But just then...
Teizawa stood where he was, without moving so much as a finger.
The kunai abruptly stopped three feet away from him, as if they had crashed into an invisible wall.
The flames from the Fire Release were crushed out by an unseen force.
The blades of Wind Release were ground apart.
The current from the Lightning Release was conducted into the earth.
Even the Root ninja who had lunged in close were frozen midair.
Their blades were only an inch from his throat.
Yet they could not advance another hair's breadth.
Danzō's pupils contracted slightly.
His subordinates remained locked in their lunging postures, like insects sealed in amber, completely motionless.
Some still held their hand seals. Some were frozen in the middle of swinging their blades. Others had not even landed from their leaps.
All of them were fixed in place. They could not even move their eyes.
Only then did Teizawa turn around.
He did not look at the Root ninja.
His gaze passed over them and landed on Danzō.
Danzō sat before the stone table.
A trace of shock flashed through his exposed left eye, but he quickly forced it down.
His hand was pressed against the tabletop, his knuckles white.
Even so, his expression remained calm.
"Courage?"
Teizawa's voice was very soft, yet it was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent underground space. "You asked who gave me courage?"
He raised his hand and lightly snapped his fingers.
With a crisp snap, the kunai suspended in midair all turned at once.
Their sharp edges aimed at their original owners.
The Root ninja frozen in place instantly changed expressions.
Some wanted to struggle. Some wanted to close their eyes. Some wanted to grit their teeth.
They could do nothing. Even their breathing was no longer under their control.
Teizawa looked at Danzō. "You think I came alone because I'm brave?"
He paused, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"No. It's because all of you are too weak."
Danzō's expression finally changed.
His hand instinctively reached toward his right arm.
It was wrapped tightly in bandages. Beneath those bandages were ten Sharingan.
That was his trump card, his final reliance.
But now...
His hand stopped in midair without undoing the bandages.
Because he still did not understand how Teizawa had done this.
Using his trump card before fully understanding his enemy's abilities would be irrational.
Teizawa looked at the hand frozen in midair and smiled. "A wise choice."
Then his finger moved slightly.
Just once.
As if brushing dust from a table.
Or plucking an invisible string.
The suspended kunai and blades abruptly changed direction.
Their edges aimed at their owners.
Then they shot forward.
Pfft.
The first kunai pierced through its owner's shoulder.
Pfft.
The second blade stabbed through its owner's thigh.
Pfft, pfft, pfft.
A series of dull sounds echoed through the underground space, like raindrops striking a heavy drum.
The Root ninja did not even have time to scream before they were nailed to the floor, the walls, and the ceiling by their own weapons.
Some had their shoulders pierced through. Some had their thighs impaled. Some had their palms pinned down. Some had their cheeks slashed open.
Then came the necks and hearts.
Blood surged from the wounds, staining the stone floor, staining the stone walls, staining the cold light of the night pearls red.
The stench of blood spread through the air, so thick it would not disperse.
Danzō's eye trembled sharply.
He looked at his dead subordinates.
He looked at the blood pouring from their wounds.
He looked at the young man standing by the doorway, who had only moved a finger.
In an instant, all his subordinates were dead.
They had been pierced through by their own weapons, nailed firmly in place, never to move again.
"Magnet Release?"
Danzō's voice was very low, as if he were talking to himself.
He had seen Magnet Release before. The Third Kazekage's Magnet Release could control Iron Sand, manipulate metal, and alter the course of a battle.
But that was control over external objects.
Weapons, ninja tools, Iron Sand.
He had never seen anyone control weapons already held in another person's hand, control blades that had already been thrust out.
He had never seen anyone make them reverse direction in midair and stab into their own wielders.
This was not Magnet Release. Magnet Release should not be capable of reaching this level.
This power, this absolute control over metal...
"Could it be Puppet Technique?"
He immediately rejected the thought.
Puppet Technique required chakra threads. It required active manipulation. It required range.
Yet this young man had merely moved a finger.
It was as though those weapons had been part of his own body from the start.
Danzō's left eye locked hard onto Teizawa.
Something surged deep within it.
Fear. Shock.
And a trace of something he was unwilling to admit.
Awe.
Teizawa stood at the doorway, looking at the expression that had finally appeared on Danzō's face.
"What's wrong?" The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. "Does Danzō want to exchange a few moves with me?"
Danzō did not speak.
His hand clenched tightly beneath the table.
His right arm was wrapped in bandages. Beneath those bandages were ten Sharingan, along with the cells of the First Hokage.
That was his trump card, the capital he had accumulated over decades.
But at this moment, he did not dare move.
Because he knew...
This young man was not someone he could handle.
The Root ninja nailed to the ground were proof.
Each of them was an elite. Each of them had undergone brutal training. Each of them could take a life in an instant.
But in front of this young man, they did not even have a chance to act.
Their weapons had been seized and controlled.
Their lives and deaths were decided by a single thought from him.
Before Danzō understood the other man's abilities, he did not dare risk himself.
Danzō took a deep breath and loosened his clenched fist.
He leaned back in his chair, and his lone left eye regained its calm.
"You jest, Kazekage."
His voice was hoarse and low, without the slightest trace of emotion.
"This old man is aged now. Matters of fighting and killing are better left to the young."
Teizawa looked at him and laughed.
"As expected, Danzō knows how to read the situation."
He turned and walked out the door.
When he reached the entrance, he stopped, but did not look back.
"Right..."
His voice remained unhurried. "I accidentally killed a few people. Danzō won't blame me, I trust."
He paused. "Of course, if Danzō does blame me... there's nothing I can do about that."
With that, he stepped into the darkness.
Danzō sat before the stone table, utterly still.
He looked at his murdered subordinates. He looked at the blood flowing across the floor. He looked at the back of the figure vanishing into the darkness.
The thought that he had to eliminate Teizawa took root in his heart.
Someone like that would absolutely become a grave threat to Konoha in the future.
He could not sit by and allow such a thing to happen.
Just then, hurried footsteps came from behind him.
They approached from the far end of the corridor.
Danzō turned and saw three Root ninja stumble into the room.
Their masks were crooked, and they were covered in dirt.
They looked as though they had just been dug out of the ground.
"My lord..."
The man's voice trembled, sounding especially grating in the deathly silent underground space.
"He... that man..."
He swallowed. "He took a large amount of our intelligence. A great deal of the experimental data was..."
Danzō's left eye contracted violently.
Experimental data?
That was the fruit of decades of his labor. The results of the Wood Release experiments. Records of Sharingan transplants. Research materials on countless forbidden techniques.
If those things fell into someone else's hands...
Everything he had painstakingly built over the years would be for nothing.
"What?"
His voice suddenly rose.
It was no longer his usual hoarse, low tone, but something sharp and nearly cracked.
His face flushed red. Blue veins bulged across his forehead.
His exposed left eye was filled with bloodshot veins, as if it were about to roll back in his head.
"Kill him!" He slammed his palm onto the stone table, and the tabletop cracked on impact, shards of stone flying everywhere. "This old man will go personally..."
The Root ninja knelt on the ground, not daring to raise his head.
"My lord..." His voice was rough, as if there were sand caught in his throat. "He... has already withdrawn."
He paused, and his voice dropped even lower.
"We couldn't stop him."
Danzō froze.
(End of Chapter)
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