Bab 52: 52 - The Mummy Returns [Bonus]
Actually, what Shisui really wanted to ask was about an Ame ninja under Hanzō's command named Aizen.
However, this version of him in this timeline knew better than to expose all his intel to Danzō, so he asked indirectly and evasively.
But he hadn't anticipated that this would bring Danzō so much grief.
"What happened to him? He's dead. I bet his men have all been wiped out."
"That Salamander caused me to sustain such serious injuries. He's unworthy of being an ally to Konoha."
The word 'wiped out' made Shisui's breathing suddenly grow heavier. The tomoe in his Sharingan began spinning wildly, faster and faster.
Danzō didn't realize something was wrong until screams rang out from his newly recruited Root subordinates, but closing his mouth now was too late.
In the original timeline, Shisui had endured Danzō's antics for a lifetime without ever striking back. "You deserve to die!"
At that moment, the tomoe in his Sharingan stopped spinning, merging into a complete pattern.
The Mangekyō Sharingan awakened.
In the next instant, a massive green half-body Susanoo rose from the ground, enveloping Shisui within.
"What is that?" Danzō stumbled back. "Fall back! Defensive formation!"
He had painstakingly gathered new subordinates after escaping the Land of Rain, and could only cry out in despair as they were all obliterated again in the blink of an eye.
The emerald-green Susanoo stretched out its hand, summoning a spiral sword resembling a long drill.
With one thrust, the rotating blade absorbed every Root ninja attempting to flee. Their screams were cut short as the blade's vortex pulled them in like a hungry beast.
Then, the spiral sword swept horizontally along the ground, carving a crimson arc as it shredded the captured ninjas into a uniform paste, painting the ground red.
Danzō was utterly horrified.
He never imagined that the Uchiha he had toyed with so casually in the past would bare such fangs against him now. Even worse, he had lost his right arm in the previous battle and could no longer form hand signs.
Although a mysterious figure named Black Zetsu had promised to graft a new arm and gift him the Wood Release, those were merely unfulfilled promises.
So, he could only dodge frantically and hurl volleys of shuriken in a futile attempt to defend himself.
In desperation, he resorted to the same absurd tactic from the original timeline—charging at the Susanoo with a kunai.
"You dare turn against Konoha?!" Danzō shouted.
Shisui's cold reply cut through the air: "You ARE the threat to Konoha!"
Unfortunately, despite his aggressive maneuvers, his efforts barely scratched Shisui, who remained rooted in place inside the Susanoo, merely turning to glance coldly at him.
The look alone caused Danzō to flinch and leap back, like a rat before a lion.
But in his peripheral vision, he suddenly noticed wires wrapped around his waist and legs.
Shisui clenched the steel wire's end in his mouth, rapidly forming hand seals with his hands.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
Flames roared along the wires, surging toward Danzō.
"Ahhh!"
Danzō screamed in agony, his wails piercing the air as the fire engulfed him. His bandages caught fire first, then his clothes, until he became a human torch.
A three-pronged kunai flew in, severing the wires and saving Danzō's miserable life. The flames died down to reveal his charred form.
Minato appeared in a flash of yellow light, teleporting to his thrown kunai. "Shisui, you must stop! Danzō is still a village elder!"
As the frontline commander, it was his responsibility to prevent such internal conflicts.
However, glancing back, his heart sank. Despite being only seconds late, several Root ninjas were already dead, their bodies scattered across the ground like broken dolls.
Danzō himself was severely burned, teetering on the edge of death, looking even worse than when he returned from the Land of Rain.
It seemed like an inevitable fate for someone as fast as him to often arrive moments too late, missing critical moments.
"Stand down," Minato urged again. His eyes met Shisui's Mangekyō, showing neither fear nor judgment.
To show sincerity, he added, "I'll go and negotiate with Akatsuki on behalf of Konoha. If there's anything you want to know, I can ask them for you."
His hand remained steady on his kunai, ready to act if needed, but his posture was open, non-threatening.
Hearing this, the berserk Shisui finally calmed down and dispelled his Susanoo.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Minato-senpai. I'll return to the village and accept my punishment for this incident."
Shisui's words made Minato feel even more disheartened. He silently resolved to protect this young Uchiha as much as he could.
He could still see Shisui's attachment to the village, and besides, the young Uchiha wasn't the only one dissatisfied with Danzō this time.
The original Ame incident took place after the Kannabi Bridge battle, during a period of relative optimism in Konoha's war effort. This allowed Danzō's recklessness to be tolerated and swept under the rug.
But now, Konoha was at its most difficult juncture, and even the slightest mistake would set everyone on edge, let alone the chaos he had caused this time.
The louder Shisui's retaliation, the more precarious Danzō's situation became.
---
The next morning, Hiruzen finally saw his old friend return to Konoha.
To his shock, however, Danzō wasn't walking upright but being carried back like a mummy, wrapped in bandages.
"What happened? What's wrong with Danzō?" Koharu hurriedly asked.
A medic-nin accompanying them explained, wiping sweat from his brow, "Elder Danzō is severely injured. He's lost his right arm, and his eye is burned blind. The best-case scenario is a three-month recovery before he can walk again."
Koharu exchanged a worried glance with Homura, both visibly uneasy.
"Who did this to him? This wasn't in the reports!"
"It was Shisui," the medic replied, his voice steady but cautious.
Hearing this, Koharu was about to launch into her usual tirade, "Those—"
Before she could finish, the medic interrupted, "Minato-sama has already granted Shisui clemency."
At that moment, both advisors froze, turning their questioning eyes to Hiruzen, silently asking: Is this the successor you chose?
But the Hokage, taking a deep drag from his pipe, remained silent for once.
He was thinking far beyond his short-sighted advisors. Thanks to Danzō's recklessness, he realized that his position as Hokage might not last much longer.
Hiruzen sat in his office, smoke from his pipe creating lazy circles in the air.
He turned to the ANBU kneeling before him and asked, "After Danzō's latest blunder, has Root's intelligence work been affected?"
"At present, the frontline commanders of various battlefronts have forcibly absorbed Root's intelligence personnel within their respective territories."
"For now, it seems unlikely that these personnel will return to Root before Danzō-sama reappears."
Although Root members were all branded with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, its main function was to prevent them from leaking information about Root.
However, when a fellow village commander forcibly conscripts Root members, the seal wasn't triggered.
In the original timeline, Danzō had never suffered such a significant blow. Additionally, with Torune he had always maintained firm control over Root.
But things are different now.
Since he returned from the Land of Rain, he had been in a state of semi-isolation, and his deputy is long dead.
At that moment, with the major frontline commanders forcibly conscripting Root intelligence operatives, the leaderless division was completely powerless to resist.
When Hiruzen learned this, he felt both relieved that the frontlines were running smoothly and deeply alarmed. "Is every commander doing this?"
That Orochimaru, the commander of the Suna battlefront, would do this was no surprise. He had once been a member of Root, so technically, his seizure of control was an internal conflict within Root.
But that Jiraiya, the commander of the newly established Kiri battlefront, would do the same made Hiruzen uneasy, but it was still within expectations. After all, he could foresee Jiraiya defying Danzō. His most unpredictable student had always despised Root's methods.
What truly unsettled him, however, was the fact that even Minato, the commander of the northern battlefront, was doing this.
"Yes," the ANBU ninja replied decisively.
---Present---
Upon hearing from a medical ninja that Minato had pardoned Shisui, Hiruzen's first reaction was worry.
He had realized that with the village's situation growing increasingly dire and Danzō's repeated blunders, the credibility of Konoha's leadership was plummeting to dangerously low levels.
Originally, he had planned to remain in the position of Hokage for a little longer, to observe and evaluate Minato further.
But now, he realized his time was running out.
If he didn't step down, he feared that if the situation suddenly changed, some frontline commander might don the Hokage's robes on their own accord, leaving him no choice but to hand over the Hokage's hat.
Better to step down with dignity than be forced out in shame.
He casually dismissed his two old friends, telling the two advisors to keep quiet, and then instructed the ANBU.
"Send a message to Minato. Tell him to stabilize the north first, then make time to return. Say that it's time to prepare for the Fourth Hokage's inauguration ceremony."
Hearing this, both Koharu and Homura were stunned.
"Hiruzen, you!"
Their minds were flooded with countless thoughts, and they seemed to have a thousand words to say, but in the end, they could only remain silent.
First Danzō falls, now this... our time is truly ending, Koharu thought, her hands clenching in her lap.
At least Danzō had gone to the frontlines, but the two of them were nothing more than ornaments. Old relics of a passing age, watching as the world moved on without them.
"Hiruzen, isn't this a bit too fast? Shouldn't you think it over some more?"
Hiruzen took a long drag from his pipe and remained silent for a time, watching the smoke curl up toward the ceiling.
How many decisions have I made in this room? How many more will I make?
But his silence already revealed his attitude. The smoke drifted aimlessly, much like his thoughts.
---
At the same time, Minato was ready, as he had said before, and led his team to the Land of Rain.
Currently, the war between Konoha and Iwa was focused mainly on the borders between the Land of Fire and Kusa.
Even without his promise to Shisui, as a frontline commander, Minato had every reason to come and assess the situation.
This wasn't his first visit to the Land of Rain. He had been here the previous year, leading Kakashi and others on a mission to determine the country's stance in the war.
But this time was different from the last.
As soon as they entered the Land of Rain, they noticed an unprecedented change.
"You're approaching the Land of Rain. State your identity!" The guard's voice rang out clear and confident.
The Land of Rain, which had once been completely unguarded due to Hanzō's negligence, was now entirely transformed. The change was so dramatic it made Minato pause for a moment.
In its place were new roads, checkpoints, and orderly patrols of Akatsuki ninja.
Minato's group hadn't even tried to disguise themselves, yet they were immediately detected, something they had not anticipated. The efficiency of the border patrol was impressive, even by Konoha's standards.
His companion, Raidō whispered in astonishment to the group.
"This doesn't look like a country that's been devastated. Did they defeat Hanzō without paying a price?" He shook his head in disbelief. "If anything, they look stronger than before."
The intelligence they had received earlier was extremely vague, lacking detail.
Outsiders only knew that the Salamander had fallen, the Land of Rain had undergone a regime change, and Root had suffered a setback there. The details of how such massive changes had occurred remained shrouded in mystery.
As a result, Raidō and the others assumed that the Land of Rain had just endured a fierce battle and should be in ruins. But what they saw was quite the opposite. The streets were clean and orderly, a far cry from the muddy paths they remembered.
Ame was thriving. Markets bustled with traders and shoppers, children played freely in the streets, and new construction and prosperity marked every corner.
What's more, the vitality they sensed in every civilian, merchant, and ninja they encountered along the way surprised and even inspired envy in them.
When Minato identified himself, the Akatsuki ninja responded confidently and calmly, standing straight and proud in their rain-spattered uniforms.
"Please wait a moment. Our leader will arrive shortly."
The reply was composed and self-assured, showing not the slightest hint of fear, even in the face of the Yellow Flash, one of the most famous ninjas in the world.
Not long after, Akatsuki's leader arrived at the border.
His appearance left Minato wide-eyed in disbelief. At first, he thought it might just be a coincidence, but his identity was confirmed when Shin said casually, "Long time no see, Minato."
The young man he had met in the Land of Rain last year was now the same person causing dramatic upheaval in that region, creating no end of trouble for Konoha.
In less than a year, the transformation was astonishing.
---
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