Danzo understood the power of darkness, the security it granted once you embraced it however, nothing was more powerful than the Will of the Hokage, the Will of Fire.
And yet, it wasn’t often that the best action was to follow the will of the Hokage. A shameful thought, truly, as the Hokage is meant to be the personification of the Will of Fire, the truth and strength of Konoha’s shinobi.
But perhaps that’s because the person chosen to be Hokage all this time was the wrong one. That the true Will of Fire had skipped an entire generation thanks to the Second Hokage’s battle fatigued decision. Thanks to that, the Third Great Shinobi war took off; the others could smell weakness bleed into Konoha’s heart and like vultures they swarmed.
Had the Will of Fire been true, such audacity would have never occurred. Hiruzen’s fortitude waned. Whether it was when his son was born or when the Slug girl’s nephew die, Danzo wasn’t sure but it had waned.
Fortunately, the Will of Fire persists and now there’s a chance at prosperity, freedom, peace. It’s true Danzo was impartial to Orochimaru when it came to choosing the Fourth Hokage, but that was merely the confidence of a satisfied customer and his own assuredness that Orochimaru would bend to his will.
He didn’t even have to puppet the child; his own fascinations and curiosities aligned with Danzo’s pursuits, but until they can bring every naysayer to those sensibilities— especially Hiruzen— they would act as Danzo’s securities against him.
Of course, now that he’s gone and become a Rogue-nin, those ambitions are no more than the lingering scent of tobacco in the air. “Yes, they ought to have arrived by now.” Hiruzen said, his lips twisted in a grumpy sneer only Danzo could see.
Serves him right for not paying close attention to the obvious, the young Hokage doesn’t enjoy the strong stenches of smoke and has only been polite out of respect for Hiruzen’s place as his predecessor.
However, that doesn’t mean anything in the face of active power like the Fourth Hokage wields. Danzo understood better than most that a child learning to wield power mustn’t be micromanaged or made to feel inferior even with their power. Instead they should wield it independently, stretch its limits and discover what transformations it can enforce.
And when such a power is the might of all of Konoha, it is simply insulting that Hiruzen continues that foul habit in his presence. And that’s why Danzo called him out on it
He masterfully suppressed a smirk at Hiruzen’s reaction, the two ancient shinobi knew what games were played even if it wasn’t immediately obvious to the young Hokage.
“I’m sure Kinoto will be well accepted.” Danzo said, his cane set between his legs as he and his old friend paid what sliver of wisdom the young Hokage would accept.
And oh has he been accepting. Danzo was pleasantly surprised at the young Hokage, originally, he’d relegated the naïve influences over him— Jiraiya and Hiruzen— to be too strong for Danzo’s better sense to prevail. He’d all but decided to remain in the dark, in the root and continue with his service to Konoha but this Kirigakure incident has brought a blessed opportunity not even Danzo could have machinated.
When his operatives reported their presence in Konoha and their active attempts seeking evidence of Konoha’s hand in their Sandaime’s death, Danzo had shrugged away the report like any other. But then another came not long after, reporting that the team had split up, left Konoha and disappeared along the border with Amegakure.
Now that was the firestarter.
Minato Namikaze tossed the letters from his hands and crossed them over his desk with a heavy sigh, “I am more concerned about how they’ll receive the message he carries…we’ve already lit the match but I can’t help feeling…”
Danzo spoke before the young Hokage could voice any doubts that would give Hiruzen leverage, “If I may, as I said in our previous meeting, first impressions matter and Kirigakure is…the Bloody Mist is a shinobi army that only understands strength. Shattering any guise of subterfuge or intelligence manoeuvring at the start of this relationship will set the standard that such tactics will not work nor will they be accepted.”
Hiruzen was quick to fill the air with his weakness, “That doesn’t excuse the fact that we’ve tampered with their communications, stopped them from reaching home. If anything happens to those young shinobi now…”
“Kinoto will handle it.” Danzo said with confidence, he had personally trained that one, he wouldn’t fail such a protected and obvious assignment. “Besides, we’ve already released their letters, they will make it to Kirigakure after Kinoto has delivered our message. There is little to fear, whatever schemes they’re plotting in Amegakure will come to light. They cannot afford war.”
“Neither can we.” Hiruzen said sharply, his fingers twitched for his pipe— this meeting wasn’t going the way he thought— and Danzo continued to suppress a smile.
The meeting wasn’t going the way Danzo thought either. Namikaze’s willingness to heed his warnings was a pleasant change to Hiruzen’s stubbornness. He’d fully expected to be rebuffed, his intel taken for granted or left to handle things via unofficial channels at his discretion. Instead, he got a man to lead a team of wet behind the ears Chuunin, the young Hokage’s personal favourites.
“We signed a treaty, there won’t be any wars...I hope.” Namikaze said grimly, his eyes darted around with every fleeting thought. “What about their new Mizukage, Yondaime as I am. His willingness to accept my attempts shows promise, yes?”
Here neither Danzo nor Hiruzen said a word, they shared a look upon realizing this themselves and shifted in their seats. Minato nodded, “Right, there isn’t more to know than we already do. Repulse-nin, high tier A-rank…S-rank if he’s the Blood Mist’s chosen Kage. A thirst for blood and a willingness to take it. Master of Water Release and now master of Kirigakure, its army and all its tailed beasts.”
His tone was especially sour at the mention of the tailed beasts, Danzo knew the reason well, how could he not. He cleared his throat and nodded, “Yes, all true. With luck we will find out what happened to the Three-Tails, if it has a new Jinchuriki or if it has yet to reform. Until then, Hokage-sama, there is no reason not to be optimistic.”
He felt Hiruzen stare incredulously at him, optimism, especially that regarding the dealings of other Great Villages was not something Danzo often shared. He let his lip twitch, “Yes, truly, you are to be commended and should there be need to retaliate well…Kirigakure will be the one at fault to all upon the world stage. But I doubt it will come to that, our message is strong, fierce…the truth of Konoha’s intolerance to vicious schemes, there is also the fact that Amegakure will not abide by any great village’s will, they’re too stubborn.”
Namikaze looked relieved but that didn’t last long as he said, “And yet, you’ve said none of our operatives have returned from probing missions in the past year. Amegakure holds a grudge against Konoha, Kumo and Iwa more than it does Suna or Kiri…what if..”
“Danzo is right, Minato-kun. I know this would be your first long term relations with another of the five but do not let doubt or fear consume you. There is hope, you have given it after all.” Hiruzen said and threw a suspicious look at Danzo.
Danzo bit his cheek to keep from bursting with a grin, those words would fall on deaf ears, he could see it. The young Hokage was the terror of both Kumo and Iwa but Kirigakure had hurt him in the same place Hiruzen failed to shield during the Second Great war.
Precious, precious students. I could never.
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The Danzo-schemes are thickening.
I don't really see how Konoha has any leverage over Kiri because they know that 2 Kiri-nin disappeared along the border with Amegakure. Am I missing something?
Nothing like leverage but like, implications? You'll see, there's a chapter on this already.
Its not like the mc doesn't have knowledge to implicate the leaf village in return. The uchiha massacre would be the big one but that hasn't happened yet. Right now the big one would be the things Orochi has done. Kidnapping kids and experimenting on them and such.
Plus I don't any "implications" would really have that big on an impact. We are talking about the Bloody Mist here. You know how big of an rumor this has to be to really have that big of an impact to negatively effect the village's reputation when they already have that nickname. . .On a final note they say here that they can't afford a war but the mist village doesn't know that, however the mc should. Just the mc's knowledge of the leaf sacrificing the Hyuga clan leader's brother instead of going to war in the upcoming years will let him know how much they don't want to go to war.
@KidBuu699 I can agree with most of what you said, but implications like Yagura killing the Third Mizukage, or trying to start a war by gaining the alliance of Amegakure will make the other villages worried and potentially ally with eachother. That could cascade into one of the villages trying a preemptive strike. Not to mention how Kiri had sealed the three tails into rin to destroy the village not long ago. And the whole blood mist rep, it wouldn’t be crazy for people like them to start a war in Konoha’s eyes.
The way Konoha acts is definitely believable from their point of view. I also like that the author makes the MC's actions backfire, or at least have some cost. Combined with him not remembering the plot perfectly, it makes for a believable flawed protagonist who still has room for character development.
Sure, the information that he might be trying to ally with Amegakure might worry the other villages, but the MC is already preparing an official visit to that country, which is a few degrees more concrete than someone claiming to have seen people heading in that direction, so he should have thought of some ways to deal with it by now. Perhaps the blandness caught him off guard though.
I agree with most of what KidBuu said. I don't really think that he needs to use his future knowledge to gain leverage against Konoha right now. Their blocking his communication with the official delegates they send to their country seems to be enough to put the blame for any escalation on them. I have the feeling that this is more about not wanting a war with Konoha. Even if he knows that they will not start a war, that is not enough for him. He wants cooperation and a good relationship with them. It will be difficult for him to turn this situation to his advantage.
Especially since Danzo obviously has something nasty up his sleeve. The MC has a big advantage though, as he should be able to find out quickly, knowing how cunning Danzo is from his past life. Still, in most possible outcomes, I see this as a short-term loss for the MC. Even though their behaviour is believable, it is obviously also a loss for Mianto and Hiruzen, because they are tricked by Danzo. But that is also believable, because only the MC would know how f*cked up Danzo is. At that point, I think he had a decent image in Konoha.
All in all, fascinating stuff. I look forward to the next chapters.
@ChippiChappa So to be honest I don't think the mc even needs to have a good relationship with the leaf. So his original argument was about them joining forces against Marada and the Akatsuki but that is so far in the future that it won't matter. The reason why I say this is because he won't be able to use this information yet.
The mc has no prove of Marada and the Akatsuki have not started to move yet. Also, the villages naturally form an alliance in the future so even if he just goes with the current timeline things will work out. For myself I don't see anything that he can influence by being friends with the Leaf village earlier. No matter what he does he won't be close enough to stop the Uchiha massacre or the 4ths death. . . Personally I think it is just the situation of a fan wanting to meet the characters from the show.
Moving on to Leza's comment I agree with you about them making the other villages more guarded against the mc, but I think your idea of them joining up against them is to far out of the picture. I don't think any of the villages really trust each other. At this point in time think about all the wars they have fought against each other. The leaf might be able to harm his image but no way would this make an alliance against him work. The mc would have to show a massive amount of power for that to work.
Will be interesting to see what Danzo does. Heck I am more curious at this point if Kimimaro is alive. Not sure on if he is alive yet or if the snake got him. However, that would be a good pawn for the mc to get. Kimimaro was supposed to have kage level talent hinder by his disease. Would be a good idea to get him as a loyal follower and try to cure him early.
I mean in the original timeline, he died, so I think he wants to weaken Obitio as quickly as possible, because if things go the way they did in the original story, Akatsuki will be too strong for him to stop and he will most likely die.
I think there would be ways for the MC to increase Minato's chances of survival or to hurt Obito even more. To give just one example, he could provide him with information about an unknown high-level Rogue-nin that Kiri has spotted moving into Amegakure. Having information on how Obitio fights would give Minato a big advantage, as Obitio barely succeeded even with the information advantage, it could make a huge difference.
But whether this happens or not is entirely in the hands of the author.
PS: Is there anyone in Kiri who could cure Kimimaro? I mean, Orochimaru failed, and he is a top-level expert. Apart from Tsunade, no one comes to mind and I am not sure if the MC could even recruit her if he tried.
@ChippiChappa Maybe not to recruit her, but use her to heal kimimaro? Though with her Hemophobia that’ll probably be difficult
@KidBuu699 When I say the other villages making alliances and preemptive strikes. I don’t mean starting a war outright, maybe attacks under a disguise to the various villages trade routes, alongside a non aggression pact, with the chance of being allied likely meaning they both attack Konoha and its allies. As for the villages, Iwa and Kumo have a deep hatred from what I remember regarding the Third Raikage’s Death which may or may not have happened yet, but I’d count that their desire, and hate towards Konoha would be enough to put those feelings aside. More so if Kiri allies with Konoha. They’d ally out of necessity. Suna is the poorest village and I believe this is before the alliance with Konoha, I might be wrong, but they’d easily ally with the other two.
I agree that a ‘serious’ war is unlikely, but considering that Konoha defended against all five villages, it’d make sense if they’d sweat from seeing Kiri possibly ally with them
@ChippiChappa I don't think we know enough about the mist village to say whether or not someone can heal kimimaro. If my memory is right the main reason why Orochimaru and the spy guy failed to heal him was because of time and knowledge. Kimimaro's clan had such a different body because of their bone bloodline so they would have to study that before they could even attempt to cure him. That and the count down of the disease made them give up on him being a vessel. Big thing the mc would have to do if he wants to cure him would to be research the bloodline well in advance. Give their medical teams a chance of knowing what to do and/or lay the ground work for Tsunade to help.
I see Chippi's point about giving information on Obito would help Minato survive the fight but that might not help the mc. Naruto being the 9 tails means that Obito doesn't have to fight to the death to get him. He could retreat from the village sooner during the attack. A heads up would let the village survive more and possibly change the timeline greatly if Minato survives, but does that serve the mc? The more he changes the timeline the less useful his future knowledge is going to be.
Expanding on Leza's comment of the other villages sweating about a Konoha and Kiri alliance. I agree with you that this would be a serious issue but if they were going to sabotage the process for these two villages coming together I think it would be easier to do it before they even become allies. Like you said Konoha was able to defend against all 5, a true alliance between them can't happen. . . However, it can't be known that they are stopping it. So maybe have some low level ninjas play dress up and attack the envoys and stuff like that.