The two friends flickered to the far side of the room, both facing each other with their hands ready. Hiruzen’s eyes softened for a brief moment as he spoke, his voice low and heavy. “Danzo, please… do not do this.” Danzo chuckled in open mockery. “The fact that you still hesitate is exactly why I am doing this.” His hand formed a single sign, and in the next instant dozens of seals ignited across the entire headquarters. Walls, floor, ceiling, pillars, even the stone beneath Hiruzen’s feet lit up in crimson patterns.

  Hiruzen did not move. His chakra surged outward in a violent wave, fire bursting around him as he flooded the area with raw power. The nearest seals burned out instantly, their light dying one after another as flames devoured the seal formulas and stone alike. His expression hardened, eyes turning cold as his hands blurred through seals with perfect execution and unmatched speed. “Fire Release: Piercing Flame Lance.” The attack shot forward with such speed that the air burst around it, the pressure creating a shockwave that split the room before the lance even reached its target.

  A barrier formed automatically in front of Danzo. The impact was immediate and brutal. The barrier groaned and screamed under the pressure, cracks racing across its surface as it struggled to hold. For a moment it endured, then shattered violently, fragments scattering as the lance continued forward and erased multiple walls behind Danzo. The seal system failed to absorb the full power, stone melting and collapsing in its wake. Danzo had already moved, his body flickering away the moment the barrier began to fail. His eyes narrowed, the darkness in them deepening as his expression hardened, fully aware that without that barrier he would have been in serious danger from a single jutsu.

  Hiruzen was already moving again. His hands formed seals as Danzo retaliated with multiple compressed wind bullets. The projectiles tore through the air with lethal precision, but Hiruzen finished first. He slammed both hands to the floor. “Earth Release: Shifting Fortress.” A massive wall of stone rose instantly, dense and reinforced with chakra. The vacuum bullets struck and shredded the surface, but failed to pierce through. Dust and debris exploded outward, the chamber shaking from the impact.

  Danzo’s hands moved again, faster now. He slammed his palm down. The entire area beneath Hiruzen ignited with refined red seals. This time the reaction was immediate and far more dangerous. Hiruzen attempted to flicker away, but multiple layered barriers delayed him just long enough. He unleashed fire again, but these seals were far more sophisticated, resistant to raw destruction and designed specifically to punish overconfidence. The ground trembled as heat and chakra surged violently upward.

  Hiruzen’s gaze sharpened. He did not panic. He weaved through hand seals, already analyzing the pattern while sensing the violent buildup of fire chakra. “Water Release: Flowing Prison.” At the exact moment the seals to his left detonated, a tremendous surge of water erupted around him. With incredible control, the mass rotated instantly, forming a shifting sphere that intercepted the blast. Steam exploded outward as water and fire collided, the pressure tearing through the chamber.

  Danzo adjusted his attacks immediately. Instead of detonating everything, he began triggering the seals in controlled sequences. Explosions came from different angles, probing, testing, forcing Hiruzen to shift his defense again and again. The rotating water barrier adapted with every strike, expanding, compressing, and redirecting the force. The floor shattered beneath the pressure, pillars cracking as the structure of Root headquarters groaned under the strain.

  Hiruzen sighed inwardly. “So he is testing me, trying to see how much weaker I am compared to my older self. Unlucky for you, old friend. I may have grown older, but my techniques have only become more refined.” His hands moved through seals without hesitation. “Fire Release: Flame Pressure Collapse.” The water around him vanished instantly, flash-evaporated into violent steam that filled the chamber. The temperature surged as the room roared with heat. His Earth Release remained active, walls rising and shattering in rapid succession to intercept the final detonations. The remaining seals burned away under the relentless pressure, their structure collapsing one after another, leaving nothing behind but scorched stone and a pulverized floor.

  Hiruzen’s eyes never stopped moving. He studied the mist, tracking the shifting layers of protection and searching for the smallest flaw. Then he noticed it. The sealing network did not fully contain the mist. It leaked from above. His body reacted before the thought fully formed. He leapt upward and planted his feet against the ceiling. Upside down, he formed seals and slammed both palms into the stone. “Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spears.” Massive stone spears erupted beyond the reach of the barrier and rained down over the entire section where Danzo stood. The impact was catastrophic. Stone shattered, floors collapsed, and the structure shook violently as the Root headquarters absorbed the full force of the attack.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Outside the barrier, Root operatives tensed as the building trembled. Several reached for their weapons, turning toward the ANBU with suspicion. Monkey stepped forward, his voice firm and controlled. “The Hokage ordered us not to intervene, no matter what happens. He does not want village blood spilled. There is no reason for us to fight.” The Root shinobi exchanged glances. They looked at Monkey, then at the two monsters standing behind him, before nodding in silent agreement. The ANBU had absolute faith in the Hokage. The Root operatives held the same certainty about Danzo.

  Hiruzen dropped back to the ground as the wind cooled and the remaining mist thinned. The battlefield revealed itself. Entire sections were destroyed. Debris covered both sides. Hiruzen stood among shattered seals and broken stone while Danzo’s position had been struck by the rain of spears. He narrowed his eyes, searching. “He could not have escaped. The barrier is perfect. It will not even allow reverse summoning.” His gaze shifted across the devastation until he found it. A massive hole in the floor where Danzo had been standing.

  Hiruzen exhaled and stepped forward, dropping through a collapsed section toward the lower levels. The moment his feet touched the ground, he expected another trap. Several seals surrounded him, but they felt different. There was no violent surge, no killing intent behind them. He narrowed his eyes and looked ahead.

  Danzo stood in the distance, finishing a final sequence of hand seals. A wide sealing circle spread outward beneath him, expanding across the entire floor of the chamber. The markings pulsed with dark chakra, lines overlapping and locking into place with unnerving precision. Behind him stood the Baku, its massive form unmoving, yet its presence alone twisted the air. Hiruzen’s expression hardened. He bit his finger and slammed his hand to the ground. “Summoning Technique. Come forth, Monkey King Enma.” Nothing happened.

  Hiruzen’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he understood. Danzo spoke calmly. “Do not think you are the only one who has barriers capable of interfering with summoning contracts. I developed my own countermeasures long ago.” The Baku opened its mouth, and a powerful suction struck Hiruzen instantly as the level of wind chakra in the air rose dramatically. His robes snapped violently as the force tried to drag him forward. He slammed both hands into the ground, forcing earth to surge upward and bind his legs in place. A vacuum blade followed, aimed directly at his head. Hiruzen raised an earth wall, reinforcing it with precise chakra control. The slash tore through the first layer but failed to reach him. Danzo continued firing vacuum bullets and slashes in relentless waves. Each wall Hiruzen raised crumbled under the pressure, only to be replaced immediately by another.

  Danzo was testing his stamina. Low-cost attacks. Summon pressure. Gradual exhaustion. Hiruzen understood the strategy instantly. He stopped defending.

  Danzo’s eye narrowed.

  Hiruzen formed seals again. As a vacuum slash approached, he tilted his head slightly and injected fire chakra into the wind. For a fraction of a second, he altered its trajectory. The redirected attack struck the barrier preventing him from summoning. Fire and wind tore into the barrier, which was designed to handle only wind chakra without damage to its structure. Now, fire-enhanced vacuum winds tore at it.

  Danzo’s eye widened. “Curse you, Hiruzen. If you are this strong, then why is the village so weak?” He formed seals. “Wind Release: Breakthrough.” A massive wave of wind surged forward, carrying countless vacuum blades within it. The Baku amplified the technique, the destructive force filling the chamber.

  Hiruzen smiled as his hands moved. “Fire Release: Great Fire Sea.” An enormous volume of fire erupted from his lungs, flooding the battlefield. The two techniques collided with overwhelming violence. Wind and fire screamed against each other. The temperature spiked as the flames fed on the wind, growing stronger and more unstable. Danzo combined his strength with his powerful summon to take control of the technique, yet Hiruzen fought both of them alone and still gained the upper hand. The vacuum blades lost cohesion and turned chaotic as Hiruzen won the deadly tug of war, using the space he had taken control of within the forced combination of their jutsu to tear apart the barrier around them.

  Danzo’s anger flared as the barrier began to crack under the internal pressure. Lines spread across its surface. Then it collapsed. Both techniques died at once. Smoke and heat filled the battlefield.

  Danzo stared at Hiruzen through the thinning smoke, disbelief and rage twisting his expression as the battlefield slowly came back into view.

  Behind Hiruzen stood a massive shape, its presence filling the room with ancient, suffocating pressure. The towering Monkey King rose from the smoke and shattered stone, white fur dulled by ash and shadow, muscles coiled with restrained power. His golden eyes burned with intelligence and fury, far too sharp to belong to any ordinary summon. The air tightened as he stepped forward, the ground cracking beneath his weight. Enma’s fangs showed in a grim snarl as he stared directly at Danzo.

  “You allowed this filth to grow in the darkness for far too long, Hiruzen.” His voice carried open contempt and restrained violence. He rolled his shoulders slowly, the movement heavy and deliberate, chakra rippling off him in thick waves that pressed against the air like a gathering storm. Even in his normal form, his presence alone felt like a weapon, something old and unbreakable.

  His gaze flickered briefly toward Hiruzen, assessing his condition. For a moment, the tension in his eyes eased, the hard lines of his expression softening slightly in relief before his focus snapped back to Danzo and the Baku. “You should have called on me sooner.”