Chapter 238: Poisoned Wine
Dark, damp...
A dull but orderly rhythm of footsteps echoed through the pitch-black tunnel.
As the footsteps drew closer, the old man — one eye gone, one arm gone, sealing script carved into his flesh, bound in heavy shackles — lifted his head.
Even by the dim, flickering candlelight against the wall, the shadow and obsession hidden in that remaining eye were plain to see.
"Heh..."
"Heh..."
Danzō Shimura strained to lift his head and look at the one who'd come, a cold, manic, almost gleeful smirk curling at the corner of his mouth.
"The Fifth... the Fifth Hokage, gracing me with a visit — what an honor for this humble hovel!"
It was just one sentence, but the seventy-some-year-old man seemed to spend his entire body's strength getting it out.
That was because when it came to a high-level criminal this dangerous, the jailers sealed away both chakra and body — and rationed food down to almost nothing.
Just enough to keep him from dying. That was all that was required.
Not only to prevent escape, but to prevent suicide as well.
"Danzō Shimura. It's been a while."
Lit by the torchlight on the wall, Sakura's face emerged from the dark.
"Heh... heh..."
"Has Lady Hokage come all this way just to mock a failure like me?"
"If that's all this is..."
"Then... the Hokage's vision... is rather..."
The old man wheezed, pouring everything he had into keeping his voice from sounding too weak.
But no matter how much he tried to project strength before her, in this Hokage's eyes he was nothing more than a clown.
"Do you think everyone is like you?"
The Hokage gazed calmly at the wheezing old man before her.
"I came to tell you one thing."
"The old man is dead."
Her words fell, and the dim space sank into a brief silence.
"Sarutobi... he's dead?"
"Heh, heh heh, hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"
Danzō's confusion lasted only a moment — as if he'd meant to question whether she was telling the truth.
But the thought struck him: this girl was the closed-door disciple of the man who had been his lifelong friend and lifelong enemy both. She would never joke about Hiruzen Sarutobi's death.
The thought alone was enough to send Danzō into laughter.
It started as a soft chuckle. It grew into madness.
Like a lunatic.
Danzō laughed and laughed, laughed until he couldn't breathe, laughed until tears streamed from his eyes.
He tried to wipe the tears of laughter away, but his one remaining arm was bound by chains, and he couldn't reach his own face.
The Hokage watched this half-mad old man in silence.
"Sarutobi!"
"Sarutobi, you hear that!"
"Who would've thought — this time, I beat you!"
"At staying alive!"
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
"Cough — cough, cough!"
Perhaps he'd laughed too hard, because Danzō broke into a fit of coughing.
Like a man in the grip of asthma, his chest heaved violently, his coughs deep and unrelenting.
After some time, Danzō finally recovered.
"So — you came all this way just to tell me that?"
Danzō lifted his head, his gaze dark and sharp as he looked at the girl who had toppled him from his once-lofty throne to bring him to this.
"The old man spent his whole life as Hokage, and he didn't have many friends."
"Mitokado — steady as always, and he got along well with the old man."
"But he's a decent enough person, in his own way."
"That old hag Koharu Utatane always got on my nerves, but she still had her uses."
"When I really think about it, you're the only one who ever met the old man as an equal. You two were rivals for a lifetime, and old friends besides."
"With your company, the old man's road to the afterlife probably won't be so lonely."
The Hokage spoke softly, and Danzō understood exactly what she meant.
"Heh heh. Hiruzen Sarutobi really did take a good student."
"Even planned out his road to the underworld for him."
Danzō looked at Sakura's calm face and gave a cold laugh.
"It's only natural for a student to look out for her teacher."
Sakura's expression stayed calm in the face of his mockery.
"Heh..."
Danzō lowered his head slightly, so the girl before him couldn't see his eyes.
At that moment, the purple-haired ANBU had already appeared in the dark tunnel, standing silently behind the Hokage.
Yūgao Uzuki carried a tray in both hands, a flask of sake resting on it.
"Wine, is it..."
"Good."
Danzō raised his head, his gaze settling on the flask.
"What are you standing there for — undo these chains!"
He rattled the chains binding him, glaring at the Hokage before him.
"Or perhaps you intend to pour the wine into my mouth yourself?"
At his mockery, the Hokage gave a cold laugh. She made no visible motion — only a glint of gold seemed to flash across her emerald eyes — and the heavy chains bolted into the wall snapped apart with a soft crack.
Danzō's eyes narrowed sharply at the sight.
Even sealed as he was, decades of sharp judgment could not be sealed away.
Such powerful chakra. Such refined chakra control.
To shatter a chain that heavy in an instant, using nothing but raw chakra and exquisite control — and to do it from a distance, no less...
Whatever pride Danzō still had left, in the face of this he could only concede defeat.
"Well? Bring the wine over already!"
Danzō glanced once at the broken chains, then settled himself on the ground, barking the order at Yūgao as she held the flask.
Yūgao said nothing. She simply walked forward, set the tray down before him, and returned silently to stand behind the Hokage.
With his one remaining arm, Danzō lifted the flask, bit down on the stopper, and spat it aside.
He gazed silently at the flask in his hand. With the stopper gone, the fragrance of the wine already reached him.
"Before I die, I have one request of you."
Sakura watched the old man before her, calm.
"Speak."
"I don't care where you bury me. I have only one condition."
"Cremation."
"Then take a portion of my ashes and scatter them before Sarutobi's grave. Let me see the old monkey one last time. As for the rest — throw it wherever you like."
Sakura looked at the old man before her with some surprise, then gave a small nod.
"Fine. I'll bury you right beside the old man."
Clearly, three years ago, when Orochimaru's improved Edo Tensei had nearly torn Konoha apart, this old man had learned his lesson from it.
If you didn't want your soul dragged back by the living, then destroying the body completely was the only way to guarantee eternal rest.
"In that case..."
"Then this old man can also say he..."
Danzō, hearing her words, almost said "has no regrets" — but then, remembering that the one before him was the very architect of his current downfall, he closed his mouth instead.
He shook his head with a rueful laugh, said nothing more, tilted his head back, and drained the entire flask of wine in one go.
Feeling the cool, clear wine turn into a warm current spreading through his body, Danzō set the empty flask gently back on the tray.
In this final moment of his life, Danzō couldn't help but drift back through memory.
His thoughts carried him decades into the past.
Back then, facing pursuit by the Gold and Silver Brothers' unit, Tobirama Senju had asked his six students a question.
Who is willing to give their life to hold the rear, to buy the others a chance to live?
Faced with life and death, he had hesitated.
And it was that moment of hesitation that cost him the seat of Hokage.
From the day he'd met Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzō had always felt he could never measure up to that fool.
Naive. Naive. So naive.
How could the seat of Hokage go to someone so naive?
Later, Danzō realized he'd been wrong.
It wasn't Hiruzen who had been naive. It was him.
The Hokage seat he'd missed was gone. Would his day ever come?
It never had.
Those eyes, which should have held nothing but shadow and cruelty in this final moment, now carried, however faintly, a warmth and calm that didn't belong to Danzō Shimura at all.
Monkey...
You are the leaf, basking in sunlight.
And I am the root, buried deep beneath the ground...
"Sakura... Haruno..."
Blood trickled from Danzō's mouth as he used the last of his strength to look at his old friend's student.
"Watch out..."
"Watch... out... for... the Snake..."
The final word never finished leaving his lips. Danzō's breath had already stopped.
His head hung slightly forward, blood dripping drop by drop from the corner of his mouth.
Sakura watched the old man in silence.
Watch out for Orochimaru?
Has Orochimaru been up to something these past three years?
Even if she didn't take Danzō's dying words entirely to heart, Sakura would keep them tucked away, just in case.
Especially since she and Orochimaru still had an old score to settle.
Looking at the now-lifeless Danzō, Sakura spoke evenly:
"Burn him. Bury him next to Lord Hiruzen."
"Yes, ma'am."
Yūgao answered respectfully.
—
A new grave appeared in Konoha's cemetery.
No one knew who lay within. The grave was unusual — the headstone bore nothing at all. Blank.
But now, two aged figures stood silently before it.
Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane.
The two elders, both in their seventies, gazed silently at the unmarked stone.
Homura gently ran his hand over the blank headstone, a flicker of sorrow passing behind his glasses.
I should have seen this coming...
I just didn't expect it — barely any time after Sarutobi passed, and the current Hokage acted this decisively...
Was it only out of consideration for Sarutobi's bond with Danzō that she held off before?
"Ahh..."
A sigh escaped Koharu.
"We've gotten old."
"Truly old..."
The old woman raised her hand. In it was a small wooden box.
Inside, in accordance with Danzō's dying wish, was a portion of ashes to be scattered before Hiruzen's grave.
Homura looked at the last remaining teammate of the group that had once fought and struggled side by side on the battlefield.
Koharu walked silently to Hiruzen's grave, opened the small box, and slowly scattered the ashes before the headstone.
"Sarutobi. Danzō's come to find you..."
Koharu gazed silently at the grave before her.
"...Homura. I think I want to let go."
Homura's expression could not hide the exhaustion beneath it.
"..."
Koharu only gazed at Hiruzen's grave, saying nothing.
"The current Fifth has Kakashi and Asuma supporting her."
Seeing his old friend say nothing, Homura pressed on regardless.
"She has Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Karin Uzumaki, and a whole new generation standing firmly behind her."
"The heirs of the Ino-Shika-Chō trio are her close friends besides..."
"And I hear she's been getting rather close with the young lady of the Hyūga main house lately."
"So now..."
Homura let the rest go unspoken.
The old have passed. It's time to let the new take the stage.
"Do you remember the days right after Sarutobi took the seat of Hokage?"
Homura straightened, lifting his eyes to the sky, his thoughts drifting back decades.
"Back then, Master Tobirama had just given his life, and the village had only us — a handful of friends who'd only just come of age."
"Sarutobi, Danzō, Mirai, myself, you, Torifū..."
"In that turbulent, storm-tossed time, the six of us young people held each other up and got through it together."
"Now, Sarutobi's gone. Danzō's gone. Mirai and Torifū left us even earlier than that."
"Now, it's just the two of us left..."
"And..."
Homura looked at his silent old friend.
"This current Hokage is even more impressive than I ever imagined."
Yes...
Homura had thought Sakura might keep Danzō around for something — some use. He hadn't expected her to end him this decisively, barely any time after Hiruzen's death.
"...So, you old fool, are you trying to push me into retirement?"
Koharu rose slowly, looking at the friend she'd known for decades.
She understood his way of doing things all too well.
It wasn't just her — he held no small amount of power within Konoha himself.
Nominally, the two of them were nothing more than village elders offering advice to the Hokage. But after decades, their influence ran deep, and everyone knew it.
If they didn't want that Pinky, the Fifth, to eventually push them out, the wise move was to quit while ahead — go home gracefully and enjoy their remaining years.
Being forced out would be far uglier.
Even if the two of them and this Fifth were currently in something of a honeymoon period — after all, neither of them had opposed her rise to the seat.
And in matters like this, not opposing was the same as supporting. There was no such thing as neutral.
"Heh. Nothing ever gets past you, does it..."
Homura pushed his glasses up his nose with a rueful sigh.
Koharu shot back, "And if I said no?"
Homura only looked at his old friend in silence, and the air between them seemed to grow heavier with her words.
"..."
"Heh. Decades together, and I can tell what you're thinking before you even open your mouth, you old fool."
Koharu, looking at Homura, suddenly seemed to find the whole thing tiresome. She waved a hand and walked off alone, leaving behind the cemetery that now held four of her old teammates.
Homura didn't try to stop her, didn't press for an answer.
He already knew — she'd made up her mind the moment she started walking away.
(End of chapter)
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