Chapter 142: It's Just Ridiculous
Not good.
The instant Naruto vanished from sight, a wave of instinct washed over everyone present. Veteran shinobi or not, they all felt it—danger.
And they moved.
Even Danzo Shimura, ever-cautious, acted the moment the air shifted.
BOOM.
A thunderous shockwave erupted from the ground where Danzo had been standing mere seconds ago. But his battle-honed instincts had kicked in at the last possible moment—he dove forward, moving more than ten meters in an instant.
Behind him, a crimson storm of chakra exploded outward.
The place he had just vacated was now a crater—devoured by the raw fury of the Nine-Tails' chakra. The shockwave blasted through the dense forest outside the village like a hurricane.
An entire section of woodland vanished in the blink of an eye.
Three-tenths of the trees, obliterated. Roots torn, trunks shattered, branches raining like missiles.
Though the number of combatants in this conflict was small, the destruction matched the scale of a battlefield in the Fourth Great Ninja War. Joint jutsu, multi-layered chakra techniques, elemental combinations—they all paled before the sheer force of Ryosuke's assault.
---
"The fighting style... it's sharp," Ryosuke muttered, eyes gleaming.
He surged forward, chakra blazing. The crimson beast claw had missed its mark—but just barely.
He didn't hesitate.
Two new chakra arms burst from his body, plunging into the ground like spears. They tunneled beneath the battlefield, silent and unseen—then split again, a trap laid in layered ambush.
In his field of vision, Danzo had landed, attempting another escape.
But Ryosuke had already calculated his next move.
I won't leave you an escape route this time.
The ground trembled violently.
Within a hundred-meter radius around Danzo, the earth cracked—like shattered porcelain under divine weight.
Suddenly, countless red claws erupted from beneath the soil, spiraling inward like vines. There was no escape. No blind spot.
Danzo tried to flee, but his options vanished. The claws closed in from all sides, catching him mid-step.
CRACK.
Blood splattered.
His body was torn to pieces, dissolved instantly by the violent tailed beast chakra. His remains—what little there were—sizzled into nothing.
But throughout it all... Danzo never flinched.
He died without a scream, without panic.
Like a hardened general prepared for death.
---
"Danzo-sama!"
A cry went up from the Root operatives.
The fight had lasted barely a minute.
They hadn't even had time to respond—let alone attempt a rescue.
Danzo Shimura was gone.
Crushed beneath the clawed fury of the Jinchūriki.
Or so it seemed.
Ryosuke didn't relax.
Because something felt off.
He could sense it—the remnants of chakra from Danzo's body were evaporating... artificially. Too clean.
And then—
"There you are."
With a flick of his Byakugan-enhanced sight, Ryosuke found him.
Shimura Danzo was running.
Through the forest. Fast. Desperate.
Suppressing his chakra like a rat scurrying into a sewer.
Ryosuke blinked in surprise.
You're fleeing? Without even trying to counterattack?
He had expected retaliation—maybe even a secret jutsu unleashed in fury.
But instead… Danzo was retreating.
Cowardice?
Or caution?
Perhaps the old warhawk was unwilling to reveal his hidden techniques with so many eyes watching. Every secret could be a threat to his political power.
That, at least, made sense.
---
The battlefield was still a mess.
Trees splintered. Craters littered the earth like the surface of the moon. The air was thick with smoke and dust.
Inside the spiritual plane, Naruto—who had been watching everything unfold—finally spoke.
"…Did we win?"
"Not yet," Ryosuke replied with a small chuckle, shaking his head. "He tried to run the moment things got interesting. Guess I expected too much from him."
His eyes narrowed.
"And besides… with all this destruction, someone has to take the blame. If you're the only one left standing, they'll all point their fingers at you."
He exhaled—and let go.
Tailed beast chakra burst out again in a violent pulse, boosting his speed exponentially.
Then—
BOOM.
He vanished from sight once more, leaving only a shockwave and a blur.
"Chase him!"
The ANBU officers stood in stunned silence for a moment.
After witnessing Danzo's supposed "death," they'd been paralyzed—unsure of how to proceed.
But when Ryosuke disappeared again, the high-ranking ANBU commander, codename Tiger, finally came to his senses.
Suppressing his own panic, he barked out orders.
"Follow him! Don't lose sight of the Jinchūriki!"
Ryosuke, of course, could've hidden his tracks completely.
With his chakra control, even the residual pressure of the Nine-Tails' energy could be masked.
But that wasn't the plan.
He wanted witnesses.
He needed witnesses.
If Danzo was going to reveal one of his forbidden techniques, Ryosuke would make sure everyone saw it. It would shift the spotlight away from Naruto—and onto the real threat.
So he scattered traces on purpose.
False leads, broken branches, fragments of red chakra.
The battle may have lasted only moments, but its intensity was undeniable.
Each exchange stretched the limits of power, and yet... it was brief.
Less than a minute passed before Ryosuke caught up with Danzo.
And the moment he did, Danzo's instincts screamed.
He stopped—mid-step, breathing shallow.
But it was too late.
CRACK.
The same red claws erupted from the ground—again.
They didn't even give him time to react.
Torn.
Shredded.
Scattered.
Danzo died again.
But Ryosuke wasn't surprised when another version of Danzo appeared—twenty meters away, seemingly untouched.
On his bandaged arm, another Sharingan—a three-tomoe—closed shut, its light fading into darkness.
---
Izanagi.
Ryosuke's eyes narrowed.
Danzo had activated it just before death. A forbidden technique—one of the Sharingan's most terrifying abilities.
By rewriting reality, Danzo had erased his death.
His flesh, his wounds—even his defeat.
Gone.
But at a price.
Every use of Izanagi consumed a Sharingan permanently.
The battlefield went quiet for a moment.
Ryosuke stood in the ruined forest, wind brushing through the leaves, now eerily silent.
So... you're really going to use it.
The technique was legendary. Rare. Deadly.
But not without cost.
And not without limits.
Even the strongest illusion—Kotoamatsukami—had its flaws.
There were ways to break a forbidden technique as extreme as Izanagi.
But Ryosuke had no intention of breaking it—not yet.
Instead, he wanted Danzo Shimura to keep using it. Let him burn through every one of the Sharingan embedded in that grotesque arm. Let him struggle. Adapt. Push back.
Let him become a worthy whetstone.
In the distance, Danzo was just beginning to regain his bearings.
He looked up—and froze.
The boy he had once dismissed as nothing more than a volatile Jinchūriki was standing on a thin branch, high above the ruined battlefield, staring down at him.
There was no fury in that gaze. Only calm. Unnervingly calm.
That's... not possible.
Yes, a ninja could stand on a branch. Chakra control made that a simple feat.
But this wasn't just any shinobi. This was Uzumaki Naruto, the container of the Nine-Tails.
And yet... the immense chakra swirling around him no longer lashed out violently like before. It clung to his body in perfect synchronization, like a tamed beast coiled obediently around its master.
The sheer control chilled Danzo to the bone.
He's already mastered this much…?
Danzo's stomach turned—not from fear, but from the dawning realization that he'd underestimated a threat. And that mistake… was unacceptable.
He'd received scattered intelligence on Naruto's development from time to time, even if Hiruzen kept the boy's growth closely guarded.
Clearly, they'd all been deceived.
If Naruto hadn't been a Jinchūriki, Danzo would've seen potential—a true asset for the village.
But because he was a Jinchūriki… he was a threat.
A threat that had to be erased.
Just as Danzo began to move, chakra signatures surged in from behind.
The ANBU. Root. Reinforcements.
Damn it.
Danzo gritted his teeth. Root was fine. They were loyal. Obedient.
But ANBU?
If they saw everything—his secrets—his future would be compromised.
And then—
"Is that… a Sharingan on your arm?"
A voice cut through the trees, low and cold.
Danzo's eyes snapped back to Naruto.
Ryosuke, still controlling the body, stepped forward on the branch.
"You're not Uchiha. Why do you have their eyes?"
The wind seemed to hold its breath.
"I heard that when the Nine-Tails attacked the village years ago, someone suspected of being Uchiha was involved. The clan denied it, of course…"
Ryosuke tilted his head.
"So what if... you were the one who tried to destroy Konoha?"
The accusation struck like a thrown kunai.
And it landed.
Danzo's face darkened instantly.
He didn't answer.
But his eyes—cold, furious—spoke volumes.
Ryosuke didn't follow up with another attack. Not yet.
He didn't want Danzo to waste his Sharingan by hiding them again.
He wanted him angry.
He wanted a real fight.
Danzo, like Hiruzen, had climbed to the pinnacle of the ninja profession through sheer grit and discipline. No divine power. No fabled lineage.
They weren't like Naruto, Nagato, or even Ryosuke himself—marked by destiny and molded by godlike bloodlines.
No. Danzo was human.
And Ryosuke wanted to test the strength of humanity—its rawest, hardest form—before moving on to gods.
He'd fought before. Against the Fourth Raikage using Shinji's worn-down body. It had been incomplete. Unfair.
But this?
This was different.
Danzo—modified by Hashirama cells and adorned with stolen Sharingan—was the perfect opponent.
"Shut your mouth!" Danzo spat, fury snapping through his voice. "My loyalty to Konoha is unquestionable! A brat like you has no right to slander it!"
There it is.
The word "Konoha"—the one sacred thing Danzo would never allow to be insulted.
Just as Ryosuke hoped, the jab struck his deepest nerve.
Danzo no longer hesitated.
His decision was made.
With a snap of his wrist, the white bandages unraveled—revealing the abomination underneath.
What emerged was not a human arm.
It looked more like the twisted trunk of an ancient, cursed tree. Gnarled and dark. Veins intertwined like roots. Along its length, three-tomoe Sharingan blinked open—glowing red like cursed fruit hanging from a forbidden branch.
"Dan...Danzo?!"
From the treetops, the high-ranking ANBU ninja codenamed Tiger gasped, face pale.
He had assumed—hoped—that Danzo had only transplanted one Sharingan.
But this?
This was something else entirely.
Something inhuman.
"What… What did you do?"
The tremor in his voice gave it away: panic.
Even Root operatives stared wide-eyed.
Danzo ignored them all.
They were meaningless right now.
Only one opponent mattered.
"You have great talent," Danzo said coldly, locking eyes with Naruto's tailed-beast form. "But talent that threatens Konoha must be eliminated. That is my duty—as Danzo Shimura."
He raised his arm.
The grotesque limb twisted violently—and in an instant, branched out.
Literally.
Wood Release burst forth like vines on steroids.
Dozens—hundreds—of jagged wooden spikes erupted in every direction, stabbing toward Ryosuke like high-speed spears. The air screamed under the pressure, shrieking with every sonic slice.
"Wood Release?! That's the First Hokage's technique!"
Inside the sealed space, Naruto gawked.
He'd read about this. Studied it. Worshipped it, even.
The jutsu of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama—the man who could subdue tailed beasts with a single hand seal.
Even Kurama stirred uneasily, his massive eyes narrowing.
The sight of the Sharingan… the scent of that chakra… it stirred memories.
Danzo had infused his body with Hashirama's cells. This Wood Release wasn't natural. It was stitched together with desperation and ambition.
A Frankenstein's dream.
And yet…
"The strength of a technique always depends on the strength of the one who wields it," Ryosuke said calmly.
He smiled as Naruto listened intently.
"Hashirama's Wood Release and this... are not the same."
"Never underestimate your enemies. But never overestimate them either."
"Gather intelligence. Understand their strength. Know the gap."
This wasn't just a fight.
This was Naruto's first true lesson.
A gift.
Ryosuke would fight. But Naruto would learn.
With a wave of his arm, countless blood-red chakra claws burst from Ryosuke's body.
They shot forward, crashing into the oncoming wooden spears.
The clash shook the forest.
Splinters exploded in every direction.
Danzo's sharpened wood constructs—grown from stolen cells and desperation—were torn apart like crackers underfoot.
Lifeless. Brittle. Inferior.
The supposed chakra-suppressing effect of the Wood Release was useless under Ryosuke's control.
The Nine-Tails' chakra didn't recede.
It raged harder.
Crimson energy tore through the remaining branches, reaching toward Danzo with renewed hunger.
"So this is the legendary Wood Release," Ryosuke muttered, watching as the shattered remains of Danzo's jutsu hit the ground.
"The power said to subdue tailed beasts."
He raised a clawed hand.
"How ridiculous."
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