Chapter 345: Danzō's Tragedy
The moment Jiraiya's coded intel had arrived, Danzō had immediately assigned people to decipher it—but they'd had no breakthroughs.
"I'll just have to wait for Tsunade."
Danzō understood Jiraiya well. If his coded message couldn't be cracked by the Foundation, it likely required someone who knew Jiraiya personally. So all he could do was wait.
"But… I can start preparing now."
A flash passed through Danzō's eyes. Though he'd only glimpsed the Akatsuki's leader once years ago, the legendary Rinnegan was not a power to be underestimated. All the intelligence he'd gathered in recent years made it clear—Pain was no ordinary enemy.
Jiraiya had infiltrated the Akatsuki base and sent back encrypted intel. With the Nine Tailed Beasts as the Akatsuki's goal, they would inevitably come for Konoha's Nine-Tails.
It was only a matter of time before they attacked.
As always, Danzō chose to watch from the shadows.
Every time Konoha was attacked, the current Hokage died.
The first time—Nine-Tails' rampage—Minato perished.
The second time—Orochimaru and Sunagakure attacked—Hiruzen died.
This time, if the Akatsuki leader attacked, Danzō hoped Tsunade would be next. Even if she survived, the village's devastation would be enough to force her resignation.
And then, who could stop him from becoming Hokage?
Thinking of this glorious prospect, Danzō couldn't help but smile.
After years of bitter patience, he had finally outlasted all his rivals. Now, his chance to rise had come.
"First, preserve our strength."
Pulling back his thoughts, Danzō looked toward the door, ready to summon his subordinate to order the Foundation to temporarily withdraw from Konoha.
But as he opened his mouth… no sound came out. His vision dropped downward—yet his head hadn't moved.
"No..."
The desk grew larger in his field of view. At last, Danzō's brain caught up: he'd been attacked.
But it was too late.
Thunk!
His forehead hit the desk. His vision spun. With his face pressed against the cold surface, he finally caught sight of his own body—
A headless corpse sat slumped in the Hokage imitation chair. Blood spurted from its severed neck like a fountain, soaking his robes and the bandages around his arms.
In that instant, Danzō realized—
His head had been cut off.
And even in death, he never saw the attacker.
Like a ghost, someone had silently infiltrated his innermost sanctuary and killed him without a trace.
Shock and disbelief filled his eyes. Until the very end, Danzō couldn't believe it.
Killed in the Foundation's underground base, without even realizing how someone had bypassed countless protective seals to reach him… his thoughts and life ended there.
Only then did Li Yao reveal himself.
He reached out, capturing Danzō's departing soul before it could ascend—erasing any chance of resurrection. With that, the "Darkness of the Shinobi World" was truly gone.
Thud!
Li Yao casually tossed the body aside, grabbed Danzō's severed head, unwrapped the bandages, and extracted the remaining Kotoamatsukami Mangekyō Sharingan. Then he used Flying Thunder God to leave.
It wasn't until two minutes after Li Yao's departure that the room's overwhelming stench of blood drew the attention of the guard outside. Alarmed by the silence, the Root shinobi rushed in after receiving no response—and finally discovered the headless corpse of their leader, slain in silence within the Foundation's deepest office.
"Lord Danzō!"
"Lord Danzō!"
The entire base erupted into chaos. No one knew what to do. After a frenzied commotion, someone finally remembered to report it to the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade.
…
10,000 meters above Konoha.
Li Yao had already replaced one of his eyes with Danzō's Kotoamatsukami Mangekyō Sharingan—but it yielded no result.
The eye was already ruined. Its core had been irreparably damaged. Even infusing it with Wood Release cells couldn't repair it.
"Forget it. I already copied the chakra for the will-altering version of Kotoamatsukami. If this eye's ruined, so be it."
After one more attempt, seeing that the eye was beyond saving, Li Yao plucked it out and crushed it.
He then used Time Reset Chakra to restore his body to its pre-implantation state.
"…Did Danzō ever actually use Kotoamatsukami?"
Curious, Li Yao sank his consciousness into Danzō's captured soul to extract its memories.
Soon, upon reviewing the eye-related memories, he understood why—despite having a Mangekyō with such a powerful genjutsu and even Wood Release cells—Danzō never used it against Sasuke in the original story.
Some theorized Danzō saved the technique to counter Obito, whom he feared more.
But even in his final moments, Danzō never used it.
Now, Li Yao understood why.
The Kotoamatsukami Sharingan Danzō had acquired couldn't cast the will-altering version of the technique.
Mangekyō Sharingan abilities generally came in pairs—one for offense, one for defense, or two distinct functions between the eyes.
Sasuke's Mangekyō, for instance, had Amaterasu in one eye and control over Amaterasu in the other.
Obito's Kamui eyes also differed:
His own Kamui eye focused on defense—intangibility and spatial phasing.Kakashi's Kamui eye focused on offense—distorting space from a distance to sever objects and teleport parts into the Kamui dimension.
The offensive version was so powerful it could tear off a Ten-Tails limb or break through Truth-Seeking Orbs—an unrivaled spatial attack.
Kotoamatsukami had its own duality.
Itachi's eye could alter a person's will with unmatched precision.
Danzō's eye, however, had the opposite effect—it could restore someone's will if they'd been manipulated by Kotoamatsukami.
It was ironic.
Danzō, who craved the ability to control others' minds, ended up with an eye that undid such control.
No wonder he never used it.
It wasn't that he didn't want to—he simply couldn't.
If he'd had Itachi's version and used it even once—on Hiruzen, or on the Fire Daimyō—he would've become Hokage long ago.
(END CHAPTER)
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