Shiori, who was right behind Tanaka, once again witnessed his transformation and, in the blink of an eye, lost sight of him.
Sighing, she glanced in the direction of the ninjas who had previously tried to attack Tanaka and headed towards them.
Meanwhile, Danzo, who had stealthily fled, sighed in relief as he felt he was no longer being pursued.
'In the end, was it just a misunderstanding? Was I never his target?' Danzo pondered.
This also made him reconsider turning back...
It was understandable for him to become so paranoid, whether by his own nature or because he was now a renegade from Konoha.
Reflecting on this, Danzo gritted his teeth hard, producing irritating sounds with his mouth.
Everything had been going so well: he had finally become Hokage, the experiments with Hashirama's cells were about to receive substantial funding, not to mention it had become easier for him to get his hands on the Uchiha Clan's Sharingans... However, everything changed that night... That damned night when someone sabotaged him, turning him into a villain!
And Konoha, which fails to understand that everything he did was for the village's sake. Everything he did, no matter how dubious or dark, wasn't it to protect the village?
'A bunch of ingrates!' he thought angrily.
He resented Mito and Tsunade the most. However, he wasn't able to do anything against Mito, nor did he think it was necessary, for he knew her end was near. As for Tsunade... Though he felt he could defeat her, she carried Senju and Uzumaki blood, making her a difficult opponent to face, even for him.
But wasn't it true? It was simply ridiculous that they had made such a fuss over something he did for the village's sake. Thanks to him, it was almost possible to replicate and bring back Wood Style to the world. Even though he had done it secretly, did they need to be so strict?
The more he thought about it, the more resentful he became. What he didn't notice was that, in the air not far away, Tanaka's red eyes were fixed on him, a malicious glint shining in his gaze.
"I found you, Danzo~!" Tanaka's voice echoed.
Danzo, upon hearing someone call him and looking in the direction of the voice, turned pale.
'Did he... Did he just call me by my name?' Danzo could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Suspecting him was one thing, but seeing through his perfect disguise and uncovering his true identity was another.
Besides, when had this boy seen him before to recognize him?
As far as Danzo could remember, he had never met this boy...
However, now was not the time to think about that. Danzo was on high alert, raising his guard as he formed hand seals and pressed his lips together. He inhaled deeply and, with his lips pursed, shouted:
"Fuuton: Vacuum Sphere!"
In the next moment, projectiles were expelled—fired in rapid succession, resembling needles—seeming powerful enough to pierce an opponent's flesh upon impact.
However, Tanaka, wielding the Samehada and with his enhanced vision, even without activating the Byakugan or Sharingan, managed to defend against all the attacks while smiling slightly.
'Your attacks, though powerful, are a bit disappointing?' Tanaka thought.
The force of the attacks wasn't even enough to create ripples in his hand or cause him to retreat in the slightest with the Samehada.
Even the previous owner of the Samehada seemed somewhat stronger...
'Is your current level just a façade?' Tanaka began to doubt Danzo's true strength.
Danzo, who had no idea that Tanaka had already labeled him as 'weak' for his level, narrowed his one good eye, which he had closed earlier while using the jutsu. Then, he brought his hands together again, forming several seals.
"Fuuton: Vacuum Wave!"
At Danzo's shout, this time, the manifestation of his attack spread on a much larger scale, something he believed would be impossible to defend against like the previous attack. However, his indifferent expression soon changed.
"Whoosh!"
Seeing the gust of cutting wind coming toward him, Tanaka raised the Samehada and made a downward slashing motion. Lightning surrounding the sword emitted crackling sounds as it whistled through the air, splitting the attack in two.
"Whoosh!"
"Boom!"
Consecutive explosion sounds echoed across the battlefield as the sharp wind was cleaved by the lightning-imbued sword, generating a violent shockwave that ricocheted through the air, dispersing the remnants of the jutsu and scattering fragments of energy in all directions.
On the outside, Danzo remained calm, but inside, his heart raced as he stared at the Uzumaki boy in shock.
He didn't want to boast, but he currently believed himself to be the foremost among Wind Style users. Seeing his attack first defended against and then casually cut through, as if slicing a tree, deeply wounded his pride. At the same time, it made him incredibly uncomfortable and concerned.
In the air, Tanaka had an idea. He raised the Samehada, which bent backward as lightning surged to an even greater degree than before. Slowly, he uttered the next words:
"Raiton: Getsuga Tensho!"
What began as a small flame, like that of a candle, quickly grew into something grand, illuminating the sky with the glow of accumulated lightning. When he finally swung the Samehada downward, a crescent-shaped attack made of golden lightning shot forward at high speed toward Danzo!
"Whoosh!!!"
In that instant, several ninjas halted their battles, stunned by what they were witnessing. Their mouths hung open as they watched the scene, shock written across their faces.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
"Boom!"
Danzo was unable to dodge and summoned a gigantic creature—a sort of Tapir-Elephant—that he used as a shield, with little empathy for the life of his summoning.
In an instant, the attack struck the left side of the creature summoned by Danzo.
"BOOOM!"
"Trumpet!"
The Tapir-Elephant let out a cry of pain, thrashing its massive body. The point of impact displayed a huge, bloody gash, while the lightning attack charred its body due to the high temperature.
From the creature's painful cry, it was easy to imagine just how devastating and agonizing that attack had been.
With a cloud of smoke, the summoning was canceled.
However, the warning that flashed in Tanaka's vision confirmed that, although the creature had returned, it would come back as a corpse...
Upon seeing his summon vanish, Danzo remained expressionless, showing no reaction, even knowing that Baku had likely died due to the attack. His eyes locked onto Tanaka, and he quickly began forming hand seals, planning another jutsu.
But his chakra reserves were severely depleted, especially after summoning Baku. He felt that, at best, he could cast only five more jutsus before being completely drained.
'I need to escape from this boy, but how?' Danzo found himself at a crossroads.
After witnessing the devastating power of the attack, Danzo noticed that the Uzumaki boy didn't even seem to have exerted himself. He hadn't even broken a sweat while creating such a terrifying technique... An idea came to him, and he shouted:
"My comrades, we cannot let him live! As long as he lives, we will never win this war!!!"
His words snapped many of the ninjas out of the trance they were in. Tanaka's performance so far was nothing short of extraordinary. For a boy who could barely be 18 years old to possess such power... it generated fear in many, especially in the veteran ninjas who had experienced the terror of powerful figures like Hashirama and Madara.
'Could a new Hashirama or Madara be rising in the ninja world?'
The doubt was planted, and fear grew in the hearts of several of them.
Obviously, no one there wanted someone with such potential to continue living. Especially knowing that he was an Uzumaki, an ally of Konoha.
"He's the one who captured Han!" shouted a Stone ninja, his voice filled with urgency.
"Yes! He captured Han with ease. We can't let him live!" another ninja echoed, his voice full of fear.
Suddenly, commotion spread among the troops. Many ninjas from the four great villages began shouting, recalling Tanaka's feats and how his shadow clones had interfered in the war, turning the tide of the battle in Konoha's favor.
Fear and the determination to eliminate him intensified, and in an instant, many of the ninjas now focused solely on him, seeing Tanaka as the greatest threat on the battlefield.
Danzo, seeing this unfold and realizing the outcome was even better than he had anticipated, gave a rare smile. 'Humph! You're still too young to try and go against me, boy...'
||- Note -||
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