Bam…

The table breaks from the force of the strike. Hiruzen frowns and pensively looks at Izuna. ​​

Koharu and Homura's expression turns ugly.

"Brat! What is the meaning of this disrespect? You are in front of the elders of the village. You can't demean the prestige of the village elders with such blatant accusation."

Koharu remarks angrily. Izuna ignores her and turns towards Hiruzen.

"Hokage-sama, I am sure you know what I am getting at. It is pointless to act as a bystander in this situation."

Sigh…

Hiruzen sighs and rubs his forehead.

"Izuna!... I am aware of the entire matter. But revealing this matter to other villagers could have serious repercussions on the stability of the village.

I don't want this news to create distrust among various villagers and lose their faith in the village and its elders. So, we have to suppress the information of the instigator."

Izuna frowns and raises his eyebrow.

"Hokage-sama, this won't do. You want the village elders to get away scot-free from the Uchiha's clan massacre. Who should we hold responsible for the downfall of my Uchiha clan?

If you want to suppress the news of the instigator, then our Uchiha clan won't be part of such a village. Together with the remaining members of the Uchiha clan, we will leave the village and will settle somewhere else."

Izuna stares at Hiruzen's eyes. His body releases an invisible pressure as the temperature of the room drops.

Izuna secretly uses his 'Artic Release' to lower the temperature of the room. Some old council members shiver from the cold and tightly hugs their body.

"Audacious!..."

Homura stands up from his seat and yells at Izuna.

"… You have guts to blame the village."

Homura cleverly plays a word game by manipulating Izuna's words.

"Your Uchiha clan planes a Coup d'état against the village. The ambition of the Uchiha clan had grown to such an extreme that they even thought of overthrowing the Hokage."

Homura continues as he shifts the blame on the Uchiha clan.

"What?..."

Many clan leaders looked at Fugaku with shock. Fugaku ignores their gaze as he continues to look at Izuna.

"Enough! Homura."

Hiruzen tries to interrupt Homura, but he ignores Hiruzen's warning and continues.

"If not for this Uchiha massacre, the Uchiha clan would have started the Fourth Ninja war greatly harming the interest of village and other clans."

Koharu notices the ugly expression on the various clan leader's faces.

"… Not only that, many smaller clans of Konoha would have suffered extinction from the combined attack of other nations and the large clans probably would have been severely weakened." She continues Homura's words.

"Even you too, Koharu." Hiruzen stares at Koharu with a blank gaze.

Koharu and Homura calmly stare at Hiruzen and speaks.

"What Danzo has done might be wrong, but his opinion regarding you was correct. We have contributed our entire life to the welfare of the village.

We stood firm among all those ups and downs and now a brat who barely lived past 15 years is questioning our loyalty to the village?..."

Homura and Koharu walk up to Hiruzen and confront him.

"Tell us, Hiruzen. Is this how we get repaid for our years of service to the village? We are the elders of the village council. We have earned this position through blood and sweat. We went through so much toil and trouble only to get rebuked."

Both of them emotionally overwhelm Hiruzen, who backs down from their rapid assault of emotional speech.

Sigh…

Hiruzen sighs and stops.

'I am too soft. I was never suitable for the Hokage's position.' Hiruzen backs down in guilt.

Homura and Koharu look at each other and smirks.

'We have been ruling this village for so many years from the shadow. How can we allow such a brat to out do so in politics?'

Clap… clap…

Izuna claps at the heart touching speech of the elders and slowly walks in front of them. He faces against them and remarks,

"Looks like you two old senile geezers aren't aware of your misdeeds. Or rather, you deny them. You are just accepting your act of misdeed as the rightful benefit provided to you with your position."

Homura and Koharu's expression turns unsightly.

"Oh! That hit right on the sore spot. Both of your faces look like you have eaten a pile of shit just now."

"What… what are you trying to say, kid? Don't… don't falsely accuse us of such crimes. We… can forgive your earlier offense, but don't go overboard with your words."

Homura flusters as his voice breaks.

"Still living in denial. It's fine then, I also won't mind unearthing some dirty deeds of the so-called elders of the village."

Izuna turns towards the entrance of the meeting room and shouts.

"Kakashi… Shisui… Itachi!"

Three of them enter the meeting room and bows before Izuna.

"Yes, Captain!"

"Have you brought the things I asked you?" Izuna questions them.

"Yes, we have brought the proof."

Kakashi, Shisui, and Itachi takes out some scrolls from their pocket and hands them to Izuna.

"Good! Now stand aside and enjoy the show."

The three of them stand beside Izuna and stare at the elders.

Sakumo eyes widen as he looks at Kakashi.

'I never saw Kakashi with such a spirit. His easy-going nature is nowhere to be seen. I must ask him later about this matter. For now, I must focus my attention on this matter.'

Sakumo turns towards Izuna and ponders,

'Back then, this kid helped me recover from my sorrow and guilt. I felt something drawing me towards this kid.

In just a few years, he has grown to such an extent. It is almost dreamlike.'

Izuna opens the first scroll and reveals the scandal of the two elders.

"This scroll in my hands contains the detailed information of the money received by two of them as a bribe from many civilians of the village."

Izuna throws the list of all civilians and the amount towards Hiruzen.

"They have received almost 100 billion Ryo as a bribe in these past fifty years during their time in the elder council."

"What?..." The various clan elders are flabbergasted by this figure of number.

Hiruzen immediately skims through the scroll and his expression turn grave.

----------------

Achoo….

Outside the borders of Tanigakure,

Kakuzu sneezes as he rubs his nose.

"I feel like I missed a hell lot of money."

He takes out a scroll from his pocket and tosses it in his hand.

"Anyway, I have made a haul on this trip."

"Your haul would have cost us our life, if not for the timely arrival of Zetsu." Fushin remarks.

"Shut the fuck up, bastard! Or I won't mind slicing you open." Kakuzu growls.

"Kakuzu is still as energetic as ever." White Zetsu remarks as he moves alongside them. Sasori silently follows behind as he mutters to himself.

'There will be more opportunities in the future. Fugaku Uchiha, one day I will certainly add you to my collection."

All of them reach outside a cave. Kakuzu and Sasori make some hand signs, and the giant boulder at the entrance moves aside.

All of them enter inside the cave and the entrance closes. Zetsu hands over rings to Akatsuki members and explains,

"These are the symbol of Akatsuki. You can lose your limbs, but you can't lose them."

Kakuzu inspects the ring and flips it in his hand.

"I will consider it worthy only if it has some value in money."

"Every ring is made of special chakra alloy cast from a star meteorite, and it would cost a fortune to get your hands on this alloy. There are only twelve of such rings in this world, so you can guess the value of this ring." Black Zetsu explains to them.

"What?"

Kakuzu's mouth opens wide as he shows his creepy stitches.

"Then I will never separate it from my body." He immediately wears the ring on the assigned finger.

"These rings are not just for show, they have a special use to them…

Black Zetsu explains to them.

"… Try to infuse your chakra in them."

Kakuzu, Sasori, and Fushin immediately infuse their chakra in the rings.

A hologram-like construct of chakra releases from their body.

"This ring acts as a communication device. You can contact other Akatsuki members through this ring. I will explain later the other uses of this ring." Black Zetsu remarks.

"Oh! This is quite handy." Fushin closely inspects the ring.

Bzzz… bzzt…

The ring produces some static noises. All of them infuse their chakra inside the ring. A hologram projection of Pain appears before them.

The image looks at them for a while before it opens its mouth.

"Looks like all of you have received the gift." He looks around and a frown appears on his face.

"Where is Dino? I can't see him around." Pain questions them.

"Dino is dead. The 'Shinigami' of Konoha returned to the village and killed him." Zetsu calmly replies.

"Hmm… that was unexpected. We made our preparations with 'Shinigami' in the account. So, how could such a miscalculation happen?"

"Dino, that maniac blindly engaged in a fight with the 'Shinigami' and got slaughtered by him." Sasori calmly replies to Pain.

"So, you are left without any partner, Sasori." Pain ponders for a while.

"I have a certain person in mind. Let's meet with him later."

Sasori nods his head, and the projection of Pain disappears.