When the Third Hokage asked, Danzo had to answer

The lights in the Hokage Building stayed on late into the night.

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not summon Danzo immediately.

First, he went through the reports from the Resettlement Zone over the past two weeks again.

The rescue records from the Night of the Nine-Tails.

The records of conflicts in the Resettlement Zone.

The investigation into the relocated supply ledgers.

The timeline of Shisui being framed.

The report on witnesses being threatened through their access to medicine.

Viewed separately, each could be explained away as chaos.

But taken together, they formed a thread.

That thread wound around the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force, and around the shadows Root had left behind.

Hiruzen Sarutobi rubbed his brow.

He did not want to tear open Konoha's internal rifts at a time like this.

The Nine-Tails' Attack had only just passed, Minato had died in battle, and the village was still rebuilding.

But if he kept pretending not to see them, those rifts would only grow deeper in the shadows.

"Ask Danzo to come."

The Anbu operative bowed his head and vanished.

Not long afterward, Shimura Danzō entered the Conference Room with his cane.

His expression was as cold and grim as ever.

"Hiruzen, did you call me here this late because of the Uchiha's reports?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at him.

"Because of the Resettlement Zone."

Danzo did not sit down.

"The Resettlement Zone is in chaos. It needs monitoring."

"So Root has indeed been operating there?"

The Conference Room fell silent for a moment.

Danzo's single eye narrowed slightly.

"Limited surveillance."

His answer was steady.

"After the Nine-Tails' Attack, the Uchiha remain under suspicion. The Konoha Military Police Force is also expanding its influence in the Resettlement Zone. Root has a duty to prevent the Uchiha from exploiting reconstruction efforts to manipulate public opinion."

Hiruzen Sarutobi asked gravely, "Why were these operations not registered with the Hokage?"

Danzo looked at him.

"Root handles risks the village cannot see."

"Being unseen does not mean they need no boundaries."

Hiruzen Sarutobi pushed the witness protection filing onto the table.

"Someone used access to medicine to threaten witnesses into retracting their statements."

Danzo glanced at it.

"This report does not prove it was Root."

"I did not say it was definitely Root."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was very low.

"What I am asking is whether Root conducted any additional operations in the Resettlement Zone or during the Konoha Military Police Force's observation period without registering them with the Hokage."

That question was harder to evade than a direct accusation.

Danzo could deny threatening witnesses.

He could deny tampering with records.

But he had already admitted to limited surveillance.

"Yes."

Danzo finally spoke.

"But only observation and risk assessment."

"Did you make contact with civilians in the Resettlement Zone?"

"When necessary."

"Did you make contact with the Konoha Military Police Force's recordkeeping process?"

"There was no direct interference."

Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his eyes.

"Direct?"

Danzo said coldly, "Hiruzen, are you interrogating me?"

The atmosphere in the Conference Room grew heavy.

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not back down.

"I am the Hokage."

At those words, Danzo's fingers tightened almost imperceptibly around his cane.

Hiruzen Sarutobi continued, "Root may exist, but it cannot bypass the Hokage's command and privately influence order in the Resettlement Zone while the village is rebuilding after a disaster."

Danzo looked at him.

"You believe the Uchiha's story?"

"I believe too many irregularities have already appeared in the records."

Hiruzen Sarutobi said, "I also believe that if these irregularities remain uninvestigated, relations between the Uchiha and the village will become even harder to salvage."

Danzo sneered. "That is exactly what Uchiha Gen wants you to think."

"Perhaps."

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not deny it.

Danzo's gaze darkened.

Hiruzen Sarutobi continued, "But he put the evidence on the table. As long as those leads exist, I cannot pretend I have not seen them."

Those words left Danzo silent for a moment.

That was precisely what he hated.

Uchiha Gen did not cry injustice.

He did not make accusations.

He simply brought one verifiable lead after another before the Hokage.

Hiruzen could dislike the Uchiha.

He could suspect the Uchiha, too.

But as long as he still acknowledged himself as Hokage, he had to respond to those leads.

"Starting today."

Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke slowly.

"If Root wishes to continue monitoring the Resettlement Zone and matters concerning the Konoha Military Police Force's observation period, it must register the scope of its operations with the Hokage Office."

Danzo's voice turned colder. "You intend to restrict Root?"

"I intend to know what Root is doing."

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at him.

"Especially in matters involving the Uchiha."

Danzo did not answer immediately.

Only after a long while did he say, "I will submit the necessary scope."

Necessary.

That word left him room to maneuver.

Hiruzen Sarutobi caught it.

But he did not press further.

Getting Danzo to admit to limited surveillance and putting Root's registration on the table was already the limit of what he could achieve today.

Any further, and it would become an open rupture.

Konoha could not withstand that now.

After Danzo left, an Anbu operative appeared in the Conference Room.

"Lord Third Hokage, should we notify the Uchiha?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi was silent for a moment.

"Notify them only of the result."

"Root's operational scope will be registered with the Hokage."

"Do not mention interrogating Danzo."

"Yes."

It was almost midnight when the message reached the Uchiha Clan Compound.

After reading the brief notice from the Hokage Building, Fugaku remained silent for a long time.

Uchiha Gen stood beside him and saw that line as well.

Root's operational scope would be registered with the Hokage.

It was short.

And vague.

But it meant one thing.

For the first time, the Uchiha Reform effort had forced Root to reveal a sliver of its outline from the shadows.

Fugaku said gravely, "The Third Hokage will not pursue this publicly."

"Not now."

Uchiha Gen spoke.

"But Danzo had to answer."

Fugaku looked at him.

"Is this what you wanted?"

"Only the first step."

Uchiha Gen shook his head.

"Before, Root never had to explain itself. Now, if it keeps interfering, it has to take Hokage registration and Anbu review into account."

Standing by the door, Shisui said quietly, "In other words, they will change their methods."

Uchiha Gen nodded.

"They will."

He looked at the notice on the table.

"Next time, they may not wear Root masks, and they may not even be people from inside the village. As long as Danzo wants to avoid leaving more traces of Root, he will use cleaner hands."

Fugaku's expression darkened further.

He suddenly realized that what the Uchiha faced now was not merely Root.

It was a shadow that could change identities, change its story, and change its pawns.

The older clansman also looked at the notice, his expression conflicted.

"Just that one sentence?"

There was resentment in his voice.

"They threatened witnesses and interfered with records, and all we get in the end is a sentence about registration?"

Uchiha Gen did not deny it.

"This is as far as we can go for now."

The older clansman frowned. "Does this count as a win?"

"No."

Uchiha Gen looked at the notice.

"But before, Root did not even have to give us that sentence."

The hall fell silent for a moment.

That was the most tangible change.

Not a reckoning.

Not a conviction.

But a department once hidden entirely in the shadows being forced, for the first time, to establish boundaries in matters involving the Uchiha.

"Then how do we investigate?"

Uchiha Makoto could not help asking.

After the witnesses had retracted their statements, he had become especially sensitive to the phrase "unidentified individuals."

Uchiha Gen looked at him.

"The same way as before."

"Do not look at identity first."

"Look at actions first."

He said, "Whoever interferes with records, whoever creates fear, whoever isolates witnesses, whoever turns concrete facts into vague accusations-record them first."

Uchiha Makoto nodded and tightened his grip on his clipboard.

At the same time, beneath Root.

Danzo tossed the registration scroll in his hand onto the desk.

"Hiruzen has started asking about Root operations."

The Root ninja knelt on one knee, not daring to speak.

There was no anger in Danzo's voice.

That only made it more chilling.

"Since Root can no longer leave any traces, we won't use Root personnel."

"Activate our outside pawns."

The Root ninja looked up.

Danzo said slowly, "The Resettlement Zone still needs medicinal herbs and cloth. Merchant caravans from outside will be entering Konoha."

"Send someone with a clean record."

"No Root mask, no official Konoha affiliation."

He paused.

"Let the Uchiha know that Root members aren't the only ones who can do Root's work."