Chapter 64 (Patreon)

Roy could not simply crush Danzō head-on.

He needed to pressure Danzō from another direction, force him into making a mistake, and catch him red-handed. More importantly, it had to be done in a way that left Hiruzen with no excuse to protect him.

Unfortunately, Danzō was an old fox who would not expose himself so easily. It was only now, with Hiruzen no longer possessing the vigor of his prime, that Danzō had begun acting more recklessly.

In his earlier years, Danzō had always operated from the shadows without leaving behind witnesses or evidence.

He had been involved in countless incidents throughout the other hidden villages. Everyone knew he was responsible, yet no one ever possessed enough evidence to move against him.

Roy was far from the only person who wanted Danzō dead.

For now, all he could do was remain patient and wait for the right opportunity.

Of course, waiting did not mean remaining idle.

After the previous night, the restrictions on Roy had loosened considerably. His movement range had expanded from the fifty meters he possessed yesterday to nearly two thousand meters.

That made it much easier for him to use mental suggestions on Konoha’s civilians and quietly spread damaging rumors about Danzō.

If shinobi did not possess stronger mental resistance than ordinary people, Roy could simply sit beside Hiruzen’s bed every night and whisper suggestions into his ear while he slept.

At that rate, Hiruzen would probably wake up one morning and immediately set out to kill Danzō himself.

Roy had also developed a theory regarding the changes in his movement range.

It could not be explained solely by what had happened between him and Kaorui.

He believed the true cause still lay with Kushina.

At first, Roy had only been able to move ten meters from Kushina and even then, only in a single direction. Later, that restriction had expanded to fifty meters around her. Now, his range had suddenly increased to nearly two thousand meters.

This was clearly not a gradual progression. There was no consistent pattern behind the changes in distance.

If the number of intimate connections was not the deciding factor, then Roy suspected that the changes were tied to Kushina’s state of mind.

In the beginning, he had saved Kushina from a death she had already accepted. Although she had not trusted him at the time, she had just lost her husband and was left with no sense of security. Deep down, she had regarded Roy as her only remaining source of support.

As a result, he had been bound tightly to her side. He could not move far away, nor could he allow a solid obstruction to separate them.

After several months of living together, Kushina gradually emerged from the grief of Minato’s death. Her relationship with Roy also deepened, granting him a greater degree of freedom.

This time, Kushina had personally pushed him toward Kaorui. Her willingness to indulge and accept him had caused his movement range to expand dramatically.

In other words, Kushina’s heart was the cage that restrained him.

The more freedom she was willing to grant him, the larger that cage became.

Roy had already thought of a way to test this theory. Once he carried it out, he would know whether his assumption was correct.

“What are you planning to do with the corpse?” Yugito asked, looking toward Kushina.

“We’ll hand it over to the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. We might be able to uncover something useful.”

Kushina planned to wait until Nonō Yakushi arrived, then have her summon someone to take the body away.

Before that, however, Kushina needed to alter the barrier formulas surrounding the courtyard.

She had been far too careless before. Believing that no one would dare cause trouble at the First Hokage’s former residence, she had never bothered to modify the barrier Mito had left behind.

Now it was clear that certain people would cross any line to achieve their goals.

Kushina had only just deactivated the barrier when a commotion reached her from outside. Judging by the sound, a large group of people was rapidly approaching.

Without showing any outward reaction, Kushina glanced at Roy beside her.

Roy responded with a look, then leaped over the courtyard wall.

“It’s the Sandaime and an ANBU squad.”

He returned to Kushina’s side and had barely finished whispering into her ear when Hiruzen rushed into the courtyard at the head of several ANBU.

“Kushina, what happened here? I received a report that someone saw—”

Hiruzen stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the corpse lying in the courtyard and the signs of battle scattered everywhere.

“Who is this man?”

Hiruzen stared at the corpse in bewilderment. No matter how deeply he searched his memory, he could not recall ever seeing this person before.

He could not possibly recognize every civilian in Konoha, but any shinobi trained within the village should at least have looked familiar to him. All the years he had spent visiting the Academy and personally observing its students had not been for show.

His countless speeches about the Will of Fire were meant not only to instill loyalty toward Konoha from an early age, but also to help him remember every promising young shinobi who passed through the Academy.

Remembering their faces served a purpose. If the Hokage met one of those shinobi years later and addressed them by name, that simple gesture could earn their respect and loyalty in an instant.

Becoming a capable Hokage was not merely about fighting and killing. Strength was only the foundation. Truly understanding what the people beneath him valued was just as important.

From that perspective, Danzō had misunderstood what it meant to become Hokage from the very beginning.

Kushina wanted to tell Hiruzen outright that Danzō had sent the intruder, but she ultimately held herself back.

Even with evidence, this incident might not be enough to bring Danzō down. Without any proof at all, accusing him would accomplish nothing.

“I don’t know who he is. He might be a spy who infiltrated Konoha from another village.”

Kushina answered without much enthusiasm. She had been preparing to leave the matter to Hiruzen and have him arrange for the damaged courtyard to be repaired when Roy’s voice once again reached her ear.

Her expression changed slightly.

“Sandaime, you just said that someone reported this incident to you. Is that why you brought the ANBU here?”

“That’s right.”

“Then something doesn’t make sense. I only deactivated the barrier around the courtyard a moment ago. Before that, no one outside should have been able to see or hear anything that happened here. How did the person who reported it to you know?”

Hiruzen froze.

He had been so alarmed after receiving the report that he rushed over without examining the situation carefully.

Kushina continued, “Doesn’t that mean the person who informed you knew this intruder? Otherwise, how could they have known exactly what was happening inside the barrier?”

Hiruzen’s expression immediately darkened.

The report had come from an ANBU assigned to patrol the village.

The selection process for the ANBU was extremely strict. It was nearly impossible for a foreign infiltrator to enter the Hokage’s personal forces. As for someone within Konoha who would dare plant an agent among the ANBU, Hiruzen could think of only one person.

Danzō.

Hiruzen crouched beside the corpse and forced open the dead man’s mouth. However, he did not find the mark he had expected to see.

There was no Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.

He was not a member of Root.

Hiruzen’s thoughts raced as another possibility occurred to him.

The ANBU who delivered the report might not be a foreign spy, but that did not mean he could not be working with one.

Hiruzen did not recognize the corpse, making it highly likely that the man had come from outside the village. Konoha was protected by a village-wide sensory barrier maintained by the Barrier Team. For an outsider to enter without being detected, someone inside Konoha must have helped him.

Someone had allowed a foreign shinobi through Konoha’s defenses and arranged for an ANBU to cooperate with him.

Danzō remained the most likely culprit.

“I’ll investigate this matter thoroughly,” Hiruzen promised. “Kushina, are you and Naruto unharmed? Perhaps you should consider moving back to your old courtyard. This area is too isolated, which makes it easier for someone to slip in unnoticed.”

The First Hokage’s former residence and the Senju Clan Compound were among the most important locations in Konoha. Yet precisely because of their importance, almost no one else lived nearby.

“There’s no need,” Kushina replied. “I trust that Sandaime will uncover the mastermind behind this. I’ll also replace the barrier formulas around the courtyard to ensure that no one can infiltrate this place again.”