"Elder Danzo? What is this?"

Danzo Shimura did not answer. He stopped in front of Shinichi, coldly glanced at the boy, then spoke: "Idiot!"

"Idiot!"

Shinichi was slightly stunned.

Before he could react, Danzo Shimura launched into a harsh barrage of scolding.

"You overestimate yourself! Do you really think you’re invincible? Playing the hero, acting out some lone rear guard stunt? Think you’re impressive? Normally, you seem pretty smart, so why do you become stupid at the critical moment? You think dying like this is glorious? Great? I’m telling you, what you’re doing right now is the height of stupidity! A waste! A loss Konoha cannot bear!"

Shinichi listened quietly, his expression barely changing. Only after Danzo paused did he calmly speak: "Elder Danzo came here probably not just to specially scold me, right?"

"Scold you!? I came to wake you up! Shinichi Higashino, listen carefully!"

Danzo Shimura sneered, his eyes becoming even darker and colder. He stepped forward and stared directly at Shinichi.

"You think those subordinates of yours are important? I’m telling you, even if all of them were multiplied tenfold, they still wouldn’t equal the value of you returning alive! If you escape, in the future you can still avenge them!"

"And them? Even if they luckily escaped today thanks to your sacrifice, besides carrying guilt and regret for the rest of their lives, besides asking themselves over and over why they didn’t stay behind to live and die with you, what else can they do? Tell me, is there any more foolish choice in this world than that?!"

So that’s how it is.

In that instant, Shinichi had already understood why Danzo Shimura appeared here.

Thus, he spoke.

"So Elder Danzo... Have you also lived these years like this?"

"What?" Danzo Shimura was slightly stunned, seeming either not to hear clearly or to have heard clearly.

Shinichi did not repeat himself. He merely looked at him quietly and continued calmly: "Again and again, asking yourself why you didn’t stay behind with the second Hokage back then."

Hearing this, Danzo Shimura fell silent. Moonlight filtered through the branches and scattered across his face, causing that perpetually gloomy, unreadable face to rarely show a trace of stiffness.

"I don’t know what considerations the second Hokage had back then when he made that choice. As for me, I just want..."

At this point, Shinichi’s gaze shifted toward the direction his subordinates had retreated.

"Since I was the one who brought them out here, and since they’re willing to entrust their lives to me as their captain, then as their captain, I’ll do everything I can to let them all return alive."

"Perhaps back then, the second Hokage held similar thoughts as well."

Danzo Shimura looked at the boy before him. Under the moonlight, the boy’s expression remained calm, exactly the same as five years ago in the cemetery when he spoke that sentence to a companion who had lost his father.

As though it were only natural.

As though it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

At that instant, Danzo Shimura became dazed.

In that daze, he saw the silver-haired back from decades ago in the forests of the Land of Lightning, decisively turning around and leaving the hope of survival to his students.

In that daze, the outline of that back seemed to blur and twist, transforming into another illusory image, a young Danzo Shimura who, at the same moment, had not weighed gains and losses, had not hesitated, but instead chosen to stay behind together.

That other self who could have existed.

The self he had personally strangled deep within his heart.

The self that tormented him in countless sleepless nights.

After two seconds of silence, Danzo Shimura suddenly laughed. The smile appearing on his usually ancient, well-like, gloomy face, which rarely showed emotion, felt especially abrupt, yet it carried a trace of relief.

"Shinichi Higashino, you really are very much like my teacher. Normally, you’re so calm, so skilled at scheming, yet at the critical moment, you always make the most unwise choice."

"But this is exactly who my teacher was."

Danzo Shimura slowly swept his gaze across the surroundings, as though identifying something, or perhaps recalling something.

"If that day... I also could have..."

The latter part of his voice became lower and lower, so low it was nearly inaudible, finally dissipating into the night wind without finishing.

That hypothetical possibility that had lingered around him for decades ultimately was never fully spoken aloud.

A moment later, Danzo Shimura deeply inhaled, suppressing those surging old memories and emotions back into the deepest corners of his heart. His gaze refocused, and when it returned to the boy’s face, it had regained a strange clarity and calmness.

"Go."

He spoke softly, his tone so casual it was as though he were discussing something utterly ordinary.

Shinichi froze for a moment, then looked at him in confusion.

"I’ll handle this place."

Danzo Shimura ignored the boy’s stunned reaction. His voice was light, so light it was almost like self-muttering.

"This time... I’ll do it."

He looked at the boy before him, as though speaking to Shinichi, yet also as though speaking to the teacher from decades ago who had quietly waited for his answer, and even more as though speaking to the young man back then who had repeatedly struggled and hesitated within this murderous forest.

Finally, slowly, word by word, he completed the final unfinished sentence, as though filling a blank that had stretched across countless years, and as though fulfilling a promise delayed far too long.

"It’s my turn now!"

The moment those words left his mouth, Danzo Shimura seemed to completely awaken from a long, muddled state of while dreaming, unaware he was dreaming. It was as though he had finally cast off every shackle binding him, as though he had untied the knot buried in his heart for decades that he could never undo.

"Elder Danzo?"

Danzo Shimura ignored him. Instead, he slightly tilted his head and calmly spoke toward the seemingly empty darkness beside him: "You all, come out."

Swish!

Silently, thirty ghost-like figures instantly appeared around them, kneeling on one knee in perfect unison. They were precisely the Root elites he had brought with him on this mission. Their heads were lowered as they awaited orders.

"Protect him." Danzo Shimura’s voice still carried no fluctuation whatsoever. "At all costs, escort him safely out of the Land of Lightning!"

’The leader... Plans to stay behind alone?’

The thirty root members all showed a brief moment of hesitation and shock upon hearing this.

But years of training and the imprint of absolute obedience instantly suppressed every distracting thought. They all lowered their heads together, forcibly swallowing every question and concern, and responded with deep conviction: "Understood!"

"Boy."

Only then did Danzo Shimura turn toward Shinichi. A trace of what could almost be called gentleness unexpectedly appeared on his face, though it vanished in an instant.

"Live well."

After saying that, he no longer lingered. Resolutely turning around, he stepped toward the darkness that had devoured his teacher and imprisoned him for half his life.

"Elder Danzo!" Shinichi frowned tightly and subconsciously stepped forward.

Almost simultaneously, the two root members closest to him moved slightly and extended their arms to block him, solemnly persuading: "Captain Shinichi, please stop."

"You all."

Shinichi’s gaze swept across the root members before him. "Are you really planning to just stand there and watch your leader go to his death alone?"

The root members fell silent for a moment. Then one of them answered in a low voice, "This is Danzo-sama’s order, Captain Shinichi. Please do not make things difficult for us."

"And what if I insist on making things difficult for you?"