Free Web NovelChapter 260: Danzo Shimura And Hiruzen Sarutobi
We’re top 125 in the Power Stone ranking. If we reach the top 50, I’ll post 10 Chapters
Danzo Shimura looked at him, then suddenly smiled. The smile was light and faint, like moonlight falling upon water.
"It’s alright now." He said softly.
The young man froze for a moment, then he smiled as well. That smile was so clean, as though it had never been stained by blood, as though it had never walked those dark roads, then he raised his hand.
Danzo Shimura also raised his hand.
The two hands passed through decades of time and gently clasped together.
At that instant, the two became one.
The young Danzo walked out from the forest that had trapped him, while the old Danzo walked out from the darkness that had numbed him.
At last, they had come together.
At this place and at this moment, they had finally completed the reconciliation that had been delayed for decades!
The current Danzo Shimura was both the leader of the Root, who had endured endless darkness and carried a heavy past, and also the young man who had finally spiritually walked out of that forest and rediscovered his original passion.
He was no longer merely a shadow defined by Root nor merely a prisoner drowning in past failure.
He was simply a ninja named Danzo Shimura, standing here, preparing to complete something that should have been completed long ago.
"Come."
Danzo Shimura muttered softly. There was no fear in his eyes, only firmness as solid as bedrock. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
He lifted his gaze toward the dark forest ahead.
There, countless black figures were surging forth like a tidal wave, completely sealing off the narrow pass where he stood.
It was a group of Village Hidden in the Cloud pursuers drawn over by his earlier unrestrained laughter.
When those Kumogakure ninja saw the solitary Danzo Shimura wearing Konoha’s old-style armor, all of them paused in their tracks.
"It’s Danzo Shimura!"
"The Darkness of the Shinobi!"
"Why is he here?!"
But Danzo Shimura paid no attention to their reactions. His not particularly robust body suddenly erupted with incomparably powerful chakra. That chakra burst forth from his thin frame like a volcanic eruption, the shockwave scattering shattered stones beneath his feet in every direction.
A gigantic vacuum wind blade condensed to the extreme, radiating a high-frequency blue-white vibration, materialized out of nowhere and slashed forth with a savage force capable of tearing apart everything!
Almost at the very instant the gigantic wind blade left his hand, Danzo Shimura drew the katana from his back in reverse grip.
One man and one blade!
In the next moment, his figure transformed into an afterimage that tore through the night itself, launching a fearless charge against the Village Hidden in the Cloud army before him, whose numbers exceeded his own by a thousandfold!
One man alone can hold back an army of thousands!
With the sword in his hand, he will sever the shackles of the past!
He would let tonight’s blood serve as a sacrifice for that death pact that was decades overdue!
And then... go meet his teacher openly and without shame!
...
Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers away, on a mountain ridge on the border of the Land of Lightning, a Konoha elite force of about eight hundred men was speeding along under the cover of night.
But at that moment, the figure at the very front of the line felt a sudden, unexpected pang in his heart, and his body jerked to a halt!
"Third Hokage-sama?"
Seeing this, the group of elite Konoha ninjas following closely behind him also stopped in their tracks.
The third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood there motionless, his gaze seemingly trying to pierce through the mountains and the endless night to see something.
After a moment, the third Hokage withdrew his gaze and said in a deep voice, "It’s alright, let’s continue."
...
With a command from the third Hokage, more than 800 Konoha elites once again charged forward like arrows released from a bow.
This 800-strong team was fully equipped, not only personally led by the third Hokage but also composed of battle-hardened veterans, with the lowest rank being a senior Chunin with extensive experience.
It also includes elite ninja clans such as Hyuga, Yamanaka, Aburame, and Inuzuka Clan, who are skilled in reconnaissance in various fields.
Their mission was extremely simple but also extremely dangerous: to infiltrate enemy territory, find and rescue the Shinichi battalion, who were trapped in an encirclement.
After realizing that it would be difficult to break through the Village Hidden in the Cloud’s defenses in the short term, and learning through certain channels that the Village Hidden in the Cloud’s pursuit forces were constantly strengthening, the third Hokage found that the Shinichi battalion’s situation was becoming increasingly perilous.
This morning, Hiruzen Sarutobi issued an order that was almost universally opposed.
He personally led an absolutely elite force to secretly infiltrate the Land of Lightning and meet up with the Shinichi battalion.
This decision is extremely risky, even irresponsible. The Hokage is the pillar of the village. If news of his personal incursion into enemy territory is leaked, or if there is any mishap during the operation, it will inevitably lead to a frenzied siege by the Village Hidden in the Cloud at all costs.
If the third Hokage were to encounter danger or even meet with misfortune in a foreign land, the impact on Konoha’s morale and the overall war situation would be devastating.
However, faced with almost unanimous opposition and dissuasion from the people in the tent, the third Hokage, who usually presented a gentle and kind image, showed an unprecedented toughness and determination this time.
He forcefully suppressed all objections, quickly assembled his team, and set off at noon that day.
The group sped along in the night.
The third Hokage frowned, while Orochimaru, who was close behind, glanced at him and chuckled, "Hiruzen-sensei, don’t worry, Shinichi will be fine."
Orochimaru returned to the front-line camp alone this morning. He thought he would be severely reprimanded by his teacher, but unexpectedly, his teacher remained silent about the matter and only ordered him to join the rescue team. freewёbnoνel.com
Upon hearing his student’s words, the third Hokage glanced at Orochimaru indifferently, offering no response, though his disappointment was palpable.
He found himself increasingly unable to understand his student. Since the end of the Second Shinobi World War, this student, whom he had once held in such high regard, had become increasingly enigmatic and unpredictable, as if an invisible barrier had formed between them.
To be fair, as the commander-in-chief of the northeast front, Orochimaru was able to keenly seize the opportunity and select the right people to carry out the mission, and the third Hokage had no fault in this regard.
During the mission execution phase, after successfully inducing the Eight-Tails to rage and creating massive chaos, Orochimaru did not act together with Shinichi’s team, which was tasked with carrying out the subsequent attack.
Instead, he chose to retreat alone, which is unacceptable from a personal perspective, but it is also understandable from a mission logic standpoint.
After all, although their missions were connected, they were at different stages and had independent objectives.
Orochimaru had perfectly completed his detonation phase, so he naturally had the right to choose his own escape route and timing based on his own judgment.
However, this overly clear, even cold, division of tasks couldn’t help but cause the third Hokage some disappointment.
What disappointed the third Hokage even more was that this student was well aware of his high regard and expectations for Shinichi.
He also completely understood that if he had learned all the contents and risks of this operation beforehand, he most likely would never have approved it.
