Ryo stood on the training ground. Tsunade's fist was still hanging in midair, anger trembling through her like a volcano about to blow. Bloodshot eyes, voice squeezed out between her teeth.
"Ryo, what petty trick is that old viper up to now? Don't stop me. Let me go smash Danzō's office."
She stamped her heel. A thin crack split the ground.
She was Tsunade-hime, Konoha's princess, quick to flare and fierce to explode, especially where Danzō was concerned. He was always scheming in the dark, and lately he had been making a mess on the Ame front. Just hearing it made her see red.
"Calm down, Tsunade." Ryo's hand settled lightly on her shoulder, steady and unmistakable.
It wasn't that he couldn't block her punch. At his near-Kage level, even if Tsunade went wild, he could diffuse it.
He just disliked trouble.
Tsunade was a straight arrow. If she stormed in hot, it would only breed bigger problems.
"Go rest. I'll handle this."
Tsunade glared toward Danzō's camp and growled low, but Ryo's eyes hit like a splash of ice water. She ground her teeth and let it go.
In the end she exhaled and flicked her sleeve. "Have it your way. But if Danzō plays dirty, I'll tear his Root out by the stalk."
She vanished into the trees, leaving Ryo alone.
Silence rolled back over the training ground. The rain kept hammering down.
Ryo rolled his neck.
Time to pay Danzō a visit. Overdue.
In a past life as a programmer, he had seen all the big-company tricks, bosses drawing pie in the sky, shifting blame, sowing division. Call it what it is, corporate gaslighting. The shinobi world wasn't any different. Same game, new wrappers. But Ryo wasn't here to play.
He had the power. He didn't eat from anyone's hand.
Observation Haki sharp as a knife, swordsmanship at a high tier, Flying Thunder God under his belt. Only his physical hardware lagged. Once his body caught up to awaken Armament Haki, even Kage-class wouldn't necessarily be his match.
He turned and set off.
Danzō's post was a "secret" compound behind the main base, ringed by bamboo.
Ryo didn't hurry, but every step bit solidly into the dirt.
Tsunade's anger flickered through his mind. His resolve didn't.
Tsunade was a friend. Ryo's rule was simple, stand alone, stand strong.
Hiruzen's high-table games. Danzō's shadow-hand recruiting. Not worth his eyes.
Worst case, he would take Kushina and walk from Konoha, vanish into the mountains for a few years.
With Flying Thunder God, the world was a blink wide.
Half an hour later, the bamboo path ended at Danzō's hideaway.
Not a shack, a carefully appointed washitsu with sliding doors, sound dampened so even insects seemed to hush.
Two Root operatives flanked the entrance, black-clad and masked, eyes cold on Ryo.
He didn't break stride. One stepped out. "This way. Danzō-sama has been waiting."
Ryo glanced once, cold as a drawn edge.
The man yielded half a step and held the door.
Ryo slid it open. Incense coiled in the air, rich and oppressive, like a wake.
Warm lamplight. Danzō sat at the head.
The "Nabekage" of Konoha, the internet's "Fifth-and-a-Half Hokage," actually made Ryo blink.
Danzō was in his prime. Hair combed razor-neat, black garb crisp as iron, all limbs intact, no bandages blinding his eye, pupils hawk-sharp.
Clearly, this was an earlier Danzō.
He nodded faintly at Ryo, a thin smile tugging his mouth. "Ryo-kun, sit."
Low, magnetic voice. Hard-edged presence.
Decent stagecraft, Ryo thought.
Square face, tight thin lips, short beard, he wore the warlord look. Cool, steady, in control.
Ryo smirked inwardly.
Looks and aura? In his past life, the suits were sharp and the knives sharper.
He dropped into a seat without ceremony. "Danzō-sama, speak plainly."
His gaze skimmed the room, maps lining the wall, a tasteful tea set on the table.
Danzō wanted mystique?
Ryo refused to play along.
Danzō didn't flinch. He poured tea himself and passed a cup over, practiced and smooth. "Hard work at the front. Tsunade's temper hasn't given you too much trouble, I hope?"
It sounded like concern. Ryo heard the angle, sowing discord. He took a sip. "Tsunade is my teacher. You didn't summon me for small talk."
Danzō's eyes narrowed with approval, aura ticking up a notch. "Straight talk, I like that." He leaned in, voice dropping. "But Konoha's situation, you see it as well as I do. Sarutobi Hiruzen postures as virtuous, but underneath he is soft. On the Ame front his command leaks like a sieve. Do you know how many lives that has cost? I, as commander here, have grown Root quickly. Coercion? Bribes? No, we are talking power. I have recruited elite from other villages and expanded enough to counter the elders."
His cadence quickened. The tone turned rally-speech. "Sarutobi is a paper tiger. A talent like you, why follow him? Join Root, and your future, limitless."
Ryo's face didn't move.
Sky pie. He had seen it a thousand times in conference rooms, execs hyping numbers, building fiefdoms, sweet-talking overtime.
Danzō was the same.
Tearing down the Third?
Cute. Hiruzen was still Hokage. Danzō was just the shadow hungry for the throne.
Ryo drummed a slow finger on the table.
Danzō shifted tactics at once.
He leaned back, the voice turning weighty. "Ryo-kun, you are strong. But there is one issue you cannot ignore. Kushina is a Jinchūriki." The tone cut cold. "The other elders will oppose you two. Sarutobi will not risk his feathers for her. He will not let the Nine-Tails become a scandal."
He paused, then leaned in again, eyes like blades. "But I am different. I have the will to clear your path. Root has strength. Stand with me, and I will move obstacles. Your matter with Kushina, I will press it through."
Confidence sparked in his eyes. He had started to believe his own expansion, Root swelling fast under his command post.
He had imagined it a hundred times. Ryo joins him, Root power spikes, he squeezes Sarutobi, Hokage's seat, within reach.
Ryo couldn't help a short, dry snort.
Hot air, end to end with a side of threat, classic. Back when he coded for a living, bosses sold you glory, then crushed you with performance quotas.
What could Danzō give, fight for him? Train him? As for high-table politicking, he couldn't care less. He wasn't Orochimaru, neck-deep in forbidden labs.
He had already struck his bargain with Hiruzen. Kushina's protection was a line in Ryo's terms.
More importantly, any chips Danzō offered, resources, rank, Hiruzen could match. Why choose the black-gloved middleman?
Silence stretched. Danzō's smile began to crack.
Ryo stood. "Lively speech, Danzō-sama." His voice was cool. "But I don't lean on anyone. Kushina is my concern, not yours. As for other elders, any who come at me will learn manners from my blade."
He met Danzō's eyes. "Good day."
He turned and walked out, without leaving a scrap of face.
Danzō froze.
All that set dressing, the mystic washitsu, the cultivated gravitas, wasted.
The door slid back. Rain struck Ryo's face.
Danzō managed, "Go safely, Ryo-kun," in a cultured tone that rang hollow.
Ryo's back vanished into the downpour. Danzō's mask fell with it.
He slammed the table. Porcelain shattered across the tatami.
"Ingrate." Veins jumped at his temple.
If lure fails, suppress.
Tsunade was the boy's teacher. Her faction was strong. A rogue nearing the Kage line, and the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki tied to her?
Right now, Tsunade was the biggest stone in Danzō's path to the Hokage's seat.
His mind spun gears. The front was full of knives. Could he not contrive a mission to eat Ryo alive?
(To be continued.)