{Mentions of tortur* and suici**, though not deep, but if anyone feel disgusted with it they are recommended to skip this chapter, or atleast skip the section I'll mark.}
~~~
Dragging Danzo through the village turned out to be a very different experience from what Ren had first imagined.
At the start, he had fully intended to flicker, end it quickly, cleanly, get to the point and the night would move on.
But after the first few steps, Ren slowed down.
He didn't quite know why at first.
Danzo's body scraped along the stone streets, cloth tearing, skin bruising, the sound sharp and ugly in the quiet of the village. The streets were empty now. Doors shut. Windows dark. Everyone who could sense chakra was busy elsewhere, and everyone else was hiding, pretending not to hear anything.
Ren glanced around as he walked and, almost without thinking, started talking.
"Look at this place," he said casually, tugging Danzo's ankle just a little harder so his head bounced once against the ground. "These streets? You know who laid the foundations for them, right? Your teacher, the Second Hokage."
Danzo didn't answer.
He didn't struggle either.
Ren continued anyway.
"Look at these buildings. The academy, the shops, the homes. All built on that stupid dream the first had, peace between clans, children not dying in wars, all that nonsense." Ren snorted lightly. "And here you are. Doing your best to rot it all from the inside."
He turned a corner slowly, deliberately, making sure Danzo's face scraped past the symbol of Konoha carved into the stone at an intersection.
"What a bad student you turned out to be," Ren added mildly.
He knew it was pointless.
A man like Danzo didn't feel guilt the way normal people did. Even now, even on the verge of final death, Ren doubted any of this reached him. At best, it was noise. At worst, it was mildly irritating.
But Ren kept talking anyway.
Part of it was spite.
Part of it was boredom.
And part of it, though he didn't admit it outright, was that slowing down made things feel more real. Less like a task. Less like crossing something off a list.
Eventually, Ren stopped.
They were in a wide, empty street now. No lamps lit, no footsteps. Just broken stone, silent houses, and the distant echoes of battle elsewhere in the village.
Ren looked around once, then crouched down beside Danzo.
Danzo lay on his side, breathing shallowly, eyes half-open, dull and resigned.
Ren studied him for a moment.
Then his eyes gleamed faintly.
"You've accepted death, haven't you?" Ren asked quietly.
Danzo snorted, turning his face slightly away.
He didn't deny it.
Ren nodded as if that settled something. "Thought so."
He shifted his weight and rested his elbow on his knee, tone turning conversational. "See, that's the problem. When someone accepts death, killing them stops being very satisfying. You can stab them, burn them, cut their head off again and again, it doesn't really do anything."
Danzo's breathing hitched.
Ren tilted his head. "But pain?" His smile widened just a little. "Pain is different."
Danzo's eyes snapped open.
For the first time in a while, real emotion flickered there, sharp, ugly fear.
"No," Danzo croaked suddenly, voice hoarse. "You can't do that. If Hiruzen knew, he would never approve of this."
Ren stared at him.
Then blinked.
Then rolled his eyes so hard it looked like it physically hurt.
"Are you serious?" Ren asked flatly. "Who exactly is going to tell him? Me?" He gestured to himself with his free hand. "Or you?"
Danzo's mouth opened, then closed.
Ren leaned closer, lowering his voice, almost conspiratorial. "And even if you did tell him, do you really think he'd believe you? A man on the verge of death tends to ramble. Especially someone like you. He'd just assume you were trying to sow discord one last time."
Danzo froze.
The truth of it sank in slowly, visibly.
Ren straightened, clearly pleased, and grinned. "See? You get it."
Danzo went silent again, but this time it was different. His eyes darted faintly, breath uneven, fear finally sinking past the layers of fatalism he'd wrapped himself in.
Ren placed his hand on Danzo's forehead.
His palm was warm and steady, almost gentle.
"You're about to enjoy the greatest treatment," Ren murmured, voice light, almost cheerful, "for all the 'service' you've provided to the village over the years."
He stood, tightened his grip on Danzo's ankle once more, and began dragging him forward again, slowly, deliberately, through the sleeping village.
The night wasn't done with Danzo yet.
Not even close.
~
Ichiraku Ramen
At this hour, it was probably the only place in the entire village that still had its lights on.
Not that anyone cared.
Most of Konoha was holding its breath, shinobi fighting, secrets unraveling, ghosts of the past being dragged into the open. Ordinary villagers had locked their doors and windows, choosing ignorance over fear. Tonight was not a night meant for casual bowls of ramen.
Inside the small shop, the warm light felt almost out of place.
There was only one customer and she was anything but ordinary.
Teuchi moved quietly behind the counter, careful not to make too much noise. Ayame had fallen asleep at one of the stools, her head resting on her folded arms, exhaustion finally catching up to her after the long, tense night. He gently brushed a few strands of hair away from her face, his movements practiced and soft, then reached for another cup.
He poured slowly, the liquid making a faint sound as it filled the cup.
"It appears that it's all over, right… Tsunade-sama?" he asked.
Tsunade didn't answer immediately.
She picked up the cup, tilted it back, and downed the contents in a single motion. The sake burned pleasantly on the way down, grounding her, dulling the sharp edge of old anger that had been simmering for years.
"Hm," she replied at last, leaning back slightly on her stool. "It appears so."
Teuchi let out a long breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He poured himself a drink as well, though he didn't rush it the way she did.
"Many souls will find peace today," he said quietly. "Young Ren has done great work."
The words had barely left his mouth when the curtain at the entrance lifted.
"Hey now," a familiar, far too cheerful voice rang out, "don't praise me so much. I get shy."
Teuchi's head snapped up.
Ren stepped inside like he was dropping by for a late-night snack.
Except for the fact that he was dragging Danzo Shimura behind him by the ankle.
For a brief moment, Teuchi's eyes widened in shock. The sight was… jarring. Danzo's body was battered, dragged, barely conscious, more a thing being hauled along than a person.
Then Teuchi's gaze shifted.
From Danzo.
To Ren.
From Ren.
To Tsunade, who was still seated at the counter, calmly reaching for the bottle again like nothing unusual had just walked in.
Slowly, Teuchi exhaled and steadied himself.
Ren hauled Danzo fully into the shop and let him slump against the wall near the entrance. Then he grinned and turned toward Tsunade.
"Hey now, big sis," Ren said, tone teasing. "Stop being so wishy-washy. I can see you twitching from a mile away. Just admit it, you wanna kill him."
Tsunade's cup slammed down on the counter with a sharp crack.
"Damn right I do."
She stood up abruptly, chair scraping back, and only then did her gaze fully settle on Danzo. Her eyes traveled over him, his torn clothes, the blood, the way he barely reacted and finally stopped at his right arm.
Her expression changed instantly.
Fury.
Pure, unfiltered fury.
"Damn this Danzo," she muttered, teeth clenched, "and damn that Orochimaru."
She didn't need an explanation, one glance was enough.
Hashirama cells, crude integration and forced compatibility. There were very few people in the world twisted and skilled enough to attempt something like this and one of them had been her teammate.
Her eyes flicked to the Sharingan embedded along Danzo's arm, one by one, cold calculation replacing shock.
"What do these do?" she asked flatly. "Decoration?"
Ren shook his head. "Nope. These are his painful efforts," he said lightly, "which are going to help a lot of people quench their thirst for revenge."
Tsunade's eyes widened just a fraction.
"They allow him to live more than once?" she asked.
"Something like that," Ren replied.
There was a pause.
Then Ren clapped his hands together once. "Alright, c'mon. We need to be fast. There are more people left."
He turned and headed back outside without another word, as if dragging the former shadow ruler of Konoha through the village and into a ramen shop was the most natural thing in the world.
Tsunade snorted, grabbed the bottle directly this time, and followed him out.
The curtain fell back into place.
Silence returned to Ichiraku Ramen.
Teuchi looked around the empty shop, then down at Ayame, who was still sleeping peacefully, unaware of the justice being carved into the night outside.
He reached under the counter and pulled out another bottle.
This time, he didn't pour it into a cup.
He uncorked it and slowly tilted it, letting the sake spill onto the wooden floor, the clear liquid soaking in and disappearing.
"May you find peace, old friends," he murmured softly. "Someone has finally sought justice for you."
The lights of Ichiraku Ramen stayed on.
Quiet.
Unassuming.
A small island of warmth in a village finally beginning to settle its debts with the past.
~~~
~Can skip from here for those who want to follow the earlier warning.~
In an alley not far from Ichiraku Ramen, the village felt different.
The warmth and quiet from the shop didn't reach here. The narrow passage was hemmed in by tall buildings, shadows pooling thickly along the walls, the faint smell of dust and old rain lingering in the air.
Ren and Tsunade stood over Danzo.
"Huddled" wasn't quite the right word, but there was a strange sense of closeness in the space, as if the alley itself had closed in to witness what was about to happen. Danzo lay on his back, breathing raggedly, eyes darting from one face to the other. Whatever composure he had once cultivated was gone. There was only fear now, thinly veiled behind stubborn silence.
Tsunade crouched down beside him.
She didn't look angry but that was the terrifying part.
Her expression was calm, clinical, the same look she wore when she was about to operate on a patient whose life hung by a thread. She reached for his right arm and took it firmly, fingers pressing, probing, chakra flowing through her touch as she examined it.
"Hmph," she snorted softly. "Just a crude effort."
Her fingers traced along the pale flesh, pausing briefly over the seams where foreign tissue had been forced to merge.
"Orochimaru didn't even do a good enough job for this bastard," she continued flatly. "If he really wanted to, he could've made it far more compatible."
Danzo's eyes widened just a fraction.
Inside Danzo's mind, panic flared again. 'Damn you, Orochimaru.' Even now, even at the edge of death, his thoughts twisted outward, blaming someone else. 'You won't have a good end either.'
Tsunade's examination suddenly stopped.
Her gaze drifted upward, away from the arm, and settled on Danzo's forehead. She stared at it for a long moment, eyes narrowing slightly, as if seeing something invisible to anyone else.
Then she paused and slowly, a dangerous, knowing smile formed on her lips.
"Good job, kid," she muttered.
Ren, leaning casually against the alley wall with his arms crossed, returned the smile easily. "Well," he said, shrugging, "I aim to please."
Tsunade snorted, but she didn't argue.
She had already figured it out.
Ren hadn't gone for efficiency. If Danzo had died cleanly in a single strike, it wouldn't have meant much. But this, this was different. A precise disruption. Not enough to kill him outright. Just enough to make sure that dying became… complicated.
Most shinobi frowned upon tort*ring a dying man. There were rules, unspoken lines even assassins preferred not to cross.
But people were people, the man on the ground was Danzo Shimura and the woman crouched beside him was Tsunade Senju.
No one felt the need to justify anything.
Ren raised his hand slightly, chakra flickering as a translucent barrier expanded outward, sealing the alley off from the rest of the world. Sound vanished beyond it, the space becoming eerily contained, like a pocket carved out of reality.
What followed lasted roughly half an hour.
Danzo screamed.
No one heard it.
His voice tore raw as pain came in waves, carefully administered, precisely controlled. He wanted to die. That much became clear very quickly. But he couldn't.
Two of the greatest healers in the world were here.
They knew exactly how far to push without letting him cross the line. Whenever his body began to fail, chakra flowed, stitching him back together just enough. Whenever he tried to end it himself, his movements were stilled, his attempts rendered meaningless.
Fear replaced arrogance. Then despair replaced fear.
By the end, there was nothing left in his eyes.
Only emptiness.
Finally, Ren glanced toward the sky, judging the time by the slow shift of shadows.
"Hey," he said lightly. "We're running late."
Tsunade inhaled sharply through her nose.
For a moment, she hesitated.
Then she nodded.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "Alright."
She ended it cleanly.
When it was done, Ren took Danzo by the ankle once more, just as he had before, and began dragging him away from the alley, his footsteps unhurried as he drifted toward the edge of the village.
Tsunade stayed behind.
She leaned back against the wall, exhaustion finally catching up to her, a sake bottle hanging loosely from her fingers. She tilted her head up, looking at the thinning night sky as the darkness slowly began to give way.
Her eyes closed.
For the first time in years, her chest felt just a little lighter.
Some debts, at least, had finally been paid.
~~~~~
{I'm not writing tort*re scene because it would become just too dark for the overall tone of the fic, I think this much is enough.}
{Next chapter, Itachi and Fugaku get their turns, then Kakashi, after that would be the execution scene, that's the chapter I wanna write the most, you can't even guess what I'm about to do, if you did, I'd dedicate a bonus chapter to your name. This is available for both Patreon and WN.}