Chapter 68 068: The Village Must Give Me an Explanation
The sea of fire continued to burn, sending waves of heat rolling forward and distorting the air into layers of transparent ripples.
Sarutobi Hiruzen landed on the riverbank, with the ANBU following closely behind. Their boots crunched against the gravel, breaking the silence.
Then they saw the corpses littering the ground. The bodies of Root operatives and Hyuga Branch House members lay scattered haphazardly across the riverbank. Blood seeped into the gravel and soil, gleaming with a dark red hue under the firelight.
They also saw the forest reduced to charred husks, the riverbank engulfed in flames, and the young man standing amidst the inferno.
Uchiha Taiga stood there, dangling a person from his grip.
Shimura Danzo.
His head lolled to the side at an impossible angle, his neck completely snapped. His body hung limply like a boneless sack of flesh. His clothes were burned to rags, and his face was covered in severe burns and blood. His exposed eye was half-open, the pupil dilated and devoid of life.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's gaze locked onto the corpse.
His pupils shrank slightly as the urgency on his face morphed into shock, and then from shock into pure fury.
That anger flared up from his chest like a raging fire, flushing his face red and leaving his fingers trembling.
Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the rage in his heart, and looked up at Uchiha Taiga.
Uchiha Taiga was looking right back at him.
His scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan held no emotion, offering only a calm, apathetic stare.
Hiruzen's fury faltered for a brief moment.
He opened his mouth, his voice coming out dry.
"Why didn't you stop?"
His voice wasn't loud, but it cut clearly through the crackling of the flames.
"Do you have any idea what you've done? Attacking the village's higher-ups is an act of treason!"
Taiga looked at him, not answering immediately.
He tilted his head slightly, the corners of his mouth curling into a mocking half-smile.
"Why should I have stopped? Third Hokage, why would you even ask such a question?"
Hiruzen took a deep breath, his eyes locked on Taiga. "Are you betraying the village?"
Coming from the Hokage, such words were an incredibly severe accusation.
But Taiga was completely unfazed. He merely shrugged. "If that's what you want, I certainly can."
Hiruzen choked on his words.
Taiga then fired back with a question of his own. "Aren't you going to ask what Shimura Danzo did?"
He glanced down at the corpse dangling from his grip before looking back up.
"Oh, wait. He's dead. I guess you can't ask him."
The moment the words left his mouth, he moved. Reaching out, he violently ripped the bandages off Danzo's head.
The bandages unraveled, revealing the pale face beneath and the eye that had been hidden away for so long.
It was not a normal eye.
The sclera was a dead, ashen gray, and the pupil was dilated and completely devoid of light. Yet, beneath that lifeless gray, the faint outline of three tomoe could still be seen.
It was the residual pigment of the tomoe etched into the iris. Even though it had lost its color after casting Izanagi, it still stood out slightly against the rest of the eye.
A Sharingan.
Hiruzen's pupils violently contracted.
Taiga didn't stop there.
He grabbed Danzo's shirt and ripped it open. The sound of tearing fabric was exceptionally harsh amidst the roaring flames, exposing Danzo's upper body.
Then, Hiruzen saw Danzo's right arm.
From the shoulder down to the fingertips, the entire arm was an unnatural, sickly pale white—the color of a corpse that had been rotting for a long time.
Embedded densely along the arm were six eyes. Every single one was a Sharingan. They were all half-open, their pupils dilated and their dead, ashen sclera looking exceptionally eerie under the firelight.
But what truly made all the color drain from Hiruzen's face was the visage on Danzo's shoulder.
It was slightly smaller than a normal human face, but it possessed a complete set of features.
Tightly closed eyes, a straight nose bridge, and slightly pursed lips... Hiruzen was far too familiar with those features.
He had looked at that face for decades, from his youth all the way into his twilight years.
Senju Hashirama.
His teacher.
The face of the First Hokage.
It felt as though something had exploded inside Hiruzen's mind.
He swayed on his feet and stumbled half a step back, his boot crunching loudly against the gravel.
An ANBU operative behind him reached out to steady him, but Hiruzen raised a hand to stop them.
Hiruzen's eyes remained glued to Danzo's corpse, fixated on the arm covered in Sharingan and the face belonging to Senju Hashirama. His lips trembled. His fingers trembled. His entire body shook.
He felt a mixture of profound fury and deep sorrow.
The agonizing emotion of being betrayed by his most trusted companion filled his chest, dousing the fiery rage he had felt moments ago like a bucket of ice water.
Taiga casually tossed Danzo's limp corpse forward, letting it land right at Hiruzen's feet.
The body hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. The arm covered in Sharingan sprawled out weakly, palm facing upward, almost as if begging for mercy.
"Take a good look," Taiga said, his voice completely calm.
"This is your dear comrade. Look at what he's done."
He turned around and stepped back into the sea of flames.
The fire danced around him, yet it couldn't harm him in the slightest. Walking over to Hyuga Soma's corpse, he bent down and picked up the severed head.
The stump of the neck had stopped bleeding. The hair was a tangled mess, and the face was forever frozen in the sheer terror of its final moments.
He tore off a piece of Soma's outer robe, wrapped the head securely, and tied it to his waist.
Hiruzen didn't watch him. Instead, he crouched down beside Danzo's corpse. Reaching out, he turned the Sharingan-infested arm over.
The half-open eyes stared blankly, their dead, ashen pupils reflecting his face. As his fingers brushed against the skin of the arm, it didn't feel like human flesh. It felt more like touching a piece of lifeless rubber.
He glanced once more at the face—Senju Hashirama's face.
Its eyes were closed, resting quietly on Danzo's shoulder. It looked as though it were peacefully sleeping, yet simultaneously mocking him.
Hiruzen closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again.
The fury in his eyes had vanished, replaced entirely by a profound, heavy exhaustion.
Taiga walked back over.
He stood less than two meters in front of Hiruzen. Tilting his head down slightly, his scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan locked onto the Hokage.
He raised his hand and pointed a finger directly at Hiruzen.
"Shimura Danzo came here bearing your official orders. But while executing those orders, he attacked me and tried to gouge out my eyes."
He paused.
"For this, both you and the village must give me an explanation."
Hiruzen remained silent.
He just stood there, staring into Taiga's eyes and watching his own reflection in the Mangekyo Sharingan.
The ANBU operatives behind him immediately went on high alert.
Some drew their swords, others reached into their ninja pouches, and a few prepared to weave hand signs.
They formed a protective formation around Hiruzen. Every single one of them glared at Taiga, their nerves stretched to the absolute limit.
Taiga completely ignored them.
He lowered his hand. The Mangekyo slowly faded from his eyes, reverting back to the pure white of the Byakugan.
His eyes felt slightly sore—a side effect of using the Mangekyo for an extended period.
But other than that, he felt perfectly fine.
His vision hadn't deteriorated, his visual prowess hadn't weakened, and he didn't even feel dizzy.
He turned around and walked right past the ANBU operatives.
No one stopped him.
It wasn't that they didn't want to; they simply didn't dare.
The sheer devastation of the battlefield spoke for itself. Shimura Danzo was dead, and the ANBU were left in absolute shock.
As the young man walked through their ranks, everyone subconsciously stepped aside, as if making way for a terrifying beast.
Hiruzen abruptly spun around, staring at his retreating back.
"What are you going to do?" he demanded, a trace of urgency bleeding into his voice.
Taiga didn't bother looking back.
His voice drifted back from the sea of flames—calm, unhurried, and utterly devoid of emotion.
"I'm going to the Hyuga clan to demand an explanation."