"DAMNED BRAT, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN PLAY GAMES WITH ME?"
Danzou's voice echoed through the council room with a contained fury that made the air feel denser. The old shinobi, who had recently achieved everything he sought in recent years, was far more arrogant than anyone could remember. His single visible eye gleamed with dangerous intensity, fixed on Li Shang as if it could pierce him with the sheer weight of its gaze.
He didn't want to use it to deal with just anyone; after all, it was his trump card.
'Did this boy see something? Impossible, the seals placed on the bandages isolate even the best Byakugan of the Hyuuga.' Danzou analyzed the situation with the coldness of decades of experience. He concluded it was just a coincidence due to Tsunade's sudden change when he activated Kotoamatsukami.
A cruel smile formed under the bandages that covered half of his face. 'I can use this to my advantage. The council didn't accept a young man like Neji into the Hokage Guard; that was a personal request from Tsunade.'
The tension in the room was palpable. The council members watched the confrontation with a mixture of fascination and apprehension. Some were already whispering among themselves, their expressions varying between doubt and morbid curiosity.
"Games? All right, I have a better game."
Li Shang smiled, and it wasn't the polite smile of a respectful young shinobi. It was something sharper, more dangerous. He quickly realized that the old man in front of him wanted to take control of Konoha.
'He's too confident because of his new power level, hehehe.'
Li Shang's internal laughter was filled with dark amusement. Danzou had just made the classic mistake of the powerful: believing his power made him invincible. And Li Shang knew exactly how to exploit that arrogance.
"Danzou-sama..." Li Shang began, his voice echoing through the room with a clarity that forced everyone to pay attention. "Let's do this: you remove your bandages and show the power you just used to control Tsunade..."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Hearing Li Shang's words, everyone present was paralyzed, looking at Danzou. It was as if time had frozen. The eyes of every council member, every ANBU present, every witness turned to the old warrior with renewed intensity.
'If this is true...' was everyone's thought, reverberating through the room like a silent echo.
Attempting to control the village leader was the greatest act of treason of all. There was no more serious crime, no more unforgivable transgression. Not even murder or desertion compared to the magnitude of this accusation.
Danzou's face remained impassive, but something changed in his posture. An almost imperceptible rigidity, a tension in his shoulders that wasn't there before.
"You dare..." Danzou began, his voice low and menacing.
"If I, Neji Hyuuga, am wrong, I accept the punishment of offering my head to atone for my mistakes."
Li Shang concluded, surprising everyone.
The room erupted in murmurs. What was happening? Was the young Hyuuga offering to execute himself? It didn't make sense.
"No, Neji, what nonsense are you talking about?"
Tsunade finally found her voice, worried, she asked as she took a step forward. She wasn't sure what happened during those hazy moments in her memory, and she didn't want to see another person she had grown close to die on impulse.
Her hands trembled slightly, her fists clenched. Dan, Nawaki, Master, and Grandpa... how many people had she already lost? The idea of adding Neji to that list made her stomach churn.
Li Shang maintained his smile, but his eyes had a calculating glint. "It's simple, Hokage-sama. If my accusations are wrong, then I have committed the crime of slander against a respected elder of Konoha. My life is a fair price."
He paused, letting the weight of his words sink into the room.
"But if I am right..." His Tenseigan blue eyes fixed on Danzou with cutting intensity. "Then Danzou-sama will have no problem proving his innocence, will he?"
The checkmate was complete. If Danzou refused, he would appear guilty. If he accepted, he would expose the Sharingan he had stolen and the Kotoamatsukami he had just used.
And Li Shang had bet his own life on this game, knowing his opponent's cards.
"Tsunade, are you going to let this subordinate speak to a Konoha elder like that? If you don't do anything, I will."
Danzou didn't care about anything Li Shang said. His voice carried the authority of decades of political manipulation and power. He wanted to make good use of this situation, to turn the boy's audacity into a lesson that would echo throughout the village. The council members were already beginning to murmur, some agreeing with the old warrior's indignation.
'This brat doesn't know who he's messing with.' Danzou thought, his right hand imperceptibly pressing the staff he carried. 'I'll break his legs first, then pluck out those insolent eyes.'
Tsunade opened her mouth to respond, torn between her position as Hokage and her protective instinct for Neji. But before any words could come out, Li Shang stepped forward.
"The Fifth Hokage doesn't need to say anything. My duty as her personal guard is to eliminate any threat. The only reason I merely pushed you away was due to your status, old man."
Li Shang reinforced his words, and a sword appeared in his hand, surprising everyone.
The blade materialized out of nowhere, enveloped in a pale blue light that pulsed like a living heart. The metal seemed to absorb the surrounding light, creating an aura of absolute cold that instantly dropped the room's temperature. It was not a common summoning. There was no scroll, no visible summoning seal. The weapon was simply there, as if it had always belonged in Li Shang's hand.
"That's..." Homura whispered, his eyes wide.
"Impossible, he didn't make any seals..." One of the ANBU murmured, his voice trembling slightly.
The ANBU present tensed, their hands instinctively moving to their own weapons. The chakra pressure emanating from the sword was suffocating, a brute force that made even the most experienced shinobis reconsider their positions.
"If you're not going to explain yourself, will I have to do it?"
The surprise was evident on everyone's face. A young man was challenging a world-renowned elder with absolute confidence. It wasn't youthful bravado or empty arrogance. It was the cold certainty of someone who knew exactly his own capabilities and his opponent's weaknesses.
Koharu and Homura, the other two council elders, exchanged worried glances. They had known Danzou for decades, knew his calculating and ruthless nature. If the boy really knew something about the old warrior's secrets...
'This could destroy the balance of power in Konoha.' Homura thought, his hands clasped tightly enough to whiten his knuckles.
Danzou, for his part, remained motionless. His single visible eye studied Li Shang with renewed intensity. 'How did he summon this sword? I saw no seals, no preparatory chakra movement. This is...'
"You know, old man, I know this new power you gained when you disappeared has filled you with confidence..."
Li Shang teased, his casual voice contrasting sharply with the deadly tension in the room. He twirled the sword slightly, the movement making the blade sing in the air with a sharp, crystalline sound. He was showing Danzou that he knew exactly what he was hiding.
Danzou's face remained an impassive mask, but something changed in his eyes. A flash of genuine surprise, quickly suppressed, but not fast enough to escape Li Shang's trained eyes.
'He knows about... He knows about Kotoamatsukami.' The realization hit Danzou like lightning. 'But how? Impossible. No one was there when...'
With a smile that didn't reach his eyes, Li Shang completed: "I also recently gained a new level of power. Could you help me consolidate it?"
The provocation was obvious. Li Shang was not just challenging Danzou; he was offering to use the old warrior as a whetstone for his own growth. It was a complete inversion of Konoha's traditional hierarchy, an ANBU treating a legendary shinobi as a mere stepping stone on his path.
The room erupted in indignant voices.
"Unacceptable!"
"How dare you!"
"Tsunade-sama, this is a direct affront to the council!"
But Li Shang didn't avert his gaze from Danzou for a second. His blue eyes shone with their own light, and the smile on his face was that of someone who already knew the outcome of this match before it even began.
Danzou finally moved, his hand gripping the staff with enough force to make the wood creak. "You will regret every word, boy."
"Then show me." Li Shang replied, his voice low but charged with defiance. "Show me what a Konoha elder can do."
The air between them crackled with unreleased energy, two predators measuring each other before the attack.
And Tsunade, watching it all, felt a shiver run down her spine. 'What is happening here?'