Deep within the cold, shadow-drenched halls of Root, Danzo Shimura stood like a monument of ambition — cloaked in silence, his face etched with calm arrogance and a fanatical glint in his eye.

Before him stood Orochimaru.

The reunion of two of Konoha's most infamous schemers should have reeked of tension, but what hung in the air instead was something darker — a vague, supernatural pressure, like the edge of madness.

Danzo's voice broke the silence. It was low, steady, and oddly enticing.

"Orochimaru… the Shinobi World will soon face an unprecedented disaster. But you and I — we see it for what it truly is: an opportunity. One that only the strong, the visionaries, can grasp."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, studying Danzo closely. He had always been perceptive to spiritual anomalies, and now, there was something off. Danzo's tone, his eyes, even the rhythm of his speech — all subtly... wrong.

It was as if something was whispering through him.

Danzo took a step forward, shadows curling behind him like tendrils.

"If I become Hokage, I will restore your status. Not as a missing-nin. Not as a traitor. But as Konoha's sanctioned genius. You'll have full access to the village's forbidden archives — all of them."

Orochimaru's brow lifted slightly.

"All? Even jutsu like Edo Tensei?"

Danzo didn't blink.

"Of course. Human experimentation, kinjutsu, all of it. The price of power must be paid, and we can no longer afford to be... moral."

The words should have thrilled Orochimaru. Instead, they disturbed him.

He masked his unease behind a familiar smile. But inwardly, alarms were blaring.

This wasn't the Danzo he remembered — not entirely. There was a force behind those eyes. Something twisting his ambition into obsession.

"Very well," Orochimaru said smoothly. "What do you require of me?"

Danzo didn't speak. Instead, he unfastened his cloak and opened it, revealing his mutated torso.

Wood-Release-enhanced tissue — stolen from the First Hokage — had spread far beyond what Orochimaru last remembered. It now crept across Danzo's chest and ribs like parasitic vines, yet he remained perfectly composed, in full control.

"I need more Sharingan."

He turned, and several Root operatives stepped forward, placing sealed containers on the operating table — dozens of them. Inside, Sharingan floated in nutrient solution, glowing softly, like crimson embers in the dark.

Spoils from the Uchiha massacre.

Orochimaru stood in silence. After a long moment, he nodded.

"As you wish."

He began his work swiftly — his hands moving with surgical precision, but his thoughts never left Danzo's strange presence. This wasn't merely a political maneuver. Danzo was evolving into something else. Something... inhuman.

As Orochimaru prepared another transplant, Danzo's voice broke the silence.

"You seem... distracted. Speak your thoughts."

Orochimaru paused only briefly.

"I was merely thinking... if the world is truly nearing its end, perhaps we should consider reviving someone who can guide us through it. Someone like... the Second Hokage."

Danzo's single exposed eye flickered. Then, he laughed coldly.

"Tobirama Senju would dismantle both me and Hiruzen the moment he returned. He believed in order — not ambition. If he walks again, we lose everything."

Danzo turned his full gaze on Orochimaru, narrowing his eyes.

"...Are you testing me?"

Orochimaru's lips curled faintly. "No."

Danzo didn't believe him.

He unwrapped the bandages from his right eye, revealing the truth.

The Mangekyō Sharingan of Shisui Uchiha — now corrupted, warped, and fully subjugated to Danzo's will — blazed to life.

"Before this eye, your schemes are transparent, snake. Do not test me again."

Orochimaru's grin didn't falter, but his golden eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

Danzo's eye twitched.

And then — he moved.

Faster than Orochimaru expected. A blur of motion that shouldn't have been possible for someone of Danzo's age and build.

Orochimaru's eyes widened as the elder warhawk surged forward, chakra erupting from his arm as the bandages unraveled. Dozens of Sharingan opened across the grotesque, wood-enhanced flesh of his right limb — each eye spinning with life and menace.

Danzo struck without hesitation.

Wind Release: Vacuum Bullet!

A hail of condensed air bullets ripped toward Orochimaru, carving through the metal walls like butter.

Orochimaru twisted his body unnaturally, his torso stretching and contorting like a serpent. The air blasts grazed him, tearing his cloak and splattering black blood against the walls.

Before he could fully reform, Danzo was already upon him — a chakra-infused tanto aimed straight at his neck.

Orochimaru reacted with preternatural speed. His mouth opened wide, and a giant white snake burst out, coiling around Danzo's arm and slamming him against the wall.

"Tsk. You're not as slow as I remember," Orochimaru hissed.

Danzo grunted, snapping the snake's spine with a pulse of Wind chakra, freeing himself mid-air. He landed and immediately unleashed Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere, a crushing dome of compressed air that exploded toward Orochimaru.

Orochimaru raised a hand — Summoning: Rashōmon!

A massive demonic gate tore out of the ground with a metallic roar, intercepting the blast. The wind tore through the gate with a thunderous crack, but the structure held long enough for Orochimaru to slip behind it and vanish into the floor like a shadow.

"You're more eager than usual," his voice echoed mockingly from the walls. "Is that your power talking? Or something else inside you?"

Danzo didn't answer.

The Mangekyō Sharingan of Shisui Uchiha flared to life — dark red with a pinwheel design, pulsing with a dreadful command.

"You talk too much."

Orochimaru's smile faltered for the first time.

In that moment, Danzo vanished.

No noise. No chakra.

Just — gone.

Orochimaru's instincts screamed. He turned—

—Too late.

A blade tore through his chest from behind.

The pain was real. Blood spilled freely. He stared down at the edge of Danzo's tanto sticking through his ribs.

But… something was off.

He collapsed to the ground — his limbs paralyzed, chakra leaking — and stared up at Danzo's cold, unblinking eye.

"You should never have tested me, snake."

And then—

Everything reversed.

Orochimaru was back on the other side of the room.

No wound. No blade. No blood.

Just silence.

He touched his chest. Nothing.

His breath was shallow.

"A Genjutsu…" he muttered. "But… that felt real."

Danzo hadn't moved. He watched Orochimaru with smug satisfaction.

"A small warning. Nothing more. You are a tool — nothing else. You are beneath me. I see through everything you are before you even think it with this eye of mine."

Orochimaru didn't reply. But something behind his smile shifted.

"You're starting to sound like an Uchiha, Danzo."

That remark hung in the air like poison.

But Danzo ignored it.

"How many more Sharingan can you implant? I want to implant every single of them into me."

Orochimaru licked his lips, amused.

"All of them...? That's ambitious, even for you."

Danzo's gaze turned icy.

"For Konoha to survive the coming age, it must be rebuilt through power. My power. No one — not the other Kage, not some asteroid, not fate — will deny me the Hokage seat."

His voice, now utterly devoid of restraint, rang with a disturbing finality.

"Let the world burn. I'll rebuild it from the ashes."

Orochimaru turned back to his tools. He didn't trust Danzo — but part of him wanted to see where this madness would lead.

After all... destruction breeds opportunity.