At the same time, Danzo's sight also slowly crossed over the opposing group, assessing each of them.
He'd expected to see Tsunade, and when he did, he merely snorted in disgust.
The woman he'd once tolerated as the Hokage's precious student was now, in his eyes, nothing but a traitor.
Her presence here only confirmed her betrayal.
Not that they had ever liked each other, but seeing her stand beside the boy he hated most stirred something colder in him.
Then his gaze landed on the red-haired man standing next to her.
Danzo's expression tightened.
The stranger's chakra was massive, vibrant, and unmistakably Uzumaki.
He looked young, vital, and terrifyingly strong.
The flow of his chakra was unlike any he had ever seen from the remnants of that clan.
"How?" Danzo thought sharply.
"How could someone like this exist—and without my knowledge?"
As the leader of Root, he prided himself on knowing every secret worth knowing.
He had spies across every village, even within the remnants of the Uzumaki scattered after Uzushiogakure's fall.
There shouldn't have been a single Uzumaki of this level left alive.
And yet, here one stood.
Danzo didn't attack immediately.
Ryusei, for some reason, hadn't either.
The boy looked calm, even deliberate, clearly buying time for something.
'Maybe he has some more helpers... Who...?'
That alone made Danzo cautious.
So, instead of acting, he decided to test the unknown man first.
"Identify yourself," he demanded coldly.
The red-haired man's eyes opened fully, calm yet filled with ancient fury. "Ashina Uzumaki," he said. "Revived from death to settle debts left unpaid—to make Konoha answer for its lies, its theft, and its betrayal."
Danzo's face froze for an instant.
Ashina Uzumaki.
The name hit him like a blade to the chest.
The Ashina Uzumaki—founder of Uzushiogakure, legendary seal master of the Warring States era.
A figure whose existence predated even Tobirama's reign.
For a moment, Danzo wanted to laugh at the absurdity.
But the chakra radiating from this man was no illusion.
It was ancient, deep, and unmistakably real.
His mind raced—perhaps Ryusei had truly revived him.
And that body…
Danzo's enhanced sensory skills began to pick up more detail.
The man's chakra network was not entirely human.
The structure of his tissues—interlaced with growth patterns eerily similar to Hashirama cells—confirmed it.
That body was artificial.
Danzo's eye narrowed. "So," he muttered, his tone filled with venom. "You survived at that time in some spirit form afterward, and then later created yourself a vessel, did you?"
Then his gaze shifted sharply to Ryusei. "Or was it you, boy? Did you help him build it?"
He spoke with anger, but inside, his thoughts were racing.
That body—the pale texture, the organic layering of chakra—it reminded him of something else. Someone else.
That masked man who had interfered a few months ago… the one who'd stolen the Rinnegan from under his nose and erased his own presence like smoke.
It was reminding him of his strange accomplice at that time, who also attacked Danzo initially with those black and white abilities.
Danzo's stomach turned slightly.
The similarity was undeniable.
"Don't tell me…" he thought, his mind darkening. "That boy is even connected to them?"
The idea sent a chill down his spine.
If Ryusei could call on that masked figure now, everything might unravel.
Even his Edo Tensei army might be crushed with their joint pressure.
He forced the thought away.
No. Impossible.
There was no evidence they were allies.
Maybe the boy had simply stumbled upon the same kind of forbidden knowledge.
Either way, there was no turning back.
Danzo's chakra flared, his hatred burning to the surface.
His hand hovered over the seals wrapping his arm, and the ground trembled as his Edo Tensei began to move.
However, at the same time, Tsunade, who had been standing quietly until then, and barely keeping her composure, had her fists clenched, every muscle trembling under the surface.
Ryusei's hand had been gently resting near hers the whole time, his chakra subtly pulsing through the air around her, steady, warm, deliberate.
It was enough to keep her from doing something reckless.
Barely.
But something inside her finally cracked.
Before Danzo attacked next and the battle started, she felt like she needed to hear something from his own mouth in the end.
Her caramel eyes flared with raw fury and grief. '"Danzo," she said, her voice low, trembling with emotion. "Before I crush you, answer me one thing."
Danzo paused mid-step, his eyes narrowing.
"Was it you," she asked, every word shaking with restraint, "who orchestrated Nawaki's death? And did he know?"
Both of them knew she was referring to her sensei, the current Hokage.
The battlefield seemed to freeze.
Even the wind went silent for a heartbeat.
Danzo's fingers twitched near his still-sealed arm.
His expression changed—not into guilt, but into mild surprise. "So," he muttered, voice cold and measured, "you finally found out."
Her eyes widened slightly at the confirmation.
He studied her face for a moment, then gave a faint, humorless chuckle. "So it was that boy who told you," he said coldly.
"Of course it was. You were always too naive to uncover the truth on your own—just like every other time in your life." His gaze flicked briefly toward Ryusei, eyes narrowing.
He straightened slightly, his tone turning sharp and cutting. "Yes, Tsunade. It was me. I organized that mission personally. A convenient accident, dressed up as heroism. One dead Senju heir, one less problem. And yes—Hiruzen knew. He didn't need to say it aloud. He understood the necessity."
He smirked faintly, his words cruel, deliberate, each one a blade. "You of all people should thank me. I spared the village another naive fool who thought bloodline meant righteousness. And yet here you are, still just as blind."
For a second, Tsunade's vision blurred.
The air around her seemed to distort, her chakra flaring uncontrollably as her grief and rage collided.
Her heart pounded so violently that it drowned out everything else.
It was one thing to see it through the memories Ryusei had shown her months ago—the truth pulled from a dead Yamanaka's mind.
But hearing it now, from the man himself, with that smug certainty and that sickening pride—it destroyed the last atom of faith she still had.
The faint atom of hope that maybe Hiruzen hadn't known, that maybe the village she'd once believed in wasn't rotten to its core, evaporated completely.
She was seconds away from tearing Danzo apart.
But before she could move, Ryusei's hand closed gently over hers.
His chakra flowed into her again, calm, steady, firm.
"Not yet," he said softly, his voice cutting through the storm in her head.
"You'll get your revenge soon, Tsunade. But not like this. Not blind. Not angry."
Her breathing was ragged, her body shaking.
"He killed him," she whispered, almost to herself.
"I know," Ryusei said quietly. "And we'll make them pay for it. All of them. But if you lose control now, they win again."
For a long moment, she didn't move.
Then, slowly, she exhaled, her chakra beginning to stabilize.
The fury was still there—burning hotter than ever—but Ryusei's steady pulse beside her anchored it, shaping it into something sharper, more focused.
Danzo watched the exchange with contempt, but for the first time, something flickered in his eye—a hint of unease.
The look in Tsunade's eyes now wasn't just anger. It was a promise.
Danzo, of course, wasn't foolish enough to admit all that in front of his own Edo Tensei—especially not with Mito Uzumaki among them, Nawaki's own grandmother.
As he spoke, he subtly triggered a seal, momentarily suppressing their awareness and placing them under full control remotely, erasing their personalities for a few moments.
And if the restriction was lifted later again, the battle would already be raging, and none of them would know about his words.
They would also never believe Konoha's official "enemies" over him anyway.
Still, his outburst hadn't been just arrogance; it was calculated provocation.
He wanted Tsunade to snap, to charge forward recklessly so his five Edo Tensei could fiercely overwhelm her all at once and remove a major threat in a single strike.
But that cursed boy ruined it again.
Ryusei's calm interference stopped her at the last possible moment. Danzo could tell, if not for him, Tsunade would've rushed straight into her death, just as her temper always dictated.