"Are you enjoying kneeling?"
Yoru's question was light as a feather, yet heavy as Mount Tai. Like a red-hot branding iron, it seared itself into the heart of every Konoha citizen present.
It sizzled.
The pain pierced to the bone.
The entire arena fell deathly silent.
Only the heavy, bellows-like sound of breathing rose and fell.
Oppressive.
An oppression that made it hard to breathe.
Like the dead stillness before a storm.
Finally.
This silence, stretched to its limit, was utterly torn apart by a furious roar filled with blood and tears!
"Shimura Danzō! You damned beast!"
In the front rows of the stands, a burly, scar-faced middle-aged man suddenly sprang from his seat.
His eyes were bloodshot. Like an enraged bull, he stared fixedly at the bandaged old man lying limp in the center of the arena.
"My father... my father died on that mission after Lord White Fang took his own life!"
The middle-aged man's voice was hoarse. Every word seemed to be forced through clenched teeth, carrying the stench of blood.
"The village said the mission had failed and the entire team was wiped out!"
"So it turns out... it was all because of the schemes of you high-ranking bastards!"
"My father... he died with his eyes still open!"
The man let out a heart-rending wail.
He abruptly bent down and picked up a sharp stone that had fallen during the earlier commotion.
Then, with all his strength, he hurled it viciously toward the arena!
Bang!
The stone traced an arc through the air and struck Shimura Danzō squarely on his bald forehead!
Blood instantly flowed through the gaps in his bandages.
That single stone was like a match tossed into a powder keg.
In an instant, it ignited the overwhelming fury that had long been suppressed