As Kei stepped out of the Hokage's office, the manufactured warmth of his patriotic performance instantly evaporated. The corridor beyond the heavy oak doors was steeped in a freezing, tomb-like chill.
Echoing through the dim hallway was the distinct, rhythmic clack... clack... clack of a wooden cane.
Kei paused, his heightened senses mapping the approaching figure. The chakra signature was dense, ancient, and suffocatingly dark. It felt like a rotting corpse dragged up from a freezing cellar.
Danzo Shimura halted a few paces away. "Boy," the old war hawk rasped, his voice grinding like stones. "Were you closely acquainted with Shisui Uchiha?"
Kei's brow rose a fraction beneath his headband. He knew exactly why he was being targeted. Danzo had stolen Shisui's right eye, but the boy had plunged into the Naka River before the left could be harvested, and the corpse had never been found. As the only civilian Shisui had frequently interacted with in his final days, Kei was a glaring loose end in Danzo's paranoid ledger.
Given the Root leader's infamous operational doctrine—better to torture a thousand innocents than let one guilty man escape—Danzo was undoubtedly already calculating how to drag the blind doctor into a subterranean interrogation cell. Therefore, offering a polite, cooperative explanation would be entirely useless.
If he already wants to skin me alive, Kei thought, a dark thrill of amusement rising in his chest, I might as well have some fun.
Feigning mild confusion, Kei tilted his head. "Forgive me. And you would be?"
Danzo's single, visible eye narrowed into a lethal slit. "I am the commander of Root, Danzo Shimura. You will answer my questions, boy, and you will conceal nothing."
"Ah. Lord Danzo," Kei murmured, his tone polite but entirely devoid of reverence. "From what I understand of Konoha's military hierarchy, the Root division is merely a subsidiary branch of the ANBU black ops. Is that correct?"
"What are you implying?" Danzo hissed, the temperature in the corridor plummeting further.
Kei leaned casually on his metal cane, mirroring the old man's posture. "I am simply stating protocol. Since you are an ANBU subordinate, if you wish to requisition my clinical records or interrogate me regarding a patient, you must first petition Lord Third to issue a formal directive."
Danzo's jaw locked. "Do you truly believe I require Hiruzen's permission to question a blind Chunin?"
"I never said you lacked the qualifications," Kei replied smoothly, flashing his warmest clinical smile. "But I do believe that as an extension of the ANBU, your actions must strictly adhere to the Hokage's absolute command. If Lord Third deems it necessary for me to disclose confidential intelligence to a subordinate officer, I will naturally comply."
Kei gestured with his free hand toward the heavy oak doors right behind him. "Lord Third is at his desk right now. Why don't you go inside and ask your master for permission?"
Master. Danzo's face drained of color, turning a mottled, furious grey. He glared at the blind youth with naked, unadulterated murder in his eye. "How dare you."
For decades, as the shadow of the Shinobi God, everyone in Konoha had treated Danzo with terrifying, hushed reverence. Yet here, a crippled, insignificant Hyuga offshoot was openly mocking him to his face.
A subordinate. A dog asking its master for permission. Danzo's bandaged hand gripped the handle of his wooden cane with terrifying force. The aged wood began to groan and creak under the immense, chakra-fueled pressure, sounding as though it were seconds away from violently splintering.
If they had crossed paths in any other alley or forest in the Land of Fire, Danzo would have instantly decapitated the boy for such insolence.
But Kei knew exactly where he was standing. They were positioned directly outside the Hokage's private office. Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting twenty feet away. Danzo could not authorize a black-ops abduction on the Hokage's doorstep.
Kei was entirely untouchable, and he reveled in it. He had just sold his soul to Hiruzen as a fanatical loyalist; the Hokage would absolutely not allow Danzo to break his shiny new toy.
If Kei could genuinely induce a stress-induced myocardial infarction in the old war criminal right here in the hallway, he considered it a public service to the village.
Pointing his iron-tipped cane toward the groaning wood in Danzo's fist, Kei offered a look of profound, mocking pity. "Lord Danzo, if you cannot afford a sturdier cane on your current salary, I would be more than happy to procure a replacement for you. My clinic is quite profitable. You need only swallow your pride and ask."
Danzo's chest heaved. The sheer, blinding fury surging through his veins was intoxicating. He wanted nothing more than to rip the blind boy's jaw from his skull.
Just as the killing intent reached a boiling point, a loud, deliberate cough echoed from inside the Hokage's office.
It was a warning. Hiruzen was listening.
Hearing the cough, Kei smiled pleasantly. "Well, Lord Danzo, if you have no officially sanctioned business with me, I shall take my leave."
Danzo glared venomously at the retreating figure. "You will deeply regret this insolence, Hyuga."
He consoled himself with the knowledge that he would inevitably drag the boy into the depths of Root to extract Shisui's intelligence. He would see just how glib the psychologist was when his fingernails were being removed one by one.
But just as Danzo reached for the Hokage's door handle, Kei paused at the end of the corridor.
Without turning around, Kei delivered the ultimate psychological strike.
"Remember your place, Danzo. You are not the Hokage."
CRACK.
The wooden cane in Danzo's fist violently snapped in two.
Sensing the destruction of the prop, Kei resumed his walk, a wave of absolute, vindictive satisfaction washing over him as he exited the tower.
Inside the Hokage's office, the heavy oak doors were abruptly shoved open.
Danzo marched into the room, tossing the splintered, jagged half of his cane onto the floorboards. His exposed eye burned with barely contained rage. "Hiruzen. Hand that Hyuga boy over to my division immediately. He had multiple, undocumented contacts with Shisui in the days preceding his treason. He must be subjected to a thorough, invasive interrogation."
"Do not insult my intelligence, Danzo. I know exactly what you are hunting," Hiruzen replied, his voice a low, weary rumble. "You are old enough to know better. Why are you squabbling with a crippled child in my hallway?"
"The boy was merely citing village protocol," Hiruzen defended mildly, picking up his pipe. "He committed no crime."
"His insolence is secondary. His connection to Shisui is a tactical liability," Danzo insisted coldly. "Regardless of what he claims, Root must confirm his innocence."
"That is impossible," Hiruzen flatly refused. The tone brooked absolutely no argument. "Furthermore, Kakashi's preliminary investigation has already cleared him. His interactions with Shisui were civilian coincidences. I have other plans for Kei Hyuga. You are explicitly forbidden from interfering with him."
Danzo's brow furrowed, his tactical mind instantly pivoting. "What is so incredibly vital about a blind Branch member that you would actively shield him from Root?"
"Kei possesses a Will of Fire that rivals—perhaps even exceeds—Shisui's own," Hiruzen stated.
"The Will of Fire?" As a man who had known Hiruzen since childhood, Danzo's eye narrowed. He immediately translated his old friend's political rhetoric into tactical reality. "You intend to make him a second Shisui. A loyalist anchor."
"Indeed. With the tensions surrounding the Uchiha reaching critical mass, I need Kei to gather internal intelligence on the Hyuga clan. I need a fanatic on the inside to ensure the Main House remains perfectly stable."
Hiruzen struck a match, taking a long drag from his pipe. He exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, his gaze drifting to the Hokage Monument visible through the window. "The village cannot afford to fight a civil war on two fronts right now. You are well aware of that logistical reality."
So that is the play, Danzo realized. First, guarantee the absolute stability of the Hyuga. Once our flank is secured... we can finally exterminate the Uchiha without fear of a secondary uprising.
"Truly, you have not changed at all, Hiruzen," Danzo murmured, reading the cold, ruthless calculus hidden beneath the Hokage's grandfatherly facade. Hiruzen would never admit to orchestrating a genocide, but he was actively clearing the board to allow it to happen.
"If that is your strategy, then proceed," Danzo conceded, taking a step back. "But Hiruzen... when the time comes to deal with the Uchiha threat, if you hesitate, do not blame me for taking unilateral action."
Hiruzen's eyes hardened behind the veil of smoke. "Do not twist my words, Danzo. I will not permit you to act recklessly."
"Hmph. Of course you will order me to stand down. You must maintain the illusion of clean hands, must you not?" Danzo offered a bitter, cynical laugh.
He cast one final, piercing glance at his oldest comrade before turning toward the door.
"You are the leaves, bathing in the sunlight," Danzo recited, the foundational mantra of his existence echoing in the quiet office. "And I am the roots, buried in the dark."
Pausing at the threshold, Danzo looked back. "But remember this, Hiruzen. If one day you truly lose your resolve... if your sentimentality rots your judgment... then you must yield this seat to a man capable of doing what is necessary."
Hiruzen Sarutobi watched the shadowed figure of Danzo disappear into the corridor. He offered no rebuttal. In the empty, smoke-filled office, only a heavy, suffocating silence remained.