A cascade of clashes resonated through the streets of Konohagakure. A lumbering man of thick, black hair connecting into his mustache and beard, wearing a grey zip-up pancho and baggy pants flickered out from the engagement and into existence to those with the ordinary degree of perception. His black, beady eyes scouted the battlefield for his opponent but could only see empty space in front of him.

Further ahead, his four-eyed partner Jibachi was taking on the four-eyes of the enemy team as well – Kabuto Yakushi as Jibachi abused his Camouflage Jutsu to avoid Kabuto's close-range-focused attacks. Further ahead and to the west, Suzumebachi was taking on another weirdo from this team of genin but his identity or his abilities were a big mystery to Kurobachi himself.

A rod of solidified lightning pierced Kurobachi from behind, forcing the big man to grunt in pain and spit up from his mouth, however, what came out of him was not blood. The man's lumbering figure collapsed into something damp and sticky that quickly turned to liquid from the heat of Sasuke's Lightning Release jutsu. Sasuke grumbled with disappointment and let his Sharingan scan the area before fixing exactly on the location of his opponent. The two men connected through stares as Sasuke wondered if his opponent was going to do something whereas Kurobachi kept convincing himself that there was no way his enemy could have seen through his Camouflage Jutsu.

"Hmph…" Sasuke's voice came in from behind Kurobachi who felt his body go numb in shock. At first, it was from the psychological shock of the enemy who was just looking him in the eyes fading away in a blink of an eye and speaking from behind him, next it was because a spread of senbon-size Lightning Release constructs digging into his back and dissolving into jolts of lightning upon contact with his body.

Sasuke turned around to scout the entire battlefield. Kabuto looked around him, trying to determine the location of his opponent while a barrage of bees swarmed him from random sides where the enemy was before quickly changing locations and using his Camouflage Jutsu again to disguise themselves. Jibachi was highly skilled in becoming transparent with the environment around him and then attacking the enemy from afar.

With swipes of his Chakra Scalpel technique, Kabuto cut the bees up to pieces with the precision that, even Sasuke had to admit, was notable. It was like with each swipe Kabuto's single slash spread like a parasite through each and every bee in the swarm and cut it a billion time into the dust-sized pieces. Had Kabuto's scalpel cut not one's chakra network in its current state and the person's physical self, Kabuto would be quite the deadly master of massacres.

"Do you need help finding the enemy?" Sasuke asked Kabuto. Some of the distaste for the boot-licking nerd in his voice translated into his demeaning suggestion but it wasn't like they felt any camaraderie with one another, to begin with, or enough hatred to make a move against one another. Sasuke was Orochimaru's boy-toy and because of that he was safe from Kabuto, Sasuke didn't consider Kabuto a threat to him or his goal of revenge in a hundred years so he'd waste not an ounce of effort on the four-eyed medical ninja too.

"My my, Sasuke-kun, you're all done? Well… I apologize for keeping you waiting. I'll make sure to wrap this up soon, no need for you to interfere and risk getting injured." Kabuto returned the shade in the sleaziest way possible, one that only he would have been capable of letting out.

Another swarm of bees rushed into Kabuto's location. Something was different about this one, Sasuke could pick the minute details up immediately with his ocular prowess but he wondered if Kabuto would. Each one of the bees in the swarm had a paper tag attached to their bottoms and intended to carry it to the enemy, this way the bee-user could have detonated hundreds of explosive tags right up in the opponent's face as defending oneself against such a swarm would have been impossible.

The bees all rushed in and detonated on Kabuto at once, filling the streets with resonating explosions of sufficient strength to send Sasuke for the rooftops. The Uchiha avenger looked around, seeing a familiar to him weapon shop collapse to rubble as the blast damaged its foundation and support constructions too bad. It was just one of a few casualties. The Sharingan then turned almost by itself to the twitching, blond mullet donning Jibachi who remained unconcealed for a longer period of time than usual after using a technique this time than before.

As Kabuto's sandals landed on the pole wire up and behind the frozen enemy, the reason behind Jibachi's freezing became self-evident. Miniature chakra threads ruptured Jibachi's body from within, sending the nerdy-looking Jibachi crashing down unconscious. What the bees managed to blow up collapsed into mushy dirt, revealing itself to be just a clone of sorts the Kabuto produced in the moments before detonation while he rushed for the enemy.

"Perhaps this intelligence will be of use to you one day, Sasuke-kun, but the enemy that uses concealment techniques has to leave concealment to attack you. That is when you may strike at them." Kabuto tilted his glasses, feeling oh so proud of his accomplishment.

"That was a nice bait with the clone. But it wouldn't work on my Sharingan…" Sasuke shrugged.

"Of course it wouldn't…" Kabuto smirked, staring back at Sasuke with eyes that might have been friendly encouragement as much as it was the last smirk one might have seen from a psycho that slashed their throat.

"Anyway, I was surprised you didn't kill him," Sasuke observed.

"Neither did you, I figured you still hadn't developed the stomach for that sort of thing, all the more reasons to let Orochimaru-sama guide you and not foster false ideas of spreading your own wings." Kabuto shrugged with a smug expression. What did he know? Did his mockery come from a place of knowledge, some sort of concrete evidence or intelligence he had or was he just assuming Sasuke never planned to surrender his body to Orochimaru willingly?

"I have merely found that disposing of somebody without killing them requires more skill. It's more challenging that way, that is all…" Sasuke closed his eyes, deciding to cut the time he let Kabuto feast his eyes on the Sharingan short.

"I see… Let us see if Orochimaru-sama is done entertaining himself…" Kabuto nodded at the direction where Orochimaru was taking on the enemy, the bodies of both Sasuke and Kabuto flickered as the two dashed the entire distance all at once only to witness Orochimaru seated on the tail-end of a massive boa constrictor while the reptile had its body wrapped around a slender frame of a young lady with shoulder-length brown hair and a purple kimono dress.

Judging from the slumped cheek of the girl that hung lifelessly over the boa's elongated body, most of the bones in her body have already been crushed into dust and the poor kunoichi had been passed out. Orochimaru tilted his eyes to gaze upon his team that rushed to his aid having concluded their own roles to play in this battle.

"Ah… Sasuke-kun, you're just here for the best part…" he chuckled.

Almost as if prompted by his master's words, the constrictor opened its mouth and swallowed the girl's body up to its neck whole, slowly introducing more and more of her crushed frame to its innards before the serpentine nightmare gobbled up her entire body in a matter of two or three minutes. Was this a show of force? Maybe a threat about the power Orochimaru had which would be focused on Sasuke in case he ever disobeyed or acted up? Did he know the same things Kabuto might have known?

"Sasuke-kun chose not to kill his enemy, neither did I, figured he might get upset…" Kabuto shrugged. Was he tattling on Sasuke? It wasn't like Kabuto was the least ratty-looking person around at any given time…

"Is that so? I see… Well… With snakes it is different, you either feed them or you become their food. I guess you could say you will feed them either way…" Orochimaru chuckled to himself from the cleverness of his own observation before getting a tad more serious and looking right at Sasuke. "You should remember that, Sasuke-kun, maybe I'll have you sign the contract one of these days…"

"More hunters are coming…" Kabuto turned to the side, his sensory abilities slightly surpassed Sasuke's Sharingan. While the Sharingan allowed one to see chakra in a way similar to how sensors perceived it, a sensor's range and effectiveness will always prevail over a Sharingan even though Kabuto was not a very prodigious sensor, to begin with.

"Yeah… Strong too…" Sasuke observed once the signature entered his range. Before Orochimaru could conclude licking his lips, a pair of a man and a woman in black cloaks with red clouds on them landed on a nearby building and gazed over the trio with a judgmental stare.

"So it was you three…" a man with orange hair and an obsession of facial accessories spoke. "I figured you three would be hunters, not participants…"

"It doesn't matter either way. You've betrayed the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, for that you and everything you are doing here deserves the punishment of God." The blue-haired woman with heavy make-up declared.

"My my…" Orochimaru's voice left his chest in a sultry tone that Sasuke had never heard before. Not even when the snake hermit spoke to him. "The leader of Akatsuki himself… How I've dreamed of a day I could crush you. Perhaps the power of this universe granted to participants would be just the equalizer I needed? What do you say, Sasuke-kun? Shall we entertain our hunter guests or do we move on?"

"Do not presume to speak of God as if he was a mere obstacle in your path!" the blue-haired woman yelled at Orochimaru, feeling offended by the dismissive manner in which she and her partner were spoken to.

"If your so-called God was so mighty, why would he need a cute angel to defend him so fiercely?" Kabuto mocked the pair further with a sly grin.

A metallic clang of Sasuke drawing the topmost part of the Kusanagi's edge from his hilt and opening his crimson eyes once more with a killer's expression on his face demanded the attention of everyone participating. Such was the commanding presence of an Uchiha, even in the face of a God.

"If he is the leader of Akatsuki, he will know where Itachi is. He must tell us that before we take him out." Sasuke demanded from the pair mentoring him. While he wasn't technically in any position with them to make such demands, it was because both Kabuto and Orochimaru knew how grumpy Sasuke got when matters turned to Itachi that they couldn't help but brush off this demand of his. If they'd be entering this battle, they'd be doing it all for their own reasons.


A handful of men, sharing their slender build with their master charged out from behind the white-haired man with the gleamy eyes. All of them looked like they had skin so silky smooth that it could have only been artificial while their entire bodies were as bandaged in straps of murky black as that of their master. It was as if he had summoned artificial clones of himself to attack self-proclaimed Madara Uchiha all at once.

Tobi stood around, letting the subordinates that appeared to have popped to their master's aid out of nowhere right from behind him assaulted him with barrages of punches and kicks that went right through Tobi's intangible body. Despite the puppets yielding no success in relentlessly attacking Tobi, they continued to do so nevertheless to the point where Tobi began feeling surprised by their limitless stamina. They may very well have pushed him to the limits of his intangibility if allowed to and if Tobi surfaced just for a moment to counter-attack, he'd become tangible once more.

"Mere puppets won't work against me, how foolish will you look when you'll eat dirt after those fancy words you've said to me." Tobi taunted the calm and collected white-haired man. As if doing so was a mere bother to him, the mysterious puppet-master lifted his palm up and his fingers made a squeezing impression.

A loud pop followed by a crack and shattering, wooden pieces hitting the ground followed. Tobi's Sharingan eye was wide open in shock that he was punched by one of the puppets but that was just a mere beginning of his troubles as the rush of the other puppets caught him unaware all at once when this mysterious visitor canceled out his intangibility.

"Alright, ya know!" Kushina shot her fist up in the air, cheering for one of the hunters who seemed to be engaging each other rather than doing their job. "You go, dreamy-looking stranger!"

"Dreamy-looking? Hey… Kushina, whose side are you on? We still need Madara Uchiha to give us Kotaro back…" Minato turned to Kushina, trying to tie his teammate back down to Earth after she seemingly floated off to the moon with her daydreaming.

"Huh? That's why I'm so glad that awesome, brilliant-eyed dude is kicking Madara's ass, ya know!" Kushina replied.

The ground underneath Tobi's feet rippled, swallowing the masked man who was now just a half-masked man down underground. The ground continued to ripple like water but it was no secret that the white-haired wonder managed to keep track of Tobi the entire distance of his mad dive toward him.

"Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu!" Tobi burst out from underground with an uppercut, his opponent just graciously leaned back to avoid Tobi's attack. Because he already knew that his opponent was intangible and would disappear underground again, he didn't bother counterattacking since interrupting Tobi's space-time ninjutsu required a bit more focus. "Who are you? How did you manage to cancel out my jutsu?" Tobi demanded to know after emerging atop of another residential building in the check-up station area.

"I've already told you. You're not even the real Madara Uchiha, who is but a pawn in somebody else's plans. You're even less than a pawn, what chance would the worthless efforts of a mere pawn of a pawn serve against someone outside the world you ninja know?" the white-haired man explained. "My name is Toneri Ootsutsuki, I am a resident of the Moon and a descendant of Hamura Ootsutsuki. I suppose neither of these names would mean much to you though. I speak of names and matters beyond your measly knowledge."

"Hmph… What nonsense…" Tobi dismissed everything he had heard from Toneri outright. "Your ability to interfere with my space-time ninjutsu does intrigue me, however. So much so that I could not mind working alongside you for a time while I find you useful."

"Hmmm… That does not sound very friendly… I am, after all, looking for friends and comrades so that I could live for my own sake." Toneri's lips shifted about, trying to examine the taste that Tobi's declaration left in his mouth.

"You do seem quite well informed as well. I would find you a useful comrade, I suppose. You said you lived on the Moon? My ambitions also involve the Moon, you see." Tobi said.

"Oh? How so?" Toneri wondered.

"I intend to reflect the world's mightiest illusion off of its surface to put the entire world to an Infinite Tsukuyomi!" Tobi spread his hands out as wide as his illusions of grandeur were.

"So you intend to use the barren surface of the home of my clan as your own personal projector? That hardly sounds fair to me…" Toneri sighed.

"Think about it, you said you were looking for friends and comrades, you'd have all the friends and comrades you would want when they are all under the Infinite Tsukuyomi," Tobi explained.

"Don't get fooled by that guy, he's just gonna use you 'cause yer strong, ya know!" Kushina yelled at Toneri.

"Yes, it does seem so…" Toneri agreed with Kushina's assessment. "While my father told me in his death bed to make friends and comrades, to abandon my clan's creed and live my life to my fullest as the last survivor, I cannot stand by and watch humanity use the skies as a weapon for their own enslavement. Somewhere along the way, humanity has lost its path and you are in need of a course-correction. I see that now but… I've been blind for far too long, I've neglected you for far too long. The disease has spread too wide and if humanity is to be fixed, it needs to be wiped clean."

"Hmph… As a part of humanity you mean to reset and someone who intends to bring eternal happiness to humanity with my Infinite Tsukuyomi where everybody's dreams and ambitions come true, this time it is I who cannot allow you to wipe us out!" Tobi declared. "What about you, Minato-sensei? Do you intend to stand and watch humanity be wiped out and restored? Even if it isn't the humanity of your own universe, can you, as the legendary hero and the future Fourth Hokage stand for it?"

"No, I too have heard enough." Minato pulled out his kunai and took the side of the mysterious masked man. "However, you have taken my comrade away, please give him back to me."

The space in front of Tobi and Minato swirled in a wild vortex before the void spat out a humanoid shape of Kotaro, the teammate of Minato and Kushina.

"Very well but he would have been safer in my dimension though…" Tobi replied. Kotaro bounced up on his feet and began working his way through hand seals before Minato calmed him down.

"This time the masked man is on our side. At least until we defeat Toneri up there." Minato pointed at the white-haired man from the Moon. "He's from the Moon and he intends to wipe the humanity out so he can restore it."

"Okay…" Kotaro gulped and shrugged. While it was the weirdest thing he had heard about in a while, he was clashing against this divine presence while inside some alien cube from a different dimension of nearly infinite space and bendable time alongside ninja all across the multiple universes inside the infinite Omniverse. In the broader context of things, people from the Moon was a much easier pill to swallow.

"What about you, girl? While your bothersome red hair betrays a lack of noble heritage, I can always replace your bland eyes with the majestic Byakugan and we may repopulate the world once humanity is wiped…" Toneri wondered looking at Kushina who had not yet taken a side.

With a confident strut, Kushina walked up to Minato, Tobi, and Kotaro and took their side. "You're seriously eerie and I love no man who disrespects my hair and calls my eyes bland. My love is reserved to men that compliment my hair and don't intend to get all creepy, ya know!"

"Very well then… This place must have plenty of living Hyuuga to realize my plan. It will in fact even be easier this way." Toneri declared, despite his façade remaining unchanged, something about his expression turned stricter and more bitter as if Kushina choosing extinction over kinship with him pierced a poisoned bolt through his heart and let its rot seep through his circulation.