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It was his job to inform the village Elder’s of Danzo’s death. A job Kakashi wanted nothing to do with, but which he approached with the same calm as he did every single mission he’d had before.
There was a bit less calm this time around.
A lot less calm, if he was being honest with himself. His mind was a swirl of doubt. Madara’s words were still swimming around in his mind, a constant taunt lingering there reminding him how little he really knew about the people who were supposed to lead and protect the village.
Still, he’d dragged his exhausted, achy body along until he was standing in front of two of his least favourite people and delivered the news with as much calm as he could muster.
“What a shame,” Homura sighed, a hint of sadness in his voice that Kakashi was certain he’d never heard before. “The more gifted they are, the sooner they pass.”
Under his mask he bit down hard on his bottom lip, the metallic taste of blood touching against his tongue. Part of him wanted to scream that Danzo didn’t deserve such compliments, but a much larger, shittier, part of him wanted to point out that if this were the case it would signify how 'gifted' Danzo truly was.
The man was in his seventies. He certainly hadn’t died ‘too soon’.
In fact, Kakashi was sure the world would have been a little bit better if he’d died just a bit sooner. Perhaps when he was 40, or 30, or 2-
He shook that last thought away.
Danzo was a man he hated without question, but even then, he wouldn’t wish death upon a child.
A kindness he no longer believed Danzo, the Elders, or even Lord Third, extended to those they didn’t like. If Madara’s words were to be believed, none of them had thought of extending a moment thought toward kindness for the Uchiha Children.
The rest of the elder’s words blurred past him. A barrage of idiotic believes leaving the mouths of idiotic people. Unfortunately for him, he was going to have to keep dealing with those people. As Hokage, he needed advisors, and he wasn’t sure if he got much of a choice in the matter of who those advisors were.
If he did, it certainly wouldn’t be the two old croons sitting in front of him waxing compliments about a man who’d once had tried to have him killed for Obito’s eye.
“Danzo was Ambitious,” his ears perked up, something deep inside of his chest telling him that those idiotic words he had been ignoring were about to become something else entirely. “But all he did was for the sake of this village.”
Those words rang in his ears.
All he did.
Sake of this village.
It sounded like excuses to his ears. As if they were trying to convince him that Danzo, the one who’d manipulated the villages future from the darkest corners of the shadows, was a good guy.
He wanted to explode. To scream at them about the shit he knew Danzo had done, and the things he still had to learn more about.
He wanted to laugh out loud and tell them that was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. That Danzo hadn’t done anything for the sake of the village, but for his own personal gains and beliefs.
He wanted to let his emotions get the better of him just this once and become the ass hole who would be known for dancing on the grave of a terrible human who didn’t deserve even a fraction of the respect he was being shown.
He wanted to thank Sasuke for his services in getting rid of such a despicable human being, and pardon him for the crimes he’d been accused as a show of respect for doing the village such a huge favour.
He didn’t do any of those things, but he wanted so badly to.
Instead, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to five. Once that was complete and he felt a small portion of his anger ebbing away, he dared to open his eyes again. Except this time it wasn’t the cool relaxed expression he’d had before.
This time, he glared at the two Elder’s in front of him.
“The sake of the village?” he spat the words back at them, a tiny smirk tugging at his lips when they recoiled back from him. “To target one of the villages shinobi in hopes of stealing the eye his friend gave him as a gift is for ‘the sake of the village’? to Steal children from their clans and train them to be elite shinobi not for the village but for himself is for ‘the sake of the village’?”
Already they were stammering and stuttering, no doubt searching their pathetic little minds for any excuse they could muster up.
Kakashi didn’t give them an opportunity, though. He didn’t pause, or back down.
He pushed on with information he knew they wouldn’t expect them to have.
Information that could ruin not just Danzo’s image in the village, which was already questionable, but their own and the Third Hokage’s.
“To organize and clear the massacre of an entire clan,” his eyes narrowed even further, watching with judgment and anger when the two Elder’s glanced at each other with panicked looks. There were few ways to confirm the information he’d received from Madara, and they’d just handed it to him on a golden platter. “To slaughter shinobi who were supposed to be our allies, and children who’s only crime was merely existing. Is that what you call ‘for the sake of the village’?”
There was another look shared between them, and Kakashi was certain he saw a hint of fear behind the pair’s eyes.
Good. He wanted them to be afraid.
“You have to understand-“
“No, I don’t,” he cut Koharu off, the anger still dripping in his voice. “I don’t have to understand anything. Whatever excuses you think you have to defend Danzo’s choices, don’t bother spewing them at me. There is nothing you could say that would make me agree with senseless slaughter of children.”
He’d been ready to fight that night.
To put down a revolt with force if necessary.
But he would have been fighting other shinobi. People capable of defending themselves and doing damage to him.
If he’d known then that they weren’t the only targets, he would have stepped back. He wasn’t sure what all he could have done to protect the Uchiha or stop what Danzo, the Elders, and Lord Third had set into motion, but at the least-
At the very least,
He could have refused to be a part of it all.
He never got that chance. Instead, he was led to believe that Itachi had acted on his own in murdering his clan.
He could have supported his teammate. Helped him.
Instead, he’d failed to be there when he needed him most, and that burned him inside. He was supposed to protect his teammates, and he’d failed Itachi in one of the worst ways possible.
Pausing, he took one more deep, calming breath. What he had to say next needed to be said with clarity and calm.
There could be no arguments about his state of mind when the words left his mouth. If he sounded angry or emotional in any way the Elder’s would be able to argue against his stability. They’d be able to convince the Fire Dynamo that he was unstable for the job of Hokage before he even officially took it.
That was a risk he couldn’t take.
Focusing on his heart pounding inside of his chest, he waited until it felt like like one of Gai’s punches trying to punch out his rib cage from the inside, and more like a regular heartbeat. Then, and only then, did he dare to speak again.
“After today, your services as Advisors will no longer be needed,”
“Excuse you!?”
“You can’t-“
“I can,” he asserted, forcing his voice to stay calm even as he glared at the pair in front of him. “As Hokage I refuse to be advised by those who would support the massacre of an entire clan. People who would agree to the slaughter of non-combatants and children. If I am to be entrusted with the job of Hokage, I will do it with the backing of people who will hold me accountable in my actions and support Konoha’s success rather than promoting its destruction.”
“We were protecting Konoha and it’s success!”
“By killing children!?” he snapped. “By attacking a clan while they slept? That’s what you call protection!?”
“they were planning-“
“You had Shinobi on your side! You have people willing to fight and die for this village without question, and instead of using them you manipulated a child into thinking it was his task to murder his clan for this village!”
His calm snapped, and Kakashi could feel his body beginning to shake.
The conversation needed to end, or things were going to get messy.
“This is non-negotiable,” he growled out through clenched teeth, willing himself not to Chidori the pair through the heart in that moment and be done with them. “I will ask the Fire Dynamo to help select your replacements when I officially become Hokage. If you attempt to argue against this decision I will be forced to let the entire village know what you did. So you have a choice now. Do you want to step back peacefully, or should I make it known to the entire village that Lord Third agreed to the slaughter of children?”
Another look, this one of panic, before the two turned to him once again and bowed their heads.
“We wish you prosperity in your reign, Lord Sixth.”
His skin crawled at the moniker. Not because it wasn’t earned, these two were possibly the only people he would want to hear it from because it asserted that they held no power over him any longer, but because of the venom in Koharu’s voice when she said it.
Turning on his heel, he made a break for the door.
There was still so much for him to do.
Things he had to discover about the Massacre and the part his village leaders played in it before he could say anything to anyone else.
But today, for one small moment, he could celebrate a victory.
At the very least, Konoha would no longer have people in power who would support the senseless massacre of a clan. Not if he had any say in the matter.