Izanagi, The Audacious Rogue Strikes Twice

A brand-new, completely uninjured Danzo had appeared so eerily and brazenly, sitting grim-faced in the black-red stone chair stained with blood.

The two Root members at the door immediately stiffened. If not for the horrifying bloodstains in the office reminding them otherwise, they would have thought everything they had just witnessed was a false illusion.

Danzo Shimura seemed to notice the disturbance at the door. He raised his shadowy lone eye, and the two Root members instantly trembled before hurriedly dropping to one knee in salute.

"Lo... Lord Danzo..."

The two swallowed in unison, their expressions tense.

Danzo ignored them. He merely withdrew his gaze expressionlessly and said coldly, "Get out. Have the sensory ninja stationed in Root immediately extend their sensing range outward from my office. Do not leave a single gap uncovered, and do not let their sensing range reach inside my office. For the next half hour, no one is to approach this place without permission."

"Y-Yes!"

The two nodded and quickly left.

As their footsteps faded away, Danzo's expression turned incomparably ugly once more. He gripped his cane until it creaked, as though it would burst apart with just a little more force.

"Damn it! If I hadn't engraved Izanagi into this eye beforehand with a Transcription Seal, I truly would have died at the hands of that Uchiha brat!"

As he spoke, Danzo's hand involuntarily rose to the position of his left eye beneath the bandages.

He had obtained this eye and those two secret techniques on the same day. Thinking of that man's face, a trace of guilt rose within Danzo.

But it was immediately replaced by viciousness.

"Uchiha Mo... that brat is far too dangerous! He actually infiltrated Root without anyone noticing. Even when he put a blade to my throat, there wasn't the slightest sign of anything amiss!"

As he spoke, Danzo's face darkened further, and his cane cracked with a sharp snap.

He sat there without moving, his lone eye narrowed viciously as he contemplated something unknown.

After a long while, Danzo closed his eyes and slowly rose to his feet. He lifted his leg and forcefully shoved the stone chair aside, revealing the floor beneath it.

"Fine. That brat has already come into his own; this must be considered carefully over the long term. For now, restoring my combat power is the most urgent matter. But with Orochimaru's help, it should be much simpler and smoother this time."

As he spoke, he aimed his cane at a spot revealed beneath the moved chair and jabbed downward.

Crack—!

The tip of the cane sank into the floor. When Danzo raised it again, a sound like turning gears rang out. The floorboard swiftly retracted, exposing a hidden compartment beneath it, and Danzo bent down to reach inside.

When his hand emerged again, it held an exquisite glass bottle. Inside, a three-tomoe Sharingan soaked in pale green liquid slowly rotated.

Danzo raised it and stared deeply at the Sharingan, standing motionless.

"Kagami, I suppose I've repaid you with one life..."

Danzo had acquired these two Sharingan in a despicable manner, yet in a sense, it had also been justified.

Back then, after Hiruzen Sarutobi's position had gradually stabilized, it was time for everyone to divide the spoils. But there was only so much power to go around, while the Hokage's guard unit had six members.

At that time, Danzo set his sights on Kagami, who had been born into the Uchiha clan...

During a mission amid the aftermath of the Second Shinobi World War, Danzo Shimura leaked Kagami's intelligence to the enemy. To guard against any mishaps, he then pretended to receive the news and personally led a team to reinforce him.

And in the end...

Uchiha Kagami died before Danzo's eyes. He entrusted his eyes to the teammate he believed he could give everything for—to the murderer who had killed him!

Afterward, Akimichi Torifu seemed to receive some sort of information as well, and quietly withdrew from the core circle of power.

Danzo did not know what he had felt back then, but now, as he looked at the only remaining right eye in his hand, his emotions were complicated.

"Kagami..."

He looked at the Sharingan and uttered the name heavily.

Shriek—!

Splurt!

Danzo's body jolted, and all his remaining words caught in his throat. He blankly lowered his head.

A palm wrapped in lightning had pierced through his chest from where his heart was, crackling arcs of electricity exploding through the silent chamber.

"Go repent in hell."

A cold whisper sounded beside Danzo's ear, and then he felt his body being shoved away.

His consciousness began to dissipate rapidly, and the sensation in his body faded at an alarming rate. In his final moments, Danzo struggled to turn his head.

The scene before him rapidly swayed from the lack of blood in his brain. Through the haze, he seemed to see the man who appeared in his dreams every midnight.

Short, curled hair, downward-slanting eyes, and a sunny smile unlike that of an ordinary Uchiha... Huh? A sunny smile... No, Kagami's expression wouldn't be this cold...

The illusion faded, replaced by Uchiha Mo's utterly different, icy face.

Thud!

Danzo's corpse hit the ground with a dull thud. Mo glanced at it before quickly looking away and raising a hand to catch the glass bottle in midair.

Wind Release Proficiency +5.26%

Yin Release Proficiency +1.54%

"A full seven percent in Yin Release proficiency. I knew there was something wrong with you, you rat."

Mo said coldly. Instead of rushing to flee, he began carefully examining the glass bottle in his hand.

Once proficiency had been unlocked past twenty percent, increasing it became exceptionally difficult. Mo had tested it roughly before—the difficulty was at least double what it had been before twenty percent. Yet one of Danzo's lives had instantly raised his Yin Release, which had long surpassed twenty percent proficiency, by another seven percent.

Danzo was undoubtedly an expert, but Mo simply could not believe that he possessed such profound mastery of Yin Release.

Coupled with that old dog's performance in the original work, it was hard for Mo not to worry that he might come back from the dead.

So before leaving, he had left behind a Lightning Clone, concealed within the secret chamber. In any case, the Lightning Clone could be dispelled at any time, so it cost Mo nothing.

Thus, he quietly watched as two Root members arrived at the secret chamber, only for Danzo to revive and drive them away.

Mo had originally considered giving up on another assassination several times and dispelling the Shadow Clone. After all, Root had already gone on alert, and Danzo had suffered a loss once already.

The best choice was undoubtedly to wait for another opportunity.

But who would have thought that the two sensory-type ninja before him would actually freeze after seeing Danzo's corpse? Before they could use their sensory abilities to investigate the surrounding area, Danzo directly came back from the dead.

Afterward, Danzo immediately ordered their sensory abilities to cover the entire Root, yet he alone left his own office exposed.

It was truly baffling, but Mo soon received his answer.

Because Danzo took out a Sharingan from the mechanism beneath the stone chair...

No one would likely imagine that such a brazen madman would remain where he was after successfully assassinating a Hidden Leaf elder councilor instead of fleeing.

However...

"In a situation like this, you still dared to space out without checking your surroundings. I'm almost impressed by your courage..."