After Senju Nawaki spoke, it became obvious who had framed them.
Recalling the information on this Anbu, he found his answer: another descendant of the Sarutobi Clan.
The Sarutobi Clan ninja glared, desperate to clear his name, while secretly congratulating himself on how clever he was.
Pfft!
The sound of a blade piercing flesh.
The scene fell utterly silent.
Wooden spikes burst from the ground beneath the Konoha Anbu ninja, piercing his body and leaving several gaping wounds the size of bowls.
Scarlet blood sprayed over the other Konoha ninja.
A chill swept through them.
Senju Nawaki hadn't been bluffing. He had acted with astonishing decisiveness.
A commotion rose around them.
"Has Wood Release really returned to the world?"
They had still harbored some doubts, but now they were sure. Their wariness of the Senju Clan grew.
"Those wounds... Aren't they the same as the ones on that corpse?"
The sharp-eyed ninja fixed his gaze on the newly made wounds.
"The Senju Clan and Konoha... Have things really reached the point where one side must die? We need to keep watching."
The envoys from the other villages still had their doubts, suspecting this was a ploy by Konoha.
Shimura Danzō's eyes widened. He stood as if struck by lightning. The situation had already slipped beyond his control.
He knew full well that the Senju Clan weren't putting on an act. They truly meant to kill, and to sever all ties with Konoha.
His gaze fell on Senju Tojian, the ninja who had just used Wood Release.
This heir to the Senju Clan had grown up with little regard for Senju Tobirama, and he had never shown much respect for Tobirama's students, either.
To his surprise, Senju Tojian's physical condition had changed.
The last time he'd been called up, Tojian had been frail and old, as if he might die at any moment. Now he was in his prime, more vigorous than Danzō himself. Could Wood Release truly have such power?
An overwhelming presence erupted from Senju Tojian.
"I'm going to die!"
Shimura Danzō jolted awake.
He sensed killing intent from Senju Tojian, and regret surged through him.
He shouldn't have come to the City of Wood. This was all Sarutobi Hiruzen's fault.
There must be some secret he was hiding.
He tried to speak, but Senju Tojian moved faster.
Crack, crack, crack...
The ground shook. The fragments of the wall he had just smashed bounced across the ground, scraping against one another.
Huge tree trunks burst through the earth and rapidly grew.
"This level of Wood Release?"
Shimura Danzō looked up, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Trees blotted out the sky, forming a cage around all the Konoha ninja. Yet several special openings had been left, allowing the envoys from the other villages to see everything clearly.
They were like a troupe of clowns.
Standing there, they recalled the First, Senju Hashirama, who had founded Konoha and subdued the Ninja World.
"Lord Danzō, the Senju Clan means to kill. I'll clear a path for you to escape."
Shimura Danzō's bodyguard wore a black cloak that revealed only his eyes. He seemed utterly loyal.
As he spoke, his body dissolved into tiny black specks that flew toward an opening in the Wood Release cage.
Looking closer, the specks were insects no bigger than grains of rice.
The bodyguard was a ninja from the Aburame Clan, able to use insects to perform his jutsu.
Even the tiniest gap would be enough to escape through and buy Danzō time.
Shimura Danzō didn't stop him. A glimmer of hope shone in his eyes, though doubt remained.
Would they really leave such an obvious flaw?
In an instant, the hope in his eyes faded. He looked as if he'd expected this all along.
Plop... plop...
One by one, the black insects fell to the ground and dissolved into green pus.
The Aburame Clan bodyguard also crumpled to the ground. Gasping for breath, he managed to speak in broken phrases.
"Lord Danzō... There's an obstacle in the opening... It absorbs chakra... and it's highly poisonous."
As soon as he finished speaking, his body dissolved into a pool of green pus and a few white bones, a gruesome sight.
"Spider silk? No—threads like those inside lotus roots! They're plant tissue!"
Shimura Danzō paid no attention to the dead bodyguard. He stared intently at the opening, studying it.
Only then did he notice the nearly invisible transparent threads glinting in the sunlight.
"This application of Wood Release is different from the First's. It's taken another path."
Despondency crossed Shimura Danzō's face, and fear stirred in his heart.
Senju Nawaki watched it all, a smile curling his lips.
A ninja's body could resist most poisons. Even the toxins of Chiyo of Sunagakure and Hanzo of the Salamander weren't this terrifying.
He had specifically studied this phenomenon and discovered that a ninja's body had been altered by the God Tree, giving it some of the tree's traits.
The technique Senju Tojian had just used was modeled after a giant Venus Flytrap in the City of Wood.
The Aburame Clan ninja had walked straight into a trap.
This poison wouldn't turn an ordinary ninja into a puddle of pus; at most, it would paralyze them briefly. But the Aburame Clan ninja had turned his body into a nest of insects, leaving it little more than an empty shell.
Shimura Danzō caught a glimpse of Senju Nawaki's smile, and a chill ran through him.
Freed from the constraints imposed by the First and the Second, the Senju Clan and Senju Nawaki had abandoned their former weakness and their habit of sacrificing everything for Konoha.
In everything that had happened, he saw how ruthlessly his teacher had dealt with the Uchiha Clan.
Whoosh...
Whoosh...
Before Shimura Danzō could think further, the slaughter began.
The Konoha envoys around him fell one after another. Blood from the guards nearest him sprayed across his face, but he didn't dare move.
"Sarutobi Hiruzen, what exactly did you do to Senju Nawaki to make him change so horrifically?"
Shimura Danzō's hands trembled. He wanted to use a jutsu and fight to the death, but he couldn't summon the chakra in his body.
The surrounding trees and vines formed a barrier with a function like Sealing Jutsu. He could only watch helplessly as the carnage unfolded.
A few minutes later.
Rumble...
The Wood Release cage dissipated, leaving Shimura Danzō standing alone in the scene.
Senju Nawaki walked through the pool of blood and stopped in front of Shimura Danzō, a faint smile on his lips.
"You should keep living. Take this corpse to his son and daughter.
"Tell Sarutobi Hiruzen that the Senju Clan and the Sarutobi Clan are mortal enemies.
"You're taking the blame for him. My Second Great-Granduncle praised you many times, saying you had the makings of a Kage..."
He didn't intend to kill Shimura Danzō. A troublemaker like him could stir things up and bring Konoha's stench out into the open.
As long as he lived, he could keep Sarutobi Hiruzen from controlling Konoha outright.
And Nawaki hadn't lied. The Pot Kage was a Kage, too!
With a wave of his hand, a vine dragged Senju Sakuragi's corpse and laid it between them.
Shimura Danzō let out a breath of relief, his taut nerves relaxing. His gaze swept over the surroundings, and he seemed to understand Senju Nawaki's purpose.
On one hand, this was a declaration of the Senju Clan's stance toward Konoha.
On the other, it was an attempt to drive a wedge between him and Sarutobi Hiruzen.
At the very least, it meant he was safe for now.
"Sakuragi? His son and daughter?"
The corpse's true identity suddenly came back to him.
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