Navy_King
He could have pretended that he, Sarutobi, and Danzo faced a powerful enemy and only he barely survived (adding injuries, of course). He would use his clone as a scapegoat who obviously also survived but badly injured and would return to the village to heal and reattach the arm as it was only CUT and not destroyed. And he would use Kurama as evidence that such an enemy really exists. It's not perfect, but I think they understand where I'm going and I think this plot would have been a lot better.