Chapter 169: Danzo's Sincerity
Kakuzu took out a small booklet from his clothes.
"This is the Konoha Ninja Registry that Danzo gave us..." Kakuzu said to Hidan as he flipped through the booklet.
"This is Konoha's unique secret marking. Our intelligence personnel have already confirmed that this booklet is authentic. And the content at the beginning has also been confirmed to be true."
Hidan came over and flipped through a few pages. "It seems this thing is indeed real. That guy Danzo really paid a high price to gain our trust!"
Konoha's ninja registry was a village secret.
For Danzo to be able to produce the real thing was also a sign of his sincerity.
The Akatsuki had bought it—for an organization like the Akatsuki, whose goal was to collect the Tailed Beasts, any intelligence on the village where the Nine-Tails was located was valuable. That was why the Immortal Duo had believed the next piece of intelligence Danzo had provided about Orochimaru and had rushed over. And the facts had also proven that Danzo had not deceived them, but—
"It's not that simple," Kakuzu said, narrowing his eyes. "Apart from the first few ninja, the information on most of the subsequent ninja is either heavily redacted or the entire page has been torn out. The intelligence we can obtain is actually quite limited...! However, this small trick also proves that Danzo wasn't playing any games in this matter."
Indeed, he hadn't played any games.
Kakuzu thought back on the whole affair. It was obvious that Danzo was using the Akatsuki as a spear, wanting the two tigers, Akatsuki and Orochimaru, to fight each other. However, the Immortal Duo didn't mind being used as a spear. Their ultimate goal was to take down Orochimaru. The rest was irrelevant.
Danzo had expected them to fight Orochimaru to a standstill, but what qualification did Orochimaru have to fight the Immortal Duo to the death? In Kakuzu's eyes, Orochimaru was nothing more than a slightly more cunning little snake.
So what if Danzo had more conspiracies and tricks up his sleeve? In the face of the Akatsuki's absolute strength, such ghostly tricks were meaningless.
As a veteran of the Akatsuki, Kakuzu had seen too many such things. The Akatsuki were war mercenaries, and it was very easy for them to encounter situations where they were used and then discarded. But so what? Those who dared to turn on the Akatsuki were ultimately proven to have paid a high price for their foolish actions.
In the world of ninja, in the end, it was still strength that was respected. Conspiracies and tricks were a minor path.
The Akatsuki, with the absolute strength of multiple Kage-level powerhouses, basically did as they pleased in the ninja world, with the exception of the five great nations.
However, although Danzo's intentions were not good, he had not deceived or played them in terms of intelligence. Both the Konoha ninja registry and the intelligence on Orochimaru's whereabouts were accurate.
The failure of the operation was clearly their own problem.
They had been let go by Orochimaru, and then they had been toyed with by Kabuto Yakushi with a fake corpse.
Kakuzu could almost imagine how much that frivolous Deidara would mock the two of them after this operation.
He flipped through the roster impatiently.
The not-so-thick roster obviously only recorded the information of a portion of Konoha's ninja.
Amidst the rustling of the pages, the text on the roster was clearly visible:
"Sugiyama Noriaki, Gender: Male, Age: 43, Height: 169cm, Weight: 64kg, Blood Type: A, Rank: Chunin, Proficient in Ninjutsu: Fire Style, Lightning Style..."
"Nakamura Chie, Gender: Female, Age: 39, Height: 165cm, Weight: 48kg, Blood Type: B, Rank: Jonin, Proficient in Ninjutsu: Water Style, Wind Style..."
This was the beginning part. The information on the first few ninja was very complete.
After flipping through these few pages, the information on the subsequent ninja was almost all blacked out. What could be seen was mostly insignificant information.
Then, in a page that flashed by, the following content appeared—
"Uzumaki Naruto, Gender: Male, Age: 12, Height: 157cm, Weight: 42kg, Blood Type: [Redacted], Rank: Genin, Proficient in Ninjutsu: [Redacted], [Redacted], [Redacted]."
"Haruno Sakura, Gender: Female, Age: 12, Height: 163cm, Weight: [Redacted], Blood Type: [Redacted], Rank: Genin, Proficient in Ninjutsu: [Redacted], [Redacted], Wind Style."
"Uchiha Sasuke, Gender: Male, Age: 12, Height: 159cm, Weight: 43kg, Blood Type: [Redacted], Rank: Genin, Proficient in Ninjutsu: [Redacted], [Redacted], Sharingan Ninja Tool Manipulation Jutsu."
The content on the roster only flashed by. Kakuzu was in no mood to stop and read it in detail.
He quickly flipped to the last page with a rustle and closed the booklet forcefully.
His mood also calmed down with the stopping of the page-flipping motion.
"I have to say, both Danzo's and our plans have failed..." Kakuzu said, having calmed down, his tone icy. "But Orochimaru's base must be nearby. He can't have gotten far!"
"Hey, Hidan..." he called out to his partner, then turned and left. "The mission to hunt Orochimaru continues!"
In a hidden dark cave not far from there.
"So, on Orochimaru's matter, did both Akatsuki and I miscalculate?" the old man leaning on a cane said slowly, his eyes half-closed.
His voice was so flat it was almost devoid of emotion, as if he had lost all joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. One could not hear any emotional fluctuation at all.
"Report, Lord Danzo! The reconnaissance ninja have discovered that Orochimaru's chakra has left the battlefield, and it was not detected by the Akatsuki duo," a Root ninja kneeling on the damp ground said. "Because the perception range is too small, we did not dare to follow behind Orochimaru and do not know their current whereabouts."
Danzo's brows furrowed slightly. "Then, when Orochimaru left, what was the condition of his injuries? Did you discover anything?"
"Lord Danzo, the reconnaissance ninja reported that Orochimaru's chakra did not show any significant decline, so it is deduced that he was not seriously injured!"
Not seriously injured? On Danzo's wrinkled face, his brows locked even tighter.
He had to admit that he had thought his plan was already very well-planned, but the result was not satisfactory. This could only mean that there was a miscalculation somewhere!
For example, the matter of Orochimaru's strength.
In Danzo's calculations, Orochimaru had fought two Kage-level powerhouses, Tsunade and the Third, half a year ago. He should have been seriously injured and had to disappear and hide in his deep snake pit to recuperate. A half-crippled "Sannin" against an Akatsuki duo, the result would be obvious...
However, the intelligence showed that during the battle, Orochimaru had shown no signs of being seriously injured at all... And he had once again escaped from a one-on-two disadvantage!
Orochimaru's recovery and escape abilities had exceeded his imagination.
It seemed that after leaving the village, his unrestricted human experiments had made great progress!
Was it the effect of the Orochimaru-Style Substitution?
"Forget it. At least we've already passed the village's intelligence out... and have also obtained the latest intelligence on Orochimaru and the Akatsuki."
Danzo let out a light breath and relaxed his tightly furrowed brows.
"Lord Danzo, why did we have to give Konoha's real information to the Akatsuki? Isn't that very dangerous for the village?"
At this moment, the ninja who was half-kneeling on the ground suddenly asked.
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