Sasuke watched Danzo's frenzied and despairing state. He murmured softly in a tone filled with feigned confusion.
"Weren't you already out of Sharingan just now? How could you still revive?"
This seemingly naive question completely pierced Danzo's final mental defenses.
'Genjutsu!'
'I had been living inside this brat's Genjutsu from the very beginning!'
Danzo's single eye was bloodshot with extreme rage and fear.
He wanted to roar, to curse, but all words ultimately turned into hoarse gasps.
Sasuke watched him and began to laugh wildly. The laughter echoed in the dead silence of the underground passage, filled with undisguised contempt.
"I'd like to see how many more times you can revive."
He slowly raised Indra in his hand. Black flames quietly ignited once more on the pitch-black blade.
Like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, it heralded the final judgment.
"If you have nine lives, I'll kill you nine times! If you have a thousand lives, I'll slay you a thousand times!"
The tide had turned.
Danzo felt the emptiness in his right arm from the depleted Pupil Power. He knew he had no chance of winning left.
'But I couldn't die so easily.'
'I absolutely could not die at the hands of an Uchiha!'
A final surge of madness rose in his heart.
"For the Shinobi World, for Konoha..."
He roared, violently tearing open the clothes on his chest, revealing his aged, scar-covered torso.
"I cannot allow an evil Uchiha brat like you to live!"
As he roared, a complex sealing formula composed of pitch-black ink marks on his chest suddenly lit up!
The formula seemed alive, spreading rapidly like vines, emitting a terrifying aura that sought to devour everything.
"This is... the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing!" Kakashi, who had been warily watching his surroundings, had his face changed drastically upon seeing the seal. He cried out in alarm, "Sasuke, get away from Danzo, now!"
Sasuke's pupils also contracted. From that seal, he sensed a destructive power intent on dragging everything into nothingness.
Without the slightest hesitation, the Takemikazuchi in his hand was unleashed in an instant!
"Lightning Style: Swift Thunder Form!"
His entire body turned into a black-and-white intertwined bolt of lightning. Leaving a series of afterimages behind, he instantly appeared beside Kakashi, grabbing his arm and pulling him away together.
"Sensei, it's my turn this time. Just like you risked your life to protect us... but in the end, I still couldn't become Hokage."
Watching the two figures about to disappear down the passage, feeling the power madly gathering within him, on the verge of losing control, a look of relief actually appeared on Danzo's face.
His thoughts seemed to pierce through time, returning to many years ago.
"Hiruzen, no matter what, I could never catch up to you."
"You are the leaves bathed in sunlight. I am the roots in the darkness."
He looked down at his own hands, stained with blood and sin. His voice was thick with self-mockery.
"How should I view myself like this..."
The final seal was formed.
Boom!!!
There was no violent explosion, only a dull, resounding thud.
Centered on Danzo's body, a black sphere capable of devouring everything was born with a thunderous rumble!
The moment the black sphere appeared, it began to contract inward madly in an incomprehensible way, generating an irresistible terrifying suction force.
Air, light, rubble from the walls, pools of blood on the ground...
Everything was devoured by the black void, leaving no trace behind.
Sasuke, pulling Kakashi along, had just burst out of the underground passage's entrance when he felt the ground beneath his feet shake violently.
He abruptly turned his head.
He saw the entire area they had just left visibly collapsing downward, forming an ever-expanding deep pit.
There was no dust. Even the previously burning black flames were gone. Only pure collapse remained.
It was as if that space, along with everything in it, had been forcibly erased from the world.
After a long while, when the final tremors had also subsided, the two slowly walked to the edge of the bottomless giant pit.
Looking down, there was only an abyss of darkness.
The Root's Headquarters that had once entrenched itself here, Konoha's deepest darkness, along with its master and all its sinful secrets, were completely buried at this moment.
"It's over..." Kakashi's voice was hoarse. Looking at the hollow ruin before him, the boulder that had weighed on his heart for half his life was finally lifted.
But what followed wasn't the satisfaction of revenge, but an indescribable emptiness.
Sasuke didn't speak.
He stood quietly at the edge of the giant pit, letting the breeze stir the black hair on his forehead.
He slowly raised his head, looking up at the sun.
'Danzo is dead.'
'But my path had only just begun.'
In the distance, from the direction of the village center, the sounds of fighting and explosions still faintly drifted over, reminding them that this chaos was far from over.
Kakashi slowly let out a turbid breath, forcibly suppressing the emptiness in his heart.
He turned to look at Sasuke, his eyes now filled with complex emotions.
"Sasuke, we..." He paused, his tone carrying a weariness he himself hadn't noticed, "...should go help the people in the village."
No matter how dark this village was, no matter how it had treated his father, there were still companions he needed to protect there, bonds he couldn't sever.
This was the responsibility etched into his bones as Hatake Kakashi, as a Konoha's Jonin.
However, Sasuke didn't even turn his head.
He merely raised a hand, gently stroking the cold blade of Indra with his fingertips, as if soothing a hawk that had just finished hunting.
"Help them?" He asked back, his voice soft yet carrying a bone-chilling coldness.
Kakashi's heart sank.
Sasuke slowly turned around. Those dark eyes, under the sunlight, were calm without a single ripple.
"Why should I help them?"
He looked at Kakashi, a cold curve lifting the corner of his mouth.
"What I need to do now..."
"...should be to destroy this village."
He said these words with utter casualness, as if stating the most normal thing in the world.
But each word landed like a heavy hammer, smashing into Kakashi's heart.
Danzo is dead. Next, it should be his dear older brother's turn.
He wouldn't forget how, in that choice between clan and Konoha, Itachi had chosen the village without hesitation.
'In that case, I would utterly destroy the thing Itachi cherished most.'
'Just as Itachi had slaughtered the entire Uchiha Clan before my eyes all those years ago.'
'Only then would those always condescending Mangekyo Sharingan reveal true despair.'
"Sasuke... what are you saying?!" Kakashi's voice grew hoarse. He instinctively took a step forward, looking at the twelve-year-old boy before him in disbelief.
"Are you going to betray Konoha?!"
"Betray?" Sasuke seemed to have heard an interesting word. He couldn't help but let out a light laugh, the sound filled with undisguised mockery.
He raised his eyes and met Kakashi's, which were filled with shock, "Betrayal is built upon belonging. I never considered myself a part of Konoha. How can you speak of betrayal?"
These words were like an insurmountable abyss, completely isolating the two on opposite sides.
Kakashi's body swayed slightly. He wanted to refute, to say something, but no words came out.
Sasuke didn't look at him anymore. He slowly sheathed Indra.
Of course, he wouldn't destroy Konoha right now.
It had nothing to do with any other reason, it was just...
If he destroyed Konoha without Itachi there to see it, where was the fun in that?
He turned and began to walk away.
The shadow of his slender body stretched long in the sunlight, appearing both lonely and resolute.
Kakashi stood alone, rooted to the spot.
He looked in the direction Sasuke had left, then turned back to look at the still-burning village in the distance. An unprecedented sense of powerlessness washed over him.
Had he won?
He had witnessed the demise of his father's killer with his own eyes.
But he had also lost.
Lost utterly and completely.
He had watched helplessly as his most valued student walked step by step into another, even deeper darkness.
And he could do nothing about it.
Finally, Kakashi slowly raised a hand, covering his eyes. A suppressed, low laugh escaped him.
He turned his gaze toward the village engulfed in war.
His figure flickered, turning into a streak of silver light as he charged into the chaos.
Different paths.
Then, they would each walk their own.
---
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