Danzo Flees in Defeat, His Elite Forces Wiped Out

Elsewhere, the two Uchiha jōnin, Uchiha Renhuo and Mihuo, led several other chūnin in tightly suppressing the three surviving Root jōnin Danzo had brought with him.

Although Root had one more jōnin, the Uchiha jōnin possessed Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Their dynamic vision, resistance to genjutsu, and copying abilities far surpassed those of ordinary jōnin, making them exceptionally formidable in battle.

Not to mention the several Uchiha chūnin, who worked seamlessly together and had also activated their Sharingan, supporting and harassing the enemy from the flanks.

The three Root jōnin were already covered in wounds, their chakra heavily depleted. Forced into nothing but defense, they had no power to fight back. Their defeat was only a matter of time.

The entire battle seemed to have completely tilted in the Uchiha's favor.

Danzo's single eye swept across the battlefield. The elite forces he had brought were either dead, wounded, or suppressed. He had exhausted every trump card and was in a miserable state, while the other side, though also depleted, seemed to have more cards up its sleeve—Uchiha Shaoyu still had reserves, and his clansmen's fighting spirit was soaring...

Despair and extreme fury surged through him.

No! He could not die here!

His ideals, his "contributions" to Konoha, were not yet complete.

He still had to seize those Mangekyō Sharingan, eradicate the Uchiha Clan, and... become Hokage.

"Uchiha brat, are you really going to kill us all?"

Uchiha Shaoyu froze for a moment.

You fucking chased me all the way here, and now you're saying this?

"Danzo, you old dog, when you oppressed the Uchiha and hunted me down, why didn't you think about showing mercy?"

Danzo's old face reddened.

"I did it all for Konoha. How could a brat like you possibly understand!"

Since I don't understand, then let's all stop wasting words!

Just as Uchiha Shaoyu prepared to launch another attack and finish Danzo once and for all—

The three suppressed Root jōnin seemed to receive some silent command from Danzo, or perhaps made their own decision. A frenzied resolve flashed in all their eyes at once.

They suddenly broke free of their opponents' entanglement and charged desperately toward the central battleground where Uchiha Shaoyu and Danzo stood.

As they ran, they ripped open their clothes, revealing the dense layers of Explosive Tags plastered beneath.

"Die for Lord Danzo!"

"Long live Konoha!"

Amid their shrill roars, the three Root jōnin became three human bombs. Splitting into three directions, they lunged with the resolve to perish together at Uchiha Shaoyu and... the Uchiha clansmen who could intercept them.

"Watch out! Fall back!" Uchiha Shaoyu's pupils contracted as he shouted sharply, retreating at once.

Ninja had high offense but low defense. If they took the full force of those Explosive Tags, wouldn't they be finished? He had Susanoo, but the others didn't.

These Uchiha were his foundation. He would ache for ages over the loss of even one of them.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!

The earth-shaking chain of explosions rang through the hollow once more. Fire and smoke swallowed a vast area, while violent shockwaves hurled nearby rocks into the air and shattered them.

Though this sudden suicide attack was unlikely to kill a prepared Uchiha Shaoyu or the jōnin, it successfully created enormous chaos and briefly blocked vision and perception, forcing the Uchiha to temporarily avoid the blast.

And beneath the cover of the explosions and confusion—

A hunched, bedraggled yet remarkably swift figure, like a wounded lone wolf, fled without looking back beyond the hollow and into the deeper darkness of the Land of Frost.

It was Shimura Danzō! Without hesitation, he abandoned every subordinate he had, using the precious opportunity they had bought with their lives to... flee.

He could not die yet. His life still had value, his dream was not yet complete, and he still had to become Hokage.

Thinking of the hat Sarutobi Hiruzen wore and the Hokage robes on his body, Danzo's eyes instantly filled with desire—and hope for survival.

He had to live!

Standing at the edge of the explosion, Uchiha Shaoyu watched the direction Danzo had vanished in, his eyes flickering with light. He did not immediately give chase.

It was not that he could not catch up, nor that he lacked the strength. On the contrary, during the battle, although he had suppressed Danzo, he had deliberately not truly cut off all his escape routes.

Even at the final moment, when the Root jōnin self-destructed, his order for his clansmen to retreat had seemed almost perfectly timed. It avoided casualties on his side without pushing Danzo too hard.

"Let him go."

Shaoyu withdrew his gaze, his voice calm.

Renhuo and the others looked at him in confusion.

Shaoyu gazed in Konoha's direction, a cold curve tugging at his lips.

"A venomous snake that has lost all its elite forces yet still covets the Mangekyō Sharingan, returning to Sarutobi Hiruzen, who has already cut his funding and grown wary of him... do you think he'll behave himself?"

"Let Konoha's shadows tear at one another from within. If Danzo remains alive and desperately tries to regain his strength and seize power, Konoha's upper ranks will only become more divided and consumed by internal strife, leaving them no time for anything else. That will better serve us as we flee to Kumogakure and buy time to develop."

Hearing this, everyone suddenly understood. The way they looked at Shaoyu gained another measure of reverence.

Not only was his strength extraordinary, but his schemes were also so far-reaching.

There was one more thing Uchiha Shaoyu did not say.

If Danzo returned to Konoha, he would definitely target the Uchiha Clan even more viciously than before. Only then would the doves within Konoha's Uchiha Clan see reality for what it was, and then he would have a better chance of bringing the remaining Uchiha Clan under his control.

"Clean up the battlefield. Leave quickly."

Shaoyu gave the order.

"Danzo escaped. Konoha's reinforcements may arrive in force soon. We can't stay here long."

"Yes!"

The Uchiha immediately got to work, swiftly gathering their clansmen's belongings. No one on the Uchiha side had died in this battle; only Ling and two chūnin had suffered minor injuries. They dealt with the traces at the scene, took the necessary spoils, supported the wounded, and regrouped.

But that old bastard Danzo had not brought much of value on his subordinates, likely because they had traveled light. Shaoyu found only some Soldier Pills and ten million silver.

Soon, the twelve figures silently departed the battle-scarred hollow just as they had arrived, vanishing completely into the colder, more unknown darkness farther north in the Land of Frost.

Behind them, only the embers of the explosions, the scars of battle, and Shimura Danzō's panicked retreat remained.

As for the undercurrents Konoha would soon face because of this failed pursuit, Shaoyu said he could no longer concern himself with them. He only hoped Elder Setsuna and Clan Head Tiandao could lead the Uchiha Clan safely through it, though they would likely not emerge unscathed.

The game between hunter and prey came to a temporary close that night.

From this moment on, offense and defense had changed hands.