Kiyohara opened his mouth.
A boundless sea of flames erupted from his lips.
The fire was not the ordinary crimson of conventional Fire Release. Instead, it shimmered with a dazzling layer of golden chakra.
This was the result of Kiyohara combining Microwave Fire Release with Yang Release chakra, creating flames whose temperature had long surpassed the limits of ordinary Fire Release ninjutsu.
If it had to be ranked, then this had undoubtedly elevated the B-rank Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation to the level of an S-rank technique.
In truth, it had already become an entirely different jutsu from the original.
Kiyohara simply could not be bothered to rename it.
The moment the flames roared forward, everything in their path changed.
Rainwater instantly evaporated.
The surrounding air twisted and distorted from the unbearable heat.
The torrent of fire spread across the sky, transforming into a blazing inferno that swallowed Danzo's summoned beast, Baku, in an instant.
Baku tried to dodge.
It was already too late.
The flames followed the tremendous suction it had created and poured directly into its throat.
Boom!
Scorching fire wrapped around Baku's massive body, burning it until it was almost unrecognizable.
Bang!
Its enormous form immediately dissolved into a cloud of white smoke before disappearing.
Whenever a summoned beast suffered damage beyond its limit, the summoning contract was automatically released.
The violent winds stopped abruptly.
The overwhelming suction vanished without a trace.
The ANBU shinobi who had nearly been blown away by the crushing wind pressure stumbled as they regained their footing, each of them gasping desperately for air.
Shisui also dispersed the skeletal Susanoo surrounding him.
The emerald chakra slowly faded into the curtain of rain.
As the white smoke disappeared, Danzo's figure was revealed before Kiyohara once again.
His face had turned deathly pale.
His lone eye was filled with shock and fury.
Behind him, the Root shinobi exchanged glances.
The expressions on their faces gradually shifted from disbelief to outright terror.
Danzo gritted his teeth.
He knew the situation had already become hopeless.
Baku he had spent years taming...
One of the greatest trump cards he had always taken pride in...
Had not even survived a single exchange against Kiyohara.
Not only had his attempt to steal Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan failed...
Kiyohara's strength had also exceeded every one of his expectations.
Danzo lowered his head and looked toward his right arm.
Only a handful of Sharingan remained.
Those eyes represented his final chance.
Every Sharingan meant one opportunity to resurrect through Izanagi.
But...
Even if he resurrected over and over again...
Could he actually defeat Kiyohara?
The answer was obvious.
No.
Moreover, every one of those Sharingan had cost him enormous effort to obtain.
He absolutely could not waste them in a battle he had no chance of winning.
"Tatsuma, come with me! The rest of you, stop him!"
Danzo immediately issued his orders to the Root shinobi.
Without another word, he turned around and fled toward the depths of the forest.
His hurried footsteps staggered awkwardly, making him resemble an old dog desperately running for its life.
Dozens of Root shinobi charged through the rain.
These were all fanatics whose wills had been thoroughly erased through Danzo's brainwashing.
Even though every one of them knew they were charging toward certain death...
Not a single one hesitated.
Dozens of shinobi simultaneously drew their swords and kunai.
Their hands flashed through seals.
Wind Release.
Fire Release.
Insect techniques.
Poison mist.
Every kind of ninjutsu came crashing toward Kiyohara all at once.
Watching Danzo's fleeing back, Kiyohara merely shook his head.
From the very beginning...
Danzo had always been someone who feared death.
He constantly preached about sacrificing everything for Konoha.
Yet whenever real danger arrived...
He always ran faster than anyone else.
It had been exactly the same during his battle against Sasuke.
He had stubbornly kept his greatest trump cards hidden, intending to eliminate Sasuke first, then deal with Obito afterward before escaping completely unharmed.
Because of that ridiculous habit of refusing to use his strongest abilities early, he had practically treated Izanagi like nothing more than a Substitute Technique.
In the end...
He had still died.
Now, Danzo had probably concluded that defeating Kiyohara was impossible.
Rather than wasting his precious Sharingan, he had abandoned any thought of fighting and focused solely on escaping.
"You're in the way."
The golden sand gourd behind Kiyohara trembled once more.
Countless grains of gold sand gathered together.
Within moments, they transformed into countless slender needles.
Tiny arcs of electricity crackled across their surfaces.
Kiyohara's mastery over electromagnetic force had already reached an astonishing level.
Every grain of gold sand carried his chakra.
Because of that, even after being accelerated to terrifying speeds, they would never melt from excessive heat.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The countless golden needles shot forward like a storm.
They pierced effortlessly through the bodies of every Root shinobi standing in front of him.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The muffled sounds of flesh being pierced echoed continuously.
Against someone who had reached Kiyohara's level...
Numbers had already lost all meaning.
Just as Madara had once carved through the Allied Shinobi Forces like a living god of war...
These ordinary Root shinobi simply could not bridge the overwhelming gap in strength.
In less than a single exchange...
Dozens of Root operatives collapsed into the muddy rainwater simultaneously.
None of them even had time to scream.
Blood poured from their wounds.
Yet the cold rain quickly diluted the crimson streams, staining the soaked earth beneath them.
Kiyohara did not even spare the corpses another glance.
His gaze remained fixed upon the direction in which Danzo had fled.
Meanwhile, Danzo still had not recovered from the shock on his face.
He had barely turned around before witnessing every one of his Root subordinates being slaughtered.
Immediately afterward...
He saw Kiyohara forming hand seals again.
"Water Release: Water World Technique."
Another self-created ninjutsu.
Its principle was remarkably simple.
By mixing countless particles of gold sand into rapidly flowing water, the technique retained Water Release's flexibility while greatly increasing its destructive power through the razor sharp gold particles hidden within.
BOOM!
The ground began to shake violently.
A circular wall of water several dozen meters high erupted from the earth.
The towering water wall rapidly closed inward.
Eventually...
It formed a gigantic spherical barrier.
The water circulated around the barrier walls at incredible speed.
Within the rushing current, the countless grains of gold sand became innumerable razor sharp streams of blades.
Forget an ordinary human.
Not even a mosquito could escape from inside this prison.
Danzo, blinded by panic, crashed directly into the water barrier.
The violently rotating current instantly shredded his sleeve.
The countless sand blades carved several deep wounds into his arm, slicing all the way to the bone.
He staggered backward several steps.
Looking at the endless wall of water before him...
True despair finally appeared in his lone eye.
He slowly turned around.
Kiyohara was already standing behind him.
Rain still continued to fall outside.
However, the instant every raindrop touched the barrier, it was swept away by the rotating currents and absorbed into the endless flow surrounding the sphere.
Inside the barrier...
The rain had completely stopped.
"You can't escape."
Kiyohara's calm voice echoed through the enormous space.
It was not loud.
Yet every word reached Danzo's ears with perfect clarity.
"Shimura Danzo..."
"Today..."
"Will be the day you die."
Danzo slowly drew a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress the fear and rage surging inside him.
His eye darted rapidly across the surroundings.
The barrier was enormous.
But it was not infinite.
If he could locate a weak point...
If he could unleash his strongest Wind Release and tear open even the smallest opening...
He might still have a chance to escape.
But...
His gaze stopped on Kiyohara.
Within those scarlet eyes...
The pattern of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan slowly rotated.
Danzo immediately realized...
He had already been completely locked onto.
He had not forgotten that Kiyohara possessed those terrifying black flames.
Since they could erupt from Shisui's eyes...
There was no reason they could not erupt from Kiyohara's as well.
"So that's how it is..."
Danzo slowly removed the bandages covering his face.
The eye that had remained hidden all this time was finally exposed.
It was another crimson Sharingan.
Three tomoe slowly revolved within it.
Danzo understood that escape was no longer possible.
Since there was no way out...
He would simply gamble everything.
His hands rapidly formed seals.
His chest expanded.
Chakra surged through his throat.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
A compressed sphere of wind larger than a basketball exploded from his mouth.
Its surface was surrounded by countless razor sharp wind blades.
Everything in its path was shredded apart.
Even the falling rain was pulverized into countless tiny droplets.
Danzo had poured an enormous amount of wind chakra into this attack.
He was fully confident that even a massive steel gate forged from chakra-conducting metal would be torn apart instantly.
The giant wind sphere reached Kiyohara in the blink of an eye.
Beside him...
A skeletal half-body Susanoo materialized.
The enormous skeletal arm, covered in golden chakra, slowly rose.
Facing the incoming wind sphere...
It simply slapped forward casually.
BOOM!
The gigantic sphere exploded apart instantly.
The scattered wind blades slammed into the Water World Barrier surrounding them.
Yet they did nothing more than create layer after layer of tiny ripples.
The barrier itself did not even tremble.
Danzo continued weaving hand seals.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"
Endless compressed air bullets erupted continuously.
Like a machine gun...
They rained down toward Kiyohara.
The wind bullets slammed repeatedly into Susanoo's skeletal arm.
Every impact created violent white shockwaves.
The resulting explosions blasted numerous craters of varying depths into the ground.
Kiyohara remained standing exactly where he was.
His expression never changed.
As a master of Wind Release...
Danzo's accomplishments in that field truly were extraordinary.
Had it been the Kiyohara of several years ago...
This battle might actually have been difficult.
Unfortunately...
Time had changed everything.
Without even realizing it...
Kiyohara had already surpassed Danzo long ago.
"I've already taken quite a few of your attacks."
"So..."
"You should take one of mine as well, Danzo."
The moment he heard those words...
The uneasiness inside Danzo reached its absolute peak.
Almost instinctively...
He prepared to activate the Sharingan implanted in his right arm.
He wanted to cast Izanagi.
As long as he could survive...
There might still be an opportunity to reverse the situation.
But at that exact moment...
His eyes met Kiyohara's.
Those crimson Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan...
Resembled two endless whirlpools.
His consciousness was dragged into them instantly.
Naraku Yomotsu!
Danzo's pupil expanded violently.
Blood vessels spread across the whites of his eye.
Then...
He saw the thing he feared more than anything else.
It was not death.
It was not defeat.
It was something even more terrifying.
Konoha...
Destroyed by his own hands.
He saw Hiruzen standing upon the ruins of the Hokage Tower.
His body was drenched in blood.
He stared at Danzo with an expression he had never shown before.
"Danzo..."
"This is all your fault..."
"If you hadn't run away..."
"If you hadn't cared only about your own ambitions..."
"Konoha..."
"Would never have become like this..."
One after another...
The Root shinobi fell.
The pawns he had personally cultivated...
The subordinates he had always regarded as mere tools...
Were harvested like stalks of wheat.
"Lord Danzo..."
"Why..."
"Why did you abandon us..."
"Didn't you say..."
"That you were Konoha's darkness..."
"Can even darkness..."
"Run away..."
Danzo's body began trembling uncontrollably.
"No..."
"No..."
"It wasn't me..."
"I did it for Konoha..."
"Everything I did..."
"Was for Konoha..."
"Shut up!"
"All of you..."
"Shut up!"
His voice became louder and louder.
Sharper and sharper.
Until it finally turned into a completely hysterical scream.
Kiyohara quietly watched Danzo.
A trace of icy indifference flashed through his eyes.
Using offensive ninjutsu against Danzo was meaningless.
After all...
Danzo possessed Izanagi.
For a brief period, that technique granted him something no different from true immortality.
Unless Danzo could be killed during the brief instant when Izanagi was inactive, then no matter how many times he was slain, he would simply rewrite reality and return.
However, the forbidden technique Izanagi could only alter reality on the physical level.
It could not interfere with the spiritual world.
Genjutsu was different.
Once someone had fallen under a genjutsu, they had fallen under an illusion.
Even if Danzo sacrificed another Sharingan to activate Izanagi, he still could not erase the effects of a genjutsu.
It was much like Izanami, which was built upon the same principle.
Inside an endlessly repeating illusion, unless the victim confronted the truth of their own heart, they would remain trapped forever, sinking deeper and deeper until their physical body eventually collapsed.
That was precisely why Kiyohara had chosen Naraku Yomotsu.
Making Danzo drown within his own fears was far more effective than any physical attack.
Kiyohara stepped forward.
The skeletal frame of his Susanoo slowly dissolved around him.
He walked until he stood directly before Danzo.
Then he stopped.
Danzo was still trembling.
He continued muttering to himself, completely oblivious to Kiyohara's approach.
His lone eye was opened so wide that it looked as though it might split apart.
Yet what was reflected within that pupil was not reality.
It was the horrors that only he himself could see.
Kiyohara's hand sliced downward like a blade.
Slash!
Danzo's right arm was severed cleanly from the shoulder.
Blood erupted from the wound like a fountain, splashing across the rain-soaked ground before being washed into pale crimson puddles by the standing water.
The Sharingan embedded throughout the arm continued rotating slowly.
It was as though they were making one final, desperate struggle.
Danzo let out an agonized scream.
The overwhelming pain dragged him out of the genjutsu.
His eyes regained their focus.
He instinctively lowered his head.
His right shoulder was empty.
On the ground lay his severed arm, still twitching violently.
"Ah... Ah..."
His voice came out in broken fragments.
"My arm... my... my..."
My Sharingan...
My Sharingan...
In that instant, Danzo had lost his final source of confidence.
He had never imagined that a Mangekyo Sharingan genjutsu could be this terrifying.
A savage glint flashed through his eye.
If death was inevitable...
Then they would die together!
"Reverse Four Symbols Sealing!"
Danzo's voice became hoarse.
It carried the madness of someone making his final gamble.
"Kiyohara..."
"Come to hell with me!"
His blood suddenly turned pitch black.
Like ink, it burst outward from his body.
The black blood spread across the ground, rapidly forming the pattern of the Four Symbols Seal.
Kiyohara narrowed his eyes slightly.
If he were caught inside this fuinjutsu technique...
Even he would not escape unscathed.
Fortunately...
He possessed space-time ninjutsu.
"Flying Thunder God Technique."
His figure vanished instantly.
The next moment, he appeared near the edge of the barrier, calmly watching the area that had become enveloped by a gigantic sphere of blackness.
Danzo's body had already been completely consumed by the black light.
Only a vague silhouette remained.
Moments later...
Everything inside the black sphere disappeared.
When the darkness faded, only an enormous crater remained.
The walls of the crater were perfectly smooth, polished like mirrors, as though an enormous chunk of the world had been scooped out from within.
The Reverse Four Symbols Sealing required the caster's own blood to draw the sealing formula.
However...
Danzo had already lost more than half of his blood the moment his arm had been severed.
Most of it had splattered onto the ground and been washed away by the rainwater.
There simply was not enough blood left to sustain a large-scale fuinjutsu technique.
The black markings spread desperately across the earth.
Unable to locate sufficient blood to continue expanding...
The seal ultimately became noticeably smaller than it had been in the original timeline.
"Danzo... is dead?"
Shisui still felt that everything unfolding before him was somehow unreal.
When he had gone alone to meet Danzo...
He had nearly lost his eyes.
Yet Kiyohara had disposed of Danzo after only a few effortless exchanges.
"He's dead."
One of the nearby shinobi nodded solemnly.
"Danzo's chakra has completely disappeared."
Silence filled the battlefield.
Then...
The rain began falling once more.
Countless tiny raindrops drifted down from the heavens.
They landed inside the massive crater.
They struck the shattered trees.
They fell upon the surviving Root shinobi sitting weakly on the muddy ground.
"Withdraw."
Kiyohara turned around and walked toward the outside of the barrier.
"Round up every remaining Root shinobi."
"Take them back to the Hokage Tower."
"Interrogate every last one of them."
His voice remained calm.
Naturally, the Root organization consisted of far more than the handful Danzo had brought today.
However...
Its elite core had essentially been wiped out here.
Even Aburame Tatsuma had fallen during this battle.
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
The ANBU answered in unison.
Footsteps echoed through the rain.
Black-clad figures immediately dispersed to carry out their orders.
Just as someone was about to ask Kiyohara whether Shisui's final Mangekyo wish had finally been fulfilled...
Yugao hurried over.
The pale blue barrier surrounding the battlefield had just disappeared, allowing her to rush inside immediately.
"Hokage-sama."
Her long purple hair was still damp.
She had clearly just returned from outside.
Dropping to one knee, she respectfully presented a stack of documents.
"This is the inventory of everything recovered from Danzo's residence."
Kiyohara accepted the report and opened it.
Every page was densely packed with entries.
Experimental records.
Personnel rosters.
Financial transactions.
Mission reports.
Every single item listed within was enough to condemn Danzo beyond any possibility of redemption.
"Continue investigating."
Kiyohara closed the file before looking toward Yugao.
"Yes."
After Yugao turned and departed to carry out his orders...
Kiyohara also disappeared through the Flying Thunder God Technique.
...
His figure reappeared atop the Hokage Rock.
From there, the entire Konoha stretched out beneath him.
"Danzo is dead."
Kiyohara spoke quietly.
A silver-white phantom slowly emerged from within his body.
Long silver hair flowed all the way to its waist.
Those Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan quietly overlooked Konoha below.
Against their crimson background, the intricate patterns slowly revolved.
"I felt it."
Mangekyo Kiyohara nodded.
Just as Kiyohara had said...
Danzo 's chakra had vanished completely.
"So..."
"Does that mean all your last wills has been fulfilled?"
"Of course."
Mangekyo Kiyohara answered without hesitation.
He lowered his head.
His gaze fell upon his increasingly transparent hands.
Beginning from his palms...
His body slowly transformed into countless tiny particles of light.
The glowing fragments drifted away from him.
Like streams flowing toward the sea, they slowly floated in Kiyohara's direction.
"The Yamanaka Clan's Yin Release secret techniques..."
"The Akimichi Clan's Yang Release secret techniques..."
"And Danzo's death..."
"They were also my own lingering obsession."
He paused briefly before smiling faintly.
"You've done even better than I ever imagined."
As those words left his mouth...
His body began disintegrating more rapidly.
His silver-white hair.
His face, identical to Kiyohara's own.
Everything transformed into countless motes of light.
"Wait..."
Kiyohara instinctively raised his hand, wanting to ask something.
But Mangekyo Kiyohara merely shook his head.
"There's nothing worth waiting for."
"I was always you."
"And you were always me."
"We simply walked different paths..."
"And witnessed different scenery."
The instant those final words fell...
His entire body completely dissolved.
The countless particles of light lingered in the air for only a brief moment.
Then...
As though finally returning home...
Every single one surged toward Kiyohara.
...
What Kiyohara had actually wanted to ask...
Was whether his Rinnegan...
Or perhaps his Tenseigan...
Would finally begin to awaken.
After all, both were supreme ocular powers.
Their conditions for awakening were remarkably similar.
As long as one possessed either Hyuga or Uchiha blood...
Then combined it with Ōtsutsuki chakra...
It became possible to awaken one of these legendary eyes.
"...Forget it."
Kiyohara shook his head.
Instead, he carefully examined the changes taking place within himself.
According to theory...
His Ōtsutsuki bloodline, which had previously reached only twenty-five percent, should now have increased to roughly fifty percent.
"No."
"My situation is different."
"The actual progress should be far beyond that."
He shook his head once more.
The Mangekyo version of himself had never possessed the same advantages.
Kiyohara already carried numerous Bloodline Limits.
He also possessed the Byakugan.
It was as though he had already gathered many of the missing pieces needed to complete the Ōtsutsuki bloodline.
Receiving this inheritance...
Was like adding another blazing fire to an already raging furnace.
"Mm..."
Kiyohara let out a muffled groan.
This improvement...
Was far more stimulating than he had expected.
A sharp pain continuously spread from the center of his forehead.
It felt as though someone were forcibly drilling a hole through the crown of his skull.
'Oh no... don't tell me...'
'I'm about to grow a third eye...'
Kiyohara thought nervously.
He hurriedly reached up and touched the center of his forehead.
Fortunately...
It remained perfectly smooth.
Only then did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
If a third eye could close like Kaguya's, then perhaps it would not be so bad.
But if it resembled the Sage of Six Paths' eye, permanently embedded in the forehead without even the ability to shut...
That would seriously ruin his appearance.
"My spiritual energy..."
"It has increased tremendously."
Soon afterward, Kiyohara sensed his mental world expanding.
The space that housed the memorial urns continued growing larger and larger.
His already immense spiritual energy now began swelling at an unprecedented rate.
Even in his normal state...
The range of his perception expanded continuously.
From the earth beneath his feet...
To the skies above...
He could clearly perceive the busy ANBU shinobi working near the Root headquarters.
Even the birds nesting deep within the distant mountains entered his awareness.
The current Kiyohara felt as though he had suddenly unlocked a complete map within a game.
Everything...
No matter how insignificant...
Was clearly marked before him.
Then came the changes to his chakra reserves.
He could distinctly feel a warm current flowing through every one of his chakra pathways.
His meridians and chakra points widened continuously under that gentle yet overwhelming power.
His chakra pool had already seemed bottomless.
Now...
It was as though an entirely new spring had suddenly burst forth beneath it.
Its level rose at a speed visible even to the naked eye.
"My chakra..."
"Has already surpassed that of most Tailed Beasts."
Kiyohara could not help feeling delighted.
After all...
Not every Tailed Beast was as absurd as the Nine Tails or the Ten Tails.
The One Tail.
The Two Tails.
Their chakra reserves were actually relatively modest.
People such as the Fourth Raikage or Kisame had often been described as possessing Tailed Beast-level chakra.
Yet their actual displays of power were nowhere near as overwhelming as the Nine Tails.
Kiyohara suspected that the standard people used for comparison had always been the One Tail or the Two Tails.
The Nine Tails rarely revealed its true strength.
Because of that...
There had never really been a proper benchmark against which people could measure its terrifying chakra reserves.
"This improvement really isn't bad."
Kiyohara slowly clenched his fist.
At his peak, Hashirama possessed chakra reserves roughly equivalent to Naruto's own chakra plus half of the Nine Tails.
In other words, about fifty-four times Kakashi's chakra reserves.
Now...
Kiyohara's own chakra reserves had also reached approximately fifty to sixty times Kakashi's level.
Nor were the changes limited to his chakra alone.
He could clearly feel that his physical body had undergone tremendous transformation as well.
The density of his bones had increased dramatically.
Their structure had become purer, almost jade-like in quality.
He could distinctly sense that the density of his body now far surpassed that of an ordinary human.
Even without using any defensive ninjutsu, ordinary kunai and shuriken would no longer be capable of leaving so much as a scratch on his skin.
Just then...
A faint itching sensation spread across his forehead.
He could feel something pushing outward beneath his skin.
It was not painful.
Rather, it was an odd sensation of growth.
Like a seed breaking through the soil.
Tiny flesh-colored horns slowly emerged from both sides of his forehead.
Kiyohara raised his hand and lightly touched one of them with his fingertips.
'It seems that almost every Ōtsutsuki has horns...'
he thought to himself.
Still...
Even if they were broken off, it probably would not matter much.
He had an inexplicable feeling that he could regenerate them whenever he wished.
"Fortunately, I've learned techniques like the Chimera Technique and Dark Medical Ninjutsu, both of which can modify the physical body."
Kiyohara circulated his chakra.
The pair of horns immediately detached from his forehead.
With nothing more than a thought...
They regenerated once again.
"Perfect."
"This way, I won't attract unnecessary attention."
After thinking it over, Kiyohara decided to let the horns disappear for now.
At least at present...
They were of little practical use to him.
"So..."
"Can I still be considered human?"
Kiyohara rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
He shook his head before shifting his attention toward adapting to his newly inherited Mangekyo abilities.
Mangekyo Kiyohara possessed four unique ocular techniques in total.
During his previous inheritance, Kiyohara had already received two of them.
Only two remained.
After all, Mangekyo Kiyohara himself had awakened his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan only by inheriting the future of another Mangekyo version of himself.
...
"Hayatama Sonkou."
Kiyohara finally learned the name of the first newly inherited dojutsu technique.
Its effects resembled the Heaven Transfer Technique.
However...
Its upper limit was vastly higher.
The Heaven Transfer Technique allowed a target to be transported instantly to a designated location through incredible acceleration.
Normally, though, it was used only to transport objects.
The extreme speed generated immense friction with the surrounding air while simultaneously subjecting the target to overwhelming acceleration forces.
Ordinary human bodies simply could not withstand such stress.
Anyone transported too quickly would literally be torn apart.
Kiyohara's Mangekyo ability worked according to a similar principle.
It allowed him to break through the physical speed limits of his own body.
His movement speed.
His attack speed.
His hand seal speed.
Every aspect of his physical performance increased geometrically as the ocular technique was activated.
Theoretically...
As long as his physical body was durable enough...
There was no upper limit to his speed.
He could even reach the speed of light.
Perhaps...
He could even surpass it.
Of course...
Kiyohara estimated that exceeding light speed would place unimaginably high demands upon the body.
The spatial tearing caused by overwhelming velocity...
The crushing inertia...
The friction generated by the atmosphere...
The strain placed upon every muscle and bone...
Every bit of backlash would have to be endured entirely by the user's own flesh.
The faster one became...
The more the surrounding air would feel like an unbreakable wall of solid steel.
If someone overused Hayatama Sonkou...
The first person to die would probably be the user.
"...Can this really be a Mangekyo Sharingan ability?"
Once again, Kiyohara found himself astonished by the seemingly limitless potential of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
After all...
Obtaining Mangekyo abilities was practically no different from drawing random cards.
Some awakened Amaterasu, flames whose temperature rivaled that of the sun.
Others awakened Kamui, a power capable of tearing apart space itself.
It could even be said that Obito's Kamui had created an entirely separate world.
It was simply a rather small one.
"Fortunately..."
"My current body should be able to exceed the speed of sound many times over without much difficulty."
Kiyohara pondered quietly.
As for exactly how fast he could become...
That would require experimentation.
The faster he himself became...
The closer he would come to possessing an ability resembling time stop.
His own speed would continue increasing...
While everything around him would appear slower and slower.
Soon afterward...
Kiyohara shifted his attention toward the second dojutsu technique.
Its name was...
Takamimusubi.
According to legend...
Takamimusubi was one of the Three Creator Deities of mythology, a supreme god governing creation and the power of all things.
Its ocular ability reflected that divine authority.
As long as Kiyohara locked his gaze onto one of his own techniques...
He could directly interfere with the chakra composing that technique through his ocular power.
Its destructive force...
Its effective range...
Its penetrative power...
Its duration...
Every aspect would be multiplied several times over.
Even the most basic E-rank Three Basic Techniques...
After receiving this enhancement...
Could achieve an illusion so realistic that it became impossible to distinguish from reality.
An ordinary B-rank Fire Release technique...
Could instantly surpass A-rank ninjutsu.
Its overall level would effectively increase by an entire rank.
Even more terrifying...
This ocular ability had absolutely no elemental restrictions.
Whether it was one of the seven basic chakra natures...
A Bloodline Limit...
Sage Arts...
Or even taijutsu...
Everything could be amplified.
Furthermore...
No additional hand seals were required.
The enhancement activated instantly.
When combined with Kiyohara's already monstrous chakra reserves...
Even he found it difficult to imagine just how overwhelming the results would become.
"I'll have to find an opportunity to test it."
Kiyohara silently made up his mind.
Now...
Even if the Ōtsutsuki clan invaded in the future...
He finally possessed genuine confidence.
After all...
Who wasn't an Ōtsutsuki now?
...
The following morning.
Golden sunlight streamed through the windows of the Hokage Tower.
Its rays illuminated the thick stack of documents covering the desk.
Hiruzen sat inside the office.
The chair belonging exclusively to the Hokage remained empty.
That seat...
No longer belonged to him.
Now serving only as an advisor, he quietly sat in an ordinary chair beside the Hokage's desk, waiting for Kiyohara to arrive.
The events of the previous night had already spread throughout all of Konoha.
Even Hiruzen felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information.
First...
The mysterious masked man had attacked the village.
Then came the Nine Tails' rampage.
Afterward...
Kiyohara had launched a lightning-fast purge against Danzo.
The documents before him consisted primarily of photographs.
Photographs of an underground laboratory.
Preserved infant organs floating inside cultivation tanks.
Glass containers labeled with unknown substances.
And...
Countless experimental subjects whose bodies had been horribly deformed by Hashirama Cells.
Each time Hiruzen turned another page...
His expression darkened further.
Every page recorded the names of infants secretly abducted by Root over the past several decades for use in human experimentation.
Beside some names was written...
Deceased.
Beside others...
Out of Control.
Others...
Disposed.
Only a tiny handful bore the word...
Survived.
Tenzo's name...
Was among those few survivors.
"...Danzo..."
Hiruzen sighed deeply.
Danzo had been his oldest friend.
Even when Danzo had attempted to assassinate him...
Hiruzen had chosen to overlook it.
But...
Kiyohara would never indulge Danzo the way he had.
Looking back now...
Hiruzen felt that Danzo had simply failed to understand the situation.
Not long afterward...
The office door opened.
The ones who entered were not Kiyohara.
Instead...
It was Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.
Neither of them looked well.
Clearly...
They had already seen the contents of those documents.
"Hiruzen."
Homura sat down and adjusted his glasses.
His expression was filled with melancholy.
Only yesterday...
He had still spoken with Danzo.
Today...
They had already become separated by life and death.
"What do you think about Danzo's situation?"
Hiruzen slowly shook his head.
He had no desire to speak.
Koharu sighed softly before taking a seat as well.
"Those pieces of evidence..."
"They're all genuine."
"The ANBU recovered everything directly from Danzo's residence and Root headquarters."
"Every single record matches perfectly."
"Experimental logs."
"Personnel rosters."
"Financial transactions."
"The evidence is absolutely irrefutable."
She paused briefly.
Her voice became quieter.
"And..."
"Last night..."
"Danzo really did withdraw the elite forces of Root from the village."
"When the Nine Tails was rampaging through Konoha..."
"He never made a move."
"He simply remained hidden outside the village."
Homura remained silent for a long while before finally speaking.
"Perhaps..."
"Danzo truly had his own hardships."
"Those experiments..."
"Those methods..."
"Although they could never be brought into the light..."
"They really were carried out for Konoha..."
"Homura."
At last...
Hiruzen opened his eyes.
He looked directly at his old companion.
Within those clouded eyes...
There was a weariness deeper than ever before.
"There were no hardships."
Homura froze.
"...What?"
"There were no hardships."
Hiruzen repeated the words once more.
"There is no justification for using infants as experimental subjects."
"There is no justification for abandoning the battlefield."
He slowly shook his head.
Those were lines that simply could not be crossed.
Research involving Wood Release had indeed been conducted in the past.
However, the test subjects had always been consenting adult volunteers.
Never infants.
Even Hiruzen himself had never imagined that Danzo would descend to such madness.
He had always assumed that, at worst, Danzo was using willing Root operatives or condemned criminals.
"I always believed..."
"...that everything Danzo did was for Konoha."
"So I tolerated him again and again."
"I yielded to him again and again."
"I pretended not to see it again and again."
"I convinced myself that as long as the final outcome benefited Konoha..."
"...it did not matter if the methods were somewhat dark."
"But now..."
Hiruzen lowered his head and looked at the closed file resting on the desk.
"...I finally understand."
"I was wrong."
"The things Danzo did..."
"...were never for Konoha."
"They were only for himself."
"For the Konoha that existed inside his own mind."
Silence settled over the office.
Homura opened his mouth as though he wished to argue.
Yet after a long pause...
He realized there was nothing he could possibly say.
Koharu also remained silent.
Only after what seemed like an eternity did Hiruzen finally speak again.
"Where's Kiyohara?"
"He should be here soon."
Koharu raised her head.
The moment those words left her lips...
The office door opened.
Kiyohara walked inside.
Behind him followed two ANBU shinobi...
And Konan.
Each of the ANBU carried an enormous stack of documents in their arms.
Konan had witnessed everything that had happened the previous night.
Once again...
Kiyohara's strength had completely shattered her understanding of what true power could be.
She could not help recalling how Nagato had gradually begun referring to himself as a god.
But if someone truly deserved to be called a god...
Then Kiyohara's power resembled divinity far more than Nagato's ever had.
"Lord Third."
Kiyohara gave Hiruzen a slight nod in greeting.
Hiruzen slowly looked up at him.
The morning sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating Kiyohara's face.
His youthful features showed not the slightest trace of exhaustion.
Despite fighting an intense battle the previous night...
Despite personally dealing with Danzo afterward...
His mental state appeared better than anyone else's.
For reasons he could not explain...
Hiruzen suddenly had a strange feeling.
Kiyohara seemed...
Different.
Even stronger than before.
But...
Only a single night had passed.
How could someone possibly undergo such an enormous transformation overnight?
Hiruzen suppressed the absurd thought deep within his heart.
Instead, he simply looked at Kiyohara and said,
"You handled Danzo's affair very well."
"I've read through all the evidence."
"The proof is absolutely conclusive."
"There's nothing more to discuss."
Kiyohara merely nodded.
Even if Hiruzen had refused to acknowledge it, it would not have mattered.
Kiyohara possessed countless methods to make them acknowledge reality.
Fortunately...
It appeared Hiruzen had not become so blind with age that he could no longer distinguish right from wrong.
Watching this scene unfold, Homura sighed once again.
He had known Hiruzen for decades.
Never before had he seen his old friend like this.
He resembled an ancient tree whose trunk still stood tall...
Yet whose core had already rotted away.
Among all of their lifelong companions...
No one had shared a deeper bond than Hiruzen and Danzo.
The two had grown up together.
They had been inseparable since childhood.
It was precisely because of that friendship...
That Hiruzen had tolerated Danzo crossing the line again and again.
"Hokage-sama."
One of the ANBU stepped forward and placed the thick stack of files onto the desk.
"These are all of the experimental records recovered from the Root headquarters."
"Our preliminary sorting has been completed."
"There are three hundred seventy-two records concerning live experiments involving Hashirama Cells."
"Five hundred eighteen research documents involving the development of forbidden techniques."
"And two hundred six financial records documenting the movement of Root's funds."
"In addition..."
"Root possesses seven operational bases both inside and outside Konoha."
"We have already secured three of them."
"The remaining four are currently being cleared."
"According to Root's registry, the organization contains one hundred fifty-three shinobi."
"Sixty-four were killed during last night's battle."
"Eighty-nine have been captured."
"They are currently being interrogated one by one."
Kiyohara nodded.
"Continue the investigation."
"Send the experimental data to Konoha Hospital."
"Have Rin organize a team to evaluate everything."
"Anything with research value should be preserved."
"Anything without value should be destroyed."
"As for the financial records..."
"Turn them over to the Finance Department."
"I want every source of funding and every expenditure investigated."
"As for the prisoners..."
Kiyohara paused briefly before making his decision.
"Anyone willing to abandon Root will be given one opportunity."
"They'll be reassigned into the ANBU."
"Anyone unwilling to sever their ties with Root..."
"Will be treated as a traitor."
After all...
Some members, like Sai, had never been deeply brainwashed.
Furthermore...
Individuals like Tanuki Shigaraki were extremely valuable to Kiyohara.
They had served as Root's researchers.
Their understanding of the Gozu Tennō Project was exceptionally deep.
In the future recorded in Boruto, Tanuki Shigaraki had reconstructed Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's secret technique, Gozu Tennō, by studying the remnants of Danzo's research, including an ancient scroll dating back a thousand years.
"Understood."
The ANBU respectfully withdrew.
Just then...
Someone knocked on the office door.
"Come in."
The door opened.
Yugao stepped inside, holding another report.
"Hokage-sama."
"The preliminary assessment of Root's remaining assets has been completed."
She walked to the desk and laid the document before him.
"The total assets registered under Root include land, buildings, weapons, shinobi tools, and financial reserves."
"The estimated value is roughly equivalent to Konoha's total tax revenue for three full years."
"Most of the funds are currently hidden within secret accounts."
"It will require some time before everything can be officially transferred."
Homura and Koharu exchanged glances.
Both saw the same astonishment reflected in each other's eyes.
Three years...
Of Konoha's total fiscal revenue.
The figure far exceeded either of their expectations.
Exactly how much wealth had Danzo secretly accumulated over the years?
Kiyohara casually picked up the report and skimmed through several pages before setting it back down.
"Continue the inventory."
"Once everything has been accounted for..."
"Transfer every last asset into Konoha's treasury."
"Understood."
Yugao bowed respectfully before leaving the office.
Moments later...
The door opened once again.
Tsunade walked inside.
Today she wore a pale green robe.
Her long golden hair rested loosely upon her shoulders, with several strands draping over her chest.
There was obvious fatigue on her beautiful face.
It was clear she had not slept well either.
Her eyes swept across the office before settling upon Kiyohara.
"Kiyohara."
"I need to ask you something."
Homura and Koharu exchanged another glance.
Understanding the situation immediately, they quietly stood up.
"We'll excuse ourselves."
After seeing the two leave...
Hiruzen also chose to depart.
The real reason...
Was that he wanted to avoid Tsunade asking him for money.
"Konan."
"Please help me deliver this file to Nono."
Kiyohara handed a document to Konan.
Immediately afterward, he issued additional orders to the two remaining ANBU, instructing them to strengthen the village's security patrols.
Soon...
Only Kiyohara and Tsunade remained inside the office.
Tsunade walked over to the desk.
She placed both hands upon its surface before leaning slightly forward.
From Kiyohara's angle...
The slightly open collar of her pale green robe revealed a generous expanse of fair skin.
The deep valley between her chest was impossible to miss.
Even the faint blue veins beneath her skin could be vaguely seen.
Her long golden hair spilled over her shoulders.
Several loose strands rested upon the desk, swaying gently with every breath she took.
"Why did you suddenly make your move against Danzo?"
Tsunade deliberately lowered her voice.
Confusion filled her expression.
"Danzo was one of Konoha's elders."
"He was also Hiruzen-sensei's longtime companion."
"Aren't you worried that handling things this way will provoke opposition from the other shinobi clans?"
Kiyohara leaned back against his chair.
He calmly met her gaze.
"So..."
"Sensei thinks I shouldn't have acted?"
"It's not that you shouldn't have."
Tsunade frowned.
"It's just..."
"It was too sudden."
"How long have you even been Hokage?"
"Your foundation hasn't fully stabilized yet."
"And yet you immediately moved against someone like Danzo..."
"Sensei."
Kiyohara interrupted her.
"Danzo..."
"...stopped being one of Konoha's elders a long time ago."
Tsunade blinked.
"What do you mean?"
"It means..."
"He had already become Konoha's cancer."
Kiyohara picked up the thick file containing Danzo's crimes and handed it to her.
"Everything inside was recovered from Danzo's residence and Root headquarters."
"Human experimentation."
"Infant organs."
"Misappropriation of funds."
"Abandoning the battlefield."
"Every accusation."
"Every crime."
"Is supported by irrefutable evidence."
Tsunade accepted the file and slowly opened it.
"These..."
"Danzo really did all of this?"
"Yes."
Kiyohara nodded.
Only then did Tsunade understand.
She had drunk a little too much alcohol the previous evening, causing her to receive the news much later than everyone else.
"If that's the case..."
"Then he truly deserved to die."
She closed the file and returned it to the desk.
Leaning forward once more, she supported herself with both hands against the tabletop.
"But..."
"That's not why I came here today."
Tsunade moved closer.
Her face approached Kiyohara's until only a short distance separated them.
At such close range...
Kiyohara could clearly feel the warmth of her breath brushing lightly across his face.
(End of Chapter)