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"...Haa."
Taking a long breath to steady himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi fixed his eyes on Akira and spoke in a low, heavy voice.
"You should be satisfied with this outcome, shouldn't you? It's over now. Leave Konoha. You're not welcome here."
Akira let out a short, mocking laugh."Old man, you really think this is over? You're dreaming."
Hiruzen's expression darkened. "Not over? You've already reduced Danzo to that miserable state. What more do you want?"
"Simple," Akira replied casually, as if discussing tomorrow's breakfast. "I'm wiping out the Shimura clan."
"What?!"
Hiruzen's eyes flew wide. "You want to exterminate the Shimura clan? That's going too far! I will never agree to that!
There's a saying—sins don't pass to the family. Danzo's crimes are his own. The rest of the Shimura are innocent. They have nothing to do with this!
The Shimura are a ninja clan of Konoha. They're part of this village. I will never allow them to be annihilated!"
His voice rang with finality as he stepped forward to block Akira's path—careful to keep more than ten meters between them. He had no intention of being slapped across the battlefield again.
"Don't get it twisted, old man," Akira said flatly, rolling his shoulders and flexing his palm. "I'm informing you. I'm not asking for your opinion."
The small motion made Hiruzen instinctively retreat, thinking another humiliating slap was coming. When he noticed the stunned looks around him, his aged face flushed crimson with shame.
A Hokage-level shinobi—startled into retreat by a simple hand movement.
He'd never been so humiliated.
"If you insist on slaughtering the Shimura," Hiruzen roared, trying to salvage his dignity with sheer resolve, "then even if it costs me my life, I will stop you!"
Then, as if afraid Akira might actually attack, he hurriedly added, "And even if the Shimura clan has committed wrongs, it's a matter for Konoha to handle internally! You're an outsider. You have no right to interfere in Konoha's affairs!"
"Outsider?" Akira sneered. "Since when was I an outsider? Open your damn eyes and look at who I am."
Whoosh.
His towering form shrank, returning to that of a child.
Hiruzen's breath caught.
"You… It's you?! Uchiha Akira!"
The entire battlefield erupted.
The one who had single-handedly suppressed Konoha's elite… was just a seven-year-old boy?
Across the field, an Uchiha shinobi asked excitedly, "Clan Head, that really is your son, Uchiha Akira?"
Fugaku Uchiha folded his arms and nodded solemnly, face perfectly straight. "Yes."
"I told you before. He's the trump card I raised in secret… The result of pouring countless resources into his training."
Gasps of admiration rippled through the Uchiha ranks.
"As expected of the Clan Head!"
Fugaku accepted the praise with a dignified nod—while inwardly calculating how to coordinate their story with Akira later. No slip-ups allowed.
…
Akira stepped toward the Third Hokage again.
"I'm exterminating the Shimura clan. Got a problem with that?"
"I won't allow it!" Hiruzen declared. Even wounded, he summoned Enma, who transformed into the Adamantine Staff in his grip.
"Oh? Is that so?"
Akira smiled.
The next instant—
BOOM!!!
A vast ocean of chakra erupted from his body.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The air itself seemed to splinter as chakra solidified into form. In the blink of an eye, a colossal, purple giant over two hundred meters tall took shape, wings unfurling behind it.
The Perfect Susanoo.
Akira stood at its brow.
"Now, old man… I'll ask you one more time. I'm wiping out the Shimura clan. Do. You. Object?"
His voice thundered like divine judgment.
The sheer pressure crushed down on everyone present.
Clang.
The Adamantine Staff slipped from Hiruzen's frozen fingers. He stared up at the towering giant, limbs icy, mind blank, lips trembling.
"I—I… have no objection."
The Perfect Susanoo loomed above Konoha, its violet glow painting the night sky. Even standing still, it radiated suffocating dread.
Every villager could see it.
Whispers spread like wildfire.
"What is that? Is Konoha under attack again?"
"Is it another disaster like the Nine-Tails?"
"Don't be afraid! The Third Hokage is the strongest of them all—he'll protect us!"
Fear clawed through the village, memories of the Nine-Tails' rampage resurfacing.
Then the giant spoke.
"People of Konoha, do not panic. I am a god of justice. I appear tonight to reveal the truth—to show you just how filthy and vile your esteemed elder and Root leader, Danzo, truly is!"
The booming voice echoed across every street.
A god? Exposing Danzo?
Most villagers barely knew anything about Danzo Shimura beyond his status as an elder.
Had he committed some unspeakable crime?
Curiosity overtook fear. If this "god" had descended, it had to be serious.
And so, the entire village listened.
…
"Tonight, I will personally recount the crimes of this dog, Danzo!"
Crime One: He deliberately sowed discord between the Uchiha and the village, worsening their relationship. Coveting Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan, he ambushed and murdered him, stealing his eye for himself!
Gasps rippled outward.
No wonder the Uchiha had grown so hostile. It was Danzo all along.
Given the overwhelming presence of the Susanoo, most instinctively believed the words. Why would someone this powerful bother lying to common villagers?
Crime Two: He colluded with the rogue ninja Orochimaru, kidnapping Konoha civilians and shinobi for inhumane human experimentation!
Konoha shinobi shouted confirmation. "It's true! Every word is true!"
Outrage exploded.
He experimented on his own people?
Curses against Danzo and his ancestors echoed through the night.
Crime Three: During the Nine-Tails' attack, he led Root into hiding underground, refusing to fight—leaving Konoha undermanned and contributing to the death of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze!
"Damn him!"
"So that's why there were so few shinobi that night!"
"He indirectly killed Lord Fourth!"
Anger burned hotter.
If Root had joined the fight, maybe fewer would have died. Maybe the Fourth Hokage would still be alive.
Crime Four: He schemed against Konoha's hero, Sakumo Hatake, manipulating events and spreading rumors that drove him to suicide—simply because Sakumo's prestige threatened his own power!
Kakashi stood frozen, frost gathering in his gaze as he looked at the bandage-wrapped lump that was Danzo.
So that was why.
If not for Akira's earlier decree that Danzo should suffer a lifetime of misery, Kakashi would have cut him down on the spot.
Crime Five: He leaked intelligence to the Cloud, exposing the weaknesses of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, leading to his death despite his mastery of the Flying Thunder God technique!
Some questioned it—surely Danzo wouldn't go that far?
Others shot back immediately.
"Are you stupid? The Second Hokage could use space-time ninjutsu! If he wanted to retreat, no one could stop him! If he died, someone must have betrayed him!"
Silence followed.
Crime Six: He deliberately lowered a mission's difficulty rating, indirectly causing the death of Nawaki, grandson of the First Hokage.
Crime Seven: He colluded with Hanzō of the Rain to spark the Third Great Ninja War, plunging the world into chaos and leaving countless innocents homeless.
Crime Eight: Tonight, he plotted to massacre the Uchiha clan. If not for my timely arrival, the Uchiha would have been erased from the shinobi world by dawn.
By the time the final accusation rang out, fury had completely overtaken fear.
Danzo Shimura—elder of Konoha, leader of Root—
Monster. Traitor. Butcher.
And above them all, the Perfect Susanoo glowed like judgment incarnate.
Sin Nine: Using underhanded tactics to drive two of Konoha's greatest pillars, Tsunade and Jiraiya, out of the village. Their departure left Konoha weaker than ever. If those two had still been here during the Nine-Tails' attack, the casualties would've been far lower.
And with Tsunade gone, Konoha lost its finest medical ninja. The village's healthcare plummeted. Countless patients who could have been saved never received treatment, and died in despair.
One charge after another crashed down like stones.
What remained of Danzo Shimura trembled violently.
Bastards.
Damn them all.
They knew he couldn't defend himself, so they slandered him however they pleased, piling filth onto his name.
Some of the nine charges were true. He had done them.
But others were pure fabrication, lies cooked up out of thin air and shoved onto his back without shame.
Danzo felt like he might die of rage.
If he weren't already so weak, he'd have coughed up three mouthfuls of blood on the spot.
And yet, Akira still wasn't satisfied.
Real crimes mixed with invented ones… and he'd only managed to reach nine.
Nine.
Not ten.
For someone with mild obsessive tendencies, that simply wouldn't do. Ten was clean. Ten was right.
If he stopped at nine, he wouldn't sleep tonight.
After a moment's thought, Akira raised his voice again.
Sin Ten: Engaging in indecent acts with the old sow he kept penned up, rendering her barren for years. No piglets ever born. A crime beyond measure.
Silence fell across the entire crowd.
…Okay, that one was a stretch.
Who would believe something that absurd?
Just as doubt spread, an elderly voice rang out.
"It's true! The Heavenly Lord speaks the truth!"
An old woman leaning on a cane hobbled forward, shouting in support. Whether it was true or not didn't matter to her. Backing the Heavenly Lord was always the safe choice.
You couldn't let a god lose face.
What if he got angry and decided to wipe Konoha off the map? Who could stop him then?
With that mindset, Granny Koharu Utatane declared Akira absolutely correct.
"Wait… Danzo's really that twisted?"
People exchanged uneasy looks. It sounded ridiculous.
"It's true! Absolutely true! This old lady never lies!" Granny Koharu pounded her cane against the ground, face flushed red, spit flying as she spoke with fierce conviction.
"Holy hell… Danzo's worse than an animal!"
The crowd reeled. Their worldview had just taken a beating.
Across the way, Danzo screamed silently in fury.
Of course, in his current state, all he could do was curse Akira over and over in his head.
"Danzo's evil is unprecedented! A villain of this magnitude deserves death!"
"The Shimura clan must be wiped out!"
Akira's voice boomed like thunder, rolling across the sky.
The crowd flinched at the sheer force of it. Then, as if waking from a trance, they erupted.
"Yes! Wipe them out! The Shimura clan deserves extinction!"
"What kind of family raises something like Danzo?!"
"If they produced that monster, they're a cancer on Konoha!"
"Exterminate the Shimura clan and cleanse the village!"
"Heavenly Lord, we support you! Do it! Destroy them and restore justice to Konoha!"
In that moment, everyone lost themselves.
They wanted blood.
They wanted the Shimura clan erased.
Some were already urging Akira to act.
"This is slander! Pure slander! Our clan is just as furious about Danzo's crimes!"
"From this day forward, that beast is stripped of the Shimura name! His crimes have nothing to do with our clan!"
Panic had taken hold among the Shimura.
The thought of their entire family facing annihilation because of one man's sins drove them into desperation. They shouted their innocence, frantically distancing themselves from Danzo.
A voice from the crowd shot back before Akira even needed to speak.
"Oh please. Don't play innocent. When Danzo profited from his schemes, didn't your clan enjoy the benefits too? If you took the gains, you'll pay the price!"
"No! We're innocent! Heavenly Lord, please see clearly, don't listen to—"
Boom.
The plea was cut short by a deafening crash.
Under Akira's control, the towering Susanoo stepped forward, its massive foot crashing down as it entered the Shimura clan's compound.
"..."
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