Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Code Name Araki
Danzo stared at Itachi's retreating figure, gritting his teeth as he watched him leave the Root.
Then...
"What exactly happened?!" He vented his anger on his subordinates, his face full of rage.
"I underestimated Uchiha Dan's strength, leading to the annihilation of the second squad. I also engaged Dan in combat, but I couldn't kill him and had to retreat first. The failure of this mission is my fault, please punish me, Lord Danzo."
Yūgao took the blame willingly, without any complaints.
Danzo took a deep breath, calming his angry emotions.
He knew how strong Yūgao was and how loyal he was. He would never deceive him.
Even Yūgao was helpless, what kind of monster was Uchiha Dan?
Thinking about this...
Danzo sat back in his chair and waved at Yūgao who was kneeling on the ground, "Get up. I won't punish you this time."
Yūgao stood up and asked, "Should we continue to send people to assassinate Uchiha Dan?"
"Forget it, don't waste any more manpower on this for now, let's pretend nothing happened."
Danzo waved his hand.
He wasn't worried at all that Dan would come back to cause trouble for him.
After all...
Danzo had even attempted to assassinate the Hokage, and in the end, nothing happened. Now, it was just an assassination attempt on a member of the Uchiha clan, what could go wrong?
In Konoha, no one could touch him.
He was the shadow of the ninja world.
Covering the sky with one hand.
"I will re-collect and organize information about Uchiha Dan and report to you," Yūgao said again.
"Good. Be sure to find his real weakness, understand?"
Danzo nodded, instructing his subordinate.
Every ninja has a weakness, Uchiha Dan was no exception, it's just that Danzo hadn't found it yet.
Temporarily putting this matter aside...
"With the loss of the second squad, it's time to replenish the manpower of the Root and bring in some fresh blood. Speaking of which, I haven't visited the major ninja clans for a while." Danzo mused to himself, then suddenly asked Yūgao, "By the way, does the Aburame clan have any promising talents recently?"
"I'll go back and ask."
Yūgao answered with his head bowed, a hint of sadness flashing in his eyes behind his sunglasses.
He was loyal to Danzo, loyal to Konoha, but he also loved his clan members. He knew what it meant for them to join the Root.
Itachi left the Root, his eyes filled with disbelief.
He didn't expect that even the carefully planned assassination by the Root could not deal with his uncle.
That must have been a thrilling and exciting battle.
Although Itachi didn't know the details of the battle, he guessed that his uncle must have used the same method he used against the Masked Man to make Yūgao return without success, right?
Maybe, when his uncle comes back, he can try to ask.
However...
A week passed in a blink of an eye, and Itachi still didn't wait for Dan to return.
Early in the morning, he received a notice to meet the Third Hokage in his office with Kakashi and Tenzo.
The Third Hokage took a puff of his pipe, exhaled a long ring of smoke, and then said to Kakashi:
"The Land of Woods has allied with us, Konoha, but they are secretly flirting with Iwagakure. I've already sent Might Guy to the border to exchange intelligence scrolls with the Prajna group from the Land of Woods, but I'm still a bit worried. You take Team 6 and secretly follow Guy's squad. If the Prajna group betrays Konoha, you know what to do."
"Yes."
Kakashi accepted the mission and immediately set off with his team.
Along the way, Itachi seemed to be preoccupied.
Seeing this, Kakashi, somewhat surprised, lazily asked, "First time going on a mission as an Anbu, are you nervous?"
Tenzo also patted Itachi's shoulder, encouraging him:
"Don't worry about not performing well, it's really not a big deal. I've even tried to assassinate the Hokage, that was when I was ten..."
Back then, Tenzo was still in the Root, ordered by Danzo to assassinate the Third Hokage. After being defeated by Kakashi, the Hokage's guard, he switched sides.
Itachi: ...
Actually, he wasn't nervous about the mission.
It was almost the end of the month, and in a little over a week, the Uchiha clan meeting would be held.
Now, there was a lot of undercurrents within the clan, and the conflict between the hawk faction and the dove faction was becoming more and more prominent.
Last night, Shisui met with Itachi and told him with a serious expression:
This clan meeting might be the breaking point for the conflict between the two factions, and he hoped that Itachi could join him in maintaining peace within the clan.
Also...
Itachi remembered that his uncle had previously accepted his father's invitation and would be attending the Uchiha clan meeting for the first time.
With his uncle's unpredictable personality, who knows what he would do at the clan meeting.
Thinking about all this...
Itachi was in a mess. He had a premonition that something big would happen.
So, he couldn't miss this clan meeting.
What Itachi was worried about now was whether he could make it back in time if this mission took too long.
...
Within the Land of Fire...
Dan, cloaked and wearing a straw hat, was walking on a small path in the forest.
Surrounded by a vast primitive forest, with birds and beasts appearing from time to time, he walked for most of the day before arriving at a remote small town.
The streets were deserted, devoid of any signs of life, with only a few scattered houses and convenience stores. A few crows perched on the roadside power poles, occasionally cawing.
Dan, familiar with the route, walked to the end of the street, entered a tall building, and headed straight for the bathroom.
Different times, same bathroom.
Behind the secret door of this bathroom was the underground money exchange of the Land of Fire.
Creak.
Dan pushed the door open, walked down the corridor for dozens of meters, and arrived at the trading hall of the exchange.
Unlike the desolate surface, this place was bustling with bounty hunters, ronin, and samurai, the noise was deafening.
The exchange was a kind of black market, circulating countless amounts of black money, intelligence, and stolen goods, as well as...
Bodies.
In the world of ninjas, the dead sometimes worth more than the living, because bodies often hide important information.
The best proof of this was Hashirama Senju, hailed as the God of Shinobi.
His cells were greater than most Uzumaki in terms of vitality, whoever got them would have an advantage.
If the First Hokage had been cremated after his death, there wouldn't have been so many problems later on.
The morgue was the busiest department in the exchange.
When Dan arrived, several bounty hunters were lining up with bodies for the staff to check and verify, then they would immediately collect the bodies and distribute the bounty.
The price of a body ranged from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions.
Of course, bodies worth tens of millions were usually Kage, high-ranking elites, or S-rank rogue ninjas from major ninja villages, and you might not even see one in a year.
Dan was a high-ranking bounty hunter, code-named "Araki", and he didn't need to line up.
He was personally received by the boss of the exchange.
"Mr. Araki, you're here."
A bald man with a scar on his face walked over quickly, welcoming Dan's arrival.
Dan glanced at the boss.
This man was just a businessman, a mere employee. The real boss behind the exchange must be someone else.
But Dan wasn't interested in that, he was just here to make money.
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