Naruto: Starting with Creating a Genius Persona

Chapter 190 Meeting the Teacher Openly and Frankly (Part 1)

"idiot!"

Shinichi was slightly taken aback.

Before he could react, Shimura Danzo launched into a tirade of abuse at him.

"You're so arrogant! Do you really think you're invincible? Trying to be a hero, what are you doing, going and covering the retreat alone? You think you're so great? You always seem pretty smart, how come you act like a fool at crucial moments? You think it's glorious or great to die? Let me tell you, what you're doing right now is the biggest folly! It's a waste! It's a loss that Konoha can't afford!"

Shinichi listened quietly, his expression unchanged, until Danzo stopped speaking. Only then did he calmly say, "Elder Danzo didn't come here just to scold me, did he?"

"Insult you?! I'm here to wake you up! Shinichi Higashino, listen to me!"

Danzo Shimura sneered, his eyes growing even deeper and colder. He stepped forward, staring directly at Shinichi, and said, "You think your subordinates are that important? Let me tell you, even if you add them all up and multiply them tenfold, they still wouldn't be as valuable as you coming back alive! If you escape, you can avenge them in the future!"

"And what about them? Even if they manage to escape today thanks to your sacrifice, what can they do besides spending the rest of their lives burdened with guilt and regret, besides repeatedly asking themselves why they didn't stay and die with you? Tell me, is there anything more foolish in the world?!"

It turned out to be the case.

In that instant, Shinichi understood why Shimura Danzo was there.

So he spoke.

"So, Elder Danzo... has been doing the same thing all these years?"

"What?" Shimura Danzo was slightly taken aback, as if he hadn't heard clearly, or perhaps he had.

Shinichi didn't repeat himself, but just looked at him quietly and continued in a calm tone, "Time and time again, ask yourself why you didn't stay and be with the Second Hokage."

Upon hearing this, Shimura Danzo fell silent. Moonlight filtered through the branches and leaves, dappling his face and causing a rare stiffness to appear on his usually gloomy and enigmatic face.

"I don't know what considerations led the Second Generation to make that choice back then, but I just want to..."

At this point, Shinichi looked in the direction his subordinates had retreated.

"Since I brought them out, and since they are all willing to entrust their lives to me, their captain, then I, as their captain, will do my best to ensure they all return alive."

"Perhaps the Second Generation Lord had similar thoughts back then."

Shimura Danzo looked at the boy before him. Under the moonlight, the boy's expression remained calm, just like the one he had five years ago when he spoke those words to his companion who had lost his father in the cemetery.

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

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

For a fleeting moment, Shimura Danzo was in a daze. In that daze, he saw the silver-haired figure from decades ago who resolutely turned around in the dense forest of the Land of Lightning, leaving the hope of life to his disciples.

In a daze, the edges of that figure seemed to blur and distort, transforming into another illusory image—a young Shimura Danzo who, at the same critical moment, chose to stay side by side without weighing the pros and cons or hesitating.

That "other self" that he had personally extinguished in his heart, that tormented him in countless midnight dreams, that could have existed.

After a two-second silence, Shimura Danzo suddenly smiled. The smile appeared on his usually gloomy, expressionless face, which seemed particularly abrupt, but it carried a hint of relief.

"Shinichi Higashino, you really are like my teacher. You are usually so calm and good at planning, but when it comes to the crucial moment, you always make the most unwise choice."

"But this is my teacher."

Danzo Shimura slowly scanned his surroundings, as if trying to identify something or recall something.

"If that day... I could too..."

""

His voice grew softer and softer until it was almost inaudible, eventually fading into the night wind, unfinished.

That hypothetical question, which had lingered for decades, was ultimately never fully uttered.

After a moment, Danzo Shimura took a deep breath, suppressing the surging old images and emotions back to the deepest part of his heart. When his gaze refocused and fell on the face of the boy in front of him, it had regained a strange clarity and calm.

"Let's go."

He spoke softly, his tone as indifferent as if he were discussing something utterly mundane:

Shinichi was taken aback and looked at him with some confusion.

"I'll handle this."

Danzo Shimura ignored the boy's stunned expression. His voice was very soft, as if he were talking to himself.

"This time... I'll do it."

He looked at the boy before him as if he were looking at Shinichi, or as if he were looking at the teacher who had been quietly waiting for his answer decades ago, or even as if he were looking at the young man who had struggled with inner turmoil and hesitation in this treacherous forest.

Finally, he slowly, word by word, added the last half of the sentence, as if filling in a gap that spanned a long period of time, or as if fulfilling a promise that was far too late.

"It's my turn!"

The moment those words left his mouth, Shimura Danzo seemed to awaken completely from a long, dazed state of "dreaming without knowing what he was dreaming," as if he had completely shed all the shackles that bound him, as if he had untied the knot in his heart that had been stuck for decades.

"Elder Danzo?"

Danzo Shimura ignored him, instead turning his head slightly to face the seemingly empty darkness beside him, and calmly said, "You, come out."

Swish!

Without a sound, thirty ghostly figures appeared all around, kneeling on one knee in perfect unison. They were the elite troops from the Root Force that he had brought with him. They lowered their heads and awaited orders.

"Protect him." Danzo Shimura's voice remained flat and even. "At all costs, ensure his safe departure from the Land of Lightning!"

The leader... is he going to stay behind alone?

Upon hearing this, the thirty Root members hesitated and were shocked for a moment, but their long-term training and the indelible mark of absolute obedience instantly suppressed all distracting thoughts. They lowered their heads in unison, swallowing back all their doubts and worries, and replied in deep voices, "Yes!"

"Kid."

Danzo Shimura then turned to Shinichi, a rare and gentle expression appearing on his face, though it vanished in an instant.

"Live well."

After saying that, he didn't linger. He resolutely turned around and strode towards the darkness that had swallowed his teacher and imprisoned him for half his life.

"Elder Danzo!" Shinichi frowned and subconsciously took a step forward.

Almost simultaneously, two Root members closest to him moved slightly, reaching out to block his way and sternly admonishing, "Captain Shinichi, please stop."

"you."

Shinichi glanced at the Root members before him: "Are you just going to stand by and watch your leader go to his death alone?"

The Root members were silent for a moment, then one of them replied in a low voice, "This is Lord Danzo's order, Captain Shinichi, please don't make things difficult for us."

"What if I insist on making things difficult for you?"

Upon hearing this, the members of the Root fell silent, feeling troubled. Although the boy in front of them was young, even childish, given his strength, if he didn't cooperate with them, they really wouldn't be able to do anything to him.

At this delicate moment of confrontation, Shimura Danzo, who had already taken a few steps, stopped.

He didn't turn around, but instead faced away from everyone, and spoke in a deep voice, his tone carrying the helplessness of an elder towards a stubborn junior, yet also a sense of relief that seemed to have finally come to terms with it: "Alright, you competitive kid, just obediently go with them."

"I... am simply going to fulfill a promise that is decades overdue, to reclaim something... that should have rightfully belonged to me."

As soon as he finished speaking, he took another step, this time without the slightest hesitation.

But his final words, carried clearly by the night wind, reached Shinichi's ears: "Regardless of whether I return this time or not."

"You absolutely must become Hokage!"

Leaving those words behind, Shimura Danzo's figure completely disappeared into the darkness ahead. Moonlight fell on his receding shoulders, casting his shadow on the ground, solitary yet straight as a blade finally drawn from its sheath, determined to sever all shackles.

Shinichi didn't speak again, nor did he try to force his way through the Root members' obstruction.

He stood silently in place, his gaze following the figure's straight back, as sharp as a blade, yet filled with a resolute loneliness, watching him step by step walk into the darkness that seemed capable of swallowing everything.

Ultimately, it merges with the darkness itself and is no longer visible.

After a while, the night grew even darker.

The thunder echoing through the mountains of the Land of Thunder grew increasingly dense and violent, as if the heavens were enraged. A solitary figure, unhurried and unhurried, slowly stepped into a familiar forest pass deep within the mountains.

For decades, this mountain forest has remained unchanged, with the same trees, the same stones, and the same impenetrable darkness of night.

It was as if time had stopped here, waiting for someone to return, to finish what was left unsaid, and to complete what was left undone.

The figure stood still, seemingly lost in thought or reminiscing. It was as if the voice of decades ago, that desperate, yet silent, self-questioning, could be heard again.

"Say it! Tell me now!"

"Why! Why can't I say it!?"

Decades ago, when faced with the life-or-death decision of who should act as bait to lure away the enemy, he, then a young man, struggled internally with the decision.

Zha, however, ultimately failed to utter those words due to his cowardice and hesitation.

Decades later, in the same place, under the same circumstances, with the same people, he once again stood on this land and faced the same choice.

But the difference is that he is no longer young, and this time he no longer hesitates.

"I'll be the bait, of course. You will all be young inheritors of the Will of Fire to protect the village!"

The teacher's voice seemed to travel through time and space, ringing in his ears once again.

"You are still young, that moment will come eventually, and until then, preserve your lives."

At that time, he did not understand the deeper meaning in his teacher's words; he was simply overwhelmed by immense guilt and a sense of powerlessness.

In the decades that followed, he hid in the deepest shadows of Konoha, arming himself with intrigue, scheming, and ruthlessness. His heart grew increasingly deep, numb, and even twisted, and the meaning of those words seemed to be sealed away forever with his teacher's departure.

Until this moment, until he made the same choice himself and stood once again on this land that had haunted his nightmares for half his life.

Danzo Shimura suddenly understood.

Where leaves dance in the air, the fire burns eternally.

The firelight will continue to illuminate the village and allow new leaves to sprout.

Teacher, I am now following in your footsteps, protecting the tender shoots of the village.

Just as you protected us back then, now it's my turn to protect the young people who represent the village's bright future.

Let the young people in the village become the pillars of the future!

Thinking of this, Danzo Shimura smiled slightly. The smile lost the gloom and melancholy that had shrouded him for years, revealing a clarity and composure that belonged to his distant youth.

He slowly unfastened the dark gray kimono he was wearing, revealing brown battle armor underneath.

This is the armor he wore when he was young and full of vigor, the same armor he wore on that night decades ago when danger lurked everywhere.

But after that night, Danzo Shimura put it away. Although he kept it very well and would take it out to wipe it from time to time, he never wore it again.

He thought he would never wear it again in his life. This suit of armor, along with his passionate and spirited self, would be forever hidden in the darkness.

But before setting off, as if by some strange twist of fate, he took it out again and solemnly put it on.

Perhaps, in the depths of his being, he had been waiting for this moment all along.

Waiting for an opportunity to stand on this land again as "Shimura Danzo" rather than the leader of "Root," and to complete that final dialogue with his teacher and with his hesitant self from the past, which was half a lifetime overdue.

Danzo Shimura took a deep breath. The March air was still cold, but it couldn't extinguish the ever-burning fire in his chest. His heart, which had been numb for decades, suddenly pounded, then a second time, then a third time, faster and faster.

It's not fear! It's not cowardice!

That was a feeling of passion he had forgotten for decades, a feeling he almost thought he would never experience again in his life!

"Ha ha ha ha....

""

A deep laugh escaped uncontrollably from his throat, initially a suppressed thud, then growing louder and more unrestrained, finally transforming into a hearty, exhilarating laugh that seemed to wash away half a lifetime of gloom!

He found it!

He finally found the most precious thing that had been lost in this forest on that night filled with danger.

At the same time, a person emerged from the woods.

No, it's not about coming out! It's about appearing!

It's like he's been there all along, waiting for a long time!

The man was young, with a handsome face and a straight back. He was wearing brown battle armor, and his chest was still heaving violently, as if he had run a very long way, as if he had been wandering in this forest for thousands of years, but had never been able to escape this maze.

At this moment, he finally emerged from the forest that had trapped him and stood before Danzo Shimura.

An old man and a young man, separated by decades, gazed at each other silently in this dense forest fraught with danger.

The young man looked at him, his chest still heaving, his lips moving slightly as if he were saying something. The words he couldn't say had been stuck in his throat for decades, becoming a scar on his heart.

Danzo Shimura looked at him and suddenly smiled. The smile was very light and faint, like moonlight falling on the water.

"It's alright now," he said softly.

The young man paused for a moment, then he smiled too. His smile was so clean, as if he had never been stained with blood, as if he had never walked those dark paths. He raised his hand, and Shimura Danzo raised his hand as well. Their hands, spanning decades, gently clasped together.

In that instant, the two became one.

The young Danzo emerged from the forest that had trapped him, and the old Danzo emerged from the darkness that had numbed him.

They finally got together.

Here, at this moment, a reconciliation that was decades overdue has finally been achieved!

The current Shimura Danzo is both the leader of Root who has experienced countless darkness and carries a heavy past, and the young man who has finally emerged from that forest in spirit and rediscovered his original passion!

He is no longer merely a shadow defined by "roots," nor simply a prisoner wallowing in past failures.

He was just a ninja named "Shimura Danzo," standing here, ready to do something that should have been done long ago. "Come on."

Danzo Shimura muttered to himself, his eyes showing no fear, only a rock-solid determination, as he looked up at the dark woods ahead.

There, countless dark shadows surged out like a tide, completely blocking the narrow pass where he was.

It was a group of Cloud Village pursuers who had been attracted by his unrestrained laughter earlier.

When the Cloud Village ninjas saw that Shimura Danzo was alone and wearing old-style Konoha armor, they all paused for a moment.

"It's Danzo Shimura!"

"The Dark Side of Konoha!"

"How did he get here?!"

But Danzo Shimura didn't care how they reacted. His not-so-muscular body suddenly erupted with incredibly powerful chakra. The chakra surged out of his thin body like a volcanic eruption, and the shockwave caused the gravel under his feet to scatter everywhere.

A massive vacuum wind blade, condensed to its ultimate form and radiating a high-frequency, bluish-white light, appeared out of thin air and slashed out with a ferocious, all-tearing force!

Almost at the same instant the massive wind blade left his hand, Shimura Danzo drew the katana he was carrying from his back.

One person, one knife!

The next moment, his figure transformed into a blur that tore through the night, and he launched a fierce charge against the Cloud Hidden Army, which outnumbered him a thousandfold!

One man alone can hold back an army of thousands!

With the sword in my hand, I will sever the shackles of the past!

Let us offer our blood tonight as a sacrifice to that death pact that was decades overdue!

Then..

Go see your teacher openly and honestly!

Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers away, on a mountain ridge on the border of the Land of Lightning, a Konoha elite force of about eight hundred men was speeding along under the cover of night.

But at that moment, the person at the front of the line felt a sudden, unexpected jolt in his heart, and his body jerked to a halt!

"Sandaime-sama?"

Seeing this, the group of elite Konoha ninjas following closely behind him also stopped in their tracks.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood there motionless, his gaze seemingly trying to pierce through the mountains and the endless night to see something.

After a moment, the Third Hokage withdrew his gaze and said in a deep voice, "It's alright, let's continue."

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