Fighting to the Death

Manda's sudden defeat caught Sasuke Uchiha somewhat off guard as well.

A summon he had always considered immensely powerful had been killed after barely holding out for any time at all. It was truly unbelievable.

"A little surprised?"

Shimura Danzō had just used Wood Release and had expended no small amount of strength, so he paused to recover for a while.

Powerful ninjutsu could not be used casually, and more importantly, his body could not sustain the simultaneous use of Wood Release and the deeply flawed Izanagi.

"It seems that, having just obtained great power, you are still trapped in the laughable thinking of a child. Humans are the spirits of all things in this world, and shinobi are the rulers of the Shinobi World. These summoned beasts are merely parasites attached to powerful humans. At its core, it is nothing more than a transaction where each side gets what it needs. You still seem to have no concept of just how powerful a shinobi can become. Even after killing Itachi Uchiha, you remain so laughably naïve!"

He had been able to instantly kill the colossal summoned beast—the Baku—yet he found it hard to accept that Shimura Danzō had killed Manda.

"The price of underestimating me is absolute death!"

Shimura Danzō's confidence was not unfounded.

Aside from Torune Aburame, who had already been grievously wounded and near death before Manda finished him with a single strike, Shimura Danzō still had Fu Yamanaka, Sai, Shin, and the most troublesome of them all, Kō, as helpers on the field.

With Kō sustaining the Wood Release needed to restrain the enemy and put maximum pressure on Sasuke Uchiha, Shimura Danzō could devote all his attention to Izanagi and to figuring out how to kill Sasuke Uchiha.

Left with no alternative, Sasuke Uchiha could