Izanagi and the Second Falling Star Flash!

Izanagi and... the Second Falling Star Flash!

Shimura Danzō's eyes widened as he stared fixedly at Uchiha Hikari. Despite his severe injuries, he was still trying to get back up.

Uchiha Hikari lowered her eyes. Rather than meeting Danzo's gaze directly, she stopped about twenty meters away and used her ears and "ki" to sense his position.

The air fell briefly silent.

Only two sets of breathing rose and fell.

Then—

Shimura Danzō suddenly exerted himself and sprang upright with startling agility, spitting out a sharp breath of Wind Release chakra. "Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!!"

Whoosh—!!

At that instant, a piercing sound tore through the air. Sharp, invisible ripples spread outward in a crescent shape, striking Uchiha Hikari in the blink of an eye. The Susanoo around her immediately folded its arms together, attempting to block the mass of wind blades, but fine cracks appeared at once and rapidly spread outward!

As the Susanoo took the blow, Uchiha Hikari had already leaped into the air, soaring thirty or forty meters toward the dome overhead before looking down!

"Just as I thought..."

Just as she had guessed, Danzo's right eye was a Sharingan!

At the instant he had been struck by Susanoo, he had activated Izanagi!

Fortunately...

It was only Izanagi!

Since Uchiha Hikari had never interacted with the Uchiha Clan during either of her visits to Konoha, she had no idea what stage the clan was currently at—especially whether a clansman named Shisui was still alive... Though she knew the odds were slim, for one brief moment, she had feared that Danzo's right eye had come from Shisui. That was why she had not dared meet his eyes.

Now, her doubts had been cleared.

"...I'm terribly sorry, but my Susanoo can be activated endlessly."

With those words, Dark Red aura erupted around Uchiha Hikari once more, instantly forming the third stage of Susanoo. The Dark Red two-handed greatsword condensed again, its six- or seven-meter blade cutting through the sky as it pointed down at Danzo on the ground!

Then, Uchiha Hikari slowly curled her lips into a smile. "So, tell me—how many more times..."

"Can you use your Izanagi?"

"?!"

Danzo's face filled with shock. "Impossible! You just used a Susanoo of that level—how could you recover so quickly... Could you be an Eternal Mangekyo?!"

Although his shock had reached its peak, Danzo still raised his right hand at once, bit his index finger until it bled, and slammed it against the ground. "Summoning Technique..."

"It's over!"

"...Falling Star Flash!!"

A cold, sharp cry rang out.

Controlling her Susanoo, Uchiha Hikari forcefully kicked off the dome behind her and descended once more, swinging her greatsword!

BOOM!!!

This time, she was even faster than before!

As milky-white currents of air surged, an ear-splitting sonic boom exploded!!

Faced with the intense killing intent dropping straight toward him, Danzo decisively leaped backward. Where he had just stood, a blood-mixed summoning seal lit up, and a giant summoned beast as large as an elephant emerged from the void. It had only raised its head, not yet seeing its surroundings clearly, when the sword tip pierced it head-on, drawing out a shriek violent enough to rupture eardrums!

The next instant, the Dark Red greatsword pierced through the Baku's body and tore it apart, then plunged into the ground without losing momentum, triggering a violent tremor like the collapse of mountains and the splitting of earth!

Amid the flying rubble and fragments of the Baku's flesh, a massive palm shot out and struck Shimura Danzō in midair!

Bang—!

As Shimura Danzō was sent flying, the smoke and dust between him and the Susanoo were briefly swept away.

From a dozen meters apart, Uchiha Hikari's eyes met those of the Root leader for an instant.

Then, Shimura Danzō watched in horror as the curve of Uchiha Hikari's lips lifted and a great pinwheel spun within her pupils.

"Marked Tsukuyomi!"

Danzo was in midair when his eyes went blank for an instant.

Then he slammed into another wall more than ten meters away and tumbled heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

This time, he had no "Izanagi" left to prolong his life.

Although the Baku had blocked the most lethal damage, the Susanoo's palm strike and Uchiha Hikari's Tsukuyomi had still left him gravely injured.

Shimura Danzō was now covered in blood. His abdomen was visibly caved in, and it was impossible to tell how many ribs had been broken. With only his last few breaths remaining, he lay there barely clinging to life. The half of his face wrapped in bandages looked as though it had aged more than a decade in an instant, revealing terror no different from that of an ordinary man.

"Cough, cough... cough..."

Deep coughing echoed through the surroundings.

Danzo coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. The muscles in his face twitched as though he were desperately enduring something.

The intense battle had loosened the layers of bandages wrapped around him, exposing half of a body so pale it was horrifying. As he struggled in agony, an eerie vitality brewed beneath that white flesh before finally erupting at that moment!

"Aah!!!"

Amid a pained wail, a towering tree burst out through Danzo's right arm!

"...So these are Hashirama Cells?"

Uchiha Hikari frowned slightly, her gaze brushing over the ghastly white skin on Shimura Danzō's exposed half before withdrawing. She found it somewhat nauseating. "As expected... ugly."

"A defective product, just like Uchiha Obito."

That Tsukuyomi had been specially prepared for Danzo.

It was essentially the same one Itachi Uchiha had used on Kakashi.

The fact that this "Darkness of the Shinobi World" had endured three days and three nights of flaying torture in the illusionary realm without dying on the spot made Uchiha Hikari regard his willpower somewhat more highly.

At that moment, a new idea suddenly occurred to her.

Perhaps...

Killing Danzo outright would be a bit too wasteful.

Someone as stubborn, dark-minded, and experienced as him would make perfect experimental material to verify a certain plan she had conceived back in the Dragon Ball World...

Thud, thud, thud—

A rush of hurried footsteps sounded from the far end of the corridor, echoing loudly through the empty underground space.

Uchiha Hikari stopped. She put the Senzu Bean she had just taken from her mouth back in, then turned beneath the protection of her second-stage Susanoo and calmly looked toward the way she had come.

At the edge of her vision—

Sarutobi Hiruzen, wearing the Hokage's Priest Robe, hurried over. Behind him followed quite a few Anbu, as well as two figures in kimono: Konoha's two advisors, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura.

To explain briefly, Danzo's purpose was connected to the ability Yachihoko.