Only I can make Konoha Village great again.

At some point, a new voice appeared in Shimura Danzo's mind.

The sound seemed to possess boundless power, growing louder and louder until it finally resembled the roar of a giant.

The voice was saying:

"They all want to see you lose, but you're determined to win!"

Even if the entire Hidden Leaf Village, or even the entire ninja world, denies you, you cannot deny yourself!

"You can lose to others, but you can't lose to yourself."

"Everyone is waiting for you to fall, which is precisely why you must stand firm!"

Sound itself is powerful, but words are even more powerful.

Danzo Shimura felt a profound shock that went straight to his soul.

He listened to those words over and over again, and all his self-doubt melted and evaporated like ice and snow under the scorching sun, disappearing without a trace.

Danzo Shimura had never been so resolute. He stood up solemnly, facing the direction Hiruzen Sarutobi had gone, and said to himself:

"I did nothing wrong!"

Yamanaka Chukyu borrowed Professor Ai's words and gave Danzo a powerful boost.

Danzo Shimura, known as the "Dark One of the Ninjas," was a dark figure in Konoha. When he heard these incredibly correct and inspiring words, he naturally felt a resonance in his heart and actively engraved them in his mind.

This is the ingenious design of the "ideological stamp" by Yamanaka Chukyu specifically for Shimura Danzo.

Danzo is a bad seed. After committing all sorts of evil deeds, he inevitably doubts himself, which is why he always says, "I did it for Konoha."

Encouraged by the most positive words, his mind becomes firm, and it becomes almost impossible for him to be persuaded by Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Danzo's excessive determination turned him into a hedgehog with sharp quills, pricking his three old classmates who wanted to stick together for warmth, forcing them to distance themselves from each other.

But the perilous situation forced them to band together, only to be stabbed again to the point of unbearable pain.

This back-and-forth struggle will greatly deplete Shimura Danzo's energy, making his time scarce and increasing the difficulty of his work.

He would be so busy that he would spend all his time working and would have no time to do evil.

Moreover, if this tug-of-war continues for a long time, the Konoha F4 will get used to the distance between each other and get used to no longer sticking together so tightly.

When the Konoha F4 were tightly united, they were the strongest political group in Konoha Village, the Third Hokage's group.

But when they can't stick together, they're just two aging Kage-level ninjas and two aging and timid Jonin.

When the war ends, Yamanaka Hatsukyu will surely become stronger, while these four old men will weaken drastically. Perhaps the reversal of the offensive and defensive balance will occur then.

At that time, will he dare to hold a public gathering on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month?

Do you dare to give a speech in a beer hall?

Ha ha!

But his greatest gain today was controlling Shimura Danzo's mind.

From the very first time he targeted Shimura Danzo, out of fear of a Kage-level ninja, Yamanaka Hatsukyu was extremely cautious, trying to provoke Danzo's emotions according to Danzo's own ideas.

After several attempts, he found that this method of gently stroking someone's hair to evoke emotions was effective, so he boldly tried the new method today.

Yamanaka Hatsukyu, according to his own understanding, surpassed Shimura Danzo's cognition and instilled a more powerful language into his mind.

Danzo Shimura actually accepted the foreign language and actively interpreted it as a leap in his own understanding, becoming the person that Hatsuku Yamanaka wanted to be.

This is an intellectual crushing victory, a transcendence of humanity, and a commanding view from above, bringing an unprecedented sense of exhilaration to the mountain.

Having cleared his mind, Chu Jiu left the mountain feeling refreshed and clear-headed.

However, his good mood lasted only a short time, as he caught up with Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado, the Root ninjas, while maintaining his protection.

Through the ears of these Root ninjas, Yamanaka Hatsukyu overheard a private conversation between three high-ranking Konoha officials and obtained crucial information.

In short, Konoha Village's warehouse has suffered a huge deficit.

The tens of thousands of kunai, hundreds of thousands of shuriken, hundreds of thousands of explosive tags, as well as large quantities of food, medicine, bandages, and other supplies listed in the accounts, do not exist in the actual warehouses.

Even the warehouse itself doesn't exist!

Because the corrupt ninjas' methods were crude, the investigation quickly caught most of the scoundrels and recovered a considerable amount of the embezzled funds.

The problem is that the war has already started, and money can no longer be immediately converted into weapons, food, medicine and equipment, as many purchasing channels have been cut off by the war.

Even if the goods are available, prices are skyrocketing, and the recovered stolen money can't even buy half the original amount of supplies.

Hiruzen Sarutobi racked his brains and managed to get another sum of war funds from the daimyo, but it was still far from enough to make up for the shortfall.

He was truly driven to desperation, which is why he wanted to cut spending in various departments of Konoha Village to squeeze out as much funding as possible.

The investigation led them to the roots of Shimura Danzo's work, revealing a large amount of expenditure with unknown destinations.

Root is essentially just a training department under the Dark Division. However, an audit revealed that the funds whose whereabouts are unknown alone exceeded the entire expenditure of the Dark Division.

Normally, Konoha Village's money flows like a river, so Hiruzen Sarutobi could tolerate it. After all, it was Danzo Shimura's department, and he had done so many shady things, so it was completely understandable that the accounts were unclear.

But this is not a normal time; it is a time when war has begun, and Konoha Village is so short of money that it's practically jumping up and down. How can we tolerate this?

So Hiruzen Sarutobi, along with two old classmates, stormed into the Anbu headquarters, intending to force Danzo Shimura to hand over a portion of his funds.

The three men stormed to the root of the tree, but not only did they fail to get a single penny back, Shimura Danzo also ridiculed all three of them.

Because of Danzo Shimura's unexpected outburst, the three didn't even have a chance to tell the truth to each other's faces. They could only relay the real request through the ears of Root ninjas on their way back.

Thus, this intelligence benefited Yamanaka Chukyu.

Yamanaka Chukyu didn't keep the information to himself and immediately told Orochimaru.

To his surprise, Orochimaru was not at all astonished: "I knew this day would come when the teacher held onto power."

"Fortunately, their methods of embezzling funds were too poor. Not only did they fail to make up for the deficit in time, but they were also caught red-handed by Sarutobi-sensei."

"They deserved to die."

Orochimaru's meaning was clear: he was also one of those who embezzled public funds, but his skill level was so high that he got the money and the village didn't lack anything, so it was impossible for anyone to find out.

But he wasn't saying all this to show off to the students; he was conveying secret information to them.

Shan Zhongchu couldn't help but grin. He hated riddle-makers who spoke in riddles, but since the teacher was someone he had formally kowtowed to and become a disciple of, he had to accept it no matter how much he disliked him.

So he asked, "Orochimaru-sensei, just tell me what you want me to do?"

Orochimaru laughed in a hoarse voice.

His smile showed great satisfaction.