A ninken loped out of the treeline at Konoha's outskirts, a sealed tube clamped in its jaws—the distinctive sigil of Root burned into the wax.
A Root watcher spotted it at once and sprinted over. "A dispatch from Terai-sama!"
He reached for the tube—only for a shadow to fall across him.
"Report, Nineteen. What's happened?" The man who'd appeared studied the seal with a flat, heavy gaze.
"Ryoma-sama?" Nineteen blinked, then bowed. "Urgent from Terai—something's wrong in the Land of Rain. I'm taking it straight to Lord Danzo."
"Land of Rain…" Ryoma murmured, a hard glint passing through his eyes.
"Forgive me, Ryoma-sama—this is time-sensitive." Nineteen slipped past.
He took two steps.
Pain punched through his chest.
He looked down—at the hand burying through his heart.
"Ryo… ma… sama?" Blood bubbled at his lips. "W-why… betray… Lord Danzo…?"
"You don't need to know."
Ryoma wrenched his arm free. His kikaichu swarmed, turning the ninken to bone in a breath. He knelt, plucked the tube from Nineteen's slack fingers, scanned the contents, and smiled—cold and sure.
"As Lord Sogetsu said: sewer rats only ever play the same tricks."
He fed the paper to the kikaichu until not a fleck remained, wiped his hand clean, and erased the scene as if no one had ever been there.
"Lord Sogetsu," he whispered, vanishing into the trees, "not while I still draw breath."
—
Inside the Hokage's office, paper was a flood and Sarutobi Hiruzen was drowning. The White Fang's fallout, probing from every great village—each sheet a fresh headache.
A black-ops runner slid the door open and knelt, arms lifted with a sealed scroll. "Urgent from Lady Tsunade."
Hiruzen broke the seal, skimmed the lines—and nearly blacked out.
"DANZŌ!"
The Third slammed the desk, killing intent spiking. "Fetch him. Now!"
Minutes later, Danzo Shimura shouldered through the door, scowling. "Hiruzen, what—"
A scroll smacked him in the face.
"Have you lost your mind?!" Danzo tore it down, features twisting.
"My mind?" Hiruzen's smile was all teeth. "Read it—and see what's left of yours."
Danzo scanned the first lines and felt his own blood pressure climb.
"You've got some nerve," Hiruzen snarled, rising. "Conspiring with Hanzo to ambush a Konoha jonin, then moving Root to collude with a rebel cell—Akatsuki—to assassinate the leader of Amegakure? Excellent statecraft, Danzo!"
"Slander!" Danzo barked, flushing. "Don't you put your filth on me, Hiruzen!"
"My filth?" Hiruzen's gaze went iron. "Point to one sentence that's 'filth.'"
Danzo's jaw worked. "I admit I told Hanzo to eliminate that Uchiha brat and seize his Sharingan. I did not order Hanzo killed."
"Oh? Then who did?" Hiruzen folded his arms. "Tsunade? Uchiha Sogetsu? Or those 'kids' in Akatsuki?"
"I—"
The truth stuck like gristle. He hadn't planned for this. Take the boy's eyes, study that damned genjutsu… simple. And now Hanzo was a corpse and the blame was a coat he couldn't take off.
"Wasn't me," he said at last, going cold and shameless. "All I've done is what you won't—what must be done for Konoha. You're too soft, Hiruzen."
"Remember who the Hokage is."
Hiruzen's palm cracked the desk again. "You extend your hand into Amegakure and nearly light a war, and you ask me about 'soft'? Do you even see this office anymore?"
Danzo dragged in a breath. "This isn't clean. Give me time and I'll rip the truth out and bring you your answers."
"Don't bring them to me."
Hiruzen's laugh had no humor. "Bring them to Tsunade."
Danzo blinked. "Tsunade? Why would I owe her anything?"
"Half an hour ago," Hiruzen said around his pipe, "Tsunade formally notified Konoha Hospital and every medic-nin network: from this moment, no member of 'Root' is to be treated. Anyone who violates this loses their license—permanently."
Sweat pricked across Danzo's brow. "Hiruzen… that's a public strike on the village's covert arm!"
"The village can survive without an arm," Hiruzen said, smoke curling past his eyes. "It cannot survive without its heart. Tsunade built that heart. I can't overrule a system she created and sustains—nor could I even if I tried. In the eyes of most medics, her word outweighs mine."
Danzo had forgotten the one rule even he shouldn't break.
Never make an enemy of your doctors.
Now, as the true breadth of Tsunade's influence rose like a tidal wall, he felt—for the first time in a long while—cold.
—
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