Ch 147

Danzo stepped closer, his movements slow, calculated. He kept a small but clear distance between us, as if approaching a wild animal he wasn't entirely sure wouldn't bite. 

Smart of him. 

The man had survived this long by being cautious, after all. But I still noted he came alone. 

No guards. No Root shadows. Just him, in his usual cloak and bandages, standing against the wind like the world owed him stillness. 

"I'll admit," he said at last, his voice calm but edged with that ever-present judgment, "I'm surprised you're still alive." 

I didn't look at him. Just rolled my eyes and leaned back on one hand in the grass. 

"You always were bad at predicting outcomes with me, old man." He hummed low in his throat, something amused or close enough to it for someone like him. 

"Still a child," he muttered, almost like a reflex. That made me scoff. 

"Right," I said, finally glancing his way. "Because I'm the immature one. We were both working with Orochimaru at one point. I could say the same to you." 

Danzo tilted his head slightly, and for a moment, there was something eerily thoughtful in his expression. 

"You're dangerous, girl," he replied. "Very dangerous. And because of that... you're in danger yourself. Information like what you know, the people you've met, some won't allow that to exist freely." 

I shrugged. "I don't care anymore." That made him pause. 

I turned to face him more directly, lifting my arm slowly, letting the bloodied sleeve fall back just enough to show the shallow cuts and my own Sharingan still active in both eyes. 

"How's your arm doing?" I asked, tone sharp and cold. "The one with all the Sharingan in it. The masked man must've been generous to keep supplying you." 

Danzo's lips curved, just barely. A faint smile, smug and calm. "You won't live long with that attitude." 

"I've lived long enough." I stood slowly, wiping the blood from my palm against my pants. My eyes locked on his. 

"You know I blame you, right?" I asked, voice quiet but laced with venom. 

"For everything. For the way I was treated. For what the Uchiha became. For what I became. I blame you." Danzo didn't flinch. He didn't argue. He only nodded, as if accepting a fact carved in stone. 

"Many people do," he replied simply. "Some with good reason. But very few have succeeded in revenge." 

His calmness only made me angrier. And more certain. A sharp, humorless laugh escaped me before I could stop it. 

It wasn't loud, it was low, bitter, almost disbelieving. Danzo's words echoed in my mind: Very few have succeeded in revenge. 

"You think I want revenge?" I asked, still laughing faintly. 

"Of course you do. That's your first thought, isn't it? That I'd want to strike you down where you stand." My eyes gleamed, the Sharingan still swirling. 

"Do you want me to try? Is that why you came alone?" Danzo remained silent, but there was something in his posture, alert, expectant. He was ready. My smile vanished.

"Funny how you say you're alone," I said softly. "But I count five. In the trees. In the grass. Invisible. One to the left, two behind, one under that slope, and the last, well, they're not as subtle as they think." 

I tilted my head. "Root's always been good at hiding, but you trained them for the wrong enemy." 

Danzo didn't bother denying it. His eye narrowed slightly, but his expression barely shifted. 

"You're sharp," he responded, as if testing the words in his mouth. "The Sharingan... it is a fascinating dōjutsu. But you don't deserve it." 

That pulled a real smile from me, mocking, sharp-edged. "I don't deserve it?" I repeated, voice tight. 

"I was born with it. My mother carried it in her blood, and so did I. I didn't claw it out of the corpses of children. I didn't steal mine from the victims of my own schemes." 

Danzo's gaze hardened. "The Uchiha were planning a coup. The situation was out of my hands." 

"Bullshit," I snapped. The word cut through the field like a blade. My breath was shallow now, the anger rising again, flooding through the cracks grief had left behind. 

"You made it happen. You wanted it to happen. You pushed them to the edge and then acted like it was fate. You were just waiting for an excuse to wipe them out." 

Without breaking eye contact, I reached to my wounded arm and slowly pulled free a long, jagged shard of glass still buried just beneath the skin. 

Blood welled up around it, dripping down my wrist. The pain flared bright but I welcomed it. My hand trembled slightly as I raised the shard and pointed it at him. 

"Maybe I should kill you," I replied, voice deadly quiet. The field fell silent. Even the wind seemed to still. Danzo didn't move. Neither did the hidden ROOT. 

"Right here," I continued. "Right now. No seals. No genjutsu. Just one well-aimed strike." I took a slow step forward, the bloody shard glistening in the sun. 

I kept the glass shard pointed at him, fingers tight around it despite the way the blood slid down my arm. 

One wrong move, one word too far, and I might actually do it. I wanted to. God, I wanted to. Not just because he deserved it but because everything about him made my skin crawl. 

Every breath he took felt like it stole air from people who should still be alive. But Danzo, as always, was calm. Like he knew anger made people reckless. 

"I had a talk with the Fifth Hokage," he said suddenly, his voice measured. "About you." 

My eyes narrowed. 

"Tsunade... seemed particularly interested." 

I didn't blink. I didn't flinch. But something in me snapped just a little more. My lip curled, more frustrated than surprised. 

"Ahh," I hummed, low and bitter. "No wonder." 

It all started clicking into place, the way Tsunade hesitated, the way she didn't fight harder to stop Inoichi, the way she'd looked at me like something already broken. I thought it was guilt. Maybe it was. But there was something else there now. 

Paranoia. 

"Let me guess," I said, eyes sharp. "You planted the idea. Gave her that little seed of suspicion." Danzo didn't say anything at first. Just gave a small, slow nod. 

"You've been away a long time," he said. "And your ties to Orochimaru, to the Akatsuki, to Uchiha outcasts are... complicated." I tilted my head, the shard still held steady. 

"So you told her I was being controlled." Another nod. Slight. Like he was doing me the favor of honesty. 

"You never change," I muttered, stepping closer, the anger bubbling under my skin again. "That's your trick, isn't it? You don't need proof. Just doubt. Just enough to make people ask questions." 

His expression didn't change, but I saw the satisfaction in his eye. He wanted me to lose it. To swing. 

To give his shadows a reason. I took a breath. Deep. Shaky. But I didn't lower the shard. I just smiled. Cold. Controlled. 

"You really want me to play the villain," I whispered. "But you're forgetting, I'm better at it than you think." 

Danzo was being too honest. That was the first warning bell. 

The man never gave up information unless he had a plan behind it, unless the words themselves were tools. Every nod, every carefully spoken truth... it was all part of something larger. 

He wanted me to see the pieces. He wanted me to start putting them together. Which meant he wasn't expecting me to leave this field alive. 

My grip on the glass shard tightened. I let my breath slow. Not from fear but from instinct. Training. 

The kind of control you only develop when your life's been dangling off a knife's edge for years. I scanned the tree line again, my sharingan coming in handy. 

They were at the edge of the field, the forest was close by. There. A faint glint. A flicker of shadow. Movement in the grass behind me. They hadn't flinched, hadn't charged. Not yet. 

They were waiting for something. 

A signal? 

No, an opening. 

Danzo was stalling. Feeding me truth, getting me to engage, to lash out, to lose myself in emotion. The moment I struck him, I'd be dead before I hit the ground. 

A kunai to the throat. A poisoned needle from the dark. One command and they'd erase me. But I refused to die by his hands. 

Not here. 

Not like this. 

A/n Lets see how long I can keep up this one chapter a day, cause let me tell you, I am doing nothing else! No job, nothing. Well, I kind of consider this my job, I get paid with all you guys being happy!! Enjoy~