The images from the celestial screen flashed through his mind in an instant—
an arm densely embedded with Sharingan… and the despicable act of trying to steal Shisui's eye.
An uncontrollable killing intent surged within Jiraiya like molten lava, nearly breaking through the restraints of his reason.
But recalling Tsunade's explicit instructions, Jiraiya forcibly suppressed the urge to kill. His voice turned cold—like a polar gale, leaving no room for negotiation.
"By order of the Fifth Hokage—"
"Danzō Shimura is to be arrested!"
"Any resistance will be treated as treason against the village—
and met with immediate execution!"
Boom!
The words exploded like thunder in the ears of Danzō and his followers.
"Arrest?!"
"Treason?!"
Danzō's face went deathly pale. His single exposed eye filled with disbelief and rage.
All his schemes, all his years of concealment and planning, were rendered utterly ridiculous by Tsunade's brutal, table-flipping decisiveness.
He had planned to entangle her with public opinion and political maneuvering, to use the elders and bureaucracy to bind her hands—forcing her to step down in disgrace.
But Tsunade had no interest in playing political games.
She wielded the most fundamental power of all:
the authority of the Hokage, backed by absolute force.
Seeing the undisguised killing intent in Jiraiya's eyes—and the powerful shinobi watching like predators from all sides—Danzō knew that any excuse or delay was meaningless.
Tsunade had made up her mind to cut him down.
"I am the Hokage's advisor! I have rendered great service to Konoha!"
Danzō Shimura roared, his bravado masking panic as he grasped at his final lifeline.
"Tsunade has only just taken office! She has neither the qualifications nor the authority to arrest me! This is rebellion!"
He tried to stall for time, hiding behind titles and procedure, searching desperately for a way out.
Jiraiya didn't bother responding to that farce.
He looked at Danzō the way one looks at a clown performing a final, pitiful act, and asked coldly:
"So… you are choosing to resist the Hokage's orders?"
The words were a final verdict.
"Clang—!"
Behind him, the ANBU moved almost in unison, hands tightening around weapons as chakra flared, each target locked in.
The clan shinobi present felt a surge of excitement at the chance to purge this festering tumor—but their hand seals remained calm and precise. All they needed was a single command from Jiraiya to unleash overwhelming force.
Danzō's heart sank to the abyss.
He had never imagined that even Jiraiya would be this ruthless—this direct.
No formalities. No pretenses.
Just suppression by force.
"Lord Danzō!" a Root operative from the Aburame clan whispered urgently.
"This is bad! My kikaichū have detected more chakra signatures outside—they're closing in! We'll be completely surrounded soon!"
Those words rang like a death knell.
Tsunade had cast a net from which there was no escape.
"I can't end like this…" Danzō's lone eye burned with madness and unwillingness.
"I haven't led Konoha to its true peak yet! I haven't… become Hokage!"
His extreme self-interest and obsession with power pushed him to an instant decision.
"Protect me! We retreat!" Danzō screamed at his most loyal subordinates.
"Hah." Jiraiya's contempt was almost tangible.
"All that talk about doing this for Konoha—how righteous it sounded. In the end, you're nothing but a selfish, cowardly man afraid of death."
"You—!"
Danzō's face twisted as the words struck home. He was just about to spit out some final threat—
"Move!"
Jiraiya gave him no chance.
With a single command, he launched forward like a cannonball, hands forming seals faster than the eye could follow.
"Ninja Art: Wild Lion's Mane Technique!"
His white hair surged outward as if alive, multiplying into countless hardened tendrils that swept down upon Danzō and his guards from every direction.
"Kill!"
At the same time, the ANBU and clan shinobi charged like unleashed beasts, crashing into the Root operatives attempting to block them.
Ninjutsu flared. Explosions roared. Steel clashed. Screams echoed.
Facing Jiraiya head-on, Danzō abandoned all pretense of dignity. Shielded by desperate Root subordinates throwing their bodies and techniques in the way, he fled in utter disarray toward a hidden escape passage.
"Going somewhere?"
Jiraiya's gaze was icy. His assault came like a raging storm, technique after technique cutting down any Root ninja foolish enough to stand in his path.
He kept Danzō's retreating figure firmly locked in his sights, pursuing without pause.
The battle ended far faster than expected.
Under overwhelming strength and numbers, the remaining Root operatives were either slain on the spot or captured with sealing restraints.
The underground base—steeped in decades of conspiracy and blood—was completely seized and destroyed in less than the time it took an incense stick to burn.
Standing atop a tree five kilometers outside Konoha, Jiraiya watched as Danzō Shimura dwindled into a tiny black speck on the horizon.
A cold sneer touched his lips.
He made no attempt to continue the pursuit—and from start to finish, he had never used his full strength.
"Secure the battlefield. Confiscate all scrolls and experimental records. Seal and preserve all evidence. Treat the wounded and count the prisoners."
Back at the Root base, Jiraiya issued his orders calmly, his gaze sweeping over the disarmed survivors—faces filled with despair or resentment.
"Escort them back to the village under heavy guard."
—
Far from Konoha, deep within a desolate mountain forest.
Danzō Shimura staggered to a halt, gasping for breath.
He turned back. Only two heavily wounded confidants remained at his side, their eyes dull and hollow.
A crushing wave of grief and humiliation swallowed him whole.
He had "devoted" his life to Konoha—scheming endlessly, staining his hands with countless sins—only to end like this.
Driven out and hunted by the very village he claimed to protect.
Like a dog.
His lone eye fixed on the direction of Konoha—on the Hokage's seat he had coveted for a lifetime, on the foundation he had built over decades, now all reduced to nothing.
Boundless hatred and unwillingness twisted into a hoarse roar that echoed through the forest:
"Konoha!! Tsunade!! Jiraiya!!"
"I—Danzō Shimura—will return!!"
The cry carried nothing but the wail of a defeated beast and a powerless curse, incapable of changing reality.
Though the destruction of Root and Danzō Shimura's disgraceful escape had yet to be officially announced, the news spread through Konoha's highest power circles as if on wings.
When Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu learned of it, they were first shocked by Tsunade's decisiveness and ruthlessness—
and then, almost simultaneously, let out a long breath of relief.
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