Naruto: Get Stronger by Spoiling My Sister

"I can't die yet… I can't die!!"

Danzo muttered under his breath, eyes locking onto Tsunade. If he could control her…

He staggered to his feet, each step leaving behind a bloody footprint as he lunged toward her.

"So the cells of Hashirama really do give that much vitality... but still," Neji noticed Danzo's intent the moment he moved. With a cold snort, he summoned a massive earth dragon that burst from the ground and blocked Danzo's path.

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"

"Dammit!"

Danzo barely twisted his body to dodge the flying chunks of earth, but the ground beneath him suddenly trembled. Cracks began to form.

"Not good!"

"Earth Style: Earth Piercing Spears!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several stone spears shot out from the ground.

"So he's aiming for the instant I land? Every step is a trap. This guy... is terrifying. I absolutely cannot let him leave here alive."

Blood filled Danzo's mouth as he spat it out. His lone eye was ice-cold.

Whoosh-

He exhaled a gust of wind, using the recoil to launch himself away from the spears. But what he saw next was the roaring face of a twin lion's head barreling toward him.

"Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists!"

"Monstrous strength!"

"No chance to react at all, huh? Then I have no choice." Danzo glanced at the bystanders below, their expressions cold and detached, and quickly made up his mind.

If he died now, everything would be over.

Just as Neji's attack was about to land, the remaining Hashirama cells in Danzo's right shoulder began to pulse violently. In an instant, a massive tree grew from his body, shielding him from the blow.

As soon as the tree erupted, everyone's minds buzzed with shock. Even Tsunade and her companions, still locked in battle, turned their heads.

"Th-That's Wood Style!"

"Why can Danzo use a jutsu that only the First Hokage could use?" Mitokado Homura stared at the tree in disbelief.

"Don't tell me…" A realization hit him. He immediately shouted, "Quick! Open that door!"

His face turned grim. He had overlooked something critical. Now that he thought about it, the fact that the door remained intact after such intense battles was already suspicious.

Danzo had been willing to exhaust his chakra rather than let that door take any damage. That alone showed how important whatever was behind it truly was.

"Damn it! Danzo, what secret have you been hiding?"

At that moment, no one paid any more attention to the battle between Neji and Danzo. Not even Tsunade. She gave the order too, feeling in her gut that the answer she sought was right behind that door.

"Heh," Neji let out a faint chuckle. "Danzo, looks like your secret is about to come out."

"After using that Assaulting Tree technique, I bet you're nearly out of chakra. And now that you've lost most of your Hashirama cells, your Wood Style isn't exactly impressive anymore."

Neji mocked, eyeing the tree that had barely managed to block his blow.

Cough cough… After casting so many jutsu and fighting at full intensity, Danzo's already wounded body was on the verge of collapse. Using such a chakra-draining technique had pushed him even closer to the brink.

"Who the hell are you?!" Danzo wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and growled. There was no way this was the real Hyuga Neji. How could a kid barely in his teens know so much about him?

It was as if everything about him had been laid bare under this boy's gaze. That unease crept deeper into Danzo's heart.

"What do you think?" Neji gave a strange, unsettling smile. It made Danzo's skin crawl. That smile… it was a tacit admission. He wasn't Neji at all.

Suddenly, Danzo was overcome with dread. This person had infiltrated Konoha unnoticed, impersonated a Hyuga prodigy, and acted with unknown intentions. He had to be eliminated.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The tree was suddenly cut down, and two Wind Style: Shuriken tore through the air.

"You can't form seals, can't maintain Wood Style, and your taijutsu can't match mine. So this is your last resort?" Neji easily dodged the flying projectiles, slowly closing in on Danzo. "But it's all meaningless."

"Not necessarily." Danzo sneered. His right eye, concealed beneath the bandages, began to gather chakra.

Through the cloth, a terrifying ocular power suddenly surged, locking onto Neji.

"Kotoamatsukami!"

Neji abruptly stopped in his tracks. His chakra-coated hand froze just inches from Danzo's throat.

"Heh… hahahaha..." Danzo broke into laughter. "You didn't expect that, did you? Even through the bandages, Kotoamatsukami can still activate."

"You accused me of being careless, but now I return those words to you. In the end, it is I who have the last laugh."

Danzo walked past Neji, full of smug satisfaction.

He had never intended to kill Neji only control him. All that fury, all that killing intent just a ruse to fool Neji. And it had worked. In this kind of mind game, Danzo had always been a master.

Anyone else would be dead by now. Unfortunately for him, this opponent was Neji.

"I told you you were the careless one."

Swoosh!

A cold wind swept past Danzo's back. A chilling voice whispered into his ear, and his eyes widened in horror as sweat poured down his face.

In the next instant, a sharp weapon pierced his back. His body twitched, his pupils dilated, and an unbearable pain washed over him.

Before his eyes, his wound began to rot away. Or rather… it crumbled into dust, into scraps of paper that fluttered into the air.

Danzo was stunned. He tried to muster chakra to stop the process, but it was futile. It was Dust Release: All-Killing Ash Bones an unavoidable death sentence. Once it struck, death was guaranteed.

"What…?" Danzo slowly turned his head, horrified that he couldn't stop the decay. He stared at Neji, disbelief written across his face.

"Why? Why…?"

There was so much in that one word. Why couldn't he resist the decay? Why hadn't Kotoamatsukami worked? Why was Neji so determined to kill him?

"Heh. You can think about all that once you're in the afterlife. As for Kotoamatsukami… take a closer look."

Neji gestured forward.

Danzo's eyes widened in disbelief. The one he had "controlled" was nothing but a wood clone.

"You still had Kotoamatsukami, so you hadn't used Izanagi yet. That's why I dared to come personally," Neji said calmly. "But now, you've burned through both options."

"To think… I'd lose to a brat like you…" Danzo muttered.

And with that, his body disintegrated completely erased from the world.