Chapter 227: Mishap?

Night falls, at the Shimura clan's residence.

"Tap—"

A faint sound of someone collapsing rang out. Shimura Danzō tore off the bandage on his arm, stood up from the tatami mat, and looked toward the courtyard.

Several Anbu lay on the ground, breathing evenly in unconsciousness. A pair of scarlet Sharingan eyes was staring straight at him.

In those eyes, there was no hysterical hatred. On the contrary, there was an extreme calm.

"Uchiha… Sasuke, huh."

Shimura Danzō's expression turned grim. "Did that chatterbox brat Link tell you everything? Or maybe Itachi did?

"Leave at once, and I'll pretend you were never here."

Even for him, it would be highly troublesome to kill Sasuke, who was important to Link.

[Chi-chi-chi-chi!]

"…"

Uchiha Sasuke didn't speak. Lightning flickered in the palm of his hand as he approached step by step.

Danzō did not let his guard down. He knew that Itachi had awakened the Mangekyō, and this kid who killed Itachi had probably opened his own Mangekyō as well.

Faced with an unknown Mangekyō ability—"Ka!"—he undid the seal on his right arm, revealing a pale limb embedded with Sharingan in three-tomoe form. Forming seals with both hands—

Rabbit! Boar! Sheep!

He was about to unleash Izanagi, a Genjutsu prepared in advance. Right then, he noticed the kid across from him had already revealed a strange pattern in his Mangekyō. Before he could figure out more, his vision went completely dark.

Including the Sharingan on his arm and his own eyes, all were plunged into darkness in an instant, sealed shut. Stripped of its necessary "materials," Izanagi was forcibly ended.

"A Genjutsu?!"

Danzō instinctively tried to disrupt his own chakra flow to break free, but a sharp pain in his chest told him that he had been run clean through by a Lightning Release: Chidori.

"You are using the eyes of the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke's voice came from not far away. "Then you ought to be skulking around in filth like a rat or a cockroach—hiding in the shadows of a sewer—"

"Not standing here, in front of the Uchiha."

"Screee—!"

The chest-wound Danzō had just taken caused his right arm to burst out a massive wooden growth, forcing back the enemy at close range. Even in this total darkness, Danzō did not panic, nor did he expose the fact that he had a Mangekyō Sharingan of his own. He used chakra to staunch his bleeding and formed seals again, then spat out several Wind Release shockwaves from his mouth.

A series of cracking sounds rose as the blasts tore the building apart.

Boom!

The building collapsed, kicking up clouds of wood splinters and dust. When the smoke cleared, Uchiha Sasuke was still standing not far away—and even had the spare energy to toss the unconscious Anbu out of the courtyard.

"Cough… cough…"

Shimura Danzō half-knelt on the ground, dripping blood. The bandages on his forehead were gone, and he looked like someone who had lost the ability to fight back.

"You intend to use Shisui's eye?" Sasuke's voice echoed.

How could this be?! Him… or someone else?

Danzō, his own Mangekyō Sharingan now exposed, was frantically thinking. If just making eye contact can rob me of my dōjutsu and my vision, is that this kid's newly awakened Mangekyō ability?

Such a power?!

He felt a strange anger. He had gone through so much trouble to gather so many Sharingan, to master such a powerful jutsu—yet the other side's abilities specifically counter the Sharingan.

Without Sharingan—without Izanagi—he never would have been taken down so quickly, and certainly wouldn't have stood there and allowed a direct hit from Chidori.

Even without vision, someone of his skill could have fought a prolonged battle, possibly turned the tables by summoning Baku. But…

"Cough…"

Danzō coughed up another mouthful of blood. Having released the seal on Hashirama's cells in his arm, now lacking Sharingan to control them—and having used Wood Release just now, consuming large amounts of chakra—they were already invading his body. Even if he won this battle, with such a chest wound, he was as good as dead.

And the Four Symbols Seal he wanted to activate as a last resort was also destroyed when Chidori tore through his chest, leaving it unusable.

Raising his head, he tried to mount one last resistance with Kotoamatsukami, but all he saw was the crisscrossing Mangekyō pattern in Sasuke's eyes—and then he sank back into darkness.

I can't let Kotoamatsukami fall into his hands.

Blood rose in his throat, and he destroyed Shisui's Sharingan on the spot, leaving him sprawled weakly on the ground.

In the final darkness before death, Danzō recalled the complicated look in his teacher's eyes and those words—"You can never become Hokage"—and the news his teacher had revealed to him that "Link is leaving the village." His expression softened somewhat.

You saw it coming, didn't you, Sensei. Sasuke will never let go of his hatred…

If only I could have defeated him or captured him, everything might have turned out differently. But…

"Did you destroy it?"

Sasuke's voice came from above him. Then scorching flames closed in on his head, and Shimura Danzō completely lost consciousness.

In that darkness, he seemed to see many things, think many things, and in deep unwillingness, departed from this world.

It's time for me to leave as well…

Sasuke took one final glance at his hated enemy—now dead, the corpse destroyed—and decided he no longer cared whether any others in Konoha had been involved in the Uchiha Massacre. At least, his revenge would end here.

He would bear the rest on his own shoulders.

…

Land of Waves, in the forest near Link's base, early next morning.

"All right, this is the second round of testing."

Link flexed his hands and held his breath, gazing at the foul-smelling mud pile he had prepared, and at the criminal scumbag he had gone to some trouble to capture.

If this fails, I hope you don't run off swinging a Warhammer…

He felt the poor victim's crimes didn't really justify such an awful fate—there was no need to overdo it.

Standing beside him, even in the half-transparent state granted by the Summoning Technique, Senju Tobirama was having trouble keeping it together. Nobody had told him a spirit could still smell things! That stench was overwhelming, and since a soul can't simply "hold its breath," it felt as though the stench was drilling straight into his being.

Perhaps this stuff really can restrain souls… but where on earth did he get it?

His mind whirled with thoughts. When the kid next to him finally began, Tobirama forced himself to ignore the stench and watch intently.

The initial steps were no different than before: The technique's array was spread on the ground, activated, infused with chakra.

Link was familiar with the process by now—he was practically on autopilot just channeling his chakra.

The runic script shifted and gathered together. But then, a small problem arose:

Instead of forming around the unconscious criminal as the core, the technique moved toward the stinking mud pile.

"?!"

Both Link and Tobirama were stunned.

Perched in a nearby tree, Utakata and Hina—who had retreated from the stench—felt no difference. They hadn't realized the jutsu had gone wrong.

The runes are changing, unlike the last two times… what's going on?

Tobirama moved closer, trying to get a better look. Those dense runes ran across the surface of the smelly mud. Strangely, under the jutsu's power, the mud took on a fleshy sheen.

Then, standing too close, Tobirama felt an overwhelming suction pulling him in. Before he could react, he was swallowed by the mound of mud, and in an instant, his consciousness sank into a warm darkness.

The Summoning Technique was cut off!

Cold sweat trickled down Link's back. If he ended up losing the Second Hokage in all this… how was he supposed to explain that?

He glanced at the constantly shifting mud, which was taking on a vaguely human shape. He forced himself to stay calm.

Could it be a reincarnation? Did Tobirama just get reborn as a living person? The raw materials are pretty gross, but it's definitely turning into something humanoid.

But what about all the jutsu I still need to learn? My external "brain" just disappeared!

Link's pupils contracted. He realized that losing Tobirama was the biggest blow to himself—not to the village. After all, Konoha would continue functioning without the Second Hokage's spirit, but Link had lost his "best outside brain."

Little by little, the foul stench dissipated. Utakata, curious, moved closer to look at the now child-sized mud figure and the still-unconscious criminal nearby. "What are you… doing?" he asked.

He was aware that his boss's Ninjutsu could be strange, but he'd never seen him so solemnly cast a jutsu before. Was this some kind of curse? A mud doll curse on that scumbag?

Then why had the transparent form of the Second Hokage vanished?

"A small… accident." Link kept a straight face. He was about to have his shadow go poke at whatever was forming.

"Crack—crack—"

Fissures appeared in the outer layer of the mud figure, revealing white, tender skin. Its pale little arms and legs quickly broke free of the shell, revealing a child's face topped with damp, silvery-white short hair—along with that all-too-familiar gaze. Anyone could tell who it was at a glance.

"Lord Second?" Link ventured.

"Who else would it be?" Senju Tobirama snapped. All the power he'd honed, his adult body—gone in an instant.

Now he had a pair of small arms and legs, powerless and childlike. And how, exactly, had this body been made, if his DNA wasn't on hand?

This jutsu is far too bizarre!

"Umm…"

Utakata's eyes darted over the legendary Second Hokage in his… unclothed state. The sight was honestly too much.

"Pfft—"

Hina pressed her paws to her mouth, stifling giggles. As a ninja cat, she was under no obligation to hide her amusement. She remembered his previously impressive, arms-folded, imposing presence—and now seeing him as a little kid, she simply couldn't hold it in.

Tobirama's face darkened. He hurriedly covered himself. "What are you staring for? Get me some clothes!"

He was normally composed and stoic, but being stuck in a child's body—and completely naked in front of everyone—was a bit more than his pride could take.

"Ahem…"

Link cleared his throat and tried to look serious. "We believe you, but first, you'll have to prove you really are Senju Tobirama, the Second Hokage. So—"

"Tap!"

Before the onlookers could properly enjoy the comedic setup, a footstep landed softly in the clearing.

"Sasuke?"

Link turned toward his travel-worn friend, puzzled. "What are you doing here? Did something happen?"

The ninja cat sniffed at the air, noting a slight change in Sasuke's chakra.

Uchiha Sasuke fell silent for a moment. "I killed Danzō," he finally said.

"?!"

~~~

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