The shockwave had barely faded when the air cracked with chakra.
Hundreds of shinobi flickered into view around the smoldering outskirts, jonin, Chunin, even a few off-duty ANBU. The explosion had been too loud, too violent, too close. It felt like a declaration of war and now they had come in force, expecting an enemy.
What they found instead was Ren Takahashi, standing at the edge of the blast zone with a relaxed posture, sunglasses perched on his nose, and Noi slung casually over his shoulder like a bag of rice.
Behind him, dozens of Root operatives lay in a neat semi-circle, most of them unconscious and sprawled across the earth, pinned by gravity seals, unmoving. A few jonin still twitched or groaned, barely holding onto consciousness.
A heavy silence hung in the air and a second later the attendees of the council meeting arrived.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Danzo's voice tore through the quiet like a whipcrack.
Ren turned his head slightly. Behind his dark lenses, his eyes glinted with amusement. He adjusted his sunglasses with one finger and gave Danzo a lazy, almost sympathetic smile.
"Oh?" he said, gesturing toward the unconscious Noi on his shoulder. "I think I should be the one asking you, Elder Danzo. Why did Root operatives abduct my subordinate the moment he returned from a mission? Before he even had the chance to write or submit a report, as per standard protocol?"
His tone turned sharper, more pointed. "Or are you simply not required to follow protocol anymore just because you are the Hokage's advisor, oh pardon me, now you're former Hokage's advisor?"
A low murmur rippled through the gathered shinobi.
Danzo's eye twitched. "I could ask you the same question, Senju heir," he snarled. "Who gave you the authority to destroy village property? Is your baseless vendetta against me more important than Konoha itself?!"
Ren clicked his tongue mockingly. "You keep saying 'baseless' like I didn't just present overwhelming evidence of your treason in front of the full council." He raised his voice slightly, emphasizing the word for the entire assembled crowd to hear. "Treason."
That one word dropped like a hammer. The whispering around the field grew louder. Dozens of shinobi shifted on their feet. Many turned their eyes toward Danzo, now no longer just a shadowy figure but a man accused of the highest crime possible.
Danzo opened his mouth, but Ren didn't give him the chance. He reached into his belt, pulled out a sealed scroll, and tossed it at Danzo's feet. It landed with a solid thud, dust puffing around it.
"That," Ren said coolly, "is the Root establishment document signed during its founding. It includes every authorized site where Root bases could be legally built within the village."
He pointed toward the scorched forest, still smoldering in the distance.
"And that," he said, "is not one of them. In fact, per the agreement, any new Root bases were to be reported to the Hokage's office and the village council. No such reports exist."
He smiled, too brightly. "So what I destroyed wasn't village property. It was an illegal, unauthorized structure built in secret by an organization currently under criminal investigation. I should be thanked, maybe even rewarded, according to village law."
Danzo's hands trembled. Rage and humiliation warred on his face, but before he could respond.
"BOSS, WE BROUGHT 'EM!"
Multiple voices rang out at once from behind the crowd.
The shinobi turned, parting instinctively.
Dozens of Ren's clones strode forward, dragging long ropes, tied to captured Root operatives in groups of twenty, forty, even ninety. Some were limp, some struggling weakly, all disarmed. The sheer number stunned even the seasoned jonin watching.
Ren gave an exaggerated wave. "Ah! There you guys are. I was starting to worry you'd gone sightseeing."
The clones deposited their prisoners in a rough line. The crowd was dead silent.
Ren turned to face the Hokage and council members, voice still cheerful. "I figured the ANBU might need help with logistics, so I took the liberty of rounding up Root operatives from all hidden bases. All scrolls, ledgers, and mission orders have been secured before anyone could tamper with them."
He tapped the side of his belt. "They're sealed and ready for the investigation teams to review. I even left the fun part for them, interrogations."
Around him, the shinobi forces remained still, stunned. They couldn't follow all the politics, but the picture was clear, Ren had just dismantled an entire black ops organization and paraded the results through the village like trophies.
Danzo's killing intent had peaked. He stared at Ren with utter hatred, seething even, he was coiled like a viper that had just been stomped on. Everything he'd built, hidden, manipulated over decades... unraveled in a single day. By a boy.
No! By a brat who smiled too much.
Ren, of course, saw it all. Saw the fury in Danzo's single visible eye. And he smiled even brighter.
He tilted his head and asked the question that finally broke the dam.
"Why is the criminal still free?" Ren's voice carried like a blade across the field. "As per the laws of Konohagakure, any shinobi charged with treason is guilty until proven otherwise. So tell me, why is Danzo Shimura being treated any differently?"
That did it.
In the blink of an eye, Danzo flickered forward. His cane extended like a spear as he struck with brutal intent, aiming to take Ren's head clean off.
But Ren didn't flinch.
He shifted very slightly and before most had even registered the attack, his fist had already snapped downward.
Crack.
Ren's fist slammed into Danzo's good eye with a sickening impact. The force sent the elder careening downward. He hit the ground like a meteor, stone and earth split under the blow, forming a shallow crater. The impact bounced him back up before gravity claimed him again.
The forest hushed as dust floated in the air and pebbles settled.
Danzo groaned, disoriented and bloody, trying to sit up, but Ren was already there.
He stepped forward and planted his foot squarely on Danzo's chest. He wasn't stomping, just holding. Yet no matter how Danzo struggled, the pressure didn't budge.
Ren leaned down slightly. His voice dropped into something quieter and colder. "I'll make sure you regret every single day you've lived on this earth," he whispered. "So much... that even the people you ruined would pity you."
Danzo's fingers twitched. His chakra spiked weakly. But Ren's chakra was heavier, like a mountain pressing down on a grave.
Slowly, his hand rose. It wasn't theatrical and wasn't even dramatic. It was a different kind of emotion.
His fingers curled into a clawed shape, and chakra gathered at his palm. A sphere formed, unstable at first, then smooth, spiraling faster and tighter.
But it didn't stop there.
Wind chakra wrapped around the sphere, sharpening at the edges, distorting the air with a high-pitched hum. It began to spiral into jagged arcs, forming the outline of a shuriken.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
A few ANBU instinctively reached for their weapons. Utakata's eyes narrowed. Jiraiya's mouth opened slightly, his expression shifting from disbelief to awe.
The Rasenshuriken.
Perfectly formed and held casually in the palm of a teenage boy.
Ren stared at Danzo, expression unreadable. His mind was racing, not with thoughts of glory or pride, but with memory.
With the things he'd learned, both in this world and the one before. The whispers of atrocities. The flash of a yellow-haired boy sitting alone on a swing. That cry when he said "That's the first time anyone wished me a happy birthday."
The Rasenshuriken shrieked.
But then a firm, steady and wrinkled hand, held Ren's arm back with his wrist.
It was Hiruzen.
His grip locked onto Ren's wrist, and his voice came soft but strained. "Please stop… young Ren."
Ren turned his head slightly.
He saw him, the Third Hokage, no longer the proud, commanding leader of the village, but an old man drowning in regret. His eyes held sorrow, weariness, shame... and a flicker of anger. Not at Ren. At himself.
Ren understood. If he pushed any harder now, if he went one step further, Hiruzen would act and he would be justified.
But he also knew something else, he didn't need to act right now.
He glanced around. Every shinobi present, even the hardened ones had gone pale. Some were visibly shaking. His killing intent had blanketed the field like a second sky while he hadn't realized. So many execution missions, brutal takedowns, and merciless combat had forged it into something palpable.
Even Jonin looked like they were holding their breath.
Ren slowly exhaled. The Rasenshuriken in his hand unraveled into harmless wind. He stepped off Danzo's chest and gently pulled his wrist out of Hiruzen's grip.
Behind him, Jiraiya and Utakata exchanged a look. Neither said a word, but they knew what they'd just seen.
He did it.
He completed Minato's jutsu.
Not copied or stolen. But perfected like it was intended to be and this made them even more happy than Danzo almost dying.
Ren turned to walk away.
As he passed a tree, he paused for a second. Without looking back, he whispered, voice low and calm, meant only for one man hidden in the shadows.
"Please make sure he does something, boss-man. Wouldn't be any fun if the rat doesn't bite when cornered."
And with that, he flickered away, gone in a flash of speed and wind, not caring who watched him go.
~
As Ren flickered away into the distance, Hiruzen's gaze remained locked on the broken figure of Danzo, lying dazed and bleeding at the base of the crater. The boy was gone, but the storm he'd left behind still hung thick in the air.
Hiruzen didn't move for several seconds.
He just stood there, his old eyes heavy, not with age, but with guilt. Perhaps even shame.
Danzo was his friend. A comrade from the end of Warring States days. They'd fought together on bloodied fields, trusted each other through wars, survived the chaos of rebuilding a village. But that same trust, that same tolerance, had let Danzo rot from within.
And Hiruzen had let it happen.
Whether it was loyalty, blind faith, or simple cowardice, he didn't know anymore. But whatever the cause, the consequences were here, lying broken in the dirt. Staring back at him with hatred.
He breathed in slowly and straightened his spine. There was no time to indulge. Not now.
His voice rang out, steady and firm despite the weight pressing down on him. "Calm down, everyone."
Hundreds of shinobi had been staring, at Danzo, at Ren, at the crater, but at Hiruzen's words, they stilled. His presence still commanded too much respect to be ignored.
"An explanation will be given for the events that occurred today, and the circumstances that led to this moment. Until then, I ask all shinobi to remain vigilant and return to your posts. That is an order."
The crowd hesitated just for a moment. But then, slowly, squad leaders began to retreat, dragging stunned Genin and murmuring Chunin with them. The outer ring of spectators dissipated next, though quiet speculation already passed between glances.
By the next morning, all of Konoha would be whispering about what happened here and by the next evening all the world would be talking about it.
Hiruzen turned next to the council members. His expression was unreadable.
"The council meeting was disturbed," he said simply, "but the decisions made earlier still stand. You'll all be notified of further instructions and developments. For now, disperse."
Fugaku was the first to nod and flicker away. The other clan heads followed, a mix of unreadable and contemplative. Most didn't want to be caught standing too close to the fallout zone.
Only Homura, Koharu, and Shikaku remained.
The two elders were staring at the crater, more accurately, at Danzo's broken figure. Koharu's face was pale, her knuckles white as she gripped her robes. She had spoken out against Ren repeatedly, clung to her political power like a lifeline and now that power was slipping.
Worse, she'd drawn Ren's wrath.
His personal anger.
She wasn't foolish. If things spiraled further, and if the boy pushed again, she would be the first to fall.
Homura stood slightly steadier, but even he looked rattled. He understood something that Koharu hadn't fully accepted yet, their old world was dying. The power they wielded in meetings, in whispers, in quiet directives, it didn't work on monsters like Ren. If Ren was just strong and not smart then they might have been able to do something, however…
Hiruzen saw it all. He said nothing for a moment, then finally turned to them and spoke, voice clipped.
"You two should leave as well. I'll call for you if I need anything."
Koharu opened her mouth, hesitated, then nodded stiffly. Without another word, she and Homura vanished.
A few seconds passed in silence before Yoru stepped from the shadows, folding his arms.
"The Root shinobi have been detained in their respective bases," he reported flatly. "Chakra networks sealed. T&I is en route with ANBU support. Everything's under control."
Before Hiruzen could reply, a hoarse voice echoed from the crater.
"Hmph… You think I'd go down so easily?"
Everyone turned.
Danzo slowly pushed himself up, one eye swollen shut, blood caking his robes and matting his hair.
"By a mere brat who hasn't even grown hair on his chest? You're sorely mistaken if you think this is the end." He glared up at them, voice gaining strength. "I've done what no one else had the stomach to do. Everything I built, all of it, was for the good of this village."
Yoru didn't move as he tried to clear Danzo's illusion, which had been fogging his mind for so long.
"So your idea of 'good' includes abducting shinobi, manipulating jinchuriki, colluding with traitors, and branding loyalty seals on children?"
Danzo sneered, blood trickling from his mouth. "My Root operatives handled sensitive missions no one else dared touch. And now you've dismantled it in a day, with no plan to cover the gaps. You think the village will survive this recklessness? This... self-righteous purge?"
His voice turned bitter. "You'll come crawling back when the walls begin to crumble and then we'll see, who gets the last laugh."
~~~~~
{I felt so much satisfaction writing this scene that I can't even tell you guys, I hope you guys felt the same way.
Also, this is not the end of Danzo, after all the Shadow war hasn't even begun so how could he die so soon.
However, I might be bringing the Uchiha Massacre a bit ahead of time otherwise the timeline would be messed up.}
{If you want, you can support me on pat-reon}
{ h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n }
{You know what else}
{280 Stones = Extra chapter}
{STONES!!!!}