Death 13

Sato flickered all the way to the Hokage's office and stopped. This was Konoha's Hokage's office; it was basic courtesy that Hokage enter the room first.

"Come with me, Sato kun."

Hokage smiled and walked into his office; Sato and Tsunade followed behind him.

*Thump*

The door to the office closed, and silence spread. Even the Anbu had left the office after Hokage's secret signal, only the three of them were here.

The Hokage nodded to Sato and was about to take the scroll out of his desk when suddenly, a sound came from the corner of his office.

*Tap*

*Tap*

This was the sound of a cane hitting the wooden floor. All three of them looked toward the shadowy corner and saw a man emerge from the darkness.

"Danzo? What are you doing here?"

The third hokage frowned and questioned his friend; he had clearly given the signal that he wanted to be alone with Sato, but Danzo ignored his command.

"What am I doing here? Sarutobi, what are you doing here? You were about to show our most important jutsus to the Hidden Cloud! Have you lost your mind?"

Danzo angrily scolded his friend; the third Hokage's frown became deeper, and he scolded back.

"Don't you know why I am doing this? You attacked the Hidden Cloud's messenger!"

But Danzo had no sense of remorse; he looked at Sato as if he were a dead man and said calmly.

"I am doing what you as the Hokage should had done by now; the hidden cloud is threatening us repeatedly; even the Uchiha clan betrayed Konoha for the hidden cloud, Hiruzen."

"We cannot let this happen; Uchiha joining the hidden cloud will be absolutely deadly to Konoha; we cannot make our enemies even stronger."

Danzo hit his cane hard on the wooden floor, and the third Hokage felt silent. He knew Danzo was right, but this was politics; there was no right or wrong, only profit and loss.

That's why he collaborated with Sato, because compromising with him would be better for them in the long run.

"Danzo, we will talk about this later; please leave for now."

The third Hokage sighed and asked Danzo to leave, but Danzo didn't move. He looked at Hiruzen sternly.

"No, I won't leave; you are about to make a big mistake, Hiruzen; you no longer have the courage to do what is needed; you have lost your edge."

"We need to make sure Sato Nii doesn't leave Konoha alive; we have to kill him; without him, the Uchiha clan will have nowhere to go."

The third Hokage froze, he knew his friend the best; if Danzo still refused to leave, that meant he had already taken action.

"Danzo, what did you do? Stop it; we cannot risk this; there will be war if Sato dies! Millions will die, Danzo."

Danzo let out a breath as if he was disappointed with Hiruzen. He shook his head and didn't speak to his friend; he turned to Sato and said.

"War, this is what you have been threatening Konoha with, haven't you? You also made that ridiculous excuse to save Shisui and take the Uchiha clan away."

"Sato Nii, if Hiruzen doesn't have the guts to tell you, I will. Konoha doesn't fear war; in all three wars, Konoha has come on top every single time. If you want war, we will give you war."

The room became silent with Danzo's declaration; even the third Hokage became silent.

He suddenly became unsure of his decision because of Danzo's confidence.

'This isn't good; the Hokage is thinking of supporting Danzo, oh no.'

Sato was frowning hard, and Tsunade was also alert; she was already hugging Sato close to her chest.

She has been hugging him since the moment Danzo walked in. She obviously felt something was wrong and was trying to protect him.

But Sato knew Tsunade alone could not protect him now; if the Hokage was hell bent on killing him, he would die. This was Konoha, not a hidden cloud.

"Danzo, are you threatening me? Killing me will end horribly for Konoha."

"I am a Nii; I control 30% of Lightining's economy; I am the next in line for Raikage; I am not someone you can casually threaten."

Sato said it in a deep voice, yet Danzo didn't seem moved in the least.

"I am not threatening you; I am simply stating a fact: you will not leave this office alive today. I will make sure of that."

"As for your death affecting us, we will change the story like your village loves to do."

"The world will think that you went mad and suddenly attacked Konoha; we were forced to stop you, and you died in the process. The destroyed Konoha district is all the evidence we need."

Sato's eyes shrunk. Danzo was serious; he was fully prepared to kill him.

*Tap*

Danzo calmly tapped the wooden floor once more, and suddenly, the office walls were covered in a sealing array.

The third Hokage's pupils shrank; even he didn't know when Danzo arranged this sealing justu. Tsunade, who was silent all this time, suddenly became alert.

"Danzo, who gave you the courage to use such a powerful seal in the Hokage office?"

Tsunade was angry. This was an incredibly strong seal; it can seal everything, even the use of reverse summoning Justu, which means no one can get out of here anymore, nor can anyone come in.

"You don't need to worry about that Tsunade; you should worry about yourself; you not only helped the hidden cloud, you are still protecting Sato Nii."

Tsunade stopped in her place; she turned to her teacher, but the Hokage slowly looked away. Tsunade's heart broke; her teacher thought the same; he agreed with Danzo.

"Hahaha, my life is truly messed up."

Tsunade's eyes became wet, but her face was filled with rage; her chakra boiled and her fists clenched. She was about to unleash her strongest punch on Danzo.

*Slash*

Suddenly, she stopped, her eyes went wide, and she started trembling.

*Drip*

Sato's heart nearly stopped when he felt Tsunade's trembling body; she was having a panic attack.

And Sato knew exactly why that was happening. Danzo had cut open his palm the moment Tsunade was about to attack, and he had started bleeding.

"Blood, you have a fear of blood, a very foolish weakness to have as a medical ninja."

Danzo said grimly, as if this little wound on his palm didn't even matter. He started walking towards Sato and prepared his kunai.

"Tsunade, let me go, quickly!"

Sato felt a chill; he struggled and tried to get out of Tsunade's hug, but he couldn't; she was having a panic attack.

She was trembling so much that her hug was now a death trap. She wasn't able to let Sato go; she was too mentally unstable to move.

"Dammit! Let me go, Tsunade! Get a hold of yourself!"

Sato roared, but Danzo didn't stop; in fact, he speeded up and flashed before Sato.

*Swish*

Danzo was in front of Sato and Tsunade. He ignored the trembling Tsunade and held the kunai against Sato's throat.

"Just as I suspected, you cannot get out of Tsunade's grip; you no longer have the two tail's chakra; you are too weak to get out of her grip."

"Your strength was indeed a bluff; I was curious why your chakra didn't recover like a jinchuriki's would; now I know, you are not a jinchuriki."

Danzo smiled, and this smile sent a chill down Sato's spine. He felt the breath of death from Danzo.

"You can die."

Danzo said softly and slashed Sato's neck with his kunai, splattering Sato's warm blood all over the floor.

"Ack! Cough cough!"

The Hokage closed his eyes and ignored Sato's dying struggle. Sometimes hard choices had to be made.

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