Chapter 78

Hiruzen was glad to hear at least one piece of good news.

“Have you already talked to Naruto and the others?” – he asked after a short silence, reaching for the smoking pipe on the table.

“Yes, the overall picture has already been drawn up, apparently our Anbu killed Yoshiro Kinoshita from Kiri,” Iruka nodded affirmatively, turned sharply serious and continued, “Then Team 7 was attacked by the arriving Kiri shinobi, and Kakashi tried to delay them so that Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura managed to escape... but then Naruto, for unknown reasons, had a release of Bijuu chakra, and the Genins don’t remember anything else...

Towards the end of the story, the Chuunin's voice began to tremble.

Anbu of Konoha?

At the mention of this word, Hiruzen's gaze wavered. He understood perfectly well that their Anbu definitely didn’t do this, there was only one option...

But in that conversation with Danzo... it was only about making contact, the issue of murder was not raised.

Danzo, you are too reckless!

Hiruzen's face barely twisted with rage. It would be nice to secretly neutralize the object after receiving information, but there is one caveat... apparently Kiri is already aware of their involvement!

With these thoughts, he took a long drag from his pipe.

And although the picture was not yet complete, he already vaguely sensed something was wrong. Unfortunately, the person who could bring greater clarity to what happened was still unconscious.

“Naruto definitely didn’t want this...” Iruka added carefully, noticing the frowning brows of the Third Hokage.

He was very worried that the Hokage might punish Naruto, because the guy, albeit unknowingly, had harmed other Konoha shinobi.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to punish Naruto, because it’s not his fault,” Hiruzen said soothingly, sensing strong concern in the Chuunin’s voice, and asked, “How are they in general?”

“Depressed, especially Naruto,” Iruka sighed heavily.

To which Hiruzen nodded without much surprise, if only the green Genin were in a good mood after such a scrape. But he understood perfectly well that the restless Naruto would recover in the shortest possible time, because the boy had grown up before his eyes.

There was no particular cause for concern here.

– I leave Team 7 in your care until Kakashi recovers, you also consider them their sensei. And especially pay attention to Naruto's psychological state. For now, try not to tell him about Kakashi's serious condition! – Hiruzen instructed seriously.

- Yes sir! – Iruka immediately accepted the order, he was still going to do this without the Hokage’s reminder.

After the Chuunin left, the smile gradually faded from Hiruzen's face.

And when he thoughtfully tapped his fingertips on the table...

Sharply throwing open the door, an unusually gloomy Danzo entered the office.

“I told you that in my Root they will take better care of the control of the Jinchuriki.” Also this orphan Uchikhovsky, if he were three times wrong... Hiruzen, have you forgotten what problems the whole of Konoha will have if something bad happens to him? – without unnecessary nonsense and with all his acumen, he moved on to Danzo’s case, only after crossing the threshold of the Hokage’s office.

Okay, this Uchiha Sasuke... there is a terrible man behind him, but he has long dreamed of dragging a Jinchuriki without a stake and a yard to his place in the Root.

And now he had an unusually good opportunity.

– Yoshiro Kinoshita has been killed! – Having waited with open bewilderment on his face until Shimura Danzo finished his tirade, Hiruzen spat coldly.

This caught the Root Leader by surprise. He looked at the Hokage for a while, simply not knowing how to react.

None of the Konoha shinobi, except for Kakashi and his Genin, immediately after the return of the accepted Anbu, knew the details of what happened in the Land of Waves. Therefore, even Danzo only managed to find out about the uncontrolled release of the Nine-Tails chakra from the Jinchuriki.

– A member of the Root dealt with Yoshiro Kinoshita right in front of Team 7, and then they also entered into an open conflict with the shinobi Kiri... are you even aware of it, or what? – Hiruzen asked gloomily.

Danzo perked up slightly at what he heard. He really ordered his subordinates to bring Yoshiro's head if possible...

But the basic rule of the Root for such cases is complete secrecy. His people couldn't make such a stupid mistake!

In addition, the dispatched subordinates have still not made contact.

Unless...

“Will you believe it if I say that I never dream about it?” – he slowly raised his head and looked at the face of Danzo’s interlocutor.

This made Hiruzen frown even deeper, but remained silent.

Despite the controversial nature of his methods, Danzo does not make such stupid mistakes.

Unless, of course, he did it intentionally... but the likelihood is low.

But Hiruzen is confident in the reliability of the testimony of Naruto and Sasuke!

Pooh!

And then the door swung open again.

And Danzo and Hiruzen simultaneously cast frowning glances towards the entrance.

There they saw two elderly people.

In all of Konoha, you can count on the fingers of one hand the people who are allowed to go to the Hokage's office as if it were their home.

These were representatives of the administrative department of the village, responsible for conducting political affairs and the like, a kind of elder: Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane.

As a rule, this department only intervenes in the internal affairs of the village in the event of serious incidents affecting all of Konoha.

Homura and Koharu arrived and were a little taken aback when they saw Hiruzen and Danzo inside in an extremely tense atmosphere.

“Hm, well, great, everything’s assembled...” Homura coughed politely after a short silence, but his voice was rather gloomy.