"Congratulations on obtaining such a fine blade."
The calm voice sounded from directly behind Danzo Shimura.
For the first time in many years, genuine shock appeared on Danzo's face.
He had been completely focused on the enemy in front of him. He had not sensed anyone approaching. Instinctively, he tried to form hand seals.
But he was already too late.
Puchi—Zzzzz!
A hand wrapped in violent Lightning Release pierced straight through his chest.
The sharp cry of a thousand birds echoed through the ruined chamber as electric current surged wildly into his body. Danzo's organs were scorched instantly. His muscles convulsed, and his single exposed eye widened in disbelief.
"How… is this possible?"
His voice trembled.
"I never took my eyes off you. When did you create a clone?"
Standing behind him, expression cold and calm, Aoki Yoru answered directly.
"The one who fought you from the beginning…"
"…was the clone."
Danzo froze.
"Impossible," he rasped. "A clone could never withstand that level of combat. Unless…"
Before he could finish, the figure standing in front of him dissolved with a soft poof and vanished into smoke.
Danzo stared blankly at the empty space.
Then realization struck.
His face twisted.
"To reach that level… only Wood Release can do such a thing."
His breathing became ragged.
"You hid yourself well. Everyone was deceived."
"Hiruzen even praised you for possessing the Will of Fire."
Aoki Yoru snorted.
"He has his moments of poor judgment."
Then his eyes sharpened.
"Though still fewer than you."
"Someone like you would be killed again by the Second Hokage even in the afterlife."
The moment Tobirama Senju's name was spoken, Danzo reacted violently.
It was as though the insult ignited the last remnants of life within him.
"What do you know?!" Danzo roared.
"Hiruzen was too soft! Too indecisive!"
"For Konoha to survive, someone had to shoulder the darkness!"
"Everything I did was for the village!"
"To continue the wills of the First and Second Hokage!"
Aoki Yoru looked at him without pity.
"Then go explain it to them personally."
He increased the Lightning Release output.
Electricity exploded through Danzo's body one final time.
The old war hawk stiffened.
The strength left his limbs.
His breathing faded.
In the final moments of consciousness, only one thought remained.
"Hiruzen… you were the Konoha beneath the sunlight…"
"…and I was the root hidden in darkness…"
His voice weakened further.
"Hiruzen…"
"In the end…"
"I still could not become Hokage…"
Then Danzo collapsed heavily to the ground.
Dead.
No Carelessness
Aoki Yoru did not relax.
Not even slightly.
Instead, he immediately spread his mental perception to its maximum range, examining every corner of the underground base.
Danzo was too dangerous.
Too cunning.
Too accustomed to hidden cards.
Who knew whether the old man had concealed another Sharingan somewhere ridiculous—inside a sleeve, under bandages, even in his clothing?
Izanagi lasted only a minute.
If Danzo had another eye hidden away, carelessness now could cost everything.
So Aoki Yoru waited.
One minute.
Two.
Three.
Five full minutes passed.
Danzo's corpse remained motionless.
No chakra fluctuation.
No illusion.
No resurrection.
Only then did Aoki Yoru finally exhale.
"Good thing I played it safe."
He rubbed his chest.
"If I had charged in personally, I might really have been finished."
Shisui Uchiha's Kotoamatsukami was simply unreasonable.
Even natural energy had failed to provide resistance.
That ability was terrifying beyond common sense.
Why the Clone Won
When he first approached Root's underground base, Aoki Yoru had already decided not to trust appearances.
The battle with the Jashin cult in the past had taught him a hard lesson.
No matter how strong he became, underestimating enemies would eventually get him killed.
After defeating the Eight-Tails, he had briefly grown arrogant.
That arrogance had since been buried completely.
Now he reminded himself constantly:
Play safely. Never rush to the front personally unless necessary.
Especially against someone like Danzo.
This old snake had lived too long and prepared too many backup plans.
In the original timeline, Sasuke only managed to kill Danzo after forcing him to waste multiple hidden trump cards.
If Danzo had still possessed Shisui's eye then, the outcome might have been very different.
As for Kotoamatsukami itself—
Even now, Aoki Yoru could not fully understand its rules.
Did it require eye contact?
Could it target through indirect perception?
Was it unblockable below Six Paths level?
No one knew.
That uncertainty made it even more dangerous.
Among all the powers of Wood Release, the one Aoki Yoru valued most was not raw combat strength.
It was the Wood Clone Technique.
Unlike ordinary clones, Wood Clones possessed real physical bodies.
They could absorb and use natural energy.
With enough chakra invested, they were nearly indistinguishable from the original.
Even Aoki Yoru himself could barely tell the difference once they were created.
Perfect scouts.
Perfect decoys.
Perfect sacrificial pawns.
This time, he had poured nearly two-thirds of his chakra into the clone.
He had even handed his sword to it to maintain the illusion.
Meanwhile, his true body remained hidden at the perimeter, waiting for the perfect moment.
The result spoke for itself.
Danzo trusted Kotoamatsukami too much.
The instant he believed victory was certain, his vigilance weakened.
And that was when he died.
Harvesting the Spoils
After confirming the corpse was real, Aoki Yoru crouched beside Danzo.
Without hesitation, he drew his blade.
One clean swing severed Danzo's right arm.
That grotesque arm was Orochimaru's masterpiece—a fusion of Hashirama cells and implanted Sharingan, balancing Yin and Yang Release in unnatural harmony.
Its research value alone was enormous.
If properly studied, it might help Aoki Yoru break through the bottleneck in his own White Zetsu cell experiments.
Next, he carefully removed Danzo's right eye.
Inside the socket rested Shisui's Sharingan.
Its tomoe had dimmed after the use of Kotoamatsukami, leaving it temporarily dormant.
Aoki Yoru examined it with satisfaction.
"It'll take years to recharge…"
"Still usable, though."
Perhaps White Zetsu cells could accelerate recovery.
If so, this eye would become a true lifesaving trump card.
He paused and stroked his chin.
"I wonder if this works on Black Zetsu."
"If it does, I could just use it once and save the ninja world a lot of trouble."
The thought amused him.
He placed the eye inside a nutrient container, sealed it carefully, and stored it away.
Then he turned toward the deeper sections of Root headquarters.
Root's Darkness
Cold wind drifted through the underground ventilation tunnels.
The deeper he walked, the colder the atmosphere became.
Then he entered the laboratory.
Aoki Yoru stopped in place.
Rows upon rows of glass cultivation tanks lined the room.
Inside them floated children.
Five years old.
Six years old.
Maybe younger.
Their eyes were closed.
Tubes pierced their chests.
Green nutrient fluid surrounded their small bodies.
Other tanks contained failed experiments.
Half-woodified corpses.
Bodies twisted into bark and roots.
Skin cracked like tree trunks.
Faces frozen in silent terror.
The laboratory was quiet.
Too quiet.
Aoki Yoru's gaze darkened.
"Danzo truly deserved to die."
Though some children still appeared alive, he could tell the truth instantly.
Their souls were gone.
Only Hashirama cells kept the flesh active, creating a grotesque imitation of life.
They were corpses wearing warm skin.
He stood silently for several moments.
Then he began collecting everything.
Taking What Matters
Storage shelves.
Medical records.
Research notes.
Cultivation equipment.
Specialized instruments impossible to purchase openly.
Everything valuable was sealed into scrolls one after another.
Danzo had siphoned ANBU funds for decades to build this place.
Compared to these tools, the equipment Aoki Yoru once bought after robbing Gatō was like broken scrap beside treasure.
The difference was heaven and earth.
He swept the place clean.
Yet one room remained untouched.
The archive chamber.
Inside were records of Root's countless crimes—kidnappings, assassinations, illegal experiments, political sabotage, disappearances.
Too many to count.
Too disgusting to erase.
Aoki Yoru did not take them.
Some truths needed to be seen.
Danzo was dead.
But his reputation deserved to die as well.
So the documents stayed.
The tanks stayed.
The evidence remained for the world to judge.
Final Cleanup
Returning to the battle chamber above, Aoki Yoru surveyed the cracked ceiling and broken walls.
The earlier fight had already destabilized the structure.
He spread explosive tags across key supports and set delayed detonation timers.
A little push would bring the entire chamber down.
Then he climbed back toward the surface.
Outside, the invasion of Konoha was nearing its end.
His senses spread outward.
Only a few scattered Sunagakure ninja were still resisting.
Elsewhere, the massive Four Violet Flames Formation around the exam arena had already disappeared.
That could mean only one thing.
The Third Hokage had fallen.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was dead.
Aoki Yoru stood in silence for a moment.
Then he glanced back toward Danzo's buried corpse below.
"Well…"
"At least you two old friends won't be lonely."
"You can continue your endless 'light and shadow' arguments in the afterlife."
With that, he stepped into the fading smoke of war.
Behind him, the underground Root base trembled.
Then fire bloomed beneath the earth.
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