Death Paper

In Root's secret chamber, the only light came from a few flickering, ghostly green lamps on the walls.

They stretched and twisted a man's shadow across stone walls covered in Sealing Runes.

Shimura Danzō's lone eye was sharp as a hawk's as he stared at the shapeless mass of shadow and miasma before him—Naraka.

"You're saying you can help me get rid of Minato Namikaze?"

Shimura Danzō's voice was low and hoarse, edged with barely concealed urgency and doubt.

Lately, Minato Namikaze had grown deeply dissatisfied with the way his Root handled its affairs. If things continued this way, Danzō might one day find himself forced into retirement as a Konoha elder.

That was why he was so eager to find someone to eliminate Minato Namikaze.

Naraka's form rippled faintly within the miasma. He let out another rustling laugh, like countless insects gnawing at rotten wood.

"Heh, heh, heh... So it's that yellow flash who troubles you?

But for one born of darkness, blotting out an overly dazzling light is no difficult task."

Shimura Danzō narrowed his eye. "And what's the price?" He had never believed in help given for nothing, least of all from a being this strange.

Naraka's tone turned playful and cruel. Crimson points of light flickered in the miasma. "The price? Simple. I hate the Uchiha clan's eyes, the ones that always see through illusion."

"Their very existence is a thorn in my eye."

He drifted closer, his cloying, rotten stench nearly washing over Shimura Danzō's face. "Help me wipe out the entire clan. How does that sound?

"After all, isn't that what you've always wanted? We each get what we need. What do you say?"

Shimura Danzō's heart lurched. Wipe out the Uchiha clan! It was exactly what he had dreamed of!

Not only would it remove a source of instability within Konoha, it would also put countless precious Sharingan in his hands.

Minato Namikaze dead and the Uchiha clan destroyed—two goals in one stroke! Yet he kept his expression calm.

"The Uchiha are a powerful Konoha clan with deep roots. Eliminating them won't be easy."

Shimura Danzō spoke gravely, as though stating a difficulty—or testing what Naraka could do.

"Heh..." Naraka's voice dripped with contempt. "I can offer you a little 'convenience.'"

"As for the rest, I'm sure someone with your methods and abilities can handle it without breaking a sweat, Lord Danzō!"

In the brief, suffocating silence that followed, light flashed rapidly in Shimura Danzō's lone eye as ambition and caution fought within him.

In the end, his hunger for power overwhelmed everything else.

"Deal." Danzō forced the word through his teeth, cold as ice.

"A wise choice." Naraka gave a satisfied murmur.

A sheet of seemingly ordinary washi paper slowly separated from his roiling miasma.

The paper drifted toward Shimura Danzō as though it weighed nothing.

Shimura Danzō took it cautiously, but no matter how he examined it, it looked like an ordinary sheet of white paper.

"This is the Death Paper." Naraka's voice seemed to bore straight into Danzō's mind. "It requires no elaborate ritual, nor any blood, flesh, or hair from your target."

"You need only write the true name of the person you wish to erase upon it."

Naraka's voice grew deeper, more seductive.

"And as you write, picture their face clearly in your mind. The clearer, the better."

"Then, no matter where they are or how powerful they may be,

"unseen death will coil around their fate, drawing them toward an inevitable end."

Silence returned to the chamber. Only the ghostly green flames flickered uneasily.

Danzō studied the paper in his hand again and again, his lone eye keen.

He held it up to the light, ran his fingers over every corner, and even sent a faint thread of Chakra into it to probe for a reaction.

Ordinary. It was far too ordinary.

The paper was coarse, its edges slightly ragged. It was the cheapest grade of washi paper, the kind found anywhere in the Shinobi World.

There was nothing special about it. No powerful surge of energy, no intricate Sealing Technique—nothing at all.

"Hmph!" Danzō snorted, the doubt in his lone eye deepening.

A bizarre being like Naraka had offered this in a bargain over the fate of the Fourth Hokage, even the entire Uchiha clan?

It sounded like a bad joke.

Shimura Danzō was suspicious by nature. He would never readily trust something of unknown origin that he could not understand.

What if it was a trick? If he wrote Minato's name and nothing happened, he would only alert him. Worse, it might be a plot of Naraka's.

No. I have to test it!

Naraka seemed to notice Shimura Danzō's doubts and reminded him in a hoarse voice:

"Remember, the Death Paper has enough power for only three names. After that, it will become an ordinary, useless scrap of paper."

Shimura Danzō pondered Naraka's words for a moment. Then he spoke quietly toward a seemingly empty corner of the chamber. "B, come here."

A Root ninja wearing a tanuki mask appeared before Danzō without a sound, like a ghost.

He knelt on one knee, head bowed, his posture betraying no emotion. He looked like a tool.

He was one of Shimura Danzō's trusted subordinates, tasked with handling some of his darkest assignments. As a result, he knew many of Danzō's secrets.

Shimura Danzō looked at him without a flicker of emotion in his lone eye.

After all, to him, every Root member was a tool that could be sacrificed at any time.

And what better use for one than testing an item that might help him become Hokage?

"Take off your mask, look up, and tell me your true name!"

"Lord Danzō, my name is Kurihara Ranmaru."

Shimura Danzō picked up the small, specially made pen beside him, the kind he normally used to write mission orders. Without hesitation, he set its tip to the paper.

The name he wrote was not "Minato Namikaze." It was Kurihara Ranmaru.

Naraka, Shimura Danzō thought coldly, if you've deceived me, losing one subordinate will hardly matter. But if this is real...

As he wrote the name, Shimura Danzō focused, clearly picturing the kneeling subordinate's face and build in his mind.

But the chamber remained deathly still.

The Root ninja B felt nothing. He stayed on his knee like a stone statue, awaiting orders.

Shimura Danzō stared hard at him with his lone eye, glancing first at the paper, then back at him.

One second. Two seconds. Ten seconds...

A full minute passed, and still nothing happened.