Several hours later, the evening sun cast long, orange beams through the high windows of the Hokage Tower's main conference room. The space was vast, dominated by a long, polished table that could seat thirty, though only a fraction of the chairs were prepared.
The room was buzzing with activity. Tsunade paced the length of the room, her heels clicking sharply on the hardwood, barking orders at Shizune who was frantically taking notes. A small army of Naruto's shadow clones moved between the rows of seats and the side tables, setting out carafes of water, adjusting stacks of documents, and double-checking the lighting.
The original Naruto stood near the head of the table, his arms crossed, watching the preparations. His eyes drifted around the room, taking stock of the security. He saw Shikamaru walking in step with the Hokage, listening intently. On the far side of the room, Asuma and Kakashi were engaged in a quiet, low-voiced conversation, their body language relaxed but alert. He could also sense the presence of ANBU stationed in the rafters and behind the hidden panels.
He scanned the room one last time. Hinata was nowhere to be seen. Naruto just gave a small, almost imperceptible nod to himself.
"Yo, Naruto!"
Naruto turned at the sound of the gravelly voice. Jiraiya strolled into the room, grinning broadly.
"Pervy Sage!" Naruto grinned. "You coming to this boring meeting too?"
"Of course," Jiraiya said, puffing out his chest. "This is a high-level summit, Naruto. Important topics. Besides, I've always enjoyed long meetings. Especially when they involve… stimulating company."
Naruto narrowed his eyes, giving his master a look of comical suspicion. "You just want to nap in the back while Granny does all the yelling, don't you?"
"Hah! You wound me!" Jiraiya laughed.
"Jiraiya!" Tsunade's voice cracked across the room. "Stop harassing my subordinate and get over here."
Jiraiya gave Naruto a wink and sauntered off to join the Hokage.
Moments later, the heavy doors opened again, and the attendees began to file in. The atmosphere in the room shifted, becoming heavier, more serious.
Shikaku Nara walked in first, his scarred face impassive. Shikamaru immediately broke away from Tsunade to join his father, the two of them falling into step with identical slouched postures.
Next came the honorable advisors, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado. They walked with the slow pace of those who wielded power for decades. They approached the head of the table where Tsunade stood.
"We see you are still relying heavily on your subordinate's labor," Koharu noted dryly, her eyes flickering briefly to Naruto standing nearby.
"It's called resource management," Tsunade shot back without missing a beat. "And Naruto's 'labor' has cleaned up more administrative messes in two days than your departments have in two years. It was a great idea."
Homura grunted, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and the two elders moved to their designated seats.
Naruto watched them go. He knew this meeting was technically about the budget, money, allocations, boring stuff. Usually, the civilian representatives or major guild heads would be here for something like this. But the room was filled only with shinobi. It was clear Granny Tsunade was circling the wagons. She was keeping the civilians out of the line of fire in case things got ugly.
There was only one person left.
The sound of a cane tapping against the floor echoed from the hallway. Tap. Step. Tap. Step.
The doors were pushed open by an attendant, and an old man entered.
Naruto had heard the name, but this was the first time he had ever laid eyes on Danzo Shimura.
The man looked frail. His gray hair was cut short. The entire right side of his face was swathed in white bandages, concealing his eye. His right arm was heavily cast, tucked into the front of his kimono like a sling, and he leaned heavily on a wooden cane with every step. To anyone else, he looked like a war-weary cripple, a relic of a bygone era.
Danzo moved slowly toward the head of the table, stopping in front of Tsunade and Naruto. His visible eye, sharp and cold, slid over Naruto.
"Hmph," Danzo grunted, his voice dry like rustling paper. "It seems you have taken on yet another apprentice, Tsunade."
"Naruto has shown good feats for the work," Tsunade replied, her voice cool and professional. "He's earned his place here."
There was a brief, heavy silence. Danzo stared at Naruto for another second, his expression unreadable, before turning away.
"I shall take my seat," he muttered.
Naruto watched the old man hobble toward his chair. Is this really the guy? he thought, furrowing his brow. He looks like he's gonna fall over if the wind blows too hard. How is he running all these secret things?
But as he watched Danzo's back, Naruto felt a knot tighten in his gut. Despite the cane, despite the bandages, there was no sense of fragility coming from the man. It felt like standing next to a deep, dark pit. There was no weakness there. Just cold, condensed pressure.
Danzo pulled out his chair and sat down. Interestingly, he chose a seat near Jiraiya, directly opposite the two Elders and the Nara men.
Tsunade moved to the head of the table. She placed her hands on the wood, commanding the room's attention.
"Now that everyone is present," she declared, her voice steely, "the preliminary meeting regarding the village's financial restructuring is in session."
The sun had begun its slow descent, painting the conference room in hues of deep orange and violet, casting long, stretching shadows across the polished table. The meeting had been dragging on for hours.
Naruto stood faithfully behind Tsunade's chair, next to Shizune. On the surface, he looked the picture of a disciplined shinobi, his arms crossed, his face set in a mask of serious attentiveness. Inside, however, he was screaming. He had listened to the droning voices of the division heads and realized within the first hour that this was all incredibly simple. He knew exactly how much ryo was going to the infrastructure repair fund versus the mission subsidy pot. He understood the pricing adjustments for B-Rank escorts. It was basic math.
"When I'm Hokage," Naruto thought, fighting the urge to tap his foot, "I'm gonna make these meetings way shorter. Like, an hour tops. Believe it."
Despite the boredom, his focus never truly wavered from one specific point in the room.
Danzo Shimura.
The old man hadn't moved. Not an inch. For hours, he had sat with the stillness of a stone statue, his single visible eye staring straight ahead, blinking only when absolutely necessary. It was unnerving. It spoke of a patience that wasn't human, or perhaps an experience that went back decades.
Naruto considered, just for a second, slipping into a meditative state to gather natural energy. If he entered Sage Mode, he could sense the intent in the room, maybe figure out what this creepy old guy was really thinking. But he stopped himself. Kakashi-sensei was right there. Pervy Sage was sitting right next to Danzo. They would notice the shift in his chakra instantly. It was too risky.
"Darn it. Should've prepped a clone with nature energy beforehand. Maybe worn sunglasses or something to hide the eyes."
"Given the escalating threat of the Akatsuki," Elder Koharu's voice cut through the room, dry and authoritative, "we must reconsider our intelligence network along the borders of the Land of Grass and Rain."
The room went quiet as she shuffled her papers.
"The current network is… insufficient," she continued. "We require a more aggressive stance. A reorganization of the infiltration units is necessary to secure our interests."
She paused, looking around the table.
"Therefore, I propose that we appoint a new head for these specific operations. Someone with the necessary… resolve. I suggest Danzo Shimura take immediate command of external intelligence."
Naruto blinked. He glanced at Shikaku Nara, who was sitting across the table. "Wait a sec. Isn't Shikamaru's dad the intel guy? Why would she suggest the old bandage guy?"
Tsunade didn't outburst, but her eyes narrowed dangerously. "That is a strange suggestion, Koharu."
"I must agree with the Hokage," Shikaku said, his voice lazy but his eyes sharp. "With all due respect, Elder, that falls squarely within my jurisdiction. My division is already handling those sectors."
Naruto glanced at Jiraiya. The Toad Sage was sitting perfectly still, his face unreadable, watching the exchange without saying a word.
"Shikaku is capable," Koharu insisted gently, "but Danzo has unique experience in these matters. Times of war require… harder methods."
Far away, on the other side of the wall, in a space that barely qualified as a room, Hinata was miserable.
She was wedged into a utility closet that smelled of lemon cleaner and dust. A massive storage shed took up eighty percent of the floor space, filled with mops, buckets, and cleaning supplies. Hinata, in her full combat armor, was perched on a small wooden stool that groaned in protest every time she shifted her weight. Her knees were practically pressed against her chest, and her shoulders brushed the walls on either side.
She had been here for hours.
Her Byakugan had been active the entire time, staring through the drywall at the high-stakes game playing out in the conference room.
It was already bad.
This Danzo person… she was seeing him for the first time, and her instincts were screaming. When she tried to look at him, really look at him, she hit a wall. His right arm, the one in the cast, was a blur. Looks like it was covered in high-density sealing barriers like those in the vault in the capital. Why would a man shield his broken arm with cloaking seals?
And despite his frail appearance, his small movements were too precise. Every shift of weight, every turn of his head was calculated. It was a performance.
But the real problem started now.
Through her monochrome vision, Hinata saw a spike of chakra. It originated from Danzo's face, specifically, the eye hidden beneath the bandages. It began to glow with a rhythmic, sinister pulse.
Her enhanced senses, coupled with Venom's processing power, analyzed the signature immediately. It was a ocular jutsu. It felt similar to the unique frequency of Kakashi's Sharingan, but the application was completely different. It wasn't a brute-force illusion meant to paralyze or confuse.
Influence, Venom hissed in her mind, the symbiote's agitation spiking. Target acquired: The female Elder. Analysis of brainwave patterns indicates subtle alteration. He is not overriding her mind, he is tuning it. Adjusting her suggestibility frequencies.
Hinata watched in horror as Koharu's chakra network vibrated in sympathy with the pulse from Danzo's eye. He was rewriting her thoughts in real-time.
"This ends now," Hinata whispered.
She stood up.
"I believe we should put it to a vote," Koharu said, her voice steady, unaware that her own mind was being steered. "Danzo is the logical choi…"
CRASH!
The utility door exploded off its hinges.
Every head in the conference room snapped toward the sound. A mop bucket went flying, clattering loudly across the floor, followed by a broom spinning through the air.
Hinata stepped out of the wall, her armored bulk filling the space. She kicked a wayward dustpan aside.
"Hinata-chan?!" Naruto yelped, jumping slightly.
In a blur of motion, Kakashi and Asuma were on their feet, placing themselves between the intrusion and the Hokage. Four ANBU flickered into existence from the rafters, kunai drawn.
Tsunade didn't flinch. She stared at Hinata, her eyes wide.
Koharu turned in her chair, looking affronted. "What is the meaning of this?!"
Hinata ignored the guards. She ignored the protocol. She raised her right arm, the heavy gauntlet pointing accusingly across the long table.
"You," Hinata commanded, her voice a deep, stereophonic vibration that rattled the water glasses on the table. "Reveal your face. Now."
The sound of her voice sent a chill through the room. Even Naruto shivered. He had never heard her sound like that.
Danzo remained seated. He didn't twitch. He didn't look surprised. He simply stared at her with his one visible eye, cold and empty.
Shikaku and Shikamaru stood up slowly, sensing the shift in the air. Tsunade rose to her feet. Koharu and Homura remained seated, looking bewildered by the sudden accusation.
And Jiraiya… Jiraiya sat still, his gaze locked onto Danzo.
"Hinata," Tsunade said sharply. "Report. What is happening?"
"That man," Hinata said, her finger not wavering from Danzo, "is using a dōjutsu on Elder Koharu. He is influencing her mind."
"Preposterous!" Koharu snapped, standing up indignantly. "I feel nothing of the sort! My thoughts are my own!"
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Jiraiya spoke up, his voice dangerously low. He finally turned his head to look at the Elder. "Because five minutes ago, you were ready to hand over the entire intelligence apparatus to a man who hasn't held an official office in a decade, over the actual head of the division."
"He is hiding an eye beneath those bandages," Hinata declared. "I can see it. The chakra signature… it possesses the same structure and resonance as the Sharingan."
Kakashi's visible eye widened in genuine shock. "What?"
Jiraiya stood up. The chair scraped loudly against the floor. He turned to face Danzo fully.
"I was working with the Elders on the intelligence budget two days ago," Shikaku said, his voice hard as iron. "Koharu-sama was adamant about internal review. For her to suddenly suggest Danzo… it was irrational."
The silence that descended on the room was heavy, suffocating.
Naruto's hands clenched into fists. He began to draw in natural energy, no longer caring who felt it.
"Danzo," Tsunade said, her voice trembling with suppressed rage. "I am aware of your secret machinations. I have tolerated your shadow games because I believed you acted for Konoha. But using a dōjutsu to manipulate the Council? That borders on treason."
She leaned over the table. "Show us your right eye. That is an order."
Hinata's vision flared. Under the bandages, the green glow of the eye began to fade. The connection to Koharu was severed. But the barrier around his arm remained, a wall of blur she couldn't pierce.
Danzo looked at Tsunade. Then at Hinata. His expression was one of mild disappointment, as if he were dealing with unruly children.
He reached up with his left hand.
With a wet tearing sound, he ripped the bandages from his face.
Gasps echoed around the room. Shikaku took a step back. "Is that…?"
Embedded in Danzo's right eye socket was a Sharingan. It spun lazily, the tomoe distinct and red.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Homura shouted, standing up so fast his chair toppled over. Koharu looked pale, her hand going to her head as if waking from a dream.
"Where did you get that eye, Danzo?!" Tsunade roared, slamming her fist onto the table, cracking the wood.
The atmosphere in the room shattered. ANBU shifted into attack positions. Kakashi's hand went to his headband.
Danzo shifted. It was a small movement, his hand moving toward his cane, or perhaps his robe.
It was enough for Jiraiya.
"NO!"
The Toad Sage moved with blinding speed. He didn't use a jutsu. He simply drove his fist, reinforced with chakra, straight into Danzo's chest.
CRACK.
The sound of breaking ribs was sickening. Danzo was launched backward, flying out of his chair and slamming into the far wall. He slid down, coughing blood, his chest caved in. His chakra flared wildly, then began to fade rapidly.
"Jiraiya!" Tsunade screamed. "You reckless fool! We needed him alive!"
Jiraiya stood panting, his fist still raised. "He was making a move, Tsunade! I wasn't going to wait to see what jutsu he was prepping!"
Hinata watched the body. Her Byakugan saw the life force flickering, dimming, extinguishing. The heart stopped. The chakra flow ceased.
Danzo Shimura was dead.
And then, he wasn't.
Through her Byakugan, Hinata saw the corpse flicker. It was like a glitch in reality. The dead body blurred, turning translucent.
IMPOSSIBLE! Venom roared in her mind, his voice filled with genuine shock. That person was terminated! Entropy had claimed it! How?!
Before anyone could react, before Hinata could shout a warning, the space where Danzo's body lay, and the space around the chair he had been sitting in, erupted.
POOF.
A massive, thick cloud of white smoke engulfed the center of the room.
The thick white smoke that filled the room didn't just obscure vision. It seemed to swallow sound, creating a vacuum of breathless anticipation.
Then, the world shattered.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!"
The howl was a solid wall of sound that slammed into them. It struck Hinata's chest like a sledgehammer, rattling her teeth and causing Venom to recoil deep within her mind, hissing in pain at the sonic assault. The sheer volume reverberated through the very foundation of the Hokage Tower.
Massive, razor-sharp claws, each the size of a grown man, tore through the smoke and the mahogany paneling of the walls as if they were wet paper. The floor beneath them groaned and then screamed as steel reinforcements snapped. A colossal, wrinkled grey leg slammed down, and the floor of the conference room buckled, dropping a foot instantly and sending debris raining down into the offices below.
Above, massive ivory tusks sheared through the ceiling, bringing down plaster and light fixtures in a shower of sparks and dust. A gigantic trunk lashed out, smashing through the exterior wall of the tower, revealing the darkening twilight streets of Konoha to the room.
The smoke cleared violently, revealing the nightmare. A chimera of elephant, wearing armor and tiger claws, filled the entire space.
"It's a summon!" Jiraiya shouted over the roaring wind of the beast's movements.
The creature thrashed, its bulk widening the room by force. Everyone leaped back, scrambling for footing on the shifting, broken floor. Through the dust and the gaping hole in the wall, they saw him.
Danzo stood on a piece of remaining floor near the edge of the destruction, perfectly unharmed, his robes fluttering in the wind.
"How the hell are you alive?!" Tsunade screamed, her voice cracking with fury. "You were dead!"
"Looks like we are going to part ways," Danzo said, his voice carrying an eerie calm over the destruction. He turned to leap from the tower.
Jiraiya and Kakashi tensed to pursue, but before a muscle could twitch, the air pressure in the room dropped.
The gigantic monster planted its feet. It threw its head back, lifting its trunk high, and unhinged a maw that looked like a gate to oblivion.
FWOOOOOOOSH.
It inhaled.
The suction was instantaneous and strong. The rushing air possessed the inescapable pull of a gravity well.
Tsunade didn't hesitate. "Hah!" With a grunt of exertion, she punched the floor. Her fists shattered the concrete, embedding themselves deep into the structure. Her legs lifted off the ground, her body flapping like a flag in a hurricane. Shizune, caught in the slipstream, shrieked and grabbed Tsunade's waist, floating horizontally behind the Hokage.
Near the table, Koharu and Homura channeled chakra into their soles, their feet glowing blue as they adhered to the tilting floorboards.
Asuma jammed his trench knives deep into the floor, hanging on by the hilts. Kakashi went flat, his entire body glowing with chakra as he stuck to the ground like a lizard.
"Shadow Strangle Jutsu!" Shikaku roared. His shadow, joined by Shikamaru's, stretched out like black cables, wrapping around exposed rebar and catching two flailing ANBU members who had lost their footing.
Naruto, caught completely off guard, was lifted off his feet.
"WAAAH!"
He flew backward through the air, tumbling uncontrollably. He slammed directly into Hinata, who had been momentarily stunned by the initial howl.
"Sorry, Hinata!" Naruto shouted over the roar of the wind. He instinctively wrapped his arms and legs around her torso, clinging to her back like a koala to a tree to stop himself from flying into the monster's mouth.
Hinata snapped back to reality. The weight of Naruto on her back threw off her center of gravity, but she compensated instantly. She slammed her right foot down, cracking the floor.
SHWICK.
Thick, black symbiotic tendrils erupted from her shoulders and waist. They shot downward, piercing the concrete floor and anchoring her in place like the roots of an ancient tree.
To her left, Jiraiya was standing, his geta sandals digging into the wood, holding on with sheer physical leg strength and chakra control.
"Use Fire Style!" Jiraiya bellowed, his white hair whipping forward into his face. "Everyone! Now!"
He began flashing through hand seals.
Kakashi, fighting the wind, brought his hands together. Asuma, lying on his back, managed to weave signs with his knuckles still gripping his knives.
On Hinata's back, Naruto let go with one hand, then the other, his legs still locked tight around her waist. He peaked over her left shoulder, his face inches from hers, and began forming seals.
On her right shoulder, the black biomass bubbled and rose. A sleek, serpentine head with jagged white eyes and a fanged maw formed, mimicking the hand seals internally.
"Katon!" Hinata's voice harmonized with the growl of the symbiote.
"Fire Style!" Naruto shouted.
"Endan!" Jiraiya roared.
"Fireball Jutsu!" Kakashi yelled.
"Ash Pile Burning!" Asuma grunted.
Five distinct streams of fire, oil-based flame, a massive fireball, superheated ash, and a stream of white-hot fire, erupted simultaneously. The suction of the monster pulled the attacks together, merging them into a single, destructive river of flame that spiraled directly into the creature's inhaling maw.
BOOM!
The explosion happened inside the monster. The monster's eyes bulged. Smoke poured from its trunk and mouth. It let out a strangled, gurgling whimper, thrashing wildly as the fire ravaged its throat. With a final, pathetic cough, the massive beast burst into a cloud of white smoke and vanished.
The suction cut off instantly.
THUD. CRASH. OOF.
Gravity reclaimed the room. Everyone dropped to the floor. Tsunade pulled her fists from the concrete. Shizune fell onto her butt. Asuma groaned as he rolled over.
Tsunade was the first up, sprinting toward the jagged hole in the wall where Danzo had vanished.
"Status! Everyone report!" she barked. "Raise the alarm! Lockdown the sector!"
Shizune scrambled up, still dizzy, clutching a clipboard she had somehow not lost. "Y-yes, Lady Tsunade!"
The room was a wreck of dust and broken furniture. Jiraiya wiped soot from his face, his expression dark. "I hit him. I felt the ribs crack. His heart stopped. How is he running?"
"He flickered," Hinata said, her voice cutting through the confusion. She stood up, dusting off her armor. Naruto was still clinging to her back, his chin resting on her left shoulder, his arms wrapped tight around her midsection.
"Just before the summon appeared," Hinata continued, "his body… it phased out of reality. It faded, then rewrote itself."
"It wasn't a substitution," Naruto said, his voice right in her ear.
Hinata turned her head slightly. Naruto's eyes had changed. The pupils were horizontal bars, and the irises were a deep, golden-orange.
"I saw it too," Naruto said, his tone deadly serious. "His chakra… it vanished, then popped back somewhere else. And that arm of his… the bandaged one. It was pulsing right when it happened. It felt… really bad."
Tsunade turned from the hole in the wall, her eyes landing on the pair.
"Naruto! Get off of Hinata!" she snapped. "Hinata! Where is he?"
Naruto yelped, realizing he was still backpacking on his girlfriend in front of the village leadership. "Ack! Sorry!"
He jumped off, landing lightly and straightening his clothes, his face burning red. But the blush vanished a second later, replaced by a hard, focused look.
Hinata stood tall. Her helmet was quickly unsealed, encasing her head.
"Target locked," Hinata announced, her voice now fully filtered and metallic. "He is moving east. Two escorts have joined him. They are moving fast."
From the shattered floor above and the hallway, heads began to poke out, clerks, lower-ranking ninja, asking if everyone was alright. Below, on the street, civilians were pointing up at the devastating hole in the side of the Hokage Tower. The village alarm sirens began to wail.
"He attacked the Hokage," Tsunade growled, her fists clenching until her knuckles popped. "He used a summon inside the Tower. He compromised a Council Elder. We cannot let him leave."
"Go," Homura said, stepping forward, his face pale but determined. He and Koharu stood amidst the wreckage. "We will handle the administration. We will manage the panic. You stop him."
Tsunade nodded once. "Move out!"
In a blur of motion, the high-level ensemble of Konoha, Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Asuma, Shikaku, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Hinata, leaped from the destroyed wall, plummeting toward the street below.
They landed in a crouch, the pavement cracking under the collective impact.
"Whoa! What the hell happened?!"
Naruto looked up. Standing near a lamppost, looking up at the smoking hole in the tower with wide eyes, was Sora.
"Sora?" Naruto frowned. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard a noise that sounded like the world ending!" Sora shouted, pointing at the tower. "Was that sounded like… was that an elephant?!"
"Crazy old man happened," Naruto said curtly, not breaking his stride as the group began to run. "I'm on a mission. Stay put, Sora! Don't follow us!"
"Naruto-kun," Hinata called out, her helmet turning toward the eastern district.
Naruto's head snapped toward her. He nodded.
"Right behind you!"
With a burst of speed, the group vanished down the street, chasing the shadow of Danzo Shimura.
The makeshift squad tore across the rooftops of Konoha, moving in a blur against the darkening sky. The wind whipped at their clothes and hair as they leaped over alleyways.
As they crossed into one part of the village, a standard patrol of four Chuunin intercepted them, landing on a water tower to block their path.
"Halt! State your…" the lead patrolman started, but his eyes widened as he recognized the Hokage leading the charge.
"Stand down!" Tsunade barked without slowing her pace. "Secure the perimeter of the Tower! Level One alert! Move!"
"Hai, Hokage-sama!" The patrol scattered instantly, redirecting toward the column of smoke rising from the administrative district.
"Shikaku, handle the ANBU rotations on the west side!" Tsunade shouted over the rushing wind.
"Already done via hand signals," Shikaku replied calmly from her left flank.
They cleared the residential district, the village wall looming ahead.
"Hinata!" Tsunade called out. "Where is Danzo?"
"He has cleared the village walls," Hinata's voice resonated, filtered through her helmet. "He is in the eastern forest, moving rapidly. Six additional signatures have joined his formation. My sensors detect the Tongue Seal on all of them."
"Slippery bastard," Tsunade growled, pushing more chakra into her legs to increase her speed. "He moves awfully fast for a cripple."
"Yeah, no kidding!" Naruto yelled, matching her pace. "When I was watching him back there in the meeting, some of his moves looked weird! Like he was faking it big time! That was some really good acting for an old guy!"
Shikaku landed heavily on a tiled roof, springing forward instantly. "Hokage-sama, did you anticipate this outcome? If Danzo knew the Hyuuga heiress was guarding the meeting, he could have easily feigned illness to avoid attendance. He walked into a trap he should have seen."
"I never expected it to escalate to this degree," Tsunade admitted, her face grim. "After the missions at the lake, the capital, and the Fire Temple… we only had indirect evidence. We knew someone was moving pieces, but tying it directly to him was proving impossible."
"It connects deeper than that," Jiraiya shouted from the rear. "When I made my own investigation in the Land of Grass and the Land of Rivers, I found records of local government officials vanishing. They had unknowingly uncovered Orochimaru's operations. I cross-referenced it with the data from the Black Market raid today. They're the same people."
Asuma, running alongside Kakashi, chimed in. "But even with all that… the evidence wasn't enough to arrest a Council Elder. We needed him to make a mistake."
"Exactly," Tsunade said. "I thought he would try to secure funding for his black ops during the budget review. I hoped that would give us a paper trail, a direction to dig. After Naruto helped reorganize the archives, we found traces suggesting Orochimaru worked under Danzo's division years ago. I planned to unravel his conspiracy over the next month, piece by piece."
She clenched her teeth. "But the moment he revealed that Sharingan… it confirmed everything. Orochimaru helped him. There is no other explanation for that."
Naruto frowned, looking between the adults. "But… where did that old man get a Sharingan anyway? Isn't that Sasuke's clan's thing?"
The air in the group grew suddenly, eerily quiet. The only sound was the slap of sandals on tile and the rushing wind. Kakashi stared straight ahead, his eye devoid of emotion.
Shikaku finally broke the silence, his voice devoid of its usual laziness. "There is only one place he could have acquired it. And it is not a pleasant thought."
They reached the massive outer wall of Konoha. Without breaking stride, the group launched themselves over the parapets, diving down into the dense canopy of the forest outside. They landed on thick branches, the wood groaning under the impact of so many high-level shinobi, and continued the pursuit into the shadows of the trees.
It makes no logical sense, Venom hissed inside Hinata's mind, the symbiote's confusion radiating as a cold spike against her consciousness. That human ceased biological function. I felt the termination of the electrical impulses in the brain. He was dead. Then… reality warped. It folded back on itself. He rewrote his own existence. That should be impossible. Entropy is absolute.
Hinata narrowed her eyes behind her helmet, processing the alien's assessment while keeping her Byakugan locked on the distant chakra signatures.
"Four targets are separating from the main group," Hinata announced, her dual voice cutting through the wind. "They are moving to intercept. Attempting to delay us."
"I sense 'em too!" Naruto shouted, his eyes narrowed. "They're coming in hot!"
"We don't have time for this!" Tsunade growled, not breaking her stride. "Jiraiya! Clear the path!"
"Right!" Jiraiya leaped forward, gaining speed. "Naruto! With me!"
"You got it, Pervy Sage!"
Naruto performed his cross seal mid-air. POOF. Three clones appeared alongside him. Jiraiya inhaled deeply, his chest expanding, while Naruto's clones began to knead wind chakra.
"Katon: Gamayu Endan! (Fire Style: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!)" Jiraiya roared, spewing a massive torrent of oil and fire.
"Fūton: Daitoppa! (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!)" The Naruto clones shouted in unison, unleashing a gale-force wind.
The two jutsus collided in mid-air. The wind caught the oil-slicked fire, merging with it and spreading it instantly.
FWOOOOOSH!
A colossal cone of destruction erupted through the forest. Trees were incinerated instantly, the ground scorched black. Hinata watched through her Byakugan as the four Root agents, who had been setting up a formation, were caught completely off guard. They couldn't scatter fast enough. The firestorm hit them like a wall, tossing them like ragdolls. She heard the sickening CRACK of bones breaking even over the roar of the flames.
The pursuit group didn't stop. They surged through the smoke and heat. As they passed the impact zone, they saw the four agents scattered on the ground, groaning, their armor melted and limbs twisted. They were alive, but barely.
"Naruto!" Kakashi barked. "Leave clones! Restrain them and guard them! We keep moving!"
"On it!" Naruto shouted. He crossed his fingers again, and four more clones peeled off from the main group, rushing toward the fallen enemies with wire and seals in hand. The main group didn't lose a second of momentum.
They cleared the smoke, back into the dim twilight of the forest.
"We are closing the distance," Hinata reported, her sensors painting a clear picture of the chase. "But the target is maintaining speed. They are not stopping."
"Can you slow them down?" Tsunade asked, glancing at the armored kunoichi.
"Yes."
Hinata focused. She didn't slow her run, but the air around her grew heavy. From the seams of her armor on her back, a thick, viscous black liquid poured out. The other shinobi glanced over, eyes widening. The glowing white lines beneath her armor flared brighter, bleeding light through the gaps in the plating.
The biomass writhed and hardened, stretching upward and outward. Within seconds, four massive, long-barreled organic cannons had formed on her back, angling forward over her shoulders like the turrets of a warship. Intricate white lines pulsed along the barrels, humming with gathered energy.
"Whoa!" Naruto yelled, staring up at her. "Hinata-chan! You look like a walking battleship from one of those mangas!"
Hinata ignored the comment, her focus absolute. Venom managed the adjustments, mixing her Fire and Lightning affinities within the firing chambers. Pressure built. The air around the cannons shimmered with heat.
"Kōseiton: Tentai Hōraku (Stellar Release: Celestial Body Collapse)!"
THOOM-THOOM-THOOM-THOOM!
Four blindingly white spheres of plasma shot from the cannons. The recoil was absorbed by her enhanced musculature, but the shockwave flattened the grass beneath her feet. The projectiles screamed through the air, tearing up the wind itself, illuminating the darkened forest with the brilliance of daylight.
They arced high, gaining altitude with impossible speed, then banked sharply, guided by Hinata's will.
Through her Byakugan, Hinata watched the spheres overtake the fleeing trio.
"Cutting their path," she stated. "Impact in three… two…"
The projectiles dove.
BOOM!
The first orb slammed into the earth twenty meters ahead of Danzo. The explosion was a blinding flash of white destruction. Trees vanished. The ground turned to glass.
Danzo and his escorts skidded to a halt, shielding their eyes.
BOOM! BOOM!
Two more spheres impacted to the left and right, boxing them in.
BOOM!
The final sphere detonated directly in front of them again, creating a wall of superheated plasma and dust.
"Targets are halted and temporarily stunned," Hinata announced, the cannons on her back dissolving back into her armor.
"Awesome shot, Hinata!" Naruto cheered.
"Good work," Tsunade said, her voice grim. "That bought us the seconds we need."
"Wait," Shikamaru called out, jumping over a fallen log. "If this guy really has a Sharingan… and he was controlling an Elder… what's to stop him from doing that to us? How do we fight a mind-control eye?"
"It's not that simple," Kakashi answered, his lone eye fixed on the smoke ahead. "That level of dōjutsu is incredibly taxing. The chakra drain is immense, and the cooldown period can be long. If he stopped influencing Koharu the moment we confronted him, it means he likely can't cast it again immediately. Especially not in the heat of battle."
They burst through the final line of trees into the clearing Hinata had created.
Danzo stood in the center of the cratered earth, flanked by his two remaining bodyguards. Dust swirled around them.
"Shadow Strangle Jutsu!" Shikaku roared.
"Shadow Sewing!" Shikamaru echoed.
The setting sun cast long, deep shadows across the clearing, extending the reach of the Nara clan techniques. Black tendrils shot across the ground faster than the eye could follow.
The two Root ANBU were caught instantly, the shadows grasping their ankles and shooting up to bind their bodies, freezing them in place.
Danzo moved. With agility that defies his age and injuries, he leaped high into the air, his single Sharingan eye spinning wildly as he tracked the shadows.
He dodged the capture, but his men were lost.
Asuma and Kakashi blurred past the shadows.
SHING. THUD.
Asuma's trench knives slammed into the neck of one guard, knocking him unconscious with a blunt impact. Kakashi appeared behind the other, a chop to the neck dropping him instantly.
Danzo landed on a high branch on the opposite side of the clearing.
THUD.
Jiraiya landed heavily on the branch behind him, blocking his retreat.
Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto, Hinata, Shikaku, and Shikamaru fanned out on the ground below.
Danzo looked around. He was completely surrounded.
He pushed chakra into his soles and launched himself upward, seeking an escape way through the canopy. But the circle was tight, and the reaction of Konoha's shinobi was instantaneous. Asuma and Kakashi flickered into the air, blocking the north and south. Jiraiya stood on a high branch to the east, and the Nara men controlled the ground. Danzo was forced to land back in the center of the wide, grassy clearing, the twilight casting long, distorting shadows around him.
He was hemmed in. To his front stood Tsunade, radiating a terrifying heat. To her sides were Shizune and Naruto. Behind him, the towering form of Hinata blocked the path, flanked by Shikamaru and his father.
The silence that stretched was brittle, ready to snap. Naruto took a step forward, his mouth opening to shout an accusation, but Tsunade cut him off, her voice low and dangerous.
"Are you going to explain yourself, Danzo?" she demanded. "Or are you simply going to die as a traitor?"
Danzo didn't answer. He moved.
Swish.
He leaped laterally, his body twisting in mid-air just as black shadow tendrils erupted from the grass where he had been standing, snapping shut on empty air.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled.
POOF.
Five Narutos appeared in the air around Danzo's trajectory, swinging punches and kicks.
Danzo's single visible Sharingan spun. He drew a kunai with his left hand, exhaling a sharp breath. Wind chakra coated the blade, extending its reach. With movements far too fluid for a man of his age, he slashed.
Slice. Slice. Pop. Pop.
The clones were dispelled instantly, cut ribbons before they could connect. Danzo crested the arc of his jump, his fingers forming a seal to unleash a wind technique.
He never finished the seal.
"No."
Hinata inhaled sharply. Her chest expanded, and she spat a condensed, blindingly white sphere of fire directly at the airborne Elder. It was a precise, high-velocity projectile, faster than a standard fireball.
BOOM!
The white fire impacted Danzo's back. There was no dodge this time. The explosion was violent, consuming his small frame in a roar of heat.
THUD.
A charred, smoking body hit the grass. It rolled once and came to a stop, limbs twisted at unnatural angles. The chakra signature was extinguished.
The gathered shinobi didn't relax. They maintained their stances, weapons raised. Hinata's Byakugan remained locked on the corpse. Venom was already purring in satisfaction at the confirmed kill.
And then, the world glitched.
Through Hinata's enhanced eyes, the reality around the corpse seemed to warp and blur, like ink running in water. The dead body didn't simply faded away, becoming a transparent mirage that dissolved into the evening air.
"What?!" Naruto yelled, blinking rapidly.
Fwip.
Ten meters away, completely unharmed and without a speck of soot on his robes, Danzo materialized out of thin air.
HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! Venom roared in Hinata's mind, the symbiote's confusion bordering on panic. We terminated him! I felt the thermal destruction of his biological tissues! He cannot simply… undo an event! That violates the laws of causality!
"You were dead!" Tsunade shouted, her eyes widening in disbelief. "I saw you die!"
"How the hell are you doing that, Danzo?!" Jiraiya demanded, sliding down from the tree branch to join the circle. "That's not a substitution! That's not a clone!"
Danzo smoothed the front of his robe with his left hand. He looked at them with cold, tired eyes.
"It seems I must get serious," Danzo stated, his voice dry. "A lesson must be taught to the younger generation. And to those who have forgotten the harsh truths of the shinobi world."
He reached for his right arm, the one that had been heavily cast and kept inside his robe. He began to unwind the bandages.
"I will rid the village of all of you," Danzo said, the cloth falling away to reveal a heavy, metal brace encasing his entire arm. He fumbled with the latches. "I will make Konoha strong again. I will remove you, Tsunade. You are too soft. You lack the will to do what is necessary."
He looked at Naruto, his gaze dismissive. "And you. I will put the demon host to a better use than playing ninja. You are a weapon that has been allowed to rust."
Finally, his eye locked onto Hinata. "And I will deal with that… abomination."
CLANG.
The heavy metal locks disengaged. The brace split open and fell to the grass with a heavy thud.
A collective gasp sucked the air out of the clearing.
"Is that…" Tsunade's voice trailed off, choking on rage.
"Sharingan," Kakashi finished, his own eye widening in horror. "All of them."
Danzo's right arm was a nightmare. It was pale, the skin texture rough and unnatural, resembling tree bark more than flesh. But it was what was embedded in the flesh that turned stomachs.
From the shoulder down to the wrist, the arm was studded with eyes. Ten of them.
They were all Sharingan. The crimson irises spun and twitched, looking in every direction, blinking out of sync.
However, Hinata's sharp vision caught the detail immediately. Two of the eyes, one on the forearm and one near the wrist, were closed shut. Their color was gone, the light within them extinguished forever.
But the horror didn't end at the eyes.
On the shoulder of the arm, protruding from the pale flesh, was a face. It was small, distorted, and seemingly carved from the meat of the arm itself, but the features were unmistakable to anyone who knew the history of the village.
Tsunade took a stumbling step forward, her face draining of color before flushing with a violent, murderous red.
"Grandfather?" she whispered. Then, her voice rose to a scream. "That is the First Hokage's face! You bastard! You defiled his body?!"
Hinata stared at the arm. Her Byakugan and Venom's sensors dissected the grotesque limb.
"It is not his arm," Hinata stated, her voice trembling with disgust. "It is a biological prosthesis. A graft."
It is a warped symbiosis, Venom analyzed, his mental voice cold and clinical. That limb… it is not human. It is a construct. The genetic signature matches the pack leader's. It matches the wood-user. It is a parasitic growth forced to host the stolen eyes.
Danzo ignored their revulsion. He raised his left hand, gripping a kunai. He exhaled sharply, channeling wind chakra into the blade.
VROOOM.
The wind extended, sharpening and lengthening until the small knife became a long, translucent sword of cutting air. He took a stance.
"Now," Danzo said. "Let us begin."
If Danzo Shimura had intended to engage in a spectacular display of veteran prowess, a lesson in the harsh realities of the shinobi world, the reality was a humiliating dismantling.
He moved to cast a high-level Vacuum Wave, inhaling sharply. Before he could exhale, a coordinated wall of fire, white, orange, and red, erupted from Kakashi, Asuma, Jiraiya, and Hinata simultaneously. The thermal shockwave forced him to cancel the jutsu and dodge, stumbling right into the path of the Fifth Hokage.
CRACK.
Tsunade's heel came down like a guillotine. Danzo tried to block with a wind-infused kunai, but the force shattered the blade and pulverized his collarbone. He died instantly.
And then, the air shimmered like heat haze, and he was standing ten feet to the left, breathing hard.
The cycle repeated. He tried to weave a seal. Naruto's clones overwhelmed him with Rasengans. He died. He flickered back. He tried to maneuver himself, but Shikamaru's shadows forced him into a corner where Asuma decapitated him. He died. He flickered back.
Hinata watched with her Byakugan, Venom's sensory input analyzing the impossible data in real-time.
On Danzo's exposed, monstrous arm, three of the spinning Sharingan eyes suddenly snapped shut. Their chakra signatures vanished instantly, the tissue around them graying as if suffering from rapid, localized necrosis.
I see how this work, Venom hissed, his voice vibrating with clinical fascination. It functions like the illusions your red-eyed teacher uses, but inverted. Instead of casting a false reality upon the mind of an enemy, he is casting it upon his own existence. He takes the event of his death, a certainty, and re-writes it as a dream, forcing the universe to revert to a state where he is alive.
Venom paused, sensing the decay in the arm. But the cost is high. The bio-batteries are burning out. Organ failure is triggered in the eyes to fuel the warp.
"The eyes are the fuel," Hinata announced, her voice booming over the battlefield. "Every time he rewrites his death, an eye closes permanently. He is burning through his extra lives. Keep killing him!"
The hesitation in the Konoha shinobi vanished. He wasn't immortal. He was just durable. And he was running out of time.
Two more deaths followed in rapid succession. A lightning cutter from Kakashi. A massive toad-oil flame bullet from Jiraiya.
Danzo reappeared, panting heavily, sweat slicking his forehead. On his right arm, only three red eyes remained open, spinning frantically. The confidence was gone, replaced by the twitchy desperation of a trapped animal.
"Some lesson you're teaching us, Danzo," Tsunade mocked, cracking her knuckles. The sound was like a gunshot. "You're pathetic. Care to tell from whom you got these eyes?"
"You know nothing!" Danzo spat, backing away. "These eyes… they are the payment! The Uchihas were traitors to the village! I took what was necessary!"
SPLAT.
Tsunade didn't let him finish. She flickered into his guard, her fist connecting with his torso. The impact liquefied his bones. Danzo's upper body exploded into a fine red mist.
The bloody vapor hung in the air for a second before fading into transparency. Danzo materialized five meters away, stumbling. Another eye on his arm slammed shut. Two left.
"I did what had to be done!" Danzo screamed, his voice cracking. "I am the darkness that sustains the light! You are all too soft to make the hard choices!"
SHUNK.
Tsunade didn't offer a rebuttal. She simply took his head off with a backhand blow that moved faster than sound.
He warped back into existence, falling to his knees. One eye left on the arm.
"It was me!" Danzo yelled, his eyes darting wildly between his executioners. "I saved the village! The Uchiha were going to betray everyone! I stopped the civil war!"
Naruto, Hinata, and Shizune blinked, the weight of the confession hitting them. Even Shikamaru froze for a second.
But Tsunade didn't pause. Her rage was a living thing. She drove a kick into his chest, caving in his ribcage and sending him flying into a tree, where he slumped, dead.
The reality warped again. Danzo reappeared, but this time, he didn't stand. He fell onto his hands and knees.
"Wait! Wait, Tsunade!" Danzo begged, all pretense of dignity gone. He crawled backward, dirt staining his robes. "I… I can still be useful! I have networks! I have intel! Let me go! I can serve the village from the shadows! I can…"
CRUNCH.
Tsunade's fist hammered him into the dirt, burying him six feet deep.
Danzo reappeared one final time.
He stood swaying, gasping for air. He looked at his right arm. Every single eye was closed. The red light was gone. Only his own right eye remained.
Suddenly, the flesh of the arm began to ripple violently. The face of the First Hokage on his shoulder twitched, the mouth opening in a silent scream. The wood-like skin began to expand, bulging and tearing.
The stabilization is gone, Venom noted. The eyes were the only thing keeping the host's body from rejecting the parasitic graft. Now… the graft is consuming the host.
"Damn it!" Danzo screeched. He grabbed his right shoulder with his left hand. With a guttural roar of pain and effort, he performed a quick seal and ripped the arm free from his body.
SQUELCH.
He threw the mutating limb away. Before it even hit the ground, the arm exploded outward. In seconds, it transformed into a massive, twisted tree, its roots tearing up the earth where Danzo had stood.
Danzo clutched his bleeding stump. He looked at the tree, then at the ring of shinobi surrounding him. He had no eyes. He had no arm. He had nothing.
He turned and ran.
It was a pathetic, limping run, the flight of a coward who had run out of pawns.
"Oh, give me a break," Naruto scowled. He didn't even bother to chase. He just brought his hands together.
"Fūton: Renkūdan! (Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet)"
Naruto spat a small, compressed bullet of air. It struck Danzo perfectly in the back of the knees.
SNAP.
Danzo cried out as his legs buckled. He hit the ground face-first, sliding through the dirt. He tried to rise, flipping onto his back, crawling away with his one good arm and legs that wouldn't work.
Tsunade walked toward him. Her pace was slow, deliberate. As she loomed over him, the full moon rose above the tree line, positioning itself directly behind her head. Her silhouette was framed in silver light, casting Danzo into absolute darkness.
She looked down at him with no pity, only cold, hard contempt.
"End of the line," Tsunade said.
She drew her fist back and struck.
DOOM.
The punch hit him square in the center of the chest. The earth cracked in a spiderweb pattern for twenty meters around them. Danzo's chest collapsed completely, the heart instantly destroyed.
He twitched once. A final, involuntary spasm of a nerve. And then, Danzo Shimura lay still.
The silence following Tsunade's final blow was absolute, save for the settling of dust and the heavy breathing of the shinobi.
Fzzzt.
Suddenly, the mangled corpse on the ground flickered like a dying lightbulb. Space warped, and Danzo materialized again, lying on his back in the dirt, gasping for air, his single remaining eye wide with panic.
"Damn it!" Tsunade roared, her patience snapping. "I forgot about the one in his actual skull!"
She didn't give him a chance to speak, beg, or crawl. She stomped down hard.
CRUNCH.
The impact was definitive. The earth cratered beneath Danzo's body, and the life left his eyes instantly. Everyone stood frozen, weapons raised, waiting for the flicker, the warp, the cheat code to activate again.
A minute passed. Then two. The night air grew cold. The body remained a body.
Tsunade let out a long, frustrated sigh, straightening her robes. "Unbelievable. That bastard really ruined my final line. It was a good speech, too."
It was fully dark now. The moon hung high overhead, illuminating the grisly scene. The adrenaline of combat began to fade, replaced by a heavy, grim realization of what they had just done. They had executed a village elder.
Naruto stepped forward, looking down at the twisted form of the man who had tried to kill them. He looked up at Shikaku and Tsunade.
"Hey," Naruto said, his voice unusually quiet. "Where did that old guy get all those eyes? That… that arm was messed up."
Shikaku Nara stared at the corpse, his expression grim. "It is certain now. He harvested them from the Uchiha. Most likely in the immediate aftermath of the massacre."
Shikamaru frowned, stepping up beside his father. "Before you killed him… he said something. He said the clan was about to betray the village. Was that…"
"Contact," Hinata's voice cut through the conversation, resonant and sharp.
Heads snapped toward her. Tsunade, who was standing near Jiraiya, turned. "Who is it, Hinata? More enemies?"
"Six targets," Hinata reported, her helmet turning toward the dense treeline. "It appears to be the second escort group."
She paused, her head tilting slightly as Venom analyzed the incoming bio-signatures.
"Wait," she corrected. "Their speed is decreasing. The chakra signatures are destabilizing. The seals on their tongues… they are dissolving."
Moments later, six figures emerged from the shadows of the forest. They were dressed in the gray armor and porcelain masks of Root ANBU. They moved hesitantly, their body language broadcasting deep confusion. They stepped into the clearing and stopped dead.
They saw the crater. They saw the destroyed forest. And in the center of it all, they saw the broken body of Danzo Shimura.
The Root agents froze. They didn't draw weapons. They didn't shout. They simply stood there, looking between the corpse and the Hokage, utterly lost. It was as if the strings controlling puppets had been suddenly cut, leaving them without purpose or instruction.
Tsunade stepped forward. The Konoha shinobi, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Asuma, Shizune, Shikaku, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Hinata, spread out in a wide arc behind her, forming a wall of overwhelming force.
"I am the Godaime Hokage," Tsunade declared, her voice projecting authority that brooked no argument. "I am the ruling authority of this village. Danzo is dead. Your orders are gone. Your loyalties belong to Konoha, not to a ghost."
She glared at them. "Stand down."
The Root agents faltered. They looked at each other, seeking a command that would never come. Finally, the conditioning broke under the weight of reality. One by one, they dropped to a knee, bowing their heads.
"We surrender," the lead agent said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. "Unconditionally."
"Good," Tsunade said. "Kakashi, Asuma. Tie them up. Naruto, get some clones on rotation."
"You got it, Grandma!" Naruto shouted, forming his cross seal. POOF. A squad of clones appeared, ready to assist with transport.
The return to Konoha was a somber parade. The group moved through the main gates, carrying the body of the traitor and escorting the bound prisoners. The village was already on high alert from the attack on the tower. Civilians peered from windows, and shinobi watched from rooftops, their eyes wide as they saw the Hokage returning with a dead Elder.
They didn't stop until they reached the Hokage Tower.
The administrative building was a wreck, half of it open to the night air. Yet, amidst the rubble of the conference room, Elders Koharu and Homura had managed to organize a makeshift command center. Tables had been righted, and clerks were running messages under the open sky.
Tsunade led her team through the destroyed wall, stepping over debris. She dumped Danzo's body on the floor in front of her fellow Elders.
"It is done," she announced.
The investigation began immediately.
The revelations that followed over the next few hours horrified the Elders and the gathered commanders. The captured Root subordinates, stripped of their master and their silence seals, answered every question asked of them with robotic precision.
Some of the masks were removed to reveal members of the Yamanaka and Aburame clans, shinobi who had been thought missing or dead for years.
They spoke of missions to foreign lands, not to gather intel, but to kill random targets, merchants, minor officials. They confirmed they transported these bodies to black market collection points to generate off-the-books revenue. They didn't know why. They never asked. They just obeyed.
Tsunade wasted no time. She assumed total command, declaring a state of emergency investigation. She mobilized everyone, shinobi from every clan, civilian-born officers, ANBU, and regular forces.
"Tear it all down," she ordered. "Find every hole he hid in."
The results were terrifying. Guided by the prisoners' intel, Konoha forces uncovered multiple Root hideouts. Some were on the outskirts of the village, hidden in caves or beneath false farmhouses. But others were deep inside Konoha itself, buried under parks or forgotten industrial zones.
How did we miss this? was the question on everyone's lips. The answer was simple: Danzo had his people everywhere. Whenever a search was conducted, a Root operative in the logistics or sensory division would divert the patrol, falsify a report, or cast a subtle genjutsu. They had been blindfolded by their own comrades.
One hideout, buried deep beneath the foundation of an old archive building, contained the darkest secrets.
It was a fully functioning underground complex. It had medical wards that looked more like torture chambers. It had barracks that were essentially prison cells. And it had a mortuary.
Intelligence Division breakers, assisted by Shikamaru and Hinata's analytical capabilities, began to crack the encrypted logs found within.
The connection to Orochimaru was confirmed in ink. Danzo had indeed worked with the Snake Sannin. The modifications to his arm, the Hashirama cells, the eye implants, all of it was Orochimaru's handiwork.
But the correspondence revealed a twisted dynamic. Orochimaru wasn't a partner. He had been blackmailing Danzo, threatening to expose his illegal operations. In exchange for silence, Danzo had been forced to facilitate the acquisition of medical equipment and divert Konoha intelligence teams away from Orochimaru's bases.
Danzo's journals revealed his own counter-plan: he intended to use this "partnership" only until he usurped the Hokage seat. Once he controlled the village, he planned to mobilize Konoha's full might to wipe Orochimaru off the map.
Further documents detailed the Fire Temple operation. Danzo had made the shadow donations to fund the grave robbers, hoping a devastating attack on the Temple or the Village using the reanimated Guardians would discredit Tsunade's administration as weak and incapable of defense, paving the way for his ascension.
But the rabbit hole went deeper, extending beyond the village walls.
Papers were found outlining a decades-long campaign of hybrid warfare. Danzo had been secretly financing uprisings in smaller nations, assassinating moderate leaders, and supporting factions in civil wars to destabilize the region, believing a chaotic world made Konoha's stability more valuable.
Most damning was the correspondence regarding Amegakure. Danzo had cooperated with Hanzo of the Salamander to crush a nascent rebellion. He had feared their idealism would spread. Because of this involvement, Danzo had suspected that the current, criminal Akatsuki had risen from the ashes of that betrayal. He had been deliberately steering Konoha intelligence away from the Rain Village to cover up his past complicity in creating the monster that now threatened the world.
And then, deep in the cryo-storage of the main hideout, they found them.
Rows of preserved cadavers.
DNA tests confirmed the grim truth. They were Uchiha. Men, women, and children. Some were recognized by older shinobi. It was undeniable proof that Danzo hadn't just scavenged the battlefield. He had a connection to the massacre and harvested the clan like a crop.
For the next week, the village was in a frenzy of activity.
Naruto, utilizing hundreds of Shadow Clones, worked alongside Hinata and Shikamaru in a secure archive, sifting through every scrap of information regarding the Uchiha clan, trying to piece together the truth of Itachi and Sasuke's history.
The Root operatives, now leaderless and confused, were not treated as traitors. Tsunade declared them "prisoners of war" within their own village. They were detained in a secure ward of the hospital, undergoing intensive deprogramming and rehabilitation. It would be a long, painful road to reintegrate them into humanity.
The rot had been cut out, but the wound it left behind was deep, and it was going to scar.
CLANG! RRRRZZZZZ!
The sounds of heavy reconstruction penetrated the thick walls of the Hokage's office. Outside, carpenters and earth-style users were rebuilding the shattered conference room and the external wall, but inside the main office, the air was stagnant and heavy.
Tsunade sat behind her desk, her fingers interlaced, her face a mask of exhaustion. Jiraiya leaned against the window frame, staring out at the village with a deep, uncharacteristic frown. Standing before the desk were the two remaining Elders, Homura and Koharu. They looked diminished, their shoulders slumped, stripped of the self-righteous authority they usually wore like armor. The weight of the week's revelations hung on them like lead.
Naruto stepped forward, flanked closely by Shikamaru and Hinata. He slammed his hands onto the edge of the desk, leaning into the personal space of the Elders.
"Did you know?" Naruto demanded, his voice shaking with suppressed anger. "About the Uchiha? About what Danzo did? Did you know he was harvesting them like… like crops?!"
Koharu flinched, looking away from Naruto's burning gaze. She looked toward Tsunade, then Jiraiya, finding no sympathy in the Sannin's eyes.
"It… was not that simple," Homura said, his voice raspy. He exhaled a long, rattling breath. "The relationship between the village and the Uchiha clan had been deteriorating for years. They felt oppressed. Powerless."
"After the Nine-Tails attacked the village," Koharu added, her voice barely a whisper, "suspicion ran rampant. There were reports… high-ranking shinobi claimed they saw patterns in the Fox's eyes during the rampage. Reflection of a Sharingan. The Uchiha clan has a history of controlling the beast. The village leadership became convinced that an Uchiha was responsible for the destruction."
"That suspicion," Homura continued, "turned into isolation. We pushed them to the margins. They felt cornered. We used Itachi as a double agent to monitor them, but the reports he brought back… they were dire."
Homura looked up, meeting Naruto's eyes. "They were planning a coup d'état, Naruto. An armed rebellion. Their plan was comprehensive. They intended to assassinate the Third Hokage, us, and the key military commanders. They were going to take hostages and seize full control of Konoha by force."
The room fell silent, save for the distant THUD of a hammer.
"Hiruzen… he wanted a peaceful resolution," Koharu said softly. "He wanted to use diplomacy. To talk them down. But Danzo… Danzo insisted that the only way to protect the village, to prevent a civil war that would leave us vulnerable to foreign invasion, was to wipe out the clan entirely. To make an example."
"That's insane," Shikamaru said, his voice cold. "Genocide isn't a strategy. It's madness. Where did you stand?"
"We were in the middle," Homura admitted, looking at his hands. "We didn't want the slaughter of innocents. We advocated for a targeted strike. Taking out the ringleaders. The agitators. We thought… we thought Hiruzen was too soft, and Danzo was too hard."
"Hiruzen was hours away from initiating open talks with the Uchiha head," Koharu said, closing her eyes. "He was ready to offer concessions. To hear their grievances. But it never happened. Itachi… he acted. He massacred them all. He took the blame and fled as a rogue ninja."
She opened her eyes, looking at the floor. "Danzo came to us immediately after. He told us it was done. He persuaded us, and Hiruzen, that the best way to maintain the village's stability was to accept Itachi's narrative. To blame the rogue son and move on."
A tense, suffocating pause filled the room.
"Looking back now…" Homura murmured, his face paling. "It was… too convenient. The timing. The execution. And seeing him yesterday… seeing that eye in his face…"
"We suspect," Koharu finished, her voice trembling, "that Danzo may have been using sharingan eye even then. perhaps on Itachi. Perhaps… on us."
Naruto's chakra flared, a visible wave of orange heat. "How could you act so blind?! You just believed him?! He was a monster!"
"Because he was our comrade!" Homura snapped, a flash of old fire in his eyes before it died out. "We grew up together! Hiruzen, Danzo, us… we fought wars together. We built this village from the ashes of the First and Second Wars! We were a team!"
The Elder slumped. "It is… difficult… to accept that your closest friend has become twisted. That he has desecrated everything our teachers stood for. We trusted him because we knew the man he used to be."
Naruto's teeth clenched. He opened his mouth to scream, to rage at them, to let the Fox's chakra explode…
A hand, warm and strong, wrapped around his fist.
Naruto froze. He didn't look down, but he felt the calming pressure of Hinata's grip. She didn't say a word. She just held him, grounding him.
Naruto took a deep, shuddering breath. He exhaled slowly, the orange tint fading from his vision. He squeezed Hinata's hand back, once, and stepped back.
Jiraiya turned his head back to the window, his expression a deep, etched frown of sorrow. Tsunade remained stone-faced, staring at her former advisors.
"Enough," Tsunade said, her voice flat. "We cannot change the past. But we have to fix the present."
She stood up. "We start damage control immediately. We have to repair the networks Danzo broke, both inside the village and in the neighboring nations. We have to purge his influence. And we have to do it while preparing for the Akatsuki."
She looked at the trio of younger shinobi.
"Naruto. Hinata. Shikamaru."
"Yeah, Granny?" Naruto asked, his voice tired.
"Your work over the last few weeks… it was excellent," Tsunade said, a genuine note of pride entering her voice. "You uncovered a rot that has been festering for decades. You stopped a coup before it could begin. You faced a dangerous threat inside our own walls and neutralized it."
She picked up a scroll from her desk.
"This will go down as a S-rank mission. The pay will reflect that."
She paused, looking at Naruto and Shikamaru.
"And, after discussing it with the Jounin Commander… effective immediately, Shikamaru Nara and Naruto Uzumaki, you are promoted to the rank of Jounin."
Naruto blinked. "Jounin? Really?"
"Don't make me regret it," Tsunade warned. "You've shown leadership, tactical sense, and the power to back it up. You're ready."
It should have been a moment of celebration. It was the rank Naruto had chased for years. But the room felt too heavy for cheers. Naruto just nodded, a grim set to his jaw. Shikamaru sighed, accepting the troublesome responsibility.
There was a long silence.
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Hinata said, her dual voice resonant and calm. "We will continue to serve."
"Dismissed," Tsunade said.
The three new Jounin bowed and turned to leave, the heavy doors closing behind them with a final thud.
The night air above Konoha was cool, carrying the faint, distant hum of a village trying to sleep after a week of upheaval. On the flat roof of a supply building, three figures stood in the shadows, illuminated only by the pale moonlight and the scattered streetlamps below.
Naruto leaned heavily against the railing, his elbows digging into the concrete, his gaze lost in the flickering lights of the village he had just helped save. Next to him, Hinata stood silently. Her helmet was sealed away, allowing her long, dark hair to cascade freely down her back, but she remained fully armored. Shikamaru stood a few paces back, his hands in his pockets, staring up at the stars with a look of exhaustion.
Sigh.
"Man… this just got even more troublesome," Shikamaru finally broke the silence, his voice low. "The politics of this… the clans involved… it's a mess. I'm going to go talk to my old man. Probably gonna need to drag Ino and Choji's dads into it too."
He turned, offering a lazy wave over his shoulder. "I'll see you guys later. Don't stay up too late thinking about it."
Shikamaru's footsteps faded as he hopped away across the rooftops, leaving the two of them alone.
Hinata shifted her weight. She stepped closer to Naruto. Because of her immense height, she had to lean forward slightly, her shadow engulfing his smaller frame.
"Naruto-kun," she said softly, her dual-layered voice vibrating in the quiet air.
Naruto didn't look up immediately. He stared at his hands, clenching and unclenching them.
"I… I had it all planned out, ya know?" Naruto said, his voice cracking slightly. "When I finally find Sasuke… I had all these words ready. I practiced them. I figured, once I told him Orochimaru was working with the Akatsuki, the guys trying to kill me, he'd snap out of it. He'd leave that snake. Or maybe even turn on him."
He gripped the railing tighter. "I was gonna tell him I'd help him. We'd deal with his brother together. Or I'd help him do it in a way where nobody else had to get hurt. I had a whole plan."
He shook his head, frustration radiating off him. "But now? After hearing all that stuff from the Elders? I don't know what to say to him anymore. I don't know what to do."
Hinata opened her mouth to offer comfort, to offer something, but the words died in her throat. The situation was too complex, the betrayal too deep. Inside her mind, Venom remained silent, listening intently but offering no solution to emotional devastation.
"I always thought Itachi was just… some monster," Naruto continued, his voice hardening. "Some guy who went crazy and killed his family because he was evil. But now? It turns out he is still that insane guy who killed his clan… but he's stupid, too."
Naruto slammed his fist onto the railing. Thud.
"He let himself be persuaded by some jealous old man!" Naruto shouted at the empty air. "He wiped out his own people just because Danzo told him to! He ruined Sasuke's life just so that wrapped-up mummy could live for ten minutes longer! It's just… it's so stupid!"
"Perhaps…" Hinata started, her voice resonant and thoughtful. "Perhaps there is more to it. We only heard the summary from the Elders. We do not know what Itachi was thinking."
"Yeah, maybe," Naruto muttered, deflating. "But here's the problem. We found out. Which means Sasuke is gonna find out. That info… it's gonna reach him eventually. Orochimaru probably knows."
Naruto turned his head, looking up at Hinata with wide, worried eyes. "If Sasuke finds out that… that Danzo made Itachi do it… do you think he's gonna stop after he kills his brother?"
The implication hung in the air. Sasuke's vengeance wouldn't end with Itachi. It would turn toward the village.
Hinata didn't speak. She moved.
She stepped in close behind him. With a soft rustle of her armor, she wrapped her arms around his torso, pulling him back against her.
Her tall frame completely eclipsed him. Her chest plates pressed against the back of his head, offering a wall of warmth and unyielding support. She enveloped him, her presence a fortress against the cold reality they were facing.
In the darkness, the bio-luminescent lines on her face and neck pulsed with a soft, soothing blue light.
Naruto stiffened for a second, then relaxed, leaning his weight back into her, letting her hold him up. He let out a long, shaky breath.
"I gotta come up with new words," Naruto whispered. "I need to figure out what to say when I see him."
"You will," Hinata promised, her chin resting gently on top of his spiky hair. "You always do. And when you find the right words… I can help you with that."
They stood there for a moment, the warmth between them pushing back the chill of the night.
Finally, Naruto patted her arm. "Thanks, Hinata. Really."
He pulled away gently, turning to face her, a small, tired grin returning to his face. "We should get going. I'm starving. I haven't eaten for a while."
"Agreed," Hinata nodded. "My reserves are… depleted."
They turned to jump down to the street. Naruto took one step and then froze.
"GAAAH!"
He clutched his head with both hands, his eyes bulging.
"Oh no! Oh crap! Sora!"
Hinata blinked. "The monk?"
"I forgot all about him!" Naruto yelled, panic rising in his voice. "It's been a whole week! I told him to stay put when the tower blew up, and then we got busy with the investigation and the clones and… ahhh! I haven't seen him since!"
He looked at Hinata with pure dread. "If he's been running around Konoha alone for a week… knowing him, he's definitely in trouble!"
"Then we should hurry," Hinata said, her markings flaring slightly with amusement.
"Let's go!"
With a burst of speed, they leaped from the roof, diving down into the streets of Konoha to find the lost monk.