Hiruzen looks at the medical records of Akari Uchiha on his table, and bites back a curse. Things recently have been bad enough already, with everyone sensing the tension between Konohagakure and the Uchiha clan, one of the biggest and most influential clans in the village. The only people managing to somewhat ease the tension on the Uchiha's side are Shisui and Akari, and with Shisui always on a mission, and Akari currently in the hospital, the Uchihas are jumping to conclusions, with some of them saying that Akari was openly attacked by ninja under orders by him.
"Is there any information about the ninjas that attacked Akari Uchiha?" He asks the ninja nearby, bracing for a worst-case scenario.
And still somehow gets taken aback when the Chunin who carried Akari took out several blank ANBU masks, with some of them cracked and missing large pieces. This is so much worse than he thought, and he had literally no expectations to begin with before.
"Hokage, these are the masks Miss Uchiha gave me before she fainted, she said that you knew something about these and, to quote her, can put two and two together." The Chunin bows. "Is this classified? Should I leave the room?"
"Please do, I'm afraid that this is something I have to figure out myself. Do not talk about what happened here. Leave the masks on the desk." He replies. "It's best if information about those items are to not reach anyone."
The Chunin puts down the blank masks gently, then turns around and leaves. After staring at the blank masks for a while, he gestures to the ANBU who is guarding him currently to show himself.
"Hokage?" The agent appears in a puff of smoke and asks, "You called for me?"
"Check if these masks are ones that we issued out, and if the quality is the same as normal ANBU masks." He orders. "If they are, I would like a list of ANBU agents that have worn these masks before."
The ANBU agent takes the mask and inspects it. "These masks seem to be real, but the bat mask was decommissioned ten years ago with no one currently wearing it. The agents that are wearing the boar mask, snake mask, and ox mask are all out of the village currently on a B-rank mission, and the agent with the hawk mask is currently in ANBU headquarters, recovering from a previous mission." The ANBU agent reports. "I will give the list of agents wearing the masks to you as soon as possible, may I leave?" He asks.
"You're dismissed, thank you." Hiruzen says absentmindedly, lost in thought. These blank ANBU masks seem to be pointing to one supposedly disbanded organization, ROOT. And he isn't too keen on dealing with that just yet.
Even if it was officially disbanded after the Third Ninja War, Danzo have kept some of the remaining agents and have been in control of a large personal ninja force ever since. He supposedly recruits his agents from orphanages or from the streets of some unsavory parts of Konohagakure, but frankly both of them know that it's all a farce. He just didn't want to make an enemy of someone who was extremely close to himself before, so he turned a blind eye every time something sketchy came up.
Now? Danzo's personal army has grown too large for him to deal with alone, and with the influence Danzo has in Konohagakure, the war hawk is virtually untouchable. He has always tolerated Danzo's actions as most of it resulted in the good of Konohagakure, sometimes even causing chaos in enemy nations and collecting important information, but fighting Akari Uchiha was a dangerous move. In this delicate situation, if Akari Uchiha's injuries turn out to be permanent, the Uchiha will no doubt be angered, and rightly so. Some clans might even take their side because of Akari's connections. At that point…
He might need to resign, or risk a full-blown civil war. He fights back the urge to grab a cigar and take a smoke.
Danzo is a pragmatic man, often making hard decisions to ensure that the village stays strong. But this former friend of his shows his immense hatred for the Uchiha clan openly, always making radical decisions to sabotage their members, either politically or physically. He has pushed for limited authority for the Uchiha clan head and is the source of a large amount of tension between the village and the Uchiha clan. With this latest development, not only did he endanger the life of a highly skilled Konohagakure ninja, he even risked the village's safety and stability as a whole. If the cold war becomes more serious, other major hidden villages will no doubt swoop in and try to capitalize on Konohagakure's weakened state, either by outright declaring war or starting border skirmishes to further weaken his village.
He and his predecessors have worked hard to ensure that this village stands all, in the face of adversity. He cannot… he will not be the one responsible for all this effort unraveling.
"Sir, the list of ANBU agents that wore the shape of the blank masks are delivered to your table, only five of the agents that wore those masks are currently available, and only one of them has been unaccounted for at that time, with the others all witnessed to be with someone else at the time of Akari Uchiha's attack. Most of those masks are also not commissioned by active ANBU forces, so it can be concluded that we did not issue those to our ninja." The ANBU informs him, coming in through the window and disrupting Hiruzen's line of thought. "It may be a similar situation to the Kumo's attempted kidnapping of the Hyuga heiress, or someone with a grudge hiring skilled assassins."
"I have no more immediate need for your services right now, please continue guarding the tower." He replies, taking a look at the file as the ANBU body flickers away. Perhaps it is finally time for him to monitor Danzo's actions more closely and no longer turn a blind eye to his schemes, with his actions getting more and more irrational as time passes. Plans will need to be made, and loyal ninjas will need to be kept track of. Not to mention the possibility of spies in my own ranks.
Kakashi and Tenzou… are strong enough now, and he has left ROOT unchecked for far too long. He no longer has any reason to let Danzo do whatever he wishes anymore. He really has gone too far with this stunt.
At least Akari Uchiha doesn't seem to be injured too harshly and will probably recover after some days spent at the hospital. The title of prodigy truly is not overstating her abilities, fighting back multiple ROOT agents is not easily done even by ninja with the rank of Special Jounin.
Hiruzen looks through the window, spotting the Uchiha district. Her coming to the village hospital instead of retreating to her clan's compound speaks of her continued trust in this village and its forces, so Konohagakure should still have Akari Uchiha's loyalty. And as long as he draws breath, he will repay the loyalty and trust his citizens place on him.
He has to find a way to fix this political mess one way or the other, and the paperwork piling on his desk won't fill out by themselves. He can only hope that the Uchiha clan will be satisfied by Akari Uchiha's speedy recovery and stop being so openly hostile to any non-Uchiha clan members.
Good god, fighting a war and raising a Genin team is definitely easier than this. How he hopes that he can punch his way out of this situation.
For the first time since forever, Hiruzen wishes that he could ignore all his duties and get drunk. The hat is too heavy for one as old as he is.