However, in the next moment, the air trembled.
A faint ripple spread across the ground near Ryusei's feet, followed by the soft hiss of something small slithering through the soil.
Dozens of pale snakes slithered together from the cracks, weaving into a spiral pattern that pulsed once with chakra before exploding into a swirl of white smoke.
When the mist cleared, a figure stood in its place.
A boy, physically looking no older than thirteen, white-haired, golden-eyed, skin pale and smooth as porcelain.
His aura was vaguely familiar to everyone, yet his form was very distinct, almost alien-like.
His slit pupils gleamed like molten light as he looked around, calm and detached, wearing that familiar smile Ryusei knew far too well.
Orochimaru.
But not the Orochimaru he had last seen all those months ago.
For a moment, even Ryusei felt his chest tighten.
He had known Orochimaru was working on something dangerous, and that it was likely the reason he hadn't joined their previous battle, but this… this was something else entirely.
The chakra radiating from that body was unlike anything he'd ever sensed, stable, balanced, monstrous in density yet eerily tranquil, like a perfected equilibrium between life, death, and nature itself.
It wasn't a borrowed vessel.
It was something entirely new.
"Orochimaru…" Ryusei murmured. His voice was steady, but his eyes betrayed a flicker of awe. "So this was what you were working on all this time."
The boy's lips curved slightly. "You sound surprised," Orochimaru replied softly, his tone smooth but youthful, almost melodic. "You shouldn't be. You gave me the last pieces I needed."
Tsunade's eyes widened. She took a step forward, disbelief clouding her expression. "Ryusei… who is this boy?"
Ryusei didn't look away from him. "It's not a child," he said quietly. "It's Orochimaru."
For a heartbeat, Tsunade froze. Then her expression twisted. "What?"
Orochimaru chuckled, tilting his head slightly. "You haven't changed, Tsunade. Still quick to anger."
"You…" her voice wavered between fury and disbelief. "You transferred yourself into a child's body? So that's why you disappeared during the Kumo front, you were hiding away for this?"
Orochimaru's golden eyes glimmered with quiet pride. "Precisely. I was slowly creating, molding, and protecting my masterpiece, and my current new 'home'," he said smoothly.
"And this is no ordinary body. It's a vessel engineered for evolution, one that will grow naturally, from now on, stronger with every year. No decay, no rejection, no limits."
Even Ryusei couldn't help but feel a chill.
He had guessed Orochimaru was approaching something extraordinary, but seeing it realized was different.
This form, this new being, was already radiating the presence of the strongest Kage. And he was only around thirteen.
For the first time in a while, Ryusei admitted to himself that even he felt a little threatened by Orochimaru and his rate of progress, thanks to mostly Ryusei's own ripple effects on him and the wider world in general.
But that thought faded as quickly as it came.
Allies like this were exactly what he needed.
If he grew stronger, so would Ryusei, who also had many plans still on his own left to fulfill in the near and distant future.
Also, power was only a problem if it wasn't on your side or you couldn't factor it properly.
Across the battlefield, Danzo and Hiruzen stared wordlessly at the current Orochimaru.
Despite the younger and a bit ethereal face, the unsettling aura and that serpentine composure were unmistakable.
But the sight of his new form left them visibly shaken.
Hiruzen's lips parted, yet no words emerged.
His complexion had drained to ash, his eyes wide with disbelief as he tried to reconcile the boy before him with the man he once called a student.
Danzo's reaction was harsher. His bandaged arm tensed, fingers twitching beneath the wrappings, the faint tremor betraying a mix of anger and envy. "Tch… unnatural monster," he muttered under his breath. "He actually created that body from nothing… he rebuilt himself."
"Even for you, Orochimaru," Hiruzen finally managed to whisper, his voice cracking with something between fear and sorrow, "this is madness."
Orochimaru turned his golden eyes toward them, faint amusement flickering in their depths.
"Madness?" he echoed softly, a faint smile touching his lips. "No, old man, this is what comes after reason. You should be thanking me. I've uncovered and surpassed everything you and your generation could never reach. With me guiding the next era, Konoha would finally know true progress… and prosperity without end."
Danzo's jaw tightened, but neither of them spoke further.
The truth was obvious to all: Orochimaru had become something they no longer understood.
Tobirama's expression, meanwhile, remained unreadable.
But internally, his thoughts were sharp and racing.
He had read the reports about this man, Hiruzen's prodigy, one of Konoha's most brilliant minds of this generation, if not the brightest, turning rogue as part of Ryusei's group of associates, refusing their orders and pressure, during the war lately, just like Tsunade.
Yet what he was seeing now surpassed anything he'd believed possible.
A grown man transferring his soul into a body he had seemingly artificially designed from nothing, merging souls and bloodlines to overcome the limits of mortality and genes.
In his own time, this would have been pure science fiction.
Even with all his knowledge of chakra and jutsu mechanics, Tobirama had never imagined science, which was obviously now not his forte, would reach this far in just a few decades after his passing.
"So this," he thought silently, "is the world I returned to."
The idea unsettled him. He could understand chakra theory; he could even replicate complex seals, but artificial vessels?
This was beyond even his domain.
And yet, it fascinated him too. "He truly is one of Hiruzen's disciples," Tobirama thought with faint irony. "A genius… but a mad and dangerous one."
Back on Ryusei's side, Tsunade still hadn't fully composed herself. "You're insane," she snapped. "You gave up your humanity completely."
Orochimaru's tone remained calm, almost mocking. "Humanity is a stage, Tsunade. A phase between what we were and what we could become. You, of all people, should know the pain of limits."
Tsunade's chakra flared dangerously, her fists tightening, but Ryusei raised a hand slightly to stop her.
"He's on our side, remember?" He said firmly.
Tsunade hesitated, glancing at Ryusei, then at Orochimaru again.
Her lips pressed into a thin line, but she said nothing.
Orochimaru smiled faintly, golden eyes gleaming. "How touching."
Meanwhile, the distant barrier still shimmered faintly in the air to Ryusei, a reminder that escape was impossible.
He could feel the weight of those strongest souls of the shinobi past channeling energy into it, maintaining the spatial lockdown.
So even Hagoromo was moving his hand again, quietly behind the scenes.
Orochimaru, however, simply smiled, tilting his head, his eyes glimmering with curiosity.
"Well then," He slowly said softly, his tone almost playful. "Shall we begin?"
There was no mistaking his intent; he had come to fight at Ryusei's side today, no matter what, because their enemies and rivals were obviously the same for the foreseeable future, and the timing could not have been better.
Ryusei's sensory network had reached him moments earlier, the signal pulsing through the faint trail of snakes Orochimaru had recently scattered across the Land of Hot Water for precisely this contingency.
Following that thread, he used the nearest serpents as anchors, reverse-summoning himself through each one in rapid succession until he emerged at the heart of the battlefield.
Unlike the last time, when he couldn't appear, the artificial incubation process that had once kept his new vessel alive was long gone.
His soul had fully merged with this body, already fully seamless and stable by this point.
From now on, it would grow naturally, developing as any living being would, only stronger, and infinitely more refined.
Sustaining artificial growth at that accelerated kind of pace had become too dangerous due to the rising complexity of it.
The vessel was now already pretty perfect: self-sustaining, strong enough, biologically complete, and built for limitless evolution.
As he stood amid the rising tension, Orochimaru's lips curved into a faint, knowing smile, a look that seemed to say this moment had always been part of his design.
And he couldn't have chosen a more fitting stage for his debut.
Meanwhile, from the opposite side of the battlefield, somewhere else in the southern Hot Water country, Ashina Uzumaki broke through the treeline, having caught Ryusei's signal.
As he advanced, one of Ryusei's slug fragments appeared before him, pulsing faintly.
Ashina touched it without hesitation, linking their chakra.
A moment later, Ryusei sensed the connection and instantly performed a reverse summoning for them together.
So, with a flash of smoke, Ashina appeared beside them.
His gaze swept the battlefield once, calm but sharp.
"Looks like I made it in time," he said. Ryusei nodded.
"Perfect. We'll need you as well today. Our biggest shared enemies are here once again."