Natsuki stared at the smoldering remains and clicked his tongue.
What a waste.
The thought had struck him a beat too late. If Shimura Danzo had possessed his Wood Release arm and the Mangekyō Sharingan, he'd have qualified as Kage-level — strong enough to trigger the Aizen template's Kyōka Suigetsu unlock. In the original timeline, that version of Danzo had traded blows with a Mangekyō-wielding Sasuke and even held a slight edge.
But this Danzo? Not even close.
Natsuki watched the last embers die, then raised his hand.
Earth Release chakra surged. The ground churned, swallowed the ashes, and settled flat — smooth and undisturbed, as if the man who'd spent decades lurking in Konoha's shadows had never existed at all.
Natsuki turned to leave.
He made it two steps before a line of text materialized in his vision.
[You have awakened the Shimura Danzo Template.]
His mouth twitched.
Seriously?
Killing Shimura Danzo triggered his template? Or had the system classified Danzo as the Second-Generation Scapegoat Kage?
Behaviorally speaking... the comparison wasn't entirely wrong.
The template's value depended entirely on which era's Danzo it drew from. The current version — an Elite Jōnin with a Wind Release specialty — was worthless. But the late-stage Danzo from the Five Kage Summit? That had potential.
Natsuki opened the template.
[Name: Shimura Danzo][Era: Five Kage Summit][World: Naruto][Rank: S-Rank]
[Ability 1: Curse Mark — Tongue Eradication | UNLOCKED]Effect: Prevents the target from divulging the user's secrets.
[Ability 2: Mangekyō Sharingan | LOCKED]Effect: Uchiha Shisui's right eye — grants the dōjutsu Kotoamatsukami.Unlock Condition: Secretly control a small hidden village.
[Ability 3: Wood Release | LOCKED]Effect: Wood Release awakened via Hashirama cell transplantation.Unlock Condition: Rebuild Root.
[Ability 4: Izanagi | LOCKED]Effect: At the cost of one Sharingan, converts all damage sustained during Izanagi's duration into illusion — as though it never occurred.Unlock Condition: Become Hokage.
Natsuki exhaled.
The Five Kage Summit era. He'd gotten lucky — anything less would have been a colossal waste.
He broke the abilities down one by one.
Ability 1: Curse Mark — Tongue Eradication. The same fūinjutsu Danzo had used to leash Root's operatives. Natsuki had no personal need for it; the Blood Curse was superior in every respect. But it wasn't entirely useless — those former Root ninjas might respond to it as a familiar chain of command.
Ability 2: Mangekyō Sharingan. Danzo's Mangekyō had been stolen from Uchiha Shisui — ripped from his eye socket in an ambush. Like Obito, Shisui's dōjutsu was identical in both eyes: Kotoamatsukami. Its effect was deceptively simple — it rewrote the target's will without their knowledge, so seamlessly they believed the altered thoughts were their own.
In terms of activation conditions, it was arguably more broken than Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu.
But Kotoamatsukami carried two fatal drawbacks. First, it could be detected — Danzo had used it on Mifune during the Summit, and Ao's Byakugan had seen right through it. Second, its cooldown was absurd. Itachi himself had noted it required over a decade between uses.
Those weaknesses made Kyōka Suigetsu the clear upgrade — infinite uses, no cooldown. Still, this was Shisui's right eye. Whether the left eye's Kotoamatsukami functioned identically remained an open question.
The unlock condition — secretly controlling a small hidden village — was peak Danzo. The system clearly viewed Natsuki as the rightful successor to the Scapegoat Kage legacy.
But the payoff was worth the absurdity. Once unlocked, Natsuki would no longer be limited to one eye. His left would carry Obito's Kamui; his right, Shisui's Kotoamatsukami.
A secondary thought surfaced: if he later awakened the Obito and Shisui templates directly, how would the dōjutsu stack? Dual Kamui in the left, dual Kotoamatsukami in the right? Or one of each per eye?
A problem for another day.
Ability 3: Wood Release. Self-explanatory — but the unlock condition gave him pause. Rebuild Root. What exactly qualified? Orochimaru had already ordered Root's dissolution and the absorption of its personnel into the Anbu. If Natsuki went behind Orochimaru's back to reconstitute it in secret...
He almost laughed.
Going behind the Hokage's back to rebuild Root was rebuilding Root. The act itself was the condition — doing exactly what Shimura Danzo would have done.
Ability 4: Izanagi. A god-tier survival skill, no question. The unlock condition — become Hokage — was slightly absurd, but it tracked. The seat had been Danzo's lifelong obsession, the one thing perpetually out of reach.
For Natsuki, it was a matter of time.
He returned home, stripped, and slid under the covers.
His arm found Yakushi Nonou's soft warmth in the dark. He pulled her close, shut his eyes, and let sleep take him.
The next morning.
Natsuki hadn't even reached his office before he spotted Zo standing at the door, expression grim.
"Lord Natsuki." Zo stepped forward. "Shimura Danzo is missing. He slipped past surveillance with a Shadow Clone last night."
After Danzo's removal, Natsuki had stationed an Anbu squad on him as a precaution.
"We've been searching since we discovered the switch, but there's no trace."
"I'm aware. Stand the squad down — this matter is handled."
Zo blinked, clearly confused, but didn't press. "Yes, Lord Natsuki."
Natsuki headed to the Research Department.
"What brings you here?" Orochimaru didn't look up from his work.
"What are you researching, Sensei?"
After completing the Wood Release experiment and passing the transplant procedure on to his students, Orochimaru's intent had been obvious — he was moving to something new.
"Human lifespan is painfully finite." Orochimaru's tone was casual, detached. "I'm exploring methods of extension."
Natsuki couldn't hide his surprise.
Even the un-corrupted Orochimaru had arrived at this question?
"Any leads?"
"None. It sounds like fantasy, frankly. I'm experimenting without expectations."
"I see." Natsuki shifted to the real reason for his visit. "Shimura Danzo disappeared last night. I believe he's gone rogue."
Orochimaru's gaze sharpened.
Danzo's knowledge of Konoha was encyclopedic. Defection wasn't the concern — the concern was which village he'd sell that knowledge to.
"Find him. Bring him back." A pause. "Dead or alive."
The implication was unmistakable. Orochimaru was giving him clearance to eliminate Danzo outside the village walls.
For Orochimaru and Konoha, Danzo's death was the cleanest outcome.
"Yes, Sensei."
Hiruzen or Tsunade would never have been this cold-blooded. But Orochimaru operated on a different axis — pragmatism without sentiment. The only difference between his current self and his darker future was the degree of restraint.
Natsuki arrived at the Anbu base.
"Issue a village-wide notice," he told Zo. "Shimura Danzo is hereby designated an S-rank rogue ninja."
Shock flickered across Zo's face, but his response was immediate. "Yes, Lord Natsuki."
"The Root operatives — any anomalies last night?"
"Some agitation. The Anbu suppressed it quickly."
As expected.
Danzo's death would have automatically dissolved the Curse Mark: Tongue Eradication on every Root ninja. They'd have felt it vanish — and panicked.
"Take me to them."
Natsuki was already thinking about the unlock condition for Ability 3. These operatives had been brainwashed into tools — stripped of identity, purpose, and autonomy. Tools didn't mourn their previous master. They simply waited for the next one.
Natsuki could absorb them. Rebuild Root under his own hand.
They arrived at the holding cells.
"Seventeen operatives on Root's active roster. All seventeen are in custody," Zo reported. "The reserve pool is too large to detain — we left them for screening."
Natsuki nodded. The seventeen were the fully indoctrinated core. Even released, they'd be a liability. The reserves could be sorted later — some discharged, others folded into the Anbu.
"The roster, Lord Natsuki." Zo produced a scroll.
Natsuki unrolled it and scanned the names. In the original timeline, Root had fielded several notable operatives — Sai, Yamanaka Fū, Aburame Torune. But none of them had been born yet, let alone recruited.
Only one familiar name appeared: Aburame Tatsuma.
"Wait outside."
He entered the cell alone.
Seventeen pairs of eyes lifted to meet his. Every face was blank. Every gaze hollow.
"Shimura Danzo was killed last night."
The words finally cracked something in them — not anger, not grief, but confusion. They'd been conditioned to serve Danzo for life. With him gone, they had no directive. No function. No reason to exist.
"Before his death, Danzo ordered you to serve me as your new master." Natsuki's expression didn't shift. "I know you have no reason to believe that. So I'll offer proof."
He stepped forward, placed his hand on the nearest operative, and activated the template ability.
Curse Mark: Tongue Eradication.
Chakra surged, condensing into black sealing formulas that spiraled across the ninja's tongue.
The effect was instantaneous. Recognition flared in the operative's dead eyes — not of Natsuki, but of the seal. The familiar weight of purpose restored.
Every Root ninja in the cell dropped to one knee.
Natsuki moved down the line and marked each of them.
For these broken operatives, the Curse Mark wasn't just control. It was identity. Danzo had hollowed them out so completely that the chain itself was the only thing that made them feel real.
A monstrous piece of conditioning. And now it served Natsuki perfectly.
"You will retain your Root designation, but you operate under the Anbu's structure from this point forward. To the outside world, you are Anbu."
"Yes, Lord Natsuki," the seventeen said in unison.
[Congratulations — Shimura Danzo Template Ability 3: Wood Release has been unlocked.]
That easy?
Natsuki stared at the notification, mildly surprised — then reconsidered. It made sense. Obtaining Wood Release independently was already within reach; all he'd have needed was to ask Orochimaru and Tsunade for a transplant. The system had simply acknowledged the shortcut.
He stepped out of the cell.
"Zo. They're now the Fifth Anbu Squad. Arrange quarters."
"Yes, Lord Natsuki."
"And the Root base — has sealing been completed?"
"The main facility is secured. We're still locating secondary labs and safe houses." Zo produced another scroll. "Here's the full inventory from the primary base."
Natsuki opened it. The first entry caught his eye immediately.
Senju Hashirama's cells.
"Hand those over."
Zo passed him a summoning scroll without question.
Natsuki returned to the Senju compound.
"Natsuki!" Nawaki was on him the moment he walked through the gate. "Is it true? Danzo went rogue?"
"It's true. He disappeared last night."
"All that talk about doing everything for Konoha's sake." Tsunade's lip curled. "The second he lost his power, he ran. It was never about the village — it was always about him."
"You have to catch him!" Nawaki said urgently. "If he reaches another village, he'll sell every secret we have!"
"Relax. He won't get far. I'll have him soon."
Nawaki didn't question it. His faith in Natsuki was absolute.
"On a related note — I underwent the cell transplant today." Natsuki mentioned it as if commenting on the weather. "I've also awakened Wood Release. We can train together now."
Neither Tsunade nor Nawaki looked surprised. Natsuki wasn't Uzumaki by blood, but his chakra reserves were enormous. Still, given his existing combat power, Wood Release was less of a game-changer for him than for the others.
He trained with Tsunade for half an hour — long enough to learn the basics of a technique called Wood Release: Wood Transformation, though his execution was still rough.
Two jutsu were already on his development list: the Four-Pillar House Technique and the Serial Pillar Houses Technique. Both had been created by Yamato in the original timeline, not inherited from Hashirama's catalog, which meant Natsuki would have to engineer them from scratch.
The utility was obvious. For an individual, they were the ultimate travel skill. For a nation, they were infrastructure on demand.
But that was a project for later. He had work waiting.
At the office, Mikoto greeted him with the same question Nawaki had asked.
"Did your Clan Head put you up to this?"
"Mm." No hesitation. "He wants confirmation that Danzo has truly defected."
"Tell him this: Shimura Danzo hasn't just defected. He'll be dead very soon."
Mikoto went still.
For the Uchiha Clan, this was the best news in living memory.
When she'd first been assigned as Hokage Secretary, the clan had given her two missions: get close to Natsuki, and monitor Danzo and Root. By a twist of fate, both had been accomplished in a single stroke.
"What are you spacing out for?"
Natsuki's palm cracked across her ass — hard enough to send a ripple through the fabric of her skirt.
"S-sorry—"
"That's not how you apologize."
He reached out and traced his finger slowly across her lower lip.
Color flooded Mikoto's face. She understood.
Without another word, she moved toward the desk.
Natsuki sat down and picked up his documents, letting her settle beneath it.
He took a deep breath, his body loosening, and began reading.
After finishing one report, he reached down and stroked her hair.
He pulled out a map of the ninja world.
The continent wasn't small, but beyond the Five Great Villages, the number of hidden villages was limited. Small nations couldn't sustain them. Worse, minor countries were routinely ground up as battlefields during each Great War, leaving them too devastated to maintain shinobi infrastructure.
Natsuki studied the map and identified two targets worth pursuing.
The first was the Hidden Waterfall Village — home of the Seven-Tails. The Aizen template's Hōgyoku required all nine Tailed Beasts, but there was no urgency on that front.
The second was the Hidden Star Village.
The Star Village's defining asset was a meteorite — a celestial fragment they simply called "the Star." The village had built an entire combat doctrine around it: the Mysterious Peacock Method, a secret training technique that drew power from the meteorite's energy.
The problem was radiation. Prolonged exposure caused severe physical degradation and shortened the user's lifespan. When the Third Hoshikage discovered this, he'd secretly arranged for two of his trusted shinobi — Natsuhi and Hotarubi — to steal the Star and hide it. But Akahoshi, hungry for power, had murdered the Third Hoshikage, installed himself as acting village leader, and launched a manhunt for the stolen meteorite.
Natsuki's interest wasn't in the village's politics. It was in the Star itself.
If a single meteorite could serve as the training fuel for an entire hidden village, the raw energy it contained was immense. The most direct application? Feed it to the Black Grail.
For now, reconnaissance. The events he was recalling were far in the future — in the original timeline, Naruto's generation had handled the Star Village arc. The current situation might be entirely different.
He rolled up the map. The day's work was finished.
Natsuki closed his eyes and leaned back. Sleep found him quickly — a formless dream, humid and heavy with summer heat.
When he opened his eyes, Mikoto was standing beside the desk, waiting. She'd been there for some time.
"Head home, Mikoto."
He waved her off.
She swallowed, nodded, and left.
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