Uchiha Fugaku no longer spared a glance at the Third Hokage. His gaze was cold, decisive. Without a word, he turned and strode swiftly out of the council chamber, the tension still crackling in the air behind him like residual lightning.
He knew Ryosuke's actions couldn't be walked back now.
The moment Ryosuke invoked the authority of the Uchiha Clan to sentence Danzo to death, they had crossed the Rubicon. Whether justified or not, the village would not stand by idly. Danzo was not just a man—he was a symbol of the old power structures. Killing him was a declaration.
Fugaku knew what had to be done.
"If it's rebellion they want to accuse us of," he muttered under his breath, "then rebellion it shall be."
His footsteps echoed down the corridor. He was going back to the clan compound—to call upon every able Uchiha to stand by Ryosuke.
Back in the wrecked council chamber, the Third Hokage stood motionless for a long moment. His expression flickered between disbelief and brewing rage.
"Fugaku... don't tell me you're going to call reinforcements..." Hiruzen whispered, but the look in Fugaku's eyes had already told him everything he needed to know.
Panic twisted in his gut.
If this escalated any further, the Uchiha wouldn't be just challenging Danzo—they'd be going to war with the entire village.
He turned quickly to the remaining clan heads still present.
"All of you!" Hiruzen barked. "Find them. Now. Stop Uchiha Ryosuke from laying a hand on Danzo. That's an order!"
The clan leaders exchanged glances. Some moved quickly, their loyalties entangled with Root. Others hesitated.
Why risk their lives to save Danzo, a man who had over the years systematically weakened their clans by demanding their prodigies for Root's ranks—only for those shinobi to return unrecognizable, devoid of family loyalty?
Still, a Hokage's order was not so easily ignored.
Reluctantly, some followed after Ryosuke and Danzo through the gaping hole Ryosuke had left in the council chamber wall.
Hiashi Hyuga clenched his jaw. Though he had defended Ryosuke's logic earlier, this level of escalation troubled him.
"He's powerful. No doubt," Hiashi muttered, recalling Ryosuke's overwhelming battle against the Third Raikage. "But this... this is reckless."
Still, he too moved to follow, hoping—perhaps foolishly—that he could reason with Ryosuke before the worst happened.
Meanwhile, Danzo was already sprinting into the forests beyond the Hokage tower. He hadn't bothered to look back.
Running had always been his tactic—keep the shadows moving, let others clean up the blood.
Behind him, Ryosuke pursued with quiet intensity, his Susanoo deactivated for now. His cloak rippled with chakra, and his Mangekyō Sharingan flared with purpose.
Why would Danzo flee into the woods?
It mirrored the original canon's events too well. Ryosuke remembered how the man had tried to run after Sasuke cornered him during the Five Kage Summit. And just like then, he had no escape.
"If he stayed inside the tower, maybe someone could've stalled me," Ryosuke thought, eyes narrowing. "But he ran. Into isolation."
Stupidity, or arrogance?
Danzo stopped and turned, facing Ryosuke with grim resolve.
"You think you're untouchable, boy?" Danzo sneered. "You're not the first Uchiha who thought they were invincible."
Ryosuke remained silent. His crimson eyes studied Danzo with the sharp detachment of a hunter.
Danzo smirked and lifted his bandaged arm.
"Izanagi," Ryosuke thought immediately. His gaze sharpened. "So that's why he's so calm."
Beneath those wrappings were multiple implanted Sharingan, each one a loaded cheat code to rewrite death. With enough of them, Danzo could, in theory, turn defeat after defeat into nothing more than illusions.
But Ryosuke wasn't here to play games.
"You're already dead," Ryosuke said coldly. "You just don't know it yet."
He pushed chakra into both eyes. The air around him trembled as skeletal limbs surged forth—massive bones sprouting from his body, wrapping around him like the grim embrace of a war god.
The second form of Susanoo began to emerge.
A towering giant now rose behind him—no longer just bones, but full musculature forming over the skeletal frame. Veins bulged. A thick coat of chakra shrouded the titan's body like armor, pulsating with lethal power. In its right hand, the Susanoo gripped an enormous blade, jagged and unforgiving.
Danzo's breath caught. "He already reached this level?! His Mangekyō is that developed?!"
It was a frightening evolution. Few Uchiha ever reached this stage without years of battle-hardened experience. Ryosuke had surpassed even Itachi's early-stage Susanoo—and that terrified Danzo more than he would admit.
Still, he wouldn't back down.
"I'll take those eyes from your corpse," Danzo growled. He inhaled sharply. The air around him twisted.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!"
A series of sharp, curved wind blades shot toward Ryosuke—jagged, compressed slashes that could slice boulders in two.
But they struck the Susanoo's armor like a pebble against steel.
Only faint scratches marred the chakra plating. Danzo's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What...?"
That technique had shredded boulders before. It had even pierced Sasuke's first-stage Susanoo in the original timeline.
Ryosuke didn't even flinch.
He hadn't even raised his blade.
"I wanted to test my defense," Ryosuke said flatly. "Guess that answers that."
Danzo's heart pounded. He wasn't just facing an Uchiha with a Mangekyō. He was facing a warrior who understood it—who was refining it.
"Your attack... was disappointing," Ryosuke said with a smirk.
He gripped the Susanoo's greatsword tighter, chakra flowing down its edge like cascading firelight. Then—he swung.
A colossal slash of raw chakra roared forward, a wave of compressed power that tore through trees, rocks, and the ground itself like paper. Danzo barely leapt aside in time, but the sheer force of the shockwave knocked him off his feet.
The forest behind him split open, a deep fissure gouged into the earth.
Had he been even a second slower, he'd be gone.
"Izanagi," Danzo muttered, steeling himself. "I may have to use one already."
He looked down at his arm—one eye had already begun to close.
Ryosuke's expression didn't change. He could see it.
The cheat technique had begun.
But he had a plan.
Danzo wouldn't get to abuse that forbidden jutsu forever.
Ryosuke's voice cut through the silence like a blade.
"Let's see how many times you can pretend you didn't die... before you run out of eyes."
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