Naruto : A Fool's Errand.

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Tachibana's words were confusing to everyone but they didn't have the time or the leisure to analyse them since hordes of rubble were flushed out of the several cave-like entrances and exits that burrowed in and out of the mountain.

The ANBU shinobi that had followed Hiruzen all jumped away from the area and maintained their footing by taking support from the trees to prevent themselves from being buried.

Yamato along with Team Seven and the other children they rescued rushed upwards, avoiding the stone shower narrowly.

While Tsunade was able to remain safe simply by punching away any rocks that came towards her, Danzo hid himself inside a small earth dome.

Tachibana was engulfed by the hot explosive fumes that shot out of the cave tunnels but he quickly teleported towards Yamato and Team Seven to keep himself safe without letting anyone else notice.

The sudden explosion inside the mountain caused a large quake that reverberated for several seconds with secondary tremors as the insides of the mountain shifted around, trying to gain a new stable configuration that would keep it from collapsing under its own weight.

The ROOT shinobi that were still inside had been turned into meat paste while the children Yamato saved were trembling with fear.

The dust cloud that had been ejected from the inside of the mountain slowly settled before everyone looked around each other with different thoughts.

Yamato and Sasuke looked at Tachibana with wide eyes, 'Was this what Tachibana-kun saw when he warned us to get out early along with the children?'

Tsunade wondered if Danzo had destroyed the headquarters to prevent evidence from leaking-

'Thank fully I asked Shizune to collect any evidence she could find by herself.'

Meanwhile, Danzo and Hiruzen were both shitting their pants.

'Who did this!?'

Danzo had a calm look outwardly but inside he had several questions spinning around his head.

'I wanted to blame Hiruzen for all the experiments…but now that everything is destroyed…how will I prove it!?'

'Who did that!?'

And Hiruzen was similarly dealing with a hurricane of thoughts-

'Did Danzo destroy it to prevent any evidence from getting to my hands!?'

'I thought it was just a coincidence that Danzo came out of the ROOT base…'

'Does he intend on rebelling and taking the seat of the Hokage for himself!?'

Tachibana looked at it all with calm eyes before speaking in the same panicked tone he used as before.

"I saw it! I saw these children being tortured by shinobi under the command of that old man!" Tachibana shouted while pointing at Danzo. "As soon as Tsunade-sama attacked him, I saw him detonate the seals in place and run away! He wanted to hide all evidence!"

Danzo scowled when Tachibana spoke and quickly looked at Hiruzen.

'Now is my only chance. I won't get anything better.'

"No! I was here spying on the shinobi inside the headquarters after I was informed about the kidnapping of various children from the orphanages of Konoha by multiple shinobi who were part of the genjutsu!-"

"-I wanted to investigate the rumour and hence came here with a few of my own shinobi under the authority of the Hokage Advisor!-"

Shikaku almost immediately caught onto what Danzo was doing, but he didn't speak immediately, except he clicked his tongue and looked at Danzo with a frown since he knew what Danzo was trying to do.

After all, Hiruzen had wanted him to take a fall for him intentionally.

Hiruzen was next to catch up to what Danzo was saying and decided he wouldn't let Danzo keep on speaking anymore since if he managed to sway the opinion of the shinobi behind him it would result in a mess that he wasn't very sure he could deal with.

"Danzo! You should shut up! Give up! We've got the mountain surrounded from all sides! We know well that you were the one that intentionally caused this incident to usurp the position of the Hokage by misleading the entire village!!!!"

"How dare you insult me and my loyalty to the village Hiruzen!" Danzo shouted as he stood with his chest raised with pride. "Everyone in the village knows that there isn't another person as faithful to the betterment of the village as I-"

"Danzo! How do you have the audacity to claim that everything you did was for the betterment of the village when you were the one that conducted experiments on children that were kidnapped from our villa-"

Danzo shook his head and interrupted Hiruzen.

"If you really think that it was me that conducted the experiment on the kidnapped children, why don't we ask the children in the first place!? Surely they know best who was the one that toyed with their lives!?"

Danzo then turned towards the children who were hiding behind Yamato and asked them a question in a bold tone, "Children, do you know the name of the people that tormented you and performed dangerous experiments on your friends?!"

The children flinched and hid behind Yamato quickly, but they were forced to answer when Danzo 'threatened' them.

"If you don't name your tormenter right now, then you'll be forced to spend your life with him once again!!"

The children shivered and under everyone's tense gaze, one of them slowly peaked from behind Yamato before pointing at Hiruzen.

Hiruzen's eyes widened with shock but he quickly found a way to clear his name before his already sinking reputation tanked once again-

The ANBU behind Hiruzen looked at him with scowls since their respect for him had already deteriorated after the ghost girl revealed the happenings but that was when Hiruzen spoke-

"Danzo! You cannot fool us! You must've used genjutsu on the children to trick them!! I did not expect you to be such a coward-"

"ENOUGH!" Tsunade shouted after looking at Danzo and Hiruzen who were arguing like dogs fighting over a bone.

Tsunade took a deep breath before she looked at Danzo and pointed at him.

"You were clearly involved in the experiment-"

But Danzo didn't give her time to speak and interrupted again.

"How dare you try and suppress the voice of descent!!!" Danzo said, quickly turning towards the ANBU behind Hiruzen, and continued speaking, "Everyone! As you all know, Hiruzen conducted the experiments!!! First, it was his disciple Orochimaru who was involved in them and had to flee because my department uncovered his heinous crimes-"

"-but after Hiruzen allowed him to escape from the village, he used his second disciple!! Tsunade!!! Can you believe that all throughout these years Tsunade was gambling outside the village freely without any commitment to it!?-"

"No! You cannot believe such a lie because Tsunade was being covertly used as Orochimaru's replacement in the experiments!!! She and her knowledge about Medical Ninjutsu were paramount in conducting Hiruzen's cruel experiments on children!!!"

"She was promised to be given the Impure World Reincarnation Technique made by the Second Hokage which is locked in the Scroll of Seals to revive her lover and her brother!!! Tsunade continuously experimented with the dead to gain this power and perfect it!!"

All the ANBU looked at Tsunade with disgust, especially since she hadn't interrupted Danzo after he'd spoken about her loved ones.

But Hiruzen was quick to refute the claim-

"Danzo don't be a coward!! We all know that Tsunade was out of the village during the entire time along with her disciple Shizune! There are several records from various money lenders who Tsunade owes money to!"

"Are you seriously asking me to believe such a silly thing!? Does anyone here really think that Tsunade, the great Sanin, the legendary healer, is a person who would waste their life by delving into the three vices of a shinobi!?-"

"-Don't think you can fool anyone with your bullshit! After all, how can such a heinous crime take place in the village without your support and understanding!? Clearly you made special arrangements for your criminal deeds to be never discovered!!"

Hiruzen frowned since he really was guilty of doing such a thing, making arrangements so that no one would discover the children that were taken to help in experiments.

But he had done them for Danzo, and now he couldn't just admit to it and drag Danzo down since that would mean also dragging himself through the mud.

The shinobi around Hiruzen suddenly started to lean more towards Danzo's explanation.

They all felt like he was telling the truth.

Although he hadn't presented any reliable proof yet, they all felt that Tsunade was involved in all this somehow along with her master Hiruzen.

Especially since the ghostly incident in the village.

'Hehehe~ Good~ Good~ drag yourselves down. Make sure that you can not remain standing!'

'Otherwise, I wouldn't have destroyed so much clear evidence anyway!'

'Now I should reveal myself and show everyone my skills!'

It was at this moment when the shinobi were split roughly equally on both sides that Tachibana suddenly spoke up-

"I know how we can solve this problem easily!"

Everyone looked at Tachibana and recognised that he was the boy who had warned them about the explosion from earlier.

"I can tell the truth from lies because a divine god has blessed me!!"

"These matters aren't for little children to interfere, especially not when you claim something as silly as being blessed by a foolish god!!!"

Danzo retorted back.

But Tachibana simply shrugged his shoulder and laid out the situation in simple words.

"Currently you are in a situation where three parties accuse each other of the same crime. And none of you have any evidence. Which means that unless you have a neutral party help you out the village will suffer."

"The village will suffer?" Naruto asked a little confusedly. "How?"

'Good job Naruto-kun! Nice assist!'

"Do you want the village to be run by a person who was accused of such a serious crime!?"

Naruto's eyes widened and all the other shinobi understood Tachibana's point too.

"So why not follow my proposal since I can always be tested in every way possible to see if I'm telling the truth or not? That way we can easily decide who in the village is the right person to lead it at this critical juncture!-"

"-I mean, do you really want a vile person leading our beautiful village that respects the will of the fire!?"

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A/N : Slightly longer chapter than usual, I hope you had fun reading!