The Dark Side of Akatsuki. Chapter 4

Title: Meetings and Other Unforgivable Acts

It was a time to Gain the Advantage. It was a time for Action. It was a time to Wage War. But the Third Hokage knew better. Danzou was a shadow, an illusion. Nothing more. Most people in Konoha would not even know his name. Hiruzen knew what people call those who wage war on shadows.

They call them fools.

So it was not a time for War. It was not a time for Action. It was a time for something far, far worse.

It was a time for Meetings.

And so the once-retired Third Hokage of the village of Konoha gathered his weapons and prepared to wage peace upon his foes. The Hokage donned his armor for this battle: his robe and hat of office. It would be made clear to all that he spoke as leader of the village. He gathered his most trusted allies and enacted a plan made years before, one that he had often hoped to never have the opportunity to use.

Perhaps, if everything had gone smoothly for Root... Perhaps, if Danzou had succeeded in forcing poor Itachi to betray his clan... Perhaps then, this might not have worked.

But that was not the world they lived in.

Danzou had stepped out of line in acting alone, but Hiruzen knew that the elders would forgive a success, only pretending at disapproval. Doing what needed to be done, even if he was hated for it, was ever Danzou's idiom, after all. But he hadn't succeeded, had he? At least, not cleanly.

Hiruzen sighed to himself. If he had learned one thing during all his time as leader of Konoha it was this: When it came to effecting social change, not even the most dreaded of Uchiha mind-altering illusions could ever hope to compare with the raw might of several powerful people coming together to complain in the middle of the night.

Hiruzen stood up from his desk and stretched his old bones. On the writing desk before him lay several scrolls.

Now it was time to give them all the same thing to complain about.

Hawks flew through the night. Midnight messengers knocked at gates. By this point anyone important had heard something and was already dressed and prepared for the worst. The prospect of civil war tends to make people rest uneasily.

The village elders, minus Danzou, were interrupted in the act of calling an emergency council meeting by an urgent messenger who informed them all that the Third Hokage had just summoned them to an emergency council meeting.

Throughout the village, numerous clan heads received long-expected messengers carrying unexpected messages. Group after group left clan compounds with scowls on their faces. If they were going to be up in the middle of the night, the least they could do was yell at someone about it.

So it was that the emergency council-meeting was interrupted as the doors to the council chamber crashed open. The village elders sat, exchanging nervous glances with one another as the Hyuuga Clan Head entered. The Hokage sat, stone-faced.

"This is an outrage!" roared Hyuuga Hiashi, blood pounding through his veins. "Is this how Konoha wishes to treat its bloodline clans? Are the Hyuuga next in line?!"

One elder managed to get her thoughts together swiftly enough to respond. "Unfortunately, we had information to suggest that the Uchiha were planning an uprising or rebellion against-"

"And so you slaughtered them?!" The head of the Hyuuga clan had now clearly activated his Byakugan, the treasured White Eyes that gave them a supreme edge in combat and reconnaissance. "I may not have always agreed with the Uchiha, and in fact I might have occasionally despised them, but we both have the honor of being founding members of Konoha! Uprising? Rebellion against the village?! Ridiculous! Our families are the village!"

Several Hyuuga clan-members stood behind him, stoic and motionless. Though they did not seem to be staring at any council-member in particular, the Byakugan meant you never could quite tell.

"And now, by all my information they are essentially gone. Never to recover their strength! How many remain? Ten? Twenty? Please inform me what I must do for my family to avoid a visit from ANBU in the middle of the night, because I would regret the inconvenience of having to pile the corpses of your trained assassins outside my gate in the morning. Or does this too count as talk of rebellion?"

The elders watched, wide-eyed. The Hokage was next to speak. "I apologize to you as well as to the entire village. A specific ANBU leader took action against my explicit orders. This was my failure, and my first priority will be erasing this problem, even if I must dig it out by its... roots."

"Oh, I expect that you will. I know all about this. Danzou's gone too far this time. He should make sure he doesn't give me cause to deal with him myself. I expect this matter to be resolved by the end of the day tomorrow." Shooting a final glance to certain elders, Hiashi escorted himself out of the building. The doors slammed shut behind him.

Taking a deep breath, the elders exchanged a weary glance. The Hokage did not move a single inch. After a time, the one of the elders spoke up.

"Well, that was certainly-"

He was frozen in mid-sentence by blood-curdling canine howls coming from outside, just before the doors slammed open once again. Again they were interrupted by a clan leader with demands.

And again. And again. And again.

Behind his steepled fingers, the Third Hokage allowed the smallest of smiles to flicker across his deeply wrinkled face.

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