The Might of Idaten, the Temple Descends!

The crisp sound of the cane hitting the ground echoed through the underground space.

Danzo clutched his right arm, its wrist bone severed, and staggered backward.

His single eye was bloodshot as it stared at the pair of Mangekyō Sharingan in Lu Ming's eye sockets, their pinwheel patterns spinning.

"Y-You... what exactly did you just do?!"

Danzo demanded.

He had not seen Lu Ming's movements at all. He had not even caught how Lu Ming had crossed dozens of meters or the trajectory of the strike that severed his wrist.

This was not a level the Body Flicker Technique could achieve.

Lu Ming stood where he was, looking down at Danzo.

"My Mangekyō ocular technique is called 'Idaten.'"

"This ocular technique grants me supreme speed in movement, attack, and thought."

"Within the domain activated by Idaten, your movements, hand seals, and ninjutsu releases are slower to me than crawling snails."

The remaining Root ninja around them felt their scalps go numb.

Supreme speed!

Before speed, defense and counterattacks became a joke.

Danzo took half a step back, but the fear in his eyes was quickly overwhelmed by greed.

A Mangekyō Sharingan—and one possessing such a heaven-defying ocular technique.

Danzo stared at Lu Ming's eyes, his heart hammering wildly in his chest.

If he could gouge out those eyes and transplant them into himself, then combine them with the Hashirama Cells hidden in his right arm, he would command the two greatest powers in the Shinobi World.

At that point, he could become a ruler surpassing Hiruzen Sarutobi and standing shoulder to shoulder with Madara Uchiha in his prime.

"Lu Ming!"

Enduring the agony in his wrist, Danzo straightened his back and roared,

"Since you possess such power, you should understand my painstaking intentions all the more."

"Everything I have done was for Konoha!"

"The Uchiha Clan is evil by nature, an unstable bomb waiting to explode."

"Only by handing your power over to me and allowing Root to control it can this village's peace truly be protected!"

Danzo argued loudly, trying to conceal his greed beneath righteousness.

"Give me your eyes! This is for Konoha's future!"

"For Konoha?"

Hearing those words, Lu Ming burst into laughter and strode toward Danzo step by step.

"Danzo, stop dressing up your selfish desires as something so noble. Save that nonsense for fooling children and tell it in hell instead!"

"You keep claiming it's for Konoha, but what about the truth?"

Lu Ming raised a hand and pointed directly at Danzo's bandage-wrapped right arm.

"You only covet our Uchiha's Sharingan, while secretly lusting after Hashirama's corpse."

"You seized those two forbidden powers for yourself only to satisfy that ridiculous and despicable dream of becoming Hokage!"

Lu Ming's voice echoed through the underground space.

"You disgusting rat hiding in the gutter, who only knows how to play petty schemes—how dare you even utter the word Konoha?!"

Danzo's aged face turned liver-red as he roared madly.

"You insolent brat! I'll kill you!"

However, before he could give the order to attack—

Bang!!!

A terrifying aura comparable to Madara Uchiha at his peak erupted from Lu Ming's body!

Violent Conqueror's Haki, mixed with the overwhelming ocular power of the Mangekyō Sharingan, swept through the entire underground space!

"Urgh!"

The surrounding Root ninja did not even have time to scream before the horrifying spiritual pressure sent their eyes rolling back, foam spilling from their mouths as they collapsed in unison.

Danzo, facing the pressure head-on, saw darkness engulf his vision and was dragged into an endless nightmare.

Within the illusion, the sky was blood-red and the earth was burning.

A Complete Body Susanoo dozens of meters tall, armored and armed, looked down upon 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 within the illusion.

His intense desire to survive made him bite down viciously on the tip of his tongue.

"Puh!"

Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. The searing pain forced his eyes open, and drenched in sweat, he broke free from the illusion.

However, the instant he opened his eyes, before his vision had fully focused, a large hand was already pressing down on his shoulder.

Bang!

Expressionless, Lu Ming pressed down with one hand.

Terrifying physical strength came crashing down!

Danzo desperately tried to circulate the chakra within his body to resist, but before Lu Ming's crushing force, every struggle was futile.

Unable to bear the immense strength, Danzo's knees gave out, and he was forcibly pressed down onto one knee!

Humiliation!

He was one of Konoha's Leadership, the leader of Root,

Yet he was being forced to kneel on one knee by an Uchiha youth with a hand on his shoulder!

"Lord Danzo!"

Dozens of elite Root ninja who had rushed over after hearing the commotion were horrified by the sight.

They drew their ninja blades and surrounded Lu Ming from all sides.

Yet before the terrifying pressure radiating from Lu Ming, the hands gripping their blades shook violently. Not one of them dared make a reckless move.

Danzo knelt on the ground, his entire face twisted by humiliation.

"Lu Ming! Don't get too smug!"

Danzo gritted his teeth, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

"Do you think you've won today? Your mother and that little sister of yours named Luna are both in Konoha right now."

"With a single order from me, they'll become two corpses!"

Danzo made a subtle hand signal behind his back.

At the outermost edge of the encirclement, hidden in the shadows, Root's foremost experts,

Torune Aburame and Fū Yamanaka had silently taken up the best attack positions.

Fū Yamanaka had already formed the hand seals for the Mind Body Switch Technique,

While Torune Aburame's hands were crawling with deadly nanoscale venomous insects. They only waited for Lu Ming to reveal an opening before launching a fatal strike.

Lu Ming's expression remained unchanged. He did not even glance at the encirclement around him.

"Danzo, have you misunderstood something?"

Lu Ming released Danzo's shoulder and straightened up. "Who told you I came here alone today?"

As soon as he finished speaking,

The dome of the underground Root Base was forcibly blasted open from outside by chakra, leaving a hole more than ten meters wide directly above everyone's heads.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A large group of Uchiha Clan members in matching dark combat uniforms leaped down one after another through the hole in the dome.

A total of forty-three figures landed steadily behind Lu Ming.

Within that dim and oppressive underground space, forty-three pairs of scarlet eyes lit up at once.

Within every pair of eyes, three tomoe radiating a cold aura spun distinctly.

Every one of them was a young elite with Three-Tomoe Sharingan!

"Sh-Sharingan? They're all Three-Tomoe Sharingan?!"

The surrounding Root ninja staggered backward in fright.

These young elites, led by Tekka Uchiha, Nanami Uchiha, and the others, radiated the iron-blooded killing intent of those who had endured brutal real combat.

The enormous combined ocular power of forty-three pairs of Three-Tomoe Sharingan pressed down upon the entire Root Base.

Their sharp presence and murderous pressure intimidated every Root ninja present.

Torune Aburame and Fū Yamanaka, hidden in the shadows, went stiff all over as cold sweat poured down their bodies.

Locked onto by more than a dozen pairs of Three-Tomoe Sharingan at once, they did not even dare move the fingers they used to form hand seals.

Danzo knelt on the ground and raised his head to look at those forty-three pairs of cold Three-Tomoe Sharingan, his mind completely blank.

He had never imagined that despite the Uchiha Clan being suppressed so frantically by him, with even the Military Police Force's budget slashed, they still concealed such a powerful and terrifying new generation of strength!

"Allow me to introduce them."

Lu Ming 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."