"It is useless," Jin stated, his voice perfectly calm over the sound of shifting wood and tearing flesh. "Izanagi is the ultimate forbidden jutsu of my own clan. It rewrites reality to erase the caster's death, at the cost of permanent blindness in the eye sacrificed. Did you truly believe an Uchiha would not anticipate it?"
Jin's crimson, six-pointed star Mangekyou spun wildly. The evolved dojutsu granted him kinetic vision thousands of times superior to a standard Sharingan. Danzo's ambush movements were agonizingly slow to him.
The cycle of slaughter repeated. Danzo materialized from the smoke, and Jin executed him again. Over and over. It wasn't until the final stolen Sharingan on Danzo's grafted right arm closed forever that the shadow leader finally broke. Panicking, completely stripped of his extra 'lives' and any semblance of dignity, Danzo used his last surge of speed to dive behind the Hokage.
"Hiruzen, help me!" Danzo begged.
The remaining members of the Konoha Council were paralyzed. Watching Danzo die and resurrect repeatedly was horrifying enough, but seeing the ruthless commander cower behind the Hokage shattered their illusions of control.
Hiruzen let out a heavy sigh, stepping forward to physically shield his oldest friend. "Enough, Uchiha Jin!" Hiruzen barked, his tone shifting from shock to stern command. He needed to de-escalate the situation instantly before he lost his top commander permanently. "I propose a truce. I will immediately withdraw all Root and Anbu surveillance from the perimeter of the Uchiha compound. Do we have a deal?"
"Hiruzen, you cannot do this!" Danzo objected, horrified. He had spent years utilizing countless conspiracies since the Nine-Tails attack to back the Uchiha into this corner. "You are throwing away all our progress!"
"Silence! I am the Hokage!" Hiruzen roared, shutting Danzo down entirely.
Jin narrowed his eyes, analyzing the board. His killing intent was genuine, and he easily had the power to finish Danzo here. However, his logic remained cold and calculating.
'Killing Danzo now would force Hiruzen to retaliate immediately to save face, plunging Konoha into war today,' Jin reasoned silently. 'Konoha is too weak for a civil war, and more importantly, the Radical Faction is not yet fully prepared for an all-out exodus. The hostage standoff at the Sarutobi compound serves its purpose for now. We both need time.'
"Agreed," Jin said smoothly, nodding once.
Without another word, he turned his back on the highest authorities in the village and walked casually out of the Hokage's office.
***
The heavy wooden door clicked shut. Hiruzen collapsed back into his chair. His expression was incredibly dark. His eyes brimmed with barely contained fury, but his mind was already racing for a counter-strategy. He pulled out his pipe, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke to steady his nerves.
"Hiruzen, you are far too soft!" Danzo spat, clutching his useless, ruined arm.
"Uchiha Jin is far too arrogant," Koharu added, her initial terror replaced by delayed outrage. "We should have mobilized the Anbu to eliminate him right here! Why on earth would you agree to lift the siege on their compound?"
"I do not agree with your decision either," Homura stated firmly.
Hiruzen slammed his fist onto the desk. "You three are absolute fools!"
He glared at his advisors. When Jin was in the room, Danzo had hidden like a coward, and the other two had become mute with terror. Now that the danger was gone, they were suddenly eager for blood. Hiruzen needed their political backing to maintain control over the village, but their tactical blindness was infuriating.
He took a sharp breath, forcing himself to explain the reality of the situation. "Did you fail to notice the difference? Jin is not like the other Uchiha. He is not throwing a tantrum. He is entirely prepared to die, and he fully intends to take us down with him. Have you forgotten that he stationed the Radical Faction's elite vanguard outside the Sarutobi compound? If I ordered his execution in this room, my entire clan would have been massacred in minutes!"
Hiruzen paused, letting the weight of the threat settle. "Furthermore, if we ignite a civil war, even if the rest of the village joins us to eradicate the Uchiha, Konoha's military strength will be severely crippled. How do we defend against the other Great Ninja Villages while recovering from that? Exterminating Jin today meant exterminating the Sarutobi and risking Konoha's total collapse."
Danzo, Koharu, and Homura fell completely silent. The terrifying reality of Jin's Mutually Assured Destruction strategy finally sank in.
Seeing them subdued, Hiruzen sighed. "Danzo. Explain your arm. The stolen Sharingan, the resurrections, and your assessment of Jin's Mangekyou."
Danzo grimaced, humiliated but unable to hide the truth. "The arm is a prototype from Orochimaru's experiments with Hashirama Senju's cells. It is highly unstable. The Sharingan were... secretly harvested from Uchiha operatives over the years. They allowed me to cast Izanagi. As for Jin's ocular jutsu..."
Fear flashed in Danzo's remaining eye. "It is terrifying. Unblockable. It absolutely disintegrates anything it touches. Ninjutsu, defensive barriers, physical matter—none of it matters. However, I noticed he only used it in short bursts. A technique of that magnitude must impose a massive toll on his chakra reserves and his eyesight. The only viable strategy against him is a war of attrition. We must throw numerical forces at him until his Mangekyou drains his stamina completely."
Hiruzen frowned. He was disappointed to learn the Wood Release arm was merely an unstable experiment, and he had absolutely no desire to mutilate his own body just to use Izanagi.
"Wait," Koharu interjected, her eyes widening in sudden realization. "Danzo, your arm was covered in stolen Sharingan. Jin clearly saw it during the fight. Why didn't he demand them back? Why didn't he even question you about them?"
It made no sense. For an Uchiha, the theft of their sacred bloodline was the ultimate desecration.
Hiruzen took a long drag from his pipe, his expression grim. "That is exactly what makes him so exceptionally dangerous. To see his clan's bloodline desecrated and completely ignore it in order to secure a broader political advantage... you can imagine how terrifying his self-control is. His ultimate goal must be monumental if he is willing to swallow that insult."
"Wait, Hiruzen," Danzo suddenly spoke up, a twisted realization dawning on his face. "I have a strategy. There is a piece of intelligence I haven't shared regarding his awakening."
Danzo leaned forward, his voice dropping low. "Jin did not awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan randomly. Just a few days ago, Root operatives quietly captured his parents. The very next day, reports surfaced that he had awakened the Mangekyou and violently seized control of the Radical Faction."