Chapter Ninety-Nine: Seduction
Shimura Danzo, for various reasons, decided to intensify his efforts to win over Kato Mikaze after receiving a report yesterday analyzing Mikaze's strength. In addition, Danzo's curiosity about Kato Mikaze, the newly promoted Konoha Jonin he had long sought to recruit, grew even deeper.
Since Danzo had resolved to increase his recruitment efforts, certain matters needed to be clarified—such as the secret behind Kato Mikaze's rapid improvement in strength. Upon learning last night that Mikaze had returned to the village, Danzo immediately arranged for his trusted aides at the Spring Base to make a series of preparations. The nest of parasitic insects in the corridor outside Mikaze's office was just one of Danzo’s minor arrangements. Monitoring the movements of important individuals who were not his direct subordinates was, in the eyes of the Root leader, hardly even worth mentioning.
Today at noon, after finishing his duties with the Root organization, Danzo came early to the Spring Base, hoping to meet Mikaze and personally attempt to recruit him again. But when he arrived, he discovered Mikaze had not reported in to end his leave. After dispatching Root ANBU to investigate, Danzo learned that since returning home the previous night, Mikaze had remained inside all morning, never stepping outside.
According to Root’s earlier intelligence, Mikaze was known to be diligent and disciplined, always rising at a fixed hour, training every morning, and taking at least one bath daily unless special circumstances arose. Danzo surmised that the high-intensity completion of so many advanced missions had taken a toll on him, so Mikaze was likely resting at home.
Danzo decided to wait for Mikaze at the Spring Base, but as the afternoon drew to a close and Mikaze still hadn’t appeared, Danzo dispatched Root ANBU once more to seek him out.
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Konoha Village, underground Spring Base, Danzo’s office.
Some time had passed since Mikaze’s arrival; the two had already exchanged several rounds of conversation and were now resting with tea. Unlike previous meetings, this time Danzo spoke more while Mikaze mostly listened.
Mikaze was now certain—his earlier intuition was not mistaken: Danzo was indeed attempting to recruit him. Danzo had reiterated, in even more explicit terms, the same recruitment offers he’d made before—promises of benefits, jutsu, authority, and status. Though Mikaze had seen all these tactics from Danzo previously, this time Danzo’s intentions were much more blatant.
Beyond these familiar inducements, Danzo had introduced a new approach. Seated in the office was a third person: a fair-skinned, blonde woman with a waspish waist and generous hips. She had just entered to serve tea and snacks, and Mikaze had never seen her in the Spring Base before.
When Mikaze glimpsed her figure, he was startled—almost mistaking her for Tsunade, captured by Danzo and brought here. Her face was unlike Tsunade’s, her temperament was different, but in every other aspect—her build, bearing, height, hairstyle—even her clothing, which deliberately mimicked Tsunade’s green ceremonial robe, she was an imitation.
After serving tea, the woman did not leave the office as one might expect. Instead, she sat beside Mikaze, silent, occasionally pouring him tea with gentle care. Danzo offered no introduction, but Mikaze, reflecting on Danzo’s earlier words, grasped the intent clearly: this woman was meant for him.
His first response, upon seeing her, was anger. Then Mikaze realized she was not Tsunade, merely someone Danzo had found who resembled her. Danzo was attempting to seduce him, and once Mikaze understood the situation, his anger intensified, though he quickly suppressed it.
“What is this—seduction after bribery? Danzo, you certainly think highly of me,” Mikaze mused. “Danzo, I’ll remember this debt.”
In Mikaze’s eyes, Danzo’s attempt to use seduction was trivial. After more than ten years as a Konoha ninja, he was no longer a naïve rookie; he’d seen plenty of the ninja world’s darkness, and far more grotesque tactics than these. Wasn’t the man before him known as “the Darkness of the Shinobi World”? Such methods were merely minor tools in his arsenal to win over others.
However, Danzo’s mistake was seeking out a woman so similar to Tsunade to seduce Mikaze. Mikaze had admired Tsunade since his academy days; his pursuit of her was well known, certainly to Danzo. Perhaps Danzo believed Mikaze’s fondness for Tsunade stemmed merely from her appearance, and so he thought gifting a lookalike would play to Mikaze’s desires.
But to Mikaze, Danzo’s deliberate selection of a Tsunade-like woman was a grave offense to Tsunade herself. It touched Mikaze’s deepest nerve. In this dark ninja world, Tsunade was his last sanctuary of light and purity, one he would defend with all his strength.
At that moment, Mikaze sat calmly on the office sofa, observing Danzo’s feigned warmth and listening to his enticing words. He glanced at the woman beside him, noting her affectation of Tsunade’s mannerisms, her clumsy imitation, and felt a profound, inexplicable disgust.
Though Mikaze kept his anger firmly suppressed and showed nothing outwardly, he knew within himself—he wanted to kill. Danzo was not someone he could eliminate now, but this woman who filled him with revulsion…
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Danzo lifted his teacup, took a sip, and said, “Well then, Kato, our meeting ends here. I won’t take up more of your time. The doors of Root are always open to you.”
Seeing that Mikaze understood his intentions, Danzo began to signal the end of their meeting. Throughout, he never glanced at the woman, treating her as if she were invisible. His meaning was clear: she was now Mikaze’s personal property, to be disposed of as he pleased.
“Thank you for your generosity, Lord Danzo. I won’t trouble you further—I’ll take my leave now,” Mikaze replied, rising and casting a discreet glance at the bandages on Danzo’s right arm, then another at the black insects lurking in the corner of the office. Finally, he looked once more at the woman who disgusted him. He offered Danzo a satisfied smile, then departed.
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After Mikaze left, Danzo sat alone, quietly drinking his tea. Some time passed before a cluster of black insects drifted from a shadowy corner, coalescing before Danzo into the kneeling figure of the Spring Base’s Aburame security chief.
“Increase surveillance on him to the level used for Orochimaru. Did you observe anything unusual just now from your position?” Danzo asked.
No verbal reply came; instead, several black insects crawled into Danzo’s ear.
Tap… tap… Danzo drummed his bandaged right hand against the tabletop.
“…In that case, send the woman downstairs for treatment after tonight. Give her the best care,” he instructed.
“It seems our new friend truly cares about the First’s granddaughter… Heh, an interesting young man. It’s good to have someone to care about—very good.”
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