"Everyone... die with me!"
In the underground chamber, Danzo's twisted old face flickered in and out beneath the flashing red alarm lights, making him look utterly deranged.
His bandage-wrapped prosthetic arm viciously slammed down on the red detonation button!
That button was connected to the ultimate trump card he had buried deep beneath Leaf Village—the most vicious one of all!
The "Purification Protocol"!
Back when the arena was first built, he had used the excuse of "reinforcing the foundation" to have Root's suicide operatives bury millions of Mutual Multiplication Explosive Tags hundreds of meters beneath the arena!
Set off one tag, and ten thousand would follow in a chain reaction!
It would be enough to erase the entire arena, along with everything within several miles, from the map of Leaf Village in an instant!
He would make these tens of thousands of ungrateful "rabble," make that useless, obstructive fool Hiruzen Sarutobi, make those arrogant bastards from Iwagakure—
All of them would be buried alongside his ambitions that were about to collapse!
As for the blame?
That would be easy enough to pin.
He could say Orochimaru had done it after infiltrating the village, or simply frame Iwagakure directly.
The dead told no tales.
And he, Shimura Danzō, could become the sole "survivor" and rebuild a Leaf Village that belonged only to him, one under his absolute control, atop the ruins!
"Ha... hahahahaha..."
Danzo stared at the vivid faces on the surveillance screens—angry, bewildered, alive.
And let out the most frenzied, venomous laugh of his life.
Inside the arena.
The thunderous protests continued.
Furious villagers and ninja surged like a tide against the defenses around the VIP stands.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, step down!"
"Give us back our hero! Give us back the truth!"
Suddenly.
"Bzzzz—"
A strange, deep hum, like the