"This time, Chiya won't give Danzo another chance to escape."
Chiya's voice was cold as ice.
The underground base was no longer Root's dark, damp headquarters. Lava flowed everywhere, and the heat warped the air until the world looked like a reflection in a funhouse mirror.
Danzo stood in a corner of the ruins, his chest heaving.
At last, unconcealable panic surfaced on his sinister old face.
The eighth time...
He silently repeated the number that chilled him to the bone.
In their brief clash just now, Chiya had already cut him down or burned him to death eight times! Of the ten Sharingan originally packed along his right arm, only two still had their crimson eyes open. All the others had turned pale and blind.
Never had the shadow of death loomed so clearly over him.
No... I can't let this continue!
Danzo gritted his teeth, his lone eye rapidly scanning his surroundings.
Chiya Uchiha was an absolute monster! His chakra seemed inexhaustible, and that sword burning with golden flames killed on contact. If Danzo kept fighting head-on, he would die the moment Izanagi expired!
I have to retreat! Find Hiruzen!
Once I reach the surface and join up with the Anbu and Hiruzen Sarutobi, we can muster the entire village's strength. Surely we can kill this bastard!
Danzo made his decision immediately. As the "Darkness of the Shinobi," he felt no shame in running away. That was called a strategic withdrawal.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!"
Danzo abruptly turned and spat a violent blast of air toward a passage behind him that had not completely collapsed, trying to disperse the flames blocking his way and force a path out.
But then.
The instant he began to move, a mocking voice rang in his ears, as though its owner had already seen through his intentions.
"Trying to run? Too late!"
"Danzo, do you think this is a public restroom? You can come and go whenever you please?"
Chiya stood within Susanoo, holding his sword in one hand with its tip pointed toward the heavens.
He watched Danzo attempt to flee like a beaten dog. The Mangekyō in his eyes spun furiously, and the reiatsu within him surged into Ryūjin Jakka like raging waves.
"To thank you for all the fun you've given me, I prepared something special for you..."
"Ryūjin Jakka: Flame Barrier!!"
RUMBLE-!!!
The earth trembled, as though the gates of hell had been forced open.
Under Danzo's terrified gaze, the ground around him suddenly burst apart. Dozens of enormous hands of flame, like the arms of ancient titans, erupted from beneath the earth!
These flames were not scattered at random. They swiftly connected, merged, and rose!
In the blink of an eye, four immense walls of fire, hundreds of meters tall, shot up from the ground and completely sealed off an area hundreds of meters across.
These were not merely flames.
This was a "flame barrier" formed from compressed, high-density reiatsu and chakra!
Like a magnificent prison of despair, it locked Chiya and Danzo firmly inside.
"What... is this?!"
Danzo was forced to stop.
A thick wall of fire had completely blocked his path. The heat it radiated made his eyebrows and hair curl and blacken before he even approached it.
"You must be joking! Open up!"
Danzo refused to accept it. His instinct to survive drove him beyond reason. He gathered chakra in his intact left hand, infused it with wind-nature transformation, and slammed his fist toward the wall of fire.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
Trying to blow an opening with Wind Release?
Naive!
SIZZLE-!
The instant Danzo's blast struck the wall of fire, there was no explosion, no roar.
Only consumption.
The powerful Wind Release chakra was instantly swallowed by the wall, becoming fuel for its flames. And because Danzo had lunged too hard, the fingertips of his left hand accidentally touched the golden-red barrier.
"AAAAHHH!!"
An agonized scream echoed through the "cage."
Danzo recoiled in horror. His left hand instantly carbonized, starting from his fingertips! The terrifying heat raced up his arm, burning all the way to his elbow in a heartbeat!
He did not hesitate.
Enduring the excruciating pain, Danzo swung a kunai and severed his left forearm at the elbow!
The severed limb fell, turning into a wisp of ash before it even reached the ground.
"Hah... hah..."
Danzo clutched the stump, his face pale as paper and cold sweat streaming down like a waterfall.
It was terrifying.
How was this Fire Release? It was practically a law that decreed death on contact!
This "Flame Barrier" was an enormous furnace, and he was the lamb awaiting slaughter inside it, with no escape above or below!
"What's wrong, Lord Danzo?"
"Weren't you trying to run just now? Go on."
Chiya's voice came from behind him.
Danzo stiffly turned around.
Chiya was walking toward him, step by step. Inside this sealed cage of flames, Chiya was the absolute ruler, the judge of life and death.
He dismissed the enormous Susanoo. In this confined space, Ryūjin Jakka's Shikai was already enough to overwhelm everything.
A red Chakra Cloak wrapped around Chiya, and the Zanpakuto in his hand dragged along the ground, carving a lava-like trail.
"This cage is the grave I prepared especially for you."
Chiya stopped ten meters from Danzo, looking with amusement at his bleeding stump and the single Sharingan still open on his right arm.
"Looks like your resurrection tokens... oh, sorry, your Sharingan, only have one use left."
Danzo had his back to the searing wall of fire, with nowhere left to retreat.
The heat seared his nerves and left him severely dehydrated. His vision began to blur. Yet he still fiercely protected his right eye. It was his final trump card.
"Chiya Uchiha..."
Danzo panted, his voice rasping like sandpaper. "Will you really destroy Konoha for the Uchiha Clan? If I die, Root will lose its leader, and Konoha's intelligence network will collapse! When foreign enemies invade, you'll be condemned for all eternity!"
"Condemned for all eternity?"
Chiya threw back his head and laughed, as though he had heard a joke.
"Hahahaha! Danzo, aren't you getting something wrong?"
"Why the hell should I care whether Konoha is destroyed?"
"All I know is that you killed my clansmen, and you want to kill me. So... you have to die!"
Chiya abruptly stopped laughing, naked killing intent filling his eyes.
"Besides, you think far too highly of yourself. Without a shit-stirrer like you, Konoha will only be better off!"
"Now, the game's over."
Chiya slowly raised Ryūjin Jakka, pointing its tip at Danzo's right eye, which had remained tightly shut.
"Already out of eyes? In that case..."
"Hand over Shisui Uchiha's eye in your right socket, too!"
Danzo shuddered at those words.
So this brat really was after Shisui's eye!
"You want Shisui's eye? You aren't worthy!"
A flash of crazed resolve crossed Danzo's eye.
He knew that, no matter what he did, he would not leave this Flame Barrier alive today.
Izanagi had only one use left.
Kotoamatsukami's cooldown was too long, and whether it would even work against Chiya's Mangekyō Sharingan remained uncertain.
In that case...
"If I can't live, then neither will you!!"
Danzo violently tore away the tattered clothes covering his upper body.
An intricate, eerie black sealing formula was inscribed on his chest.
"The Uchiha Clan is evil! For the peace of the Shinobi World, I'll drag you down to hell with me!"
"This is my final Sealing Jutsu!"
Danzo let out a hysterical roar, and the last Sharingan on his right arm abruptly closed.
Izanagi activated!
But he did not use this resurrection to attack Chiya, nor did he attempt to escape.
He used this final life to buy himself time to form Hand Seals.
"Reverse Four Symbols Seal!!"
HUM-!
An ink-black Cursed Seal instantly erupted from Danzo's chest, spreading wildly in every direction.
This was an S-rank Sealing Jutsu meant to take both sides down together!
The caster would seal everything within hundreds of meters-corpses, rocks, enemies-inside his own body, dragging it all into Yomotsu Hirasaka!
"Die!! Chiya Uchiha!!"
Black blood began gushing from Danzo's body, signaling the seal's activation. An enormous suction force instantly arose, attempting to drag Chiya into that endless abyss of darkness.
Yet as Chiya watched the black seal capable of devouring everything, his face showed none of the fear Danzo had expected.
Instead, he even looked a little... eager?
"The Reverse Four Symbols Seal?"
Chiya stood where he was, letting the suction tug at the hems of his clothes without moving an inch.
"Danzo, the greatest mistake of your life was judging a monster of the new era through the eyes of the old."
"You want to seal me?"
"Then let's see which is faster-your Sealing Jutsu, or... my blade!!"
[System warning! High-risk S-rank Sealing Jutsu detected!] [Host is advised to evade immediately!]
Evade, my ass! System, put my points in!
All my kill points! All in on Ryūjin Jakka!!
Chiya roared inwardly.
[Ding! 10,000 kill points consumed! Ryūjin Jakka's unlock progress increased!] [Skill unlocked: Flame Barrier: Explosive Flame Formation!]
Chiya gripped the hilt with both hands. Faced with the black seal surging toward him from every direction, he advanced instead of retreating!
"With enough heat, even space can be burned through! What chance does your paltry Sealing Jutsu have?!"
"Burn... into nothing!!"
BOOM!!!
Within the confined Flame Barrier, Ryūjin Jakka erupted in Chiya's hands with a radiance more dazzling than the sun.
The black ink of the seal and the golden explosive flames slammed violently into each other.
For that instant, time seemed to stop.
Then came an earth-shattering blast powerful enough to crack the foundations of all Konoha.
Amid the golden light filling the sky, Danzo's gaze, brimming with malice and defiance, gradually froze. Then...
Shattered!
Before you continue