Uchiha Minamoto walked up to Shisui Uchiha and extended his right hand.
"Shisui, I need your help.
"Not as 'Body Flicker Shisui,' nor as the 'Uchiha's Strongest Genjutsu User,' but simply as Shisui Uchiha-an ordinary ninja who loves both his village and his clan."
Shisui Uchiha looked at the hand before him, then raised his eyes to meet that pair of scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
At that moment, countless thoughts seemed to run through his mind.
Yet it also seemed he had thought of nothing at all.
Uchiha Minamoto held out his right hand.
"Shisui, be my partner!"
"Yes, Group Leader."
Shisui Uchiha gripped the hand before him tightly, like a drowning man clutching at a lifeline.
The Great Love Panel suddenly popped up.
The Great Love Panel suddenly popped up.
[With the Naka River as witness, you successfully recruited Shisui Uchiha and destroyed the sloth in his heart. You have delayed the Uchiha Clan's impending massacre.] [You have completed a Great Love Action!] [You have earned 100,000 great love points!] [You have obtained [S-rank · Susanoo]!] -- [Susanoo] [Rank: S] [Ability: Materializes an enormous amount of chakra into a mighty god of war for combat. An ultimate ocular technique combining offense and defense, it continues to grow as the user's Eye Power strengthens.] [Evaluation: This is the third power! Susanoo!] --
The Root Base.
Under the dim lights, Shimura Danzō sat alone in a chair, his hunched back casting a twisted shadow in the faint light.
Before him lay the first edition of the Love Newspaper Office's newspaper.
He had looked at the black-and-white photograph beneath the front-page headline more times than he could count.
The Second's back.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's face.
Kagami Uchiha, seen from the front.
And Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and...
His own back.
The back of the man who had hesitated for that one instant at the critical moment.
"I was only an instant away from becoming Hokage..."
Shimura Danzō sat in his chair, his voice low and hoarse, looking utterly lost.
"If only I had been one step faster back then...
"If only I had spoken first back then...
"If only I had volunteered to fight back then..."
A deep obsession flashed through Shimura Danzō's single eye.
"A life... perhaps all it takes is living for that one instant."
Unfortunately, there were no ifs.
Shimura Danzō closed his eyes, and the scene from the Kumogakure battlefield all those years ago resurfaced in his mind.
That might have been the closest he had ever come to the Hokage position.
Just one sentence short.
Just one instant short.
Just one thought short!
Yet that brief instant of hesitation had cost him the position of Third Hokage.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had become the Hokage who basked in the sunlight.
Forever open and aboveboard, forever pure and spotless.
Meanwhile, he, Shimura Danzō, had become the root buried deep underground.
Doing all the village's dirtiest, filthiest, most unspeakable work.
Unable even to leave a name behind.
For decades.
Shimura Danzō had returned to that scene countless times in his dreams.
Countless times, he had dreamed of speaking first, of replacing Hiruzen Sarutobi as the Third Hokage, of leading Konoha to prosperity, of having his enormous head carved into the Hokage Rock...
Yet every time he awoke, Shimura Danzō could only face the cruel reality.
He was not the Hokage.
He would never be the Hokage.
He was not.
"I... I want to be Hokage so badly... I even dream about it... I want it so badly!!!"
Shimura Danzō's expression twisted grotesquely, his chest heaving like a wild beast trapped in a cage.
He snatched up the newspaper before him and tore it to shreds, scraps of paper drifting down like snowflakes.
"Uchiha..."
"Uchiha Minamoto..."
"All the Uchiha..."
"Every last one of them deserves to die!!!"
Another unknown stretch of time passed.
Only then did Shimura Danzō regain his composure.
He stood up, straightening his hunched back once more, like a kunai about to be drawn.
Since Uchiha Minamoto had fought dirty, deceiving him! Ambushing him! An old ninja decades his senior!
Since Uchiha Minamoto refused to behave himself.
Then he could hardly blame Shimura Danzō for acting in "self-defense"!
Uchiha!
Shimura Danzō had at least nine ways to kill the Uchiha Clan's other ninja!
Nine!
Chapter 40: Three-Tomoe Susanoo, the Modern-Day Indra! (Please keep reading! Please vote with monthly tickets!)
Night fell.
Uchiha Minamoto sat cross-legged on the floor of his training room at home.
He activated his [Three-Tomoe Sharingan], and immense Eye Power surged out like a tide.
A Deep Blue glow emerged from the space around him, flickering like lightning.
The next instant.
That eerie blue light condensed into translucent ribs, enclosing Uchiha Minamoto like a protective barrier.
[Susanoo · Skeletal Version]!
A fine sheen of sweat seeped from Uchiha Minamoto's forehead, and the tomoe in his [Three-Tomoe Sharingan] spun wildly.
He could clearly sense his Eye Power being consumed at a terrifying rate.
"A little more... just a little more!"
Uchiha Minamoto gritted his teeth and continued to drive his [Susanoo].
Hum-
A Deep Blue skeletal arm extended from the right side of the rib cage, its five fingers spreading as though about to seize something.
"Hiss-"
Uchiha Minamoto sucked in a sharp breath, feeling a needlelike pain in both eyes, and immediately stopped releasing his Eye Power.
The Deep Blue ribs and arm dissipated into the air like bubbles, as though they had never appeared.
"Huff... huff..."
Uchiha Minamoto took two panting breaths and reached up to touch the corner of his eye.
Good.
No blood.
"So the Three-Tomoe Sharingan really is too much of a stretch..."
Uchiha Minamoto had recruited Shisui Uchiha into the Great Love Group.
He was happy that the Great Love Panel had given him a reward.
But he did not like that the reward was [Susanoo].
Was [Susanoo] powerful?
Of course it was!
But, just like [Amaterasu], this thing was basically standard equipment for the [Mangekyō Sharingan]!
Uchiha Minamoto still only had a pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
It was not as though no one in the history of the Shinobi World had ever activated Susanoo with three tomoe.
But that person's name was-
Indra.
His full name-
Ōtsutsuki Indra.
The ancestor of the Uchiha Clan.
The source of the [Sharingan] kekkei genkai.
The first user of the [Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan].
When it came to "purity of bloodline."
Uchiha Minamoto's purity naturally fell far short of Indra's.
Indra could freely control [Susanoo] with three tomoe.
But Uchiha Minamoto's [Susanoo] did not even qualify as a "skeletal form." At most, it was half a "rack of bones."
"To be honest... I really am not good at [Susanoo]."
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