The crisp sound of the cane striking the ground echoed through the underground chamber.
Danzo clutched his right arm, the wrist bone cleaved apart, and staggered backward.
His one eye was bloodshot as he stared at the Mangekyō Sharingan in Ren's eye sockets, its pattern shaped like a pinwheel.
"You... What did you do just now?!"
Danzo demanded.
He had not seen Ren's movements clearly. He had not even caught the trajectory of how Ren crossed several dozen meters or cleaved through his wrist.
This was beyond what the Body Flicker Technique could achieve.
Ren stood where he was, looking down at Danzo.
"My Mangekyō ocular technique is called 'Idaten.'"
"This ocular technique grants me extreme movement, attack, and thinking speed."
"Within Idaten's domain, your movements, hand seals, and ninjutsu releases are slower in my eyes than crawling snails."
The Root ninjas still remaining nearby felt their scalps go numb.
Extreme speed!
In the face of speed, defense and counterattacks alike became a joke.
Danzo retreated half a step, but the fear in his eyes was quickly overwhelmed by greed.
The Mangekyō Sharingan—and one possessing such an utterly heaven-defying ocular technique at that.
Danzo stared at Ren's eyes, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.
If he could dig out those eyes and transplant them into himself, then combine them with the Hashirama Cells hidden in his right arm, he would possess the two strongest powers in the Shinobi World.
By then, he could become a ruler surpassing Hiruzen Sarutobi and standing shoulder to shoulder with Madara Uchiha in his prime.
"Ren!"
Danzo endured the pain in his wrist, straightened his back, and shouted,
"Since you possess such power, you should understand this old man's painstaking efforts even more."
"Everything I've done has been for Konoha!"
"The Uchiha Clan is born evil—a volatile bomb waiting to explode."
"Only by handing your power over to me and placing it under Root's control can we truly protect this village's peace!"
Danzo loudly defended himself, trying to conceal his greed beneath the banner of righteousness.
"Hand your eyes over to me! This is for Konoha's future!"
"For Konoha?"
Hearing those four words, Ren burst into loud laughter and walked toward Danzo step by step.
"Danzo, don't dress up your selfish desires as something so noble. Save that childish excuse for hell!"
"You keep claiming that it's for Konoha, but what about the truth?"
Ren raised his hand and pointed straight at Danzo's bandage-wrapped right arm.
"You're merely coveting the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, while secretly lusting after Hashirama's remains."
"You claimed these two forbidden powers for yourself merely to satisfy that ridiculous and despicable dream of becoming Hokage!"
Ren's voice echoed through the underground chamber.
"You're nothing but a disgusting rat hiding in a sewer, capable only of scheming and plotting. You think you're worthy of even mentioning Konoha?!"
Danzo's old face flushed the color of pig liver as he roared furiously.
"Arrogant brat! I'll kill you!"
However, before he could issue the order to attack—
Boom!!!
A terrifying aura comparable to Madara Uchiha at the height of his power erupted from Ren's body!
The violent Conqueror's Haki, mixed with the extreme ocular power of the Mangekyō Sharingan, swept through the entire underground chamber!
"Gah!"
The Root ninjas nearby did not even have time to scream. Their eyes rolled back, foam spilled from their mouths, and they collapsed to the ground in unison under the terrifying mental pressure.
Danzo, who bore the brunt of the pressure, saw darkness before his eyes and was dragged into an endless illusion of terror.
In the illusion, the sky was blood-red and the earth was burning.
A Complete Body Susanoo standing dozens of meters tall and clad in full armor looked down at him.
That demon god extended a Chakra palm and crushed the Root Base he was so proud of into dust!
"No! My Root! My position as Hokage!"
Danzo let out a shrill scream in the illusion.
His fierce desire to survive drove him to bite down hard on the tip of his tongue.
"Pfft!"
Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. The pain forced his eyes open, and he broke free of the illusion, drenched in sweat.
However, the instant he opened his eyes, before his vision had fully focused, a large hand had already pressed down on his shoulder.
"Boom!"
Ren pressed down with one hand, his expressionless face unchanged.
Terrifying physical strength poured downward!
Danzo desperately tried to circulate his Chakra and resist, but before Ren's overwhelming strength, all his struggles were futile.
Danzo could not withstand the immense force at all. His knees went weak, and he was forcibly pressed down onto one knee.
Humiliation!
He was a dignified member of the Konoha Leadership, the leader of Root—
yet a young Uchiha had him kneeling on one knee with a hand on his shoulder!
"Lord Danzo!"
In the darkness, dozens of elite Root ninjas who had rushed over after hearing the commotion were horrified by the sight.
They all drew their ninja blades and surrounded Ren.
But faced with the terrifying pressure radiating from Ren, the hands gripping their blades trembled violently. Not one of them dared to act rashly.
Danzo knelt on the ground, the humiliation distorting his entire face.
"Ren! Don't get too pleased with yourself!"
Danzo gnashed his teeth, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
"Do you think you've won today? Your mother and that younger sister of yours named Luna are both in Konoha right now."
"As long as I give the order, they'll become two corpses!"
Danzo made a concealed hand signal behind his back.
At the very edge of the encirclement, the top Root experts hidden in the darkness—
Torune Aburame and Fū Yamanaka—had already silently taken up the optimal attack positions.
Fū Yamanaka had already formed the hand seals for the Mind Body Switch Technique.
Deadly nano-scale venomous insects also crawled all over Torune Aburame's hands. They were merely waiting for Ren to reveal an opening before launching a fatal strike.
Ren's expression remained unchanged. He did not even glance at the surrounding encirclement.
"Danzo, have you misunderstood something?"
Ren released the hand pressing on Danzo's shoulder and straightened up. "Who told you I came here alone today?"
The moment his voice fell—
the ceiling of Root Base was forcibly blasted open from outside by Chakra. A hole more than ten meters in diameter appeared above everyone's heads.
"Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!"
Large numbers of Uchiha Clan members wearing matching dark combat uniforms leaped down one after another through the opening in the ceiling.
A full forty-three figures landed steadily behind Ren.
In the dim, oppressive underground chamber, forty-three pairs of scarlet eyes lit up at the same time.
Within every pair of eyes, three tomoe radiating a chilling aura spun conspicuously.
Every one of them was a young elite with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan!
"Sh... Sharingan? They all have the Three-Tomoe Sharingan?!"
The surrounding Root ninjas backed away in terror.
These young elites, led by Tekka Uchiha, Nanami Uchiha, and the others, radiated a murderous aura forged through brutal combat.
The immense ocular power gathered from forty-three pairs of Three-Tomoe Sharingan bore down upon the entire Root Base.
The sharp, murderous pressure stunned every Root ninja present.
Torune Aburame and Fū Yamanaka, hidden in the darkness, stood rigid, cold sweat pouring down their bodies.
Locked onto by more than a dozen pairs of Three-Tomoe Sharingan at once, they did not dare move even a finger as they formed hand seals.
Danzo knelt on the ground and raised his head to look at the forty-three pairs of indifferent Three-Tomoe Sharingan, his mind completely blank.
He had never imagined that even after the Uchiha Clan had been suppressed so brutally by him, with even the Military Police Force's funding cut, they would still have such a powerful and terrifying new force hidden away.
"Allow me to introduce them."
Ren looked at Danzo's ashen face, smiled, spread his hands, and gestured toward the young elites behind him.
"These are the members of the Uchiha Shrine I just established."
Before you continue