The crowd erupted into chatter again.
"Naive Shisui finally got smart for once!"
"He made a good point. He's loyal to Konoha!"
"Don't buy that crap! He helped Danzo give false testimony last time, and Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't Hokage then either."
"He got burned last time, so now he's jumping ship!"
"Lord Yongye's in serious danger, though. So many people want him dead!"
"Danger, my ass! Didn't you see? He captured them all alive! The strongest Hokage, the Konoha Sannin—before Lord Yongye, they're all small fry!"
Listening to the crowd, Tsunade sighed quietly, glad she had chosen not to attend this public trial as Hokage. She had known it was the right decision.
On the judge's dais, Yongye took his eyes off Shisui and looked down at Hiruzen Sarutobi's bowed head.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, what do you have to say to this charge?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly straightened his hunched back.
He raised his head half an inch, then another half inch, until the morning light fell across his deeply wrinkled face.
His eyes were sunken, the bags beneath them deeper than the day before. But a light flared in them again, burning up through their murky depths with a heat suppressed for far too long.
He turned, his knife-sharp gaze stabbing into Shisui's face!
That savage stare held a hatred no distance could ever wash away!
"I was wrong to trust that ungrateful wretch, Shisui Uchiha! He sold us all out!"
"All that talk about loyalty to Konoha instead of loyalty to me—it's nothing but an excuse!"
"He's a traitor! Turncoat! An ungrateful bastard!"
"If he can betray me today, he can betray you tomorrow! He can betray Konoha!"
After cursing Shisui, Hiruzen Sarutobi turned his gaze on Yongye, his expression growing even more venomous.
"I am not a Konoha