Hello again and thank you for your reviews on the last chapter and for your patience.

Very sorry for the three-week break. I was preparing to move to Germany for my master studies and after I moved, there were many things that were needed to be taken care of which kept me from writing. But now I'm mostly settled, so I can resume writing and updating.

Another thing, now that I have started my master studies, I'm not all time free anymore. I will still try to update every week, mostly on Sundays now, but it may be that I am not able to write a week. So I apologize in advance.

Now as promised, this chapter explains what happened to Danzo and his ROOT and why it happened. Some of you may like Danzo, some of you may not, I personally think many things, good or bad, wouldn't have happened without him. So, he was a necessary part to keep the original story going. Now if that is the case, why did I kill him off? Well to see how the story goes without him. Though to be frank everything that he did in the canon that affected everyone negatively has already been done in my story, so it's not like it changes much.

I had forgotten to bolden Kyuubi's words in the previous chapter. I have changed them now.

Note: This chapter is almost completely flashback, that's why it's in italics.

Let's answer some reviews,

GunBlade2018 : Thankzz.

Bloody Rogue dragon deity king : Thanks to you too.

Beastyd22 : I'm glad you like the story. Sorry for the wait you had to do for the chapter.

bloody dragon fang : Thanks and I'll try to keep stuff new.

TheWateringWizard: Yeah me neither.

This is different in this chapter

During Flashback:

"Speaking"

"Summon Speaking"

'Thinking'

'Summon Thinking'

Last part:

"Speaking/YELLING"

"Bijuu/Summon speaking/ YELLING"

'Thinking'

'Bijuu/Summon Thinking'

Now that I'm in Germany, this stuff has become very important. I do not own the Naruto franchise.

Chapter 13: The Tree without roots

3 Years Ago

Tsunade and her twins were standing in the exact centre of the village. She wanted to test the exact range of their sensing abilities. For that purpose, they were standing in the middle of the village, trying to sense chakra signatures as far as they could. There were two signatures though who they were supposed to continuously focus on.

"So, where are they?" Tsunade asked.

Namiko and Naruto both were concentrating with their eyes closed but they managed to answer without losing concentration.

"Shizu-nee is inside the village, almost along the walls I think." Naruto said.

"And Kakashi-nii is probably in the forest behind the Hokage Monument, seeing as he is quite far away now." Namiko added.

Naruto nodded, "I can sense him too, but it is getting faint."

Tsunade looked at Naruto, "Hmm…So your range is almost at its limit now. What about you Miko-chan?"

"I can sense him completely fine. I can still feel his chakra quite well." Naruto replied.

"Aaand gone. I cannot sense Kakashi-nii anymore. I can still sense Nee though. She is circling the village." Naruto said.

Tsunade turned to the creature on her shoulder. It was not something any female would normally like to have on her body, but this one was special. The Slug on Tsunade's shoulder was no normal slug. It was the reason she was called the Slug princess. It was Tsunade's personal summoning creature Katsuyu.

"Katsuyu, tell Kakashi to stop and relay his location" She ordered the slimy creature.

"Hai Tsunade-sama." It-she replied.

After a few moments, "My clone said they are around 15 km far from the centre of the village."

Tsunade nodded, "I see, so Ruto-chan's limit is around 15 km. Tell him to go deeper. I want to know what Miko-chan's limit is. You can stop now Ruto-chan."

Katsuyu did as was told.

Naruto, since he did not need to sense Kakashi anymore, started to do something else. Instead of trying to sense something above ground, he tried to search below it. He wanted to see if he could sense anything underground. And if he could, how far. So, he closed his eyes to concentrate his sensing below him.

Meanwhile Namiko was also concentrating on keeping Kakashi's chakra signature locked on. After some time, she opened her eyes, "I can't sense him anymore." She said.

Tsunade nodded to Katsuyu. She already knew what she had to do.

"He is in the same direction around 22 km away from here." She said.

"So, Miko-chan can sense up to 22 km in a single direction. Miko-chan, can you still sense Shizune now?" Tsunade asked.

Namiko nodded, "Yes. She is in the direction completely opposite to Kakashi-nii. Though I was focusing on him for quite some time now during which I could only sense you, Onii-sama, Katsuyu-sama and him."

Tsunade held her chin in her hand, "Hmm…So you can sense all around the village. That is at least 6 km in every direction, but to sense upto the distance of 22 km you had to sacrifice that. What about you Ruto-chan? Did you lose Shizune at all during your sensing?" She asked her son.

She however didn't get any reply and saw him staring intensely at the ground.

"Ruto-chan? Naruto?" She called.

Naruto didn't stop staring, "Kaa-chan, I know that the earth also normally has chakra running through it. But I can sense multiple chakra signatures moving around underground. All of them seem to be humans though." He said.

On hearing her brother say that, Namiko decided to try and sense underground as well. She didn't even have to concentrate much to sense the high amount of chakra activity going on under her, "Oni-sama's right. There are hundreds of chakra signatures under us. Some of them seem to be being expelled, like when someone performs a Jutsu."

Tsunade didn't like the sound of that. She knew that some ANBU quarters were under the ground. But Namiko said there were hundreds of them there. It was impossible for that many ANBU's to be off duty at the same time.

"Can you count how many are there exactly?" She asked.

Both the twins shook their heads. Namiko was the one who answered, "It would take us quite a while to count all of them. The only time I have sensed more chakra signatures than this is when I sensed the whole village. And now that I'm concentrating my senses below us, it seems like I sensed them before as well but discounted them as being villagers."

Tsunade was shocked to hear that. Konoha was at the top among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, when it came to population count. For that many chakra signatures to be underground, there wasn't a valid explanation to it.

Naruto added more to her shock, "I was able to sense the smallest chakra signature there. It is small but still slightly more than…I would say Hinata-chan."

'The smallest signature but still more chakra than the Hyuuga heiress and she is no slouch in chakra capacity too.' Tsunade thought. She turned serious before saying, "Training is over. Naruto, Namiko, you will go home directly. Katsuyu tell Shizune to reach home as well and Kakashi to meet me at Hokage's office."

The twins were confused. Their mother suddenly turned serious and at one moment she actually looked afraid. But they did understand. Even though they were young, they knew that that many people underground was abnormal. As far as their knowledge went there was nothing supposed to be underground. So, they obeyed their mother and went home.

After the twins had left for home, Tsunade turned around and leapt towards the Hokage tower. She had an idea of what the twins had sensed underground. But she wanted to know if the Hokage was aware of it.

Hokage's Office

Tsunade was already done explaining what her twins had sensed. Kakashi was also already there. The Hokage was currently contemplating on what to do. He knew what the twins had sensed was probably his old rival's organization, ROOT. An organization that he ordered him to disband. He already knew Danzo did not disband his ROOT. But he let him continue in the shadows because, at the end of the day, it benefitted the village and he himself didn't have to get his hands dirty. But if what the twins sensed was true then his rival had amassed himself an army now. He didn't even have as many regular ANBUs as Danzo seemed to have ROOT ones. Granted that it seemed that a hefty part of it seem to be still training.

Kakashi knew as well that ROOT was not completely disbanded. It just went into hiding. But their number shouldn't have been this high. This meant that a big part of villages military didn't actually answer to their commander, the Hokage, but a completely different person. If this other person worked for the Hokage, then the situation could have been overlooked. But while on the surface Danzo followed the Third, Kakashi knew first hand that he has, in the past, sanctioned many missions without the Hokage's consent. And nothing is stopping him from doing it further, since technically, ROOT didn't exist.

Tsunade didn't care who the village or the Hokage needed, in order to do their dirty work. She didn't like the fact that there were more than hundreds of ANBU-level Shinobi lurking under the ground her children walked on. Shinobi's that didn't answer the Hokage.

"Danzo's ROOT has gotten very big if the twins' reading is accurate. So, I must ask, how accurate do you think they are Tsunade?" The Hokage asked his student.

Tsunade would have taken offense to her children being doubted, but this was a very serious matter. A single wrong step could spiral out of control. Danzo not only had an army in all sense, he also was a councillor and very well politically connected. A wrong step taken against him could lead to her sensei's hat being taken from him and, gods forgive, given to Danzo of all people. But she had faith in her children's sensing ability.

"Namiko was able to sense Kakashi 22 km away from her while Naruto could do it for 15 while being able to sense Shizune at a distance of 6 km simultaneously. I think a few meters or even a kilometre under the ground is nothing for them to sense. They had sensed the chakra activity before but discounted them as being villagers and other Shinobis alike. Only after Naruto concentrated his ability below ground did they realise that a considerable part of the chakra signatures they used to sense were below them. They could not count how many of them exactly were there since there were a lot of them. But it would be quite worrying if there were even only 100 of them and I'm sure they could've easily counted if it was such a small number. The fact that they couldn't count all of them means they had to be at least more than 200." Tsunade answered.

The Hokage was not pleased with the answer. His own ANBU amounted around 500. If ROOT had even half of it, it was concerning. ROOT was supposed to carry out jobs that are off the records. Jobs that the village does not want to associate itself with. But a few special units are enough for that kind of purpose. What Danzo had though didn't count as 'few units'.

"Kakashi. You are assigned the leader of this operation. Prepare our ANBU unit covertly. We will be having a meeting with Danzo in few days." The Hokage ordered.

Kakashi understood the order but, "Hokage-sama. I don't think we should wait for few days for this meeting. Also, we don't know if any of the ROOTs have been planted within our regular ANBU forces. Word could reach Danzo before we can commence the 'meeting'." He said without any of his laid-back attitude.

"Hmm… you are right. The ANBU may be compromised but the regular force isn't. ROOTs training regime would make it difficult for them to blend into the crowd that doesn't wear masks to hide themselves. Spread the news to all the available Jounins. And send Hiashi Hyuuga to my office right away. We need to find a way to this underground base. I require specifically him though. I don't know if any other Hyuuga may be in the leagues with Danzo." The Third said. Kakashi nodded before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Tsunade shook her head, "You allowed Danzo to operate ROOT for this long and you don't even know where he is? You are very lax with him sensei."

The Hokage nodded, "I definitely know where Danzo is supposed to be, but this underground base is something else, if we go wrong with anything the village could collapse on it. It's better to find one or more entrances and ambush him there."

Tsunade sighed, "Well whatever you say, but I still think you should have kept Danzo in check more. This is your mess to clean and I don't want the kids to be any more involved than they already are, so I'm going home and staying with them while you sort this out."

The Hokage just nodded.

At one of the Underground ROOT entrances

As asked by the Hokage, the Hyuuga clan head had immediately arrived at the Hokage's office. After being told about the whole situation, he agreed to use his abilities to look for any way to enter the ROOT base. He was not allowed to go back to his clan compound though and was ordered to accompany the Hokage. He wanted to be sure that there was no way Danzo got any wind about the surprise raid on his turf.

The entrance was a normal looking jewellery shop. From the outside as well as from the inside, it was just that, normal. But this shop was apparently built over an entrance to the old underground passage ways that the ROOT now used. Similar entrance all around the village showed the old Third Hokage how much lax he had been towards his old rival and how, unlike him, Danzo was always ready to respond to an attack. Internally or externally. But he was here to remedy that. He just hoped he didn't lose someone who could be considered as the best strategist besides Shikaku in the village.

With his signal, all the gathered Jounins sneaked into the entrances. The civilians that operated all the disguised shops were quickly taken care of. They would probably have a few appointments, forced, with Ibiki.

After the entrances were secured, both Hiashi and Hiruzen entered the base, followed by other Jounins. The same happened with every other entrances except there was no Hokage or Hiashi with them. The route that the Third and Hiashi took apparently lea to, what Hiashi described as a strategy room. Even then it was hard to see that. Obviously, measures were taken to prevent the Byakugan to see the chakra inside the underground base. But that didn't stop Hiashi from figuring out these entry ways by looking at these black zones in his vision caused by the variety of seals to hide chakra and connecting them.

Once inside Hiashi was able to guide the Jounins with them to the nearest ROOT agent. It seemed whatever seals were used to block the Byakugan worked only one way. That though did not sit well with the Hyuuga Clan head. It meant that there was a chance there was a Hyuuga among the ROOT.

Like that all the Jounins and the Kage proceeded towards where Danzo was while encountering ROOT agents on the way. Not all of those confrontations ended well. And till the time they reached the Head of ROOT, many able but slightly misguided soldiers had to be put down.

ROOT HQ strategy room

Danzo was, as mentioned before, one of the best strategists. So, it was quite obvious that he knew that his base was infiltrated and his agents were been taken down. Either killed or captured.

He was not an optimistic guy. Neither would he call himself pessimistic. What he called himself was realistic. Whatever he did was for the good of Konoha. He had decided early on during his sensei, Tobirama's teachings that his views about the world were very idealistic. A world where there is peace just on the basis of mutual understanding was not possible. He wanted to change this view the village had been taught. He thus wanted to become the Hokage. But sadly, in his final moments, his sensei decided to go for his rival Hiruzen instead. Hiruzen also sadly followed their sensei's idealistic views. But he tried to change this with Hiruzen. First by just plain talking then with some heavy-handed methods. But Hiruzen could not be swayed.

So, he decided to take matters in his own hands and used a few old underground tunnels and expanded them to make the base for his own faction of ANBU, the ROOT. He used it to manipulate many events to turn the tides of the Second and Third Shinobi world war in Konoha's favour, or his to be precise. While Konoha did somewhat come out victorious in Second war, it did not benefit him as much.

He did however saw a chance when his rival decided to end the Third Shinobi world war by making truce with the other villages. Danzo truly saw his own ideals in, oddly enough, one of Hiruzen's students. Orochimaru was someone he thought would share his ideals more. But sadly, Orochimaru was not selected to be the Fourth Hokage. Instead it was a person with the same ideology as his rival, Minato Namikaze.

After the Kyuubi attack, when Minato died, it was another chance for him to claim the seat of Hokage. But he was infuriated to see Hiruzen reclaim that seat again. That was why he decided it was of no use using indirect methods to defeat his rival. He used his ROOT to try and assassinate Hiruzen, but sadly his efforts were thwarted by the very person he had recruited and assigned to spy on the Hokage, Kakashi Hatake. And after the whole Uchiha massacre when his rival realised that it was him that orchestrated it, his ROOT was disbanded.

Or at least it was Hiruzen's order to do so. Obviously, it wasn't. ROOT was one of his best creations. He knew trusting people who were free to think for themselves was dangerous since they can turn on you any moment. Just like Orochimaru, Kakashi and Itachi. So, he trained his agents to forego all of their emotions. To make them lose everything that can trigger independent thoughts. Along with it, he believed that emotions tended to hinder the work of a Shinobi. He was not completely wrong there. As ninjas, there were many things to be done which would normally be regarded as morally wrong. The act of killing was actually the milder one of them. Such things affected a Shinobi's conscience gravely. But if a person rid himself of everything that connected them with these morals or emotions, he would not be as much affected.

But at the same time, a person without any kind of feeling or emotion would be hard pressed to be called human. The fact that Danzo turned full humans into these kinds of half-puppets did not sit well with, well almost anybody. But that was one of Danzo's traits. He did not care what others thought of him or what he does. He only cared about his village and its security. Sadly, even though his intentions were good, the methods he used to fulfil them were not so.

So, since he was realistic, he knew that no matter how much he had expanded his ROOT forces, he would not be able to fight off an ambush by his rival's forces. His rival had successfully infiltrated his base before he could get any prior warning. And no matter what he thought of Hiruzen's ideology, it was undeniable that in terms of power he was far behind his rival. Because at the end one does not receive a title like God of Shinobi for nothing. And since everything was below the very village he as well as Hiruzen loved, neither of them could use any explosive methods, for him to flee or for Hiruzen to wrap this up quickly. So, he waited. Waited for his rival to come to him.

Eventually he did come. The third shinobi to ever be given the title of God of Shinobi arrived at the room where Danzo was sitting quietly followed by Kakashi, Hiashi and a handful of other Jounins. Hiruzen, no matter how many times he had overlooked Danzo's treacherous actions, was not a fool. He already knew that Danzo was expecting him. He actually was expecting Danzo to know that.

"You amassed quite an army for yourself, old friend. What exactly were you planning to do with this many Shinobi's? There aren't any signs of war that I can see." The Third Hokage asked civilly.

Danzo hmph-ed though, "You are a fool if you think this temporary peace attained by a measly truce on paper will truly last, Hiruzen. This peace is just the time other villages use to prepare for the next war. You seemed to believe in this farce of a peace, so I took it upon myself to prepare ourselves to protect our village."

Hiruzen though shook his head, "You continue with this rambling all the time Danzo. I know the other villages are using this time to bolster their forces, but that does not allow you to kidnap children from their families and train them to become a meat shield for the village."

"Kidnap them? You are mistaken Hiruzen. These children that I train came here to help these families you talk about gain more rights as Shinobis. And I am training them to be soldiers. Soldiers that would fight for the village." Danzo argued.

"For the village or for you? The ones you are calling soldiers are nothing but shells that resemble humans. Puppets that you have the strings to control. Humans who lack the understanding of right or wrong. Who are not fighting because they love the village but because they are told to do so. There is no Will of Fire in them that will drive them to protect the village. So, the question still remains. Do they fight to protect the village or to protect you?" Hiruzen asked.

Danzo's expression did not change from his impassive one, "I have always done everything for the-"

Hiruzen cut him off, "Good of the village. Yes, I have heard that many times now. And many of those times I've agreed with you. But more than those times, your deeds while on the surface may have benefitted the village, at the same time has been more detrimental. But you have still not answered my question. Does your ROOT exist to fight for the village or fight for you?"

"They will fight for the village. But not the village that you are leading, Hiruzen. The direction in which you are leading the village will lead to its downfall. I have made the ROOT to protect the village that I have envisioned. To make Konoha the strongest of all villages. To have Konoha rule over the other villages. To actually attain peace." Danzo said.

Oddly enough, his rival just nodded, "You have your own way of envisioning the future of Konoha. Sadly, your version of Konoha stands on a bed of millions of corpses. And no matter from which village those corpses belong to I cannot let you do that. I had ordered you to disband your ROOT. I knew you didn't but overlooked it because you were taking care of the dark side of Konoha. But sadly, I cannot let you lead Konoha to this dark future you are talking about anymore."

He took off his Hokage robes to show him wearing his favoured battle gear. Danzo though did not seem keen to fight, "You are again making a mistake, Hiruzen. The ROOT is needed for Konoha as a tree to grow."

"I made a mistake when I decided to spare you when you tried to assassinate me Danzo. That was traitorous enough to get you executed, but I let you go. I will not make that mistake again. Danzo Shimura, you are hereby found guilty of treason, come quietly for your arrest or your execution will be done by me right now." The Hokage declared shocking a few Jounins. But they got ready to attack Danzo or defend the Hokage anyway.

Danzo lost his impassive expression and smiled instead, "You just became a better leader Hiruzen. But I cannot let myself be arrested now. Otherwise everything done by the ROOT will be associated with Konoha giving her more enemies." He took off his robe from over his right hand to show three golden braces on his bandaged arm. He had already taken off the bolts holding these braces so once he lowered his arm, the braces fell down leaving only his bandaged arm. He was in the process of taking off those bandages when a Kunai struck him on the head, killing him.

The Jounins were shocked to see the Hokage use such tactics. But they along with the Hokage were more shocked to see Danzo's body disappear and reappear a bit to the side of were his dead body should have been.

"Again, I will say impressive Hiruzen. You did not let me finish my preparations completely. You are indeed fighting like a real shinobi instead of the idealist you normally are." commented the somehow still alive Danzo. But this time there was no bandage on his right arm. His arm looked paler than the rest of his body but something that surprised the others even more were the nine clearly Sharingan eyes that the arm had with one additional that seemed to be closed along with what looked like a face on his shoulder.

Hiruzen was appalled by this, "What have you done? That- that face looks like the First Hokage's."

Danzo actually smirked, "Your student is truly a genius Hiruzen. Sadly, neither did you see his potential beforehand nor is he anymore controllable. The eyes are obviously spoils of a tragedy. These and Hashirama-sensei's cells were used to make this hand." Danzo already knew about the Uchiha massacre since he had engineered most of it. But he still had to keep it a secret from the rest of the populous for the good of Konoha. He was sure he was going to die today, but he was not going to take Konoha with him.

"Orochimaru! I knew you were working with him. But to actually take the eyes of the dead Uchihas and to use sensei's cells like that. You are truly despicable Danzo." Hiruzen knew he couldn't give out the specifics of Uchiha massacre either. He didn't bother with anymore words though. Instead he pricked his finger to draw blood, went with a few hand seals and slammed his palm on the ground, "Summoning Jutsu."

A monkey taller than Hiruzen himself appeared in a cloud of smoke, arms crossed. He looked around a bit then locked his eyes on Danzo.

"So at long last you decided to get rid of Danzo, Hiruzen." He more said than asked.

"Unfortunately so Enma." His summoner answered.

Monkey King Enma was the Hiruzen's personal summons. He had fought many battles alongside Hiruzen.

"You are taking this fight really seriously if you summoned Enma." Danzo commented still not seeming to be overly keen to fight. He was aware that even with all the enhancements made to his body, Hiruzen was far beyond his power to defeat. Add in Jounins like Kakashi and Hiashi, it was impossible here to win for him. Most of his capable ROOT were already engaged in fights against the Shinobis that his rival brought with him. So he was alone. The location also did not favour him much since there was not enough space for him to summon his Baku. His rival had truly got him trapped here.

"There would be no fight if you surrender yourself Danzo." Hiruzen replied.

"Unfortunately, I cannot just relent like that. This is battle of ideals that I need to fight for." Danzo said.

Hiruzen understood, "Hiashi take Kakashi and the others to look for anything that can be used to prove his crime. I will deal with him alone."

Hiashi did not want to leave his Hokage alone like that but since he did not see any other ROOT in the room, he was confident that the Third would win this fight. Similar thoughts ran through the minds of others Jounins. So they complied.

After everyone was out the Third nodded to his summon, who transformed into a giant Bo staff. He took the staff under his arms and said, "Come on Danzo, let's fight for our ideals."

"Indeed, let us." Danzo said but still didn't move.

The Hokage though felt a strange sensation. He felt he should go easy. He felt like it would be better to let Danzo explain more. But he was jolted awake by a chakra pulse from his staff.

"Hiruzen, he just tried to cast a Genjutsu on you. A Genjutsu I was hardly able to catch." Enma said still in his Bo staff.

The Third nodded, "So you can cast Genjutsus even through those eyes implanted in your arm them. Orochimaru indeed comes up with odd ideas. Sadly those ideas are hardly ever humane."

Danzo shook his head, "I cannot cast Genjutsus through these Sharingans, but the one I tried on you was not a simple Genjutsu." He reached for the bandages hiding his right eye and tore them off. What greeted the Hokage was another Sharingan. The unique pattern on this one was easily recognised by him. The original holder of that eye was someone he thought had committed suicide even though he himself couldn't believe that a competent and level-headed Shinobi like him would do such a thing.

"You!" Hiruzen exclaimed in shock, "You were the one who killed Shisui. You took our only chance of pacifying the Uchihas. Danzo, what good did it do to the village, when you took Shisui's eye for yourself and let a whole clan of competent Shinobi die? I knew you had a part in killing the whole clan off, but this is ridiculous."

"You are mistaken Hiruzen. Indeed I took Shisui's eye but I was not the one to kill him. I was only able to take one of his eyes before he fled. Even I don't know what happened to Shisui Uchiha after I took his eye. He was able to outrun my ROOT." Danzo explained.

"It doesn't matter if you killed him or not, but you took away the only opportunity we had to calm the Uchiha down and not lose an important asset to the village. Even you should realise that no matter how difficult they were, Uchihas were an important part of the village. So I ask again, you say everything you've done was for the good of Konoha, what good did it do when you decided to annihilate a whole clan, a part of Konoha's military?" The Hokage asked again.

Danzo shrugged, "The Uchihas were getting too powerful. It is better to have a not have an ally than to have a powerful but untrustworthy ally."

The Hokage was getting outraged, "Danzo your point doesn't have any meaning when you just used all those dead Uchihas' eyes to strengthen yourselves. I cannot think of anyone but you who benefitted from that massacre." Hiruzen said.

"Hiruzen there is no point in arguing about his past actions. It is better if we finish him now." Enma advised.

Following his summons' advice, Hiruzen sped towards his foe. Danzo may not be as strong as Hiruzen but he was powerful in his own right and was able to duck under Hiruzen's Bo sweep.

Showing his prowess with the Bo staff, Hiruzen used it as a pivot to turn around and kick Danzo away. As soon as his kick connected and Danzo was sent flying, he did a few hand seals and yelled, "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu." He blew fire from his mouth which quickly took the shape of a dragon and hit Danzo. He kept the flames going for a few seconds before stopping and saw Danzo's charred body.

Again though that body disappeared and he saw Danzo appear to the left of it. He did notice one of the eyes on Danzo's arm close.

Danzo may have been Hiruzen's teammate a long time ago, but he still knew him well. He was able to predict many Hiruzen's political moves after all.

"So you noticed already. As expected of you Hiruzen. Yes this is an ability granted by the Sharingan on my arms, Izanagi. I can use them to cast Physical Illusions. Illusion on reality itself to negate any damage I take. I can even cheat death with them. As you also have noticed, I can do it only once per eye. This is why I say the Uchihas were getting powerful. While this is a forbidden technique even among the Uchihas, only the fear of blindness stops them from using it. But if they are put in a life and death situation, I believe they would use this without hesitation." Danzo explained.

"Indeed it is a very fearsome technique. But for a person with only two eyes, this would be a very dangerous technique to use. And if you say the Uchihas with their two eyes each were getting dangerous. Than by similar logic, you are even more dangerous to be left alive Danzo." Hiruzen argued.

Danzo nodded, "At least this time we are seeing eye to eye." He made some hand signs and yelled, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough." But instead of aiming at Hiruzen, he aimed it towards the debris caused due to the earlier fire jutsu. This resulted in the debris flying towards the Hokage.

Unfortunately for Danzo, Hiruzen's main elemental affinity was naturally stronger than his. He blew another Fire Dragon towards the oncoming flying debris. Since his Jutsu was stronger, the Fire Dragon used the wind provided by Danzo's jutsu to power itself and sped towards Danzo, resulting in him again being consumed by the flames.

And again like last time, his charred body faded like an illusion and was replaced by another Danzo with three of the ten eyes on his arm closed.

Hiruzen was confused though. He knew Danzo was competent enough to have dodged both of his Fire Dragons. But he just took the jutsus head on and relied on using the Sharingan's power to revive himself instead. Even in the beginning he could have easily dodged the kunai he had thrown.

"What are you planning here Danzo? I know you could have dodged that Jutsu. Even the Jutsu before it. But you used Izanagi for both of them." He asked.

"You give me too much credit, Hiruzen. Or maybe give yourself less. But we are both affected by old age now. Apparently, me more than you." Danzo avoided to answer.

Hiruzen knew Danzo was avoiding the question. 'He may be stalling for time. But I don't think he is stalling for reinforcements. What is he planning?' He stopped thinking and focused on killing Danzo seven more times. Eight if you counted Shisui's Sharingan, but he would probably not waste that.

And so the fight continued where while Hiruzen tried to give his best, Danzo only dodged a few hits and at the end was down to only Shisui's eye. The fight was not long drawn as Danzo didn't seem to have much intent on fighting back, which kind on infuriated Hiruzen.

"The Sharingans on your right arm are now useless Danzo. And I don't think you want to waste Shisui's Sharingan like that. So why don't you tell me what you are planning? Old age wouldn't affect you this much." Hiruzen asked.

"Unfortunately unlike you I used most of my time using my ROOT Hiruzen. So my old age did affect me. But you are right, I didn't fight seriously. Because it would have no meaning. My ROOT is already destroyed. It's already established that the ROOT are the enemy. I getting out of here alive won't do anything but look bad on Konoha when the news would go out of the village. I cannot have that. The darkness I work in only has enemies Hiruzen, no allies. I will not gain anything by leaving here alive." Danzo said.

"Danzo, you are still one of the best strategist I have. If you had agreed to work alongside me, this would have never happened." The Hokage said.

Danzo denied it though, "It was necessary for me to bear the darkness that is around the roots while the leaves of Konoha bathed in the sunlight. I purposefully threw this fight away. The others will not find anything in this place. All the reports on the missions I sanctioned are here, sealed on me. I will give them to you, only you Hiruzen. These are not something that should be known by many. So keep them secret as long as it is needed. I'm giving these to you because you will need them to protect Konoha from the external threats. And you will need to keep them secret to protect Konoha from internal ones." He reached for a sealing Tattoo on his left hand and brought out a ledger and threw it on the ground in front of Hiruzen.

Hiruzen bent to pick up the ledger when Danzo said, "I hope your vision of Konoha is the right one Saru."

Before Hiruzen could understand what happened, Danzo revealed his chest showing a seal. He made a hand seal and four symbols seemed to come out of his chest forming a sphere of ink like substance. Hiruzen was unable to move during the time it took for the sphere to cover Danzo and then implode.

Danzo's body fell, completely black covered in ink. Leaving the ledger there, Hiruzen rushed to Danzo and checked his pulse. It wasn't there. He opened his right eye. It was missing as well. Sealed into his corpse forever never to be seen again.

"Danzo, I believe you now. You indeed loved the village. Sadly your love for it led you to do whatever you thought was good for the village. I should have stopped you sooner. Maybe then it would have not ended like this." Hiruzen said to no one. 'I failed to save another again.'

The fighting outside the strategy room had already ended. While there was some casualty among the Jounins that accompanied the Hokage, it was nothing compared to what ROOT had suffered. Not only did they lose their leader, most of their senior and elite members were taken down. Either killed or captured. And since Danzo had died, the cursed seal on their tongues that Danzo used to prevent any leakage of info disappeared. This would allow Ibiki to get information on any ROOT agent currently outside the village.

Sadly, Hiashi and his group didn't find anything substantial in terms of evidence. Abiding to his friends last wish, Hiruzen revealed only enough to incriminate Danzo and kept more serious matters to himself.

Many of the chakra signatures that the Senju twins had sensed were actually the other new ROOT trainees. Apparently Danzo's mass recruitment was fairly recent. That was why there were very less loss of life among the Jounins. There were not as many ROOT agents that were capable of fighting them. Especially of the calibre of Kakashi, Guy and Hiashi.

Next day the Hokage announced the execution of the Konoha Council member as well as some reasons for it. The main ones were treason against the village, trying to assassinate the Hokage. Of course, just like Danzo had said, there were many who had offered their children willingly for him to train and opposed the Hokage's decision in executing him. But once they were told a few details about the training procedure and how a fully trained ROOT ended up, they shut up.

Many children returned to their families, while the ones that wanted to be Shinobis were admitted into the academy. There were older ones whose mental conditioning had already been underway, so it fell upon the ANBU to train them further and try to reverse the conditioning.

Speaking of ANBU, Kakashi as the ANBU captain was given the task to weed out planted ROOT agents in the regular ANBU. Thankfully there were only two, who agreed to swear loyalty to the Hokage instead, but still had to go through Ibiki's sessions. The senior ROOT agents all refused to do so. Ibiki was successful in getting information on other ROOT that were in the field, who were quickly tracked down. Sadly they too refused to acknowledge the Hokage as their leader. So they had to be sent to the Blood Prison.

Hokage's office – Present time

After the Hokage was done telling the tale, while leaving out the details of what transpired between him and Danzo at the end, since till now he had seen no need to disclose such information, Jiraiya sat back soaking everything in.

After some time Jiraiya sighed, "At the end even Danzo was looking for peace. His methods were extremist but at least he had the goal right. Orochimaru on the other hand is completely different."

Hiruzen looked at his student and nodded. After Danzo, Orochimaru was another one of his mistakes that he left unchecked. While he still had done nothing to harm the village directly, by providing the Danzo with that arm and Hashirama's cells, he was nonetheless involved.

He was shocked to hear what his student said next though, "He had joined a group that I've heard is looking for the Bijuus for something. While he left the group soon after, probably because their goals weren't parallel to his, this group's existence itself is terrifying. If it was some group of weak ninjas I wouldn't have paid any mind, but apparently this group consist of 10 S-rank Nuke-nins (Rouge Ninja)."

"That is concerning indeed. This many strong Nuke-nins will not stay together if there was not someone stronger than them leading them. And looking for the Bijuus you say? Do you mean recruit the Jinchuurikis or take the Bijuu?" The Hokage asked.

"No they apparently don't care who the Jinchuuriki is, they just want the Bijuu. Why they want them is still not clear." answered the Toad sage.

"And I guess you are here to protect your God children then?" The Third asked.

Jiraiya hmph-ed, "Protect them? No, I cannot do that all the time. As much as I hate to admit it, they must be able to protect themselves. I am here to make them capable of doing so."

"You think they would be able to gain enough power to rival one or more S-class Shinobis in such a short time?" Hiruzen asked.

Jiraiya shook his head, "I don't exactly know how much time we have, but if you see the power even one of them possess now, you would see that if they fight together, they may be able to take down an S-class Shinobi."

Hokage's eyebrows shot up, "Surely you are jesting. I may have not seen them fight recently, but to be able to win against such a powerful foe? They shouldn't even be Genins then."

"No let them stay where they are. They would need the experience. And while I will train them to be strong enough to fight an S-class Shinobi singlehandedly, I do not exactly want them to do so. It would be better if they are in a squad and accompanied by a Jounin." Jiraiya advised.

The Hokage nodded. Both of their attention was then drawn towards one of the windows to the office, where a crow was pecking the glass.

"It seems it's time to correct another one of my mistakes." said the Hokage confusing his sage student.

AN:

No Omake on this one sorry, but it didn't seem appropriate. There were indeed many ways I could have made an Omake, but I don't hate Danzo as much as I do Sasuke.

Danzo loved his village. This I have said many times. But it is also true that without Danzo's intervention, there was more of a probability for Yahiko to live and the good Akatsuki to continue. So at the end of the day, Danzo had no less hand in causing the Fourth Shinobi World War than Black Zetsu. And if you read his Wiki (not mine), you would see his actions indeed caused the Third Shinobi World War to uselessly lengthen. So if someone in another fanfic kills him even earlier than I did, the flow of Naruto's story can be completely changed.

Well there's nothing much to say. Do tell me how you liked this chapter. Till the next one.