Danzo Shimura

**Danzō Shimura** (志村ダンゾウ, *Shimura Danzō*) is an elder of Konohagakure. As the founder and leader of Root, Danzō gained notoriety as **The Darkness of the Shinobi** (忍の闇, *Shinobi no Yami*, *English TV:* The Shinobi of Darkness) because of his frequent unsanctioned actions and his often-suspected (but rarely proven) undermining of specific Konoha personnel. Despite his decades of suspicious deeds, Danzō only ever acted in what he believed were the village's best interests. He was appointed the **Sixth Hokage Candidate** (六代目火影候補, *Rokudaime Hokage Kōho*, *literally meaning:* Sixth Fire Shadow Candidate) after Pain's assault on the village. Prior to being inaugurated officially into this post, Danzō would flee the Five Kage Summit and died in battle against Sasuke Uchiha at the Samurai Bridge. In the present days, he was resurrected

## Background

Born into the Shimura Clan to his shinobi father, Danzō went onto joining the Academy, where he was amongst the first few hundred of students to graduate. From his genin days, he was acquainted with Hiruzen Sarutobi, whom he became rivals with in everything. Danzō once saw the First Hokage in battle, where he witnessed Hashirama's formidable Wood Release ninjutsu.

During the First Shinobi World War, Danzō, as part of the Escort Unit alongside Kagami Uchiha, Torifu Akimichi and Team Tobirama, became surrounded by Kumogakure's Kinkaku Squad. Having concluded that a member of their team had to sacrifice themselves as a decoy in order for the rest of them to escape, Danzō struggled to bring himself to volunteer. As Hiruzen proclaimed to take the role, Danzō called himself weak while a part of him was relieved. Lashing out at Hiruzen for volunteering before he could, the Second Hokage decided to be the decoy instead, while appointing Hiruzen as his successor to Danzō's shock. The team then managed to escape at the cost of Tobirama's life.

With Hiruzen having beaten him to the title of Hokage, Danzō began planning to someday attain the title himself. Taking up the village's more clandestine operations — something that Hiruzen noted because of his own indulgence, he allowed Danzō to do — he created the Anbu subsidiary named Root, with the organisation under Danzō's direct command. Within this group, Danzō himself hand-picked various young shinobi with noticeable potential to join.

During the Third Shinobi World War, Danzō agreed to provide aid to Hanzō of Amegakure in order to receive help in claiming the title of Hokage, sending some of his forces to deal with Akatsuki, but they were all wiped out by Nagato. In the anime, it is revealed Danzō manipulated Hanzō into joining forces with him against Akatsuki, having brought him corpses of Ame shinobi claiming they were killed by Akatsuki. In truth, they were Root members disguised as Iwa shinobi that were killed during Nagato's rampage, originally being used to disrupt a peace treaty between Konohagakure and Iwagakure in his pursuit to strengthen Konohagakure. Once the two shinobi joined forces, Danzō approached Akatsuki as an Ame shinobi named **Kanzō** (カンゾウ, *Kanzō*), informing them that Hanzō is allowing the group to make peace negotiations, which of course was a ruse concocted by the allied shinobi.

At some point in time, Danzō also had dealings with Orochimaru, who accompanied him, along with Tatsuma Aburame, to Konoha Orphanage where he strong-armed a former Anbu agent, Nonō, to infiltrate Iwagakure and confirm the intel on what the village was planning. Soon after, Danzō notices Kabuto Yakushi spying from the window and decides to recruit the boy as well. However, in time, both Kabuto and Nonō become assets too dangerous to be left alive and Danzō tricks a brainwashed Nonō into killing Kabuto. Danzō sent Orochimaru to ensure no survivors, however, he instead took Kabuto under his wing without Danzō's knowledge. At some point, Orochimaru also surgically replaced Danzō's right arm with Shin Uchiha's, infusing the limb with Hashirama Senju's DNA to modify his physical energy. Later in the anime, when Hiruzen sought to end the bloodshed from the Third Shinobi World War through a truce with the other villages, Danzō voiced his disdain, feeling that a such an act was spitting on the memory of all the Konoha shinobi who died so far. Understanding Danzō's intent, Hiruzen decided to take responsibility for the loss by stepping down as Hokage. At a meeting with the Land of Fire Council, Danzō strongly suggested that Orochimaru be made Fourth Hokage. Hiruzen, however, pointed out that Orochimaru had grown power-hungry and showed signs of sinister intent. Ultimately, Minato Namikaze was elected as Fourth Hokage unanimously, excluding Danzō who detested the idea, feeling that following Hiruzen's ideology will ultimately destroy Konoha.

In the anime -- during Kurama's attack on Konoha -- Danzō insisted that the Uchiha Clan not be allowed to join in the defence of the village, fearing that someone like Madara Uchiha would take advantage of the situation and use the Nine-Tails against Konoha. Ultimately, he convinced Hiruzen to have the Uchiha purely protect the citizens and avoid the Nine-Tails. After Kurama was stopped, Danzō was one of the elders to suspect the Uchiha clan was behind the attack, and began a spying operation on them, relocating the Uchiha to the outskirts of the village. With the Fourth Hokage sacrificing himself to seal away the Nine-Tails inside his son, Hiruzen humbly resumed his role as Third Hokage, much to Danzō's disdain. Afterwards, Danzō approached a grieving young Kakashi Hatake, noting that it was Hiruzen's orders for the children, even high-ranking ninja like Kakashi, to not help battle the Nine-Tails, ultimately preventing Kakashi from possibly saving his sensei and his wife. Convincing an emotional Kakashi that Hiruzen was not best for the future of the village, Kakashi agreed to join Danzō's Root division and spy on Hiruzen for him. Later, as the Third Hokage resumed his role, Danzō, no longer able to tolerate Hiruzen's overly passive methods, sought to dispose of him. He sent several Root members to assassinate Hiruzen. However, a smug Danzō was soon approached by Hiruzen, who revealed that Kakashi informed him of the assassination attempt. As Danzō feared for his life knowing he could be executed for his treasonous actions, Hiruzen calmly chose to spare Danzō, keeping this event a secret on the condition Danzō agreed to dedicate his life to protecting the village. Quickly recomposing himself, Danzō plainly stated that Hiruzen's naive faith and mercy would be his end one day, to which the Third solemnly admitted may be so. Later, Danzō met with Orochimaru, telling him about the recent events and insisted they not meet for a while in fear Hiruzen might realise that Danzō and Orochimaru were behind the abduction of several Konoha citizens, to which the Sannin voiced that Hiruzen probably already has his suspicions. However, Orochimaru did another implant onto Danzō taking Shin's Sharingan-embedded arm and placing that, alongside some of Hashirama's cells, onto that of Danzō's.

Later, Orochimaru's sinister actions were discovered by the Third Hokage, forcing the Sannin to abandon Konoha. When Danzō learned of this, he knew Orochimaru would most likely go to their hideout with the Iburi clan. He sent Kinoe to inform the clan of Orochimaru's arrival. Danzō's true goal was to have Kinoe capture Orochimaru, agreeing with Hiruzen that Orochimaru was too dangerous to let go rogue. Over the years, Danzō continued to recruit new members of Root, including Torune Aburame of the Aburame clan. Three years after Orochimaru's defection from the village, fearing that his stolen Sharingan eye would soon go blind from its overuse, Danzō sent Kinoe in an attempt to steal Kakashi's Sharingan as a replacement. Kinoe soon returned, having chosen to abandon his mission, much to Danzō's fury. Reminding the young shinobi of his duties as a Root member, Kinoe insisted that they should not attack allies to Konoha, which Danzō proclaimed that Root's only true allies is its own and exists only to protect Konoha itself. Unable to accept Danzō's cold views, Kinoe spoke out, making his feelings known. Horrified to see how much Kinoe had changed, Danzō used his Sharingan to incapacitate Kinoe, having one of his men take Kinoe to have his cursed seal activated. As Danzō arrived at the operating room, he discovered Kakashi freeing Kinoe and retreating with him. Danzō and his men soon surrounded the duo. As Kinoe was still under Danzō's command and Kakashi had trespassed on Root territory, Danzō had full authority to execute them. Before Danzō could act, the Third Hokage arrived, revealing that Kakashi was sent on his orders with a summoning request to be delivered to Danzō. No longer able to attack, Danzō faked ignorance of Hiruzen's letter and called off his men. Hiruzen then spoke to Danzō about Kinoe and his abilities. Insisting that Konoha needed the Wood Release, Danzō agreed to hand over Kinoe to Hiruzen's command but chose to not remove Kinoe's cursed seal. Three years later, a potential alliance between Konoha and the Land of Woods was made. While a team was sent to exchange secret scrolls with the Wood-nin as a sign of trust, a small team of Anbu, under Danzō's command, was sent to observe under the suspicion that the Wood-nin would betray Konoha, in which case, the Anbu were ordered to kill them. Danzō chose Kakashi, still having high respect for his abilities, and the new recruit Danzō recommended into Anbu, Itachi Uchiha, as a two-man team for the mission.

Two years later, when word reached Konoha's leadership of a planned coup d'état by the Uchiha clan, Danzō took advantage of Itachi's pacifist tendencies and convinced him to provide him and the other elders with information of the clan's actions. When Shisui Uchiha, acknowledged for his unquestionable loyalty to Konohagakure, presented his plan of ceasing the Uchiha's coup by casting Kotoamatsukami on his clansmen to the Council, Hiruzen agreed. Danzō, however, determined to protect the village in his own way and, believing that Shisui may try to manipulate him as well, stole the latter's right eye, implanting it into his socket, with Shisui committing suicide sometime later. When Hiruzen decided to end the coup diplomatically, Danzō secretly met with Itachi and inveigled him into choosing to slaughter his clan by presenting him with the option of killing them and sparing his younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha or letting them go through with the coup and having them all killed as a result. Itachi regretfully chose to kill the Uchiha clan.

Soon after the deed was done, Danzō told everyone that Itachi had done this out of his own will, having grown to despise his clan and even sought greater power by stealing Shisui's eyes. While everyone else believed this fabricated story, Hiruzen saw through Danzō's lie, voicing his disgust at Danzō's actions. While trying to justify his actions by claiming it was for the village, Hiruzen retorted that the Uchiha were part of the village and never actually performed any treachery before their demise. No longer able to trust Danzō and his underhanded ways, Hiruzen immediately removed him from the Council and ordered for his Root division to be disbanded. Afterwards, Itachi's clone, disguised as a Root member, approached Danzō and threatened to expose Konoha's secrets to the other countries if Danzō ever harmed Sasuke. He met with Tobi around this time for reasons unknown. Over the years, despite his Root division being officially disbanded, Danzō continued to keep it secretly active.

During the Konoha Crush, the Fourth Raikage insinuated that the invasion was a secret plot of Danzō with Akatsuki to dispose of both the Hiruzen and the Fourth Kazekage; however, it is unknown whether this actually happened. After seeing Hiruzen sacrifice himself using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to defeat Orochimaru, Danzō decided to teach Sai how to use a powerful fūinjutsu, in order to prevent the same from happening to himself. During the training, Danzō noted that Sai could use "emotional energy" to bolster the power of the attack but warned the young man not to fall prey to his negative emotions.

## Personality

When he was younger, Danzō was a hotheaded and eager ninja with a strong desire to prove himself. He, after a long internal struggle, decided to volunteer himself to buy time for his teammates, though Hiruzen beat him to it. He often displayed jealousy towards Hiruzen, believing he was always one step ahead of him and feeling inferior to him. Danzō never used soft words like "friend", as he never wanted to lean on someone or be leaned on. As an adult, Danzō was a completely calm, cold and collected individual who did not allow his emotions to surface. Having fought many wars, and having looked up to his father's and grandfather's example of dying in battle, he came to disagree with other Hokage, believing that the interests of the village should be placed above all else, even ethics and morals. Danzō seemed to hate the previous Hokage's beliefs stating those beliefs have destroyed the village after Pain's assault on it, despite using the attack as an attempt to overthrow Tsunade and leaving its citizens in peril as well as being responsible for Nagato's negative perceptions of Konoha, which lead to its destruction. According to Koharu Utatane, Danzō was very ambitious, but she also stated that all he ever did was for the sake of the village. In the anime, his desire to be a greater and stronger Hokage than Hiruzen made him even attempt to have Hiruzen assassinated in the belief that the Third Hokage had lost the capacity to effectively lead the village. An extremist, Danzō preferred to directly eliminate threats through assassination and execution rather than diplomacy and negotiation. However, he secretly worked closely with the international criminal Orochimaru in illegal experiments in order to increase his physical capabilities. Danzō possessed a fanatical and arbitrary adherence to the ideals of a shinobi, believing they must sacrifice absolutely everything for the village. However, Danzō hypocritically feared death, hiding this fear behind a belief that his survival was necessary for the sake of the shinobi world itself. He would only conquer this fear in the last moments of his life, boldly attempting to kill Sasuke and Tobi for the sake of his village and the entire shinobi world with his suicide, and destroying Shisui's eye with his dying breath.

Despite his reputation as a militarist, Danzō ultimately sought peace for the ninja world, one he would achieve by uniting all shinobi forces under his control. As such, he sought the title of Hokage, waiting patiently for decades before an opportunity arose. Danzō's pursuit of peace followed an ends justifies the means. As such, he had no remorse taking any immoral actions as long as he believed it would benefit Konoha. To that end, he worked in the shadows to ensure that this future came to fruition. He used Root to eliminate potential threats to Konohagakure with or without the consent of the Hokage and to further him along the path to achieving the position, as he believed he was best prepared for the "necessary" transition. Because of the nature of his actions, Danzō could not allow the details of what he had done to become public knowledge, and thus he branded members of Root with cursed seals to prevent them from revealing his secrets. Danzō also believed Konoha was strongest and most stable when the village had a target to focus its anger and hatred on. To this end, Danzō was key in stigmatising the Uchiha clan to the rest of the village and was the one to secretly leak out the knowledge that Naruto Uzumaki was the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox, ensuring the villagers would loathe him as a result. Danzō also views the members of Root as expendable pawns and shows no remorse in having them perform duties that could result in permanent injury as shown in his ordering Fū to gouge out Ao's Byakugan, despite the fact it would result in Fū losing his eye as well.

Danzō is also treacherous by nature. Likewise, should an "ally" prove too capable for his comfort, Danzō will see to their elimination, as he attempted to do with both Nonō and Kabuto. Itachi also believed Danzō had no intention of honouring his promise of sparing Sasuke when he accepted the mission to kill his own clan and had to threaten to leak Konoha's secrets to enemy villages and risk his own safety by returning to Konoha after Hiruzen's death to protect Sasuke's life. He was willing to do anything to further his physical and political powers, as shown in allowing himself to be experimented on with Hashirama's cells by Orochimaru in order to gain the power to control a tailed beast and extend his use of Izanagi. He also broke international law by manipulating Mifune into making him supreme commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces. In his later years, Danzō had become somewhat delusional, believing that he would be able to change the Shinobi World, even though his actions at the Kage Summit lost him his credibility. Danzō also had no hesitation in stealing Shisui's right eye in order to gain access to Kotoamatsukami despite his unquestionable loyalty to Konoha over his own clan and the fact he was a descendant of someone who had once been Danzō's own comrade. Tobi deduced Danzō's intent was to seize control of the Nine-Tails from Naruto by using his multiple Sharingan. Danzō is also shown to be extremely arrogant, as seen in his gloating during his final clash with Sasuke, believing he had won, and only he is capable of changing the entire world.

Despite his self-righteous, amoral, and draconian methods, Danzō had a sense of nobility and dignity. He reprimanded Sasuke for his hatred and violence against Konoha, saying that it had wasted both the sacrifice of the Uchiha and Itachi's own personal sacrifices. Like Hiruzen, he used the final moments of his life to help Konoha by trying to take Sasuke and Tobi with him. Despite his envy against the Third and their growing rivalry, he seemed to still care for his boyhood friendship with Hiruzen, reminiscing of his childhood memories with him and asking what he was to Hiruzen in his final moments. His fellow elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, held Danzō in high regard, and often took his advice when dealing with the politics of the village. It is unknown how much they knew about the full extent of his actions.