Suddenly, Sasori's voice echoed coldly in the space, "Since that good-for-nothing Danzo is useless, why don't we just kill him?"
Obito's voice was icy, "Hang his corpse at the gate of Konoha, so they'll know what happens to those who offend us!"
Everyone felt a brief pang of pity for Danzo. Obviously, he'd become the target of the two people's wrath who had failed to obtain the Impure World Reincarnation technique.
However, no matter how much they pitied him in their hearts, none of them felt inclined to speak up for Danzo.
A useless guy—let him die already!
Kakuzu's eyes sparkled with greed, "Before killing him, why don't we let me make some use of this trash first!"
Seeing this, Black Zetsu chuckled sinisterly, "Is it really okay to kill Danzo?"
Kakuzu frowned, "What do you mean by that?"
Black Zetsu explained, "Think carefully, once Danzo dies, who will become the next Hokage?"
Seiki Shimaseki... this name subconsciously surfaced in everyone's mind.
"Told you so," Black Zetsu shrugged, "Do you think it's better for the organization to have a useless Hokage, or for Seiki Shimaseki to become Hokage?"
Nagato said, "From the organization's perspective, it's definitely better for Danzo to remain Hokage!"
"So there you have it," Black Zetsu said, "Let Danzo return and continue being Hokage. Not only can he cause internal conflicts in Konoha, but he can also bother Seiki Shimaseki and prevent him from having too much time to interfere with our plans!"
"But here's the problem," Konan doubted, "Can he even continue being Hokage? Once publicly captured like that in such a humiliating way, with almost everyone in the village giving up on him, a normal person would feel too ashamed to continue as Hokage anyway."
"And where did you see him as a normal person?" Black Zetsu stated confidently, "Such a minor setback won't make him give up at all!"
Everyone nodded thoughtfully. Exactly. That Hokage never seemed to care much about face anyway.
"But still, what's the point of remaining Hokage when everyone has turned against you?" Konan sighed.
"That's precisely why it's interesting," Black Zetsu smiled, "We can help make things more interesting."
"Huh? What did you say?" Konan asked, puzzled.
"Cooperate with Danzo!" Black Zetsu declared confidently, "Now that he's completely lost all authority and influence, we're the only ones who can help him!"
Konan looked doubtful, "We took him away right in front of the Five Great Hidden Villages, humiliating him completely. He must despise us already. Why would he cooperate with us?"
Kakuzu reasoned from Danzo's perspective, "In this world, only interests are eternal. Setting aside grudges for the sake of mutual benefits is not unusual at all!"
Then he turned to Black Zetsu, "Still, I'm curious—what use would there be cooperating with him? Even if he returns, he'll probably just become a puppet anyway."
"That's why we need to help him," Black Zetsu explained, "As long as he still holds the title of Hokage, he still has value to us!"
"But you're still missing one point," Yahiko said solemnly, "Danzo isn't exactly clever, but his loyalty to Konoha seems genuine. In such a situation, would he really betray Konoha and cooperate with us?"
"Cooperating with us means betraying Konoha?" Black Zetsu sneered, "Believe me, he'll find his own reasons to convince himself!"
"Anyway, trying won't cause any loss!"
"Excellent idea!" Aizen sincerely agreed.
"Haha, right, isn't it..." Black Zetsu grinned proudly, then looked toward the side, "Huh? When did you come in?"
This space was dark and chaotic, and everyone existed in phantom forms. It was pretty hard to notice someone's presence unless you were really paying attention.
"I came in when you first started speaking," Aizen said with a half-smile, watching him, "I just didn't want to interrupt since you seemed to be enjoying yourself."
He'd been wondering how to dismantle Danzo's power and that of the two other advisors — and then, unexpectedly, Black Zetsu had handed him the perfect weapon!
Like this time, although Danzo had suffered a huge embarrassment, at worst he would just resign from being Hokage. Danzo could have claimed it three years ago.
As for all the things Danzo had done previously, most were difficult to present as evidence. What could be confirmed had primarily targeted The Third, and even The Third himself hadn't cared much about it. So, completely destroying Danzo's position wouldn't be easy.
Of course, if he didn't care about following the rules of the game, with his strength, eliminating Danzo and the other leaders would be extremely easy.
However, this would ultimately leave hidden dangers. He absolutely wouldn't want his perfect image, built over the past decade, to collapse because of someone like Danzo. In the future, he still planned to use this perfect persona to manipulate Hagoromo!
Therefore, he chose the "gradual and silent" approach, making Danzo lose face, be abandoned by the village, and eventually lose all hope, walking down an extreme path.
Only this way could he grab concrete evidence against Danzo and take down the entire upper echelon of Konoha!
"Now that I think about it, I suppose it's partly my fault for being too powerful!" Aizen secretly mused. "If my deterrence hadn't been so powerful, he wouldn't have dared act so recklessly this late!"
Black Zetsu completely failed to realize he had just revealed all his schemes in front of the other man and continued speaking, "As for how to use Danzo's title as Hokage, I think there are many possibilities."
"For example, we could fully utilize Danzo's status as Hokage. After a few years, when another Kage Summit is held, we could control the other four Kage during the meeting. Then, before Seiki Shimaseki realizes, have the four of us jointly use the [Four Red Yang Formation] to trap him inside! That way, won't the shinobi world belong to us?"
"The idea is not bad, but..." He rubbed his chin and asked, "How exactly are you going to control the four Kage?"
Black Zetsu chuckled awkwardly, "I'm just offering a suggestion. If we can do this without arousing suspicion, we can also find four people here to replace them."
"Well, I knew it wouldn't be that easy!" Yahiko sighed. Only by gathering four Kage-level elite ninja could the [Four Red Yang Formation] be used, and bringing together such powerful individuals without raising suspicion would be extremely difficult!
After finishing their discussion about Danzo, Yahiko curiously looked toward Aizen, "Were you delayed by something?"
Aizen smiled slightly, "You could say that. I happened to be inside Konoha's chakra barrier just now; attending a meeting would've been inconvenient."
"Konoha!"
Everyone looked at him in shock.
For powerful Rogue Ninja like them, there were few places they couldn't go — except Konoha, which had practically become a taboo.
After all, that was Seiki Shimaseki's territory, and he must have left a Flying Thunder God Technique Form inside the village.
Once discovered, even a moment's delay could end with them facing Seiki Shimaseki himself!
Konan exclaimed in surprise, "Mr., why did you go to Konoha? That place is really dangerous!"
Aizen smiled and explained, "I went to invite a new recruit, and also to have him teach me the Impure World Reincarnation!"
"The Impure World Reincarnation!" Sasori and Obito couldn't contain their excitement, while Black Zetsu froze stiff.
Shit! He'd been stabbed in the back again by that damned Aizen!
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