Danzo's Death, Orochimaru's Surveillance

"Clang—!"

The deafening clash of metal shattered the corridor windows inch by inch.

Danzo's kunai, infused with all the Wind Release chakra in his body, slammed viciously into Susanoo's armor.

The blade instantly crumbled into dust.

The recoil surged up his arm and into his organs. Danzo's palm split open, his entire right arm went numb, and he was flung back three steps.

He stared at his mangled, bloody hand, his pupils filled with disbelief.

"Damn! It had to be you! Stabbing Susanoo with a kunai..." Naruto stood within Susanoo, lightly tapping the blade of his short sword with a fingertip. His tone was casual, yet filled with biting mockery. "Do you think you're the god of the Ninja World? You dare stab it with a piece of scrap metal? I don't think you want to be Hokage. I think you want to be Konoha's biggest joke."

Danzo's face instantly turned purple with rage, and humiliation gnawed at his sanity like a venomous snake.

He had lived for sixty years and fought through three Ninja World Wars, yet he had never been humiliated like this by a twelve-year-old brat.

"Brat! I'll kill you!"

He abruptly raised his right arm, covered in Sharingan, and all ten crimson pupils spun wildly at once.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave Barrage!"

Countless wind blades, thin as cicada wings, tore through the air with piercing shrieks. Even the walls were sliced into neat chunks wherever they passed.

Naruto did not even move. "You think you can dance too?"

Susanoo raised its massive arm before itself.

"Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!"

The wind blades struck the chakra armor and scattered sparks everywhere, yet failed to leave even a white mark.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"

Danzo opened his mouth and spat out a massive wind bullet three meters wide, blasting toward Susanoo with devastating force.

Susanoo backhanded it with a punch.

"Boom!"

The wind bullet exploded instantly, and the shockwave pulverized all the surrounding rubble.

"Wood Release: Exploding Spear Tree!"

Danzo slammed his right arm into the ground. Countless thick roots burst from the earth, coiling around Susanoo's legs like venomous snakes, their sharp wooden spikes glinting coldly.

Naruto snorted, and Susanoo stomped down hard.

"Crack!"

All the roots were instantly crushed to pieces, green sap spraying everywhere.

"Wood Release: Root Burial Explosion!"

More roots surged in from every direction, trying to envelop and shred Susanoo whole.

The chakra tachi swung, and silver light flashed.

Every root was severed at the waist, sap still flowing endlessly from the cuts!

Danzo's breathing grew more and more ragged, cold sweat covering his forehead.

The restorative power of the Hashirama Cells was operating frantically, but it could not keep up with the destruction inflicted by Susanoo. He gritted his teeth and rapidly formed hand seals.

"Summoning Technique!"

Black runes exploded across the floor, and a massive black Baku appeared at the end of the corridor. It opened its enormous maw and let out an earth-shaking roar. Terrifying suction instantly swept through the area, twisting even the air.

"Is that all? Danzo, you're the leader of Root. Are you done scratching me yet?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow as Susanoo stepped forward, lifting its massive tachi high.

It came down.

"Splurt!"

The Baku did not even have time to scream before it was cleaved in two, dissolving into a wisp of black smoke.

Danzo's face went completely pale.

Wind Release, Wood Release, summoning... every trump card he possessed was as fragile as paper before Naruto.

His only remaining reliance was Izanagi.

"Don't get cocky!" Danzo pointed at Naruto, his voice trembling with agitation. "I still have methods beyond your imagination! I am immortal! You can't kill me! Once your chakra runs dry, I'll still gouge out your eyes!"

He pushed off the ground and charged forward again without regard for his life.

"Izanagi!"

Naruto's gaze sharpened. Here it came.

He had already used his sole daily use of [Temporal Calamity: Instant Stasis] to evade the deadly control of the Mind Transfer Jutsu. He could indeed use [Annihilating Cheda] now to sever Izanagi's causality and turn Danzo into an ordinary man in an instant.

But he could not. He was waiting.

Waiting for Danzo to use the final trump card hidden in his right eye—Kotoamatsukami.

That was the only thing that could truly threaten him.

There was only one way to kill that old schemer for good.

Kill him ten times.

Kill him until all his Sharingan went dark, until he could no longer use any trump cards.

"Splurt!"

The chakra tachi pierced Danzo's chest.

Izanagi activated.

Danzo appeared ten meters away.

The first Sharingan closed forever.

"Again!"

Danzo charged forward again like a madman.

"Splurt!"

His head was severed.

Izanagi activated.

The second Sharingan went dark.

"Splurt!"

His heart was crushed.

The third one.

"Splurt!"

His body was cut in half at the waist.

The fourth one.

Again and again.

Danzo cycled madly between death and resurrection.

His eyes grew increasingly crazed. Every time he revived, he stared fixedly at his right arm, counting the remaining Sharingan.

Seven left.

Five left.

Three left.

One left!

He silently repeated it to himself.

As long as he had one final Izanagi left, he still had a chance. As long as he could get within three meters of Naruto, as long as he could activate Kotoamatsukami, victory would still be his!

What he did not know was this.

From beginning to end, Naruto's Mangekyo Sharingan had been slowly rotating from an angle Danzo could not see.

An illusion so faint it was nearly impossible to notice had silently wound itself around his consciousness like spider silk.

Every time he lowered his head to count his eyes, the illusion activated once, making him mistakenly believe he had one more chance remaining.

In reality.

When he rose from the pool of blood for the ninth time.

The last Sharingan on his right arm had already closed forever.

"The last time!"

Danzo roared, using the last thread of chakra in his body to rush at Naruto.

"Izanagi!"

"Splurt!"

The chakra tachi once again pierced his heart with perfect precision.

A cruel smile appeared on Danzo's face. He waited for Izanagi to activate, waited to appear behind Naruto, waited to use Kotoamatsukami to rewrite the brat's will.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Nothing happened.

The icy blade was still lodged in his heart, and agonizing pain flooded his entire body like a tide.

Danzo abruptly lowered his head, looking at the blade in his chest, then jerked his gaze toward his right arm.

There, all ten Sharingan were shut tight, lifeless and still.

"No... Impossible!" Danzo's voice twisted with extreme terror. "I counted them! I clearly had one left!!"

Naruto slowly pulled out the blade. Blood splashed onto his golden chakra, hissing as it struck.

"I didn't lie to you." His voice was terrifyingly calm. "You lied to yourself. You relied on Izanagi so much that you no longer trusted even your own memories."

Danzo suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot.

He knew he had lost.

Lost completely.

But he still had one final trump card.

"Kotoamatsukami!"

He howled as Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan in his right eye spun to its limit.

An invisible, irresistible spiritual force surged toward Naruto like a tsunami.

This was the strongest genjutsu in the Ninja World, capable of altering anyone's will without their knowledge.

Once it struck, Naruto would become his most loyal slave.

A final crazed smile appeared on Danzo's face.

"I won! I still won!!"

However.

At the instant that spiritual force was about to touch Naruto, the six-pointed-star Mangekyo Sharingan in Naruto's right eye suddenly shone with crimson light.

"Annihilating Cheda."

Those four cold words fell.

An invisible thread of causality was severed in an instant.

The power of Kotoamatsukami, enough to rewrite the history of the Ninja World, vanished without a trace as though it had never existed.

"What?!"

The smile on Danzo's face froze instantly.

A heart-rending pain shot through his right eye. Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan instantly filled with cracks, then with a crack, the eye socket ruptured and blood streamed down his face!

"No—!!!"

A despairing scream echoed through the entire Hokage Building.

His final hope had been shattered as well.

Danzo staggered back a step, his hands forming seals frantically.

"Reverse Four Symbols Seal! I'll drag you down with me!!"

Black sealing patterns spread from his chest as terrifying chakra gathered wildly within his body, ready to explode at any moment.

But it was too late. Naruto had already moved.

"Whoosh—"

The Nine-Life Demon Tail Blade traced a cold arc.

"Splurt!"

Danzo's head shot into the air, blood gushing like a fountain.

His eyes remained wide open, filled with unwillingness, despair, and disbelief. The chakra of the Reverse Four Symbols Seal slowly dissipated into the air after losing control.

His head rolled across the ground, coming to a stop beside Fū's corpse.

Naruto sheathed his blade and coldly looked at the two corpses on the ground.

The three surviving Root Elite Jonin stood silently there. They had watched Fū get used as a human shield and stabbed through the heart by Danzo. They had watched the man they had served their entire lives use every possible means to survive. They had watched him die without a whole body left.

When the rabbit dies, the hound is cooked.

When the birds are gone, the bow is put away.

Naruto slowly turned around. His gaze fell upon them, holding no killing intent, only calmness.

"Danzo is dead."

"Your mission is over."

"Follow me."

"Or."

"Die."

The three Elite Jonin exchanged glances, and the last trace of hesitation vanished from their eyes. They simultaneously dropped to one knee, pressing their right hands to their chests.

"We pay respects to you, my lord."

Their voices rang out in perfect unison, without the slightest hesitation.

Meanwhile, at the distant Chunin Ninja Exams arena.

The Third Hokage, who had been locked in fierce battle with Orochimaru, suddenly froze.

He abruptly turned toward the Hokage Building, his aged eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

He had sensed it—Danzo's chakra had completely vanished.

Orochimaru also stopped attacking and looked in the same direction with great interest. A playful smile curled across his pale face as he licked his lips.

"Oh?"

"That old bastard Danzo actually died?"

"This is getting more and more interesting. Let me see who did it."