Yellow Mud in His Pants, Danzo in a Bind!

Danzo emerged from the shadows, leaning on his cane.

He walked more slowly than usual, as though tired, but the half-bandaged face still wore his trademark sinister expression.

His cane tapped against the floor, the sound echoing down the passage. Then he stopped.

He saw Hiruzen Sarutobi, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and the ANBU Ninja standing in formation.

His lone eye narrowed.

"Hiruzen!"

Danzo drew out the name, his voice thick with hatred, and tapped his cane lightly on the floor.

"What do you mean by bringing so many people to my base? Do you want to start a war with me and hand the advantage to the Uchiha?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.

"Where were you just now?"

His voice was ice-cold. Every word sounded as though it had been pulled from a freezer.

Danzo's expression and bearing changed in an instant.

Wariness!

The instinctive wariness of a man whose secret had been struck, every defense snapping into place.

His lone eye fixed on Hiruzen Sarutobi. After a beat of silence, he answered coldly.

"Hiruzen, you have no authority over me."

The words were firm, but paired with that flash of wariness, they told the three elders something else entirely: guilt!

A guilty conscience!

Mitokado Homura's expression changed. So did Utatane Koharu's.

They had worked with Danzo for decades. They knew him too well.

That flash of wariness had not been the anger of an innocent man falsely accused. It was the reflex of someone with something to hide.

Utatane Koharu stepped forward and snapped, "Danzo, you must tell us exactly where you went just now! Otherwise, the consequences could be disastrous!"

Her sharp voice echoed through the passage, making the torch flames flicker.

Danzo's face darkened completely.

A ruthless glint flashed in his lone eye. He raised his right hand, and a signal of Chakra shot from his fingertip, silently piercing the thick earth above the base.

An alarm!

The entire underground Root base sprang to life.

Footsteps sounded from every direction. Masked Root ninja in black poured from the passages like a tide and formed ranks behind Danzo.

Kunai slid free one after another, and cold killing intent spread through the air.

Danzo had controlled Root for more than thirty years. Thanks to Hiruzen Sarutobi's weakness and indulgence, he had long since become its sole leader!

Even if he ordered them to fight the Hokage, the Root ninja would obey!

Danzo stood at the front of his ninja and slammed his cane against the floor.

"Hiruzen, I'll ask you one more time. Do you want a war?"

His voice was hoarse and vicious, edged with the recklessness of a man driven into a corner.

Why was he so nervous? Why the guilty conscience?

Because he had just met Orochimaru. One of the Sannin, a Konoha S-rank Missing-nin, and his partner.

They had met at a secret base outside the village to discuss one thing: how to join forces against Hiruzen Sarutobi and put Danzo in the Hokage's chair.

He thought they had been found out. He thought Hiruzen Sarutobi had brought people to his door because someone had discovered his secret meeting with Orochimaru.

Plotting to kill the Hokage was a capital crime!

No matter how much dirty work Danzo had done for Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi would never spare him for that!

Root versus ANBU.

The two sides faced off in the dark passage, Kunai against Kunai, killing intent against killing intent. Torchlight danced between them, illuminating faces drawn tight with tension.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Danzo, at the murderous Root ninja behind him, and at the cornered frenzy on his face.

Then his fury erupted.

If Danzo was innocent, why had he grown wary? Why had he refused to answer? Why had he summoned Root to oppose him?

None of those were the reactions of a man wrongly accused!

They were the last desperate stand of a guilty criminal exposed in public!

"Danzo!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice exploded like thunder through the passage.

His eyes reddened. Chakra surged wildly from his body, whipping his Hokage robes about though there was no wind.

"It really was you!"

"How could you be so cruel? You killed my son!"

Mitokado Homura was now convinced of Danzo's guilt as well. He pointed at Danzo, his finger shaking violently, his voice trembling even more.

"Danzo, you've gone too far! You're a monster! We watched Shinnosuke grow up! How could you do it?"

Danzo froze.

His lone eye darted back and forth as his mind raced.

They're not here because of Orochimaru and me?

Something happened to Kokoro no Suke? Sarutobi Shinnosuke?

Someone killed him? They think I did it?

And I just... assembled all of Root and prepared to fight them?

What the hell...

The corner of Danzo's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

He finally understood. They had not come to arrest him for colluding with an enemy and betraying the village. They had come to investigate a murder!

In Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes, his alarm and his decision to rally Root against them could only mean one thing: a guilty conscience!

And now, nothing he said would help.

It was like getting yellow mud in his pants with everyone watching. He could explain until he was blue in the face; they would still think he had soiled himself!

Danzo knew he was innocent. But how could he explain? Tell them he had met Orochimaru? That he had conspired with a rogue ninja against Hiruzen Sarutobi?

That would not clear him of murder. It would send him straight to the execution block.

Danzo stood rooted to the spot, the uncovered half of his face twisted beyond recognition. His lips moved, but no words came out.

He had schemed against countless people and laid countless traps. Never had he imagined a day when he would take the blame for someone else's crime!

The bitterness was almost unbearable, as though someone had stuffed his mouth full of bitter herbs.

He could neither swallow nor spit them out.

In the dark passage of the Root base, killing intent hung sharp as a blade.

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood at the front of the ANBU formation, Chakra surging violently around him and his Hokage robes snapping in the air.

His eyes were red and bloodshot. Grief for his son twisted his wrinkled face into something almost ferocious.

He was no stranger to losing loved ones. A ninja's life was spent in the company of death.

His teacher, Tobirama Senju, had died surrounded by Kumogakure forces. His wife, Biwako, had died in the Nine-Tails' Rampage. His student's student, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, had died sealing the Nine-Tails.

He had buried so many people that he had grown used to suppressing his private grief beneath his duties as Hokage.

But this time was different.

Kokoro no Suke—his eldest son, his most valued successor, the commander of the ANBU—had not died on a battlefield or at the hands of a foreign enemy. He had died in Konoha.

He had died in Konoha Hospital, killed by the signature Ninjutsu of the old comrade Hiruzen trusted most.

This was more than the pain of losing a son.

It was betrayal! The comrade he trusted most had stabbed him in the back.

"Danzo! You'll pay for this!"