Danzō had no intention of holding back. He unleashed the "ultimate genjutsu" directly upon Kuroya.
An Uchiha possessing the Mangekyō, one who dared not to flee for his life but instead stayed to assassinate him, was worthy of Danzō's full attention and tactical respect. As for using Kotoamatsukami now—if that meant he couldn't suppress the masked man or Itachi later, well, that would be Hiruzen's problem to solve.
In that instant, Kuroya stood rooted to the spot. Within his mind, his neural pathways felt like lines of code being reset, waiting for a foreign will to rewrite his very soul.
It was a power he could not resist. It bypassed ocular resistance and rendered mental fortitude irrelevant. This Yin Release chakra was perfectly calibrated to the human nervous system, merging seamlessly into his perception from every conceivable angle. It would weave a new world—one the victim could neither detect nor escape.
The master of that world would no longer be Kuroya, but Danzō.
Kotoamatsukami... the Mangekyō ability hailed as the pinnacle of genjutsu. Once cast, it usually required over a decade to recharge, yet the victim would remain a puppet for the rest of their life.
In the distance, seeing Kuroya suddenly neutralized, the Uchiha officers felt their breath hitch. They recoiled, their bodies turning cold and rigid. Izumi, Nanfu, and the others looked on as if witnessing their own impending doom.
Kuroya's assassination had failed. Danzō's reinforcements—the Third Hokage and a massive ANBU force—were surely closing in. They were destined to join the clansmen slaughtered by Itachi, buried this very night as nothing more than dust in the gears of history.
Conversely, the hearts of the Root members finally settled. Their Lord Danzō had lived up to his reputation, effortlessly dismantling such a perilous assassination attempt. They felt no grief for the comrades Danzō's Wind Style had accidentally vaporized; to die by their lord's hand was considered a supreme honor.
A Root captain glanced at the nearby Uchiha and sneered, "A handful of rats who missed the trap. Prepare to die."
The Uchiha turned pale, unable to bear watching Kuroya's end. They instinctively gathered around Izumi and the heavily wounded Tamao. If they were to die, they would die together.
Izumi felt the mangled Tamao's body go taut. She opened her mouth to speak, but the blood-soaked youth forced himself up. Staring with his three-tomoe Sharingan, he stood tall and roared:
"BIG BROTHER HAS NOT LOST!!"
Since childhood, in Tamao's eyes, Kuroya was a man of his word. When he said he'd get him out of the hospital, he did it despite the clan's protests. Now, when Big Brother said he was taking them to get revenge, he had led them straight to Danzō's throat.
Even if Big Brother died, he had not lost!
The other Uchiha only lowered their heads in silence.
"I will give you a swift end," Danzō said, his expression venomous.
His fingers had already plucked the left eye from Kuroya's socket. Blood arced through the air as the entranced Kuroya staggered back.
"Hmph..."
Danzō didn't let his triumph show on his face, but inwardly, he was more exhilarated than when he had stolen Shisui's eye. He had gained another control-type Mangekyō. Fortune had arrived all at once.
He looked down at the Sharingan in his hand and pressed it directly into the empty socket on the back of his right hand. This limb, cloned from Hashirama's cells, could perfectly withstand the ocular power of multiple Sharingan. Its surface was dotted with dark, eye-like openings. As the eye integrated, the flesh warped around it like a natural lid.
Logically, when Kuroya had first attempted to brand him, the Kotoamatsukami in Danzō's own mind should have been the first line of defense. However, the Hashirama-cell arm had acted of its own accord, instinctively using its remaining three-tomoe power to block the intrusion. This delay was what had allowed Kuroya's Yachiyamato to briefly seize Danzō's spirit.
Danzō realized that within his aging frame, the Hashirama cells held a higher biological status than his own brain. He couldn't fully control them yet, and they had nearly cost him his life.
"As long as I draw breath, nothing escapes my grasp! You innately evil Uchiha brat... accept the judgment of fate!"
Danzō squinted, walking toward the retreating, blind Kuroya. He used Kotoamatsukami to rewrite Kuroya's will, commanding him to stand still and accept his execution.
Kuroya froze.
Up to this point, Danzō had possessed only one pair of three-tomoe eyes. One had been spent taking Shisui's eye; the other had just been sacrificed to cast Izanagi to survive Kuroya's initial strike.
A three-tomoe eye in exchange for a Mangekyō. A bargain indeed.
Sensing the new power flowing through his arm, Danzō reached Kuroya. Just as his lips began to curl into a smirk of victory, his expression dropped. He snapped his head down to look at his cloned arm.
He realized with horror that the ocular power of the eye he had just stolen was not as vast as a Mangekyō should be. In fact... the power was draining away!
Not only that, but Danzō watched as the eye began to close, losing its light. It was brewing a technique he knew all too well—one he had just used himself.
"Izanagi?" Danzō looked at Kuroya in shock. "How do you know that forbidden jutsu?!"
Deprived of both eyes and submerged in the darkness of Kotoamatsukami, Kuroya clutched his face. He didn't answer, but a faint, sharp smile tugged at his lips.
"No! You had no time to weave signs! You couldn't even perform a one-handed seal! Even if you knew Izanagi, when did you have the chance to use it? Izanagi requires a seal! And... you actually dared to sacrifice a Mangekyō? Just who are you?"
Questions flooded Danzō's mind. He was stunned by the man's identity, and even more by the sheer audacity of sacrificing a Mangekyō eye.
Suddenly, an answer surfaced. Danzō's face twitched. "I see... a Transcription Seal! You sealed Izanagi into your Mangekyō beforehand, programmed to trigger the moment you were attacked?"
Kuroya shook his head, looking at the rigid, dogmatic old man with something akin to pity.
In this moment, the predator became the prey.
Kuroya's Izanagi took effect. He erased every unfavorable outcome: the Kotoamatsukami cast upon him and the loss of the eye he had taken. For one minute, he held the power to rewrite the rules of reality.
Since Danzō had cast his own Izanagi over a minute ago, his "invincibility" had expired. Now, it was Kuroya's turn.
The Kotoamatsukami in Danzō's right socket suddenly vanished, leaving only a hollow, bloody pit. He felt the connection to Shisui's eye sever completely.
"Kotoamatsukami! My eye!!"
Danzō's mind was once again filled with the agonizing pain of losing an eye, and his spirit withered.
"Why do you think I swapped my eyes earlier, putting Kotoamatsukami in my right socket?" Kuroya asked.
"Izanagi can only rewrite unfavorable factors for the user. I put the eye in my own head. Your Izanagi stole it back—targeting me. But once my Izanagi activated, the theft itself became an 'unfavorable reality.' Naturally, the eye returns to me, and it automatically dispels the genjutsu you placed on me."
Kuroya's voice was cold and analytical. "Furthermore, the eye just spent a moment back in your body. Though you used it, it was also being nourished by your Hashirama cells, significantly shortening its cooldown. Am I right?"
Light returned to Kuroya's right eye. As he spoke, he took his original Yachiyamato Mangekyō and slotted it into his left socket.
The result was a jarring, asymmetrical vision.
In his left eye: the sharp blade pattern—Yachiyamato. In his right eye: the four-pointed shuriken—Kotoamatsukami.