After the unrest ended, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not rush to take Sunagakure to task. Instead, he first organized people to carry out repairs.
Fortunately, Konoha's ninja had acted quickly, evacuating all the nearby civilians as soon as the unrest broke out.
So the only problem now was restoring the buildings.
While everyone else was hard at work, Danzo stood in silence inside Root's base.
Every single member of Root was there on standby, and had been since the unrest began.
Yes, Root's members were a considerable force, and Konoha would have suffered fewer losses had they joined the fighting, but Danzo had never intended to send them out to help.
Because, in a certain sense, Root's members were all Danzo's private troops!
They only obeyed Danzo's orders. In other words, if his orders conflicted with the Hokage's, they would stand firmly behind Danzo.
Yet Danzo treated these loyal people as nothing more than tools-very useful tools.
Even on a mission that meant certain death, Root's members would not hesitate, and Danzo would feel nothing.
Because Danzo believed-or rather, it was an unwritten understanding in the Shinobi World-that a ninja's worth lay in death, not life!
How a ninja died determined their worth.
Since they would die either way, they naturally had to die for him, Danzo. Only then would their worth be realized to the fullest.
So, to preserve his own manpower, Danzo had not sent Root's members to intercept the Sand Ninja.
And now that the unrest was over, he had even less reason to send anyone out.
Hiruzen Sarutobi naturally understood this too, but although it gave him a headache, there was nothing he could do. He could hardly punish Danzo for this-and he lacked the power to punish him anyway!
At that moment, half of Danzo's face