Seeing his escape route cut off by Senju Haruto, Shimura Danzō decisively chose to face him head-on.
"Die!"
Danzō's eyes were sharp and cold. Originally, he had intended to retreat for now and leave Haruto and Uchiha Itachi to be dealt with by the Root operatives.
But now… he had changed his mind.
Not only did he want Haruto dead, he also intended to dispose of Itachi—this "chess piece" who dared act beyond his control.
Because he had no use for tools that disobeyed.
Whoosh!
Bursting out from within Haruto's roaring Great Fireball Technique, Danzō ignored the searing pain across his body. He poured Wind Release chakra into his kunai, forming razor-sharp wind blades, and swept it toward Haruto's throat—aiming for a clean decapitation in a single strike.
Against most shinobi, this reckless, all-or-nothing attack might indeed have ended them on the spot.
But Haruto had already activated his Byakugan.
Even with the blaze of the Great Fireball obscuring Danzō's movement, Haruto could see through it as if it were nothing.
"Hakkeshō Kaiten!"
With a sharp shout, chakra exploded outward from Haruto's body, his protective aura bursting into a high-speed spin.
The massive fireball dissipated instantly, replaced by a swirling, hemispherical dome of chakra that enveloped him.
BANG!
Danzō's kunai slammed into the Kaiten's barrier. The wind-enhanced blade shattered, the wind chakra stripped away in an instant, and the kunai itself snapped clean in two.
Danzō's eyes widened. As Konoha's Root commander, he knew every branch of the village's clans well—this technique belonged exclusively to the Hyūga Clan's Main Family. Even Branch Family members were forbidden from learning it.
And yet, here was Haruto, performing it flawlessly.
Not just Wood Release… even the Kaiten…
Before Danzō could dwell on the thought, Haruto expanded the Kaiten's radius, the surging chakra obliterating the rest of Danzō's weapons.
Then the spinning force slammed into Danzō himself, the sheer power pulverizing his internal organs and shattering every bone in his body without effort.
"AAAHHH!"
With a guttural scream, Danzō's body was hurled through the air, crashing hard into a nearby Earth Flow Wall, embedding him deep within it.
The suddenness of the scene left even the Root operatives frozen.
"Lord Danzō!"
Aburame Torune stared in shock at Danzō's half-buried form. He knew the Hyūga clan's Kaiten—hailed as their ultimate defense—but in Haruto's hands, it was more than that.
At the moment of impact, Haruto had not only expanded the Kaiten's reach but also amplified its destructive power severalfold. Torune could almost hear Danzō's organs and bones breaking apart.
"Byakugan?"
Uchiha Itachi's eyes widened in disbelief as Haruto finished spinning, his pale eyes now plainly visible to everyone present.
"When did he transplant a Byakugan…?" Itachi frowned.
Although this mission was framed as a coordinated assassination with Haruto's Wood Clone assisting him, Itachi was beginning to feel more like an onlooker. This was a one-sided hunt—Haruto chasing Danzō, and Danzō merely struggling to survive.
Even without Itachi's help, Danzō would still be dead.
"It's over."
Itachi took a deep breath. After sustaining damage like that, not even Danzō could remain alive.
No wonder Haruto didn't care about Root operatives witnessing this—at his level, they simply didn't matter.
But just as Itachi was certain the battle was decided, Danzō's chakra signature—which had vanished—flared back to life.
And… it wasn't weak or fading.
"…Impossible."
Itachi's brow furrowed sharply. Looking toward where Danzō had been embedded, he saw the spot was now empty.
"Kaiten, was it?"
Danzō reappeared, the bandages and clothing on his upper body scorched away, yet his skin was unburned. Even the shattered bones and destroyed organs were somehow whole again.
Both Haruto and Itachi's eyes shifted to his right arm—shoulder marked with the face of Senju Hashirama, the entire arm studded with multiple Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
One of them was now permanently closed.
Haruto's gaze narrowed. He had anticipated this.
When Danzō had charged out of the Great Fireball earlier, he had already activated Izanagi, aiming to use the brief invulnerability to take Haruto down in a suicidal trade.
"That's…"
Itachi's eyes followed every detail. If he hadn't seen it himself, he would never have believed Danzō had altered his own body so extensively.
"Izanagi," Haruto said flatly, without hesitation. "You know that forbidden jutsu, don't you?"
"…Yes." Itachi gave a small nod, though he was still shocked at the sheer number of Sharingan embedded in Danzō's arm.
"From the moment wars began, the Uchiha Clan has lost members—killed in battle, vanishing mysteriously. If I'm not mistaken, Danzō collected these eyes through such… opportunities."
"And the one who likely planted the idea in his mind was Hatake Kakashi."
Itachi's voice carried a grim certainty. "During the Third Shinobi War, Kakashi became a hero… and received Obito's eye. That must have sparked Danzō's obsession with collecting them."
"To think he's mastered a forbidden Uchiha technique…"
The memory of Shisui's final moments—entrusting his clan and his eye to Itachi—only deepened his resolve.
"It seems," Itachi said darkly, drawing his weapon, "we'll have to kill him ten times."
Judging by the Sharingan embedded in Danzō's arm and his remaining right eye, he could still activate Izanagi ten more times.
Which meant… ten more suicide attacks.
If he succeeded even once, the battle would be over.
"What we need to figure out now is the duration of Danzō's Izanagi," Itachi continued. "From what I know, it burns through chakra rapidly, and each person's time limit differs. If we can calculate it precisely, bringing him down will be much easier."
"That's the weakness of Izanagi." He paused. "I'll need your cooperation, Haruto."
"No need," Haruto replied coolly. "Danzō's Izanagi only lasts one minute."
Itachi: "???"