Since he had been exposed, Danzō Shimura was not the type to play childish games of covering his ears and pretending nothing happened.
He simply lowered his hand.
That eye—glowing with an eerie crimson sheen—was revealed to everyone, unmistakably real.
A trace of nostalgia flickered across his face as he spoke slowly.
"This is the eye Kagami entrusted to me in his final moments."
"Liar!!"
Shisui Uchiha clenched his short blade so hard his knuckles whitened, voice tearing out of him in a hoarse shout.
"My father told me Kagami was buried with both eyes! You dare defile his corpse?!"
Danzō looked at Shisui with cold indifference, expression unchanged.
"You never met Kagami. Even your father only remembers him from childhood."
"Kagami and I were comrades who entrusted our lives to each other. Is it truly so hard to understand that he would entrust me with his eye?"
It wasn't… entirely impossible.
Kagami Uchiha had been the Uchiha closest to the village's leadership, risking his life many times to save Danzō and the others.
And—
A similar case had occurred not long ago.
Obito Uchiha, dying on the battlefield, had given his Sharingan to Kakashi Hatake.
Danzō's reason for concealing it also had an easy explanation:
He didn't want to intensify tensions between the village and the Uchiha.
Even under Hiruzen Sarutobi or Minato Namikaze, that argument could pass.
If Kakashi was allowed to keep his friend's eye, why wouldn't the Hokage's long-serving advisor deserve the same?
—
Slash!
In the middle of Danzō's explanation, a beam tore through the air and pierced his skull.
From atop Rayquaza, Uchiha Sora held his arm out like a gun. Thin streams of smoke curled from his fingertip.
"Danzō Shimura… I believe you."
"But how will you explain the other Sharingan?"
"And how many more times…"
"…can you use Izanagi?"
…
Izanagi—
One of the Uchiha clan's ultimate ocular techniques.
Within a limited duration, it could rewrite events unfavorable to the user as though they had never happened—choosing only outcomes beneficial to the user and making them reality.
During its activation, even death could be overwritten.
The price was absolute:
Whether it succeeded or not, one Sharingan would permanently go blind after use.
…
Danzō's corpse fell.
It did not explode into smoke.
Instead, it vanished—unnaturally.
Then, atop a nearby ruin, Danzō's figure appeared again. He looked down calmly.
"This is a secret technique I developed. I have no idea what you're talking about."
Sora bared his teeth in a grin.
"If you hadn't added that last sentence, you might've sounded convincing."
"You served Lord Tobirama Senju. And you're telling me you don't know Uchiha ocular techniques?"
"Go lie to ghosts."
…
From Sora's judgment, Danzō's arm transplant must have been completed before Orochimaru ever defected.
But the Uchiha hadn't been wiped out yet—which meant Danzō's stock of Sharingan couldn't be large.
That was one of the reasons Sora genuinely despised Itachi Uchiha.
You slaughtered your own clan… and still let their eyes be defiled afterward.
…
The atmosphere turned strange.
Most clan members did not know Izanagi. It was a forbidden technique, sealed away as taboo.
But the clan head certainly knew.
And Fugaku knew something else—
Years ago, the sealed chamber containing Izanagi's records had been robbed. Even the clan no longer possessed its training scroll.
Someone who could slip in and out of the Uchiha's secret chamber without a trace…
Someone with the motive and the ability…
Only one figure came to mind.
The Second Hokage… Tobirama Senju.
The thought took root.
Fugaku's Mangekyō rotated slowly, extreme ocular power spreading to envelop Danzō's body.
He sensed it—
A faint, hidden ripple coming from Danzō's arm.
That was…
Sharingan chakra.
Fugaku drew a deep breath, trying to suppress the fury—
And failing completely.
If he pretended to be blind now, then he wasn't fit to be clan head.
He wasn't even fit to call himself Uchiha.
Uchiha Sora had offered him a "choice."
In truth—
At this point, he no longer had one.
—
"Danzō Shimura…"
Flash—
In an instant, black and white swallowed the moonlight. A torrent of foul, collapsing ocular power surged toward Danzō like polluted floodwater.
Mangekyō Technique: Yomi-tsu Hirasaka!
…
What was the first rule when facing the Sharingan?
Don't make eye contact.
From the very start, most of Danzō's attention had been fixed on guarding against Fugaku—otherwise he wouldn't have been "killed" twice so easily by Sora.
Facing that invisible deluge of ocular power, Danzō understood immediately.
A genjutsu-type Mangekyō technique. Fine. That's manageable.
…
He formed a one-handed seal.
Black curse-mark patterns crawled across his body—mysterious and sinister.
Self-Cursing Sealing Technique!
In the future, Danzō would use this technique to restrain Sasuke Uchiha after Sasuke awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
If not for Obito's presence—and the simple truth that villains who talk too much die—Danzō could have turned and killed Sasuke with a single swing.
This technique could control opponents, but it also layered the user's body in a turbulence of chakra, constantly disrupting internal flow.
By continually scrambling his own chakra, he could resist genjutsu.
And the one who developed it?
The Uchiha-countering specialist—
That old white-haired Senju.
Danzō wasn't talented at creating techniques.
He didn't need to be.
Konoha's massive Sealing Scroll alone contained more ninjutsu than a man could ever finish learning.
…
After completing the technique, Danzō immediately formed seals again and slammed both palms to the ground.
"Summoning Technique!"
Boom!
A massive elephant-like creature materialized—Baku.
It opened its mouth, and a violent suction tore across the battlefield like a hurricane.
Danzō was about to combine with Baku to unleash a devastating Wind Release—
Whoom—
A fireball, mixed with rubble and broken tiles, was sucked straight toward its gaping mouth.
"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"
The accuracy of the Fireball Jutsu was famously mocked, to the point it was jokingly called "the kindest Fire Release."
Of course, that was only a joke.
As the Uchiha clan's signature technique, its destructive power was very real.
Bang!
BOOOOM!!!
Even though Baku stopped inhaling in time, the fireball detonated at its mouth. After one anguished cry, the summon vanished—barely three seconds after arriving.
…
A shinobi battle was, at its core, a battle of information.
Setting aside overwhelming, abnormal power, the side with more intel almost always won.
With a massive intelligence gap, even a genin could defeat a jōnin.
Uchiha Sora knew Danzō well. With Rayquaza empowering him, there was no longer any "level difference" between them.
If anything, in sheer energy—
Sora was above him.
Danzō spat, frowning at Sora.
Sora brushed away the small flame at the corner of his mouth and smiled.
"You fear Clan Head Fugaku's Mangekyō… yet you dare meet my eyes?"
Danzō sneered.
"What are you? A mere two-tomoe brat. You just got lucky and contracted a powerful beast. You think you're comparable to the Mangekyō?"
…
"Contract?"
Sora's smile sharpened.
"Don't underestimate my bond with Rayquaza."
"I warned you."
"Don't look up at me."
Rayquaza stopped using Dragon Dance. Emerald light flared across its body, as if green flames ignited along its form—rising like steaming wings.
Sora formed a one-handed seal. The two tomoe in his eyes spun rapidly, a faint emerald ripple spreading with a mysterious, oppressive power.
—
Genjutsu: Sharingan — Paint the Dragon, Give It Life.
An invisible wave expanded outward.
In Danzō's vision, the sky filled with deep green fire. Rayquaza's massive body twisted elegantly within the sea of flame.
And then—
The emerald dragon spread its blazing wings and hurled itself straight at him.
Fast.
Unthinkably fast.
By the time Danzō realized he was being attacked, his eye captured only a single gorgeous streak of light.
BOOOOM!!!!
A tremendous explosion shook the heavens.
The burning Rayquaza swallowed Danzō whole.
…
Danzō felt it clearly—his consciousness sinking into an endless ocean of fire, drowning inch by inch.
The curse marks were useless…
Then—Izanagi!
…
Why couldn't he rewrite this reality?!
—
—
Clink…
The kunai Danzō had been gripping the entire time slipped from his hand and hit the ground.
Unlike what Danzō saw, to everyone else it looked simple:
The moment Danzō raised his head and Sora finished speaking…
He went blank.
Staring.
Motionless.
Whoosh—
Rayquaza dove down and seized Danzō in its claws.
ROAR!
It howled toward the heavens, declaring—
Total victory.