Chapter 189: Betrayal
To say everyone was shocked would be an understatement. Hiruzen quickly responded, "No, Sensei! Your life is much more important. If I am not sufficient, Kagami and I will both try to stall for some time."
"Even if all six of you try, the most you could stall is 1 or 2 minutes. They will not stop at anything before killing me, and even if I reach back to the village, we will have to face a very fierce battle against them.
The chance of losing many jonin and elite jonin is very high. That will weaken Konoha to the point that we may lose the war. Only I can prevent that outcome. That's why my previous order is final. Hiruzen, go back and stabilize Konoha.
You are now responsible for the safety of our village," Tobirama said, placing his hand on Hiruzen's shoulder and giving a nod to Kagami, signaling that he knew Kagami was also ready to give his life.
With heavy hearts, everyone made their way back to Konoha. Everyone was sad about the confirmed death of Tobirama, but the person who was most distraught was Danzo, constantly cursing himself for not raising his hand at that time.
The memory changed, and Danzo and the others completed many missions. Kagami became Hiruzen's right-hand man along with Danzo, but Danzo knew Hiruzen trusted Kagami more since he was the only other person nominated to be a sacrifice.
Slowly, Danzo became more and more jealous of the duo. The war ended, and Konoha emerged victorious. Hiruzen had done a very good job, and everything was going well. Danzo and his team kept doing various missions.
With Hiruzen becoming the Hokage, they got the chance to learn many new jutsu. The person who benefited most from this, after Hiruzen, was Kagami.
With his Sharingan, things were easy for Kagami. Combined with his talent, he was becoming a very important resource for Konoha.
The next memory showed Danzo and Kagami on a mission. It was an S-rank mission to uncover Kumogakure's schemes against Konoha. Unfortunately, they were discovered by an enemy and had to flee. They were chased by a group of jonin and an almost Kage-rank ninja.
By then, both Danzo and Kagami were also pseudo-Kage level ninja (almost Kage level), so they decided to confront the enemies. After a brutal fight, both Kagami and Danzo emerged victorious, but not without a price. Both were badly injured, with Kagami in worse condition.
He had to fight the Kage-rank ninja along with three jonin, which was not easy. If not for his Sharingan and amazing reaction speed, he would have surely died.
Kagami simply asked Danzo to heal the injuries on his back. Then, everyone felt a strong emotion of doubt, and Hiruzen had a very bad feeling.
'No, Danzo, you surely didn't do that,' Hiruzen thought.
But the memory continued, and he saw what he feared most. Danzo took out his sword and directly impaled Kagami's heart.
With a confused face, Kagami turned and tried to remove any genjutsu from Danzo, only to find he was not under any illusion.
"Why?" was the only question Kagami asked.
"You're going soft, Kagami. We could have killed them before and been done with it, but you decided to follow orders, and we nearly lost our lives. Don't worry, I will use your eyes for the village," Danzo said, as if he had done it for the village's sake.
Everyone was shocked by what happened next. Kagami smiled and said, "Tell my son his father loved him, and make sure he grows up well." He placed his hand on Danzo's shoulder.
With immense guilt for killing his friend, Danzo returned to the village with Kagami's eyes in storage, claiming that Kagami had died during the mission and he had to flee.
After that, he tried to implant Kagami's eyes, only to find it impractical. They consumed too much chakra, and he couldn't turn them off like Kagami could. From then on, he started experimenting on Sharingan. Since he couldn't lose Kagami's eyes, he began experimenting on the eyes of other Uchihas.
Everyone could feel a deep killing intent in the air, and they knew the only person capable of releasing such dense killing intent was Hiruzen. Knowing the reason for his friend's death, his anger was reaching a level even he didn't know was possible.
Hiruzen's intense killing intent overshadowed Fugaku's, though he too was releasing a considerable amount.
The clan heads sitting in the office felt their scalps tingle, with cold sweat running down their backs. Koharu had to leave the room, as she was incapable of handling that amount of bloodlust.
Inoichi also felt it and waited for a while to see if anyone wanted him to stop, but receiving no such order, he continued.
The memories became increasingly cruel, from kidnapping young civilian children to various village shinobi. They also discovered some bases with living test subjects, including Konoha shinobi. Everyone was fuming with rage by now.
It was difficult to determine who was angrier, Hiruzen or Fugaku. Danzo had harmed the Uchiha clan so much that even a war might have been less dangerous than this.
Uchiha ninja, with or without Sharingan, were kidnapped by Danzo and subjected to mental and physical torture to see how they awakened and evolved their Sharingan. For years, he had been doing this along with experimenting on others as well.
Much to Homura's relief, memories related to him didn't surface, because Danzo never cared about them at all.
After reviewing most of the memories, everyone removed their hands from Inoichi's shoulders.
Fugaku turned to Hiruzen with red eyes, not because of the Sharingan, but because of blood, and said, "Lord Third, please use the Yamanaka clan's jutsu to find the bases you want. After today, we Uchiha need Danzo... alive."
Homura, unable to read the room, asked, "And what will you do if we provide you with his body? I know what he did was wrong, and he will be punished by the village."
Fugaku closed his eyes and then opened them again with his Sharingan active. The typical three-tomoe pattern of his Sharingan morphed into a mesmerizing and fearsome design.
His Mangekyo Sharingan unfurled like a blooming flower of darkness. Three thick, black lines emerged from the deep crimson of his iris, extending outward in perfect symmetry.
These lines curved elegantly, creating the illusion of motion, as if they were alive, swirling around the central point of his gaze.
Each line looped back inwards, forming a triad of sharp, blade-like shapes that converged at the center, reminiscent of a lethal shuriken poised to strike.
'Mangekyo Sharingan,' everyone thought after seeing those eyes. These eyes were proof that the ninja before them was already at Kage level.
"If we don't get Danzo alive, then the Uchiha clan and Konoha will have nothing to do with each other from tomorrow," Fugaku said, focusing his killing intent on Homura. Homura nearly passed out from the intensity, but Hiruzen shielded him at the last moment.
"I will send him to the Uchiha clan compound after getting the location of all the Root headquarters," Hiruzen said, showing the composure of a leader even though he was just as angry as anyone else present.
Fugaku finally calmed down and deactivated his Sharingan, then bowed slightly. "The Uchiha clan will fully support ANBU in capturing all of the Root ninja."
"We will too," every other clan head joined with Fugaku, as Shikaku had already briefed them about Danzo's memories, sufficiently informing them of the reason for such high levels of killing intent.
Hiruzen nodded and turned to Inoichi. "Extract the location of EVERY Root base from his mind."
"But don't harm his mind. He should be perfectly sane after this," Fugaku added.
Inoichi nodded and got to work. No one had any thought of returning to their clan compounds.
'Today is going to be a long day,' Shikaku thought.