Sizzle! Sizzle!
It sounded like a high-pressure steamer venting steam. Crackling bursts echoed through the chamber.
Konome stood before Ryoma with her barrier withdrawn. She was slightly shorter than him, yet the terrifying pressure radiating from her made her feel like a predator standing at the top of the food chain.
They were close enough to feel each other's breathing. But what that breath carried was not the warmth of intimacy between a man and a woman. It was a torture most ordinary people could not even imagine.
"Cough... ahhh!"
Ryoma kept letting out ragged cries. He had no mind left to appreciate the pretty face so close to his own. The crushing terror felt like a spear driven straight through his skull.
Agony and fear stuffed his brain so completely it was as if two iron blocks had been rammed inside.
The steam from Konome's breath had scalded the skin of his face until it turned red and black. Dense blisters covered his face and neck. In another few minutes, his whole head would likely be steamed through.
Tilting her head slightly, Konome stared into the trembling, terrified eyes hidden behind his glasses.
"You were one of Root's elders from the very beginning. You were the person Danzo trusted most. And yet you knew nothing about the secret passage in his chamber?"
Whether Danzo escaped or not truly did not matter much to her. In fact, him leaving Root and Konoha would make killing him easier later. She would no longer have to worry about him dragging her Root down with him.
What truly angered her was Ryoma's betrayal. Deliberately exposing himself and letting Danzo go was no minor mistake. Its nature was vile.
"I know my crime. I will accept whatever punishment you deem fit."
Ryoma shut his eyes and gave up resisting, allowing Konome to steam him alive by the inch.
He had no defense for what he had done.
Just as Konome said, this had not been carelessness at all. He had deliberately let Danzo go, and even delayed for a full seven days. That was more than enough time for a man bent on fleeing to escape the borders of the Land of Fire.
For a crime this great, even if Konome killed him on the spot, it would only be just.
He had no complaints.
Hummm...
A strange sound reverberated through the air. Ryoma sensed the heart-rending fear beginning to recede. Even the steam in front of him rapidly vanished, leaving only the needling pain in his burned face.
He opened his eyes shakily.
His face was covered in blisters, lumpy and swollen like the back of a toad. His features looked half melted, like wax running down a candle. Other than the violet eyes hidden under his glasses, there was nothing left of his usual stern appearance.
The vivid red barrier wrapped around Konome once more, and the temperature in the chamber seemed to drop by a few degrees.
"The one who contacted me to kill Danzo was you. The one who let him go was also you. I truly don't know what to say about you."
Konome already knew the history between Ryoma and Danzo. As she looked at the man before her, his face ruined like melted wax, she understood that he still could not fully sever himself from the sun he had once followed.
Plop!
Ignoring the burning pain on his face, Ryoma's knees buckled and he knelt before Konome. With both hands he swept aside the carpet of dead insects on the floor, then slammed his forehead into the ground with a heavy thud.
"Root has changed hands. Danzo will never again harm Konoha's shinobi.
"He once saved my life and took one hand and one eye in exchange. Today, I returned that debt by giving him back one life. No matter what happens now, Danzo and I owe each other nothing.
"Any punishment... Ryoma is willing to bear!"
Konome looked down at him with cold eyes and rubbed her forehead, her finger tracing a small circle over the seal there.
Danzo was a monster. Ryoma had betrayed Root. But the way things had turned out, she somehow felt like she was the villain now.
"Danzo saved your life. I've saved yours more than once. And this is how you repay me?"
The disappointment in Konome's voice made Ryoma burn with shame.
Had Konome not driven off the mysterious enemy at Raikoyama, he would have died there. Later, while recounting the terms of the deal, Danzo had inexplicably turned murderous toward him, and Konome had saved him again. During the assassination attempt in the operating room, if not for her intervention, the resurrected Danzo would have executed him outright.
What he had done now truly was a betrayal of her trust.
"I offer myself as your blade, to repay your grace. Please... believe in me one more time!"
Ryoma pressed his forehead harder into the floor, the rough stone breaking his blisters and drawing blood.
Konome watched him without an ounce of sympathy.
Trust was one of the most precious things in the world. It was hard to earn, and once thrown away, almost impossible to regain.
"And if Danzo comes back to oppose me? Will you let him go again?"
"I have already carved the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Jutsu into my body. If Danzo dares return, I will perish together with him. I will never allow him to threaten Konoha again."
His voice was low, but firm.
If Danzo found some remote place to spend out the rest of his life, that would be ideal. But if he returned, Ryoma had already prepared the means to atone for what he had done.
Konome's Byakugan swept through his body. Beneath the honeycomb structure filled with insect nests, she found a black square-shaped curse mark over his heart.
A ripple finally passed through her cold gaze. She recognized the technique immediately.
The Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Jutsu.
It was the very same forbidden technique Danzo had tried to use in canon to drag Sasuke and the others down with him.
By inverting the Four Symbols Seal, the user spread their own blood outward through the space around them, forming a sealing formula that could trap everything within several hundred meters inside their own body.
This was an S-rank forbidden technique, nearly impossible to counter once activated. Most importantly, because of the strange nature of sealing arts, even Izanagi could not evade it.
That was right.
Even Izanagi, a technique that could rewrite reality and return its user from death, feared nothing more than high-level sealing arts.
Through years of studying the mechanics of Kotoamatsukami, Konome had delved deeply into the mysteries of Mangekyo abilities. She had even begun to touch the true nature of dojutsu.
At its core, dojutsu was simply overwhelming force expressed through will.
It sounded crude, but it was true.
All of the Ōtsutsuki clan's powers still relied on chakra as an energy source. Only after accumulating enough chakra could they display all those strange, reality-breaking phenomena.
By studying the Sharingan and Yin Release techniques, Yang Release Konome had discovered that Yin Release seemed so strange because mental energy did not obey the laws of the material world.
For example:
With pure imagination alone, anyone could mentally leap across galaxies or even the universe in half a second. The speed of thought far exceeded the theoretical maximum speed of light.
An ordinary person had no energy capable of supporting that thought, so crossing galaxies remained fantasy. But the Ōtsutsuki were different.
By plundering the natural energy of planets, they gained almost inexhaustible chakra.
That meant their will truly could become reality, producing all manner of impossible abilities.
That was dojutsu.
Dojutsu belonged to Yin Release. It was intangible and immaterial. Unless opposed by the same kind of Yin power, all other forms of ninjutsu were like trying to scoop the moon's reflection from water.
Yet sealing arts alone were different.
For reasons unknown, techniques like the Eight Trigrams and Four Symbols seals could directly target Yin Release. It was not only techniques like Izanagi either. Almost every seemingly invincible ability had little resistance against high-level sealing arts. Even the all-piercing shikotsumyaku inside her body could not fully defy them.
So when Ryoma said he would perish together with Danzo, it was not empty boasting.
If Danzo grew careless and relied too much on Izanagi's false invincibility, Ryoma really could seal him away and redeem his mistake exactly as promised.
"Remember what you said today. If something like this happens again, I promise you a fate worse than death."
Konome dropped those icy words, stepped around Ryoma, and turned toward the door.
Tap. Tap.
As her footsteps receded down the corridor, Ryoma's low voice followed after her.
"Ryoma now owes you four lives."
Still sprawled on the floor carpeted in dead insects, his face ruined and running with blood and tears, Ryoma remained there for a long time without moving, as though he had died together with the insects at his feet, or as though he had finally cast off his old sins and been reborn.
Root's efficiency was terrifyingly high.
That very night:
Every personal belonging and file connected to Danzo was sealed away. His chakra signatures were erased from the barriers' recognition patterns.
From that point on, he would not even be able to enter Root's latrines freely.
All hidden tunnels and secret paths leading to the village were sealed and rigged with alarms. With Konome's Byakugan and supersonic mobility, if Danzo showed himself again, he would never escape.
At the same time, Root captain Ryoma, having committed a grave offense, was sent by Lady Konome to the training division to receive punishment. According to those in the training division, his face had been destroyed, his body drenched in blood, and he had worn a thick mask marked with purple patterns the entire time.
Root moved quickly, and Konome was no slower.
Early the next morning, carrying the evidence Ryoma had compiled, she ascended to the third floor of the Hokage Tower under the gaze of countless Konoha shinobi and clients.
At the door, Suzaku spotted her approaching and stepped aside immediately, bowing in greeting.
The Wave Country matter had been settled the previous night.
At the weight of Konome's rather flat praise of, "Good location. Good food," the Hokage had approved a ten-year protection agreement between Konoha and Wave Country. The profit involved would be measured in the hundreds of millions.
According to the man representing Wave Country, they even intended to erect a statue of Konome Taketori in what would become Konoha Plaza, in gratitude for her outstanding contribution.
That was all political capital.
As Konome nodded back politely, Suzaku silently began to regard her as one of the strongest contenders for the next Hokage. If his personality had not been so naturally cold, he might have started chatting with her on the spot.
Unexpectedly, Konome did not go straight into the office. Instead, she spoke to him first.
"Why are you standing outside?"
"Ah... Lord Hokage said there were confidential ANBU documents inside, so I was told to wait out here."
Suzaku seemed almost flattered that she had addressed him, to the point that his speech faltered.
"I see."
Konome held the scroll in her hand and nodded politely. At the same time, her eyes had already looked through the door and seen what was happening inside.
The great Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat with blood streaming from his nose, hunched over his crystal ball. His old face was flushed. The moment he heard her voice, he jolted and hurriedly wiped the blood away with paper.
That dirty old man using the Telescope Technique to peek at women's baths.
Once Hiruzen had cleaned himself up, Konome ended the conversation with Suzaku and pushed open the office door.
The moment she stepped inside, she caught a strange scent in the air.
Tap.
Hiruzen took a long drag from his pipe, and a wave of choking smoke spread out, masking the smell. He picked up a mission slip, narrowed his eyes, and wore a severe expression. The wrinkles on his face seemed sharp enough to cut. Looking at him, one would think the mission slip in his hand determined the fate of the shinobi world for the next hundred years.
That dramatic effect would have worked better if Konome could not plainly read the first line on the mission sheet.
D-rank mission: postpartum care of a sow.
"Oh? Konome, you're here."
Pretending to have only just noticed her, Hiruzen set the slip down and gave her his usual kindly grandfatherly smile.
Unfortunately, the streak of red beneath his nose, right over the philtrum, ruined all dignity and left behind only pure lechery.
"Mmm."
In less than three seconds, Konome tossed the scroll labeled Danzo onto his desk.
This should have been a grave and solemn matter about Danzo's defection. Yet at this moment she could not feel solemn in the slightest. All she felt was embarrassment.
Still unaware that his secret had already been exposed, Hiruzen wiped his hands and picked up the scroll. The moment he saw Danzo's name on it, he seemed to understand. The more he read, the heavier his expression grew.
"These are Danzo's crimes over the years.
"Conducting human experiments with First Hokage cells alongside Orochimaru. Preventing the Uchiha from supporting the village during the Nine-Tails incident, leading to the Fourth Hokage's death. Assassinating Uchiha Shisui. Stirring hatred within the Uchiha clan. And more.
"All testimony and evidence were written by Root members who personally experienced those events."
Konome recited the charges without emotion. In doing so, she was also declaring her victory in this struggle.
"Yesterday, Shimura Danzo fled Konoha without authorization to answer for his crimes. I request that the Third Hokage issue a warrant, designate him an S-rank missing-nin, and organize pursuit."
Smack!
Hiruzen slammed the scroll onto the desk. The long list of crimes on it had enraged him. But after hearing Konome's request, he fell into silence.
Konome watched the struggle in his eyes and did not press him.
She had always known this would be a hard choice for Hiruzen. Even if he ultimately chose not to issue the warrant, she had expected as much.
"Well... the Chunin Exams are only a month away. Konoha may not be able to spare enough manpower to pursue Danzo right now..."
As he spoke, as if trying to persuade himself, Hiruzen nodded repeatedly. He raised his eyes carefully to gauge Konome's reaction.
He did not want to offend Konome over Danzo, but neither did he want to cast Danzo aside completely. He had always claimed he would not interfere in their conflict, yet at the crucial moment, he still wanted to preserve a path for retreat.
"In that case, let's do it this way. We'll issue the warrant after the Chunin Exams."
Konome was not surprised in the least. In fact, she had predicted this exact excuse. Hiruzen Sarutobi had never once disappointed anyone when it came to disappointing people.
Perhaps it was time for the old man to retire and spend his remaining years in peace.
With Danzo's matter said and done, Konome turned to leave.
Root had officially changed hands. She still had far too much to do. The organizational structure needed changing. Personnel needed to be redistributed. There were still Hidan and Kakuzu to deal with as well.
"Wait."
The old man's voice stopped her. She turned back in puzzlement and saw Hiruzen take out two scrolls from the drawer, one large and one small, and place them on the desk.
"This is...?"
The instant Konome saw the brightly colored large scroll, she could no longer look away.
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