Root Headquarters—
The moment Hiruzen Sarutobi died, Danzo received the news. According to his plan, he was supposed to emerge, clean up the mess, and consolidate support in preparation for becoming Hokage.
Unfortunately for him, he had insidiously planned to eliminate Orochimaru as well, but Orochimaru was a venomous snake himself; he had anticipated everything Danzo had.
The demon blood from the Demon Slayer world, refined by Orochimaru's scientific methods, had become a weapon. The moment the invading Sound ninja injected it, they became immortal.
The shinobi of Konoha did not have Nichirin Blades forged from sun ore. Without them, even if the Sound ninja had their heads blown off, they would still regenerate. The immortal Sound ninja, combined with the vengeful Sand ninja, had indeed caused a great deal of trouble for Konoha.
But it was only trouble. After Konoha mobilized its full force, the two villages stood no chance, especially with their key weapon, Gaara of the One-Tailed Shukaku, having a critical failure.
Danzo immediately changed his plan. He would wait for the great clans to suffer more casualties before he emerged to clean up the mess. But before he could, he ran into an old friend.
"Danzo! Get out here! I know you're in there!"
Kagami Uchiha stood outside the Root base, shouting. Having grown up in Konoha and with the intelligence Nagi had provided, he had easily found the base.
Danzo frowned. He was a man of high status and would not be so easily baited. With a wave of his hand, a dozen or so Root ninja went out to eliminate the intruder.
"Argh!" "Be careful! He's an Uchiha!" "He's immortal! It's the Edo Tensei!"
The dozen Root ninja were dealt with by Kagami in a few swift moves. With the skills of a three-tomoe jonin and the immortal body of an Edo Tensei, ordinary ninja stood no chance.
Danzo had no choice but to go out himself. He had sent his elite forces to pursue Orochimaru, and there were few left at the base.
"You are—Kagami Uchiha?" Danzo was stunned. Although decades had passed, he recognized his old classmate at a glance.
To maintain balance, Tobirama Senju had also taken an Uchiha as a student. That was Kagami. Unfortunately, although he had survived the pursuit of the Gold and Silver Brothers, he had died in a later Great Ninja War.
"Danzo, why did you and Hiruzen wipe out the Uchiha clan? What did the Uchiha ever do to wrong Konoha? And you even killed my grandson, Shisui Uchiha!" Kagami demanded angrily.
"Hmph. The Uchiha were treacherous and intended to rebel against Konoha. Of course they had to be eliminated. You are a dead man. Do not meddle in the affairs of the living. Take him down!" Who was Danzo? A ruthless and cunning man. What did an old classmate matter? He was just a dead man babbling nonsense.
Several Root jonin immediately rushed forward to engage Kagami. Although Kagami's skills were far superior, their tight coordination left him with no chance of victory. Not every ninja could power up to Kage-level like Guy. Even Kakashi, when faced with several jonin, would prioritize a tactical retreat, fighting on the run.
Uchiha Nagi had already secretly arrived at the Root base, coldly observing the scene from above.
Before long, Kagami was controlled by a Shadow Imitation Technique, thanks to the coordination of several Root ninja. The Sealing Squad then emerged to seal him. Only then did the cowardly old fox Danzo walk up to Kagami.
"Since you're already dead, you shouldn't concern yourself with the world of the living. Isn't it better to be in hell?" Danzo emanated a cold, sinister aura. "I'll tell you one more thing. Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan... is in my eye right now."
"You...!" Kagami, bound like a mummy, was furious, but no amount of struggling would help. The bandages were covered in sealing formulas, his Edo Tensei body held fast.
Just then, a thick fog suddenly appeared around the Root base.
[Hidden Mist Jutsu]
The signature jutsu of the Hidden Mist Village. With just a small amount of chakra, it could create a misty environment that was impossible to see through with the naked eye. Only the Byakugan or sensory ninja were unaffected.
The fog was incredibly dense and came on suddenly, blanketing the entire area.
"Find the enemy's location!" Danzo ordered a blond Root ninja beside him. This ninja was clearly a sensory type.
"Yes, Lord Danzo!" The blond Root ninja placed two fingers to his temples and began to sense his surroundings.
But then he frowned. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't sense any enemies. Either the opponent's concealment ability was too strong, or they weren't here at all. But that was impossible. Who could cast a Hidden Mist Jutsu from several kilometers away? It didn't make sense.
"Ah! Wait! On guard! There's an enemy!"
Someone suddenly vanished in the thick fog.
Then, another person disappeared.
The blond ninja screamed at Danzo in terror. "Lord Danzo, there's an enemy! But I can't find their location! Our men are disappearing one by one! It could be a space-time nin..."
Before the blond Root ninja could finish, a hand clapped down on his shoulder. He quickly stabbed back with a kunai, but hit only empty air. When he came to his senses, he was no longer in Konoha.
The Flying Thunder God technique? The blond ninja clutched his neck and sat down, a look of defeat on his face.
Yes, Uchiha Nagi had suddenly realized that the Hidden Mist Jutsu, combined with the Transparent World, was the perfect silent assassination technique. As long as he didn't reveal himself, not even a sensory ninja could find him. In the thick fog, he was a reaper.
Although he was confident he could take Danzo in a straight fight, he couldn't forget that the old fox had over a dozen Sharingan on his body. With each eye, he could use Izanagi for a full minute. Who knew how long it would take to kill him for good. And what if he used Shisui's Mangekyo for Izanagi? All his efforts would be for nothing.
Danzo's face was grim. He too felt that his current opponent was extremely troublesome. He had no intelligence on them. A Flying Thunder God user? Could it be Uchiha Nagi?
"Retreat to the base! Get out of here!" Danzo ordered decisively.
The Hidden Mist Jutsu was infused with chakra. It couldn't be blown away. Even if it was, it would only be a temporary delay. The safest course of action was to retreat to his own lair. The place was large and filled with all sorts of traps. If the enemy followed him in, they would never get out.
"Team B, stay behind and cover our retreat!" "Yes, sir!"
A Wind Style jutsu blew away some of the fog. One team stayed behind as a rear guard while Danzo quickly ran into his base.
Once inside, Danzo finally let out a sigh of relief. But in the next second, the unexpected happened.
A Root ninja from the Nara clan suddenly used the Shadow Imitation Technique, freezing Danzo in place. Another ninja used an Earth Style jutsu to trap him.
"Kaede, what are you doing?" "Release Lord Danzo at once!" "Have you gone mad?"
Several Root ninja moved to stop their suddenly insane comrade.
"He's being controlled by a Sharingan!"
But before they could release their comrade from the genjutsu, a figure appeared instantly in front of Danzo. A hand shot out and snatched the Mangekyo Sharingan from Danzo's head.
"Argh!" Danzo screamed in pain. At that moment, the Shadow Imitation Technique was released by his subordinates, but it was too late. Shisui's eye was gone.
"Heh heh. So this is Shisui's eye." Uchiha Nagi smiled faintly and placed the eye in a test tube.
Just now, in the fog, he had not only used the Flying Thunder God to move the Root ninja, but he had also secretly cast a genjutsu on Danzo's men, controlling them. The moment they entered the base and Danzo let his guard down, they had sprung the trap, immobilizing him. Then, Nagi had used a space-time ninjutsu to appear directly in front of Danzo and take his eye.
The reason he hadn't just cut off his head was because if Danzo died, he might activate the Izanagi he had prepared in secret. But if he only took his eye without killing him, Izanagi couldn't be activated.
Moreover, Izanagi had its limitations. If Shisui's eye was still in Danzo's body when he died, then even if the eye was removed after his death, the activated Izanagi would still bring the eye back to his body. But if the eye was not in his body before he died, then the revived body would not have the eye.
So, Nagi had to find a way to get Shisui's eye without killing Danzo first.
"It's you!" Danzo clutched his bleeding eye socket, gritting his teeth in hatred.
"Sun Breathing, Thirteenth Form, Ten-Layer Stack!" Nagi quickly drew his blade and, in the narrow corridor of the base, killed Danzo in an instant.
"Argh..."
In close combat, Danzo and his men were nothing special. Only the Raikage was truly the strongest.
But after killing Danzo, as expected, his body disappeared.
"Hmph. As expected. Izanagi." Nagi sneered.
Danzo reappeared from another direction, then slapped his hand on the wall, activating the traps within the base.
Countless kunai and sealing formulas were triggered, all aimed at Nagi. Faced with these trivial traps, Nagi used the simplest method to deal with them: he summoned his Gundam.
When in doubt, summon the Gundam.
The massive Susanoo stood up, directly breaking through the roof of Danzo's Root base. With a swing of its blade, several floors of the base were pierced through. Danzo watched in agony. This was his main base. Also buried in the rubble were some of the Root ninja who hadn't managed to escape in time.
Traps, kunai, exploding tags—they were all child's play in the face of the Gundam. Only a large-scale seal, the kind used to seal a Tailed Beast, could stop a Gundam of this level. But Konoha's talent pool was severely depleted at the moment.
Nagi brought his blade down with a Sun Breathing sword technique. The massive Sword of Totsuka, using the same technique, had a much larger area of effect. Danzo didn't have space-time ninjutsu and couldn't dodge in time. He was killed in a single slash.
"Hmph. Disgusting Izanagi." Nagi glanced over. Danzo's body had disappeared again.
He revived in another location. By now, he had torn off his disguise, revealing the arm full of Sharingan. He knew his opponent was a formidable one. His Root subordinates could no longer stop a Kage-level powerhouse. He had to fight himself.
With his powerful vision, Nagi saw that Danzo had revived twice, but had only closed one eye on his arm. A headache was coming on.
When Obito fought Konan, she had said that her six hundred billion paper bombs would explode for ten minutes straight. And Obito's dematerialization could last for about five minutes. This meant that different people could use Izanagi for different lengths of time. Obito's could last for over five minutes.
And from the looks of it, Danzo's was about one minute. For one minute, he was immortal, at the cost of one eye. With a dozen or so eyes on his arm, he could maintain his immortality for over ten minutes. And he had to be killed once every minute to use up a Sharingan. But was Danzo so weak that he would be killed once every minute? Even if he was, Nagi didn't have the patience to play this game with him.
"Danzo, I thought of an interesting game. I hope you enjoy it." Nagi smiled faintly and clapped his hands, summoning the Uchiha clansmen who were currently slaughtering the Sarutobi clan in Konoha.
Hm?!
Less than half were left. No matter, half was enough. As long as there was no Sealing Squad, they were more than enough to play with.
Also summoned were Fugaku Uchiha and his wife.
"Otou-san?" Sasuke cried out anxiously as a coffin began to rise from the ground at Fugaku's feet.
"There's no time! Mikoto, Sasuke, look into my eyes!" Fugaku Uchiha opened his Mangekyo Sharingan, trying to use the last bit of time before he was taken away to have a reunion with his wife and son in the world of his mind.
In the mindscape—
Sasuke looked around in surprise. It was as if he were a child again, in the courtyard of his home. Fugaku and Mikoto stood to the side.
Fugaku spoke. "Sasuke, Uchiha Nagi is the caster. He is summoning me. I cannot resist. Time is short. Let's talk here, in the world of my Mangekyo."
"The truth you want to know... part of it is as you know. The Uchiha clan, because of the long-term oppression by Konoha, finally decided to rebel. But the spark that lit the fuse was the night of the Nine-Tails attack. On that night, the rampaging Nine-Tails had the pattern of a Mangekyo Sharingan in its eyes."
"So, from then on, the Uchiha clan could no longer integrate into Konoha. And the last straw was Shisui's death. Shisui was the youngest genius ninja in the Uchiha clan..."
Fugaku sighed. "I was a useless patriarch. I couldn't suppress the clan's desire to rebel. But I also knew that one clan rebelling against the entire village of Konoha was impossible. In the end, Itachi made the choice for us..."
"Your older brother, Itachi, joined the Anbu early on. We thought it was a sign of goodwill from the Third Hokage toward the Uchiha. But we never expected him to be brainwashed by that damned 'Will of Fire' of his. And then he turned around and helped Konoha wipe out the Uchiha clan."
Beside him, Mikoto was already sobbing uncontrollably.
Sasuke was not stupid. His face turned ugly, and he looked at his father with a ferocious expression. "So, it's true that Itachi wiped out the clan, but the mastermind behind it was the Third Hokage of Konoha?"