Shimura Danzō, Defeated in an Instant

Even without activating his Sharingan,

faced with the swift, fierce, and well-coordinated assault of the Root members,

as a Logia Woods-Woods Fruit user with a physique far beyond that of an ordinary person, he could react immediately, effectively blocking and counterattacking.

"Time to die!"

Without another word,

Rikuto charged straight at them, radiating killing intent. ..

"Retreat..."

The surviving Root ninjas exchanged glances.

As they rapidly leaped backward, they hurled black spheres at Rikuto as he was about to charge in.

"Wood Locking Wall!"

A huge, oval wooden shield appeared.

It blocked the black spheres.

"Boom... boom..."

Amid the explosions,

thick smoke spread everywhere.

The surviving Root members had vanished.

"Rikuto, those guys are devious. Watch out for poison mixed into the smoke..." Tsunade, her whole body still "trembling," shouted a warning.

"Senior Shizune, stay here and protect Sister Tsunade..."

Confident in his abilities, Rikuto was fearless.

He charged out without hesitation. "I'll go deal with them!"

"Rikuto, don't be rash!"

Tsunade and Shizune shouted, their "faces changing drastically."

But Rikuto, "young and impetuous," ignored them and charged deep into the forest.

Some time passed.

Seeing that no one had come to attack her and Shizune, and satisfied that no one should still be watching them,

Tsunade, her face pale and her body still trembling,

stood up at once.

"That kid is being too reckless..."

Surveying the wrecked surroundings and the bloody corpses,

Tsunade frowned and said to Shizune, "Shizune, clean up the scene and these bodies. Don't leave any traces of Wood Release..."

"I'll go take a look!"

Their opponent was Shimura Danzō, after all, a man who had been famous for years and was known for his ruthless methods, stopping at nothing to achieve his goals.

Although she knew full well that Rikuto was astonishingly gifted and that his strength could even be said to have surpassed hers as his teacher, he was still too young and lacked combat experience.

She was worried that, facing that old schemer Danzo, the kid might suffer for being careless.

She had to go back him up.

"Yes, Lady Tsunade. Please, leave it to me!"

Watching Tsunade's retreating figure, Shizune nodded solemnly.

She knew that the Princess of Konoha, one of the "Sannin" whose formidable reputation had once spread across the battlefield and struck fear into countless enemies, had returned.

Tsunade, no longer affected by her fear of blood,

gave her no reason to worry.

Chapter 57: Shimura Danzō, Defeated in an Instant [fifth release]

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

In the lush forest,

atop towering trees,

swift figures leaped from one massive branch to another.

"Lord Danzo, that guy's caught up!"

"Mm..."

Danzo's gaze was sinister as he sneered. "I was only afraid he wouldn't follow!"

"The Wood Release he used really is far more powerful than that traitor Tenzo's. Coming here in person was worth the trouble!"

Earlier, Chiya Rikuto had used the Cutting Technique.

Combined with that Genjutsu, which had been impossible to guard against, it had killed quite a few Root members in an instant.

That display had truly taken him by surprise.

He was even more eager to bring such a genius under his command.

"Click... click..."

He unwrapped the bandages on his right arm,

revealing an arm completely encased in metal and protected by a special seal, preventing Dōjutsu such as the Byakugan and Sharingan from seeing through it.

"All right, here is..."

"Swish... swish..."

Some time passed.

Just as Danzo felt he had lured his opponent far enough away and was preparing to stop,

without warning,

the tree beneath his feet seemed to come alive.

Without warning, thick vines emerged one after another.

"What?"

Danzo's eyes narrowed sharply, and his heart gave a violent jolt.

He leaped up without hesitation, narrowly dodging the vines that attacked from every direction.

He landed on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

But his subordinates weren't nearly as quick to react.

"Whoosh... whoosh..."

"Damn it..."

"Everyone, watch out!"

"Damn it, cut them down!"

Green vines shot at them like lightning, binding their feet in an instant.

Then, before they could swing their blades to cut them,

still more vines emerged, tightly binding their entire bodies.

"How is this possible?"

"He's absorbing our Chakra!"

"Lord Danzo, save me!"

But the next moment,

their faces filled with terror.

They found the Chakra in their bodies being steadily absorbed, leaving them weak and powerless.

Their bodies even shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Aaaah..."

Amid shrill screams,

mummified corpses hung there, their faces frozen in horror.

It was enough to make one's scalp tingle.

"Aah..."

"Like the First Hokage, can his Wood Release even absorb other people's Chakra?"

Looking at his subordinates, bound by masses of wooden vines and unable to break free,

Danzo was shocked and could hardly believe it. "He's only eight years old, yet he's already reached this level?"

He had thought he had overestimated his opponent as much as possible,

but discovered that he had still underestimated Chiya Rikuto in the end.

Strength like this clearly could no longer be judged by ordinary standards.

But Danzo's gaze was cold and indifferent, and he paid no attention to his subordinates' cries for help.

Instead, while remaining on guard, he quickly removed the somewhat heavy metal device on his arm, which had been reinforced with a special Sealing Jutsu formula.

He watched coldly as the Chakra was drained from the Root ninjas and they died in despair.

"Oh my, isn't this the Pot Kage, Lord Shimura Danzō, one of the four members of the Konoha High Command I so respect—the one rumored to take the blame for the Hokage?"

Under Danzo's gaze,

Rikuto's figure emerged eerily from the trunk of a tree ahead.

He looked at Danzo mockingly and said with a sneer, "Why did you come all this way instead of hiding in Konoha and throwing your weight around from the shadows?"

"Chiya Rikuto, you know who I am?"

Listening to Rikuto's teasing, Danzo's face darkened.

At the same time, he frowned and looked at Chiya Rikuto in surprise.

Normally, he kept to himself and rarely appeared in public. Constrained by Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage, he mostly operated behind the scenes, so Rikuto shouldn't have known him.

And judging by the way he spoke, he knew quite a bit about him. Had that woman Tsunade told him?

"No, I don't know you..."

Rikuto sneered.

Looking down at him, he brazenly demanded, "Who on earth are you? Why are you impersonating Shimura Danzō, an elder of our Konoha?"

"You went to such lengths to disguise yourselves as members of Root, plotting to assassinate Princess Tsunade, the 'Princess of Konoha' and one of the Sannin, and pin the blame on Konoha's Root leader?"

"What exactly are you plotting?"

"What a sharp-tongued brat..."

Shimura Danzō remained expressionless.

But his gaze was sinister, revealing a chilling intent to kill. "Still, now that you've said that, I can put my mind at ease!"

"Clang..."

As he spoke,

he removed the metal device from his right arm.

The First Hokage's face was visible on Danzo's exposed shoulder.

Eye after eye, scarlet and sinister, was embedded in his right arm, a sight that made one's skin crawl.

He did not attack Rikuto immediately.