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**Night**
When Kakashi left the Konoha Memorial Stone and returned home, he was completely out of it. The information Uchiha Akainu had shared about Obito was replaying in his mind.
—"The one who released the Nine-Tails on the night of the attack, the culprit who caused chaos and the deaths of the Fourth Hokage, his wife, and countless innocent villagers, was Uchiha Obito."
That last line hit Kakashi like a ton of bricks.
Obito was still alive... he didn't know why Obito, if he was alive, never returned to the village or tried to see him. As his teammate, Kakashi knew he should be happy, but after hearing everything from Uchiha Akainu, he suddenly felt it would have been better if Obito had died. This wasn't the Uchiha Obito he knew. The hot-headed goofball he remembered was the one who wanted to become Hokage.
Not the monster Uchiha Akainu described, the one who harmed so many innocent people in the Leaf Village and even killed their sensei, Minato, and his wife!
Obito... he had fallen into an abyss of no return!
"Why would you do this...?" Kakashi exhaled slowly, his eyes falling on an old photo on his desk.
The photo showed him, Rin, the Fourth Hokage, and Obito.
Kakashi removed his forehead protector, revealing the three-tomoe Sharingan. He touched his eye, his expression complex, and murmured, "What did you go through all these years, Obito? Did Rin's death change you?"
A flicker of caution crossed Kakashi's eyes.
Obito, who had already fallen into darkness, why did he come back to the village now? Was it just to pay his respects to Rin?
***
**The Next Day**
**Morning**
Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived at the Anbu headquarters once again. The dark circles under his eyes and the deep fatigue on his aging face made it clear he hadn't slept a wink.
He cut off an Anbu ninja who was about to greet him and asked bluntly, "How is Danzo doing?"
The Anbu replied, "The medical-nin have tried many methods, but they can't relieve Shimura Danzo of his pain. Captain Itachi also tried his own methods, but it was no use."
The ninja then added, "The medical-nin say it's probably not a physical or mental pain. It's highly likely to be a pain affecting his very soul."
"The soul... a genjutsu that can harm the soul..."
Hiruzen's eyes filled with deep apprehension. Any jutsu that dealt with the soul was, without exception, a forbidden jutsu. For Uchiha Akainu's technique to completely stump the entire Anbu and medical squad, it had to be a forbidden jutsu among forbidden jutsus!
Hiruzen went to the secret room where Danzo was kept. He saw Danzo's eyes were closed, but his body was trembling. Frowning, he asked, "What's going on?!"
Next to Danzo, two exhausted medical-nin were working.
Hearing Hiruzen's question, one of them quickly replied, "Lord Hokage... to keep Danzo-sama from suffering further, we gave him a large dose of anesthetic."
"But we later found the anesthetic was useless. Even though Danzo-sama has been put under, he still feels the endless pain."
"Which means..."
The medical-nin's eyes were filled with both sympathy and fear. "Even in his comatose state, Danzo-sama is experiencing unimaginable pain every single moment."
Hiruzen was speechless.
Akainu's Mangekyō Sharingan seemed far too dangerous.
***
"That kid's Sharingan is too dangerous! Too out of control! Why didn't Hiruzen take Uchiha Akainu down that same night? It was the perfect opportunity, yet he allowed Uchiha Akainu to attack Danzo?!"
Koharu Utatane's wrinkled face was a mix of disbelief and "I don't understand."
"If Uchiha Akainu had only been hunting murderers and scaring off people with bad intentions, I could have tolerated his extreme behavior. But he openly attacked Danzo in front of so many people, showing no respect for the Hokage! Uchiha Akainu... is a completely uncontrollable factor!"
Koharu paced back and forth in front of Homura Mitokado, occasionally spouting criticism of Uchiha Akainu and expressing her disappointment in Hiruzen's weakness.
Homura, however, saw things differently. He spoke slowly, "Hiruzen isn't weak... If he had fought Uchiha Akainu, who clearly has the Mangekyō Sharingan, the Anbu would have suffered heavy casualties, even if they had won."
"Not to mention there were two or three dozen Uchiha ninja there that night. If a conflict had started, it wouldn't have just been a clash between Akainu and Hiruzen, but between the Uchiha clan and the Leaf Village."
"To maintain the balance of the village, Hiruzen had to keep his wits about him."
Koharu frowned. "It wasn't just the Anbu there that night. With so many ninja present, and with Fugaku on our side, wouldn't we have been able to keep those younger Uchiha in line?"
Homura sighed. "Danzo has made too many enemies. Who would fight Uchiha Akainu for him?"
Koharu had no response.
That was true. The very fact that Danzo had a bunch of Sharingan in his arm and had transplanted Hashirama's cells was enough to make all the bloodline clans in the village despise him.
"Hiruzen has his own reasons. He's the Third Hokage of the Leaf; we can only offer advice."
"However..."
Homura's tone shifted. "Uchiha Akainu's Sharingan is indeed very dangerous. If he ever turns against the Leaf, he will be our most dangerous enemy. We should try to gather information about his Sharingan and come up with a plan to deal with him."
Even though these two Konoha elders weren't as biased against the Uchiha as Danzo, they still subconsciously believed the Uchiha were the most unpredictable threat in the village.
Especially since the Sharingan awakens through intense emotional stimulation.
Doesn't that mean the Mangekyō Sharingan requires even greater emotional trauma?
Can a ninja from the Uchiha clan who has awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan really be mentally stable?
"The Leaf Village cannot have another **Uchiha Madara**. Even if we don't eliminate the danger now, we need to have a plan to kill him ready. We can talk to Hiruzen about this later."
Homura said grimly.
Koharu's expression softened slightly. Danzo's tragic fate made her feel a sense of dread. She was afraid she would end up the same way.
After all... Danzo's hands weren't exactly clean.
But were hers?
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