Danzō finally felt free.
He hadn't felt that way when he escaped Konoha, nor when he reached Amegakure. But now that Ma Youyou—the green-skinned menace—had glitched out and disappeared, that feeling of liberation was real.
That nightmarish, clingy presence… Danzō just wanted to grab someone and scream: Do you get it? That suffocating, nauseating sensation!
But there was no one he could vent to.
Root operatives were mere subordinates. And though they had brought him some good news lately, every bit of intel he received from Konoha made his blood pressure spike.
The troves of evidence he left behind hadn't brought down Orochimaru. Instead, Orochimaru had struck him with a precise and lethal counter.
Now Orochimaru held high prestige in the village and had even been allowed to establish a formal research unit.
According to Root reports, that lab was fully funded by Konoha's own budget.
Even if all experiments were conducted under Hiruzen's watch, that was still tantamount to the Third Hokage's public endorsement of Orochimaru. It was a de facto legitimization.
Danzō wasn't sure if this was Kujo Ishiki's doing. But just imagining Ishiki reclining comfortably in his spacious Police Force office made Danzō's throat tighten with fury and his skin itch with unease.
And he knew that Uchiha Shisui had taken his old position in Root. Though Shisui wasn't officially installed yet, it was only a matter of time.
Danzō could already guess what the catalyst would be.
Once Kujo Ishiki became Hokage.
It might still be a few years off. But if Ishiki stayed clean, and Konoha continued to flourish under his reforms, then the moment he came of age, his ascension to the Hokage seat would be inevitable.
Danzō's fist smashed into the desk. He was choking on his resentment.
The Third was a doddering fool. Unworthy to remain Hokage. Konoha was on the path to ruin. Danzō would return. He would set everything right.
The Uchiha? They belonged in the sewers.
Orochimaru? He should be a puppet dancing on Danzō's strings.
Kujo Ishiki? No—the entire Kujo clan should be erased from the village.
His gaze dropped to another file on the table—information handed to him by a hidden Akatsuki contact in Amegakure.
It said only one thing: the missing Tailed Beast of the Hidden Cloud—Matatabi, the Two-Tails—was in Kujo Ishiki's possession.
At first, Danzō dismissed the claim. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
The linchpin was Ishiki's enormous chakra reserves.
If Ishiki wasn't a Jinchūriki, then how had he amassed so much chakra in such a short time?
It didn't add up.
Even if one accepted the loss of abilities explanation, Danzō couldn't believe Ishiki had powered up this quickly.
During their clash back in Root, Danzō had already noticed something off.
Shadow Clones. Summoning Jutsu. Yang Release Taijutsu. A whole arsenal of techniques—all deployed without chakra strain. It far exceeded what a standard jōnin could do.
If Ishiki really was a Jinchūriki… it explained everything.
And the fact that he hadn't felt any Tailed Beast chakra during their fight? That might just mean Ishiki had been hiding his full strength.
"He really has strength equal to the Sannin," Danzō muttered, his anger cooling into grim calculation. "He's no ordinary brat."
"But if I can expose his hidden Tailed Beast chakra… he'll be ruined."
The thought excited him. His best opportunity was coming:
The Joint Chūnin Exam between the Hidden Leaf, Stone, and Cloud in July.
It would be the perfect stage to unveil Kujo Ishiki's true identity.
But first, he had to figure out how to neutralize that damned slug transformation. The answer likely lay in Hashirama's cells. Again, he descended into contemplation.
His reflection didn't last long.
A sickeningly familiar voice crept into his ears:
"Lord Danzō! Your shoes are filthy! And your cane? Oh, heavens, allow me to polish them both! I promise you'll be satisfied with the results!"
Ma Youyou slithered into the office like a slug, squirming across the floor like a maggot.
Behind it lay the corpses of half a dozen lab techs.
"You damned thing—how are you still alive?!" Danzō shot up from his chair.
The only response was Ma Youyou's wheezy giggle.
Its body was still flickering between pale and green. But its consciousness had returned.
Half of it looked half-melted, yet that didn't slow its advance toward Danzō in the slightest.
So what if cells were trying to consume it? Ma Youyou was not some pushover parasite.
In fact, in the strange fusion process between its own form and Hashirama's cells, it was starting to feel… better than ever.
It even felt like—just maybe—it could now use chakra.
Meanwhile, Ishiki Kujo had been contemplating something else entirely.
Rinka.
He knew she carried the Left Arm of the Corpse, and its ability was Fang.
But Fang was tied directly to rotation. So did Rinka truly not understand the principles of rotation?
Or had she been hiding something from him this whole time?
Ishiki had previously requested to examine the corpse part under the pretext of medical curiosity. He inspected the "Saint's Left Arm."
But in doing so, he noticed something odd:
There was no hole in the palm.
Rinka had even asked him a question at the time:
"Ishiki… why do you call it the Saint's Corpse? Even based on the records, this thing should be called a Demon's Corpse. A complete corpse is supposed to bring disaster, right?"
Only after seeing that detail did Ishiki begin to suspect the truth.
The Corpse he had been collecting… might not be the Saint's at all.
He had jumped to that conclusion based on the Latin script in its eye. But that was his own projection.
Now he remembered other discrepancies between his corpse parts and the Saint's Corpse from the manga.
The Saint's eyes had guardians—useless ones, sure, but guardians nonetheless. His had none.
The Saint's left eye could reverse dinosaurification—yet during his fight with Diego, that never happened.
If Ishiki hadn't simply outlasted Diego, he might've lost that battle.
Also, none of the corpse parts he had gathered ever offered guidance toward the next.
Each part seemed completely independent.
Unlike the Saint's Corpse, which was destined to unite.
And more importantly: the Saint's Corpse didn't grant Stand abilities. It triggered awakening in those with potential.
That kind of Stand should have been unique, born of an individual's spirit and ideals—not cookie-cutter powers from a loot box.
Lastly, regardless of which part he collected, Ishiki had never seen a vision of the Saint… or any miracles.
"Maybe… this isn't the Saint's Corpse at all," Ishiki thought, a chill crawling down his spine. "It's something else entirely. But then—how was this thing even created?"
His curiosity deepened, coiled like a serpent in his gut.