Just as planned, Sakura twisted the knife for Danzō Shimura.
"Danzō-sama! Mission complete! Retreat quickly!"
Damn it!!!
Danzō cursed furiously in his heart.
Do I even know you?! Who the hell are you?!
Naruto, pinned under Hanzō of the Salamander's foot, gritted his teeth and sneered at him. "You're the naive one, you big idiot!"
"Danzō Shimura!!!"
Hanzō of the Salamander flew into a rage.
He had thought that someone like Danzō Shimura would be the same as him, unwilling to let an organization like Akatsuki grow stronger. He never imagined Danzō would dare set his sights on him, the leader of Amegakure.
Was he trying to sit back and reap the benefits, play both sides, and take down Akatsuki along with the forces in Hanzō's hands?
Once that thought took root, nothing Danzō said would be enough to explain himself.
"Fight!"
At the command, the Konoha ANBU and Amegakure ninjas, who had been standing on the same side moments ago, instantly leapt apart to either side with a whoosh, drawing blades or kunai as they turned on one another.
Clang! Ring!
The sounds of blades and kunai clashing rang out, and in the next instant, Konoha and Amegakure ninjas were locked in battle.
Hanzō of the Salamander stomped hard on the Konoha ninja beneath his foot.
"Danzō Shimura, you bastard! I knew you were treacherous, but I never thought you would actually provoke a war between Konoha and Amegakure."
Danzō Shimura cursed inwardly, but by this point, any explanation was useless.
Naruto was stomped hard enough to let out a muffled groan.
With difficulty, he brought his hands together and formed the seal for Shadow Clone Technique.
"Shadow... Clone... Technique!!"
Poof, poof, poof!
Three Naruto Uzumaki shadow clones appeared beside him and immediately took the stance to form a Rasengan.
"You won't succeed!"
Hanzō of the Salamander brought out his weapon, the kusarigama.
He wielded the chained sickle with ease, taking out Naruto's three shadow clones in a single strike.
"Sakura!" Sasuke called.
No words were needed. Sakura immediately punched the ground, creating chaos to cover Sasuke.
"Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi!!"
This was the Dōjutsu technique Young Sasuke had picked up while experiencing his own life in the previous parallel world, something his future self could use.
Black Amaterasu flames formed into the shape of a crossbow bolt along his arm.
Draw the string. Fire.
Not a trace of hesitation.
Hanzō of the Salamander blocked with the sickle in his hand.
BOOM!!
The black flames instantly swallowed the kusarigama in his hand and spread toward his right hand.
Hanzō hurriedly threw away the weapon, only to discover that the strange black flames would not go out.
He glanced sideways.
The black-haired boy in blue high-collared clothing had crimson eyes marked with strange patterns.
"Sharingan! An Uchiha?!"
Young Sasuke's chakra was limited. After using one shot of Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi, he had no choice but to let his Mangekyō Sharingan return to ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan.
But Danzō Shimura had still seen it.
Danzō stared at Sasuke with a sinister, ferocious look and thought, Not ordinary Sharingan. Mangekyō Sharingan?! A twelve- or thirteen-year-old brat actually has Mangekyō Sharingan?
Not only that, he had never seen or heard of such a gifted young ninja in the Uchiha Clan before.
He could only think of one possibility: the Uchiha Clan had secretly raised this genius boy without reporting him to the village census.
"The naturally evil Uchiha Clan! Sure enough, none of them are decent. Their ambitions deserve death!"
At that thought, Danzō Shimura wished he could return to Konoha immediately and wipe out the Uchiha Clan.
He subconsciously ignored the fact that he had also never seen the cherry blossom-haired girl or the blond boy in Konoha. No matter when it was, Danzō Shimura coveted the power of the Uchiha Sharingan while despising the Uchiha's existence.
Hanzō of the Salamander's right fingers had been touched by the pitch-black flames. With no other choice, he hardened his heart and cut them off. Then he prepared to throw the bloodstained kunai toward Sasuke Uchiha.
"Not happening!"
While Hanzō was still shocked that an Uchiha had come to Amegakure to join the battle, Naruto had already formed seals again and created shadow clones. Those three clones had finished forming a Rasengan.
Just as Hanzō was about to throw the kunai at Sasuke, the Rasengan struck hard and landed squarely on the soft armor over Hanzō of the Salamander's chest.
Whoosh! BOOM!!
He never expected a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy to already possess three-tomoe Sharingan, and he certainly never expected another twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy to have a ninjutsu with this much destructive power.
And it seemed he had not even formed a single hand seal?!
Hanzō took Naruto's Rasengan directly to the chest. His organs felt as though they were bursting apart, and searing pain tore through him.
"Damn... it...!"
That Konoha brat! That damned Danzō Shimura of Konoha!
Freed from restraint, Naruto's main body joined Sasuke and Sakura, and the three stood back-to-back.
Hanzō of the Salamander temporarily lost his ability to fight and needed a little time to recover.
All around them, Konoha's ANBU and Amegakure's ninjas were locked in fierce combat. When the Amegakure ninjas saw Hanzō of the Salamander defeated, they immediately began thinking of retreat.
The Konoha ANBU pressed their advantage.
Danzō Shimura was stunned for half a second by the blond brat's technique, but he immediately turned his attention back to Sasuke Uchiha.
Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!
The attack broke apart Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke's formation. When Sasuke counterattacked, Danzō casually grabbed a nearby Ame Ninja and used him as a shield.
Hearing the Ame Ninja's screams, the three still-young genin instinctively pulled back their attacks.
"Naive!"
Using the Ame Ninja as a shield, Danzō Shimura charged toward Sasuke at incredible speed.
"Hmph! I'll be taking your Mangekyō Sharingan!"
Not good!
Sasuke's eyes widened, while shock appeared in Sakura and Naruto's eyes.
In a battle between ninjas, life and death often came down to a single instant.
They had experienced too few life-or-death battles. A mistake in this one moment could cost them their lives.
"Sasuke!!!"
"Sasuke-kun!!"
Naruto and Sakura instinctively shouted the boy's name.
Just then...
Ox. Rabbit. Monkey.
"Lightning Release: Chidori!!"
The cry of a thousand birds rang out.
The lightning tore through the rain and mist, stinging everyone's eyes and illuminating their stunned expressions.
In that instant, a thought flashed through Danzō Shimura's mind.
Minato Namikaze's student!
That's right. This A-rank ninjutsu, independently developed by a twelve-year-old brat, belonged to Minato Namikaze's student...
Kakashi Hatake!
Why was he here?!
Impossible!
No matter how unwilling Danzō Shimura was to believe it, Young Kakashi was right there in front of him, charging in with Chidori at a speed he could not dodge.
With no other choice, Danzō Shimura could only give up attacking Sasuke Uchiha.
Too late...
He could not worry about anything else.
To protect himself, Danzō Shimura actually grabbed a nearby Konoha ANBU and dragged him in front of himself.
At the same time, using the Konoha ninja as a shield, Danzō Shimura aimed his kunai at Kakashi's unguarded chest.
Young Kakashi: "!!!!"
"Don't even think about it!"
Time seemed to slow. How could Young Obito Uchiha, who possessed Dual Kamui, allow something like this to happen right under his nose?
He reached out from Kamui's Dimension and slapped a hand onto Kakashi.
At the same time, the Sharingan in both his eyes spun rapidly into a pinwheel pattern.
Intangibility!
This move allowed anything he touched to shift its physical body into Kamui's Dimension along with him, leaving only a false image in the real world.
The Konoha ANBU watched as the Lightning Release attack pierced his body, yet he felt nothing at all. He could not even hear the sound of the attack tearing into flesh.
Danzō was the same. His kunai passed through Kakashi's body, but he felt no sensation of piercing anything solid.
"What's going on?! Genjutsu?!"
Danzō Shimura shoved aside the ANBU in front of him and saw that there was not a single wound on him.
Was the Kakashi in front of him an illusion created by Genjutsu?
Just as he thought this and prepared to attack Kakashi again to confirm whether he was real, he had no idea that Kakashi had already returned to solid form. And a certain strange little brat from the Uchiha Clan, who had been hiding inside Kamui's Dimension all along, was revealing himself from Kamui's Dimension, pressing down on Kakashi's shoulder and sweeping a leg fiercely toward Danzō Shimura's face.
Even Danzō Shimura had not expected this.
He hurriedly raised his arm to block, only to glimpse Kakashi preparing to attack from the corner of his eye.
Caught between both sides, he took Obito's kick hard and was forced to stop his attack on Kakashi and retreat.
Their coordination was perfect.
"Nice!!"
Naruto excitedly cheered them on.
Sasuke and Sakura also looked over with admiring eyes.
"Obito Uchiha...?!"
The moment Danzō Shimura recognized the person who had suddenly appeared, his expression changed drastically.
"You're not dead?!"
It was not that he had failed to notice Young Kakashi's left eye was not a Sharingan. It was simply that as long as Obito Uchiha was alive, there were plenty of Medical-nin who could help them swap the eye back.
Looking at the "dead and revived" Obito Uchiha, at those eyes...
"They're Mangekyō Sharingan too?!"
Unbelievable!
That oddball Uchiha who used to be dead last in class was not only alive, he had actually awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan?
What followed was wild joy.
To obtain two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan in one day. How could Danzō Shimura not marvel at his own good luck?
In that opening, Hanzō of the Salamander, who had already recovered, took advantage of everyone's attention being elsewhere and used blood to trigger the seal hidden on his body.
Summoning Jutsu!
Poof!
A massive Ibuse appeared on the battlefield, carrying a thick cloud of poison gas.
"Not good! It's Ibuse!"
Because he hated that Sasuke's Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi had forced him to cut off his own fingers, Hanzō of the Salamander's first target was naturally Sasuke.
"Sasuke!"
Naruto shouted, forming seals with both hands. "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
Hundreds of Narutos rushed over to serve as human shields for Sasuke.
Although their numbers were huge, they were destroyed just as quickly.
The battlefield filled with constant poofing sounds.
Only by catching them off guard, combined with the Mangekyō Sharingan and Rasengan, had they managed to land effective attacks on Hanzō of the Salamander and Danzō Shimura. But in the end, one was the Kage of Amegakure, and the other was an elder of Konoha's advisory council. Without enough combat experience, Team Minato and Team Kakashi still found it hard to gain even the slightest advantage against them.
In the battle that followed, they narrowly dodged danger several times.
But the more desperate the situation became, the more fully the cooperation between the two teams was drawn out.
That was why limits had to be broken in moments of life and death.
And just like them, the ones currently breaking through their limits in a life-or-death situation...were Nagato and Yahiko.