Danzo Shimura was a member of the Hidden Leaf's council and a major villain in the manga and anime series Naruto. His unbridled jealousy of Hiruzen Sarutobi, caused Danzo to do despicable acts in pursuit the position of Hokage, Danzo's militant and archaic views made him a danger to the village he professed to love and protect as he created the hatred in some of Kohona's greatest attackers, and major villains - Kabuto Yakushi, Pain and Sasuke Uchiha due to his harsh, cruel indifference to human suffering. Strangely, despite Danzo's views that ninja should always be ready to sacrifice their lives, he was afraid of death, much to his own shame.
Background
Danzo during his youth
In his youth, Danzo was good friends with Hiruzen Sarutobi, having felt the need to upstart him. During the First Shinobi World War, Danzo and Hiruzen, along with the latter's team-mates Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, were placed together in a squad under the Second Hokage Tobirama. When being late pursued by the Kinkaku Squad of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, Danzo attempted to volunteer in sacrificing himself as a decoy to ensure the others' safety. However, paralyzed with fear as Hiruzen volunteered for the task, Tobirama sacrificed himself instead while naming Hiruzen as his successor much to the shock of both Hiruzen and Danzo.
With Hiruzen as the Third Hokage, with him, Koharu, and Homura appointed roles as his advisors, a grudge filled Danzo resolved to become Hokage someday and formed the ANBU subsidiary named Root. Though the group was later officially disbanded, Root remained secretly active as Danzo executed shady dealing. The group became even more mindlessly devoted to Danzo, who started branding them with cursed seals, even attempting to assasinatee Hiruzen on one occasion.
Leader of ROOT
One such event was aiding Hanzo in his attempt to wipe out the but the men he sent to the Village Hidden in Rain were all wiped out by Nagato. Danzo also played a role in Kabuto Yakushi becoming a rogue ninja under his former subordinate Orochimaru, whom Danzo had implanting the DNA of Hashirama Senju to use his Earth Style.
In the aftermath of Kurama's attack on Konoha, Danzo suspected the Uchiha clan to have involvement and supported their relocation for better observation, which led to the Uchiha becoming more isolated and discontent, and thus eventually plotting to rebel.. Years later, learning of the planned coup d’état by the Uchiha clan and playing on Itachi Uchiha's pacifist tendencies to provide him and the other elders with information of the clan's actions, Danzo secretly killed Shisui Uchiha, despite the fact that Shisui was actually already planning to use a genjutsu to prevent the Uchida rebellion. He kills Shisui to to obtain his Sharingan eyes. However, Danzo then secretly ordered Itachi to slaughter his clan in return that his younger brother Sasuke Uchiha would be spared death. Though Itachi committed the deed, he left Danzo with a warning to not 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 had happened, although he had no proof, and becomes even more suspicious of Danzo, and demands that Root be disband.
Part II
When Team Kakashi decide to meet with the spy Sasori installed in Orochimaru's camp, Danzo took advantage of Kakashi's absence to assign Sai to the group as part of a plan to secretly assassinate Sasuke. To achieve that goal, Danzo had Sai trick Orochimaru into thinking he wants to join forces with him to destroy Konoha. Though Sai failed his mission, Danzo allowed him to remain with Team Kakashi, as Danzo had become worried about Naruto becoming a problem, and Sai would be in a perfect place to watch him.
Danzo as the Sixth Hokage Candidate.
During the events of Pain invading Konoha, Danzo was against Tsunade calling Naruto back to the village in fear that they would lose Kurama. To that end, Danzo not only killed the messenger toad Kōsuke, but also ordered his subordinates not to come to the Hidden Leaf's aid with the expectation that Tsunade would be killed off Not caring about the deaths of the other vilagerss. Most of the villagers were killed in the attack.However, despite Danzo's action, Naruto arrived none the less with everyone Nagato killed revived while Tsunade ended up in a coma. Following the invasion, the Hidden Leave are summoned before the Lord of Fire over what occurred, with Danzo convincing the feudal lord to name him the new acting Hokage. Danzo becomes the leader of the armed forces by influencing Mifune's mind, but is caught.
Soon after, Danzo 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 dealing with the Akatsuki. Before leaving, seeing that he cannot confine Naruto due to his reputation as a hero, Danzo ordered Sai to spy on the boy while sending his men to track down Kabuto for his medical knowledge. With Torune and Fuu as his bodyguards, Danzo arrives to the Kage Summit and attempts to name himself leader of the alliance that would fight the Akatsuki. However, the abrupt appearance of Taka and Zetsu forces Danzo to flee.
Sasuke clashing with Danzo
However, Danzo and his men were halted by Tobi at the Samurai Bridge. By that time his men were defeated by Tobi and Sasuke, who then challenged Danzo to personal combat, Danzo unsealed his arm and revealed it to have been embedded with multiple Sharingan eye as he admits his role in the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Sasuke pretends to attack in anger with his Susanoo, Danzo uses Izanagi to evade the fatal attack, until it becomes evident that sasuke was actually just making Danzo loose track of how many sharigan he had in his arm, and in the end Sasuke is able to overcome Danzo by using a simple genjutsu making Danzo think he has one extra. With the powers of both Senju and Uchiha at his disposal, causing Tobi to realize that Danzo is targeting Naruto, Danzo clashes with Sasuke before before forced sever his right arm before he overwhelmed by the Senju DNA.
Refusing to accept defeat, Danzo takes Karin as a hostage so he can use Shisui's eye on Sasuke. However, Danzo was shocked that Sasuke had his attack pierce through Karin to kill him. On the verge of death, seeing that he can never surpass Hiruzen, Danzo decided to use the last of his life to take both Sasuke and Tobi down with him with the Reverse Four Symbols Seal. Though both were able to get out of range, Danzo destroyed Shisui's Sharingan to prevent Tobi from obtaining it.
Abilities
Because of the stolen sharingan eyes and the cells from the third Hokage (which Tobi suspects that he implanted them all with Orochimaru's aid), Danzo was an immensely powerful and skilled ninja, He could fight on even terms with Sasuke Uchiha. If not for Sasuke's clever use of his simple genjutsu, Danzo could have easily overpowered the young Uchida.
Danzo was highly skilled with Wind Style chakra nature, able to utilize various, very powerful techniques with instant ready ease, them being strong enough to equal the strength of Sasuke's Susanoo in any of its stages. He had access to the unique summoning contract for the Baku, a giant, tapir-like creature that dwarfed Sasuke's Susanoo, and that was capable of complimenting Danzo's Wind Style with its extreme suction ability to the point that Danzo was able to rip open Sasuke's armored Susanoo with one attack. Despite his old age, Danzo was very strong, fast, and agile, able to repel Karin with a single kick, catch Sasuke off-guard(placing a paralyzing curse mark as he did), and easily dodge Sasuke's Susanoo's attack with one high leap, despite noting its capabilities, also showing great reflexes. Along with paralysis curse marks, Danzo was skilled at using marks that could silence a member of Root if they tried to speak about him and set a creative booby trap with his Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique to activate at death. Sasuke counted on Danzo being overconfident because of this technique. Danzo's pride is possibly his biggest weakness.
Danzo's most fearsome and formidable abilities were the various bodily implants he received from Orochimaru. Before the latter's being sealed, Danzo took Shisui Uchiha's right eye, capable of using the Mangekyo Sharingan and the strongest genjutsu, and replaced his right eye with it, and took his right arm after his death and replaced his with it, and after the Uchiha clan massacre, Danzo took up to ten Sharingan eyes and implanted them into that arm. From Orochimaru, Danzo had the cells of the First Hokage implanted in his right arm as well. Doing this allowed him to use the forbidden dojutsu Izanagi through all his Sharingan, but only doing so with the ones in his arm. To conserve his chakra, as all his eyes were active, Danzo placed a seal on his right arm and bandaged his eye to conceal these implants. Using Izanagi allowed Danzo to control reality and illusion about himself, transferring any disadvantages, like fatal wounds, into a dream and making his own desire for successful attacks a reality. With the advantage the First's cells, Danzo could use Izanagi for one minute an eye, at the cost of losing its use afterwards to blindness. Using this to the full effect, Danzo was able to exhaust Sasuke and mortally wound him at the cost of the same. Danzo was very skilled at using Shisui's eye, able to easily locate a squad of assassins and use his Kotoamatsukami technique very effectively, able to control others with ease without direct sight of them. Along with the with the enhancements to his body and chakra reserves(which were very large) they gave, having the First's cells in him also allowed Danzo access to his Wood Style kekkei genkai, which he could use without hand signs, but only from his right arm, and its power was pale compared to the original. Aside from Sharingan, Danzo was very skilled at using and dispelling genjutsu, even Sasuke's inept Tsukuyomi, although this led to his death.
Trivia
- Danzo's death is very similar to that of Deidara, both use a last ditch effort to kill Sasuke.
- Danzo was NOT the Sixth Hokage, but rather a candidate. Though some people still think he is, he is obviously not, as he was not chosen by Tsunade as a successor and was not voted in by the villagers of Konoha. Additionally after it was discovered that Danzo has power of mind control, his title of Hokage is not recognised. Kakashi Hatake ultimately became the official Sixth Hokage after the Fourth Shinobi World War at the end of the series.
- In omake titled Photo Album, when Tsunade and Shizune decided to take a peek on what Danzo look like in his early days, they immediately closed the latter's photo due to getting more than they bargained for. This omake foreshadows the revelation of Danzo's young appearance to be handsome.