Previously on Path of Shadows, Path of Lights...
"Ahem" Orochimaru said, clapping his hands. "I hate to break up the happy reunions and introductions, but-" he snapped his fingers "-I'm putting them back under my control. Time to fight to the death." As the three living Kage, one Kage-level shinobi and four dead Kage prepared to battle, the carnage continued to unfold, as a force of two hundred elite Kiri shinobi joined the battle, attacking Suna and Oto forces in defense of Konoha, while the few Kumo forces in the village aided them.
All four reanimated Kage started forwards, their movements unnatural and zombielike - appropriate, given that they were indeed zombies, especially now that their personalities had been removed. Hashirama and the Mizukage ran straight towards their foes, while Tobirama and the Raikage ran up the side of the pagoda-style roof to its' peak. Orochimaru himself, meanwhile, dropped to the ground and sat in the lotus position, content to watch his Edo Tensei revenants fight their successors. Outside the barrier, three ANBU Black Ops launched jutsu after jutsu in an attempt to break the Four Violet Flames Formation.
Hiruzen wove seven quick hand seals, then inhaled. "Katon: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" A dragon-shaped stream of fire burst out of the Third's mouth, colliding head-on with Hashirama and Gengetsu, slowing the latter somewhat due to his water-based physiology.
Hashirama, however, remained undeterred and leapt forwards, nailing Hiruzen in the face with several vicious lefts and rights, before A interrupted him with an elbow drop enhanced by lightning. "Focus up, Sarutobi!" the Raikage snapped, before tackling his father midair.
As Gengetsu regained his senses after being barbecued and partially boiled, Mei grabbed the Second Mizukage by his obscenely high collar and threw him in the air towards the peak of the roof, before following him while making sure to use Tobirama as a glorified stepping stone on the way up, before vaulting over the roof's peak onto the other side. A and his father traded thunderous strikes atop the pagoda's roof, while Hiruzen took the brief moment of reprieve to bite his thumb. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Monkey King Enma!"
In a puff of smoke, a large white ape wearing a Konoha forehead protector appeared next to Hiruzen, glaring at the Snake Sannin. "So Orochimaru has returned. You do intend to kill him this time, right?" the ape questioned, as Hiruzen solemnly nodded, weaving hand seals.
"Katon: Great Flame Jutsu!" A wall of fire exploded out of the Third's mouth, ripping up roof tiles and emitting enough heat that Mei could feel it through the pagoda of the roof as it traveled towards the reanimated Hokage.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the roof, Mei had used the old Kirigakure favorite known as Suiton: Hidden Mist Jutsu to hide herself from Gengetsu as best she could. "I'm no master of silent killing like Zabuza or Haku are" Mei said, weaving a single hand seal. "But it'll have to do. Futton: Dissolving Vapor Jutsu!" Another cloud of mist emerged from her mouth, but unlike the other one, this was highly acidic, and the reanimated Second could feel it eating away at his clay-and-ash body.
"An impressive attack indeed, Lady Fifth" he complimented, before creating a clone. "Water Clone Technique: Steaming Danger Tyranny!" A deformed clone appeared next to the Hozuki, formed from the water and oil of his body. Mei steeled herself, knowing that arguably the most infamous all-purpose offense and defense ninjutsu in Kirigakure history was being used against her.
Upon the peak of the roof, A exchanged blows with his father, both empowered by their family's signature Raiton Chakra Mode. "You have grown strong indeed, my son" the Third complimented the Fourth, as he blocked a Lightning Straight.
"And your body is still as tough as ever, pops!" A responded, leaping back as the signature black lightning of the Third, an ability passed onto him from the Second, crackled around his form.
"Raiton: Black Panther!" A large beast made of black electricity materialized in midair, pouncing at the Fourth, who narrowly dodged it.
Back with the Hokages, Tobirama had used a Suiton: Water Formation Wall to endure the strongest technique of the Sarutobi Clan, fire colliding with water to create a massive cloud of steam. Clapping his hands, Tobirama returned fire with a massive wave of water. "Suiton: Water Colliding Wave!" The massive wave towered almost to the peak of the roof, as Hiruzen's eyes widened in surprise.
"Doton: Mud-Brick Wall!" the Third shouted, spitting out a stream of mud that grew into a towering stone monolith, deflecting the water around him as it rose.
Leaping to the top of the wall, Hiruzen used another technique he had developed, this one shortly before his retirement. "Katon: Blazing Meteors!" A number of small, but very hot fireballs shot from his mouth towards the two Hokage. Once again, Tobirama retaliated with more water, blowing his fireballs apart and forcing him to leap out of the way of a Suiton: Water Severing Wave, the pressure of which sliced through where he had stood just moments earlier with ease.
A loud explosion came from the other side of the roof, and Mei shot backwards out of the thick mist hanging heavy in the air by this point. "Yoton: Melting Apparition Technique!" she shouted, before spitting a large glob of acidic mud towards where Gengetsu was presumably hidden. She and A both landed atop the wall of rock next to Hiruzen.
"Mud?" A inquired. "Back in Kumo, Yoton techniques usually involve vulcanized rubber."
Mei shrugged. "It's a weird Kekkei Genkai. Not only can it be found in three of the Five Great Villages, but in addition to the molten rock anyone can use, almost everybody has some unique take on it."
A small sprout grew in a crack in the roofing tiles, followed by another, then a whole root. Hiruzen's eyes widened. "Not the time! Hashirama-sama is going all out!" he said, before looking to the impossibly sturdy staff in his hands. "Enma!" The transformed monkey grunted, before cloning several times, and forming a large box around the three Kage. "Adamantine Prison Wall!"
"Mokuton Hijutsu: Deep Forest Emergence!" The roof tiles and mud wall all exploded from the force of the trees now growing from them. The adamantine cage that the three Kage stood in rocked and shook, but refused to break, despite the legendary power of the technique that Hashirama had used to grow the forests around Konoha eighty-five years earlier.
"Not too shabby, Sarutobi-sensei" Orochimaru said casually. "Resisting one of the most feared ninjutsu in history can't be easy."
A growled. "We're all at a disadvantage. Every one of them has abilities that either counter ours or are superior versions."
Mei raised her one visible eyebrow. "Then what do you suggest, Raikage-dono?" the redheaded Mizukage asked.
"Simple" the blonde man began, as the Adamantine Prison Wall poofed away, leaving only the one staff in Hiruzen's hand. "We switch opponents!"
With that, A leapt forwards, grabbing Tobirama's neck and throwing him over the roof towards Gengetsu, intending to use his Raiton abilities to neutralize the two Suiton legends.
"I can use Fuuton, so I'll fight the Third" Hiruzen said, brandishing Enma as he leapt at the strongest Raikage in history, while Orochimaru got to his feet and followed, not intent to let his former sensei off so easily.
"I hate my life..." Mei growled, as she stared down the "God of Shinobi", Hashirama Senju. "This is going to suuuuuuuuck!"
Meanwhile, outside the barrier, Ibiki Morino ran across the rooftops, followed by a small group of Konoha Chuunin. "Kami, I hope we're not too late" the scarred Torture and Interrogation head thought, before looking back over his shoulder. "Izumo! Kotetsu! Iwashi! You know the drill!" he shouted, as the three Chuunin all saluted, before leaping into the Kage's Box, while Ibiki himself leapt onto the roof.
"Thank you, Kinuta" the scarred man thought, remembering what the similarly scarred Oto Genin had told him about the Four Violet Flames Formation. In the distance, he watched as the imposing form of the Ichibi collapsed into a pile of sand, while the massive Toad Boss facing it poofed away. "Looks like the invasion has lost its' biggest weapon" Ibiki thought, before his three subordinates leapt onto the roof behind him. "They're all in place, Ibiki-taichou!"
"Excellent" Ibiki responded, reaching into his trenchcoat and pulling out a kunai with a seal attached to it and throwing it at the barrier, where it landed next to the red-haired girl.
"Huh? The fuck was that supposed to do?!" she shouted, before noticing the remote detonation seal on the handgrip.
"Boom" was all the T&I head had to say.
The array of explosive seals on the underside of the Kage's Box detonated in a powerful blast, causing the girl to lose her concentration as she fell into the new hole in to roof. The Four Violet Flames Formation collapsed without its' fourth caster, just as Orochimaru had finished coughing up the Sword of Kusanagi, while Hiruzen and the Third Raikage exchanged blows, Mei did her best to avoid several flying bamboo shoots launched by Hashirama, and a blue glow indicated the use of some high-level Raiton by A against Gengetsu and Tobirama.
The Snake Sannin paused as he realize that the Sound Four's supposedly impermeable barrier had been destroyed, and an annoyed expression crossed his face. Looking down towards the arena floor, he realized that Kimimaro and Kabuto were on the back foot against three high-level Konoha and Kiri Jonin, and the Ichibi had been defeated off in the distance. "Oh bollocks" Orochimaru groaned, before turning to the Sound Four. "Pack it up, we're out of here!" he shouted, as the five Oto shinobi fled the scene, joined by their two compatriots as they ran like hell out of Konoha.
The Edo Tensei revenants all slowly dissolved into ash, revealing Zaku within Hashirama's body, the Rice Field Daimyo inside Tobirama's, the lilac-haired Fuma Clan shinobi within A the Third, and Hayate's body inside Gengetsu's. One of the ANBU outside the barrier slowly removed her possum mask, revealing a purple-haired woman underneath. Wordlessly, Yugao Uzuki brushed the remaining ash off her deceased lover's body, as the other shinobi all looked on.
As the sounds of fighting died down once Suna's forces realized that they'd been duped, and Oto's were destroyed, Hiruzen peered wearily out over the rooftops of Konoha. After a few moments, the Third Hokage, renowned as the gentle-hearted yet formidable leader of Konoha for over a half-century between his two terms, groaned and turned to his subordinates and said three simple words.
"I f***ing quit."