Danzō flicked a glance at Chihaya Tooru beside him. The man's sunken cheeks were stretched into a chilling smile.
He was always like this. The moment he got a fresh test subject, he became so excited he forgot himself. Back then, when he'd been working with Orochimaru, he'd even wanted to experiment on Orochimaru too.
If Danzō hadn't returned in time after receiving that report, Chihaya Tooru would probably be the same age as Konome Taketori now.
Danzō withdrew his gaze.
When he looked at Konome standing before him, the eyes that always seemed dusted over with gray finally brightened with a trace of light.
A genius with talent like this.
How could he possibly hand her over to that weak-willed Hiruzen?
Back then, it had been the same.
One step slow, and you were slow forever.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had snatched the Hokage seat right out of his hands, and with it, Danzō's life, his ideals, everything he'd ever longed for was cut short. He'd been forced to rot in darkness ever since.
Thinking about it now, it was almost laughable.
What did it matter if you were fast? What did it matter if you were slow?
Whether it was the Hokage position he'd craved for decades, or the brilliant girl before him who'd missed her chance, everything Hiruzen had taken from him over the years, he would take back with his own hands, one item at a time.
It would start with Konome Taketori.
The right eye in Danzō's socket pulsed with light, his ocular power spilling a haze of illusion that lit her figure like ghost-lanterns.
His Kotoamatsukami couldn't rewrite someone's will permanently, but the hit condition was simple, the cost to his eye was low, and the cooldown was roughly half a year.
If he used it on the same person again and again over the years, the effect of "changing" their will wouldn't be much worse than the other Kotoamatsukami.
He didn't want to treat Konome like ordinary expendable material.
That would be wasteful.
All he needed was to pull her into Root in secret while she was still young, then wash her mind clean bit by bit, year after year.
In a few years, the disciple Hiruzen had poured so much effort into cultivating would become a sharp blade in Danzō's hand, and at the right moment, that blade would pierce straight into Hiruzen's heart.
Just imagining the shock, the rage, the regret on that old friend's face made Danzō's wrinkled mouth curl. A thin, wicked satisfaction rose on his aged features.
He couldn't wait to see it.
"What happened just now was merely a test," Danzō said slowly. "Now, I permit you to become a member of Root. Swear loyalty to me, and offer your strength to Konoha!"
"Y you… who are you?"
Konome allowed the Yin Release power of Kotoamatsukami to occupy her mind. With Dead Bone Pulse, she micro-adjusted the muscles in her face, letting genuine confusion bloom there.
At the same time, she pressed a hand to her temple and shook her head lightly, as if struggling against some invisible force.
"I am Root's leader. The Hokage's advisor. The one you will devote your life to serving. Danzō Shimura."
Danzō extended his left hand toward her, palm open, voice steady.
The Root members around them lowered their heads at the mention of his name. Their obedience was carved into bone, as if even hearing the name was a transgression.
Konome kept her hand to her forehead and continued acting out her "struggle," but her mind was already racing through countermeasures.
Danzō had used a Mangekyō Sharingan on her. If she told Hiruzen Sarutobi about it, would Hiruzen make a scene with Danzō?
The answer was obvious.
He wouldn't.
Their decades-long bond wasn't a joke. Danzō could send people to assassinate Hiruzen, and Hiruzen could still forgive him. When the Wood Release experiments and Hashirama-cell research produced Yamato, and it was exposed, Danzō still walked away unpunished.
So would Hiruzen really kill Danzō over Shisui Uchiha and a stolen Sharingan?
With Hiruzen's indecisive nature, the result would be the same as always. He would force Danzō to hand over the Mangekyō, warn him, maybe scold him, and then quietly sweep the matter away.
And Konome, the victim, would gain nothing. Worse, she would make Danzō her enemy before she'd even grown her wings.
That was a terrible trade.
Even if she was going to tear the mask off and go to war with Danzō, she had to squeeze profit out of him first.
Reverse Eight Gates was still only a direction, nowhere near completion. Her Dead Bone Pulse changed by the day, racing toward gray bone, and danger was already pressing at her throat.
Wasn't this the perfect moment to steal Hashirama's cells?
Konome looked at the light flickering above Danzō's head.
Anticipation, malice, and a small strand of trust.
For someone as suspicious and paranoid as Danzō, trusting anyone was rare.
But he would always trust himself.
Trust the dōjutsu in his eye.
Trust this Kotoamatsukami, which he'd likely tested multiple times and found "no issues" with.
Back on the treetop earlier, she'd already confirmed it.
Kotoamatsukami didn't work on this shadow clone at all.
If she used this hard-won trust, could she infiltrate Root and steal Hashirama's cells, along with whatever research results they already had?
She wanted to try.
A shadow clone's life was cheap. Whether this worked or failed, the loss would be minimal. But if it worked, the original body's desperate dream of an Asura-level body might actually become possible.
The confusion and struggle on Konome's face slowly faded.
She stepped forward, closing the distance toward Danzō.
Danzō's eye wrinkles deepened as his smile widened. His raised left hand reached toward the top of her head, like a priest about to grant a blessing.
Crunch.
A fallen leaf shattered under her ninja boot. Konome stopped and lifted her chin, looking up at Danzō's barely contained delight.
She smiled, pure and bright.
"I refuse."
"Why?"
The stiffness returned to Danzō's face. His voice dropped, narrow eyes brewing killing intent.
If Kotoamatsukami had failed, then to prevent Konome from telling Hiruzen, he would have to bury her here and erase the threat.
Sensing their master's hostility, nine Root members who had been kneeling slowly rose and surrounded her. Chakra mixed with murderous intent surged like a flood. All it would take was one order, and they would grind her into paste.
"That's my line, isn't it?"
Konome spread her hands, looking genuinely astonished.
"A random ambush, a random invitation. Why would I join your organization and swear loyalty to you? You offer me nothing, and you can't even give a reasonable explanation!"
Danzō's gaze flickered. The pinwheel in his right eye spun faster.
He could feel the power in her mind doing something, and her behavior didn't look like someone completely unaffected.
She wasn't running. She was walking straight into a kill zone, demanding benefits like she had a death wish.
That kind of suicidal greed was not a decision a fully clear-headed person would make.
Kotoamatsukami was working.
It just wasn't working strongly, for some reason.
Danzō focused his Mangekyō on Konome's covered eyes.
That purple-glowing chakra was flowing toward her eyes. She was clearly using sensory perception, or some unknown ocular technique.
Was her "art" suppressing Kotoamatsukami?
"Lord Danzō."
The genjutsu specialist moved to Danzō's side and whispered into his ear.
"She has very strong resistance to my technique."
He didn't dare say "genjutsu" out loud, fearing she might pick up on it and become suspicious.
With that reminder, Danzō's judgment solidified.
Konome had indeed been hit by Kotoamatsukami, but her resistance to illusions was unusually high. The effect was not as obvious as it was on Root's usual test subjects.
It was reasonable.
After all, she was the monster who killed an elite jōnin at six.
Danzō steadied himself.
"What benefits do you want?"
He narrowed his eyes, forcing down the killing intent.
First, he would lure her into Root. Time was long. He could keep washing her mind with Kotoamatsukami little by little until she couldn't escape.
"Forget it," Konome said, shrugging with a regretful look. "Now that I think about it, I really don't know what I need."
Inside, she was delighted. But her control over her body kept her mouth from betraying her with a grin.
Don't know?
Danzō's forehead creased into three deep layers. He had prepared for her to demand the heavens, but instead he got an answer he hadn't expected.
Still, thinking carefully, it made sense.
She was Hiruzen Sarutobi's last disciple. Most of Konoha's resources were practically within her reach. Root really didn't have much that could tempt her.
Except…
Danzō rubbed the forked scar on his chin, eyes sharpening.
"Chihaya says you've been studying medical ninjutsu recently."
Hearing his own name, Chihaya Tooru twitched his brow, then continued hiding behind Danzō like a corpse.
He'd originally assumed that once Kotoamatsukami landed, Konome would become Root. Then the whole business of leaking information and setting traps would be erased.
But now the situation had changed.
It looked like Konome was the one holding the initiative.
As the instigator and a noncombatant, he needed to stay invisible. The three corpses on the ground weren't even cold yet.
Konome glanced at him and spoke blandly.
"Konoha has plenty of people who can use medical ninjutsu. I don't need your organization to learn it."
"Don't you want to cure your eyes?" Danzō probed.
He could see chakra gathering toward her eyes through the Mangekyō pattern, but the eyes were the outlet of spiritual power. Most sensory techniques and genjutsu in the shinobi world were released through the eyes.
He couldn't confirm whether her blindness was real.
"Congenital blindness can't be cured by medical ninjutsu."
"Heh. That's not necessarily true."
Danzō turned his head toward Chihaya Tooru.
"Bring it out."
"Yes."
Chihaya Tooru nodded and produced a palm-sized scroll from his sleeve.
The scroll snapped open, revealing the character for "Seal," surrounded by a ring of symbols.
"Release."
Poof.
Smoke burst outward.
A glass container appeared in Chihaya Tooru's hand, holding a strange chunk of pale flesh.
The moment it appeared, Konome's eyes sharpened.
Glug, glug.
Chihaya Tooru rotated the jar. The thick nutrient solution flowed backward, bubbling.
Then the pale meat that had been still began to move.
Its surface sprouted grotesque tendrils, hard to tell whether they were branches or flesh-buds, and slowly wriggled in the direction of the liquid.
Hashirama cells.
Even with the Mangekyō pattern occupying her eyes, Konome's Byakugan still functioned normally. That green chakra light became a blazing beacon in her vision.
The chakra contained in this tiny piece of Hashirama cell tissue was not inferior to the flesh of the Three-Tails. It was even stronger.
It was hard to imagine.
A human's chakra exceeding that of a tailed beast born from the Ten-Tails.
So this was the legendary Asura-level body.
Monstrous.
Thump, thump.
Konome forced her heart to calm.
If she could possess chakra and vitality like Senju Hashirama's, then the bloodline sickness brought on by Dead Bone Pulse evolving could be solved with ease.
Byakugan, Dead Bone Pulse, and an Asura-level body, three layers interlocking.
What kind of world would that become?
"Feel it?" Danzō said, voice confident. "You can sense how abundant this life force is, can't you?"
Konome stood still and kept her face blank, but Danzō knew. With sensory abilities, she had to be shaken by the power of those cells.
"If even this cannot cure your condition," Danzō said with absolute certainty, "then nothing in this world can."
"I…"
Konome bit her lower lip, wearing a look of hesitation and struggle.
An act had to be acted to the end.
Especially at the moment when everything seemed to be going perfectly, when success was within reach. That was when you couldn't get careless.
Seeing her wavering, Danzō narrowed his eyes and decided to strike the final blow.
"I've heard you're exceptionally skilled with Wind Release. If you join Root, I can make an exception and take you as my disciple. I will pass on my legacy."
His voice deepened, tempting.
"I could even cultivate you as Root's future successor."
"But I already have a master…"
Something in Konome's words pierced a sensitive nerve.
Danzō seized the jar of Hashirama cells from Chihaya Tooru's hands. His face, usually like stone, became feverishly animated.
"Every jutsu Hiruzen Sarutobi can teach, I can teach as well."
"But what I possess, he can never obtain."
"I, or him."
"Choose."
Unwillingness, rage, jealousy, inferiority, and a twisted hunger to win.
Negative emotions poured out like a storm, so thick it felt as if the sky itself dimmed.
Konome hesitated for a long time, then finally nodded, as if forcing herself.
"In that case… fine."
Her voice softened.
"Danzō-sensei."
The forest wind fell unnaturally quiet.
Danzō tried to keep his face composed, but the brilliant gold glow above his head betrayed him completely.
Hiruzen.
Orochimaru chose to work with me back then.
Konome Taketori has now turned to my side as well.
This time, too, I win.
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