A/N: This chapter will be really short. I am trying to get back into writing the chapers after so long so do understand that there would be some discrepencies. I will fix it as I edit the older chapers.
A rhythmic clack... clack... clack... echoed down the long corridor.
A figure cloaked in shadows walked steadily, never once glancing at the lifeless bodies of masked shinobi sprawled along the bloodstained floor.
From the corpses, shadows began to stir—rising, twisting—and then kneeling in silent reverence as the figure passed.
He moved toward the heavy door at the end of the corridor, beyond which came the faint, broken sound of pained whimpering.
Two shadows bowed to the figure before silently moving to open the door.
As it creaked open, the scene inside sent a chill down the spine of the faint-hearted.
Corpses were all over the floor as blood stain the floor, wall, and cealing.
In the center of the blood-soaked room stood a single figure, Danzo.
Battered, breath ragged, he remained upright through sheer force of will, his lone eye locked on the approaching shadow.
He let out a hoarse breath, then spoke.
"So… it's really is you."
His voice was low, gravelly, defiant even in defeat.
"Tell me, Kuro… how many of your own did you sacrifice to get here?"
"Sacrifice?" Kuro raised an eyebrow, his voice laced with disdain. "Is your intelligence really that outdated?"
He took a slow step forward, shadows writhing at his feet. "You should've known the capabilities of my Shadow Soldiers the moment you decided to target me."
Danzo chuckled painfully.
"Hmph... You speak like a man who's already won."
He straightened slightly, despite the pain, his lone eye still burning with resolve.
"But victory breeds arrogance. And arrogance…" He coughed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "…is the prelude to downfall."
Kuro stepped forward without a word. He crouched down before Danzo, now eye-level. "Arrogance?" he echoed, tilting his head slightly. "A bold word... coming from the man who hid behind masks and pawns his entire life."
A faint smile touched Kuro lips.
"Tell me, Danzo... are you sure you're not talking about yourself?"
Kuro's smile didn't reach his eyes.
Without a sound, the shadows at his feet surged as thin, black fingers coiled around Danzo like living chains. Danzo barked a curse and thrashed, but the bindings only tightened, pressing cold and immovable against his chest and throat.
"You always thought control was power," Kuro said, voice flat. "But control is a cage."
Danzo's struggles slowed. His single eye flickered and for a moment he looked almost human again, just a man who'd miscalculated. He tried to speak, to spit a final threat, but the shadows silenced him. The fight left his limbs; his body went slack. The lone eye dimmed.
Kuro rose, wiping a smear of blood from his jaw with the back of his hand as if tidying a cloak. He looked down at the fallen man with nothing resembling pity.
"Arise."
The shadows coiled tighter around Danzo's lifeless body, beginning to writhe and pulse with eerie energy.
Slowly, the dark tendrils lifted from the corpse, wriggling like serpents freed from a cage.
They gathered together, shifting and molding into a figure similar to Danzo himself.
"Reborn."
The shadowy form began to glow with an otherworldly light, flickering and reshaping until it was indistinguishable from the original Danzo.
The newly formed Danzo opened his eyes. A slow, twisted smile crept across his lips.
"I greet you, my Lord." Danzo kneeled, one hand on his chest. "Be generous, and grant me a name worthy of thy grace."
Kuro's eyes narrowed and without hesitation, he spoke.
"Rise, Danzo." He stepped back, shadows swirling like a storm at his command. "You will serve only one name now: Wraith. And your loyalty is to me alone."
"Destroy everything," Kuro ordered the kneeling shadow soldiers. "From this day forth, everything here shall be mine."
The shadows obeyed, moving like smoke through the ruined room. Outside, the corridor swallowed the echo of their steps, leaving only the hush of a deed done and the cold certainty that power had shifted.
…