As soon as they entered the base, they were greeted by the sight of one Root ninja stuck underground with only his head stuck above the ground facing them. A finger-sized hole could be seen in his forehead.

Some distance behind him were innumerable damaged explosive seals. On those seals laid two dead bodies, one of which was beheaded. Behind them was a burnt room. The smell of burnt flesh still lingered in the air.

Danzo's expression became very grim. It was a great loss. In terms of percentage, this was the second-worst loss that Root experienced. The worst was of course when Hiruzen disbanded the Root and inducted a large amount of Root ninjas into the Anbu.

They quickly began inspecting the dead bodies. Danzo's expression became very serious when he noticed the hole in the chest of one of the dead bodies. He quickly thought of Kakashi. In the past, he had looked at the bodies of a few enemy ninjas who had fallen to Kakashi's Chidori. The injury was identical.

Danzo's expression became ugly as he thought, 'Hatake Kakashi! This attack is undoubtedly his work! How can an enemy find all the hidden bases and pinpoint the four where ninjas were deployed? However, why would he suddenly do this?'

Danzo fell into deep thought. This time, none of the Root ninjas dared to disturb him. This loss was too big for Root. Danzo quickly concluded, 'Kakashi has no reason to do this. The only reason why he would do something like this is if he was ordered by Hiruzen.'

He cursed internally, 'Hiruzen! What scheme are you making this time? Still, to secretly kill Konoha's shinobi This is so unlike Hiruzen. Did he discover something? Or, is someone scheming in the shadows to make me go against Hiruzen?'

Danzo couldn't be sure. However, all clues pointed directly towards Hiruzen. He didn't see any way that enemy countries would be able to sneak inside Konoha, search the hidden Root bases and kill 15 Root ninjas without drawing any suspicion at all! Even a Kage might not be able to pull that off. However, the Hiruzen he knew wouldn't have done such a sloppy job. Having worked with Hiruzen for so long, Danzo knew that if Hiruzen was the one behind this incident, then the evidence would have been such that Hiruzen would have been the last person Danzo suspects.

One of the Root ninjas asked, "Lord Danzo, should we shut down the entrance of the village to prevent culprits from escaping?"

Danzo answered, "No. If they wanted to escape, they would already have. How long has it been since their death?"

The medical ninja who was inspecting the bodies answered, "All 15 ninjas died roughly around 12 to 14 hours ago. I'll need to perform an autopsy to be sure."

Danzo ordered, "Alright, keep inspecting the bodies."

He looked towards the other two subordinates and instructed, "Inspect the entire base. See if you can find any clues. The fight here is much more intense than the rest. Hopefully, there might be some clues left behind."

The Root ninjas immediately got to work.

While the Root ninjas worked, Danzo began planning what action he could take. Despite his decades of experience, he didn't see an easy way out of that situation. It was bad no matter what he assumed.

If the current situation was created by enemy villages, then his Root faced an existential crisis as they seemed to want to take out Root before making any moves on Konoha. On the other hand, if it was Hiruzen, then Danzo was outmatched once again. While Danzo still had several trump cards and could make Hiruzen suffer as well, there was no doubt that Danzo would be the bigger loser.

While Danzo planned his next move, the Root ninjas completed their job. They approached Danzo and reported, "Lord Danzo, there are no clues in this base either. It is just like the previous three bases."

The medical ninja reported, "Lord Danzo, the method of killing is more varied here. However, all the stab wounds are due to a Lightning enhanced object or jutsu. Though six bodies were burnt, I suspect they were hit after they had died. It was probably an attack from these 2 ninjas."

Danzo nodded. He looked at one subordinate and ordered, "Go to Hiruzen in person and ask him to come here. Tell him that I have called him and it is an emergency. Don't tell him the reason and observe his reaction carefully. Send Shadow Clones to call the remaining two Elders here as well."

The Root ninja said, "Yes, Lord Danzo."

He quickly disappeared from the base. Danzo muttered to himself, 'Hiruzen, let me see what exactly you are up to! If you think I'll let you take the Root away from my hands once again, then you are mistaken. The last time I couldn't do anything due to the situation. It won't be the same this time.'

After the Uchiha Massacre, Danzo had no choice. If he had resisted, all Hiruzen had to do was tell the truth of the situation to the clan leaders. In an instant, everyone would be asking for Danzo's head. While that would have been impossible, the Root would truly be stripped from Danzo. Unlike Hiruzen, they wouldn't have let him keep even a single Root ninja.

Hiruzen was talking with a few ninjas when the Root ninja suddenly barged into his office. A frown appeared on Hiruzen's face due to the Root ninja entering without asking for his permission. At the same time, the four Anbu Guards became alert as well.

Without waiting, the Root ninja directly said, "It's an emergency. Lord Danzo has asked for your presence immediately."

Hiruzen wondered, 'Emergency? What happened?'

He looked at the ninjas in his office and said, "You four leave. I'll call you again later."

The four ninjas respectfully said farewell and left while wondering what the emergency was. Hiruzen followed the Root ninja along with his Anbu Guards. At the same time, Homura and Koharu also began making their way towards the base.

En route, Hiruzen wondered, 'Is he leading me to one of the Root bases? Why is Danzo there instead of the main base?'

He didn't need to wonder for long. A minute later, Hiruzen entered the base. As soon as he did, his eyes widened as he noticed the 3 dead bodies and Danzo standing along with two Root ninjas. He asked, "What the hell happened here?"

Before Danzo could answer, Homura and Koharu entered the base as well. Just like Hiruzen, they were stunned as well and asked the same question.

Danzo frowned on seeing Hiruzen's expression. He thought, 'His expression doesn't give away anything. Is he acting or was he really not involved?'

Seeing that Danzo wasn't answering, Homura asked with more emphasis, "Danzo, what happened here?"

Danzo snorted and said, "Why don't you ask Hiruzen?"

Hiruzen's expression hardened. He asked with a hint of aggression, "What do you imply by that, Danzo?"

Danzo turned around and said, "Follow me."

He led the group to the body with a hole in his chest and said, "All my subordinates in the 4 Auxiliary Root bases were killed last night. Everyone was killed with Lightning Release. Do you still want to feign ignorance, Hiruzen?"

Hiruzen, Homura, Koharu and the Anbu Guards immediately connected the dots. Every single one was surprised as Danzo was blaming Kakashi!

Before anyone could say anything, Danzo asked angrily, "Why did Kakashi kill my men, Hiruzen?"

Hiruzen's face became very serious. He harshly replied, "Watch your tone, Danzo. Kakashi isn't even in the village. He left for a rank S mission a week ago. Besides, if I wanted to deal with you, I would have disbanded Root for good. Why would I waste the lives of capable Konoha shinobi?"

Danzo replied equally harshly, "Is this how you want to play, Hiruzen? Since you don't want to accept responsibility, I'll arrest and question Hatake Kakashi."

Immediately, Koharu said sternly, "Danzo, control yourself. Arresting Hatake Kakashi is out of the question no matter what the situation is. The evidence you have is only speculative. Besides, even if you had solid evidence to prove that Kakashi was the culprit, we can't arrest him."

Homura added, "The Root was disbanded 4 years ago. Officially, no Root Ninja exists. The village can't punish a ninja for killing someone that doesn't exist. So calm down and work together with us. We first need to investigate to understand for sure who was behind this incident. If we fight among ourselves, then whoever is behind this will benefit at our expense."

Unlike Danzo, Koharu and Homura had nothing at stake and hence weren't affected by emotions. Both could clearly see the fact that it was not Hiruzen's style. Hiruzen wouldn't have killed Konoha's shinobi. If he was forced to do so by circumstances, there was no way he'd leave behind such a flaw.