"No!"
Cold sweat streamed down Danzō's face. His pupils contracted, and every hair on his body stood on end.
The instant he heard the voice, Danzō didn't hesitate for a moment. He immediately used Izanagi.
As soon as Izanagi activated, Danzō saw a hand pierce through his back and emerge from his chest.
The hand was clutching half of his heart, still intact.
Danzō turned around. It was Ye Fan!
Looking at Ye Fan's calm, unreadable face, Danzō felt a flicker of fear.
He simply couldn't believe that Ye Fan had emerged completely unharmed after being hit by such a powerful jutsu.
"Not bad reflexes."
Ye Fan glanced at the heart slowly fading in his hand and smiled faintly.
He understood that Danzō had activated Izanagi once again.
"Whew... whew... whew..."
On the other side of the crater, Danzō had turned everything back into a dream once more. He gasped for breath.
Danzō stared in shock at the spot a hundred meters behind Ye Fan, the muscles in his face twitching uncontrollably.
Seeing that the Third Hokage and the others were just as unharmed as Ye Fan, Danzō gritted his teeth. "Did Ye Fan save them?"
"His speed is ridiculous! He actually outran the shock wave from the explosion!"
Danzō was stunned, but the Third Hokage and the others were even more astonished.
Even now, they still hadn't figured out what had happened.
The moment the explosion went off, they'd felt as though they were flying!
Jiraiya glanced at his slightly singed hair and was shocked, too.
Then a delighted smile spread across his face.
"Could that brat Ye Fan actually have learned how to train in ninjutsu?"
"And it seems like he learned a Flying Ninjutsu I've never seen before!"
He remembered clearly that, just before the tree exploded, Ye Fan had carried them all out of there through the air!
Ye Fan stood with his back to the Third Hokage and the others, his slightly disheveled hair stirring in the wind.
"Lord Third Hokage, was Shimura Danzō the first person to call me the Plague God?"
Ye Fan's voice was utterly calm, so calm that it was frightening.
An utterly chilling killing intent spread out from him in every direction.
Wherever it passed, it seemed to drain all color from the world.
Feeling an aura unlike anything he'd ever encountered, the Third Hokage froze for a moment, his mind going blank.
When Ye Fan asked again, the Third Hokage finally came to his senses. As if in a trance, he answered in a trembling voice:
"It was him. Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu only thought of that method after Danzō told them about it."
Only after he'd spoken did the Third Hokage realize what he'd just done. He hurriedly tried to speak again, wanting to defend Mitokado Homura and the others and take all the blame upon himself.
"Heh." Ye Fan gave a cold laugh. "Lord Third Hokage, you don't need to shoulder all the blame. You'll pay for what you did back then, too."
"Jiraiya, take them and leave. Go back and put down the traitors in Konoha."
"If we waste too much time here, many innocent people will die in this coup."
Jiraiya sighed. He didn't have time to think about what might happen later.
He knew Ye Fan was right. If they stayed here any longer, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Besides its ninja, Konoha was home to many ordinary people.
For them, a coup of this scale was a disaster beyond measure. They would be utterly powerless to resist.
"Lord Third Hokage, let's go!" Jiraiya said.
The Third Hokage took one last look at Danzō, his former comrade, then left first.
On the way back to the village, the Third Hokage's feelings were in turmoil.
He knew Danzō would certainly meet his end this time.
But he had no time to dwell on it. Right now, putting down the rebellion in the village was what mattered most.
Watching the Third Hokage and the others leave, Danzō knew his plan had completely fallen apart.
But he was powerless to stop them. There was nothing he could do.
Ye Fan's strength filled him with despair.
All this time, he'd prided himself on being Konoha's strongest. Now, standing before Ye Fan, he felt no different from a three-year-old child.
The ninjutsu he'd once been so proud of seemed utterly useless against Ye Fan.
He was nothing but a clown, jumping around and making a fool of himself.
The Hashirama Cells he'd spent so much effort cultivating, and the Sharingan he'd acquired, had both lost their former luster before Ye Fan.
Danzō stared fixedly at Ye Fan as if facing a god, utterly helpless.
No matter what he tried, he couldn't shake the boy standing before him.
"I can still use Izanagi nine more times. I have to escape from him!"
"There's still so much I have to do. I can't fall here!"
Danzō desperately searched for a way out. He no longer dared hope he could defeat Ye Fan; he only wanted to escape.
Danzō quickly unwound the bandages around his head, hoping to use the Genjutsu Kotoamatsukami to control Ye Fan.
He thought it over. Kotoamatsukami's purpose was to protect Konoha, and Konoha was no longer solely in the Third Hokage's hands.
Perhaps Kotoamatsukami really could affect Ye Fan. At the very least, it might buy him some time to escape.
Ye Fan slowly walked toward Danzō. The aura around him grew colder and colder, and the surrounding world instantly turned into a frozen wasteland.
"Shimura Danzō, I couldn't care less about how you so-called Konoha leaders fight among yourselves for power."
"But why did you have to call me the Plague God?"
"Honestly, I don't care about the Uchiha clan's gossip or what the other villagers say behind my back."
"But because of this, my parents paid for it with their lives! That's something I can never forgive!"
"Back then, I wasn't strong enough to protect my parents, and they died because of me."
"Today, before they come back to life, I'm collecting the first installment of what you owe them!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Fan appeared out of nowhere in front of Danzō and swung his hand at his head, delivering a ringing slap!
Before you continue