Sai hesitated for a moment, then pointed to his tongue, indicating he couldn't speak.
Chiga replied coolly, "The Curse of the Tongue Root has been erased. You can speak now."
Sai's eyes widened in disbelief. He cautiously formed a few words—about Danzo—and when his body didn't react in pain, realization struck him like lightning.
The curse was gone.
That seal, a core method Danzo used to silence and control members of Root, was widely considered impossible to remove. And yet, not only had Chiga saved his life, he'd casually dismantled one of the most feared seals in Konoha.
Sai was shocked, not just by the miracle itself, but by the ease with which it was done.
Asuma and Kakashi, watching from nearby, were thinking the same thing.
They both knew Danzo. Asuma especially—he was painfully aware that Danzo was practically his father's shadow. Wherever Hiruzen went in the past, Danzo was never far behind.
Chiga's patience was wearing thin.
His eyes darkened, turning crimson. Twin, petal-like patterns spun within his gaze—the Mangekyō Sharingan had emerged.
A chilling energy flooded the room. Even without using a single jutsu, the atmosphere became suffocating. Everyone instinctively flinched as the temperature dipped.
Kakashi craned his neck and caught sight of Chiga's eyes. He gasped, "Mangekyō Sharingan!?"
"What!?" Asuma jerked in place. He had once felt the terror of these eyes firsthand—back when he encountered Itachi. That encounter had left him shaken for days.
Kakashi, too, hadn't forgotten. He had been subjected to three days of unrelenting torment within the illusion world of Tsukuyomi, all in the space of a second. Even now, his body remembered the pain.
Choji glanced at the panic-stricken faces of his two mentors and asked Shikamaru, "What's the Mangekyō Sharingan? Is it stronger than Sasuke's?"
Shikamaru's tone was serious. "They're completely different leagues. The Mangekyō isn't just a stronger Sharingan—it's a whole other monster. Uchiha Madara himself had eyes like those."
Though Shikamaru didn't know the full story, he wasn't far off. The truth was, Madara had possessed the Eternal Mangekyō, and so did Chiga.
Ino wasn't focused on the lore.
She had been staring into Chiga's eyes for a while and finally whispered, "Aren't those eyes... beautiful?"
Sakura side-eyed her. Ino was hopeless.
Sai, meanwhile, felt no beauty—only dread. The weight of those eyes bearing down on him made it impossible to lie.
The curse seal was gone, and Chiga had saved his life. Sai knew he had no reason to hold anything back.
Swallowing hard, he finally spoke.
"Danzo... Danzo ordered me to observe you. He wanted to learn about your Mangekyō techniques."
Naruto's face twisted in rage. "What!? Who does this Danzo guy think he is—mmmph!"
Kakashi clamped his hand over Naruto's mouth immediately. "Don't shout about Danzo carelessly," he hissed under his breath. "You have no idea what that man is capable of."
Sai quickly averted his gaze from Chiga's Mangekyō. The pressure was too much—even worse than when facing Danzo directly.
Chiga didn't look at him again. He stood up slowly and let out a low chuckle.
"Danzo, huh? I haven't even gone looking for you... and already you're reaching for me."
Naruto broke free of Kakashi's hold and shouted, "Chiga-senpai! This Danzo is the worst! Let's go take him down together!"
Chiga said nothing. He reached out, pulled Sasuke's unconscious body toward him, and casually tossed him into a glowing rift that opened behind him—a portal into the Door-Door Space.
Then, he glanced toward the far end of the ward and vanished without a trace.
Asuma and Kakashi scanned the room. It wasn't large. No windows were open, and the doors hadn't moved. Even if Chiga had used Body Flicker, there was nowhere to go.
Asuma searched around, baffled. "Ino, use your sensory technique—now!"
Ino nodded, closed her eyes, and expanded her chakra perception. Her brows furrowed as she scanned every floor of the hospital, even beyond its walls.
Finally, she opened her eyes and shook her head. "Asuma-sensei, Chiga-senpai isn't here anymore. He's not even nearby."
"What? Not even in the vicinity?"
"No... he's completely vanished."
Asuma was speechless. That kind of speed and stealth didn't make sense. Not unless...
Kakashi lowered his gaze, deep in thought. That kind of exit reminded him of only one thing—the Flying Thunder God Technique.
He remembered well how close Chiga had been with Minato. In fact, the bond between the two was strong enough to make others joke they could share a pair of pants.
Could it be that Chiga had learned the Flying Thunder God from Minato?
The technique was incredibly hard to master. It required an innate sense of spatial awareness and precise chakra control. But if Chiga's Mangekyō possessed spatial abilities, then it would make perfect sense...
Or so Kakashi thought.
He was only half-right.
Yes, Chiga had indeed learned the Flying Thunder God Technique from Minato. But what he had just used wasn't that—it was the teleportation power of the Op-Op Fruit, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit from another world. The Door-Door Space was from the Door-Door Fruit, not his Mangekyō.
His actual dōjutsu abilities—Iwa-Naga-Hime and Taira no Masakado—had nothing to do with space at all.
But such details didn't matter to Kakashi. His deduction was enough to draw a single conclusion:
Chiga had gone to confront Danzo.
The thought made Kakashi's chest tighten.
An Uchiha with the Mangekyō Sharingan, driven by vengeance, now targeting one of the most dangerous political figures in Konoha? If they clashed, the damage would be catastrophic.
Suddenly, the door slammed open.
Yamato rushed in, panic written all over his face. "Where is Chiga-senpai!?"
Kakashi didn't hesitate. He jumped out of bed, ignoring the pain, and replied grimly, "He's gone to confront Danzo."
"What!?"
Yamato's face went pale. He muttered, "This is bad... something terrible is going to happen."
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