What a Beast!!!

Shimura Danzō gritted his teeth against the pain, staggered around, and fled in panic to the side.

His steps were unsteady. Blood dripped from his wounds onto the ground, leaving a long trail behind him.

Uchiha Yoru watched, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly, his eyes full of disdain.

"Running? You still think you can get away?"

He slowly drew a cold, gleaming Ninja Blade. Its edge reflected a faint, icy glint in the dim light.

Shimura Danzō's breathing was ragged. He didn't dare look back, and he barely had the strength left to sense chakra.

"As long as I get out of here! As long as I make it to the Daimyo Mansion in the Land of Fire, I can join forces with the other nations' ninja villages... and launch a campaign against Uchiha Yoru!"

He frantically plotted in his mind, as if he could already see himself ruling the Ninja World.

"Konoha will be mine again! Uchiha Yoru is nothing but the last obstacle in my way!"

But he'd forgotten one thing.

--He had no future left.

"Whoosh--"

A sudden whistle cut through the air, like the whisper of death.

The next second, a sharp pain shot through Shimura Danzō's thigh.

"Thwack!"

Blood sprayed as a Ninja Blade plunged into his left leg and severed it cleanly.

"AAAAAAAH!!!"

His agonized wail rang through the entire Root Base, filled with indescribable despair and pain.

His severed left leg twitched on the ground, staining the surrounding dirt red.

Shimura Danzō lost his balance and crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Even so, his will to survive remained fierce.

"I can't die... I can't die!"

He clutched the ground with both hands and struggled forward like a lizard with its tail cut off.

Dirt and blood smeared his face and clothes, but he didn't care.

Every inch he crawled left a horrifying trail of blood behind him.

Yet the cold gaze behind him never let up.

Uchiha Yoru watched in silence, as though enjoying some absurd play.

"How ugly."

He walked forward slowly, each step seeming to crush Shimura Danzō's heart and deepen his terror.

"Beasts will always be beasts. Even after losing everything, they still struggle on the brink of death."

Shimura Danzō shuddered at his words, cold sweat pouring down his body.

He whipped around, his eyes wide with terror.

"You... you bastard!"

Uchiha Yoru bent down, his gaze piercing Danzō's soul like a Blade.

"Uchiha Itachi, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and you..."

"Against absolute power, all your struggles are meaningless."

Shimura Danzō's pupils contracted, his heart pounding violently.

Uchiha Itachi... was really dead?

A chill surged from his feet to his heart.

That self-proclaimed genius, Uchiha Itachi, hadn't even managed to hold out against Uchiha Yoru?

As for Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzō had long expected him to meet his end. But hearing it confirmed still stirred a pang of sorrow at the death of an old companion.

"The Will of Fire, huh..."

Uchiha Yoru sneered, his voice laced with endless scorn.

"In the end, it's nothing but a joke made up by a pack of old dogs."

Shimura Danzō opened his mouth. Broken gasps rattled in his throat, but he could no longer argue.

His face grew paler. Blood loss was making his body turn cold, and the last faint glimmer of hope in him was snuffed out by Uchiha Yoru's sneer.

"Compared to you, that old fool Sarutobi Hiruzen at least had some guts."

Uchiha Yoru looked down at Shimura Danzō, his voice thick with mockery.

"At least he knew he couldn't escape, and tried to go out with a bang."

"And you? What can you do besides cling to life?"

"Looks like the Second Hokage was right not to choose you back then."

The words cut into Shimura Danzō's heart like a blade.

His pupil contracted, and uncontrollable fury shone in his one eye.

"Brat!!!"

"What do you know?!"

Humiliated beyond measure, Shimura Danzō trembled violently as the chakra left in his body roiled.

He struggled desperately to prop up his ruined body. His lips quivered with rage, and the veins on his face bulged.

"I am the true inheritor of the Will of Fire!"

"That softhearted fool, Monkey, isn't fit to stand alongside me!"

He roared, pouring out all the resentment he'd harbored for years.

"For Konoha! I can sacrifice everything!"

"Even this broken body!"

In an instant, Shimura Danzō's hands formed seals, and the chakra remaining in his body surged like a raging flood.

Though his limbs were stiff and his blood nearly gone, he still forced himself upright.

"Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing!!!"

Sealing Jutsu markings spread rapidly across his body. The black Cursed Seal blazed like flames, covering him at an astonishing speed.

The Four Symbols Seal was a forbidden technique that demanded the user's life in exchange. Once complete, it would create a powerful sealing array, capable of swallowing everything around it!

But--

"Heh."

The corner of Uchiha Yoru's mouth lifted slightly, mockery flashing in his eyes.

Just as the Sealing Jutsu was about to be completed, his Sharingan narrowed.

In an instant, Shimura Danzō's expression froze.

The eyes brimming with hatred and madness lost focus. The sealing markings halted in midair, then dissolved into wisps of black smoke.

It was as if an invisible shackle had locked his mind in place. An irresistible genjutsu invaded his consciousness.

"No... impossible..."

Shimura Danzō's lips trembled. What little reason he had left told him to fight back, but his body wouldn't move.

His consciousness was dragged into endless illusions, and countless suffocating scenes rose before his eyes.

In the illusion, darkness swallowed Shimura Danzō like a tide.

All around him, vengeful spirits wailed, as if countless dead souls had come to claim him.

One pair after another of scarlet Sharingan emerged from the dark, staring at him with icy indifference. Every pair reflected his past, steeped in sin.

Fear, pain, despair...

The emotions intertwined in his heart, becoming shackles that devoured his soul.

The scene that broke him most was the one that kept replaying in the illusion--

On the battlefield at Kumogakure, the Second Hokage's figure gradually blurred before his eyes.

"Someone has to stay behind and cover our retreat."

Every time the Second Hokage made that decision, a clear answer rose in Shimura Danzō's heart.

"I'll do it!"

But--

Each time the words reached his lips, fear shattered his resolve.

"Monkey..."

As soon as he said it, he could only watch helplessly as Sarutobi Hiruzen stepped forward and became the one hailed as a hero.

The cycle repeated countless times. Every time, the choice was the same, accompanied by endless regret and despair.

Finally, when he summoned the courage to shout, "I'll stay behind," for the first time in the illusion--

The Second Hokage actually left with Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others without even looking back!

Leaving him alone to face death.

They were gone...

They were really gone!!!

What surged in his chest wasn't relief, but a deeper despair.

"What a beast!!!"

In reality, Shimura Danzō's body jerked, and a mouthful of black blood spilled from his lips.

As though his soul had been ripped away, he collapsed to the ground, twitching, his eyes vacant.

"Sacrifice everything for Konoha?"

"Too bad. Your wretched life isn't even worth offering up."

He turned and walked away. Behind him, the ruined Root Base looked all the more bleak in the moonlight.

Uchiha Yoru's footsteps never faltered.

The night wind howled, scattering the last of the ashes...