Inside the Hokage building, in the office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, silent, eyes half-lidded, a pipe between his lips as smoke curled slowly upward.
The air was suffocating, heavy like a sealed clay jar under high pressure, the kind that made one want to smash it open just to breathe.
"Cough, cough!"
Only when Koharu Utatane couldn't suppress a cough did that deathly silence finally shatter.
"Hiruzen, about this matter…"
Homura Mitokado exhaled deeply, glancing at the stubbornly silent Danzō beside him before turning back to Hiruzen and saying, "This time… Danzō may have gone a bit too far."
"Conducting secret Wood Release experiments, hiding research results, and a Wood Release shinobi, isn't that more than just a bit too far?"
Before Homura could defend Danzō any further, Hiruzen cut him off flatly, "That's Wood Release. Don't tell me you two don't understand what that means."
At that, Homura's old face reddened slightly, and he cast a helpless look at Shimura Danzō.
Indeed, a Wood Release user.
Who could have imagined that Danzō's ambition had grown to the point where he dared to secretly harbor one?
If not for the investigation into Orochimaru's defection, they might never have discovered that Wood Release had reappeared in the world.
Even Homura was unsettled by the sheer level of control Danzō now held over Root.
"Root is the foundation of Konoha, the foundation of the Anbu, my foundation. But now… to hide something this significant from the Hokage… doesn't that mean-"
Hiruzen paused, narrowing his eyes at Danzō. "-that Root has become an independent organization serving someone's personal interests?"
At that, Danzō's face remained stone-cold as he replied in a low voice, "Everything I've done is for Konoha."
Hiruzen exhaled another puff of smoke, the white haze wrapping around his face, making his expression unreadable from Danzō's angle.
"Hiruzen…"
Koharu finally spoke up, unable to stay silent any longer.
"Enough."
Hiruzen waved irritably, cutting her off. "Don't speak for him anymore."
After Tobirama's death at the hands of the Hidden Cloud's ambush, Hiruzen had taken the Hokage's mantle under crisis.
But the position was nothing like his youthful ideals; war and clan pressures had crushed his naive vision the moment he assumed office.
Both the Hyūga and Uchiha clans had defied him in the beginning, following orders but not truly obeying.
Fortunately, the Sarutobi clan's influence and the backing of the Ino–Shika–Chō trio allowed him to balance power.
He had used a "divide and rule" strategy, some coercion, some alliances, with Danzō's help, manipulating situations to set the Uchiha and Hyūga against each other.
Only then did he firmly secure his seat as Hokage, filling key departments with his loyalists.
Back in Tobirama's time, "Root" had merely been a training division of the Anbu.
But after Hiruzen gave Danzō control of it, to handle dirty work that couldn't be done in the Anbu's name, like surveillance of certain clans, it slowly evolved into a full-blown intelligence and covert ops network.
Technically, Root was supposed to be just another Anbu sub-division. By Anbu standards, Danzō, as squad leader, should command only four teams, seventeen men in total.
Yet under Hiruzen's passive tolerance, Root had expanded and darkened, morphing into a near-independent faction under Danzō's control.
If things continued this way, Root would inevitably become Danzō's personal army.
That could not be allowed.
"As for the Wood Release ninja, 'A,' the matter's closed," Hiruzen said at last. "I've already transferred him to the Anbu. Now… there's another issue."
Ignoring Danzō's simmering resentment, Hiruzen looked at the three before him and said, "Intel from the borders suggests that the Kumogakure is mobilizing forces. They may be planning something again."
"What are your thoughts?"
Both Koharu and Homura frowned.
"Again? Disgusting," Homura muttered, frowning deeper. "No matter what, we can't act rashly."
"Homura's right," Koharu agreed. "Whatever they're planning, we just need to stay alert, but we can't give them any excuse to start a war."
Hiruzen said nothing, simply tapping the pipe in his hand before turning his gaze to Danzō.
"What about you?"
Danzō's shadowed eyes narrowed slightly. After a pause, he rasped, "We should hit them and make it hurt."
"…"
Hiruzen took a deep drag from his pipe, holding the smoke in his lungs before letting it out slowly.
The Third Great Ninja War had ended, but peace was fragile; the world was far from stable.
Konoha's upper-tier forces were dangerously depleted. Sakumo Hatake, the famed "White Fang," had committed suicide. The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, Kushina Uzumaki, had both perished during the Nine-Tails' attack.
After the Third War, the village was already bleeding from heavy casualties. The Nine-Tails incident had taken even more lives. No matter how strong Konoha's foundations were, it could barely endure.
Everyone could see it: Konoha was weakened, unbalanced, vulnerable.
Though Kumo and Iwa had both suffered in the last war, the sight of Konoha struggling tempted them to test their luck.
So they kept probing Fire Country's borders, provoking conflicts that flared every few months, each time leaving more injuries behind.
And why wouldn't they? Konoha's hesitation and restraint only made them bolder.
If not for the lingering anti-war sentiment in the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth, both villages might have already launched a full-scale invasion.
What they lacked now was merely an excuse, a justified reason that could ignite their daimyos', nobles', and citizens' appetite for war.
That was why Hiruzen had chosen to endure, again and again, to deny them that spark.
He couldn't afford to gamble.
Konoha couldn't afford to gamble anymore.
"Hah…"
Hiruzen exhaled a long breath of smoke, lowering his gaze to the intelligence reports the Anbu had delivered.
His aging face, shrouded in smoke, was unreadable even under the sunlight pouring through the window.
"Iwagakure… Kumogakure…" he murmured after a while. "We'll endure, for now. Gather a team of shinobi to reinforce the border."
Danzō's brows furrowed. "That'll only make those bastards even more arrogant!"
Hiruzen's eyes flicked toward him. "Then draw a squad from Root to assist at the border."
"…What?" Danzō froze.
Hiruzen's gaze sharpened. "Is there a problem?"
If Danzō said another word, Hiruzen would strip him of his position as Root's leader, and they both knew it.
Realizing this, Danzō's expression shifted darkly. He snorted and turned away. "Hmph. Why would I have a problem? After all… that Root belongs to you."
He started to leave, then stopped at the door, his voice low and bitter.
"Hiruzen… remember this decision. You'll regret it."
"Watch your tone, Danzō," Hiruzen said coldly, shaking the ash from his pipe. "Remember, I am the Hokage."
Danzō's jaw clenched.
"Then enjoy being Hokage," he spat, and yanked the door open.
Bang!