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He wanted to use genjutsu to take down the enemy, but Danzō—cunning as ever—suddenly charged forward like a lunatic, eyes wild with obsession. His expression was a disturbing blend of desperation and obsession, almost disturbingly affectionate in its intensity.
Just when it seemed like yet another disaster was unfolding, the sharp whistle of a kunai tearing through the air echoed once again. Another kunai—this time from an unknown direction—interrupted the attack.
Shimura Danzō was forced to fall back once more, barely suppressing a snarl. That damned brat—he looked like a naive fool, but moved like a seasoned assassin. Drawing fire and sabotaging Danzō's plans again and again... it was humiliating.
Danzō gritted his teeth. That child wasn't just lucky. He was skilled. Too skilled.
Just when Danzō assumed the boy would repeat his usual disruptive tricks, something unexpected happened.
This time, he came in with precision—lethal, deliberate, and blindingly fast.
Boom!
The ground split apart with explosive force as Ye Dou landed and entered the battlefield.
"Scatter!" he commanded.
As he skidded forward, he weaved through a quick sequence of hand seals. With a puff of smoke, shadow clones burst into being, each vanishing into the terrain to take hidden positions.
Ye Dou, his movements fluid and feline, advanced like a predator. His hand drifted to the hilt of the blade strapped across his lower back—his eyes locked onto a Yamanaka clan shinobi mid-formation—intent on a clean decapitation.
---
[Shifting the Blame? Throwing the Pot!]
Elsewhere near the battlefield, a masked ninja clad in a black cloak moved rapidly through the trees. He was roughly 180cm tall and moved like a shadow—quiet and lethal under the descending twilight.
By now, the sun had disappeared. Under cover of night, he seemed to blend perfectly into the darkness, closing in fast on the Root operatives.
"Don't let him get close!"
"Stop him!"
"I know!"
The Yamanaka clan ninja in the process of executing the Mind Transfer Technique (Shintenshin no Jutsu) had no choice but to commit fully, hoping to delay Shisui Uchiha—or so they believed—long enough for their commander to land a killing blow.
Other Root shinobi reacted quickly. One of them—closer than the others—unsheathed his ninjatō and moved to protect the Yamanaka operative.
"Konoha-ryū: Three Suns and Moon Dance!"
With a fox mask concealing his identity, the Root swordsman split into three after a fierce battle cry, slashing at Ye Dou from three different angles. Each strike targeted a vital spot.
This technique, Three Suns and Moon Dance (Mikazuki no Mai), was said to be part of Konoha-style Kenjutsu, passed down from the Moonlight clan, and possibly even tracing its roots back to the Warring States Era.
Of the three attackers, only one was real—the other two were afterimages, illusions created by overwhelming speed. The trick wasn't in the clones—it was in the blinding pace. One wrong move, and you were dead before you even realized which blade struck you.
Unless one possessed a dōjutsu like the Byakugan or Sharingan, it was nearly impossible to distinguish the real attacker.
But Ye Dou didn't need either.
He stayed still, eyes locked on the glinting blades. His expression beneath the mask remained calm—cold.
Closer…
The steel shimmered, singing through the air with lethal intent.
Suddenly—Shing!
With a fluid, backhanded motion, Ye Dou drew the blade from his waist, slashing forward in a silver arc. The strike met the real sword.
Clang!
Sparks burst forth in a fiery spray. The Root swordsman's eyes widened.
"He blocked it?!"
He was stunned. Since mastering this sword technique, not a single target had survived it. But this masked man had parried it with one hand.
Still reeling, the Root ninja instinctively tried to disengage, pulling back to regroup. He didn't know what technique Ye Dou used—and that made him dangerous.
But it was too late.
As the Root ninja and the Yamanaka prepared to retreat, the pressure suddenly shifted.
"Gravity Blade: Giant Elephant."
Boom!
The words were spoken with icy detachment.
A crushing force erupted from Ye Dou's blade. The Root swordsman's body was slammed into the ground like a meteor, crushed beneath invisible weight. His limbs twitched—he couldn't even move a finger.
"Ugh—!"
With a howl, he summoned every ounce of strength to break free and retaliate.
But before he could even counter, the pressure intensified again. Like a mountain had been dropped on him—or worse, like he was pinned beneath a giant elephant.
He screamed, his mask cracking under the pressure, until his face was fully exposed—twisted in agony.
BOOM!
The sheer weight shook the terrain. The earth split beneath him, sending dust and stone into the sky.
A crater more than ten meters wide formed instantly under the impact of that single blow.
But it didn't end there.
Just as the two Root operatives tumbled into the pit, kunai laced with explosive tags whistled through the night air, fired from four directions at once.
They landed inside the crater.
Rumble... BOOM!
A chain of violent explosions ripped through the battlefield. Blood and ash sprayed into the air. The Root operatives inside never even had time to scream.
In the aftermath, silence fell across the battlefield.
Everyone froze.
All eyes locked onto the black-cloaked figure standing alone at the crater's edge, his blade dripping and his presence suffocating.
That man—this monster—had done all this in the span of a dozen seconds.
Two elite Root operatives dead.
All within twenty seconds of his arrival.
The watching shinobi couldn't help but whisper:
"Who the hell is that?"
"Is he... some kind of Kage-level assassin?"
Others began to speculate wildly. That heavy, crushing technique... that overwhelming weight…
Someone muttered: "That blade... it's just like the Tsuchikage Ōnoki's Enhanced-Weight Rock Technique (Kajūgan no Jutsu)... only worse."
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