The Uchiha Massacre shocked the entire world. Clans do often get wiped out. It is happening in Kiri. But, Uchiha Clan is, was different. After Senju clan's decline, the Uchiha clan was the strongest clan in the world, and nobody could deny the fact.
Hyuga aren't the strongest. Even some of the remaining members of the Senju and Uchiha will win against it.
Yet, despite being the strongest clan, the Uchiha were wiped out by a 13 year old kid. And not only that, he also killed the Hokage's main advisor and leader of ROOT, Danzo Shimura. Well, they didn't know the involvement of 'Madara'.
"What should we do, Hiruzen?"
Koharu asked Hiruzen in the emergency meeting, in which Hiruzen clearly was despirited. Not only the Uchiha Clan was massacred, but Danzo was killed too.
While Danzo may have been his friend, who carried out the dark tasks that he wasn't capable of ordering, Hiruzen had been trying to reduce Danzo's power since his assassination attempt. But the village was at its weakest after Kyuubi attack, so it wasn't really the time for internal power struggle. As if the situation with Uchiha wasn't enough.
But, now both are gone.
"First of all, we will hide the fact that Danzo died. The Uchiha Massacre can't be hidden, so its best to temporarily have ninjas and free ANBUs do the policing job."
Both advisors nodded. Smaller countries fear Danzo. That's why they don't align themselves with other nations despite the huge bribes paid to them by other nations. Danzo doesn't appear much in public anyway.
"Did that girl make any predictions for this?"
"No-"
Suddenly, Hiruzen's eyes widened in realisation.
The posters of Izumi with Sasuke for his birthday...
If Sasuke's wife will be pregnant, why will Izumi be the only one consoling him that it will be alright?
Why not Mikoto, his mother? Or Fugaku, his father? Or Itachi, his brother?
Why did he miss such an obvious thing!?
Was it because of Orochimaru and Danzo's collusion? Or his decline thinking ability due to age? Or is it because he didn't discuss those posters with anyone else?
"There was something..."
Hiruzen took out the photos of the posters in the archive in his desk, and showed it to the two.
"Huh? Where did it show anything about the massacre?"
"Yeah? I don't find anything through this. Isn't it just a gift?"
Hiruzen sighed.
"I will have Jonin commander Nara Shikaku analyse Shiori's predictions from now on. If only I caught this earlier..."
"What did you catch, Hiruzen?"
"Forget it."
These drawings are something that not even the encryption and description department know about. Only select Clan heads and some ANBU members know about it, and the less people know it, the better.
"Alright. I will deal with the ROOT now. Do the paperwork till then."
"Hiruze-"
Hiruzen quickly left the office.
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With Danzo dead, the cursed seals on the tongues of the ROOTs disappeared, and most of them submitted to the Hokage, and shared most of the information.
A horrifying information that Hiruzen got was that Karin, the Uzumaki girl that Jiraiya has been searching for in Kusa, was already in Danzo's hands, and was being trained in ROOT.
Not only that, her mother, who was in critical state, was being held in a nutrition tank and was being used as an experimental subject.
Hiruzen was buried deep in guilt and regret. Orochimaru, Uchiha, Danzo, and even some of the last surviving members of Uzumaki clan.
'I can't leave the dark matters to someone else anymore. I have to toughen out.'
The cleanup of ROOT took almost a month, during which, many ROOTs deserted the village.
During the cleanup, Hiruzen also came across Project Nue. It was aiming to create an artificial Zero tails with DNA of Hashirama and Zero tails from the Land of Sky. And, a strange seal that he has never seen before. Its style wasn't the usual Uzumaki style that the world knows of as the only style.
'Is this from something before the Uzumaki clan? Where did Danzo get it?'
The body of the tiny creature was already made, yet, it didn't have a soul.
Instead of destroying this experiment like everything else, Hiruzen decided to continue it. Since it wasn't taking away someone else's life. It was creating one.
But, the scientists who were making it are from ROOT, who are very untrustworthy with the recent defections. What if they defect with the research?
Chakra absorption that this creature can do is something that every village will want to get their hands on.
After thinking about it, instead of someone from R&D department, Shiori's face came to his mind for some reason.
And when some days later, he looked through his mindscape after years, doubting if Danzo would have something to fool him without noticing, Hiruzen discovered something, and it made him make up his mind.
And that's why, he called Shiori to his office.
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