Chapter 50: The Fall of Danzo: Vengeance Unleashed

Danzo fled swiftly, realizing he had lost everything.

'Who orchestrated this?' Danzo understood he was being accused of a crime he hadn't committed, yet he couldn't discern the perpetrator, as if everything was obscured by a sea of misty clouds.

"We came to reclaim everything we suffered."

Suddenly, a voice resonated in Danzo's ears.

"You two..." Danzo was in disbelief upon seeing the sibling pair emerge before him.

"Danzo, you cannot escape," Tsunade declared authoritatively, her voice resounding like a queen stating an undeniable truth.

Danzo appeared composed, but inwardly, he was fraught with anxiety.

In an instant, Danzo charged at Nawaki with full speed.

Before he could strike, the earth cracked, and wooden logs emerged from the ground.

Danzo slashed through them, barely managing to create fissures.

"Wood Style!" Danzo was even more astonished than before.

"Yes, I possess what you've been attempting to create at the expense of my clan, right?" Nawaki asked coldly, the question rhetorical.

"What do you mean?" Danzo feigned ignorance.

"You conspired against my clan to seize the corpses for your experiments, just like…" Nawaki's eyes blazed with a crazed intensity as he accused, "You plotted and killed my parents, didn't you? Huh? Huh!?"

Danzo remained silent.

His silence was an implicit confirmation to Nawaki's accusation.

"Was it you?!" Tsunade's fury seemed on the brink of eruption.

"Wind Style: Void Sphere!" Danzo unleashed, drawing a massive breath.

The wind blasts were swift, but Tsunade didn't bother to evade. Her defense was extraordinarily robust; the attack barely inflicted any damage, and any wounds that did form healed almost instantly.

Danzo was astounded. Could someone really heal that quickly? Not even Hashirama had such rapid regeneration!

Moreover, Tsunade's formidable defense deeply unnerved him.

As Tsunade approached him, she let out her signature scream, imbued with boundless fury: "So it was you! Die, Danzo!"

Danzo saw his demise looming before him. Yet, just as Tsunade's fist was about to connect, a hand grasped her wrist.

"Calm down, Sis. He needs to suffer a lot before he dies, right?" Though Nawaki halted Tsunade, his cold, cruel voice was more frightening than death itself, especially when seen in his eyes.

There wasn't anything special like a Doujutsu in his eyes, yet they seemed more intimidating than a Sharingan.

What was with those eyes that regarded him as though controlling his life and death? Danzo appeared scared, though he tried to mask it.

What was with these two siblings? How could they be so powerful at such a young age? Especially Nawaki!

Where did all that speed come from, and how did he get so close to them?

Danzo's doubts and fear escalated with each passing moment.

"Nawaki..." Tsunade somewhat regained her composure, but her hatred for Danzo, wanting to flay him alive, did not diminish.

"Sis, let's take it slow, okay?" Nawaki suggested. He didn't want it to end so abruptly and turned to Danzo: "You know, you're quite talented, right?"

"Conspiring against many from my clan, leading them to death, abducting their children to raise as weapons. But still, you're nothing but trash, never capable of becoming Hokage." Nawaki declared, "Your loyal followers? I eliminated them! Your reputation? I've destroyed it!"

With a half-crazed demeanor, Nawaki slightly twisted his neck as he posed a cruel, emotionless rhetorical question, "I'm right, aren't I?"

"The Root Anbu members, was it you?" Danzo was in disbelief, unable to fathom how a boy under 15 could accomplish such feats.

"Yes, it was me. Hahaha!" Nawaki suddenly burst into a cold, mocking laughter. "Poor guy, so desperate to be Hokage, only to find out everything was undone by us, huh?!"

"Bastard!" Danzo seethed with rage, incredulous that these two young people had outmaneuvered him.

Had he been outsmarted by them?

Was this their doing?

"Sis, hold him," Nawaki instructed.

"Okay." Though Tsunade hadn't completely recovered, Nawaki's intervention helped her think more clearly.

Danzo attempted to flee, but before he realized it, he was already restrained by Tsunade, who gripped his arms firmly, rendering his efforts to escape futile.

And, unsatisfied, Tsunade used Wood Style to further subdue Danzo.

"Have you been concealing this all along, Tsunade!?" Danzo was in disbelief. He was already shocked to see Nawaki use Wood Style, but witnessing Tsunade do the same sent his already racing heart into overdrive.

Nawaki approached with a kunai in hand, its blade turning red from the intense heat: "I can't stand your face, so I'm going to destroy it, okay?"

It wasn't a question, but a declaration. With the scalding kunai, he brought its tip near Danzo's eyes and began to pull, "Your skin is so dry and battered. I'll do you a favor and start here, right?"

Using the finger of his other hand, he began tearing at Danzo's skin.

"Ahhhh!" Danzo screamed in agony, unprepared for the young boy's viciousness. The sensation of his skin being torn and peeled was excruciating.

"Come on, confess, admit it, and I might end your life more quickly..." Nawaki taunted: "My parents, it was you, wasn't it?"

"Yes, yes, it was me!" Unable to escape and overpowered by both siblings, Danzo preferred death over torture.

"CRACK!!"

"Ahhhhh!"

Both of his arms were crushed as Tsunade's Wood Style constricted, the sounds of snapping wood mingling with the tearing of flesh and the cracking of bones.

Danzo's arms dangled uselessly, blood pouring from his mouth as he screamed in pain.

Nawaki cautioned, "Sis, we're not supposed to kill him yet, you know?"

"I know, he won't die." In the next moment, Tsunade healed Danzo, only to shatter him again and again...

"Bastards!" Danzo yelled: "Wasn't there a promise..."

Nawaki's laughter interrupted him.

"Hahaha, fool~" Nawaki mocked, "We came for revenge, so why would we keep an empty promise to a cold-blooded killer like you? Huh? Huh?"

Nawaki's face loomed close as he resumed peeling the skin from Danzo's face.

"You are sad, aren't you? Broken inside, huh? Huh?" Nawaki taunted Danzo with cold sarcasm. "How incredible, he strived so much to be Hokage, devised dubious plans, conspired against his own villagers, yet he still couldn't fulfill his dream. It's ironic, right?"

"Die with me!" Overwhelmed, Danzo attempted self-destruction.

Four black symbols appeared on his body, his eyes filled with a triumphant gleam, believing that if he could take these two with him, he would die with some honor.

However, Nawaki and Tsunade remained unnervingly calm.

"Don't bluff, you really didn't think you could self-destruct using a sealing technique in front of an Uzumaki, did you? Huh?" Nawaki ridiculed him again in his cold voice. "Haha, I'm Mito Uzumaki's grandson. Are you joking around?"

In an instant, Nawaki's fingers slammed into Danzo's chest, erasing the marks of the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Technique.

"Impossible!?!" Danzo was in disbelief, having been so confident that only Mito or select Uzumaki Clan members could thwart him...

"That was your last resort?" Nawaki taunted with a twisted smile. "Looks like you're going to 'enjoy' our company for a few more hours, huh?"

Nawaki's mocking tone aggravated Danzo, who wished desperately to silence him. But trapped in Tsunade's grasp, Danzo could do nothing as Nawaki continued to flay his skin, now reaching his neck...

Danzo's screams persisted as the siblings tortured him – skinning, breaking his bones, healing him, and repeating the cycle, while Nawaki berated him for his failures and inferiority to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

After several hours, leaving Danzo nearly lifeless, they sealed him away.

"Grandma Mito, you're around, right?" Nawaki called out loudly.

Mito appeared suddenly.

She didn't inquire about their use of Wood Style or comment on their treatment of Danzo, as she herself might have done the same or worse.

"What do you two plan to do with him?" Mito asked, indicating the sealed Danzo.

"I need your help, Grandma Mito," Nawaki requested. "Can you help me seal him inside the Third Hokage's statue, allowing his consciousness to see through the statue's eyes? Let him witness each new Hokage and the village's progress without being able to intervene?"

It was a particularly cruel fate for someone like Danzo.

Mito regarded Nawaki anew.

Danzo, who had always lurked in the Third Hokage's shadow, would now be condemned to the perpetual shadow of the Hokage's statue, forced to watch the village he coveted evolve, powerless to affect it...

"I'll help," Mito agreed. She despised Danzo, who was responsible for her daughter's death. She found Nawaki's idea fitting and had no inclination to wish Danzo a merciful end.