This puppeteer is a bit... well...

Chapter 149 Danzo's Intentions

"Lord Danzo, why have you come uninvited in the middle of the night?"

Upon hearing these slightly sarcastic words, Danzo narrowed his one eye.

The courtyard was dimly lit, and the two were standing in the shadows behind the wall, so he couldn't see their faces clearly, only their silhouettes.

Danzo's mind raced, his thoughts flashing through the information of the Sand Village delegation members and comparing them with the two figures.

Then, he recognized the two men.

The man is black, and he is a man who uses Lightning Release ninjutsu.

The woman is Chie Manri, a young girl from the Kagerou clan who had been living in seclusion deep in the mountains. She had recently joined the ranks of Ayaki Ryuu's subordinates from Shimogakure.

Neither of these two individuals is particularly strong, but they both possess sensory abilities, so we need to be cautious and wary of them.

(It seems Ryuji Ayaki guessed I'd be showing up uninvited tonight.)

These two people's perception abilities are not passive, but active skills. They also consume a lot of chakra when used, so it is impossible for them to keep them on 24 hours a day.

The rarity and value of the Sensing Ninja meant that they wouldn't become gatekeepers or patrolmen like ordinary ninjas.

As for the possibility of being discovered by the enemy during infiltration...

Having learned the patrol times and patterns of the Sand Village delegation, as long as one can deceive the two guards with illusion magic and time it precisely, down to the second, one can swagger in undetected.

Danzo was extremely confident in his abilities and felt that it was not difficult for him to do this.

Therefore, the fact that these two were waiting here in the middle of the night must mean they had anticipated someone would arrive at this time and had been keeping watch.

Danzo's mind raced, and he quickly pieced together the whole story. He calmly said, "I have confidential matters to discuss with Lady Ayagi. I invited Lady Ayagi to meet with me alone, but she declined for safety reasons. So I had to sneak over here in the middle of the night."

"Please come in, Lady Aya is waiting for you inside," Hei replied indifferently.

(So ​​you knew I was coming, huh?)

Danzo looked across the courtyard at the main house, which was dimly lit. His pupils contracted slightly, but quickly returned to normal.

He turned to look at Hei and said, "Please keep my visit a secret."

"I have no interest in anything outside of my job duties."

Hearing this voice devoid of any respect or emotion, Danzo glanced at Kuro briefly, then nodded and walked straight into the courtyard.

After he entered the main house, Hei turned to look at Wanlijiang and said, "I'm leaving this place to you."

"Um!"

Seeing this, Black made a hand seal in front of his chest, and with a "bang," he turned into white smoke and disappeared.

……

In the main house's reception room.

Long Er knelt before the low table in the center, where hot tea was laid out.

Seeing Danzo open the door and come in, he immediately gestured to the empty seat opposite him, indicating that he should come in and sit down.

Danzo nodded slightly, took off his wooden clogs, and knelt down in the empty space opposite him.

Ryuji picked up the teapot and poured tea into the cup in front of Danzo, asking, "Lord Danzo, why are you being so mysterious? What's the matter?"

"I have a great gift for Sunagakure."

Ryuji paused for a moment, then looked up at Danzo.

His expression was calm, his eyes were still, and it was impossible to tell what he was planning.

Ryuji put away the teapot and chuckled softly, "I wonder what grand gift Lord Danzo intends to present to Sunagakure?"

"To share the spoils of victory in this war."

"Oh~" Ryuji had a half-smile on his face. "Lord Danzo is quite the joker."

"What are you talking about, joking?"

"Your Konoha is engaged in a fierce war with the combined forces of Iwagakure and Kusagakure, yet you want our Sunagakure to join the war to win, while you speak of it as Konoha's generosity."

"This is a win-win situation."

"Oh?"

"Konoha will not take a single penny of the spoils of war; Sunagakure will take them all."

Upon hearing this, Long Er's pupils contracted slightly.

This is truly a grand gesture.

It should be noted that in order to cope with this war, more than half of Konoha's ninjas were killed, and the consumption of other resources and economic losses were countless.

If they cannot gain enough from this war, they will lose everything.

In the original story, the Third Hokage, in order to reduce ninja casualties, reached a ceasefire agreement with the enemy on the condition that he would not pay reparations to Iwagakure for the defeat, even though victory was almost certain.

The price he paid was his resignation.

This gives an idea of ​​how enormous the reparations were after the five great ninja villages were defeated in their wars.

If we can obtain the war reparations from Iwagakure in this war, then half of the funds for the Kaido Castle will be covered.

But there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Would Konoha obediently hand over such a large amount of compensation to Sunagakure?

Although the participation of Sunagakure would instantly turn the stalemate into a crushing victory, greatly reducing subsequent losses.

But can these losses be compared to the enormous war reparations?

No.

Especially now that the war has progressed to this point, although Konoha feels a lot of pressure, they still have great confidence in winning.

Under such circumstances, it would be highly illogical for Konoha to give all the benefits of the war to Sunagakure in exchange for inviting them to participate in the war.

Moreover, if it was for this reason, why did Danzo have to be so secretive about it?

Shouldn't such a great thing, which benefits the village and greatly increases one's own prestige, be widely publicized?

No, no.

It's absurd to ask Danzo to discuss this kind of thing.

If Konoha really wanted Sunagakure's help, then it should have been the Third Hokage who came to him.

What's the point of sending Danzo?

How could a mere village leader make such a decision for the village?

All Ryuji could think of was that Konoha wanted to deny everything afterward.

Let Danzo negotiate the terms, and then deny the deal after Sunagakure Shin's troops have finished the war.

They simply pinned all the blame on Danzo's personal actions and then gave him a symbolic punishment, and that was it.

As for Sunagakure's dissatisfaction and their attempt to cause trouble?

Ha ha……

I, Konoha, am not afraid of Sunagakure in a one-on-one fight.

You're overthinking it!

After understanding the reason, Ryuji chuckled softly, "Lord Danzo..."

"This matter is not without conditions."

Before Ryuji could answer, Danzo spoke up again, "With Lady Ayaki's wisdom and strategic vision, it's not hard to see that if Sunagakure were to join the war, the Konoha-Sunagakure alliance would win without lifting a finger. This would be equivalent to Konoha giving away a lot of benefits to Sunagakure for free."

"This isn't a free gift."

Long Er replied instinctively.

Although he didn't know what Danzo was up to, he decided to go along with what he was saying and see what happened.

"Just like you said before, it's simply a matter of each side getting what they need. If Sunagakure joins the war, they can certainly gain a lot of benefits easily, but Konoha can also end the war immediately and reduce unnecessary losses."

"But you can't deny that without Konoha's invitation, Sunagakure wouldn't have received this benefit."

(End of this chapter)