37

With the new revelation of orphan children going missing, the Hokage went on a rampage.

The clues that Kakashi and the team found, all lead toward a certain organization he had ordered to be shut down.

Soon, every single jonin team that was loyal to Hiruzen, including Kakashi's genin team (since they have proved themselves numerous times, also since they were the first ones to uncover the secrets) was called to the village, and a complete sweep of the village and surrounding areas was done.

Naruto once again proved to be the most efficient information gatherer and a scout, partly because he already knew many of the bases of the organization, namely because he had already spent more than a year looking for them constantly.

Hiruzen was understandably angry at the huge piles of evidence that were left in the bases of ROOT that suggested their continued operations even in recent years.

"Jiraiya, come back to the village. I need your Fuinjutsu expertise." Hiruzen wrote on a scroll before passing it to a frog summon that delivered the letter to his student, who was busy ogling beauties in a hot spring.

The Hokage ordered Jiraiya back because of his spy network as well as his seal proficiency to help decode and unlock a lot of seals that ROOT used on their stuff.

Due to the prolonged absence of Danzo, the members of ROOT had gone silent, keeping up their façade of being loyal to the village and the Hokage, all the while panicking that their leader hadn't made an appearance and given them any orders.

Virtually no member of the ROOT had seen Danzo ever since he went on his recruitment of the Nine-tails jinchuriki, and that had them worried.

It was in their training and brainwashing to remain calm in cases where the leader of ROOT was not present, but this was something that no member of the organization had experienced or trained for before.

Their training included remaining calm when the leader was absent, but usually, at least someone was in on the details of where and why Danzo had gone to.

No member of the organization had gone with him as guards, nor had he informed anyone of any missions he would be undertaking.

And now that the Hokage had found so many bases and evidence of their organization's dealings, some of the lower-level members were panicking.

In less than a month, almost a hundred ninjas, chunnin, and above were arrested and interrogated for being part of the organization.

Naruto provided Kakashi with the unsealing formula for the tongue seal and the genjutsu seal that was commonly used in ROOT.

Over time, secrets were unearthed, causing the upper echelons of the clan leaders and the village leader to fall into rage and depression.

"How was Danzo able to kill off so many of our village's strong ninjas. His actions have resulted in more than a hundred deaths of ninjas that had the potential to be higher than a jonin. Moreover, from those hundred or so, almost 20 had the potential to reach the level of a Kage.

Furthermore, the distrust and negative feelings the village had towards the Uchiha clan were all done by him as well.

Even the Senju were slowly wiped off by him. He didn't even leave Sensei's clan alone.

Danzo singlehandedly brought down the strength of the village by more than half, maybe more, in the past three decades.

But the question remains, How were we not able to figure out his plan before?" Hiruzen asked the room full of people.

All the clan leaders looked at him and each other in distrust and dismay. A lot of those killed had been members of their own families and clans.

"There must be something we are missing. Have you been checked out by the Yamanaka clan and their mental scouring technique?" Shikaku asked directly, seeing as no one was speaking up.

"I did have a session with Inoichi, but he didn't tell me the results yet. He wanted to share them with everyone present." The Hokage pointed to the blond man and asked him to speak up.

"Yes, Hokage sama. I apologize for the rude behavior, but it was imperative that this information is to be shared when everyone was present.

Ahem.

I personally went inside your mind and found a lot of interesting things.

When I looked at the surface, everything looked quite normal, but the more I looked, the weirder it became.

There were memories that didn't connect with others. Moreover, they seemed to have been placed there artificially.

So, I dove down deeper, something that would be quite dangerous, but it had to be done considering recent events.

It would seem you were either possessed by Danzo sama a lot of times or simply acted as his puppet. Whenever he did, he left behind a small trace of himself, something that would be undetectable if he had possessed or controlled you just a few times, but the number of possessions was too much not to be undetectable.

You would be possessed, do something that I don't know about since the memories were formed inside Danzo's spirit and not yours. After that, he would leave your body, and replace the empty blank spaces with some memories so that you wouldn't be suspicious of missing time.

However, there were small fragments of memories that were formed the instant Danzo sama's spirit left your body, and he replaced the blank spaces. Most of the time, these fragments would be regret, guilt, and anger at yourself. It would seem, you were aware of everything that Danzo sama did when he possessed you and you had no control.

The reason I wanted to share it with everyone present was to make sure that this information would not be buried like the ones Danzo sama buried." Inoichi spoke gravely, as Hiruzen's face paled and a look of horror crept in.

"What!!! How is that possible? How is there a jutsu that can take over a person and make them do things?" Choza asked angrily, as a few other clan heads joined in.

"You guys are forgetting a certain technique Tsunade sama's boyfriend was famous for," Kakashi spoke up, as the head of the Hatake clan.

GASP.

"You mean, the spirit possession jutsu?" Tsume gasped and asked in disbelief.

"Impossible. No one was able to handle the high risks of that jutsu other than Dan san. He was the only one that could use that technique. Not even his niece that's traveling with Tsunade can use it." Choza commented.

"Not if someone had the ability to regenerate their body fast enough so that the absence of the spirit didn't degenerate the body," Nara added.

"What do you mean?" Choza asked.

"Danzo was experimenting with the First Hokage's cells, that much is apparent from the numerous test subjects he went through. Also, that Tenzo guy who was rescued from ROOT back then was able to use the Wood Release, though not as proficiently as the First.

My guess is that Danzo was successful in his experimentations and grafted the First's cells into his body, allowing him the ability to regenerate the damaged cells due to the lack of a spirit in the body." Shikaku explained.

"That monster. He didn't even spare the First Hokage." The clan heads clenched their teeth in anger, while Hiruzen was getting angrier the more the conversation went along.

"Enough!" Hiruzen finally snapped.

"From this moment forwards, Danzo Shimura is classified as an enemy of this Village. Put a bounty on his head. Find him. Dead or Alive. And bring his head to me!" Hiruzen ordered firmly, an invisible pressure falling on everyone present, as two old people sitting in the corner were cowering and shivering with fear.

'Danzo, where did you go and left us this mess.' The two thought as they kept their heads down, too afraid to even make their presence known.

"On to the next important topic.

It is time I did something right, and try to atone for my mistake. I should have dealt with Danzo the minute he started showing such signs long ago.

I believe it is time for me to announce my departure from the role as the Head of this Village. I have failed you all. I have failed all my villagers.

And since Jiraiya doesn't want to be the next Hokage, I have the right candidate in my mind.

Jiraiya, go bring back Tsunade to the village!"

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.

.

Ta-da.

So, Hiruzen finally understood what happened to him.

Danzo basically fucked up the village in his time alive. He was the epitome of the concept of bringing people down below his level to rule over them.

Since he couldn't control the powerful clans, like the Senju or the Uchiha, he had them wiped out, all the while, reaping benefits for himself.

At first, he became the darkness of the village so that the village would prosper, but over time, this darkness corrupted him, causing not only his own downfall but also that of the village and its people.

His job of bringing the village to the top was turned into bringing himself to the top, and that is just idiotic, but it's what I call Danzo.

Anyway, that is the chapter for today.

Also, many people have asked me if Hiroki is going to get a body anytime soon.

As I have replied in a few comments before, I will tell you again.

He will get a new body, and it will be soon, maybe right after the chunnin exams arc, which is coming really soon.

Now, we are going to head into the Tsunade retrieval arc, which is quite short TBH, and then the chunnin arc, hopefully. I haven't written that far yet.

So, long story short, Hiroki will get a body, and it won't be Naruto's.