It was late at night. The thunderstorm had just passed.
Water droplets clung to the roof tiles, falling one by one onto the bluestone pavement below.
On the third floor of Konoha's Hokage building, a window glowed with faint yellow light.
Inside the office.
Shu Shiraishi sat behind a massive mahogany desk.
The First Hokage had left this desk behind, and several deep blade marks scarred its surface.
The back of the chair was too hard. Shu Shiraishi leaned against it and adjusted his position twice, but neither was comfortable.
He had changed into a black, short-sleeved turtleneck.
He had casually wrapped a few layers of white bandage around the cut Kinkaku had made on his left shoulder.
His knotting was sloppy, and the end of the bandage stuck out in a messy, tight knot.
An oil lamp burned on the desk. Its wick occasionally sputtered, sending up a tiny spark.
Shu Shiraishi held a thick parchment scroll.
The Anbu had just delivered it: a ledger of the financial transactions of the village's major clans.
He studied the densely packed numbers, slowly rubbing his fingers against the yellowed paper.
The paper rustled faintly.
A coarse ceramic tea mug sat on the corner of the desk. Shu Shiraishi picked it up and took a sip.
The water had long since gone cold. He frowned and set the mug back down hard.
Outside the window.
Heavy clouds drifted slowly across the sky, covering the half-moon.
The office abruptly grew darker.
Wind slipped through a gap in the window, which had not been shut properly, bringing with it the damp, earthy smell of soil.
On the wall outside the building.
Several dark figures clung to the bricks, climbing silently like geckos.
They were deathsworn secretly trained by the Shimura Clan.
There were three of them, all dressed in black, skintight clothing and wearing blank, unadorned masks.
They held standard-issue Kunai in reverse grips.
The Kunai blades glimmered a ghostly blue in the darkness.
They were coated with a potent poison secretly made by the Shimura Clan. One cut was enough to kill. It gave off a faint, almost imperceptible, sickly sweet smell.
Shimura Danzō followed behind the three deathsworn.
With Chakra attached to the soles of his feet, he stood firmly on the vertical wall.
Blood was still seeping from his left thumb. He had grabbed a strip of cloth and bound it tightly around the wound. The cloth was already soaked through with blood.
Danzo raised his head and looked at the faintly lit window on the third floor.
His chest rose and fell, his breathing heavier than usual.
Shu Shiraishi had just fought a bloody battle in the Valley of Clouds and Lightning that day, killing Kinkaku and Ginkaku single-handedly.
After a battle of that magnitude, his Chakra had to be nearly depleted. And having just assumed the Hokage Position, he was surely at his least guarded.
If Danzo did not strike tonight, he would have even less chance later.
Danzo stepped onto the brick ledge outside the windowsill. His sole made a sound so faint it was barely audible.
The deathsworn in the lead took out an extremely thin wire.
The wire slipped through the gap in the window and caught precisely on the wooden latch.
A gentle flick, followed by a very soft click.
The latch opened.
Like three black cats, the deathsworn climbed into the office one after another.
They landed without making a sound. The high-grade wool carpet absorbed every vibration.
Danzo climbed in after them.
He planted his toes on the carpet and steadied himself.
Then he slowly straightened his back.
The office was quiet. Only the oil lamp crackled as it burned.
Shu Shiraishi was still studying the ledger in his hands.
His head was lowered, his eyes on the parchment. He did not even lift his gaze.
He even turned a page at his leisure.
The paper rustled.
Danzo stood behind the three deathsworn, watching the young man behind the desk.
The humiliation of being utterly ignored rushed to his head.
He clenched his teeth, the muscles in his cheeks bulging.
A commoner with no backing, putting on airs even with death at his doorstep.
Danzo took a step forward.
He opened his mouth, ready to pronounce the short-lived Hokage's death sentence.
"Shu Shiraishi. You think putting on that hat makes you..."
He had only uttered six words.
He had not even finished half his sentence.
Shu Shiraishi moved.
He slammed the scroll in his hand onto the desk.
The wooden swivel chair beneath him shot half a meter backward, its four wheels plowing deep grooves in the carpet.
No Hand Seals. No preliminary motion to gather Chakra.
Pure physical force compressed the air, producing a piercing explosive bang.
"Boom!"
Shu Shiraishi went straight over the three-meter-wide mahogany desk.
A fierce gust followed in his wake.
The ledgers on the desk blew into the air. The oil lamp's flame flickered violently once, then went out.
Darkness swallowed the office.
Danzo's words, "Does that make you the Hokage?" caught in his throat.
He did not even have time to blink.
All he could see was the sole of a black military boot spattered with mud.
The foot rapidly grew larger in the darkness.
With a shriek of tearing air, it headed straight for Danzo's face.
"Bang!"
A dull impact sounded, enough to set one's teeth on edge.
Shu Shiraishi's powerful kick landed squarely on Danzo's chin.
Sole met jawbone.
"Crack!"
The sound of breaking bone was crisp and clear.
Danzo's jawbone shattered instantly. Fragments of bone pierced straight through his gums and the inside of his mouth.
Several bloody molars burst from Danzo's mouth like bullets from a gun.
The teeth struck the solid-wood bookcase nearby and embedded themselves in the wood.
Blood and saliva sprayed into the air in a great red mist.
The terrifying force of the kick lifted Danzo's feet off the ground.
He flew backward three or four meters like a torn sack.
His back slammed into the office's wooden wall.
The wall gave a tremendous bang.
A painting of Konoha scenery hanging on the wall was shaken loose, and the glass in its frame shattered across the floor.
Danzo slid down the wall and collapsed among the shards of glass.
Only then did the three deathsworn react.
Too fast.
Less than a second had passed between their target vanishing from behind the desk and their leader being sent flying.
Without hesitation, the three deathsworn raised their poisoned, blue-glimmering Kunai and lunged at Shu Shiraishi from three directions at once.
Having delivered his kick, Shu Shiraishi landed steadily.
He did not even turn his head.
The deathsworn on the left was the fastest. His Kunai stabbed straight at Shu Shiraishi's neck.
Shu Shiraishi twisted his left foot outward and leaned slightly to the side.
The Kunai missed, brushing past his collar.
Shu Shiraishi's right hand shot out like lightning and seized the deathsworn's wrist.
His fingers tightened.
The bones in the deathsworn's wrist snapped with a crisp crack.
The Kunai fell.
Shu Shiraishi caught the poisoned Kunai out of the air.
Keeping hold of the deathsworn's broken wrist, he yanked him sharply toward himself.
His left elbow rose and struck the deathsworn squarely in the throat.
His Adam's apple shattered. His windpipe broke on the spot.
The first deathsworn crumpled to the floor without so much as a scream.
The second deathsworn reached him from the right, stabbing his Kunai at Shu Shiraishi's lower back.
Shu Shiraishi did not even look.
He flicked his wrist.
The Kunai he had just taken flew out like a bolt of black lightning.
"Puchi!"
The Kunai struck the second deathsworn's mask with precision, piercing his eye socket and plunging into his brain.
The deathsworn's momentum carried him two more steps forward before he crashed to the floor with a thud.
The last deathsworn leaped into the air.
Gripping his Kunai with both hands, he used the force of his descent to stab viciously down from directly above.
Shu Shiraishi looked up.
His right leg bent slightly, then lashed upward like a whip.
The whipping kick tore through the air.
It struck the airborne deathsworn directly in the chest.
The sound of his breastbone caving in across a broad area rang out.
The deathsworn violently spewed a great mouthful of blood in midair.
He was kicked flying back the way he had come, striking the ceiling before crashing heavily onto the desk.
The impact left a crack in the sturdy mahogany desk.
Three seconds.
Three corpses lay sprawled across the office.
The thick smell of blood quickly spread, overpowering the earthy scent.
Shu Shiraishi straightened up.
He brushed a little dust from his sleeve.
His breathing was steady, and he had not shed a single drop of sweat.
He stepped over the bodies and walked to the corner.
Danzo lay among the broken glass like a dead dog.
His mouth was full of thick, bloody foam. His jaw was completely deformed, hanging limply to one side.
Splintered bone had pierced his skin and was exposed to the air.
Danzo stared fixedly at Shu Shiraishi, his eyes bloodshot.
The intense pain sent his whole body into convulsions.
He tried to speak, but his shattered jaw allowed him to make only muffled whimpering sounds.
Blood bubbles rose from his mouth one after another.
Shu Shiraishi walked over.
He raised his black military boot, stained with muddy water and blood.
He stomped mercilessly onto Danzo's bloody face.
The tread of his boot pressed hard against Danzo's nose and right eye.
Danzo's head was pinned tightly to the floor.
He clawed weakly at Shu Shiraishi's ankle with both hands, but could not budge it in the slightest.
A rapid succession of footsteps came from outside the door.
The loud crashes had finally alerted the Anbu stationed outside the Hokage building.
"Bang!"
The office door was kicked open.
Four or five Anbu Ninja wearing animal masks rushed in.
Light from the hallway illuminated the room.
They drew their Ninja Blades, ready to fight.
But when they saw the scene inside, they all froze in place.
The bodies of three deathsworn.
A shattered wall.
And the Third Hokage, his foot planted on Shimura Danzō's face.
Shu Shiraishi did not lift his foot.
Still standing on Danzo's face, he turned his head slightly and looked at the Anbu who had rushed in.
His gaze beneath the conical hat was piercingly cold.
"Pass on my orders."
Shu Shiraishi's voice was utterly cold as it echoed through the blood-reeking office.
"Surround the Shimura Clan's territory."