The battle raged amid the ruins.
In the hands of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Adamantine Staff truly became a roaming dragon-agile and vigorous, yet striking with crushing force.
A blur of staff strikes swept, chopped, jabbed, and flicked upward. He wove the chakra nature transformations of Wind Release, Fire Release, and Earth Release into his staff techniques, sometimes whipping up gales to drive back Danzo's wind blades, sometimes igniting the staff's tip to block Kagami's flashing sword, and sometimes coating its length in earth to meet attacks head-on.
Under the combined assault of his two old friends, Shimura Danzō and Kagami Uchiha, whose coordination grew ever more seamless with the Silver General's enhancement, the aging Third Hokage breathed a little harder, sweat beading at his temples. Yet his technique remained flawless, his defense impenetrable. He could even spare the attention to speak between their fierce exchanges, his voice laden with deep regret and sorrow:
"Danzo, you really are hideous now."
His gaze swept over the body Danzo had exposed, grotesque and warped by its fusion of multiple forbidden powers. There was no fear in his eyes, only an indescribable sadness.
"What?"
Danzo kept bombarding him with Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere, fixing Hiruzen with the Mangekyō Sharingan that belonged to Shisui Uchiha. At those words, he gave a shrill, cold laugh, his voice full of self-mockery and obsession. "Haven't I always been this way?
For Konoha, I would stop at nothing, even if it made me hideous!
Even if they become ugly, roots must do everything they can to gather nourishment for the tree. That is what the true Root should be!"
Danzo had torn away the bandages with which he had cloaked himself in mystery, fully revealing his true appearance after being reshaped by forbidden powers.
His