The killing intent rolling off Hiruzen Sarutobi was so thick it made Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado go still.
A second ago they'd been talking about reform. Now he was talking about retaliation like war was already on the table.
And Hiruzen used to be the classic dove. He'd never liked war.
During the Second Shinobi World War, even when Sunagakure was the one in trouble, he'd pushed for an equal peace instead of demanding compensation. Back then, that decision had caused a lot of arguments inside the village.
But the moment Hiruzen said what he said, Danzo Shimura's eyes lit up.
As Konoha's longtime hawk, he'd always had an appetite for conflict.
"Leave it to me," Danzo said at once.
"Shouldn't we think it through?" Homura asked, voice low. "Wait until the reform is at least in place before we move on retaliation?"
Koharu's expression tightened. "What if this triggers a war? Is the village ready to handle it?"
Danzo snapped his head around, snarling, "You two are always so cautious. Backing down doesn't work!"
"Danzo, you're being reckless."
"War isn't a game. You have to consider everything," Homura and Koharu shot back.
"Enough," Hiruzen said.
He lifted a hand, making them listen. "Retaliation is unavoidable. And this isn't to start a war. It's to stop one."
Homura and Koharu both looked confused.
Kill the enemy's Jinchuriki and you call that stopping war?
"I'm going to use a bad example," Hiruzen warned, like he already knew how it sounded. "Don't take it the wrong way."
He pointed at Danzo. "Let's say Danzo takes all authority over Anbu for himself. I don't say a word. What do you think he does next?"
Homura and Koharu gave awkward little laughs.
What else would he do?
He'd hollow you out until you were Hokage in name only.
Danzo's face stiffened.
Was that really the example you were going with?
"He'd come scold me," Hiruzen said, sounding amused, "tell me the Hokage needs to keep power centralized and that as my assistant he's doing his duty, but he'd spend most of his time calling me weak."
Hiruzen laughed and clapped Danzo on the shoulder. "Right?"
Danzo forced out a dry chuckle. "Ha. Yeah. Of course."
Was Hiruzen joking?
Or was he cutting him open on purpose?
"Danzo is my old partner. Even if I did that, he'd still label me weak," Hiruzen said.
"But an enemy won't come warn me, or warn you, or warn Konoha."
"They'll only see us as soft. They'll think we can even swallow something like a Jinchuriki."
His voice dropped, heavy as stone.
"So we hit back, and we do it fast. When you deal with an enemy, you don't give an inch. You make them feel Konoha's fist, and you make it hurt."
Koharu and Homura thought it over, then gave their answers.
"If that's the logic, I agree," Koharu said.
"Same," Homura said. "Do you have a concrete plan, Hiruzen?"
Hiruzen nodded once, telling them to keep talking if they had concerns.
From what he remembered, and what he'd seen lately, his two old teammates weren't bad people.
They were just conservative.
Used the right way, that kind of person was reliable.
"What about hitting infrastructure?" Homura suggested. "A Jinchuriki might not be the best target."
"Or a key shinobi," he added, "or someone close to the Raikage?"
Hiruzen went quiet for a moment, thinking.
"Based on the fact that Hidden Cloud Village dared to try and snatch Kushina Uzumaki, my guess is their Jinchuriki situation is already unstable."
He looked to Danzo. "Do you have hard intel on how intense Hidden Cloud Village's friction with Hidden Stone has been the last few years?"
"I've kept track," Danzo answered immediately. "In the past two years it's mostly been Hidden Stone provoking. Hidden Cloud has held back a lot. Root has the numbers."
"Good." Hiruzen gave him a rare approving look.
"Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone have blood feuds going back generations. Their clan makeup and their geography baked that history in. And with Hidden Cloud's temperament, the only reason they'd restrain themselves is if they're sitting on a serious internal problem."
He leaned forward slightly.
"On top of that, the shinobi world is tightening like a drawn bow. For them to break the unspoken rules and make a move on our Jinchuriki means whatever problem they have has reached the point where they can't ignore it anymore."
The shinobi world didn't have written rules anyone respected.
But it did have unspoken ones, lines that kept the violence from spiraling into pointless exhaustion.
Assassinations near borders, Anbu clashes in the dark, those were tolerated.
But once you touched an important figure, especially when it involved a tailed beast, it was barely different from declaring war.
"Hidden Cloud doing this really does suggest something's wrong," Koharu murmured.
"And if they were truly strong and eager to start a war, why would they deliberately reduce friction with Hidden Stone?" she continued, voice sharpening as she reasoned it out. "That doesn't add up. Their conflict with Hidden Stone isn't easy to suppress. It would damage the Raikage's authority."
"Exactly," Hiruzen said.
He spoke like he'd already walked the path to the conclusion.
"So taken together, there's a very high chance Hidden Cloud's Jinchuriki is on the edge of collapse."
All three of them felt it at the same time, that sudden click.
The logic held.
"Danzo," Hiruzen said, "verify that hypothesis as fast as you can."
He watched their faces, then kept going. "My view is we don't kill them outright. We do it quietly. We release the Eight-Tails from inside them, and we leave no evidence."
"Konoha can't afford to wear the label of 'the side that started a war' or 'the village that assassinated an enemy Jinchuriki.'"
"Internally, it's enough for the right people to know the truth."
"As for Hidden Cloud, once they take a blow like that, they'll tear themselves apart with suspicion. We don't need to say a word."
Danzo nodded. He was a hawk, but he wasn't an idiot.
He didn't want Konoha using this as an excuse to get dragged into an explosive war with the other great villages.
"Once your intel is confirmed, we meet immediately," Hiruzen said. "As fast as possible."
"They have to pay in blood. That's also the least we owe Lady Mito… and the Uzumaki Clan."
The moment he said Mito Uzumaki and the Uzumaki Clan, the room went quiet.
During the Second Shinobi World War, Konoha had been stuck deep in the mud. Every front was burning, every department overwhelmed.
They'd neglected their allies.
Uzushiogakure's tragedy had a lot of reasons behind it.
The village sat isolated, surrounded by sea, caught between major powers. They hadn't been willing to relocate inland and merge into Konoha, which made support painfully slow…
But no matter how you sliced it, it was still a massive failure on Konoha's part.
And after Uzushiogakure fell, even Kushina's protection had gone wrong.
That was indefensible.
If they didn't show a clear stance now, this would stay a rot in the foundation.
"Kushina Uzumaki's treatment needs to be improved across the board," Hiruzen said. "And the Uzumaki Clan's surviving children, when the time is right, we need to search for them."
He pointed at Koharu.
"Koharu, you handle that. Move fast. I want Kushina to know we're apologizing. I want her to feel like this is home, that the village is watching out for her. Do you understand?"
"We can't change what already happened," he added, voice quiet but firm. "But it's never too late to correct a mistake. We can't keep waiting."
Koharu nodded. "Understood, Third."
"Alright." Hiruzen waved them off. "Go do what you need to do."
The three of them moved out at once, already falling into motion.
Hiruzen stayed behind, pipe between his teeth, staring out the office window over the village rooftops. His eyes narrowed.
In this village, there was still one person he couldn't afford to ignore.
Someone who had already outgrown the word shinobi.
Mito Uzumaki, the First Hokage's wife, the first Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.
Her knowledge, her strength, her status…
From every angle, as Hokage, he needed to clean up the mess he'd inherited and regain the approval of that "dowager" sitting above the board.
The payoff would be enormous.
The way he'd done it before, drowning in guilt and not daring to face it…
It had been pathetic.
"That child with the First Hokage's cells," he murmured to himself, "might be a way in."
"Old, and still a Jinchuriki… she's probably lonely."
"But before that, the groundwork has to be done. I need results in my hand, something that shows sincerity and regret."
Hiruzen exhaled a thin stream of smoke.
And for the first time in a long while, he didn't feel tired at all.
He liked this feeling.