Four Symbols Unleashed, an Escape by Shedding His Shell

"Bury us together?"

Sasuke raised his eyes, spun the Kusanagi Sword half a turn in his palm, and flicked up a fragment of the seal from the ground with its tip.

"Danzo, have you forgotten? Every time you think you can win, you leave behind even more evidence."

Black ink poured from the Cursed Seal on Danzo's chest and spread across the floor. The walls, cultivation tanks, corpses, and Sharingan storage cabinets were all dragged into the seal's patterns.

Kakashi's expression changed. "Fall back! This jutsu seals the corpse and the surrounding space together!"

Fugaku grabbed the nearest Uchiha. "Protect the Record Scroll!"

Hiashi knocked aside an incoming wooden branch with a palm strike. "Neji, get back!"

Neji clenched his teeth and hugged the scroll. "I can hold!"

"Hold what?" Sasuke stepped in front of him. A blue chakra skeleton spread from behind his shoulders, its ribs closing layer by layer to enclose Fugaku, Hiashi, Kakashi, and the entire recording team within its core.

The black ink struck the Susanoo skeleton with a dull, tearing sound.

Danzo stood at the center of the seal, the Sharingan on his right arm closing one by one. His face was covered in blood, but he was still laughing.

"Sasuke Uchiha, how many people can you protect? I'll take this entire third underground level with me!"

Sasuke looked at the Cursed Seal on his chest. "If you really wanted to take us down with you, you wouldn't raise your right arm to shield your chest."

Danzo's laughter caught in his throat.

Sasuke raised a hand. "Kakashi, look at his feet."

Kakashi turned his Sharingan toward the floor. "The sealing array is offset. He moved its center to where his severed arm was."

Fugaku understood at once. "Faking his death?"

Veins spread around Hiashi's Byakugan. "His chakra is flowing into his right arm. His main body is dispersing instead."

Danzo's face twitched. "You realized too late!"

Black ink swept up over the ceiling. The rock strata collapsed, rubble crashing against the outside of the Susanoo skeleton as cracks spread in ring after ring. The recording ninja went pale, but kept the scroll in his hands aimed at Danzo.

Sasuke did not retreat. Instead, he drove the Kusanagi Sword into the ground.

"Danzo, look up."

Danzo looked at him against his will.

The Sharingan spun, and Sasuke's voice cut through the seal's roar. "Don't you love taking the blame for Konoha? Today, I'll make sure you carry that blame to the ends of the Shinobi World."

"You!"

"The first eye on your right arm belonged to Mina Uchiha. The third, Tanaka Uchiha. The seventh, Keita Uchiha. You used their eyes to rewrite death, and now you want to seal away the evidence of what you did to them?"

The Uchiha elites' breathing suddenly grew heavy.

Fugaku raised his blade and pointed it at Danzo. "You old dog, it won't matter if you can't die. Every time you live again, you add another crime."

The flesh on Danzo's face trembled. "You narrow-minded clansmen care about nothing but personal grudges!"

Sasuke tossed the recording scroll from his sleeve into Neji's arms. "Record that. He admitted to using the Sharingan in his right arm to rewrite death, admitted to unauthorized transplants, and admitted to using a seal to destroy evidence."

Neji caught the scroll, the backs of his hands covered in medicinal fluid. "Recorded!"

Realizing he had been baited into talking again, Danzo let out a low growl. The last few Sharingan on his right arm spun at once, and the black ink pressed toward Susanoo's core.

Lightning lit up Kakashi's hand. "The skeleton won't hold much longer."

"Long enough." Sasuke watched Danzo's right arm. "He's about to escape."

Fugaku swung his blade. "I'll cut him down!"

"Don't chase his main body." Sasuke's voice was crisp and decisive. "Cut off the right arm."

Fugaku asked no questions. His blade flashed along the outer edge of the Susanoo skeleton. Hiashi struck at the same time, directing his Gentle Fist at the Seal Core behind Danzo's shoulder. Kakashi followed from the side with Lightning Blade. Their three-pronged assault forced Danzo into the thickest black ink.

Blood vessels filled Danzo's left eye. "Damn you!"

White light swallowed his body.

Before his figure vanished, Sasuke had already hurled the Kusanagi Sword. Lightning coiled around the blade as it pierced the base of Danzo's right arm. Fugaku's blade fell a moment later, and the entire pale arm flew free, its Sharingan still open, before crashing down outside the Susanoo skeleton.

The black ink closed in.

Danzo's body was swallowed by the seal, but his laughter still echoed underground.

"Sasuke, next time, I'll gouge out your eyes myself!"

The sealing array contracted, and the floor of the third level collapsed inward.

Sasuke raised his palm, forcing the Susanoo skeleton to push back the falling rocks. "Everyone, evacuate!"

Kakashi grabbed the severed arm, only to be repelled half a step by its Cursed Seal the moment he touched it. "There's still a jutsu formula on it!"

"The Sealing Box."

A Hyuga ninja behind Hiashi immediately handed over a black box. Sasuke lifted the severed arm with the Kusanagi Sword and dropped it inside, along with several fragments of the experiment recordings from the floor.

Fugaku hoisted an injured clansman onto his shoulder. "What about the Record Scroll?"

Neji hugged the scrolls to his chest. "They're intact."

"Then move."

Fallen rocks blocked half the passage. The ANBU cleared a path with Lightning Release, the Hyuga checked for cavities, and the Uchiha rushed out while protecting the evidence. Behind them, the sealing array swallowed the entire third level, black ink chasing at their heels.

Kakashi glanced back. "Danzo's chakra disappeared."

Sasuke stepped onto the iron ladder. "He made it disappear for everyone else's benefit."

Kakashi paused. "Are you sure?"

"If he dared leave his right arm here, he still had a life left to escape with." Sasuke looked back at the black box. "But he left behind his most valuable possession."

Fugaku stared at the box, his voice raw. "Our clansmen's eyes..."

"We'll retrieve them," Sasuke cut him off. "But right now, they're evidence first. Anyone who opens it without permission will be charged with destroying evidence."

The Uchiha elites did not argue. They simply stared at the black box, fire held back in their eyes.

Outside the valley, the night wind swept into the collapsed entrance. The ANBU gathered the scouting dogs' bodies, while the recording ninja took rubbings of every Root mark, snake pattern, and remnant of Wood Release branches on the rock walls.

An ANBU operative tried to approach the underground entrance, but Yamada Naoto barred his way with his blade.

"The Konoha Military Police Force has jurisdiction over this primary crime scene. No entry without permission."

The ANBU operative frowned. "I'm here under the Hokage's orders to confirm casualties."

Yamada Naoto looked toward Sasuke.

Sasuke lifted a hand. The black box was set on the ground, and Sealing Tags were affixed to it one after another.

"You can confirm casualties. Touch the evidence, and you lose a hand."

The ANBU operative's face darkened. "Sasuke Uchiha, are you threatening the ANBU?"

"I'm protecting Lord Hokage." Sasuke looked at him. "Danzo has defected, the Root Underground Laboratory has self-destructed, and large quantities of Sharingan and Wood Release experimental materials were found at the scene. If even one piece of evidence goes missing now, the villagers will ask whether Danzo stole it or the Hokage Building took it."

Kakashi lifted one corner of his mask. "Do as he says. The ANBU will only document the perimeter. Don't touch the key evidence."

The ANBU operative looked at Kakashi. "Captain, Lord Hokage will demand answers."

"I'll take responsibility."

Sasuke glanced at Kakashi without answering.

Fugaku walked over to Sasuke. "That skeleton just now, your eyes..."

"They work." Sasuke returned the Kusanagi Sword to its sheath. "Don't ask pointless questions. Tonight, we get the evidence back to the village first."

Hiashi approached as well. "Danzo isn't dead, is he?"

Sasuke looked into the depths of the valley, where black smoke still rose from the collapse. "He's lost an arm and most of his trump cards, and now there's proof of his crimes for the whole village to see. He's better off alive."

Neji could not help asking, "Why?"

"A dead man only takes up one gravestone." Sasuke accepted the Record Scroll. "A living traitor will drag down everyone who shields him."

Kakashi was silent for a moment. "You never intended to just kill him."

Sasuke straightened his collar, which the medicinal fluid had wrinkled. "Killing him would be letting him off too cheaply. I want every step he takes to escape to leave me with another crime to charge him with."

The sound of wings cutting through the air came from a distant rooftop, and a messenger hawk landed on Kakashi's shoulder. He opened the note, and his gaze darkened.

Fugaku asked, "The Hokage Building?"

Kakashi handed the note to Sasuke.

There was only one line on it.

Secret Hokage order: effective immediately, Kakashi is to keep Sasuke Uchiha under close surveillance and report his movements, words, actions, and contacts every twenty-four hours.

After reading it, Sasuke folded the note as it had been and returned it to Kakashi.

"Congratulations, Kakashi."

Kakashi raised his eyes. "For what?"

Sasuke turned and headed toward Konoha. "From this moment on, you're the first blade Lord Hokage has delivered into my hands."

Before Kakashi could speak, another ANBU operative dropped out of the woods and knelt on one knee, holding up a Red-Sealed Order bearing the Hokage Building's seal.

"Captain Kakashi, Lord Third Hokage has issued a second secret order. If Sasuke refuses surveillance, he may be treated as an Uncontrolled Bloodline Limit..."