Fleeting Grace Within Me

Shimura Danzō's expression was grim to the extreme, his heart churning with incredulous speculation.

"This guy... is he really just an Uchiha?"

Based on his knowledge, aside from Uchiha Madara, not even the strongest Uchiha clansmen of the Warring States period could possess such a terrifying amount of chakra!

The Perfect Susanoo—a technique of this caliber was something even a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki might struggle to maintain for long; only the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, could possibly possess such immense reserves.

Yet Uchiha Yoru wielded it with such ease, as if it were as effortless as casting a simple Shadow Clone Technique.

—This is simply absurd!

What kind of monster is he?!

"Let me see if your 'Root' is suited to exist above ground."

Uchiha Yoru seemed to perceive Shimura Danzō's thoughts, but he offered no explanation, merely curling his lips into a smirk with a hint of morbid excitement in his eyes.

Before the words had even faded, the dual blades of the Susanoo descended!

Like a battle-axe swung by a deity, the entire Root base was turned upside down in an instant!

BOOM!!—

Root ninjas scattered in a panic, desperately unleashing ninjutsu in retaliation. Fire Style, Wind Style, and Lightning Style flashed through the dark night, but before the Susanoo, these attacks were like ants trying to shake a tree, unable to even stir its energy barrier in the slightest.

The Susanoo's dual blades slashed dozens of times in succession!

Blood mist filled the air, and screams were cut short.

Within seconds, the entire Root base was reduced to ruins, littered with corpses.

Shimura Danzō stood where he was, his face ashen, cold sweat streaming down his forehead.

He had seen powerful individuals before, but this kind of pure, overwhelming suppression filled him with a suffocating sense of helplessness and dread.

—If he had moved even slightly just now, he would likely be nothing more than a pile of shredded flesh.

Uchiha Yoru surveyed his surroundings with satisfaction, his lips hooked into a playful smirk.

He dispelled the Susanoo with ease and descended slowly to the ground.

However, the moment his feet touched the earth—

Shimura Danzō's pupils constricted, and he initiated a zero-frame attack, his Wind Style chakra gathering frantically!

"Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!"

—Swish, swish, swish!

Several high-speed rotating wind blades, carrying astonishing cutting power, slashed madly toward Uchiha Yoru's body!

No hand signs, launched instantly!

Danzō's Wind Style was among the top-tier techniques in the shinobi world; this move was incredibly fast, making it difficult even for Kage-level experts to evade in such a short window!

However—

"Heh..."

Uchiha Yoru smiled faintly, his gaze devoid of any ripples.

Poof!—

In an instant, his figure turned into a mere afterimage, effortlessly dodging every wind blade!

Shimura Danzō's pupils shrank!

—What kind of speed is this?!

He couldn't even track Uchiha Yoru's trajectory. The next moment, his vision suddenly went black as a hand covered in bulging veins clamped onto his throat, slamming him hard against the wall!

"Danzō, have you had enough fun?"

Uchiha Yoru looked down at this so-called "Darkness of the Shinobi World," his eyes indifferent and his tone terrifyingly calm.

"You should be grateful... tonight, I don't want you to die too quickly."

Danzō struggled desperately, only to find that his chakra was almost completely suppressed at this moment, his body unable to move at all!

This was a fear born of being crushed to the absolute limit!

He finally realized that the gap between himself and Uchiha Yoru could not be bridged by schemes, ninjutsu, or secret arts—

It was a difference in the level of their very existence!

"Cough... cough..." Danzō's face flushed a deep red, and for the first time, his eyes revealed genuine despair.

"What... do you... want to do..."

Uchiha Yoru's lips curled slightly upward as he leaned in slowly, whispering into Danzō's ear:

"Naturally, I want to..."

However, at this seemingly desperate moment—

"Perfect opportunity!"

A cold glint flashed in Shimura Danzō's eyes, and he struck back suddenly like a dying viper!

He yanked off his eye patch, revealing that Mangekyou Sharingan pulsing with eerie fluctuations.

--Uchiha Shisui's eye!

"Kotoamatsukami!"

Shimura Danzō erupted with his final reserves of chakra, the blood-red pupil in his socket spinning violently as the power of the genjutsu poured out in an instant.

A savage grin curled the corners of Shimura Danzō's mouth.

"Got you... Hahaha!"

The brat before him possessed only an ordinary Three-Tomoe, and a Mangekyou against a Three-Tomoe—how could the advantage be anything but his!

However—

Uchiha Yoru remained standing where he was, his expression as calm as water, the scarlet Sharingan in his eyes rotating slowly, filled with disdain.

"Is that it?"

"Kotoamatsukami?"

He didn't even blink, allowing Danzō's ocular jutsu to erode his mental world.

But the next moment, the smile on Shimura Danzō's face froze.

His ocular jutsu was as if swallowed whole; the moment it touched Uchiha Yoru's consciousness, it was like a clay ox entering the sea, failing to stir even the slightest ripple.

"Im... Impossible!"

Shimura Danzō's body jolted violently as a brutal backlash instantly slammed into his brain!

"Argh!!!"

He let out a miserable shriek, blood spilling from the corner of his eye as he clutched his face, his entire body trembling in agony.

The backlash of the ocular power ravaged his mind like sharp blades, the immense pain nearly shattering his sanity.

Yet Uchiha Yoru's gaze remained completely undisturbed.

"Danzō, did you really think you could control me with Kotoamatsukami?"

Uchiha Yoru scoffed, his eyes filled with mockery.

"How laughable."

Kotoamatsukami was indeed powerful, but no matter how strong an ocular jutsu might be, it required sufficient chakra to sustain it.

Danzō was merely scraping by with a transplanted Sharingan, and his chakra reserves and mental strength were simply incomparable to Uchiha Yoru's.

What's more, Uchiha Yoru had inherited the power of Indra; though it appeared to be a Three-Tomoe, it was a Three-Tomoe capable of manifesting a Complete Body Susanoo!

His mental world had long since become an boundless ocean, and no matter how much Danzō's genjutsu struggled, it could not raise even a single wave.

"However, since you are so fond of this eye..."

"Then I shall grant your wish."

Uchiha Yoru leaned forward slightly, his slender fingers reaching straight toward Danzō's eye socket under his terrified gaze.

"No, no!!"

Shimura Danzō struggled desperately, but under the suppression of the genjutsu, his body was completely unable to move.

"Click."

A crisp sound echoed.

Blood splattered as a scarlet Mangekyou Sharingan was gouged out by Uchiha Yoru.

Danzō's eye socket was left hollow, blood sliding down from the corner like tears.

"Ah!!!"

He let out a painful roar, his voice laced with despair and fury.

But Uchiha Yoru did not stop.

He looked at the blood-stained Sharingan in his hand, his eyes devoid of the slightest attachment.

"Something like this shouldn't exist."

The next instant, he exerted a slight pressure with his palm.

"Crack."

The Sharingan was crushed between his fingertips, turning into a cluster of blood-red fragments.

Shimura Danzō's eyes lost their focus, his entire body collapsing to the ground in a daze.

He had once used every unscrupulous means to plunder the ocular power of the Uchiha clan, never imagining that one day, this very Sharingan would become the source of his undoing.