Konoha High Command's Suspicions

What Root had done back then was far from honorable. Danzo had joined forces with Hanzō to deal a brutal blow to an organization called Akatsuki.

Black cloaks patterned with red clouds were Akatsuki's uniform.

"But the mask doesn't fit... Are they trying to pin this on Madara? He's mysterious, but some people know he exists. Or has Madara joined that organization?" Danzo narrowed his visible eye.

He remembered something: Uchiha Itachi had never told them how he had met the Mysterious Man who called himself Madara Uchiha.

"That Mysterious Man claiming to be Madara was most likely responsible for the Fourth Hokage's death. How did Uchiha Itachi meet him?" Danzo wondered.

"Judging by the restored surveillance footage, the Mysterious Organization Itachi joined may be Akatsuki. That Mysterious Man claiming to be Madara may be the one controlling it. Otherwise, the footage—and that mask—make no sense." Danzo thought of an enemy he had once worked with. "Things must be going badly for Hanzō now."

The man once called a demigod had grown old and frail. The so-called demigod had become a political creature consumed by power, just like Danzo's old friend Hiruzen Sarutobi.

To Danzo, the so-called Shinobi Hero was a joke. Nothing remained of his former glory.

All Danzo saw was an old man clinging to the Hokage's seat, unwilling to let go of power.

"Send two standard squads into the Land of Rain to gather intelligence. I need to know Hanzō's current situation," Danzo told the waiting Root Ninja.

The realization that such a dangerous organization existed in the Shinobi World left Danzo unable to sit still. He knew nothing about it.

There was no doubt this Mysterious Organization would target Konoha. Without information, they would be at a severe disadvantage when the time came to respond.

"Even Itachi can't send word back..." Danzo felt he needed to step up his research into certain Forbidden Techniques.

Konoha was still too weak. A dangerous organization existed in the Shinobi World, and Konoha knew nothing about it.

"What has Hiruzen been doing all these years? Is the entire intelligence department useless?" Danzo fumed.

With that thought, Danzo told the technician beside him, "Print a still of this image from the surveillance footage."

Before long, Danzo took the photograph and headed straight for the Hokage's office.

At the Hokage Building, Danzo dispensed with courtesy and opened the office door without knocking. He tossed the photograph onto Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk.

Danzo looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Hiruzen, have your intelligence department find out which organization in the Shinobi World wears clothes like these."

Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced at Danzo, apparently displeased that he had barged in without knocking, as though the Hokage's authority meant nothing.

He picked up the printed photograph. After a moment's thought, he realized he had never seen anything like it.

"Someone caught on Root's surveillance footage? What have you found?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked.

"All I know is that they probably belong to a dangerous organization," Danzo replied.

"Danzo, you're still hiding things from me!?" Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice hardened. "If that were all, would you have come to me?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi knew Danzo's habits well. If Danzo thought he could handle something, he acted on his own—just as he had with White Fang and, more recently, the Uchiha Clan.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could tell what Danzo was up to the moment he so much as twitched.

Danzo had brought the photograph here because he thought the matter was beyond him.

"Hiruzen, I..." Danzo hesitated.

"Hmm?" Hiruzen Sarutobi gave a sharp grunt.

Danzo lowered his head. "At the scene of the Uchiha Clan Massacre, I encountered a Mysterious Man who called himself Madara Uchiha. Root fought him and lost several people. His abilities were strange—none of our attacks had any effect. Itachi asked him to help wipe out the Uchiha Clan."

Hiruzen Sarutobi flew into a rage. "You're only telling me this now!? Even if he was an impostor, you should have reported it to me immediately!"

Bang! Hiruzen Sarutobi slammed his hand onto the desk. "Do you realize he was almost certainly the one behind the Nine-Tails' Attack!?"

Danzo lowered his head slightly and said nothing. He knew that once Hiruzen Sarutobi's anger subsided, everything would be fine.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was furious. His old friend had kept something this important from him. If this incident had not happened, Hiruzen Sarutobi might have died without ever learning that such a person existed.

"Itachi..." Thinking of Uchiha Itachi gave Hiruzen Sarutobi another headache. Itachi had known that such a dangerous man had his eye on the village, yet he had said nothing to the Hokage. He had known the man was responsible for releasing the Nine-Tails, yet he had invited him to take part in wiping out the Uchiha Clan.

If I'd known someone this dangerous was out there, I never would have tacitly allowed Danzo to... Hiruzen Sarutobi regretted his decision.

The village had a Wood Release ninja now, but Yamato's skills were good enough for building houses, not for fighting someone with the Mangekyō Sharingan who could control the Nine-Tails. That would be a joke.

Under the circumstances, the best way to counter a Mangekyō Sharingan was with another Mangekyō Sharingan.

"You're saying this man calling himself Madara Uchiha joined or founded some Mysterious Organization?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, pointing at the photograph as his anger eased.

"Yes. That's my conclusion based on intelligence Root has gathered. I suspect they're a dangerous organization based in the Land of Rain." Danzo did not say what intelligence had led him there.

Root had done too many things the Hokage knew nothing about. Danzo could not speak of those.

Hiruzen Sarutobi understood at once. Root had been secretly up to something again.

For all he knew, Root had been raided because of a grudge it had made with this organization in the past.

Tap, tap, tap. Hiruzen Sarutobi tapped the desk three times, and an Anbu wearing an animal mask appeared before it with the Body Flicker Technique, kneeling on one knee.

Hiruzen Sarutobi slid the photograph across the desk and looked at the Anbu. "Take this to the intelligence department. Find out which organization in the Shinobi World wears these clothes. If we have no information, start gathering it immediately."

The Anbu took the photograph and vanished from the office.

Before long, the Anbu returned to the Hokage's office with a thick stack of documents.

"Lord Hokage, we found relevant information in reports sent back by our intelligence agents in the Land of Earth." The Anbu respectfully placed the documents on Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk.

"Good." Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded at the Anbu. "You may go."