Naruto: Starting with Creating a Genius Persona

Chapter 122 What one cannot obtain in youth will ultimately trap one for life (4/10)

In September of Konoha Year 42, it was another damp, gloomy, rainy day, with even the air carrying a somber atmosphere.

Danzo Shimura stood at his window, looking in the direction of the ninja academy in the distance.

It's very lively there today. Hatake Sakumo's son is graduating early at the age of five, breaking the record for the youngest graduate since the founding of Konoha.

genius.

Danzo kept repeating this word in his mind.

Kakashi Hatake.

His father was the White Fang of Konoha, a figure renowned throughout the ninja world, but he ruined himself because of a foolish choice.

That child must be very vulnerable and confused right now, right?

Danzo felt this was an opportunity.

He wanted to take advantage of the time when the child was most confused, in the most pain, and in the most need of a spiritual support to pull him into the roots.

Sakumo Hatake's son is exceptionally talented, but at this moment his heart is filled with confusion and cracks. Such a child is most likely to be honed into the sharpest and most obedient knife in his hand.

So Danzo left his house to see the child.

Danzo walked along the gravel path toward the Konoha Cemetery. The child had been coming here almost every day for a long time.

But when he arrived at the cemetery, he suddenly stopped.

He sensed a familiar, faint chakra fluctuation above Kakashi; it was a trace of the Telescope Technique.

That old bastard Hiruzen is also watching this place.

Danzo immediately disappeared into the deepest part of the shadows, concealing all his presence. He planned to wait a while until Hiruzen's gaze shifted away.

However, before he could even look away from Hiruzen, another child appeared.

The child, holding a dark-colored umbrella, came from another direction and held it over Kakashi's head to shield him from the torrential rain that had begun to fall.

Shinichi Higashino.

Danzo recognized the child; he was the one who had swaggered around the ninja academy gate carrying a stone a few months ago on the first day of school, causing quite a stir, and even Hiruzen had noticed him.

Danzo had seen his information at the time: an orphan, a commoner, with no bloodline or background, and then he lost interest.

But this child later defeated Kakashi Hatake in a real combat test, which surprised Danzo.

However, he still showed no interest whatsoever.

That's too ostentatious.

You could even say they're incredibly silly.

In Danzo's view, a true weapon should be hidden in its sheath, concealed in the shadows, and its sharpness honed when no one knows about it.

A child who wants the whole world to know that he is different will never amount to anything.

Then he overheard their conversation.

About the mission, about the companions.

Danzo listened without any expression on his face.

The things that the black-haired child said—about becoming stronger, about changing the rules—sounded impressive, but they were just impressive.

When young and impetuous, everyone makes grand pronouncements. But once you've truly experienced life and death, witnessed betrayal, and seen the adult world, you'll realize how naive those words were.

Danzo didn't take it to heart, until...

When Kakashi pressed him with that familiar question, his breath caught in his throat for a moment, and an incredibly familiar and vivid image suddenly flooded his mind.

too familiar.

He knew it so well that he didn't want to recall it at all, but he couldn't help but keep recalling it day and night.

That day, the teacher's figure disappeared from his sight and never returned.

That moment of hesitation became his prison for life.

That day, the step he never took became an irreparable regret in his life; that day, the words he never uttered became an obsession that trapped him for life.

Whenever the night was quiet, Danzo would ask himself the same question over and over again.

What if he hadn't hesitated back then?

What if he had stood up like Hiruzen back then?

What if he had said what was on his mind back then?

What will the teacher think of him?

he does not know.

He will never know.

But Danzo knew that he had lost his teacher's approval, lost the possibility of becoming Hokage, and lost something that he himself could not explain but was of vital importance.

From then on, he could only walk in the shadows, using more extreme, darker, and bloodier methods to prove himself right and to fill the endless emptiness and resentment caused by that moment of hesitation.

What one cannot obtain in youth will ultimately trap one for life.

At that moment, as Kakashi asked his question, time and scenery seemed to distort and overlap instantly.

The cemetery in the pouring rain seemed to transform into the murderous jungle of the Land of Thunder.

In a daze, Danzo returned to that night and faced that problem once again.

I...

I'll come...

I'll make the judgment.

In the shadows, Danzo's dry lips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to make a sound, but no sound came out. It was as if a heavy weight was blocking his throat, forcing back the words that were about to escape.

"I'll cover the rear."

A clear, calm, yet resolute voice pierced through the rain and reached his ears.

A single, casual remark.

But Danzo, who was hiding in the shadows, suddenly froze, as if struck by lightning.

The boy holding the black umbrella calmly uttered those words, words he had screamed a thousand times in his heart during countless midnight dreams, but had never been able to truly say them aloud.

He said it so naturally, so matter-of-factly, without even a moment's hesitation, uttering the words he had never been able to say in his entire life.

It was as if it were meant to be this way.

It was as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

It's as if... the teacher is standing there, and through the child's words, repeats what he said to him again.

Rain dripped through the gaps in the leaves, hitting Danzo's shoulder, but he was completely unaware.

Much later, the two children had left, and the cemetery fell silent again, with only the rain continuing to fall.

Danzo remained standing in the shadows of the trees. He didn't know how long he had been standing there until the rain gradually subsided and the sky grew darker. Only then did he slowly turn around and walk back the way he had come.

After walking a few steps, Danzo suddenly stopped and looked back at the direction of the tombstone.

In the rain and fog, nothing could be seen.

Danzo withdrew his gaze and continued walking forward, no longer thinking about recruiting Kakashi.

That thought was shattered the moment the child uttered those words.

After that day, Danzo would often think of the boy named Shinichi Higashino, and the words the boy had said in the cemetery, but he only thought of them and did not choose to disturb him.

Two years later, the news came.

"Have you heard? That kid named Shinichi Higashino, at the opening ceremony..."

'

"A self-developed ninjutsu? Rank A? No signature move?"

"The third generation leader took it away personally..."

At the Root base, Danzo put down the documents in his hand upon hearing the news. His eyes flashed suddenly, and something in his heart was quietly touched.

picture!

so similar!

It's so similar!

At that moment, Danzo's long-dormant heart stirred with a powerful thought for the first time.

He wanted to personally nurture this child and raise him to become a great ninja like his teacher.

Once this thought arises, it spreads like wildfire and can no longer be contained.

Danzo immediately put aside all his affairs and went to the Hokage's office to find Hiruzen.

"no."

Hiruzen's answer consisted of only two words, so crisp and decisive that Danzo almost thought he had misheard.

"Hiruzen, you should understand what this means, this child's talent..."

"

"I saw it very clearly."

"Then you should let me teach him..."

'

"Danzo! I said no!"

Hiruzen interrupted him; his voice wasn't loud, but it carried a kind of resoluteness that Danzo had never seen before.

"Hiruzen..."

'

"I said no, Danzo! Remember! I am the Hokage!"

Danzo was stunned. He had spent his whole life with this old partner, fighting with him his whole life, and he had never seen such a decisive attitude on Hiruzen's face. There was no room for negotiation, no possibility of turning things around, no mercy shown to him, and he even used the title of Hokage to pressure him.

"You'll regret this!"

In that instant, a surge of rage welled up in his heart, and he almost exploded on the spot, but in the end he just let out a heavy snort, left those words, turned around and slammed the door shut.

boom!

The loud bang echoed for a long time in the corridor of the Hokage's office.

In the days that followed, the child's lack of ambition and Hiruzen's boundless indulgence of the child fueled Danzo's growing anger, which was almost uncontrollable.

He watched helplessly as this child, who possessed the will and talent of Tobirama, did not focus on honing his ninjutsu, refining his combat skills, or engaging with the real ninja world.

Instead, he went off to participate in cooking competitions and draw comics for people's amusement, causing a lot of commotion in the village. He wasted all the time that should have been used to break through to the path of becoming a strongman on these things that he considered unorthodox and meaningless.

He had seen these messages in the Root's reports more than once, and each time, it added to his dissatisfaction with the child for wasting his talent and to his hatred for Hiruzen's indulgence.

This growing dissatisfaction and prejudice persisted until today, when he sat at the conference table in the Hokage's office and personally opened the three documents and reports written by the child.

I saw those cold, insightful analyses and those penetrating observations that went straight to the heart of the matter.

Wise man!

Danzo had this thought in his mind: The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, with his unparalleled power and magnanimity, ended the Warring States period, established Konoha, and ushered in an era of one country and one village. This is something everyone knows.

But Danzo knew in his heart that it was someone else who truly built the framework that supported the village.

It was his teacher—the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

The first generation was the sun, shining brightly and illuminating everything, but the sun only cared about shining its light and didn't care how it illuminated the path under people's feet.

It was the teachers who, under the sun's rays, painstakingly built the framework of the leaf tree, brick by brick.

The system of ninja villages, its task system, administrative framework, educational regulations, and the division of powers and responsibilities among various functional departments, etc.

It was all built from scratch by the teacher.

The teacher did not possess god-like power like his older brother, the First Generation, but he established the true foundation of the village in a different way.

Danzo stood blankly by the window, gazing at the misty night rain outside. His usual coldness and gloom had faded, leaving only a surging mix of emotions and melancholy.

The same will—the kind of will that chooses to take responsibility in dire straits and to stand at the forefront in the face of life and death, as if it were a matter of course.

The same talent—that insight into the essence of ninjutsu, the talent to turn abstract ideas in the mind into reality step by step.

The same kind of wisdom—the kind that sees through appearances, gets to the essence, and always examines the workings of the world with the most calm gaze.

"You really look just like me, teacher..."

"

He remained silent for a long time, then murmured softly into the deep night.