Fifth Hokage Is Danzo?

The Hokage's meeting room had been laid out with great care.

The floor-to-ceiling windows along the south wall let in all the morning sunlight, casting it across the redwood table and bathing the scrolls and documents in a warm golden glow.

A faint scent of ink mingled with the lingering tobacco from the Third's pipe. It should have been a bright, lively morning.

The meeting room had been quiet.

The tip of Minato's pen moved across the papers with a soft, rustling scratch. Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, the ember in his pipe flickering now and then as he occasionally tapped it against the table with a faint click.

Kakashi stood to Minato's right, like a statue with dead fish eyes.

Then Jiraiya's voice exploded—

It hit the stillness like a rock tossed into a calm lake.

"Why are you shouting!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat opposite them, turning his pipe in his hand as he glared over, plainly irritated.

Kakashi, standing nearby, showed no reaction. His dead fish eyes were half-lidded, and he held a document he was about to hand to Minato as if he hadn't heard a thing. Only his shoulders gave the faintest twitch.

"Hahaha... It's nothing, nothing, old man. I'm just discussing something private with Minato."

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head and gave Hiruzen Sarutobi an extremely awkward smile, then waved at Kakashi.

"You didn't hear that either, kid."

As soon as the other two looked away, Jiraiya immediately ducked his head and leaned almost all the way over Minato's shoulder. He lowered his voice to a hurried whisper, his breath brushing Minato's ear.

"What's going on with the Hokage?! Could he be... from another world?!"

Minato didn't answer right away. He lifted his teacup and took a sip, then gave the slightest nod behind its rim.

Jiraiya's pupils shrank. He stared with his mouth open for a long moment, but quickly regained his composure.

"You've done well for yourself, kid."

Jiraiya waggled his eyebrows at Minato, bumping his shoulder against him.

"How'd you convince him? That kid doesn't seem like the sort who's easy to talk to."

Minato smiled gently, circling something on the document with his pen as he continued speaking.

"I just mentioned that Konoha had been facing some trouble lately and asked if that senior Orochimaru from before could come help. Naruto overheard and said he could arrange for a Hokage to come over."

"Arrange for a Hokage..."

Jiraiya's eyes lit up. He leaned even closer to Minato, nearly sitting on his lap.

"Who? Man or woman? Strong?"

"Naruto only said it was the Fifth Hokage."

Minato picked up his pen and lowered his head to continue writing and drawing, his tone as casual as if they were discussing some trivial matter.

"He didn't say anything else."

"The Fifth Hokage?" Jiraiya rubbed his chin and put on a thoughtful expression. "So that'd be after you retired. Who could it be... Kakashi? Asuma? Someone else?"

Minato gave a wry smile, his pen pausing on the page.

"It seems like it might be... one of our enemies in this world."

Jiraiya froze for a second, then caught on. His pupils shrank.

"Don't tell me Danzo's the Fifth Hokage?!"

He completely forgot to keep his voice down. The shout rang especially loud in the quiet meeting room.

Beside them, Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe clacked against the table. He slowly raised his eyes, his gaze scraping toward them like two dull knives.

"What do you mean, Fifth Hokage Danzo?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood, clasped his hands behind his back, and paced over to the two of them, asking in an unhurried voice,

"Jiraiya, what are you talking about?"

Kakashi was still standing against the wall in that statue-like pose, his dead fish eyes half-lidded and the document raised high in his hands.

But his ears had plainly perked up, and he'd even stopped turning the page, intent on eavesdropping.

Bang!

The door suddenly flew open.

It wasn't pushed open gently. Someone outside had slammed it with the handle of a cane, sending it crashing against the wall with a dull bang.

Three figures cut off the morning sunlight all at once, and the air in the meeting room suddenly seemed to drop several degrees.

Danzo was the first to enter.

His one visible eye peered through the opening door, like a venomous snake crawling out of a gutter, its cold, clammy gaze sliding over everyone in the room.

His right arm was wrapped in thick bandages and slung across his chest, clearly injured in the last night raid. His left hand, however, clutched a manila document tightly.

Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu followed behind him. Both looked grim as iron, and their heavy steps seemed forced, as though something were weighing them down.

The meeting room fell unnaturally silent.

Minato's pen hovered above the paper, a drop of ink spreading into an eye-catching black spot.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe stopped in midair, and the wind from the sudden burst of the door swept away the smoke drifting above it.

Kakashi stood against the wall, silently closing the document in his hands. His dead fish eyes remained half-lidded, but his gaze had quietly fixed on the doorway.

"Oh?"

Danzo stood in the doorway, his visible eye narrowing as he looked over Minato, then Hiruzen Sarutobi, and finally Jiraiya, whose smile hadn't yet faded.

His mouth curled into a sneer, and his voice rasped.

"I was only a little late... and you juniors are already using my name for amusement?"

"Tch."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes and snorted through his nose.

He'd been leaning toward Minato to whisper, but now he plopped back into his chair, casually propped both legs on the table again, and covered his face with his novel, pretending not to see Danzo.

Hiruzen Sarutobi tapped his pipe against the table and stood.

He took two steps forward, coming to a stop right in front of Minato and Jiraiya. The hem of his dark brown robe remained perfectly still in the morning light.

He stared at Danzo with a grave expression and a low voice.

"Danzo, why have you called us all to the meeting room so early?"

"Iwagakure and Kumogakure have both been harboring ill intentions toward Konoha lately," Hiruzen Sarutobi continued, the authority of the Shinobi Hero lending weight to his words. "If you have any legitimate intelligence, then show it. If not..."

"Outsiders harboring ill intentions toward Konoha?"

Danzo interrupted him. Dragging his injured leg, he paced into the meeting room, his cane thudding against the floor with each step.

He reached the end of the long table and swept his visible eye over everyone present, then suddenly broke into an extremely sneering smile.

"Hmph... I've always known that."

The room was so quiet they could hear the wind rustling the leaves outside.

Danzo slowly raised his uninjured left hand and slapped the document onto the table. The impact was so hard that a teacup lid jumped, splashing a few drops of tea.

His visible eye pinned Jiraiya like a nail, and his voice turned abruptly cold.

"But here in Konoha... it seems we have a traitor among us, too."

The novel covering Jiraiya's face slipped halfway down, revealing one eye. He looked back at Danzo with lazy indifference.

"...Huh?"