Absorption

Hiruzen watched as the boy beside him summoned a sword into his hands. The feeling of watching such an intelligent child become so prone to pangs of hunger and greed was odd.

It was like looking at an active volcano.

The rumbling hunger, volatile ash clouds, and Suguru's molten desires.

'He's nothing like Orochimaru,'

Hiruzen already had a few hunches as to why Suguru wanted to take Danzo's arm. After all, he'd caught a glimpse of it when Uchiha Fugaku went berserk.

'An arm filled with Sharingan,'

Given Danzo's close workings with Orochimaru, Hiruzen had even deeper suspicions built upon that fact.

'Likely reinforced with Lord First's cells.'

A taboo that Hiruzen was saddened by — especially given the behavior of Orochimaru and the child before him.

However, Hiruzen planned on overlooking this fact for now. His impression of Suguru was still untainted by the crueler acts he was unaware of.

Like the theft of the Byakugan.

Although Hiruzen was familiar with Suguru's monicker as the Ghost of the Land of Rivers... It was still within the darkness that he expected of Orochimaru's student.

Hiruzen couldn't understand the conflicting thoughts that clashed in his mind.

Suguru was so similar to Orochimaru yet still so different indeed.

The child felt much more trustworthy than the snake.

Thus.

"It's time to take an arm!"

Suguru's burst of excitement was like a fleeting wind. Hiruzen watched the boy as he faded into a flicker of movement.

Hiruzen hardened his gaze and a glimmer of golden flames danced across his skin.

—Slice!

A clean sound, like the ring of a triangle amid an orchestra of death. It was the twang of steel cutting through bone and the subsequent slash of wind elsewhere. Suguru cut straight through the arm wrapped in bandages.

There was no splash of blood.

Only the sloshing of a pale gel, like that of White Zetsu's body.

"Heh,"

A smug chuckle rang in Hiruzen's ear as the arm disappeared into Suguru's grasp, wrenching the First Hokage's cells from Danzo's body in an instant.

Thus, the reaction would come not even half a breath later.

—Crack.

The world suddenly grew noisy. Jutsus flickered to life, flooding the world. Yugito's roars shook Hiruzen's bones as an explosion from a sea of flames arrived.

Suddenly.

BOOM!

A burst of white erupted like the booming of an angry god. Danzo, who was forced to lift Bishamonten, instantly summoned his Susanoo in reality.

His eyes bled, dripping down his cheek to stain the ground beneath his feet.

"..!"

No words left his lips yet his rage was more palpable than even the stones that shot through the air to block the Nibi's advance.

—RRRAAAAAAAA!

Perhaps that rage was what one needed to wield the Susanoo more fiercely. Unlike the hatred that the Uchiha were cursed with, Danzo held anger and envy in his hands like a weapon of war.

"Hoooo,"

While Hiruzen breathed a deep breath, beautifully crafted armor began to form around the humanoid Susanoo. Mimicking the visage of a yamabushi, Danzo's rage commanded the armor to protect him.

An aura of fire emanated from Hiruzen, burning like liquid gold. Unlike Suguru and Matatabi's colored flames, Hiruzen's fire neither flickered nor danced.

It was like a candle flame, steady and free-flowing.

"Hiruzen."

Danzo's voice boomed as he noticed this golden flame. The air quivered as if cowering to the cold statement of a name.

"I thought you willingly handed over your seat of power?"

It was as if the early display of rage had not occurred at all. The only sign of its occurrence was the daunting armored Susanoo that now stood tall.

"Why are you facing me on this battlefield, delaying the unification of the shinobi world?"

"...Why do you think?" Hiruzen's response was equally cold. "You already failed when the Kyuubi's jinchuriki disappeared from Konohagakure. This absolute power you claim to have — it does not exist."

The ground beneath Hiruzen's feet began to boil.

"So, I'm taking everything back, as per my promise when you took this seat from me."

***

Suguru watched on from a distance, his eyes had already dissolved into a pure, pearly white. Despite his apparent blindness, he could see everything around him and more.

Feeling the weight of what he had just done, excitement poured through every cell in his body.

He had taken Danzo's arm.

Hashirama's Cells were now within his possession, along with a few more Sharingan on top of it all. It was a bonus for his expensive purchase.

"...It hurts,"

Looking down at the gaping hole in his abdomen and the leaking blood that he could not control, Suguru laughed at the absence of his left limbs.

Both his right arm and right leg were all that was left — his two other limbs were blown apart by the sudden dissipation of the Genjutsu battlefield and Danzo's rage.

"That damn Susanoo..."

Suguru couldn't wait to get his own.

If he had his own Susanoo, then having to look at the exposed bones in his chest would no longer bother him.

—Thud.

With his blurring vision, Suguru hurriedly summoned Danzo's arm back into existence. Holding it with his remaining hand, he hurriedly invoked a jutsu he hadn't used in a long while.

A Kinjutsu that he held close to his heart.

"Then,"

Suguru closed his eyes and felt his cells come alive. As he moved his chakra, he invoked his signature jutsu.

'Living Corpse Assimilation.'

Thus—!

Suguru's body dissolved, along with the arm he held in his hand. An imbalanced mixture of his battered body and the cells of a being far removed from him. The arm of the future 'Uchiha' Shin.

Soon, Suguru's body reformed, and the pale white arm had nested itself among his cells. Although still lacking his two left limbs, his most immediate concern — the wound in his chest — had been appropriately refilled.

White flesh had wormed its way into the wound, and the face of the First Hokage, Hashirama, was sleeping.

Nestled within his blood-soaked garb.

'An incomplete assimilation...' Suguru thought as he turned his attention back to the battlefield.

'I'll have to complete it after all this.'

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