taijutsu

• Gains a slight advantage during a close-range exchange with Bieshu Feifan’s transformed Wood Clone, whose underlying body is still small 112.
• Uses a cane to break a captured Iwagakure jōnin’s leg and force him to kneel 148.

Intelligence, Command, and Interrogation

• Battlefield coordination: Combines Hyūga reconnaissance, sentry elimination, and coordinated ninjutsu in the attack on Iwagakure’s camp 54.
• Surveillance: Directs Root’s monitoring of the Uchiha and its pursuit of the buyer calling himself Uchiha Yellow Weasel 60.
• Interrogation: Orders Root to torture the captured A for information about Yellow Weasel, whom A does not know 70.
• Operational planning: Arranges for Root to lure Kitsuchi into an ambush by himself, Bieshu Feifan, and Kakuzu 149.
• Genjutsu susceptibility: Falls under an illusion exploiting his Hokage ambitions, though inconsistencies in the impostor Kōichi’s behavior eventually alert him 110.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Kunai: Attempts to block the disguised Wood Clone’s kick with one, but the weapon snaps against the clone’s bone-plated foot 145.
• Shuriken: Enhances them with Wind Release chakra before throwing them 147.
• Cane: Used after his leg injury, both for support and as a weapon 146 148.
• Mask: Wears one while fleeing the company’s pursuers, who nevertheless identify him as Daddy Shinobi 150.
• Hashirama-cell research materials: Controls experimental samples and later orders diluted samples cultured from Kinoe’s blood for sale to Yellow Weasel 60 68.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Establishing Root and Opposing the Uchiha

Danzo’s newly established Root initially operates from an aboveground building in a remote part of Konoha. He requests permission to use its personnel to watch the Uchiha, arguing that the clan must be prevented from obtaining the Hokage position. Hiruzen refuses 25 27.

Recognizing Bieshu Feifan’s hostility toward the Uchiha, Danzo summons him, tests his limited Substitution Technique, and rewards him with a scroll containing Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. He later proposes sending Root operatives to ensure that two Uchiha on a mission do not return, but Hiruzen again rejects the plan 25 58.

Second War Campaign and Hokage Publicity

After Hanzo defeats Orochimaru and Tsunade, Danzo arrives at Konoha’s camp to take command, claiming victory over Kirigakure’s landing forces. Rather than confront Hanzo, he sends Dan Katō to monitor him and leads an attack on Iwagakure’s positions 53 54.

His force devastates the enemy camp with a coordinated wind-and-fire assault. Danzo kills two jōnin and destroys several camps before Iwagakure agrees to negotiate. Afterward, Root solicits opinions about his achievements, while village rumors inflate his record to include subduing Hanzo and frightening other nations into peace. Hiruzen subsequently tells him to stop campaigning for the Hokage position 54 55 57.

Hashirama-Cell Deals and the Underground Laboratory

An offer to purchase Hashirama cells reaches Danzo from Bieshu Feifan under the identity Uchiha Yellow Weasel. Danzo initially interprets it as a warning engineered by Hiruzen, then fears that outsiders have discovered his human experiments. A Root operative sent to trace the buyer is killed 60.

Danzo attempts to conceal the research beneath the Uchiha compound and frame the clan for stealing the First Hokage’s body. The digging intersects the Uchiha’s own tunnels, collapses houses, and results in Danzo and his men being captured. The dispute ends with Danzo paying compensation and the Uchiha receiving a warning 60 61.

Root’s expenses and the compensation payments leave him short of money. He resorts to robbery and attempts to sell Yellow Weasel fraudulent or heavily diluted research samples. Bieshu Feifan retaliates by sending a genjutsu-controlled Root survivor back with a scroll full of compressed excrement, which bursts over Danzo when opened 63 67 68.

Land of Hot Water Conflict and Uchiha Beidai’s Death

Furious over the scroll incident, Danzo leads Root into the Land of Hot Water to kill Yellow Weasel. His movement draws in Konoha and Kumogakure forces. He captures A and several Kumogakure jōnin but withdraws before the Third Raikage can confront him. Hiruzen and the Raikage ultimately settle the clash without battle, releasing the prisoners without compensation 68 70 71.

Bieshu Feifan subsequently impersonates Danzo and kills Uchiha Beidai using Vacuum Sphere. Recorded evidence of the attacker’s face and signature technique, combined with Danzo’s lack of an alibi, makes him the prime suspect. He loses his advisor position, is suspended from his duties, and must compensate the Uchiha. His position is later restored 72 74 84.

Performances and the Theft of His Techniques

Danzo pays Bieshu Feifan and the Might performers nine million ryō to stage a performance during Konoha’s alliance celebrations with Sunagakure. The act humiliates Hiruzen without ruining the alliance, convincing Danzo that public embarrassment can undermine the Hokage 101 102.

Bieshu Feifan then infiltrates Root through clones and a flattering illusion. A later Wood Clone impersonates Danzo outside his house, provoking a battle in which it observes his Vacuum-series techniques with the Sharingan. Although the clone is destroyed, Bieshu Feifan retains and records what it learned 110 111 112.

Company Infiltration and the Daddy Shinobi Misidentification

Danzo joins Bieshu Feifan’s company as Bo Zhiyu Rasa, followed by his Root subordinates. Bieshu Feifan knows their identities from the beginning and orders Kakuzu to monitor them and assign them the hardest work 139.

Danzo participates in the capture of A and helps repel the Third Raikage. After becoming second business director, he takes part in an operation against the Kaguya Clan. The operation collapses into a retreat, and Bieshu Feifan’s disguised Wood Clone ambushes him, breaks his leg, and enables his suspension from the new position 141 144 145.

Still working with the company, Danzo helps destroy an Iwagakure imitation business and capture Kitsuchi. Encouraged by Bieshu Feifan and Kakuzu’s apparent deference, he believes he has quietly taken control. That apparent success instead leaves him facing bounty hunters and village shinobi who identify him as Daddy Shinobi 148 149 150.

Hiruzen orders a Nara jōnin to impersonate Danzo publicly in Konoha to support the claim that he never left. When the real Danzo returns, villagers’ familiarity with his supposed performances convinces him that he is trapped in an Uchiha genjutsu. He remains standing and attempting to dispel it for more than a day, eventually requiring hospitalization 153 155 157 158 159.

Renewed Political Maneuvering

Danzo tries to turn tensions with Kumogakure into an opportunity to command a campaign and strengthen his Hokage candidacy. Hiruzen authorizes troop assembly but gives command to a Nara jōnin instead. Danzo interprets even this rejection as proof that Hiruzen fears his abilities 162 165.

He later helps negotiate harsher terms with Kumogakure and allies with Bieshu Feifan over money collection. When Hiruzen confronts them about gangs spreading through the Land of Fire, Danzo offers to eliminate them in exchange for a larger Root quota, obtaining twenty additional personnel slots 189 217 225.

His ambition remains unresolved: he attempts to handle the hospitalized Hiruzen’s paperwork, disputes command appointments during war preparations, and explicitly requests leadership of the Iwagakure front 229 241 248.

Relationships

• Hiruzen Sarutobi — Childhood friend, superior, and political rival. Danzo regularly addresses him as “Monkey,” challenges his policies, and seeks to replace him, while Hiruzen repeatedly intervenes in the consequences of his schemes 25 61 102 153.
• Bieshu Feifan — Initially a useful anti-Uchiha recruit and later a paid performer, business partner, and political ally. Unknown to Danzo, Bieshu is also Yellow Weasel and Daddy Shinobi, responsible for several of his humiliations and false accusations 25 60 72 139 145 225.
• Kakuzu — Company colleague and combat partner. They cooperate against A and Kitsuchi, but Kakuzu also subjects Danzo to contractual deductions and lectures, and does not warn him about the dangers of taking over the company 139 141 149 150.
• Orochimaru — Partner in human experimentation. Their relationship deteriorates after Danzo saddles him with the “Wounded Sannin” label; Danzo later suspects him of engineering the Uchiha murder accusation to clear his own path to becoming Hokage 61 75.
• Uchiha Clan — Targets of his surveillance proposals, suppression, and attempted framing. They capture him beneath their compound and later demand punishment over Beidai’s death 25 60 61 73 74.
• A — Repeated captive and enemy. Danzo first captures and tortures him during the Land of Hot Water conflict, then helps defeat him again alongside Kakuzu and Bieshu Feifan 70 141.
• Kōichi — Root subordinate whose identity Bieshu Feifan copies to exploit Danzo’s Hokage ambitions. Danzo also encounters a false Kōichi during the ambush that breaks his leg 109 110 145.
• Shimura Daio — Nephew, who imagines receiving easier missions if his uncle becomes Hokage 12.
• Shimura Clan — His own clan, which receives little support from him because he prioritizes Root and the Hokage position 111.

Notable Quotes

“An Uchiha must never become Hokage.” 25

“Monkey, you know my Wind Release. I can stay airborne briefly, but I absolutely cannot fly.” 79

“Monkey, I did the things you mentioned. I admit it. It was all for Konoha. But I really am not the Daddy Shinobi.” 157

“When I first wanted to be Hokage, you hadn’t even been born...” 162