Chương 150: Danzo Shimura Raises the Stakes

The following morning, Zhen concluded his brief leaves of absence and reported to Anbu Headquarters. Within the designated ready room for the Fourth Hokage's Personal Guard, Genma's detachment and Hayate's unit had already assembled. Spying his entry, Yugao Uzuki looked up, her expression laced with concern.

"Zhen, are you entirely recovered? No lingering issues?"

"None," Zhen replied, offering a light, reassuring shrug.

"Do I look like a casualty to you?"

"Sensei is being entirely unreasonable," she grumbled.

"He should have mandated a few more days of absolute rest for you." Hayate Gekko cut in, his voice carrying its characteristic raspy edge.

"An analytical necessity, Yugao. The tactical ranks are severely depleted." His assessment was flawless. The transition between the administrative detachments of the two Hokage was intended to be a gradual, bureaucratic phasing. However, the Night of the Nine-Tails had shattered that calculus; Obito had practically annihilated the entire active roster of the Third Hokage's personal guard in a single sweep. It was a grim fate for those veterans.

They had been on the literal threshold of retirement, looking forward to shedding the porcelain masks and reclaiming a normal existence under the open sun, only to be violently erased in the eleventh hour. One could only wonder what catastrophic flags they had raised before their deployment. A moment later, Unme Gekko crossed the threshold. Genma Shiranui bit down on his senbon, shifting his gaze to the commander.

"Captain Peregrine, what is our operational status? Do we technically still function as the Hokage Guard?"

"Indubitably," Unme replied, unbuckling his flak jacket.

"The Fourth Lord is merely convalescing. His mandate remains intact, which means your structural purpose remains unaltered."

"Do our routing protocols mirror the previous directive?"

"Precisely. However, given the extreme degradation of our overall structural numbers, our operational density will spike significantly. Beyond your foundational watch, you will be expected to absorb direct directives issuing from the Third Lord's office. Fortify your psychological reserves accordingly." Genma's eyes sharpened with professional fervor.

"Consider it done. I've been ready for a heavy rotation." Yugao voiced the fundamental question lingering in everyone's mind.

"To whose authority do we ultimately answer? Are we the instruments of the Third or the Fourth?" Unme's response was crisp, brooks no administrative ambiguity.

"There is no division. You are the blades of Konoha." This specific integration had been dictated by Hiruzen himself. The Old Man had already held a private conclave with Unme, instructing him to accelerate the reconstruction of a pristine Anbu apparatus to streamline Minato's eventual restoration. As the interim custodian of the high seat, Hiruzen possessed no desire to prolong his residency at the desk.

He understood with absolute clarity that if his tenure dragged, the political legitimacy of Minato Namikaze as the designated successor would be irrevocably diluted. With the tactical boundaries clarified, Genma's trio departed to relieve Kakashi's detachment at the perimeter of Minato's estate. Zhen's unit, conversely, received a distinct routing: report to the Hokage Residence and assume the direct security detail for the Third Hokage.

Within the administrative heart of the Hokage Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi had assumed his station long before the dawn broke. The routine was a second skin to him; having navigated the labyrinth of statecraft for decades, every bureaucratic mechanism responded perfectly to his touch. Yet the familiar architecture offered little comfort. The present era was haunted by what had been severed. Biwako was gone, her absence a cold weight in the room.

His eldest son, having barely concluded the funeral rites for their mother, had immediately buried his grief beneath a relentless rotation within the Anbu apparatus. As for Asma... that reckless boy had used his mother's demise to justify a complete emotional schism with his father. Their domestic interactions had degenerated into a volatile cycle of brief exchanges and explosive arguments. A profoundly taxing child.

Why could he not mirror his elder brother's discipline and comprehend the agonizing compromises demanded of a patriarch who bore the title of Hokage? Concluding the initial stack of intelligence tallies, Hiruzen instinctively reached across the mahogany desk to retrieve his crystal ball, intending to deploy his signature observation technique to survey the village grid. His fingers met empty space. He paused, reality settling in.

Following Minato's ascension, the youth's innate sensory grid had rendered the artifact redundant, prompting the Fourth to relocate the sphere to his personal estate. The desk was bare. With a heavy sigh, Hiruzen packed fresh tobacco into his pipe, ignited the embers, and stepped out onto the sweeping terrace of the rooftop. Exhaling a cloud of gray smoke, he looked down upon the sprawl of Konoha—the metropolis he had shielded from the storm for a generation.

The ambient atmosphere was far from serene, punctuated by the mechanical din of construction crews and the crash of masonry, yet he found a strange solace in the noise. It was the sound of survival. After a protracted silence, he spoke into the wind.

"Zhen. You are present, yes?" Zhen materialized instantly from a ripple of displaced air, dropped to one knee.

"Lord Third. I await your command."

"Yesterday, Jiraiya and Tsunade crossed our threshold," Hiruzen noted, keeping his eyes anchored to the horizon.

"You were a party to that encounter, correct?"

"I was."

"Provide a granular accounting of the interaction."

"The Sannin materialized shortly before midday and directed their course immediately to the Fourth's residence," Zhen reported with clinical precision.

"Following the noon meal, Lady Tsunade executed an exhaustive diagnostic upon Lord Minato and Master Kushina. Having verified that their anatomical matrices were stable and merely demanded an extended window of convalescence, she and Lord Jiraiya departed the sector." Hiruzen's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Was that the absolute extent of the exchange?" You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Prior to her departure, Lady Tsunade imparted the foundational kinetics of her Chakra Enhanced Strength style to me."

"Oh? And did your intellect prove sufficient to grasp her methodology?"

"I have secured a preliminary mastery of the compression dynamics."

"Fascinating," Hiruzen murmured, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips, though a trace of melancholy colored his tone.

"You possess a reservoir of natural genius that invites envy even from an old man like myself. It appears Tsunade still harbors a maternal warmth for the village's rising generation." Though she possesses none for her own master, he added silently. To return to the nest and refuse to offer so much as a formal greeting alongside Jiraiya... He understood the psychology beneath their coldness perfectly. His surviving disciples were nursing a profound resentment toward his past administrative choices.

"The Hokage flatters me," Zhen countered smoothly.

"No, it is an objective evaluation. You are the cornerstone of Konoha's future, Zhen. Minato and I harbor an identical expectation for your trajectory." Hiruzen shifted the cadence of his voice, the transition seamless yet laden with tactical focus.

"I am informed that last evening, you were received as a guest at the estate of Patriarch Fugaku."

"That is correct, Lord Hokage."

"Tell me, Zhen... what dictated your willingness to cross that threshold? Was it an act of solidarity on behalf of your intimacy with Shisui?"

"Shisui was not the variable," Zhen answered, his voice steady, ringing with absolute clarity.

"Since the inception of my path, my sword has been dedicated exclusively to the preservation of Konoha and the defense of my comrades. Though a shadow of suspicion currently compromises the Uchiha, I refuse to discard them as pariahs. To isolate them now would merely compound their estrangement, driving them over the precipice into an abyss from which there is no redemption." Hiruzen turned his head, his gaze boring into the youth.

"An honorable sentiment. But what if those suspicions solidify into historical fact?"

"Any entity that seeks to compromise the vitality of the great tree that is Konoha is an existential enemy," Zhen replied, his eyes turning to flint.

"My blade will show no hesitation."

"Superb," Hiruzen praised, exhaling a long plume of smoke.

"Your commitment to the Will of Fire is unyielding, Zhen. Maintain that absolute clarity."

"I shall not falter, Lord Hokage." Deep within the subterranean labyrinth of the Foundation, Danzo Shimura stood before his desk, his single visible eye fixed upon his adjutant.

"Where is Orochimaru?"

"Lord Danzo, Orochimaru departed the perimeter yesterday, leading his standard genin detachment on a formal deployment," the operative reported from one knee.

"Hmph. That serpent still possesses the patience for low-tier logistics? Identify their trajectory."

"They accepted a merchant escort manifest, routing eastward toward the Land of the Sea." Danzo scoffed internally. He knew the snake far too well to believe he was executing standard commerce protection; the deployment was undoubtedly a convenient screen to facilitate his own esoteric research. Yet the detail was irrelevant. Orochimaru's absence was a minor variable. Danzo's patience had expired; the hour had arrived to execute a definitive gambit.

"Assemble every operative currently unassigned to active field routing. Immediately."

"At once!" Moments later, a dozen elite Foundation shinobi knelt before him in perfect, silent alignment, awaiting the word of their master. Positioned near the flank was the prize of Danzo's clandestine breeding programs—the child code-named Kinoe, the sole survivor culled from the wreckage of Orochimaru's abandoned Wood Style experimentation. The boy was a mirror to Zhen Dongye in terms of years, an asset Danzo had discovered, hidden away, and aggressively cultivated as his supreme, asymmetric weapon.

He placed a bordering-on-religious faith in the child's potential; like many veterans of the founding era, Danzo viewed the legacy of First Hokage through a lens of profound mystique, operating under the absolute delusion that Wood Style was synonymous with invincible supremacy. He failed to comprehend that the invincibility belonged to Hashirama Senju, not the kekkei genkai itself. Surveying his assembled instruments, Danzo initiated his address, his voice dripping with venomous conviction.

"An Uchiha Sharingan wove the script that unleashed the Nine-Tails to tear down our foundations. The guilt of that lineage is absolute. Yet our fragile Fourth Hokage not only refrains from executing a systemic purge, but has actively permitted his personal guard to maintain diplomatic commerce with those traitors. Such a man is a liability, entirely unfit to wear the mantle of supreme commander." He took a step forward, his cane striking the stone floor with a sharp echo.

"The Third Hokage is blind to this existential rot. Rather than initiating an immediate selection for a competent successor, he has reclaimed the high seat merely to preserve the desk until Minato's wounds mend. Their combined hesitation will bring ruin to Konoha. I will not tolerate this paralysis. Tomorrow, Hiruzen departs for the capital to negotiate terms with the Daimyo. I command you to intercept his convoy and terminate his existence.

Ensure the mechanics of the strike mirror the crude work of roaming rogue ninja."

"Understood!" The response was instantaneous, a chorus of voices devoid of hesitation. The conditioning of the Foundation tolerated no cognitive dissent; their purpose was the flawless execution of Danzo's mandates, divorced from moral calculus or strategic questioning. Had he commanded them to butcher the Daimyo himself, their eyelids would not have bat.

"Excellent. Disperse and fortify your preparations. I shall await the intelligence of your success." The shadows swallowed the operatives, leaving Danzo marooned in the solitary dimness of his chamber. He began to run the calculations of the fallout. Should the execution prove flawless, he would bring immediate, asymmetric leverage to bear upon Homura and Koharu, forcing the elder council to ratify his ascension as the Fifth Hokage.

Conversely, if Minato Namikaze's incapacitation was a elaborate ruse—as Orochimaru had hypothesized—and the youth emerged from his retreat to restore order in the wake of Hiruzen's demise, the outcome remained exceptionally lucrative. You feigned critical trauma while your predecessor walked into an ambush, Danzo countered in his mind, already forging the indictment. The moment he perishes, your malady miraculously evaporates?

It was a narrative of exquisite political utility: the young Hokage, resentful of functioning as a puppet for the old guard, had secretly conspired with rogue elements abroad to liquidate the elder statesman and consolidate absolute sovereign control over the military apparatus. As the architect of shadows, Danzo had already structured an inescapable mantle of guilt for the Fourth.

If Hiruzen survived the strike but sustained catastrophic, disabling trauma, that scenario too could be readily pinned upon Minato's negligence or complicity. Even if a formal conviction remained elusive, it would permanently strip the youth of his political legitimacy, rendering his continuation as Hokage impossible. In the ensuing power vacuum, Danzo would step forward as the unblemished savior who unveiled the treason, ascending to the high seat by default.

The absolute worst-case scenario was a comprehensive tactical failure. Yet even then, the choreography would point exclusively to wandering mercenaries. What link could anyone forge to Danzo Shimura? Could such a deception elude Hiruzen's perception? Perhaps not; the two of them had walked the same muddy trenches for too long to be blind to each other's signature styles. But it was precisely because of that historical intimacy that Danzo felt secure.

He calculated with absolute certainty that Hiruzen Sarutobi lacked the stomach to execute his oldest comrade. Since every potential vector carried zero personal risk, what logic dictated restraint? If the board offered a throne upon victory and demanded no forfeit upon defeat, it was a gamble he was prepared to make every single day. The cost in expendable operatives was an irrelevant metric—merely a necessary expenditure of material to steer Konoha toward its proper destiny.

The title of Hokage had long since metastasized into an all-consuming obsession within Danzo's psyche. His profound lack of genuine strategic brilliance left him dependent on these remarkably clumsy, violent machinations—the classic hallmark of a man whose ambition vastly outstripped his intellect. Had Orochimaru stood in the chamber tonight, the serpent would have undoubtedly smiled, labeling his benefactor an absolute fool.