Inside the clan grounds.
Controlling Majestic Attire: Susanoo, Sasuke held golden lightning and fierce winds that shone against each other in his palm. In his current state, seemingly because of his resonance with Naruto, he wielded senjutsu as effortlessly as his own limbs.
Asura and Indra's Martial Soul Fusion Skill was putting in work.JPG
Not only had it temporarily boosted their control over Yin-Yang Release tremendously, even the form of their power seemed to have undergone a transformation. Savoring that wondrous sensation, Sasuke freely used Danzo as his test subject.
Killing this old bastard would be such a waste. He deserved to be tormented endlessly. Judging by the timing, he only had one life left.
The wind and lightning in his palm slashed down. Watching Danzo reappear, with all five eyes on his arm completely shut and that scarlet right eye exposed, Sasuke smiled faintly.
Baku was gone, and Wood Release ninjutsu was completely ineffective. As expected, Danzo had reached the end of the road. Without the Sharingan's Yin Release to keep them in check, the Hashirama Cells in his right arm had begun eroding his body, and the arm gradually swelled and turned to wood.
This time, Sasuke was in complete control of Majestic Attire: Susanoo. Beside him, Naruto seemed absorbed in the changes within his body, or perhaps communicating with something. Sasuke left him alone for the moment. Most likely, Majestic Attire: Susanoo looked too much like Madara Uchiha's version back then, stirring some unpleasant memories for the Nine-Tails, so the boy and fox had gone off to argue...
Since Naruto was halfway AFK, Sasuke would send Danzo on his final journey himself.
Looking straight into Danzo's eyes, whose indescribable emotions had finally settled into resolve, Sasuke felt a flicker of interest.
"Now that it's come to this, looking back on everything you've done, Danzo, do you have anything left to say?"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, pointing the lightning ruler in his hand straight at Danzo.
Considering everything Danzo had done, killing him a hundred times would not have been unjust. Admittedly, he had initially been an ambitious young man willing to spill his brains and blood for the village, even at the cost of staining his hands with blood. But what could anyone say? People changed. Looking back through history, those who fought to establish their dominion were all outstanding figures of their generation, but how many had stayed true to their original aspirations?
So although Sasuke understood Danzo's fall, he had absolutely no intention of showing mercy. If anyone was going to be merciful, let Hiruzen Sarutobi do it. Sasuke and Danzo had no connection even eight bamboo poles could bridge-nothing but grievances. Where would any affection come from?
Not to mention, everyone around him had some degree of enmity with Danzo. Danzo was inseparable from the Uchiha Clan's miserable fate, and had even tried to assassinate Sasuke himself. The same went for Naruto beside him. Without Danzo, the Fourth might not even have died in battle. This man was truly the root of all evil.
And without Danzo, Jiraiya might not get killed in the future either... uh, perhaps that underestimated Black Zetsu, that legendary filial son, a little.
"Hmph! What is this? The strong pitying the defeated? An inherently evil brat from the Uchiha Clan thinks he's worthy of spouting such nonsense before me?!"
Izanagi's effect was about to fade. Danzo tightly clutched his final Sharingan as the memories of his life spun before his eyes like a revolving lantern. He gave a piercing, bitter laugh, then opened his eyes wide in fury and unleashed his final roar.
From the dreams and hot blood of his youth when he first became a shinobi, to his determination to sacrifice himself for the village; from the camaraderie of fighting alongside Hiruzen Sarutobi, to the profound helplessness of facing the devastation of war; from his original wish for Konoha to prosper, to his later fall into colluding with Orochimaru on human experiments; from suppressing the village's talented people, to stopping at nothing to seize the Hokage position... every scene flashed past.
In the latter half of his life, he had been like a venomous snake lurking in a filthy gutter. But so what?
All of this was merely the price he had to pay to reach the Hokage's throne! His path had always been this way!
Hadn't the First Hokage been upright and honorable? Yet he had still died in melancholy. And as powerful as the Second Hokage had been, with open schemes and hidden plots at his fingertips, hadn't he ultimately died at human hands too?
"Damn brat, what right do you have to judge me? How dare you judge me? This is how I conduct myself! It's all nothing more than a little wind and frost!"
"Hehehehe, as expected of Elder Danzo, who clings to life and fears death. Such righteous, solemn words! So clinging to life and fearing death is your way of doing things? Then the Second Hokage really did make a good choice back then.
"Otherwise, the crimes of Hokage like the Second, the First, and the Fourth, who died fighting for Konoha, would fill more bamboo slips than a forest could provide. No, whether there would even be a Fourth is another question. At any rate, as the Third-and most likely the last-Hokage, you would definitely write yourself up as incomparably great, glorious, and correct. Then people would look and ask, 'Where's that great, glorious, and correct Hokage Danzo?' Oh, he ran off to Kumogakure to enjoy life as an elder."
Sasuke clapped as he spoke. Finding his own applause insufficiently satisfying, he willed several more hands to extend from Susanoo and join in, speaking with a beaming smile.
Danzo visibly flushed in an instant. Even his deathly pale right arm took on a reddish tinge.
Nothing beats an old geezer turning red.JPG
"Utter nonsense!"
His eyes instantly became bloodshot. For the first time in ages, Danzo felt hot blood rushing to his head. He unleashed his chakra with all his might, completely ignoring the right arm that had begun turning against him.
"Why are you getting so worked up? Did I say something wrong?" Glancing at the recording orb nearby, which had captured everything from his first encounter with Danzo today up to this moment, Sasuke's smile grew even brighter.
"I am not... not afraid of death. It's just that this broken body can still benefit Konoha... Now is the moment for me to lay down my life for the village. Sarutobi, Second, this time I will not shrink from battle! Watch closely. Now I, too, will fight like a Hokage!"
From his initially hesitant muttering to his later furious declaration, Danzo used those words to cast off all the heavy burdens of his past. His will had never been so firm, as though he had finally vindicated himself.
"Very good! Then let's fight!"
Throwing his head back in laughter, Sasuke poured in chakra with all his might. The broad sword in his palm extended dozens of meters, reaching into the sky. A bank of dark clouds appeared overhead, covering the area around them both, flashing with lightning and rumbling with thunder.
"Sage Art: Lightning Release: Instant Thunder Flash!"
A thick pillar of lightning was drawn down from the sky, striking at Danzo with crushing force. Danzo likewise threw back his head and roared, forming hand seals.
The next instant, dust and smoke billowed in every direction, and dazzling light obscured the view. Sasuke was about to listen closely for whatever last-resort ninjutsu Danzo unleashed, but upon hearing his words, his expression immediately turned strange.
When the smoke cleared, only a crystallized crater remained. Danzo had vanished.
"Danzo's dead?" Only now, as Susanoo dissipated, did Naruto seem to return to his senses.
"Uh... let me check..." Sasuke reached out and summoned the recording orb from afar. Unsure whether the commotion had been too loud for him to hear clearly, he played back the final footage of Danzo's life.
Danzo threw his head back and roared until his voice broke, mobilizing all the chakra in his body as though staking everything on one last gamble.
"No! I cannot die! Bearing everything, absolutely everything, I cannot die yet! I still have powerful enemies to deal with! I still have a great undertaking to complete! I still have cherished ambitions to fulfill!
"How can I fall? I cannot fall! Konoha needs me! The shinobi world needs me! I will stand up! I will fight again!"
Then, in the instant before the lightning engulfed him, he vanished from the spot.
Sasuke & Naruto: "..."
"So he talked all that tough talk, only to run away in the end?"
"But how did he escape? In that situation, where could he even run?" Looking up at the sky, Sasuke could puzzle over it a hundred times and still find no answer.
Perhaps it was his imagination, but he seemed to suddenly notice a slight distortion in the air nearby, somewhat like when he activated Kamui. Yet whether he carefully sensed it or reviewed the recording, nothing seemed to have changed at all.
In a patch of woodland outside Konoha.
Danzo appeared there, covered in blood and missing an arm. All six of his Sharingan had gone blind, and his right arm had vanished without a trace, leaving him once again with a single eye and arm. He collapsed to the ground and spat out a mouthful of clotted blood, endless hatred filling his eye!
"Cough, cough... damned Uchiha! Just you wait... pfft!"
Before he could finish, however, a foot slammed down on his chest. Through his blurred vision, he saw a figure in black robes wearing a Spiral Mask.
"Some Uchiha do deserve to die. But what the hell are you?" The cold, indifferent voice reached his ears, and Danzo's lone eye widened abruptly.
That voice?!
But he had no time to think. In his final moment of awareness, his entire field of vision was engulfed by a Mangekyo pattern he had never seen before.
"Immerse yourself in the eternal genjutsu of the Mangekyō Sharingan."
Before you continue