Uncanny!
Powerful!
The ability to absorb Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, a genjutsu that had hypnotized a large number of Root shinobi with just one glance, or the ability to suddenly appear beside Shimura Danzō—he searched through countless techniques in his mind, but couldn't find a match.
A speed beyond the eyes' ability to track, a ninjutsu-absorbing ability beyond the mind's comprehension, and a terrifying genjutsu unlike anything ever heard of.
The boy named Uchiha Yuji had displayed an unconventional kind of strength.
Shimura Danzō didn't answer the boy's question, and the boy didn't wait for him to.
The moment the Darkness of the Shinobi reached for his Kunai, the fingers resting along the edge of his eye socket plunged into Shimura Danzō's eye without warning. With a sound like a kiss—"pop"—blood and pain flooded Danzō's mind.
"Did you think you could steal something that belongs to the Uchiha Clan?"
The blood-red Sharingan carried a bewitching, sinister aura. Yet even beneath the brilliance of the blazing sun, it still looked exceptionally cold.
It was hard to say whether this sensation came from the Mangekyō Sharingan's own ability or from the Uchiha boy himself.
Shimura Danzō had never expected Uchiha Yuji to act so decisively. Clutching the eye socket that was still bleeding, he staggered backward.
The more he retreated, the angrier he grew!
"Kill him!" the Darkness of the Shinobi ordered, his voice tinged with madness.
Yet he himself was quickly backing away, in stark contrast to the Root shinobi steadily advancing.
"Stop!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen shouted, but the Root shinobi obeyed only one man's orders. Not one of them hesitated for even a moment.
It was deeply ironic that the greatest shinobi leader in Konoha Village couldn't even rally the shinobi within his own village.
"The Hokage is the light and must stand in the brightest place. The shadow can never reach that position."
Uchiha Yuji remained calm and composed. If not for the blood on the ground before him and the way he held the eyeball, his pose would have been no different from that of a romance novel's male lead.
With the bloodshed lending weight to his words, they only made Shimura Danzō's blood pressure rise further.
"And no matter when or where you are, never let anger take over your mind. It will only lead you to make the wrong decisions."
"You misjudged the difference in strength between us."
Blades closed in from all directions. Combined ninjutsu rushed toward him, while various genjutsu interwove with one another. The Root shinobi demonstrated the strength of a group: their squad coordination could match an entire small unit, and a crack team at that.
Dark skeleton bones emerged around Uchiha Yuji. Their profound blackness resembled a black hole devouring the light, as dark mist spread rapidly. Muscle-like lines swiftly covered the skeleton, followed by armor.
In the space of a breath, a colossal figure had already taken shape.
The surging chakra left everyone speechless for a moment.
They stared blankly at the giant chakra warrior standing upon the earth. Even its upper body alone stood nearly thirty meters tall.
Its chakra armor was covered in the heads of monstrous beasts. Crimson eyes glimmered faintly through the black mist, their light cold and sinister. Both hands gripped a dark greatsword that dwarfed their bodies many times over, despite being made entirely of chakra.
Uchiha Yuji hovered within Susanoo, looking like a god.
Even the most fearless Root shinobi couldn't help but falter.
"This is the Uchiha Clan's ultimate power! Susanoo!" Uchiha Yuji folded his arms.
But as expected of the tough guy who'd tried to stab Susanoo with a tiny Kunai, Shimura Danzō wasn't affected at all. "Keep attacking! Kill him! Slaughter him!"
Because of the war, Danzō had sent the elite Root shinobi to the border and other regions. Those who remained weren't weak, but they were hardly impressive.
Susanoo casually swung its arm. The storm it stirred up alone was enough to throw them off balance.
It was less a battle than a hopeless act of suicide—a slaughter.
And the slaughter ended remarkably quickly.
Uchiha Yuji looked at the broken bodies of the Root shinobi and shook his head helplessly. "They were tools, but exceptionally useful ones."
"What a pity that the person leading you is so weak—a rat that burrowed into the darkness."
"No wonder you're not the one who'll become Hokage in the end."
A shinobi was someone who endured what ordinary people could not.
But who could keep their temper after being constantly struck where it hurt?
Even after losing an eye and seeing a host of his subordinates die, Shimura Danzō didn't retreat.
"Hmph. You've killed a bunch of useless trash, and now you're proud of yourself?"
"I'll kill you with my own hands!"
"Danzō!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen stepped forward to stop him, but the hatred in Danzō's one remaining eye was clearly beyond anything Hiruzen could dispel.
"Don't get in my way, Hiruzen! I'm going to kill him!"
Shimura Danzō shoved Sarutobi Hiruzen aside, silencing the words Hiruzen had been about to say: "I'm the Hokage!"
His hands quickly formed Hand Seals, then slapped the ground.
As dense smoke billowed upward, a strange summoning beast appeared behind Shimura Danzō. Its body resembled a tiger, but its head looked much like an elephant's. It was named Baku.
The beast's appearance meant that Shimura Danzō was ready to fight to the death.
"Shouting things like 'I'll kill you' and 'I'll slaughter you' can't fully express your killing intent. It only exposes your weakness. That's what being weak looks like!"
"A true strong man, when the thought 'I'll kill you' appears in his mind, has already acted!"
Susanoo's enormous form suddenly appeared in front of Shimura Danzō at an imperceptible speed. Its towering body blocked out the sunlight, plunging the Darkness of the Shinobi into shadow.
"Wait—" Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes widened.
His voice had barely risen when, in his field of vision, a dark greatsword completely swallowed the figure known as Shimura Danzō.
After erasing Shimura Danzō, the sword didn't stop. It crashed down onto the ground.
The earth roared, shook, and split apart. When the gale swept up the sand and dust, the Uchiha Clan's grounds lay in ruins, cleaved in two by that single strike.
Its power could cut through ninjutsu and people alike, while its terrifying defense could almost ignore attacks altogether. Susanoo had displayed its unparalleled might.
Even with the information in hand, the only way anyone could think of to deal with such a colossal being was to drain Uchiha Yuji's chakra—a workaround that wasn't really a solution at all.
But could this guy's chakra really be depleted?
Before you continue