Only in the most urgent situations would Anbu members resort to such actions.
Since the Anbu also needed to inform The Third, Akaba wasted no time and immediately used the Flying Thunder God technique to reach Anbu headquarters, hurrying swiftly toward Danzo's location.
Danzo wasn't in his office—he was at the emergency intelligence transmission and reception center of Anbu. Sitting right in the middle, his face looked extremely grim, and the atmosphere throughout the place was heavy.
"Teacher, what's going on?" Akaba approached cautiously, speaking softly as he reached Danzo's side, afraid to raise his voice.
Danzo sighed deeply, gestured for Akaba to follow him, and the two began walking back toward the office.
Once inside the office, he sat down and said, "We received news from the front lines—the assassination squad targeted by Anbu yesterday included a puppet master believed to be Chiyo's son."
"Chiyo's son?"
Akaba stood there stunned. From his memory, Chiyo only had one son. If this was true, then that man who had died was none other than Sasori's father.
This was a big problem!
This child was everything to Chiyo. Even more crucially, Sasori hadn't even been born yet.
Taking a deep breath, Akaba carefully asked, "I'd like to know more about Chiyo Senior's husband?"
"He died during the war at the hands of the Rock ninja village."
Covering his already-blind eye, Danzo slowly revealed information about Chiyo's husband.
...
That was it—Chiyo had now lost her entire bloodline.
Akaba sat down, dazed for several seconds, before asking, "Who carried out the strike?"
"Sakumo and Shishio. But to be precise, it was Sakumo alone who did the killing."
Danzo held his head with both hands.
Originally, according to his plan, with Ebizō's help, once he uncovered what Madara had done to Sankai, the Suna elder, he would be able to mount a decisive counterattack at the critical moment.
But this development had completely taken him off guard.
With Chiyo's son dead, a small-scale war had become unavoidable—who exactly was killed? He was the son of an advisory elder of Sunagakure Village and currently one of the most powerful and prestigious ninjas in the Sand Village.
Although Ebizō also had influence, clearly it wouldn't be enough to counterbalance Chiyo and Sankai together.
And besides that, Madara was still lurking in the shadows.
"Chiyo kept her son well hidden; she basically never let him take part in external wars. Previously, we had absolutely no intelligence regarding him at all. His squad ambushed and eliminated two of our elite Anbu units, and it was only through the Yamanaka clan's [Mind-Body Transmission] technique that we identified him as Chiyo's son."
After a long sigh, Danzo raised his head and looked at Akaba.
His gaze was direct—What are your thoughts?
What could Akaba possibly think? This was vengeance for a murdered child, annihilation of an entire bloodline—two ancient grievances fused into one.
Seeing Akaba's expression, Danzo knew perfectly well that Akaba himself was equally powerless.
Attempting a faint smile, he said, "Well, regretting it now is pointless. We lack Naruto's gift with words—Chiyo won't forgive this betrayal. We'll just have to prepare ourselves for battle."
War makes even the unthinkable inevitable.
Even the sons of the Kage may fall in battle. Over the death of a mere elder's son, Konoha wouldn't bow so easily as to surrender Sakumo. So conflict was inevitable.
The only question weighing heavily on Danzo's mind was how exactly they should fight.
"It's definitely Madara and Black Zetsu pulling the strings. They deliberately sent Chiyo's son to the battlefield, aiming to escalate our conflict with Sunagakure Village. If we end up in a full-scale war with them, their plan will succeed."
Akaba quickly added.
With Konoha's current strength, wiping out Sunagakure just might be within reach.
For one thing, Konoha would suffer heavy losses, leaving itself open to attacks from other villages. And secondly, the balance between the Five Great Villages must be preserved — none of them would let Konoha tip the scales.
At that point, the war in the Land of Rivers could trigger massive chaos across the entire Ninja World — or even unite everyone against Konoha.
"Madara's ultimate goal remains the tailed beasts. Once turmoil erupts in the Ninja World, he'll exploit the confusion to capture more tailed beasts using the Rinnegan. At that point, he'll become even harder to deal with. However—"
Danzo knew that all too well — the real problem now was how to break the deadlock.
Akaba had initially planned to go to the Front Lines to use the Human Path's power to extract memories from fallen ninja. Yet upon reconsideration, he realized the Yamanaka clan had already completed these tasks.
Besides, knowing even more wouldn't necessarily help matters.
Without Madara personally appearing, most Suna ninja didn't even know of his existence. Such claims would only make Konoha seem like it was making excuses.
This dilemma was beyond anyone from Konoha to solve alone...
It all depended on Sunagakure Village now.
"If you have time, check the situation at the Front Lines for me. Also, take this message: Konoha will stand behind them, so they don't need to worry."
"Yes."
Sighing deeply, Danzo pulled out some manga books from under the table — perhaps reading manga would help him calm down. Only after calming himself could he devise better countermeasures.
But flipping open the book only made him feel worse.
Real life kept throwing problems at him, while the manga he read still focused on themes like hatred and peace.
Some parts of Pain's words were correct: hatred and resentment couldn't easily disappear; simply saying "for peace" wouldn't convince anyone.
This was Madara's open conspiracy — an obvious move. Even though Danzo, the Third, Akaba, and even Ebizō understood it clearly, they still couldn't stop the war from happening.
This is what hatred can do.
Still...
[Planetary Devastation].
Was this ability part of the Rinnegan?
He flipped through an old scroll containing descriptions of Rinnegan dojutsu — passed down by Sage Fukasaku of Mount Myoboku.
Carefully scanning its pages, Danzo finally found the description of Planetary Devastation.
This technique allows the user to create a sealing technique powerful enough to affect the moon.
"Truly astonishing. Fortunately, Madara seems hesitant about using it. Otherwise, Konoha wouldn't stand a chance — no, not just Konoha, the entire Ninja World has no one who could resist Madara."
The more clearly Danzo understood Madara's power, the deeper his fear and despair grew.
Taking a deep breath, Danzo steadied himself.
They weren't without advantages. Although Sunagakure Village was currently under Madara's influence, the Iwagakure ninja village had shifted closer to Konoha due to the loss of their jinchūriki.
Additionally, Hanzo and Kumogakure's positions —
Supporting Konoha outright wasn't likely, but at least Madara's presence needed spreading.
They wouldn't believe it immediately, but once evidence emerged later on, they would naturally band together against Madara.
After all, no matter how strong Konoha is, its goal has never been to destabilize the Ninja World. Madara, however, sought control over every single tailed beast.
As he pondered, Danzo's mind gradually formed a plan: hold a covert secret meeting to reveal Madara's existence to everyone.
Would the Yumekuma clan be up to such discretion?
Fueled by this idea, Danzo grew excited and nearly summoned his own Yumekuma for consultation—but remembering that his summoned "meat mountain" wasn't exactly an elite, he sighed and held back.
Undoubtedly, true Yumekuma favored those skilled in genjutsu. Danzo Shimura simply wasn't worthy of their favor!
Forget it. I'll just wait for Akaba to return.
At the River Country frontline:
"Sakumo, truly admirable. You understood your son so well—knew Kakashi would be the first to fall without even needing to read any manga."
"That's not about deep parental understanding—it's character analysis. If you can't even grasp that basic deduction, I'll recommend Teacher Shimura send you to Water Country for more training!"
Sakumo coldly rebuked him.
"No, no, no!" Shishio quickly pleaded.
Though Sakumo and Shishio were the same age and both students under Danzo, Sakumo had already become team leader—a testament to his elite jonin-level strength.
If Sakumo said it seriously, he might really get reassigned to Water Country to deal with cultists.
Beside them, Nightdance and Shinku looked on helplessly. "You two really don't care at all—he was Chiyo's son!"
"Worrying won't change anything. We'll just wait for orders from above." Shishio shrugged.
Of course, he was worried too. But since the event had already happened, there was no use agonizing over what might come next. Better to read a few more manga now, so he wouldn't regret missing the signs if something similar occurred again.
Sakumo shook his head, doubting their teacher would actually take such action.
Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly sensed a fluctuation and immediately stood up, stepping away from Shishio to clear some space.
Shishio reacted slightly slower.
But once Akaba appeared, he instantly caught on.
"Hey, everyone's here. Well then, I'll keep it short—Teacher says not to worry, Konoha stands behind you all."
After saying this, Akaba glanced around and made ready to exit the tent.
Everyone present momentarily froze.
That was really cutting it short.
Shinku exclaimed in surprise, "That's it?"
"That's it. What else do you need? The bodies?"
"I'll take you there."
Sakumo stepped forward and led Akaba toward another tent. At a glance, it seemed like just a regular meeting room, but beneath the central table lay a hidden compartment.
As it unlocked, it revealed a hastily dug-out basement below.
Akaba followed him downstairs and immediately spotted Yamanaka Kazuhiko. He bowed respectfully. "Respected Senior Yamanaka, I have come on behalf of Lord Danzo with urgent news."
As Clan Leader of the Yamanaka, Kazuhiko served as the highest authority within this temporary base.
He nodded, signaling Akaba to continue.
"This is definitely Madara's doing—he controls the Third Kazekage, which makes all of this entirely possible. There's no point retreating or yielding. Additionally, I'd like to examine these corpses briefly."
Akaba hadn't originally planned to check them, but since he was already here, he couldn't resist the urge to test his skills.
"No problem," Yamanaka Kazuhiko solemnly agreed.
Sakumo stood aside and watched as Akaba approached the corpse, then squatted down and closed his eyes.
He felt a bit strange.
Something felt off about Akaba, but he couldn't figure out what had changed. Before he could think further, that unusual sensation disappeared.
Shortly after, Akaba stood up, looking deep in thought.
"Did you find anything?"
Yamanaka Kazuhiko asked.
"Nothing obvious," Akaba replied while rising to his feet. "It's a pity he died. If he had lived, there might still be room for reconciliation between Sunagakure Village and us. Now it's up to the winds of fate."
Actually, Akaba had found something after all. In fact, he discovered more clues than Yamanaka Kazuhiko did.
From the residual memories, he uncovered an important clue—Sankai had gone around Chiyo and convinced her son Hiroshi to go to war.
Akaba didn't have solid evidence, but Konoha possessed the Impure World Reincarnation technique.
With this clue, if Chiyo could calm down, there would be chances for dialogue.
After thinking it over for a while, he said, "We need to preserve this corpse carefully. I want to bring it back to Konoha to prevent someone from stealing it or destroying the body."
Yamanaka Kazuhiko didn't try to stop him. Actually, keeping the corpse here was becoming a burden for them, so letting someone else take it away was actually convenient.
"Thank you, Senior Yamanaka."
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