Kiyohara opened his mouth.
A vast wave of fire surged out from it.
The flames were not the usual crimson red. Instead, they carried a dazzling layer of golden chakra.
This was the form created after Kiyohara fused his microwave Fire Release with Yang Release chakra. Its temperature far surpassed the limits of ordinary Fire Release ninjutsu.
If it had to be ranked, then this had undoubtedly elevated the B-rank Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation to S-rank.
At this point, it was already a completely different ninjutsu from the original. Kiyohara simply couldn't be bothered to rename it.
As the flames roared forward, everything they passed through was affected. Rainwater evaporated instantly, and even the air was burned until it twisted and warped.
The fire spread into a sea of flames in midair and instantly engulfed Shimura Danzo's summoned beast, the Baku.
The Baku wanted to dodge, but it was far too late.
The flames followed the suction force and poured directly into its throat.
Boom!
Scorching flames wrapped around the Baku's entire body, burning it beyond recognition.
Poof!
The Baku instantly turned into a cloud of white smoke and vanished.
Once a summoned beast received damage beyond its limit, the summoning would be released.
The violent wind abruptly stopped, and the suction disappeared in an instant.
The Anbu ninja who had been driven into disarray by the wind pressure all staggered and steadied themselves, gasping for breath.
Uchiha Shisui also dismissed the crumbling Susanoo skeleton around him, and the green chakra slowly faded into the rain.
As the white smoke dispersed, Shimura Danzo's figure was exposed in front of Kiyohara.
His face was livid, and his lone eye was full of shock and rage.
The Root ninja behind him looked at one another, their expressions shifting from shock into fear.
Danzo gritted his teeth, knowing the situation was lost.
The Baku he had spent years taming, one of the trump cards he had always taken pride in, had failed to last even a single round in front of Kiyohara.
Now, not only had his attempt to seize Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan failed, but Kiyohara's strength had far exceeded his expectations.
He lowered his head and glanced at his right arm.
The Sharingan remaining on it were his final chance.
Each Sharingan represented one chance at revival.
But even if he revived that many times, could he defeat Kiyohara?
Besides, he had spent enormous effort acquiring those Sharingan. He absolutely could not waste them in a hopeless deathtrap like this.
"Tatsuma, come with me. The rest of you, stop him!"
Shimura Danzo ordered the Root ninja.
He turned and rushed deeper into the forest, his steps unsteady, like an old dog being chased.
Dozens of Root ninja charged out from the rain.
Those Root ninja were all death soldiers he had brainwashed. Even knowing they were heading toward certain death, they showed no hesitation at all.
Dozens of them drew the ninja swords and kunai at their waists at the same time. Their hands formed seals rapidly. Wind Release, Fire Release, insect spheres, poison mist—all kinds of ninjutsu came flying toward Kiyohara.
Kiyohara looked at Danzo's panicked fleeing figure and couldn't help shaking his head.
From the very beginning, Shimura Danzo had actually been rather afraid of death.
He always claimed everything was for Konoha, but when something truly happened, he ran faster than anyone.
In his battle against Sasuke, he had also kept holding back his trump cards, thinking that after dealing with Sasuke, he would handle Obito and then escape unharmed.
That kind of behavior—refusing to use his ultimate move early—caused Shimura Danzo to use Izanagi like the Substitution Jutsu, and in the end, he still died.
Now, Danzo probably believed he couldn't defeat Kiyohara, so he wasn't even using the Sharingan. He was focused only on running.
"Annoying."
The gold dust gourd at Kiyohara's waist trembled again.
Countless grains of gold dust condensed into fine needles, with faint arcs of electricity flickering over them.
Kiyohara's control over electromagnetic force was now very practiced.
Those grains of sand were all coated in Kiyohara's chakra, so even when accelerated, they would not melt from overheating.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The many fine gold dust needles shot out, piercing through the bodies of the Root ninja ahead.
Muffled squelching sounds rang out one after another.
At Kiyohara's level, numbers had already lost their meaning. It was like how Uchiha Madara became the demon of the battlefield, freely moving in and out of the Allied Shinobi Forces.
In just one exchange, dozens of Root ninja collapsed together into the muddy rainwater, not even managing to let out a scream. Blood poured from their wounds, quickly diluted by the cold rain and dyeing the ground red.
Kiyohara did not even spare those corpses another look. His gaze remained fixed on the direction Shimura Danzo had fled.
The shock and anger had not yet faded from Danzo's face when he realized Kiyohara had already killed all of the Root ninja.
Then he saw Kiyohara begin forming seals again.
"Water Release: Water Realm Technique."
This was also a technique Kiyohara had created himself.
Its principle was simple: mix gold dust particles into fast-flowing water, giving the water both Water Release's fluidity and the damage-enhancing property of gold dust.
Boom!
The ground began to tremble.
A circular water wall dozens of meters tall rose from the earth.
The water wall rapidly closed in, ultimately forming a gigantic spherical barrier. Water flowed at high speed along the barrier's surface, and grains of sand inside it formed countless sharp blade-currents.
Forget a living person—even a mosquito should not dream of flying out of this barrier.
Danzo, fleeing in panic, slammed straight into the water barrier. The high-speed rotating water instantly tore apart his sleeve, while sand blades cut several bone-deep wounds into his arm.
He staggered back several steps and looked at the endless water wall before him. Despair finally appeared in his lone eye.
He turned around.
Kiyohara stood behind him.
Rain was still falling, but when it landed above the barrier, it was swept away by the flowing water and merged into the river-like barrier.
Inside the barrier, the rain had stopped.
"You can't escape."
Kiyohara's voice came from a distance. It wasn't loud, but it was very clear.
"Shimura Danzo, today is the day you die."
Shimura Danzo took a deep breath, suppressing the anger and fear in his heart.
His eye turned in its socket, quickly scanning the surrounding environment.
The barrier was large, but it was not endless.
If he could find a weak point in the barrier and tear open a gap with his strongest Wind Release, he would still have a chance to escape.
But…
His gaze fell on Kiyohara.
Against the crimson base of Kiyohara's eyes, the Mangekyō pattern slowly rotated.
Danzo knew he had already been locked on.
He had not forgotten that Kiyohara could control black flames.
That flame could shoot out from Shisui's eye, so naturally, it could also shoot out from Kiyohara's eye.
"In that case…"
Shimura Danzo removed the bandage from his head, revealing the eye he had always kept hidden.
It was also a crimson Sharingan, with three tomoe slowly rotating.
Shimura Danzo knew he could no longer run, so he simply abandoned restraint. His hands began forming seals, his chest swelling high as chakra flowed through his throat.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
A high-pressure wind sphere larger than a basketball surged from his mouth. Sharp wind blades flowed across its surface. Wherever it passed, the air was torn apart, and even the rain was shredded into fine mist.
Danzo had poured a great deal of Wind Release chakra into this attack.
Even if it were an iron door specially forged from chakra metal, Danzo was confident he could tear it apart instantly.
In the blink of an eye, the wind sphere arrived before Kiyohara.
Half a ribcage Susanoo condensed beside him.
The massive skeletal hand covered in golden chakra slowly lifted and gently slapped the incoming high-pressure wind sphere.
Boom!
The wind sphere was instantly smashed apart.
The scattered wind blades struck the Water Realm barrier, only stirring up rings of fine ripples. They could not shake the barrier wall in the slightest.
Shimura Danzo continued forming seals.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"
Continuous wind bullets poured toward Kiyohara like machine-gun fire.
The wind bullets struck Susanoo's skeletal hand, blasting out clusters of white air waves. Shockwaves spread in every direction, blowing uneven pits into the ground.
Kiyohara stood where he was, his expression unchanged.
As a Wind Release ninja, Shimura Danzo's accomplishments in Wind Release were indeed decent.
If Kiyohara had faced Danzo several years earlier, it might truly have been somewhat difficult.
Unfortunately, times had changed. Without realizing it, Kiyohara had long since gained power surpassing Shimura Danzo.
"I've taken so many of your moves. It's about time you take one of mine, Danzo."
Hearing Kiyohara's words, the unease in Shimura Danzo's heart climbed to its peak.
He instinctively prepared to activate the Sharingan on his right arm and use Izanagi, seeking a chance to counterattack.
But just then, he met Kiyohara's eyes.
Those crimson Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan were like two bottomless whirlpools, instantly dragging his consciousness inside.
Naraku Yomotsu!
Shimura Danzo's pupils rapidly dilated, and fine blood vessels appeared across the whites of his eyes.
He saw the thing he feared most.
It was not death.
It was not failure.
It was something even more terrifying.
Konoha was destroyed in his hands.
He saw Hiruzen Sarutobi standing atop the ruins of the Hokage building, covered in blood, looking at him with an expression he had never seen before.
"Danzo… this is all your fault…"
"If you had not run away, if you had not cared only about your own ambition…"
"Konoha… would not have become like this…"
Root ninja fell one after another. The chess pieces he had personally cultivated, the subordinates he had regarded as tools, were harvested like wheat.
"Danzo-sama… why…"
"Why did you abandon us…"
"Didn't you say… you were Konoha's darkness…"
"Does darkness… run away too…"
Shimura Danzo's body began to tremble.
"No… no… it wasn't me…"
"I did it for Konoha… Everything I did was for Konoha…"
"Shut up! All of you shut up!"
His voice grew louder and sharper, finally turning into a hysterical roar.
Kiyohara looked at Shimura Danzo, a trace of coldness flashing through his eyes.
If he used offensive ninjutsu, Danzo had Izanagi, which could be called a brief state of immortality.
Unless Kiyohara killed him during the gap when Izanagi expired, no matter how many times he killed Danzo, Danzo could rewrite reality.
But the forbidden technique Izanagi could only rewrite physical reality. It could not interfere with the mental world.
Genjutsu was different.
Once you were caught in genjutsu, you were caught. Even if he consumed a Sharingan to activate Izanagi, he could not erase the influence of the genjutsu.
Izanami, in fact, was a similar application.
Within endlessly repeating illusions, unless a person faced their true self, they would continue sinking within it until the physical body collapsed.
That was why Kiyohara chose Naraku Yomotsu.
Letting Danzo sink into his own fear was more effective than any physical attack.
Kiyohara walked forward.
The Susanoo skeleton around him slowly dispersed.
He walked up to Shimura Danzo and stopped.
Danzo was still trembling, still muttering to himself, completely unaware of Kiyohara's approach.
His lone eye was wide open, reflecting not reality, but the fears only he could see.
Kiyohara's hand blade fell.
Squelch!
Shimura Danzo's right arm was severed cleanly from the shoulder.
Blood gushed from the stump, splashing onto the wet ground. It was quickly diluted by accumulated rainwater, turning into a pale red puddle.
The Sharingan on the arm slowly rotated, as if making a final struggle.
Shimura Danzo let out a piercing scream.
The intense pain dragged him out of the illusion.
His pupils refocused. He lowered his head and saw his empty right shoulder. He saw the arm on the ground still twitching.
"Ah… ah…"
His voice came in broken gasps.
"My hand… my…"
My Sharingan power!
This time, Shimura Danzo had lost his final support.
He had never imagined that a Mangekyō-type genjutsu could be this terrifying.
A vicious light flashed in Shimura Danzo's eye.
If he was destined to die, then they would die together.
"Reverse Four Symbols Sealing!"
Shimura Danzo's voice was hoarse, carrying his final madness.
"Kiyohara, go to hell with me!"
His blood turned black, like ink, and sprayed outward.
The black blood formed a Four Symbols trigram pattern.
Kiyohara's eyes narrowed slightly.
If he were caught in this technique, even he would not come out well.
But unfortunately, he knew space-time ninjutsu.
"Flying Thunder God Technique."
Kiyohara's figure vanished from where he stood.
In the next instant, he was already standing at the edge of the barrier, watching from afar as the area was wrapped in a black sphere.
Shimura Danzo's body had been completely swallowed by black light, leaving only a blurry outline.
Finally, everything inside the sphere vanished, leaving behind only a huge deep pit. The pit walls were smooth as a mirror, as if a chunk had been gouged out from within.
Reverse Four Symbols Sealing required the caster's blood to draw the sealing formula, but when Danzo lost his arm, most of his blood had already flowed out.
That blood had spilled onto the ground and been scattered by the pooled water. It was nowhere near enough to sustain a large-scale seal.
The black patterns crawled across the ground, but without enough blood to maintain them, they ultimately ended up even smaller than in the original story.
"Danzo… is dead?"
Uchiha Shisui felt that the development of events was strangely wrong.
When he had met Shimura Danzo alone, his eyes had nearly been taken.
Yet Kiyohara had dealt with Shimura Danzo so quickly and cleanly.
"He's dead."
A ninja beside him nodded.
"Danzo's chakra has disappeared."
Everyone fell silent.
The rain began falling again.
Fine threads of rain drifted down from the sky, landing in that deep pit, on the broken trees, and on the Root ninja collapsed on the ground.
"Withdraw."
Kiyohara turned and walked out of the barrier.
"Bring the remaining Root ninja back to the Hokage building. Interrogate them one by one."
Kiyohara said.
Of course, the Root ninja were not limited to the ones Danzo had brought out.
But their elite main force was basically here, and Aburame Tatsuma had also died here.
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
The Anbu ninja responded in unison.
Footsteps sounded in the rain, and black figures began to move busily.
Just as Kiyohara was about to ask whether Mangekyō Kiyohara's final wish had been fulfilled, Uzuki Yugao ran in.
She had seen the light-blue barrier disappear, so she hurried over as quickly as possible.
"Hokage-sama."
Yugao's long purple hair was somewhat wet, clearly having just returned from outside.
She dropped to one knee and presented a document.
"This is the inventory of files found in Danzo's residence."
Kiyohara took the document and opened it.
Dense entries filled the entire page.
Experimental records, personnel lists, financial transactions, mission reports…
Every single one was enough to condemn Shimura Danzo beyond redemption.
"Keep investigating."
Kiyohara closed the document and looked at Uzuki Yugao.
"Yes."
After watching Yugao turn and leave, Kiyohara also used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave.
...…
Kiyohara's figure appeared atop the Hokage Rock.
From here, all of Konoha could be seen below.
"Danzo is dead.
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
A silver-white phantom slowly floated out from his body.
Mangekyō Kiyohara's silver-white hair fell to his waist. His Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan quietly looked down at Konoha below, the complex pattern slowly rotating against a crimson base.
"I felt it."
Mangekyō Kiyohara nodded.
It was indeed as Kiyohara said.
Shimura Danzo's chakra fluctuation had completely disappeared.
"So the final wish counts as completed?"
"Of course."
Mangekyō Kiyohara said calmly.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands, which were growing more and more transparent.
Starting from his palms, his body was slowly turning into tiny points of light.
Those light points drifted away from him and slowly flowed toward Kiyohara.
"The Yamanaka clan's Yin Release secret techniques, the Akimichi clan's Yang Release secret techniques, plus Shimura Danzo's destruction… I suppose that was also my own obsession."
Mangekyō Kiyohara paused, then praised Kiyohara.
"You did better than I expected."
The moment he finished speaking, Mangekyō Kiyohara's entire body began to break apart faster.
From his silver-white hair to that face identical to Kiyohara's, everything turned into light.
"Wait…"
Kiyohara raised his hand, wanting to say something.
But Mangekyō Kiyohara only shook his head.
"There's nothing to wait for."
"I am you, and you are me. We simply walked different roads and saw different scenery."
As the final word fell, his entire body completely disintegrated.
Countless points of light paused briefly in the air, then, as if finding their destination, surged toward Kiyohara together.
"…"
Kiyohara had actually wanted to ask whether his Rinnegan or Tenseigan would begin developing.
Both were supreme dōjutsu, and their triggering conditions were similar.
Possessing Hyuga or Uchiha blood, then adding Ōtsutsuki chakra, could allow one to awaken those dōjutsu.
"Forget it."
Kiyohara shook his head.
He carefully sensed his own improvement.
In theory, his twenty-five percent Ōtsutsuki bloodline had now risen to fifty percent.
"No, my situation is special. The actual progress should far exceed that."
Kiyohara shook his head.
Mangekyō Kiyohara had not had conditions like his.
He possessed many kekkei genkai, as well as the Byakugan. It was equivalent to having already assembled several pieces of the Ōtsutsuki bloodline puzzle.
Now, inheriting this legacy was like adding another flame.
"Mm…"
Kiyohara let out a muffled groan.
This improvement was somewhat intense.
A stabbing pain kept coming from between his brows, as if someone were forcibly digging a hole through the crown of his head.
"Damn. I'm not going to grow a third eye, am I?"
Kiyohara thought.
He hurriedly touched the spot between his brows and found it was still smooth. Only then did he relax.
If a third eye could close like Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's, that would be fine. But if it were like the Sage of Six Paths' eye, embedded in the flesh and unable to close, it would affect his appearance far too much.
"My spiritual energy has increased a lot again."
Then Kiyohara sensed that his mental world was expanding.
The space where the urns were placed continued to grow larger.
His already vast spiritual energy now began expanding at an unprecedented speed.
In his normal state, the range Kiyohara could sense was constantly expanding—from the ground to the sky, to the Anbu ninja busy near the Root base, and even to birds resting in the distant mountain forest.
The current Kiyohara felt as if he had obtained an in-game map, with every detail marked on it.
Then came Kiyohara's chakra reserves.
Kiyohara could feel a warm power washing through his meridians. His chakra pathways and chakra points were growing broader under that power's infusion.
His already bottomless chakra pool now seemed to have a new spring opened beneath it, and the water level began rising at a visible pace.
"My chakra reserves are now greater than those of ordinary tailed beasts."
Kiyohara felt somewhat pleased.
Not all tailed beasts were as absurd as the Nine-Tails and Ten-Tails.
For example, the One-Tail and Two-Tails actually had relatively low chakra reserves.
People like the Fourth Raikage and Kisame Hoshigaki could be called tailed-beast-level chakra holders.
But their actual performance was not that exaggerated.
Kiyohara felt that the tailed beasts they were being compared to were probably the One-Tail or Two-Tails.
The Nine-Tails rarely took action, so there was no standard reference for people to anchor their judgment to.
"This improvement is indeed good."
Kiyohara clenched his hand.
At his peak, Senju Hashirama's chakra reserves were equivalent to Naruto plus half of the Nine-Tails.
In other words, fifty-four times Kakashi's.
And Kiyohara's chakra reserves had also reached fifty to sixty times that level.
As for his physical body, Kiyohara could also feel major changes.
His bone density had increased greatly, and his bones had become even fairer.
He could feel that his current body density far surpassed that of ordinary people. Even without using any defensive ninjutsu, ordinary kunai and shuriken could no longer leave marks on his body.
Just then, a faint itch came from Kiyohara's forehead.
He could feel something pushing outward beneath his skin.
It was not pain, but a strange sensation of growth, like a seed breaking through the soil.
Tiny flesh horns slowly pushed out from both sides of his forehead.
Kiyohara raised his hand and touched the small horns with his fingertips.
"Most Ōtsutsuki seem to have horns."
Kiyohara thought.
However, even if the horns broke, it would not matter much.
Kiyohara had a feeling he could regrow them at any time.
"Good thing I learned techniques like the Chimera Technique and Dark Medical Ninjutsu, which can adjust the body."
Kiyohara mobilized his chakra, and the horns on his forehead fell off.
With a thought, the twin horns grew back.
"Good. This way, there won't be unnecessary misunderstandings."
After thinking about it, Kiyohara temporarily let the horns fall off again.
For now, they were not of much use to him.
"Do I still count as human now?"
Kiyohara stroked his chin.
He shook his head and began adapting to his new Mangekyō dōjutsu.
Mangekyō Kiyohara had four dōjutsu in total. Kiyohara had inherited two of them last time, leaving two remaining now.
That was because Mangekyō Kiyohara had awakened the Eternal Eye by inheriting another Mangekyō future.
"Hayatama no Mikoto."
Kiyohara learned the name of the new dōjutsu.
The effect of this dōjutsu was similar to the Heavenly Transfer Technique, but its upper limit was higher.
The Heavenly Transfer Technique could instantly transport a target to a designated location through high-speed movement.
But that technique was usually used to transport objects. High-speed movement caused intense friction with the air and produced enormous overload. An ordinary human body would be torn apart and die because it could not withstand such rapid transfer.
Kiyohara's dōjutsu was similar. He could instantly break through the speed limits of his physical body. His movement speed, attack speed, and hand-seal speed would increase geometrically as the dōjutsu was activated.
In theory, as long as his body was strong enough, there was no ceiling to his speed. He could even reach light speed, or surpass light speed.
Of course, to surpass light speed, Kiyohara estimated the requirements on the body would be extremely high.
All backlash caused by increased speed—spatial tearing impacts, inertial overload, air friction, and the extreme strain on the body—would be borne entirely by the user's physical body.
The faster he moved, the more he would feel the air resisting him like a block of iron.
If Hayatama no Mikoto were overused, the first person to die would probably be the user.
"This is a dōjutsu the Mangekyō can possess?"
Kiyohara was once again amazed by how limitless the Mangekyō could be.
After all, this thing was essentially no different from pure gacha.
There was Amaterasu, with heat like the sun, and Kamui, which could tear apart space.
One could even say Obito's Kamui had created a world, though the space there was small.
"Fortunately, with my current body, I should easily be able to exceed many times the speed of sound."
Kiyohara pondered.
But exactly how fast he could accelerate would still require testing.
If his own speed became faster, then in a sense, he would gain the ability to "stop time."
The faster he was, the slower everything around him would become.
Very soon, Kiyohara turned his attention to the second dōjutsu.
It was called Takamimusubi.
In legend, this god was the head of the three primordial deities, governing the power and creation of all things.
The effect of this dōjutsu was that as long as his gaze locked onto a technique he had released, he could use ocular power to interfere with the chakra and enhance that ninjutsu. Its power, range, penetration, and duration would be multiplied several times.
Even the most basic E-rank Three Basic Techniques, after being enhanced by this dōjutsu, could reach a genjutsu-like level of realism.
An ordinary B-rank Fire Release technique could instantly surpass A-rank ninjutsu, rising by a full rank.
Even more terrifying was that this dōjutsu had no attribute restrictions. Whether it was one of the seven basic nature transformations, a kekkei genkai, senjutsu, or taijutsu, it could all be enhanced—and without any additional hand seals, activating instantly.
Stacked with his enormous chakra reserves, the effect was something even Kiyohara found hard to imagine.
"I'll need to find a chance to test it."
Kiyohara thought.
With this, even facing an Ōtsutsuki invasion, he now had confidence.
Who wasn't an Ōtsutsuki now?
…
The next day.
Morning sunlight filtered through the windows of the Hokage building and fell on the thick stack of documents on the desk.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in the office, while the seat that belonged uniquely to the Hokage remained empty.
The Hokage's chair no longer belonged to him.
He was only here as an advisor, temporarily sitting on an ordinary chair beside it, waiting for Kiyohara's arrival.
The events of last night had already spread throughout all of Konoha.
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi felt the amount of information was overwhelming.
First came the mysterious attacker invading the village, then the Nine-Tails incident, and then Kiyohara's thunderous purge of Shimura Danzo.
And the file in front of him was mostly photographs.
The photos showed the interior of an underground laboratory. Infant organs soaking in culture vessels. Unknown liquids stored in labeled glass bottles. Experimental subjects deformed beyond recognition by Hashirama cells.
With every page Hiruzen turned, his expression darkened further.
Recorded above were the names of every infant secretly taken away by Root over the past several decades and used in live experiments.
Beside some names was written "dead."
Beside others: "lost control."
Others: "discarded."
Only a very small number were marked "survived."
Yamato's name was in the "survived" column.
"Danzo…"
Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed.
He was Shimura Danzo's old friend. Even when Danzo had arranged an assassination against him, Hiruzen could turn a blind eye.
But Kiyohara would not indulge Shimura Danzo.
In Hiruzen's view, Danzo had simply failed to recognize the situation.
Before long, the door opened.
But the person who entered was not Kiyohara. It was Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.
Both looked unhappy, clearly having already seen the contents of that file.
"Hiruzen."
Mitokado Homura sat down on a chair and pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose.
He felt somewhat emotional.
He had seen Shimura Danzo just yesterday, and today they were separated by life and death.
"What do you think about Danzo's matter?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head and did not want to speak.
Utatane Koharu sighed and sat down in another chair.
"The evidence… is all real. Everything the Anbu found in Danzo's residence and Root base matches. Experimental records, personnel lists, financial transactions… the proof is ironclad."
She paused, and her voice lowered.
"And last night, Danzo truly did lead Root's core forces out of the village. While the Nine-Tails was rampaging inside the village, he did not act. He only hid outside the village."
Mitokado Homura was silent for a while before speaking.
"Danzo… perhaps he really had his reasons. Those experiments, those methods, although they could not see the light of day, were indeed for Konoha…"
"Homura."
Hiruzen Sarutobi finally opened his eyes.
He looked at Mitokado Homura. In those cloudy eyes was an exhaustion they had never seen before.
"There are no reasons."
Mitokado Homura froze.
"What?"
"There are no reasons."
Hiruzen repeated.
"Using infants for experiments cannot be explained by any reason. Fleeing in the face of battle cannot be explained by any reason."
Hiruzen shook his head.
This was a red-line issue.
Wood Release experiments had indeed been carried out in the past.
But they had all used adult volunteers. Never infants.
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi had not imagined that Shimura Danzo could be this deranged.
He had thought Danzo had at most used Root volunteers, or perhaps criminals.
"I always thought… the things Danzo did were for Konoha. So I tolerated him again and again, yielded again and again, pretended not to see again and again. I thought that as long as the result was good, it did not matter if the process was a little dark."
"But now…"
Hiruzen lowered his head and looked at the closed file on the desk.
"Only now do I understand that I was wrong."
"What Danzo did was not for Konoha. It was for himself. For his version of Konoha."
The office fell into silence.
Mitokado Homura opened his mouth, wanting to say something, only to find he had nothing to say.
Utatane Koharu also remained silent.
After a long time, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally spoke again.
"Where is Kiyohara?"
"He should be here soon."
Utatane Koharu raised her head.
The moment her words fell, the door opened.
Kiyohara walked in.
Behind him followed two Anbu ninja and Konan.
The two Anbu each held thick stacks of files.
Konan had seen everything that had happened yesterday as well.
Kiyohara's strength had once again refreshed her understanding of power.
She could not help thinking that Nagato had, at some point, begun liking to call himself a god.
But if one were to speak of gods, then Kiyohara's power seemed far more like that of a so-called god.
"Third."
Kiyohara nodded slightly and greeted Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his head and looked at him.
Morning sunlight shone in from the window and fell on Kiyohara's face.
There was no fatigue visible on that young face. Clearly, he had gone through a major battle last night and personally handled Danzo's matter, yet his mental state was better than anyone else's.
Hiruzen Sarutobi even had an inexplicable feeling that Kiyohara seemed different.
Stronger.
But this had only been one night. How could a person undergo such a large change?
Hiruzen Sarutobi pushed that absurd thought down.
He said to Kiyohara,
"Danzo's matter… you handled it well."
"I have read the evidence. It is ironclad. There is nothing to argue about."
Kiyohara nodded.
Even if Hiruzen Sarutobi did not approve, it would not matter. Kiyohara had plenty of ways to make them approve.
But from the looks of it, Hiruzen had not grown senile to that extent.
Mitokado Homura watched this scene and sighed again.
He had known Hiruzen Sarutobi for decades, but he had never seen him like this.
Like an old tree whose core had been hollowed out. The exterior remained, but the inside was already empty.
Among this group of old friends, the bond between Shimura Danzo and Sarutobi Hiruzen was actually the deepest.
The two had been close friends since childhood.
It was precisely because of that that Hiruzen had tolerated Shimura Danzo crossing the line again and again.
"Hokage-sama."
An Anbu ninja stepped forward and placed the files in his arms on the desk.
"These are all the experimental data found in the Root base. Preliminary organization has been completed. Among them are three hundred seventy-two records involving live Hashirama cell experiments, five hundred eighteen research files involving forbidden technique development, and two hundred six accounts involving financial transactions."
"In addition, Root has seven bases inside and outside Konoha. Three have already been fully brought under our control. The remaining four are being cleared. Root has one hundred fifty-three registered ninja in total. Sixty-four were killed in last night's fighting, and eighty-nine were captured. They are currently being interrogated one by one."
Kiyohara nodded.
"Keep investigating. Hand the experimental data to Konoha Hospital and have Rin organize people to evaluate it. Keep anything valuable and destroy what has no value. Hand the financial accounts to the finance department and investigate the source and destination of every sum. As for the prisoners…"
Kiyohara thought for a moment and said,
"Those willing to leave Root will be given one chance and reassigned into the Anbu. Those unwilling to leave will be handled as rogue ninja."
After all, among them, there were also people like Sai, who had not been deeply brainwashed.
And Root ninja like Shigaraki Tanuki had major uses for Kiyohara.
They were experimental personnel within Root and had deep involvement in the Gozu Tennō plan.
In Boruto, Shigaraki Tanuki had replicated Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's secret technique, Gozu Tennō, through experiments left behind by Shimura Danzo and a scroll from a thousand years ago.
"Yes."
The Anbu ninja bowed and withdrew.
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in."
The door opened.
Uzuki Yugao walked in, holding a file.
"Hokage-sama, the preliminary assessment report on Root's assets is complete."
She walked to the desk and placed the file down.
"Including land, properties, weapons, ninja tools, and funds, Root's total assets are roughly equivalent to three years of Konoha's fiscal revenue. Most of it exists in secret accounts, and it will take some time to complete the transfer."
Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu exchanged a glance. Both saw shock in the other's eyes.
Three years of fiscal revenue.
That number far exceeded their expectations.
Just how much had Shimura Danzo accumulated in the shadows over all these years?
Kiyohara picked up the report, flipped through a few pages, then set it down.
"Continue the inventory. Once complete, all of it will be incorporated into Konoha's finances."
"Yes."
Uzuki Yugao bowed and withdrew.
Just then, the door was pushed open again.
Tsunade walked in.
Today, she wore a pale-green robe. Her golden hair fell loose over her shoulders, with a few strands hanging over her chest. Her delicate face showed some fatigue, clearly indicating she had not slept well last night either.
Her gaze swept around the office and landed on Kiyohara.
"Kiyohara, I have something to ask you."
Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu exchanged a glance and tactfully stood.
"We'll go out first."
Seeing the two of them leave, Hiruzen Sarutobi also left Kiyohara's office.
He did it to avoid Tsunade asking him to borrow money.
"Konan, please help me deliver this file to Nono."
Kiyohara said to Konan.
Then he gave orders to the two Anbu in the office, telling them to strengthen village security.
Only Kiyohara and Tsunade remained in the office.
Tsunade walked to the desk and braced both hands against the tabletop, leaning forward slightly.
From this angle, Kiyohara could clearly see the slightly open collar of her pale-green robe, revealing a fair line at her chest, with faint blue veins visible.
Tsunade's golden hair fell from her shoulders, a few strands landing on the desk and swaying gently with her breathing.
"Why did you suddenly make a move against Danzo?"
Tsunade's voice was low, carrying some confusion.
"Danzo was, after all, one of Konoha's elders and a former classmate of Sarutobi-sensei. By doing this, aren't you afraid of backlash from the other ninja clans?"
Kiyohara leaned back in his chair and looked at her.
"Teacher thinks I shouldn't have acted?"
"Not that you shouldn't have."
Tsunade frowned.
"It's just… too fast. How long have you been Hokage? Your foundation isn't completely stable yet, and you already moved against an elder like Danzo…"
"Teacher."
Kiyohara interrupted her.
"Danzo was no longer one of Konoha's elders."
Tsunade froze.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean he had become Konoha's tumor."
Kiyohara picked up the evidence file from the desk and handed it to her.
"This is what the Anbu found in Danzo's residence and Root base. Live experiments, infant organs, embezzlement, fleeing in battle… Every single charge is backed by ironclad evidence."
Tsunade took the file and opened it.
"These…"
"Danzo did all this?"
"Yes."
Kiyohara nodded.
Hearing that, Tsunade understood.
She had drunk some alcohol last night, so she was behind on the news.
"Looking at it this way, he really did deserve to die."
She placed the file back on the desk, then braced herself against the tabletop again, leaning forward slightly.
"But that isn't why I came today."
Tsunade moved closer to Kiyohara's face.
The two were so close that Kiyohara could even feel Tsunade's breath.