Chapter 203: Lord Danzo Keeps Dying and Dying and Dying!
"Lord Danzo."
Kabuto, in the Snake Armor, spoke again.
"You should just hand over your eyes."
Kotoamatsukami had failed, and Danzo had lost his biggest trump card. But he hadn't given up completely. He still had Izanagi!
"In your dreams!" Danzo roared.
He released the bandages and seals on his right arm, revealing the dense cluster of Sharingan embedded within. Hideous, yet containing twisted power.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!"
He fired high-speed wind bullets while simultaneously activating Izanagi. His body blurred just before being hit, attempting to use the opportunity to close in on Kabuto.
However, the Snake Armor's speed exceeded his imagination.
"Too slow."
The Snake Armor casually dodged Danzo's hastily launched Wind Style jutsu. The wind blades scraped across the smooth armor plating, leaving not even a scratch.
Energy beams shot from the Snake Armor's eyes again, piercing Danzo's right knee!
CRACK!
A crisp sound of bone breaking. Danzo fell to his knees in agony, blood gushing out. Then, his body split apart.
But in the next moment, not far away, Danzo reappeared completely unharmed.
Izanagi activated!
One of the Sharingan under the bandages on his right arm closed, its light extinguished forever.
"Aha! So that's it!"
Kabuto let out a laugh tinged with sickly excitement. "This is Izanagi—sacrificing eyes to alter reality… It's… magnificent!"
His voice was completely different from his previous coldness. Danzo's "resurrection" didn't make things difficult for him; instead, it seemed to ignite a dark desire deep within him.
"Convenient enough… to make this game so much fun!"
He didn't rush for a killing blow. The game had just begun.
The Snake Armor displayed a despairing advantage. Super-high-speed movement made Danzo's attacks completely miss; every dodge felt like mocking his dying struggles. Mechanical tentacles, energy weapons, high-frequency vibrating blades, molecular disintegration beams… various unheard-of ninja tool abilities emerged one after another, constantly utilized by Kabuto.
BANG!
The Snake Armor instantly appeared behind Danzo. A giant metal hand grabbed his head and slammed him ruthlessly into the ground! The concrete cracked, and the sound of Danzo's skull shattering rang out! Brain matter and blood mixed with bone fragments splattered! Danzo's body exploded instantly!
But immediately, he reappeared a few meters away, head covered in blood, gasping for breath.
Another Sharingan closed.
"Huff… huff…"
"Hiruzen Sarutobi's failure to choose Orochimaru as Hokage was indeed a mistake—"
"Of course," Kabuto replied. "But it also gave me the privilege of having the chance to finish you off."
The Snake Armor's mechanical tentacles shot out, wrapping around Danzo's right arm! Amidst Danzo's despairing screams, the sharp blades at the end of the tentacles severed the blood vessels and nerves connecting the Sharingan on his arm! Bloody Sharingan were forcibly extracted one by one, spinning in the small force fields popping out from the tentacle tips!
"AHHH!!!"
Danzo let out a scream of utmost misery. His right arm, stripped of Sharingan, was a bloody mess, white bone exposed!
Then his body exploded and died again.
Izanagi activated!
He resurrected once more. The wounds on his arm vanished, but the memory of that painful extraction remained forever.
Another Sharingan closed.
The remaining Sharingan on his body were becoming fewer and fewer, and his expression grew graver.
Kabuto, with a sickly pleasure, continued his torture.
Sometimes, he would use high-frequency vibrating blades to dice Danzo into pieces, watching how he recovered from being a bloody pulp.
Sometimes, he would use energy beams to punch dozens of holes through Danzo, admiring the fountain of blood.
Sometimes, he would use mechanical fists to smash Danzo into walls, watching the wall and his body shatter together…
BANG!
SQUELCH!
CRACK!
VMM—
Every attack was accompanied by the sounds of breaking bones, tearing flesh, and crushing organs. As well as Danzo's melodic wails and the faint fluctuations of Izanagi activating.
Every "resurrection" meant the sacrifice of another Sharingan, and it meant he was one step closer to true death.
Danzo's body exploded repeatedly under the Snake Armor's attacks, only to be restored by the power of Izanagi. With each "resurrection," a Sharingan on his arm closed. As the number of remaining eyes dwindled, his expression became more and more despairing.
He tried to fight back, tried to run, but before the Snake Armor's overwhelming speed and power, everything was futile. He was like a beast being toyed with in a cage; every resistance only invited crueler torture.
Danzo gasped for air. The bandages on his right arm were long shredded, revealing the horrifying sight underneath. Transplanted Sharingan closed one by one like dead eyeballs, counting down the consumption of his Izanagi.
Pain and fear gnawed at his will.
And Kabuto watched his struggle with a near-sickly calmness and pleasure. He would even approach Danzo, lifting his bloodied chin with cold mechanical fingers, forcing him to look at his extracted Sharingan.
Whispering memories of the "Director."
About his dark childhood spent in Root.
About the pain of losing his name, his identity, his "mother."
"Everything you bestowed upon me… I must repay properly, Lord Danzo."
Danzo knew he didn't have long to live. Despair enveloped him. But he still had his final dignity.
He, the great Danzo Shimura, for the sake of protecting Konoha, for the sake of realizing his "dream of Hokage." He didn't hesitate to walk in the darkness, sacrificing countless Root members, even taking the full blame for the Uchiha massacre in place of the Third. He stole Sharingan, utilized Hashirama cells, turned himself into a monster… everything was to stand at the peak of Konoha and protect the village in his own way.
But now, he was like a stray dog, played in the palm of an orphan he once considered a tool! And this orphan's power came from Orochimaru, the man who could have been the Fourth Hokage!
He recalled his life. The unwillingness and hesitation in his youth that cost him the chance to become the Third Hokage. The ruthlessness of establishing "Root," the forbidden experiments for power…
And Nonou Yakushi—the spy he designed to die! The orphan whose fate he had personally twisted was now appearing before him in this form!
He was unwilling! His death must carry his final will. He must prove to this world that Danzo Shimura was absolutely not a lamb to be slaughtered! Even if he fell into the abyss, he would drag his enemy down with him!
"…You… will never succeed!"
Enduring the agony of being pierced again, his right hand rapidly formed seals! This was the forbidden jutsu he prepared for both himself and his enemy—Reverse Four Symbols Sealing!
A terrifying jutsu that, at the cost of the user's death, sealed everything around them into a barrier of death!
"High-density chakra explosion detected! Area-of-effect sealing jutsu!"
The system inside the Snake Armor warned again. Kabuto sensed this destructive power. He knew it was a move for mutual destruction.
"Trying to drag me down with you? Wishful thinking."
He sneered.
"Mana Source, Full Power Output!"
VMM—
The Snake Armor burst with brilliant light! The stored mana source instantly converted into extreme speed!
WHOOSH!
The Snake Armor turned into a blur!
Just as the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing fully activated, and Danzo's body began to twist inward, contract, and was about to explode—in that split second!
The Snake Armor charged in front of Danzo with terrifying speed surpassing light! Its mechanical hand shot out.
Target: Danzo's eye socket!
That still-active Mangekyo Sharingan belonging to Shisui!
"NO!!!"
Danzo let out a twisted, distorted roar.
The Snake Armor's mechanical fingers, at the very last moment, forcibly gouged out that Mangekyo Sharingan!
BOOM!!
Almost simultaneously. The Reverse Four Symbols Sealing activated!
Danzo's body, especially the head and upper torso where the eye was gouged out, exploded into a bloody mess under the distortion of the jutsu, turning into countless fragments and blood mist!
The black sealing formula completed, swallowing and sealing all the wreckage around him.
Everything happened too fast.
And Kabuto in the Snake Armor had long escaped the sealing range with his extreme speed. He stood quietly in the distance, the snake head gazing at the place where Danzo vanished. In his hand, the Mangekyo Sharingan, trailing bloody filaments, emitted an eerie glow.
The sun set in the west, blood splashed in the underworld, and the schemer finally met his end.
Konoha Village. Another corner.
Flames soared into the sky. Wails filled the air.
Sakura Haruno slumped before two corpses, weeping ceaselessly.
"I… I don't want this wish anymore! The wish I wanted wasn't like this! I don't want anything anymore!"
"KYUBEY!!"
She shouted that name with all her might.
"Please give me back my wish! Take… take everything back! I'd rather… rather never have made a wish—"
She didn't know if Kyubey could hear her. On this cruel battlefield, her cries seemed so powerless.
In the distance, a white creature sat quietly atop a collapsed building. It did not respond. It just silently observed.
And in front of Sakura walked a figure clad in Snake Armor.
"Isn't this the little girl from the same team as the Demon Fox and Sasuke? It looks like something sad has happened to you?"
"I might be able to help you—"
"But—what price can you pay for it?"