Chapter 661

Chapter 661: Orochimaru’s Shock

He laughed and dived ahead to get a hold of Danzo’s body…

Poof…

Bang… Crash…

But for some reason Orochimaru didn’t understand, instead of grabbing Danzo’s body, he caught nothing in his grasp and fell into the rocks ahead.

He glanced at his empty hands, perplexed, and questioned, “What the hell happened?”

Orochimaru was baffled as to what had happened…

All the delight and excitement on his face faded as he stared at his empty palms, leaving him with feelings of loss, incredulity, and perplexity.

Orochimaru, startled, twisted his head mechanically and gazed toward the location where Danzo’s body was supposed to be…  But it was the fact that the body that had been lying there only a few seconds before had vanished into thin air as if it had been a trick of the light.

“Was it only a Genjutsu?” he questioned, “but I’m certain Nidaime Hokage-sama killed him…” “How can it be a Genjutsu?”

It was an odd thing to behold… and no explanation.

And, if Orochimaru appeared dazed and bewildered, Homusubi, on the other hand, appeared to be completely awake. At the same moment she noticed Danzo’s corpse vanish into thin air, she spun abruptly around and with great control made a sharp slash with the Golden Sword of her Susano’o.

The golden sword slashed through the air, carving vast ravines into the earth.

As a result of the ravines extending towards the magma pool not far away, magma began to flow through them and rise to the surface of the earth.

“Ahhhhhh….!”

As the magma began to pour in, a heavy and agonizing scream could be heard, which attracted the attention of Homusubi and Orochimaru.

Increasingly perplexed, Orochimaru said, his mouth agape, “How is this even possible? Hasn’t Danzo already passed away?”

Obviously, as everyone has probably figured by now, Danzo was the one who let out this agonizing scream.

However, as Orochimaru pointed out, Danzo should have been dead by now… Consequently, the question is… if Danzo was already dead, how is he still alive and able to cry out in agony?

To answer your question, Danzo was certainly murdered by Tobirama’s Water Style Ninjutsu, but the fact is that Danzo has mastered Uchiha’s banned Genjutsu Izanagi.

Izanagi is a forbidden Jutsu that has the ability to change the fate of the caster. Danzo, who has mastered this Forbidden Jutsu, instinctively used it when he sensed the approaching danger of death to change the fate of his death at the cost of one of the Sharingan implanted in his body, and as a result, he was saved from dying.

Uchiha Madara was able to deceive both Shodaime and Nidaime utilizing Izanagi, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Orochimaru was also duped in this instance as well.

In terms of the suspicions that Hashirama and Tobirama harbored until recently, it is due to the fact that Danzo’s mastery over Izanagi is not as perfect as Madara’s, and that the two of them are already dead, and as such, they understand the state of death better than any living shinobi around, and as a result, they were able to sense that something was wrong with Danzo’s death…

However, the actual cause for this was not known to them at the time, therefore.

However, Homusubi was well aware of the actual nature of the crisis, and she attempted to alert Orochimaru to it, but the fool utterly disregarded her…

In fact, not only did hers, Orochimaru utterly disregards the warnings of both former Hokages as well… The fool didn’t give Homusubi a chance to explain that Danzo wasn’t dead yet and instead released the souls of both former Hokages of their Edo Tensei bodies.

Because of this action of Orochimaru, the two Hokages who could have been a great help in the fight against Danzo were no longer helpful.

It was only now that Orochimaru realized that something weird was taking place… When Orochimaru watched how Homusubi suddenly slashed behind her, he recognized that Homusubi appears to be aware of the situation and couldn’t help but question her, with a blank expression, “What’s going on?!!”

With each passing inquiry, Homusubi’s rage became more. Tic marks emerged on her forehead and she exclaimed, “You fool…,” in frustration. “Can’t you keep your greed under control for a change and use your intellect? You’re a snake, aren’t you…? Then act like one for God’s sake!”

Orochimaru remained deafeningly quiet… In spite of the fact that he was embarrassed, he chose to swallow the insult and wait for Homusubi to explain the issue to him.

As Homusubi sighed, she explained, “This is the outcome when Izanagi is used.”

“Izanagi?!” When Orochimaru spoke, he had a thoughtful expression on his face. “I seem to recall reading this word on one of the scrolls while I was secretly sneaked into Konoha’s forbidden archives… but… as far as I recall, there was no explanation about it on that scroll… what is Izanagi?” he wondered. “Can you tell me what Izanagi is?” he asked.

It is not surprising that the restricted archives of Konoha included a scroll on Izanagi, but it is unfortunate that the scroll has no information about the Jutsu.

It’s extremely likely that the information contained on the scroll has been tampered with by someone… That someone may be anyone; it could be someone from the Uchiha Clan, it could be Danzo himself, it could be Black Zetsu, it could be anyone… but the point is, the scroll was tempered.

Well, whoever it was, he or she did an excellent job, and the information that should have been stored in that scroll is no longer there within it.

And, because Orochimaru betrayed Konoha so early in the game, he didn’t have the opportunity to learn about it from Danzo’s mouth either, which was unfortunate.

Homusubi is also aware of this truth, and as a result, she provided Orochimaru with a brief explanation of the ins and outs of Izanagi.

“How many Sharingan do you think Danzo has on his body?” she inquired after giving a brief summary of the situation.

And Orochimaru responded promptly, “Nine… with a matching set of Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan glinting in his eyes.”

Prior to the ceremony, Danzo had a total of eight Sharingan on his body, with one in his eyes and the other seven in his arm.

During the ritual, his other eye was also converted into a Sharingan, bringing the total number of Sharingan on his body to nine.

“It means that Danzo has a total of ten lives…” stated Homusubi, who rebuked Orochimaru fiercely. “Only one of his ten lives was finished…” she added. “And you lost yourself to your avarice seeing that, not only did you disrupt the battlefield’s flow, but you also undid the Edo Tensei of both the Shodaime Hokage and the Nidaime Hokage… even if Danzo wasn’t actually defeated at the time!

Danzo still has nine lives left despite the fact that the two of them are no longer present.

And I have my doubts about your ability to summon them again…!”

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes as he heard Homusubi say those words.

Homusubi shrugged her head, completely ignoring Orochimaru’s expression.

Homusubi couldn’t care less about the ideas that were racing through Orochimaru’s head at the time because her attention was diverted wholly elsewhere at the time.

Homusubi was able to detect Danzo’s usage of Izanagi and his concealed appearance behind her at the time, which is why she was able to instantly react and deliver a sharp slash in the appropriate manner.

The reason behind this is her pair of Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

It’s almost as though both pairs of Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan are connected to one another, which explains why she can foresee where Danzo will appear with the use of her pair of Sharingan…

It is not incorrect to state that her pair, as well as Danzo’s pair, have both far beyond the level of Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan at this time… A strong hostility between the two couples appears to exist at the same time, as evidenced by the fact that they loathe one another.

Because both sets of eyes appear to have some sense of reasoning, they appear to grasp that only one of them has the potential to evolve any further… which is why they both appear to harbor animosity toward one another, and clearly, as their users, Homusubi and Danzo are both adversely affected by their animosity toward one another.

This explains why Homusubi was able to detect the presence of Danzo, who was attempting to sneak up on her from behind and launched a counterattack of her down on him.