Teizawa reached out and lifted the curtain.
Danzo was sitting inside.
His exposed left eye stared fixedly at Teizawa, his face expressionless.
"Kazekage. So it was you after all."
His voice was hoarse. "Are you really determined to wipe me out?"
Teizawa leaned against the carriage door, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Danzo, why are you running?"
Danzo fell silent for a moment.
"This old man merely went out to clear his head."
"Clear your head?" Teizawa laughed. "With this many subordinates and this much luggage?"
He shook his head. "Danzo, neither of us is a child. Who do you think that excuse can fool?"
Danzo's fingers tapped lightly against his knee twice.
The rhythm was slow and steady.
He stared at Teizawa for several seconds, then suddenly sighed.
"What do you want?"
Teizawa looked at him, something surging deep in his eyes.
The Sharingan. Shisui's Mangekyo. And Danzo's life.
He did not say any of it out loud. He merely smiled.
"I want many things. It depends on whether Danzo can afford to give them."
Danzo's fingers stopped tapping his knee.
The shouts and sounds of killing outside the carriage gradually thinned out.
One Root shinobi after another fell.
The Sunagakure Anbu dealt with them cleanly and efficiently.
Danzo did not look outside.
He only stared at Teizawa.
There was no panic on that wrinkled face. No fear.
Only a deep, almost pathological calm.
"I was actually waiting for you all along."
His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping over stone.
In the dusk, it sounded especially grating.
Teizawa's expression did not change.
There was even a faint smile still hanging at the corner of his mouth.
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "Waiting for me?"
Danzo's exposed left eye stared at him without blinking.
Something churned in the depths of that eye.
"Although I have no proof..."
His voice dropped very low. "I know you were the one who informed Tsunade."
"The evidence in her hands is the information you stole from my Root, isn't it?"
Teizawa smiled bashfully.
There was even a trace of youthful shyness in that smile.
Like a good student who had just been praised by a teacher.
"I was only doing it for Konoha's sake."
His tone was light.
As if he were speaking of something perfectly natural.
Danzo's eye narrowed.
The light leaking through that slit was as cold and sinister as a winter star.
"All of this is thanks to you."
His voice was very soft, but every word seemed squeezed through his teeth.
"You are dangerous. Leaving you alive would absolutely make you a threat to Konoha."
He paused. "Tsunade is still young, after all. She doesn't understand these things."
"But now that I know everything, I can't let you go, Kazekage."
The moment he finished speaking, Danzo suddenly raised his right hand.
He tore away the bandage wrapped around his eye.
The bandage fell away in circles.
Revealing the eye hidden in the darkness.
A scarlet base. Three tomoe slowly rotating.
Then they abruptly accelerated.
The tomoe linked together, forming a strange and magnificent pattern.
It was the Sharingan.
No, it was the Mangekyo Sharingan.
The eye that belonged to Shisui.
The eye that possessed the power of the strongest genjutsu: Kotoamatsukami.
"Kotoamatsukami..."
Danzo silently recited the name in his heart.
That scarlet eye locked onto Teizawa.
An eerie power spread through the air.
Invisible and formless, yet heavy as a mountain.
The instant Teizawa's gaze met that eye, his entire body suddenly trembled.
His pupils lost focus. His expression froze. The smile at the corner of his mouth vanished.
He stood there like a statue whose soul had been extracted.
His eyes were empty, his expression dazed.
Even his breathing became faint and drawn out.
Twilight surged in from every direction.
It shrouded the silent forest.
The few surviving Root shinobi raised their heads.
They watched their leader and the young Kazekage, and no one spoke.
Wind passed through the trees, lifting a few dead leaves.
They spun between the two of them.
Danzo looked at Teizawa's lifeless face.
A smile slowly appeared on his lips.
There was triumph in that smile. Contempt.
And a kind of long-suppressed satisfaction.
"Young man..."
His voice was very soft, light as a sigh. "You should never have provoked Konoha."
He slowly rose and walked toward Teizawa.
Every step was steady and heavy.
Teizawa's expression was wooden. He did not move.
Danzo stood before him.
That scarlet Sharingan was still turning slowly.
The corner of his mouth curved in smug satisfaction.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
At that moment, dozens of black figures silently emerged from the surrounding forest.
Every one of them wore Anbu uniforms, their faces hidden behind animal masks.
They directly surrounded the Sunagakure Anbu.
Danzo had said he deliberately waited for Teizawa, and it was no empty claim.
This old fox had indeed prepared an ambush.
"You are very clever."
Danzo looked down at Teizawa from above, his voice low and slow, as if he were stating a conclusion that had been decided long ago.
"You knew how to use the auction to throw Konoha, and even the other shinobi villages, into chaos."
"When Konoha refused to participate in the auction, you handed my experimental data to Tsunade and forced Konoha into internal conflict."
He paused. "And your Sunagakure obtained everything, Kazekage."
"According to the intelligence I've gathered, Sunagakure has already transformed beyond recognition."
"That kind of scheming reminds me of my teacher, Tobirama."
He leaned down slightly, bringing that scarlet eye closer.
"I must admit, if you had been born in Konoha, I might have properly raised you as my successor."
There was a trace of regret in his voice, a hint of pity.
And a touch of appreciation that was difficult to describe.
"What a shame. You belong to Sunagakure."
Danzo straightened and shifted his gaze away from Teizawa's face.
He swept his eyes over the surrounded Sunagakure Anbu, then across the forest shrouded in dusk.
Finally, his gaze landed on the carriage still parked in place.
His voice was very soft, but every word carried unquestionable certainty.
"Now, you will obey me. And your Sunagakure... will belong to me as well."
A cold, sinister light appeared in his eye.
His target had never been Orochimaru.
He had deliberately exposed his trail so openly.
He had deliberately let Sunagakure's scouts follow him, deliberately waited in this forest far from Konoha.
From beginning to end, the one he had been waiting for was the Kazekage.
Since he could no longer stay in Konoha, he had to find somewhere else to settle.
Orochimaru had never been his first choice.
He wanted to control the Kazekage and take over Sunagakure.
With Kotoamatsukami in his possession, doing that was far too easy.
And just like that, the young Kazekage had fallen under his control.
He stood before Danzo like a puppet on strings.
Waiting for Danzo to issue his command.
Danzo reached out and placed his hand on Teizawa's shoulder.
"From this moment on..."
His voice was low, low as a curse.
"You are my puppet."
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]