Moonlight, like water, spilled onto the clearing in the forest. Menma stopped, looking around—this open, sparsely treed area was the perfect place to settle grudges.
He glanced at Shisui beside him. "It's all up to you now. Don't move, you'll be fine."
Shisui's brow furrowed. He vaguely guessed Menma's intention—he was probably going to be used as bait. But he didn't understand what value he still had that could attract Danzo now?
Having lost his right eye and with his combat power greatly reduced, he should be useless to that man...
As his thoughts churned, a complex emotion spread through Shisui's heart. Menma was going to make a move on Danzo—this fact left him with neither the satisfaction of revenge nor the impulse to stop it.
Even though Danzo had taken his eye and forced him to jump off a cliff to his death, no hatred surged within him, only deep sorrow and disappointment.
As a genius of the Uchiha and a ninja of Konoha, the Uchiha attacking the higher-ups was tantamount to the beginning of a civil war.
But Menma was different.
This man was not bound by position; he simply wanted to eliminate Danzo. And he... was already destined to become an accomplice, wasn't he?
The night wind blew, and Shisui's black hair swayed slightly. From tonight on, he would no longer be Uchiha Shisui of Konoha, but a rogue ninja who betrayed the village. This realization made his chest heavy, yet strangely relieved.
Menma didn't pay attention to Shisui's myriad thoughts. He raised his hand, his fingertip gently touching the empty socket of Shisui's right eye—it was still pitch black, unlike his left eye which had been re-fitted with a three-tomoe Sharingan.
"Crazy Diamond."
With the whisper, the azure Stand appeared under the moonlight. The restoration ability suddenly activated, and strange fluctuations rippled through the forest on the outskirts of Konoha.
Something beyond common sense was quietly happening not far away.
— — — — — —
On the stone path of the Uchiha Clan Estate, the voice beneath the Root ninja's mask carried a hint of hesitation. "Lord Danzo, the number of bodies has been counted, and they all match... But..."
"But what?"
"All the eye sockets of the bodies... are empty."
Danzo's brows instantly twisted into a knot, so deep that a fly could almost get stuck in the wrinkles. He slammed his cane to the ground. The Sharingan—those treasures he had yearned for—were all gone?
Could it be that bastard Itachi...?
A sinister gleam flashed in his single eye beneath the bandage. He had thought that tonight he could kill two birds with one stone, eliminating the hidden danger of the Uchiha and acquiring a large number of Sharingan. But now...
"Keep searching! Cut open and examine every body!" Danzo's voice was squeezed out through gritted teeth. "Someone must have—"
Before he finished speaking, a strange tremor suddenly came from his right eye socket. That Mangekyo Sharingan, which he regarded as his greatest trump card—that eye he had taken from Shisui—began to twitch violently!
"Ugh!"
Excruciating pain washed over him like a tide, forcing Danzo to cover his right eye. The next second, something even more terrifying happened—
"Pfft!"
Accompanied by a sticky sound, that precious Mangekyo Sharingan actually tore itself free from its socket! The bandage was soaked with blood, and the crimson eyeball, as if alive, squeezed out from the gap in the bandage.
"Lord Danzo!"
The two Root ninja stared in astonishment at Danzo, who had suddenly hunched over, their masked voices showing a rare panic. Immediately after, they witnessed a bizarre sight they would never forget.
A crimson eyeball slowly emerged from the blood-stained bandage of Danzo, connected by nerves and blood vessels, floating in the air as if pulled by invisible threads.
The patterns of that Mangekyo Sharingan were eerily beautiful under the moonlight, then it suddenly accelerated and flew into the distance!
Danzo looked up, his remaining left eye wide open to its limit. He had lived most of his life and had never seen such an absurd scene—his eyeball ran away by itself?!
What kind of evil jutsu was this? Who was controlling it?
But now was not the time to think!
"Don't mind me!" Danzo ripped off the blood-stained bandage, revealing his empty, bleeding eye socket. "Quickly, chase that eye!"
On the other side of the forest, Menma's mental power suddenly erupted. Invisible chains tightly gripped the flying eyeball. That Mangekyo Sharingan drew a crimson afterimage in the air, moving at an incredibly fast speed.
"Swish! Swish!"
Danzo, with two of his trusted subordinates, leaped wildly through the treetops. The old man's heart pounded like a drum, and an ominous premonition grew stronger.
The Mangekyo suddenly leaving his body... it could very well be a trap!
But even knowing that a trap might lie ahead, he had to jump into it. The value of Kotoamatsukami was simply too high! It not only concerned the safety of Konoha but was also his ultimate trump card for ascending to the position of Hokage!
"Speed up! We absolutely cannot let—"
His voice abruptly cut off.
When the three of them burst out of the last patch of trees, the moonlight suddenly brightened. In the center of the clearing ahead, a black-robed figure wearing a fox mask stood silently, and the Mangekyo Sharingan that had flown away now floated above his palm.
"Good evening, Elder Shimura... You've finally arrived."
Menma's voice slowly echoed in the night. The gaze beneath the fox mask was icy and piercing. The Mangekyo Sharingan floating in his palm was still dripping blood, its crimson pupil reflecting Danzo's twisted face.
The air instantly solidified.
Killing intent swept across the entire clearing like a storm, even the moonlight seemed to be stained crimson.
"Swish—!"
Suddenly, dazzling purple runes lit up simultaneously on the ground on both sides of the clearing. The sealing jutsus of Hokuto Sennin and Nanto Sennin activated at the same time. The runes moved across the ground like living things, quickly intertwining into a giant barrier array.
"Boom!"
A purple light curtain shot into the sky, completely sealing off the entire area.
Danzo turned his head abruptly, realizing that the two Root ninja and he himself were trapped within the barrier. More precisely, all three of them were confined in this cage!
Menma slowly put the Mangekyo Sharingan into his sleeve.
"Then..."
The temperature inside the barrier plummeted, and their exhaled breath was clearly visible. Menma's voice rang in Danzo's ears like a death knell.
"—stay here forever."