Kazuki's gaze sharpened slightly.
In the blink of an eye—
The bubbling Nine-Tails chakra surrounding Naruto instantly withdrew into his body, and in its place burst forth a blinding golden radiance!
Nine-Tails Mode—
In that moment, Naruto's entire body was engulfed in a blazing coat of chakra, radiant like the noonday sun. Unlike the deep crimson cloak from before, this new aura exuded no malice, no madness—only raw, unadulterated power.
And that wasn't all.
Naruto clapped his hands together, and from every direction, natural energy surged into his body. A faint marking appeared on his cheeks—
Sage Mode!
To the others, Naruto's transformation seemed to happen the instant his hands touched—so quick that even the surrounding Uchiha, though their Sharingan could capture the motion, couldn't mentally process what they were seeing.
Shimura Danzō, with his Sharingan covered, couldn't see anything at all. He only felt an overwhelming, blinding gold light burst from Naruto's direction—and the presence of a vast, terrifying chakra.
And at that very moment… Naruto moved.
Golden light flashed.
No, it wasn't light—it was golden thunder crashing violently across the open square of the Uchiha compound!
One Root ninja after another was sent flying, crashing into walls and the ground, leaving crater after crater in their wake, knocked unconscious in an instant—their fate uncertain.
Naruto's attacks were nothing more than a simple punch or kick—but each one carried unstoppable force!
Everyone watched, stunned and disbelieving.
Uchiha Fugaku's heart trembled. When he realized that not even his three-tomoe Sharingan could track Naruto's movements, he instinctively stepped back—and secretly activated his Mangekyō Sharingan behind Yashiro.
But still, he couldn't follow him!
Even with the enhanced dynamic vision of the Mangekyō Sharingan, Naruto—empowered by Nine-Tails Mode and Sage Mode—was still nothing but a flurry of afterimages. Fugaku could barely make out his shape.
The entire battle ended in mere seconds.
Now, two gleaming golden chakra arms extended from Naruto's shoulders—one of them clutching Shimura Danzō by the neck, suspending him midair.
On the ground below, a pale, severed chakra-infused arm and a single three-tomoe Sharingan lay discarded—completely ignored.
In a single instant, Naruto had sliced off Danzō's arm implanted with Hashirama's cells—and the Sharingan embedded in it.
His speed was so absolute, Danzō didn't even have time to activate Izanagi.
"Let me go! Put me down! Do you have any idea who I am? I'm the Hokage's advisor!"
Trapped in the grip of the Tailed Beast chakra arms, Shimura Danzō struggled in agony, roaring furiously as he glared at Naruto, whose expression remained utterly blank.
But the moment their eyes met, Danzō's face froze.
Just like Hiruzen earlier, he couldn't explain it—but at that moment, Naruto looked familiar. As if… he were staring at someone from the past.
"Danzō, you've been a terrible advisor to the Hokage," Naruto said coldly. "From what I've gathered, during the first Nine-Tails Rampage, you kept the entire Root division hidden and refused to aid in the defense."
"Do you even realize what that means? That's desertion on the battlefield."
Coming from Naruto—the Nine-Tails jinchūriki—these words felt entirely out of place. Many of the shinobi present exchanged uneasy glances.
Back during the Nine-Tails attack… wasn't Naruto just a newborn? How could he possibly know this?
And that detached, commanding tone of his—like some cold, high-ranking authority… Even considering the emotional instability often associated with jinchūriki, this felt deeply off.
But there were some who understood.
Sarutobi Hiruzen. The elders of the Uchiha who had survived the era of Senju Tobirama…
And Shimura Danzō understood as well.
His eyes suddenly went wide. He stared at Naruto in disbelief and cried out with trembling desperation: "Sensei? Is that you—Sensei! I… I can explain! I can explain everything!"
"No need to explain, Danzō," Naruto replied, shaking his head slowly. "This isn't the first time you've run from a battle."
"Go reflect on your so-called Will of Fire… in the Pure Land."
The two golden chakra arms crossed.
[Crack!]
Danzō's head fell cleanly to the ground.
The once-arrogant the Darkness of the Shinobi—was dead.
But the death of Shimura Danzō wasn't what truly gripped the attention of the shinobi gathered there…
What echoed in all their minds was what he had said just before dying—
"Sensei?"
He… had called Naruto Sensei?
There was only one person in the entire shinobi world that Shimura Danzō would ever call "sensei"—
The Uchiha's Bane, the Senju Demon, the Second Hokage: Senju Tobirama.
But at this point in time, that man should've been dead for nearly forty years. If his remains hadn't been specially preserved, his bones buried deep underground would've long since turned to dust…
So what could he possibly have to do with Naruto?
And yet, as the two Mangekyō-wielding Uchiha writhed within the Water Prison, the connection couldn't help but surface in everyone's mind.
Come to think of it—Naruto's strikes against Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Itachi had been so clean and practiced, so natural… they didn't resemble the flailing of a seven-year-old child at all, but rather the precision of someone who'd spent a lifetime dealing with the Uchiha clan.
Uchiha Itachi's Susanoo and Obito's unfathomable ocular techniques had been effortlessly dismantled by Naruto's seamless use of Water Release techniques, as if they posed no challenge at all.
Clearly, something was off.
Who in the shinobi world had such deep knowledge of the Uchiha… and mastery over Water Release?
Scanning the world from top to bottom, only one name fit both criteria: Senju Tobirama.
When only one answer remains, no matter how absurd, it becomes the sole truth by default.
And so, the gaze of everyone present—from the Uchiha, to the ANBU—gradually shifted toward Sarutobi Hiruzen, the man who, like Shimura Danzō, had once been Tobirama's disciple…
The Third Hokage.
Even someone as composed as him—who had remained calm even during the night of the Nine-Tails' attack—couldn't keep his face from contorting under pressure.
Something was clearly wrong with his sensei!
That was his own student—Shimura Danzō—and yet he'd been killed so easily, without even a chance to explain himself…
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared blankly at Danzō's severed head.
Yes, Shimura Danzō had made countless mistakes, but… did he really deserve this?
No—perhaps "he didn't deserve it" wasn't quite right. What truly gnawed at Hiruzen was that there hadn't even been a proper farewell. After all, Danzō had been a constant presence throughout his life—part rival, part companion, bound together by ties that only they could understand.
And yet, this wasn't senseless murder.
During their brief exchange, Kazuki had already made Danzō's death sentence clear—
He had abandoned the village during the Nine-Tails incident. As the Hokage's advisor, as a shinobi, in the face of catastrophe, he hadn't stepped up to defend his home. Instead, he had schemed for internal power and tried to preserve his own strength.
That wasn't just cowardice anymore. It was treason.
Viewed from that lens, Danzō's execution was more than justified.
Everyone present—Uchiha, ANBU, even Sarutobi Hiruzen himself—could hear the meaning behind Kazuki's words…
Because they had all lived through that night. They all knew what Danzō had done.
And just then—
At the very moment Danzō's head was torn from his shoulders, Uchiha Obito suddenly leapt up. Thanks to the restoration power of Izanagi, the warped space around him bent and twisted, shattering the prison that held him!
The others turned from Danzō's corpse to fix their eyes on Obito…
Obito's Mangekyō surged wildly with power. His twisted space warped violently, now engulfed by roaring flames—like chains from the depths of hell themselves—lashing out toward Kazuki!
"Izanagi… This is one of the Uchiha's ocular techniques. It sacrifices a Sharingan with three tomoe to rewrite a moment of fate—allowing the user to undo a fatal event. In this case, reversing the reality where I pierced his Mangekyō Sharingan…"
Kazuki raised his golden Nine-Tails Chakra arms, swelling with force in an instant. With a swat like one would use against a fly, he crushed the raging Fire Release. Meanwhile, he calmly explained the technique's principle to Naruto: "Yin Release chakra is the manifestation of the power to make the imaginary real… Techniques similar to Izanagi, like the Kurama Clan's genjutsu, all stem from this. In other words, it's the ability to turn illusion into reality."
"As long as the quantity and mastery of Yin Release chakra are high enough, in theory, one can bend reality itself. But ordinary people don't have this power, so the Uchiha clan invented Izanagi, a technique that sacrifices a Sharingan to generate a sudden surge of Yin Release chakra…"
"It's not an invincible technique. There just aren't many ways to interfere with Yin Release chakra. If you encounter an enemy like this in the future, once you've subdued him, immediately use a sealing jutsu to suppress his chakra—that will suffice."
Naruto nodded with sudden clarity, his eyes soon sparkling with awe as he stared intently at Kazuki's enormous golden chakra arm in Nine-Tails Mode.
So powerful!
Compared to Kazuki's earlier demonstrations, which were elegant and effortless, this overwhelming show of brute force left Naruto absolutely enamored.
This—this was true masculine romance!
'Looks like I've gotta build a good relationship with Kurama… That fox is seriously impressive…'
Naruto grinned to himself, delighted at the thought.
'Good thing Kurama and I are both friends of Kazuki-nii!'
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---