"Send word to Root immediately. Whatever the cost, we must uncover his secrets!"
In a shadowy corner of the ruins, Danzo's lone eye remained fixed on the black-haired youth standing with his hands in his pockets atop the Hokage Building. Sickening greed and madness churned in his gaze. His voice rasped like two sheets of sandpaper rubbing together, carrying an unquestionable, venomous malice.
The elite Root operatives in animal masks behind him shuddered, then immediately dropped to one knee and answered in unison, "Yes, Lord Danzo!"
The instant those Root ninja vanished into dark shadows, an utterly mocking sneer suddenly curled the lips of Shengu Xuan, who stood at the edge of the Hokage Building's roof.
He did not turn his head, but deep in his eyes, the Snake Talisman's eerie green glow and the Rabbit Talisman's eerie blue glow briefly flickered in succession. Although he possessed not the slightest trace of chakra and could not pinpoint enemies through chakra fluctuations like a sensory ninja, what the Twelve Talismans granted him was an absolute intuition that transcended this world's rules.
Sewer rats can hide all they want, but they can never cover up that rotten stench. Shengu Xuan snorted inwardly. Of course he knew several pairs of eyes had been secretly watching him, but he could not be bothered to pay them any attention. In his eyes, Danzo and his Root were nothing but vermin he could crush underfoot at any moment. If those vermin insisted on courting death, he would not mind tearing up the entire sewer.
The night wind howled across the devastated rooftop of the Hokage Building. The air reeked of blood, smoke from burned explosive tags, and the nauseating musk of Orochimaru's venomous snakes.
"Cough, cough, cough..." A fit of violent coughing broke the deathly silence