"Wood Release: Wood Clone!"
"Wood Release: Wood Block Wall!"
"Wood Release: Silent Strangle Jutsu."
After failing to use Deep Forest Emergence, Danzo started picking simpler Wood Release cultivation.
As a few hours passed and he looked at the marks on the ground where Wood Release had torn things up, Danzo broke into a smile.
He hadn't felt this "getting stronger through cultivation" sensation for a long time; partly because work left him little time to cultivate, partly because his strength had hit a bottleneck.
Cultivation done, Danzo began cleaning up the traces of his training.
Worried about being discovered by Sarutobi Hiruzen, he didn't even dare cultivate in Konoha, so of course he wouldn't leave any traces behind.
Then Danzo quietly slipped back into the Konoha Root Base, and from there headed to the Hokage Building.
He hadn't really shown his face around Sarutobi Hiruzen for a while now; he needed to brush up his presence.
Creak.
Danzo pushed open the wooden door of the Hokage Office and walked straight in.
Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up, saw it was Danzo, and simply stared quietly at him.
What Danzo said next would decide just how important knocking really was.
"Hiruzen, I think it's necessary to strengthen the power of Root and Anbu. Our battle with Hidden Rock fully exposed the shortcomings in our intelligence capabilities." Danzo placed a file on Sarutobi Hiruzen's desk as he spoke.
It was a proposal he'd written long ago, but Danzo felt Sarutobi Hiruzen was highly unlikely to approve it, so he'd never bothered to show it.
Now it counted as making use of waste.
After all, Danzo couldn't very well come over empty-handed just to chat with Sarutobi Hiruzen.
If he did, Sarutobi Hiruzen would only find him odd and be more likely to notice something wrong.
"How many times have I said it? When you come into the office you knock first. How can you, a Hokage Assistant, not set a proper example?" Sarutobi Hiruzen tapped the desk in displeasure.
As soon as Danzo opened his mouth, Sarutobi Hiruzen knew exactly what he was thinking.
Strengthen Root and Anbu—just because if he only asked to strengthen Root, it would be vetoed outright.
Danzo's expression turned sour, but he kept his mouth shut.
He had already obtained the key to becoming the strongest; he wouldn't stoop to bickering with Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Sarutobi Hiruzen picked up the file from the desk and began flipping through it.
After a while, he shook his head and said:
"This would waste too many resources, and your Root doesn't need such a large establishment."
The main reason, in truth, was that Sarutobi Hiruzen simply didn't want to strengthen Anbu.
Because strengthening Anbu would create a problem: the Hokage's authority and influence would increase.
Anbu is a division that answers only to the Hokage; if Anbu grows stronger, that power reflects back onto the Hokage.
Although strengthening Anbu would be beneficial for Sarutobi Hiruzen as the current Hokage, he already held enough sway in Konoha and didn't need Anbu to boost his authority.
Moreover, Sarutobi Hiruzen worried that if Anbu became too strong, it would throw the upper echelons' power out of balance, leaving future Hokage Assistants and Advisor Elders mere decorations.
"We did indeed lose the intelligence war to Hidden Rock. That's not a problem of headcount, it's that we were crushed at the technical level.
Even if I give you one more squad's worth of manpower, can you guarantee you'll produce comparable results within two years?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked.
If Danzo really could figure out Hidden Rock's disguise method for spies, then Root expanding would be worth it.
After all, that spy technique of Hidden Rock is currently impossible to defend against in the Ninja World and can have enormous impact in war.
"But we have too many enemies. Even just from that perspective, we should be strengthening our intelligence capabilities." Danzo refused to give up.
If he could be talked down by Sarutobi Hiruzen in an instant, he wouldn't be who he was.
"Intelligence Ninja are not equivalent to Root and Anbu Ninja." Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head and continued.
The two argued for a while, and in the end it ended with Danzo leaving the Hokage Office in silence, face dark.
"That Danzo… next time I'll have him pay for repairing the office door." Watching Danzo slam the door behind him, Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head.
Hiruzen had been in rather good spirits lately, so he didn't take it out too much on Danzo.
Right now Konoha's prospects were truly bright.
Among the younger generation, talents like Mokgetsu and Minato had appeared—young but able to shoulder the banner, even more outstanding than the Sannin of their age.
Looking a level down, there were prodigy boys like Kakashi, Obito, and Might Guy—clearly super geniuses who could one day succeed Mokgetsu and Minato.
Looking up, the Sannin were all in their prime, each fully capable of becoming Hokage; aside from Tsunade, who'd run into unfortunate circumstances, they were all heavy hitters.
Looking a bit further up, Konoha still had people.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's head was full of black hair without a single silver strand, and he was at the peak of his strength.
His classmate and close friend Mitokado Homura might not be in quite as good a state, but wasn't far behind.
As for Danzo, once his friend and rival, his strength was naturally no joke either—a powerful specialist in Wind Release.
If you lowered the threshold a bit, Konoha also had Teacher Chen, the previous Ino-Shika-Cho, and other elite Ninja with solid strength.
If they could win this war and develop for another ten years, Hiruzen felt Konoha could return to its peak.
There might not necessarily be an absolute monster like Senju Hashirama, but Konoha's overall power would surpass other Great Ninja Villages by a wide margin.
...
After leaving the Hokage Office, Danzo's originally ugly expression instantly smoothed out, even carrying a hint of disdain.
"Hiruzen, so what if you're Hokage right now? I've already mastered the Wood Release you've dreamed of but could never obtain." Danzo thought to himself.
How he'd behaved in the Hokage Office just now was nothing but an act, meant to mislead Sarutobi Hiruzen's line of sight.
To make Hiruzen mistake that he was still racking his brains trying to expand Root's power.
After obtaining Wood Release, Danzo felt a kind of transcendence in his heart.
He had seized the bloodline limit of the God of Ninjas; he was no longer on the same level as Ninja like Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Once I fully master Wood Release, the Fourth Hokage can only be me!" Boundless confidence surged up inside Danzo.
He had already stopped thinking about propping up Orochimaru to become Hokage.
Compared to him, how is Orochimaru qualified to be Hokage?
Back when he, Danzo, was risking his life and bleeding for Konoha, Orochimaru didn't even know where he was.
Thinking of all the contributions he'd made to Konoha over the years, Danzo felt the village practically owed him a Hokage's seat!
If Senju Tobirama hadn't died so abruptly back then, without time to think things through, under normal circumstances it should have been him who took the position of Third Hokage.
After leaving the Hokage Building, Danzo didn't return to the Root Base but went out to continue his cultivation.
Although he felt in his heart that he was practically the people's unanimous choice, Danzo understood how much pressure he'd face if he wanted to become Hokage.
If he wanted that seat, he could only leverage Wood Release and then use overwhelming strength to crush all opposition.
He might be strong now, but not yet strong enough to suppress every voice.
At night, Danzo returned to the Root Base and said to a Root Ninja:
"Call Mokgetsu over. I want to see him."
Danzo had only three reasons for coming back to Konoha.
First, to master Konoha's Wood Release Secret Techniques to further enhance his strength; second, to string Sarutobi Hiruzen along and keep his movements from being exposed;
And the third was Mokgetsu.
"Uchiha Madara" kept everything hidden, which made Danzo feel very insecure; he couldn't shake the sense that "Uchiha Madara" would burn the bridge after crossing the river—once things were done, not only refusing to give him the Ninja Sect inheritance, but also killing him.
So Danzo wanted the out-in-the-open Mokgetsu to become his trump card.
This wouldn't just make his safety more secure; if the power on "Uchiha Madara"'s side turned out not to be as overwhelming as imagined, the ownership of the Rinnegan could still be contested.
Those are said to be the eyes of the Six Paths Sage—how could Danzo be willing to hand them over to someone else?
Besides, to Danzo, they weren't just the Six Paths Sage's eyes; they were also one of the pieces needed for him to become Hokage!