Susanoo retreated to the front of the Uchiha Clan. The Uchiha, who had charged forward to protect Fugaku, also withdrew, regrouping around their clan head.
Under Tsunade and Jiraiya's intervention, the battle gradually subsided, and the crowd once again clearly separated, drawing a distinct line.
However, it was hard to say how many people, while physically forced to stand with Konoha, wished they could be far away in their hearts.
Fugaku looked at Danzo, who was splayed in Susanoo's hand. His left eye's Shinkō Kagami Gyō was still active, allowing him to see the truth through layers of bandages.
Beneath the bandages, an eye belonging to the Uchiha was hidden.
-- Good… Good!!!
-- You killed my adopted son, abducted my child… -- And you dared to brazenly transplant a Sharingan onto yourself!
"You deserve to die!!"
Susanoo's fingers quickly tightened, about to crush Danzo into a pulpy mess.
Hiruzen Sarutobi shouted, "Stop! Uchiha Fugaku, do I need to tell you what the crime of killing an Advisor is?!"
Fugaku regained some clarity, his teeth grinding audibly.
He didn't stop because of Hiruzen's threat, but because he remembered that the children hadn't been found yet, which was why he didn't kill the man.
Although he was too lazy to explain, he wouldn't easily let go of the loophole in the Hokage's words, fearlessly retorting, "You yourself said he was dismissed! Danzo was no longer an Advisor just now!"
"Even if he isn't—"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's words were cut short by Fugaku again.
"Danzo Shimura must die today, I said so!!"
Fugaku used another bone hand to rip open the bandages on Danzo's head, pointing at his unwillingly closed eye, and said, "As for why… Fūyō, come here!"
Fūyō thought of an extremely horrifying possibility, but he had no time to be shocked or hesitate. He nimbly leaped onto Susanoo and instantly gouged out that right eye.
When he saw what he had dug out, his conjecture was confirmed, and his heart ached so much that he shed tears of blood.
Ignoring the violent fluctuations in his Dōjutsu Power (Pupil Power), Fūyō endured the pain and spread open his blood-stained right hand to display what he had found.
"A Sharingan!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi was furious and shocked, feeling that the impact from Danzo tonight was too much, comparable to the sum of the past several decades.
If Danzo Shimura had merely ordered the assassination of Uchiha Naraku, it could be called malicious targeting;
But to covet and transplant the Kekkei Genkai of a fellow Ninja of the Village onto himself was an entirely different matter, utterly heinous and morally corrupt. The crime was so severe that he could be branded an enemy of the Ninja World.
Because such behavior meant that he had no ethics or morals in his heart. Every Kekkei Genkai family, in his eyes, was like livestock waiting to be slaughtered and used.
Uchiha, Hyuga, Ino–Shika–Chō, Inuzuka, Aburame, Kurama… any Kekkei Genkai Ninja could be targeted. Anyone could be killed by him and have their bloodline stolen.
No Kekkei Genkai family could endure such constant coveting and danger.
Konoha would fall into self-destructive turmoil.
And it wouldn't stop there.
Other Ninja Villages, and even employers from various countries, would form a stereotype due to Danzo's existence: that a Village like Konoha was completely untrustworthy.
Konoha would be isolated by the entire Ninja World for years, decades, or even centuries.
In a flash of lightning, Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind raced, already imagining the terrifying future Konoha would face if this matter was not handled properly.
The crowd completely erupted.
"Why does Danzo have a Sharingan?"
"He stole Uchiha Naraku's Kekkei Genkai!"
"Danzo deserves to die!!"
"Kill him!!"
"Clan Head, kill him!!"
Especially the Uchiha Clan members, who believed this was one of Naraku's eyes, looked at Danzo with such hatred that they wished they could devour his flesh raw. Each of them wanted to personally dismember this scumbag.
Even the loyal families who had always sided with the Hokage gritted their teeth, silently wishing Uchiha Fugaku would crush this old man to death.
"Let go of me!… You, let go of me… Ahhh—!"
Kakashi's throat filled with a sweet, metallic taste. He gasped for breath, letting out a ragged, bellows-like roar, staring intently at the eyeball in Fūyō's hand, his eyes almost splitting open.
If Jiraiya and Shizune hadn't held him back, he would have already drawn his ninja sword and killed Danzo to avenge Naraku.
"Speak! Where did you hide the children?! Tell me and I'll leave your body intact!!"
Fugaku roared, shaking his bone hand. Danzo was flung around, spitting a few mouthfuls of blood, his head lolling half-dead, but he refused to speak.
"You won't talk, huh?"
Tsunade wasn't sure if this was Naraku's eye, but her heart ached with hatred, and her fists cracked audibly.
"Even if you don't talk, I have a way! The Yamanaka Clan can read the brains of corpses too!"
"Cough cough…" Danzo finally decided to speak, his eyelids half-closed, his breath faint as a thread, "They're not with me…"
Tsunade made a move as if to smash his head, but unexpectedly, Danzo dropped another bombshell as soon as he opened his mouth.
"The children were all given to Orochimaru. He said he needed research samples… This eye isn't Uchiha Naraku's… It was Orochimaru's reward to me."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's scalp instantly prickled, and he accidentally crushed his cherished pipe.
-- Could Orochimaru really… No way…?
"What!?"
"Lord Orochimaru!?"
"Oh my god!"
The Konoha Ninja were completely stunned.
Two pillars of the Village collapsing in a blink of an eye—the impact was so immense that even the sky falling and earth sinking couldn't describe it.
"That's impossible!"
Jiraiya immediately loudly refuted, exposing Danzo's sinister intentions: "You're just trying to drag Orochimaru down with you to lessen your guilt!"
"Oh, Jiraiya, you're surprisingly clever at times."
A familiar husky voice sounded from not far away. Everyone moved aside, revealing Orochimaru, who had just arrived at the scene and heard a heavy accusation being thrown at him.
Even being slandered like this, Orochimaru spoke calmly and smoothly, with a slight smile: "I was completely unaware. If anyone doesn't believe me, feel free to investigate."
Jiraiya let go of the exhausted Kakashi, leaving him for Shizune to care for, and walked over to sling an arm around his old partner's shoulder, patting him hard.
"I knew you couldn't do such a thing!"
He then turned to incite Tsunade.
"Tsunade, maybe it's better to just finish him off. It'll save us from his endless lies!"
"No, Tsunade-nee!"
At some point, Kushina had also climbed onto Susanoo's hand, forcefully examining the various seals on Danzo's body: "If he dies, his brain will be destroyed instantly, and nothing can be read from it!"
Boom boom boom—!!!
A sudden, massive explosion erupted from the northwest corner of the Village, and continuous, violent tremors reached the Hokage Building without subsiding.
Everyone's gaze was drawn to look in that direction. Only Danzo, with closed eyes, subtly curled the corner of his mouth.
-- Good, the evidence has been eliminated.
But he didn't see that amidst the vast cloud of dust raised by the explosion, a colossal, pure white skeleton was faintly visible, rising from the ground.
Carrying the constantly falling earth, stone, and dust from its body, it gradually became complete and flawless, standing tall against the moonlight upon the earth.
Despite being a dry, terrifying skeleton without flesh and blood, it faintly shimmered with a pure white, lustrous glow.
"What… is that…?"
Fugaku controlled Susanoo to move closer, unable to believe the sight before him.
Susanoo…!
The Uchiha Clan's, second Mangekyo!!
...