Auditing Accounts! Tearing Open the High-Ups' Fig Leaf

"He even swallowed Uchiha funds."

Sasuke raised the ledgers into the firelight. The edges of the paper were yellowed, and the Root stamps were pressed one by one after the allocation entries.

The Third Hokage stared at those ledgers, his pipe turning half a turn in his palm without being lit.

Mitokado Homura reached out to take them. "Such ledgers involve village secrets. Hand them over to the Hokage Building to handle."

Sasuke pulled the ledgers back. "Lord Advisor's hands are so fast. Are you here to audit the accounts, or to collect Danzo's corpse?"

"You are impertinent!"

"I'm sick of hearing those two words tonight." Sasuke handed the ledgers to Shikaku Nara. "Clan Head Shikaku, please read them out to everyone. Keep your voice clear, and don't let Lord Advisor say I misread."

Shikaku received the ledgers, and the moment his brow swept across the first page, his expression sank.

Inoichi Yamanaka leaned in for a closer look. "Konoha Military Police Force post-war death benefits, transferred to the Root Special Operations Fund?"

Akimichi Choza's hand stopped in front of his belly. "Death benefits?"

A one-armed veteran squeezed out from the crowd, his forehead protector blackened with age. "My son died at the border three years ago, and his benefits have been dragged out all this time, with the excuse that the village finances are tight."

Sasuke looked at him. "What is your name?"

"Murata Ryosuke."

Sasuke pointed at the ledgers. "Clan Head Shikaku, find the border death benefits from three years ago."

Shikaku flipped through a few pages and read, "Murata Nobuyuki, war death benefits of three hundred thousand ryō, already allocated."

Murata Ryosuke's face trembled. "I didn't get a single ryō!"

The plaza immediately erupted.

"My family was dragged along too!"

"My younger brother's subsidy was only half-issued!"

"Root uses martyr money to raise assassins?"

Mitokado Homura shouted at Shikaku, "Don't read blindly! The authenticity of the ledgers is yet to be determined!"

Sasuke raised his hand, and the Konoha Military Police Force ninja escorted over two captured Root members. One Root operative's jaw had already been dislocated, while the other was still struggling.

Sasuke walked up to the operative who could still speak. "Were the ledgers searched from your body?"

The Root operative gritted his teeth. "I don't know."

Sasuke picked up a gold note and waved it before his eyes. "Root seal, sealed storage number, transfer route, all right here. You say you don't know?"

The operative closed his mouth.

Sasuke looked at Inoichi. "Clan Head Yamanaka, can you check his memory?"

The Third Hokage spoke immediately. "Sasuke, interrogation requires a procedure."

"Procedure?" Sasuke slammed the gold note onto the ledgers. "Did Danzo have a procedure when he transferred illicit funds? Did Root have a procedure when they tried to kill me? With the whole village watching now, does Lord Hokage still want to let him sleep and think about it slowly?"

Inoichi looked at the Third Hokage. "Lord Hokage, preliminary on-site memory reading will only confirm the source of the ledgers and will not involve classified content."

The Third Hokage was silent for a moment. "Do it."

Mitokado Homura wanted to speak again, but Utatane Koharu grabbed his sleeve. "Stop trying to block this."

Inoichi walked up to the Root operative and pressed his palm onto the operative's forehead. The operative began to struggle, and Uchiha Takaya pinned a knee down on him.

"Don't move."

A moment later, Inoichi released his hand, his expression unsightly. "The ledgers were indeed retrieved from the Root east-side secret storehouse. The order came from Danzo's direct order, instructing a transfer to outside the west gate."

Sasuke asked, "Is there any Uchiha allocation inside?"

Inoichi nodded. "There is. There are also martyr death benefits, mission disability benefits, and Military Police Force equipment funds."

The crowd exploded.

Murata Ryosuke gripped his empty sleeve and roared at the steps of the Hokage Building. "Lord Hokage, where is my son's blood money?"

Another woman pushed her way out, holding a child. "After my husband died, the Hokage Building said only fifty thousand ryō was left. The books clearly said twenty thousand!"

"Refund the money!"

"Audit the accounts!"

"Drag Danzo out!"

The Third Hokage's face darkened inch by inch. He looked at Sasuke. "To what extent do you want to audit these accounts?"

Sasuke walked to the bottom of the steps. "Lord Hokage is asking the wrong question. It's not a matter of how far I want to audit, but how far Danzo gorged himself."

Mitokado Homura couldn't help chiming in. "Village funding allocations are complex, and wartime has wartime arrangements. You cannot convict someone based on a few ledgers."

Sasuke looked at him. "Then let's audit."

Mitokado Homura was choked into silence.

Sasuke raised a hand and pointed at the Hokage Building. "Starting tonight, we audit the Uchiha annual military funds, the Military Police Force equipment funds, the death benefits, and the disability subsidies."

Utatane Koharu's face shifted. "You have no authority to audit the Hokage Building Finance Department."

Sasuke turned to face the crowd. "Everyone, Lord Advisor says I have no authority."

Murata Ryosuke immediately cried out, "Then do I have the authority to ask about my son's money?"

The woman holding the child shouted as well, "Where is my husband's money?"

Several civilian ninja squeezed out along with them. "We all want an audit!"

Sasuke looked back at Utatane Koharu. "Did you hear that? Right now, it's not the Uchiha who want an audit-it's the people whose death benefits were embezzled who want it."

The Third Hokage closed his eyes for a moment. "Establish a Temporary Financial Audit Committee."

Sasuke picked up on it immediately. "The members?"

"Hokage Building Finance Department, ANBU, Military Police Force, and clan representatives."

"Every single ledger is to have three-way archived copies." Sasuke stared at the Third Hokage. "The originals shall not be sent into the Hokage Building alone."

Mitokado Homura raged, "Sasuke Uchiha, you are bypassing the Hokage Building!"

Sasuke didn't even look at him. He walked up to the one-armed veteran and flipped the ledgers to the page for his son. "Mr. Murata, based on this figure, your family was shorted three hundred thousand ryō."

Murata Ryosuke's lips trembled. "Three hundred thousand ryō."

"Lord Advisor says I am bypassing the Hokage Building." Sasuke held the ledgers out before him. "What do you think?"

Murata Ryosuke turned around, staring at Mitokado Homura. "I only know that my son's benefits were stolen. Whoever blocks the audit is a thief!"

The shouts inside the plaza merged into one.

"Whoever blocks it is a thief!"

"Audit the accounts!"

"Audit the Root!"

The Third Hokage abruptly raised a hand, and the ANBU immediately blocked the agitated crowd. He looked at Mitokado Homura with a warning in his eyes.

Mitokado Homura's chest heaved, but he didn't dare speak again.

Sasuke walked back to the ledgers, bent down, and picked up a slip of thin paper tucked inside them. Written on the paper was a string of medicinal herbs, equipment, and sealing containers.

"Clan Head Yamanaka, what is this?"

Inoichi finished reading, his brow tightly furrowed. "A Medical Equipment Purchase Order."

Akimichi Choza took it over. "The quantities are far too large."

Shikaku flipped to the subsequent flow of goods. "The Root Underground Laboratory."

Someone in the crowd drew in a sharp breath.

Sasuke looked at the Third Hokage. "Lord Hokage, the death benefits went into the laboratory, and Uchiha corpses had their eyes gouged out. Would you like to tell everyone right now that Danzo was simply confused about his accounting?"

The Third Hokage's hand holding the pipe froze in mid-air. "ANBU, immediately seal all storehouses mentioned in the ledgers."

Sasuke added, "The Military Police Force will accompany you. Clan representatives will witness."

This time the Third Hokage did not refute him. "Accompany them."

Uchiha Takaya immediately called out names. "You ten, come with me!"

Shikaku closed the ledgers, his gaze landing on Sasuke. "Clan Head Sasuke, did you anticipate long ago that Danzo would transfer the ledgers?"

Sasuke did not answer the question. "When thieves steal things, they always move what they are most afraid of having seen first."

Shikaku understood and did not pursue the matter further.

Another ANBU operative came running from the rear of the Hokage Building, holding a half-burned scroll scorched by fire. "Lord Hokage, the Root west storehouse caught fire. We managed to salvage a portion of the documents."

Sasuke reached out his hand. "Let me see."

The ANBU operative looked at the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage nodded.

The scroll was unrolled. Most of the handwriting had been burned away, leaving only a few lines that could still be read.

"Uchiha death benefits, transferred to the Wood Release Experiment, Phase Three."

Inoichi's face shifted. "The Wood Release Experiment?"

Akimichi Choza's expression changed as well. "Wasn't that called off long ago?"

The Third Hokage's pipe dropped onto the steps, producing a sharp, clear ring.

Sasuke lowered his head to look at that half-burned scroll, softly reciting the final remaining line of characters.

"Experimental material sources: battlefield corpses, missing shinobi, Uchiha spare eyeballs..."

The sound of Uchiha clansmen drawing their blades merged into a single wave.

Just as the Third Hokage opened his mouth to speak, another ANBU operative burst out from the side door of the Hokage Building, blood staining his face. "Lord Hokage, a living person was discovered in the underground laboratory!"

The ANBU operative swallowed, his gaze avoiding the Uchiha crowd. "There is a child inside, with a Sharingan transplanted onto his body. He said... he knows Danzo."