Letting Clan Leaders Know

"It was Danzo." Hiroki said.

It took a few seconds for Hiruzen to process what Hiroki said. When he finished processing what he said, Hiruzen's mouth opened wide. He tried saying something, but no words came out of his mouth. It was only ten minutes later that he was able to speak.

"Tell me exactly what happened." Hiruzen said with a shaky and sad voice.

Hiroki told him everything that happened and each thing surprised Hiruzen as well as make him feel more pain knowing how low his friend had become.

"If things had happened differently, Konoha would have suffered greatly. We would have gone to war against our enemies and more lives would have been thrown away. I can't believe Danzo once held the will of fire." Hiruzen said.

"He might have in the past, but it was since the death of Nidaime that Danzo became corrupt. He wanted to become hokage instead of you and he worked behind the scenes, creating war and destroying an allied village to get to his objective. This should not have surprised you, since the discovery of his attempt to assassinate us in Suna. His mistake this time was using me and my death as an excuse to get back to power." Hiroki said.

"Thank you for the report Hiroki. I trust you, but I just want to make sure what you said was the truth. Tomorrow morning, I want you to come here again. I'll have Yamanaka Inoichi read your memories and show them to me. I want to see these things for myself. You can leave now." Hiruzen said.

"No problem, Hokage-sama. I'll be here first thing in the morning." Hiroki said as he started walking out the office.

After Hiroki left, Tori looked at Hiruzen and asked: "do you want me to observe him for the night?"

"There's no need. If Hiroki wanted to leave Konoha and run, no one would be able to stop him. Minato might be the only one to catch up to him, but that would be it. I believe that he is not lying about anything he said. He has always told me to be wary of Danzo and his actions. I am at fault because I was neglecting all the signs of this happening." Hiruzen said. He then looked at Danzo's body and sealed it back in the scroll. He took ink and a pen from his drawer and wrote a note.

"Give this to Inoichi and tell him to be here first thing tomorrow." Hiruzen said as he handed the note to Tori.

Tori then shunshined away.

Hiruzen was all alone in his office now. Only now did he let a tear roll down his face, but then wiped it away. He didn't cry because of the death of the man that was his friend, but cried for what his friend had become. He felt that it was his fault in a way.

———

In the next morning Hiroki woke up and had breakfast. He then walked towards Hiruzen's office.

'I'm quite surprised and happy. Hiruzen didn't send any anbu to keep a watch on me even though it would not make any difference if I wanted to run away. I'm happy that he trusted me enough with what has happened.' Hiroki thought to himself.

After ten minutes of walking, he was in front of the door to Hiruzen's office. He knocked once and opened the door while walking inside. He saw that Hiruzen was seated on his chair behind his desk and another man with long blond hair was inside as well.

"Good morning Hokage-sama. Good morning Inoichi-san. I'm here as we had agreed." Hiroki said as he nodded to them.

"Good morning Hiroki-kun. As we talked yesterday, Inoichi will show me your memories of yesterday's episode. You don't need to be afraid of anything. Inoichi is the best in the Yamanaka clan for this work and you won't feel any damage towards yourself." Hiruzen said. He then unsealed two therapy beds and placed them next to each other with a chair separating them.

"You can lay down and close your eyes Hokage-sama, Hiroki-san. I'll take care of the rest now." Inoichi said.

Both Hiroki and Hiruzen closed their eyes as they laid down on the beds. Inoichi sat on the chair and made a few hand seals. He then placed one hand over Hiroki's head and the other over Hiruzen's. "Knowledge Transfer Jutsu." Inoichi said.

After thirty minutes, Inoichi took his hand from their heads. Hiruzen and Hiroki opened their eyes just after that. Hiroki got up from his therapy bed and so did Hiruzen. The Hokage had a sad look on his face.

Hiruzen walked to his chair and sat down. He stayed with his eyes closed and silent for over ten minutes, going over the memories he saw from Hiroki. Each time he heard Danzo's voice and plot, made him feel sadder. He felt as many years were taken away from him. He opened his eyes and looked towards Inoichi.

"Thank you for you job Inoichi. What you have seen is a secret that should not leave this room. You are dismissed." Hiruzen said.

"I'll take my leave, Hokage-sama. Until a future date, Hiroki-san." Inoichi said as he turned to leave.

"Thank you for being professional Inoichi-san. If you hadn't been, things could have ended badly." Hiroki said.

Inoichi didn't understand at first, but then realized what Hiroki was saying. When he looked into Hiroki's memories, he went straight to the events that happened yesterday and nothing more. From what Hiroki said, if he had wondered inside his memories, something bad would have happened. This was because Hiroki kept parts of his memories with protection seals. Specially the memories of his family, Uchiha blood, his mokuton and his past life entirely. If Inoichi was to try and see them, his mind would have been stuck inside Hiroki's consciousness until Hiroki freed it.

Inoichi smiled wryly and left.

"Ahem. Hiroki-kun, I'm sorry for what has happened yesterday. I want to thank you as well for the great things you have done for Konoha. Never have I seen someone so young and wise in my life. What happened saddened me greatly, but knowing that there's no threat from the inside comforts me." Hiruzen said.

"Thank you Hokage-sama. I hope to protect our village and stop the unnecessary blood spillage. Unfortunately, what happened yesterday was bound to happen if not yesterday, then in the future, otherwise, more innocent blood would be spilled. It was better that it happened earlier." Hiroki said.

"You may leave now Hiroki-kun. I'll have to schedule a meeting with the clan heads and announce to them what occurred. You don't need to worry as I won't mention you." Hiruzen said.

"Alright. I'll be leaving now. Please take care of your self. If I were you, I would ask Jiraiya and Orochimaru to come here. They are both your students and they can help you in this difficult time. I know that you and Danzo were friends, so this must not be easy for you. Goodbye." Hiroki said as he teleported.

"Tori, I'll write letters to each clan of Konoha. I'll have you and your team to hand them to the clan leaders." Hiruzen said to his anbu captain.

———

It was night time and the clan leaders of Konoha were gathered inside the Hokage's meeting room.

"Ahem. I thank you all for coming here in short notice, but what I'm about to tell you all is important and might affect Konoha on the future." Hiruzen said while looking at the clan leaders. When he saw that they were all attention paying attention, he continued.

"As you all know, last year Root was disbanded while Danzo was taken out of the Hokage council. What isn't known by the public is the reason. Danzo attempted to interrupt the treaty between Konoha and Suna. He had sent ten of his root agents disguised as Suna shinobi to intercept us and kill us and then blame it on Suna, thus creating a war." Hiruzen said as he took some time to look at the clan leaders.

Most of them had serious faces as Hiruzen told them about this while others were angry, but they didn't interrupt.

"After the treaty was signed by the Kazekage and myself, we returned to Konoha faster than anticipated. I had Danzo come to my office to question him. At first, he claimed innocence, but after the facts were stated and had no way to defend himself. I disbanded root and took him out of the council." Hiruzen said.

"That bastard should have been executed on the spot." The Akimichi clan leader, Chouza, said in anger.

"We understand that, but why have you called us for this meeting, Hokage-sama?" Shikaku asked this time.

"Danzo had attempted once more to create a war. This time, between Iwa and Konoha. He made a trap for a high ranking shinobi of Konoha as he sent some remanent members of root disguised as Iwa shinobi to kill said high ranking shinobi." Hiruzen said. He wanted to continue, but was interrupted.

"I should slice his head for what he has done. Killing one of our own to create more war and bloodshed. He deserves death." The Inuzuka clan leader said in anger.

"The shinobi he had attempted to kill survived. He then followed Danzo inside his new hideout. When he go inside, Danzo had over twenty remanent root members inside. Said shinobi killed the twenty members and fought Danzo. A loud explosion was heard on the outskirts of Konoha and I had sent my anbu captain along with his men to investigate while other anbu went to investigate the first assassination attempt. When Tori was getting close to the explosion, he saw the shinobi coming back. They came to my office and reported to me what happened." Hiruzen said as he then took out a scroll from his sleeve.

He opened the scroll and then made a hand sign. A small cloud of smoke appeared on the table. As the smoke cleared, the all saw the body of a person. It was almost completely black because of how burnt it was. There were also some body parts missing from the body. The left forearm along with the hand and right leg was missing from it.

The clan leaders were all surprised to see the body in that condition. Most of them could not keep their calm.

"Who is this person? Was this one of Danzo's men?" Hiashi from the Hyuga clan asked.

"No. The remanent root members were all dead when our anbu found Danzo's new hideout. This here is Danzo himself. Danzo has been killed." Hiruzen said.

It took sometime for the clan leaders to process what Hiruzen said. When it finally hit them, they were utterly surprised. They all knew that Danzo was a powerful shinobi that was at the level of high Jounin even after he had lost his right arm and eye. For someone to leave him in this kind of state showed how powerful the person was. The clan leader new that only a few of them had the power to go against Danzo in a one on one.

"Hokage-sama, who was the person that Danzo tried to kill? What technique did he use to leave Danzo's body in this state?" Fugaku, the now Uchiha clan leader asked. He knew that a fire technique to leave a body like this was very powerful. He was intrigued and wanted to know.

"You don't need to worry Fugaku. It was not a member of the Uchiha clan. The identity of the shinobi will be kept a secret as he doesn't want to reveal it. As for the jutsu, I didn't ask the person which one it was. Anyways, Inoichi transferred the shinobi's memories to me and what he said was nothing short of the truth. Danzo really planed to kill him and use this to declare war against Iwa." Hiruzen said.

After thirty more minutes of conversation, the meeting ended. Hiruzen said that this news would be announced to the whole village on the next day and that the conversation they had was to be kept a secret until then. He also said that Danzo would not have any funeral ceremony due to his betrayal against Konoha.

In the next day, all of Konoha knew learned of what Danzo had done. Many of those that liked the man as they thought he was someone honorable, started to despise him for what he had done. Homura and Koharu were the ones that felt the most as they had a really close friendship with Danzo. They asked Hiruzen for Danzo's body for them to make a funeral, but the Hokage refused and said that his body would not allow that to happen.