Chapter 199: Sasuke's Gambit
The chamber was a testament to their brutal exchange. Both combatants stood panting, their bodies pushed to the absolute brink. Sasuke's chakra reserves were dangerously low, the skeletal form of his Susano'o flickering weakly around him. Danzō, though seemingly unharmed thanks to Izanagi, was feeling the immense strain of repeatedly rewriting his own death.
Sasuke had fought with ruthless efficiency, knowing the rules of Danzō's forbidden technique. Every powerful, rapid attack was designed to force the activation of Izanagi, to bleed the old man of his ten precious lives. Now, they stood on the precipice of the final confrontation.
Danzō raised his right arm, his eyes scanning the remaining Sharingan. A grim sense of relief washed over him. Uchiha Sasuke… a true genius, to have pushed me this far. But you are finished. Your chakra is spent. My Izanagi still has one minute of invincibility remaining. The next exchange will be the last.
He had one more card to play—the Mangekyō Sharingan of Shisui Uchiha, transplanted into his right eye. But he deemed it unnecessary. Sasuke was exhausted. Even if the boy managed a final, desperate attack that killed them both, Izanagi would simply reverse the outcome, leaving Danzō the victor. His ingrained caution and arrogance led him to underestimate the depths of Sasuke's resolve and cunning.
"Hmph!"
With a final surge of will, Sasuke channeled the dregs of his chakra. Lightning crackled and condensed in his hand, forming a blade of pure thunder—the Chidori Katana. "For that arm… how many of my clansmen did you slaughter?!" he roared, charging forward.
Danzō met the charge, infusing a simple kunai with Wind Release chakra until it glowed with a sharp, cutting aura. He didn't need to dodge. For the next minute, reality was his to command. "I didn't kill them," Danzō retorted coldly. "It was Itachi."
"*You forced him!*" Sasuke's scream was one of pure, unadulterated agony.
Their movements were a blur. In a macabre mirror, neither defense nor evasion. It was a mutual suicide pact. Sasuke's lightning blade plunged deep into Danzō's chest. Simultaneously, Danzō's wind-enhanced kunai stabbed into Sasuke's body.
They stood locked in their deadly embrace, the only sound their ragged, desperate breaths.
"You were too hasty," Danzō wheezed after a moment, a trace of triumph in his voice. "My eye is still open. I win. Did you truly believe you understood Izanagi?"
But the triumph on his face froze, then shattered into disbelief. Sasuke, despite his wound, was smiling. A cold, victorious smile.
"What…? Why didn't it activate…?" Danzō stammered, feeling the life force draining from the very real wound in his chest. His eyes dropped to his right arm. The Sharingan he had believed was open… was closed. All of them were. They had closed moments ago.
He had been tricked.
"You… you bastard… Guh!" Rage and the fatal injury conspired against him. Danzō vomited a torrent of blood, his vision dimming. His legs gave way, and he collapsed to his knees.
"Hn. You are the one who has lost," Sasuke sneered. He dispersed the Chidori Katana and staggered back, using a small jolt of lightning to cauterize his wound, stemming the blood flow.
"DAMN YOU!" Danzō screamed, a final, futile surge of hatred giving him the strength to lunge. But he only managed to fall face-first onto the cold stone floor.
Sasuke, breathing heavily but standing, looked down at the dying man with utter contempt. "As you said, my genjutsu is far inferior to Itachi's. It cannot manipulate time like Tsukuyomi. But even a weak, fleeting illusion… when applied at the precise moment… is enough."
He took a painful breath, his voice gaining strength with his victory. "Izanagi's cost is the light of a Sharingan. One eye buys about sixty seconds of altered reality. My relentless, suicidal attacks were meant to make you burn through them one by one. And I… I am an Uchiha. I possess the Mangekyō. My visual prowess is superior to yours. I noticed it. During our fight, you repeatedly glanced at your arm to check the remaining eyes, to gauge the time left on your invincibility."
Sasuke's Sharingan glinted. "Before our final clash, the last Sharingan had already closed. But in the instant before you could notice, I cast a simple illusion. I made you see what you expected to see—an open eye. I made you believe you were still invincible. That was all it took."
He stared down at the broken form of Shimura Danzō. "Your arrogance was your downfall. You wielded the Sharingan, but you never understood the Uchiha. You never respected the battle of eyes. Do not… underestimate Uchiha."
The architect of the clan's destruction lay defeated, not by overwhelming power alone, but by a younger, sharper mind that had turned his greatest weapon into his final trap.
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