Danzo probably thought he was being extreme, using powerful jutsu right in the Hidden Leaf Village, not caring about civilian casualties or structural damage. But then he ran into someone even more extreme.
He couldn't even imagine the destruction if an uncontrolled, massive barrage of volcanic magma bombs rained down from the sky!
However, Danzo knew one thing for sure: neither he nor his summoned beast could afford to get hit by that magma! He'd already experienced the horror of magma firsthand days ago.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Consecutive Spheres!!!"
Danzo took a deep breath, inhaling the thick, sulfurous air. Below him, his summoned baku, Baku, lifted its head and opened its massive maw.
Puff puff puff puff puff—
A flurry of wind bullets shot out, so numerous they seemed to challenge the incoming volcanic bombs from the sky. They clashed violently in mid-air.
But just then, Danzo's peripheral vision caught sight of something alarming: Uchiha Akainu had mysteriously vanished!
This is bad!
Danzo's gaze darted around frantically, worried Akainu would seize the opportunity to get dangerously close.
This time, however, Danzo was overthinking it. Uchiha Akainu's priority was to deal with those annoying "little flies" first.
An orange-red hand, oozing with molten magma and radiating terrifying heat, had, at some point, seized a Root ninja's face.
The Root mask instantly melted away, and the magma hand branded itself deeply onto the ninja's face like a searing iron.
"Aaaahhhhhh—"
Amidst the agonizing screams, Uchiha Akainu didn't even need to press hard. The Root ninja's face simply caved in like melting butter, nearly half of it collapsing.
Until the screams finally stopped.
Life completely extinguished.
"A vulnerability!!!" As Danzo and Baku worked together to fend off the incoming volcanic bombs, one Root ninja gritted his teeth, risking everything to get behind Uchiha Akainu.
He ripped open his ninja flak jacket, tore away his undershirt, bit his thumb, and drew a line across his abdomen.
Immediately, strange, intertwining black sealing jutsu patterns rapidly emerged on his stomach. The sealing jutsu quickly drained his chakra, causing the Root ninja's muscles to visibly shrivel and wither.
"Ninja Art: Puppet Binding Seal!!!"
Whoosh—
The black sealing jutsu patterns on his abdomen actually transformed into three black chains, shooting through the air towards Uchiha Akainu's back.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The chains instantly pierced Akainu's body. Though no blood flowed from his form, the chains spread eerie patterns, gradually covering his magma-flowing skin.
From the perspective of the Root ninja, whose body had withered to skin and bones, Uchiha Akainu seemed to struggle against the chains' restraints but couldn't break free no matter what.
"Hmph…"
Severely drained of chakra, the pale-faced Root ninja let out a cold laugh. "This is from the Uzumaki clan…"
"What are you doing?! He's behind you!!!" A sudden shout made the Root ninja freeze.
Before he could react further, he felt someone pull out the ninja blade tucked at his waist from behind him.
Slish—
A head, detached from its neck, slid to the ground. Uchiha Akainu calmly glanced at the headless corpse on the ground, then looked at the black chains impaling a patch of empty air in front of him.
The Sharingan's genjutsu is just too overpowered.
Especially in a life-or-death battle like this, even a single second of genjutsu is enough to decide someone's fate.
"Meow! These guys are ganging up on Lord Akainu! Rookie, run faster! We need to go help Lord Akainu quickly!"
Kikujiro, with a swarm of ninja cats, frantically rushed towards the Yamanaka clan compound.
Izumi followed closely behind.
"Kikujiro, what's that?!" Izumi asked, looking up at the distant Baku in shock while sprinting.
Kikujiro first corrected her, "You should call me Senior Kikujiro!"
It then quickly replied, "That's Shimura Danzo, that old dog's summoned beast. I think it's called Baku. It's a very powerful summoned beast, skilled in hand-sign-less Wind Style jutsu."
As the lone human and the group of cats leaped and maneuvered across rooftops, suddenly, a cloaked figure on a rooftop ahead caught Izumi's and Kikujiro's attention.
As Izumi passed by the figure, she quickly looked back, wanting to see who it was.
But she found that the figure had suddenly vanished!
As if they had never been there.
As if it was just her imagination.
"Kikujiro… Senior!" Izumi's pupils contracted slightly. She immediately called out, "Did you guys see that person just now?"
Kikujiro's cat face was grim. "I saw them… but I didn't see how they disappeared. Meow… I think I vaguely saw them wearing a mask, a mask that only showed one eye. Never mind that for now, helping Lord Akainu is more important!"
"Uchiha Akainu…"
Under the night sky, barely visible ripples disturbed the air, and the cloaked figure reappeared.
Their single exposed eye held a hint of gloom.
"If it hadn't been for Minato-sensei back then, I probably would have died by your hand already, wouldn't I? Heh… I heard that little guy, Uchiha Itachi, went through the same thing I did."
He muttered seemingly illogically to himself.
"Running into you right after coming back to the Hidden Leaf, how unlucky. Should I take this chance… to kick you while you're down?"
His gaze swept forward, and when he saw figure after figure rushing anxiously towards the Yamanaka clan compound, he sighed regretfully.
"Never mind…"
"Too many people."
—BOOM!!!
A torrent of scorching magma surged towards Baku and Danzo. Even from dozens of meters away, the extreme heat made Danzo's eyes sting and his skin itch.
Baku inhaled deeply, then exhaled.
Gusts of howling wind formed a solid wall, forcefully blocking the incoming magma flow.
But Danzo sharply noticed something was off with the ground beneath Baku's feet.
Tiny red glows appeared in the dense cracks, as if some terrifying entity was about to burst forth from the earth.
Danzo's breath hitched.
His pupils constricted.
"Baku! Below!" His urgent shout made Baku's gaze shift downwards.
The next instant, Baku's eyes reflected the glow of magma.
—RUMBLE!
The ground in front of Baku tore open, and a massive amount of magma erupted like a giant scythe, slashing towards Baku's head!
Baku hastily retreated, but the magma erupted too quickly. In less than a blink of an eye, it flashed past its face.
Danzo also watched helplessly as the red-hot, scythe-like magma suddenly swept past less than three meters in front of him!
"Hisss-roar-roar-roar!!!"
Danzo heard Baku's agonizing scream. When he quickly looked down, he saw that Baku's long nose and half of its face were completely gone!