Chương 192: CH_6.21 (192)

Palpable tension was something Anko had long grown used to in her life; she had been part of many a mission where a lot more than a wad of cash was at stake. Worrying about upcoming missions, spending days reviewing the briefs, and thinking if her team for the mission would scheme to secretly get rid of her because of her association with the snake traitor—that was all a regular part of her life. But now she found herself leading a team on a mission where a lot more was at stake.

There was a real risk that at least one of them would not come out of it alive because of the nature of the mission. She hadn't ever led a team on something as important as the upcoming mission—and she worried as most of her team wasn't as experienced as she would've liked them to be.

"We have received the orders to take back the gold mines," Anko broke the silence in the room.

"A portion of Camp Banana will stay to defend the base, but a majority will move to raid the gold mines." She paused to take in their reactions. Kameko had her resting frowny face, Rikku was staring at her with a serious expression, Iori stared at her ink-stained hands, Daiki looked openly worried, and Takuma didn't show much except for the fact that he was listening.

"When do we leave?" asked Kameko.

"A week from today. Be ready to sit in multiple briefings in the following week. There's a lot of moving parts involved, and everyone needs to be on point," said Anko.

"Will our two jonin be joining us at the gold mine?" asked Takuma. Anko nodded.

"Yes, both of them will be joining us."

"Two of our jonin against five of their jonin doesn't seem like a balanced mix," said Takuma. His words brought a pause to the room, letting the sound of rain fill up the silence. Anko felt their eyes shift to her, seeking the answer to a very important question. She could see the worry shoot up their faces; even the stoic Kameko was fiddling with the hilt of her sword. She answered, "We have a plan. I'm sure all of you remember the valley we visited during the supply run.

Three days from today, a mix of Hidden Leaf and Hidden Steam troops will move and create a faux camp at the valley's base.

"The plan is to scare the enemy forces into thinking we are using the valley as an entry point. They would react by moving their troops around and creating a defensive camp of their own to counteract ours. Because we have the element of surprise and lead preparation time, the enemy would need to scramble to pull together enough forces for a quick response—the gold mines' proximity will ensure that at least two jonin will be relocated from the mines to the valley."

"A bait-and-switch?" Takuma said, a smile growing on his face.

"You could say that," said Anko. Anko was well familiar with her team members' files. Iori, as a fuin-nin, had sparse field experience. Daiki had a considerable amount, but most of it was tracking civilian bandit groups. Kameko was strong, but her file reflected a lack of missions that would help her prepare for a chaotic clash between two large shinobi groups. As for the other two, Anko wasn't worried about them.

Rikku, who was older than Anko, had enough real field experience to handle herself in a high-stress scenario. As for Takuma, she didn't need to look at his file to tell that he would be fine—she had spent enough time with him, observing him, to know that he might as well thrive in the situation— he was even smiling just now.

'What a freak,' she thought. Anko continued, "Usually, after taking the mines, we would need to keep it protected, but that's not the case here. The higher-ups have decided to destroy the mines to avoid devoting manpower while ensuring the enemy can't exploit the mine. Our mission is to go in, clean out the enemy, clear out the miners, and destroy the mines before leaving." Anko wholeheartedly supported the decision, and she had to give it to Hidden Steam's Benzou for advocating the idea.

She didn't think that wimp had the balls for it. Anko knew Toridasu had been displeased because he had been tasked by people in the village to get a supply of gold from the mines for the Hidden Leaf in exchange for protecting the mines. Now that Hidden Steam had decided to blow it all up, the plan had gone obsolete. She didn't like all these backroom dealings the higher-ups were doing; she wanted no hand in it and was glad that it went to the shitter.

"We will be thoroughly brushing up on our team training, starting tomorrow first thing in the morning," Anko said.

"No fucking around, got it?" She looked at both Kameko and Takuma. They didn't get along, but she wanted to clarify that she wouldn't take any petty infighting on the field. Looking at it statistically, there was a significant chance that at least one of her genin wouldn't make it out alive. She wanted to keep that number to only one. ———. Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't having a good month.

He looked at his smoking pipe that had thrice the amount of tobacco he usually smoked, and the increased amount did absolutely nothing for his stress. He took another puff regardless. It was far too late in the night, and he was stuck in his office.

After decades of being the Hidden Leaf's Hokage, he had devised systems and office practices that had ensured he could leave office at healthy times in the evening—but all of that had seemingly turned moot recently as he and his old body had to start his day early and forced to end his work late every night. The very formally written scrolls on his table made it so tonight was no different. The scrolls were official and openly public support for the Uchiha clan in their bloodline theft accusation against Danzo.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The Hyuga and the Uchiha clans had never gotten along since the inception of the Hidden Leaf village due to their rivalry over being part of the Three Great Dojutsu. Moreover, they were by far the two most powerful clans in the Hidden Leaf and had gone back and forth through the years to take the top spot. Only once in a blue moon did the two agree with each other on any matter, which also happened after some biting back and forth.

But the moment the Uchiha clan accused Danzo, the Hyuga clan announced their complete support for the Uchiha clan. It was perhaps for the few times in decades that the two clans had stood on the same side without any secret motives.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to Hiruzen that they joined hands as the laws pertaining to bloodline theft were made by the Uchiha and Hyuga as they were the biggest Hidden Leaf clans with kekkei genkai —and it was not only crucial for them, but for the village and the nation that their lineages were protected. However, after decades of seeing them fight, Hiruzen couldn't help but be amazed by their solidarity.

The two most powerful clans joining hands was headache-inducing, but the Hyuga clan wasn't the only one to announce their support. The triad of Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans had taken Uchiha's side. The three Hiden clans of the Hidden Leaf were worried that if someone was bold enough to commit bloodline theft, then their Hiden jutsu were the clear next target. They couldn't allow this to become a damaging precedent.

In the same vein, the Aburame clan, which was infamous for not taking sides during conflicts—and had been accused of being fence sitters—also had thrown in their support for Uchiha so early in the matter. There were open support letters from minor clans like the Fuma and Taketori clans, who were allied clans of Uchiha and Hyuga, respectively. While many minor clans refrained from saying anything, surely because of Danzo's influence, there were some others who showed their support for the Uchiha.

Even Hiruzen himself wasn't left untouched. He looked down at the Sarutobi clan's letter of support urging him to bring the matter to justice. He had taken the position of the Sarutobi clan head very young, since before he was named Hokage, and had retained the position for decades. But he had promptly passed it to the younger generation when he had stepped down as the Hokage and passed the office to Minato.

Hiruzen was aware that the Sarutobi clan was planning to show their support openly, and despite having considerable influence over clan matters, there was nothing Hiruzen could do about it. He only wished he could've convinced them to stay their hand for a few more days. He was left with the aftermath. How was he supposed to proceed when his own clan was supporting one side?

He couldn't even blame them because they were right, even without having the complete information—he knew who was to blame because he knew the entire truth. Hiruzen closed his eyes and gave his weight to his chair. He had known Danzo since they were children. Back then, there was no shinobi academy, and they were the first generation of shinobi trained by the Hidden Leaf as a new shinobi village. Their education was overseen by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, himself.

Hiruzen knew that their teacher had used them as his test subjects to finalize the structure of the first shinobi academy. He was proud of his involvement in a project that now spread all around the Land of Fire and grew the young future into capable shinobi. Because of the training under Tobirama, he and Danzo had spent much time together from the time before they received their forehead protectors and became shinobi to fighting side-by-side in a war.

They had spent more time than today's three-genin jonin-led cell did—that formula was a refinement of the five-genin jonin-led cell system developed by Tobirama. Their teacher had truly used them as experiments. Hiruzen looked up at the framed portrait of the Second Hokage hanging among the four Hokage portraits. To him, Senju Tobirama was his teacher first, the Hokage second. Hiruzen pulled him out of nostalgic memories. He had entrusted his back to Danzo.

He trusted the man to protect his life if it ever fell in danger during the war. That trust was the reason why when Tobirama had declared Hiruzen the Third Hokage amidst the First Shinobi War and before his untimely death—Hiruzen had asked Danzo to be his right-hand man. Danzo had been the Jonin Commander of the Hidden Leaf for years before he stepped down to create and set up the department today known as ANBU.

The current ANBU hated the man, and it had changed a lot through the decades, but the current ANBU standard operating procedure, playbook, and training systems all stemmed from the work Danzo had done during its foundational years. Perhaps it was when Danzo started working on ANBU that cracks emerged in their relationship. Hiruzen couldn't even remember it anymore; it had been so long, but they argued about something they couldn't agree upon.

After that argument, the things they agreed on began to dwindle, and their arguments rose. Somewhere along the line, Hiruzen couldn't call Danzo his friend. They argued, disagreed, and fought too much to be friends. He couldn't recall when the last time was that they had talked about something that had nothing to do with village matters. Despite being unable to call him a friend, Hiruzen still trusted Danzo as a comrade. He was still someone who cared about Hidden Leaf and someone who was very good at their job.

Hiruzen had continued to cherish Danzo as an important shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. But if Hiruzen had to choose when things went beyond the point of no return… It would be the creation of ROOT. Yes … Hiruzen smiled bitterly. The day Danzo had offered to take over the burden of the darkness from him was the day they both knew that they could never go back.

"Ichi," Hiruzen called as he set down his pipe. As though appearing from nowhere, a masked shinobi kneeled before his table.

"Yes, Lord Hokage," said Ichi.

"Have you found him?" asked Hiruzen.

"Yes." Hiruzen closed his eyes for a moment.

"He refuses to come here?" he asked.

"Yes." Hiruzen heaved a sigh.

"I remember now, I remember what this reminds me of." A chuckle of pure bitterness and sorrow escaped Hiruzen.

"Do you know what it is, Ichi? You were there." Ichi didn't reply.

"This reminds me of Orochimaru. He, too, refused my summons because he knew he couldn't be here. Now Danzo refuses my summons..." Hiruzen's wrinkled face twitched as he grabbed the shoulders of his chair, cracking the wood under his grip. Ichi tensed up when a wave of pure, unadulterated chakra flooded the room, shaking the windows—shaking the entire building. He looked up at Hiruzen with worry in his eyes behind the mask. For a moment, it seemed that the building would collapse under the pressure.

"I truly thought he wouldn't turn his back on the village. What an old fool I am." Hiruzen took a deep breath, and the pressure from the chakra let up as though it was not there.

"Any word from the ANBU commander?" asked Hiruzen. Ichi replied, "They are ready to execute the first wave of raids."

"Tell them to go ahead with their plan when we reach Danzo," said Hiruzen. Ichi stood up to leave, but Hiruzen stopped him.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but is Uchiha Itachi still under Hatake's team."

"…Last I heard that is true," said Ichi. Hiruzen didn't blame Ichi for not knowing. The Hokage's ANBU operated separately from the Department of ANBU. The latter was stringent with information to even their own.

"Tell the ANBU commander to send me Hatake and his team along with Uchiha Itachi if he's not on the team anymore." Hiruzen sensed Ichi's reluctance and confusion.

"It will be good to have a Uchiha and the Sharingan to be there when I meet Danzo. I can't bring Uchiha Fugaku with me, and he might not trust my words, he might not trust his son, but he will trust Hatake." Ichi looked like he wanted to say something, but he disappeared without saying a thing. Hiruzen stood up from his chair. It was truly time for him to talk to his former friend.