"Now that's battling with your eyes. Don't underestimate the Uchiha!" On the screen, despite gasping for breath, Sasuke still looked down on Danzo from above.
But he couldn't act cool for more than two seconds. The severe pain in his body and the heavy burden of the Mangekyō made Sasuke powerless, and he sat down on the ground, panting heavily. Every breath pulled at his wounds, hurting so much that cold sweat broke out.
At that moment, Karin quickly rushed to Sasuke's side, her face full of anxiety. Without hesitation, she extended her arm to Sasuke's mouth and said urgently, "Sasuke! Are you all right? Here! Bite me, quickly."
Hearing those words, Sasuke did not hesitate. He grabbed Karin's left hand and bit down hard.
Even though she was mentally prepared, Karin still couldn't help letting out a cry of pain.
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Land of Grass, Kusagakure]
Karin, watching the Sky Screen, was somewhat dumbfounded.
Her future teammate's choices didn't seem very good! It felt no different from these shinobis in Kusagakure.
Meanwhile, on the screen—
Just as everything seemed to have settled, a sudden change occurred!
Danzo, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly began to convulse violently, letting out an incoherent roar from his throat, his face turning a livid purplish-blue.
"How could I… of all people… lose to this brat?! I can't die here yet!"
At this moment, he could no longer suppress the Hashirama cells within his body.
A small sapling frantically surged out from the severed stump of his right arm, then rapidly grew larger, as if it wanted to swallow Danzo whole.
In order to survive, a flash of ruthlessness passed through Danzo's eyes. Trembling, he grabbed a Kunai and slashed it fiercely toward the base of his right arm, which was still continuously turning into wood!
Puchi!
The severed arm, along with those wildly growing branches, fell to the ground and quickly turned into a large tree. Danzo's entire body was soaked in cold sweat, but at least he had saved his life.
This bizarre scene made the scalps of the higher-ups of the five great nations tingle!
It seemed this was the risk of transplanting Hashirama cells. Once they lost control, one would turn into an abomination.
Sure enough, there was a reason Hashirama himself had not bestowed this power upon others. Ordinary people simply couldn't withstand this power.
However, this battle was unexpectedly still not over.
Danzo suddenly raised his head and, with his remaining left hand, tore open the bandages that had always covered his right eye.
"It's not over yet. This is where we battle with our eyes!"
As the bandages fell away layer by layer, a Three-Tomoe Sharingan was revealed in his eye socket!
Clearly, this was Danzo's trump card—the Mangekyō Sharingan belonging to Shisui, possessing the power of the strongest Genjutsu, Kotoamatsukami.
But Sasuke didn't care about any of that. He directly condensed Chidori in his hand and quickly charged toward Danzo.
But Danzo didn't fight him. Instead, he circled around and took Karin hostage.
"Tch, that really is Danzo's style!"
Seeing this, the people of various nations couldn't help showing disdain. Sure enough, his reputation as the Darkness of the Shinobi World resounded throughout the nations; he was truly despicable enough.
On the screen, Danzo, holding Karin hostage, retreated while analyzing the situation.
"Isn't it ironic that you, who glorified self-sacrifice, would take a hostage?" Sasuke stood in place and asked in a low voice.
"It's not that I consider my life precious. But for the sake of Konoha… for the Shinobi World… I cannot afford to die here! No matter what the means, I must survive. For I will be the one reformer who will change this world!"
"And this woman will be sacrificed for that cause!"
Everyone in the Shinobi World seeing this felt only Danzo on the screen would be hypocritical and shameless enough to say such things!
Among those words, probably only "no matter what the means, I must survive" was true.
"Don't move… Karin." Sasuke's tone grew increasingly gentle.
Both Danzo and Karin breathed a sigh of relief because of Sasuke's tone.
However, just when everyone thought Sasuke was about to hesitate out of concern for the hostage, he suddenly revealed his true cold-blooded visage.
The Chidori's lightning blade in his hand abruptly thrust forward, ruthlessly piercing through both the chest of Karin who was blocking the front and the heart of Danzo who was caught off guard behind her at the same time.
Time seemed to freeze completely at this moment.
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Location of Team 7]
Kakashi narrowed his eyes, staring at the extremely unfamiliar Sasuke on the screen.
No wonder the screen had said earlier that Sasuke at this time had already gone insane!
Karin, who was in the Land of Grass, felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave!
Uchiha Sasuke… this guy could absolutely not be her future teammate.
---
[Akatsuki's new base]
Itachi's body shook violently once more, and an intense pain seemed to overwhelm him.
'Sasuke, it's my fault. I'm the one who forced you to this point!'
He could barely control the urge to go find Sasuke immediately.
Meanwhile, on the screen—
Karin, with eyes full of disbelief and despair, fell heavily to the ground, her life or death unknown.
But Danzo, whose heart had been pierced by Chidori, had not yet died for the moment because of the powerful vitality of Hashirama cells.
He clutched the huge bloody hole in his chest tightly, blood gushing out uncontrollably, and began a miserable escape, stumbling along the way; leaving behind bloody footprints.
Sasuke, on the other hand, wore a cruel smile, following unhurriedly behind as if enjoying the final part of this hunt.
Just as Danzo was fleeing for his life like a headless fly, a figure blocked his path—it was none other than Obito, who had been waiting for a long time.
And Obito's goal was also very clear: to retrieve the Sharingan belonging to Shisui in Danzo's right eye.
Knowing that survival was hopeless, Danzo finally stopped in his tracks.
"For the sake of the Shinobi World… for the sake of Konoha…" His voice was hoarse, yet carried a nearly obsessive resolve. "I will not let you both live!"
At this moment, he seemed to remember his original conviction, and the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, whom he regarded both as a rival and as a close friend.
"Hiruzen… it's my turn next…" A complex, unreadable expression appeared on Danzo's face as he murmured to himself, "You were a tree leaf upon which light shone. I was nothing but a foundation hidden in darkness. At this point… what do you think of someone like me? Say Hiruzen… What was I to you?"
Before the words finished, the last remaining chakra in his body burned madly, and several black sealing patterns appeared on his chest.
"Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Jutsu!!"
He let out the final roar of his life, trying to use his own flesh and blood as a sacrifice to activate this mutually destructive sealing Jutsu, dragging both Sasuke and "Madara" before him into the abyss of death together.
Many people in the Shinobi World were shocked. They hadn't expected Danzo, before dying, to still have such resolve!
BOOM!!!
The enormous black sealing sphere swallowed the bridge and the surrounding rocks.
Unfortunately for Danzo, Obito had already activated Kamui, taking Sasuke and escaping the scene.
Danzo's final all-out strike ultimately only achieved the astonishing feat of perishing together with that bridge.
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Hokage Office]
Hiruzen watched the scene on the screen of Danzo finally being defeated by Sasuke, and his tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.
Setting other things aside for now, Danzo's death at the end made him somewhat look at him with new eyes.
This guy, who was attached to his life, didn't beg for mercy at the final moment of his life, but chose to sacrifice himself for Konoha in his own way.
It had to be said that this kind of Danzo still had a bit of the Will of Fire left in him.
Tsunade leaned against the office desk, arms crossed, watching Hiruzen's face, and snorted coldly: "Old man, you really are soft-hearted. And that guy was still going on about being Konoha's foundation before dying. Just hearing it feels hypocritical."
Hiruzen shook his head. "No matter what he did, at least when he died in the future, he didn't drag down the village."
Tsunade said no more.
She admitted that Danzo's final performance really did have some dignity.
[After watching this battle, here's a question that comes to mind.]
[That is: Why did Danzo lose to Sasuke?]
Immediately, many people in the Shinobi World began analyzing it. After all, quite a few also felt that Danzo had lost too unjustly.
Strictly speaking, Danzo could be considered to be fighting a 1V3. Obito was on the side diverting Danzo's attention, and was even prepared to act when Sasuke was losing. Karin was also helping Sasuke analyze Danzo's weaknesses on the side, and as a Medical shinobi, after Sasuke was injured, she also healed him.
But they felt that Danzo indeed had problems too. If they had Danzo's strength, they probably wouldn't have lost.
[First, people ask whether Danzo actually went all out.]
[Here he is a bit wrongly accused. Although part of his attention was on guarding against Obito, as someone with an inextricable hatred toward the Uchiha, in order to root them out completely, there's no way he wouldn't go all out when encountering Sasuke. There was simply no holding back.]
[As for why he didn't use Kotoamatsukami right away, that was because at the Five Kage Summit, to become the commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces, he had secretly already used Kotoamatsukami on Mifune, the general from the Land of Iron.]
[So when he began fighting Sasuke, the technique was on cooldown.]
As soon as those words came out, the higher-ups of the major nations all changed expression!
That's right!
Although Shisui was dead, one of his Mangekyō Sharingan was still in Konoha's hands!
And they had already received news that Danzo had been placed under house arrest by the Fifth Hokage. So there was no need to think; something like Kotoamatsukami must have been confiscated as well.
In other words, apart from the one in Itachi's hand, Tsunade now also had a Kotoamatsukami!
Once that thought crossed their minds, they all felt a chill run down their spine.
Although the threat of Danzo was gone, a new threat in the name of Tsunade had emerged!
It seemed that when dealing with Tsunade, they had to be on guard at all times. Otherwise, if they weren't careful, they would end up just like that Mifune guy.
And that guy Shisui's eyes really were a disaster!
Fortunately, Konoha had done it themselves, and the Uchiha clan was already gone!
Otherwise, if those lunatics suddenly went mad and awakened another eye power that controlled people's will, it would be too troublesome.
---
[Land of Iron]
Mifune's face looked extremely grim.
This guy Danzo… really was despicable!
For the sake of his own safety, he would never let the Land of Iron host the Five Kage Summit in the future!
---
[Akatsuki's new base]
After being reminded by the screen, Deidara and the others once again thought of the Kotoamatsukami in the hands of Itachi before them, and their wariness grew even stronger.
[In terms of skill-set, Danzo had ten Sharingan + Kotoamatsukami + Hashirama cells + Wind Release that made him a genuine Kage-level shinobi. His skill-set was absolutely maxed out.]
[Add to that the Summoning Jutsu, and Sealing Jutsu as auxiliary skills; paired with ten minutes of invincibility time, and it was more than enough to handle ordinary Kage-level opponents.]
[So at the beginning, his idea of defeating Sasuke as quickly as possible wasn't really wrong.]
[But what he didn't account for was that all his attacks found it very hard to break through the Susano'o's defense.]
[To be honest, there was simply no way around it; this was the Susano'o, integrating both offense and defense.]
People of the Shinobi World in the various timelines were all carefully analyzing.
True, the Susano'o's defensive power really was terrifying!
Danzo's attacks struck the Susanoo, yet couldn't even leave a scratch. So any ordinary Kage-level shinobi, faced with the Susano'o, probably wouldn't be able to break its defense either.
[However, one point should be noted here. Danzo's main purpose in transplanting Hashirama cells was to control and use the Sharingan. On one hand, he used the characteristics of Hashirama cells to shorten Kotoamatsukami's cooldown time; on the other, to amplify the effects of Sharingan's abilities.]
[But because his body's compatibility with Hashirama cells was poor, Danzo basically couldn't directly use Hashirama cells to activate Wood Release Jutsus. Otherwise, Danzo wouldn't have been so passive when facing Sasuke's Susano'o.]
[In addition, after losing the suppression effect of the Sharingans, Danzo could be devoured by the Hashirama cells in his body if he wasn't careful. So during the battle, the only reason Danzo used Wood Release was because the Hashirama cells in his body were out of control and forced their way out.]
[This made Danzo walk a tightrope in the battle, having to maintain a balance between both the Sharingan and Hashirama cells in his body.]
At this point, the higher-ups of the five great nations also understood. It turned out that Danzo's Wood Release wasn't perfect, but a half-finished product.
This let them breathe a sigh of relief.
There was no helping it—the fame of the God of Shinobi was just too terrifying, and even Wood Release carried an extremely strong air of prestige.
So if Danzo could really use Wood Release freely, then his strength would rise another level. But since it was only a half-finished product, there was no need to worry too much.
[Moreover, because Danzo didn't have the Uchiha bloodline, his use of the Sharingan's abilities was limited. He could only use Izanagi for passive defense. Add to that Kotoamatsukami's cooldown time and chakra consumption issues, and he couldn't even use all the tactical functions of the transplanted Sharingan.]
[With time, Danzo's chakra reserves grew less and less as the fight went on. So it wasn't surprising that he later lost to Sasuke.]
[And aside from Susano'o, Sasuke's Amaterasu also caused Danzo great trouble. Because Amaterasu could be used without hand seals, and Danzo couldn't judge where Amaterasu would land, he could only choose to use Izanagi to evade Amaterasu's damage.]
[The result was that his Sharingan were rapidly consumed, and because he relied too much on Izanagi, Sasuke was able to use that against him to inflict severe injuries.]
[Also unfortunately, Danzo's excessive desire for power led him to consume Kotoamatsukami too early. Otherwise, if Danzo had used Kotoamatsukami + Curse Mark + Izanagi against Sasuke's Susano'o, he wouldn't have been at too much of a disadvantage.]
[And with Obito not acting, if Sasuke relied purely on Susano'o, wanting to kill a Danzo who could use Kotoamatsukami, it wasn't really possible. Unfortunately, Danzo crippled his own trump card, making Sasuke's advantage even more obvious.]
Hearing that, the people in the various Shinobi World timelines couldn't help but wonder how they would break through the Susano'o's defense if faced with it.
*****
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