Within the Four Violet Flames Formation barrier, the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive.
Orochimaru extended his long tongue, slowly licking his lips, his eerie snake-like eyes reflecting Hiruzen Sarutobi's aged and weary figure. He savored this moment, relishing the suppressed pain on the face of his former teacher.
"Hiruzen-sensei, the expression on your face truly brings me immense pleasure," his voice rasped, like a venomous snake hissing in one's ear. "Is it regret? Regret that you didn't choose me back then, but instead chose Minato Namikaze, who only ever spoke of 'will'?"
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi's chest heaved a few times, his grip tightening on the adamantine staff, his knuckles turning white from the effort. He forcibly suppressed the physical decay and the deep sorrow in his heart, his voice remaining steady, carrying the gravitas befitting a Hokage.
"I have never regretted it."
His gaze passed over Orochimaru, as if seeing the distant past, seeing that golden figure full of youthful vigor on the Hokage Rock. "The Hokage bears the will of the entire Village, the future entrusted by countless people, not a tool to satisfy personal ambition. Your eyes only see power and so-called immortality, but you never see what needs to be protected. Orochimaru, from the very beginning, you were never qualified to be Hokage."
These words resonated powerfully. It was the first time since Orochimaru's defection that the master and disciple had so directly laid bare their old wounds.
"Protection?" Orochimaru let out a low, chilling laugh, as if he had heard the most ridiculous cliché in the world. "Such boring and fragile platitudes. Will? Can such an ethereal thing withstand my Ninjutsu? Can it make you young again?"
His laughter abruptly ceased, replaced by a frenzied intensity.
"In that case, let me show you the one truly qualified to bear this 'protection' and forge it into the strongest power!"
Orochimaru rapidly formed hand signs, the complex sequence causing even the Third Hokage to feel a pang of dread.
"Sensei, your era should have ended long ago!"
He slammed his hands onto the ground.
"Summoning Technique: Edo Tensei!"
The ground within the barrier shook violently, and two paint black coffins, accompanied by a grating sound that set teeth on edge, slowly rose from beneath the earth. They stood side by side, emanating a chilling aura from the underworld, with two shocking characters carved in ancient script on each lid.
"First."
"Second."
The Third Hokage's pupils constricted to their extreme the moment he saw those two characters. Every muscle in his body stiffened, and a despair far deeper than what he felt facing Orochimaru spread from the deepest part of his heart.
"You… you bastard..."
His voice trembled uncontrollably for the first time.
"Bang! Bang!"
With two muffled thuds, the coffin lids burst open.
There was no earth-shattering phenomenon, but the moment the coffin lids opened, two legendary, boundless Chakra presences, like an abyss and a vast ocean, instantly filled the entire Four Violet Flames Formation. One was a Yang Release power full of vitality, as if it could revive all things; the other was cold, domineering, like a ceaselessly flowing great river, refined to the extreme.
Senju Hashirama.
Senju Tobirama.
Konoha's two founders thus stood silently, as the deceased, upon the ruins of the Village they had personally established.
The Third Hokage's face, at this moment, turned ashen white.
At the same time, deep in the forest outside the Village.
Ichibi Shukaku had brought its Chakra condensation to its peak. Its giant sand-formed tanuki face was filled with the ecstasy of destruction. Within its gaping maw, the sphere of highly compressed black and purple energy emitted a destructive aura powerful enough to distort light.
Tailed Beast Ball.
Facing this energy bomb capable of leveling the entire forest, the Nine-Tailed Chakra cloaks on the ten Naruto Shadow Clones grew even redder, like boiling lava. Their ice-blue pupils showed no fear, only absolute calm.
The leading clone captain issued a concise and precise command via mental link.
"Interrupt the Jutsu, dismantle the core."
The next moment, the Tailed Beast Ball shot forth.
The black-purple beam tore through the air, everything in its path decomposed and annihilated by its emitted energy fluctuations.
However, the instant this attack, representing absolute destruction, was launched, the Shadow Clones performed an action beyond everyone's comprehension.
They did not choose to resist it head-on, nor did they choose to evade.
The five Shadow Clones at the very front, with incredible speed, utilized the shockwave and energy trajectory generated by the Tailed Beast Ball's explosive eruption, and charged directly towards the beam of destruction!
Their movements were as precise as birds navigating a storm, treating the deadly attack as the most efficient springboard to their target.
In the distance, Sasuke's Sharingan had to be deactivated due to overuse, his eyeballs bloodshot, but he stared intently at this scene, refusing to close his eyes. He couldn't comprehend it; this had completely exceeded his understanding of the word "battle."
Using the aftermath of an attack as propulsion? Executing high-speed maneuvers next to a torrent of energy capable of instantly vaporizing steel?
"Calling them crazy, but their thinking is terrifyingly clear..." Shikamaru, next to him, leaned against a tree trunk, his usually lazy face losing its composure for the first time. He muttered, uncharacteristically serious, "Every step is calculated, like solving an incredibly complex math problem... It's strange, he couldn't even do the simplest arithmetic when he was at the Ninja Academy."
"If Naruto played shogi, he'd be amazing too."
Shikamaru's words, like a needle, pierced Sasuke's chaotic thoughts.
In the center of the forest, the battlefield changed in an instant.
The Shadow Clone at the very front infused its Chainsword with high-density wind-style Chakra, the hum from the blade so sharp it could pierce eardrums. Its target was not Shukaku's massive body, but the connecting joint of its widely opened lower jaw, exposed from releasing the Tailed Beast Ball.
"Hiss--!"
The Chainsword struck precisely.
The imbalance of the lower jaw caused Shukaku's giant sand-formed head to freeze for 1.5 seconds.
It was this 1.5 seconds.
The other four Shadow Clones, following like phantoms, seized this fleeting gap, cutting in from four completely different angles, as if sharing a single mind.
The Chainswords struck simultaneously, the blades infused with Nine-Tailed Chakra, actually cutting and separating Shukaku's massive, high-density sand head from its body.
"Boom!"
The sand-formed head tumbled in the air, having lost its connection to the body, and naturally, its subsequent energy supply and control over the Tailed Beast Ball.
The uncontrolled Tailed Beast Ball's trajectory deviated slightly, grazing the edge of the forest and flying into the distance, triggering a violent, landscape-altering explosion in an uninhabited mountainous area several kilometers away. A small mushroom cloud slowly rose.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the remaining five Shadow Clones, taking advantage of Shukaku's main body being stunned and headless from the severe damage, transformed into five red afterimages and charged forward at high speed.
Their target was the Jinchuriki, sleeping as the core, within Shukaku's fallen head.