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Sarutobi! Stop putting on that righteous act! What have I done that you haven't?"
Danzo sneered coldly as he leaned forward, his visible eye full of rage. "You want to wash your hands of everything and shove all the blame onto me? It's not that easy, Sarutobi Hiruzen."
He hissed, voice low and venomous. "You wanted to be the noble Hokage, the bright symbol of hope for the village. And me? I took the burden. I did the things you wouldn't. I got my hands dirtyâso your robes could stay clean."
"But now you want to uproot the darkness that's kept Konoha strong? You want to tear out the roots that grow beneath your golden tree? Try it! See if your village survives in the sunlight alone!"
Danzo let out a bitter chuckle. "I've done countless dark deeds. One more or one less means nothing to me. But you, Sarutobiâyou, the respected Hokageâcan you bear even a single stain?"
"Enough, Danzo!" Hiruzen growled. "You've been exposedâusing war orphans and innocent villagers in your inhumane experiments! You wiped the data before you were arrested, but Jiraiya found your labs before you could cover everything. We know you and Orochimaru worked together. Don't try to pin this on me."
The Third Hokage's voice cracked with tension, though his tone softened slightly. Danzo's accusations hadn't been without merit. The old warhawk's words cut deepânot just because they were cruel, but because some of them were true.
Hiruzen had looked away too many times. And now, the consequences stood before him.
Danzo's one eye widened in disbelief. "What?! That can't be⊠Hiruzen, was it you or Orochimaru who betrayed me?!"
He looked around, panic rising in his chest. Tsunade's cold glare pierced into him, and Jiraiya had withdrawn all sympathy from his expression.
It was one of them. Only three people knew the full scope of Danzo's hidden researchâhimself, Orochimaru, and the Third Hokage. And Orochimaru was now a prisoner. If he had talked, he would have done so under duress.
So that left one answer.
"You..." Danzo's gaze locked onto Hiruzen like a blade. "You stabbed me in the back..."
His breath came in sharp bursts. Hiruzen never visited. Never spoke. Never defended him. And nowâhe was using him as a scapegoat.
If Danzo's stare could kill, the Third Hokage would have been incinerated.
"Hmph! You're both full of it," Tsunade snapped, stepping between them. "You tore through your own people in the name of some twisted 'greater good.' You say you did it for Konoha, but I see nothing but ambition and rot."
She didn't care for either of their excuses.
Jiraiya said nothing, but his silence was damning.
"What do you even know, Tsunade?!" Danzo roared, straining against the chakra chains. "Everything I didâwas for the village!"
Andrew folded his arms from the side of the room, lips curled in contempt. "You experimented on civilians. War orphans. You even tried to use Wood Style to suppress Uchiha. And you dare lecture others about what's evil?"
The room fell deathly still.
Danzo's head snapped toward him. "What did you just say...?"
"Oh, don't act surprised. You're not just targeting Uchiha for their Sharingan. You've been implanting itâand combining it with the First Hokage's cells." Andrew's Sharingan flickered. "You want to recreate the strength of the gods, don't you? And you used everyoneâanyoneâto get it."
At that moment, the Third Hokage's eyes widened slightly.
He didn't know.
He'd known about the Wood Style research. The human experimentation. But the Sharingan harvesting? That was new.
That wasn't part of Tobirama's legacy. That was Danzo's own sickness.
"You⊠You've been seizing Uchiha eyes?" Hiruzen asked slowly, disbelief warping his face.
"Of course he has," Andrew muttered. "You think someone keeps their arm wrapped in sealing tags for fun?"
Danzo exploded. "You bastards knew all this and never said a word?! Were you trying to humiliate me?!"
"Do you think secrecy lasts forever?" Andrew shot back. "You underestimated the Uchiha. You assumed we wouldn't noticeâbut we did. You already had a handful of our eyes, and still you kept scheming against us. That's not securityâit's obsession."
The Uchiha shinobi standing nearby clenched their fists. Some drew kunai. Had the prison doors not separated them from Danzo, he might not have lived another second.
"Danzo⊠why?" The Third Hokage finally asked, quieter this time.
He had thought Danzo's hostility toward the Uchiha came from a belief in Tobirama's philosophyâa calculated suspicion toward their clan to prevent internal instability. But this?
This was beyond ideology. This was personal. Twisted.
"Why? WHY?!" Danzo screamed. "Because the Uchiha are a threat to Konoha! Their power, their arroganceâit will tear the village apart one day! They can't coexist with peace! I did what I had to do."
"Enough." Tsunade stepped in. "I don't care what you believe. I don't care what your justification is. What you've doneâ" she looked between Danzo and Orochimaru, "âis unforgivable."
An uncomfortable silence fell.
Even the Anbu accompanying them looked disturbed.
Danzo's wordsâThe Uchiha are a threat⊠they can never coexist with the villageârang out far too loudly.
That wasn't security policy. That was bigotry.
And the Uchi.
"Hokage-sama," a voice cut in, breaking the tension.
The doors creaked open as Yamanaka Inoichi entered with his Intelligence Division team. "We came as requested. We heard Orochimaru has been captured."
The moment they stepped into the prison and saw the sceneâUchiha shinobi tense with fury, Orochimaru comatose on the ground, and Danzo screaming in a chakra-bound rageâthey froze.
"...What in the world happened here?"
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