Inscrutable as shadow

Naruto held the bloody, still-warm eyeball in his hand.

Orochimaru took out a bottle filled with culture medium and tossed it to Naruto.

"Thanks~"

After thanking him, Naruto opened the bottle, placed Shisui's eye inside with the optic nerve still trailing from it, and put it away.

I heard Danzo sealed this eye at the end of his fight with Sasuke back then. I could undo that Sealing Jutsu, but it would probably take some work. Getting the eye like this couldn't be better...

"Aaargh...!!"

His power ran out of control, and the trees sprouting from his right shoulder grew wildly toward the sky.

"No! At this rate, the Hashirama cells will devour me!!"

Crack!

He gritted his teeth, tore off his right arm, and slumped to the ground, panting.

With his claws and fangs pulled, Danzo was now a paper tiger in every sense.

Rustle, rustle.

Paper butterflies fluttered over, gathering into Konan's form in the sky.

"Hey~" Naruto greeted her with a smile.

"Looks like things went smoothly," Konan said coolly.

"Well enough. It cost me almost twenty percent of my chakra..." Naruto said casually before asking, "How's Sasuke?"

"I held him off as you asked, but that boy seems awfully stubborn. He kept chasing me and attacking relentlessly. Once I figured enough time had passed, I pulled away..."

"I see." Naruto smiled. "That does sound like Sasuke."

"Hm?" Suddenly, his Sage Mode picked something up. Naruto looked toward the woods at the far end behind him and sighed. "So he came after all..."

"There's a girl among his subordinates who's very good at sensing," Konan said.

"That should be Karin, a capable subordinate who once served me," Orochimaru said. "Like you, Naruto-kun, she's an Uzumaki descendant with excellent sensory abilities."

"Yeah, I know..." Naruto said wistfully.

A short while later, Taka arrived one after another and stopped some distance from Naruto's group.

A dried streak of blood remained beside Sasuke's left eye. He surveyed the devastated battlefield, his cold gaze pausing on the battered Danzo before settling on Naruto's cloaked back. Something unusual flickered deep in his eyes, then vanished.

"Naruto, what's going on here?" he demanded coldly.

"Sasuke, I took care of Danzo for you. As you can see, he's lost his power. He's a cripple now..."

Naruto kept his back to Sasuke. His voice was calm, but his emotions were so tangled that he did not turn to face him right away.

Sasuke clenched his fists and shouted, "Who gave you permission to interfere?!"

Naruto's back shifted slightly. "Your original plan was to attack the Five Kage Summit, right? Your position is pretty delicate right now. Doing that would only add to your crimes. You don't really want to become the enemy of the entire Shinobi World, do you...?"

With that, Naruto raised his hand, removed his mask, and slowly turned around.

The swirling wind and snow seemed to ease at once.

Sasuke looked startled. "What happened to your left eye?"

"Nagato, the man who tried to destroy Konoha and fought me, left this eye behind before he died..."

You'll have one sooner or later too, Sasuke... Naruto said inwardly.

Behind Sasuke, Jugo, who had turned into a child, suddenly recognized Naruto's face. "I remember now! He's the one who attacked me by the river!"

"Whew..."

Sasuke closed his eyes. "Naruto, it looks like you've been doing a lot without my knowing. But I don't have time to deal with you now..."

Whoosh!

His cloak billowing, Sasuke strode forward, heading straight for Danzo.

Naruto's heart sank. Do you have to kill Danzo no matter what, Sasuke...?

Although Naruto did not want Sasuke to do it, he knew that at this point, Sasuke's heart was filled with hatred. With Obito egging him on as well, persuading him would be difficult no matter what.

If he stopped Sasuke from acting now and venting that hatred, it might cause even more trouble later.

At that thought, Naruto stepped aside and cleared a path for Sasuke.

Crackle!

Lightning Release formed a blade in Sasuke's hand. He glared at his enemy and demanded coldly, "Danzo, tell me. Were you the one who ordered Itachi to carry out the extermination of the Uchiha Clan back then?"

"Hah, hah, hah..." Danzo panted heavily, his left eye turning toward the severed right arm lying nearby. Three Sharingan still remained on it.

Although he had lost his right arm, a small amount of Hashirama cells remained in his body. He still had enough to activate Izanagi once.

"I asked you a question!!!" Sasuke shouted.

"So you already know the truth. It seems Itachi didn't keep his mouth shut..." Danzo said, his voice weak but low.

Sasuke's gaze turned icy. "So it's true..."

"Yes, it's true..." Danzo said in a low voice.

Sasuke's eyes were cold. "Just as I thought..."

Danzo's hand darted to the side. He gouged out a Sharingan and placed it in his right eye socket!

The Hashirama cells remaining in his body took effect, connecting the optic nerve.

He formed one-handed Hand Seals, a wan smile curling at his lips.

Bzzzt!

Izanagi... activated!

Then he threw caution to the wind, turned, and ran!

"Hmph!" Sasuke snorted, swept his cloak up, and gave chase!

"Do you think you can get away?"

Sasuke's left eye abruptly locked onto Danzo's back.

Amaterasu!!

Whoom!

Black flames erupted... setting Danzo's body alight!

"Aaargh...!!"

Danzo screamed and collapsed in a heap.

But a moment later, the burning Danzo vanished. His real body materialized farther away and kept running...

Sasuke was stunned. "What's going on?!"

Naruto shouted, "Sasuke, Danzo used Izanagi! You can't kill him right now! But it has less than a minute left! Keep attacking him with everything you've got, and you'll kill him!!!"

"..." Sasuke's gaze flickered.

"Hah, hah, hah...!!" Danzo fled for his life, but his nearly depleted chakra drove him deeper into despair. Am I truly going to die here?

Tap!

Suddenly... Sasuke stopped pursuing him.

"Sasuke... what are you doing?" the others asked.

"It doesn't matter. Let him survive today. Revenge accomplished through someone else's hands isn't enough to achieve the Uchiha Clan's supreme purification!"

Sasuke slowly turned around. His Mangekyō Sharingan held emotions as inscrutable as shadow as he stared at Naruto. "Especially you, Naruto. You're the very last person I want doing it for me..."

Amid the wind and snow, Danzo's bedraggled figure receded into the distance, becoming no more than part of the background.

"..." Naruto and Sasuke stared into each other's eyes, as though time had frozen.

Whoosh!!

A strange vortex swirled, and the masked Obito appeared...

Farther away, at an entry point into the Land of Iron, a group from Konoha raced through the snow.

Hinata and Sakura ran at the very front.

"Naruto-kun..."

"Sasuke-kun..."

Their tangled convictions were about to collide...