(A\N: Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had wonderfulholidays, here's the first 2025 Stream of Past chapter to celebrate.)
Tsunade felt her blood boil and her chakra performed a feat similar to a volcanic eruption the more she read. Shizune, who was helping her sort through the mountains of evidence, inched away from the Sannin.
"Ts-Tsunade-sama..." started Shizune.
"I'm going to kill him...I. Am. Going. To. Kill him. I will perform such fucked up tortured methods on his foot in the grave body that even Orochimaru will call me insane. When I get my hands on him, I will slowly break his pride, his trust, his faith and his bones, nothing will be left of his body. And if there is, I will feed it to the Inuzuka dogs, I will scatter his remains across fire country, I will personally make sure he gets no funeral rites so that his soul may never reach the Pure Lands. May he turn into awraithand forever haunt the lands, may he go insane as he is denied escape, may he feel eternal torment as I ruin his work, may he suffer as the living thrive.I swear on my grandfather's grave, Shizune, this man willnotlive for much longer." said Tsunade as she took a gulp of tea for Sannin needed her mind sharp, she had to cross all her ts and dot all her is if she wanted to bring him down. So that there will be no chance of escaping. Therefore no alcohol for her.
Shizune nodded meekly. "I understand, I also want him to face justice for his crimes."
"This isn't even about justice anymore. I don't evenwantto give him a trial to be honest...I know I have to but...This man...Thisabominationmasquerading as a human doesnotdeserve even the smallest bit of sympathy. He will face death one way or another and I cannot wait for the look on his face as he realizes he's done for."
Without another word, Tsunade picked up her file and continued reading. Shizune, knowing better than to push her shishō when she was like this, returned to reading Danzo's journals and taking notes.
...
...The Uchiha had been meeting in secret under the Naka Shrine for quite some time, I have sent Rat and and Lizard to spy on them and they confirmed my suspicions, they are going to has only been further corroborated by Shisui Uchiha, when he informed the Hokage. I sense an opportunity in this. An opportunity in getting rid of the scum benefiting from our village and in getting further material for my research...
...
The Uchiha massacre was not orchestrated by Hiruzen-sensei. Tsunade didn't know whether to feel surprised or stupid for not piecing it together sooner. I mean sure, her sensei had basically ignored all of Naruto's suffering and let him starve in his own apartment, but he wasn't cruel enough to slaughter an entire clan for being mad at the conditions they were thrown in. No...But Danzo sure was.
He always seemed to have a fascination with the Sharingan, from what Shizune had pieced together from his journals. It dated back to his genin days and it's origin was his teammate, Kagami she didn't know the man was incapable of love, she would have thought Danzo had a crush on spoke in long and flowery language about Kagami's strength in battle and his almost impenetrable genjutsu described his eyes in detail and had even done a few sketches. Thank the Sage his body was never recovered or Danzo would have stolen his eyes too.
As time passed, Danzo's obsession with the Sharingan continued. He would add Uchihas to his squad in order to observe them in battle. He noted down every characteristic of the Sharingan he could knew each significance of each tomoe, each different ability of each Mangekyō he encountered, how to get an EMS, everything he saw he wrote down as his obsession grew.
As the ROOT formed, he saw an opportunity to acquire an Uchiha in his ranks, but the noble clan of Konoha was good at protecting their young and any adults he acquired killed themselves before he could do did gain quite a few spare Sharingans this way, but not enough to satisfy his thirst for knowledge and power.
As time passed and failure piled on, his obsession with the Uchiha turned into hatred. He began whispering around the village that they will always uphold the will of Madara, that they will one day destroy the village. The whispers spread and the reputation of the Uchiha was forever stained. When the Kyūbi attacked, he used it as anopportunity to isolate them.
Danzo knew that once the Uchiha were isolated and the mistreatment became worse, he would be able to eliminate them and take their eyes for himself. And that was exactly what he did. When the Uchiha planned a coup, he made sure the peaceful solution that Shisui had planned with the Kotoamatsukami was unable to be used and forced Itachi to kill his whole clan orhewill kill Sasuke.
Itachi became a scapegoat for Danzo, after informing the Hokage of all that had happened, he was forced to flee the Village and to spy on the most mind boggling thing in all of this, if you asked Tsunade, was that Hiruzen had options. He could have ordered Danzo's execution, there was plenty evidence for him to do so. Itachi could have had his name cleared years ago. Sure she understands that the Sandaime wanted information on the Akatsuki, but don't send the 13-year-old in the lion's den, send someone else!
But regardless of Itachi's position,whyon god'sgreen earthwas Danzo left alive after what he had done? Why did Hiruzen let him continue what was basically, business as usual?Stripping him of his position as a council member and'disbanding'the ROOT was not since Danzo just continued as if nothing happened, just moved the ROOT underground. Tsunade cannot understand her sensei's reasoning and the more she reads the more insane she goes.
Tsunade turns her head to look at her own genin picture, she sees Hiruzen's face and can't help but wonder. "What mess did you leave me to clean up, sensei?"
...
...The Akatsuki are becoming a threat. At first I believed them to be nothing but useless activists, but they are gaining strength and numbers. After I had seen what Nagato Uzumaki is capable of, I need to be rid of them. I shallarrangea meeting with Hanzō the Salamander and bring to him the notion that the Akatsuki are becoming athreatto his power. Hopefully with this, the two would destroy each other and the Hidden Rain will return to the nothing village it was before...
...
Tsunade had no idea how she was going to explain this to Jiraiya when he returns to the village. The three Ame orphans he had taken under his wing, Nagato, Yahiko and Konan all had their life ruined. Yahiko was dead, and Nagato and Konan became full blown terrorists because of Danzo.
Danzo first encountered them at an attempted peace negotiation. He believed that Iwa was getting a way too better deal than they deserved so he dressed some of his ROOT members as Hidden Stone shinobi and made them of the ROOT members were killed and the peace treaty was postponed. Danzo, seeing an opportunity, had taken the bodies, dressed them as Ame nins and presented them to Hanzō.He painted the narrative that the, at the time, peaceful Akatsuki were nothing except bloodthirsty, power hungry monsters that wanted to usurp two of them concocted a plan take them down. The Ame orphans were invited to what they believed to be a negotiation with Hanzō and a hopeful alliance. What awaited them however was an ambush.
Konan was kidnapped and Hanzō forced Nagato to either kill Yahiko or let Konan and Hanzō hoped that the two boys would kill each other and they could just deal with Konan later on. Faced with an impossible choice, Yahiko decided to take action and killed himself, ensuring Konan's survival. In response, mad with grief and anger, Nagato unleashed the full power of the Rinnegan and killed both the ROOT and Ame forces gathered there. Danzo and Hanzō barely escaped with their the Akatsuki became what it is today she hasnoidea, what she does know is that all of it is Danzo's fault.
"Shizune..."
"I know, Tsunade-sama, I know...If you want, I could be the one to tell Jiraiya-sama."
"That would be nice but...No, I have to tell him myself. When did he say he will return?"
"In two weeks I believe."
"Great..."
...
...My plans to blame the Uchiha clan for the attack had been thwarted. While I did manage to have them relocated, it means nothing regarding the unity of the village. With no one to officially blame, the village needs a scapegoat. Luckily, yesterday Hiruzen had told me who the new Jinchūriki of the Nine Tails is...
...
So in the end all of Naruto's suffering was not entirely Hiruzen's fault, but more like 30% of it. I mean sure, he could have given Naruto a better apartment in a nicer part of the village and had someone watch him, but who knows! Danzo might have convinced him to let Naruto live in the worst conditions. By this point it wouldn't surprise whotold the village that Naruto was the Jinchūriki of the Nine Tails? That's right,Danzo.
After the Kyūbi's rampage and the destruction of most of the village, Konoha was divided. There were those who blamed the Uchiha, those who thought it was unfair they were blamed for it, people were grieving, were angry, fights were happening, Hiruzen was getting yelled at for not doing more, it was a Danzo identified that the people needed someone to redirect all their anger to. In his own words'the best way to bring a nation together is to give it a common enemy'.So he started the rumor mill and since shinobi were the biggest gossips on the planet, by the end of a week, everyone knewwhoandwhatNaruto unified the village in their hatred of ababy.
Every single misfortune that had come upon Naruto was Danzo's fault and Tsunade had no words. This...this was pure evil.
...
...The Mokuton project seems to be progressing nicely after I had obtained the genetic material of has begun the cell grafting process and many of the subjects seem promising. I believe experiment 0-10c-32-mk seems to have the highest success rate. Hopefully he and many of the others would survive the process, Wood Release is too good of a power to become myth...
...
A teacup went flying and shattered on the wall. Tsunade's fists were clenched and she breathed heavily as she tried to reign in her anger.
"How dare he...HOW DARE HE ROB MY GRANDFATHER'S GRAVE!"
"Ts-Tsunade-sama, you have to calm yourself!"
"Calm? CALM?! How thehellam I supposed to say calm when this monster desecrated my family's grave!"
Listen, Tsunade was very much aware that Yamato was one of Orochimaru's experiments. Literally no one in the shinobi community didn't know what he was. But Tsunade was completely unaware that the one to do the actual grave robbing was desecrated graves in his quest for power and she probably shouldn't be surprised by this, but damn it all to hell. Danzo met both Tobirama and Hashirama, he trained under them both with could he do this? How low can he sink to do this?
As for why he did this, well Orochimaru had discovered a boy by the name of Shin who could have any foreign material grafted onto his body, including Hashirama cells. Danzo cut that boy's arm, implanted Hashirama cells into it and used it to replace his damaged beyond repair right to add insult to injury, the night of the Uchiha massacre, he snuck inside the compound and began plucking the eyes of the dead Uchihas so that he may implant them on his arm.
Danzo had a Hashirama cells boosted, Sharingan riddled armandas a nice little bonus, Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō was in his yes, he stole that too before Shisui disappeared off the face of the could barely comprehend how he got away with so much shit and to make matters worse, sheknewthat if Danzo hadn't gottencockyand abducted her dear apprentice, he could have continued!It was basically what happened before the time travel.
She had so, so many questions to ask Sakura and Itachi, because that boyhadto know something, and didn't even know where to begin.
...
...Hiruzen is a weak man and a coward. I know the Uchiha are up to no good and he deliberately ignores it. If I were Hokage this would not stand. After the Fourth's death I was the one who was supposed to be Hokage, but Koharu and Homura, those traitors, agreed to have him reinstated. For the survival of Konoha, I must become Hokage...
...
So apparently Danzo tried to assassinate the Hokage. Not once, not twice, but 8 separate times. He sent Kakashi to do it, and he immediately tattled to Hiruzen, he sent Yamato who got stopped by Hiruzen himself, he sent some of his ROOT agents 3 different times, poison, he tried doing it himself after the Nine Tails attack, he let Orochimaru in the village during the Chunin exams in hopes of consolidating power. And yes, the last one sort of worked, but, to the surprise of everyone involved, he was once again thwarted by Koharu and Homura.
Why did he continue doing this? Why did he continue committing treason time and time again? He wanted to become Hokage. He wanted all the power over the village and to do with it as he Danzo's perfect Konoha, becoming a shinobi would be mandatory, the training regime would become 4 times as hard and he could turn the Leaf into the strongest village. Tsunade is surprised world domination isn't also on that list.
And, because of Koharu and Homura he didn't become Hokage, he plans to get rid of them eventually and after killing her, because yes, Danzo plans on assassinating Tsunade too, he will finally become Hokage and do as he pleased. Tsunade genuinely had no words to say regarding the level of delusion Danzo was operating on.
...
...The training of my ROOT agents has proven to be fruitful. They are by far the strongest shinobi in Konoha. Some might say that their treatment is cruel, but everyone knows a true ninja shuts off his emotions and lays down their life for the good of the village. The ends always justify the means...
...
The ROOT was first created sometime in the Second Shinobi World War after Konoha lost a battle against Kiri due to faulty had good intentions in the beginning, a place where orphaned children and adult shinobi could find solace, its original purpose was intelligence gathering and assisting the as time went on and Danzo became more twisted, so too did the training became harsher, the operations more and more illegal and those that entered it could never began turning the ROOT into his own personal armadaandif Tsunade was completely honest, cult.
Somewhere near the beginning of the 3rd war, Danzo started having a few stragglers who disagreed with what the ROOT had become. Shimura silenced them permanently before any damage to his operation could come but becameparanoid that more and more of his agents would turn on he worked on a different way of silencing them, the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal and ensured no information about him or theorganization was ever spoken to someone who wasn't Danzo.
That seemed to be the final nail in the coffin as after that ROOT became alot none of them could talk should they escape gave Danzo the opportunity to implement whatever fucked training regime he deemed fit. But Danzo wouldn't be Danzo if he wasn't a little paranoid, so he stole a few Yamanka scrolls and found a way to add brain washing to his ROOT regime. Making completely sure that the ROOT agent's loyalty would be to him and only him. Tsunade was convinced that if Sakura wasn't such a tenacious person and excellent actor, she would have fallen prey to Danzo too.
The training regime of a new recruit consisted of 5 hours of taijutsu, 5 of genjutsu, 5 of ninjutsu and 5 of kenjutsu with two 5 minute breaks to eat and a little under 4 of sleep for 10 was specifically devised to drive you insane, then depending on your weak points, the regime would increase to have 6 hours of work in 3 other categories 3 in the remaining one, a single 4 minute meal and a little under 3 hours of amount of training would begin lengthening with the sleep becoming shorter and shorter so that when Danzo forced you to kill the partner you bonded with, you would do it easily as it would mean getting a slightly moremanageable yes, as a way to leave his agents emotionless husks, Danzo would ensure they became friends with another recruit who they roomed with. And then forced the duo to kill each it worked.
By the end of ROOT training agents would become completely numb to emotions and actually feel grateful to Danzo as he offered them scraps(6 hours of sleep and 3 meals a day).The new ROOT agents were then divided in into categories and shipped into different were researchers, some were simple guards, some were spies in the ANBU and some would infiltrate different villages if Danzo so that no ROOT members were free of was 1) daily training and 1) missions outside the village. To Danzo shinobi were weapons and weapons needed to be sharpened so he always sent his agents on at least one mission per month.
"I...have no words..." said Tsunade.
"Well I do." said Shizune. "He's insane! I doubt any of his long time ROOT agents would make it past the age of 25 like this. This much strain on the body would surely kill them."
Tsunade sighed. "I know...One of our priorities after taking Danzo down should be finding a way to reverse any of the damage done. Because I guarantee you, most of them probably have nerve and tenketsu damage."
...
...It seems I have found a new potential recruit for ROOT. Sakura Haruno seems to show a lot of promise, especially in the chakra control department. Her mind is unique and it would be a waste to leave her under Hatake's poor tutelage. I shall observe how she does in the Chūnin Exam...
...
Apparently Sakura didn't gain Danzo's attention after Tsunade returned to the village like she had originally thought, but rather after the Wave achievements regarding chakra control and medical ninjutsu peaked his interest but he wouldn't consider adding her to his roster until she began showing off in the Chūnin managed to not only thwart Orochimaru from getting his hands on Sasuke but also, stop Hinata from dying in the preliminary, find a different use for Water Dragon Bullet and got a 100% on a test devised to be that up with the leadership skills she showed in the Land of Tea mission and Sakura became Danzo's new victim.
He described in detail how he had one of his ROOT agents infiltrate the hospital and become Sakura's supervisor. It gave her the perfect position to observe her habits and find her location. Once Tsunade became Hokage and it was revealed Sakura was her apprentice, Danzo knew his window to act became a lot shorter. He used the chaos left behind by the Oto-Suna invasion and the fact that Tsunade was short on jonin and ANBU members to abduct using the same strategy he used on Hanzo, he disguised some of his ROOT members as Oto nins and had the face of one of them to be surgically altered to look like Sakura. He then staged her death and as a bonus, managed to pin the blame on the only Uchiha left in the village.
Tsunade was pissed to hear all of this and swore that when she gets her hands on Danzo he will pay for all the suffering he has caused.
...
Ino found herself entering the Senju compound alongside her fellow graduates and their senseis. The only ones missing were Asuma who was still recovering from his encounter with Hidan(Sage bless that ANBU team that came to rescue them) and Kurenai who was not only pregnant but taking care of Asuma. Sai was also missing from Team 7's roster but he was relatively -sama had asked them to come to her place after dark. She had some of her most trusted ANBU members escort them.
"Anyone got any idea why granny Tsunade asked us to come?" asked Naruto.
Most of them shrugged, but Neji answered. "Who knows, my theory is that Tsunade-shishō wishes to speak to us about the Akatsuki."
"Yeah but why be so secretive if that were the case?" asked Ino. "No, this something else."
"Well, we're here so we will find out one way or another." said Kiba.
Everyone nodded as they approached the main house. Shizune let them in and led them towards Tsunade's office, Naruto opened the door with a loud greeting but immediately froze. In fact all of Team 7 froze.
A completely shocked Naruto uttered a word that made everyone else freeze as well. "Sa-sa...Sakura-chan..."
"WHAT?! Let me see." said Ino as she forced herself to the front. And there she was, sitting on the window sill behind Tsunade's office, dressed in an ANBU uniform with a shocked look on her face.
"I'm sorry..." was all Sakura uttered before putting on her Bear mask and turning around to jump out the window. Sasuke and Naruto began running after her but all Ino could do was extend her hand as she watched her best frienddisappear like smoke through fingers once again.