Fire Rages in Konoha (4)

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[Shimura Danzō's POV]

Konoha was trying to get me. I knew it the moment the Jōnin were drafted to the proxy war in Suna. Hiruzen was playing a dangerous game. He wished to drag my forces out by leaving the village defenseless. I wondered when my old friend developed such a sickening mind. I thought he wasn't one to use psychological warfare.

"Bullshit!"

Despite knowing what he was doing, I couldn't help but fall into his trap. Kiri and Kumo had been testing the water since the Jōnin departed. Even though the Anbu stayed, they wouldn't be enough if a siege occurred. I had to mobilize my forces. Hiruzen was playing with fire. If an invasion occurred during the Jōnin's absence, even if we managed to win, we would suffer a great loss.

"You seem to have lost your mind, Old Friend. Old age finally got to you, I guess."

My only choice was to come clean with Hiruzen. He already knew my past mistakes, so I didn't need to confess about them. I only needed to reason to him why Root must be preserved. Even if it got disbanded, at least, I could still support Konoha. My life should not end with a public execution.

My eyes widened in alarm as I sensed a foreign presence in the room. I swung my cane, deflecting a kunai aiming for my head.

"Amazing swing, Danzō."

"Namikaze Naruto…"

"It's Uzumaki, Old Coot."

I spread my sense and found out my agents had all been killed. Realization quickly hit me when the hit of bloodlust coming from the Jinchūriki didn't stop. He was here to kill me. Was it Hiruzen's order? I wondered. Somehow, my mind brought me to five years ago. This was what Fugaku must have felt when Itachi went to kill him.

Namikaze Naruto was not my son, but he was a Shinobi of Konoha, so it hurt the same. I had done my best to keep Konoha intact, but this was how they paid me.

"If it has come this… then, I shall kill you, Namikaze!"

I roared and unsealed my Sharingan and right arm. A Chakra cloak enveloped the Jinchūriki. As I was about to use my Sharingan power, I found myself kicked through the roof. Another kick was delivered to my back, sending me downward. The ground stopped me from falling back into my secret lair.

I stood up and used Mokuton to thwart the next attack coming from the Jinchūriki. My mastery over it was sloppy, but it was enough to get the job done. The Jinchūriki made some distance before delivering a Bijū Dama at me. I didn't have time to dodge, so I was forced to use Izanagi to save my life.

With reality altered, my supposed-to-be-destroyed body reformed. The Jinchūriki smirked at me as if he had already expected it. He tapped the ground a diagram of seals appeared. I was within his domain. He disappeared and reappeared directly beside me, but I was prepared. My kunai blocked his hand which was enhanced with Wind Chakra.

Is he mocking me?

I gritted my teeth as I pushed him back. I breathed Wind Chakra onto my kunai, letting it coat the kunai in a sword shape. Not a second later, the Jinchūriki came at me. This time, he had Kiba in his hands. The stupid boy didn't know his lightning was weak against my wind. I guessed his prodigal status was an exaggeration.

Zap!

"Keuh…"

"Lightning also travels through the air. Even air friction forms lightning."

I retracted my statement. He was hailed a prodigy for a reason. He still found a way to affect me with his lightning. I knocked the Jinchūriki back and made some distance. One of the eyes in my arm had closed. I used Izanagi once again to help me utilize Mokuton. A pair of gigantic wooden hands came out of the ground and trapped the Jinchūriki.

Much to my disappointment, he managed to escape. I had to jump to the side to avoid his attack. His twin swords were embedded in the ground thanks to the failed attack. The ground cracked and pillars of lightning rose. I dodged them deftly. My Sharingan easily made the lightning's movements easy to follow.

"Fool, you are ruining your seal!"

"Ah, is that so?"

The Jinchūriki still had the smirk he showed me for the first time. Another Sharingan of mine closed, but I wasn't concerned. With Kotoamatsukami, the Jinchūriki would be under my thumb. I moved through the air and arrived before the Jinchūriki. I sucked the air into my lungs to prevent him from moving.

I failed, but our eyes met. I activated my Mangekyō Sharingan briefly and used Kotoamatsukami on him.

"Submit!"

As soon as he reappeared behind me, he felt compelled to stop. I turned around to face him and he blinked at me owlishly. He seemed to have realized the stupidity of his action. I knew I needed to keep my emotions in check, but I couldn't stop myself from kicking him.

Bang!

With a pained and confused expression, the Jinchūriki was sent flying. He quickly regained his footing and stood up while clutching his side.

"You are committing a tre—"

"Ku-Ku-Ku…"

When he cackled, I knew something was wrong. His pained expression gone, he stared at me with the accursed smirk I had come to hate.

"These are," he pointed at his eyes, "not real." His eyes faded, revealing a pair of closed eyelids. "This is too," he pointed at the ground and the diagram of seals disappeared, revealing the Hiraishin kunai scattered on it. "They are my eyes, Danzō. Kotoamatsukami won't work on me."

"Well, I just need to destroy them, then," I sneered.

"Feel free to do so," he sneered. "I already have my mark on you, after all."

I quickly looked down and found six of my Sharingan had already closed.

"Ah, I sealed some of them too."

"When I kicked you…"

"Bingo!"

I should have expected him to come prepared. It seemed my old age had dulled me a lot. Well, it didn't matter. I would take the Jinchūriki down with me. Rushing at him, I cast as many Jutsu as I could to confuse him. He easily dodged them but failed to take account of my Mokuton. As such, the shackle managed to capture him.

"I told you that I had my mark on you."

As he appeared beside me, I was forced to use Izanagi. Such a stupid move to make. I immediately decided removing his mark on me was necessary. I used Izanagi for that. Another Sharingan closed. The Jinchūriki and I clashed. His speed was still amazing given the aid of Hiraishin, but he could no longer catch me off guard.

"You know, it is not that hard to defeat you now that I think about it."

"Keep dreaming."

I sent a ball of vacuum at the Jinchūriki to shut him up. He dodged it, but it managed to shut him up, albeit briefly.

"You are heavily relying on the Hashirama cell to enhance your power. No matter how hard you try to imitate Senjutsu, you will never be able to beat the real one."

"Huh?"

The Jinchūriki appeared before me and stabbed my right arm with a finger. A foreign energy entered my arm, causing me to lose control of it.

"Oops. I will be taking them first."

The Jinchūriki snatched four Sharingan from my arm, the ones he had sealed. That was infuriating, but I didn't have much time to care about it. After all, my right arm was quickly turning into a tree. I quickly cut it to prevent further damage to my body.

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

My emotions overtook me.

"Now, you got it correct!"

I created a replacement arm with Wind Chakra and dashed at the insolent brat. My wind blades clashed against his Kiba. I threw countless of Jutsu to catch him off guard. They failed. At one point, the boy shot a fireball at me, turning my wind arm into a raging firestorm. That forced me to extinguish it, losing an arm in the process.

Pushing the air out of my lungs, I maneuvered to dodge the Jinchūriki's tireless attack. His movement became too much to follow the more he used Kyūbi Chakra. Before long, I was fighting with a two-tailed, bipedal, man-sized fox. A moment of slip was all it needed for its claws to snatch my last Sharingan.

"Ah!"

Bang!

My scream of agony was interrupted by a bone-crushing kick from the Jinchūriki. It was likely payback for what I had done to him a few moments ago.

"The fact that you were still fooled by a Genjutsu despite having that many Sharingan should be proof enough of your incapability of using Sharingan, Danzō. But then again, maybe these eyes are just a bad match for Sharingan."

For the first time, the Jinchūriki opened his eyes, revealing his crimson eyes. Apart from the slitted pupil, there was nothing special about it. However, I could feel the power coming from it. Sadly, until the end, I couldn't figure out what it did. If his words were true, one of its capabilities should be fooling Sharingan.

"Tell me how you like to die, Danzō."

I grunted and looked around. Woods and fire littered the cracked ground. It was not enough damage. I wanted this village to pay for their sin. How dare they betray me!

Crack!

"Can't let you do that now, can we?"

The Jinchūriki's Kiba pierced my chest before I managed to activate Ura Shishō Fūin. I couldn't even deliver extra damage to this accursed village. What a sad life to live. With this result, was everything I had done worth it? I wondered.

I took a look at the boy who had taken my life. His human form had returned.

"The Will of Fire strongly burns in you, Uzumaki Naruto."

It was corny, but I felt it was proper to say it.

"Eat shit."

I liked that response.