Inside the Root headquarters, the air was as cold as ice. Danzō sat motionless, with his two most trusted subordinates, Fuu and Torune, standing behind him. Before him lay the reports on the fall of the Leaf Wood Trading Company. Everything had happened too quickly, too perfectly, as if an invisible hand were moving all the chess pieces.
"He used the Uchiha Military Police Force and the Hokage's office itself as weapons against us," Fuu said, his voice unable to hide his astonishment. "A flawless plan."
"He is not just a ghost," Danzō concluded, his eyes narrowing. "He is a strategist. One who understands every structure, every power dynamic within this village. He knows everyone's weakness."
Silence fell. This unknown enemy was more dangerous than any opponent Danzō had ever faced.
"We underestimated him," Danzō continued. "We tried to set a trap to catch a rat, but it turns out our opponent is a wolf. It's time to change tactics."
He turned to Torune, whose Aburame clan specialized in poisonous insects. "Torune, release your 'bugs'. I want every nook, every alley of this village under our surveillance. I want to know about every falling leaf, every whisper."
Then he turned to Fuu, the expert in mind-control ninjutsu from the Yamanaka clan. "Fuu, review the memories of everyone involved in the incident. The accountant, the Military Police members who received the tip. Look for any abnormality, the faintest genjutsu, an implanted memory."
"Sir," Torune spoke up, "what about the mission to protect the Jinchuriki?"
"Forget the Jinchuriki!" Danzō growled. "The Jinchuriki is merely bait. The one pulling the strings is the real threat. Find him. At all costs."
He leaned back in his chair. "If we cannot find him in the dark, then we will force him to step into the light."
Kenji knew Danzō wouldn't sit still. After his first victory, he became even more cautious. He scaled back his network of clones, focusing only on the most critical targets: the Hokage's office, the Uchiha district, and locations he suspected Danzō might use to meet with his agents.
He also began to pursue the lead from the diary: Kabuto. But his file was almost empty. An orphan adopted by a medical-nin, who later left the village to travel. Everything was too clean. Too perfect. Like a pre-fabricated identity. Searching for Kabuto now was like finding a needle in a haystack.
And then, Danzō made his move.
It wasn't a direct attack. It began with small incidents.
A mysterious fire broke out at a textile warehouse.
A critical barrier protecting the village's water supply was suddenly disabled.
A few Jounin guarding the village gates were hit with a mild paralytic poison, forcing them to abandon their posts.
The incidents seemed unrelated, occurring in different areas of the village. The Anbu and the Military Police were dispatched everywhere, spreading the village's security forces thin. Unease began to spread among the villagers, and rumors of spies from other villages infiltrating started to circulate.
But Kenji, observing it all through his network, recognized a terrifying pattern. These incidents were not random. They occurred in a sequence, a meticulously calculated plan. They were a performance. A grand play to conceal another purpose.
But what was that purpose?
He felt like he was looking at a chessboard but couldn't see his opponent's final move. What was Danzō trying to do?
And then he understood.
All of these incidents had one thing in common: they forced skilled shinobi to appear and resolve them. And they were orchestrated so that no single person, no matter how skilled, could solve them all at once.
This wasn't an attack on the village. This was a trap laid specifically for him.
Danzō was telling him: "I know you're out there. I know you can be in multiple places at once. Now, choose. Will you save the warehouse, or the water supply? Will you save the guards, or stop the next chaotic event? Show me what you'll do. Give me even the smallest trace of your existence."
Kenji stood on a rooftop, looking down at the village slowly descending into controlled chaos. He faced a brutal choice.
Intervene, and he risked falling into Danzō's sophisticated trap, exposing himself to Root's hunting dogs.
Do not intervene, and he would have to stand by and watch innocent people be endangered, watch the village he swore to protect be harmed, all because of his own personal war.
He clenched his fists. Danzō had turned the entire Leaf Village into a chessboard, and the innocent villagers were the pawns.