Konoha, the Memorial Stone!
Guo Wang stood before a gravestone carved from blue stone, his expression faintly dazed.
One name was carved into the stone: Kagami Uchiha!
He was the first of Danzo's acknowledged companions to die.
In Year Eight of Konoha, the Second established the Ninja Academy, whose first intake consisted of eight students. Danzo was one of them. Besides him, five others were taken in as disciples by Senju Tobirama and personally taught by him.
The most famous among them was the current leader of Konoha, the Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was quietly hailed as the "strongest" in the Shinobi World.
Utatane Koharu once said that the more outstanding a person was, the sooner they left.
Kagami Uchiha's excellence defied description. Even Danzo, arrogant as he was and loathing the Uchiha name as much as he did, had rarely regarded anyone as a lifelong companion—but he had considered Kagami one.
His right eye had come from that companion.
After Senju Tobirama died at the hands of Kinkaku and Ginkaku while covering their retreat, this Uchiha, who had transcended narrow clan boundaries, awakened his Mangekyo. But he told none of his companions about it. Instead, he left Konoha alone and headed for Kumogakure.
When Danzo saw him again, he heard that Kinkaku and Ginkaku were dead.
Although the story circulating in the Shinobi World was that the Third Raikage had gathered two Jinchuriki and annihilated Kumogakure's most elite unit, Konoha's Anbu had still received reports of a Blue Giant appearing on the battlefield.
Not long after returning, Kagami Uchiha succumbed to his injuries.
Before he died, he revealed the secrets of the Uchiha and the Sharingan to his four companions, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo among them. He hoped that, within his lifetime, he would see the village and the clan lose their boundaries and become one.
Unfortunately, after his death, the Uchiha and the village lost their channel for equal dialogue, and the gulf between them gradually widened.
If not for Kagami Uchiha's son running between both sides, and the looming shadow of war, Danzo would probably have already begun dealing with the clan he loathed.
"Mirror Flower, Water Moon! So this is your Mangekyo?"
Though Danzo loathed the Uchiha, he coveted the Sharingan, especially the Mangekyo—a power that could directly steal a Deity's authority. After the Third Raikage crippled his right eye, he had Orochimaru transplant this exceptionally precious Mangekyo.
Unfortunately, Danzo himself lacked the capacity for it—or perhaps his Chakra was incompatible—and he could never awaken the Mangekyo's power. It wasn't until Guo Wang took over his body and used his own well-honed Primordial Spirit techniques that the deepest power of this Sharingan was unlocked.
"I heard you'd come here!"
Just as Guo Wang was considering whether to dig out Kagami's remaining left eye and implant it in himself, completing the pair of Mangekyo, a deep, resonant voice came from behind him.
A white Hokage Haori, a hat bearing the kanji for "fire," and an old, thin frame held ramrod straight: it was Konoha's leader, the Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, known as the Professor of Ninjutsu.
"I met an interesting kid in the Land of Rain. He reminded me of Kagami."
Facing the man who had kept Danzo in his shadow all his life, his good friend, Guo Wang didn't turn around. He spoke in an ordinary tone.
"Oh? I'd like to meet a young man who can interest you."
Hiruzen sensed an indescribable change in his companion, but assumed it was because the war was nearing its end and Danzo, who had spent his life laboring for Konoha, was finally letting his guard down.
"I have a feeling you wouldn't want that kid coming to the village."
As he spoke, Guo Wang turned around and saw that Hiruzen was holding a black flower. Under Guo Wang's gaze, he placed it on the blue stone monument.
"Never mind that. I have good news: Ōnoki sent me a letter. He wants to make peace with us."
Ōnoki of the Two Scales was one of the world's top Five Kage, the Tsuchikage who wielded Dust Release, the only Kekkei Tōta in the Shinobi World.
"To make that old stone give in, Minato must have done a good job."
As someone who had fought him all his life and come up in the same era, Hiruzen knew Ōnoki's temperament was well known throughout the Shinobi World. Unless they had truly made him suffer, there was no way the old stone would ask for peace.
"But there are still voices in Iwagakure calling for war. He hopes Konoha will agree to a few conditions so he can use that to silence those Elders."
"Hiruzen, you know what I'm like. What do you think I'll say to that?"
Danzo's weathered face suddenly turned cold as he stared straight at Hiruzen, who looked slightly embarrassed. As Konoha's most hard-line supporter of continuing the war, Danzo had only accepted Ōnoki's surrender because Hiruzen was Hokage. If there were any other harsh conditions, he'd kick the table over right in front of the Tsuchikage.
"Everything else is fine. There's just one condition: he wants us to put more pressure on the battlefield in the Land of Lightning."
"Hmph. So that old stone knows how to be afraid after all. Wasn't he so arrogant when he started the Shinobi World War?"
Guo Wang let out a cold laugh. The war had begun with the disappearance of the Third Kazekage, but without Ōnoki stirring up trouble and opening fronts everywhere, it wouldn't have turned into the great brawl it was now. At its height, Konoha had fought four great nations alone. The old fox Ōnoki had been the one to bring them together.
If Konoha hadn't built up such deep reserves during the First and Second's eras, it might already have been reduced to ruins.
Two years ago, when Konoha was fighting the Land of Wind and the Land of Lightning, Iwagakure and Kirigakure announced an alliance and invaded the Land of Fire together. Danzo, Hiruzen, and their other companions had all felt the despair of a possible defeat.
Fortunately, just when things were most perilous, one prodigy after another emerged in Konoha. What delighted Hiruzen and Danzo most wasn't the Sannin standing on their own, but a military strategist with an extraordinary mind, who had matured on the battlefield. In the village's darkest hour, he kept Konoha from losing its head and, step by step, found its best chance of survival amid a desperate fight on all fronts.
On the battlefield in the Land of Lightning, Danzo personally led the team and joined Jiraiya in holding off the Third Raikage!
On the battlefield in the Land of Earth, Orochimaru and Namikaze Minato kept Ōnoki occupied!
On the battlefield in the Land of Water, Konoha's great clans, led by Uchiha Hyuga, fought the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and the major Kekkei Genkai clans to the death.
On the crucial battlefield in the Land of Wind, Konoha committed every remaining force. Besides White Fang and Tsunade, who had already been deployed, Sarutobi Hiruzen personally led the troops. The Ino-Shika-Cho clans and the Konoha Style Kenjutsu school gathered almost every shinobi, leaving only the elderly and children behind.
Caught off guard, Sunagakure collapsed at the first clash, despite having three Kage Level fighters—Chiyo, Ebizo, and Rasa. Its line at Mount Kikyo was torn apart, and the village was utterly defeated.
After putting one enemy out of action, Konoha, still facing three battlefronts, finally survived the crisis and began to gain the upper hand in the Shinobi World War.
The turning point of this war was the Battle of Kikyo Pass. The greatest price Konoha paid was two eyes.
Danzo's right eye, and...
The Hyuga Clan's Main House Byakugan, without the Caged Bird Seal!
Before you continue