Danzō Shimura is a member of the Konoha council and a major antagonist in the Naruto manga and anime series. His jealousy of Hiruzen Sarutobi caused Danzō to commit despicable acts in pursuit of the position of Hokage.
Due to his harsh and cruel indifference to human suffering, his archaic ideas and his militant vision, Danzō was a danger to the village he claimed to love and protect, as he created hatred among some of the greatest shinobi and main villains of Konoha: Kabuto Yakushi, Orochimaru, Nagato and Sasuke Uchiha. 😈 Strangely, despite Danzō's opinion that ninjas should always be willing to sacrifice their lives, he was afraid of death, much to his shame. He is the archenemy of Sasuke Uchiha .
In the Japanese version, he was voiced by Hiroshi Ito, and Masayuki Katō as a young adult. In the English version, he was voiced by William Frederick Knight and Peter Lurie as a young adult.
Danzo Young
In his youth, Danzō was close friends with Hiruzen Sarutobi, having felt the need to push him in his projects. During the First Ninja World War, Danzō and Hiruzen , along with the latter's teammates Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, were placed together on a team under Second Hokage Tobirama. 🐱👤 Lately pursued by the Kinkaku Squad from the Hidden Village in the Clouds, Danzō attempted to volunteer by sacrificing himself as a decoy to ensure the safety of the others. However, paralyzed by fear as Hiruzen volunteered for the task, Tobirama instead sacrificed himself while designating Hiruzen as his successor, much to Hiruzen and Danzō's dismay.
ANBU and root
With Hiruzen as the Third Hokage, with him, Koharu, and Homura appointed as his advisors, a grudge filled Danzō who decided to become Hokage one day. He formed the ANBU subsidiary named "Root" . 🌱 Although the group was later officially disbanded, Root remained secretly active while Danzō made questionable transactions. The group devoted themselves even more blindly to Danzō, who began branding them with cursed seals, even attempting to assassinate Hiruzen on one occasion.
One of Danzo's missions helped Hanzo in his attempt to annihilate him but the men he sent to the Village Hidden in the Rain were all wiped out by Nagato. Danzō also played a role in Kabuto Yakushi becoming an antagonist under his former subordinate Orochimaru, whom Danzō had implanted with Hashirama Senju's DNA to use hismokuton . 🌳
In the aftermath of Kurama's attack on Konoha, Danzō suspected the Uchiha clan of being involved and supported their relocation for better observation, which led the Uchiha to further isolate themselves and develop a hatred against Konoha, and therefore to plot to rebel. Years later, learning of the Uchiha clan's planned coup and playing on Itachi Uchiha's pacifist tendencies to provide him and the other elders with information about the clan's actions, Danzō secretly killed Shisui Uchiha , although the latter had actually already planned to use a genjutsu to prevent the Uchiha rebellion. He kills Shisui in order to obtain his Sharingan. However, Danzo then secretly ordered Itachi to massacre his clan in exchange for his younger brother Sasuke Uchiha being spared. 👦🏻 Although Itachi committed the deed, he left Danzō with the warning not to harm Sasuke or he would expose the circumstances of the Uchiha clan's demise to the other ninja villages. Hiruzen, however, guesses much of what happened, despite having no proof, and becomes even more suspicious of Danzō, and demands that Racine be disbanded.
Danzo in Naruto Shippuden
When Team Kakashi decides to meet the spy Sasori installed in Orochimaru's camp, Danzō takes advantage of Kakashi's absence to assign Sai to the group as part of a secret plan to assassinate Sasuke.🔪 Tsunade then Yamato leads Team 7 to make sure Danzo doesn't have a secret plan. To achieve this goal, Danzō made Orochimaru believe that Sai wanted to join forces with him to destroy Konoha. Although Sai failed in his mission, Danzō allowed him to stay with Team 7, as Danzō was worried about Naruto becoming a problem, and Sai would be in a perfect place to watch over him.
Arc Pain
During the events of Pain's destruction of Konoha, Danzō was against Tsunade calling Naruto back to the village for fear of losing Kurama . In order to follow his plan, Danzō not only killed the messenger toad Kōsuke but also ordered his subordinates not to come to Konoha's aid hoping that Tsunade would be killed with his reign as Hokage. Most of the villagers were killed in the attack. However, despite Danzō's action, Naruto still arrived on the battlefield and faced and beat bread alone. 🐸 Thanks to Naruto, Nagato returned to the villagers all the souls he had just taken while Tsunade ended up in a coma. Following the invasion, Konoha's high-ranking officials are summoned before the Fire Lord to better understand what happened. Danzo, very convincing, managed to have himself named Hokage by the feudal lord. Danzō becomes the leader of the armed forces by influencing Mifune's mind.
Shortly after, Danzō uses his power to mark Sasuke as a criminal to be killed before leaving for the Kage Summit in the Land of Iron to discuss the deal with Akatsuki. Before leaving, seeing that he cannot confine Naruto due to his reputation as a hero, Danzō orders Sai to spy on the boy while sending his men to search for Kabuto for his medical knowledge.🩺 With Torune and Fuu as bodyguards, Danzō arrives at the top of the 5 Kage and attempts to appoint himself the leader of the alliance responsible for fighting the criminal organization Akatsuki. However, the sudden appearance of Taka and White Zetsu forces Danzō to flee.
Danzo vs Sasuke
Danzō and his men were stopped by Tobi at the Samurai Bridge. At this point, his men were defeated by Tobi and Sasuke, who then challenged Danzo to a fight . Danzō bared his arm and revealed that it was encrusted with multiple Sharingan as he admitted his role in the massacre of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke pretends to lose his temper and attacks with his Susanoo, Danzō uses Izanagi to escape the fatal attack. This little game continues until he understands that Sasuke was actually making Danzō lose track of the number of Sharingan he had in his arm. In the end Sasuke managed to fake Danzo thanks to an illusion, he made him believe that he still had a sharingan available. Danzō clashed with Sasuke before being forced to cut off his right arm as he was overwhelmed by Senju DNA.
How Danzo dies?
Refusing to accept defeat, Danzō takes Karin hostage so he can use Shisui's Eye on Sasuke. However, Danzō had not imagined that Sasuke would be able to pierce Karin with his attack to kill him. On the verge of death, seeing that he will never be able to surpass Hiruzen, Danzō decided to use his ultimate jutsu to bring Sasuke and Tobi down with him thanks to the Reversed Seal of the Four Symbols . Although both managed to get out of range, Danzō destroyed Shisui's Sharingan to prevent Tobi from obtaining it. ❌ This last act also aimed to work towards the peace of Konoha by eliminating two big threats. It was after this explosion that Danzo died.
Danzo and Hiruzen Sarutobi
When he was younger, Danzō was a hot-headed ninja eager to prove himself. After a long internal struggle, he decided to volunteer to buy time for his teammates, although Hiruzen Sarutobi beat him to it. He often showed jealousy towards Hiruzen, believing that he was always one step ahead of him and feeling inferior to him. Danzō never used gentle words like "friend", because he never wanted to lean on anyone or receive help from anyone. As an adult, Danzō was a completely calm, cold and collected individual who did not let his emotions surface. 😶 Having been raised during times of war, Danzō's beliefs differed from those of the Hokage as he believed that the village's interests should be placed above all else, even ethics and morals.
Danzō seemed to hate the previous Hokage's beliefs, stating that those beliefs destroyed the village after Pain's attack. He used this attack to attempt to remove Tsunade and her position as Hokage and left its citizens in danger, while being responsible for Nagato's negative perceptions of Konoha, which led to its destruction. 💥 He was very ambitious, something even his fellow chancellors openly noted and in the anime, his desire to be a greater and stronger Hokage than Hiruzen even caused him to attempt to have Hiruzen assassinated , believing that the Third Hokage had lost the ability to effectively rule the village.
An extremist, Danzō preferred to directly eliminate threats through assassination and execution rather than through diplomacy and negotiation. However, he secretly worked closely with international criminal Orochimaru 🐍 in illegal experiments in order to increase his physical abilities. Danzō possessed a fanatical and arbitrary adherence to the ideals of shinobi, believing that they must sacrifice absolutely everything for the village . However, Danzō hypocritically feared death, hiding this fear behind the belief that his survival was necessary for the good of the shinobi world itself. He would only overcome this fear in the final moments of his life, by daringly attempting to kill Sasuke and Tobi for the sake of his village and the entire shinobi world through suicide, and by destroying Shisui's eye during his last breath.
Konoha's love
Despite his reputation as a militarist, Danzō eventually sought peace for the ninja world, a peace he would achieve by unifying all shinobi forces under his control. So he sought the title of Hokage, waiting patiently for decades before an opportunity presented itself. ⏳Danzō's pursuit of peace followed an immoral method. As such, he had no remorse in taking immoral actions as long as he believed it would benefit Konoha. To this end, he has worked behind the scenes to ensure that this future comes true. He used Root to eliminate potential threats to Konoha, with or without the Hokage's consent. 👍🏻Due to the nature of his actions, Danzō could not allow the details of what he had done to become known to the public, and so he marked the members of Root with cursed seals to prevent them from revealing his secrets .
Danzō also believed that Konoha was stronger and more stable when the village had a target to focus its anger and hatred on. To this end, Danzō played a key role in stigmatizing the Uchiha clan to the rest of the village and was the first to secretly divulge the fact that Naruto Uzumaki was the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, thus assuring the villagers would hate it. Danzō also views Root's members as expendable pawns and shows no remorse in making them perform tasks that could result in serious injury or even death, as shown when he ordered Fū to snatch Ao's Byakugan, although this would also cause Fū to lose his eye. Danzō is also treacherous by nature as shown by his betrayal of Hanzō despite their previous alliance. Likewise, if an "ally" could take over the village for his comfort and the good of his loved ones, Danzō will ensure their elimination, as he tried to do with Nonō and Kabuto Yakushi.
Itachi also believed that Danzō did not intend to honor his promise to spare Sasuke when he accepted the mission to kill his own clan and had to threaten to leak Konoha's secrets to enemy villages. As a result, he risked his own safety by returning to Konoha after Hiruzen's death to ensure Sasuke's safety. He was willing to do anything to increase his physical and political powers, as evidenced by the fact that he was tempted by Orochimaru with Hashirama's cells 🧬 in order to obtain the power to control a tailed beast and expand its use of Izanagi. He also broke international law by manipulating Mifune into becoming the Supreme Commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces .
The end of Danzo
In his later years, Danzō had become somewhat delusional, believing that he would be able to change the Shinobi world, although his actions at the Kage Summit caused him to lose credibility. Danzō also did not hesitate to steal Shisui's right eye to gain access to the Kotoamatsukami , despite his unquestionable loyalty to Konoha for his own clan and the fact that he is the descendant of someone who had been his own. Danzō's comrade. Tobi deduced Danzō's intention to take control of Naruto using his multiple Sharingan. Danzō is also shown to be extremely arrogant, as evidenced by his glee during his final confrontation with Sasuke, believing that he had won, and that he alone is capable of changing the entire world. 🌍
Despite his amoral and draconian methods, Danzō is not purely evil. His actions, as cruel and self-serving as they were, were done for what he sincerely believed was the greater good of Konoha. He was able to respect others even if they were different from him, because although he disagreed with Itachi, he recognized Itachi as a hero. He found his selfless devotion to Konoha worthy of his respect and openly reprimanded Sasuke for his hatred and violence towards Konoha, as it had spoiled both the Uchiha's sacrifice and Itachi's personal sacrifices.💀
His devotion to Konoha far exceeded his fear of death, as he did not hesitate to use the last moments of his life to help Konoha by trying to take Sasuke and Tobi with him and used the last of his strength to destroy Shisui's eye. Despite his jealousy of Hiruzen and their growing rivalry, he had ultimately not entirely lost his friendship with the Third Hokage, recalling his childhood memories with him and wondering what he was to Hiruzen in his final moments. His fellow elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, held Danzō in high esteem and often followed his advice when dealing with village politics and although they preferred Hiruzen over him, they openly acknowledged that Danzo had always had the interests of Konoha. 🍃
Danzo: his arm, his powers, his abilities
Due to the stolen Sharingan and the First Hokage's cells (whom Tobi suspects of having implanted them all with the help of Orochimaru), Danzō was an extremely powerful and skilled ninja. He could fight on equal terms with Sasuke Uchiha.
Danzō was very skilled with the wind nature of his chakra, able to use various very powerful techniques with ease, these being strong enough to match the strength of Sasuke's Susanoo in any of its forms. 👺 He gained access to the unique contract summoning of the Baku, a giant tapir-like creature that dwarfed Sasuke's Susanoo , and was capable of complementing Danzō's fighting style with its extreme sucking ability. so much so that Danzō was able to tear apart Sasuke's armored Susanoo in a single attack. Despite his advanced age, Danzō was very strong, fast and agile, able to knock Karin away with a single kick, catch Sasuke off guard, and easily dodge Sasuke's Susanoo attack with a single leap, although that he noticed his abilities, also showing great reflexes. In addition to the Paralyzing Curse Marks, Danzō was skilled at using marks that could silence a Racine member if they tried to talk about him and setting up a creative trap with his Sealing the Four Inverted Symbols technique to s 'activate on death. 💀 Sasuke was counting on Danzō being overconfident because of this technique. Danzō's pride is probably his greatest weakness.
How did Danzo get the Sharingan?
Danzō's most fearsome and formidable abilities were the various body implants he received from Orochimaru. Before the latter was sealed, Danzō took the right eye of Shisui Uchiha , capable of using the Mangekyo Sharingan and the strongest genjutsu, and replaced his right eye with it. After his death, Danzō took his right arm and replaced it with this, and after the massacre of the Uchiha clan, Danzō took up to ten Sharingan eyes and implanted them into this arm. 🦾 Since Orochimaru, Danzō had the cells of the first Hokage implanted in his right arm as well. This allowed him to use the forbidden Izanagi dojutsu through all of his Sharingan, but only with those on his arm. To conserve his chakra, since all of his eyes were active, Danzō placed a seal on his right arm and bandaged his eye to conceal these implants.
Danzo Izanagi
Using Izanagi allowed Danzō to control reality and illusion over himself, transferring all disadvantages, such as mortal wounds, into a dream and making his own desire for successful attacks a reality . With the advantage of the Prime's cells, Danzō was able to use Izanagi for one minute per eye, at the cost of subsequently losing his use due to blindness. 👀Using this to the fullest, Danzō was able to exhaust Sasuke and mortally wound him. Danzō was very skilled at using the Eye of Shisui, able to easily locate a squad of assassins and use his Kotoamatsukami technique very effectively, able to control others with ease without seeing them directly. In addition to the enhancements to his body and chakra reserves (which were very significant), having the First Hokage's cells in him also allowed Danzō to access his Mokuton genkai kekkei, which he could use without hand signs, but only from his right arm, and whose power paled in comparison to the original. Aside from Sharingan, Danzō was very skilled at using and dispelling genjutsu, even Sasuke's inept Tsukuyomi, although it led to his death.
