BryanSk8
Jōnin Strategist 🧠
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Back with another Wall of text. Also I am not a Danzo fan but I wanted to point this out.
What you can’t believe someone would actually defend Danzo’s actions. Well, yes and no. I am going to defend some of Danzo’s point of view, but mainly defend his place as one of the more interesting antagonist to Naruto. Some claim Danzo is completely evil, which is not true, he his absolutely ruthless, but his goal is to defend Konoha. Others have a feeling that they like Danzo, which is certainly a fine view to have, but they put forth arguments that he will change to good guy. This will not happen Danzo is Danzo, and he will always be the way he is now. So what follows is my defense, sorry if came out much longer than I intended which at first was only going to related to recent events. I have divided it into sections that you can chose to read as you like. Also be warned, there are spoilers up to Chapter 478.
So what is Danzo, he is the absolute perfection of the old shinobi way. He completely removes emotion from his actions and does whatever is necessary to protect Konoha and the land of fire. This point of view has been shown many times from Zabuza to Granny Chiyo. But whereas Zabuza and others get a thrill from killing, Danzo kills when it is necessary to further his goals. So lets see how this attitude affects his actions in few case where people think he is evil.
Hokage Power Struggle
The first thing we learn about Danzo is that he doesn’t like the leadership style of Konoha, particularly the third Hokage and Tsunade. Now these characters are the protagonists, so Danzo is in opposition to the sympathy of the reader. However, Danzo’s reasons are not really that he desires power, but that he thinks the previous Hokage are poor leaders. In fact many of the other Kage in other lands that we know of are mostly like Danzo. The previous Mizukage were Madara or under his control and used harsh training style to kill emotions. The Kazekage used his own son to seal in Shukaku. However, Konoha is different, but they are the exception.
The question then is did the kind of leadership of the Hokage lead to problems, in many cases it did. In the third Hokage’s case Orochimaru experimented on fellow shinobi, and when he was found he fled. It was the third Hokage’s hesitation that allowed Orochimaru to live. Even Sarutobi himself realizes this mistake. The result of this hesitation is an international criminal on the loose. In Tsunade case, Sasuke was allowed to stay at large and has now become a threat to every nation. We also know the Third Great Ninja War started during the reign of the third Hokage, but we don’t have much details on this.
These reasons make Danzo doubtful of the Hokage leadership style, and he certainly is right that awful things have occurred. His emotionlessness and ruthlessness would certainly have result in different events with some of worst crimes of the day never happening. So we can understand Danzo’s desire to be Hokage not so much because he wants power and recognition, but because he believes he would be better. It is also worth while to mention that Danzo is proud that he is not well known and likes to operate behind the scenes. In otherwords, he is not in pursuit of self gratification.
Uchiha Massacre
One reason many hate Danzo is because of his role in the Uchiha massacre, and it certainly was a gruesome event. But the alternatives would most certainly have been worse. The attack of the Ninetails precipitated the destructive of the Uchiha clan. At least according to Minato, who probably is the most trustworthy, Madara caused this to happen. He mostly likely planned to split the Uchiha of from the rest of Konoha. Whatever the case, we know the Uchiha clan was preparing to at least take over Konoha, and this coup–de-tat would have resulted in many deaths.
At the time, the third Hokage wanted to negotiate, but was apparently overruled by his advisors and Danzo. It is interesting that the Third did not get his way, perhaps his failure with Orochimaru led to greater leeway being given to Danzo. It is also important to note that Itachi was the spy, so information regarding the Uchiha was very accurate and Itachi himself decided that he would massacre the entire clan. It may have been gruesome, but it is clear that most of the Uchiha were quite dangerous.
It also important to note, as we have seen recently, that Danzo seems to have a lot of respect for the fact that Itachi sacrificed himself for the good of the village. In particular, Itachi allowed himself to be viewed as a criminal. Danzo’s only disappointment is that he thinks Itachi revealed the true plot to Sasuke, which of course was actually due to Madara.
Betrayal after Betrayal, Scheme after Scheme
Danzo has certainly been involved in a lot of hidden schemes that are certainly shocking. Lets go through some of these to at least consider Danzo’s reasoning.
During the Third Great Ninja War, Danzo teamed up Hanzo and betrayed Yahiko and Nagato’s band of ninja resulting in Yahiko death. This betrayal was certainly important in Pain’s creation, however it was a pretty reasonable action on Danzo’s part. The war had continued for many years, no doubt Danzo blamed the current Hokage, so he formed an alliance with a very strong shinobi Hanzo. If Hanzo wanted help to remove a troublesome uprising in his country, Danzo probably thought that was a fair deal. We don’t the final result of this alliance, but it least seems a reasonable action to end a drawn out war.
Danzo also seemed to betray the Konoha to Orochimaru to become Hokage. However, his actual goal was to kill Sasuke. Now that nearly everyone except Naruto believes Sasuke should be killed, we can say that Danzo was just thinking ahead of everyone else. It also true that Danzo used Tsunade personal ANBU members to gain Orochimaru’s trust, but from his point of view damaging a weak Hokage is not a bad thing if this causes a stronger Hokage to be installed.
Danzo also killed the messenger frog that was going to bring Naruto back during the Pain invasion. First of all he only kill a frog, a talking frog no doubt, but still a frog. His reason for his action was because he did not want Pain to get the nine-tailed fox. The advisors again agreed with him, but Tsunade overwrote their wished. Tsunade did this because she believes in Naruto. Danzo does care about Naruto, but want to keep the ninetails safe. He did not try to fight Pain, but stayed hidden. He believed that Tsunade would save the life of most of the villagers. As it turned, he was right. If the rest of the village retreated as well more lives may not have been lost. Of course in the end it didn’t matter because Naruto convinced Pain to bring everyone back to life.
Danzo recently used Shisui’s Sharingan to try and control the Gokage summit. It is true this was devious, but from Danzo’s perspective the other Kage were not trustworthy, and his goal was to protect the ninja world from the Akatsuki and Madara.
Danzo’s Powers, Orochimaru, and Controlling the Ninetails
Recently we have learned that Danzo has many powers: Shisui’s Sharingan, an arm full of Sharingan and the First Hokage’s powers. Apparently, he is going to use all these to control Naruto/ninetails, and he got all these powers from Orochimaru, ‘Oh No’ Danzo’s evil. Well, hold on a minute, let’s examine this first.
First, Orochimaru use to be a Konoha shinobi so there is little evidence that Danzo was ever involved with the Akatuski. We know Orochimaru had experiments with the First’s DNA before he left the village. Danzo has somehow benefited from these experiments, which likely means he knew they were occurring. This is pretty disgusting that he allow these experiments, but unlike Orochimaru who was obsessed with finding all the jutsu of the world Danzo made this sacrifice similar to other Kage.
At some point Danzo added Sharingan to his arm, but it is unlikely that Orochimaru was involved. Danzo most likely got these Sharingan after the Uchiha massacre, where else would he get so many. The question is did he contact Orochimaru, not very likely. Orochimaru was obsessed with Sharingan, if Danzo brought Sharingan to him, Orochimaru most certainly would have kept some for himself. Why would he only give them to Danzo? After the massacre, the only available Sharinagan were Itachi’ and Sasuke’s. That is why Orochimaru was obsessed with being one of them.
With the First’s DNA in this arm. Someone else must have been able to graft the Sharingan into it. Implanting Shisui’s eye must have been straight forward as we’ve seen it can even be done in the battle field.
Madara thinks that Danzo is going to use the First’s power and the Sharingan to control the ninetails, this is probably true. From Danzo’s perspective this makes perfect sense. He saw the destruction the nine-tailed fox caused to the leaf village. He certainly does not want another nation to get their hands on this power. He probably was quite pleased that Minato sealed the power in Naruto. However, he also knows the Uchiha are dangerous, so he had them killed. He doesn’t want the Uchiha to control the ninetails, from his perspective they are probably emotional nutcases, but he also believes it needs to be controlled. Since he already has the First’s power, he probably believed if he also had the Sharingan he would be the best able to control it.
The Future of Danzo
Given all these facts, should we be rooting for Danzo? No, of course not. He will always be in opposition to Naruto and, if his wishes were completely carried out, he would probably kill Naruto. Danzo’s view is that of the old Shinobi way that peace is only brought about through the strength of the village and its ninja, preferable those with little emotion who don’t go on killing sprees because of revenge. Naruto is trying to find a new a path towards peace that was started by Jiraiya. We as readers should be rooting that Naruto succeeds.
Does that mean you should not like Danzo? No, go ahead and cheer for him when he completely dismisses Sasuke path. Right now Sasuke is nothing compared to Itachi, Danzo is right. Danzo and Naruto agree on the point of the meaninglessness of revenge. If you like watching Danzo smack Sasuke around enjoy that too. Do you love to hate Danzo? That’s fine as well. Danzo is certain to be an implacable enemy to Naruto. He is ruthless, clever, and knows when to retreat. In many ways he is like Madara, but he does not want to rule the world. Like Pain he wants peace in his own way, but instead of making everyone understand suffering, he wants to remove emotion that lead to pointless conflicts. But don’t needless despise Danzo and wish for his quick removal from this story. He is certainly going to be one of most interesting characters in the future.
What is the best we well wishers can hope for Danzo’s future, certainly not that he succeeds and Danzo's beliefs will never allow him to change. The best is that Danzo will lose to Naruto and realizes he has been bested. Perhaps he will tip his hat to the superior strength and drive of Naruto and return to his plotting in the darkness. Perhaps as he leaves we will just catch his last words: Old Shinobi never die, they just fade away.
What you can’t believe someone would actually defend Danzo’s actions. Well, yes and no. I am going to defend some of Danzo’s point of view, but mainly defend his place as one of the more interesting antagonist to Naruto. Some claim Danzo is completely evil, which is not true, he his absolutely ruthless, but his goal is to defend Konoha. Others have a feeling that they like Danzo, which is certainly a fine view to have, but they put forth arguments that he will change to good guy. This will not happen Danzo is Danzo, and he will always be the way he is now. So what follows is my defense, sorry if came out much longer than I intended which at first was only going to related to recent events. I have divided it into sections that you can chose to read as you like. Also be warned, there are spoilers up to Chapter 478.
So what is Danzo, he is the absolute perfection of the old shinobi way. He completely removes emotion from his actions and does whatever is necessary to protect Konoha and the land of fire. This point of view has been shown many times from Zabuza to Granny Chiyo. But whereas Zabuza and others get a thrill from killing, Danzo kills when it is necessary to further his goals. So lets see how this attitude affects his actions in few case where people think he is evil.
Hokage Power Struggle
The first thing we learn about Danzo is that he doesn’t like the leadership style of Konoha, particularly the third Hokage and Tsunade. Now these characters are the protagonists, so Danzo is in opposition to the sympathy of the reader. However, Danzo’s reasons are not really that he desires power, but that he thinks the previous Hokage are poor leaders. In fact many of the other Kage in other lands that we know of are mostly like Danzo. The previous Mizukage were Madara or under his control and used harsh training style to kill emotions. The Kazekage used his own son to seal in Shukaku. However, Konoha is different, but they are the exception.
The question then is did the kind of leadership of the Hokage lead to problems, in many cases it did. In the third Hokage’s case Orochimaru experimented on fellow shinobi, and when he was found he fled. It was the third Hokage’s hesitation that allowed Orochimaru to live. Even Sarutobi himself realizes this mistake. The result of this hesitation is an international criminal on the loose. In Tsunade case, Sasuke was allowed to stay at large and has now become a threat to every nation. We also know the Third Great Ninja War started during the reign of the third Hokage, but we don’t have much details on this.
These reasons make Danzo doubtful of the Hokage leadership style, and he certainly is right that awful things have occurred. His emotionlessness and ruthlessness would certainly have result in different events with some of worst crimes of the day never happening. So we can understand Danzo’s desire to be Hokage not so much because he wants power and recognition, but because he believes he would be better. It is also worth while to mention that Danzo is proud that he is not well known and likes to operate behind the scenes. In otherwords, he is not in pursuit of self gratification.
Uchiha Massacre
One reason many hate Danzo is because of his role in the Uchiha massacre, and it certainly was a gruesome event. But the alternatives would most certainly have been worse. The attack of the Ninetails precipitated the destructive of the Uchiha clan. At least according to Minato, who probably is the most trustworthy, Madara caused this to happen. He mostly likely planned to split the Uchiha of from the rest of Konoha. Whatever the case, we know the Uchiha clan was preparing to at least take over Konoha, and this coup–de-tat would have resulted in many deaths.
At the time, the third Hokage wanted to negotiate, but was apparently overruled by his advisors and Danzo. It is interesting that the Third did not get his way, perhaps his failure with Orochimaru led to greater leeway being given to Danzo. It is also important to note that Itachi was the spy, so information regarding the Uchiha was very accurate and Itachi himself decided that he would massacre the entire clan. It may have been gruesome, but it is clear that most of the Uchiha were quite dangerous.
It also important to note, as we have seen recently, that Danzo seems to have a lot of respect for the fact that Itachi sacrificed himself for the good of the village. In particular, Itachi allowed himself to be viewed as a criminal. Danzo’s only disappointment is that he thinks Itachi revealed the true plot to Sasuke, which of course was actually due to Madara.
Betrayal after Betrayal, Scheme after Scheme
Danzo has certainly been involved in a lot of hidden schemes that are certainly shocking. Lets go through some of these to at least consider Danzo’s reasoning.
During the Third Great Ninja War, Danzo teamed up Hanzo and betrayed Yahiko and Nagato’s band of ninja resulting in Yahiko death. This betrayal was certainly important in Pain’s creation, however it was a pretty reasonable action on Danzo’s part. The war had continued for many years, no doubt Danzo blamed the current Hokage, so he formed an alliance with a very strong shinobi Hanzo. If Hanzo wanted help to remove a troublesome uprising in his country, Danzo probably thought that was a fair deal. We don’t the final result of this alliance, but it least seems a reasonable action to end a drawn out war.
Danzo also seemed to betray the Konoha to Orochimaru to become Hokage. However, his actual goal was to kill Sasuke. Now that nearly everyone except Naruto believes Sasuke should be killed, we can say that Danzo was just thinking ahead of everyone else. It also true that Danzo used Tsunade personal ANBU members to gain Orochimaru’s trust, but from his point of view damaging a weak Hokage is not a bad thing if this causes a stronger Hokage to be installed.
Danzo also killed the messenger frog that was going to bring Naruto back during the Pain invasion. First of all he only kill a frog, a talking frog no doubt, but still a frog. His reason for his action was because he did not want Pain to get the nine-tailed fox. The advisors again agreed with him, but Tsunade overwrote their wished. Tsunade did this because she believes in Naruto. Danzo does care about Naruto, but want to keep the ninetails safe. He did not try to fight Pain, but stayed hidden. He believed that Tsunade would save the life of most of the villagers. As it turned, he was right. If the rest of the village retreated as well more lives may not have been lost. Of course in the end it didn’t matter because Naruto convinced Pain to bring everyone back to life.
Danzo recently used Shisui’s Sharingan to try and control the Gokage summit. It is true this was devious, but from Danzo’s perspective the other Kage were not trustworthy, and his goal was to protect the ninja world from the Akatsuki and Madara.
Danzo’s Powers, Orochimaru, and Controlling the Ninetails
Recently we have learned that Danzo has many powers: Shisui’s Sharingan, an arm full of Sharingan and the First Hokage’s powers. Apparently, he is going to use all these to control Naruto/ninetails, and he got all these powers from Orochimaru, ‘Oh No’ Danzo’s evil. Well, hold on a minute, let’s examine this first.
First, Orochimaru use to be a Konoha shinobi so there is little evidence that Danzo was ever involved with the Akatuski. We know Orochimaru had experiments with the First’s DNA before he left the village. Danzo has somehow benefited from these experiments, which likely means he knew they were occurring. This is pretty disgusting that he allow these experiments, but unlike Orochimaru who was obsessed with finding all the jutsu of the world Danzo made this sacrifice similar to other Kage.
At some point Danzo added Sharingan to his arm, but it is unlikely that Orochimaru was involved. Danzo most likely got these Sharingan after the Uchiha massacre, where else would he get so many. The question is did he contact Orochimaru, not very likely. Orochimaru was obsessed with Sharingan, if Danzo brought Sharingan to him, Orochimaru most certainly would have kept some for himself. Why would he only give them to Danzo? After the massacre, the only available Sharinagan were Itachi’ and Sasuke’s. That is why Orochimaru was obsessed with being one of them.
With the First’s DNA in this arm. Someone else must have been able to graft the Sharingan into it. Implanting Shisui’s eye must have been straight forward as we’ve seen it can even be done in the battle field.
Madara thinks that Danzo is going to use the First’s power and the Sharingan to control the ninetails, this is probably true. From Danzo’s perspective this makes perfect sense. He saw the destruction the nine-tailed fox caused to the leaf village. He certainly does not want another nation to get their hands on this power. He probably was quite pleased that Minato sealed the power in Naruto. However, he also knows the Uchiha are dangerous, so he had them killed. He doesn’t want the Uchiha to control the ninetails, from his perspective they are probably emotional nutcases, but he also believes it needs to be controlled. Since he already has the First’s power, he probably believed if he also had the Sharingan he would be the best able to control it.
The Future of Danzo
Given all these facts, should we be rooting for Danzo? No, of course not. He will always be in opposition to Naruto and, if his wishes were completely carried out, he would probably kill Naruto. Danzo’s view is that of the old Shinobi way that peace is only brought about through the strength of the village and its ninja, preferable those with little emotion who don’t go on killing sprees because of revenge. Naruto is trying to find a new a path towards peace that was started by Jiraiya. We as readers should be rooting that Naruto succeeds.
Does that mean you should not like Danzo? No, go ahead and cheer for him when he completely dismisses Sasuke path. Right now Sasuke is nothing compared to Itachi, Danzo is right. Danzo and Naruto agree on the point of the meaninglessness of revenge. If you like watching Danzo smack Sasuke around enjoy that too. Do you love to hate Danzo? That’s fine as well. Danzo is certain to be an implacable enemy to Naruto. He is ruthless, clever, and knows when to retreat. In many ways he is like Madara, but he does not want to rule the world. Like Pain he wants peace in his own way, but instead of making everyone understand suffering, he wants to remove emotion that lead to pointless conflicts. But don’t needless despise Danzo and wish for his quick removal from this story. He is certainly going to be one of most interesting characters in the future.
What is the best we well wishers can hope for Danzo’s future, certainly not that he succeeds and Danzo's beliefs will never allow him to change. The best is that Danzo will lose to Naruto and realizes he has been bested. Perhaps he will tip his hat to the superior strength and drive of Naruto and return to his plotting in the darkness. Perhaps as he leaves we will just catch his last words: Old Shinobi never die, they just fade away.
