Show me the way

XXIII: Close to home

There was one thing Shizuka hadn't thought about in his efforts against Danzo. It wasn't that it left a hole in Konoha's structure of command, or that it was going to take a lot of effort to actually take Danzo down. No, what had caught him off guard was the sheer numbers of Shinobi under Danzo's control. And he wasn't talking about just the brainwashed soldiers. There were people who knowingly and willingly were putting children through this horrid process, just to get a few 'perfect soldiers' at the end of it all.

Those that were working willingly with Danzo were in a bit of a gray area from the village's standpoint. After all, they were working for one of the most influential persons in Konoha, and therefore could just be following orders, as expected from Shinobi. On the other hand, the extent to which they had to go to, to follow those orders should have been enough for them to report to the Hokage. Like mentioned before, a gray area, and the Hokage tasked him to act within his own judgement of them. A sign of trust, sure, but also a heavy burden to bare. Responsibility, and he would not take it lightly. He did have priority for the retrieval of the children over the lives of their guards.

Kakashi was beside him, spying through one of the cell windows to see a child sitting on the cold ground, nothing in the room except the child and a bed. The dead stare of the child into nothingness sent a shiver down his spine. Broken. And they were probably too late for her. How many more were there, in the same state or maybe even worse?

His attention was pulled away from the child when he heard a body crumble to the floor, lifeless, by the hand of Shizuna. Kakashi looked at him for a second, noticing his partner's distress over the kill. Kakashi understood. Killing someone from Konoha was different than killing enemies. This hit closer to home. But he also understood the need for this mission. He had just been looking at it and supported their cause completely.

But the emotional display from Shizuka didn't last long. Shizuka steeled himself easily against his actions, knowing what he did would have far reaching consequences for the betterment of the future. He just felt sorrow for being too late to have stopped the Uchiha massacre. If Sasuke had sent him back further, he could have intervened then and saved Sasuke a lifetime of hurt and loneliness. But that wish didn't matter. He was here now, trying to fix what he could.

With a few gestures from Shizuka, Kakashi and the ANBU with them moved deeper into the facility. A few stayed behind, getting the children out of the building and into the medical care standing ready outside.

Having been here before, Shizuka had the lead right now. All guards along the way were incapacitated. Or killed when resistance was too high. Those incapacitaded would be in Ibiki Morino's care until he determined otherwise. The man was going to be busy...

It wasn't long before they reached a large empty room. Several children were training in the middle of it, ignoring the intrusion in favour of obedience. The few agents that were posted to watch the children jumped into action, but offered little challenge for them.

Several ANBU and Kakashi stayed there. The group of children in here was big enough for Kakashi to need to take charge of the escort. The children were disturbingly quiet and obedient as they trudged out of the room, following Kakashi's orders as easily as they followed commands from the agents.

This is how they swiped the entire facility, systematically combing through everything until only two ANBU and Shizuka arrived at the room they saved for last; Danzo's room. On Shizuka's sign, the ANBU hid in the shadows. He would make his entrance alone.

He took a deep breath and kicked the door hard enough to make it fly off its hinges and crash into the opposite wall, crushing someone with it as the metal door slammed into the wall. Danzo stood inside, flanked by five hooded figures. All jumped to defend Danzo as Danzo himself slunk into the background, a wisp of a smirk on his face with how confident he was in his agents.

Shizuka grinned back, slowly drawing his Katana and taking on a wide stance, Katana above his head pointed towards the hooded figures. He waited, staring the five in front of him down in absolute silence.

Two hooded figures jumped him at Danzo's signal, but they proved to be no match for Shizuka quickly, being high Chunin at most. Frustration quickly crossed Danzo's face before he waved the other three to attack. The difference in level with the other two was significant, forcing Shizuka to take his focus completely off Danzo in favour of defending.

A few moments later he took a chance to search for Danzo, but Danzo was gone. The coward.

He silently cursed when a Kunai was pressed into his leg, the Root agent taking full advantage of his momentary lapse in focus. He knew he left himself open, but it hurt nonetheless. He needed to refocus on his main goal. With a flick of his wrist he signalled the ANBU to intervene, taking over the fight from him as Shizuka ran towards the only other door in the room, splotches of blood in his wake, but he was able to ignore the wound well enough.

Stairs led to a basement area where a laboratory was set up. The ghostly green containers along the walls were reminiscent of those they had found in Orochimaru's hideouts, only these were empty. The center was filled with surgery tables, stained red and brown from use and chemicals, tool tables in between them. Shizuka pulled up his nose at the smell of death and chemicals.

Danzo stood in the room, his eye already trained on the blond in a glare. "I knew you were trouble the first time we met. Hizuren made a mistake trusting you." He said, his voice calm, but his eye betrayed his anger. Shizuka only answered with a glare of his own.

"I don't understand, though. What did you tell him that would make him trust you out of all people? He can't be that senile yet." Shizuka raised an eyebrow. The animosity was palatable, even with Danzo keeping a straight face.

"I guess I won't get an answer from you... Makes me think I should mute more of my subjects, though that would make receiving reports a hassle." His voice was devoid of any emotion as he talked about muting children. It sent a cold shiver down Shizuka's spine and provided new resolve as to why the man needed to die. He took his wide stance again, eyes focussed on the treacherous man. Danzo answered in kind, revealing his own Katana and quickly starting a fast Kenjustu fight.

It didn't surprise Shizuka that Danzo kept up with him as well as he did. The man was, after all, an old team member of Sarutobi with no lack of talent and persistence in training. Even with age Danzo did not slack.

But age did bring physical limitations, and before long Shizuka drove him to rely on his Sharingan, revealing the first stolen eye in his eye socket. Mangekyo Sharingan stolen from Uchiha Shisui. And the first eye Shizuka was going to take back. He let a determined gaze settle on Danzo and started the battle again.

The Sharingan did make the fight more difficult, taking more from Shizuka and keeping him more on defense than he would have liked to be while avoiding eye contact. Kage Bunshin helped, but the space was small with many obstacles, making the room less than ideal for multiple Kage Bunshin.

Once Shizuka managed to gain the upper hand, he wasted no time and went straight for the eye. His fingers slid into the socket deep enough to gain a good grip. Pulling back strongly, he pulled the eye out, feeling the muscles and the optical nerve tear from Danzo, filling the room with a wet squelch as it came out.

Shizuka didn't flinch and he ignored the scream of agony as he jumped back, retrieving the bottle of pink liquid from a seal and plopping the eye into it. In one motion he proceeded to seal the bottle away in a seal in his sleeve, making use of the time Danzo needed to recover.

Before Danzo gained his bearings again, Shizuka managed to land another strike, cutting deep in Danzo's shoulder and cutting away the black robe and unfurling the bandages, revealing a scarred looking arm with more Sharingan grafted into it. Shizuka pulled up his lips in a sneer at the sight. People died for that, for Danzo's selfish wish to be stronger. It was disgusting.

Shizuka's eyes widened slightly as he watched the wound on Danzo's shoulder close, reminding him of the healing ability of Orochimaru. But it was slower and did not heal his eye. Blood slowly ran down Danzo's face and a new emotion appeared along with it. Disdain towards Shizuka. The condescending sneer told Shizuka Danzo was still underestimating him, despite his small victory already.

Taking his stance again, he gave a small motion with his hand, telling Danzo to come at him with a smirk.

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