Chapter 213: Danzo’s Methods

Chapter 213: Chapter 213: Danzo’s Methods

This new piece of intelligence immediately caught Danzo’s interest.

If Kamigami and the Akatsuki were truly enemies, then as far as he was concerned, there was plenty of room to maneuver between them. He even began entertaining the idea of sitting back and watching the two tigers fight.

Suppressing the various schemes forming in his mind, he asked, "Why are these two organizations hostile toward each other? Do we have any detailed intelligence on that?"

The Root ninja immediately replied, "According to one black-market member, Kamigami’s ’Kawa’ once fought a fierce battle against the Akatsuki’s Kakuzu within the Land of Fire. The exact details of the battle are unknown."

Danzo followed up, "What caused the fight?"

"The cause is still unclear. However, according to that black-market member, the Akatsuki’s Kakuzu had previously commissioned the black market to investigate Kamigami. Because of that, the black-market member speculated that the Akatsuki and Kamigami may have come into conflict over competition for bounty missions."

Danzo scoffed at that speculation.

In his view, organizations as powerful as the Akatsuki and Kamigami could never have come into conflict merely over competition for bounty missions on the black market.

There had to be another reason behind it.

After the Root ninja withdrew, Danzo rose from his chair and began pacing back and forth across his office, deep in thought.

Based on the intelligence extracted from the interrogations so far, Danzo had already gained a rough understanding of the Akatsuki.

Or rather, the Akatsuki’s organizational structure, the way its members operated, and so on were all still within the bounds of what he could comprehend. Aside from its excessively mysterious leader, nothing about it strayed too far from the framework of a bounty-ninja organization.

Kamigami, however, was completely different.

Danzo had never expected that even after launching such a massive crackdown, he would still fail to uncover even the slightest scrap of intelligence about Kamigami.

If there hadn’t been several confirmed instances of Kamigami taking action recently, he might have even begun to wonder whether this so-called Kamigami actually existed at all.

Gathering his thoughts, Danzo once again reviewed Kamigami’s recent activities in his mind.

Now that he had the Akatsuki as a point of comparison, a sudden flash of insight struck him. He felt as though he had finally grasped something.

Sometimes, the absence of intelligence was itself a form of intelligence.

The fact that he couldn’t uncover a single lead on Kamigami was, from another perspective, a lead in itself.

Think about it.

Even a bounty-ninja organization as powerful as the Akatsuki needed to rely on the black market’s intelligence network spread throughout the shinobi world to gather information.

So why didn’t Kamigami need the black market’s intelligence network?

There was only one answer.

Kamigami had an intelligence network of its own.

Judging by the astonishing efficiency with which Kamigami had previously completed bounty missions, as well as the precision of its recent operations, Danzo could boldly infer that Kamigami’s intelligence network was undoubtedly superior to that of the black market.

And throughout the entire shinobi world, the only forces whose intelligence-gathering capabilities could surpass the vast black-market network were the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

"Could Kamigami be nothing more than a shell organization created by one of the shinobi villages?"

The thought couldn’t help but flash through Danzo’s mind.

"Kirigakure has only just gone through a civil war and suffered severe losses. They have neither the strength nor the inclination to do something like this. They can be ruled out for now...

"Sunagakure has had its funding cut by the Daimyo of the Land of Wind and is currently withdrawing its forces across the board. On top of that, they’re an ally of Konoha, so they can also be ruled out for the time being..."

"If Kumogakure wanted to stage the entire incident themselves, sacrificing the chief envoy of their own delegation to create a pretext for war, there are countless ways they could have done it. There would be no need to fabricate an organization like Kamigami...

"Iwagakure is the most suspicious. But if they were behind it, they could have simply killed Gloya inside the village. Why go through all that trouble and take the risk of transporting his corpse to the black market? Wouldn’t that actually help clear Konoha of suspicion? And besides, how could Iwa possibly recruit an Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?"

After eliminating the possibilities one by one, Danzo once again found himself at a loss.

Just then, his gaze suddenly fell upon the name ’Uchiha Shinichi’ in the Akatsuki intelligence file.

A thought flashed through his mind.

"Could the Uchiha Clan be behind this?"

Given the Uchiha Clan’s reputation as Konoha’s foremost noble clan, secretly recruiting an Ice Style shinobi who had defected from Kiri wouldn’t be particularly difficult.

As for someone possessing the Mangekyo Sharingan, the Uchiha Clan already had a ready-made candidate in Uchiha Shisui.

So, theoretically speaking, the Uchiha Clan had the means to impersonate both ’Kawa’ and ’Homura’ of Kamigami.

But the more Danzo thought about it, the brows that had only just relaxed furrowed once again.

Because he suddenly realized that there was a fatal flaw in his theory.

Why would the Uchiha Clan attack the chief envoy of the Kumo delegation, then take the enormous risk of transporting his corpse all the way to the black market?

If the Uchiha’s attack on the chief envoy of the Kumo delegation could still be explained as an attempt to provoke a war between Konoha and Kumo and profit from the resulting chaos, then risking everything to transport the delegation leader’s corpse out of the village and deliver it to the black market completely contradicted that objective.

However, Danzo didn’t dwell on the contradiction for long.

Because he suddenly realized—

This was the perfect opportunity to deal with Uchiha Shisui and seize his Mangekyo Sharingan!

Thump, thump...

Before long, Danzo struck his cane heavily against the floor.

Hearing the sound, a Root ninja entered Danzo’s office and asked, "Lord Danzo, what are your orders?"

Danzo said in a deep voice, "Pass down the order. Secretly spread rumors throughout the village that Uchiha Shisui is Kamigami’s ’Homura’!"

"Yes!"

The Root ninja froze for a moment in surprise before quickly nodding and withdrawing from the office.

At that moment, confidence returned to Danzo’s face.

He had absolutely no evidence that Shisui was Kamigami’s ’Homura’.

But to Danzo, whether he had evidence or not was irrelevant.

All he needed was an excuse.

Just like when he had dealt with Konoha’s White Fang—

Hatake Sakumo.

At the time, Hatake Sakumo’s prestige had already surpassed that of the Legendary Sannin.

His name, ’Konoha’s White Fang,’ shook the entire shinobi world, and he was one of the strongest contenders for the position of Fourth Hokage.

If someone like that was left unchecked, the threat he posed to the Hokage faction would simply be too great.

And so, when Hatake Sakumo happened to fail a mission, Danzo seized the opportunity.

Using Root, he deliberately spread information unfavorable to Sakumo throughout the village, causing what should have been a classified mission sealed away in the archives to become common knowledge throughout the streets.

His goal was to use the incident to damage Sakumo’s reputation and prestige within the village.

But no one had expected Hatake Sakumo to value his honor so deeply.

Under the condemnation of everyone around him, he ultimately chose to take his own life.

Later, when the Fourth Hokage accepted Kakashi as his disciple, perhaps part of the reason was that the Hokage faction wanted to compensate the Hatake family.

After all, when it came to Hatake Sakumo’s death, from the Hokage at the very top to the ordinary villagers who had condemned him—

every single one of them bore some responsibility...