Original God, But Chat Group

"Hmph!"

This time, Danzo didn't bother with any "you'll regret this" nonsense, because this was undeniably his victory—Danzo's victory!

He strode straight past Hiruzen Sarutobi and came to a stop before Li Yue, who was pinned to the ground.

"Confess honestly. Who are you, daring to run wild in Konoha?"

"Is that how you address me, you inherently wicked Shimura brat?"

Though pinned down, Li Yue's expression remained icy.

"Hmph. Still putting on airs even at this point."

Danzo's left hand, resting on his cane, flicked a finger toward Li Yue's right hand.

"Cut off his right hand. We'll see if he talks then. If he won't, have the Interrogation Department extract his memories directly!"

The Root ninja holding Li Yue down immediately drew the ninja blade from his back and swung it down at Li Yue's right hand.

But just as the Root ninja's blade was about to strike, countless cracks suddenly appeared in the air.

Crack—

Like shattering glass, everyone's vision splintered into fragments. When their sight returned to normal, Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Anbu behind him all had their eyes wide open.

The Root ninja who had been surrounding Li Yue with such menace were now all split in half, lying on the ground. Blood stained the entire classroom red. Not a single one survived, let alone held Li Yue down. The Li Yue who should have been pinned beneath the Root ninja now stood on the only patch of floor untouched by blood. His right hand gripped a Tachi with a white hilt, and in his other hand, he held a string of bandages, from which dangled an arm.

"Th-This is..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes bulged. The floor littered with Root corpses—even he, the Hokage, was shaken. The Anbu behind him stood frozen, their bodies stiff, some even forgetting to breathe.

"Ahhh!!!"

A sudden scream from Danzo rang out. Hiruzen turned to look and found his old comrade, who had been arrogantly berating him moments ago, now kneeling on the ground clutching his right shoulder. His expression was twisted in agony. The bandaged right eye was fully exposed, revealing a gaping, empty socket—nothing inside.

Wait, could it be!

Hiruzen looked back at Li Yue and noticed that the arm dangling from the bandages in Li Yue's hand—wasn't that Danzo's right arm!

"You bastard, what have you done!"

Danzo roared in pain, but Li Yue's face remained cold.

"You're asking what I did? I simply drew my sword and swung it."

"Isn't that right, Clan Leader Sasuke."

Beside Li Yue, Uchiha Sasuke listened to his words and nodded stiffly. The shock hit him slightly less than Hiruzen and the others, because he had witnessed the entire process of Li Yue cutting down those Root ninja. Just as Li Yue had said, he pulled out a Tachi from thin air, drew it, and swung it at the Root ninja surrounding him, one slash after another. Those Root ninja were like pigs lined up for slaughter—no defense, no struggle. Each one was cleaved in two by Li Yue's blade, blood splattering across the floor.

Finally, Li Yue had walked up to that arrogant old man, sliced off his arm in one stroke, and then used the tip of his blade to gouge out his right eye.

And what shocked Uchiha Sasuke even more was that the gouged-out right eye was a blood-red Sharingan!

"I'm asking you—when did you use genjutsu! To pull this off, you must have used genjutsu, right? When exactly did you use it!"

Though Danzo was cunning, his combat instincts were sharp. He realized that everything he had just seen was an illusion. But Li Yue had done nothing obvious, and his eyes were normal—not a Sharingan. Yet he and his men had all fallen for it. Why?!

In response to Danzo's questioning, Li Yue only offered a contemptuous smirk.

"When did you..."

"...get the illusion that I hadn't used genjutsu!"

Pshh—

Stunned by Li Yue's answer, Danzo was split cleanly in two from the middle.

"Danzo!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't stop it. He could only watch as Danzo's body fell apart, letting out a grief-stricken roar.

78. A Mere Wood Style? Just Stomp the Ground!

"Danzo!"

Staring at Shimura Danzo, now split in two before him, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt as though he were still dreaming.

It's genjutsu—it has to be genjutsu, right!

Yet the normal flow of chakra in his body told him this was all real. The thick, dizzying smell of blood in the air was real. The sticky blood beneath his feet was real. The corpse of his old friend was real. All of it was real.

The leader of Konoha's Root, Danzo, along with his elite Root ninja, had been completely wiped out right before his eyes—not a single survivor!

As a Hokage who had fought through mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the battlefield, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't feel nauseous, just overwhelmed by the shock. But Sasuke genuinely began to feel sick. Especially seeing Danzo cleaved in half from the middle, with everything inside spilling out. Even when Uchiha Itachi had massacred the Uchiha clan, it hadn't been this gruesome—at most, he killed people, not sliced them open.

After five years, witnessing such dense, bloody, even horrifying scenes again, Sasuke felt acid rising in his throat.

"Ugh—"

In the end, he couldn't hold it in and vomited.

"Do you know who you just killed!?"

Hiruzen finally snapped back to reality. He stood up, glaring at Li Yue in fury.

"Just a piece of inherently wicked trash."

Li Yue waved his hand with utter nonchalance.

"He is an elder of our Leaf Village! You are making an enemy of the entire village!"

The Third Hokage, a man known for compromise, finally unleashed his fury. He stripped off his Hokage robes, revealing a suit of pitch-black battle armor beneath.

"What, are you saying you'd attack me for his sake?"

Li Yue stood there, utterly at ease.

"Go ahead. If you think you can, give it a try. But if you fail, the consequences will fall on your Sarutobi clan."

"Nani!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had already clasped his hands together ready to strike, froze on the spot.

"Guess how long it would take me to wipe out the Sarutobi clan."

With a stomp of his foot, the once-smooth floor suddenly cracked open. Massive trees burst up from beneath, instantly filling the entire classroom.

"This is Wood Style!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's face twisted in shock. Wood Style carried immense weight for anyone in the ninja world, especially for Leaf villagers—they had grown up under its protection!

"Quick! Everyone pull back!"

Under the Third Hokage's command, the Anbu ninja scrambled out of the classroom. As Hiruzen and his Anbu retreated, the colossal trees exploded outward, shattering the entire classroom and blasting through the other rooms in the school. Thick trunks replaced the building itself, overtaking the whole structure. The Anbu, now regrouped on the training ground, stared in disbelief at the dense forest that had swallowed the school.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's reaction was the most visceral.

"Impossible... Wood Style on this scale—it's impossible!"

"What do you think Wood Style is?"

Li Yue walked out from the forest, a stunned Sasuke at his side.

"Just a fusion of water and earth natures. It's not even a Kekkei Genkai."

With every step Li Yue took, a massive tree sprouted beside him, as effortless as breathing. The sight dealt a crushing blow to Hiruzen Sarutobi's resolve.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible—this is genjutsu! The First Hokage's Wood Style couldn't be used so easily by someone else!"

"Hmph. You think Senju Hashirama was strong only because you're all too weak and pathetic!"

Li Yue lifted his chin, looking down his nose at Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Not just you—even Uchiha Madara back then was too weak and pathetic. He got a little taste of the Sharingan's power and thought he was invincible, only to lose to Senju Hashirama. What a waste!"

Far away in the Pure Land, Madara suddenly felt a surge of irritation. His beloved Hashirama was doing who-knows-what, ignoring every message he sent in the Chat Group.

"The Kekkei Genkai you trash are so proud of? In my hands, they're just things I can whip up on a whim!"

Li Yue stomped again, but this time, instead of trees, a burst of ice spikes erupted from the ground. Massive frozen spears, like a thick palisade, spread out from Li Yue, encircling the entire school—trapping the Third Hokage and all his Anbu inside.

"This time, it's the Mizuki clan's Ice Style!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the towering ice spikes surrounding him, feeling the biting cold in the air. A bead of sweat slid down his forehead.

That wasn't all. The trees behind Li Yue rapidly converged, climbing higher and higher. On the small school training ground, a fifty-meter-tall wooden giant rose into view, its massive frame visible to everyone across the entire Leaf Village!

At that, Hiruzen Sarutobi froze completely. The Wood Person Technique—the legendary jutsu that had pacified the ninja world under the First Hokage! Wood Style plus Ice Style, unleashing such a massive-scale Kekkei Genkai right off the bat, along with terrifying genjutsu he couldn't even detect—could he really defeat an enemy like this?

If he failed, as the man had warned, he would move directly against the Sarutobi clan. If his rashness led to the clan's annihilation, how could he bear that responsibility? He couldn't!

But the man had killed Danzo, an elder of the Leaf Village. If he did nothing...

"Think carefully. Choose between Shimura Danzo... or your Sarutobi clan."

Li Yue spoke as he waved the arm he had cut from Danzo in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the bandages wrapped around the arm unraveled, revealing its true form.

"That's!"

The Anbu behind Hiruzen Sarutobi all froze.

"Why! Why does that arm have Sharingan!"

The question didn't come from Hiruzen Sarutobi—it came from Sasuke, standing beside Li Yue.

"The eye you dug out of that guy earlier was a Sharingan too, right?! Why was his eye a Sharingan!"

As a member of the Uchiha clan, seeing Sharingan on someone else sent Sasuke into immediate agitation.

Hiruzen Sarutobi caught the smile on Li Yue's face and his own expression twisted in alarm.

"The reason is simple. The useless, incompetent Uchiha clan was wiped out by that trash and Uchiha Itachi working together!"

"What?!"

"What is this all about?! Didn't you say he was an elder of the Leaf Village!"

Sasuke's blood-red eyes locked onto Hiruzen Sarutobi. If a Leaf elder had been involved in the Uchiha clan's destruction, then what about the Hokage?

Li Yue ignored Sasuke, who had already activated his Sharingan in fury, and turned his smile toward Hiruzen Sarutobi.

And Hiruzen understood exactly what Li Yue meant. The charges had already been laid out for him. If he still didn't get it, he was truly asking for death.

"I understand."

The Third Hokage let out a long, helpless sigh.

"Sasuke..."

"Hmm?"

Li Yue cut Hiruzen Sarutobi off. The Third Hokage paused for a moment, then spoke again.

"Head of the Otsutsuki clan, I will have someone investigate Shimura Danzo's involvement in the Uchiha clan's massacre. If the facts bear it out—"

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep breath.

"I will give you a satisfactory resolution!"

79. Li Yue's Butler Seeks a Spouse Worldwide!

Hiruzen Sarutobi had conceded. He had no confidence in defeating Li Yue, especially with the man inside the Leaf Village, effortlessly unleashing devastating wide-scale Wood Style and Ice Style, along with that utterly undetectable, powerful genjutsu. He dared not gamble—because if he lost, the Sarutobi clan might truly be buried because of it. He couldn't be the Sarutobi clan's sinner.

Moreover, the massive ice wall of spikes in the schoolyard was impossible to hide, and the towering Wood Person standing on the school grounds was even more conspicuous. With the students already evacuated, there was no way to stop this.

So, in his capacity as the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi announced the reopening of the investigation into the Uchiha clan's massacre. The very next day, he released the findings.

"Leaf Village elder Shimura Danzo, during his tenure, out of envy for the Uchiha clan's Sharingan, abused his power, framed the Uchiha clan, and then conspired with Uchiha Itachi to slaughter them, all for the purpose of seizing the Uchiha clan's Sharingan."

"The Uchiha clan's suffering is a tragedy for them and for the Leaf Village. As the Third Hokage, I failed to detect Shimura Danzo's intentions in time, and I cannot shirk my responsibility."

"In the name of the Leaf Village, I will compensate the Uchiha clan—now the Otsutsuki clan. After completing that compensation, I will take responsibility and resign, initiating the election for a new Fifth Hokage."

On the square in front of the Hokage Building, shinobi gathered, looking up at Hiruzen Sarutobi standing on the rooftop. After hearing his announcement, a wave of shock rippled through the crowd.

The Uchiha clan's massacre had been a major event five years ago. At the time, they all thought it was an internal Uchiha conflict. They never imagined that not only was there a traitor within the Uchiha clan, but the Leaf Village's high-ranking officials were also complicit.

The very leadership they trusted had, out of envy for the Uchiha clan's power, chosen to strike from the shadows.

This hit the Leaf Village shinobi like a thunderbolt. The impact was immense, because the village was home to many secret-technique users.

If the high-ranking officials could do this to the Uchiha, what about other clans or secret-technique holders? Would they also be targeted in the shadows? Perhaps they already had been!

Hiruzen Sarutobi understood that once Shimura Danzo's actions were made public, it would directly shatter the shinobi's trust in the leadership. They might not say anything openly, but doubt would take root in their hearts. That was why he chose to resign immediately, to minimize the fallout.

After announcing the investigation results to the shinobi below, Hiruzen Sarutobi turned his gaze to Sasuke and Li Yue, who were also standing on the Hokage Building's rooftop.

"Head of the Otsutsuki clan, I apologize to you for what Shimura Danzo did to the former Uchiha clan. I will provide compensation to the Otsutsuki clan at the highest standard stipulated by Leaf Village regulations."