Chapter 173: Epilogue (Part 3): Danzo's Scheme
To encounter failure twice in one day—even with Danzo's forbearance, he felt a sense of frustration suffocating his chest, difficult to vent.
But the expression on his face did not change.
Forcefully suppressing that gloom and anger, for a ninja like him, not allowing emotions to affect his state of mind was just the most basic ability.
A conspiracy proceeding smoothly was something that only happened in novels. The reality was that plans would always encounter various setbacks, because there would always be uncalculated factors, and the biggest variable among them was people. Even a genius like Shikamaru had made a miscalculation in the Chunin Exams and collapsed unconscious. If Sakura and Hinata hadn't arrived in time, it was hard to say what the outcome would have been.
Orochimaru's unimaginable recovery ability and Haruno Sakura's unexpected combat strength were all intelligence that Root and Danzo had not known beforehand. Danzo didn't say anything about this—only a god could possibly know all intelligence.
At the very least, he had obtained a lot of important intelligence from this operation.
Therefore, Danzo just indifferently waved his hand, dismissing the two Root ninja who were kneeling below him, having failed their mission.
He was left alone, leaning on his cane, standing in silence.
The damp and dark cave instantly became deathly silent.
After a long time.
"Ice Body Flicker..." Danzo's thoughtful, low murmur sounded faintly, his voice as raw, withered, and hard as the bark of an old tree.
He recalled the information about Ice Style in his mind. The scroll sent back from the Land of Snow—Danzo hadn't read it in its entirety, but he knew a little. Was it the Ice Body Flicker recorded on that scroll? Or was it that Haku Yuki's Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals?
No... If those two moves were that strong, then word of it would have spread through Konoha long ago. It would have been impossible for me not to notice.
So, it's another new jutsu from Haruno Sakura?
An Ice Style Body Flicker jutsu that integrates the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals and the Ice Body Flicker? It has an effect similar to the Fourth Hokage's Flying Raijin? Danzo knew about the Fourth Hokage. The Flying Raijin was a ninjutsu passed down from the Second Hokage. Decades had passed, and in the great Konoha, only the Fourth had been able to use the Body Flicker jutsu with such perfection.
The Body Flicker was not as cool as beginners imagined. On the contrary, using the Body Flicker often meant that the caster was at an even higher risk than the enemy. The biggest problem lay in the sense of imbalance that appeared after the flicker ended. Moving instantly from one space to another, the caster would experience a sense of imbalance similar to sudden weightlessness. This feeling was like standing on a tall building, the floor under your feet suddenly disappearing, and then suddenly reappearing. Therefore, after the flicker ended, it often took a short amount of time to regain balance. This was the danger of the Body Flicker.
The Fourth was a rare ninja whose reaction speed and balance were both extremely strong. He needed almost no time to regain his balance and could even cast the Body Flicker jutsu during high-speed movement without interrupting his high-speed state—the legendary Flying Raijin Stage Two was just like that.
However, after the Fourth, no other ninja in Konoha had been able to use the Body Flicker so powerfully—perhaps Shisui of the Body Flicker still counted as one, but it was a pity that he also had to rely on the power of the Sharingan to achieve this.
So how did Haruno Sakura manage to go on a Body Flicker frenzy in battle?
Danzo had already raised his evaluation of that girl again and again, but at this moment, he found that he had still underestimated her.
In that case, the Water Gun Jutsu was not just a flash in the pan for Haruno Sakura, but just the tip of her iceberg...
Before, when he had heard that she was developing some Phase Two and Phase Three ninjutsu, he had thought they were all just boring jutsu, like that ice clone that completely replicated the original. Now it seemed that that was nothing more than a feint. Danzo even had reason to suspect that the Third and Fifth Hokage that day had deliberately had Haruno Sakura demonstrate this ninjutsu to him. He still remembered that it was the Third who had let her in...
So this Ice Body Flicker is one of the so-called numerous Phase Twos and Threes, right? The next stage of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals or the Land of Snow's Body Flicker?
Then what are the other Phase Twos and Threes?
"Haruno Sakura..." A faint light flickered in his turbid eyes as he repeatedly mulled over this word.
"Xibo," Danzo said in a deep voice, his staff striking the ground hard.
A ninja wearing a hooded windbreaker, his whole body hidden in the shadows, revealing only a pair of eyes, appeared in front of Danzo.
"Raise the priority of intelligence gathering on Chunin Haruno Sakura by two levels," Danzo said.
"Yes!" To pay so much attention to a mere Chunin seemed unreasonable, but the expression in the Root ninja's eyes did not change in the slightest. He answered in a clear voice without hesitation.
"In addition—"
Danzo paused for a moment.
This operation meant that he and Orochimaru had officially had a falling out.
For Danzo, to turn his back on someone just after cooperating with them was the most normal thing in the world.
The Sharingan transplant work had been completed, and the Konoha Crush plan had also proceeded as scheduled. Orochimaru's use-value to him was basically gone. On the contrary, it would be a big trouble if the Hokage were to discover his many dealings with Orochimaru.
Therefore, Danzo had set up a trap to completely screw Orochimaru over. Of course, while he was at it, this move could also solve the hidden danger in his heart, Uchiha Sasuke, and take the opportunity to snatch another pair of Sharingan, and then frame Orochimaru for it, letting Uchiha Itachi and Orochimaru fight it out—if Orochimaru wasn't dead by then.
This was Danzo's plan, a conspiracy to kill several birds with one stone.
It was just a pity that the planning was so perfect, yet in the end, neither of the two main objectives had been achieved.
And it wasn't just the Sharingan transplant work. Orochimaru had also made a lot of contributions to Root's other secret jutsu research and development work. Without the help of this ninjutsu expert, the progress of many of Root's projects would be affected...
Therefore, Root needed another genius ninja with R&D talent. Another Orochimaru.
Thinking of this.
"The Haruno Sakura Recruitment Plan... is reactivated."
Danzo said indifferently.
A slender fingertip slid down the smooth, flawless spine.
Outlining a beautiful curve.
"Nn... hmph." The girl lying on her stomach on the hospital bed buried her head in the soft pillow, revealing only a head of soft, pink hair, letting out a fine, long groan.
"What's wrong?" The woman stopped the ninjutsu in her hand, blinked her bright eyes, and asked gently, "Does it hurt?"
"It's not pain... Haku, the place you just pressed, it's a little numb," the pink-haired girl's voice came from under the pillow towel, muffled, as if she were pouting.
Haku then gently rubbed the numb spot for her, smiling lightly, revealing a bright, flower-like smile. "It's fine. Feeling numb means the previous wound is almost healed. Just bear with it. As long as it doesn't hurt, it's fine."
A faint blue light emanated from her cool fingertips, pressing on the thin layer of tender flesh on the girl's exposed spine, sliding all the way down to the tailbone.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, right, Sakura-chan? Try activating Sakura Rush and see?"
"Nn..." Haruno Sakura lifted her head, activated the Secret Technique: Sakura Rush, and watched as her palm smoothly opened and closed.
The long-lost feeling of "thought and action becoming one" proceeded smoothly, without any sense of stagnation.
"Very good..."
The surging of power, the return of the familiar feeling, made the pink-haired girl's eyebrows rise, and she smiled faintly. That weak, patient-like temperament, in this one smile, became heroic and compelling.
"It seems you've completely recovered. But, Sakura-chan, a ninjutsu like Sakura Rush is very dangerous. You must be careful when you use it, especially you must not... This time it was just minor damage to your nervous system. Next time, it might be permanent trauma!" Haku warned, forcing a cold expression onto her small face.
"Haku, don't worry..."
The girl on the bed propped herself up, looked at the blue sky outside the window, and said with a smile, her smile warm, bright, and full of confidence.
"I won't be so pathetic again in the future."
—If "it" is completed.
She silently added this sentence in her heart.
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