What Aoki Yoru didn't know was that his previous feat of easily wounding the Sunagakure Elite Jonin Baki had made Danzo deeply wary of him.
So, upon seeing him charge in, for safety's sake, Danzo formed hand seals, ready to activate Izanagi at any moment.
After seeing Fu Yamanaka's anomaly, he immediately activated Izanagi, which happened to save his life.
Originally, he planned to deal with Aoki Yoru after this Konoha Crush plan.
Whether through coercion or enticement, Danzo no longer intended to delay; this man grew too quickly and had already become a stumbling block on his path to becoming Hokage.
Fortunately, that guy had bonds; those neighbors and that little girl from the Uzumaki Clan were his fatal weaknesses.
He hadn't expected Aoki Yoru to strike first.
At this moment, Danzo slowly stepped out from behind a pillar, unwrapping the bandages on his hand to reveal nine hideous Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
"Let this old man see what you're made of."
Aoki Yoru looked at Danzo's arm; nine Three-Tomoe Sharingan were open, while one had already closed due to the use of Izanagi.
"In that case, including Shisui's eye, I just need to kill him ten more times."
Aoki Yoru looked at Danzo with a grim expression; this time, he would definitely send him down to join his good buddy, the Third Hokage.
Then, the Lightning Release Chakra on his body erupted violently, and he vanished from the spot instantly, reappearing in front of Danzo.
"Clang—"
Ninja blade and Kunai collided, sparks flying everywhere.
Seeing his yerun blocked by the Kunai, Aoki Yoru was stunned for a moment; according to his script, yerun should have sliced through the Kunai and killed him unexpectedly.
Then, as if realizing something, he couldn't help but curse the Sandaime inwardly; his surroundings were leaked like a sieve, with every bit of information getting out.
The only reason Aoki Yoru could think of was that he had used this trick against Baki, so Danzo must have been prepared and used a special Kunai to face him.
Seeing the first strike fail, Aoki Yoru immediately implemented Plan B, increasing his swinging speed. Coupled with his movement techniques, even Danzo could only keep defending.
"Clang—"
Aoki Yoru's full-strength blow shook the Kunai in Danzo's hand so hard it nearly fell out.
At this moment, a smile appeared on the corner of Aoki Yoru's mouth; he had finally found a brief opening.
"Lightning Release: Chidori Blade"
Instantly, lightning coiled around the Ninja blade, and following the Kunai, the violent Lightning Release surged into Danzo's body.
"Aaaagh!" Danzo screamed in pain as his entire body was enveloped in lightning.
Suddenly, his screaming stopped as the Chidori on yerun abruptly extended and pierced through Danzo's throat.
"Gah—"
Danzo clutched his throat and collapsed, his eyes filled with shock and resentment.
Aoki Yoru looked at Danzo lying on the ground without a smile; instead, he spread out all of his mental energy.
Izanagi was simply too bizarre; before the unfavorable factors dissipated, he couldn't even detect where Danzo's true body was.
This ability seemed to involve some kind of conceptual rule system, making it quite baffling.
Aoki Yoru then licked his lips; this technique was worth researching. He had to find a way to get a few Three-Tomoe Sharingan from Danzo and couldn't let him squander them all.
As the phantom on the ground vanished, Danzo's figure reappeared in the hall.
At this moment, he looked at Aoki Yoru with wariness. He thought he had already estimated Aoki Yoru highly, but he hadn't expected the other's strength to have reached such a level.
At this point, he even felt a bit of appreciation for the talent; if the other weren't a stumbling block on his path to becoming Hokage, he would have wanted to take him under his command.
Unfortunately, the two sides were already locked in a fight to the death. Hiruzen was about to die, and Konoha would reach new heights under his leadership; the other was merely a stone blocking Konoha's progress.
Thinking of this, Danzo touched his right eye.
Looking at Aoki Yoru, Danzo formed hand seals; he couldn't engage in close combat with him and needed long-range attacks. He took a deep breath.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullet"
Chakra erupted from his throat, and dozens of vacuum wind blades, sharp as bullets, shot out instantly like an airtight barrage of death, sealing off all of Aoki Yoru's evasion angles.
"Oh! An impressive technique."
Looking at the dense incoming attacks, Aoki Yoru praised. In this narrow underground space, this move was hard to dodge, especially since Wind Release was transparent, which increased the difficulty.
But he was an exception; for a sensory Ninja, transparency made no difference.
Raising his Ninja blade and wrapping it in Lightning Release Chakra, he swung it rapidly, knocking down all the incoming vacuum bullets in front of him.
"Boom, boom, boom—"
The remaining Vacuum Spheres smashed into the wall behind him, cracking the wall and forming indentations.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave"
Seeing the vacuum bullets dodged, Danzo wasn't surprised. With a flick of his head, a Wind Release attack that spanned the basement swept toward him.
Aoki Yoru's pupils constricted. Lightning Release Chakra erupted from his feet, and with a flash of lightning, he shot out like an arrow from a bow, barely avoiding the lethal Wind Release that spanned the basement.
His Ninja blade spun a silver arc in his hand. Using his momentum, the lightning coiling around the blade surged as he lunged at Danzo. To his surprise, Danzo was actually charging toward him.
There was no time to think about Danzo's goal. Aoki Yoru accelerated and rushed forward; as long as he killed him, all schemes and plots would crumble.
"Pfft—"
The Ninja blade pierced Danzo's heart. Blood spurted from Danzo's mouth as his hands tightly gripped Aoki Yoru's right arm, his face full of smiles.
Aoki Yoru watched as another Sharingan on Danzo's right arm closed, and the body pierced by the Ninja blade began to dissipate.
But there was no joy on his face; Danzo's final smile filled his heart with unease.
Then Aoki Yoru shook his head; no matter what the other's purpose was, it would eventually reveal itself. When the time came, he would deal with whatever came his way.
Turning to look at the reappearing Danzo, Aoki Yoru's Chakra surged, and he donned the Chakra Armor.
"Zzzzt—"
Aoki Yoru turned into a bolt of lightning and appeared behind Danzo, his Ninja blade carrying Lightning Release as it slashed toward his back.
But at the very moment the blade was about to pierce in, he suddenly froze, horror appearing on his face.
"I can't move... when did this happen?"
Pitch-black seals began to appear from beneath his feet, extending all the way to his face, tightly binding his limbs and torso, locking his movements.
Then his pupils shrank as if he realized something. "Was it that time?!"
In this way, why Danzo had recklessly charged at him earlier and held his hand even in death finally made sense.
This old fellow had placed a body-binding curse mark on him. If an ordinary person wasn't paying attention, they really would have been caught off guard.
"As expected, having multiple lives is quite useful; you can use all sorts of tactics," Aoki Yoru couldn't help but remark.