"A joke?!"
Hatani's innocent look fanned the flames of Danzo's internal rage. However, as a master manipulator who had presided over the Root for years, he quickly suppressed his anger. He cast a look at Hatani as if the boy were a mere clown and spoke coldly.
"Hmph. Some people won't admit defeat until they see the coffin."
With that, he pulled a scroll from his robes and slapped it onto the desk in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"This is intelligence extracted from a Suna spy the Root captured yesterday."
Hiruzen's brow furrowed slightly as he picked up the scroll and slowly unrolled it. Under Hatani's curious gaze, the anxious eyes of Minato and Nawaki, and the uncertain looks of Choza and Inoichi, the Hokage began to read intently.
Puff... puff...
Hiruzen remained silent, rhythmically drawing on his pipe. This silence made Danzo feel a trace of unease deep down, but he quelled it by glancing at Hatani. After all, the boy was just a child.
"Hatani, have a look for yourself."
Finally, having finished the scroll and his bowl of tobacco, Hiruzen rolled it back up loosely. He tapped out the ash and began instinctively refilling the pipe with fresh leaves as he handed the scroll to Hatani.
Hatani bowed slightly and took the scroll with both hands, scanning the text with rapid efficiency.
He was actually quite interested to see how Danzo intended to frame him. However, after a quick read, he felt a wave of disappointment.
Is this really the best the 'Darkness of the Shinobi' can do?
What a waste of all those years running the Root.
"Finished?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yes."
"Then tell me your thoughts."
"Understood."
The exchange between Hiruzen and Hatani was casual, like a teacher asking a student for a book report.
"Well, I have a few questions for Lord Danzo," Hatani said. He placed the scroll back on the desk and looked at Hiruzen with a request in his eyes.
Hiruzen didn't speak; he simply nodded. Looking at Hatani, he felt even more satisfied. Compared to his three official students, this kid was far more sensible and composed.
"First: What is my motive?"
Having received permission, Hatani didn't waste time and looked directly at Danzo.
"Hmph. I imagine that is a question you can answer best yourself," Danzo snorted, acting as though he were above answering such a triviality.
"So, Lord Danzo doesn't know either," Hatani "interpreted" the answer immediately.
"Second question: I am a lowly Genin who graduated less than a year ago and had never left the village for a mission before this. On what basis does Lord Danzo believe I would even have access to classified intelligence? And how was this Suna spy so certain that I did?"
"You personally might not have a way to know, but there are people around you who do," Danzo replied unhurriedly, throwing out another vague, loaded answer.
"Danzo! Are you insulting Mimura-sensei?!"
To the shock of Danzo and everyone else in the room, Hatani—who had been using polite titles like "Lord" and maintaining a facade of respect—suddenly turned cold. With a voice trembling with suppressed rage, he addressed Danzo by name without any honorifics, shouting his interrogation.
"Presumptuous!"
If Danzo's previous anger had been a calculated performance, he was genuinely livid now. A brat not even thirteen years old dared to be so insolent?
"Hatani!"
This time, Hiruzen couldn't just sit back as the judge. He barked out a sharp warning to stop the boy.
"Danzo, Shinji Mimura is a hero of this village," Hiruzen added, turning a stern gaze toward his old friend. "Do not speak so recklessly without concrete evidence!"
Though it seemed like Hiruzen was playing the mediator by scolding both sides, the bias was obvious. Given the massive gap in their status, the fact that Hiruzen put them on equal footing was a clear win for Hatani.
"Third question: How can you be certain this isn't a trap deliberately set by the Sand for revenge? After all, I was the one who ruined their plot."
Hatani, who had only used the outburst to rattle Danzo, immediately regained his cool and delivered the third question.
"Absurd," Danzo countered, recovering quickly. He used Hatani's own logic against him. "As you just said, you're just a 'lowly Genin.' Is a fresh graduate worth the sacrifice of a valuable, long-term sleeper agent just for a bit of petty revenge?"
"Heh. Perhaps a lowly Genin like me isn't worth it," Hatani sneered. He had been waiting for Danzo to take the bait.
"But that doesn't account for someone with their own agenda—someone who might make the Sand more than willing to provide a suicide agent. If I recall correctly, the Suna delegation only just left the village. Don't you think it's a bit too convenient, Lord Danzo?"
Internal alarm bells rang in Danzo's head.
Hatani didn't know for certain if Danzo had made a deal with the Sand, but that didn't stop him from steering the conversation that way and slinging some mud of his own.
I'm not an honest man like Sakumo Hatake, Hatani thought. If you want to play dirty, I'll play dirtier.
As long as he could plant a seed of doubt in Hiruzen's mind, he had won.
"Hmph! Sharp-tongued brat," Danzo muttered, his fury mounting.
According to his original plan, Aburame Shikuro was supposed to lure Tsunade away while he either captured Hatani or stalled his return to investigate him. Then, he would have combined Shikuro's report with the "testimony" from the spy and Akiren—the man captured by Tori's squad—to create a foolproof narrative.
He hadn't expected Hatani to return so quickly with Tsunade. To make matters worse, Shikuro still hadn't checked in, and Tori's squad hadn't returned with Akiren yet. Forced to act prematurely, he had to rely solely on the Suna "suicide agent."
He knew there were holes in the story.
However, he believed that with the war against Iwa beginning, Hiruzen would need the Root's intelligence network too much to turn against him over a civilian Genin. He thought that as long as the evidence was "good enough," he could get away with it.
Furthermore, he looked down on Hatani. Even if the kid had ruined his plans before, he chalked it up to luck and raw sensory talent. How could a twelve-year-old possibly compete with him in a game of political intrigue?
But he was wrong. Hatani had suddenly become Jiraiya's student—making him Hiruzen's "grand-student"—which turned Hiruzen's attitude ambiguous. Even worse, the boy was terrifyingly sharp. He had found three major flaws in the testimony after a single reading.
"Since you claim this is a frame-up, the witness is currently being held at the Root," Danzo said, refusing to back down.
Realizing he couldn't simply drag the boy away, he pivoted to a provocation. He hoped to play on Hatani's youthful arrogance and naivety to lure him into his domain. "Do you have the courage to go to the Root and confront him yourself?!"
Unfortunately for Danzo, Hatani wasn't a hot-headed protagonist like the orphans from the Land of Rain, and he certainly wasn't a self-sacrificing soul like Shisui Uchiha.