Chapter 89: The Shinobi Hero
"Old man, what are you doing sitting over here?"
Kitsuchi had found Ōnoki — alone, in a corner, very quiet — and led Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi over to join him.
Ōnoki glanced at his son and granddaughter. Said nothing.
"Father — Sand has attacked Konoha. What do we do?"
Kitsuchi's voice was a low rumble.
"Stay put. Do nothing."
Ōnoki spoke at last, his voice slow and unusually subdued.
The moment Tsunade had left his side, he'd genuinely been ready to make his move against Hiruzen.
But then he'd seen something.
Twenty minutes earlier.
Ōnoki had cleared the iron ball's radius — and found himself watching a pink-haired figure haul Kakashi Hatake through the air toward the wreckage of the Four Violet Flames Formation.
One look was enough. Decades of battlefield experience told him instantly: the girl who'd thrown those iron balls was Hiruzen's young student, Sakura Haruno.
His guess, from before — Konoha has produced another one — confirmed.
Just twelve years old. Not fully grown yet.
If he moved now and cut her down before she could become what she was clearly going to become—
Ōnoki's thoughts had turned over quickly in those seconds.
He'd thought of his teacher. The Second Tsuchikage, Mū.
That man — brilliant, upright, in his prime — had taken devastating wounds fighting the Second Mizukage Gengetsu Hōzuki, and never recovered. Ōnoki had been at the bedside when Mū pressed the village into his hands at the end.
If he killed the Hokage now. If he severed Konoha's future. He would need to win everything. Every single piece of what came after.
The window was open. The possibility was right in front of him. He had to ask himself: was this the only chance he'd ever get?
The glory of forging the Will of Stone. That was the duty he'd carried since Mū put it in his hands.
He'd been steeling himself. There was nothing immediately threatening beside him. One Dust Release technique would be enough — take out the Hokage and Sakura Haruno both.
And then he'd seen a face he never wanted to see again.
Hashirama Senju.
The God of Shinobi.
That vast, unmistakable presence rising up like a nightmare made flesh.
Only someone who had lived through Hashirama's era truly understood what that man was.
Ōnoki found, quite suddenly, that quietly waiting for events to resolve on their own sounded like a perfectly reasonable approach~~~
He knew what Edo Tensei was. Tobirama had used an early version of it in the old wars — summoning the enemy's dead, loading them with Explosive Tags, sending them walking toward loved ones. Detonating in the moment of stunned recognition.
He hadn't imagined the technique could be refined to the point of deploying a reincarnated shinobi in live combat.
But if Orochimaru could summon Hashirama—
Who was to say Konoha couldn't?
Ōnoki thought about it from his own angle. Backed into a corner, he wouldn't care about desecrating the dead. Killing the enemy first was the only thing that mattered.
And Konoha, with actual custody of Hashirama's remains, was far more likely to be able to summon him than Orochimaru was.
He couldn't gamble on that. He couldn't afford to.
"What — Sakura, you're going to hold off both Hokages by yourself?"
Hiruzen stared at his student.
"That's right. So you'd better finish Orochimaru fast."
Sakura was pulling on her black gloves with the ease of someone going through a pre-match routine, speaking as if the answer were obvious.
The last fight had made the situation clear enough.
Taking down Orochimaru required Enma. But Hiruzen was here, and there was only one Enma.
Better to leave the slippery cockroach to the old man and handle the two dead ones herself.
Besides—
"Hurry up, hurry up — I'm counting on you to teach me how to be Hokage someday~~~"
She gave him a light shove.
Hiruzen blinked.
He looked at her face — and something in his expression went quiet and warm.
The resolve he'd been carrying, the one that had said I will keep these two here no matter what it costs — it loosened, just slightly, at the edges.
Between stopping Orochimaru at any cost and the future standing in front of him...
The future seemed to matter more.
"Very well." Hiruzen smiled, slow and full of something that had been sleeping for a long time. He turned toward Orochimaru. His eyes went cold and absolute.
The shinobi hero — the one who'd stepped off the battlefield and grown old and tired — stepped back onto it.
"Orochimaru. Once, you were the student I was proudest of."
"Today — it ends."
He ran through the seals.
"Summoning Technique!"
The great white form of Enma materialized on the rooftop, enormous and unhurried.
"Hiruzen, you—"
"Enma — Adamantine Staff!"
Enma hadn't even finished his opening sentence before Hiruzen spoke over him.
Enma pressed his lips together. Then he transformed — flowing into the shape of the legendary staff — and Hiruzen seized him and moved, closing the distance to Orochimaru in a single stride.
"Tch."
Orochimaru opened his mouth. A snake head emerged. The snake opened its jaws and spat out the Kusanagi — its edge throwing cold light in all directions.
Hiruzen and Orochimaru collided.
Sakura glanced at them once, then nudged Kakashi.
Go.
Kakashi looked at the two reincarnated Hokages. Looked at Rasa, standing apart, expression unreadable. Looked back at Sakura.
Then he took a breath and charged at the Kazekage.
"Heh."
Rasa watched Kakashi coming and said nothing for a moment.
This is what they send at me?
King versus king — shouldn't the minimum be Tsunade?
Are they actually writing Kakashi off as expendable?
The thought settled, and contempt curled at the corner of his mouth.
He didn't bother with seals. He just raised one hand.
Gold Dust Funeral.
The gold sand he'd pre-positioned — laid in while dodging the iron ball earlier, patient and deliberate — erupted from the ground and surged toward Kakashi.
Kakashi's eyes sharpened. He was already moving, weaving at high speed, running through seals simultaneously.
"Water Release: Water Trumpet!"
Water smashed into the advancing gold sand, and Kakashi kept moving.
Sakura watched him hold Rasa's attention, turned back to the two Hokages, and settled into her stance.
Tsunade — Sakura hadn't even factored her in.
If it weren't for Jiraiya getting pulled off to deal with the snakes, she wouldn't be holding two Hokages solo in the first place.
Tobirama was fighting the compulsion pressing down on his body, running seals even as he resisted.
"Water Release: Severing Wave!"
A concentrated high-pressure stream shot toward Sakura at killing speed.
Sakura didn't dodge.
She stepped into it, palm out, and used her hand to redirect the stream as she closed the distance.
These gloves had cost four years of savings. Every ryō she'd scraped together, spent on chakra metal and rare alloys, commissioned through Hiruzen's contacts, forged specifically for this kind of work.
Which was why she was always broke.
"That's reckless! Against Tobirama's Water Release, you can't just—"
Hashirama had started from genuine alarm —
— and then watched his own brother get punched across the rooftop.
He broke into applause.
Then his body stopped listening to him and began moving on its own, seals forming through his hands.
Both palms came together.
"Wood Release: World of Trees Wall!"
(End of Chapter)