Chapter 187: Danzo's Downfall

All of the jonin nodded their heads and went about their business.

All of the Uchiha had a simple role: they made every civilian in the area fall under a genjutsu and leave the area for some urgent business. Some went to their houses to sleep, some went to check about an announcement at the completely opposite end of Konoha, some even suddenly fell ill and went to the hospital for a checkup. But no one had a single thought of coming back in the next 6 hours. After that, all of the jonin created an encirclement around the base to prevent anyone from entering.

While Uchiha jonin were doing that, Aburame jonin also started their task. With the help of their bugs, they started placing explosion tags in such a way that once the blast happened, the roof of the base would disappear and the contents of the base would be visible to everyone in the area.

A similar thing happened at the other base, the only difference being that the number of Root ninja who died there was 3 times higher. Minoru was already angry at both Danzo for his actions and Fugaku for tolerating this and letting his clan's ninja die for some fake peace. So when he got the chance to take out that frustration, Minoru took full advantage of the situation.

After placing the bombs, they once again started to wait for the signal from Fugaku. After half an hour, they got the signal everyone was waiting for. As soon as Minoru got the signal, he sent the jonin inside the base with a command:

"This is not a spy mission, no need to be stealthy. Go in with a blast and subdue everyone who tries to resist."

All of the jonin raided the base like hungry beasts, subduing every scientist they came across and killing the ninja who tried to resist or call for help. After that, they quickly retreated and gave a green signal to Minoru.

Just as Minoru was about to give the orders for the blast:

boom BOOOOOOOOOOM

'I am losing to a brat, huh!' The sound came from the first base; apparently, Shisui's team was faster than his.

After hearing the sound of explosion, Minoru also gave the signal to set off the explosion:

Boom Booom BOOOOOOM

"Now we wait for their arrival. Which base do you think they would go to first?" Minoru said. The jonin next to him replied, "Sir, since the other base is nearer to the meeting hall, they would most likely go there first."

"Yeah, normally," Minoru said, as there was nothing certain in this scenario.

...

There was a reason that the clan heads of the various clans were respected by every ninja of their clan: they were way beyond the league of any average ninja in Konoha. That's why when they moved toward the sound of explosion, they were able to reach there before even ANBU and Root ninjas could arrive at that location.

"What is the meaning of this? Are the Uchiha planning on going against the whole village?" Danzo said as soon as they reached the location. They had arrived so fast that even the dust had not settled completely.

Danzo thought that the base was buried below the rubble and decided to attack Fugaku to not give anyone a chance to explore the contents of that base. As soon as he said those words, he began making vacuum bullets in his mouth.

But Fugaku had already activated his Sharingan and was able to sense the attack Danzo was preparing to make. Since he was already serious about the whole operation, he was also about to activate his Mangekyo Sharingan. There was no need for him to hide his trump card anymore.

Just as Danzo was about to launch his attack and Fugaku was going to activate his Mangekyo Sharingan, Hiruzen appeared between them. Danzo had to bitterly stop his attack and Fugaku also refrained from activating his Mangekyo.

"Fugaku, what is the meaning of this?" Hiruzen turned to Fugaku and asked. The reason behind that was because the site was surrounded by a dozen jonin from the Uchiha clan, led by Shisui Uchiha, the golden goose of the Uchiha clan.

"Lord Third, why don't we ask Danzo-sama what this location is?" Fugaku said.

"This is one of Root's bases, and you decided to harm shinobi of your own village. Have you gone mad?" Danzo replied, almost ready to attack.

After Danzo said that, Shisui used a simple D-rank jutsu, Wind Gale, to remove all the dust from the surroundings. Once the contents inside the base became visible to everyone, Danzo's face became many shades paler, but he soon regained his cool, his brain thinking of all possible ways to save himself. He even had an idea of running away right now, but with the presence of all the top-level powerhouses of Konoha, running was nothing but a child's good dream.

By then, many other ninja had also arrived there, some of them even from the Hyuga and Uchiha clans. With Sharingan and Byakugan, they were able to see what was present inside the base: many containers containing skulls of Hyuga clan ninjas, some containing pairs of Sharingan placed inside them, most of them containing 1 tomoe.

There was a separate chamber for full skeletons of members from the Aburame clan, Akimichi clan, and even the Kurama clan. Then a section contained brains of ninjas from the Nara and Yamanaka clans, and some of them contained names of ninja from which those body parts were taken out. When clan heads read the names, the anger they felt multiplied by a huge amount. They were from the ninja they themselves had sent to Root and who had gone missing during missions. All of them looked toward Danzo, and if eyes could kill, Danzo would have died a death that even Death itself would fear.

"Danzo, you've fallen so low," Hiruzen said while shaking his head. Then with a blur, he disappeared from his position and appeared behind Danzo. Danzo tried to flicker away but was surrounded by all of the clan heads of Konoha. Hiruzen used a precise chakra-enhanced strike on Danzo's neck, and he was out cold. Then he turned toward Fugaku and asked, "I assume the site of the second explosion also contains something similar?"

Fugaku just nodded his head, and the clan heads were now shaking from anger. 'This f**ker not only killed our young ones but was even experimenting on their bodies, and this is not even the last location. There may be many more such locations.' This was the thought going around the mind of every clan head.

But at least they had some idea of what was going on. The ninjas who came around after hearing the sound of explosion had no idea why the body parts of Konoha ninja were in such a state inside the village.

Looking at their expression, Hiruzen sighed and raised his hand. Suddenly, 10 ANBU ninja appeared next to him, and none of them were below jonin rank. Two of them were even at elite jonin rank.

"Make sure the word doesn't circulate around the village. Also, begin the second part of the plan. Directly ask the Uchiha clan and Aburame clan for assistance; they will be more than happy to help. These are the lists of Root bases in Konoha and near the village too," Hiruzen said, giving a paper to one of the ANBU guards.

"I hope you guys don't have any problem with that, right?" Hiruzen said, turning toward Fugaku and Shibi. Both of them looked toward Hiruzen for some time before turning toward the jonin of their clan.

"Cooperate with ANBU guards," Shibi said to one of the jonin assisting Shisui during the explosion mission.

Fugaku also turned to Shisui and said, "Make sure everything belonging to us is within the Uchiha compound."

Shisui nodded his head and turned to one of the ANBU guards who was an Elite Jonin. "Follow me," he said, and with that, he and the rest of the Uchiha jonin went toward the Uchiha compound, while the second ANBU ninja went to the Aburame clan compound.

The rest of the ANBU guards began grouping all the ninja around the area and asking them to wait at the Hokage building until further notice. Since it was the Hokage's order, everyone complied quietly, but the doubt in their minds was making them very restless.

After that, Hiruzen turned to all of the clan heads and said, "I don't think this is the right place to discuss anything further. Let's go back to the meeting hall." He said that while lifting Danzo's unconscious body by the neck.

Despite the anger boiling inside them, the clan heads nodded their heads and went back to the meeting hall, while the two elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, also made their way to the meeting hall. They knew that Danzo had to face retribution for his actions now, and they also knew that Hiruzen would try to 'save' him as much as he could. But hearing about the anger of the clan heads, Hiruzen didn't have much choice. If he didn't punish Danzo appropriately, a civil war might break out.

That's why those two elders were making their way toward the meeting hall, to save their teammate and find a middle ground. When they arrived, they were stunned by what they saw in the meeting hall. Danzo was bound with ropes and was kneeling in front of all of the clan heads. Seeing the two elders enter, Hiruzen began speaking:

"As you guys know, I can't give the order for his death. The Root ninja will make a very big mess after that. So until I absorb Root into ANBU, Elder Danzo, or Danzo, will be under house arrest. After that, we will decide how he will die." This was Hiruzen's last statement.

Hearing that, those two elders dispersed their chakra to dispel whichever genjutsu they thought they were in.