66Scorpion died in battleAI Model: kimi-k2-instruct-0905Chapter 66 – Scorpion Falls
Danzo's death was witnessed with their own eyes.
Many Root operatives sank into despair; some had already stopped resisting.
Under Kakuzu's slaughter of Water, Fire, Wind, and Lightning masks, bodies fell one after another.
"Tch… so that's how it is."
Hidan strolled over, scythe on his shoulder, and stopped beside Scorpion.
Glancing at Danzo's corpse on the ground, he sneered, "Didn't expect you to handle it solo—didn't need us at all."
"Hmph."
Ignoring him, Scorpion kept his focus on the Performance of a Hundred Puppets, steadily tightening the encirclement to deliver the final blow to the remaining Root.
"Lord Jashin won't like a sacrifice that's already gone cold," Hidan muttered as he strode toward the rubble pierced by iron-sand thorns.
"Hey, Scorpion, I'm claiming this guy's head!"
His scythe swept in an arc, aiming straight for Danzo's neck.
The instant the blade touched skin, everything changed.
Danzo's supposedly dead chest heaved—
BOOM!!!
Thick Wood Release, python-sized, burst from his body and skewered Hidan through the gut and chest.
Blood blossomed.
Pinned in mid-air, Hidan's scythe clanged to the ground.
"Hah…?"
Looking down at the trunk impaling him, his grin froze halfway.
"What the hell is this…?"
Before he could curse again—
a second wave of Wood Release erupted.
Roots whipped, branches lashed like berserk beasts, surging straight at Scorpion.
CRACK—!
Hiruko's shell was torn open; the Puppet core was exposed, pierced, and crushed by the wooden spears.
Scorpion tumbled from the wreckage, coughing blood, and rolled across the ground before barely steadying himself.
"Impossible…"
He had watched Danzo die—heart stopped, Chakra scattered, no sign of a substitute or Puppet.
Yet now…
"Cough… cough cough…"
Danzo slowly rose to his feet.
The Wood Release retracted; Hidan was flung aside like a rag into distant rubble, motionless for the moment.
Danzo lifted his right arm and began unwinding the bandages.
In the next instant, Scorpion's breath caught.
"That's… the Sharingan?!"
Nine crimson eyes studded the entire limb; one of them slowly closed, forever dark.
Everyone present—even Root veterans—gaped.
Izanagi.
At the cost of one eye, Danzo had killed an Akatsuki member and forced the puppeteer to reveal his true body.
Still, Danzo hadn't shaken off the shock and fury of losing Shisui's eye.
Worse, he realized that while the boar-headed boy had stolen it, he'd also branded him with a Flying Thunder God Mark.
Who else but Uzumaki Naruto could wield the Flying Thunder God?
To think the boy had joined Akatsuki to betray the Village and ambush him!
Regret surged that he hadn't eliminated this threat sooner.
At the same time, his hatred for Hiruzen Sarutobiflared.
"Indecisive old fool!"
If Hiruzen hadn't indulged and protected the monster called Uzumaki Naruto time after time, how could he have grown this strong?
The blue steam Danzo had just unleashed had to be the Seventh Gate—Shock—of the Eight Gates.
He knew the toll that gate exacted.
"He can't keep that terrifying power up for long… but I still can't underestimate him."
Two choices lay before him: retreat or keep fighting.
In an instant Danzo discarded retreat.
Naruto could sense the Flying Thunder God Markand lead Akatsuki in pursuit to the ends of the earth, leaving nowhere to hide.
More vital: no matter the cost, he had to reclaim Shisui's eye.
The Kotoamatsukami was too terrifying.
That power had to rest in his hands alone.
First, he needed to torture these Akatsuki for Naruto's whereabouts.
Danzo exhaled, suppressing the pain in his right eye as reason reasserted itself.
"Summoning Technique!"
Hand-seals flashed; with a boom of white smoke, a colossal, tusked beast slammed down.
The Baku.
It opened its maw and a fearsome suction erupted.
Air was ripped away; rubble, broken wood, and Puppet shards flew straight into its gullet.
At the center of that pull stood Scorpion.
"Tch."
Scorpion's pupils shrank.
Dragged off his feet, he gouged two deep furrows in the earth; Chakra strings snapped but couldn't anchor him.
Meanwhile Danzo moved.
Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees!
Thick trunks burst from the ground and surged to entangle Scorpion.
Baku ahead, Wood behind—
a naked pincer.
Scorpion manipulated the Third Kazekage, clapping its hands.
Magnet Release: Iron Sand Pyramid!
Iron sand condensed into massive, spinning pyramids that shrieked through the air and slammed into the Baku.
Thud! Thud!
The pyramids punched through the beast's thick hide; blood sprayed as it roared in pain.
Yet the suction only grew fiercer.
The Baku's cavernous nostrils, though pierced, still locked onto Scorpion and dragged him toward death.
"Damn it…"
Lifted off the ground, Scorpion's Puppet lines snapped one by one.
The Wood Release closed to within ten meters—
vines coiling; caught between, even he would die.
"Deidara! Stop spectating—blow this beast to hell!!!"
Scorpion roared skyward at the golden figure circling above.
Deidara, harried by Sai's endless ink birds, saw his partner about to die.
Ignoring defense, he plunged both hands into his pouch and stirred frantically.
A huge clay doll was hurled from the sky.
C3 – Number 18!
"Katsu!"
A blinding flash burst along the Baku's spine.
BOOM—!!!
A massive mushroom cloud rose; the shockwave and heat flattened everything within a hundred meters.
The Baku vanished, and even Kakuzu's battlefield was rocked.
Yet the blast was indiscriminate.
Though Scorpion shielded himself with the Third Kazekage Puppet, the impact still hurled him away.
What he never expected: Danzo, at the cost of a Sharingan, had used Izanagi to survive and now stood before him.
"Wood Release: Piercing Spear!"
A gigantic wooden stake shot out and skewered Scorpion through the chest.
As Danzo focused on his kill, a golden flash flickered.
Sage Art: Rasenshuriken.
In the next instant, Naruto forced him to use Izanagi again.