three years ago, little kakashi came to the third hokage and said “your second-in-command is plotting to assassinate you. i know this because he encouraged me to steal confidential documents about your whereabouts so he could ambush you on your next journey.” danzo made the predicted attempt on sarutobi’s life; it failed because of kakashi’s intel; and then when sarutobi got back to his office and saw danzo sitting in his chair prematurely celebrating his supposed death, sarutobi did…nothing. the most powerful man in the village looked away, and danzo retained all of his power and suffered no consequences.
three years after that, teenage kakashi comes to the third hokage again - beaten, bleeding, poisoned - and says “your second-in-command just tried to kill me. i’m afraid he’s going to retaliate against the child who refused to finish the job.” when he begs the most powerful man in the village to do something about this, sarutobi is almost…TAKEN ABACK at being asked to act. he hesitates, sighs, and eventually, finally, sends yugao to the foundation with a note for danzo to come see him.
so kakashi - who knows that danzo got away with this shit before, who knows that the foundation’s sentries are just going to brush yugao off, who knows that a note is not going to save yamato in time - takes matters into his own hands. the third hokage tells him to go to the hospital, and kakashi lies to him, saying that he will. “yes, sir,” he says, and then he goes straight to the foundation, where he breaks into the forbidden facility, incapacitates danzo’s guards, rescues yamato from the lab where he’s lying shackled to an examination chair, and attempts to fight all of danzo’s forces AND danzo himself on his way out the door. he literally confronts konoha’s equivalent of the vice president (a man who just tried to have kakashi killed), after lying to the actual president, while trespassing in bowels of the cia. he commits TREASON. he breaks every rule on the books, because THOSE WHO BREAK THE RULES ARE SCUM, BUT THOSE WHO ABANDON THEIR FRIENDS ARE WORSE THAN SCUM.
and then, when sarutobi finally does show up (at which point he witnesses danzo attacking two young teenagers, when he already knows that danzo tried to have kakashi murdered for as-yet-unclear reasons), the most powerful man in the village once again does NOTHING. he uses the situation to leverage yamato out of the foundation, and once the valuable wood-style user is in his own hands (how convenient for him), he lets everything else go, saying “we’ll consider this settled amicably.” he doesn’t hold danzo accountable for a single thing. there are NO consequences to anything danzo did. sarutobi KNOWS yamato is a product of orochimaru’s experiments, and he doesn’t ask danzo a single thing about that. he KNOWS danzo ordered a hit on kakashi, and he lets him walk away with all of his power and resources intact - while kakashi is right there watching! danzo tried to have kakashi killed, and the third hokage knows he did that, and it doesn’t matter.
what does that tell kakashi about how little his life is worth? how expendable is he, how insignificant is his suffering, that one of the village’s leaders can just make an attempt on his life without fear of reprisal? how unimportant is kakashi, ultimately, if the village’s second-in-command can try to have him murdered, and the first-in-command can just handwave it away and tell kakashi to forget it happened?
the fact that kakashi in the present day continues to suffer for this man’s sins (and the fact that i suspect he’s also going to end up being the person responsible for cleaning up this man’s mess) makes me so frustrated. kakashi, when he was just a CHILD, gave the hokage everything he needed to put a stop to danzo’s misdeeds long before his crimes culminated in the uchiha massacre. kakashi came to the third hokage again and again with proof of serious abuses; he sounded the alarm, once, twice; he gave the third hokage all the information necessary to stop this train before danzo drove it off a cliff. the third hokage knew - because kakashi told him so - that danzo ordered kakashi to steal confidential documents, that he tried to have sarutobi assassinated, that he tried to have teenage kakashi killed, that he was secretly in possession of a wood-style user who had been kidnapped by orochimaru as an infant and experimented upon. it’s not like sarutobi didn’t believe these accusations - he knew they were true. he just actively chose to let all of it slide. he kept danzo at his side, kept looking the other way, until his leniency (his cowardice) led to a genocide.
sarutobi is the hokage. he’s the most powerful man in the village. he’s the one with the ability and the authority to stop his subordinates from hurting other people, and when it’s brought to his attention - multiple times, by a child - that danzo is, in fact, hurting other people, it’s sarutobi’s responsibility to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. kakashi is just a teenager, one whose own life is in such a shambles it’s a miracle he’s even functional enough to take this amount of action; and he’s been targeted by danzo specifically because he’s so vulnerable - when a foundation ninja tells danzo that attacking a member of the uchiha to steal the sharingan will be high-risk, danzo responds, “there is one with the sharingan who is not an uchiha, who has neither parents nor teachers” - ie, there’s someone out there who is all alone. kakashi has no parents to take care of him, no teachers to protect him, no clan to back him up. he’s targeted because he doesn’t have the power or the connections of the uchiha clan, and because danzo thinks no one will kick up a fuss or ask inconvenient questions when he “accidentally” dies in the field. kakashi is the injured antelope separated from the herd. he’s what danzo sees as an easy mark. it’s easier to murder an orphaned, sensei-less teenager than it is to take on one of the the most powerful clans in the village, and danzo, expecting that sarutobi will avert his eyes from most of his dirty work, is not afraid to attempt to kill a child and loot his body for parts.
it’s infuriating to me, how right danzo is about this. kakashi begs the third hokage for help, and sarutobi responds with the absolute least amount of assistance possible. he’s worse than useless. he’s worse than danzo, even, because he’s so self-deluded. danzo is evil, but he doesn’t lie to himself about who and what he is - whereas the third hokage, on the other hand, genuinely sees himself as a benevolent patriarch who loves his people and “takes care” of the village’s children, when really he’s a coward who lets orochimaru and danzo get away with murder.
kakashi, as a child, goes far beyond the scope of his own responsibilities in order to stop danzo from hurting people, long before things get to the point where we’re at now. he does everything within his limited power, and whenever he takes his concerns to the person who’s truly responsible for dealing with the situation, the third hokage is like “thanks for bringing this to my attention; don’t worry; i’ll handle it from here.” but after the crisis, behind the scenes, sarutobi’s version of “handling it” just looks like letting danzo continue to do whatever he wants, up until the moment when danzo exterminates an entire ethnic group, at which point it’s too late. AND THEN SARUTOBI COVERS FOR HIM, EVEN THEN.
kakashi has spent his entire life picking up messes that the third hokage made, and i do mean his Entire Life - sarutobi was hokage during the previous generation’s time, too, and he clearly was just as unwilling to intervene when one of his most respected jonin was being publicly harassed and driven to suicide as he is about everything happening in the present day. sarutobi has spent decades declining to act when the situation called for courage, and his legacy is precisely what kakashi describes to tazuna in the land of waves arc: “to know what is right and choose to ignore it is the act of a coward.”
i hate the idea that kakashi is probably going to have to spend even more of his life cleaning up after this man, but he’s the only person i trust to do it right. and that’s a sentiment i suspect will be shared by the “wood-style user” whom kakashi rescues immediately after the end of the above gifset, because - and i say this with full offense intended to sarutobi - sending a NOTE to someone who just tried to murder a child doesn’t cut it.
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