Reaching For A Dream by Noodlehammer

Chapter 20

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Danzo listened attentively as Torune narrated, word for word, the events that had transpired in Tsunade's office a short while ago. It had been wise to have the spy bug present for that meeting.

Truthfully, Danzo wished that he could have Torune on constant spy duty, but that was unfortunately not possible. The only bug that was suitable as a spy was a queen type, as it had a six hour lifespan and queens were predictably rare. The queen's offspring only lived on average for about ten minutes, making them unsuitable as spies. It took most of that time for the bug just to get into that well hidden hiding spot, which made them worthless for the purpose.

The accursed Kyuubi Jinchuuriki had nearly ruined even that spying session by being almost four hours late. Danzo had been paranoid enough to think that the infuriating blond had known about his spying and done it on purpose before hearing the explanation for it. The old warmonger could hardly believe he'd almost been foiled by the Uzumaki's libido.

His paranoia was well justified though, as there had been no less than five attempts on his life recently, not counting the one in the council chamber. The fact that those events had abruptly stopped as soon as the Uzumaki had gone to Myobokuzan for training in Senjutsu was not missed.

None of these attempts had been as flashy as the first one, but they had often involved some kind of clever seal that had rather inconveniently self destructed as soon as its work was done, thus leaving no evidence. All of the seals had carried that unknown chakra signature, leaving nothing to tie Uzumaki to it. The only thing that actually cast any suspicion on the Jinchuuriki was the sudden cessation of attempted murder. But of course, he couldn't use that because he didn't have any proof that there had actually been any assassination attempts and Tsunade would instantly assume he was lying if he tried to pin blame on the blond, because the woman was well aware of his attempts to get the Jinchuuriki under his thumb.

In truth, the assassination attempts had been rather inane, such as placing an incredibly obvious seal tag in his mail. He had to give him credit for creativity though...the expendable root agent that had opened that letter had nearly been killed by having his hands removed by a miniature Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique. The only reason he was still alive was due to the fact that Danzo had ordered him to open it with some ninja wire.

The last one had been the worst though, because it was more of an insult than anything else. The Jinchuuriki had apparently gotten bored of making attempts on his life with Fuinjutsu and had sent him a cake. The delivery man hadn't known what was going on, nor had he known who the sender was, only describing him as being a brown haired man of average height, clearly a transformation technique.

The cake had been wrapped in a completely ordinary box that they had spent an unnecessary amount of caution opening, only to discover that it was not booby trapped at all. Inside the box was a card that said 'For Shimura Danzo' in elegant handwriting. Throwing kunai into it and later testing revealed it to be a perfectly ordinary chocolate cake.

It was in fact not an assassination attempt at all, but blatant mockery. That was the only 'attempt' that might have turned up any evidence if it was reported and investigated, but it would just make him look like a paranoid old lunatic that was throwing kunai at a cake that was obviously meant as a get well present after his near death in the council chamber. Even if the investigation did end up leading to Uzumaki, the man could just blow it off as one of his usual tasteless jokes. The assassination attempt hadn't been publicized but it hadn't been secret either, so anybody could have sent it.

But Danzo knew better, he knew exactly who had sent it. It had been the damned Uzumaki brat and his woman had no doubt been the one to sign the card. He had burned with the desire to strike back somehow, but no opportunity had readily presented itself and he didn't actually want to kill the blond anyway.