Right about now, the shadow clone at the Hokage Office should be confirming with Grandpa Hiruzen and Uncle Fugaku whether Danzo has ever had contact with the Sharingan... All that's left is to patiently wait for the message to come back.
As the shadow clone was dispelled, Naruto nestled obediently in Danzo's arms as if drifting into a peaceful sleep.
At the same time, he kept an eye on the route from the corner of his eye while internally digesting the feedback returned from the clone. Realizing how severe the potential problems in this operation could be, his lips tightened ever so slightly.
'Hopefully, I'm just overthinking things… If I can't kill that old bastard in one blow and stop him from ever scheming again, it'll be a nightmare to deal with later…'
Just like how the remaining clone knew nothing of what the others had experienced until dispelled and memories transferred, Naruto couldn't get the intel he wanted until the clone voluntarily dispelled itself. The mere possibility that Danzo had already mastered Izanagi was enough to throw Naruto's carefully constructed plans—based on the original timeline—completely out of order. Now that he was deep in enemy territory, the bowstring was drawn; there was no turning back. Unless Naruto intended to teleport away in front of Danzo—exposing the Flying Thunder God Technique—he had no choice but to stick with the plan.
The only silver lining was that through successive shadow clone dispels, his chakra had recovered significantly. The hard-earned training gains of his diligent clones were steadily absorbed and assimilated by the main body, causing Naruto's overall strength to grow at a consistent pace—some small comfort, at least.
'Hmm? Judging from this pace… we're almost there, huh?'
As Naruto racked his brain to come up with countermeasures to Izanagi, preparing for the worst, Danzo's slow and steady pace was subtly accelerating. The branching paths became noticeably fewer, signaling that they were approaching Root's main base. Time was running out, and there was no room for hesitation.
'Forget it—just take it one step at a time.'
Ever since he resolved to save the Uchiha family, Naruto had known things would start drifting out of his control. He just didn't expect it to happen so soon…
'I thought I'd at least get to comfortably take out this cancer named Danzo before things spiraled.'
Not that Naruto was powerless if Danzo did possess Izanagi. If he truly wanted to go all-in and assassinate Danzo, he had more than enough trump cards to pull it off. After all, Danzo—despite being deeply rooted in scheming and manipulation—was still the weakest among the many puppet masters Naruto needed to confront.
Based on intel from Itachi, Naruto knew that Uchiha Shisui—a pivotal figure whose existence could have prevented the Uchiha Clan Massacre—was still alive and had not yet awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Danzo had no reason to ambush Shisui. On the contrary, being relentlessly pressured by the Third Hokage, Danzo had become cautious enough to personally meet with Naruto.
There was no way he'd risk splitting his focus to target Shisui. The fact that Danzo's right eye wasn't yet concealed under bandages was the best proof of that!
In other words, no matter how much history changed, Danzo at this stage could, at most, possess the ability to use Izanagi—but had no access to Kotoamatsukami, that broken-level mind control genjutsu. That much was certain.
In the original timeline, Danzo recklessly used Izanagi like a regular Substitution Jutsu, and besides Izanagi and Kotoamatsukami, he never displayed any other Sharingan-related abilities.
Compared to Kakashi Hatake, who despite not being an Uchiha mastered the Sharingan's powers to perfection, Danzo's ability usage was worlds apart.
Yes, he had far more Sharingan than Kakashi, and Kotoamatsukami was just as broken as Kamui, but when it came to actually using those eyes? Not even close.
As the saying goes—you gain some, you lose some. Danzo's inferior mastery of the Sharingan showed that although his position of power allowed him to act unchecked from the shadows, it also made him rusty in actual combat.
From a game perspective, Naruto was essentially facing a "tank" boss with multiple resurrection tokens and Hashirama's cells for regeneration.
If he couldn't kill him in one go? Then kill him again and again until he stayed dead.
And yet, it was precisely because Danzo was the weakest of Naruto's future enemies that he had to tread carefully—not revealing too many of his cards too soon.
If Uchiha Obito, who acted under the name Uchiha Madara, ever learned that the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki possessed such terrifying potential, he'd risk invading the Hidden Leaf Village again just to eliminate Naruto in his most vulnerable state.
Why didn't Obito do so in the original timeline or in the past three years? Likely because he saw Naruto—isolated since birth, shunned by the villagers—as a non-threat. Why take the risk of killing him and forcing Konoha to create a new Jinchūriki who might actually master Kurama's power?
It was much safer to focus on expanding the Akatsuki, recruiting members to capture the Tailed Beasts, and controlling the Fourth Mizukage as a puppet to turn Kirigakure into his private army.
So once Obito realized Naruto posed a much greater threat than expected, Naruto had no doubt the man would gladly come in person to erase him.
And if Obito could mercilessly strike down Minato and Kushina—his teacher and teacher's wife—then how much more ruthlessly would he act toward Naruto, with whom he had no bond at all?
That's exactly why Naruto endured three years of hellish treatment, only choosing to make contact with the Third Hokage after deciding to change the fate of little "Fanboy" and the Uchiha.
The higher you rise, the faster you fall. Bosses who send out lackeys in increasing power levels just to let the protagonist farm EXP and look cool only exist in bad anime and novels.
'If you want to survive, play dumb, keep your head down, and act like a harmless fool while hiding your fangs. That's the way to go…'
Chuckling internally at his own dark humor, Naruto noticed they were nearing their destination. He rubbed his eyes as if just waking up, reinvigorating himself with a sleepy smile to maintain the appearance of an obedient child—while suppressing the growing urge to tear into Danzo right then and there.
Eventually, Danzo led him out of the maze-like tunnel into a much more spacious underground hall, where an artificially constructed building stood tall—clearly a gathering spot for Root. Naruto, just about to dispel a clone and send the route to the Third Hokage, froze in place.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
Illuminated dimly by torchlight, the structure ahead was eerily familiar.
It looked exactly like the Hokage Office building—clearly modeled after it.
But that wasn't what shocked Naruto.
He had vaguely noticed the distance between his body and the clone in the Hokage Office growing shorter during their walk. But he'd been distracted. Now, though, he could clearly sense the faint link to that clone—coming from directly above.
In other words… the real Root Headquarters was directly beneath the Hokage Office!
Identical architecture. A symbolic location.
Danzo's ambition to replace the Third Hokage…
Was laid bare for all to see!