"Only me! Only if I become Hokage can Konoha truly rise to greatness again!"
Danzō's eyes burned with obsession as he glared at Uchiha Shion. In just over a year, this boy had mastered Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees—a technique once thought unique to the First Hokage—and awakened the Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan, surpassing the three tomoe.
The power of both Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara… reborn in one man.
Zzzhh!
Shion's long blade scraped across the stone floor, sparks trailing behind. He strode forward slowly, his expression mocking.
"Where do you get that kind of confidence? Your men are all dead, yet you're still putting on airs? Lost your mind, old dog?"
Danzō shook his head slightly. "The deaths of Root shinobi are never meaningless. Wood Release… Mangekyō Sharingan… the Flying Thunder God, instantaneous movement, Susanoo…"
"The outcome of a battle has never been about who is stronger—it's about information. Information decides victory."
He narrowed his eye. "Your eyes… their power must be tied to speed, yes? To move with such velocity—faster even than the Body Flicker Technique… in the shinobi world, only the Hidden Cloud is known for such speed."
Shion's Mangekyō rotated, his gaze sharp. "You talk too damn much."
Swish!
His blade sliced cleanly across, empowered by his Sage-enhanced physique. In an instant, Danzō's body was cut in half at the waist.
"Summoning!"
Boom!
Smoke exploded as Danzō's jutsu took hold. A massive red tapir, his dream-devouring beast, materialized. Its cavernous mouth inhaled, wind chakra twisting into a vortex that dragged everything forward.
Shion, caught mid-strike, was momentarily unguarded—just as Danzō had planned after activating Izanagi.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
From behind, a gigantic wind chakra orb roared forth. With the tapir's suction strengthening it, the blast became a two-pronged assault, hemming Shion in.
And that wasn't all.
"Wind Release: Shuriken!"
Three shuriken infused with wind chakra followed, their edges so sharp that even the aftershocks sliced through the surrounding trees.
"Wind Release: Kunai!"
Danzō spat chakra over a kunai, transforming it into a short blade that shrieked with cutting power.
BOOOOM!
The chamber thundered as Danzō unleashed his chain of attacks in the span of two seconds.
But when the dust cleared, Shion stood unharmed. From the writhing forest of trees, a towering figure rose.
A giant of blue chakra, clad in wooden armor, loomed above them.
"The Wood-Armored Susanoo. How does it look? Do you like it?" Shion mocked from within the titan's forehead.
With a single swing, the Susanoo's blade cleaved downward.
ROAR!
The tapir let out a wail before being split apart, vanishing in a burst of smoke. Whether it had survived or not, no one could say.
High within the armored Susanoo, Shion looked down on the stunned Danzō.
"In a battle between shinobi, there's one other rule—misreading your opponent's abilities comes with a price."
The Susanoo, clad in Mokuton plating, raised its colossal blade and swung.
BOOOM!
The underground chamber shook violently, stones crashing down. Root's hidden base now teetered on collapse.
Danzō invoked Izanagi again. Two more Sharingan eyes on his right arm snapped shut.
And then—
A hand appeared suddenly before his right eye.
Squish!
The eye was gouged out, followed by a blade driven straight through his chest.
Shion reappeared, calmly sealing the stolen Sharingan into a glass vial.
"Sharingan aren't tokens you can use like revival coins. Against these eyes of mine, even Izanagi is worthless."
Danzō's gaze dropped to the blade piercing his chest. Behind him, a faint glow of the Flying Thunder God formula shimmered.
"When… did you—?"
But he already knew. It was during his own furious combo earlier. Only once had Shion's Susanoo made contact—blocking the final wind-infused kunai. At that exact moment, Shion had placed his mark.
"All I've done is for Konoha!" Danzō snarled. "I am the one who should have been Hokage! Uchiha Shion, you will suffer Konoha's vengeance!"
Madness overtook him. With a roar, he ripped the blade from his chest.
Shion didn't pursue. Instead, he flickered to safety with Flying Thunder God.
"What's wrong, Danzō? Not going to use your Reverse Four Symbols Seal?"
The words froze Danzō in place. His dead-fish eyes locked on Shion. "How… do you know about that? Cough!"
Blood gushed from his mouth. His heart had been pierced—only the grafted Hashirama cells were keeping him alive.
"Even if I die, I'll drag you down to hell with me!"
He forced every ounce of chakra into a Body Flicker. His legs exploded into bloody pulp, propelling him instantly before Shion.
Black blood surged outward, forming the Reverse Four Symbols Seal.
"Perish with me, Uchiha Shion!"
The seal swelled like a black sphere, expanding and collapsing—yet inside, there was no trace of Shion.
…
Thud!
Danzō collapsed lifeless to the ground.
Shion crouched, retrieving his blade. The Flying Thunder God seal shimmered once more along its edge.
"I foresaw this much—the moment you went mad and pulled the blade out. That was the end of your future."
Exhaling, Shion glanced at the corpse. Good thing I didn't trust my memories about the seal. In the original timeline, the Reverse Four Symbols Seal didn't even kill Sasuke—it only destroyed half a bridge. Such a so-called 'sure-kill' move… worthless.
He shook his head and stepped closer.
"Still, better to be thorough."
With a slash, Danzō's robes were shredded, revealing the grotesque right arm grown from Hashirama's cells.
"Knew it. You still had another trick up your sleeve, old dog."
On his shoulder, one last Sharingan slowly closed.
A delayed-use Izanagi. Just like how Obito had escaped Konan's six hundred billion paper bombs.
But this time, it lingered longer. Danzō had gambled that Shion would die to the seal, making the disadvantage illusion and the advantage reality.
The seal had been the fake. Survival, the real outcome.
"Not this time."
Stab!
Shion drove his blade into the final eye, snuffing it out and canceling the lingering Izanagi.
He studied the corpse one last time. Then, with a deep breath, he gathered wind chakra into his palm, forming a whirling sphere that swelled larger and larger.
After ten seconds, the body was reduced to nothing but pulp and bone fragments.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive blaze engulfed the remains, burning them to ash.
Only then did Shion let out a long breath. "If you're still alive after that… I'll just kill you again."
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