  We examine properties of accelerated protons potentially responsible for the
neutrino excess observed in the direction of NGC 1068, using constraints from
kinetic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. We find that i) coronal X-rays and
Optical/Ultra-Violet light in the inner disk lead to efficient absorption of
hadronic $\gamma$-rays within 100 Schwarzschild radii from the black hole; ii)
protons accelerated from the coronal thermal pool cannot account for the
observed neutrinos; and iii) explaining the observed signal requires an
injection of protons with a hard spectrum, peaking at $\gamma_p\sim 10^3-10^4$,
into the turbulent magnetically-dominated corona, where they are confined and
re-accelerated. The resulting neutrino signal can be consistent with IceCube
observations. In our most favorable scenario, the injected protons are
pre-accelerated in intermittent current sheets in the vicinity of the black
hole, occurring either at the boundary between the disk and the outflow or
during magnetic flux eruption events.
