Blood traced two dark red arcs across the floor.
Kinkaku's head came to rest in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi's knees.
The flesh around his severed neck curled outward, and pale cervical vertebrae jutted into the air.
Blood ran over his thick lips and into the cracks between the floorboards.
The Kunai in Hiruzen's hand clattered to the floor.
He stared fixedly at the wide-open eye. Extreme terror lingered in it from the moment before death.
His stomach suddenly convulsed. Bile surged straight up to his throat.
Hiruzen retched, clamped both hands over his mouth, and forced the sour fluid back down.
Ginkaku's head struck the toe of Shimura Danzō's boot.
Every hair on Danzo's body stood on end. He leaped to the side as though burned.
His back slammed into the wooden wall, shaking loose a layer of dust.
He knew Ginkaku. On the battlefield, a single sweep of that Bashōsen had burned half a battalion of Konoha's elite.
Now that head lay at his feet like a battered ball.
Danzo clenched his back teeth so hard that the taste of iron seeped from his gums.
On the straw mat, Tobirama Senju propped himself halfway up.
It was as if his brain had been struck hard with a heavy blunt object.
A piercing ringing in his ears drowned out the rain outside.
Tobirama's bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the trophies on the floor.
His fingers dug into the edge of the straw mat, splitting his nails.
"Hah... haah..." He gasped for breath.
Blood surged madly upward.
Tobirama suddenly collapsed over the edge of the bed and coughed up a large, dark red clot with a retch.
The clot hit the floorboards, sending droplets of blood flying.
"Lord Tobirama!" The head of the medical team was frantic with fright. He lunged forward, pressed both hands against Tobirama's chest, and used the Mystical Palm Technique.
"Get away." Tobirama slapped the medical-nin's hands aside.
The enormous gash at his waist split open again, and blood poured out even faster.
He did not care at all.
He stared at Shu Shiraishi, who stood in the doorway.
The young man wore only a torn black undershirt. He was covered in mud and scraps of flesh.
He casually wiped away the blood dripping from his chin.
"I killed them all." Shu Shiraishi's voice was level, and even the rhythm of his breathing had not changed.
Tobirama froze.
Twenty Kumogakure elites. Kinkaku, who possessed nine-tails chakra. Ginkaku, who wielded the Six Paths Tools.
Ten minutes. All wiped out.
It sounded like an absurd joke.
But the heads on the floor were real. So was the stench of blood that filled his nostrils.
Tobirama suddenly laughed.
His shoulders heaved violently, pulling at the wound in his lung.
His laughter grew from suppressed, breathless chuckles into unrestrained, wild laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
The wooden bed creaked under him.
The Anbu outside the tent heard the laughter, drew their Ninja Blades, and rushed in.
They saw the two severed heads on the floor, and their feet all froze at the threshold. None of them dared take another step.
When Tobirama had laughed enough, he fell heavily back onto the straw mat.
His face was as pale as paper, but his eyes shone with a searing light.
"Heaven has not forsaken my Konoha," Tobirama murmured.
He turned his head and looked at Hiruzen.
Hiruzen was still trembling. His hands and feet were ice-cold.
Ten minutes earlier, in the cave at Lightning Cloud Ravine.
Tobirama had asked who would stay behind to cover their retreat. Hiruzen clearly remembered the calculations that had gone through his mind.
Weighing the pros and cons. Wanting to preserve his useful life.
The truth was, he had been afraid to die.
Tobirama had seen through him.
He looked at Hiruzen's pale face, his chest rising and falling.
Hiruzen was a promising talent, well-rounded in Ninjutsu and well-liked.
But when faced with a desperate situation of life and death, he had not even had the courage to draw his blade.
That kind of indecisive nature would only drag the village into a quagmire.
Tobirama shifted his gaze to Shu Shiraishi.
Young. Ruthless. His fighting strength was unfathomable.
A world in turmoil did not need a politician.
It needed a blade that could shatter every rule.
"Shu." Tobirama's voice was as rough as sandpaper.
"Here," Shu Shiraishi answered.
He stepped forward. His boot landed on Kinkaku's hair, but he did not glance down.
"What do you want?" Tobirama stared at him.
Shu Shiraishi looked at the dying Hokage on the bed.
"Power." Shu Shiraishi did not offer empty words. His voice was cold and hard. "Absolute power."
Beside him, Koharu and Mitokado Homura sucked in a breath.
Tobirama, however, did not get angry. He nodded slightly.
"Good. You have ambition, and the strength to match it."
Tobirama struggled to raise his right hand.
A medical-nin tried to stop him, but Tobirama drove him back with a glare.
"Hiruzen." Tobirama called his name.
Hiruzen hurried over on his knees and gripped the edge of the bed with both hands.
"Danzo."
Danzo moved over as well, his head lowered, not daring to look in Shu Shiraishi's direction.
"Koharu, Homura, Torifu, Kagami." Tobirama summoned every member of the Kage Guard to his bedside.
The tent was packed with Konoha's core fighting force.
Only heavy breathing and the sound of rain could be heard.
Tobirama drew a deep breath of the blood-scented air.
Using the last of his strength, he shouted his final order.
"From this moment on, Shu Shiraishi..."
He paused. His gaze swept over everyone standing before the bed.
Hiruzen gripped the bedsheet tightly, his knuckles completely white.
"Will succeed me as Konoha's Third Hokage!"
His voice struck the wooden floor. The flame of the oil lamp on the table suddenly flickered.
The entire tent fell deathly silent for a second.
Then a loud buzzing rang through Hiruzen's head.
It was like an Explosive Tag going off against his eardrums.
He jerked his head up, his eyes instantly bloodshot.
That was the position of Hokage! The position his Sarutobi Clan had poured all its resources into paving the way for him to claim!
And now it had been given to a sixteen-year-old civilian?
Danzo's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor.
His nails dug deep into his thighs, but he could not even feel the pain.
Why? Just because he killed a few people?
"Lord Tobirama!" Hiruzen's voice cracked, becoming shrill and piercing.
He sprang to his feet, his hands grasping wildly at the air.
"He's only sixteen! He's never even attended a meeting of the village's upper ranks!" Hiruzen pointed at Shu Shiraishi. "If you entrust the village to him, he'll destroy Konoha's peace!"
"Shut up!" Tobirama roared.
Bloody foam sprayed from his mouth and splattered across Hiruzen's chest armor.
"This order... cannot be changed!"
After shouting those words, Tobirama's eyes rolled back.
The strength that had been holding him up left him.
He fell heavily onto the pillow and lost consciousness completely.
Blood gushed from the wound at his waist like a burst dam, staining half the straw mat red in an instant.
"Lord Tobirama!" the head of the medical team shouted at the top of his lungs. "A cardiac stimulant! Prepare a blood transfusion! Get the hemostats!"
Several medical-nin lunged forward. Green chakra lit up half the room.
Mitokado Homura and Koharu backed away helplessly. The scene descended into chaos in an instant.
Shu Shiraishi paid no attention to the resuscitation.
He turned and walked toward the wooden shelves in the corner.
A white conical hat sat on the top shelf.
The character for "fire" was written in bright red at its center.
Shu Shiraishi reached out.
The blood on his fingertips rubbed off onto the white cloth.
He picked up the hat. His fingers brushed along its edge.
Then he raised both arms and placed the hat firmly on his head.
Its broad brim cast a shadow over most of his face.
Only his hard-set chin and jawline, still dripping blood, remained visible.
Hiruzen Sarutobi watched Shu Shiraishi put on the Hokage's hat.
His heart felt as though it had been seized in a pair of hands and viciously torn at.
That was his Hokage position. It should have been his!
Hiruzen's eyes were as red as a rabbit's.
He spun around and stared fixedly at Shu Shiraishi, every vein in his neck bulging.
"Wait! This is impossible!"