Whoosh—
Kuroya's first strike had landed perfectly, but he did not retreat. Instead, he gritted his teeth, enduring the agonizing pain without making a single sound. With a brutal, decisive motion, he reached up and tore out his own right eye—his original Yachiyamato Mangekyō.
His face contorted in agony, veins bulging across his forehead. His vision on the right went black as a cold, rhythmic shudder rattled his brain. Thick blood seeped through his fingers, but amidst the ragged gasps, Kuroya didn't hesitate for a second. He stowed his own eye away and shoved Shisui's Kotoamatsukami into the hollow socket.
Under the guidance of his chakra, the neural pathways within the socket acted like biological circuitry, successfully interfacing with the universal compatibility of the Mangekyō.
The watching Uchiha stood with mouths agape, their own eyes wide, as if they could feel the piercing pain Kuroya was enduring. Izumi's heart constricted in her chest.
Even the Root members, witnessing this from the trees, felt their scalps tingle with horror. This man had performed a self-transplant without a moment's doubt or a single cry of pain. Such ruthless resolve was rare even within the hardened ranks of the Foundation.
Kuroya opened his eyes. His right-side vision flickered from a blur into sharp focus. The pain remained, but it was receding. The Kotoamatsukami sat quietly in his socket, watching the world with him, its movement gradually becoming fluid and natural once more.
"Big Brother..." Tamao looked at Kuroya's back, seeing the toll the pain had taken. His expression twisted into a mask of pure malice as he kicked Danzō's body away.
Kuroya scanned the Root members in the trees. He had expended seventy percent of the Yin Release chakra within his Yachiyamato to seize control of these hundred elite operatives. Even though that eye was no longer in his socket, the "brand" had been set. Without external intervention, these puppets could not break free.
Among the Root were the eight disguised Uchiha. Beneath their masks, their faces were deathly pale, their hearts hammering against their ribs.
On the way here, Kuroya hadn't explained the goal of this operation. He had simply intended to do one last thing for the Uchiha before leaving: assassinate Danzō and reclaim what belonged to the clan.
Until seconds ago, everyone—even Izumi—thought Kuroya had lost his mind. Assassinating the Assistant to the Hokage was something even the rebellious Uchiha leadership hadn't dared to dream of. Not even the elite Jōnin of the other four Great Nations would dare contemplate a decapitation strike against the man known as the "Shinobi of Darkness."
They believed that even with the Mangekyō, Kuroya couldn't possibly pull it off.
But the reality before them proved otherwise. Kuroya had utilized the chaos to slip them into the Foundation's ranks unnoticed and had successfully executed the target.
"He really... he did it," Nanfu muttered. He subconsciously drew his blade, realizing he had regained control of his own body.
The other Uchiha snapped out of their shock. They looked back toward the clan district, where the screams had finally begun to fade. There was no going back. The clan was gone. Grief, desolation, and an infinite well of pain exploded in their minds. Stimulated by the agony, their ocular power began to surge violently.
"Damn the Konoha high command!!" "If Shisui hadn't died, it never would have come to this!"
Since they had lost everything, they would follow the man who had led them this far. They would vent their fury on the true architect of their misery. Even the gentle Izumi felt the same cold fire burning in her chest. They gripped their blades, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Kuroya looked down at Danzō's corpse, analyzing his own condition. He had only ten percent of his Yin chakra remaining in his Yachiyamato.
Aside from the initial ten percent used on his squad, another ten percent had been carried by his Shadow Clone to the Clan Head's mansion to be placed within Uchiha Mikoto.
Though he had gained the Kotoamatsukami, his chakra was nearing exhaustion. He needed to end this quickly to preserve enough strength for their flight.
But the battle was not over.
Gasp—
The staggering Danzō tried to draw a breath, but his lungs failed him. His left eye stared tremulously at the two before him as the life drained out of his body. The moment the blade pierced his heart, Danzō had died.
Yet, in Kuroya's Mangekyō vision, he saw a cold, sinister smirk tug at the corners of the dying man's mouth.
Just as the other Uchiha thought the matter was settled, the black robes on the corpse slid away, revealing Danzō's right arm wrapped in bandages. His index and middle fingers were held upright in a half-seal.
The white bandages unraveled, coil by coil. Under the moonlight, the Uchiha watched in horror as the arm was revealed—a pale, gnarled limb of wood-like flesh, with a three-tomoe Sharingan embedded in the back of the hand. Even as they watched, the eye began to slowly close.
It was a ghoulish sight.
"Danzō actually has a Sharingan... and the jutsu he just used... it feels familiar yet bizarre," Nanfu said, his voice shaking.
A sense of impending doom washed over them. Suddenly, the Kotoamatsukami Kuroya had just placed in his right eye vanished without a trace. Even Danzō's corpse, slumped against the tree, disappeared like a chalk mark wiped from a board.
Danzō reappeared five meters away. The Kotoamatsukami was back in his own socket, as if it had never been taken.
Before Kuroya had even struck, Danzō's hidden hand had formed the seal for the Uchiha clan's forbidden jutsu: Izanagi.
It allowed him to forcibly rewrite any outcome unfavorable to himself—including being branded by Yachiyamato, his physical death, and the theft of his Mangekyō. Even though he had "died," he had escaped the fate of having his will rewritten by the "ultimate genjutsu." For the next minute, Danzō was the master of his own reality.
The Root members in the trees felt the mental pressure ease, while the Uchiha tensed.
"Young man, a word of advice," Danzō said, his voice a low rattle. "In your next life, don't waste time talking during an assassination."
Danzō lunged forward, his foot crushing the earth. He exhaled a blast of high-pressure air toward Tamao.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!"
The wind roared, kicking up a storm of dust. Tamao was caught in the eye of the storm as the sharp gusts turned into countless steel blades, shredding his armor and leaving a lattice of deep cuts across his skin. The sheer atmospheric pressure threatened to crush his internal organs.
Spurt—
Tamao spat blood, slamming his blade into the ground to anchor himself against the gale. But the force was too great; he was sent flying back, snapping several trees before crashing into the dirt.
The forest was leveled by the wind. Izumi, her three-tomoe Sharingan active, deftly avoided the tail-end of the blast. She dropped from the trees and moved the unconscious, heavily wounded Tamao to safety.
The other Uchiha scattered to avoid the oppressive pressure of the Wind Style.
Bang—
Several paralyzed Root members could only watch as the vacuum waves hit them at full strength. They didn't even have time to scream before their bodies were dismantled into a mist of blood.
The Uchiha looked back at the ravaged forest, struggling to catch their breath.
Danzō, having cleared the "trash," appeared instantly in front of Kuroya. He reached out greedily, his hand clawing for Kuroya's remaining left eye. His counterattack was executed in a flash, swifter than the combined effort of Kuroya and Tamao.
He would not only kill this "innately evil" Uchiha brat; he would take his Mangekyō. His subordinates' failure to react was clearly due to that eye's power. Such a dangerous ability belonged to Konoha—and it could only be managed by him.
At the same time, Danzō's right eye flared. The shuriken-shaped pattern of the Kotoamatsukami began to spin.
Silent Yin Release chakra flooded into Kuroya's mind through their locked gaze. The tables had turned in a heartbeat.