Danzo, What's That in Your Hand?

Only half the torches in the corridors of Root's underground base were still burning.

Dust kept falling from the ceiling, cracked by the Tailed Beast Bomb. Behind an iron door came the scrape of wounded men being dragged away. The air smelled of medicine, blood, and scorched paper seals.

Danzo stood at the end of the corridor, his right arm hidden in his wide sleeve.

His face was like a piece of weathered wood. There was no panic in it, only the cold hostility of someone whose lair had been invaded.

But after Naruto spoke, Danzo's chakra faltered for an instant.

Uchiha Tekka had just followed them underground.

The moment he heard the word "Sharingan," his expression changed.

"Lord Danzo, what does Naruto mean?"

Danzo did not look at him.

"The Konoha Military Police Force trespassed in a restricted Root facility. I'll settle that score with Fugaku later."

Tekka's hand was already on his sword hilt.

"Answer me."

Irritation showed in Danzo's one eye.

"The Uchiha Clan never changes. You hear the word 'Sharingan' and forget your duty as Konoha Ninja."

Naruto laughed.

"Duty?"

He stepped forward.

Root ninja immediately moved in front of Danzo.

Twelve of them, arranged in three ranks.

The front rank held short swords. The middle rank formed sealing hand signs. The rear rank had already reached for poisoned needles and smoke bombs.

They were not charging in blindly.

They knew what Naruto could do. Rather than attack him one at a time, they planned to hold him down, weaken him, seal him, and let Danzo finish the job himself.

Naruto saw it.

So he gave them no chance to coordinate.

One chakra arm swept in from the left and shattered three short swords in the front rank.

A second reached in from the right, seized the hands of a ninja forming seals in the middle rank, and snapped both wrists.

Naruto vanished from where he stood and appeared before the rear rank.

He drove a fist into one ninja's stomach.

The man doubled over, spilling poisoned needles from his sleeve across the floor.

The other Root ninja did not retreat.

They charged over their fallen comrades.

Danzo had trained them well. They truly did not fear death.

Naruto had nothing more to say.

A chakra tail swept across the corridor, blasting cracks through both walls. Six Root ninja flew away like puppets with cut strings and crashed into the rooms beyond.

Amid the chaos, one Root ninja slipped behind Naruto with a specially made sealing spike.

The spike shot toward the back of Naruto's neck.

Naruto did not turn.

The Nine-Tails Chakra behind him opened into a fox's jaws, clamped onto the ninja's shoulder, and hauled him into the air.

The sound of breaking bone drained the color from the faces of the ninja in the corridor.

Danzo finally raised his cane.

"Enough."

He struck the floor with it.

A jutsu formula lit up beneath them.

It was not a jutsu he had prepared on the spot, but a containment array concealed within the Root base itself.

Black Cursed Seal markings spread from the walls and floor, closing around Naruto like a cage.

The Third Hokage arrived from behind. His expression changed when he saw the array.

"Danzo! You installed a sealing array for Jinchūriki inside Root?"

Danzo's voice was hard.

"The village needs every necessary precaution."

"You never reported it to me."

"Hiruzen, you've grown old."

The muscles in the Third Hokage's face twitched.

Naruto stood at the center of the markings, watching the black seal creep over his shoes.

Inside him, the Nine-Tails sneered. "The Uchiha controlled me once, and Minato sealed me away. I've never seen a cage this crude."

Naruto raised his foot.

Golden sealing formulas spread from beneath it.

The black markings curled, broke apart, and went dark in swathes, like insects caught in a fire.

Danzo narrowed his one eye.

"Uzumaki Sealing Technique."

Naruto walked toward him.

"Too late to figure that out now."

Danzo jerked up his right arm.

His wide sleeve burst apart.

A pale, twisted arm covered in stitches lay exposed in the torchlight.

One Sharingan after another opened along it.

Three Tomoe revolved in each blood-red eye.

Uchiha Tekka stopped breathing.

One of the police officers behind him drew his sword and charged.

"Danzo!"

Tekka caught him, but his own eyes had already turned scarlet, each bearing three Tomoe.

It was not one eye.

It was an entire arm of them.

The eyes of Uchiha Clan members had been embedded in Danzo's body like tools.

Danzo showed no trace of shame.

"Those eyes are power preserved for Konoha."

Naruto looked up.

"Dug out of corpses?"

Danzo's one eye turned to him.

"In wartime, every resource must serve the village."

Naruto nodded.

"Good."

He raised a hand.

"Then taking you out will be clearing out a resource for Konoha, too."

One Sharingan on Danzo's right arm closed.

Izanagi activated.

He lunged forward, faster than any Root ninja before him, and thrust the blade hidden in his cane at Naruto's heart.

Naruto did not dodge.

The blade pierced his chest.

The watching police officers went pale.

The Third Hokage was about to move when Naruto's body dissolved into a cloud of orange-red chakra.

It was not his real body.

A chakra clone.

The real Naruto appeared beside Danzo and clamped a hand around his right arm.

"Got you."

Golden sealing formulas drove into Danzo's arm like nails.

Danzo's expression finally changed.

The Sharingan on his right arm revolved one after another as he tried to activate Izanagi.

But the golden formulas pinned down every eye.

They could not close.

Izanagi would not activate.

For the first time, Danzo felt control slip away.

Naruto tightened his grip.

The stitches in the pale arm split open. Blood and Hashirama Cells culture fluid seeped out together.

Danzo grunted and tried to pull free.

Naruto did not let go.

"Uchiha. Look closely."

He turned to Tekka.

"This is the answer the Konoha High Command has given you."

Tekka's eyes were bloodshot, their three Tomoe spinning so fast they nearly merged.

Hurried footsteps sounded from the far end of the Root corridor.

More ninja were coming down.

Among them were several members of the Konoha Military Police Force and Konoha jōnin.

They had barely entered the corridor when they saw Danzo's arm, covered in Sharingan.

One look carried more weight than any other evidence.

Naruto yanked downward.

Danzo's entire right arm tore free from his shoulder.

Blood sprayed across the wall.

Danzo let out a stifled roar of pain and staggered back half a step.

Naruto threw the arm at Uchiha Tekka's feet.

"Take it back."

"Have the Uchiha Clan Head count them himself."

Just then, Danzo pressed his left hand to his chest, where a hidden Cursed Seal was beginning to glow.

The Third Hokage's face changed drastically.

"Get back! That's the Reverse Four Symbols Seal!"

Naruto did not retreat.

He watched the black markings spread across Danzo's chest, then pressed his hand against them.

A cold system prompt sounded.

[High-risk Sealing Jutsu detected.]

[Lock it down in reverse?]

Naruto's expression did not change.

"Lock it."