"Congratulations on obtaining a fine blade."
Suddenly, a voice came from behind Danzo. Danzo was shocked and immediately tried to form hand seals, but it was too late.
"Puchi—Zzzzz—!"
Danzo's heart was instantly pierced by a hand infused with Lightning Release, the chirping of a thousand birds ringing in his ears.
Lightning surged wildly inside him, burning his internal organs. Danzo's body convulsed violently, his single eye wide open, his face filled with disbelief.
"How is this possible? I never once took my eyes off you. When did you create a clone?"
"The one fighting you from the very beginning was a clone," Aoki Yoru, standing behind Danzo, revealed the answer directly.
"Impossible. A clone could never handle that level of combat intensity. You..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the clone that had been standing there blankly disappeared with a poof.
Danzo stared blankly at the spot where the clone had vanished, then seemed to realize something. His expression changed drastically, and he said tremblingly:
"To be able to achieve this, as far as I know, only Wood Release can do it. I didn't expect you to be hiding so much. Everyone was deceived by you. Hiruzen even said you possessed a strong will of fire."
"Heh! He has his moments of misjudgment."
"At least more than you. Someone like you would get killed again by the Second Hokage even in the afterlife."
Hearing the Second Hokage's name, Danzo became instantly agitated, as if experiencing a final burst of energy. "What do you know? Hiruzen is too indecisive. For Konoha to survive, someone must shoulder the darkness. Everything I have done was for Konoha, to continue the will of the First and Second Hokage."
Aoki Yoru looked at him coldly. "Is that so? Then go down there and explain it to the previous Hokage yourself!"
As he spoke, he increased the output of his Lightning Release, completely extinguishing Danzo's life force.
Instantly, Danzo's aura gradually faded, and his consciousness dimmed.
"Hiruzen, you are the Konoha bathed in sunlight, while I am the Root in the darkness."
"Hiruzen... In the end... I still couldn't become Hokage..."
He then collapsed heavily to the ground, completely devoid of life.
Looking at Danzo lying on the ground, Aoki Yoru did not relax in the slightest. He spread his mental energy out to its full extent, staying vigilant of every movement around him.
After all, Danzo was truly too treacherous. If he had hidden a Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his pants, wouldn't he be blindsided?
Izanagi only lasts for one minute; by then, he would know if he was truly dead.
Five minutes passed. Looking at the unchanging corpse on the ground, Aoki Yoru breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good thing I kept my guard up and used a clone to scout ahead, otherwise I really would have been blindsided. Shisui's Kotoamatsukami is truly unreasonable; it couldn't even be blocked by Natural Energy."
Aoki Yoru patted his chest, feeling the relief of having survived a disaster.
When approaching the Root base, Aoki Yoru had created a Wood Clone to take the lead and scout ahead.
The incident with the Jashin cult last time had taught him a lesson; he no longer dared to underestimate the heroes of the world. The arrogance he felt after defeating the Eight-Tails had been completely extinguished.
Now, he constantly reminded himself to play it safe and never rush to the frontlines personally.
Especially with this old snake, Danzo—who knows how many contingencies he had hidden? In the original story, he was taken out by Sasuke only after he had already used up Shisui's Kotoamatsukami; otherwise, it was unclear who would have emerged victorious.
To say nothing of anything else, just considering Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, a bug-tier ability, he wasn't confident he could avoid getting hit. The rules for using this ability remained an unsolved mystery to this day; what if it was invincible below the Six Paths level?
If there was one thing he was most satisfied with regarding Wood Release, it wasn't its combat power, but the Wood Clone.
It possessed body strength comparable to the original, and due to its wood attribute, it could autonomously absorb and use Natural Energy. If there was enough Chakra, its combat power was no less than the original.
Moreover, even he couldn't perceive any difference between the clone and the original, making it perfect for scouting.
This time, Aoki Yoru had poured two-thirds of his Chakra into the Wood Clone, and to deceive Danzo, he had even given yerun to the Wood Clone.
The original body had observed from the perimeter, looking for an opportunity for a fatal strike.
Judging by the results, the tactic was very successful. Danzo had been too confident in Kotoamatsukami and had lowered his guard at the last moment; otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy to kill him.
"Hoo—"
Aoki Yoru let out a long sigh of relief and swung his blade to sever Danzo's right arm. This was Orochimaru's masterpiece, balancing Hashirama cells and the Sharingan, involving the application of Yin and Yang Release.
The ingenuity within it might have some reference value for breaking through the bottleneck of his own White Zetsu cell experiments.
He then gouged out Danzo's right eye. Looking at the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, which had dimmed due to the use of Kotoamatsukami, Aoki Yoru nodded in satisfaction.
Although it would take nearly ten years to be usable again, at least it could be used, right? Besides, he could check if it could be restored using White Zetsu cells after he got back. If it could, then he would have a true trump card for self-preservation.
Kotoamatsukami was too bizarre. Not even his Wood Clone, with its massive mental energy combined with Natural Energy, could defend against it, let alone anyone else.
"I wonder if it works on Black Zetsu; if so, I could just hit him with one and the Ninja World would be at peace." Aoki Yoru thought, rubbing his chin.
Placing the Kotoamatsukami in a nutrient jar and sealing it, Aoki Yoru walked inside with a light step. He had been looking forward to what was inside for a long time.
In the laboratory deep within the Root base, a cold wind blew slowly from the ventilation ducts.
Aoki Yoru frowned as he looked at the scene before him. Everywhere his gaze fell, there were rows of glass cultivation tanks filled with liquid.
Inside the tanks, over a dozen children, aged five or six, stood quietly, their eyes closed, with unknown tubes inserted into their chests.
In other tanks were the failures of the Wood Release experiments, their bodies half-woodified, skin cracked like tree bark, floating silently in the green nutrient solution.
"Danzo really deserved to die." Aoki Yoru couldn't help but curse.
Although the children's bodies in the tanks seemed to show signs of life, their souls had long since dissipated; they were already dead, only appearing alive because of the intense activity of the Hashirama cells.
He didn't dwell on it further. He picked up a scroll and sealed all the laboratory equipment into it. This was equipment that Danzo had purchased over decades of embezzling Anbu funds; its value was immeasurable.
The equipment he had bought after robbing Gato was like fish eyes compared to pearls when compared to these; one was in the sky, the other underground.
He swept away everything valuable in the Root base. As for the place where the scrolls were stored, Aoki Yoru didn't touch it. He had opened and looked at them before; the crimes committed were simply too numerous to record, and killing him a hundred times wouldn't be enough.
So he would leave these and the cultivation tanks where they were; the truth had to be revealed to the world to let Danzo's reputation be completely destroyed.
Walking out of the laboratory, Aoki Yoru covered the roof where the battle had taken place with explosive tags and set a timer for detonation. After the destruction from the battle, the hall was already teetering; a slight push would cause it to collapse.
Walking out of the basement, the battle was already drawing to a close. Aoki Yoru sensed the area; only a few scattered Sunagakure Ninja were still resisting.
The Four Violet Flames Formation on the exam hall roof had also dissipated. It seemed the Third Hokage had already logged off.
"Now you two good buddies won't be lonely; you can continue your 'regret and shadow' routine down below." Aoki Yoru sighed.