Root Base.
In Danzo's secret office, he pulled open a drawer and took out a glass bottle with a dark green liquid swirling inside.
Thump.
The cap opened, and a pure Chakra aura leaked out.
He rolled up his wide sleeve, revealing his heavy right arm, where a sealing tool made of special Chakra metal was tightly locked onto his bandaged arm.
The seal was undone, and the bandages fell off.
Danzo took a deep breath, stretched his pale arm covered with scarlet Sharingan, and showed a look of relief.
"The First Hokage's cells are too powerful; even the Sharingan cannot suppress them and need to be sealed for a long time."
After the Uchiha clan's annihilation,
Danzo made a deal with Orochimaru, and after extensive human experimentation, he eventually transplanted ten Sharingan onto his right arm.
Including the eye he had previously dug out from Shisui, there were a total of eleven.
Without Uchiha bloodline, transplanting the Sharingan would result in a huge mental burden, so, at Orochimaru's instigation, he fused Senju Hashirama's cells into his right arm.
Although this achieved a slight balance between physical and mental energy,
it required frequent maintenance thereafter.
The glass bottle contained a medicine formulated by Orochimaru, which could balance the Sharingan and Hashirama's cells, preventing Danzo from being devoured by Hashirama's cells or crushed by the Sharingan's mental burden.
However, this also meant that Danzo could never sever his ties with Orochimaru.
Some time ago, Orochimaru even used the shortage of medicine as a threat to demand the village's defense map from him.
Out of necessity, he handed over the defense map to the other party.
However, he had a spy lurking by Orochimaru's side and was confident that the venomous snake hiding in the Sound Ninja Village would be detected by him as soon as he made any move; a defense map falling into the opponent's hands would not pose any danger.
Moreover, after the Chunin Exams, he would discuss with Sarutobi Hiruzen the matter of changing the village's defense routes.
Orochimaru's schemes were destined to fail.
However, this matter had already touched Danzo's bottom line; he would never allow any incident that harmed Wood Leaf Village to occur and had to terminate his cooperation with Orochimaru as soon as possible.
Danzo thought to himself, "Nine Lab should have good news soon, right?"
The experimental equipment and various data left behind by Orochimaru after his defection were secretly collected by Danzo and transformed into a new laboratory.
Nine Lab was a secret base specifically for researching the First Hokage's cells.
Most of the test subjects were death row inmates and bandits who disregarded human life.
Of course, when it came to injecting medicines that ordinary test subjects could not withstand, if Wandering Ninja were not enough, there would also be some ninja who suddenly disappeared during missions or died in the line of duty.
Danzo had no psychological burden regarding this approach.
He snorted coldly and said, "I investigated long ago; they were all people who, for various reasons and accidents, had contact with ninja from other villages during missions but concealed it, showing insufficient loyalty to the village."
According to reports from Root members, the elite Jonin Hatake Kakashi, despite conclusive evidence, released a female spy named Hanaling from the Land of Locks who sought to steal village intelligence.
How foolish, Hiruzen.
Such ambiguous behavior with ninja from other villages should result in their Sharingan being dug out and them being imprisoned.
As the village leader, you act as if nothing happened; can you, like this, still be the Hokage that your teacher had such high hopes for?
Thinking of this,
Danzo's emotions fluctuated violently, and even the Sharingan on his right arm began to spin wildly, with bursts of itching and stinging pain emerging.
He pulled out a syringe.
More than half of the dark green liquid was injected into his right arm.
His muscles tensed up, swelling like a balloon, causing Danzo to break out in cold sweat from the pain.
Two minutes later, the trembling muscles gradually quieted, and the wildly spinning Sharingan also stopped as if injected with a sedative.
"Hoo."
Danzo let out a long breath, deftly wrapped the bandages, and put on the heavy sealing tool.
Everything returned to normal.
After the remaining medicine was locked in the drawer, Danzo gently tapped the table.
A figure quickly appeared, respectfully kneeling on the ground.
Danzo's eyelids drooped slightly as he asked, "Has the Game Merchant arrived in the village?"
"Yes."
The Root member's answer was very concise.
As Danzo's direct Mobile Unit, from the moment they became Root, they abandoned emotions and names, possessing only the will and mission to protect the village.
No past, no future.
Danzo frowned deeply and mused, "To appear so openly, is it foolishness, or does he have something to rely on?"
From the mouths of several players from the Shicun Family, Danzo had a vague guess.
The Game Merchant from the Otherworld,
all his abilities could only be fully utilized in the game; to bring them into reality required very expensive reward points.
A Game Merchant with such terrifying abilities, instead of directly plundering the Ninja World, chose to gradually erode the Ninja World's money and Ninja Art through games and transactions.
Does this mean he also has to abide by rules?
Those various mysterious methods, do they come with a very high price to be performed in the real world?
Once this speculation arose, the urge to test him became uncontrollable.
Danzo said with a calm gaze, "Jackal, from now on, you are not a Root Ninja, but Orochimaru's subordinate, lurking by my side."
A portion of Root Ninja were talented children requested from Ninja Clans.
Another portion, like Jackal, were selected from the Orphanage and cultivated through combat.
The former, as high-quality tools, naturally could not be discarded as pawns at will.
But tools like Jackal, whose strength barely reached Chunin, could be had in any number.
"Yes."
The masked Jackal's voice was devoid of any emotion.
"I will undo your cursed seal, the Tongue Limitation Seal."
Danzo threw him a bottle of blood-red potion and said, "Go kill the Game Merchant, and try your best to force out his methods; all of this is for the village. At a crucial moment, drink this potion."
This was an inferior potion that Orochimaru had once formulated; after consumption, it could intensely stimulate body cells, overdraw life force, and activate a state called Curse Mark Mode.
Unfortunately, this state could only be maintained for a few short minutes before death due to excessive life force depletion.
With this potion, the attack could be blamed on Orochimaru.
"Yes."
Jackal took the red potion, and his figure disappeared from the spot.
Danzo sensed Jackal's departure and sighed in his heart.
He knew very well,
even if he acted personally, the probability of killing the Game Merchant was almost zero, let alone sending a Chunin, which would just be sending him to his death for nothing.
But this did not prevent his probing, and it could also annoy Orochimaru.
As for the lives of Root Ninja?
From the day they joined Root, they had to disregard their lives and support the great tree of Wood Leaf Village from behind, as the Roots buried deep underground.
This was the will of Root.
If one day he needed to sacrifice himself, Danzo believed he would certainly do so without hesitation.
When Sarutobi Hiruzen got ahead of him back then, it was certainly not because of his cowardice or timidity, but because the monkey was too cunning.
Bang.
Just then, a Root secret scroll was transmitted via summoning jutsu.
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