The reason Kagami had been able to kill Danzo twice in succession and successfully seize his right arm embedded with Sharingan was not because his strength truly overwhelmed Danzo’s.
Rather, he had taken advantage of Danzo’s loss of reason and his resulting inability to analyze and judge the battle situation. By pitting his own strengths against Danzo’s weaknesses and exploiting the environment, Kagami had achieved those results.
It was more akin to a hunter setting traps to capture a wild beast than a contest of wits between two shinobi.
If Danzo had retained even the slightest shred of reason, like when he had initially fought four opponents by himself, the outcome would have been completely different.
Putting everything else aside, if Danzo had simply used Wood Release at the appropriate moment, he could have easily restrained Kagami’s Susanoo. If he then combined that with his own Susanoo, Kagami’s Fire Release clone would have been no match whatsoever for Danzo, who had survived the ritual and fused seven different Kekkei Genkai.
Yet for some unknown reason, Danzo had actually regained his reason while trapped in that desperate situation!
That was precisely why Kagami had abruptly stopped in his tracks.
He knew very well that, by himself, he was simply no match for a rational Danzo.
If he was careless, he might even end up trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it. Not only would he fail to seize Danzo’s Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he might even lose his own Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan instead.
However, Kagami quickly realized that the Danzo before him did not seem to have regained his reason.
It was more as though his entire personality had suddenly changed.
From what Kagami knew of Danzo, he was a narrow-minded and extremely radical man. He might be wary. He might be afraid. But he would never reveal the kind of unease and nervousness that only a rookie shinobi would display.
"Is there something wrong with his soul... or did he regain his reason and deliberately set a trap for me?"
Watching Danzo use Swift Release to flee the lava cavern in a panic, a trace of hesitation flashed across Kagami’s face.
This struggle over the Power of All Creation had caused Kagami’s and Danzo’s Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan to establish a connection, making each pair an extraordinarily special existence to the other.
The ocular power of these two pairs of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was like two opposite sides of the same coin—the two poles of Yin and Yang!
They were mortal enemies, yet at the same time, each was the other’s sole condition for evolving into the Rinnegan. Only by completely absorbing the other’s ocular power could one of them successfully evolve into the Rinnegan.
Otherwise, no matter how many other Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan they absorbed, they would still be unable to evolve into the Rinnegan.
It was precisely because of this that Kagami had to be exceptionally cautious.
In his eyes, Danzo was prey.
But in Danzo’s eyes, he was prey as well!
For Kagami, obtaining the Rinnegan would merely give him another trump card—another resurrection card.
But if Danzo obtained the Rinnegan, a power capable of distorting the boundary between life and death, then things would become extremely troublesome.
That brief moment of hesitation caused Kagami to miss his chance to escape the lava cavern.
By then, the cavern had completely collapsed. Countless boulders came crashing down from every direction, leaving Kagami no choice but to maintain his Susanoo at full strength and withstand the earth-shattering collapse head-on.
......
Outside the lava cavern.
Watching the towering volcano collapse before his very eyes, the one-eyed Kakashi’s face filled with despair.
At that moment, it was as though he had returned to the past—to the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, an event that had left him filled with endless regret yet utterly powerless to change anything.
Back then, just like now, shattered rocks had come crashing down.
The only difference was that the one buried beneath the rocks back then had been Obito, who had saved his life.
And now, the ones about to be crushed beneath countless falling boulders were the hundreds of unconscious Konoha shinobi lying within the chakra transmission array.
It was easy to foresee that if no one came to their aid, every last one of those Konoha shinobi would inevitably die beneath the landslide.
Meanwhile, the Root shinobi had already scattered and fled.
To them, having all the Konoha shinobi in the chakra transmission array die beneath the collapsing mountain might not necessarily be a bad thing.
After all, only if every single witness died here could the inhumane atrocities committed by Root remain hidden!
"No, I can’t run! If Sensei could do it, then I can do it too!"
Beneath the enormous shadow cast by the countless falling rocks, the despair vanished from Kakashi’s face, replaced by unwavering determination.
He hurled every specially made kunai engraved with the Flying Thunder God formula from his ninja tool pouch toward the chakra transmission array.
Whoosh—
In an instant, his figure transformed into countless afterimages, constantly flickering throughout the chakra transmission array.
And with every flicker, one unconscious Konoha shinobi disappeared from the array.
While Kakashi desperately worked to rescue the unconscious Konoha shinobi, a figure suddenly leaped out from the collapsing volcano.
In midair, the figure stepped across one falling chunk of rock after another. With only a few swift movements, he escaped the range of the volcanic collapse and landed far away on the ground.
The moment the figure that had emerged from the volcano landed, several nearby Root shinobi immediately converged on him while shouting,
"Lord Hokage!"
Obviously, the person who had leaped out of the volcano was none other than Danzo.
However, upon seeing his subordinates gathering around him, Danzo instead revealed an uneasy expression.
In the next instant, his figure flashed.
He charged straight at one of the Root shinobi and killed him, then frantically broke through their encirclement and fled!
The remaining Root shinobi stopped dead in their tracks and stared at one another in bewilderment!
In the distance, Orochimaru emerged partially from beneath the ground.
After witnessing this scene, a trace of confusion flashed across his face as well. Clearly, even he could not understand why Danzo had suddenly killed one of his own Root subordinates and fled in such a panic.
But Orochimaru did not hesitate for long.
He followed from a distance.
Earlier, he had merely feigned his death inside the lava cavern to avoid confronting Danzo head-on, because he knew very well that he was no match for the current Danzo.
Not long after Danzo broke through the encirclement, however, he ran straight into the group from Kumogakure that was rushing toward the scene.
Looking at Danzo approaching head-on, the Fourth Raikage angrily demanded,
"Danzo, what the hell are you up to?! Why did you kidnap our Kumogakure Kekkei Genkai shinobi?"
Although Danzo’s appearance had undergone considerable changes, the Hokage attire he wore allowed the Fourth Raikage to recognize him at a glance.
Seeing the large force of Kumogakure shinobi rushing toward him, panic immediately appeared on Danzo’s face.
His figure flashed as he attempted to charge straight through the Kumogakure shinobi surrounding him.
Whoosh—
Amid the sharp sound of rushing wind, the Fourth Raikage, his entire body crackling with blue lightning, caught up with Danzo.
Immediately afterward, the two incredibly fast figures collided and smashed into the ground with a thunderous—
BOOM!
Amid the billowing dust and smoke, the Fourth Raikage rose to his feet and roared,
"Why are you so fast?! Don’t tell me you underwent the same kind of evil ritual as that rogue shinobi from your village, Hiruko!"
Danzo also climbed to his feet and said,
"I don’t want to kill anyone. Don’t push me!"
The thought that Kumogakure’s kidnapped Kekkei Genkai shinobi had most likely already been reduced to nothing but bones filled the Fourth Raikage with uncontrollable rage.
"Today, on behalf of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, I’m going to put an end to scum like you!"