Chapter 184 - 182: Azula's Verdict

Hisoto, current head of the Hyūga in name only three years running, watched his father dig a hole with no visible bottom and sighed the sigh of a man who'd inherited a title and a mess in the same breath.

"It's my oversight, Hokage-sama," he said, voice doing its best apologetic impression. "My father's clearly lost his way, out of concern for the clan and the village. It won't happen again."

He meant it, mostly, in the way you mean things you've already decided to do regardless of the outcome. He was going to rein the old man in himself, formally or not, the moment this meeting ended.

Beside him, Hisashi, the clan's actual patriarch until three years ago and its actual problem for considerably longer than that, felt something old and prideful stir at being spoken for like a scolded child. He considered snapping back at Azula directly.

Comfort won, as comfort tended to with Hisashi.

'Anyway,' he told himself, 'there's nothing she can actually do to me.'

He'd be proven wrong before the meeting ended.

"You promise it won't happen again?" Azula repeated back at Hisoto, and laughed, the kind of laugh that meant something worse was already loaded and waiting. "You think I gathered everyone here for that?"

Hisoto's mouth opened, then didn't finish the job. Apologies from him used to close the matter, back when it was Hiruzen giving the verdict. Azula clearly ran things differently.

Before he could recover, she turned to Sakumo. Years of missions together meant this part needed no words. He nodded and left the room.

He came back with company: a dozen figures in plain black, baskets over their heads, hands bound, moving like puppets whose strings belonged to someone else. The seating had been arranged in a ring for exactly this: a stage, dead center, empty until now.

No one present could've named a single one of them. The sealing tags on their backs took care of that.

Hisashi, who suspected (correctly) that this concerned him directly, badly wanted to activate his Byakugan and badly knew better than to try it. As far as he could recall, his only real liability was Danzō. He risked a glance across the room.

Danzō's mouth hung open, like he'd recognized someone he hadn't expected to see again.

'Guess he didn't sell me out,' Hisashi thought, relieved for exactly four more seconds. 'Just got caught anyway.'

Whatever Danzō had actually been running, the man specialized in mystery even on his best days, so there was no telling from the outside.

"We've talked about the Shodaime's philosophy," Azula said, and the room's attention snapped back to her. "If Hisashi's crimes were slander and stirring up conflict, that's one thing. But the second crime, by any standard, that one earns death. Even for a man who only played a supporting role."

Hisashi's head came up. He'd been so busy wondering how much Danzō had buried him that he'd missed the sentence had his name on it.

Azula didn't give him the chance to catch up.

She walked to the center of the ring. "I don't even know what to call it. Bold? Insane? A truly staggering overestimation of oneself? Because whatever it was, someone here decided to try something genuinely outrageous."

She reached the first prisoner and pulled the basket off his head.

Danzō and Hiruzen stood at the same moment, for very different reasons.

Danzō's mind moved fast, faster than his expression let on. Every branch he could still cut, every version of this that ended with him walking out of the room alive. He found none.

For the first time in longer than he could remember, there was nothing left to plan around.

"Kageyama?" Hiruzen's voice cracked with something between confusion and betrayal. "What happened to you?"

Kageyama said nothing. Same long hair as always, face like something had been drained out of it. For a man Hiruzen had personally trained to never once ignore a direct question, the silence was harder than any answer could be.

Azula studied him the way you'd study a dog that had just watched its owner leave with someone else, a little pity, considerably more amusement.

"Stick out your tongue," she told him.

He didn't resist. Ink-black marks sat burned into the flesh, less tattoo, more brand.

Orochimaru, ever helpful, supplied the name. "The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal. Once it's placed, the bearer physically can't reveal whatever information the one who sealed him doesn't want revealed."

"And Kageyama," Tajima added, "was the ANBU Commander."

Which settled it, really. If the ANBU Commander could be silenced like this, so could anyone.

"So," Azula said, finally turning to face Danzō directly, "how would you like to die, Danzō Shimura?"

Between that question and Danzō's reaction to Kageyama's unveiling, there wasn't much room left for anyone in the room to wonder who was responsible.

Hiruzen stared at his oldest friend, mouth open, unwilling to believe it.

Danzō said nothing back. His attention had already shifted to the second prisoner, whose basket Azula was now lifting.

Fukuyoshi. The Daimyō's confidant.

Hōmura, who'd made the trip to the capital enough times to know the man's face anywhere, recognized him instantly, and understood, in the same breath, exactly what kind of leverage Danzō had been running.

"This is Fukuyoshi. Daimyō's confidant," Azula introduced. "Whom Danzō extended his claw to."

"I don't know what you mean," Danzō immediately shook his head. "I was just shocked that the ANBU Commander I helped train was brought here like a prisoner."

No matter how small the chance to avoid the disaster, he would seize it, and the first step was to never admit anything, no matter the proof, because as long as he did so, death would be guaranteed.

Azula didn't reply, continuing to unveil the rest of the people Danzō had corrupted.

"It seems things are going to get serious," Shirota, Shikoku's father, murmured, realizing how serious the problem they were facing was.

Even Torifu, who usually kept his eyes closed, had them open wide now, wanting to intervene but unsure in what capacity.

Whatever the results, they understood one thing: Konoha was about to start a cold war with the Daimyō, since one of the village's highest-ranking figures had dared to do such a thing. Didn't that mean tomorrow they might try to control the Daimyō himself?

'She should have resolved this privately, even if it meant killing Danzō.' None of them could understand why Azula would bring this out in the open.

But Danzō's eyes stayed fixed only on Azula, as if she were an elixir extending his life, one he'd lose the instant he so much as blinked.

The more she ignored him, not even willing to argue, the more he understood how dangerous his situation was, since it meant she was resolved to end him no matter what.

He couldn't help but turn to Hiruzen, the one who, even if he didn't want to admit it, always cleaned up most of his messes.

Hiruzen only needed to look into Danzō's eyes to accept that his friend really had done this, and in an instant, exhaustion settled over his face.

He realized that from today on, he no longer had any high ground against Azula, since even someone he himself had promoted to advisor had dared to do such a thing.

But no matter what, he couldn't bring himself to abandon Danzō, knowing Azula would truly kill him without a second thought.

Just as he was about to speak, Azula, who had noticed the exchange of glances between the two, acted.

"Tsunade," she said, her voice carrying across the silent room. "I believe I promised you something."

Tsunade grinned; she'd only come to this "boring" meeting for this. "Yeah, I'd been holding back since that Mizukage fight. Let me show you my new strength.

Azula then turned to Danzō.

"Danzō Shimura. You've been accused of treason, conspiracy with external powers, and the enslavement of Konoha shinobi through forbidden seals, with overwhelming evidence and established guilt."

"Therefore I, Azula Uchiha, Fourth Hokage, declare you a rogue ninja, with the order to kill you on sight, along with your associate, Hisashi Hyūga."