Seeing Danzo’s cold corpse, sadness covered the 3rd’s face, and he seemed to collapse in place completely.
Ryo’s purpose wasn’t to hurt the old man’s feelings. Immediately, he took out an Ice Scalpel and cut the sleeve on Danzo’s arm.
“Ryo Yamanaka, what are you doing?! He’s already dead! You don’t need to go too far!” The 3rd’s sadness turned into anger as he thought that Ryo’s was about to mutilate the corpse of his old friend, and he immediately a.s.sumed an aggressive stance.
“Sandaime sama, don’t worry. I’m just uncovering the evidence for you.” Ryo pointed to Danzo’s arm.
The 3rd looked to where Ryo pointed; his face turned gloomy, and his agitation went down immediately.
Danzo’s whole arm was fully white, completely different from his body. The 3rd immediately recognized the Zetsu’s color.
On Danzo’s arm, there were nine scar-like cracks. Ryo then opened Danzo palm to expose the tenth.
“Sandaime sama, here’s the evidence. Danzo had transplanted a total of ten Sharingans into his arm, ones that he had dug out off the corpses for the Uchiha on that night. If you still don’t believe me, you could go to Root’s headquarter yourself. There are dozens of three tomoe Sharingans there, along with hundreds of one and two tomoe Sharingans.”
This explanation both shocked and convinced the 3rd to a great extent. However, he didn’t understand why Danzo would do this. Why 10 eyes? Why not just one or two? This made him rather skeptical.
When Ryo heard the 3rd’s question, he looked up at Sak.u.mo worriedly. He couldn’t just expose the secret of the Izanagi to the 3rd.
The two felt clueless for a moment, before Ryo said: “Sak.u.mo san, I want you to bring Fugaku san if possible.”
Sak.u.mo understood, and immediately agreed, sending Kakashi himself to the Uchiha’s district.
A short while later, Fugaku arrived to the office, and Ryo communicated with him telepathically and told him about the situation.
Both Ryo and Fugaku knew the secret, and Sak.u.mo also understood that there was a secret of the Uchiha clan that had to be exposed. Not wanting to force anything on Fugaku, he remained silent.
The 3rd also was thinking the same, but since the matter was related to Danzo, he had to ask: “Fugaku, we asked you to come here because we want to ask you something!”
“Please ask, Sandaime sama!” Fugaku’s tone was very respectful.
The 3rd still looked rather embarra.s.sed. Asking about a clan’s secrets is not respectful thing to do.
“Well, Fugaku dono, if I told you that someone had transplanted some Sharingan into their body, what other purpose would they want other than obtaining your Genjutsu and perception abilities?”
“Other purpose? What do you mean, Sandaime?” Fugaku face instantly changed.
The 3rd looked even more embarra.s.sed, and after some hesitation, he continued: “I mean, does the Sharingan grant any other… ‘secret’ ability?”
“Sandaime, you’re asking me to reveal my clan’s secret?” Fugaku’s tone fluctuated to some extent, as if he was trying to contain the anger in his heart.
“Cough… Fugaku dono, this is because…” The 3rd wanted to tell Fugaku about his reasons, but he didn’t know how he would react to Danzo digging out his clansmen’s eyes…
“Fugaku dono, is there no way you could disclose this secret to the 3rd?” Sak.u.mo saw the 3rd’s hesitation and took the chance to give Fugaku some leverage.
“That wouldn’t be out of the question, but I have a condition. I would hope that the Sandaime would support out return to Konoha’s center before other factions in the village.”
Fugaku already knew that he was going to be asked about Izanagi, so he immediately began thinking about a way to benefit from this situation.
Hearing Fugaku’s request, the Sandaime thought for a very long time, before finally agreeing.
Then Fugaku told him all about Izanagi. By the time he was done, the 3rd completely believed Ryo’s story.
Now, to the 3rd, the Sharingan had a lot more value. All was explicable this way. Danzo had the excuse he needed in the clan’s thoughts about a coup d’état, and he agitated the village against the clan by using his own man, Maan, against the village.
Attacking Shisui, he had all he needed to turn another powerful Uchiha against the members of his own clan, getting his perfect opportunity to dig out the eyes he wanted.
After understanding the “truth”, the poor Sandaime looked worn and tired, once again seeming to instantly age. He said, with lots of ache in his heart: “Sak.u.mo, I know Danzo had committed a preposterous act, but he had paid for that with his life. I hope you would agree to have his name engraved on Konoha’s memorial stone.”
“Sandaime, as much as I want to grant your wish, that is now simply impossible. By now, the village knows a lot about Danzo’s action, and they would never agree.” Sak.u.mo answered, feeling bad for the old man.
“How about Homura?”
“Homura san had not yet been linked to these actions in the eyes of the public. I believe that should be possible?” Ryo answered, and Sak.u.mo nodded.
Ryo was also feeling bad for the old Hokage. He did not want to hurt him any further. The last thing Ryo wanted was for hatred to persist in the village after going so far.
Sak.u.mo was somewhat unwilling, but he agreed anyway for the same reasons.
The 3rd saw the two agree, and did not say anything. He simple took his old pal’s corpse and left the office.
Ryo and Sak.u.mo sighed after he left, then looked at each other and smile.
“I did not expect the 3rd would not react more violently. You knew the old man much better than me after all, Sak.u.mo san.”
“The Sandaime is also the disciple of the 1st Hokage, Ryo. His loyalty to the village knows no bounds, and it goes beyond our own. Unlike Danzo, he truly would never intentionally harm the village.”
“Indeed. I guess his lenience with Danzo all those years made me rather unfair to him…”
“Well, that’s behind us now. The next task is to get the Uchiha back to the center of the village!”