While standing a few meters away from the man known as the darkness of Konoha, Orochimaru realized that he had underestimated Danzo.
During the past few years, the snake contractor had become obsessed with the Mangekyo Sharingan after his defeat against Uchiha Itachi and planned to get his hands on the body of an Uchiha to obtain it for himself when he switched bodies.
And since there was only one other Uchiha alive besides Itachi, Orochimaru planned to initiate his plan to steal his body during the Chunin exam held in the Leaf Village.
Everything would go according to plan, Orochimaru thought.
He would begin by giving Itachi's younger sister a cursed seal, leaving clues that her was his sole target.
In this way, his former teacher would not realize that he was coming for him, which would allow him, with Danzo's help, to bring numerous ninjas from the Sand Village and his Sound Village to invade the Leaf Village.
His deal with Rasa was only to prevent the man from joining his former master during the attack.
As expected, Rasa quickly accepted the alliance due to the decline of the Sand Village after they lost the favor of their Daimyo.
But he wasn't interested in destroying his old home either, so he planned to kill the user of Gold's magnetic release beforehand and take his place.
With the Leaf Village ninjas busy fighting the Sand Village ninjas and the Sound Village ninjas, no one would notice the absence of the Sand Village Kage, and Orochimaru could take his time to say goodbye to his former master before killing him.
Of course, even though his master was old, Orochimaru would not underestimate him and had already planned a trump card in case the man still retained strong fighting power.
He would even give his former master a memorable death by having him killed by the former Hokage.
Wasn't he a good disciple?
Of course, after killing him, he would leave.
Besides not giving Danzo the opportunity to become the village hero, Orochimaru even considered killing the former hawk as well before retiring.
He still remembered when he became a rogue ninja, when all the clues about the missing people at that time pointed to his laboratory in the village.
Orochimaru had used them for his experiments, but Root were the ones who kidnapped those people.
He would be a fool not to realize that Danzo had set a trap for him.
Orochimaru had never forgotten that betrayal; he was simply preoccupied with other things, such as his research to achieve immortality.
Along with creating his own ninja village, Orochimaru was too busy to settle old scores with Danzo.
'Perhaps he'll use the Edo Tensei to kill Danzo too?' Orochimaru thought for a moment before shaking his head.
The man was a coward and would not show up when he realized he had summoned the previous Hokage.
Those were Orochimaru's thoughts before he met the man.
He planned to use their help for now, but it seemed that Danzo didn't want to cooperate.
It was a shame, Orochimaru thought as he watched Danzo approach.
He planned to leave Danzo until after he killed his former master, but if the old hawk insisted, he would summon the former Hokage to end his old vendetta right then and there.
But when he saw the four-pointed swirl pattern in Danzo's eye, he knew he had underestimated the man.
'Distinguished celestial eyes'!
Unfortunately for the snake jutsu user, he soon couldn't move a single muscle.
When Danzo used Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, Orochimaru's memory was altered.
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Unaware of Danzo's movements, Kozue continued opening stores throughout the land of fire, aiming to have a store in every city.
Of course, he still kept a low profile and wasn't yet selling things that would attract the greed of certain people or the attention of ninjas.
When he manages to open a store in every city in the land of fire, he will begin to sell things of great value and utility.
Of course, that would take time.
But since he wasn't in a hurry, he would take his time and use it to train.
After all, he had powerful opponents waiting for him in the DxD world, and in the world of One Piece, he is very likely to face the Marines and the World Government.
While processing her shadow clones' memories of the progress in opening her stores, Kozue crossed off her mental list the names of the cities that already had one of her stores, and noted the names of the cities that didn't have one so that her shadow clones could head towards them to change that.
It must be said that Tierra del Fuego was enormous, so there were more than 1000 cities in its territory.
Of course, the population of each city was not very large, with 90% of them having just over 100,000 people and few exceeding one million inhabitants.
The capital alone had almost 10 million people.
Even so, the territory was enormous and it would take Kozue several months to open a store in each city and maintain supplies in each of them.
I didn't have enough money.
With the goal of raising money, his shadow clones began hunting down wanted bandits and criminals.
They would take their riches and exchange their heads for money if they had a reward.
With that money, he could keep all his stores stocked and open more when he accumulated more money.
And it was during one of those operations that a group of shadow clones approached the shores and noticed the country of the Wave on one of the maps.
Kozue was quickly informed of this and remembered the small island nation.
Recalling the plot, Kozue wondered if Tazuna was dead and Gato had already taken control of the country.
After all, Team 7 recently graduated.
Of course, things could be different or the same depending on whether Tazuna managed to go to the Leaf Village or not to hire a team to protect him.
Even if Zabuza killed the man and the team that was supposed to protect him, the blade would be alerted to the team's death when they failed to appear and would investigate.
Although Zabuza might escape, Gato wouldn't be able to because everyone on Wave Island knew of his control over the island, so the Leaf Village would suspect him and it was very likely they would find out the truth, so he would soon be killed.
The idiot had already lost by the time Tazuna reached the leaf.
Or if he had been smart, he would have stayed out of it while the Leaf ninjas escorted Tazuna.
After they withdraw, he could destroy the bridge or take control of it, thus maintaining his control over the small country.
Curious about what had happened, Kozue sent a group of shadow clones to investigate and soon learned of the situation.
The bridge was still standing and Tazuna was nowhere to be seen.
Zabuza and Haku were in their hideout, and the bridge builder's family was at home impatiently waiting for the man.
And according to what his shadow clones heard, the old bridge builder had recently gone to the Leaf Village for help.
Knowing the circumstances, Kozue could have let things continue as they were.
After all, Team 7 would soon be here, Gato would die, and the land of the Wave would be saved.
But everything changed when the rest of his shadow clones restored his memories of his travels around the country.
Homeless people going from place to place, many of them extremely thin from the little food they had eaten in recent days.
Children in the same situation, together in groups for greater protection.
Women forced by circumstances to sell their bodies to get a little money.
Men who lost themselves in their desires, hurting others without a shred of remorse, and a few did it in order to survive.
The country was a disaster, and Kozue didn't know if she could be saved even if Gato was eliminated.
Sighing, Kozue wondered what to do.
This type of situation was occurring in many parts of the world.
Even the land of fire was the same.
Even with its fertile territory, wealth accumulated in the hands of a few, and there were many people in conditions similar to those of the citizens of the country of the Wave.
His shadow clones were already discreetly helping, and they could do the same in the land of the Wave.