Days passed, and soon two weeks had gone by since the Uchiha Clan massacre.
For the most part, Konoha's villagers were untouched by the Uchiha clan's destruction. For them, the Uchiha being gone simply meant fewer troublesome faces and a fresh topic for gossip.
Otherwise, life went on as usual. Who could blame them? The Uchiha's arrogance had made them profoundly unpopular and being Police force, they had already accumulated alot of resentment.
It was as if Konoha's unspoken rule was: "Rag on the Uchiha, and we're practically best friends."
Not everyone could say the same, however. Root, for instance, had suffered devastating losses on the night of the massacre.
'Gone... it's all gone,' Danzo thought.
'All my years of effort... vanished.'
Since the night of the Uchiha's annihilation, Danzo had been reeling.
Danzo had spent half his life growing a force of over a hundred Root elites during his years in charge. These weren't just warm bodies, not average low-level ninja or cannon fodder chunin, and certainly not the kind of random recruits the Academy churned out.
Raising each one demanded immense resources and energy. Many still held great potential for growth. Among them were true experts.
They covered almost every specialization: reconnaissance, offense, medical ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, sensory perception, practically the full spectrum except sealing, as Danzo couldn't take risk of anyone cracking the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
They could operate alone or strike in force. A single operative could easily lead a small village, and even a medium-sized village would struggle against their combined assault.
Such a force was now gone.
Danzo's heart felt like it was hemorrhaging. A wound that wouldn't close, completely unacceptable.
To eliminate the Uchiha, Danzo had invested heavily, even colluding with the Masked Man again, hoping to turn the situation to his advantage. Instead, he was left gutted.
He was back to square one overnight. All that remained of Root were three stragglers. Rebuilding would be nearly impossible. Danzo would have to lay low for a time.
However, Danzo's misfortune was just beginning.
"Danzo," the Third Hokage said, tossing a stack of papers onto the table. "I need an explanation. Ignoring my direct orders, you brazenly mobilized a large number of Root shinobi to lie in wait within the Uchiha compound. What exactly were you planning?"
"Why should I explain my actions to anyone? I did this all for you! For Konoha! I already know I will be taking blame for this!?" Danzo snapped back, reeling from his own losses and in a foul mood, the words escaping before he could stop them.
Exasperated by Danzo's bluntness, the Third Hokage cut straight to the point. "What about the rest of the Uchiha? Hand over their bodies."
The 'rest of the Uchiha' the Third Hokage spoke of were the more than one hundred clan members who hadn't been accounted for among the dead.
Konoha meticulously tracked its clans, especially the Uchiha Clan. The Uchiha roster was known down to the last member, the powerful, the weak, those with Sharingan and those without, even newborns.
Their files included everything: photos, personal data, mission history, estimated strength, possible weaknesses and even their peculiar habits.
With records so thorough, how could they not investigate why over a hundred people were missing after that night's massacre?
As the Third Hokage saw it, the Uchiha clan's annihilation had been a clandestine operation orchestrated by Danzo, with the silent backing of Konoha's two elder advisors.
These missing clan members were most likely killed by Root ninja, and their bodies subsequently hidden by Danzo.
He knew Danzo had a history of clandestine activities, including colluding and corrupting his disciple Orochimaru, and conducting forbidden human experiments behind his back.
He suspected this incident was no exception.
"I don't know!" Danzo roared, slamming his fist on the table.
For once, the Third Hokage was entirely mistaken, not out of some sense of respect for the fallen Uchiha's, Danzo wished he had those 100+ Uchiha bodies.
But his Root ninja had been wiped out, leaving Danzo utterly devastated. How would he know where those hundred-plus people went? He didn't even know whether Root had fallen to Itachi or the Masked Man.
Hiruzen slammed his own hand down, glaring at Danzo. "Danzo," he bit out. "Stop pretending."
Unfortunately, to the Third Hokage, this could only be the result of a disastrous clash between Root and the Uchiha.
Danzo's long history of underhanded dealings had eroded his credibility completely.
The Third Hokage was convinced Danzo had hidden their bodies, including Fugaku and his wife, who had also disappeared.
Sasuke, upon waking from his coma, was certain Itachi had killed their parents. He insisted he'd witnessed it himself. The Yamanaka clan's jutsu had corroborated his account.
Hiruzen had even considered, 'Could Itachi's genjutsu be strong enough to deceive Yamanaka's secret techniques?' It seemed unlikely. Why go to such elaborate lengths to create a false image of killing his parents after massacring the entire clan?
Therefore, it seemed irrefutable: Fugaku and his wife must have died by Itachi's hand.
And with their bodies missing, they must be hidden by Danzo.
Who else but Danzo? Who else in Konoha possessed the means and the motive? They couldn't have simply vanished into thin air. The idea was absurd.
Danzo was in an impossible situation. He'd been saddled as the perfect scapegoat.
"Like I told you I don't have them, I really don't have them!" Danzo fumed as he protested loudly, 'I am Hokage's Advisor, Konoha Elder, Leader of Root, one of the most influential people in Konoha. After all I have sacrificed for this village, why should I suffer such injustice?!'
'Damn it all!'
"Danzo!" Hiruzen pointed a trembling finger at Danzo, speechless for a moment. In the face of what he saw as ironclad evidence, Danzo's absolute refusal to admit anything was infuriating. Hiruzen took a shaky breath, visibly trying to rein in his fury.
"Danzo Shimura," Hiruzen said, his voice tight. "I can no longer tolerate your independent actions. Effective immediately, I am relieving you of your duties as Hokage's Advisor and Konoha Elder."
"Hiruzen, you can't do this!" Danzo was stunned and furious. Losing these titles, now that Root was decimated, would mean being completely sidelined, abandoning his life's work entirely. 'How could I ever hope to become the Fifth Hokage now?'
However, the Third Hokage's next sentence sent a jolt of ice through Danzo. "Furthermore," Hiruzen added, his voice firm. "Root is hereby disbanded."
"Hiruzen, you can't do this!" Danzo lunged forward, pointing a trembling finger at Hiruzen, his voice choked with disbelief, repeating the same desperate words.
Root... Root was his trump card, his life's work. Ninja could be replaced, eventually, but power... power, once lost, was gone forever. Hiruzen wasn't just stripping his political influence, he was stripping his military force.
He was being cast aside now that the Uchiha were gone. Was this... discarding the grindstone after it had served its purpose?
Fury surged through Danzo. But with his subordinates decimated, his options were limited. He was facing the Hokage, 'The Professor', hailed as the strongest ninja of their era.
Hiruzen's tone was final, allowing no room for argument. "I will formally issue the order for your removal soon." He stood up. "Until then, you can stay in the Confinement Chamber."
"Hiruzen!" Danzo could only glare at him, a storm of rage and injustice churning within him, forcing out the bitter words he'd spoken so many times before: "You will regret this!"
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Narrator: Danzo Shimura... humiliated, disarmed, and Root-less! Will the elderly warhawk ever recover his influence and achieve his dream of becoming Fifth Hokage... or will his next big scheme involve writing salty memoirs titled "Rooted In Betrayal: My Life as a Misunderstood Patriot"?
As Naruto watches from the shadows, will he use this chaos to climb higher? Or is he already playing 4D shogi while Danzo's still stuck on bingo books?
Will the Third Hokage's justice hold... or will Danzo slither his way back from irrelevance?
Will Danzo ever bounce back? Or is his future as bleak as his fashion sense?
Find out next time... where conspiracies are thick, grudges run deep, and ninja politics are deadlier than any jutsu!
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