"How…how could this happen?"
The gravesite was humble, almost stark against the backdrop of devastation. Minato's gravestone was carved from plain stone, its surface unpolished but sincere. The freshly turned dirt atop his resting place remained a loose mound, a fragile wound yet to be healed by time. Just beyond the grave, a thicket of berry bushes swayed gently in the breeze, their verdant hues clashing against the somberness of the moment. Trees encircled the area, their branches stretching outward to form a canopy that promised shade when the sun was high, though today the light seemed too dim to pierce the gloom.
Hiruzen shook his head, he saw the pain he felt in his chest reflected tenfold in Jiraiya's trembling shoulders. Minato may have been his successor but he was Jiraiya's first and true student, they'd known each other since Minato was a mere prodigy Genin and their bond strengthened to the point Minato named Jiraiya his child's godfather.
"I'm sorry, Jiraiya, he saved us. He saved the village." Hiruzen said, patting Jiraiya on the back as he knelt in front of the freshly dug grave the hero Hokage was buried, there hadn't been a funeral just yet as both Kushina and her newborn child were far too weak to attend, not to mention the chaotic state of the village.
"The village is not saved." Danzo said, his voice cutting through the moment like a jagged blade as he shuffled away from the grave, a cane in hand to help while his wounds healed. He scowled at the smouldering side of the village from atop the hill the grave was secreted, his grip a vice around his cane. "The people responsible for this destruction are still out there—arrogant, spiteful, and emboldened. Konoha has become their first victim."
Hiruzen sighed and stepped back from Jiraiya, the pair had just returned. A full two days after the Nine-Tails had been resealed, after thousands were dead and buried, after the Fourth Hokage died in sacrifice. He walked up to the edge Danzo glared over and took in the scarred sight of his village, over a quarter of Konoha lay in ruins, its proud infrastructure reduced to scorched rubble. Smoke still curled from the remains of homes and shops. Civilians and shinobi alike sifted through the wreckage, some searching for survivors, others recovering bodies. Each figure moved like a ghost, weighed down by loss and exhaustion.
It angered him just as well to look and think of the tragedy that occurred and even more so to think the culprit had escaped. But he knew Danzo's heart almost as well as he knew his own which is why he said, "This isn't the time to retaliate, we do not even know who the enemy is. The village must recover."
Danzo's neck snapped toward Hiruzen, a heated glare of passion burned in Danzo's sole visible eye, "We know who the enemy is, he told us himself."
Hiruzen raised a brow at this. He recalled that the pair had been on a mission to Amegakure, investigating and by the look of Danzo, confirming the presence of the Rinnegan in the village but since they'd returned, between his own duties helping search and rescue and Jiraiya's frantic reaction to the destruction, they hadn't had a chance to discuss anything but skimmed details Hiruzen had given them of the attack until now.
Jiraiya rose to his feet, his movements slow and deliberate. His face was pale, his red-rimmed eyes dry and haunted, "Uchiha Madara…or at least someone that claims to be him."
"You still don't believe it?" Danzo asked over his shoulder, looking up at the Sannin, "You fought him yourself or at least destroyed the environment around him and look, look what he promised."
"Promised?" Hiruzen stuttered, unsure and quickly lost in the conversation, "Just what happened in Amegakure?"
Danzo and Jiraiya shared a hard look, the kind that often followed the breaking of terrible terrible news. Hiruzen had seen it over his years as Hokage and he'd seen in all too often in the past two days as families were torn apart by loss so permanent. He braced his heart for what it could be as Jiraiya took a deep breath.
"I did as Minato asked, went ahead of Danzo and his ROOT." Jiraiya started, casting a side glance at the man in question as he didn't bother revealing what Minato truly wanted, "I snuck in, spoke to a number of locals…researched the 'Angel' and god the entire village placed their faith in. And then they found me."
Danzo grunted as he struck his cane, "Get to the point, Jiraiya, your student was the Angel and you searched for another, Nagato, who you claim was the sole wielder of the Rinnegan but now there isn't one or two or even three but four Rinnegan wielders!"
Hiruzen swallowed thickly, eyelids fluttering as each word confused him the more, "Four? That's—how is that possible?"
Danzo spun to face him, his lips in a depthless sneer, "And among them Jiraiya still couldn't identify the original, Nagato. There could still be more wielders, five, six, eight maybe, we can't know because we were forced to flee with the Angel I'd captured."
Hope blossomed in Hiruzen's heart, these two were clearly too emotional about the attack on the village to put their report together but a prisoner wouldn't have that problem, "Where is she?"
Danzo snorted and threw his face away while Jiraiya let out a dejected sigh, "We requested a Yamanaka for on site interrogation but…a Masked Man intercepted us, our hideout. I don't know how but he slaughtered the ROOT, none of us could touch him much less stop him from stealing Konan away."
Jiraiya's words drowned in the shadow of the mention of this Masked Man, it wasn't the first time Hiruzen had heard of him. He pursed his lips, eyes widening as he realized the connected implications, "Kushina…Kushina mentioned him."
"What?" Jiraiya gasped.
"She was barely conscious yesterday but she managed to tell us who unsealed the Nine-Tails, who killed everyone in their protection detail…even Biwako." Hiruzen breathed out the loss, "She described him as a Masked Man, one she later realized was an Uchiha who controlled the Nine-Tails with his Sharingan."
Danzo stood, his lips parted as he was taken aback but his sneer quickly returned, "He is the reason we returned, he said Konoha would be punished, that the shinobi world as we know it was going to change because he willed it. To create his new and true lasting peace…we must be destroyed…he said his name was Uchiha Madara, Hiruzen."
Hiruzen took Danzo's measured words in as his brows became permanently furrowed, in concern and in confusion. There was something strange about all of this, everything he'd learned now, it all felt too convenient if threatening.
"Minato met with the Mizukage before…before everything." Hiruzen said, his eyes carried past the village and towards the east where they'd found Kushina and her child, "He said…said the Mizukage was attacked by a Masked Man claiming to be Uchiha Madara, that he'd teleported into a battlefield and even spoken to him, challenged his…his idea of this new world. But what was most striking was what the Mizukage said."
"What did he say?" Jiraiya indulged.
"He refused to believe the Masked Man, the same one he couldn't touch, couldn't defeat, the one that captured his personal assistant and even unleashed something as powerful and rare as Wood Release. Said he was an imposter."
"Imposter?"
"The First Hokage's Wood Release?" Danzo started an edge in his voice, "How is this…who else but Madara could possibly?"
Hiruzen didn't have the answer and he personally doubted even Madara, a man meant to be decades long dead, would be alive and somehow capable of wielding the very power that defeated him.
Jiraiya shook his head, "In light of all this, I don't think the Mizukage's word matters all that much. Kushina said it was an Uchiha who took control of the Nine-Tails, the visual prowess required to do that…and the fact that we couldn't touch him, none of our attacks worked, granted we didn't have time to try them all but the message he wanted to communicate was clear. He's too strong to be touched."
Danzo struck his cane as he grunted, shaking his head at Jiraiya's words, "No, there is merit to the Mizukage's words, he's the reason we discovered any of this after all."
"You think there's a chance he's not who he says he is? That Uchiha Madara isn't the culprit behind this?" Jiraiya waved out at the smouldering village and the grave where their Hokage was buried.
"You said it then yourself, Jiraiya, he's a Masked Man, he could be anyone."
"Minato was…!" Jiraiya choked up, his fist balled beside him as he struggled, "He couldn't have been defeated by any other."
"He wasn't." Hiruzen stepped in before Danzo could respond, "He made the ultimate sacrifice, our Yondaime was an undefeated hero to the end."
Danzo nodded in agreement, "Indeed, however there are parts of this…tapestry of Masked Man encounters that leaves a skeptical taste in my mouth. From the timing of everything, the Mizukage is the first person to encounter him, isn't he?"
Hiruzen nodded and Danzo continued, "And then, we're intercepted, our prisoner stolen away and then this Masked Man chooses not to fight either of us but deliver a warning instead, to stay away from Amegakure. And then somehow, at the same time, the same day he sets loose the Nine-Tails in the village."
"Where are you going with this?" Jiraiya asked but Hiruzen could tell, the dots were laid out clearly.
"If there are multiple Rinnegan wielders as we have witnessed, what if…what if there are multiple Uchiha working against us?"
Jiraiya managed to laugh as he threw his face away, "We all know the Uchiha hasn't produced a shinobi capable of-"
"And what if they have? What if their sentiments for Uchiha Madara, their idolism of him never died and instead festered a hatred passed through generations. What if they've plotted all this time for the right moment. You can't deny they have motive aplenty, Fugaku secretly despises you, don't you know?"
Hiruzen ignored the attempt to begin naming suspects and shook his head, "The Uchiha are fiercely loyal, they wouldn't and after so many years? That doesn't explain why they would first attack the Mizukage, wouldn't they have unleashed the Nine-Tails first?"
Danzo shrugged, leaning on his cane as he overlooked the village, "I do not have all the answers but if I were to say who did, I'd start with Yagura Karatachi. The Mizukage seems very knowledgeable of recent and internal events of villages beyond his own and he's the only one to discredit the Masked Man's claim, there's a chance they sought to silence him for what he knew…however he managed to learn it."
"You're right." Hiruzen said, his words so shocking Danzo looked at him with visible surprise.
"He is?" Jiraiya wondered, "What part is he right about exactly?"
"The Mizukage, there's one more thing I haven't mentioned about the attack." Hiruzen began, looking between the two as he confessed a fact he secretly felt shameful for, "He helped us minimize the damage to the village and fought off the Nine-Tails long enough for Minato to return ready to seal it. And he was the one that carried Kushina and Naruto back to the village."
Hiruzen's confession was met with bewildered silence, he took advantage and added, "He's still in the village, I don't know how or why he came to our aid but Danzo's right, he knows more than he is letting on."
"Where is he?" Danzo simply asked.
"Hospital, his chakra network was nearly destroyed, he might not be awake."
"Then we will wake him."