Shikamaru had told her, at the beginning of their correspondence, that the key to success when it came to political warfare was misdirection.
There were three ways of achieving this misdirection. The first way was to convince your opponent that you had different goals to achieve than what you were actually trying to accomplish. This misdirection was the easiest to achieve, but harder to keep up for long. A smart player would be able to piece together that certain actions you had taken did not align with the fake goals you had presented. Still, it was standard to begin with this type of misdirection, as the longer you could keep your opponent from understanding your true motives, the more time you had to set up your for your real goal.
The second way of achieving misdirection was to mislead your opponent about your own capabilities. If they knew your goal and believed that they knew how you intended to go about reaching it, that gave you room to manipulate your more secret pieces on the board. This misdirection could be accomplished in several ways, ranging from keeping your assets completely secretly to choosing which assets to allow your opponent to see, in order to make your opponent create assumptions about how you intended on using them. This was also fairly standard in political warfare. Nobody ever showed their whole hand until they believed it was time for the coup de grâce, lest their hand be used against them. It was thus wise to understand that you would never be able to fully predict what your opponent would be capable of until the last, but at the same time one should never assume that the opponent did not know everything about you. Though assumptive thinking was necessary for political warfare, it was also detrimental to it. One had to find a balance between what they knew to be true and what they could assume to be true.
The third form of misdirection was the most difficult to accomplish, but in the end the most rewarding, and that was to mislead your opponent about their own capabilities. A true master of the art would be aiming to achieve this third form at every opportunity.
So what did it mean when two masters of strategy came head to head, each skilled in the three arts of misdirection?
Shikamaru said that most masters of the art would say that the key to victory at that point was simply a matter of who had more time to prepare, if both opponents were of equal skill and intelligence. Time led to victory, and though they'd had weeks to prepare, Danzo had been fighting these sorts of wars for nearly a lifetime. By the standards of most tacticians, Shikamaru would be incapable of defeating Danzo without years of preparation.
Shikamaru, however, told Sakura that most of these so-called 'masters' were idiots.
A true master of misdirection knew that there was a factor to strategy that was always overlooked. A fourth form of misdirection, though not one that could be controlled by either party.
That factor was human nature.
There was a reason, Shikamaru told her, why the Nara and Yamanaka clan had always worked well together. It was perhaps the only time Sakura had ever seen Shikamaru express pride in his clan.
No two clans, Shikamaru insisted, understood human nature better.
And that was where Danzo would fail.
There were eight Kage in the room where the final war was to be waged, five of whom Sakura could trust not to betray her.
There were three Konoha council in the room, Danzo included, none of whom Sakura could trust not to betray her. There were also four Suna council and two Iwa council, the latter of which Sakura could trust and the former definitely not so.
Each Kage had two jounin level guards accompanying them, and all the members of each council had a contingent of Anbu, all of whom Sakura could assume to be Root shinobi. Tsunade had also had the wisdom to insist upon Naruto's presence in order to 'record formal affairs', and while Sakura knew Naruto's written skills were less than desirable, most of the foreigners did not and tolerated his presence easily. There were very few people in the room who were aware of Naruto's status as a Jinchuuriki, and that would work to their advantage if the worst happened.
Still, when Sakura tallied up the numbers in her head, including herself and her two boys, the division between 'trust' and 'not trust' was scarily even. The only consolation that Sakura had was that she was counting on calling in 'witnesses' who might help tip the scale in their favor, but even then...Danzo had come prepared.
He had probably seen through the first of their misdirections, which was fine. This coming meeting was not meant to sway his heart one way or another. Sakura knew where the man stood.
This meeting was essentially the last chance to sway three villages away from a potential war. If she failed here, things would remain hopelessly even.
Thankfully, it would not be Sakura starting things off. Shikamaru had planned this well. Once everyone had settled into their seats, it was Tsunade who began the meeting.
"As I'm sure everyone here is aware, the chuunin exams have been...enlightening for all of us." Tsunade started. Sakura was impressed to see that she was holding...well, not a poker face, but a very calculated expression that was somewhere in the scale between genuine concern and vicious anger. "But what may not be aware to everyone here is the scale of the actions that have occurred around us. I have recently been given reason to believe that the village of Sunagakure has not only willfully endangered both the citizens of my village and the lives of the shinobi who are visiting here for the exams, but also attempted to shuffle blame onto my own village in an attempt to turn certain parties against us. This is why this meeting has been called."
"Seems like a matter to be settled between Leaf and Sand." Ogano, the River Kage, was naturally first to speak up. "I don't see why you had to drag all of us here for this petty affair."
"It's not petty if the wrong assumptions could lead to a war, and a war could affect all of you whether you're in it or not." Tsunade retorted, already having shifted into her zone of 'taking no shit'. "I called all of you here today because I wanted neutral witnesses to the affair. Those who have signed the neutrality pact are here in case it does turn badly because, due to the pact they signed, they will be shouldering the battle alongside us. However, because of this, they are not neutral. I am looking to Ame, Kusa, and Tani today in the hopes that its Kage will serve as impartial judges in this 'petty affair'."
"I can judge it now. It's petty and not worth our ti-"
"Quiet."
Sakura was surprised to see Konan speak up, and even more so to see Ogano listen to her. "Quiet now." Konan repeated. "You want to hear about this as much as the rest of us do. If I have to hear more of your whining, I might just start a war myself."
Sakura repressed a laugh. It was strange, almost like Konan had taken on a completely new persona. Where before she had been reserved, holding herself back, now she seemed actively invested. Perhaps she'd decided to be a more active participant in the 'affair' after all...not that Sakura would complain. Ogano kept quiet from then on, and Tsunade looked grateful for the opportunity to continue.
"Naturally I would not call such a meeting without adequate proof of my claims. I will turn things over to Sakura Haruno, who will both present the evidence and act as witness to the events that occurred."
Sakura nodded and forced herself to stand. She'd spent a good part of the night going over her various speeches in her head. She couldn't afford to stammer or slip up now. Her eyes glanced over to the Suna shinobi. Temari was strangely avoiding her gaze, but the Suna council seemed impassive, unreadable. They were older shinobi, likely well practiced playing this sort of game, and they would be her opponents for the moment.
"Esteemed Kage and honored council, it is no secret to the people here that Suna's relationship with my group is currently very tense." Sakura began. They had decided it was better to start off speaking frankly. Beating around the bush of the matter would only make it more difficult down the line. "My companion, Gaara, was formerly of Suna, and not only that, holds the Bijuu Shukaku, whom until Gaara's defection was considered a Suna asset. Suna has made it very clear that they desire their Jinchuuriki back, and Gaara has made it clear in turn that he has no intention of returning to them. I believe it is due to this conflict that the events I am about to account occurred, or at least partly due to it. In that regard, Suna's actions were understandable, and within the parameters of the chuunin exams, technically legal. The crux of this matter does not lie with the events themselves being allowed in the exams, but rather the potential ramifications that these events could have incurred, as well as the implications of what these events mean for the relationship between Konoha and Suna."
Sakura heard no objections yet, and she allowed herself to take a couple breaths. Her speech was a bit of a mouthful, she had to admit, but she could tell she had the rapt attention of everyone involved. She couldn't help but quickly glance towards Danzo, who was the most stone-faced of everyone in the room. He was piecing it together, she realized, or perhaps he had already pieced together where this conversation would go, but he absolutely could not afford to show it or take action yet.
Right where we want him, Sakura reminded herself. Which is unfortunately closer than I'd like him to be.
"The events that occurred are as follows, and can be corroborated by both my companions and by the trio of genin that Lady Konan brought to participate in the chuunin exams." Sakura continued. Konan did not protest, which was a small relief to her; she hadn't known if the Kage would be willing to allow her genin to testify if the need required it. "On the first evening of the second phase of the exam, my team was attacked by a contingent of four teams of shinobi, all of whom were wearing Konoha headbands. This fact is the first, and perhaps most important, but I will return to it later. While one of these teams was taken out by our preparatory trap-work, nine still made their way to us and engaged us in direct combat. Six of those nine focused on keeping Sai and myself occupied. Three of them went to Gaara, and they did so with a mission."
With that, Sai stepped forward, presenting three large scrolls to Sakura. She placed the three scrolls onto the middle table that stretched across the room, unfolding each of them for the group to see. "These are scrolls that were recovered from the three shinobi that attacked Gaara. As you can see by the detailed seal-work on their pages, these scrolls are mediums for very powerful sealing jutsu. Jutsu that Gaara has testified are Suna-made, and intended to remove Shukaku from his host and place it into another vessel. The three shinobi that focused on Gaara activated these seals and attempted to pull Shukaku from Gaara and seal him within this tea kettle here." Sakura waited for Sai to present the kettle as well, somewhat roughed up from its time in the woods, but undeniably a kettle of Suna origin. "This action was desperate and dangerous." Sakura concluded. "Once the unsealing began, there was no contingency plan in place for what to do if one of the three sealers was taken out, or one of the scrolls was removed from the equation. If the trio had failed to seal Shukaku within the kettle, Shukaku instead would have escaped his host and been allowed to rampage freely within the Konoha forests, endangering the lives of the exam participants and possibly even those residing within Konoha itself. To be blunt, if not for the actions of Sai, that would have been what happened. Thankfully, Sai was able to construct a new seal over the broken old one, and Shukaku is still safely contained. However, it cannot be stressed enough the danger these actions threatened to cause. If Sai hadn't been able to reseal Shukaku, who knows what would have happened to all of your shinobi, and yourselves included."
This was, of course, something that Danzo had likely accounted for. Shukaku breaking free would have been the perfect cover for his little civil war to begin. Sakura glanced his way again; still stone-faced, of course.
"Finally, I will return to the matter of the Konoha headbands. The sealing of Shukaku and the mechanisms behind it have been a Suna secret for generations. How was it that Konoha shinobi came to have access to Suna sealwork? At first I wondered if Konoha was secretly moving against me. However, I came to realize that there was a second option. In the event of the survival of my team, Suna sending shinobi wearing falsified Konoha headbands would have been an excellent way to turn my group against Konoha, which in turn might have begun the process of tearing my peace pact apart. If I was forced into an altercation with Konoha, I could lose their support, and in turn lose the support of others. So, here we have two options. Either Konoha has somehow stolen Suna sealwork to use against me, or Suna used their own sealwork in an attempt to reclaim their lost Bijuu and used Konoha headbands as a contingency plan in case of my own survival."
It was not the only option, of course, and Sakura knew it. The truth was slightly more complicated than either of those. But they had a game to play, and the game had to start right. Sakura turned to face Temari and the Suna council, doing her best to calm her nerves and appear collected.
"I ask the representatives of Sunagakure now: how do you plead to my accusations?"
There was a heavy silence over the group as all eyes turned towards Temari. Temari stood, facing Sakura and finally looking her straight in the eyes. When she spoke, it caused everyone in the room to stammer in shock.
"We plead guilty to these accusations."
It was clear that Temari's response was not what the Suna council had expected. One of them stood up, an older woman who took Temari by the arm and hissed something into her ear. Temari stood firm, however, and continued to speak despite the chaos around her.
"We plead guilty." Temari continued. "The Suna council will not agree with my decision to speak up, but I am the Kazekage and I will not be silenced." She looked back towards the woman, who in turn glared at her in a manner that exuded 'death and poison'. "I have stayed silent until now because I thought I was doing what was right for my village. But...I have realized now that what my council believes is right for my village may not truly be what is right. If Suna has to rely on the strength of a Jinchuuriki to be strong, then we are not truly strong. Are we not currently surrounded by several villages who have come into their own strength without a Bijuu to their name?" Temari took the moment to gesture to several of the Kage around her, and Sakura noted a small look of approval pass over the Grass Kage's face as she did so. "Suna believed itself to be weakened without Gaara's presence, and for a time I, too, was convinced of this. I was bitter at Gaara's leaving. I was angry towards Sakura for luring a village asset away. But...Sakura said it herself. Gaara left of his own accord. If Sakura had never arrived at our village, Gaara might have simply found another avenue to leave the village behind. We have...we have mistreated him. We have neglected to view him as a human being, instead of a weapon. It was not Sakura who pulled our Jinchuuriki away, it was us that pushed him. I may have failed him before as a sister, but I will not fail him now as Kazekage." She turned to look at Gaara then, as determined as she had ever been. "Suna pleads guilty to Sakura's accusations. My council here provided Konoha shinobi with the scrolls needed to reseal Shukaku within his tea kettle, in the hopes that we might be able to forge a new Jinchuuriki. In doing so, we endangered Konoha and its people, as well as threatened Gaara's life."
Sakura was bewildered. What had changed from the last time they had gathered here? Shikamaru had mentioned something about a 'final piece' needed to pull their plan together. Had it been Temari the whole time? He had been guarding her during the exams...likely speaking with her...maybe dropping subtle hints to sway her towards seeing things differently…
Shikamaru was a clever bastard. Scary, but clever.
"We appreciate your honesty, Lady Temari." Sakura answered, giving Temari a short bow. "But your testimony here brings up a rather interesting question. You said that you gave the scroll to Konoha shinobi to use, and yet Lady Tsunade here claims that she did not authorize her shinobi to attack Gaara in such a manner. We have a contradiction here."
"There is no contradiction. Merely a false assumption." Temari continued. Yes, this was perfect, Sakura could see exactly where she was going with this now. In fact, it couldn't go better. If Temari was speaking against Root, did that mean Suna was on their side? Though looking at the reactions of the council, Sakura wasn't quite sure yet. Temari was young, a new Kage. Suna's soldiers would likely defer to the council in matters of war. Still, Temari was proving a valuable 'piece' indeed.
"And what is this false assumption, Lady Temari?"
"Tsunade was not in charge of the Konoha shinobi that we worked with. Rather, these shinobi were working under the direction of a different Konoha leader."
"And who would this leader be?"
"He is here in this chamber as we speak. The man is Danzo Shimura, one of Konoha's own council."
The attention of the chamber turned to Danzo, who was still fairly calm despite the accusation. When he did not speak, Sakura took charge.
"Councilman Danzo, these are very interesting charges being brought against. If the Kazekage is correct, I am to believe that you, behind the back of the Hokage, worked to actively attack and undermine myself and my companions, in a manner that threatened the safety of the village that you claim to serve. How do you plead to these claims?"
Danzo gave a small sort of shrug with his good shoulder, smiling pleasantly as he answered. "Naturally I plead not guilty. These charges are ridiculous. I would never act in such a way without the Hokage's authority. Suna is attempting to divert blame from itself in order to avoid retribution."
Yeah, of course you'd say that, you bastard. Sakura thought to herself, clenching her fist briefly to redirect her anger. What she said next here would determine how this meeting would be focused. She had to choose her words very carefully.
"You claim these charges are unfounded, then?" Sakura spoke aloud. "That the Kazekage is either lying or has somehow mistaken the situation?"
"That is correct."
"I find that interesting." Sakura continued. "Especially considering recent information about the shinobi that attacked my team in the woods. Lady Tsunade, might you please enlighten Danzo as to what I am referring?"
"Gladly." Tsunade answered. "When Sakura brought these accusations to me, I investigated the claims myself. I first had a squad of Anbu go to the woods to try and retrieve the bodies of the shinobi that attacked Sakura's group. However, upon arriving at the destination, there were no bodies to be found. I found that particularly curious. There were bodies of other shinobi within the woods, yet to be retrieved, and even though nature had started to have its way with them, they still left traces of their presence. Tools, headbands, even bones. Yet, the area that Sakura was attacked in was somehow completely clean. I figured it could be a coincidence. Maybe a large predator had made off with them. So I instead made my way to the roster of those who had registered for the chuunin exams and used that to deduce which shinobi it could have been. I could cross off the surviving shinobi, of course, and a quick scan of the woods and the bodies that had been left behind helped me narrow the list down further. I eventually was able to find twelve Konoha shinobi that were unaccounted for, and funnily enough, the names of each of those shinobi didn't correspond to the names of any registered shinobi under Konoha. However, all of the participating shinobi were required to provide picture identification upon registration for the exams, and I was able to cross-reference those pictures to find out who these shinobi actually were." With that, Tsunade pulled forward a massive folder from under the table, opening it for all to see. There were pictures within, as well as detailed files. "These shinobi are registered under your Root division, Danzo." Tsunade concluded. "They may not have names, but there's no mistaking those faces. The shinobi that attacked Sakura were from your group."
"Perhaps they were." Danzo agreed. "But you have no proof they were acting on my orders. They could have gone rogue and acted of their own accord. I certainly had nothing to do with the attack."
"Don't you pride yourself on Root's obedience?" Tsunade demanded. "Or am I mistaken in your ability to handle your shinobi?"
"I will admit that in this particular scenario, my faith in their obedience was misplaced."
"Then maybe we need to talk about your capability to lead-"
"Lady Tsunade, Councilman, if you'd please." Sakura stepped forward, not wanting Tsunade to get too heated. This had only just begun, and she didn't need the Hokage's hotheadedness to get in the way of their plan. "Councilman Danzo, your current plea is that you did not authorize the actions of the shinobi that attacked my group, is that correct?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"I just wanted to confirm this, for everyone to hear." Sakura replied. "As it stands right now, our current understanding of the situation is that a rogue group of Konoha operatives, previously under Danzo's command in the Root division, collaborated with Suna in order to reseal Shukaku and kill Sai and myself. Councilman, can you give us any possible explanation as to why these shinobi would act in such a manner?"
"As of right now, I cannot."
"Lady Temari, do you have any input?"
She saw the Suna councilwoman hiss some sort of threat into Temari's ear, but to her credit, Temari stood firm. "I do. As of right now Danzo claims he has nothing to do with the actions of these shinobi, and that claim is false. Danzo has been corresponding with my council and I regularly since before our arrival to the exams, and met with us in person to discuss Shukaku's resealing."
"Easily explained." Danzo spoke up. "A henge jutsu can be performed by even the most inadequate of shinobi, and written correspondences can be done by anyone. These rogue shinobi likely posed as myself in an attempt to create dissent exactly as has been done now, in the event of their failure."
"I see. As it stands, Lady Temari, Danzo is correct." Sakura noted. "As shinobi, it is easy enough to conceal ourselves as someone else. I am sure your people know firsthand how easy it is to impersonate even a Kage."
Temari wasn't pleased by the answer, of course, but Sakura noticed a palpable relief settle over the Suna council. This almost caused her to smirk. Oh, if they thought they were in the clear now, they had a real storm coming.
"Naturally, if this was a one-off incident of rebellious shinobi, I would insist that the matter be dropped here." Sakura continued. "The offending shinobi have been dealt with, and perhaps Konoha would need to run an internal investigation, but that is a matter for Konoha alone. However...I cannot in good conscience claim that this was a one-off incident. Not when there is a plethora of evidence to the contrary."
The room was quiet, and Sakura realized she was almost waiting for Danzo to make a retort. When he did not, she decided to take her chance. This was it, right here. This was how things would start to tie together.
"Lady Tsunade, before I continue, I must confirm a few things with you. As of a few months ago when this peace treaty was first drafted, can you confirm that, through Kakashi Hatake as your chosen proxy, you signed Konoha into the treaty?"
"I can confirm this." Tsunade answered.
"Because of this, can you confirm that any harmful action taken against myself or any of my other fellow ambassadors by shinobi under Konoha jurisdiction falls under mine or my fellows right's to investigate, as per the fifth tenet of the pact?"
"...kid, you're going to have to remind us all what the fifth tenet is."
"R-right." Sakura chuckled, pulling out the pact and opening it to read it aloud. "The general statement of the fifth tenet is this: It is prohibited to harm an ambassador of the pact in any way. Any person under the pact suspected guilty of this will be subject to a trial of both village peers and ambassadors. Would you agree that, from the moment of Kakashi's proxy signing up until this moment in time, any Konoha shinobi that has aimed to harm an ambassador falls under my jurisdiction to call investigation upon?"
"I would agree, yes."
"It is a thick document, but if you recall, each tenet of the pact has addendums and expansions in subsequent sections, and for this particular tenet there is an expansion that addresses what I believe to be the situation at hand. While the general statement of the tenet is that it is prohibited to directly harm an ambassador, it is also prohibited to willfully and purposely direct others to harm an ambassador. This addendum to the tenet was necessary, otherwise anyone could simply hire an assassin to kill ambassadors they didn't like, and would be immune to the consequences. Following this line of thought, not only do I have the right to demand investigation of any Konoha shinobi that actively try to do me harm, but I also maintain the right to demand investigation of any Konoha shinobi that have directed others to do me harm."
"You're too damn wordy, girl, by the Sage get to the point." Ogano commented dryly. "I think we all see where you're trying to weasel this."
"I certainly hope so." Sakura retorted. "Though I am unable to call investigation towards any action taken towards me during the chuunin exams, I am able to call investigation upon two attacks that happened during our time in Waterfall country. The first attack, prior to our meeting with the Taki shinobi, occurred against my companion Gaara, and was witnessed by our escort at the time, Kakashi Hatake. The second attack, after we had begun negotiations with Taki, occurred against Sai. Both times the attackers were shinobi of Konoha, specifically Root, confirmed by Sai and Kakashi, both of whom were once active members of Danzo's organization. This information, coupled with Konoha's signing of my contract, more than granted me the right to begin investigation into Root at the time, and the further attempt to work with Suna against us that we have just discussed merely confirms my actions." Sakura turned to face Danzo then, and this time her determination did not have to be faked. This was where it began. This was where she'd drag Root into the light, whether Danzo wanted it or not. "Danzo Shimura, by the power given to me as an ambassador to the neutrality pact, of which your village is a part, I charge you with willfully directing harm towards two of my fellow ambassadors. In light of evidence that I shall shortly reveal, I also charge you with willingly attempting to undermine the authority of your Hokage and incite internal rebellion against the Hokage's authority. Furthermore, I charge you with foreign collaboration, working with foreign leaders in an attempt to take over Konoha leadership. Finally, there are further charges...but I will allow those charges to speak for themselves once sufficient evidence has been presented. Under the tenets of the pact, you have the right to a trial judged by both Konoha peers and ambassadors...all of which are conveniently in this room as we speak. As for the other Kage that are currently present, I believe it would benefit all to see the mechanisms of the neutrality pact in action. It would also do you well to see the competence of my investigative skills in action. However, I will allow a minute of time for anyone who does not wish to be witness to this trial to leave now."
Sakura could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Naturally, there had not been any outbursts from Danzo at the accusations. He couldn't afford to seem anything but calm in this kind of situation. Ogano, however, suddenly laughed after the silence had settled.
"Those are some very serious accusations. Foreign collaboration? Internal rebellion? I take back what I said about you, girl. You might still be a pipsqueak, but you definitely have some guts. I think I'll watch your little trial. It'll be amusing at the very least."
The other Kage sounded off as well, each expressing a desire to see the trial to the end. This was good. Sakura knew Danzo's allies would no doubt want to stay to see if their alliance had been worthwhile, but she had been partially worried about scaring off her own allies. Nobody had left, however, which meant…
She could proceed.
Sakura took another deep breath. Thankfully, now was the time that she could technically 'call for help'.
"At the time I decided to start investigating Root's activities against my people, I knew I would need assistance from Konoha itself in order to shed light on the truth. I admittedly did not turn to the Hokage at the time, partly because I was not sure how far Root's influence extended. For all I knew, the investigation would include looking into the Hokage's motivations as well. I instead turned to a shinobi that I knew would be more than capable of helping me investigate fully. He is a trusted Konoha chuunin from a prestigious clan, and his intelligence has been proven to be in the highest percentile time and time again. He has plenty of connections within the village, and it was with his help that I was able to put together the evidence that will be presented to you today. Lady Tsunade, if you please, I would like to call forth Shikamaru Nara as both a witness and a presenter to my investigation."
"Granted." Tsunade answered. With a wave of her hand, she shooed away one of the Anbu guarding the door. For a tense five minutes, the room was silent. The uncertainty in the room was palpable, and Sakura could feel that all eyes in the room were on her. It was a substantial relief when Shikamaru was finally brought in. He came bearing a large sealing scroll, hopefully packed full of the evidence they'd worked so hard to gather. For the next stretch of time, the trial was going to be in Shikamaru's hands.
"Right. I'm Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru addressed the room in his typically apathetic fashion, and Sakura had to resist the urge to tell him to put on a more professional face. "I've been working with Sakura to investigate Root. I think things will be easier if I put together a timeline for all of you. Easier to start at the beginning."
As he talked, he began to unroll his scroll, pulling out various documents as necessary.
"Root was founded by Danzo Shimura after the end of the First Shinobi World War. It is not in any official history books, so I'm taking my understanding of its history from what has been dictated to me by various former members. At first, it simply consisted of shinobi that Danzo deemed capable of serving Root's ends, and at that point in time, Root existed as a means to be 'the unseen support of Konoha'. Root performed deeds considered unpalatable to most, though always for Konoha's benefit. I'm sure every village here has a similar group. Even the Anbu can fall along those lines. However, there are some points in history that produced some troublesome rumors.
"The first bit comes from the Second Shinobi War. It's a bit fuzzy to how the war started, a lot of pointing fingers, so I am not going to delve into the politics of that today. But what I will dive into is the effects of Root on two countries specifically. It is possible that Root acted elsewhere, but as I don't have testimony outside of those countries, I'll stick with what I have.
"The beginning of the troublesome rumors comes from Iwa. Lord Tsuchikage, I believe it was you that first brought it to Sakura's attention that you believed Root had stolen shinobi from your village in the past. At the time, you also stated that Root had made various assassination attempts on your life. Is this statement correct?"
"That is correct." Onoki replied solemnly. "Though our theories into the abductions are guesswork at best, we have recovered the bodies of the assassins sent to kill me. Each of them have a very distinct seal on their tongue."
"A seal we have identified as one given to all Root members." Shikamaru finished, pulling out a sheet of paper that detailed the seal. "Sai here can show off the seal to anyone who is curious. These assassination attempts are not strictly out of line. Our countries have been at war twice over, and Root could have reasonably been acting in the best interest of Konoha then. However, the abductions...that's another story. If Root has been abducting Iwa children, that's admittedly a bit concerning. Unfortunately, the Third Hokage is not here to shed light on this scenario, so we must turn to the accused. Danzo, do you have an explanation for these rumors?"
"Lord Tsuchikage said it himself. Guesswork at best. Root has participated in no such abductions."
"So that puts us back to square one. I won't dismiss the rumors just yet, however, but for now we'll focus on a more interesting subplot to the Second War. For this, I'd actually like to have someone else here speak. Someone who was there to witness the events." Shikamaru gestured across the table. "Lady Konan, would you care to describe occurred in Ame yourself, or shall I?"
Konan stood, and finally Sakura saw a sliver of emotion make its way across Danzo's face. Surprise, the man had definitely been surprised by their bringing in Konan. This was perfect. If they'd caught him off guard with this, that meant they had a high chance of catching him off guard at other turns. It meant they'd found avenues he hadn't actively been trying to cover up.
"When I came here for the exams, it was not originally my intent to speak up. However...Sakura has done well to convince me." Konan began. "I am a war orphan. I lost my family during the Second War and it was only due to the intervention of a Konoha shinobi that me and my companions at the time were able to live and thrive despite the war raging around us. In that, please realize that I owe a small debt to Konoha. I do not speak up against Danzo merely due to my village's prejudice. I speak up because the truth deserves to be heard. My companions and I formed an organization near the close of the Second War. That organization's purpose was to attempt to broker peace between the warring nations and end the conflict that had torn our country apart. Our group grew in size and reputation until at last we were summoned by Hanzo himself, who claimed that he would be willing to work with us to broker that peace that we sought so desperately.
"Our meeting ended in despair. Hanzo turned upon us, slaughtering my people. Only myself and one other of my companions survived. We retreated, broken and defeated. But time passed, and we regained strength.
"It was over a year ago now that our rebellion grew large enough to take Hanzo on. We defeated his elite guard and cornered Hanzo, desperate for answers. We wanted to know why. We needed to know why. Thankfully, my companion is somewhat skilled in the art of interrogation, and we were able to get those answers quite easily. You see, originally, Hanzo had intended to meet with us to discuss peace. However, he was approached by another man. Danzo Shimura.
"Hanzo told us that Danzo presented him with the bodies of his slain clan members, claiming that our group was the one who had slaughtered him, and that, rather than peace, we sought to usurp his rule. Danzo then offered to aid Hanzo with taking our group down, in exchange for Hanzo's assistance in aiding him to becoming Hokage."
"Lies." Danzo spoke up, interrupting Konan. "A very convenient story meant to slander me. And naturally with Hanzo now dead, he cannot confirm your tale."
"Lies, perhaps. But we can confirm one thing about Konan's story." Shikamaru spoke up again. "In fact...we have witnesses to another point in history that can confirm that you, Danzo, were actively trying to take up the mantle of Hokage yourself. If those present consent, I would like to bring in Kakashi Hatake to testify."
There were no objections, though Sakura noticed that one of the women of the Suna council took on an agitated look at the mention of Kakashi's name, and appeared even more so once Kakashi arrived. She knew her sensei had a bit of a history, having fought in the Third Shinobi War, but it was only now that she was seeing the negative side of Kakashi's reputation.
"Kakashi, you have told me before in testimony that you were once active in Root. Is that correct?"
"That is correct." Kakashi answered. "Danzo approached me after the Kyuubi's attack on the Village over a decade ago. At the time I was grieving the loss of the Fourth Hokage. He...had been my sensei, and we had been very close. I had been preventing from assisting in battling the Kyuubi at the time due to my age, and Danzo informed me that it had been the Third Hokage who had insisted on that restriction, which had prevented me from aiding my sensei in battle. I was...angry, then, and became convinced that the Third's leadership was ineffective at preventing death and tragedies. I agreed to work with Danzo to spy on the Third, who had resumed leadership at that point, and even agreed to aid his Root shinobi in assassinating the Third, after which leadership would fall to Danzo. The plan was set to go into motion until Lord Sarutobi discovered me looking through his confidential files, and confided in me some other facts surrounding the Kyuubi attack, which I will keep confidential. Regardless, Lord Sarutobi convinced me that my anger towards him was unfounded, and rather that it was Danzo's manipulations that I should be investigating. I prevented the assassination attempt, and from then on did not associate with Root. Lord Sarutobi forgave the attempt on his life, and Root was allowed to continue with its operations, with a somewhat firm warning."
"Very interesting." Shikamaru commented. "Now we have two separate incidents, two separate testimonies around events in which the witnesses claim Danzo was actively trying to take up the mantle of Hokage. In fact, I would even go so far as to guess that upon the Third's death a year ago, Danzo likely offered himself as a candidate for the position."
"That's...correct." One of the other Konoha councilman added. "Though at the time we agreed that we desired someone younger for the position, who would be able to lead for a longer period of time. Danzo did not put up much argument at the time."
"And with that, we have at least three incidents. One can be written off as lies or a coincidence. Three times? I think we're starting to see a trend." Shikamaru concluded. "Danzo has claimed to be working for the greater good of Konoha, but so far it seems he has been working for his own greater good."
"It is still only hearsay and rumor." Danzo insisted. "You've provided witnesses, but that is not reliable proof. Any one of these shinobi could have been persuaded into speaking against me."
"Right. You want proof. Alright. I think it's time we start digging into that proof, then." Shikamaru agreed. "Let's go back to my first point. Child abduction. That's something that was relatively easy for me to prove, at least within the confines of the village. Sai was actually a fairly good help in narrowing down what to look for. You have been abducting children to groom for use in your Root division. Sai was one of those children. And while I cannot prove that any of your Root operatives are from Iwa or other countries specifically, I can prove that you have been taking children from orphanages and clans. To start, with the help of a Yamanaka interrogator, I was able to get three orphanage matrons to confess to working with 'masked agents' to provide chakra-capable children. The children are taken, and the matrons work to eliminate what little trace there was that the children existed. The children are taken young, usually at the age of five or six. Now, there have been shinobi who have been promoted to genin at a young age, but usually such promotions must be approved by the Hokage. I cannot speak for what the Third approved, but I believe Tsunade here can confirm that she has not approved for the use of child soldiers in Root."
"No." Tsunade answered, and Sakura saw her fist clench just a little bit tighter at the mention. "Of course I have not."
"Furthermore, I have testimony from Shino of the Aburame clan regarding the recruitment of an Aburame member into the Root ranks. Shino claims that at the time he thought little of his cousin's recruitment. However, upon questioning his family recently, he learned that his family believed Torune Aburame to have died in combat. I would hazard a bet that if we looked through the picture files of the current Root operatives, we would find someone who looks suspiciously like Torune Aburame. I wonder, Danzo, did your organization get permission from the Aburame clan to recruit one of its own? How many other clan children have 'died' in battle only to end up in your ranks? And I wouldn't recommend trying to tell me that I'm lying. After all, it's only just recently come up that Root has a whole dossier on every major Konoha clan and their abilities and weaknesses."
Sakura saw Sai's lips twitch into a bit of a smile at the mention.
"The Hyuuga clan has made it more than clear that they have not willingly shared such secrets with Root. I'm sure the other clans will agree. So how is it that Root has come to have access to those secrets? It would make sense if Root has been squirreling away clan children all this time. Who needs the clan's permission when you can learn their abilities with stolen kids?
"Attempted assassination of the Third Hokage. Attempting to align with Ame to take control of Konoha. Stealing clan children to bolster Root...almost seems like you've been building an army behind all our backs. If we add that to the recent accusations of your people working with Suna to undermine the ambassadors here, as well as claims that you've been speaking with various Kage about potential alliances...one has to wonder how loyal to Konoha you really are."
Sakura could hear the various Kage muttering amongst themselves, and she noted that the Kage of Kusa and Tani were looking unusually tense, glancing towards Danzo occasionally. This time she allowed herself a small smile. They had him. They hadn't even dropped their final trump cards and they had him. Danzo couldn't weasel his way around these accusations. Tsunade could see right through him, and so could every other Kage here.
"That already sounds pretty bad as it is. However, Sakura stumped upon another rather interesting rumor that I couldn't help but investigate further, and it turns out that your influence goes even further than any of us had thought." Shikamaru was on a roll now, Sakura had never seen him so enthusiastic. "It's become relatively well known that Sakura recently came into contact with Itachi Uchiha. It was during this contact that Itachi dropped a rather interesting tidbit of information. Apparently he first demanded to know why his brother had left Konoha. Then, he said something fascinating. To quote, Itachi claimed that 'he was supposed to stay with Konoha. They promised. The Root of Konoha.' Which now begs the question of what exactly he meant. As far as the world knows, Itachi went mad and killed his family before leaving Konoha, a missing-nin. Why would Root have been involved with this at all?
"The answer took a bit of digging, and a bit of a jump in thought. But as it turns out, someone in the past was looking out for us, and they left behind crumbs to point us to the truth."
With that, Shikamaru pulled a small stack of papers out of his sealing scroll. The documents they had recovered from the Uchiha compound.
"What I have in my possession here is proof that the Uchiha clan was planning on rebelling against Konoha and taking control by force."
Even Tsunade was shocked by the revelation, and she immediately reached for the documents to scan them over. Danzo was now actively clenching at his seat. Sakura mentally cheered. Maybe they'd had to fight off a weird 'Uchiha ghost' to get it, but this was truly the damning evidence that they'd needed to bring this all together.
"The Uchiha clan was under a lot of suspicion after the Kyuubi attack." Shikamaru began to explain. "So much so that their clan was moved to the outskirts of the village after the attack. Funnily enough, it was Danzo that authorized that force movement, and it was he that was an active voice of suspicion against the clan. Danzo, you claimed at the time that it had to be an Uchiha that caused the Kyuubi to rampage, and you vilified the entire clan as a result. Konoha began to treat the Uchiha quite badly, and eventually the clan had enough. They plotted an uprising. An uprising that you and the Third Hokage eventually learned about...and I am quite certain you learned about it through Itachi Uchiha. Itachi was Anbu at the time, and was known to have worked very closely with the Third. And yet somehow, despite knowing about this uprising, instead of attempting to make peace with the Uchiha clan...Itachi goes 'crazy' and murders the entire clan. I find this a bit suspicious. Itachi acts as though he was acting on orders, but why would the Third have wanted the genocide of one of Konoha's founding clans? We were crippled by the loss. Perhaps if peace was truly impossible it could have been justified, but there's no record of any attempts ever being made. I was stuck on this line of thought for a while, until Naruto helped me find the answer."
Naruto grinned automatically at this, and as he did Shikamaru produced a final piece of paper from his scroll. "It took a bit of digging, but thankfully Naruto is pretty good at that, and as the Hokage's assistant he has gotten full access to all of the Hokage's records. So here's the really funny bit, Danzo." Shikamaru slid the paper towards Tsunade, who paled as she looked it over. "Approximately a day after the genocide of the Uchiha clan, the Third made an official decree. This decree disbanded Root. Root was not supposed to be in operation after this date."
"Son of a bitch, Danzo!" Tsunade snarled. "You knew I'd never think to look for this!"
Danzo had nothing to say, though Sakura could almost feel the anger radiating from the man. He'd underestimated them. He'd truly underestimated them. Victory was theirs, all Shikamaru had to do was deal the final blow.
"There's only one reason why the Hokage would have disbanded Root so immediately after the Uchiha massacre. You went behind his back and had Itachi murder the clan to prevent an uprising, and in return you promised to keep Itachi's little brother safe. You presented it as keeping Konoha from civil war, but a little more digging revealed the actual truth. I worked with Hinata Hyuuga to do a little spying on the Uchiha graves. Tell me, Danzo, do you want to guess how many of active Uchiha shinobi who were slaughtered that day were buried without any eyes? In fact, I have to wonder." Shikamaru pointed towards Danzo, a bit dramatically if Sakura had to admit, but the effect was solid. "If we unwrapped that 'bad eye' of yours right now, would we find a transplanted Sharingan underneath? After all, it had recently been shown that Sharingan transfers were possible. You've seen it work through Kakashi Hatake. Imagine if you had an army of loyal Root operatives, all with Sharingan eyes. That'd be a pretty damn formidable army. Not only that, with Sakura spearheading a peace treaty, I'd imagine it was fairly easy to convince a few foreign leaders that she had ulterior motives. Provide a few future allies with a target, and suddenly you have several armies that can help you overturn Konoha's rule towards yourself. The only thing you had to do was make sure that Sakura and her group were out of the way. If the ambassadors are dead, it becomes harder to keep Plains and Stone and Waterfall in an alliance. They'd likely return to their home countries to consider the future...and then you swoop in with your alliance and take Konoha by force. There was just one little problem that you didn't consider." Shikamaru gestured back towards Sakura with a grin. "This one's a lot harder to kill than you thought. And that one-" Shikamaru turned his gesture towards Sai. "-proved a bit too good at sealing to get Suna their Bijuu back. And finally, you failed to account for the most important thing. Something you've tried to stamp out in your Root agents. Something you've always deemed a weakness. Human emotion. This would have been a whole lot harder to bring together if the Amekage hadn't wanted vengeance for her fallen comrades. And even more difficult if the Kazekage hadn't felt guilty about ordering a death sentence on her little brother."
So Temari had been that final piece. Sakura made sure to shoot the girl a grateful look, though at this point Temari likely missed it. All eyes were on Danzo now, looking to see how he would respond.
"Well?" Shikamaru asked. "Do you have any objections to my statements, Councilman?"
"Only one."
Danzo stood, and Sakura felt the entire room tense at the man's movements. However, Danzo simply kept where he was, somehow looking calmer than he had before.
"You've got a very good head on your shoulders, young Nara. It's a shame that Root couldn't have gotten ahold of you. I hate to see such a promising young mind go to waste."
"You'd have been far too troublesome for me." Shikamaru retorted. "I don't really like working under selfish traitors."
"I suppose so. But there is one thing you've gotten wrong, unfortunately. Something you'll be sad to have missed. I have not created a Sharingan army. That would be too risky, a potential waste of resources. I kept all of the Sharingan for myself."
Sakura saw Danzo's hand move towards his bandaged arm. She felt herself instinctively reach for her own kunai, and saw several others do the same.
"You are correct in that my failure to eliminate Sakura Haruno has put my plans in a bit of a setback. However, you have fortunately provided me with the means to rectify my failures, and perhaps in doing so surpass my original plans. You have led all of your Kage to me, and I am now blessed with an opportunity to try out a Sharingan technique that I have only had the pleasure of experimenting with once before."
Danzo pulled away his bandages, and Sakura briefly saw golden braces over the arm, though with a quick motion of his hand the bracers fell away. As Danzo's arm was revealed, Sakura felt a sensation of nausea as she realized that the arm, which was a strange pale white that looked oddly familiar to her, was covered in eyes.
Dozens of Sharingan eyes.
"Shall I introduce you all to Izanami?"