24 Instant Kill

The standoff persisted.

The two, both formidable figures in their own right, stared each other down, neither wanting to make the first move.

Both had intentions of stalling, yet neither knew exactly how long they should drag this out.

At this moment, Danzo felt a pang of regret for the obsession he had held for his career in his youth.

Perhaps if he had married and had children back then, he would have a child around the age of this youth standing before him now.

With the tempering that comes from raising a child, he would surely have more experience in dealing with these bratty youths.

What exactly was it that made these youngsters willing to risk their lives just to vent their anger?

And why were so many people willing to support such a ridiculous stunt from an ignorant youth?

Could it be that Uchiha Kei possessed some unknown ninjutsu to control others?

It was truly incomprehensible.

The longer it dragged on, the more restless Danzo became.

He pinned his hopes on the Hokage, but he knew his companion too well; he knew Sarutobi was likely observing everything from afar, but Sarutobi Hiruzen would never appear until the very last moment.

Danzo could no longer tell if time was working in his favor or against him.

Who knew if the Hokage was planning to sell him out? It wouldn't be the first time that "good old man" had done such a thing.

Uchiha Kyō, Yakushi Nonō, Hatake Sakumo, the entire Uzumaki Clan—were there not enough precedents already?

With such history, who would dare entrust their life to the hands of such a man?

Those with dark hearts find it difficult to think well of others, and for Danzo, this was an agonizing wait.

As time ticked by, Danzo, unable to hold out any longer, finally spoke first.

"Kei-kun, you are quite talented for your age. Do you know who I am, and do you realize what you are doing right now?"

"Go back. Do not drag your clan down with you!"

He couldn't win in a fight, and he hadn't managed to intimidate him, so Danzo thought he might as well try to coax Kei.

Children might respond better to soft words than hard ones; if he could coax him into cooling his temper, there might still be a way out.

This was the softest Danzo could possibly speak. For so many years, Danzo had only ever bullied others; he had never been bullied like this himself.

Although bowing his head to a child was humiliating, losing face was better than losing his life.

Who doesn't have regrets in life? Having regrets is better than leaving behind a corpse.

At his age, was he really going to engage in a field battle with a child? His body couldn't take it.

He had folded. Danzo had folded.

The moment he couldn't hold out and spoke first, Kei knew the old man was finished.

Trash. He had no stamina at all.

Kei felt a sense of relief; it seemed Danzo was also acting out of necessity.

As long as he folded, things would be easy to handle.

"Where do you think you're going!"

Since Danzo had folded, there was a way to resolve this.

If Danzo didn't want to die, could the Hokage, who hadn't even shown his face, force him to?

Danzo wasn't the protagonist of a shonen manga.

Since Danzo had spoken first, Kei had to give him some face.

Seeing that there was room to talk, Danzo was pleased. Whether Uchiha Kei really didn't know his identity or was just pretending, it didn't matter.

At this moment, it was better to play dumb and give each other a way out.

Danzo felt that Kei had also folded and was pretending not to know who he was, hoping to let the conflict dissolve into nothingness.

He didn't believe for a second that someone would prepare to raid another's base without knowing who the target was.

"I am the leader of Root, an elder of Konoha Village! Kei-kun, I think there might be some misunderstanding between us. Do you realize that what you are doing puts me in a very difficult position? Attacking the headquarters of Root is not something that can be easily swept under the rug. Even if not for yourself, think of the clansmen behind you. They still have to live in Konoha."

Hearing Danzo's words, Kei realized it really was a misunderstanding—though whether it was the kind of misunderstanding Danzo intended, he couldn't be sure.

As it turned out, Konoha, Naka Shrine, and the Root headquarters were all on a straight line. Kei leading his men toward Naka Shrine had easily caused Danzo to have unnecessary suspicions.

Thank goodness, it wasn't the Konoha-wide joint suppression Kei had feared.

Since he had reached this conclusion, there was nothing to fear.

Indeed, when a conflict arises, the first one to fold is the fool.

Kei had no reason to explain this misunderstanding to Danzo.

"So it's just a bunch of little brats without names or ninja registrations. Take them out!"

The Kei who had been smiling just a moment ago suddenly turned hostile.

In an instant, a bloody mist rose, spreading across the entire battlefield. A chorus of wails followed immediately; those ninjas who were merely genin had no capacity to resist, and their deaths were swift and clean.

Of course, this "swiftness" refers to the duration of the process, not the sensation.

Uchiha Akeginu, the fragrant and enchanting beauty of the Iga Clan, could spray blood from every pore of her body, transforming it into a blood-red mist. She would hide within it, waiting for the perfect moment to strike her enemies.

In the world of Basilisk, her ninjutsu was already considered terrifying. By the time she arrived in the world of Naruto, bolstered by the infusion of chakra and the assistance of the Sharingan, her ninjutsu could no longer be described as merely terrifying.

The manifested blood mist not only granted her a speed boost but also slowed any enemies trapped within it. For those weaker than her, once enveloped by the mist, they might as well give up on resisting and wait for the arrival of the Grim Reaper.

[Uchiha Akeginu, Ninjutsu A+, Taijutsu A, Genjutsu B]

Uchiha Kagerō, the peerless beauty of legend who could make countless men bow at her feet, possessed a unique constitution. When she drew near to someone, her exhaled breath was incredibly toxic, allowing her to kill her targets.

Now, possessing chakra and the Sharingan, Kagerō no longer needed to get close to anyone. At this point, she could even rival Hanzo of the Salamander in the art of poison.

[Uchiha Kagerō, Ninjutsu S, Taijutsu C, Genjutsu A]

These two great beauties—one secretly in love with Uchiha Koshiro, the other with Uchiha Gennosuke—had originally belonged to two different factions under the Uchiha banner. Yet, because they both suffered from unrequited love, they had come together and become close friends.

The combination of their ninjutsu was absolutely stronger than that of the demigod Hanzo. After all, against Hanzo's ninjutsu, as long as you were fast enough, you could at least run away if you couldn't withstand it.

But with this pair, it was truly a case of being unable to run and unable to withstand.

Without a specific countermeasure, their combination was like Minato Namikaze: a weapon of mass destruction aimed at the battlefield situation.

In short, a weapon of mass destruction.

If Minato Namikaze was a guided missile for precision fire coverage, then these two were devastating poison gas bombs.

In a one-on-one fight, there were certainly powerhouses who could easily kill them, but once unleashed on a battlefield, their destructive power was no less than that of a Tailed Beast—especially their lethality against human life.

The blood mist rose, and a flock of white doves circled into a ring as they took flight.

Because in the center of that circle, there were few living things left to be seen.

Danzo and the few elites he had left were trapped in a tree.

Beneath the tree lay the corpses of the Root ninjas.

What Danzo never expected was that the reason he had survived this far was his past contact with Hanzo of the Salamander from the Land of Rain.

To cooperate with that man, one had to approach him, which required a gas mask. The gas mask developed for that very reason had now saved Danzo's life.

But it only saved his life; a mask capable of resisting the casual poison gas of Hanzo could not withstand the damage caused by this targeted ninjutsu.

The mask merely reduced the damage to a non-lethal level, but it could not prevent injury. Half of Danzo's body was exposed to the air, and large blisters had already formed; at least one of his arms was now useless.

Hiding in the tree, Danzo looked at everything before him in disbelief.

In just a few seconds, the battle had ended.

It was too fast—so fast that Danzo didn't even have time to react. What could have given Kei the reason and the courage to make a move? Danzo couldn't fathom it.

It seemed he had underestimated this young man; he had no idea that Kei held such power capable of shifting the tides of war.

But that wasn't the point. The point was, how did Uchiha Kei dare to do this?

He actually dared to lay a lethal hand on him!

He was an elder of Konoha, effectively the second-in-command of the village.

How could he dare to kill so casually, and so close to Konoha at that?

"Uchiha Kei, do you really intend to kill me?"

Danzo shrieked these words, his voice tearing at his throat.

Under the tree, Kei, who was fiddling with a gas mask dropped by one of Danzo's subordinates, felt a sudden surge of playfulness.

He even put the mask on his own face, then spoke in a muffled, nasal tone to the frantic Danzo in the tree.

"Lord Danzo, having done as you pleased in Konoha for so many years, you have forgotten that standing above others is not so easy! Only after experiencing the trials of the Shura field can one grow into a true 'Lord.' You can never win by relying solely on luck and handouts."

"What do you mean?"

For years, it had always been Danzo lecturing others. Being lectured by a mere child was something Danzo could not accept.

Uchiha Kei tossed the mask aside casually and spoke with a stern expression.

"Lord Danzo, why don't you understand? The Hokage who granted you power gave you the influence to stand above others, but in doing so, he stripped you of your identity."

Hearing Kei's reply, Danzo's face turned ashen, as if he had realized something.

Kei turned his back, not wanting to look at the face that was becoming increasingly distorted by the agony of the poison.

"Lord Danzo, from the moment you became the master of Root, you and your Root were already a group of dead men—a group of dead men without names or traces."

"And killing a group of people who do not exist is not a crime."

Danzo froze.

It was true. The moment one entered Root, all ties to family were severed, and all traces in the world were erased. That person no longer existed.

Only by ensuring they never existed could they guarantee that any issues in their external operations would not implicate Konoha.

Therefore, killing a group of people who did not exist could not be called murder.

"Uchiha Kei, you cannot do this. The Hokage will not let you go."

This was the final struggle Danzo could muster at this moment.

Qi shook his head.

"Danzo, you disappoint me. Is this the extent of your capacity? If I were you, I wouldn't be wasting my breath on such useless drivel right now."

"If I were you, in these final moments, every word I spoke would be aimed at keeping me alive. Think carefully, Danzo; no one is going to argue with me over a dead man."

Before he could finish, a kunai marked with the Flying Thunder God seal came flying toward him.