"How is this possible?" Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply.
"Truly a surprising technique." Danzo's voice remained raspy, but carried a chilling, post-near-death experience and undisguised greed.
"To directly attack the soul... you almost got me."
He slowly raised his right arm, unwinding more bandages to reveal the arm densely covered with Sharingan eyes.
The sight was eerie, sinister, and nauseating.
"I owe this bounty to your Uchiha Clan's 'generosity,'" Danzo sneered sinisterly. "These are souvenirs I collected the night your clan was annihilated."
"Each Three-Tomoe Sharingan can activate Izanagi once, turning reality that is unfavorable to me into mere illusion for a set duration."
"Simply put, for the minute Izanagi is active, I can revive infinitely, immune to death, negating all fatal damage and negative states."
"Though each eye can only be used once before going permanently blind, it's perfect for self-preservation and dealing with troublesome abilities like yours."
Looking at the eyes of his clansmen, densely packed on that arm, Sasuke felt a chill shoot from his soles to his crown, followed by overwhelming fury.
"You goddamn monster!" Sasuke roared, trying to mold Chakra.
Danzo's eyes turned cold. He stopped wasting words, formed hand seals instantly, and prepared to attack.
However, the moment he moved to act.
Danzo's body froze. His face showed an expression of disbelief, mixed with a hint of fear.
"Impossible!" He cried out, his voice filled with panic. "Izanagi is the ultimate Genjutsu that rewrites any unfavorable state within a set duration!"
"Why is that thing you left inside me still present? It should have been negated!"
Under the influence of the Genro Mao Ken, he found himself unable to harbor killing intent towards Sasuke, nor even capable of initiating an attack.
Sasuke was stunned for a moment, then understood, feeling immense shock and joy.
'Master's technique... even Izanagi, a Forbidden Jutsu that rewrites reality, can't completely erase its effects?'
The way he looked at Danzo was filled with icy killing intent and mockery.
Sensing the danger, Danzo realized the lingering effect prevented him from resisting the 'master'.
"Got plenty of eyes, huh? Can revive many times, huh?" Sasuke's voice was like ice. "Then I'll dig them out, one by one. Let's see how you revive!"
Taking advantage of Danzo's vulnerability under the Genro Mao Ken, Sasuke struck, his palm clamping onto Danzo's right arm.
"Rip!"
Accompanied by a horrifying sound of tearing flesh and Danzo's piercing scream, Sasuke forcibly tore off a small section of Danzo's arm.
"Ahhh! My arm! My eyes!" Danzo cried out in agony.
Sasuke pressed his advantage, attacking again.
Each strike aimed at the remaining Sharingan on Danzo's right arm.
Gouging! Digging! Tearing!
One! Two! Three!...
Danzo's screams and curses echoed through the hospital room. He tried to activate the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing to take Sasuke down with him.
But the lingering effect of the Genro Mao Ken prevented him from even that.
Inside the room, blood splattered... the scene was brutal as hell.
Finally, when the last Sharingan on Danzo's right arm was gouged out by Sasuke with a kunai...
Danzo lay slumped against the wall, a bloody mess, his right arm reduced to bone and shreds of flesh, his breath faint. His single eye held despair and bitter resentment.
"I curse you..."
Before he could finish, Sasuke drove a kunai into his heart.
Sasuke stared intently at Danzo's mutilated body, silently counting.
A minute passed. Danzo did not revive.
The demon drenched in Uchiha blood was finally, utterly dead.
"Ha, haha, hahaha!" Sasuke threw his head back, laughing maniacally, his expression almost twisted with glee.
Setsuna chuckled inwardly. It seemed Sasuke was on track to surpass Madara and become the foremost of the Four Mad Laughing Uchiha.
However, the extreme emotional fluctuations, combined with the immense drain from forcibly activating the Cursed Seal and using the Genro Mao Ken, triggered a deeper backlash from the [Cursed Seal of Heaven].
"Ugh!" Sasuke's laughter cut off abruptly, turning into a pained grunt.
The black markings of the Cursed Seal spread across his body. Natural Energy, filled with destructive and consuming urges, rampaged uncontrollably within him like a breached flood.
Just as Sasuke's consciousness was about to be completely consumed by the Cursed Seal, a wave of vast, gentle Spiritual Energy gently descended like an invisible canopy.
Setsuna's voice entered his mind: "Calm your mind. Feel the flow of energy, don't be dominated by it."
'It's Master!'
Sasuke, like a drowning man grabbing driftwood, immediately followed the guidance of this thought, desperately focusing his mind to resist the urge for bloodlust.
Setsuna's voice continued guiding him: "The Cursed Seal is essentially a substandard Natural Energy access port created by Orochimaru, mixing Jugo's Senjutsu Chakra with his Forbidden Jutsu."
"But Natural Energy itself has no good or evil... the key lies in control and transformation."
"Now, I'll teach you a simple 'technique' to guide this uncontrolled Natural Energy outwards, forming a 'Tattoos' layer on the body's surface that provides defense and power amplification."
As he spoke, Setsuna remembered that Sasuke, like Shiryu, preferred fighting with a bare chest, making [Tattoos] even more suitable for him.
Following the technique Setsuna taught, Sasuke began carefully guiding the rampaging Natural Energy within him.
Though he didn't succeed in forming the Tattoos, he was at least able to control that Natural Energy.
Sasuke felt increasing admiration, 'Kakashi-sensei and others could only try to seal Orochimaru's Cursed Seal, but Master could turn it into my own strength.'
He looked towards where Setsuna's spiritual form was and lowered his head solemnly: "Thank you, Master!"
"Mm." Setsuna acknowledged, then asked, "What do you think now about what Danzo said earlier? About your brother, about the truth of the massacre?"
The expression on Sasuke's face instantly turned cold and complex.
He was silent for a few seconds before speaking with a self-mocking, hateful tone: "Danzo's words only made me suffer more, and hate Uchiha Itachi even more."
"Oh?" Setsuna's tone was unreadable.
"The whole clan died... parents, elders, comrades, even the innocent children... they all died." Sasuke's voice trembled slightly.
"I alone survived. I originally thought I was living to bear the clan's bloody grudge. Everything about me was meant to exist for that single goal: revenge."
"But now? Danzo tells me the reason I'm alive is because of Uchiha Itachi's mercy? Because he pleaded with the higher-ups?"
Sasuke looked up sharply, his eyes blazing with anger:
"That shames me. It makes my life, my very existence, proof of his 'great sacrifice', a fig leaf for his conscience!"
"I won't thank him. This is worse than killing me outright. It makes my guilt even heavier!"
"So, I must kill Uchiha Itachi! I will use his blood to atone to the clan!"
Setsuna listened quietly, his spiritual form pulsing faintly.
The reason he favored Sasuke, besides his personal conviction, was that, in a clan full of zealots, psychopaths, and extremists like the Uchiha, finding a 'normal' person like Sasuke was incredibly rare.
Such a stable mentality was perfect for training the Genro Mao Ken.
'However, it seems the Genro Mao Ken has indeed affected him somewhat, but in a positive direction,' Setsuna nodded slightly.
Unlike the original work's later stages, after taking Itachi's eyes, Sasuke was clearly 'infected' by Itachi's meme and became mentally unstable too.
"I understand your thoughts." Setsuna didn't judge right or wrong, simply stating facts. "So, what do you plan to do next?"
Sasuke glanced at Danzo's corpse, then at the silent Konoha night outside the window.
"Master, do I have to defect immediately?" His voice was low, with a hint of subtle uncertainty.
"That might not be necessary so urgently." Setsuna's voice remained calm. "I placed a soundproof barrier... no one will know what happened tonight."
"As long as we dispose of Danzo's body, Konoha won't notice for a while. You can say goodbye to your friends first."
"Friends?" Sasuke forced a cold expression onto his face. "I don't have friends!"
Setsuna shook his head slightly: "You carry your clan's blood feud, so subconsciously, you believe that forming bonds with others, enjoying friendship, is a slackening of your revenge, a luxury, even a betrayal."
"But true strength doesn't come from severing all emotions and becoming a cold killing machine."
"True strength lies in facing your own heart, and after deep contemplation, still being able to make a decision and move forward unwaveringly on the path you've chosen."
Sasuke took a deep breath, the uncertainty in his eyes replaced by resolve: "Thank you, Master. I understand."