Chapter 69: Shadows of Vengeance
Sasuke sat alone in his war camp, his tent dimly lit by a single lantern. The muted flicker of the flame reflected off his sword, which lay beside him on a simple table. His Mangekyōu sharingan glowed faintly in the darkness, a constant reminder of the power he now wielded—and the cost of obtaining it. His mind was far from the battlefield, swirling instead with thoughts of his brother and the truth behind the Uchiha massacre. He was stationed under Darui, who was named Commander of the First Division. Sasuke was stationed as team leader to Jugo and the Sound Four. Other members of the division he recognized were Tenten, Choza Akimichi, Kotetsu and Izumo—who were finally not on bridge duty—and Hiashi Hyuga. Sasuke was disturbed from his musing as he glanced to the center of his tent.
A distorted ripple disturbed the tranquil air as Tobi appeared in the tent, his orange mask catching the lantern's light. Sasuke's gaze immediately hardened, his sharingan locking onto the intruder.
"Relax, Sasuke," Tobi said casually, his voice laden with amusement. "I'm here to bring you someone."
Without ceremony, Tobi dropped Karin to the floor. Her glasses were askew, and she scrambled to sit upright, glaring at both men.
Sasuke's lips twisted in disdain. "Why would I want her?"
Tobi chuckled. "Not her, Sasuke. Don't be so quick to dismiss me. Come along."
Before Sasuke could question him further, Tobi placed a hand on his shoulder, and the three of them vanished into the swirling void of his space-time ninjutsu.
They reappeared in a dense forest on the outskirts of the Hidden Leaf. Standing alone among the trees was Danzo Shimura, his bandaged arm hidden beneath his cloak, his single visible eye scanning the newcomers. His expression was calm but wary.
Danzo's voice was firm. "Tobi. Sasuke. I should have known you were involved in my serendipitous escape. Tsunade would never leave such a lax security detail."
"Such humility, from such a wizened man." Tobi stepped back in a mock bow, his masked face betraying no emotion. "It's almost a shame we'll never meet again. Good luck," he said to Sasuke with a mocking edge before vanishing the way he'd arrived, leaving the two adversaries face-to-face.
Sasuke stepped forward, his sharingan spinning. "Tell me the truth. Did Konoha order Itachi to kill the Uchiha clan?"
"So, you know." Danzo's single eye narrowed. With a somber gaze he began to slowly unwind the medical tape that wrapped his other eye. A stern, almost familiar sharingan stared back at Sasuke's own, which were widened in disbelief.
"Where did you get that eye?" Sasuke's voice slipped into a venomous snarl. "Answer me."
Danzo's response came in the form of a hand seal. Wood Release tendrils erupted from the ground, snaking toward Sasuke. A portion of Sasuke's Susanoo formed around him, skeletal and incomplete, its massive fist swiping the tendrils away before clamping down on Danzo.
"Answer me!" Sasuke roared as the skeletal hand squeezed.
Danzo's voice remained calm, even as his body began to buckle under the pressure. "Yes. Itachi did what he had to do—for the village. For peace."
Sasuke's rage boiled over, and the sinister bones of Susanoo's hand crushed Danzo, his body popping like a water balloon inexplicably filled with blood and viscera.. But before Sasuke could even exhale, Danzo's figure shimmered into view behind him, unharmed. Genjutsu? Sasuke's mind reeled as he flared his chakra, his sharingan spinning. But nothing changed. Not even a misplaced shimmer in the fabric of reality to indicate he was within an illusion.
Danzo's voice carried a sharp edge. "You'll have to do better than that."
The battle escalated quickly. Sasuke's Mangekyōu sharingan pulsed fiercely as he unleashed Amaterasu, the black flames consuming Danzo's figure, only for him to reappear elsewhere, his sharingan-studded arm glimmering as yet another eye closed.
"You're using Izanagi," Tobi's voice echoed as he watched from the shadows, his tone almost admiring. "An illusion that turns death into mere fantasy. Impressive, but those sharingan won't last forever."
Sasuke's anger only deepened. He summoned a volley of skeletal strikes from his Susanoo, each one streaking toward Danzo with deadly precision. Danzo dodged and countered with a gale of his formidable Wind Release, slicing through the landscape with razor-sharp currents. Despite his years, his movements were calculated and deliberate.
The forest became a battlefield of shattered trees and scorched earth. Sasuke's Susanoo grew more complete with each exchange, its ribcage forming into nascent armor. Danzo retaliated with Wood Release, the paltry, tenuous tendrils wrapping around Sasuke's construct and attempting to crush itt. But Sasuke's Amaterasu made short work of the rather flimsy—in his estimation—limbs of wood. The scope of Danzo's Wood Release paled in comparison to Naruto's. He didn't have Yamato's ingenuity, his precision, or his decades of experience, either.
Danzo's sharingan-arm was down to just two open eyes. He charged at Sasuke, his blade clashing with Sasuke's spectral, skeletal armor. The kunai shattered and Danzo fell backwards. Sasuke's incomplete Susanoo loomed ominously, a skeletal colossus bathed in an eerie violet hue. The ribcage of the ethereal construct, jagged and incomplete, encased Sasuke like a fortress, its semi-translucent structure rippling with malice. Its hollow sockets burned with ghastly yellow flames, casting an unrelenting glare upon Danzo's battered form below.
Each movement of the towering figure radiated power, as if the very air quivered under its oppressive presence. The partially formed skull of the Susanoo grinned menacingly, a chilling reminder of the raw, unrefined power that Sasuke wielded with his Eternal Mangekyōu sharingan. Though incomplete, the sheer intensity of the chakra radiating from the Susanoo was enough to make even the most battle-hardened shinobi, and Danzo was nothing if not battle-hardened, apprehensive.
Danzo, bruised and bloodied, glared defiantly up at the violet specter. His stance betrayed exhaustion, but his eyes—half-lidded and weathered—still burned with determination. The oppressive aura of Sasuke's Susanoo weighed down on him, but the man who had carried countless secrets of Konoha refused to yield, even in the face of death.
Sasuke's Susanoo dissolved and he fell unceremoniously to the strand, landing in a crouch. Danzo took advantage of perhaps his last opportunity. He risked it all in a final, desperate gamble. The two stabbed at one another simultaneously. Sasuke staggered back, clutching his wound, while Danzo smirked—until he realized his body was bleeding.
"You think you've won," Danzo growled. "But Izanagi—" He stopped as he realized too late that Sasuke's genjutsu had deceived him. He believed Izanagi was still active, but the illusion had ended, leaving him vulnerable. He only had Shisui's sharingan remaining, the notion that he had two in reserve having been an illusory one.
Karin rushed to Sasuke's side, urging him to bite into her skin.
Danzo, now cornered and out of options, lurched toward Karin and held a kunai to her throat. "Let me go, or she dies."
"She dies, then," Sasuke's eyes darkened, his voice icy. "She means nothing to me."
Danzo hesitated for a fraction of a moment. In a blur, Sasuke substituted himself with Karin and drove his elbow into Danzo's face. The elder shinobi staggered back, blood dripping from his mouth. He glared at Sasuke and Tobi, his mind racing.
"I'll die with honor," Danzo muttered, his hand glowing with chakra as he prepared to activate his Reverse Four Symbols Sealing. "Just like Hiruzen." With those words, Danzo activated the tehcnique. The seal on his chest began to glow with a sinister black light, pulsing rhythmically with his fading heartbeat. Four symbols emerged from the seal, dark and foreboding, as if summoned from the abyss. They floated outward, forming an ominous pattern in the air around him.
The symbols converged, and a black sphere began to expand, consuming the space around him with an unrelenting pull. The sphere was silent at first, but its sheer power was palpable, bending the air and drawing in everything within its reach. Rocks, broken weapons, even the scorched earth itself—all were pulled into the void.
Realizing the inexorability of what was happening, Tobi grabbed Sasuke and Karin, whisking them away just as Danzo's body erupted in a massive explosion, consuming the forest in a flash of light.
Back in Sasuke's camp, Tobi deposited them unceremoniously. Sasuke sat silently, his mind replaying the battle and the truths he had uncovered. Karin, shaken but alive, tended to his wounds.
Tobi watched them with quiet amusement. "Well done, Sasuke. Good luck with the battle to come."
Sasuke tried to sleep but felt Tobi's words were too foreboding.