Hiruzen's choice

After Renjiro left and closed the door of the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen waved his hand and all the ANBU went outside without eavesdropping.

"You should have interrogated him harder, Hiruzen, he obviously did not say something. These Uchiha may have been taught to wear a mask, but his eyes betrayed that he did not tell the whole truth." A tall man with a cane and a bandaged eye came out of the shadows.

"He's just a kid who lost his family twice, it wouldn't be right to put pressure on him. Didn't you mention it yourself, didn't you see his blank stare?" - Hiruzen answered, reaching out his hand on reflexes to the lower box of the table. But then he remembered that the pipe was in the other and took it out of the first one. Taking it out, he poured herbs into it and lit it. Only after that did Danzo begin to speak again.

"Maybe he spoke logically and calmly, but the Uchiha always hid their emotions until they exploded," Danzo replied. - "Do not prevent me from talking to him, I'm sure I will find answers to questions and I will prevent all the sacrifices that he will make from his..."

Hiruzen, from Danzo's insolence, choked on the smoke of his pipe, and banging on the table in a loud voice objected: "I said no! He is not an enemy of the village to treat him like that, and you think I do not understand what you are thinking?"

Danzo frowned with pity at the current Hokage. "The advisers will be against ..." - Danzo wanted to argue, but Hiruzen interrupted him again.

"Naturally, they will be against if you tell them this news in your own light, which is why they will now come as ANBU called them. They will only be glad that the Uchiha bloodline has not died out as they should."

Danzo did not calm down: "Since we are the only one to say. You gave the order to kill the entire clan, and now you feel sorry for one child? What is such Hiruzen's conscience tortured?"

Hiruzen did not shout, only sighed calmly on the pipe and after a while blew out smoke.

"You know perfectly well that I gave the order for Itachi to kill only the older generation, which would lead to the self-destruction of the village. How did I know that someone else would kill absolutely everyone else? The child was not lucky that he missed those 4 years of life. But he was also lucky that he survived. That's enough. Danzо, as Hokage, I command you not to touch the child even with your finger, Understood? "

Danzo nodded, wrinkling his face like sowing a sour lemon slice

Turning his back to the Hokage, he left the office.

Hiruzen leaned back in a chair and, shaking out the ashes from the pipe to exchange for a new one, said to himself: "How wrong you are, my friend ..."

Immersed in memories, he forgot about his paperwork and about the books he wanted to read in the bottom of the table with illustrations from Jiraiya.