"This is…" A look of utter astonishment appeared in Danzō's eyes. He knew all too well the destructive power of the ninjutsu unleashed by his shinobi. The monstrous flames, the turbulent air, the sheer scale of the attack's range – it was terrifying, enough to incinerate anything, leaving not even ash behind! Yet, when Ren swung that unassuming katana, Shimura Danzō's heart lurched, a chilling, ominous premonition suddenly seizing him.
He frantically bellowed, "Quick! Retreat quickly!"
"Um?"
"Retreat?"
Many of the Root ninjas, still in the midst of releasing their formidable ninjutsu, froze. They couldn't comprehend Danzō-sama's abrupt command. Then, their eyes widened in disbelief. The Fire Release ninjutsu they had just unleashed, potent enough to melt steel, was now being completely nullified by the chilling ice surging from their opponent!
How can that be?!
The Root ninjas gaped, their faces contorted in expressions of utter bewilderment. "How is this possible?!" they blurted out.
The very air itself seemed to grow still, an unnatural quiet descending. The entire world felt as if it had been instantly frozen by the pervasive ice. This phenomenon shattered every theoretical understanding of the ninja world they had ever learned at the Ninja Academy. In their perception… Fire Release should restrain Ice Release! But faced with Ren's ultimate Ice Release, even the combined fire jutsus of these numerous ninjas found their elemental counter-effect utterly negligible.
This was the power of Daiguren Hyōrinmaru (Great Roaring Coldly Shining Moon) in Ren's hands. The ice created by the highly condensed water vapor in the air formed a unique ice structure, with a density over a hundred times that of ordinary ice, reaching the level of a profound, mystical ice!
"Is that all you have?" Ren mused aloud, gripping Daiguren Hyōrinmaru and feeling the surging power within him. A pair of colossal, crystalline wings, forged from ice and snow, slowly unfurled behind Ren. In that moment, propelled by the immense wings, he ascended into the air, looking down upon Danzō and his Root operatives. For a moment, he appeared like a deity, poised to deliver divine judgment.
Ren's gaze swept over the petrified chūnin below, a faint smile playing on his lips. "Then, this game is over!"
It had been a while since he had fully developed Daiguren Hyōrinmaru. Though he had diligently cultivated and refined the strength of this Zanpakutō, he had almost never used it in actual combat. Today was the moment for his blade to truly shine!
Hum!
A shimmering white frost rapidly overflowed from the blade's tip, instantly condensing into a swirling, ethereal white ice mist. It expanded, swiftly enveloping a hundred-meter radius. Those Root ninjas, still attempting to unleash their ninjutsu, didn't even have time to stop. They felt a biting, bone-numbing cold blast their faces!
"Hiii…" Shimura Danzō gasped, his eyes wide with a mixture of fear and dread. "What is this? Is it Ice Release ninjutsu?" Shimura Danzō, who had instinctively shielded himself behind his Root ninjas, secretly speculated. "Why does Ren know this kind of ninjutsu? Isn't this ninjutsu only known in the Land of Water, or in the Land of Snow on the distant edge of the continent?"
The raw power of Daiguren Hyōrinmaru, unleashed by Ren, immediately sent a shockwave through Shimura Danzō's heart. However, at this critical moment, Danzō had no time for such ponderings. In his vision, the hundred-meter radius around him had transformed into a world of ice and snow. Wherever the ice fog spread, the entire space became shrouded in a pale blue frost. As for the subordinates who had stood before him, they had not had a single moment to dodge. Shrouded in the ice fog, they were instantly frozen solid, transformed into grotesque ice sculptures.
In the dead of night, a sudden gust of wind swept through. The ice sculptures swayed, then shattered, falling to the ground in countless crystalline fragments. Aside from Danzō himself, all of his subordinates had been obliterated by Ren's single, devastating move!
At this moment, only one thought consumed Danzō's mind: Escape!
But as he whirled around, attempting to flee into the distance with all his might, Danzō suddenly felt a biting cold creep up from the ground beneath his feet. His legs instantly numbed, and his entire body involuntarily slowed, as if he had suddenly plunged into a mire.
"You…" Danzō's word hung unfinished. The frost from the ground had already climbed onto his body, gradually encasing him entirely. His whole form was frozen into an ice sculpture, trapped mid-stride, standing suspended in the air.
Ding!
From afar, a kunai, projected from Ren's hand, pierced through the air. It accurately struck the back of Danzō's frozen ice sculpture. The kunai's tip sank into the ice, and then cracks began to spread from the point of impact, spiderwebbing outwards towards his limbs.
Click, click.
The ice sculpture crumbled, disintegrating into a pile of crushed ice, slowly falling from mid-air.
Died? Ren narrowed his eyes, walking towards the spot where Danzō had been frozen. Then, before his very eyes, the ice sculptures containing Danzō's corpse vanished, as if by magic.
It's an illusion, Ren thought for a moment. Besides the Sharingan eyes he had "acquired" from the Uchiha clan on the night of the genocide, Danzō must have collected other Sharingan from elsewhere and transplanted them into his arm, the one grafted with First Hokage cells. And just now, he had used the forbidden technique, Izanagi.
The effect of Izanagi was simple: the moment it was activated, the user's Sharingan would record their physical state. Then, within the jutsu's effective time, any damage suffered by the user, even death, could be physically restored to the state recorded by the Sharingan. The steep price for this illusion was that the Sharingan used for Izanagi would permanently lose its light. The cost of this illusion was so immense that it had long been listed as a forbidden technique in the Uchiha clan.
Although the current Danzō had far fewer Sharingan eyes at his disposal than he would in the original timeline, faced with the immediate threat of death, he still chose to pay the terrible price of a Sharingan to escape.
"Tsk, he's just a nasty mouse after all." A hint of disgust flashed in Ren's eyes as he sheathed his Daiguren Hyōrinmaru. Even though that old Danzō had slipped through his fingers tonight, it would be inconvenient for Ren to pursue him further right now.
But what had transpired tonight was far from over. The fox's tail had been exposed; how could Ren not hit him with a stick? Ren looked towards the Hokage's Office in the distance, still brightly lit. A look of anticipation, tinged with a smile, spread across his face.
He's probably in a complete mess right now, that old man Sarutobi Hiruzen, in his office.