That was the thing about working in the shadows.
The light was blinding.
And the full weight of Hurizen's glare was like the sun in its intensity. When he had been summoned he knew it wasn't going to end well form him. Seeing his old friend with his hands clasped, pipe in mouth but not smoking assured him Hizuren was angry.
Furious in fact.
He squared his shoulders in righteous anger under the weight of that stare. He should have been Hokage. Hurizen was always to soft, too weak. The Uchiha were a threat, now more so than ever.
He was doing his duty, trying to protect the village. But every way he turned there they were. He tried to bury them but like him, they thrived in the darkness. But unlike him, they burst into the light and soaked it up. Their influence and power was spreading like a virus, a fungal infection, a cancer, spreading across the village and sinking their claws into it.
The needed to be uprooted.
But Hurizen was weak. Was lecturing him. Was defending them.
The arm hidden by cloth curled in anger. He remembered when those menaces of summons the clan had, getting into public spaces, disturbing the residents, so he banned them through the council.
And then Hurizen was swayed by Fugaku and his two brats. Publicly took a stance against him. Insulted him by reversing his ban. Sent Tsume with her hideous shirt to contradict him in front of a crowd-with a reporter in it no less. Newspapers had no place here. Another thing Hurizen allowed in one of his many moments of weakness. It stopped him.
Preventing him from doing his job.
And now he was doing it again. Defending them. Protecting them. Why?
Because he was weak. Compassionate.
He always knew he should have been Hokage.
Standing here, like some misbehave child, being lectured by Hizuren made his blood boil. He had to consciously keep the Sharingan from being activated. And then Hurizen said something that stopped him cold.
"Ten years ago, I ordered root to be disbanded. But it has come to my attention that the order has been poorly followed. You have a month to fully disband root and clear out before I come there myself."
Danzo always knew it would come down to either one of two things, ever since that Uchiha man came forward with his records. The Police Force finding enough evidence, or, Hurizen stepping in himself.
And now it seemed like he had a month.
A month to make his move.
A month to protect Konoha.