The secret chamber trembled.
Pebbles and dust sifted down from the ceiling, stirring up fine clouds in the dim glow of the emergency lights.
The air reeked of blood, scorched flesh, and a rotting stench that seemed to seep from the very soul.
Shimura Danzō stood in the center of the secret chamber. The voluminous black robe that marked him as the leader of Root was gone, revealing the tight black combat suit beneath.
Yet the most striking thing was his exposed right arm—
From shoulder to wrist, it was wrapped in grayish-white bandages soaked in medicinal liquid.
But through the gaps in the bandages, one could clearly see...
Eyes, all tightly shut.
Scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Ten of them. A full ten, embedded densely in that arm like a vile curse.
They writhed faintly in the dim light, as though possessed of a wicked life of their own.
Shimura Danzō's breathing was unnaturally steady. His single eye held no fear, only a cold, almost frenzied resolve.
He slowly raised his right arm, the one embedded with ten Sharingan.
The bandages loosened and slid away on their own, revealing the pale skin beneath, tinged with a deathly gray and covered in stitching scars.
And the scarlet eyes slowly opening.
All ten Three-Tomoe Sharingan turned at once, fixing on the pale figure standing in the doorway.
"Uchiha Ryūha..." Danzō's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against dry bones.
"So this is your last trump card? Using a monster from another world to wipe out those who stand in your way?"
Ulquiorra's emerald gaze rested calmly on him. He showed no reaction to those ten wicked eyes.
He merely tilted his head slightly, as though listening, or perhaps confirming something.
"My name is Ulquiorra Cifer." He spoke slowly, his voice still flat and emotionless.
"By my master's command, I shall grant a void-like end to the insect who has stolen the authority of a god."
"Your master?" Shimura Danzō narrowed his single eye.
"Uchiha Ryūha, or that so-called 'Seireitei' behind him?"
Ulquiorra did not answer.
He took a step forward.
With that single step, the air in the secret chamber seemed to be sucked away in an instant.
In its place came a cloying, suffocating sense of nothingness.
Fine frost spread across the walls, and the emergency lights began to flicker.
It was as if even "light" itself was being eroded, denied by that power.
"Spare me the theatrics." Shimura Danzō sneered and abruptly brought his hands together. "Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"
No Hand Seals needed. The attack was instantaneous.
Dozens of invisible wind blades, each powerful enough to slice through steel, converged on Ulquiorra in a deadly net.
This was the culmination of Shimura Danzō's years of mastery over Wind Release, combined with his Kage Level chakra control. Each blade packed the power of an A-rank ninjutsu.
The wind blades closed in.
Ulquiorra did not even move.
He merely raised his left hand, opened his pale palm, and gave a slight squeeze toward the space before him.
"Pop."
A faint sound, like a bubble bursting.
Every wind blade collapsed and vanished when it was still half a meter from his palm, as if it had struck an invisible wall.
Not even a breath of wind stirred.
Shimura Danzō's pupils contracted sharply.
"As expected... nearly impossible to counter." He murmured, a flicker of understanding in his eye, but more than that, a deeper greed and madness.
"But as long as something is 'power,' it can be stolen and controlled!
"Especially power like yours... the power of a 'god' that doesn't belong to this world!"
He bit into his right thumb. As blood welled, he slapped one hand against the ground.
"Summoning: Baku!"
A massive cloud of smoke exploded, and a strange creature as huge as a mountain appeared in the cramped chamber.
It had an elephant's trunk and a hippopotamus's gaping mouth. Its skin was folded like rock, and an eerie aura of nightmare-devouring power surrounded it.
This was Shimura Danzō's summoning beast, an ancient creature capable of devouring chakra and even spiritual energy.
The moment Baku appeared, its enormous trunk sucked fiercely at Ulquiorra!
A terrifying force of suction erupted.
It seemed to drag in more than just the air. Light, sound, chakra, and even souls were wrenched from their bodies, drawn toward the bottomless abyss of its gaping maw.
Ulquiorra's white robe fluttered faintly.
He raised his eyelids. For the first time, a faint emotion like "disdain" flickered in his emerald eyes.
"A lowly life-form."
He extended his right index finger. A point of dark green light gathered at its tip, and then he gently tapped the air.
"Cero Oscuras."
No incantation. No buildup.
A dark green beam, no thicker than a finger, yet condensed to the extreme,
burst from his fingertip, instantly piercing Baku's trunk and punching through its enormous head.
It shot out through the back of its skull and slammed into the rock wall at the far end of the secret chamber, its momentum undiminished.
"Splurt."
Baku's tremendous suction abruptly ceased.
It froze in place, its single eye still burning with ferocity.
But a bowl-sized hole passed straight through the center of its head, its edges smooth as glass. There was no blood, only tissue completely annihilated.
Then the ancient beast toppled with a crash, like a sand sculpture knocked down.
Before it hit the ground, it dissolved into white smoke—not dead, but forcibly sent back after its Summoning Contract had been completely "dispelled."
Far from feeling afraid, Shimura Danzō grew even more excited.
A deeper, scorching fervor stirred within him, mingled with shock, greed, and madness.
"So this is... the power of a god..."
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