I Can't Lose! I Have to Win!

"What?!"

Hiruzen had no idea what had happened earlier in Uzushio Village. He didn't know that, back then, Danzo had gone so far as to let Teacher Tobirama cut off one of his arms to gain the bald Kazekage's trust.

So he didn't know that Danzo had already turned his right arm into a mechanical prosthesis.

On top of that, Danzo had always worn a fake-skin covering to hide it, and his disguise had been so convincing that even Hiruzen hadn't seen through it.

What he hadn't expected was that the unremarkable-looking mechanical prosthesis could change forms, moving and adapting as nimbly as a puppet. It really was something.

But considering Danzo had been undercover in Sunagakure, with plenty of opportunities to learn the Puppet Technique, it wasn't all that surprising.

Still, Hiruzen had clearly underestimated Danzo's hidden trump cards.

He'd never imagined that the mechanical arm could not only switch into a defensive form, but also came equipped with a devastating offensive module!

When he saw Danzo's right hand turn into a pitch-black cannon barrel, take aim at him, and begin charging Chakra—

Hiruzen felt a prickling sense of danger crawl across his scalp!

"Not good!"

Hiruzen cried out inwardly. He didn't recognize the weapon, but he knew it was extremely dangerous.

A brown bear might not recognize the "16-millimeter fire stick" in a human's hands, but it could still sense the call of death from its great-grandmother.

And a shinobi's five senses were far sharper than a bear's, with an even keener perception of Chakra.

So—

Sensing the danger, Hiruzen began to dodge sideways almost instinctively, before his brain even had time to give the order.

Nerve impulses raced along the axons of his motor neurons, reaching the neuromuscular junctions in an instant.

His quadriceps and other extensor