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The doors to the morgue inside the ANBU Headquarters deep within the Hokage Mountain swung open. Hiruzen, flanked by masked ANBU bodyguards, entered the cold room that smelled of formaldehyde. Stag was already present, and because of the special occasion, Sable, the Head of the Foreign Branch of ANBU, was in attendance as well. It wouldn't be long before the ANBU captains also came by, but the first look was reserved for the Hokage and ANBU head honchos.
In the centre of the room sat an operating table, and on it, a body covered by a white sheet.
"Show me," Hiruzen said, skipping all the pleasantries.
The iryō-nin in charge of the morgue pulled the sheet off to reveal Shimura Danzō's body. His skin had turned waxy, translucent like parchment, making him look older than he actually was. His right eyelid was sunken; it was where he had transplanted Uchiha Shisui's Sharingan that had been promptly removed on the orders of Uchiha Sayuri before they left the ROOT base for home. The centrepiece of his corpse was the horrific hole in his chest where his heart should have been.
"Is it him?" Hiruzen asked.
"We have confirmed it, Lord Hokage," the iryō-nin responded. "It's the body of Shimura Danzō."
Hiruzen was silent for a moment before he began weaving hand seals and pressed his hand over Danzō's head. Even though a team of the best iryō-nin was better at confirming the validity of the body, he couldn't help but confirm the fact himself just to be very sure.
"…It's him," he sighed, his shoulders sagging in relief and something else.
No one uttered a word as Hiruzen simply stared at the man with whom he had shared a long history spanning most of their lives. They couldn't know what the Hokage was thinking. Danzō was once the closest aide and confidant to the Hokage. And despite the betrayal—perhaps because of the betrayal—that long relationship with ups and downs held significant weight.
"Shinobi of Darkness, that's what they called him, right? He doesn't look like it, does he?" Hiruzen said.
Stag and Sable gazed at the man who once held both of their positions. In fact, he was the one who had split ANBU into two branches as his last act as the sole ANBU Commander. Neither felt any love lost for him because of their positions and the headaches ROOT had caused them over the years, even before the defection.
But they had to agree, the body in front of them looked like that of a tired, elderly man with a slack jaw and sunken eyes.
"What are these marks?" Hiruzen pointed at the branch-like marks all over Danzō's skin. It was paler than the rest of the body, withered, and resembled grey, water-damaged driftwood. They looked unnatural. "Was he sick with a disease?"
"We aren't sure what it is, Lord Hokage." It hadn't been long since Danzō's body had returned to the village. A full autopsy was yet to be performed.
"See to it," Hiruzen said.
Stag cleared out the morgue to give his father some privacy.
Hiruzen gazed at Danzō, who was now forever silent. He thought back and couldn't recall the last time they had met and hadn't had an argument, many of which he couldn't even recall because of how inconsequential they were.
He remembered the boy who had raced him to the training ground, the comrade who had stood back-to-back with him during the First Shinobi World War. In those days, their bond was simple. It was perhaps the 'Will of Fire' in its purest form.
He had thought about it a lot after Danzō's defection. The moment their master, Senju Tobirama, had chosen him as his successor, the mirror had cracked. Danzō's friendship had turned into a desperate, twisted competition—an ever-worsening quest to prove his darkness was more vital to the Leaf than Hiruzen's light.
He closed his eyes and felt a crushing weight of self-reproach. Every betrayal—the true reason behind ROOT, the cold-blooded orchestration of the death of Uchiha Shisui and the theft of the dōjutsu, even a couple of attempts made on Hiruzen's life that the Leaf could never connect to anyone—felt like a failure of his own leadership.
Even if it was Danzō's own actions, Hiruzen felt he had allowed his friend to become the monster he thought the Leaf might need. By allowing Danzō to sink deeper into the shadows, he had essentially outsourced his conscience. He had kept his hands clean, but in doing so, he had lost his friend to the abyss.
He eyed the hole where Danzō's heart would have sat. It made him wonder what would have happened if he had been stronger and, instead of allowing Danzō to sink deeper into the darkness, knowing that he was susceptible to its corruption, he had pulled him out.
What would have happened if he had saved his friend's heart?
Twenty minutes later, Hiruzen stepped out of the morgue.
"Fox sent this for you." Stag handed Hiruzen a piece of paper.
"What is this?" Hiruzen asked as he unfolded the paper, where he found Danzō's last words for him. "I'll grant his last wish. I have a location in mind for his burial… The official memo will say that his body was destroyed by a death-seal. For the autopsy, invite the Uchiha to send one of their own, but beyond that, the official stance is that only his ashes returned to the village." The jōnin on the ROOT raid had all seen the body, and that fact would spread among the upper echelons of the clans, but beyond that, the information would be restricted.
"A prudent decision," Stag nodded.
"What about Orochimaru?" Hiruzen sighed and frowned with a growing headache. His former student had once again done something ridiculous that threatened the Hidden Leaf's peace. "What do you make of Weasel's report?"
"If it's true, we have a great problem on our hands. The Uchiha aren't going to be happy about this either," Stag sighed. As the Head of the Domestic Branch, the clans came under his purview. He couldn't imagine their reaction to any of this.
The moment one of their grudges was resolved, another ugly one had raised its head, and this one, in many of his twisted ways, was much more dangerous.
For now, the problem was contained. Only a handful of people knew that Orochimaru had possessed the body of a presumed dead Uchiha shinobi and had gained access to their dōjutsu. All of them were ordered to keep their mouths shut, but that would end in a few days when Itachi returned home and revealed that information to his father, Fugaku, the Head of the Uchiha clan.
The relationship between the village administration and the Uchiha clan had been on the up-and-up, but that was only a recent occurrence. There was no telling how they would react to the Orochimaru news. It was very much possible that they would blame the Hokage for it. Danzō was once Hiruzen's closest confidant. In the same vein, Orochimaru was Hiruzen's former student. They could very well frame it as Hiruzen's fault.
"It's not surprising that those two were in contact. What I want to know is what he was doing there at the base. Perhaps that way we can learn something about their current connection," Hiruzen said. Danzō, in his own twisted way, did care about the Hidden Leaf and wanted to rule over it. Orochimaru, on the other hand, hated the Hidden Leaf and would rather see it destroyed just to hurt Hiruzen.
"The report claims that we have ROOT's internal records in our custody. There might be information about Orochimaru's relationship with ROOT in there. Weasel's anti-ROOT squad will get to sifting through the records when they return," Stag replied.
"The one headed by Ratel."
"That one, yes."
"Kingfisher, one of Weasel's lieutenants. He died at Fune."
"A tragedy. You bring that up, why?"
"He'll need a new lieutenant."
"And you think he will choose Ratel?"
"I have a feeling."
Their history, relationship, and circumstances were completely different from what Hiruzen had with Danzō, but given how much Itachi trusted Takuma, he could see a similar relationship of trust forming between the two young shinobi.
Perhaps the younger generation could succeed where he and Danzo had failed miserably.
—
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The same day, the preparations for celebrations were already on their way in the Uchiha Compound.
The news of Danzō's death had quickly spread and made its way to the Uchiha. The entire clan, shinobi or otherwise, were in a great mood as their worst enemy, the one who had dared to desire their bloodline, was now dead. The clan had declared an impromptu festival of sorts to celebrate the occasion.
While everything was happening, the Uchiha jōnin convened together. The clan's strongest were no different and shared the same joy as the rest of their clan. They were happy that Danzō was dead and that they had avenged Shisui.
However, at the moment, their joy was muted as they all focused on Sayuri. She sat facing Fugaku while the other jōnin sat in two lines on either side. Mikoto sat to the right, closest to her husband.
"The traitorous scum is dead; I confirmed it personally and through the iryō-nin on the scene," she said to her clan peers.
"And Shisui's eyes?" Fugaku asked.
"He had transplanted one eye. We didn't find the second one," Sayuri replied with a slight frown. That had been her biggest concern from the moment she had seen Danzō's corpse. She had even gone through what he was carrying on his person, and the eye was nowhere to be found.
Both of Shisui's eyes were missing, but he was only using one. So while Danzō was dead and it was a reason to celebrate, the whereabouts of the second eye were still completely unknown.
"It will turn up as they go through the base and the bodies of the jōnin," one of the jōnin offered, and while everyone hoped that to be true, they didn't feel confident. If it wasn't on Danzō or any of his subordinate jōnin, then the chances of finding it anywhere else were close to zero.
"Let's see the eye," Fugaku said, opting to focus on the positive. "It needs to be destroyed."
Sayuri produced a sealed glass container, and inside, an eye suspended in liquid. Instantly, everyone frowned when they saw that instead of the red of the Sharingan, the eye was of a pale and dull grey.
"What is this?" Fugaku asked. "Whose eye is this?"
"It's Shisui's." Sayuri frowned deeply. "I was confused at first as well, but then I conversed with Hatake Kakashi and Might Gai; they fought and killed Danzō." It was a pity that an Uchiha didn't kill Danzō, but at least he was killed by someone who used a Sharingan. "Jōnin Gai said that he killed or at least crippled the traitor multiple times during their battle—but every time, it was as if the attack never happened. He described it as though the damage vanished, like he was quickly healed from all of his injuries."
A heavy silence fell in the room as the jōnin looked at each other. Everyone had the same exact thought on their minds. Based on the description, it could only be one thing.
"Izanagi," Mikoto said to the silent room.
Sayuri nodded. "I don't think Jōnin Gai would lie. He's not someone you can shrug off when he hits you, repeatedly at that. And if he said that it felt as though the attack never happened, then it has to be that kinjutsu."
"B-But how?" another jōnin said in disbelief. "How can he know about it?"
The knowledge about Izanagi was extremely restricted. Currently, there were only a handful of people outside the room who knew about its existence. It was a kinjutsu that sacrificed the Sharingan and was considered a disgrace. And that's why the greyed eye didn't jump out to them immediately, because even though they knew the kinjutsu existed, none of them had ever seen a Sharingan that had lost its light. It had been several generations since there was a case of a Uchiha using Izanagi.
The implication became clear. Someone had shared the knowledge with Danzō. The first thought in everyone's mind was whether someone in the room had leaked it.
"It could be someone who is no longer alive, so let's not narrow our scope to only this room." Fugaku's words had an immediate calming effect on the room as they lowered their suspicions, but a faint tension still lingered.
Danzō had been in power for a very long time. There wasn't a reason why he couldn't have sourced the information ages ago. Maybe he had chipped away at the information through the years: finding the kinjutsu's existence from one person, finding the details from another, and then getting his hands on it from someone else. Or it could be a crime committed by a single clan member.
They had no way to know yet.
"Having said that, this is still a problem. After the celebration, I'll be launching an internal investigation about how Danzō came to know about our clan's guarded secret. It will be uncomfortable for those involved, but I hope that everyone will cooperate."
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