Danzo's chakra surged wildly through his chakra pathways, ready at any moment to swallow the Hyuga Clan before him whole.
His lone eye remained fixed on them, a suffocating aura of cold malice radiating from his body.
Of course he knew what he was doing.
Amid the sinister shifts in Konoha's political climate over the past few years, he had long since stripped away his last shred of pretense and carved radicalism into his very bones.
The Hyuga Clan? They were nothing but a piece on his grand chessboard, ready to be detonated at any time.
The grisly sight of Hiruzen Sarutobi's death rose unbidden in his mind.
That "Monkey," who had once solemnly vowed to die for the village, had ultimately been branded as having "committed suicide out of guilt" and died in the very village he had sworn to protect.
A Kage dying in his own village was the greatest disgrace Konoha could suffer.
But Danzo felt no sorrow. Instead, he sneered inwardly.
His own covert machinations had helped bring that outcome about. He had personally sounded the death knell for that hypocritical "light."
A Kage dying in his own village truly is a disgrace.
Danzo repeated the words inwardly, a vicious glint flashing through his lone eye.
As Root's leader, how could he possibly fear death?
Over these years, he had sown far too many seeds of radicalism within the village: letting Konohamaru be bullied, spreading the news that Hinata Hyuga had been expelled from the clan compound...
Of course, he had not started any of it. He had merely fanned the flames.
That was why Danzo knew better than anyone what hell awaited him when those retaliatory flames finally reached him.
But he could not afford to be afraid.
The moment he showed even the slightest