"Bang!"
Danzo slammed the teacup onto the floor so hard it exploded into a thousand pieces. Hot tea splashed everywhere.
A Root ninja got scalded across the face but didn't dare make a sound.
Danzo's expression was thunderous.
Ever since his assassination plot against Sunagakure had failed, nothing had gone right for him. It felt like the entire world was conspiring against him. The dirty rumors about the Three-Tails incident kept getting dumped on his head no matter how many times he tried to wash them off. Just when the heat started to die down, someone would drag it back up again.
First it was Kirigakure. Then that damn Sand Village newspaper. After that, Kirigakure sent suicide squads. And now even Konoha shinobi were stabbing him in the back.
He hadn't done any of it.
"What the hell did this bastard ever do to me?" Danzo snarled. "I've sacrificed everything for this village, and now its own people are framing me?"
"Shameless bastards!"
"I should dig up your corpse and whip it a hundred times."
"Even Hiruzen doesn't believe me anymore. He actually told me to investigate. What the fuck am I supposed to find?"
Danzo forced himself to calm down.
"An investigation won't turn up anything real. If Hiruzen wants the truth, I'll just give him one."
"The real culprits… are the Uchiha."
A plan began taking shape in his mind.
At first, Konoha had wanted to pin Rin Nohara's death on the Uchiha and the Takechi clan to keep things simple and maintain the fragile alliance with Kirigakure. But Kirigakure refused to play along. Now Danzo was circling back to the Uchiha again.
This time, though, he needed solid evidence. A whole chain of proof that would convince Konoha, Kirigakure, and the entire ninja world that the Uchiha were behind everything.
"I'll have to plan this carefully," he muttered. "Otherwise Hiruzen might actually come after me. And then there's the attacks on the Shimura clan…"
Dozens of Shimura clan members had already been killed. Some while on missions, some traveling with merchant caravans, some just visiting nearby towns. Danzo had set up every trap and tracking team he could think of, but the killer slipped through every time like he could see the future. Even when Danzo personally tried to catch him, the bastard escaped without leaving so much as a glimpse of his face.
"The attacker is stronger than me," Danzo realized, and a cold weight settled in his chest.
He knew his own strength. How many people in the entire ninja world could actually surpass him? Hiruzen, the Sannin, Minato Namikaze in Konoha. Ōnoki in Iwagakure. Rasa and Pakura in Sunagakure. The Fourth Raikage and Killer B in Kumogakure. Hanzō in Amegakure. Everyone else—Roshi, Yagura, Chiyo—was roughly on his level.
That narrowed the list of suspects for the Shimura clan murders considerably.
"Who the hell is it?" Danzo growled. "Comes and goes without a trace. Moves like lightning. And they're doing it in my name, making those rumors about Rin's death spread even faster."
At first he'd suspected the Uchiha, but he'd already ruled them out. None of them were strong enough to pull this off.
"Unless… Uchiha Madara came back from the dead."
Just then, a messenger ninja rushed in.
"Lord Danzo! News from the Land of Wind!"
"What is it?"
"All the Root operatives we sent to spy on Sunagakure's recent activities… they're gone. Every single one."
Danzo froze.
"Every single one?"
"Yes, sir. Not one returned."
"Damn you, Rasa!"
Danzo's already foul mood turned pitch black. It felt like the whole world was out to get him.
…
…
Back in Sunagakure, Rasa decided it was time to deal with Grass Village.
"Pakura will lead the strike," he told his advisors. "No one in Grass Village can match her. We won't just defeat them—we'll crush them completely."
"Before we kill the first Grass ninja, though, I want their crimes against Sunagakure printed in the Ninja World Big Events Weekly. That way we have every justification we need."
In wartime, no one cared about excuses. You attacked whoever you wanted. But now that the great war was over, things were different. A little public justification went a long way. It kept the other villages from using the attack as an excuse to gang up on Sunagakure, and it protected the village's reputation—and the flow of mission requests that kept the economy alive.
Thanks to the newspaper, the attack on Grass Village would look completely justified.
A short while later, Pakura arrived at the Kazekage Tower.
"Husband."
Rasa handed her the detailed operation plan.
"You'll lead the assault on Grass Village. Primary targets: any Uzumaki bloodline members, the Box of Ultimate Bliss, the Dragon Life Rebirth technique, and their Fire Style sealing jutsu. Understood?"
After years of leading armies against Kirigakure, Pakura didn't even consider the tiny Grass Village a real threat.
"Pakura, Grass Village may be small, but they're dangerous. If that Box of Ultimate Bliss gets opened, no one knows what will happen. Be extremely careful. Your safety comes first. Other villages might try to interfere as well. Watch your back."
Pakura nodded. "Don't worry, husband. I'll handle it."
"Good. Get the army moving toward the Land of Grass right away. Once the next issue of the newspaper drops, you can strike immediately."
Soon the new issue of the Ninja World Big Events Weekly rolled off the presses and spread like wildfire across the ninja world—carried by merchants who knew exactly how valuable the paper had become.
The first thing readers saw was the blazing headline:
"Grass Village Sent Ninja Disguised as Sand Bandits—Killed Thousands of Wind Country Civilians, Raided Hundreds of Merchant Caravans, and Ambushed Hundreds of Sunagakure Shinobi!"
"Unforgivable Crimes!"
"Signed under oath by Grass Willow himself: Every word is true."