Sakura, Hinata, Danzo, Hiruzen, Shikaku and I are all currently seated inside of the meeting room of the Hokage Tower.
Hiruzen is tapping his finger on the table "Sunagakure has been razed to the ground. The jutsu used and the method of the attack point towards Deidara of the Akatsuki. What intel do you hold?"
Danzo takes a deep breath "The Akatsuki have their origin in the Land of Rain. They rebelled against Hanzo the Salamander, killed him and took power. We have been unable to gather any intel. All of the agents that we have sent up until now have never come back. Any information we hold is prior to their takeover, and as such is largely outdated."
Shikaku rubs his chin "But what is the reason to do this? All they have succeeded to do is point the largest target possible at themselves. All the villages will now unite and atta-. They believe they can eliminate all of the villages at once. This wasn't an attack to destroy Sunagakure. It was an attack to unite all the great villages against them."
Hiruzen's tapping suddenly stops "They believe to be able to take on the might of the entire elemental nations and emerge victorious?"
Shikaku massages his forehead "Yes. They want the elemental villages to come to them, then crush them in a show of force. Establishing dominance over the entire elemental nations at once."
Danzo sighs "Their leader goes by the alias Pain, his true name is Uzumaki Nagato. He possesses the Rinnegan. It is without a doubt that Dojutsu is the reason for his confidence."
Hiruzen's tapping resumes "So it is not just the mind of a madman at work. What are your thoughts, Sasuke?"
I cough "Since he is the leader of the Akatsuki there is no doubt in my mind that he must hold great strength. Especially since my brother followed them instead of simply taking over the organization. If Itachi could massacre the entirety of my clan in a single night, then it is not farfetched to assume that this Pain would be capable of such a feat."
Shikaku starts flipping a pen "Troublesome. It will not be long before we receive missives to organize an attack on Amegakure. We can either accept and fall into their trap, or we can refuse and either face the Akatsuki on our lonesome or suffer a tremendous loss to our reputation if the three villages defeated them without us."
Danzo shakes his head "The ideal scenario would be for us to abstain from any alliance. Allow the other villages to bleed themselves dry against the Akatsuki. If the Akatsuki win a flawless victory our intervention would have been pointless. If the Akatsuki suffer heavy losses we can eliminate both the Akatsuki and the remaining villages. If the remaining villages win but suffer heavy losses we can still eliminate them. Our only defeat scenarios are a flawless victory on Akatsuki's side or the flawless victory of the villages."
Hiruzen sighs "That is not the ideal that Hashirama sought, Danzo. We will cooperate with the other great villages if our assistance is requested. Sasuke, what intel did you gather regarding the murders?"
I take a deep breath "The murders are some form of ritualistic jutsu. Once the murderer commits suicide some of their chakra leaves and attaches itself to another nearby civilian. We have been unable to deduce more, as the attack occurred before we could capture and interrogate the new 'murderer'."
Hiruzen nods "Very well. You are dismissed, Danzo and Shikaku will remain."
We proceed to take our leave.
—
Sakura, Hinata and I are in our living room. Hirogi has prepared tea and is currently serving us. Hinata is keeping her byakugan active, to warn us of any potential intruders.
I take a sip "We have to eliminate Danzo now. Waiting any longer is too risky. Pain could hop over anytime and destroy the entire village, the only reason he hasn't is because he wants to make a spectacle of beating the entire combined forces of all of the villages."
Hinata sighs "We will have to abandon Konoha afterwards. Everyone is on high alert and we will not be able to attack Danzo undetected."
Hirogi stiffens when she hears we will abandon Konoha. Sakura sips her tea "It would be best to attack Danzo at night. We send shadow clones to take Hirogi and the sisters. They can then prepare us a hideout so we can lay low until things die down. We will need to leave The Land of Fire on the same day we attack him, otherwise we will get caught by the Hyuga."
Hirogi relaxes, I take a deep breath "Then we begin our preparations for both Danzo and leaving Konoha. We will make our attempt as soon as we receive the memories from our shadow clones that the hideout is complete."
Sakura rubs her chin "Speaking of the hideout, where should we make it? Ideally it's going to be somewhere Konoha either cannot search or will not search."
I add sugar to the tea "The Land of Earth. Iwagakure will never allow Konoha shinobi to enter their lands to search for us. Afterwards we can operate inside of their borders until the heat from Konoha dies down some. How do you guys think we should approach the actual assassination?"
Hinata sips her tea "Our first priority is Danzo's arm. I will remove it with an arrow and then you must immediately seal it. Afterwards all that is left is to kill him twice."
I shake my head "It would be better to go for a kill-shot. Remove his head and we immediately seal the body, this way he can't activate his tetragram seal. To make sure he can't dodge you can fire at him with seven shadow clones. That should be more than enough to instantly kill him. Is there anything I might have missed when it comes to killing him?"
They both shake their heads. I continue "Alright then. Hopefully he dies from the arrow barrage, since escaping after killing him will almost certainly be the true difficulty in our plan."
Sakura slams her hand into her palm "We can just wait for him to come to us! If he comes to see you again then we can kill him here and easily escape! We are on the outskirts of the village, it will take time for everyone to gather here. By the time anyone realises what has happened we would've already escaped!"
Hinata nods "That is an excellent plan. We should prepare an escape route beforehand as well, it would only bring us benefits to do so."
I finish my tea "Then it's settled. We prepare a hideout now and either wait for Danzo or somehow invite him over. Afterwards we assassinate him, bag the body and get the fuck out immediately."
-two days later.
The memories of one of the clones comes back. They have completed the outpost. All that is left is to wait for Danzo to come visit us, and I have just the idea to get him to come. We'll take a scouting mission for Amegakure. He will then almost certainly approach me to have me complete some goals of his.
-three days later.
We are sitting in the living room, playing checkers, when the doorbell rings. Hinata quickly activates the Byakugan and then gives me a sharp nod. Danzo has come.