The King Descends from Heaven

The frigid wind seemed to freeze solid, and the air was thick with a fierce, murderous aura.

Through Uchiha Shaoyu's Mangekyō Sharingan, the figures of Danzo and his group became increasingly clear as they unknowingly drew closer, step by step, toward this rocky depression filled with lethal traps.

The dead silence was shattered in an instant!

When Danzo's group entered the boulder-strewn outer area of the depression and had advanced less than ten meters, a Root jonin responsible for flank security seemed to kick something incredibly thin beneath his foot.

His reaction could not have been faster. The instant he sensed something wrong, his body instinctively shot backward, and he gave a sharp warning at the same time.

"Ambush!"

However, he was still half a beat too late.

"Boom!!!"

A deafening explosion erupted! Flames and smoke instantly swallowed the jonin's position! The explosive tag trap had been triggered! It was like a signal, and immediately after—

"Hiss, hiss, hiss—!"

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!"

Countless prearranged kunai, shuriken, and senbon connected to explosive tags or mechanisms shot out like a torrential downpour from every direction—from between rocks and amid clumps of dead grass—blanketing the broad area where Danzo and the others stood.

At the same time, strange smoke rose from several key locations. The genjutsu traps set by Uchiha Rei and Mei activated, attempting to disrupt the enemy's senses and judgment.

"Defend!"

Danzo's hoarse voice remained clear even amid the explosions. The moment the warning sounded, he had already drifted backward several yards like a ghost. His cane tapped lightly against the ground, and a pale green Wind Release chakra shield spread before him, deflecting or blowing away every stray kunai and explosive fragment aimed at him.

The six Root jonin he had brought with him also displayed astonishing skill.

Although the sudden assault threw their formation into slight disarray, they made the correct response almost the instant the traps activated.

Some used the Body Flicker Technique to retreat, some cast the Substitution Technique, while others directly blocked with ninjutsu or weapons.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!" "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

The flashes of ninjutsu, the clang of metal, and the explosions intertwined.

Most of the attacks were neutralized or avoided by those jonin through their vast experience and exceptional strength.

Still, the density and suddenness of the traps had achieved results.

The Root jonin who had stepped on the explosive tag trap first, though quick to react, was still caught by the blast's core force.

One of his lower legs was severed at the knee amid the flames, leaving mangled flesh and blood! He let out a muffled groan and collapsed as his body lost balance. The searing pain instantly robbed him of most of his combat ability, and he could only grit his teeth and roll away, trying to find cover.

The other five jonin had also suffered injuries to varying degrees. Some had their clothes and flesh sliced by kunai, some were left with churning blood and qi from the blast waves, and some had their sense of direction disrupted for an instant by the genjutsu. But they were all minor injuries and did not affect their fighting ability.

"As expected of Danzo's elite..."

Uchiha Renhuo and the others lurking in the shadows felt chills run through them.

Such a dense trap assault had only disabled one man and lightly injured five. The enemy had stabilized their formation almost immediately.

But this was only the beginning.

The instant Danzo steadied himself and swept his lone eye across the area, searching for the ambushers' exact positions—

"Buzz—!"

A terrifying pressure filled with ominous and destructive aura, enough to make one's soul tremble, descended behind him without warning.

Every hair on Danzo's body stood on end! An unprecedented sense of mortal danger washed over him like ice water poured over his head!

He did not even have time to turn around. He could only desperately pour all his chakra into his Wind Release shield and the cane in his hand while twisting his body to the side with all his might.

However, he was too slow!

A Susanoo several meters tall, with only its upper body and one massive black skeletal arm formed, materialized behind Danzo like a demon god crawling out of hell.

Within the eye sockets of that vicious skull burned the cold crimson light of Uchiha Shaoyu's Mangekyō Sharingan.

Uchiha Shaoyu descended from the sky. The black skeletal giant fist, wrapped in devastating energy, carried the violent will to crush everything. Like the hammer of divine punishment, it smashed mercilessly toward Shimura Danzō, who had only just regained his footing and had exhausted his old strength before new strength could arise.

"No—!"

Horror exploded from Danzo's remaining eye. He recognized it! The legendary power of the Uchiha... Susanoo?!

How could something like this appear on such a young Uchiha?!

Danzo had seen this thing before. When he was very young, he had seen a man named Uchiha Madara. Even now, he could not forget that world-destroying power, and Teacher Tobirama had feared it greatly as well.

But he had never expected that, after so many years, he would see this power in the brat before him.

Damn it, was this another Uchiha Madara?

He had to kill him here!

"Boom—!!!"

The tremendous impact was duller than the previous explosions, yet far more soul-shaking, as though the entire depression had trembled.

The massive black fist struck Danzo's position solidly. There was no dazzling technique, only the purest overwhelming force.

Dust mixed with snow and shattered stones shot into the sky, and a massive crater appeared in the ground.

At the bottom of the crater, there remained only a blurry mass of flesh, nearly unrecognizable, along with torn clothing and the remnants of a cane.

Shimura Danzō, Konoha's darkness and the leader of Root, seemed to have been instantly smashed to dust by that sneak attack beyond all common sense.

"Lord Danzo?!!"

The five Root jonin who had just stabilized themselves after the trap assault and were still reeling in shock—six including the one with the severed leg—were all wide-eyed with fury and cried out in horror at the sight.

Lord Danzo, who had seemed powerful and unfathomable to them, a man who almost never miscalculated, had actually... actually been killed in a single exchange? What was that black monster?

Even the ambushing Uchiha clansmen were so stunned by that sudden, utterly terrifying strike that their hearts nearly stopped! Was that Shaoyu's true power?

Too powerful!

However, within the protection of the black Susanoo, Uchiha Shaoyu showed not the slightest hint of relief or joy at killing a powerful enemy.

His Mangekyō Sharingan remained fixed on that pile of flesh.

"Izanagi... as expected."

The thought had barely formed in his mind, and he did not even give the four stunned Root jonin more time to react.

The black Susanoo's skeletal giant fist rose again without the slightest pause. Like a hammer striking moles, it howled through the air as it smashed down at two nearby jonin who still seemed frozen in shock.

"Move!!" The other jonin cried out in warning, their eyes splitting with fury, but it was already too late.

"Bang! Bang!"

Two more bone-chilling dull impacts rang out. Before the two Root jonin could even fully scream, they were crushed into two clouds of blood mist by that absolute power, leaving no corpses behind.

In the blink of an eye, Danzo had "died," two jonin had been instantly killed, and the remaining two uninjured jonin along with the one missing a leg were terrified out of their wits.

"Kill!"

At that moment, Uchiha Shaoyu's cold command rang through the depression.

"Sharingan!" "Fire Release!" "Move."

Uchiha Renhuo, Mihuo, Tiehuo, Qianying, Rei, Mei, and several other chunin, who had been poised for action, burst from their respective ambush positions like tigers released from their cages.

The crimson light of the Sharingan tore through the darkness. Ninjutsu, kunai, and shuriken poured down like a violent storm toward the three Root jonin, who were still shaken and whose morale was on the verge of collapse. They intended to seize this perfect opportunity, while the enemies' minds were in chaos and they had lost their leader's command, to surround and kill them in one stroke.

The tide of battle seemed to turn toward the Uchiha side in an instant.