Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi

A gentle breeze blew across the land, kicking up a cloud of dust from the scene. Danzo seemed to have resigned himself to his fate. He stared blankly at the sky, motionless, as if to say, "kill me or cut me, do as you please."

But was Danzo really planning to be captured without a fight?

No. Kusuo was the first to not believe it. This old dog was incredibly sinister. The slightest carelessness, and you would fall into his trap.

Kusuo's expression was calm, but his heart was not the least bit careless. He observed him carefully, not sheathing his sword. Then, he sensed something, and a mocking smile appeared on his face as he stared at Danzo.

"As expected. We've already reached this point, and you still haven't given up hope, have you?"

Hearing these words, the expression on Danzo's face froze for a moment, then changed slightly. "Hmph! To the victor go the spoils. Since I have already lost at your hands, it is because my skills were inferior. As for what you're saying, I don't understand."

Seeing Danzo put on such a pretentious act, Kusuo sneered. "You don't understand?"

CLANG!

A sharp flash of a sword. The next second, Danzo's right eye, which had been covered by bandages the entire time, was instantly pierced by the blade.

"Ah! My eye!" Danzo let out a blood-curdling scream. At the same time, his heart turned to ash. A tempestuous wave of shock, like an earthquake, raged within him.

This... how could this be? How did this brat discover my secret?

Danzo clutched his right eye in disbelief, looking at Kusuo in horror. But the boy before him had a look of utter indifference, only the sword in his hand was dripping with blood.

"Did you think I didn't know you were secretly gathering chakra, attempting to activate the skill in your right eye? Heh. Shisui's eye. Kotoamatsukami."

"A non-Uchiha, coveting their power out of sheer greed, yet unable to even use it properly. I really don't know whether to call you foolish or pathetic."

"The sound of your right eye's 'breathing' was already as clear as day in my sight. With such an obvious fluctuation, you still thought you could use that move against me? What a joke!"

Kusuo mercilessly pierced through Danzo's last shred of effort. A true powerhouse, while having the heart of a tiger, must also be able to sniff the rose. Although he himself feared no strong enemy or sinister plot, he still had to pay attention to what needed attention. As long as Danzo dared to mobilize the chakra in his body, he wouldn't hesitate to end him with a single slash.

As for Shisui's eye... Kusuo had never thought of taking it. What wasn't his, was ultimately not suitable. For a non-Uchiha to use their eyes, both the cost and the activation method were more difficult. Not only was it useless in his hands, but there was also the risk of it being lost. It was better to destroy it with one slash.

"My lord!"

"Lord Danzo!"

The numerous flashes of lightning and screams had once again summoned the Root ninja that Danzo had sent away. But what met their eyes was a Danzo who had had his legs cut off, his right eye dyed red with blood, half-dead. And beside him stood a boy with a sword, his red clothes fluttering.

Their faces were filled with shock. After such a fierce battle, the boy didn't even have a speck of dust on him, and his red clothes were not even wrinkled. It was as if, with effortless grace, he had crushed Lord Danzo.

These men all looked at Kusuo with vigilance. Knowing that the gap in their strength was too great, they didn't rush up foolishly to their deaths. Of course, Kusuo had no interest in them at all. He just picked up Danzo's body with his sword and left.

"Captain, should we pursue?" a few of them asked their captain, hesitating.

The man called captain, to their surprise, took off his mask, revealing a somewhat honest-looking face. "Danzo is finished. Root should be disbanded from now on. From this day forward, don't call me captain. Just call me Yamato."

The image of the man with the hideous scar he had met in the Root prison flashed through his mind. He sighed deeply, then looked again at the ruins before him. This place was once the darkest, most cruel corner of Konoha, a place where filth was hidden. All the evils of the world had been played out here.

Now, it was all over. Because of that boy.

...

The public square of Konoha was bustling with people. It was located near the Hokage Tower. The newly rebuilt village was showing signs of vibrant life. The villagers' faces were filled with joyful smiles, and occasionally a few could be heard shouting loudly in the taverns and noodle shops.

"Did you know? That spy, that running dog from the Sound and Sand, walked past on the street this morning with his sword. My god, it scared me so much, my soul almost left my body!"

"Really? Who was he going to kill with that sword? This is Konoha, didn't anyone stop him?" a few people at a tavern table asked, sharing what they had seen.

"Heh, you say that, but if he wants to kill someone, who in the village can stop him? The ANBU? The heads of the great clans? I'm afraid they'd be cut down with a single slash!"

"That makes sense. Such a menace, why don't the village elders step forward and arrest him directly?"

"Where's Lord Danzo? Where are his men?"

"Shh! Keep your voice down! If Kusuo hears you, you're dead!"

However, the street suddenly fell silent, as if time had frozen. Immediately, everyone subconsciously stopped what they were doing, their gazes all turning in horror to a boy who was walking to the center of the square with a bloody person impaled on his sword.

Right in front of the Hokage Tower!

Hatake Kusuo. He had brought Danzo here to face judgment.

He smiled and looked at Danzo. "Well? I picked a good spot, didn't I? Don't you want to be Hokage? Today, right in front of the Hokage Tower, I will fulfill your dream!"

Although Danzo had already given up struggling, with most of his energy focused on resisting the pain in his body—a pain that was bone-deep, a stinging that reached his very soul and consumed a large amount of his energy—he still wore a disdainful smile. "Brat, do you think bringing me here will ruin my reputation? All those things from the past will rot in my stomach. I will die as a hero of Konoha! And you, for harming a village elder, will be wanted by the entire village from this day on. You'll spend the rest of your life as a missing-nin, cast out by the whole world, wandering the ends of the earth! Hahahaha, the thought of a genius like you ending up like this... it's worth it even if I die! How satisfying!"

"The White Fang back then, the Shisui and Itachi of the past, and now you! One by one, all you so-called geniuses will fall at my hands. I... am the biggest winner!" Danzo laughed wildly at the end, a hysterical, final madness on his face.

Unfortunately, his words had no effect on Kusuo at all. His heart was unstirred; he even felt a little like laughing.

Kusuo scanned his surroundings. The entire village's people and ninja had gathered here. The news that an elder had been captured by a demon had spread like wildfire. At this moment, all of Konoha's eyes were focused on him.

Danzo had already closed his eyes. Having lost his legs and all his subordinates, his heart was already like dead ashes. Since I'm going to die, I'll die as a hero, and drag a genius down with me. This was his last true thought.

"Isn't that the spy from another village? He's so bold now, he even dares to move against our village's elder! Isn't anyone going to stop him?"

"Where are the ninja-sama? The ANBU, the Root? Where have they all gone?"

"For an elder of the great Konoha to be humiliated like this, it's really infuriating!"

The commoners, completely brainwashed by the rumors, seeing Kusuo with his sword to Danzo, had already begun to shout angrily.

The crowd automatically parted. Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, and the other jonin also rushed to the scene. The moment they saw it, their pupils widened. Danzo's miserable state was shocking.

"How could Kusuo be so impulsive! So reckless! How is he going to clean this up? Is he going to become a missing-nin and betray Konoha too?" Asuma's feelings for Kusuo were no less than Kakashi's, as his cousin. As his proudest disciple, Asuma wasn't blaming him for cutting down Danzo, but was worried about his future.

Kakashi's eyes also narrowed slightly. He clenched his fists, sighing in his heart. After all, he's a hot-blooded young man, exceptionally talented. It's understandable that he would do something like this in a fit of anger. He silently made a plan. No matter what, he had to protect the last genius of his clan in the ensuing chaos and send Kusuo away safely.

Then, a large number of ANBU members arrived. In the lead were several captain-level figures in white cloaks.

Seeing this, the villagers all became excited. "Great! The ANBU ninja are here! This demon is finally going to be punished!"

"With the ANBU captains making a move, this brat is definitely finished. Let's just wait and watch the show!"

"Doesn't he know what place this is? The great Konoha, the number one ninja village in the world. Does he think he's so great just because he knows a little swordsmanship?"

"Exactly, exactly."

In the midst of everyone's expectations, they all wanted to see the ANBU captains use thunderous methods, striking decisively to take down the lawless youth in front of the Hokage Tower.

But the scene that followed made everyone's jaws drop. The ANBU captains, second in command only to the Hokage, directly leading the special assassination squads below them... their strength and status could be said to be below one person and above ten thousand. The White Fang of Konoha had once held this position, though his strength was even greater.

And now, these three ANBU captains in white cloaks actually walked forward and bowed to that boy? Their attitude was humble, their posture low, as if... they were thanking him.

The villagers who had witnessed this with their own eyes all rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

Kusuo, however, smiled and signaled for the ANBU captains to rise. Then, under Danzo's also shocked and uncertain gaze, he kicked him over to the ANBU.

The ANBU captains held up Danzo's body, faced the villagers and other ninja, and said loudly, "The Konoha traitor, Danzo Shimura, colluded with the S-rank missing-nin Orochimaru to assassinate Lord Third Hokage! His crime is unforgivable!"

"And there are various other evil deeds, all recorded on this scroll. We will distribute it to all of you shortly. The wickedness of his crimes, the cruelty of his actions, the twistedness of his methods... are too numerous to record!"

"And we announce the joint will of Konoha's leadership and the ANBU: We recognize the great merits of the Hatake clan's disciple, Hatake Kusuo, in the previous defense of Konoha. His military achievements are outstanding, his contributions illustrious! And at the request of the ANBU, he stepped forward to subdue the traitor Danzo. His efforts are of the highest merit!"

"He, Hatake Kusuo, is not a spy from another village, not our missing-nin, but everyone's hero!"

The ANBU captain suddenly shouted, "A hero of Konoha!"

The villagers and ninja were all dumbfounded. Kusuo isn't a traitor, not a spy, but a hero? They all looked at each other, a little confused. But these were the words of an ANBU captain! With the entire ANBU and the higher-ups backing him, how could it be false?

"That's right! I just remembered! The rumors that slandered Lord Kusuo before also started to spread from the mouths of some ninja who looked like Danzo's subordinates. I suspected it at the time, I didn't think it was actually true!"

"I remember now too! Dammit, I thought something was off at the time. A great hero who saved the village, how could he possibly be a traitor and a spy? It's ridiculous just thinking about it!"

"That old thing Danzo really deserves to die!"

"I spit on him!"

Immediately, people started to chime in after the fact, throwing eggs and spitting at Danzo. Danzo could only dodge in horror, like a rat in a stinking gutter, being beaten and cursed by everyone. He was even more confused. Why did the ANBU people directly take that brat's side? Why didn't I know anything?

When the scrolls detailing Danzo's crimes were distributed to the villagers and ninja one by one, especially to the heads of the various great clans, the atmosphere completely exploded. The items on it, one by one, were all the dirty things he had once done. Human experiments, harming villagers, even the children of great clans like the Kurama, Nara, and Yamanaka! All for the sake of experimenting with various ninjutsu, genjutsu, and Kekkei Genkai! But it was all just for Danzo's own selfish desires. The various crimes were simply shocking and outrageous.

"I'll kill you!"

"My daughter, my son, went missing without a trace ten years ago! It turns out they were captured by those bastards from Root for human experiments! Danzo, you old thing, you deserve a horrible death!" a woman screamed madly, desperately trying to break through the ANBU's blockade to kill Danzo.

Similar scenes were happening everywhere. The crowd was furious, their anger instantly ignited.

Looking at these commoners who usually revered him like a god, now with crazed looks on their faces, all wanting to eat his flesh and drink his blood, Danzo couldn't help but swallow. "Gulp..."

Hatake Kusuo, what on earth did that brat do? Where did he get this evidence?

Suddenly, a fragment of memory flashed past. His Root dungeon, and—

Ibiki Morino!

It was him!

Only this person could have taken all the secrets from the Root dungeon and used his interrogation secret arts to transmit them to others.

Having figured everything out, Danzo finally became terrified, his whole body trembling.

Kusuo looked coldly at everything that was happening in the square, watching them go from slandering him to cursing Danzo. His heart was unstirred, as if this world had only himself, and had nothing to do with anyone else.

Then, he held his sword and, step by step, walked to the captured Danzo being held by the ANBU captain. His lips parted slightly.

"I've wanted to kill you for a long time. But for the sake of Hinata, Hanabi, and the Hyuga's reputation, I let you live a little longer."

"Now, go and die!"

He slashed with his sword.

Schlick—

Danzo's head instantly hit the ground, rolling with a thump, thump, thump, his eyes wide with unwillingness.

POW!

Kusuo stomped down, and like a watermelon exploding, Danzo's severed head was crushed to a pulp. The red and white matter sprayed out, splashing onto the faces of many villagers.

Silence. Utter silence.

Everyone present was terrified. This move by Kusuo was so ruthless and decisive, it simply wasn't something a boy in his early teens could do. Recalling all the slander and criticism they had directed at him before, these villagers and ninja were now filled with fear, afraid that they too would have their heads cut off and stomped into pulp like Danzo.

But Kusuo seemed not to care about them at all. He walked straight to Hinata and Hanabi in the crowd, took their hands, one on each side, and left.

Everyone stared at the backs of the three of them, not daring to make a sound.

Just then, thud, thud, thud!

The sound of kowtowing was heard. It was the stall owner who had given Hinata and Hanabi a hard time before. He was trembling with fear, constantly begging for forgiveness, wanting to beg for Kusuo's pardon.

But the three of them, who were already walking further and further away, seemed not to have heard, and continued to walk into the distance until their backs completely disappeared.

Only then did these people finally realize a shameful and bitter fact.

That was... Hatake Kusuo had never put them in his heart from beginning to end. He had never cared about their opinions or their slander. He did as he pleased.

But from this point on, the name Hatake Kusuo would be forever linked with the hero of Konoha. A position no one could ever shake.

-------

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