Excitement flashed in Uchiha Madara's eyes.
"Interesting, interesting, too interesting! I never expected such a Genius to be born in the Uchiha Clan!"
"And he's impersonating me?! That's truly hilarious."
"Lord Madara, his actions have caused significant trouble for our plan. Do we need to find and eliminate him?" Black Zetsu lowered his head, a dark glint in his eyes.
All unexpected variables that exceeded his control needed to be eliminated.
"No, once you find him, don't kill him. He might be the best pawn for our next plan."
Lord Madara mused for a moment before speaking.
Chapter 103: Kato Dan
"Hokage-sama, the remaining Root files are all here. Please review them."
An Anbu member handed the files to Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk, then waited for Hiruzen Sarutobi's command.
Although Danzo was dead and Root was destroyed, the Root files in the data room on the third underground floor of Root's headquarters were fortunately not destroyed by Uchiha In's Susanoo and Great Fire Annihilation.
"You may leave."
Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up the files in his hand and instructed.
"Yes." The Anbu's figure flickered and he retreated.
The deaths of Danzo and Root significantly weakened Konoha's strength. Fortunately, the other Ninja Villages did not take advantage of Konoha's current vulnerability to attack.
Hiruzen Sarutobi did not issue a gag order for this incident; otherwise, the news would not have spread so quickly.
However, precisely because Hiruzen Sarutobi did not issue a gag order, the surrounding Ninja Villages, fearing that Konoha might be playing a trick or had some strategy, did not seize the opportunity to attack Konoha.
This was a fortunate accident. By the time the other Ninja Villages confirmed the information was true, Konoha had already found a way to compensate for the 867 combat power deficit, and due to the intensification of their respective battlefields, a joint attack on Konoha was no longer practical.
"Danzo, I never thought you'd follow Kagami so soon." Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed and said, then opened the files.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had originally been lamenting Danzo's death, frowned deeply, his face growing increasingly grim.
This file recorded Root's various operations and plans, normally kept in the lowest-level data room of Root and never retrieved.
And within it, there were records of a large number of human experiments, various schemes to harm Ninja Clans, and even, more shockingly, plans to assassinate the Third Hokage.
Human experimentation, in reality, existed in every Ninja Village, usually conducted on prisoners from jails and captives from enemy Ninja Villages.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had also turned a blind eye to these matters.
However, this particular file contained records of young children, perfectly matching the several batches of missing young children from Konoha previously.
This was shaking Konoha's Foundation! Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't help but feel enraged upon seeing these files.
Although Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't know about the schemes to harm Ninja Clans, he could roughly tell that Danzo was behind them, but Hiruzen Sarutobi had also adopted an attitude of tacit approval.
Hiruzen Sarutobi himself couldn't do such things, but he could accept Danzo doing them, because no matter what, these were things that benefited the Hokage's position.
Therefore, Hiruzen Sarutobi had always tolerated Danzo's actions.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi never expected that Danzo would actually try to assassinate him!
How dare Danzo!!!
At this time, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not the old fox Hiruzen Sarutobi of later years, not the smiling peacemaker, not the old man who had lost his sharpness and was known as the Professor of Ninja.
The current Hiruzen Sarutobi was a Ninja Hero! A Ninja Hero who had used his own cunning to forcefully ascend to the position of Hokage!
Hiruzen Sarutobi's face was somewhat contorted, his nostrils flared, and his eyes were filled with disbelief.
"This is perhaps your best ending, Danzo."
Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning.
Taking a deep drag from his pipe, Hiruzen Sarutobi's mouth exhaled a cloud of scorching ash, incinerating all of Root's files on the desk.
Hiruzen Sarutobi at this moment was unsure whether he felt fortunate or lost regarding Danzo's death.
If Hiruzen Sarutobi had obtained these files while Danzo was still alive, Hiruzen Sarutobi wouldn't know how to face Danzo.
Perhaps, he would have squeezed out Danzo's last bit of value, and then stripped Danzo of his power?
At that time, Danzo certainly wouldn't have remained inactive, and the two would surely have become strangers or enemies in the end, right?
In that case, should I still thank the person who claimed to be Uchiha Madara?
Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed.
If Uchiha In knew Hiruzen Sarutobi's thoughts, he would definitely say, "You're overthinking it."
In the original work, when did you finally learn about Danzo's files? Even if you knew, you still tolerated it! If I hadn't acted, who knows when Danzo would have died.
Regarding whether the mysterious person that day was Uchiha Madara, Hiruzen Sarutobi still maintained a skeptical attitude.
After all, what happened that day was too illogical. Uchiha Madara destroyed Danzo and Root directly because he found them an eyesore? That's really not a funny joke.
Regardless of whether that mysterious person was Uchiha Madara or not, he was always extremely powerful and terrifying, and probably had unimaginable goals. In the future, he must be guarded against.
Hiruzen Sarutobi thought.
However, what Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't know was that Uchiha In genuinely found Danzo and Root to be extremely bothersome, which was why he uprooted Danzo and Root.
On the other side, as time passed, it was finally time to go to the battlefield.
Although Danzo and Root were annihilated, Tsunade and the others still needed to go to the Sand Ninja battlefield, because only Tsunade had hope of resolving Chiyo's poison.
When Tsunade, Kushina, Mikoto, and Uchiha In arrived at Konoha's main gate, quite a few people were already standing there.
Most of them wore snow-white standard medical uniforms, chatting in twos and threes.
These people were Konoha's medical unit dispatched to the Sand Ninja border. Clearly, Chiyo's poison had received high priority from Konoha.
The faster the poison problem could be resolved, the faster the Sand Ninja battlefield could be stabilized.
"Lady Tsunade, I never expected you to be the temporary captain of our medical unit. I feel truly honored."
A young man with blue-white hair smiled and called out to Tsunade.
"Oh, and you are?" Tsunade looked at the man with a puzzled expression.
"My apologies, let me introduce myself first. My name is Kato Dan, and I am the vice-captain of this medical unit."