"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
This silence would be shared by all those who survived this ordeal. Those who were unlucky enough to be watching directly could no longer see.
Light, when fierce enough, could burn through all attempts to pry.
Furthermore...
'Have I gone deaf?'
The stones that covered Suguru's eyes crumbled having effectively protected him from instant blindness. However, he forgot to account for his hearing.
"Sigh,"
It seemed like he was currently experiencing some amount of deafness. The ringing in his ears became clearer when he breathed.
For a moment, he had glimpsed the heights he so desired.
'Indeed, a true Kage-level ninja has raw capabilities much greater than my own.'
Danzo was just unlucky to have met someone who could dissect his Genjutsu with a terrifying array of Dojutsu. The combination of the Sharingan and Kaisugan's analytical capabilities was heavenly.
Each eye could see something different, and therefore, allowed Suguru to cross-reference any data by himself.
Furthermore, the Byakugan could accurately locate the finer details that the former two could not spot.
Thus, Suguru had no problems using his Shinrakugan's Red Dust to interfere with Danzo's Bishamonten.
Had Suguru targeted Hiruzen instead...
'I'll probably have more difficulties.'
After all, everything that Hiruzen achieved was done with his own hands. In comparison, Danzo, who merely took what wasn't his own, was like a fortress built on sand.
All it took was a single flaw, and everything had come crashing down.
Furthermore, Hiruzen was a God of Shinobi. With intelligence that could keep the world at bay, every move was likely calculated long in advance.
'Perhaps that punch was Hiruzen's way of warning even me.'
Suguru blinked.
Chakra poured into his eyes as it always had.
—Crack.
In an instant, he placed his gaze upon the ashes of the world left behind.
Looking at Hiruzen, standing alone before an absolute nothingness, Suguru shook his head. All of his hopes had vanished in an instant.
'Danzo is nowhere to be seen.'
And it was unlikely he had escaped — Suguru was sure of this fact.
The fact that Suguru could not even see Danzo's ashes was a deadly whisper in his ears. It spoke to him, warding him away. Nipping any temptations in the bud.
As if to say, "Don't even think of trying anything funny."
"Haha,"
A wry laugh escaped Suguru's lips as he leaped up to his remaining foot.
It seemed like Uchiha Fugaku's Mangekyou Sharingan had vanished from this world. Somehow, Suguru felt like Fate had a hand in all this.
After all, the original story never saw Fugaku's eyes being used.
Now, that deviated plotline had been forcefully rectified.
'Weird...'
Suguru's gaze narrowed as he poured chakra into his foot. Then, with difficulty, he tried to flicker away.
However, what he expected had not occurred.
His Body Flicker Jutsu had been reduced to a sudden, rapid leap instead.
"...I need to fully assimilate Hashirama's Cells."
Suguru hurriedly fled the battlefield.
***
Hiruzen stood before the barrenness before him. A sense of loneliness emanated from his solitary form.
He had killed an old friend.
Someone he had once treated as family. A leader of Konohagakure who had given his all for the village.
Although it had been twisted along the way, Hiruzen couldn't help but lament his own inadequacy.
'Perhaps... if I had been a better leader.'
A better shinobi.
A stricter existence.
One who would not bend under the pressure of the village's fate.
'Danzo wouldn't have been tainted by such terrifying darkness.'
Hiruzen truly regretted his decisions until now. From the decisions he made when the Fourth Hokage died to his passive stance when Danzo took the seat of Hokage from him.
"Sigh,"
Feeling the absence of his right hand, Hiruzen glanced down.
From his elbow down, nothing existed — joining the oblivion he had served to his old friend. In a sense, this could be a mark of the sins he had committed. A price he had to pay to correct his many mistakes.
"Hm."
Hiruzen realized something else just then.
"I've gone blind."
A terrifying side effect of the complete annihilation his jutsu was capable of.
However, the world around him was still as vivid as before. His senses, which had been honed by Shinobi World Wars, felt sharper than he recalled.
The suppression of one of his senses led to the expansion of the others.
It was a mystifying feeling.
—Fwhip!
Hiruzen unfurled a scroll as he cut his ruminations short. By instinct, he placed his uninjured hand upon the scroll and placed two small spheres upon its fabric.
In the moment of impact — an impossible feat — Hiruzen had done something that no one would have expected.
Hiruzen recalled that fleeting moment.
His initial punch bore nothing more than an intense, blinding light. There was no force exerted by his strike. Instead, his fist carved through Danzo's Susanoo with the sheer weight of its existence.
The danger that everyone perceived erupted half a breath later.
At that moment, Hiruzen's movements were rapid — plucking out the eyes that Danzo had abused so much.
With his left hand, blessed with fiery blasts that supplemented his speed, he had retrieved an immense valuable in secret. Stolen without anyone the wiser.
"Fugaku, old friend."
Hiruzen silently prayed to the old head of the Uchiha Clan. The massacre that night was still vivid in his mind.
Then,
'Seal.'
The eyes that he had retrieved before Danzo's annihilation were now safely stored in a scroll.
"..."
Hiruzen thus hid the scroll and turned away.
He made a vow as he did so.
"It's time to make a few changes."
From now on, a different version of himself was going to take control. The third reinstatement of the Third Hokage would occur as silently as Danzo took ahold of Konohagakure.
Hiruzen refused to err in the same ways he had done before.
Thus, the first step was simple.
"I'll have to take control of Root."
As Danzo had once done and achieved.
The union of Konohagakure's light and dark was necessary for its proliferation. Unless a true leader stood at the helm, the village was destined for obliteration.
"There's going to be a lot of cleanup to be had..."
Hiruzen sighed, feeling the mountainous workload ahead of him.
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