The mission assigned to Uchiha Dohan was to eliminate enemy spies from the Land of Earth near the northwestern border.
As soon as the three-man squad left the village, they increased their pace, heading straight for the target zone.
However, before they could reach their destination, masked figures wearing various faceplates appeared from all directions, quickly surrounding the trio.
"ANBU?" Uchiha Inabi narrowed his eyes at their gear.
"No… not ANBU. They're from Root."
Dohan remained calm as he unsheathed the longsword on his back.
"Get ready for battle."
"Damn it! What the hell is the village thinking—attacking its own shinobi?!" Yashiro cursed as he drew his kunai.
A cold, sinister voice echoed around them:
"Uchiha Dohan, rogue element of the Uchiha Clan. Today, I, Danzō Shimura, will purge this threat for the sake of the village."
Despite the voice, Dohan looked around and saw no sign of Danzō himself.
"Hiding in the shadows and still talking big—what a coward," Dohan said with disdain.
"Save your games, Dohan. You're hoping to force me into the open so you can use the eye technique you stole from Shisui on me, aren't you?"
Danzō's voice sneered again.
"Too bad for you—Shisui has already told us everything. The village knows of your theft and treachery. Surrender now!"
"Dohan… what's he talking about?" Inabi asked, confused.
"Now's not the time for explanations."
Crackling lightning surged around Dohan's body, arcs of electricity snapping through the air.
"Let's deal with this scum first."
"Got it!"
Inabi and Yashiro nodded, standing back to back with Dohan as all three formed hand seals.
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
Twin serpentine dragons of flame surged forward, engulfing the Root operatives rushing in from the front. The intense heat swallowed several of them in seconds. Though Danzō had dispatched elite agents for this ambush, Inabi and Yashiro were gifted young Uchiha with two-tomoe Sharingan—and Dohan was far deadlier.
Without hesitation, Dohan formed nine condensed spheres of intense blue lightning and launched them in different directions.
Lightning Style: Lightning Ball—a basic technique, often taught to Konoha Genin with Lightning affinity. But in Dohan's hands, it became a weapon of mass destruction.
In a blink, over a dozen Root operatives were vaporized—reduced to nothing but charred remnants. Yet Root operatives, stripped of individuality through Danzō's conditioning, showed no hesitation. Even as their comrades fell, they charged forward relentlessly. Wind and Water Style users began releasing jutsu aimed at subduing the trio through elemental advantage.
"Killing ANBU operatives, Dohan… Are you declaring yourself a traitor?" Danzō's voice rang out again.
His only answer was a series of massive thunderbolts crashing down from above—each one as thick as a tree trunk—striking the densest clusters of Root operatives. The explosion and roar of thunder instantly cut down another wave of enemies. The Wind and Water Style jutsu flung at them were all neutralized by six ghostly, deep-blue thunder orbs revolving around Dohan and his teammates, absorbing the elemental attacks effortlessly.
"Aren't you going to show yourself, Lord Danzō?" Dohan asked coldly.
"Or do you really think these pawns are enough to stop me?"
"You won't get the chance to use that eye technique on me, Dohan. Give it up," Danzō scoffed.
Dohan chuckled lightly, cutting through more enemies with ease as his lightning chakra danced around him.
"Danzō… You really think too highly of yourself. You're just a rat in the sewers—always hiding in the dark, discarded by Hiruzen whenever convenient. You're not even worthy of Kotoamatsukami."
Just then, several enormous tree trunks erupted from the earth and intertwined in the sky, forming a colossal wooden hand that came crashing down toward the three.
All previous attacks had simply been meant to wear them down. This was Danzō's true trump card.
"Wood Style?!" Inabi's face went pale. Any Uchiha could recognize that legendary power.
They instinctively countered with ninjutsu, but their attacks left no mark on the descending wooden hand.
At that moment, Dohan calmly said:
"Stand behind me."
His eyes spun—three tomoe rotating rapidly before morphing into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Pitch-black chakra burst forth from his eyes and enveloped all three of them—manifesting into a towering black warrior clad in azure sigils.
Susanoo.
Dohan's ocular power fused with his explosive Lightning Chakra to form a massive, ghost-blue longsword in the avatar's hand. With a single swing, the colossal wooden hand was cleaved in half.
"Elder Danzō," Dohan's voice turned cold, "have you had your fun?"
"Do you know why I didn't use the Uchiha clan's ultimate power from the beginning? Because I planned to bury all of you right here."
As he spoke, the sky darkened above them. The earlier clash of Fire and Water Styles had filled the air with steam, which now condensed into thick, rolling storm clouds.
Massive energy surged within the heavens. Every Root operative looked up—and all that remained on their faces was terror.
Even for those stripped of emotion, the instinctive dread of impending doom could not be erased.
"Lightning Style: Kirin."
Dohan whispered the name of the jutsu.
At that moment, a faint spark of electricity danced at the feet of every Root ninja—barely noticeable, no more painful than a static shock.
But it was their death sentence.
The sky ripped open.
A colossal beast of lightning, shaped like a dragon, roared down from the clouds. In an instant, the entire area was swallowed by blue lightning. The Root operatives had nowhere to run—no time to escape.
In one remote corner of the battlefield, a layered wall of Wood Style: Wooden Pillar Shields rose, desperately attempting to block the blast through sheer numbers.
Minutes later, the storm passed. Rain began to fall, washing away the scent of scorched flesh and blood from the air.
Where the wall had risen, the final layer collapsed with a crash, revealing two figures.
One—a masked man—lay dead on the ground, still frozen in a hand sign.
The other stood leaning on a cane, his other arm bound tightly in bandages.
"…Found you, Elder Danzō."
Inside the armor of Susanoo, Uchiha Dohan grinned brilliantly.