"Die for me, Danzō!" Sasuke roared. "Die for Sakura!"
With a thunderous roar, a torrent of lightning shaped like a flood dragon burst from the dark clouds above, splitting the sky in half.
"KIRIN!"
For a split second, night seemed to turn to day as the blue lightning crashed into the gigantic mound of sand shaped like a raccoon dog that was the One-Tail, its sandy skin turning incandescent as tongues of electricity licked across it, sloughing away great sheets of molten glass that shattered against the ground as they fell.
Even though perfect Jinchūriki were notoriously difficult to kill, thanks to their seemingly limitless reserves of stamina and their ridiculous durability, Danzō was still host to the One-Tail, by far the weakest of the tailed beasts. Beginning with the Ten-Tails, the Sage of Six Paths had split its chakra in half again and again, forming a Tailed Beast with each lump of discarded chakra, so that the Nine-Tails inherited half of the original monster's power… while the One-Tail was left with less than two-tenths of one percent.
"Damn it, this blows…" Shukaku groaned.
The One-Tail's massive form began to shrink rapidly, shedding sand that piled up at its feet. Sasuke had won; he had overwhelmed the beast's natural defences through sheer firepower and exhausted its ability to regenerate, forcing it back within its host. Once more, beast took the shape of man, and the hunched figure of an old man stood before Sasuke on top of a mound of sand, breathing heavily.
"Danzō…" Sasuke growled.
Before him stood the monster that had engineered the Uchiha clan's downfall.
Weakened, the old man stood no chance against him. Now was the perfect moment to complete his revenge, even though he had once told Sakura that he would abandon vengeance for her sake.
"Strike me down," Danzō said enigmatically. "I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine…"
Sakura would surely understand if he finished off Danzō instead of incapacitating him for a proper trial; he was too dangerous to be left alive. And what did it matter if he murdered him to assuage his lust for revenge or if executed him in the name of the village's safety? Whether his motives were demonic or righteous, the result would remain the same in the end: Danzō dead, by his hand.
"Chidori."
Before Danzō could react, Sasuke flickered forwards and stabbed his hand through his heart, slicing it to ribbons. Gazing coldly into the distance past the old man's head, Sasuke viciously twisted his hand inside the old man's sternum, causing him to cough up blood.
"Your brother…Itachi… he would be… proud…" Danzō rasped as he grabbed Sasuke's shoulder with a clawlike hand. "Everything we do… is for the village..."
"Keep my brother's name out of your filthy mouth."
Sasuke jerked his blood-drenched hand out of Danzō's chest, and with nothing left to keep him upright, the old man toppled backwards into the sand with a dull thud. Sasuke stared down at the frail body, the maddened look in his eyes slowly fading as his gaze grew dull and lifeless.
Why did he feel so empty inside?
"Right, there's still Mitokado Homura," Sasuke muttered to himself. "I'll find a way to kill him behind Sakura's back."
Maybe he would finally feel at peace once all the culprits lay dead at his feet.
A strange sensation of unease suddenly washed over Sasuke, and acting completely on instinct, he twisted his body to the side.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!"
Several holes spurting blood appeared in Sasuke's side as invisible bullets penetrated his body, just barely missing several major arteries and important internal organs. Stifling a groan, Sasuke clapped his hand against the wound to stem the bleeding and whirled around to meet this new threat, chakra shimmering into view around him as his Susano'o's skeleton manifested, forming a protective shell around his body.
What the!?
Somehow, Danzō was standing before him, completely unharmed, acting as though he had not just been run through the chest. Sasuke glanced over his shoulder; the body was gone. He summoned his chakra, cycling it through his pathways to dispel any genjutsu that might be affecting him, but there was nothing to remove.
This was no illusion.
"Blaze Style: Amaterasu!"
Danzō's body burst into black flames, but sand started seeping out of his pores as he once again entered Tailed Beast Mode.
"Damn you, Danzō!" the One-Tail screeched. "That hurts!"
The sand parted, and Danzō strode out from the collapsing shell of sand in human form, leaving Shukaku to burn behind him. Yet the Four Symbols Seal would not allow him to stray far from his host's body for long, and within seconds he was drawn back into it once more. Like a snake shedding its skin, Danzō had cast off the black flames entirely.
It was supposed to be impossible, and yet, Sasuke had sensed that the One-Tail had returned to full power, even though it had exhausted its strength earlier.
"You cannot defeat me, Uchiha Sasuke," said Danzō, as if he were reading his thoughts. "I am invincible."
Sasuke's vision blurred.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan's visual prowess would never diminish, that much was true, but it was still a massive drain on his ordinary stamina. If he kept up the Susano'o while continuing to lose blood, he would black out before long.
"Blaze Style: Kagutsuchi!"
A tongue of black flame consuming the grass around him leapt up and licked his wound, cauterising it with great precision.
"I'll… kill… you!" Sasuke hissed through the pain.
He extended his arm and clenched his fist, and the Susano'o's skeleton emulated his movement, crushing Danzō's body in its grip. Instantly, wind bullets came flying out from behind him, pinging off his armour of chakra bones.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Blast!"
Powered up by the One-Tails' wind affinity, Danzō breathed out great blades of slicing winds, buffeting Sasuke's Susano'o and carving deep grooves into its bones. The Susano'o creaked ominously, several of its thinner extremities already threatening to fall off.
Sasuke threw a punch at Danzō with his Susano'o's fist, but sand gushed out the old man's body, absorbing the blow; in retaliation, Danzō then spat a wind blade, severing the Susano'o's arm, and…
BOOM!
An ear-splitting boom rang out, and Danzō looked down to see an enormous hole blasted clean through the midsection of his Tailed Beast Mode form. He shook his head in quiet disappointment, and then his body vanished as though it had been nothing more than a mirage.
"Sasuke!" came Sakura's voice. "Are you all right!?"
Sasuke's Susano'o faded, and he stumbled into Sakura's open arms as she ran to catch him, her fat breasts bobbing up and down wildly. She was accompanied by an army of Kusa-nin, so he assumed she must have succeeded in her mission. But if only she hadn't come… his Susano'o had been on the verge of reaching its next stage…
"Damn it, he ran away…" Sasuke muttered deliriously. "I'll kill you next time…"