Deep within the prison on the lowest underground level, even now, distant echoes of wailing could still be heard.
Yet the corridor on the sixth basement level was broad and brightly lit.
It only added a faint, inexplicable sense of oppression.
However, neither of the two men standing there paid any attention to that minor detail. They merely faced one another in silence.
"Even now, you still refuse to repent?"
"Danzo."
After a long while, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at him. His hands were clasped behind his back, and there was a trace of heaviness in his gaze toward his old friend.
"The one who should repent is clearly you!"
Shimura Danzō wore a cold expression, though he could not suppress the anger in his voice. "If it hadn't been for that excellent student you taught, joining forces with that scheming Hatake Sakumo and suddenly stirring up such a huge affair, why would the two of us have ended up like this?"
Even now, he still believed the speech incident had been Hatake Sakumo's "plot."
It would have been better if he had not mentioned it. The moment he did, Sarutobi Hiruzen's fury surged uncontrollably.
"Isn't this all because you refused to recognize the situation? At such a critical time during the war, you actually sold information about Tsunade and the others to people from Cloud Village?!"
"The first time, fine. Dan Katō was already dead. But the second time, you were actually caught red-handed inside the village?"
He raised a hand and pointed toward the direction from which the wails were coming, his rage blazing. "Do you think I don't know? Hiruko, one of your subordinates, is still being tortured. The Yamanaka Clan already dug the information out of his mind!"
"Danzo, you really are something!"
"Thirty-five million ryō. You