Jie Uchiha dispelled the chakra in his hand, and the silver-white Chidori Sharp Spear retracted and vanished.
Losing the support of the blade, Danzo's body crashed heavily to the ground like a falling dead leaf. The violent impact caused him to cough up several large mouthfuls of blood. He struggled to raise his head, glancing in a certain direction. A second later, the last bit of light faded from his eyes. His lifeless head slammed heavily against the dirt.
"Danzo!"
Watching his longtime friend die right before his eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't help but cry out in grief. Ignoring Fugaku Uchiha's attempts to stop him, he hurried to Danzo's side.
Danzo was dead. Hiruzen alone couldn't stir up any more trouble.
Fugaku deactivated his Sharingan and stood quietly in place, waiting for Jie's next instructions. Having thought it through, Fugaku knew that only Jie could lead the Uchiha clan toward a brighter future. As a father, he only needed to be the most solid pillar of support when Jie needed him.
"Lord Hokage, the dead cannot be brought back to life. Please, you must restrain your grief." At that moment, an Anbu stepped forward and spoke respectfully to Hiruzen. "Your responsibility is to lead the Hidden Leaf to peace and prosperity. Leave Lord Danzo's body to the Corpse Processing Team."
Without waiting for Hiruzen's reaction, the Anbu reached out, picked up Danzo's body, and turned to leave.
"Wait," Jie said, frowning.
"Does the young clan head of the Uchiha have any other orders?" The Anbu stopped and spoke respectfully with his head lowered.
'Suspicious. Extremely suspicious.'
A ninja's body contain a massive amount of intelligence...so to prevent leaks, corpses were always handed over to the Corpse Processing Team first. But this Anbu had appeared entirely too quickly. It was as if he knew in advance that Danzo was going to die tonight.
Moreover, thinking back on it now, Jie felt that Danzo had been acting very strangely. Knowing the Uchiha clan came with ill intent, and even after the Root base was surrounded, Danzo had stubbornly dragged things out for a long time before finally showing himself. And in the ensuing battle, Jie vaguely felt something was missing.
The whole process had gone too smoothly.
Aside from his Summoning Jutsu and a few Wind Release techniques, Danzo hadn't put up any decent resistance from start to finish. While the gap in their strength was a factor, Jie wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could instantly one-shot a former Kage-level powerhouse.
Recalling everything, Jie inexplicably felt that Danzo wanted to die. Just like Ryoma Aburame and Shikaku Nara, dying in front of everyone, only to live on in the darkness of the Hidden Leaf.
'A faked death!'
'Izanagi!'
Looking at the scarlet Sharingan of the clansmen around him, Jie finally realized what he had forgotten. Because things had been going so smoothly for the Uchiha clan lately, no clansmen had met with any mishaps. Jie had subconsciously assumed that since the Night of the Uchiha Clan Downfall hadn't happened, Danzo didn't possess any Sharingan.
But looking at it now, everything connected because of Izanagi.
Hiding in the Root base, Danzo had likely guessed the possible outcome in advance and made a series of arrangements. The fierce but irresolute resistance was a ploy to make people believe he was inferior in skill and had legitimately died at Jie's hands. And this Anbu who suddenly appeared at the end was the final link in the entire plan.
Izanagi's duration was only a short one minute.
After casting the jutsu, Danzo had one minute to rewrite all the damage he received into a dream so he could resurrect in his peak form. However, when that happened, the corpse on the ground would vanish.
Therefore, Danzo needed someone to take his body away.
Once the body left everyone's line of sight and disappeared, who would know if it was the effect of Izanagi or if the Corpse Processing Team had disposed of it? After that, Danzo could deceive everyone's eyes and become the true mastermind hidden in the shadows of the Leaf. After all, no one would ever suspect that the death they had witnessed with their own eyes was entirely an illusion.
In just a few short seconds, the entire plot gradually took shape in Jie's mind, and he also had an answer regarding the identity of the Anbu in front of him. The superficial Root had already been disbanded and integrated into the Anbu, while the deepest members of Root had all perished by his hands in the previous battle.
So there was only one answer left.
"It's you, isn't it, Shisui Uchiha?"
Although it was just a guess, Jie firmly believed his judgment wasn't wrong.
"The young clan head might have mistaken me for someone else. I am not a member of the Uchiha clan." The Anbu still didn't show any abnormalities, speaking respectfully with his head lowered.
However, in Jie's eyes, the total lack of abnormality was precisely the biggest abnormality.
"We'll know if we just wait a bit longer," Jie said meaningfully, glancing at Danzo's corpse. "Lord Hokage and Danzo have such a deep bond. Let Lord Hokage accompany Danzo for his final few minutes. Or rather, one minute will be enough."
Hearing the exact number of 'one minute,' a trace of doubt flashed through Hiruzen's eyes. He hadn't thought much about it earlier because of Danzo's death, but now that he had regained his composure, Hiruzen immediately realized there were too many suspicious things about this Anbu. For example, why had he allowed the man to take Danzo's body away without any hesitation?
Hiruzen frowned and was just about to ask what was going on, only to see the Anbu reach up and remove his mask, revealing a smile on his face.
"As expected, I couldn't hide it from the young clan head."
The face beneath the Anbu mask belonged to Shisui Uchiha.
Hiruzen was instantly shocked. When had Shisui infiltrated his Anbu escort? Moreover, that silent ability to influence his judgment just now... it had to be a Genjutsu. Such a powerful Genjutsu could only be the work of the Mangekyo Sharingan. Hiruzen's guard was instantly raised to the absolute maximum.
"Danzo, do you still plan on playing dead?" Jie said indifferently.
The one-minute time limit was almost up. If Danzo didn't use Izanagi to rewrite his fate now, he would truly die.
Hearing Jie's words, Hiruzen couldn't help but widen his eyes in disbelief.
'Danzo was playing dead?'
Impossible. His heart had been pierced. Even Tsunade wouldn't be able to save him.
But right at that moment, Hiruzen was astonished to discover that Danzo's body in Shisui's arms was slowly disappearing. Not just Danzo's body, but even the blood that had dripped onto the soil after his heart was pierced vanished completely within a few short seconds.
Seeing this unbelievable scene, everyone fell into stunned silence.
If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, if they weren't entirely certain they weren't under a Genjutsu, everyone would have thought Danzo's death was just a dream.
Then again, it truly was just a dream.
"How did you find out?"
The supposedly dead Danzo slowly walked out from the Root base once again, his exposed eye filled with gloom and solemnity.
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