The effect of the S-rank jutsu was instantaneous as the Sakumo's weight multiplied exponentially. The sudden heaviness caught the master swordsman off guard, his knees buckling under the unnatural load as he was forced down, struggling to keep himself upright.
It was over, but the victory had cost Kaien a lot of injuries, blood trickled from a lacerations from his forehead, shoulder and abdomen matting his hair and clothes. He clutched his stomach, his fingers slick with blood where an attack from Sakumo had caught him off guard as the wind-chakra slash had clipped him.
His legs trembled as they finally giving out buckling forward. All strength drained from his limbs, and he tipped forward, ready to collapse.
Just then, a hand caught him by the shoulder before he fell. Itachi stood beside him giving support. "You subdued a very strong opponent," Itachi said quietly.
With a flick of his wrist, Itachi signaled the sealing squad to step in, finally putting an end to the White Fang.
"We still have to reorganize the battalion and check on the casualties," Kaien said with adrenaline still pumping in his system else he wouldn't have been able to stand... as a nearby captain jogged up to deliver the tally.
The captain wiped sweat and grime from his forehead, looking visibly shaken despite his calm demeanor. "Thanks to your immediate caution and Itachi-kun holding his own against Kagami in that brawl, we managed to keep our losses down... considering we were fighting two legendary shinobi. We've confirmed 314 deaths and 126 injured."
He paused letting out a breath that sounded half-relieved, half-terrified. "Honestly? If you hadn't stepped in when you did, we would have easily been looking at over a thousand casualties."
Kaien just nodded grimly, the numbers were tragic but in a world where legendary figures could be yanked back from the grave to slaughter whole divisions, surviving with a few hundred casualties felt almost like a miracle.
~~
Miles away, hidden in the shadowy recesses of root headquarters, Danzo was staring into nothingness.
He was seething... he had been trapped in a twisting genjutsu cast by Itachi on Kagami which passed through the sensory link that had stolen away precious seconds from saving his reanimation guards. By the time he broke free and clawed his way back to reality, it was already over. Kagami and Sakumo had been sealed away, without him even getting the chance to witness how it happened.
"Damn it all," Danzo muttered, pacing back and forth. "I lost Blue Bee to that old hag Benihime, and now I've lost Kagami and Sakumo just like that? What a waste of time and chakra."
He gripped his cane tighter. "All I have left are Mito, Dan, and Hiruzen. And with those traitorous Uchiha packing up and leaving Konoha for Kumo..."
He began racking his brain, desperately trying to think of another powerful, dead shinobi he could dig up and reanimate to turn the tide. He needed heavy hitters, and he needed them now.
"It seems you are troubled, Danzo," a voice whispered from behind him. "Though, I'm afraid I have to take your Sharingan now."
Danzo whipped around, his heart leaping into his throat. Standing right there in the dim light was a figure draped in traveling cloaks as he did not want to be linked to the peace minded Akatsuki, wearing an orange spiral-patterned mask as a Sharingan spun from the eyehole.
Danzo's gaze hardened. "Who the hell are you?"
The masked man tilted his head. "I've been in too much of a hurry today, so I suppose I didn't introduce myself properly. I am Uchiha Madara."
Danzo flinched as a snort escaped his lips. Long before today, he had already pieced together the truth... he knew the Madara was still alive, especially since the reanimation jutsu had failed to summon him.
Danzo sneered. "A traitor of Konoha, playing dress-up?"
Without wasting a breath on conversation, Danzo thrust his hands onto the ground. He didn't have time to mess around; he needed to crush this intruder immediately. He channeled his chakra to forcefully summon his two remaining heavy hitters from the Kumo frontlines: Hiruzen Sarutobi and Mito Uzumaki.
With a thud of displaced ground, the duo materialized right in front of him.
Mito's eyes locked onto Danzo, her expression was disappointment. "Danzo, what on earth were you thinking, pulling us from the frontlines at such a critical moment?" she demanded. "You do know Fugaku and Mikoto have grown dangerously strong out there? they're going to put our side in a massive disadvantage."
"Mito-san, put that aside for a second!" Danzo snapped back, pointing a shaky finger at the masked intruder. "We have a much more pressing emergency right here. Look at the one standing before us. It's Madara Uchiha."
Danzo tried to sound commanding, but it was a pathetic effort. He didn't dare try to forcefully control her... he had already tested those waters long back, and Mito had bluntly threatened that if he ever tried to puppet her again, she would willfully sever her ties and go straight back to the Pure Land.
Across the room, the masked man... Obito narrowed his eyes as he knew better than anyone just how dangerous Mito Uzumaki truly was, not because of her strength but rather she knew the real Madara's chakra signature.
"She will know I am fake... I cannot risk this anomaly," Obito thought to himself. "If she exposes me here, everything I've built will get more complicated."
Mito slowly turned her gaze toward the masked man. She tilted her head, her eyes scanning him up and down. She didn't need to check twice; she knew Madara's signature. This boy... whoever he was hiding behind that piece of orange wood... was an utter imposter. But the real question burning in her mind was: Why go to the lengths of impersonating Uchiha Madara?
Before she could open her mouth to call out his bluff, Obito flickered forward in a blinding burst of speed.
Realizing she had no time to warn the others or explain the trick, Mito reacted purely on battle instinct with a flick of her wrist, glowing golden chains erupted from her back... the legendary Adamantine Sealing Chains. They rushed through the air lunging forward with enough kinetic force to shatter a mountain and shave off chakra... but they passed straight through Obito's body as if he were made of thin air.
"Impossible..." Mito thought, her eyes widening in shock as her chains met nothing but empty space. Phasing? How could a human body completely ignore physical matter?
Obito wasted zero time... he capitalized on the split-second of surprise from Mito and Hiruzen, exploiting their momentary confusion. With a fluid motion, his hand hovered near his hip, drawing forth a legendary artifact... the Totsuka Blade.
~~
A/N: So, Obito naturally comes to the next best where there would be sharingan, if not for Uchiha (Free bird sealed, so Sharingan can't be stolen from them) that would be Danzo.
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