"Lastly, we need to discuss Lord Danzo's funeral."
As the meeting drew to a close, Minato Namikaze brought up Shimura Danzō's funeral.
He mainly sought the opinions of the older generation: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and Torifu Akimichi.
They had been Danzō's contemporaries. They had fought in the First Shinobi World War and risked their lives together countless times. Their bonds ran through Konoha's entire history.
Hiruzen and the others fell silent. Perhaps age made it hard not to look back.
Of the comrades who had once fought shoulder to shoulder, only they remained.
Kazan said nothing this time. Like everyone else, he quietly waited for Hiruzen and the others to remember their friend and decide.
"Give him a funeral with the highest honors."
After a long while, Hiruzen set down his pipe. He seemed to have aged several years in an instant.
Danzō's death had saddened him.
Danzō had done many things over the years, but debating right and wrong now was pointless.
As Danzō himself would have put it, he was Konoha's darkness, its roots buried in the soil. Everything he had done was for Konoha's stability.
And now he had died in battle. The Reverse Four Symbols Seal had swallowed even his body, leaving nothing behind.
"All right. We'll hold Lord Danzō's funeral as you say, Third Hokage." Minato Namikaze nodded.
The ninja of the Hokage's circle had never liked Danzō. They disliked the way he operated and the man himself.
But he was dead now. There was no need to dwell on it.
With that settled, Danzō's funeral would be held once the border situation stabilized.
Its honors would rank just below a Hokage's funeral. Hiruzen would personally recount Danzō's years of service to Konoha and give him a grand send-off.
As for Root's