The real Shinobi World...
Cold water droplets condensed on the walls of the special prison for the Anbu Guard. Shimura Danzō slumped on the stone bed, the bandage around his right eye already soaked with blood, emitting a faint, fishy odor.
The only light source came from a surveillance hole in the corner of the ceiling, which would cast a pale beam of light every six hours—that was when the Anbu would deliver meals.
"It's been over a month..." Danzo's hoarse voice echoed in the cell. His age-spotted fingers carved another mark on the stone wall, his nails breaking as a result, but he didn't care.
Suddenly, the small window beneath the iron gate opened, and an aluminum plate was pushed in. Danzo lunged forward, a terrifying glint in his single eye. "Tell Tsunade! I want to see the Elder Advisor!"
A disdainful sneer came from outside the door, "Mitokado Homura and Lord Utatane Koharu submitted their resignations last week." On the plate, besides moldy rice balls, was a crumpled copy of the Konoha Daily, its front page prominently featuring a photo of the two advisors bowing in apology.
Danzo's hands trembled violently, the newspaper crumbling between his fingers. He recalled the look of disappointment in Utatane Koharu's eyes when he last saw his two old friends, "Danzo... the human experiments you conducted are something even Orochimaru would be ashamed of."
(Betrayal! It's all betrayal!)
"Hiruzen... this is the good disciple you've trained!" Danzo roared at the void, but his voice turned into a cough halfway through. He thought of his always smiling old friend; if Sarutobi were in power, at most he would have deducted "Root's" funding and made him write a self-criticism...
Danzo up and saw the Heavenly Screen unfold once more—that damned projection of the future that had revealed his secrets. In the image, Six Paths Madara floated in the air, his Rinnegan gleaming with godlike radiance.
"The evil Uchiha..." Danzo's single eye was bloodshot and red, and the Sharingan on his right arm simultaneously snapped open. "They should all be eliminated!"
But the next second, his curses stopped abruptly. In the Heavenly Screen, a figure burning with blood-red steam tore through the heavens, and the shockwave of the Evening Elephant slammed Six Paths Madara into the ground. Might Guy's face, contorted with pain, occupied most of the sky.
Danzo's breathing suddenly quickened. His memory flashed back to years ago, to the Hokage's office door, where the watermelon-headed ninja in a green bodysuit had stopped him.
"Danzo! Please let me join Root!"
What did he say in response? I think he said something like, "You're not dark enough," and then stormed off. Looking back now, Danzo is kicking himself.
(If only I had accepted this weapon back then...)
His fantasies gradually became distorted: Guy, dressed in the "Root" uniform, carrying out assassination missions with a blank expression; Guy opening the Eight Gates and massacring the Hidden Kumogakure; Guy kneeling before him like a loyal dog...
"Tsunade! Did you see that?!" Danzo suddenly roared at the wall, "This is the War Weapon you've wasted!"
Anger caused the wound around his right eye to reopen. Blood streamed down his cheek, carving jagged furrows into his wrinkles. He groped to pick up the rice ball from the ground, only to discover that someone had deliberately mixed sand and pebbles into it.
(Even the Anbu dares to humiliate this old man...)
In the Heavenly Screen, the sound of Kai's leg bone breaking was exceptionally clear. Danzo laughed eerily, "Yes, that's it... Pain is the best teacher..." He nervously gnawed on a sandy rice ball, oblivious to the bleeding from his teeth, "If I had trained you back then..."
The metal door of the special prison was covered with a layer of cold, damp air, and the Sealing Tags on the door were slightly yellowed. Danzo fingers scratched at the wall, and the sound of his nails breaking was particularly jarring in the silent cell.
"Damn it... they all deserve to die..."
His single eye was bloodshot as he stared intently at the surveillance hole in the corner of the ceiling. The faint sounds of voices outside cut into his nerves like dull knives.
"--I never expected Senior Kai to be this strong!"
A young Anbu's voice slipped through the crack in the door, filled with undisguised amazement.
"That's right," another hoarse voice chimed in, "Last year I even saw him running laps upside down at the entrance of the bathhouse, and I laughed at him then..."
The air in the cell suddenly froze. Danzo's breathing became heavy, and pus and blood from the wound around his right eye slid down his cheek. He remembered that morning thirty years ago when he stood at the window of the Hokage Building, watching that green figure repeatedly perform aesthetically unappealing Taijutsu exercises on the Training Ground.
(He's just a piece of trash...)
That's how he assessed it at the time. Now, this "trash" is defeating Six Paths Madara in the Heavenly Screen.
A suppressed laugh suddenly erupted from outside the door, "Hey, do you guys remember what Danzo said back then? 'Taijutsu ninjas are just cannon fodder in real wars!'"
Danzo's Chakra suddenly went berserk, and the sealing array of the prison lit up with a blinding red light. He frantically pounded on the walls, and his wooden prosthetic limbs creaked under the strain.
"Shut up! You ants!" His roar echoed in the small space, "I did it for Konoha--!"
Silence fell instantly outside the door. But not out of fear—the Anbu couldn't hear his roar at all.
"... Will there be another war in the future?"
A whisper suddenly came from outside the door. The cheerful atmosphere was instantly dampened, and the members of the Anbu fell silent.
Danzo's ears perked up. Like a hyena that had caught the scent of blood, he dragged his mangled body to the door, pressing his ears against the cold metal.
"Those figures in the Heavenly Screen... Akatsuki, Pain, Six Paths Madara..." The young Anbu's voice trembled, "Can we really win?"
No one answered. Only the rumbling sound from the Heavenly Screen echoed in the corridor, like the war drums of a distant future.
Danzo's lips suddenly curled into a twisted smile.
"Fight... fight to your heart's content..." he muttered nervously, "Until you're both badly injured..."
Outside the door, the Anbu instinctively touched their ninja tool pouches. Some counted the number of Explosive Tags, while others repeatedly checked the sharpness of their Kunai. These subtle sounds were clearly audible to the ninjas, but no one spoke of them.
The light from the Heavenly Screen shone through, casting dappled shadows on Danzo's face. He huddled at the boundary between light and shadow, like a venomous spider waiting for its chance.
The eldest Anbu suddenly spoke, his voice filled with complex emotions. "We have Lady Tsunade Naruto, and Lord Jiraiya. With these powerful individuals, we will surely win any war in the future."
Inside the metal door, Danzo for a moment. He recalled the cold look in the blonde woman's eyes when she wiped out Root, and the image of her back as she stood on the Hokage Rock announcing her reforms.
(The women of the Senju Clan...)
He bit his tongue hard, using the pain to dispel the dangerous thought. The taste of blood filled his mouth, overlapping with the scent of a rainy night from his memory.
"Just wait..." he whispered to the void, as if trying to convince himself, "Konoha will eventually need true darkness..."
Outside the door, the Anbu shivered in unison. They looked up at the Heavenly Screen, unsure whether the sudden chill came from the terrifying pressure of Six Paths Madara in the image or from the chilling malice emanating from the cell behind them.