Mokuton Root Agent #5

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Mokuton Root Agent

Chapter 5

–Hiruzen Sarutobi–

He sighed internally.

It would seem that day-by-day the issues that plagued Konoha continued to increase.

He was partly to blame here as well for allowing Danzo to continue doing his tasks free-handedly.

But alas, Danzo was right. He had become too weak, too soft to do the things that truly mattered.

To do the right thing and not the easy thing.

He then looked at the smirking Uchiha clan head and said, "What does your Sharingan show you, Fugaku-kun?"

He had been Hokage for so long that most of the clan heads were his juniors in some way or other.

Uchiha Fugaku bowed at him and said, "The chakra signature of that tree is weird. According to Inabi here, " he gestured to the Uchiha clansman behind him, "He was able to sense the ANBU's chakra signature", he didn't miss the way Fugaku emphasized on the ANBU part of the statement, especially in everybody's earshot, " and did a spot assessment of the ANBU being either diseased, a child or very much chakra exhausted but due to certain orders, he did not rush to help him."

He grimaced internally at Fugaku's statement. Each and every one of his sentences painted the village in a bad light. He was going to have to answer some tough questions after this.

"Then the chakra signature somehow was extinguished and Inabi, in his shock, rushed back, only to witness the aftermath of the ANBU dying." Fugaku continued.

Fugaku had a straight face while reporting all of it but he could see what he was doing.

Purposefully making sure that the gathered ninjas hear the bad side first will make sure that he will have the upper hand in the next council meeting. It would seem that Danzo and he had made a pretty formidable enemy in the Clan head council for themselves, especially in this delicate time.

Speaking of Clan heads, he could sense the unique twin chakra signature of Hiashi and Hizashi.

Soon, they landed right in front of him, looking at the towering tree that was still growing, slowly, but still growing.

"Hokage-sama, what is this abomination? The chakra I am seeing inside it should be impossible and yet.." Hiashi asked him, aghast at what he was probably seeing through his Byakugan eyes.

Hizashi assumed a guarding position behind his elder brother, not speaking a word. But with the way his face paled as his Byakugan was activated, he was certainly seeing the same thing his brother was seeing.

He signaled one of his personal ANBU guards to summon all the village elders.

The only reason he didn't single out Danzo was because of the presence of so many of the civilian ninjas in the hearing range. Anything he could say would have ended up on the shinobi grapevine in mere minutes and no amount of banning the spread of information would have truly stopped it.

He had learned his lesson from Naruto's example. He just wished he had known it earlier.

Now, to deal with the matter at hand here.

"What are you seeing, Hiashi?" he asked the Hyuga Clan head.

The veins around Hiashi's eyes protruded from his skin, showing that he was using his clan's doujutsu. 

"Hokage-sama, I don't know how to describe it. The chakra I am seeing is something I have only seen a handful of times and even then, it was nowhere near as dense as the one I am seeing now. The potency of the chakra is such that I had to order everyone below Jonin level in the clan to stop using their Byakugan. Even some Jonins have a very high chance of going blind if they look at this tree directly." Hiashi replied.

"What is it, Hokage-sama?" Hiashi looked at him intensely. If he wasn't as experienced as he was, the sight of a Byakugan staring you down would have certainly been a very intimidating sight but wasn't very useful on him when he had stared down multiple generations of the Hyuga in his long long tenure as Hokage. 

Being a Hokage with academic inclinations did have its benefits after all. He had been heavily involved in the academic activities of students, especially the clan heirs, not due to political reasons but due to the fact that the clan heirs tended to lead the most interesting academic lives.

"Hokage-sama Hokage-sama?" Genma's questioning brought him out of his thoughts.

It was a good thing he arrived right on time. 

It saved him from answering some uncomfortable questions. It was an opportunity he didn't think the clan heads of the largest and the second largest clan of Konoha would let go from their hands.

"What is it?" he questioned Genma.

He bowed and replied, "Hokage-sama, we have informed all the elders about the meeting. Everyone said yes but.."

Seeing Genma's hesitation, he gestured for him to go on.

Genma nodded and replied, "Danzo-sama, he ordered me to arrange for the meeting to happen an hour from now and not immediately as you ordered."

His face darkened at the implied insult.

How dare he!

His chakra thundered, pushing nearly everyone around him onto their knees.

This included Kakashi as he was on the verge of fainting due to chakra exhaustion already.

Seeing the state of the weaker ninjas surrounding him, he reined in his chakra and ordered, "ANBU! Have Danzo brought in for the council meeting that will happen right NOW and tell him that he has no other choice? His Hokage commands so!"

All the surrounding ANBU kneel at his commands and dash onto the rooftops, soon disappearing from their sight as they rush to Danzo's office.

Then, he turned to Hiashi and said, "As for your question, Hiashi."

At his outburst, Hiashi audibly gulped.

Why wouldn't he, anybody else in his position would arguably be shaking and trembling in terror. After all, they were standing against the intimidating visage of The Professor, someone who had managed to reach old age in a profession where the majority die young. The strongest person in the village.

He then continued in a much calmer tone of voice, "That tree might have a weird chakra signature but look closely and tell me what you see."

Hiashi complied and looked again at the tree using his Byakugan. Just that this time, he tried to look past the sea of otherworldly chakra that permeated the entire body of the tree. Soon, he was able to see it. It was faint and growing fainter still but he could see traces of earth nature's chakra in the bark of the tree. It seemed to be converging around the upper center area of the bark.

Concentrating more on the bark, he was able to make out something..

He was waiting for Hiashi to report back his findings but didn't expect him to look shocked and then determined. He then took out a few Kunais and coated them in his chakra and threw them at the tree bark with all his might.

Alas, his taijutsu may have been strong but he was only jounin at best when it came to chakra manipulation. But his work was done. 

The kunais got stuck into the bark, revealing something underneath.

Fugaku realised something and swiftly, before he or anybody else could interrupt them, flung his chakra-coated kunais towards the same spot Hiashi had thrown his kunais.

Fugaku, being a true S-Class combatant, managed to pierce Hiashi's kunai along with piercing the tree bark, ripping off a layer of the bark, and revealing what was underneath.

He was too late to stop Fugaku or Hiashi, too stunned at their actions to do anything.

Before he could berate them for unnecessarily endangering everyone around them, he saw the face that seemed to be carved out of wood, jutting out of the bark. It was hidden behind a layer of tree bark.

GASP!

All around him, he could see the same sound echoing, perhaps signalling a period of great turmoil within the shinobi community of Konoha. 

For what was hidden underneath that small piece of bark was a face, a face that seemed to be in immense agony.

He looked towards the Uchiha clan head only to receive determined stares from both him and Hiashi.

It would seem that his past decisions had come back to haunt him at the worst possible time.

Not having the support of the two biggest and strongest clans of Konoha in the upcoming council meeting could possibly have him removed from the seat of Hokage.

The only guarantee he had on his side was the fact that they had no one strong enough or popular enough to put on The Hat.

Now, every ninja, civilian, and trader would know of this incident within hours. Come tomorrow morning, every village would hear of it.

"Hokage-sama?" he heard Genma call for him.

"Hmm?" he replied.

"The council has assembled, sir. All the clan heads have either assembled in the meeting room or are here with us" Genma replied while glancing at Hiashi and Fugaku.

He nodded and then replied, "Very well. Let's go."

Glancing at Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Hiashi, he said while walking ahead, "Come on, gentlemen, we have a lot to discuss and not a lot of time before the situation gets out of hand."

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Word Count - 1572

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