"Food Cart Destroyer Technique!"
With a loud shout, a massive toad came crashing down from midair, landing squarely on the reanimated First and Second Hokage. The impact also knocked Tobirama's Water Severing Wave off course, sending it slicing straight toward the distant Hokage Rock.
As luck would have it, the attack struck none other than the stone face of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju himself.
Truly a case of 'I hit myself'.
It just goes to show how crude this 1.0 version of the Impure World Reincarnation is, as the reanimated subjects inherited only a fraction of their original power.
In the original work, even when Orochimaru first reanimated the First Hokage, he could only manage a modest Wood Release Ninjutsu, which is a far cry from the towering Susanoo-like constructs he effortlessly summoned in his prime.
"Jiraiya!"
If there was anyone in the Ninja World besides Jiraiya himself who was most familiar with this technique, it was Orochimaru.
Much like Naruto and Sasuke, Hiruzen and Danzo, or Hashirama and Madara in the original story, Orochimaru and Jiraiya were another pair of frenemies bound by love and hate.
It seemed to be a signature trait of Konoha, something you just had to experience.
Jiraiya didn't even bother responding to Orochimaru. Instead, he stood atop the summoned toad's head, glancing toward Hiruzen.
"Old man! Can you still hold on?"
Thanks to Naruto's sudden intervention, Orochimaru hadn't been able to summon his snake army outside the village as planned, which would have kept Jiraiya tied up elsewhere.
Seeing his student come to his aid, a faint look of relief crossed Hiruzen's old face.
In stark contrast, Danzo's expression darkened to the extreme.
'This is bad.'
If earlier, he could still take advantage of the lack of witnesses, kill Hiruzen, and pin the blame on the Missing-nin, Orochimaru, now that Jiraiya was here, the success rate of that plan had plummeted.
As one of the [Sannin], Jiraiya commanded immense respect in the village, even though he was rarely around. If he testified, no one would believe Danzo's version of events.
'Unless…'
Danzo touched his bandaged eye.
'Damn it. I hadn't fully integrated Hashirama's cells yet… otherwise, I could have used that eye, the one capable of turning the tide.'
"Orochimaru! Attack now!"
Danzo knew they couldn't afford to drag this out. The Temple of Nirvana Technique wouldn't last forever, and if the others woke up, it would truly be the end for him.
He deeply regretted his rash decision to act, but at this point, there was no turning back.
With a fierce glare, Danzo launched two more True Wind Release Shuriken. At the same time, he charged forward, his fighting style suddenly becoming recklessly aggressive.
Hiruzen had been handling Danzo's attacks with relative ease, but now that his opponent was fighting as if he had nothing to lose, even Hiruzen found himself struggling.
After deflecting the shuriken with his Adamantine Staff, Hiruzen created a few shadow clones, and together, they unleashed their combined Five Release Great Combo Technique.
Having realized Danzo's ambitions, Hiruzen no longer held back.
Thankfully, the open area in front of the Hokage Building was spacious enough, and the villagers were still unconscious elsewhere, otherwise, this attack alone would have caused untold collateral damage.
However, Danzo seemed to ignore the Ninjutsu entirely, charging straight through its range.
Before Hiruzen could react, an unharmed Danzo burst through the flames and closed in on him.
"How…?"
At this time, Hiruzen suddenly remembered that Danzo had done something similar earlier, completely disregarding his Ninjutsu attacks.
'What is going on?'
Hiruzen was confused, but Danzo had no intention of explaining.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Blade!"
The Wind Release Chakra wrapped around the kunai transformed into a sharp blade, thrusting straight toward Hiruzen.
"Enma!"
At such close range, Hiruzen immediately extended the Adamantine Staff, using the pole to block the incoming Vacuum Blade.
Hiruzen had already noticed the anomaly in Danzo's abilities, and that damage-negating power was truly troublesome.
Because of this, once Danzo closed the distance, Hiruzen relied on the freely extendable Adamantine Staff to maintain space between them.
It had to be said that Hiruzen's combat instincts were still sharp. This move effectively thwarted Danzo's plan to exploit Izanagi's 'invincibility window' to kill him outright.
While the two old men were locked in their tug-of-war, Orochimaru seemed completely uninterested in following Danzo's orders.
And for good reason.
In his opinion, Danzo was nothing more than a disposable pawn. Did anyone actually expect him to honor their 'cooperation' and keep his word?
For people like them, not stabbing each other in the back was already an act of charity.
Besides…
Staring at Jiraiya before him, Orochimaru temporarily set aside his plans to deal with Hiruzen.
"Summoning Technique!"
A massive, purple-black snake, Manda, emerged beneath him, its sheer size dwarfing the toad Jiraiya had summoned before.
"Orochimaru! You dare summon me? You'd better have prepared the tribute. If there aren't at least a hundred live sacrifices, I'll eat you instead!"
Manda was notoriously foul-mouthed, treating Orochimaru with blatant disdain.
But Orochimaru couldn't care less about the attitude of such a mindless beast.
"Of course. Once we deal with them, you can feast on everyone here to your heart's content!"
Orochimaru had no problem making empty promises like this, after all, he didn't particularly care if Manda went on a rampage.
With the deal secured, Manda immediately coiled its tail around the toad Jiraiya had summoned earlier, binding it tightly.
Seeing this, Jiraiya simply dispelled the toad's summoning and slapped his hand on the ground again, performing another summoning.
A massive tanto descended from the sky, grasped by an enormous toad, Gamabunta, who thrust it straight down at Manda below.
If not for Manda's quick reflexes, it would have been skewered on the spot.
Manda clamped its jaws around the blade, preventing Gamabunta from pulling it back, then attempted to wrap its tail around the toad again.
But Gamabunta released the sword and leaped back with surprising agility, its massive size not hindering its movements in the slightest.
"I'll turn you into toad jerky, you bastard!"
"Perfect. I could use a new snakeskin wallet!"
The two intelligent summoning beasts glared at each other, poised to strike at any moment.
Manda flung the tanto aside, which Gamabunta easily dodged before swiftly retrieving it from the ground and raising it horizontally to block Manda's venomous fangs.
Even with the spacious area in front of the Hokage Building, the sheer size of these two summoning beasts made their battle destructive.
Watching as Manda's tail accidentally demolished a nearby building, Jiraiya knew they had to end this quickly.