Ino returned to the prison only to find that Baki had escaped with a group of prisoners. She followed their trail in pursuit.
For the first two days, she remained hidden. It wasn't until the third day, when the prisoners were about to leave the Land of Fire, that she pretended to coincidentally cross paths with Baki and Ibiki Morino.
"Your face looks familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?" Ino asked.
Ibiki Morino glanced at Ino's Leaf Village Headband but remained silent.
"The way you walk, the way you hold your kunai—it all proves one thing. You're a ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village, a rogue ninja!" Ino declared with the confidence of a seasoned detective.
"No, I'm not! I just—"
"Just what?" Ino didn't even wait for an answer. While she couldn't catch a notorious rogue ninja like Orochimaru, dealing with small fry like this was a piece of cake.
Without even using any ninja techniques, she subdued Ibiki Morino in just two moves, knocking him to the ground.
"Come back to the village with me. Let Morino Ibiki interrogate you properly—"
Before she could finish, the man exclaimed in shock, "My older brother… he's still alive?"
Meanwhile, in the capital of the Land of Fire.
The Third Hokage, accompanied by Kakashi and Shikaku as his guards, came to meet the Daimyo.
The Daimyo, who had always acted foolishly, was now filled with anger and, more prominently, fear.
Without much explanation, he showed the three of them the corpse of Dango.
They were ninjas, not coroners. What could they possibly discern from a fatal wound caused by a single strike?
What mattered was the testimony of the ninja who had witnessed the event.
Dango knew Danzo, but the witness didn't.
The witness could only describe the enemy's attire based on his distant observations, emphasizing the massive Wind Release Ninjutsu used at the scene. He concluded, "Dango-sama recognized the enemy. He addressed him as Danzo. They exchanged only two words before Danzo killed Dango-sama."
The three from the Hidden Leaf felt a headache coming on.
They weren't worried about the Daimyo setting up an ambush with five hundred armed men. Even five thousand ordinary people wouldn't faze them.
They simply found the situation extremely troublesome.
The Third Hokage immediately refuted the accusation. The Hidden Leaf couldn't take the blame for this.
"This must be a clumsy attempt at framing, aimed at sowing discord between the Daimyo and the ninja village. Danzo is… innocent."
Even as he said it, the Third Hokage felt nauseated.
The Daimyo suppressed his anger and fear, trying to maintain his usual composure. He tapped his folding fan on the table before him. "Where is Danzo? Why hasn't he come?"
If only I knew where Danzo was!
The Third Hokage steeled himself and replied, "Danzo has encountered some issues with his ninja techniques and is currently recuperating in the village."
He had already decided that if the Daimyo insisted on seeing Danzo, he would have someone use the Transformation Technique to impersonate him.
The Daimyo remained silent, and the room fell into an uneasy quiet.
The Third Hokage tried to steer the conversation back on track. "I can arrange for a ninja from the Yamanaka Clan to examine the body. Often, the dead do not lie."
A ninja from the Yamanaka Clan? Isn't that still a ninja from your village? What could they possibly uncover?
The Daimyo knew that no conclusion would be reached today. The Hidden Leaf Village would never admit to anything. He had no choice but to relent. Over the years, he had relented countless times. Today was just another instance.
"No need. Let's consider Dango's death as a sudden demise. That's all." With that, he stood up and left.
The Third Hokage, Kakashi, and Shikaku stood in place, their expressions heavy, and the three of them remained silent for a long time.
Without exchanging a word along the way, they returned to the village and summoned Mitokado Homura and Koharu Utatane. The five of them gathered to discuss the matter.
Kakashi, as usual, listened without speaking, pretending to be nothing more than a background prop.
Upon hearing that Danzo had killed Dango, Mitokado Homura and Koharu Utatane's first reaction was, "Oh? So he finally couldn't hold back?"
Dango's hostility toward ninjas was no secret. For a group of ninjas who were constantly gathering intelligence, his intentions were quite obvious.
Hearing that Danzo had acted against Dango, the two advisors were not the least bit surprised; in fact, they found it entirely justified.
The Third Hokage puffed on his pipe, saying nothing.
Mitokado Homura carefully questioned Shikaku, asking if any evidence had been found at the scene. Apart from a somewhat distant testimony, was there any direct physical evidence? Upon hearing that there was none, the old man was relieved. As long as there was no direct evidence, it was fine. There was indeed an unspoken rule that ninjas should not target political figures, but without direct evidence, there was no issue.
"You say it is, so it is? Just bring in any ninja to accuse him, and that's enough to convict Danzo of murder? Don't be ridiculous."
Koharu Utatane's thoughts were quite ninja-like. She believed that while this incident was significant, it wasn't a major crisis: "Hiruzen, since the man is already dead and the Daimyo doesn't seem to mind, let's leave it at that. Dango was just a retainer of the Daimyo, and flatterers like him are a dime a dozen. We'll send someone to attend the funeral and promise to continue investigating the matter. I think that's sufficient."
Her subtext was clear: Who was Dango? To put it nicely, he was a high-ranking official; to put it bluntly, he was just a dog of the Daimyo. Even if Danzo did kill him, so what? Did they expect Danzo to pay with his life for the Daimyo's dog?
The Third Hokage thought further ahead. He believed that the relationship between the Daimyo and the ninja village was deteriorating, but what could he do?
Even Ino, the time traveler, had firmly sided with the ninjas. Could the Third Hokage betray his class and his village?
After a moment of contemplation, he issued his orders: "Shikaku, you will attend Dango's funeral. Kakashi, you will lead the Anbu to search for Danzo's whereabouts. Once you find him, report back to me."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
And so, a high-ranking official who could participate in the Daimyo's meetings had met a sudden and mysterious "death."
The blame fell squarely on Danzo's shoulders.
Both the Daimyo's side and Konoha, even the onlookers like Orochimaru, believed it was Danzo's doing.
Danzo learned of this news through the newspaper.
He had known about the Sound Village's affairs from the beginning and was currently leading Root ninjas to ambush the route back to the Sound Village from Konoha.
According to Danzo's plan, Orochimaru's attempt to kill the Third Hokage would likely succeed, and the Third Hokage was not long for this world.
Orochimaru, having killed the Third Hokage, would undoubtedly pay a heavy price. Taking advantage of Orochimaru's weakened state as he returned to the village to recover, the Root ninjas would swarm in, with a high chance of capturing or killing this rogue ninja.
By then, Danzo would return to Konoha with immense achievements, and he didn't believe anyone would stand in his way of becoming the Fifth Hokage.
At this moment, he had already set up an inescapable net on the road, waiting for that Snake to take the bait.
When he had nothing to do, Danzo practiced calligraphy and read newspapers. It was in the newspaper that he saw the news of Dango's "sudden death."
Danzo didn't have any particular thoughts about it. The two radicals indeed didn't get along, and with Dango dead, he had no intention of investigating the culprit. What did it have to do with him? On the contrary, he thought Dango's death was good, even timely. Why didn't that bastard die sooner?! He didn't know who had done it, but it was truly satisfying!