Chapter 6 006: This is Retribution
Utatane Koharu would have been better off keeping her mouth shut. The moment the words left her lips, Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart sank, a profound sense of dread washing over him.
Sure enough, Uchiha Taiga showed absolutely no regard for the village's highest-ranking officials. With a single hand, he hoisted Shimura Danzo off the ground once more, dangling him in the air.
"What were you saying? You want me to let this old dog go?" Taiga sneered at Koharu before shifting his gaze to Hiruzen. "What about you, Third Hokage? Do you share her sentiment?"
As it turned out, when a person had absolutely nothing to lose and possessed the overwhelming power to crush anyone in their path, only one word could adequately describe them: Invincible.
Both Koharu and Danzo were still trapped in their archaic ways of thinking when dealing with Taiga. They assumed he would be just like everyone else in the village—cowed by their authority and obedient to their commands.
Unfortunately for them, if there was anyone in the ninja world who saw right through that rigid hierarchy, it was Taiga. He couldn't care less about their status.
"Put Danzo down, child," Hiruzen sighed. Far too many tragedies had occurred tonight, each one weighing heavily on his heart. Watching his old comrade being dangled like a slab of dead meat in Taiga's grip only deepened his sorrow.
As Hokage, he knew Danzo's underlying motives better than anyone. More importantly, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, was currently dealing with the Nine-Tails, and the outcome was still uncertain. Sparking another major conflict here would be disastrous for Konoha.
The corners of Taiga's mouth curled up. "Since everyone is present, I think it's time we had a little chat." With that, he casually tossed Danzo right at Hiruzen's feet.
"This old dog made a move on me when I was six years old. Don't even try to tell me you didn't know about it. You all saw how that ended." He let out a cold, mocking laugh. "And now, he's using the Nine-Tails incident as an excuse to come after me again. What, do you think I'm an easy target?"
Danzo was currently a battered mess. Several of his ribs were shattered, his entire body was stiff and paralyzed, and his forehead was soaked in blood, leaving him in an incredibly pathetic state.
As the leader of Root and a shinobi from Hiruzen's generation, Danzo was by no means weak. The only reason he was in such a helpless state was because of a little trick Taiga had played on him.
It was quite simple. During their brief exchange, Taiga had injected a trace amount of natural energy into Danzo's body. It wasn't much, but it was more than enough to completely paralyze the man.
Beyond his personal grudge, Taiga had done this to test a theory. And that little test had yielded some very interesting results.
Danzo had already begun modifying his own body, grafting Hashirama cells into his system. The amount might have been small, but the overwhelming vitality of Hashirama's cells required a special countermeasure to neutralize them. Therefore, Danzo absolutely had to possess a Sharingan. The two opposing forces had formed a delicate equilibrium within him.
Under normal circumstances, the minuscule amount of natural energy Taiga had injected wouldn't have been enough to incapacitate an ordinary person. Yet, Danzo had completely frozen up. This proved that the fragile balance within his body had been shattered by that tiny influx of natural energy.
Fully aware of the underlying mechanics, Taiga instantly understood everything.
Following Taiga's accusation, the expressions of Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu turned incredibly grim. His words were practically a direct slap to their faces.
Yet, Taiga was a unique exception. He was an Uchiha, but an absolute anomaly within the clan. Coupled with his status as an orphan who had never received the orthodox Will of Fire indoctrination at the Ninja Academy, he was completely immune to their usual ideological manipulation.
To make matters worse, they were completely powerless against him. His earlier clash with the Nine-Tails was proof enough of that. The boy would literally trigger a massive self-destruction over the slightest disagreement—who could possibly deal with a lunatic like that?
"Nothing to say?" Taiga took a step forward. The surrounding ninjas instantly tensed up; some drew their blades, while others readied their ninja tools.
Taiga acted as if they didn't even exist, keeping his eyes locked on Hiruzen. "Third Hokage, let me show you something interesting."
With that, he stepped right up to Danzo. Ignoring the man's furious, panicked glare, Taiga ruthlessly ripped away the bandages concealing the right half of his face.
"Stop right there!" Mitokado Homura barked, stepping forward to intervene. He had no idea what Taiga was trying to reveal, but knowing his old teammate Danzo, it was bound to be a scandalous secret.
But Taiga had already pried Danzo's right eyelid open. A dead silence fell over the area. Everyone stared in shock at the eye resting in Danzo's right socket—a blood-red iris adorned with three distinct tomoe.
A Sharingan!
Homura froze in his tracks. Koharu's already grim expression darkened considerably. Even Hiruzen's face fell, replaced by a look of profound gravity.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Taiga ruthlessly gouged the eye straight out of Danzo's socket.
"Heh, you all saw that, right?" Taiga chuckled darkly. "I have to ask... where exactly did this eye come from? Don't tell me it was a gift from the Uchiha clan." He opened his hand, revealing a bloody palm where the crimson eyeball rested quietly.
Having made his point, Taiga casually pulled a roll of bandages from his ninja pouch, carefully wrapped the eyeball, and tucked it away.
"Now, I believe I'm owed an explanation," Taiga demanded, his voice cutting through the silence.
A suffocating silence blanketed the area. Logically speaking, having an eye brutally gouged out of one's skull should have caused agonizing pain. Even someone with immense pain tolerance would have made some sort of sound. Yet, Danzo remained completely silent. It was as if he had lost all sensation, unable to utter a single groan.
However, his violently contorted face betrayed the excruciating agony of the impromptu surgery. For some inexplicable reason, he simply couldn't vocalize his suffering.
"What did you do to him?" Koharu demanded anxiously, referring to Danzo's paralyzed state. Naturally, this was also a deliberate attempt to change the subject and deflect attention away from the stolen Sharingan.
Taiga completely ignored her, keeping his piercing gaze fixed on Hiruzen.
"Go and summon Clan Head Fugaku," Hiruzen finally ordered, his voice heavy with resignation.
"Yes, sir!" An ANBU operative immediately acknowledged the command and vanished into the shadows.
"Hiruzen!" Homura and Koharu exclaimed, their expressions shifting in alarm.
Hiruzen merely sighed and waved a dismissive hand. "Have someone treat Danzo's wounds."
A medical ANBU operative immediately stepped forward, his hands glowing with the green light of the Mystical Palm Jutsu as he began to heal Danzo. But the treatment proved to be a terrible mistake.
"Aaagghhhhhh!!!!" Danzo's jaw suddenly snapped open as he unleashed a bloodcurdling scream, his entire body writhing in unimaginable agony.
Startled, the ANBU assumed Danzo was simply overwhelmed by the pain of his injuries and instinctively intensified the healing chakra. Disastrously, this only caused Danzo's shrieks to echo even louder into the night.
Panicking, the ANBU hastily retracted his hands, cutting off the pale green glow of the Mystical Palm Jutsu. Danzo's screams abruptly ceased. His face remained violently contorted, but he was once again trapped in a paralyzed, agonizing silence.
"This..." The medical ANBU was completely bewildered, and even Hiruzen realized something was horribly wrong.
Taiga sneered inwardly. The fragile equilibrium within Danzo's body had already been shattered the moment the Sharingan was removed. The only reason the Hashirama cells hadn't completely violently mutated yet was likely due to some secondary suppression method Danzo had prepared.
Under these volatile conditions, injecting foreign chakra via the Mystical Palm Jutsu only disrupted that failing balance even further. Combined with the lingering natural energy paralyzing his nervous system, Danzo's physical suffering was magnified to an excruciating degree.
"Now that is what I call retribution," Taiga laughed aloud.