Danzo observed Sarutobi Hiruzen closely—the man's breath came ragged, his shoulders hunched ever so slightly beneath the weight of age and futility.
He pressed harder, voice laced with urgency and calculated cruelty."Your arms are in bad shape. Probably only Tsunade could fix them," he said, his single eye narrowing. "But by the time you find her—and convince her to return—it'll already be too late."
Hiruzen didn't speak. His jaw twitched. Danzo continued, leaning in.
"I have something that can not only fully restore your arms... but also boost your combat abilities."His tone was honeyed, but the implication stung like poison.
"Of course," he added, "the procedure is risky. Only the Sharingan can suppress the side effects."
Danzo's voice dropped to a whisper, sharp as a dagger:"Do you want to be useless for the rest of your life?"
That word—useless—dug into Hiruzen like a kunai. He looked down at his ruined hands. They trembled slightly, bone-deep weakness radiating from the nerves up to his shoulders.
He knew what Danzo was offering.He knew the cost.
Hashirama's cells. Forbidden power.
Danzo could see the shift. He pressed one last time.
"You're the village's hope now. You need to decide—now."
Silence. Then, the old Hokage exhaled slowly. His eyes shut.When they opened, there was no more hesitation.
"…Alright," he said, steel sliding into his voice. "Let's do it."
"Boom!" "Boom!"
Explosions echoed like thunderclaps across the village. Smoke curled into the predawn sky, tinged orange by the glow of firelight. Dozens—hundreds—of Anbu sprinted toward Hokage Rock, their masked faces taut with urgency.
The streets were chaos incarnate.
Konoha's civilians, eyes wide with fear and sleep barely wiped from their faces, stumbled into the streets. Lower-ranking ninja shouted commands, trying to direct the crowds toward safety zones.
From windows and alleyways, elite shinobi emerged, awakened by the blasts. Some were shirtless, half-armed, but they moved with deadly precision. Instinct had taken over.
By the time the mass of bodies reached the base of Hokage Rock, the destruction was already catastrophic.
A thousand people gathered before the fallen monument—the shattered mountain, its stone faces cracked and buried beneath rubble.
The deafening rumble of tumbling stone never stopped. It poured down like a living avalanche, crushing homes in its path.
Amid the chaos, one voice cut through like a kunai through silk.
"We must stop these rocks from destroying Konoha! Everyone, listen to my command!"
Nara Shikaku, calm and analytical even under pressure, had taken control.
"Ninjas proficient in Earth Release—stabilise the descent! Form a barrier line!"
"Yes!" came the answer, loud and swift.
Dozens of Earth Release users dropped into stance, palms pressed to the shattered ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Rising from the soil, walls of packed stone jutted up, bracing the mountain's flank. Chunks of falling debris shattered on impact. The momentum slowed.
"Again! Don't let up!" Shikaku barked.
Wall after wall rose, layering the hillside with barriers.
They were buying time.
He glanced up—Hokage Rock had once stood proud, but now loomed as a jagged tombstone above their village. If the mountain collapsed fully…
"Next!" he ordered. "Water Release! Soak the debris—reduce the slide risk!"
Hundreds of Water Release ninjas stepped forward.
"Water Release: Exploding Water Shock Wave!"
Waves surged into the broken slope, soaking soil and binding dust into a clay-like density. Steam hissed as superheated chakra collided with sun-baked rock.
Shikaku's eyes narrowed.
"Thunder Release—shatter the larger stones! Disperse impact zones!"
Cracks of thunder echoed as crackling bolts burst through rockslides, fragmenting boulders into manageable debris.
Then, Shikaku raised his voice again:"Wind and Fire Release—dry the surface! Harden it into a shell!"
Flames roared. Gusts blew. The earth steamed, then crusted into hardened layers.
The slope… finally stopped.
A ripple of tension broke across the crowd. Cheers erupted.
"We did it!" someone shouted.
Shikaku gave a tight nod, but he didn't relax.
Something gnawed at him.
His hand twitched toward his pouch—instinct again.
And then—
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"
The ground shuddered beneath their feet. But the sound wasn't coming from the mountain.
It came from behind them.
The residential district.
In the blink of an eye, a chain of explosions lit up the sky, each fireball leaping from rooftop to rooftop like a festival of death.
Shikaku's eyes widened in horror."How could Konoha be filled with this many explosive tags?!"
He didn't wait for an answer."All units! Evacuate the civilians! There could be tags everywhere—Konoha might be covered in them!"
"What?!"
Disbelief rippled through the crowd, but another explosion, closer this time, snapped them back into action. Anbu and jōnin scattered like lightning, tearing through the streets to evacuate anyone in reach.
Inside the ruined Uchiha compound, Hiruzen and Danzo had watched the mountain stabilising
Hiruzen exhaled in faint relief. "It must be Shikaku. He's one of my most capable shinobi."
Danzo gave a short nod, the only praise he ever offered.
But before either could speak again, a roar of fire bathed the horizon. The sky pulsed with scarlet light. Dozens—no, hundreds—of explosions erupted in every quadrant of the village.
It was as if Konoha had become a battlefield overnight.
Heat slammed into them like a wave. Smoke curled through the air like choking fingers.
Hiruzen stumbled, coughing, his hand grasping at his throat. His body buckled under the weight of the shock.
Danzo caught him, just barely.
And then, Hiruzen looked up, eyes burning, voice hoarse with fury and disbelief.
"Uchiha Kaito… I'll never forgive you for what you've done to Konoha!"
From a distant rooftop, Kaito stood watching the destruction unfold. His silhouette framed by the crimson sky.
Beside him, Uchiha Feng laughed—a deep, guttural sound full of dark satisfaction.
"Kaito, I didn't expect you to go this far," he said. "You planted tags all over Konoha? This is art. Konoha won't recover for years."
Around them, the other Uchiha watched in silence, their faces a blend of awe and vindication.
But Kaito simply smiled—a subtle, sharp curve of the lips.
"I didn't plant those tags," he said quietly.
The others turned to him, startled.
Feng blinked. "What do you mean?"
"I just… used what was already there."
Their confusion deepened. So Kaito told them the story.
"Thirty years ago, during the reconstruction after the Third War, an architect joined Konoha. His village had been destroyed by Konoha shinobi. His son died in the flames."
Kaito's eyes glittered beneath the Sharingan glow.
"So he embedded himself in the village… and embedded vengeance into its foundation. He lined the buildings, the tunnels, the infrastructure with explosive tags."
The Uchiha were stunned.
"For three decades, no one noticed?" Feng said, disgust and amusement in his voice. "Konoha is blind."
Kaito nodded slowly. "In the original timeline… he never triggered them. Naruto's face reminded him of his son."
Feng scoffed. "Then why now?"
"Because this isn't the original timeline anymore."
Kaito pulled a small device from his cloak—a trigger long forgotten, until now.
"Before the night of the Uchiha Massacre… I found this."
A pause.
And then, he said the words that would etch themselves into history:
"Sarutobi tried to erase us with Itachi… but now? Konoha will burn in our place."
And the night… was far from over.