Chapter 38: Danzo's Trump Card
At this point, even Danzo felt that he had somewhat overplayed his hand.
The elite Root forces he had painstakingly built over decades were now almost completely wiped out.
His trump card — the Mangekyo Sharingan — had also been taken.
Everything had happened too fast. He still hadn't figured it out.
Why did it seem like Naruto had seen through all his moves? Every step Naruto took landed precisely on his vital points.
He was only twelve years old, yet he possessed such terrifying strength and intuition.
Now, all that remained was the Hashirama cell arm embedded with Sharingan.
Although the Sharingan on it could still be used for Izanagi more than ten times.
But being killed was only a matter of time.
What made him truly despair was that Naruto had Flying Thunder God.
He couldn't even run away.
[Hiruzen, why did Flying Thunder God fall into the jinchuriki's hands?! What have you been doing?!] Danzo roared inwardly.
After the tornado of the Ninth Form dissipated, another stretch of Konoha had been turned into ruins.
Danzo wiped the blood from his eye socket. His remaining ordinary eye flickered with uncertainty.
Naruto had no intention of giving him any breathing room. He activated the First Form and charged forward. A streak of cyan light flashed past.
Danzo's head slowly fell.
Izanagi activated. Danzo reappeared not far away, and the second Sharingan on his arm slowly closed.
He couldn't just sit and wait for death. Danzo looked toward his old partner who had always been soft-hearted toward him.
"Hiruzen! Are you really going to entrust the survival of Konoha to such a ruthless jinchuriki?!"
"Do you really believe he won't turn against Konoha?!"
"If you and I join forces and order all the major clans to act together, we still have a chance to subdue the jinchuriki. After fighting this long, his chakra must be running low!"
Danzo's words seemed to have some effect.
The Third indeed looked at Naruto. His cloudy eyes flickered as he once again weighed the pros and cons.
But soon, he got his answer from Naruto's calm, unruffled eyes.
That confident gaze didn't look like someone whose chakra was nearly depleted, as Danzo claimed.
If they fought with all of Konoha's strength against Naruto, the result would undoubtedly be catastrophic.
Although he wasn't sure whether Naruto would keep his word, at this point, he could only hope that Naruto still possessed a trace of Minato's character.
"Danzo… Konoha can't afford to gamble anymore…" the Third said with deep sorrow.
There was a time when Konoha had been so full of vigor and ambition.
But now, every decision had to be made with extreme caution.
A thought surfaced in the Third's mind.
[Teacher, was choosing me as Hokage really the right decision? If you had escaped back then, Konoha would probably be in a completely different state…]
Receiving such an answer, Danzo wasn't surprised.
He looked at Naruto and seemed to make up his mind. His voice rang out firmly:
"Hiruzen! In the most critical moments, the one who has always protected Konoha is me! The winner today is me — hahaha!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Danzo formed several hand seals. The entire ground began to tremble.
Naruto frowned and looked downward.
Through Transparent World, he saw an incredibly massive amount of chakra surging up from underground.
A thing over ten meters long, resembling both a snake and tree roots, was drilling out from below!
The entire snake's body was as pale as Danzo's arm, and scattered Sharingan were embedded across its body!
There were over a hundred of them!
If any Uchiha clan member saw this, they would probably call it "daddy"!
Immediately after, the giant "snake" burst out from the ground.
The moment it emerged, it swallowed Danzo's entire body!
"This…" The Third was stunned by the sudden scene.
Naruto looked at the "giant snake" before him. There was no fear or doubt in his eyes.
Instead, his eyes lit up, as if he had seen some rare treasure.
"What rich Hashirama cells… truly good stuff."
In the original story, Naruto had never seen this giant snake constructed from Hashirama cells and Sharingan hidden by Root.
Had his own appearance caused Danzo to become more radical, leading to its creation?
Or had it always existed, but he simply never had the chance to use it in the original story?
Naruto guessed in his heart.
But the giant snake's next change made Naruto put away his thoughts.
After swallowing Danzo, the giant snake's body began to wriggle and deform continuously.
First, a pair of human hands and feet grew from its previously flat, smooth underside.
The scene was extremely grotesque.
Naruto raised his right hand and lightly swung his light sword.
A Second Form claw strike slashed toward the constantly wriggling giant snake.
No matter what it was trying to do, interrupting the process was the right move.
The Second Form claw strike tore the white giant snake into several pieces.
But less than two seconds later, the giant snake continued wriggling and fused its body back together.
Moreover, it sped up the frequency of its wriggling.
Its body also shifted from lying flat to standing upright.
Its head wriggled, melted, and reformed rapidly.
In the end, it actually transformed into Danzo's appearance!
However, at this moment, Danzo's skin color was as deathly pale as the white snake, and his head had grown several times larger.
More than ten Sharingan were embedded in his eye sockets like compound eyes, glowing a particularly sinister red.
The entire white snake body had also transformed into a humanoid shape.
It was nearly ten meters tall — a perfect white giant!
Scattered Sharingan could still be seen across its body.
Looking at the giant Danzo before him, Naruto thought of the Warhammer Titans.
They were also giants with pale bodies.
But compared to the beautiful maid-dressed woman who piloted the Warhammer Titan, Danzo looked far more hideous.
Seeing the product formed from Hashirama cells and Sharingan before him, the Third opened his mouth in shock.
"Danzo… is this the reason you so strongly advocated for the extermination of the Uchiha clan?"
"What kind of obsession could drive you to this state?!"
The giant Danzo glanced at the Third. From his white giant mouth came a strange, distorted voice.
"Hiruzen, everything I did was for Konoha. I was just protecting Konoha in my own way — a way that others don't approve of!"
"Just like now!"
After saying this, Danzo looked at Naruto and raised his pale giant hand.
A thick tree branch, like a tentacle, shot toward Naruto.
Naruto swung his sword and cut the branch.
The branch was severed, but in the next second it regrew and continued to coil toward him.
This regenerative ability was truly terrifying.
Naruto didn't tangle with it any further. He directly activated Flying Thunder God and temporarily evaded.
Through Transparent World, Naruto observed that Danzo's current state was extremely unstable.
Inside that pale body, the Hashirama cells and the ocular power of the Sharingan were constantly clashing.
This did grant him very strong Wood Release power and recovery ability.
But if this continued, it wouldn't take long before the entire body collapsed.
Naruto only needed to use Flying Thunder God to escape, and Danzo would eventually destroy himself.
But in that case, he probably wouldn't be able to absorb the Hashirama cells from that body.
After thinking for a moment, Naruto decided to stay. The system's collection task had been stuck for a long time. It was time to complete it!
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