Fierce Battle

An unforeseen change erupted without warning.

The Root jonin who had been the first to lose a leg in the blast, collapsed at the edge of the rubble, seemingly unable to fight and temporarily forgotten amid the fierce battle—his lowered face appeared twisted by agony, but the one exposed eye suddenly flashed with the cold, sinister gleam of a waking viper.

Among these jonin, he was Danzo's most trusted subordinate. Only he knew Lord Danzo's trump card.

At a time like this, he had to cooperate with Lord Danzo.

Ignoring the blood pouring from his severed leg, he slammed his remaining good leg and both hands against the ground, launching himself upward as if springs had been fitted beneath him.

He was unbelievably fast, nothing like a severely wounded man.

And rather than fleeing the battlefield, he lunged straight at the nearest targets—Uchiha Rei, who was besieging a Root jonin, and Uchiha Shisui, whom she had instinctively shielded behind her a short distance away.

The one-legged ninja had been pretending! His previous grave injuries and collapse might have been partly real, partly fake, but the power and killing intent he unleashed now were absolutely jonin-level!

His objective was clear: seize or kill the most vulnerable child on the opposing side, sow chaos, and perhaps even force Uchiha Shaoyu into submission.

"Shisui! Watch out!"

Uchiha Rei was closest. She turned back in horror and moved to throw herself in front of him without a second thought.

But someone was faster than her.

A hunched, sinister figure appeared like a ghost at the rear flank of Uchiha Shaoyu's black Susanoo, almost pressed against the edge of its skeletal energy frame! It was Shimura Danzō, resurrected and completely unscathed.

He had appeared so abruptly that it was as though the one who had just been smashed into pulp had not been him at all.

More terrifyingly, neither Uchiha Shaoyu's Mangekyō Sharingan nor his senses had detected the slightest sign of his appearance beforehand.

Izanagi truly was terrifying.

Still, the secret technique scroll Uchiha Setsuna had given Shaoyu contained that technique. He would practice it once he got back.

Danzo's face was expressionless, and his single eye held only cold, machine-like killing intent.

The instant he appeared, his hand seals were already complete. Giving no one time to react, his chest sharply contracted and expanded.

"Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!"

"Whoosh—!!!"

A highly compressed sphere of Wind Style chakra, condensed to the extreme and nearly invisible, burst from Danzo's mouth with a shrill scream that tore through the air. Moving faster than the eye could follow, it shot straight for the center of Uchiha Shaoyu's back inside the black Susanoo.

This strike was sinister! Ruthless! Its timing was viciously precise.

Danzo had calculated everything.

Susanoo's defense was astonishing; it would be difficult to break through quickly from the front. Uchiha Shaoyu possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan and keen senses, so a frontal confrontation could easily fail.

Thus, he had exploited the abruptness and uncertain location of Izanagi's "resurrection." Coordinating with his subordinate's desperate counterattack despite his severed leg, he had chosen the most unexpected and most likely successful method of ambush.

It was an almost point-blank peak-level Wind Style attack, its power highly concentrated.

The current Danzo was not the brainless fool he would become decades later, stabbing at Susanoo with a kunai.

At present, whether in combat strength or combat intelligence, he was unquestionably Kage-level. In terms of battle experience alone, even Uchiha Shaoyu could not compare to him.

Not to mention that Shaoyu's past self had been a fragile college student; even the original owner of this body had nowhere near the experience of an old bastard like Danzo, who had fought countless years on the battlefield.

But it did not matter. For Shaoyu, that little bit of combat experience could not make up for anything. No matter how formidable Danzo's techniques were, Shaoyu only needed overwhelming stats to crush him.

The left fist dealt high damage. The right fist dealt even higher damage.

In Danzo's view, Uchiha Shaoyu did not know Izanagi existed and would assume he was dead, allowing himself to relax slightly while commanding his clansmen to surround the others.

He had even deliberately made the Vacuum Great Sphere's trajectory appear aimed at Susanoo, while its true lethal penetration point had been calculated to strike through a possible gap in Susanoo's bones and hit the caster inside.

In that flash of lightning.

"Brother! Behind you!"

Protected as Uchiha Rei threw herself over him, Shisui happened to see Danzo appear like a ghost at Susanoo's rear flank from his angle. A child's instincts drove him to let out a heart-rending scream.

Almost at the same instant Shisui screamed, Uchiha Shaoyu's Mangekyō Sharingan caught the lethal chakra fluctuation behind him.

Danzo's ambush had indeed come unexpectedly, but Shaoyu had never truly lowered his guard around the spot where Danzo had "died." He had been waiting all along.

"Hmph!" Shaoyu snorted. There was no panic in his eyes, only calm.

He had no time to fully turn around or command Susanoo into a perfect defensive block. The Vacuum Great Sphere was too fast and too close.

But neither was he entirely unprepared.

As his thoughts raced, Mangekyō ocular power and chakra surged wildly.

At the critical moment, the massive skeletal body of the black Susanoo twisted the slightest fraction to the side in a manner that nearly defied physical laws.

At the same time, the chakra energy forming Susanoo instantly thickened and condensed at the point of impact.

"Crack—!!!"

A teeth-grinding sound of shattering rang out.

The highly concentrated Vacuum Great Sphere struck the rear side of the black Susanoo's ribs head-on.

The newborn Susanoo's defense was formidable, but the penetrating and destructive power of Danzo's peak attack was no trifling matter—especially at such close range, where it had targeted a possible gap.

A basin-sized dent was blasted into the outer layer of black, solid energy bones. Spiderweb-like cracks spread outward from the depression.

Though it had not been completely pierced through, it had clearly suffered heavy damage. The terrifying impact traveled through Susanoo, making Uchiha Shaoyu's blood and chakra churn violently within.

"As expected of Danzo at his peak... His Wind Style truly is masterful, and his timing is vicious enough."

Uchiha Shaoyu's gaze turned even colder.

He slowly turned the damaged Susanoo around, facing Danzo head-on. Danzo's expression was grim, with a trace of surprise in his eyes.

"Damn it, that evil little brat actually blocked that attack."

With his ambush having failed, Danzo had no choice but to confront Uchiha Shaoyu head-on. But since that attack had not succeeded, he had no confidence in what came next.

"Izanagi is pretty useful, isn't it?"

Shaoyu's voice came from within Susanoo, carrying a hint of understanding and mockery.

"Trading the permanent blindness of one Sharingan for a chance to resurrect within a short period... Shimura Danzō, you really do make the most of those eyes you implanted."

What a waste.

Izanagi was not simply meant to be used as a resurrection token. Only an old bastard like Danzo was so skilled at wasting the Uchiha Clan's eyes.

Danzo's pupil suddenly constricted. One of his greatest trump cards had been exposed in a single sentence. This Uchiha brat knew far more than he had imagined.

Meanwhile, the one-legged ninja's ambush was successfully intercepted by Shisui's scream, Uchiha Rei's desperate defense, and Uchiha Mihuo's timely return to assist. He failed to succeed, and Mihuo forced the one-legged ninja to his death with a single slash.

Danzo's lone eye stared fixedly at the damaged black skeletal giant and the young, stern face of Uchiha Shaoyu within. His voice emerged like a freezing wind from the depths of hell.

"Uchiha brat... I truly underestimated you. The Mangekyō... Susanoo... I never expected to witness such power again after Uchiha Madara."

He paused, the killing intent in his voice nearly solidifying into substance.

"But this ends here! Today, your eyes are mine! Along with every one of your filthy Sharingan, they will all become nourishment for Root!"