It was 11:30 p.m.
Konohagakure.
Hyuga Sho was still awake. He had just finished issuing all his orders.
Morino Ibiki had gone after Uchiha Fugaku and Shimura Danzō.
The people from Root had vanished without a trace. They had probably gone to support Danzō as well.
The ANBU who had rushed over—Yamato, Uzuki Yugao, and the others—were completely bewildered. Without even knowing what was going on, they had become temporary Tool Persons whom Hyuga Sho could order around at will.
With Mitokado Homura's cooperation,
the news of Shimura Danzō's defection was made public.
The Konoha higher-ups, including ANBU, had already learned of it.
First thing tomorrow morning,
the fact that "Shimura Danzō betrayed Konoha and became a rogue ninja" would permanently nail him to Konoha's pillar of shame, leaving him no chance to rise again for all eternity.
This move
would not only ruin Shimura Danzō's reputation, turning him from a Konoha Ninja into a stray dog with nowhere to go,
but would also completely sever his hopes of becoming Hokage.
This was what they called karma.
In the past, Shimura Danzō had persecuted the Uchiha, denying the Uchiha Clan any chance of advancement.
Now, the same thing had happened to him in reverse.
The Shimura Clan had been considered a major clan when the village was first founded.
Now,
with Shimura Danzō as its last remaining member, he had thrown away the Shimura Clan's final shred of dignity.
From this day onward,
the world would never again know him as Anbu Commander Shimura Danzō.
He was now only Konoha's rogue ninja, S-Rank Fugitive Shimura Danzō.
Destroying both a man's body and spirit—nothing surpassed this.
After Yamato, Uzuki Yugao, and the others accepted this reality, they began taking action.
They prepared to start first thing tomorrow morning
and thoroughly investigate