Ye Zi had rigged the shuriken and pressured Danzo into making the exact move he anticipated, shifting to the right, right into the path of the returning shuriken.
Once the shuriken struck Danzo, causing a brief pause in his movements, Ye Zi seized the moment and, with lightning speed, drove his longsword through Danzo's heart, delivering a fatal blow.
If anything could be called resilience, this was a perfect example.
This kind of desperate combat wasn't new to Ye Zi, he had experienced it countless times before.
Those were the hardest periods of his life.
Holding the sword that pierced Danzo, Ye Zi's icy gaze met Danzo's eyes. To his surprise, he saw Danzo smiling faintly, which made him pause slightly.
Ye Zi was certain that this Danzo wasn't a shadow clone or a substitution jutsu, it was undoubtedly the real body. So why was Danzo smiling at the brink of death?
Suddenly, the boundary between illusion and reality vanished.
In the next moment, Danzo disappeared before Ye Zi's eyes. Without hesitation, Ye Zi spun around, raising his longsword.
Clang!
The blade Danzo swung down was parried by Ye Zi.
"Not bad," Danzo remarked calmly, though a flicker of surprise gleamed in his eyes. He had hoped to catch Ye Zi off guard after using Izanagi, but Ye Zi's reaction was unexpectedly swift.
Before using Izanagi, Danzo's heart had indeed been pierced by Ye Zi's blade, so it was natural to assume that Ye Zi would relax after seemingly killing him.
And Ye Zi did, momentarily. But his sensory abilities kicked in.
When illusion and reality swapped, and Danzo vanished from his sight, Ye Zi immediately sensed Danzo's presence behind him.
How could someone whose heart had been pierced, and who wasn't a clone, suddenly disappear and reappear behind him?
Since his right eye showed no reaction, Ye Zi knew it wasn't genjutsu. So what was it?
Izanagi, it was a dojutsu of the Uchiha clan. In an instant, it could transform all injuries, including death, into mere illusions, at the cost of losing the light of one Sharingan.
Danzo had used this technique to turn his death into a dream-like mirage, nullifying it entirely.
However, since Uchiha Madara hadn't revealed the secrets of Izanagi to Ye Zi, he was unaware of its existence.
Suppressing his confusion, Ye Zi resumed his assault. As long as he stayed close, his swordsmanship could keep Danzo at bay.
Danzo had already lost once to Ye Zi's blade. His attempt to ambush Ye Zi after using Izanagi failed miserably. Once in close combat, Danzo was again suppressed by Ye Zi's swordsmanship.
It was frustrating... Humiliating, even. After decades of refining his skills with the blade, Danzo found himself outmatched by someone with only a little over a decade of practice. Was it a matter of talent or effort?
As Ye Zi's relentless assault continued, Danzo eventually exposed a flaw and was once again pierced through the heart by Ye Zi's blade.
Activating Izanagi once more, another Sharingan on Danzo's arm closed. After being killed twice in succession by Ye Zi's blade, Danzo was seething with frustration. This time, he kept his distance and unleashed Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!
Danzo's body vanished again after being fatally pierced. Moments later, Ye Zi sensed chakra fluctuations behind him as seven or eight linear wind blades sped toward his back.
He had no time to wonder. Dodging to the right, he avoided most of the wind blades, though one grazed his lower back, leaving a shallow wound. Fortunately, it wasn't serious.
Seeing Ye Zi dodge most of the wind blades with such precision, Danzo's expression grew heavy. Izanagi was most effective when used for close-range ambushes. Using ninjutsu instead risked alerting the enemy due to the disturbance and chakra fluctuations.
Yet neither close combat with a blade nor ninjutsu at a distance could finish off Ye Zi immediately.
This was maddening. Ye Zi was in poor condition, his strength limited. How could Danzo not defeat him?
What a joke!
As a peer of Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo had his pride as a skilled shinobi.
Ye Zi turned to face Danzo, frowning. If this wasn't genjutsu, then what kind of technique was it?
Then he noticed that two of the Sharingan on Danzo's arm had closed. His eyes narrowed. While he didn't know exactly what Danzo's technique was, he could deduce that it was tied to the Sharingan.
Two Sharingan corresponded to two deaths?
In other words, one Sharingan could negate a single death? If so, Danzo still had six Sharingan left.
To confirm his theory, Ye Zi would have to kill Danzo again and see if a third Sharingan closed.
At that moment, Danzo reached into his pouch, grabbed four shuriken, and hurled them at Ye Zi.
The spinning shuriken curved beautifully as they flew toward Ye Zi, who effortlessly deflected them with his sword.
Wind Release: Great Vacuum Sphere!
Larger air bullets than before, over a dozen, hurtled toward Ye Zi.
Instead of retreating, Ye Zi advanced. With precise sidesteps and a small leap, he dodged all the bullets and closed in on Danzo.
Danzo frowned, unleashing several more Wind Release techniques, but Ye Zi evaded them all with ease, steadily narrowing the gap between them.
Danzo couldn't help but feel a sliver of disbelief. Despite witnessing Ye Zi's weakened state from start to finish, his movements suggested otherwise.
Shadow Clone Jutsu!
Danzo's expression turned cold as he created a shadow clone.
The clone rushed toward Ye Zi, while Danzo's real body followed closely behind.
Ye Zi brushed his left hand against his belt, retrieving two shuriken infused with a trace of Lightning Release. Instead of throwing them immediately, he waited until he had closed the distance to Danzo's shadow clone before hurling them.
The shadow clone deflected the shuriken with its blade. Since the shuriken were aimed at its eyes, the act of blocking them caused a momentary lapse in its vision.
Seizing this fleeting moment, Ye Zi burst forward with a sudden increase in speed, closed in on the shadow clone, and struck it down with a single slash. Without hesitation, he immediately turned his attention to Danzo's real body.
Danzo's expression changed slightly as he witnessed his shadow clone being taken out in an instant. He was forced into close-quarters combat with Ye Zi once again.
Unsurprisingly, Danzo found himself once more suppressed by Ye Zi's superior swordsmanship. He raised his blade repeatedly, parrying each of Ye Zi's strikes.
Danzo had intended to use the shadow clone to create an opening or gain some advantage. Instead, the clone had been eliminated in an instant, leaving him in yet another precarious situation.
Neither ninjutsu nor kenjutsu seemed effective against Ye Zi, what more could he do in this battle?
As Ye Zi's relentless slashes pushed him further onto the defensive, Danzo felt increasingly cornered. Frustration filled his heart, but even more so, a seething, uncontainable rage.
He could hardly believe that the very person he once treated as a mere tool, Ye Zi, could push him to such a dire state. It was as if a god, high and mighty, had been forcibly dragged down from his throne by a mere mortal. An indescribable fury churned in Danzo's chest.
His face grew darker, and his rage reached its peak.
"If that's the case, then before I use Izanagi, I'll exchange my life for a fatal blow against you!"
With this thought, Danzo deliberately exposed a flaw, luring Ye Zi into attacking.
Ye Zi didn't miss the opportunity, thrusting his blade straight toward Danzo's chest. Danzo, having anticipated this, shifted his body slightly to avoid a vital point as much as possible.
Thud!
The longsword pierced the center of Danzo's chest.
Danzo, suppressing the immense pain, steeled himself and drove his own blade toward Ye Zi.
But Ye Zi, the moment his blade pierced Danzo, decisively pushed away, putting distance between them.
This quick reaction completely foiled Danzo's plan to trade his life for a grievous wound on Ye Zi.
"…"
Danzo's blade sliced through empty air, as though he were a clown stabbing at nothing.
He had gambled his life and achieved nothing more than a futile stab at the air, just as one might swing a blade during practice.
Ye Zi, now at a safe distance, looked coldly at Danzo. Having faintly discerned what was happening, he didn't relax even after piercing Danzo. His immediate response was to retreat, perfectly avoiding Danzo's attempted counterstrike.
How could this happen?
Danzo stared blankly at Ye Zi, his face filled with confusion and disbelief.
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Currently on Chapter 492 - Fracture