"Lord Danzo, the Third Hokage is summoning you and the Elders for an urgent meeting. It seems something critical has happened within the village."
In Root's underground base, a ninja reported to Danzo Shimura.
Though both were located in underground facilities, the Kagenami base felt completely different from Root upon first impression. Root's scale was far greater than Kagenami's, making this underground space even more vast, solemn, and gloomy.
The organization currently controlled by Danzo was highly standardized and militarized—a true ninja force built on absolute obedience and rigid doctrine. In Root's training of shinobi, people didn't just die—they died frequently.
By comparison, the Kagenami looked pathetically soft. In Danzo's view, it was nothing more than child's play—a group incapable of achieving anything significant.
Yet realistically speaking, there was no need for the Kagenami to cultivate emotionless killing machines. After all, Root existed to train ninja for Anbu—the dark side units requiring unquestionable obedience. An Anbu shinobi had to be willing to do the dirty work without blinking an eye.
Even if someone had been your partner for ten years, Anbu would stab them without hesitation or remorse—if given an order.
From this perspective, Anbu shinobi truly represented what a ninja should be—absolute loyalists and elite forces serving the village.
But the Kagenami didn't bear such responsibilities as Anbu did, nor did it have authority over attacking fellow village shinobi. Previously, Haseo had claimed during its formation that Kagenami might replace certain functions of either Root or Anbu—but after its establishment, he immediately abandoned that argument.
Now, the fact that the Kagenami had become a gathering place for Uzumaki shinobi couldn't escape Danzo's notice. And being a man prone to suspicion and fond of overthinking things without cause, he might already harbor vague doubts about the true reason behind the establishment of the Kagenami...
Of course, at most, he could guess that the creation of the Kagenami related somehow to the Tailed Beasts. As for the specific plan concerning splitting the Nine-Tails' chakra, he could never possibly have figured that out.
That the Kagenami had been founded due to the Tailed Beasts and had earned the Third Hokage's backing—this was something Danzo could easily deduce. After all, the current Hokage's support for Haseo participating in the operation to obtain the Two-Tails sufficiently confirmed several key facts.
"I understand. I'll leave immediately."
Danzo acknowledged the summons from the Hokage and stood up from behind a low table.
This new meeting probably had something to do with Haseo. The problem was that Haseo had only left the village three days ago to lead his team on this mission.
Receiving news so soon suggested the likelihood of failure or bad news outweighed any possibility of success... Capturing a Tailed Beast was never a walk in the park.
And for Danzo personally, even if Haseo had successfully captured the Two-Tails, that wouldn't be considered good news either.
Kumo was a daring and aggressive ninja village. Who knew what consequences would follow if Konoha had taken their Tailed Beast… This was uncertainty, and Danzo never liked uncertainty—whether it came from Kumo or someone like Haseo.
Or maybe this time, the news was that Haseo had been eliminated? Thinking about it, Danzo felt slightly excited. After all, at times he found Haseo even more annoying than Kumo itself… Well, not just "at times"—it was probably since the other day when Haseo had shouted at him, and his attitude had changed a little since then.
Danzo was fully aware that Konoha needed ninjas and fighters like Haseo. But when it came to personal feelings, rationality wasn't always enough. After all, people were emotional beings—even someone like Danzo, who seemed increasingly emotionless on the surface, wasn't entirely without emotions. He simply chose to hide them.
When Danzo Shimura hurriedly arrived at the Hokage's Office, the two Elders were already there ahead of him. Needless to say, ever since Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane became Elders, nobody really knew whether their ninja skills had improved or worsened—but one thing was for sure: their legs had gotten much faster.
Although Danzo had some grievances against Haseo, sometimes they did share similar opinions—and lately, he had come to dislike these two Elders even more as well… Those two were like "all bark, no bite"—useless when it came to actual work, but always the first to show up at mealtime.
When everyone gathered, the Third Hokage got straight to the point: "Haseo has returned, and the mission exceeded all expectations… He brought back the Two-Tails too."
"…"
How should one put this? In any case, neither Danzo nor the remaining two Elders really wanted to hear such good news.
Everyone had hoped Haseo would mess things up—but instead, he completed the mission successfully, and with surprising efficiency and speed… In a way, when it came to failing to disappoint people—by *not* disappointing them—Haseo had a perfect record.
Even the Third Hokage himself hadn't expected Haseo to finish so quickly. Not only was the mission successful, but there weren't even any casualties in the entire operation team—remember, they were capturing the Two-Tails, not catching a stray cat.
"Then let's now focus on how to respond to Kumo's reaction," said the Third Hokage.
At this point, dwelling on how Haseo had succeeded was pointless—it was time to think about handling Kumo's potential response.
"As long as we can rule out the possibility of war, we can accept any other scenario. The problem is, according to our previous discussion, Kumo might very likely go to war over the Two-Tails… Surely Haseo didn't conceal his identity as a Konoha ninja during the capture?" Koharu Utatane said.
Of course Haseo wouldn't have hidden his affiliation with Konoha at all. He was a ninja, not a divine entity.
For Kumo, above all, the Two-Tails must not fall into Konoha's hands.
Konoha had long stood as the most powerful of all the ninja villages. If Konoha fully controlled the Two-Tails, the balance of power between Konoha and Kumo would tilt drastically—and definitely not in Kumo's favor. This was utterly unacceptable for Kumo.
They would definitely take action.
"Actually, I do have a plan in mind," the Third Hokage suddenly said. "Perhaps... we should reach out to Kumo first and show them we're willing to negotiate over the Two-Tails' ownership. As long as the political aspect remains negotiable, military hostility won't immediately escalate."
Why not take the initiative and start negotiations from Konoha's side before Kumo resorts to military pressure? Then Kumo wouldn't need to act militarily first.
Since Konoha currently held the Two-Tails and was willing to talk, couldn't things be framed in their favor? Wasn't it generous of Konoha to offer assistance in capturing the beast out of friendship, then now willingly returning it?
Of course, Konoha suffered heavy losses during the operation, so there's no getting around the fact that Kumo will need to offer some compensation.
No other ninja village upheld the Tailed Beasts apportionment system established by the First Hokage as faithfully as Konoha did. Even though Konoha might seem overly virtuous on the international stage, surely Kumo wouldn't want to disappoint a loyal ally like Konoha—after all, they're still supposed to be friends.
The Third Hokage's words almost made Danzo Shimura lose his composure. How shameless... I never expected you, Hiruzen Sarutobi, to have become like this.
To be honest, this kind of strategy was completely out of character for the Third Hokage. Either someone called Haseo had put these ideas in his head, or Hiruzen had picked up bad habits from hanging around shady characters too much.
It was clear that Haseo had already left a deeply negative impression on Konoha's leadership.
Further speculation implied that this negative impression would only intensify with time.
PS:
Fifth update.
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