Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, sat with his back straight, gaze steady and heavy as stone. Across from him stood Danzo Shimura, his old comrade—and the one man in the village who made Hiruzen doubt everything.
Danzo knew immediately: Hiruzen had something on him.
But what?
> Impossible.
There's no way he knows... that.
"Speak, Sarutobi. What exactly are you trying to say?" Danzo asked coolly, despite the flicker of nerves behind his one good eye.
There was no trace of panic on his face—but in his mind, a thousand buried crimes resurfaced all at once.
> "That night… the Nine-Tails attack… you were seen speaking with a man wearing a mask,"
Hiruzen said slowly, clearly, and without blinking.
"Care to explain that?"
Danzo's chest tightened.
That man—the masked one who had released the Nine-Tails, the man who had killed Kushina and triggered the chaos—had been in contact with him.
No one else was supposed to know. No one could have known.
Hiruzen's eyes burned with quiet fury. His wife had died that night. Kushina. Minato.
And Danzo may have had a hand in all of it.
If that were true…
If Danzo knew and said nothing… or worse, helped…
> "He's bluffing," Danzo told himself.
"He must be. If he had hard proof, he wouldn't be asking—he'd already have moved."
So he made a choice.
> "I don't know what mask you're talking about," Danzo said flatly.
He had to deny, deny, deny. Even if the proof was pressed to his face, so long as he didn't admit it, they couldn't touch him.
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed.
> "Let's talk about Uchiha Shisui," he said.
"You were involved in his death too, weren't you?"
Danzo froze.
> "His body was found without his eyes."
"And Orochimaru's experiments," Hiruzen added.
> "And those involving the First Hokage's cells. You're involved in those too, aren't you?"
> "Danzo…"
Hiruzen's voice grew cold.
> "You're reaching too far. You've gone too deep. Pull back."
Danzo's composure cracked.
> "Everything I've done…"
His voice trembled, just slightly. "Everything was for the good of the Leaf."
A moment of silence passed.
And with that single sentence, Danzo—without even realizing—admitted it all.
He had failed his own poker game.
But despite this quiet confession, Hiruzen did nothing. No punishment. No ANBU call. No justice.
Just silence.
Because deep down, Hiruzen believed something he would never say aloud:
> "The Leaf… needs a shadow. Someone to do the dirty work. Someone like… Danzo."
---
Danzo, leaving the Hokage Tower, wore an expression of tightly coiled rage.
> "That old fool… he doubts me?"
"I did everything for him. For the Leaf. And he has the nerve to accuse me?"
But what really angered Danzo wasn't guilt.
It was being suspected at all.
Even if the suspicions were right.
As he limped down the cobblestone path, he glanced toward the Uchiha compound with cold, greedy eyes.
> "They need to be eliminated… soon."
The Nine-Tails. The Sharingan. The First Hokage's power.
Danzo wanted it all.
And Sarutobi?
> "He won't be a problem. Not for long."
---
Back in the Hokage's office, Hiruzen leaned back in his chair, the strength seeming to drain from him. He puffed his pipe in silence, looking older than ever.
A shadow moved behind him.
> "You were right, Hattori," Hiruzen muttered. "Everything… everything we feared about Danzo… it was all true."
From the shadows, a calm man in a pale-blue kimono stepped out.
> "It's time to act, Hokage-sama," the man said softly, adjusting his glasses. "There's no more room to wait.
The Uchiha situation needs to be dealt with—now."
This man—Hattori—was the one who had advised Hiruzen to press Danzo. His quiet manipulations had turned this chessboard to its next phase.
> "Summon Itachi Uchiha," Hiruzen said grimly.
"There are things he must hear."
---
Moments later, clad in ANBU black, Itachi Uchiha stood just outside the Hokage's door, awaiting entry.
As Hattori passed him by, Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly.
> "That man… he feels… familiar."
But before the thought could form, he was already inside the office.
Outside, in a shadowed alley, Hattori stepped into the dark.
He removed his glasses.
His eyes were not human.
Slitted. Reptilian.
> Sssshh.
With a puff of white smoke, he vanished—
> A Shadow Clone.
The real Hattori?
Unknown.
But someone—or something—was pulling the strings from deeper in the shadows.
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