Konoha Drunkard

Shanks finally remembered Hiruzen Sarutobi, that old codger who always tries to take advantage of any opportunity, and reminded Danzo with a word of caution. He had already made up his mind: he would give Danzo 10%, he would take 40%, and then he would keep half to give to Koharu Utatane along with Minato. He would also put in a good word for Danzo. As for whether Koharu Utatane believed him or not, that was none of his business.

"Sogga! If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten. You're so thoughtful. We absolutely mustn't let him know about this."

Danzo suddenly realized that he had been best friends with Hiruzen Sarutobi for so many years, how could he not know what kind of person Hiruzen Sarutobi was? Just like Shanks said, if Hiruzen Sarutobi knew, whether he agreed or not was another matter. Even if he agreed, his contribution in front of his dream girl would definitely not be much.

After Shanks left, Danzo and his two henchmen, Yamanaka Higanbana and Aburame Torune, were planning their operation for the night. Danzo had even come up with a codename: "No One Sleeps Tonight." And indeed, they certainly wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

It's less about Danzo and his two henchmen devising the plan, and more about Danzo and his top henchman, Yamanaka Hino, making the plan. Aburame Torune, standing to the side, was completely bewildered, watching the two chatter away. He couldn't get a word in edgewise. He'd been dragged into Root by Aburame Ryūma at a young age, and the competition there was fierce. He'd only ever studied martial arts and hadn't read many books. These two cultured people were drawing and writing—he had no idea how to do it…

"Lord Danzo, these are the plans we can think of for now. However, according to the Uchiha clan members, only the Grand Elder Uchiha has ever been allowed into his warehouse; no one else is permitted. I suspect the most valuable items are inside, but this is truly a problem." Yamanaka Hiro and Danzo had been writing and drawing until the afternoon. Yamanaka Hiro handed Danzo a thick booklet of their grand plan, which would take several days to read through.

"...That's not a problem. The Sharingan of the Uchiha clan can only be effective against genjutsu from someone who also has the Sharingan. We can just use genjutsu to deal with him then."

After listening to Yamanaka Hio's words, Danzo thought for a while and said that there weren't many three-tomoe Uchiha in his Root organization, but there were still a few dozen, and some of them were quite strong. He didn't believe that the pampered elder could be a match for those three-tomoe Uchiha who were constantly on the verge of life and death.

520. While you're young

While Danzo planned his operation that night, Shanks, Minato, and Sarutobi were in the Hokage's office closely monitoring the situation. They were prepared to try and salvage the situation should Danzo's plan fail. It wouldn't be worthwhile for the village to turn against the Uchiha clan now. The ninja world seemed peaceful only because Konoha was currently the dominant power. Although Orochimaru was away filming "Infernal Affairs" and Jiraiya had gone to broaden his horizons, these were just the high-level combatants. The real battles depended on the mid-level elites, and the Uchiha were a prime example. While the claim that the Uchiha could take on five opponents was an exaggeration, taking on three was definitely within their capabilities. If the Uchiha were wiped out, Konoha's strength would be greatly weakened. At that point, Onoki, that dwarf, would be the first to attack Konoha. Once the two major ninja villages started fighting, how could the other three villages tolerate it? There were also a group of smaller ninja villages eager to profit from the conflict. Therefore, the Uchiha clan was still quite important. Although they were arrogant, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Minato didn't want to go too far unless absolutely necessary.

Although Danzo is considered a bit of an idiot by Shanks, just like his chin, he's incredibly good at doing bad things. He's a born villain. He's not good at doing good things, but when it comes to doing this kind of thing, Hiruzen Sarutobi is a few Obito's brethren.

Danzo first sent several Uchiha with three-tomoe fins controlled by his subordinates back to the Uchiha clan, and then told the three old men of the Uchiha clan the information he had gathered from Root that Root was no longer able to continue operating.

The three old men were overjoyed upon hearing this. They had already sent dozens of people to Danzo to gather intelligence on the village, and the results were remarkable. Whether it was trivial matters concerning Hiruzen Sarutobi's family or major events like Minato being knocked out by Kushina, they were able to obtain information. This was something they would never have known when Hiruzen Sarutobi was on guard against the Uchiha clan. Therefore, they had always wanted to increase their cooperation with Danzo. However, Danzo was worried that having too many Uchiha members would inevitably cause problems, so he hadn't been accepting any more of their people recently, which had greatly troubled the three old men. The Uchiha elder was almost bald from all the stress. Now, receiving news of Root's financial difficulties was like a windfall!

Money? The Uchiha have plenty! No, wait! The three of them have way too much. They control a large portion of the Uchiha's wealth. All they need to do is support Danzo with funds, and in exchange for getting more people into Root, once their numbers surpass those of Root, Root will be under the Uchiha's control...

The three old men began to indulge in wishful thinking. With the Root organization bearing the Uchiha surname, the Anbu wouldn't be far behind. They imagined controlling two major departments of Konoha, where the title of Hokage would be meaningless—just an empty name. They were about to witness the Uchiha's return to its peak.

Especially during the Chunin Exams, when Itachi awakened his three-tomoe Sharingan in front of tens of thousands of people, the three old men were incredibly excited. Itachi was only ten years old! Their Uchiha's strongest sage, Madara, didn't awaken his Sharingan until he was eight. Itachi, at just over ten, had already evolved to the three-tomoe Sharingan—his talent far surpassed Madara's.

Once they control Root and Anbu, and the clan leader's Mangekyou Sharingan is also expected to be fully developed, then... the Uchiha clan will be famous throughout the ninja world under their control. Even if they die, they can go to the underworld and proudly tell their father that they are stronger than you!

The three old men were already drooling just thinking about it; otherwise, they wouldn't have bothered to wipe it away to maintain their composure.

"Big brother, could this be a trap? Although it's a good thing, I still feel uneasy." The second brother was calmer and said after wiping away his drool.

"No, it's no secret that the village is struggling financially. Root used to rely on funds allocated by the village for development, but now that the village is in trouble, how can they possibly have extra funds for Danzo? Besides, he's my trusted confidant on the way, so the information he brought back should be accurate. The clan leader is still too young. He gave the village a hundred billion yen to the Hyuga clan, but got nothing in return. This is a rare opportunity. From now on, Root should belong to the Uchiha clan." The eldest brother said with some pride, looking like he was giving orders. Compared to the second male lead's father, he felt he was much smarter.

"...How much should we give Danzo? I reckon if we give him too little, he won't accept many of us." Although the third brother had a bad temper, he was a man destined for great things, and he calmed down at this moment, though he didn't wipe the ash from his breath.

"...This time we'll go big, offer a price Danzo can't refuse." After thinking for a while, the leader said with a determined look in his eyes.

Seeing their eldest brother's resolute expression, the second and third brothers felt a pang of pain in their hearts, hoping he wouldn't be too ruthless; they wanted to leave a way out for the younger generation.

Especially the third son; his son recently married a third wife so he could have a grandson, and he wanted to leave some money for his grandson.

“If each family contributes one-third to Danzo, I don’t think Danzo will be able to refuse,” the eldest brother said firmly.

"hiss!"

The second and third brothers nearly had a heart attack upon hearing this. A third! Are you kidding me? Although they didn't know exactly how much wealth they had inherited, a third for each family was no joke—at least twice as much as the donations Konoha had received this time!

Danzo, of course, couldn't refuse this offer; even those who didn't care about money couldn't resist.

"Don't make such a fuss. This is just an investment. Once we control the root, the benefits will be beyond your imagination," the leader said, stroking his non-existent beard as he looked at the two men.

"Snapped!"

"Let's do it! I'll listen to my brother!"

"Agreed, let's give it a shot this time!"

The third brother slammed his fist on the table and gritted his teeth, saying that the second brother also placed a bet, saying that they should take a gamble while they were young, otherwise they wouldn't be able to gamble in a few years.

"On the way, go and coordinate. Give it to Danzo tonight; Danzo should know what to do," the leader said, looking at Lu Shi, who remained kneeling in support, completely oblivious to the Sharingan with its three tomoe on Lu Shi's face.

So, the eldest brother is used to a life of luxury. Although he is also a three-tomoe master, he is old and his mental strength can't keep up. He doesn't even know when he falls into an illusion on the road.

Danzo originally planned to use illusions to control all three of them on the way back, but he felt that doing so was a bit risky. So he only used illusions on the Grand Elder. He had followed the Grand Elder for so many years and knew the relationship between the three of them very well. As long as the Grand Elder agreed, the other two would not object.

521. Danzo in Action

After that, he led the Uchiha clan members who had come back with him from Root, running back and forth in the vault of the three Uchiha elders, looking very busy. However, the Uchiha clan usually rarely went out at night, so no one paid much attention. At most, they would just glance out the window and then continue doing their own thing.

Along the way, the Uchiha clan members noticed people occasionally glancing out of their windows, but they didn't pay much attention. They started with the third brother's secret stash. Although the third brother had only told them half the location of the stash, with the map Shanks had given Danzo, finding the stashes was easy. The group swarmed like locusts, leaving nothing behind in each stash. They left one Uchiha clan member, sealed by Danzo's Four Symbols Seal, inside to await orders, while the others hurried to the next location.

Danzo went to great lengths for this operation, all to impress his dream girl. To make the performance more realistic, he placed the Four Symbols Seal on several Uchiha members, including some with three tomoe. Danzo was heartbroken, knowing that while there were dozens of Uchiha clan members currently, he controlled less than twenty. Moreover, his Sharingan experiments required experimental subjects. After this, the number of Uchiha clan members under his control would be severely reduced. He wouldn't use elite members like the Uchiha clan for experiments, so Danzo really spared no expense this time.

Thanks to the orders of the Uchiha Elder, the Uchiha's operation proceeded smoothly. However, the three old men had too much money in their coffers, and it took from 8 PM to 2 AM to completely move it all. After that, the last clansman with the Four Symbols Seal on his body prepared to activate it in the empty coffers to seal them up, making it look like they had been attacked by an unknown object, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the three old men.

Uchiha returned to Root with the Kazekage scroll, laden with riches. From tonight onward, he would be a dead man, forced to live only under the Root mask. If the three old men found out he wasn't dead, things would get very messy.

.........

At three o'clock in the morning, the entire Hidden Leaf Village was quiet. Suddenly, a series of intense and continuous chakra fluctuations appeared within the Uchiha clan. Although there was no sound, even non-sensory ninjas could sense the fluctuations coming from the Uchiha clan, let alone Shanks and his two companions in the Hokage Building. Among the three, Shanks was the weakest, but he could still sense the huge chakra fluctuations.

"What's going on? What are the Uchiha doing in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down. If they hear you, you'll be in big trouble. My cousin was arrested last time and he was a mess when he got out."

"Right, the Uchiha are probably up to something again. The Nine-Tailed Fox came from their clan's territory last time, so they're probably using some weird ninjutsu again."

"Never mind him, I'll go report to the Hokage. You guys keep an eye on things."

Some of the ninjas on duty sensed the fluctuations coming from the Uchiha's side and complained. One of them, who seemed to be the leader, walked towards the Hokage's office.

......

"what happened?"

Such a commotion in the clan's territory was naturally sensed by the father of the strongest second male lead. He stood up and walked out of the room, where he saw Itachi also coming out of the room.

"Father, what happened? There was a strong chakra fluctuation just now, right here in the clan's territory."

Itachi rubbed his eyes and asked.

"...Let's wait a bit."

The second male lead's father also shook his head. Recently, the family's affairs have been one after another without any end. He wondered if it was because the feng shui of the place where his father was buried was bad. Ever since he became the head of the Uchiha clan, he felt that he was much more miserable than when he was still the Uchiha prince. Big and small things happened one after another, and there was not a single day that could be passed easily.

"Clan leader, we've investigated the fluctuations earlier. They came from the three elders' storerooms. All their storerooms... seem to be sealed off. We took the clansmen there on the way tonight, but it seems they couldn't get out. We don't know what happened." The second male lead's father and Itachi didn't have to wait long before his underlings came running over to report.

"A seal? The three elders' storeroom? All of them?" The second male lead's father was also dumbfounded. He really didn't understand what was going on. Did the three old guys get drunk and send someone to play with a seal in their storeroom? But he had never heard of any seal that was so powerful.

"........"

Itachi was taken aback for a moment, but for some reason, the image of his teacher suddenly appeared in his mind. Then, he recalled his teacher's behavior within the clan, which was completely inconsistent with his usual character. He had never seen his teacher not retaliate after being tricked. At the time, he even thought his teacher was giving him face. He remembered that his teacher had mentioned that the three elders' wealth was more than his father's...

"Could it be a teacher?"

However, Itachi thought for a moment and immediately shook his head. Leaving aside the fact that his teacher didn't know sealing techniques, with the three elders' underlings alone, it would have been far too easy for his teacher to steal the items and then kill them to cover it up without anyone noticing. There was absolutely no need to make such a commotion; the whole village probably sensed it just now.

"Alright, you can go and rest now, don't worry about him." Not only Itachi thought so, but even his father seemed to have guessed it, and waved his hand to his younger brother to send him away.

"Father, don't you plan to find out the truth?" Itachi asked curiously, showing no sign of nervousness.

"Hehe, there's not much to investigate. Although I don't have any evidence, I've already guessed the general outline of the matter. I just didn't expect Lord Shanks to be so ruthless, leaving them nothing and even sealing off the warehouse." The man's father was full of confidence. Having dealt with Shanks for so many years, he could easily guess what was going on. Although he didn't know what method Shanks used, if we're talking about who in the ninja world is so greedy, besides that super S-rank rogue ninja Kakuzu, there's only their Konoha's Shanks. As for Kakuzu, it's not that he looks down on Kakuzu, but the Uchiha clan is full of Sharingan users. Even with Kakuzu's level, he wouldn't dare to single-handedly break into their Uchiha clan. But Shanks is different.

He was initially surprised that Shanks would give up halfway through, as it shouldn't be possible for him to do so. Moreover, he would compensate Shanks for his losses if he came looking for him. Yet, Shanks just gave up 50 billion or even 100 billion. For someone like him, he would never give up a profit that was within his grasp unless there was something more tempting.

522. Even their fathers couldn't win against them.

"Father, are you saying this was done by the teacher? But that's impossible. If the teacher needed to, wouldn't it be better to get rid of them quietly? Why make such a commotion?" Itachi asked curiously.

“Although it’s uncertain whether he did it, he’s definitely involved. You just told him about the three elders the day before yesterday, and tonight their warehouse had an incident. It’s hard not to arouse suspicion. You need to keep this to yourself.” The man’s father shook his head and said. Although he didn’t know why Shanks would use this method, his sixth sense told him that Shanks was definitely involved in this matter, or at least that he was involved.

Speaking of which, the second male lead's father should thank Shanks for this. Ever since his eldest son evolved into the Three-Tomoe form during the Chunin Exams, the thing he was worried about really happened. As soon as he returned home, the three old guys were already waiting for him, and they started inciting him to seize power again. They also kept inciting their clansmen, and their faction's members became even more arrogant than before. He was so annoyed by the three old guys that he was fed up with them. If it weren't for the fact that they were all clansmen and that he was the clan leader and didn't want to harm his own clansmen, he would have liked to slap those three blockheads until their heads were crooked.

Now that his assets have vanished, they have no time to bother him anymore. They still have a bunch of people to support, and now that they have no money, they're bound to be frantic. They don't have time to nag him, so he can finally relax a bit.

.......

Heartbroken, desperate, and unable to cry!

This is how the three old Uchiha guys feel right now. They were so excited last night that they couldn't sleep because they saw that Root was about to fall into their hands, and the Uchiha were about to regain their former glory in their hands.

After finally falling asleep, they were woken up in the middle of the night by their underlings. The underlings told them that their secret stash of money had been sealed away, and that the bodies of their clansmen were still in the original location of the stash. Most importantly, Uchiha Jiro and the others might all be dead, because the chakra fluctuations last night were so great, it would be strange if Uchiha Jiro were still alive.

The word "sealing" is famous throughout the ninja world, and the mention of sealing naturally brings to mind the Uzumaki clan. The Uzumaki clan is currently in Konoha, but it seems they have no grudge against them. Their clan leader spends his days in the village doing nothing but drinking goji berry tea; why would he possibly harm them? Besides, once the seal is complete, the items can't be taken away. Furthermore, the Uchiha clan isn't easy to infiltrate; with such a commotion last night, their members couldn't possibly have missed it. Therefore, the Uzumaki clan was excluded. The deaths of their clansmen are no big deal; they have plenty of underlings. The loss of wealth is also no problem; they receive annual dividends from the Land of Fire. Although their net worth isn't as much as before, it's still... damn painful!

That was their family fortune, passed down through generations of their ancestors, and it's all gone just like that. If they found out which bastard did it, they'd risk their lives to take him down.

"Big brother, do you think it might be Danzo's people? They were saying on the road yesterday that Danzo was out of money, and now this has happened!" The third brother's bloodshot eyes were wide open, looking like he wanted to eat someone alive. Yesterday he was thinking of saving some money for his future grandson, and that he didn't need to leave anything for his son, since he was just a good-for-nothing anyway. But now he has nothing left, and he has to start all over again.

"...Danzo doesn't have that much ability. Although we don't know much about his Root organization yet, it's impossible for them to infiltrate our clan territory so silently and cause such a big commotion. It's also impossible for them to be able to retreat safely. On the contrary, there is someone I really suspect." As the leader shook his head and analyzed, Shanks' image appeared in his mind, just like Itachi's.

"Whom does Brother suspect?"

The second son was in a better mood than the third. After all, he was all alone; his son had died years ago, leaving no one to inherit the family business. He was also getting old, so he was simply powerless to change his ways.

"...In the entire Hidden Leaf Village, only a handful of people are capable of doing this: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Minato Namikaze, Tsunade, Sakumo Hatake, and Shanks. Hiruzen Sarutobi is old, though still very strong, but it's impossible for him to do it silently. Minato Namikaze is young and very strong, especially in his mastery of Tobirama Senju's Flying Thunder God Technique, which he uses even better than Tobirama himself. However, everyone knows Minato's character, so he's unlikely to do such a thing. As for Tsunade and Sakumo Hatake, they don't seem like the type to do this. Finally, Shanks is highly suspicious. First, everyone knows he's greedy, and a few days ago..." "Because of the clan leader's dispute with the Hyuga clan over donations, he was swindled out of over 100 billion yen. He received half of the compensation from the Hyuga clan, but when he came to our place, he actually turned back halfway. This is unlike him. At the time, I thought he didn't pursue it further because the young clan leader was his disciple, but now I think it's not like him at all. Moreover, Shanks seems to have no bottom line when it comes to making money; it's like he'd do anything for money." The leader became more and more convinced of his guess as he spoke. Although the other party's identity and strength made him hesitant to take any action without evidence, he could still speak his mind to his brothers.

"What? It's that bastard! I'll take some men and take him down!" After hearing the eldest brother's analysis, the hot-tempered third brother couldn't sit still any longer. He rolled up his sleeves and was about to leave. It was that bastard again. He had angered his deceased father to the point of vomiting blood before, and now he dared to swindle his savings. This time, he would settle all the scores!

"Third brother, calm down. Big brother is just guessing; he has no evidence."

The second brother pulled the third brother down to sit and said, "Are you kidding me? Going to confront Shanks of Konoha like that? What's the difference between that and asking for trouble? Although Shanks can't easily kill them in the village, he can certainly keep them bedridden for ten days or half a month. Isn't that just humiliating themselves? Shanks can't even beat their own fathers."

“The second brother is right. I’m just guessing. Not only do we not have any evidence, but even if we confront him head-on now, we’ll be the ones who suffer. Unless we have evidence to convince the clan leader to support us, Shanks is not young anymore. I think his strength has probably declined somewhat. The clan leader should be able to protect us.” The eldest brother said to the furious third brother.

"Then let's go find the clan chief! The three of us have lost everything. As the clan chief, do you think he won't budge?" Although the eldest brother's words made sense, the third brother was still furious.

523. Minato is a good boy.

Meanwhile, Shanks, unaware that he has once again taken the blame for Danzo, is currently inside Root, drooling over the sealing scrolls in front of Danzo.

"One, two, three, four... The Uchiha are so rich! They've struck it rich..."

Shanks counted the sealing scrolls, but eventually couldn't keep up because there were just too many. Although he had always known that the Uchiha clan was wealthy, he never really had a concept of just how wealthy they were. Now, these scrolls made him feel incredibly insignificant. No wonder Konoha never worried about money in the original story. Even when Pain destroyed it, they rebuilt it just like that. It was probably because when the Uchiha clan was massacred, their assets were confiscated. They were never short of money... The wealth of those three old men alone was enough to support Konoha for ten years.

"Looks like I need to set a new, smaller goal; 100 billion is just too little."

Shanks thought to himself, "Just the 10% he gave to Danzo already amounts to more than a thousand, and then he secretly pockets another 40%..."

Shanks became more and more excited as he thought about it.

"Ahem, ahem! I've already taken out my ten percent. Take all of these back and give them to Koharu. Remember what you said back then." Danzo interrupted Shanks's rambling thoughts.

"Don't worry! I always keep my word. But I really didn't expect you to be so bold, Brother Danzo. Since you're willing to sacrifice so many Uchiha, it must be the Reverse Four Symbols Seal, right? The effect is pretty good, it's just that it takes a long time to prepare before it can be released, it can't be cast instantly."