Danzo's conspiracy was laid bare, yet the Third Hokage's disposal of the matter was a classic case of "raising the gavel high but letting it fall softly." There seemed to be no intention of a deep purge.
"Hiruzen, you are still as merciful as ever."
Before leaving the Hokage's office, Shimura Danzo shot a deep, lingering look at Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Today would have been the perfect opportunity for Hiruzen to eliminate his greatest political rival; with the failed assassination plot as leverage, he could have wiped out the entire Root organization in one fell swoop. But Hiruzen chose to stay his hand.
Taking a deep drag from his pipe, the Third Hokage laughed. "I am the sunlight that bathes Konoha, and you are the darkness hidden beneath it.
Light and shadow are interdependent. Danzo, do you understand what I am saying?"
As Konoha's "Primary Scapegoat," Danzo couldn't be allowed to fall just yet. For one, Hiruzen didn't want to cause excessive internal damage; for another, there were still "dirty jobs" that required a specialist like Danzo.
For years, the unspeakable things done in the name of the village had been executed by the Root. Danzo's existence was like that of a cruel inquisitor—a name that made people tremble.
But ultimately, he was just a dog on the Hokage's leash. Should the public's fury ever reach a boiling point, he could simply be sacrificed to appease the masses.
This was exactly how Tsunade would handle Danzo in the original history. Faced with an increasingly dire situation, she would decisively "sacrifice" Danzo, not only successfully diverting the attention of Sasuke Uchiha and his group but also unifying the village.
Even Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke's die-hard best friend, wouldn't blame Konoha for the Uchiha massacre; instead, he would attribute the tragedy to the secret machinations of the "Scapegoat King" Danzo and Obito Uchiha.
This was the necessity of Root's continued existence. When the time comes, the Hokage will not hesitate to use Danzo as a blood sacrifice.
Danzo likely didn't overthink Hiruzen's motives. In fact, he was quite smug, believing that Konoha needed him—the dark root—to sustain its growth.
In a sense, Danzo was a very "pure" villain: pure in his constant accumulation of blame, pure in his ceaseless courting of death, and pure in his ability to draw fire away from others.
"Kaede, why did you have to kill them?"
On the way back to the Uchiha compound, Shisui finally couldn't help but ask. Even though this involved a struggle between the Hokage and Root, Kaede's excessive violence would only reinforce the village's perception of the Uchiha as an "evil and bloodthirsty" clan.
"The seeds of misunderstanding were sown long ago; there's no need for further explanation," Kaede replied coldly. "Root's hostility toward us is even deeper than the Hokage faction's. Striking their elite now relieves the pressure on our family."
Shisui was stunned. "Don't you even care that they were comrades of this village?"
"Comrades? Shisui, you are still far too naive."
Kaede didn't even bother to argue with such a childish worldview. Upon returning to the compound, Uchiha Fugaku expressed great satisfaction with the duo's performance.
Specifically, Kaede had killed sixty-four Root members, nearly annihilating an entire elite squad—effectively gutting ten percent of Root's strike force. It was a staggering achievement.
As for Shisui's idealism, Fugaku merely smoothed it over as a tribal leader. After reassuring the "brothers," he personally departed for the Hokage's office to finalize the political fallout.
The New Era
With Konoha's internal situation stabilizing, the signing of the post-war treaty between the Mist and the Cloud in early Year 49 marked the official end of the Third Shinobi World War.
The post-war landscape solidified into two opposing blocs: the Maritime Alliance (Sand and Mist) versus the Continental Alliance (Konoha, Stone, and Cloud).
Time marched on. By the middle of the Year 53, Shiraishi looked at his reflection in the mirror. He had let a bit of stubble grow on his chin.
As the Fifth Kazekage, maintaining a youthful appearance lacked a certain "gravitas," so he kept the beard to look more seasoned.
Though Shiraishi was only 26, he had been the Kazekage for six or seven years. Under his reign, the Land of Wind had undergone a total metamorphosis.
Oasis cities had sprouted from the sands, forming a cluster of six major urban centers led by the Hidden Sand Village.
As the Land of Wind grew increasingly powerful, the other Great Villages used the peace to rest, but they were also stockpiling resources for a massive arms race.
Many things had happened in these four years. Most tragically, Hoshino Mai had been killed during a mission.
Among Shiraishi's first batch of students, Mai had been famous for her "monster-like" constitution, but she met her match in the Akatsuki's Kisame Hoshigaki.
The Kisame who fled during the Mist's internal upheaval was far stronger than before. His blade, Samehada, completely suppressed Mai.
Ultimately, the girl who loved writing web novels met a tragic end beneath the shark-skin sword. Under Obito's guidance, Kisame believed the Mist's tragedy was a Sand conspiracy; thus, he showed no mercy to Sand ninja.
To protect her comrades, Mai chose to stay behind and face him alone, leading to her fall.
Her death was a crushing blow to Nagase Bizen. Despite Morimoto Ryoji's attempts to comfort him, Bizen could not find peace.
He eventually resigned as a Jonin and returned to the Ninja Academy to become an instructor.
Shiraishi understood his feelings and, with a stroke of his pen, appointed him to manage the new generation of Sand students.
In contrast to his other former teammates, Morimoto Ryoji was now one of the most powerful figures in the village. As the Supreme Commander of the Navy, he stood alongside Arakawa Arashi (ANBU) and Jogaki Shikasa (Jonin Assembly) as the "Three Titans" of the Sand.
Beyond them, the Sand's new generation had matured. The team of Uzumaki Tomoki, Yamamichi Kumatake, and Roshi was currently the strongest squad in the village. Specifically, Tomoki was the only one besides Shiraishi to master Sage Mode.
For the past four years, Shirohebi-hime had remained in the White Snake Abode. Though Shiraishi never revealed her true identity, elders like Ebizo and Chiyo had guessed she was a Sage from Ryuchi Cave.
Through a stroke of luck, Tomoki received her guidance and mastered a mental-type Ryuchi Cave Sage Mode—one that manifested a transparent chakra aura similar to Mitsuki's Cursed Seal Sage Transformation in the original history.
Unlike Shiraishi's Dragon-Seal Sage Mode, Tomoki's version drastically boosted all his physical parameters, granting him combat power that transcended ordinary Jonin and rivaled a Kage.
"Today is the Year 53 Sand Festival," the spirited Kumtake said with excitement. "I heard graduating Genin from the six domestic Ninja Academies will be competing. We can pick our own subordinates today."
The trio had been Jonin for over a year. At the thought of leading their own team, Kuchitake's eyes shone.
"You idiot, don't you know leading rookies is a huge pain?" Roshi muttered.
"What's the trouble?" Kumtake shrugged. "The world is at peace. Even when missions clash with other villages, life-and-death duels are generally forbidden."
In a time of peace, the nurturing of new ninja was vastly different from the war era. Graduation rates had become much stricter, and the number of graduates was decreasing annually. Even so, the base population of Sand Genin still far exceeded the other villages.
However, Tomoki—the leader of the trio—showed little interest in the rookies. He felt he had to warn Kuchitake about his lackadaisical attitude.
"While it's true the villages officially forbid lethal combat, the rise of mercenaries and rogue organizations is inextricably linked to the Great Nations. Kumtake... have you already forgotten what happened to Senior Hoshino Mai?"
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