Chapter 18
The attack on the Foundation's Headquarters by Sakumo's youngest son had decimated nearly all of his men. The boy had destroyed years of work, an effort in nothing but moments and Hiruzen had chosen to punish him.
His old friend still blamed himself for Sakumo's fate, and the guilt had made him mad. Danzo had done nothing wrong. The Uchiha were traitors. They were a clan whose powers were driven by hatred, and so they could never truly be trusted.
Now he was being punished for doing what Hiruzen lacked the heart to do. Still, this entire farce would soon be over. His men had been following Gojo Hatake for weeks now. His newfound Kekkei Genkai was troublesome to deal with, but it came with quite a massive drawback.
It was extremely chakra intensive, and so the plan was simple. His ANBU would wait for him to exhaust his chakra in his training session and then strike back the moment he was fully exhausted.
He glanced at the clock, and frowned for they should have reported back to him by now. As he was wondering about their fates, he felt a familiar chakra walk into the premises and he rose up from the ground, as the door was slid open for none other than the very person who had put him into this prison.
"Hiruzen," he greeted his old friend, and even now the sight of him in that red hat and robe filled him with envy.
"Have you finally realised your mistake?" he asked, and Hiruzen did not answer as he simply reached into his pocket and threw out a storage scroll, and four heads fell to the floor with a thud.
THUD! THUD. THUD.
He recognised those faced in an instant, yet his face refused to shift.
"You need to explain this...."
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HIRUZEN SARUTOBI
This was bad. Very bad.
The Edo Tensei was a kinjutsu developed by the Nidaime Hokage as a last resort. It was truly an abhorrent technique that broke the laws of nature, and when the Shodaime-sama had heard of the technique he had asked his brother to decimate everything related to it.
But despite his love and respect for his elder brother, Tobirama Senju had refused to burn his work. He chose to abandon working on the technique because of his brother's command, but he saw the Edo Tensei as a last resort for the village to protect itself against enemies in the future.
Now though, his very technique was being employed against the very village he had hoped to protect. Age had made him weak, but he knew in his heart that even if he was young and healthy, winning against the likes of Hashirama and Tobirama-sama would not have been possible for him.
Still, he spun in the air as he dodged Lord Second's water bullets and used his staff to parry the few aimed at his body, but before he could land on the ground Lord First had already made his move.
"Mokuton: Wood Dragon Jutsu," and wood tore through the roof of the building, and shaped itself in the form of a dragon that rushed towards him to devour him whole.
"Katon: Flame Bomb!" Sarutobi was quick to cycle through the handseals as he shot a fire bomb into the dragon's mouth, and blew it up but the Second Hokage had already readied a second attack.
"...Water Dragon Bullet!" and the attack rushed towards him, and he had no time to react.
"Watch out!" Enma screamed as he moved on its own, and shielded him from the brunt of the attack. Still, though he was sent flying back as his back hit the wall of the barrier, and he fell to the roof once more as Orochimaru laughed at his misery.
"Is this really all you can do, sensei?" his former student teased, as Lord First and Second landed on the ground in front of him.
"It is quite a sight really," Orochimaru continued as Hiruzen huffed.
"To see the famous Professor struggling against two dead corpses," and he was smiling now, and Hiruzen would be the first to admit that he had been outmaneuvered by his former student.
"You have perfected it?" he guessed and Tobirama-sensei had stopped working on the technique before it was finished, so the technique stolen by Orochimaru should have been incomplete at best.
"Not really," Orochimaru answered with a smirk.
"The truth is that I had to be rather cautious with how much I pushed the technique to perfection, especially when I was dealing with these two," he pointed towards his predecessors.
"The two of them are monsters so I had to be pretty cautious about not making them powerful enough that they would be able to break the seal keeping them subservient," and it seemed to him that he had given this much thought.
"You have been planning this for quite some time," Hiruzen asked, and Orochimaru's eyes narrowed.
"Of course," he snarled at him.
"I have been planning my revenge ever since the day you decided to turn your back on me," and he had not done anything like that.
"What you were doing was simply abhorrent! Tearing apart living beings just to further your own ambitions of immortality. That is not the way of a true shinobi," and Orochimaru began laughing as he put a hand on his face.
"HaaaHaHaaa," and there was something cruel about the way he laughed.
"Is that the lie you tell yourself to make yourself feel good," Orochimaru snarled.
"Do you really take me for a fool!" he shouted.
"I was once a shinobi of this very village. I know of its darkness better than anyone else, perhaps even you. What I did, was nothing compared to what you and your friends have done," and Hiruzen could feel his rage.
"We made mistakes," he spun Enma in his hands.
"But I believed that you would be better than us," and Orochimaru nodded.
"I am," and then he made a handseal, as Lord First's body shook for a second and Hiruzen found himself taken aback by the sheer volume of chakra being gathered by the man.
"Goodbye, sensei!" Orochimaru roared, as Lord Hashirama whispered.
"Forgive me, Hiruzen. Mokuton:.."
And the entire ground was ripped apart, as he unleashed his greatest technique.
"Shin Su Senjuuuu!"
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NARUTO UZUMAKI
"Wind Bullet!" and Naruto watched as several dozen of his clones were torn apart by a single attack, as the red haired boy from Suna transformed into his bijuu form.
"Naruto! Watch Out!" Sasuke screamed at him, and he was too late to react, as the massive bijuu swung his tail at him, and Sasuke was quick to move as he jumped in front of him once more.
"Doton: Earth Wall!" and an earth wall rose up from the ground to protect them, but it was too late.
BOOOOM! BOOOOM!
The wall was torn apart, but it bought Sasuke enough time to grab him and jump away as the tailed beast's attack tore through his clones.
"AGHHHH!" Naruto heard the scream and looked down, and saw that the tail had swept away the blonde girl who was his teammate.
"Temari!" the puppet guy screamed as he jumped after her, as Sasuke landed on the roof.
They were both bruised up, and the sheer size and chakra emanating out of the bijuu was enough to make them sweat.
"HAAAHAAAAA!" the one tails laughed, as it continued to wreak havoc across the arena, as Naruto and Sasuke gathered their breaths.
"So that is a tailed beast," Sasuke whispered, and Naruto nodded.
"Aye," and their sensei had trusted them to push it out of the village yet they had failed him in that, and now many were suffering because of it.
"It's heading towards the village centre. We have to push it out of the village," Sasuke added, and Naruto knew that as well.
"I know," and he tried to think of a way to do just that, when suddenly they felt a large amount of chakra gathering behind them.
"What the..." Sasuke was the first to call out, as he turned around.
"...Red!" Naruto only heard a whisper before a red orb rushed through the air and crashed into the one tails body, and sent it reeling back.
"What was that!" Naruto wondered and suddenly a figure appeared in front of them in a blur.
"You!" Sasuke gasped, as they both recognised those white hair at once.
"Gojo-san," Sasuke whispered, and this was Kakashi sensei's brother. But something about him was different. He was no longer wearing that blindfold of his, and so his blue dazzling eyes were there for all to see.
"You two did well here," he spoke softly without turning back,
"But I will handle the rest. You two should go and help out with the evacuations," and Naruto was having none of it.
"That is a tailed beast. You will need our help," and the tailed beast realised that he had been the one to push it out.
"YOU! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DID THAT!" and the giant tailed beast turned all its focus on Kakashi sensei's brother.
"I WILL BLOW YOU TO BITS!" and it sent out a massive air bullet straight at him, but Gojo-san was unmoved as he simply raised his hand, and the attack was parried away with little effort.
"YOU! YOU BASTARD!" and the tailed beast opened its mouth and thousands upon thousands of kunai, and shuriken made out of sand began to rush towards them.
But Kakashi-sensei's brother seemed entirely unbothered by it all, as he simply turned towards the two of them and raised his brow.
"You two are still here?" he asked, and somehow the attacks seemed to be getting parried away by an invisible barrier of sorts and Naruto found himself surprised by the sheer might of the shinobi in front of him.
He remembered sensei's words, when he had told them that his brother was stronger than him and realised that he was not lying.
Gojo Hatake was indeed stronger than their sensei. Then why had he retired?
"We want to help," Sasuke was the first to answer.
"You can help me by running and off and aiding the evacuations..."
BOOOOOM!
But his words were cut short as a loud explosion rocked the entire village, and their heads all snapped towards the source of it together. The explosion had come from the barrier where the enemy had trapped the old man.
"Old Man," Naruto whispered in fear, as he saw smoke cover the entire area.
"I need to wrap this up," he heard Gojo-san whisper as he turned around to face the tailed beast.
"I AM NOT DONE YET!" and the sand monster gathered a massive amount of chakra into its mouth, before it shot it forward.
"Tailed Beast Bomb!" and now he finally moved as he raised his hand, and this time a blue orb formed in front of him, and grew nearly to the same size as the one shot by the tailed beast.
"Ninpo: Aoi!" he whispered.
"Maximum Output!" and he shot it forward, and the blast clashed with the Bijuu's attack, and tore it up before it hit the tailed beast and blew it up, and Naruto could only watch as the giant beast was torn apart by that singular attack.
"The barrier," Sasuke pointed out, as Naruto watched as the purple walls all collapsed at once.
"It's coming down," and before either of them could move Kakashi-sensei's brother had vanished in a blink of an eye, as Naruto rushed towards the barrier himself, with Sasuke following after him.
They jumped across rooftops to reach the place, and two ANBU came to stop them.
"STOP!" he ordered them.
"Let us through! I want to help the old man!" Naruto shouted, but the masked ANBU was not listening.
"Turn back and go to shelters at once!" he screamed at him, and Naruto heard screams from behind.
"We are shinobi. Let us help the Sandaime-sama," Sasuke was quick to intervene, and the masked ANBU shook his head.
"I am afraid there is nothing you can do now," and his voice shook a little as he said the next words.
"Sandaime-sama is dead..."
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