Danzo's Wretched Return

Konoha, Hokage's Office.

The sunlight outside the window was just right, and Konoha's streets remained as bustling as ever, but the atmosphere inside the office was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Shimura Danzō had returned.

He was no longer the gloomy, imposing leader of Root who forever hid in the shadows, as though everything were under his control.

At that moment, he was haggard and emaciated, his ashen face flushed with an unhealthy red. His one remaining eye was bloodshot, and his gaze still held lingering terror and bone-deep hatred.

The sleeve over his left arm hung empty.

All the Sharingan transplanted into it had been permanently blinded and shriveled from the excessive use of Izanagi. Even the arm's meridians had suffered irreversible damage, rendering it useless.

His clothes were tattered, covered in dirt and long-dried, blackened bloodstains. He even staggered slightly as he walked, relying entirely on the cane in his hand.

He looked no better than a stray dog.

When he suddenly appeared at the entrance to the Hokage's Office like a ghost, even the Anbu guards outside were startled and nearly drew their blades.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had been reviewing documents. Hearing the commotion, he looked up, and when he saw Danzō in such unprecedented disarray, the fingers holding his pipe stiffened abruptly and his pupils constricted.

A sense of foreboding instantly gripped his heart.

"Danzō? You... how did you end up like this?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice was filled with disbelief.

"The mission... failed? Where are the others?"

"It failed... They're all dead... All of them..."

Danzō's voice was as hoarse as a broken bellows. Staggering to the desk, he fixed his lone eye on Sarutobi Hiruzen. The madness and hatred in his gaze were nearly tangible.

"The eight jonin I brought... all died. They all died to buy me a chance to escape."

"What?!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen shot to his feet. His pipe fell onto the desk, but he did not notice. His face was filled with shock and horror.

Eight Root jonin—the finest of Root's current forces, and an immensely valuable hidden strength of Konoha—had actually... been wiped out?

"Who was it? An ambush by Sunagakure? Or did another great nation intervene?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen asked urgently. His first thought was that they had encountered a large-scale ambush or a more powerful enemy.

"An ambush? Hahaha..."

Danzō let out a shrill, hate-filled laugh, uglier than weeping.

"It was an ambush, all right! But the ones who ambushed us... were those little Uchiha bastards!"

The blood vessels in his lone eye grew even more pronounced, as though it might start dripping blood.

"Uchiha Shaoyu! That innately evil little brat! He knew from the start that we would pursue him and laid a trap in advance. It wasn't just low-grade tricks like Explosive Tags and shuriken... He... he..."

Danzō's voice trembled with extreme rage and a trace of lingering fear.

"What he awakened was not some ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan!"

Danzō lowered his voice.

"It was a Mangekyō, the Uchiha Clan's legendary power—the Mangekyō Sharingan. And... he could even use Susanoo!"

"Mangekyō?! Susanoo?!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked as if he had been struck by lightning. His body swayed before he collapsed heavily back into his chair, his face turning deathly pale in an instant.

As the disciple of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, he understood all too well what those two terms represented. They were terrifying powers capable of rivaling, even surpassing, a Kage—the very powers Uchiha Madara had relied upon to sweep through the ninja world.

"Are... are you certain?!"

Even Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice trembled.

"Certain?! I nearly died at the hands of his Susanoo! If I hadn't... if I hadn't used my trump card..."

Danzō raised his ruined left arm, his eyes filled with bitter hatred.

"My trump card was nearly completely spent before I barely managed to escape his grasp with my life. That black skeletal giant... that destructive power... There is no mistake."

He did not say what his trump card was. If he had, even Sarutobi Hiruzen would not help him now.

He panted heavily before continuing.

"Uchiha Shaoyu also seemed able to summon multiple bizarre creatures, each with different abilities, and he used them skillfully in tandem. Many of our men died to those strange methods."

With every sentence, Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression darkened further.

Mangekyō, Susanoo, multiple summoned creatures...

Uchiha Shaoyu's strength and threat level had already far exceeded every one of their previous estimates.

He was no hotheaded genius. He was clearly another terrifying monster who might grow into a second Uchiha Madara.

"Their destination? Where did they go?!" Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly looked up, the foreboding in his heart reaching its peak.

Danzō forced out four words through clenched teeth, each one filled with chill.

"The Land of Lightning, Kumogakure!"

"Kumogakure?!"

"What the hell?!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen felt his vision go dark.

Kumogakure—the great ninja village whose military strength ranked second only to Konoha among the Five Great Ninja Villages, and a formidable enemy that had always eyed Konoha hungrily.

The Third Raikage, Ai, was in his prime. Known as the "Strongest Spear" and the "Strongest Shield," he was valiant, powerful, and wildly ambitious.

Uchiha Shaoyu had defected to Kumogakure with the Mangekyō Sharingan and a group of elite Uchiha...

It was like personally handing a peerless divine weapon, sharp and coated in deadly poison, to the enemy most eager to harm Konoha.

"This is bad."

Sarutobi Hiruzen muttered, seeming to age ten years in an instant.

The Sunagakure front was still deadlocked, Konoha was hollow within, and now such a massive hidden threat had defected to a powerful enemy...

"I told you long ago that the Uchiha Clan is Konoha's greatest tumor, traitors by nature."

As if he had found an outlet for his frustration, Danzō slammed his cane heavily against the floor and roared himself hoarse.

"You should have listened to me and purged the Uchiha sooner, especially that brat Uchiha Shaoyu. But now look at this—you let the tiger return to the mountains! No, you personally raised a monster and handed him over to our enemy! Hiruzen, this is all because of your indecision."

Faced with Danzō's accusation, Sarutobi Hiruzen had no reply. His heart was filled with bitterness and regret.

Perhaps... some of Danzō's extreme proposals back then had not been entirely without reason? But it was already too late to think about that.

He forced himself to calm down and rubbed his aching brow.

"What is the use of saying that now? The urgent matter is how we respond."

"Respond? How are we supposed to respond?"

Danzō sneered, his lone eye full of gloom.

"Kumogakure is powerful, and the Third Raikage is no easy opponent. Now that Uchiha Shaoyu has defected there with the Mangekyō and a group of Sharingan users, Kumogakure will treasure them like priceless gems and guard them closely."

"Are we supposed to mobilize an army, cross the Land of Fire and the Land of Frost, and attack Kumogakure to demand their return?"

That was clearly impossible.

Leaving aside Kumogakure's own strength and geographical advantage, Konoha was currently at war with Sunagakure and simply lacked the strength to open a second front, especially against an enemy like Kumogakure.

Sarutobi Hiruzen remained silent for a long time before finally saying dejectedly.

"For now... we can only send a formal diplomatic note to Kumogakure in Konoha's official capacity. We will sternly condemn their harboring of Konoha's rogue ninja and demand that they immediately and unconditionally extradite Uchiha Shaoyu and his accomplices to Konoha for trial."

"At the same time... we will inform Kumogakure that Uchiha Shaoyu possesses the Mangekyō Sharingan and is extremely dangerous, as a... warning?"

By the end, even he felt the proposal was feeble and powerless.

A warning? A reminder? Kumogakure would be delighted for Konoha's strong to defect to them.

Especially with a legendary power like the Mangekyō Sharingan. Once the Third Raikage learned of it, he would likely value and recruit Uchiha Shaoyu even more. How could he possibly hand him over?

This so-called diplomatic note would accomplish almost nothing beyond expressing powerless anger and giving the village an explanation.

"Hmph, a warning? Do you think that brute and ambitious Third Raikage will care about your warning?"

Danzō scoffed, though he knew that this was likely the only superficially acceptable measure they could take for now.

"Still, we have to put on a show. Also..."

A cold gleam flashed through his lone eye.

"The Uchiha Clan must undergo stricter purges and surveillance. The fact that Uchiha Shaoyu was able to take so many people away proves that there are far more unstable elements within the clan than just these."

"And that old bastard Uchiha Setsuna... he absolutely cannot be uninvolved! This time, we cannot go easy on them again."

Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded wearily.

"As for the matters within the Uchiha... handle them as you see fit. But mind the limits. Do not further intensify the conflict. At present... Konoha cannot withstand any more internal turmoil."

His gaze turned toward the window, as though it could pierce through layer upon layer of buildings and see the distant Land of Lightning.

Uchiha Shaoyu... the Mangekyō Sharingan... Kumogakure...