Chapter 192 Brand new version
Time passed peacefully until the end of the year.
Since the Battle of Kannabi Bridge in late September, the Ninja War has continued in the following months with its intensity unabated, but there has never been another earth-shaking battle as severe as the previous one.
Although the war was still fierce, the situation had quietly stabilized.
In the northern part of the Ninja World, the rise of the new force Akatsuki is inevitable!
In the months after the battle, they not only annexed the Grass Kingdom and took over two cities on the border of the Fire Kingdom, but also continued to expand without stopping, successively conquering three small buffer countries in the surrounding areas.
Today, the new territory of the Rain Kingdom has more than doubled compared to the beginning!
As time came to the end of the year, Shiba Kiyokawa finally stopped his expansion temporarily and began to sort out the internal affairs, promote reforms, discipline the nobles, and build a new ruling order!
He had never been bound by the rules of one village and one country, and he would never allow the influence of the Akatsuki organization to be confined to a small ninja village, while handing over the vast tracts of land outside to the daimyo and nobles.
After stopping external expansion, the first thing Shiba Kiyokawa did was to build branches of ninja schools in each occupied area.
By accepting talented civilian children from all over the country into ninja schools, Akatsuki quickly won the hearts of the people in the occupied areas.
At the same time, because the ninja school needs teachers, Shiba Kiyokawa can also naturally deploy the Akatsuki ninjas in various cities to ensure that the old nobles in any place cannot make any waves.
After that, as long as the new generation of ninjas graduate in a few years, no one will be able to shake the rule of Akatsuki!
During this period, it's not that no one has thought about interference.
Jiraiya wrote to Orochimaru more than once, hoping that he would temporarily reconcile with the Sunagakure, take the time to come to the north again, and work together to curb the expansion of the Rain Country.
Or we could use the river country from the south, and join him in attacking the rain country from both the north and the south!
It’s a pity that all these letters fell into oblivion after being sent out.
Orochimaru simply ignored him and every day, with the secret help of Shiba Kiyokawa, he cooperated with Sunagakure's proxy Kazekage Yekura in "fixed matches" and had a lot of fun improving his records.
As for Iwagakure and Kumogakure, the former has no strength and the latter is not adjacent to the country, so they can't do anything to the Rain Country for the time being.
All of a sudden, Jiraiya, who took over Konoha's northern war zone, looked around and found that in such a big ninja world, he couldn't find any force that could curb the rise of the Akatsuki organization next door!
At the end of the year, on an ordinary morning, in the long-term ward of Konoha Hospital -
Danzo Shimura, who had been in a coma for several months, finally opened his eyes again.
When Danzo woke up and turned around, he saw a "dumpling" lying on the bed next to him, whose condition was just as miserable as his own.
"Who is this?" Danzo asked the medical ninja who came over.
"Master Danzo, the person next to you is Master Namikaze Minato."
“???” Danzo was confused when he woke up.
Even Minato was seriously injured and on the verge of death, wrapped in bandages like a dumpling. Is Konoha finished?
Then he looked out the window and saw the Hokage Building still standing there.
This made him feel relieved, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel a little secretly delighted.
Since Minato Namikaze failed, doesn't that mean that the position of Hokage is still uncertain?
"Where is my root? Why hasn't anyone come here in such a long time?"
Faced with his pretentious and condescending questioning, the medical ninja who came in wanted to say something several times but hesitated. In the end, he said nothing, shrugged his shoulders and left on his own.
This reaction made Danzo frown.
What's going on? I just slept for a while, why do the people in the village disrespect me as an elder?
He waited and waited, but no one came. He had no choice but to get out of bed, complete the discharge procedures, and rushed to the Hokage's office without stopping.
When he knocked on the door and went in, the scene he saw shocked him again.
In the office, only Nara Shikaku and a few ANBU were handling daily work.
"Where's Hiruzen?" he asked.
"Elder Danzo? You finally woke up. Hiruzen-senpai should be in the ninja school now. If you have anything to ask, you can go to the principal's office to find him."
Shikaku's tone was polite yet distant, and even Danzo could hear a hint of tiredness and impatience.
This made Danzo's bad premonition even stronger.
I was only unconscious for a few months, why do I feel that the village has changed so much?
Monkey is not staying in the Hokage's office anymore? Did something big happen?
He nodded and said "hmm", then turned around and left in a hurry without looking back.
Up to this moment, no root subordinate had come to report to him.
He had waited in the hospital for so long! The news of his discharge should have been spread! Danzo's frown deepened, and the anxiety in his heart began to grow.
He planned to go to Hiruzen to ask about the situation first, and then go to the Root base to give these lazy subordinates a good lesson!
But when he arrived at the principal's office of the Ninja School, the scene he saw once again shocked him deeply!
I saw several elders of the Sarutobi clan surrounding Sarutobi Hiruzen and crying and wailing.
"Chief, you have to make the decision for us!!"
"Monkey, look at what your disciple Orochimaru has done? Does he still have you as his teacher in his eyes?"
"Hiruzen, are you really going to ignore the lives of our people? In just two months, more than 300 of our people have died in the Southwest War Zone!
Hiruzen, does your disciple really intend to kill us all? ! "
The elders of the tribe were so absorbed in their crying that they had even lost the most basic vigilance and discipline of a ninja.
Danzo approached the office, but none of them noticed him.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was aware of the approach of his old friend and tried desperately to stop his clansmen to prevent the family's disgrace from being exposed.
But things went against our wishes and we couldn't stop it.
When Danzo knocked on the door and came in rudely, this was the funny scene he saw.
At that moment, Danzo secretly curled his lips in his heart and thought: Monkey, I never thought that you would have this day!
Sarutobi Hiruzen's face turned pale. He waved his hand and quickly sent away this group of embarrassing clan elders.
After everyone had left, he picked up his pipe, took a deep puff irritably, then looked at Danzo and said coldly.
"You finally woke up, how do you feel?"
Danzo smiled and said, "I feel okay. This time it can be considered a blessing in disguise. My combat power has increased a lot."
Although Danzo tried to act calm when he said this, his gloating mood could not be hidden.
He returned from a serious injury with increased strength, but Monkey's family fell into poverty. This really shows that fate has its eyes and fortunes change!
Finally, a good thing happened to Shimura Danzo!
If it wasn't inconvenient in front of Sarutobi Hiruzen, Danzo would almost have laughed out loud.
"By the way, has anything happened in the village recently? What happened during the few months I was in a coma?
Also, where is my roots? Why has no one contacted me for so long? "
Then Danzo started to ask about the business.
Just with this question, his smile quickly froze.
Sarutobi Hiruzen said calmly, "Your roots are gone."
"What?! Hiruzen! Don't go too far! You clearly promised me—"
But before he could finish his question, he was coldly interrupted by Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"It wasn't me. There's no point yelling at me. While you were lying down, the commanders on the front line teamed up to divide up your roots."
"Then why didn't you stop them?! Hiruzen, you are the Hokage!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled bitterly, "Not anymore, Danzo, I am no longer the Hokage, do you regret it now?"
"Wha...what?!"
At this moment, I regret that I have magically ushered in a new version.
But what never changes is Danzo's powerlessness, humiliation and anger.
"What do I need to regret? Hiruzen, what are you talking about?!" Danzo tried to raise his voice to hide his panic.
But Sarutobi Hiruzen still smoked his pipe, as if he was numb to all this.
“Heh, it seems that you haven’t asked about what happened a while ago after you woke up.
Go ask around in the village and you'll find out. After you find out, ask yourself, Danzo, ask yourself if you regret provoking those crazy people from the Akatsuki organization!"
(End of this chapter)