Without Shamon, the "Konoha enthusiast" and former teacher of the Third Kazekage, Chiyo and Ebizō struggled to maintain control after Sankai decisively made his choice.
Chiyo felt hesitant.
The tailed beasts had long served as ultimate weapons in the eyes of every ninja village. With Sankai's exceptional skill in Magnet Release and ninjutsu alone, adding Shukaku into the mix would make him undoubtedly the strongest Kazekage in history.
Such power might actually give them a real chance against Konoha.
Like many other Sunagakure ninja, she resented their current status and desired to rise at least one or two ranks from being the weakest among the Five Great Villages.
Thus, after some consideration, she agreed with Sankai's decision and was willing to help transfer the seal on Shukaku, making Sankai the new jinchūriki.
As for the former monk Bunpuku, nobody really cared about his fate.
Although he possessed the ability to control the tailed beast's power, he stubbornly believed that the beasts would bring destruction to the world, refusing to use such immense strength.
During the previous war in the Land of Birds, it took every trick and persuasion tactic they had just to convince Bunpuku to take action once.
She'd had enough of this situation.
Ebizō felt anxious.
Initially, he had set the course of decisions for Sunagakure, but now everything had deviated from its original trajectory, giving him a feeling of losing control.
Back at Anbu headquarters, he sat down and began contemplating possible countermeasures.
At that moment, an Anbu member appeared.
"Aren't you supposed to be monitoring activities in the Land of Fire? Why have you returned to the village?"
Ebizō slightly frowned.
The man knelt, deeply ashamed, saying, "Lord, I've been exposed. Danzō located me and asked me to deliver a message to you."
"What message?"
"He said, 'Sasori's storyline is fascinating.'"
Sasori?
Isn't that a character from the manga?
His first thought was—is that bastard mocking me?
The Anbu member didn't understand why Danzō wanted him to pass along this sentence.
However, upon reflection, although Danzō had a twisted mind, he wouldn't go through the trouble of finding Sunagakure's hidden agent merely to convey this single line.
Ebizō retrieved his treasured Naruto manga books from the cabinet and flipped through them until he finally found the volumes featuring Sasori's appearances.
At this point, he lifted his head and said, "You may leave now. It's not your fault for being discovered. Rest well—the village still has use for you."
"Yes!"
With that, the Anbu ninja departed.
Ebizō began reading the story section from the beginning—Sasori's debut, appearance, full display of strength, flashbacks, and even his death—with no detail overlooked.
He reread the chapters several times, frowning the entire time.
[Fascinating plot?]
Indeed, from an observer's perspective, this arc was excellent—every character's personality, strength, and emotions were portrayed perfectly.
But
from Sunagakure's viewpoint, the Third Kazekage turned into a puppet by his own subordinate was certainly not something worth celebrating.
Just as he reached this realization, he suddenly paused.
Puppet—
Could that be what Danzō meant to imply?
"No, I can't jump to conclusions like this. This is very likely Danzō's scheme, trying to sow discord between Sankai and me."
Ebizō took a deep breath.
Danzo kept reminding himself not to fall for the trap, not to trust that fox-faced schemer… but all he could think about was Sankai's bizarre behavior today.
Damn it.
That crafty bastard Danzo!
He hadn't said a word outright, yet with just a subtle hint and Sankai's sudden change in demeanor, Ebizō had arrived at the word "puppet" on his own.
Of course,
the word "puppet" had multiple meanings—it didn't necessarily mean literal control. It could imply psychological manipulation, mental domination, or symbolize their power consolidation that left the Third Kazekage effectively powerless.
Depending on how you looked at it, it carried different implications.
Amegakure had withheld the information from Sunagakure because they were absolute enemies with no chance of reconciliation.
This left Ebizō unaware that Madara Uchiha might still be alive, so he was momentarily at a loss.
Danzo didn't expect immediate understanding—revealing the truth directly was unrealistic.
Mutual trust between villages was never easy, especially among schemers like Danzo and Ebizō themselves—men whose minds were dirtier than a toilet, always doubting others' words.
If Danzo just came out and said Madara was still alive and causing chaos in the Land of Wind, Ebizō would probably assume he was trying to manipulate Sunagakure into pulling back its forces.
Besides,
Danzo didn't want Sunagakure figuring things out too quickly.
The worse off Sunagakure was, the better it suited Konoha. As for whether Madara benefited from it, he wasn't concerned—at this point, even if Madara did gain an advantage, there was no way Konoha alone could defeat him.
Thus, Danzo hoped Madara caused as much chaos as possible. The bigger the mess, the better—it would force ninja worldwide to unite, allowing Konoha to minimize losses.
Right now, he was inside ANBU headquarters secretly training the Six Styles techniques obtained by the Third through the "Telescope Technique."
Among the six techniques, Storm Legs, Shave, and Moon Walk required open spaces, so what Danzo was currently practicing were Paper Surfing and Iron Body.
Mainly Paper Surfing.
Because Danzo found this ability more practical; even the strongest defense wouldn't withstand Madara's attacks and jutsu.
After two days of practice, he felt he'd already mastered both "Paper Surfing" and "Iron Body" to a high degree, meaning he could now go outside to train the remaining four styles.
Before that, though, he wanted to check how Sakumo and Shige were doing.
He headed toward the Preparatory Training Ground.
However, before meeting up with Akaba, he sensed a strange force enveloping him.
Genjutsu?
No, it seemed more like an illusion.
Something was wrong—he tried using his own methods to resist the dream but found himself completely unable to do so.
In the next instant, Danzo was pulled into the dream.
"Akaba, what the hell are you doing?"
Danzo snapped irritably. He knew Akaba could hear him since this was the dream created through cooperation with Yumekuma (Dream-summoning clan).
Come to think of it, wasn't the summoning scroll of the Yumekuma clan supposed to belong to me?
At that thought, his mood soured instantly.
"Teacher, please help play a role in testing Sakumo and Shige's training results."
Akaba stepped forward calmly.
Originally, this task had been meant for him alone, but now that Danzo had arrived, he could let him take over and rest instead.
"Play a role?"
Danzo slightly furrowed his brow, not quite understanding what that meant.
"Now the setting is Water City. You're Ruki from CP9, and just follow the manga plot to fight normally."
Akaba explained what role-playing meant.
When embodying a character, one could not only use their own mastered abilities but would also automatically obtain that character's original techniques.
After hearing this, Danzo's eyes lit up slightly.
This actually seemed like an interesting thing!
So far, CP9 hadn't had too many battle scenes—mainly focusing on Ruki's parts—so having just Danzo would be enough to play out this section, while Akaba and Little Yumekuma could use illusions to replace the other roles.
"Fine."
After agreeing, Danzo instantly moved to another battlefield.
This was the scene where Ruki and his group were at the hospital, threatening the mayor to hand over "Pluton."
Originally, Danzo only wanted to fight, but after entering the role, he suddenly felt playful and decided to truly act according to the plot.
Soon, Luffy arrived.
However,
the very next second, Luffy's head smacked into the wall and got stuck.
He shouted, "Everyone, come help me! I found Robin!"
Everyone?
What the hell? Wasn't this part of the story supposed to only involve Luffy?
While Danzo was still puzzled, the wall suddenly exploded, and following the explosion, Sakumo, Duy, and Tsunade rushed in. Instead of rescuing Luffy immediately, they messed around for quite some time before finally pulling him off the wall.
Then Luffy bravely charged forward. The rest of CP9 attacked, engaging Luffy in combat.
Probably going to yell "everyone, help!" again soon?
Danzo glanced between Luffy and the trio Sakumo, then looked down at the "mayor" on the ground, sinking into deep contemplation.
He had the distinct feeling he was playing some ominous role.
"Everyone, I'll hold them off—I need your help to take down that guy trying to harm the mayor and frame us!"
Luffy roared.
Danzo wanted to flip the table. What kind of plot was this? It was nothing like the original!
Yet since he'd already agreed, he couldn't complain and had to continue following the script.
Thus,
"Darn it! Framing us like that—my youth is boiling aaaarrrggghh!"
Duy roared, immediately activating the first gate of the Eight Gates.
Then, whoosh—
[Opening: Gate of Healing]
Danzo barely reacted quickly enough, using Paper Surfing to dodge Duy's Shadow of the Dancing Leaf attack.
But
before his eyes, Duy's figure blurred as he activated the Bull Model Fruit ability, rapidly expanding and bulking up, with chakra surging inside him.
[Opening: Life Gate]
Bull Model Fruit, transform into a bull!
Meanwhile, Tsunade and Sakumo launched attacks—they used Shave, then one delivered a Storm Leg, the other combined Three-Blade Style with Chidori Blade and Shave, moving so fast it made Danzo's vision blur.
If it weren't for this body's quick reflexes and exceptional mastery of Six Styles, Danzo might have lost the match in that instant.
But when Duy opened the sixth gate and Tsunade and Sakumo went all-out,
after just one minute, Danzo expressionlessly exited the illusion.
This wasn't testing strength—it was pure target practice, being beaten one-sidedly while only allowed to use Six Styles techniques. How could it compare to the others' combination of Ninjutsu and Six Styles?
Take Tsunade for example.
Storm Legs weren't enough; she also mastered Finger Pistol, Shave, Moon Walk, and combined them all with her Strength of a Hundred Seal technique, making it impossible to predict where her next kick would fly from.
But the most terrifying one was still Duy.
Previously, Danzo hadn't taken Duy seriously, seeing him as just another simple-minded boy with decent Taijutsu skills. But now, after facing him directly, he realized that "decent" was a massive understatement.
In the end, he was literally beaten to death by Duy.
[Six Gates: Morning Peacock] combined with [Finger Pistol]—the effect was devastating.
No words can describe how heartbreaking it was.
"Teacher, hehe, what do you think of the training results?"
Akaba left a Shadow Clone with Sakumo's team and showed up in person to see Danzo.
"Very good. Keep it up," Danzo replied expressionlessly.
Keep it up? Seriously?
Didn't you see how brutally I got wrecked, being the Dream Master?
Brat, I'll definitely assign you work once you get back!
With war approaching, the Preparatory Division needs intensified training anyway.
He started scheming revenge in his head already.
Akaba gave an awkward chuckle, watching Danzo walk off without a word. He never expected Danzo would actually refrain from using Ninjutsu at all.
Without any jutsu techniques, there's absolutely no way one could handle three opponents.
Don't underestimate Duy just because he's a Genin—his [Gate of Opening] technique has zero side effects. If he deliberately took on some side effects, he could probably open even the [Seventh Gate]—a level most fighters never reach.
Once his full power erupted, even high-ranking Jonin would struggle to stand against him. And then there was Tsunade and Sakumo backing him up.
Of course, he totally got where Danzo was coming from. At least without using jutsu there was an excuse—if he used jutsu and still got beaten around like a punching bag, that'd be even more humiliating.
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