After acquiring part of Danzo's memories, Kei Yamanaka immediately created two Shadow Clones.
One used the Transformation Jutsu to assume Danzo's appearance and took his place in front of Tatsuma Aburame and Squad Leader Otsu, taking over management of Root's daily affairs.
The other clone acted respectfully and subserviently toward Danzo, officially beginning his role as Deputy Director and gradually taking on all necessary responsibilities.
Meanwhile, Kei himself continued delving deep into Danzo's memories, as if excavating buried secrets!
Countless secrets of the ninja world unfolded before him.
It took almost two full days.
Only then did Kei finish completely going through Danzo's decades-long stream of memories.
During these two days, he also started changing the Tongue-Cutting Seal's target on most of Root's department heads to himself.
However, those department heads represented only a small fraction of all Root members.
Over the decades since Hiruzen Sarutobi reclaimed leadership, Danzo had gradually grown Root into a vast organization.
Based on Kei's estimate,
it would take at least one or two months to change the Tongue-Cutting Seals for everyone.
Especially for the spies and undercover agents dispatched to other hidden villages.
Unless they were recalled right now, tracking them down in the short term would be nearly impossible!
"So… he still can't die yet?"
Kushina's face flushed with frustration as she repeatedly poked Danzo with a small wooden stick.
Two full days without food or water, combined with forced memory extraction,
had left Danzo extremely weakened.
His entire body was now covered in bruises from the poking.
Kushina had truly made good on her earlier promise—there wasn't an inch of Danzo's skin left untouched!
"Hmph, I misjudged you, Kei Yamanaka. You will become Konoha's new Root. The shadow of Root shall envelop the entire Leaf! Even the Hokage will kneel beneath this shadow! Hahahaha!"
Danzo's weak voice oozed unrestrained madness and fanaticism.
All his previous bitterness and resentment seemed to vanish entirely at the sight of Root's rising power.
"Just because he won't die doesn't mean he can live comfortably."
Kei stomped his foot onto Danzo's face, completely unfazed by the words.
As if surviving now just to plot revenge later would work?
After reading through Danzo's complete memories, Kei even knew exactly how far that old man could pee—what chance did he have of outsmarting him?
"Huh? So what should we do then?"
Kushina pushed Kei's foot aside and went back to poking Danzo's head mercilessly with the stick.
If he could still talk, his face must still have some good spots left!
"Stop playing around. Step outside for a second. I'm about to perform a small operation on him."
Using the mental breach opened by Yin Release and Memory Reading Jutsu, Kei formed hand seals and began forcibly deleting Danzo's memories.
Obediently, Kushina stepped out of the basement, curious about what was coming next.
"You bastard… old man won't let you…"
Feeling the searing pain in his mind, Danzo glared wildly.
However, the next moment, pain that exceeded his tolerance limit activated his body's self-preservation response.
He rolled his eyes back and passed out from the pain.
Kei Yamanaka had no intention of sparing Danzo a moment's mercy.
Without hesitation, he wiped every single memory from the man's mind!
Then, Kei reached into his Memory Palace, pulling forth horrifying images from his past life. He used Yin Release energy to project these scenes onto familiar faces in the ninja world, forcibly implanting them into Danzo's mind.
The memory alteration was complete.
His hands weaving through hand seals, he channeled chakra into a scalpel formed in his left palm.
Using the Blue-tier Medical Ninjutsu granted by [Paradise Milk], he boldly reconstructing Danzo's facial structure.
Combined with the sustained healing effects of [Medical Water Release: Water Jellyfish].
In less than half an hour,
Danzo's aged and wrinkled face transformed into that of a middle-aged, handsome man.
His once sagging skin that had sagged with age across his entire body were now taut and youthful, in perfect harmony with his newly reconstructed face.
As Danzo's body convulsed from the side effects of [Paradise Milk], Kei watched with cold indifference.
After thoroughly inspecting all of the man's memories,
Refraining from slicing this bastard into mincemeat was already an act of extreme restraint on Kei's part.
Everything this guy would suffer from now on was exactly what he deserved!
Grabbing Danzo's blood-caked hair, he plucked out his Sharingan and replaced it with a pair of ordinary eyes. Then he gave him a new hairstyle.
In a flash, he vanished, transporting Danzo to a remote corner of Konoha using the [Flying Thunder God Technique].
He callously tossed the utterly naked man into a garbage heap.
At that moment, a system alert chimed.
[Beep~ Drastically altered the fate of one of the primary antagonists. World line progression has shifted. Reward obtained: 1 Concept Keyword Draw opportunity, 1 Random Blue-Tier Keyword Upgrade opportunity, 1 Keyword Draw opportunity, 1 Skill Reset opportunity.]
The [Fortune Player] ability triggered the moment the system announced its reward.
The destiny power originally attached to Danzo started rapidly fading away.
Kei could clearly feel it.
Under the effect of the keyword, this destiny power was absorbed and transmuted into personal fortune energy, quickly merging into his own body.
Glancing at the thicker green aura around him now,
Kei's mood, which had just slightly improved with the system's notification, darkened once more.
This wretched old man couldn't even push his fortune up to the Blue tier.
Tch~
He muttered with irritation.
Kei vanished in another flash, returning back to the basement, using somewhat clumsy Fire Release techniques to remove all traces of the scene.
After spending a considerable amount of time,
Once he verified that not a single clue remained,
He finally shifted his focus to the System Interface within his mind.
...
Name: Kei Yamanaka
Class: Ninja
Activated Traits: [World Traveler] (Red), [Instant Action] (Red), [Sage Transformation] (Red), [Yin Mastery] (Purple), [Water Mastery] (Purple), [Time-Space Insight] (Purple), [All-Knowing Sage of the Ninja World] (Blue-tier), [Shadow Step] (Blue-tier), [Handsome] (Blue-tier), [Luck Absorber] (Blue-tier), [Paradise Milk] (Blue-tier), [Harbinger of Doom] (Black-tier).
[Inactive Skill Listings: Chrysalis User (White), Fragile Skin (White), Tough Life (White), A Single Pregnancy, Nine Treasures (Blue), Own Nothing (Gray), Complete Childhood (Gray), Older Sister's Comeback (White)]
Skill Listing Copy: 1
Skill Listing Draw: 2
Skill Listing Gift: 7
Skill Listing Downgrades: 2
Skill Listing Reset: 1
Concept Skill Listing Draw Opportunity: 1
Random Blue-Tier Skill Upgrade Opportunity: 1
...
"Five blue-tier skills. Not gonna work with this!"
Kei Yamanaka let out an inward sigh.
After weighing how to get the most value, he first chose to perform a Concept Skill Listing Draw.
[Congratulations, Host! You have obtained the Blue-Tier Skill 'Invisible Severing Blade'.]
Invisible Severing Blade (Blue): Through your daily devotion to swordsmanship, you've inadvertently brushed against an unknown realm. When launching any kind of strike against a target, there's a slight chance this power will activate, randomly severing one of the target's "heads" (whether literal or metaphorical). Using bladed weapons enhances your weapon proficiency, power, and speed.
"What exactly counts as a 'head' here? Like, an actual head?"
Staring at the system's vague description, Kei already had an image forming in his mind.
No one could blame him for making such cynical assumptions.
The system had proven itself unreliable far too often.
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