From the ANBU commander's office, Azula teleported back to her own office, having accomplished several impossible-sounding tasks in complete silence, without anyone ever knowing.
Taming Atsuchi wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea. It had been in her head since before she left for Uzushio.
She'd only just now found the right moment to execute it.
This was a calculated move, one that wouldn't cross anyone's mind in the village. After all, theoretically speaking, the ANBU commander should be the Hokage's most loyal subordinate.
He shouldn't have any contact with an Uchiha, let alone support one.
She could already imagine Hiruzen's face when, at a critical moment, he discovered his ANBU commander was no longer his.
She quickly created a few Shadow Clones. "You know what to do next, right?"
Yes, it was a silly question, but she still asked. They just shrugged before disappearing using the Flying Raijin.
This was something Azula appreciated about her Shadow Clones. As playful as they could be, they were remarkably disciplined when it came to real actions.
Through Atsuchi, she had confirmed every subordinate under Danzō, the list matched her intel perfectly.
This was an important part of her "7 Steps to Become Hokage in Less Than a Week," starting with isolating Danzō from everyone in the village.
As funny as it might sound, Azula found that among the F4, Danzō was actually the most troublesome.
Hard to believe, she knew.
But then again, the saying "Keep calm and blame Danzō" didn't come out of nowhere.
•••
The first clone materialized outside a nondescript storefront in the seedier part of the village where a Flying Raijin mark was hidden, it was an 'ANBU' safe house and she didn't bother knocking.
Inside, two agents sat in near darkness, monitoring communication seals. They naturally sensed her the moment she appeared since she didn't bother to hide, but sensing and reacting were very different things.
"Evening, gentlemen," the clone said, her Sharingan already spinning. "You're being reassigned."
One agent reached for his kunai while the other activated a chakra suppression seal.
Neither worked obviously.
The clone's hand landed on the first agent's shoulder. A flicker of the Flying Raijin, and he vanished, deposited safely in a holding cell Azula had prepared specifically for ANBU operatives. The second agent lasted one second longer before suffering the same fate.
And it was the same across the Land of Fire, five more clones repeated the scene.
At a Root communications hub, a clone replaced three operators before they could trigger their emergency alarms.
At a weapons cache hidden beneath an abandoned warehouse, a clone swapped out explosive tags with harmless fakes.
At Danzō's personal intelligence relay, a clone planted a subtle listening tag, not to spy on Danzō directly (he'd notice), but to track every message sent to him from his own network.
By sunrise, every Root agent Azula deemed 'critical' had been replaced with either a clone or a very confused operative locked in a basement. The ones left in place were now receiving orders from Azula's clones disguised as their handlers.
Danzō's network that Hiruzen didn't 'know', something he spent decades building was controlling just like that.
•••
"What's going on?" Koharu said, instantly on alert. She had heard something on her roof, and she was certain she'd sensed chakra.
Now, ninjas moving across rooftops wasn't unusual in Konoha. You could almost call it a natural occurrence.
But there were restricted areas where even setting foot on the ground could get you killed, let alone landing on someone's roof.
The Uchiha and Hyūga compounds were obvious examples. So was her own clan's estate, along with its surroundings, given that she was a Hokage advisor.
If you were spotted here, you could be accused of eavesdropping, or worse, treason.
Still, when she stepped outside, she didn't see anyone.
Anyone, that is, but not anything. A scroll had been left behind. _Very suspicious._
She was intimately familiar with this kind of operation. In fact, anyone holding a high-level position in a major village would be.
The tactic was simple: cause internal trouble.
For example, if Konoha obtained damaging information about an Iwa elder, they could drop it directly onto the Tsuchikage's rooftop if they could manage it, and let the resulting conflict benefit Konoha.
And that exact scenario had played out before.
Koharu herself had received many such 'anonymous tips' over the years, targeting Hiruzen, Danzō, Homura, Sakumo, Mito, nearly anyone who could potentially threaten her position.
Unfortunately, some of those tips had turned out to be true.
Given that this scroll had been dropped directly onto her house, she knew it wasn't a joke. She quickly snatched it up and hid it beneath her sleeve.
Almost immediately after she hid the scroll, several ninjas appeared, kneeling directly below her rooftop.
"Is something wrong, Koharu-sama?"
They were supposedly in charge of 'guarding' the area. Even for someone of Koharu's position, appearing on the rooftop of her house suddenly was unusual.
She gave them a cold look, snorted, and left without a word.
She knew they weren't there to guard her.
They were there to spy on her, ANBU trained by Danzō, operating with Hiruzen's approval.
She had received tips about their surveillance on her and Homura, and she had confirmed it herself.
What hurt most was that Hiruzen allowed this. That he didn't even trust her, someone he had grown up with since their academy days.
Still, she went back inside. The 'ANBU' had no choice but to disperse.
She closed the door, slid the lock shut, and unrolled the scroll with feigned calm.
_Koharu-san,_
_You don't know me, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. But we share a common concern: Azula Uchiha._
_She intends to take the Hokage seat within the month and has already turned a few ANBU elements. Her manga is propaganda. If she succeeds, you and your peers will be pushed aside, or worse._
_I wanted to help you stop her. But my superiors have decided it's too risky. Azula is too strong, and the Kumo treaty makes her untouchable for now._
_So I'm giving you something else instead. Something you can use._
_Attached are records of Danzō Shimura's secret human experiments on orphans, prisoners, even Konoha citizens. He's been running them for three years beneath the village. If Azula discovers this, she will use it to purge everyone connected to Danzō. That includes you, if you're not careful._
_Protect yourself and even, expose Danzō before she does and let them tear each other apart._
_— A Friend_
Koharu was speechless. She sat motionless for a long time, reading the scroll again and again, making sure she hadn't missed any detail.
After memorizing every word, she burned it.
_Things are very bad,_ she thought.
Danzō's activities weren't exactly a secret among them. As students of Tobirama, they all knew where countless forbidden jutsu came from.
And every major village had high-level figures conducting experiments on prisoners, enemies, and captured subjects, that was simply a fact.
Those figures usually had stable positions. Under normal circumstances, Danzō would have been fine.
But these were not normal circumstances.
_If this information leaks to the general public,_ she realized, _we've already lost the first battle._
She hated that thought, because she knew Azula wouldn't hesitate to exploit any weakness.
Then she considered the source. Iwa, probably.
No matter the outcome, whether Konoha tore itself apart after signing the treaty with Kumo, or never signed it at all, the result would benefit them.
She sighed, feeling the weight of a decade on her shoulders.
"Why can't anyone take care of their own messes?" she muttered. "It's always me who has to clean up and get involved."
(END OF THE CHAPTER)