Shimura Danzo's eyes widened, glaring fiercely at Uchiha Hikari. Despite the severe wounds covering his body, he was still trying to stand.
Uchiha Hikari's eyelids drooped, avoiding direct eye contact with Danzo. She stopped about twenty meters away, relying on her ears and her sense of "ki" to pinpoint his position.
The air fell into a brief, tense silence.
Only the sound of their breathing echoed back and forth.
Suddenly—
With a surge of effort, Shimura Danzo sprang up with startling agility, spitting out a sharp gust of chakra-laden breath. "*Fūton: Shinkū Renpa!!*" (Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves)
*Whoosh—!!*
The air shrieked with a piercing sound as invisible, razor-sharp ripples expanded in a crescent arc, rushing toward Uchiha Hikari in an instant. The Susanoo surrounding her immediately crossed its arms to block the onslaught of wind blades, but fine cracks appeared on its surface, spreading outward!
As the Susanoo took the brunt of the attack, Uchiha Hikari leaped into the air, soaring thirty or forty meters to the domed ceiling above, looking down at the scene below.
"Just as I thought…"
Her suspicion was confirmed—Danzo's right eye was a Sharingan!
In that split second when her Susanoo struck him, he had activated *Izanagi*!
Thankfully…
It was only *Izanagi*.
Since arriving in Konoha this time, Uchiha Hikari hadn't interacted with the Uchiha clan, so she wasn't sure what stage they were in—especially whether a certain clansman named Shisui was still alive. Though she knew the odds were slim, for a fleeting moment, she feared Danzo's right eye might belong to Shisui, which was why she avoided meeting his gaze.
Now, her doubts were dispelled.
"…My apologies, but my Susanoo can be activated countless times."
With those words, dark red chakra flared around Uchiha Hikari once more, instantly forming the third stage of her Susanoo. The massive, dark red double-handed sword materialized again, its six-to-seven-meter-long blade slicing through the air, pointing directly at Danzo below!
Then, Uchiha Hikari's lips curved into a slight smile. "So, tell me, your *Izanagi*…"
"How many more times can you use it?"
"?!"
Danzo's face twisted in shock. "Impossible! You just unleashed a Susanoo of that magnitude—how could you recover so quickly?! Could it be… an Eternal Mangekyō?!"
Though his mind reeled with disbelief, Danzo acted swiftly, raising his right hand, biting his index finger to draw blood, and slamming it onto the ground. "*Kuchiyose no Jutsu*…" (Summoning Technique)
"It's over!"
"…*Ryūsei Hoshi!!*" (Starfall)
With a cold, sharp cry—
Uchiha Hikari commanded her Susanoo, stomping against the ceiling behind her and swinging the greatsword downward as she plummeted from the sky!
*BOOM!!*
This time, her speed was even faster than before!
Milky-white currents of air swirled, and a deafening sonic boom erupted!!
Facing the overwhelming killing intent bearing down on him, Danzo leaped backward decisively. At the spot where he had stood, a summoning seal laced with blood glowed, and a massive summoned beast, as large as an elephant, began to materialize from the void. It barely had time to raise its head and take in its surroundings before the sword's tip pierced it, eliciting a gut-wrenching, ear-splitting roar!
In the next moment, the dark red greatsword tore through the body of the Baku, ripping it apart before plunging into the ground, triggering a cataclysmic quake like a mountain collapsing!
Amid the shower of shattered rocks and the Baku's bloody fragments, a massive hand swung out, striking Shimura Danzo mid-air!
*BAM—!*
As Danzo was sent flying, the dust between him and the Susanoo cleared for a moment.
Across a dozen meters, Uchiha Hikari's eyes met the Root leader's for a fleeting instant.
Then, with a look of sheer terror, Danzo saw the curve of Hikari's smile and the spinning pinwheel in her pupils:
"*Koku Tsukiomi!*" (Engraved Tsukuyomi)
Danzo, still airborne, went blank-eyed for a split second.
Then he crashed into a wall more than ten meters away, tumbling heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
This time, there was no *Izanagi* to save him.
Even though the Baku had absorbed the most lethal damage, the Susanoo's strike and Hikari's *Tsukuyomi* had left him critically wounded.
Shimura Danzo was now drenched in blood, his abdomen visibly caved in, with who-knows-how-many ribs shattered. He clung to life with his last few breaths, barely hanging on. The half of his face wrapped in bandages seemed to age a decade in an instant, revealing a fear no different from that of an ordinary man.
"Cough… cough…"
Low, rasping coughs echoed around him.
Danzo hacked up several mouthfuls of blood, his facial muscles twitching as if struggling to endure something.
During the fierce battle, the layers of bandages wrapped around his body had loosened, exposing the unnaturally pale, almost ghostly half of his body. As he writhed in pain, an eerie vitality seemed to stir beneath that whiteness, finally erupting in this moment!
"AAAGH!!!"
With a howl of agony, a towering tree burst forth from Danzo's right arm!
"…So this is Hashirama's cells?"
Uchiha Hikari frowned slightly, her gaze flicking briefly to the ghastly white skin on Danzo's body before looking away, a touch of disgust in her expression. "As expected… it's ugly."
"A defective product, just like Uchiha Obito."
That *Tsukuyomi* she'd just used was specially tailored for Danzo.
It was the same kind Uchiha Itachi had once used on Kakashi.
To endure three days and nights of torturous agony in the illusionary space without dying on the spot—Danzo's willpower, the so-called "Darkness of the Shinobi World," was impressive enough to earn a bit of respect from Hikari.
At that moment, a new idea struck her.
Perhaps…
Killing Danzo outright would be a bit of a waste.
Someone as stubborn, scheming, and resourceful as him would make the perfect test subject for a plan she'd been mulling over since her time in the *Dragon Ball* world...
*Thud, thud, thud—*
A hurried series of footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor, reverberating loudly in the empty underground space.
Uchiha Hikari paused, slipping the Senzu Bean she'd just taken out of her mouth back into her pouch. Enveloped in her second-stage Susanoo, she turned calmly to face the path she'd come from.
Her gaze landed on—
Sarutobi Hiruzen, clad in the Hokage's ceremonial robes, rushing toward her, followed by a sizable group of Anbu and two figures in kimonos—none other than Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, Konoha's advisors.
*A brief note: Danzo's usefulness is tied to the "Yasogami" ability.*
*(End of Chapter)*