Blood Stains the Hokage Building, Sosuke's Battle to Establish His Authority

Thud!

The dull sound of Danzo's cane striking the floor was an absolute order to begin the slaughter.

In an instant, the previously empty surroundings of the Hokage's office erupted like a disturbed hornet's nest. More than thirty black figures, ghostlike in their movements, sprang out simultaneously from hidden wall doors, ceiling compartments, and even beneath the shattered floor tiles.

They all wore animal masks, their eyes devoid of emotion, and held ninja blades coated in deadly poison.

These were Root's core suicide operatives. Every one of them possessed at least chunin-level strength, while several leaders were elite jonin proficient in assassination. They made no sound, their movements synchronized with chilling precision. More than thirty ninja blades interwove in midair into an airtight silver web of death, sealing off every avenue of retreat around Sosuke.

The blades tore through the air with shrill howls.

Standing behind his desk, Hiruzen Sarutobi's cloudy eyes flashed with a trace of struggle, but he ultimately did not speak to stop them. He needed someone to probe Sosuke's hidden cards, and he needed Danzo's hand to completely suppress this uncontrollable Senju madman.

"Die! Remnant of the Senju Clan!" Danzo's one eye fixed itself on Sosuke at the center of the blade net, the corners of his mouth already twisting into a cruel smile.

Faced with this thunderous killing trap, Sosuke did not even raise his eyelids.

His left arm still held the sleeping Kushina securely, while his right hand hung casually at his side. He did not draw a kunai, form hand seals, or even take a stance to dodge.

He merely lifted his chin slightly, and the emerald light in his deep eyes suddenly blazed.

"Before a true forest sea, do a few rats hiding in the gutter dare speak of killing?"

Sosuke's gentle voice drifted softly through the air just as the blades reached him.

Boom!

There was no lengthy sequence of hand seals, no need to circulate chakra through his meridians. The perfected Sage Body granted Sosuke a privilege that transcended the rules of the ninja world—Wood Release came as naturally to him as breathing.

Violent Yang Release chakra exploded outward from beneath Sosuke's feet, blasting in every direction.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

The solid hardwood floor was instantly torn apart by an irresistible force of life. Dozens of dark brown wooden spears as thick as thighs, their surfaces covered in sharp barbs, burst wildly from underground with terrifying force that surpassed the speed of sound, like demonic hands reaching out from hell.

They were too fast.

So fast that the Root operatives had no time to make any defensive move.

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

The dull sounds of sharp weapons piercing flesh erupted densely through the cramped Hokage's office.

The four Root jonin charging at the front had less than three inches left before their blades reached Sosuke's throat, yet they could advance no farther. Thick wooden spikes pierced directly through their abdomens, bursting out through their backs in a spray of blood and brutally impaling their entire bodies in midair.

But this was only the beginning.

After piercing their victims, the wooden spikes that had burst from the earth did not stop growing. Instead, like vines that had caught the scent of blood, they frantically branched out and entwined in midair.

"Urgh..."

One Root operative was nailed through the shoulder by a wooden spike. He tried to swing his blade and sever the wood, but it was as hard as refined steel. The next instant, more than a dozen slender, sharp branches suddenly split from the spike's surface, forcing their way through his blood vessels and meridians into his internal organs before finally bursting out from his eye sockets and mouth.

In less than three breaths.

The entire Hokage's office had become a bloody, grotesque primeval forest.

More than thirty Root elites—none could reach the ground. Like insects mounted as specimens, they were nailed fast by thick wooden spikes to the walls, the ceiling, and even the portraits of the previous Hokage.

Crimson blood trickled along the dark brown wood grain, gathering in midair into curtains of bloody beads that dripped steadily onto the wreckage scattered across the floor. The heavy stench of blood became almost tangible, completely drowning the room.

One strike. Total annihilation.

There was no flashy clash of ninjutsu—only the purest, most primal, and most unreasonable crushing force.

The hand gripping Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe trembled violently, and he bit cracks into its stem. As he stared at the scene before him, a sight akin to Asura's hell, his scalp went numb.

Wood Release without hand seals! Enough chakra to instantly kill more than thirty elites!

The intelligence said Sosuke had only undergone an initial awakening. How was this an initial awakening? This ability to alter the terrain with every gesture and slaughter at will was practically the rebirth of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama! No... the Sosuke before him possessed a suffocating wickedness and brutality that the mild-tempered First did not.

"This... this is impossible..."

The cruel smile on Danzo's face froze completely. The foundation of Root that he had been so proud of, the killing machines he had painstakingly raised for over a decade, had not even lasted a second before this young man in white.

Fear, like an icy venomous snake, coiled tightly around Danzo's heart.

Tap, tap, tap.

Crisp footsteps sounded amid the rain of blood.

Holding Kushina, Sosuke stepped forward with a composed expression. A faint layer of emerald aura surrounded him. Blood dripping from above and dust filling the air were all deflected the moment they came within half a foot of him.

His white robes were like pristine snow, untouched by even a speck of dust.

With every step he took forward, the thick wooden spikes blocking his path automatically bent and retreated to either side, like subjects welcoming their king.

"Elder Danzo, your way of receiving guests is truly beneath contempt."

Sosuke strolled through the forest of corpses and rain of blood, his gaze passing over the severed limbs strewn across the floor before locking onto the old man trembling in the shadows.

"Y-You... don't come any closer!"

Danzo finally panicked. He abruptly retreated a step, pressing his back tightly against the wall. His instinct to survive drove him to frantically mobilize the chakra in his body as his hands rapidly formed seals.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!"

An exceptionally sharp crescent wind blade erupted from Danzo's mouth, carrying the force to shred everything as it slashed straight for Sosuke's face.

A mocking, cold smile curled across Sosuke's lips. He could not even be bothered to dodge.

The floorboards beneath his feet suddenly surged, and a thick wooden pillar rose from the ground like an indestructible shield before him.

Bang!

The Vacuum Wave, capable of cutting steel, struck the wooden pillar and left only a pale mark less than an inch deep. It failed to chop off more than a few splinters. The density and hardness of the Wood Release produced by a perfected Sage Body had long surpassed the scope of ordinary ninjutsu.

Before Danzo could recover from his shock, Sosuke's figure vanished from where he stood like a ghost.

Whoosh!

A fierce gust swept past.

Danzo's vision blurred, and the white-clad youth who resembled a god of slaughter was already standing less than half a meter before him.

"Old dog, your performance is over."

Sosuke's icy voice exploded beside Danzo's ear.

Danzo instinctively tried to raise his cane to retaliate, but Sosuke moved countless times faster. At some point, a sharp kunai condensed from high-density hardwood had silently come to rest against Danzo's carotid artery.

The sharp wooden tip easily pierced the skin on Danzo's neck, and a thread of blood slid down the wood grain. If Sosuke pushed his wrist forward another half inch, the "Darkness of the Shinobi," who had ruled Hidden Leaf's underworld for half his life, would immediately become a cold corpse.

Under the extreme threat of death, Danzo's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, while cold sweat streamed down his forehead like a waterfall. He did not even dare breathe loudly, afraid that the slightest disturbance in the air would cause that wooden kunai to sever his blood vessel.

"Sosuke! Stop!"

At that critical moment, an angry, urgent roar rang out from the other side of the room.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could no longer remain a bystander.

If Danzo died here tonight, the Hidden Leaf's upper power structure would instantly collapse, and the entire village would plunge into irreparable civil strife. As Hokage, he absolutely could not permit that to happen.

Boom!

A terrifying surge of chakra belonging to a peak Kage-level powerhouse erupted from Hiruzen Sarutobi's seemingly aged body.

He tore off the white Hokage robe that represented peace and authority, revealing the taut black combat suit beneath. Chakra of five different natures surged and interwove wildly around him, forming a visible chakra storm that sent the surrounding broken wood and corpses flying.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Amid a burst of white smoke, a thick iron staff, pitch-black from end to end and fitted with golden bands at both tips, appeared in Hiruzen Sarutobi's hands. The Ruyi Jingu Bang, the strongest weapon that had accompanied him through a lifetime of battle, now emitted a low hum.

Hiruzen Sarutobi gripped the Ruyi Jingu Bang with both hands. His cloudy eyes instantly sharpened like blades, and like a lion thoroughly enraged, he fixed his gaze tightly upon Sosuke's back.

"Release Danzo. Otherwise, even if it costs this old man his life, I will execute you, a traitor to this village, right here!"

The gale howled, and the scent of blood filled the air.

Within the Hokage's office, the killing intent of the strongest figures of Hidden Leaf's old and new generations collided explosively at that moment.