Naruto: Threads of Crimson

Merry Christmas to everyone that celebrates! Here is a few chapters as a Christmas present from me, enjoy the day with whoever you are spending it with!

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Danzo Shimura walked into his dimly lit office in the Foundation, where he spent most of his days. "Step one is done. Get rid of Shiro's father."

Danzo reached his chair and sat down on it while looking over the documents he had on the desk in front of him. "Kaito Uchiha is dead, but the operation was an unmitigated disaster. Five entire squadrons… wasted," he muttered under his breath.

He had sent dozens of his elite Root operatives—trained, loyal, and expendable—to eliminate one man. Kaito had slaughtered them with ruthless power before finally succumbing. And when it was all over, Danzo didn't have even one corpse to show for it. Five pairs of Sharingan, ten eyes that should have been harvested, potential tools for his arsenal, had been reduced to zero.

"All for nothing. Not even Kaito's pair of Sharingan," he said again, the bitterness sharper this time.

His mind churned, replaying every detail of the mission and the battlefield that the reconacanse team had detailed to him when they returned. 'The sheer destruction Kaito caused was staggering, far beyond what I anticipated. A skilled Uchiha taking down one squad, maybe two, I could understand—but five? Five entire squads wiped out? No… something doesn't add up here.'

Danzo stared at the desk and read through the information he had gathered on Kaito through all of the years he had served in the villages shinobi corp. There was nothing on those pages that stood out as a very destructive jutsu.

'Kaito's jutsu repertoire alone couldn't explain this, he knew a few S-Rank jutsus but nothing that would result in destruction of this scale.' His thoughts kept swirling in his mind as he began to think about what he had missed. 'I know the limits of every Uchiha shinobi in this village better than almost anyone, but still. There's more to this… and now the answer is buried with him.'

Or was it?

Danzo's thoughts wandered to an old memory he rarely let himself revisit. The battlefield of the First Great Shinobi War came rushing back to him, chaotic and soaked in blood. Hiruzen, Kagami, Koharu, and him were trapped, outnumbered, and moments away from being wiped out. When it appeared, a massive lime-green figure surrounded all four of the young shinobi, saving them from death.' 

"Kagami," Danzo whispered harshly.

After seeing the figure appear around them, he turned to look at his Uchiha teammate and saw the unique and ominous pattern that replaced the standard tomoe of the sharingan. He had asked what that was, and Kagami, being as loyal to his teammates as anyone could ask for, revealed it was a special ability of the mangekyo sharingan, a higher evolution of the three-tomoe sharingan.

Having seen Kagami's Susanoo up close, he felt the raw power pouring off it, the malicious chakra it seemed to be made of. The sight had burned itself into his memory, a clear manifestation of the heights the Uchiha bloodline could reach and the disparity between what he could achieve compared to the Uchiha clan. Suddenly, it clicked into place. 

"Kaito had the Mangekyo Sharingan," Danzo said aloud, his voice filled with cold certainty.

His grip tightened on his cane as the realization solidified in his mind. 'That explains the sheer destruction of the battlefield and how he was able to take out so many of my ANBU. Kaito had the Mangekyo Sharingan, and I had never known, he had never let it slip that he possessed it.'

His gaze turned steely, and his voice dropped to a hiss. "And now, the Uchiha have his eyes back in their grasp." 

His grip tightened on the cane he was using to the point where cracks began to form in it. 'The Uchiha aren't careless either, they would have taken Kaito's eyes the moment his body fell. Those treasures are locked away now, buried somewhere deep in their compound where no one can reach them.'

The thought simmered, for a second before a sigh came out of his mouth. 'They'll never let those eyes resurface, not while the clan still lives. Another treasure, locked out of my grasp. For now.'

Danzo settled back into his calm contemplative state. 'It doesn't matter anymore. Kaito is gone, and his eyes are beyond reach. But my plan isn't dependent on one man or one pair of eyes. This is only the beginning, I can always acquire sharingan another way.'

He leaned over the paper again, looking at the next steps in turning the two Uchiha prodigies into his puppets. "Step two: isolate Shisui."

'His mother is the key,' Danzo thought grimly. 'She is his anchor. His dad has already met his end and so if I remove her, he'll be lost. But her death must be handled carefully. Nanako rarely leaves the clan compound, and when she does, it's only to work at the hospital. Striking at the hospital is a risky option as well. There's too many witnesses and that means there's too many risks. But there will come a moment of weakness. I only need to wait for it.'

Once Nanako was gone, Shisui would have no one left but Shiro and their sensei to turn to. And soon, Danzo planned to sever that tie as well.

"Step three is how I'm going to get rid of their sensei, the one person that will be keeping them tied to the light, given they don't make any bonds between then and now, which is unlikely because of the village's attitude towards the Uchiha clan currently."

But the timing will be everything in this plan. 'By now, Reika would've been made aware of Shiro's father being killed in action. With such a high-profile death, it will no doubt be circulated through the shinobi ranks, which means the clan heads will eventually find out that the foundation is the one that gave him that mission.'

'Making a move now and killing her would be too obvious, it would give my whole scheme away to that damn Shikaku.'

Danzo frowned, contemplating the balance of power. 'Hiruzen already suspects my involvement in Kaito's death. And the clans are watching me more closely than ever. In hindsight, taking Fu and Torune this year may have been a little short-sighted of me. I need patience for now. I'll let the dust settle. Let them feel safe again. And when they least expect it, I'll act in a way that can't be pinned to me.'

'Once she is gone, Shiro and Shisui will begin to spiral. They'll seek power to fill the void she leaves behind. But no amount of strength within the Uchiha clan will satisfy them. That's when I'll engage step four; I'll send in someone from the Foundation—someone who can tempt them into seeking strength beyond their clan's and the village's capabilities.'

'By the time their bonds are shattered and their desperation peaks, I will be ready. I will provide them the answers they seek. I will offer them the power they'll crave. And in their search for strength, they will enter the shadows willingly, their loyalty shifting away from the Uchiha clan and village toward me.'

He closed his eyes for a moment, visualizing the path ahead. 'This will take time, but I've built my entire career in the shadows. Patience is my greatest weapon. With each step, the Uchiha will grow weaker, their brightest stars drawn into my orbit. And when the time comes, I will mold them into the tools they were always meant to be.'

A sharp knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts.

"Enter," he commanded.

A masked Root agent stepped inside, bowing deeply. "Lord Danzo, Tenzo has returned from his training."

Danzo nodded, his expression unreadable. "Bring him to the training chamber. I will evaluate him myself."

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(A/N: Here is Danzo's plan clearly laid out. Obviously, the order of the plan could change because nothing is a certainty in the Naruto world, but generally, this is his plan of attack. The question is, how will the two of them come out at the end of his schemes? Will they be turned to the dark side, or will they stay part of the light side of the village?)

Powerstone Goals:

25 by Sunday = Extra Chapter

50 by Sunday = 2 Extra Chapters