The meeting room in the Hokage Building was packed again the next day.
Yesterday had been for dredging up the past. Today was for delivering the outcome.
The representatives of the various clans were the same, and their seats were much the same, too.
Only now, no one pushed a dossier toward the center of the table.
Yesterday, old records had been spread all over the floor.
Today, there was only one draft on the table.
Some looked at that draft.
Some looked at Danzo across from them.
No one's gaze settled on the same spot.
The Third Hokage sat at the head of the table, a completed draft of the verdict pinned beneath his hand.
He did not read it first.
"What must be acknowledged must be acknowledged," he said.
The words were quiet, but they settled over the entire room.
They set the scales on the table before anything else.
The Hyuga representative spoke.
"We don't want a dead man," he said. "We want to make sure there won't be another Danzo."
The Ino-Shika-Cho delegation nodded.
"That old business with Root," the one seated in the middle said, lowering his voice, "don't turn it back on us."
The representative of the Inuzuka Clan did not lean forward. He simply left them with one sentence: "There needs to be an explanation for the ones from my clan who never came back."
The Aburame delegation said nothing, but did not object.
The Third Hokage pressed his hand against the draft.
"He must remain within the system." The Third Hokage kept his hand on the draft. "We cannot let someone like him wield real power again."
Only after the voices in the room subsided did he begin reading the first provision.
His delivery was level.
No different from when he read