Only One Hand Left

Day broke.

Shimura Danzō left Konoha through a secret passage opened by Root, setting out on the long road of a rogue ninja.

In a forest a hundred kilometers from Konoha, two Uchiha were also fleeing.

The blood tears on Uchiha Itachi's face had already been wiped away. His expression was cold, and an icy aura radiated from his entire body as he strode forward with his head lowered.

The thirteen-year-old Mangekyō Sharingan user had a distant look in his eyes, his swift steps unsteady and drifting. Clearly, he had no idea where he was headed.

Obito Uchiha flickered in and out of sight, occasionally muttering something no one could hear.

He seemed to have cast aside Madara Uchiha's burden as a powerhouse and become the laid-back Tobi instead. Apparently, he had encountered an unsolvable problem and fallen into a mental spiral he could not escape.

Just as they left the forest and entered a plain, both Uchiha sensed something. They abruptly raised their heads and looked around.

Before they could react further, a blurred figure swept past them. Long horizontal wounds were sliced across both Obito Uchiha and Uchiha Itachi's bodies.

Itachi's wound was relatively smaller, but more blood and debris sprayed out from it. Among the debris was a small bottle containing a three-tomoe eye.

Shazo, Uchiha Itachi, and Obito Uchiha all froze upon seeing the bottle, then immediately realized it was a Mangekyō Sharingan.

Shazo, having activated Swift Style, was ultimately the fastest. Before the two Uchiha could raise their hands, he flashed past them again, carving two fresh wounds into their bodies and calmly taking the small bottle.

Shazo held the bottle up and examined it against the rising sun. Once he confirmed the astonishing potential contained within, he could not help bursting into laughter.

"Uchiha Itachi, I never expected you to carry Shisui's eye with you. Why didn't you put it in a crow's eye socket?"

Blood loss had turned Uchiha Itachi's face pale, but it could not conceal his shock. "How did you know I planned to hide the eye in a crow's eye socket?"

Shazo sneered. "Your brain is smart enough to think of hiding a drop of water in the ocean, but with your laughably limited knowledge, the only ocean you could think of was the flock of crows raised by the Uchiha Clan."

"Besides, with your medical ninjutsu skill, the only way to preserve the eye's vitality for a long time was to simply hide it in a crow's eye socket."

"But I never expected you to carry it around all this time. You've really saved me a lot of time."

Uchiha Itachi clutched his wound and growled, "Give it back!"

Shazo smiled and asked, "Give it back to you? This is Shisui Uchiha's eye. Since its original owner is still alive, naturally it should be returned to him."

"But Shisui's eye isn't the only thing I'm taking from you. I'm taking your life too!"

With a deafening BOOM, Shazo, whose Hollowfication had vanished, was blasted off the surface of the Susanoo. Shattered fragments of his ninja blade flew through the air.

The Mangekyō Sharingan's dynamic vision was indeed powerful. Uchiha Itachi barely caught sight of Shazo's charging trajectory.

Although his body could not keep up with the speed and he was unable to dodge or counterattack, he had enough time to activate Susanoo and block Shazo's ninja blade strike.

After blocking the attack, Uchiha Itachi did not relax. Instead, he called out anxiously, "Think of something! My Susanoo won't last much longer."

Obito Uchiha swiftly moved over, preparing to pull him back into the Kamui Dimension and retreat at once.

He was somewhat wary of Shazo, a ninja with such extreme speed.

Until he figured out how to deal with the door-blocking tactic, he had no intention of fighting this guy head-on.

What Obito did not know was that a high-speed ninja's greatest advantage was initiative. In particular, the decision of whether to fight or not rested firmly in Shazo's hands.

As Obito reached out to grab Uchiha Itachi, Shazo's hand landed on Obito's shoulder as well.

[Wood Release: Thorn Piercing Technique]

This was a more potent version of Wood Style: Deep Forest Burial. Wooden spikes formed directly inside Obito's body, and even the chakra they consumed was Wood Release chakra from within Obito himself.

The ninjutsu's effect was astonishing, far exceeding Shazo's expectations and even slipping beyond his control.

In the blink of an eye, Obito turned into half a massive tree, its branches lush and leaves dense, its roots deeply embedded as it became wedged in the entrance to Kamui, unable to advance or retreat.

This was truly an unexpected delight.

Shazo deactivated Swift Style, clenched both fists, and shattered Obito's mask with a single punch, revealing half a face that was wrinkled and pale as paper.

Shazo was neither surprised nor hesitant. He unleashed the Summer Eight Strikes, hammering Obito's face with full force and drawing on the power shared by Pirate Shazo. He smashed Obito's facial bones to pieces and reduced his face to a bloody pulp.

Even his forehead bone cracked.

Before Obito could activate Hollowfication, Shazo wanted him to understand that not just anyone could impersonate Madara Uchiha. From now on, he had better honestly keep Hollowfication active before showing his face again.

In the end, Uchiha Itachi gritted his teeth and activated the second stage of Susanoo, forcibly repelling Shazo and finally saving the dazed Obito Uchiha.

After being blasted away, Shazo clapped his hands together in midair. Chakra surged madly from his entire body as he unleashed his most powerful Wood Release Secret Technique to date.

[Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence]

The next second, countless tender green shoots burst from the ground. The sprouts that broke through the earth rapidly grew at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At the same time, the trees in the nearby forest suddenly swelled, transforming ahead of time into enormous trees so thick that ten men would be needed to encircle them.

The giant trees twisted and trembled, their trunks spreading toward the crimson Susanoo from every direction.

Thick roots and branches spread like a net, covering the Susanoo. Even thicker trunks, like the agile tentacles of ancient gods, wrapped around the Susanoo layer by layer, binding it completely like a dumpling.

Standing on the ground, Shazo pressed his palms together as chakra erupted from his entire body without restraint, surging into the massive cocoon of tree trunks.

[Wood Release: Tree Coffin Strangulation]

Driven by Wood Release chakra, the trunks twisted wildly and contracted inward, attempting to strangle Uchiha Itachi in one stroke.

As for Obito Uchiha, Shazo no longer held out hope this time.

His skull had clearly been cracked and the skin on his face completely stripped away, yet in the mere seconds before the Wood Release blocked his view, Obito's face had recovered seventy to eighty percent. Even his nose had risen back into shape.

The White Zetsu half of his body had given him absurdly powerful regenerative abilities, utterly no weaker than the legendary Hashirama Senju's.

But no matter what, he had to leave one of them dead.

Shazo unleashed his chakra with everything he had. Even trunks thick enough for ten men to embrace were driven to crack apart as they compressed the Susanoo bit by bit.

Suddenly, the trunks caved inward as though they were soda cans crushed by a vacuum implosion.

Uchiha Itachi's Susanoo had been squeezed apart.

Shazo waited several seconds and confirmed that a large amount of Yin Release chakra was leaking from gaps in the wood. Only then did he manipulate the shattered trunks to disperse.

At the center of the imploded Susanoo were flesh and shattered bones.

Regrettably, there was too little flesh. At most, it was what remained of half an arm that had been crushed apart.

Shazo's mood was terrible. After working all night, he had only managed to leave behind one of Uchiha Itachi's hands?

No. Today, he had to kill someone!

He turned toward Konoha.

Shimura Danzō!

Give your life to vent my anger!