"Pervy Sage! Sasuke! You're finally here!"
Naruto lit up the moment he spotted them.
Then Danzō stepped out from behind.
Naruto froze.
Even without knowing who the man was, the sheer malice rolling off him made Naruto's skin crawl. It was sharp, heavy, and unmistakably hostile.
"…Is that Danzō?" Naruto asked quietly.
"Hmph." Danzō flicked him a glance, irritation deepening. Even that fox brat had been brought here?
His eyes shifted, landing on three familiar figures nearby. Only then did he relax slightly as he strode over.
"What kind of advisors are you?" Danzō snapped. "Letting this farce happen instead of stopping it?"
The Third Hokage took a slow drag from his pipe, his gaze complicated, and said nothing.
Homura and Koharu were the same.
No rebuttal. No defense.
Danzō's unease spiked.
Then he heard it.
A sharp whistle of air from behind.
Danzō spun around just in time to dodge a flying kunai. His eyes locked onto its thrower.
Uchiha Sasuke.
In a place like this? During a ceremony?
Fury surged.
An open assassination attempt on a senior figure of Konoha was a capital crime. Danzō could kill Sasuke on the spot and no one would stop him.
He gathered chakra—
And pain exploded through his right eye.
"Aaargh!"
The scream tore out of him as blood poured between his fingers. Danzō staggered and rolled aside, clutching his face, then looked up with his remaining eye.
Standing there was Fujimoto Tōma.
Blood dripped from the kunai in his hand as he casually flicked it away.
Danzō's mind snapped together in an instant.
Flying Thunder God.
Sasuke's kunai hadn't been meant to kill. It had been a marker.
Tōma could have killed him outright. So why the eye?
Why did he know?
The realization hit like a blade.
That strike hadn't been random. It had been precise. Planned.
And worse—Tōma had destroyed his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Danzō's heart bled.
That eye had barely been used, and now it was gone.
If he was going to pay this price, then he would take something in return.
Something like the Hokage's seat.
"You dare!" Danzō roared. "Fujimoto Tōma! You conspired with an Uchiha to assassinate a high-ranking Konoha official! What punishment do you think you deserve?!"
Tōma glanced at him. Calm. Almost bored.
"Before you shout," he said lightly, "maybe look at yourself."
Danzō stiffened.
The bandages on his right arm had come undone.
Completely.
A pale, unnatural arm was exposed to the world.
Embedded in it were eyes.
Sharingan.
All of them.
The crowd below the Hokage Tower fell into stunned silence.
No one had expected violence. And certainly not this.
"Wh—what is that?! That's disgusting!"
"Those are… Sharingan, right?! Why are they on his arm?!"
The square erupted.
They didn't know who Danzō was, but anyone standing up there was clearly important. And now that same man had an arm full of Uchiha eyes.
Whatever the truth was, something was deeply wrong.
Even the Third Hokage and the two advisors stared in disbelief.
They knew exactly what that arm meant.
First Hokage cells.
Used like this.
Madness.
For the first time, even Homura and Koharu felt a chill. Executing Danzō might actually be the correct choice.
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed sharply.
"Sasuke…" Naruto said, worried.
Sasuke's body was trembling, murderous intent boiling over. Still, he forced it down.
"I'm fine," he said through clenched teeth.
He'd been warned.
But seeing it with his own eyes was different.
Then Tōma spoke again, his voice carrying effortlessly.
"People of Konoha. Welcome to my inauguration as the Sixth Hokage. Before I formally take the position, I must deal with a criminal whose death sentence has already been agreed upon by myself, the Fifth Hokage, the Third Hokage, and both senior advisors."
Just like that, Danzō was branded.
"You're slandering me!" Danzō screamed.
"Annoying," Tōma said.
The air shifted.
Danzō continued shouting, veins bulging, mouth moving wildly—
But no sound reached anyone.
Wind Release.
Perfectly controlled.
The crowd watched in shock as Danzō yelled in silence.
Even Danzō himself panicked. He was a master of Wind Release, yet he couldn't break through it. Not even slightly.
That was when he understood.
They'd all known.
Every single one of them.
Tōma continued calmly, "Normally, his crimes would be announced in full before judgment. But as you've seen, his arm contains multiple Sharingan. The eye I destroyed was special. It could override another person's will without them ever realizing it."
Murmurs turned into uproar.
"Mind control…?"
"That kind of power exists?!"
Tōma went on, "To prevent interference during this trial, that eye had to be removed first."
The proof was right there on Danzō's arm.
The Third Hokage inhaled deeply, eyes heavy.
"…Shisui."
He closed them in pain.
If Shisui had lived, would things have ended differently?
There were no answers now.
Only consequences.
Danzō stared at them all, hatred burning, trapped in absolute silence.
And the judgment had only just begun.