Chapter 38

Beta'd by Black Sparrow

Suffice to say Hokage-sama was less than amused when he found out that somebody had been messing with the education of Konoha's future ninja.

In less than twenty minutes every last Academy teacher in Konoha was tracked down by ANBU teams and handed over in a hush hush operation to the not so tender care of the T&I. What followed was what Konoha's ninja corps would from then on call the 'Academy Cleansing'. From the twenty three active teaching shinobi, three were being bribed to purposefully NOT teach civilian students certain things, two were genuinely incompetent, four were only doing a halfhearted job and to the horror of all involved there was one genuine pedophile.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was speechless, nearly half of the teachers in the Academy were not suitable for educating or purposefully missteaching the children and these ninja had had a hand in the development of Konoha's future. No wonder the amount of Jounin and Tokubetsu Jounin had been going down in the last few years. But what had made the old Hokage really furious was the apparent interference of Danzo. When the investigators had tried to track down the dropouts of the last ten years they made a horrible discovery. While three-fourths of them had settled down as civilians with normal jobs, the last fourth that contained probably the most talented of them had mysteriously vanished in the months after graduation.

Hiruzen had a pretty good idea what had happened to them.

It had taken the investigators less than four hours to come to this conclusion and to Hiruzen's relief the whole operation had not leaked in some way. He had no idea if it was chance or the will of the gods that his teammates and Danzo were occupied with the newest intelligence report of the happenings in Kumo and so suitably distracted but this gave his team of interrogators time to mind walk the two bribed Chunins as well as do a headcount on the former Academy students that WOULDN'T return to the academy the next semester for another try.

And then they found proof of Danzo's questionable actions, a missing child. Tsukiko-chan, a twelve year old orphan had vanished a few days ago and nobody had seen her since.

The brown haired girl had been third in class behind Sakura and Sasuke and had also shown a talent in Genjutsu but in the end had failed the test their Jounin-sensei had given them. Because of her quiet nature she had not a lot of friends and had lived in one of the apartments for orphaned Academy students since she had turned ten.

The moment this had become known to Hiruzen, the old man had put two Inuzuka ANBU on her trail and thankfully this decision paid off. They found her along with a very interesting hidden training facility and fifteen other children between the ages of four and ten alongside with four white masked shinobi.

Tsukiko and the white masked ninja couldn't talk; a curious seal prevented them from talking about anything that happened inside the facility or about who actually was behind this all. Luckily some of the younger children were still unsealed and all agreed that they had been introduced to an old, one eyed man with bandages over his face and arm. But the most damning fact that proved Danzo's involvement was his scent, the Inuzuka pair had picked it up when they had searched the facility after the ANBU teams had subdued the masked children. The Elder's scent was still lingering in the halls and rooms of the training facility and this was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Sarutobi was unbelievably incensed that Danzo really dared to go so far directly under his nose; it was incredibly insulting to the Sarutobi clan head. Hiruzen admitted that he had been a lot too forgiving and lax in the years after Minato's death and that he had given his teammates and rival too much freedom in Konoha's happenings but he also never had anticipated that the old war hawk would be so depraved to do this to children. Worse to THEIR children, the children of Konoha they all had sworn to protect when they had become Genin.

Since Kakashi had informed him about his family the old Hokage had taken a closer look at his old rival's dealings to prevent said man from interfering with the family of the only really viable Hokage candidate in Konoha until Kakashi had enough support from his peers to head the interference off on his own. The third Hokage hadn't found anything solid during his enquiries but the rumors and hints that he received had made Sarutobi feel sick. The man had enough experience to know that rumors always, ALWAYS contained at least a tiny grain of truth. The old warmonger clearly had his fingers in too many pies around Konoha and outside of it. The mess with the Uchiha massacre should have been enough of a warning signal that Danzo was clearly not doing what was best for Konoha and its citizens. Hiruzen was now fearing that if he left his beloved village even a moment longer at the mercy of that man it would change for the worse until nothing was left of the legacy the first Hokage had entrusted to them.

The head of the Sarutobi clan knew that he couldn't just put Danzo on trial, they needed iron clad proof to convict Danzo as well as keep this under wraps as much as possible, Konoha really didn't need this kind of blow to their reputation, especially not now that they had agreed to host the Chunin exams. At least Danzo had no relatives left so there wouldn't be a lot of investigation into his sudden death, Hiruzen thought sardonically. Furthermore Sarutobi was sure that he would be able to keep his old teammates under control, after all it was THEIR idea to keep such things from the general population.

Everything aside there was another problem they had, none of Hiruzen's people had any idea how big Root was and what they would do the moment Danzo was arrested or found dead. They would have to do the conviction, trial and penalty today, when possible. In any case it had to happen fast to not give the old war hawk any time to escape it. To keep the whole thing clean and as silent as possible it would need careful planning and the help of his most loyal and powerful. Hiruzen sighed he could feel the headache coming; coordinating this without tipping off Danzo or Homura and Koharu was going to be a right chore if not impossible.

So the first thing he did after coming to his final conclusion was sending for Nara Shikaku and then Hatake Kakashi. When his Jounin Commander arrived and saw his grave expression, the normally laid back Nara head became even more relaxed than normal, a clear sign that his remarkable brain was working at full speed and ready for anything the Hokage would throw at him. Wordlessly Hiruzen handed over the file Inoichi had compiled about Danzo's confirmed and speculated transgressions and focused on the just arrived head of the Hatake clan.

"Hokage-sama?" the silver haired Jounin stated more than asked in his typical laid back voice.

"I'm moving against Danzo," the Sandaime said while he looked gravely at Kakashi, he hated the fact that he had to use the young father in his move but there were few who could be trusted fully at the moment, "I need you to put a team together to subdue him, you have an hour, go."

Kakashi nodded wordlessly and vanished from the secure room under the Hokage office. His thoughts were racing while he moved as fast as possible to Gai's preferred training ground. The silver haired Jounin would need as much backup as possible, Shimura Danzo was not a ninja to be taken lightly, especially not now. He arrived just to see Gai and his student Lee getting worked up about this or that. Not in the mood to deal with Gai's eccentrics he released a rapid chakra pattern that instantly had Gai's attention.

"Kakashi?" Gai asked in a serious tone that had his team gaping at him.

"Code Zero, get changed," was the only reply Kakashi gave him before vanishing back into the trees.

He contacted Genma, Yugao, Anko, Raido, Asuma and Kurenai pretty much the same way. To his luck most of them were alone, only Kurenai was also with her team. After that he returned to his home where he had told his team to go when the Hokage had sent an ANBU operative for him. To be honest Kakashi still couldn't believe the fact that he had been able to keep his family a secret from Konoha's black ops that long, even with the help of his friends and trusted colleagues.

While the silver haired Jounin shunshined back from contacting the red eyed kunoichi his mind was rapidly working through the different scenarios of what could happen in the next few hours and especially what could go WRONG.

Kakashi arrived in his backyard to find his Genins working through the basic set of katas of the Academy, Sasuke and Sakura were correcting Naruto's stance and the new sensei could already see vast improvements. All three looked up when he landed only a few meters away from them.

"Get inside we need to talk," his voice brook no argument and all three instantly scrambled to follow his order.

Inside Shiori was sitting in her designated work area and was in the middle of sorting through her paperwork; she had just returned from her visit at the tea house and picking up Hinako when she noticed the commotion in front of her window. Kakashi was talking to his students with a grave face and then Genma, Raido and Gai jumped down from the trees, all in ANBU gear without the masks. Team Seven went pale and then the group of ninja came into the house. Shiori's hands shook while she stood up, whatever was happening it was big. With a few quick steps she had arrived at Hinako's play area and picked the confused girl up before turning to the opening door on her left.

"Shiori, I need you and the kids to go into lock down as soon as we are gone," her husband said without beating around the bush.

Shiori swallowed before she nodded and then ushered Kakashi's Genin into the cellar to show them where the security seals were located.

It was the newest addition of house security on which Kakashi had insisted on after Yugao had been introduced to her. The reason for that was connected with said female's talents, because while the kunoichi was a primarily kenjutsu user she had the best barrier Fuinjutsu skills out of Kakashi's friends. The violet haired young woman had spent a whole week painting seals all over the house and had reinforced the walls and set up a basic barrier that had been reinforced again and again. The Fuinjutsu and chakra construct would not hold back a skilled attacker for long but it still was a pesky obstacle and would give the residents inside more time to either escape through the hidden tunnel or for the cavalry to arrive. For that reason Kakashi had shown Shiori some light chakra exercises to help her focus chakra to her hands and into the seals to activate them and while Shiori had practiced pushing chakra through her hands, which was a lot harder than she would have thought, she still wasn't proficient enough to activate the complete house security. The Genin on the other hand would not only have enough chakra to activate it but Naruto's reservoir would make the barrier a lot more powerful than any other Genin.

After giving the preteens a quick rundown where they would have to activate what, Shiori led them back up again and into the living room to distract them a bit. Kakashi and the other adult ninja had taken over the tea room that held the most privacy seals and seemed to discuss whatever had him so high-strung.

Her husband's students were playing distractedly with Hinako while Shiori made some tea for the four of them, she was working through all the knowledge she possessed about Canon but nothing shined up on what could have been the cause for this.

Shiori looked up when she heard the door opening from the tea room, out came all the ninja she had been introduced to, minus Tenzo and Hayate who were on missions. All of them wore black ops uniforms or decked out in the standard uniform that would give them the most protection.

Whatever was happening was serious, very serious.