A/N: More than 550 favs! I am really humbled and honored by the love and support this story has garnered. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the strong support and I am counting on the same for the coming days. In the previous chapter, we witnessed the fight between Gaara and Naruto and now we will be onto the other and perhaps the most important fight of the Chunin Exams arc, so without further ado, lets get on to the chapter.
CHAPTER 16: KAGE BATTLE ROYALE
The third coffin had been pushed down Hiruzen allowed himself a momentary sigh of relief inwardly. If his suspicions were true, it could have contained Minato, whose speed he had no answer to.
"Is that you Saru, you look old." The revived Tobirama commented.
"So the Monkey became Hokage after you, Tobirama?" The revived Hashirama asked.
"Yes brother, I deemed him my successor before I went to face off against the Gold and Silver Brothers." Replied the Second Hokage. Ay and Darui raised their eye brows at the mentions of the most infamous rogue ninja in the history of their village.
"Yes, it's me Hashirama-sensei, Tobirama-sensei. It's been a long time." Hiruzen replied in a sad voice.
"Considering how old you look; I presume the village has remained strong for years. I must thank you for that." Hashirama said with a sincere smile. Hiruzen's heart wrenched and his already heavy grief became heavier. He was about to fight Konoha's founders, who due to his own mistakes had ended up being summoned from the dead to destroy the very village they had founded.
"But I remember my last moments, I was sure I had died, how did I wake up in Konoha? Don't tell me it is that reanimation jutsu you created to summon people back from the dead and use them like puppets?" Hashirama asked, turning towards his brother in a serious voice.
"It's a shame but indeed it seems we were summoned from the dead by that Jutsu and unfortunately neither of us were summoned at a level to overpower the binding upon us by the caster." Tobirama replied in his signature monotone voice.
"Tobirama, I told you again and again not to develop such abominations, look where it got us today." Hashirama scolded.
"SHUT UP! I did it for the sake of the village and it is a forbidden jutsu for a reason." Tobirama shouted back. Hashirama slumped forward with a deadpan expression having lost the argument.
"Kukukuku! You two really are very interesting people Shodai and Nidaime. I am the one who summoned you to kill this old fool before me as well those two and then destroy Konoha." Orochimaru said from the revived Hokages' back with a sadistic chuckle.
"Watch your words fool, you have no idea who you are talking to." Tobirama warned.
"Kukuku! Unfortunately for you, I know exactly who I am talking with. I have researched the Shodai's cells for a long time as well as your forbidden jutsus Nidaime. And now you are nothing more than two puppets that I have summoned from the dead and today this foolish village will burn by the hands of its founders, Oh the irony." Orochimaru replied in a sing-song voice as he took out two kunai which had seals with instructions tied at their ends and began walking towards the half dead former Hokage, who couldn't move their bodies and cast jutsus to stop the sadistic paedophile in his tracks. Hiruzen's rage increased hundredfold. His rogue student had defied all of the boundaries of morality and forced souls back from the pure world to destroy the very dream they had made a reality. He couldn't even imagine the pain his honoured predecessors felt and would be feeling soon. His own heart was shattering at the prospect of having to fight them in a match to death.
But the ever calm and collected Darui decided right then that he had had enough of Orochimaru's rants.
"Lightning Style: Black Panther!" He yelled after going through a series of one-handed seals and stabbing his sword on the ground. Black lightning engulfed the area and panthers made up of lightning rushed at the Snake Sannin.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Orochimaru yelled after instinctively weaving hand signs and released a huge gust of wind. The attack significantly reduced the effects of the 'Black Panther' but still he and the revived Hokage were hit.
"Sorry, I just got bored with your rants. They were so dull." The Kumo jonin commented in a lazy voice that would make any Nara proud.
Ay, Darui and Hiruzen saw the damage done to the revived Hokage being repaired as if they were made up of paper.
However, by weaving hand signs, Orochimaru dropped the kunai with the instruction seals. That would prove to be his undoing.
Ay immediately charged up his lightning armour and before Orochimaru could even react, he was viciously kicked and was sent away flying. The Raikage collected the two kunai and tossed them towards Hiruzen, who wasted no time in going through hand signs.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullets!" The 3rd Hokage yelled, releasing small balls of fire towards the kunai, burning the tags to ashes. Orochimaru winced, the very presence of these Kumo imbeciles was derailing all of his master-plans.
"You two, attack. Kill them." He yelled in frustration at the two revived Hokage.
Against their wishes Hashirama and Tobirama charged at Hiruzen and his Kumo allies.
"Unfortunate as it is, we still have to follow his orders our bodies won't move at our will." Hashirama commented as he began going through a series of hand signs.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!" He yelled slamming his palm on the ground.
Trees began emerging all over the battlefield and buds of huge flowers began to rise from them.
"Don't inhale the air, I am about to use the forest bloom!" He warned before going through hand-signs again.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Bloom!" and the buds bloomed releasing yellowish pollen all over the battle field, however paying heed to Hashirama's warning, Darui, Ay and Hiruzen held their breaths.
Tobirama then used sign language and ordered Hiruzen to attack him, the Old Hokage complied and went through seals.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire!" He yelled releasing a stream of fire from his mouth which rushed at Tobirama. The 2nd Hokage then released a huge vortex of water which covered the whole battlefield and also took down the airborne pollen which risked paralyzing anyone that inhaled them.
'Brilliant' thought Hiruzen, Ay and Darui. Ay and Hiruzen then decided get rid of the forest for good.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Hiruzen yelled releasing a massive ball of fire from his mouth that began engulfed a large part of the forest Hashirama had created. Ay blitzed through whatever remained of it and decimated it.
The Raikage then engaged Hashirama in a taijutsu bout.
"Wood Release: Wood Clones!" declared Hashirama, making five copies of himself made of wood. However, at only 10% of his original chakra levels, Hashirama's clones were no bother for Ay. (The Raikage knew very well that he was just lucky that the 1st Hokage was at only 10% of his full strength, otherwise he would have definitely been slaughtered long ago.)
With vicious elbow cuts and kicks, Ay destroyed Hashirama's clones.
"You are the Raikage aren't you? It makes me happy to see your village aiding Konoha in this difficult time." Hashirama commented as he dodged Ay's uppercut.
"That's not a big deal, besides we have our own scores to settle with that bastard Orochimaru." Ay replied as he began pushing the 1st Hokage.
Meanwhile, Darui destroyed the hundreds of snakes released upon him by Orochimaru with a single attack called "Storm Release: Laser Circus" The attack not only took out the snakes but also took out Tobirama, who was about to cast a huge water jutsu. The black lightning, strengthened by the water shocked him and took out a chunk of his hand. The Nidaime's body began to repaired immediately; however, it would take a minute for him to fully reform.
For Ay, that minute was enough. He disengaged Hashirama and got to Tobirama in less than a second.
"LARIAT!" He yelled as his hand destroyed the reforming Tobirama, rendering him useless for perhaps three to five minutes more.
'Those two Hokage are holding back and the Raikage along with his assistant is proving to be a boon for Hiruzen.' Orochimaru thought.
By that time, Hiruzen had engaged the 1st Hokage.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet! Fire Style: Flame bullets!" Hiruzen yelled as he went through hand signs for the two jutsu.
The earthen dragon released boulders at binding speeds towards Hashirama and they were also lit up and melted by the flame bullets from Hiruzen's mouth.
"Wood Release: Wood Wall!" Hashirama declared and a wall of wood rose before him, which stopped Hiruzen's attack.
'Even at this weakened state, Hashirama-sensei is quite formidable, thank Kami, he wasn't summoned with full strength. Even when he is holding back this much, it's very difficult to defeat him.' Hiruzen thought, however his thoughts were abruptly ended as he dodged a horizontal slash from Orochimaru's Kusanagi blade.
"It seems you forgot that I was here as well sensei." Orochimaru taunted.
"Not killing you was the biggest blunder of my whole life, something which will be rectified today." Hiruzen replied as he dodged his rogue student's slashes.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Arms!" Orochimaru declared as snakes rushed at Hiruzen from under his sleeve.
"Fire style: Fire Dragon Bullets!" and the snakes were fried before making it to the Third Hokage.
And then Orochimaru was engaged in a match of kenjutsu with Darui. The sword of Kusanagi clashed with a sword covered in black lightning. (Who forgot to tell Orochimaru that jack of all trades/masters of none do not compare against dedicated practitioners of an art? My money's on Darui in this fight and he doesn't have the Kusanagi!)
At the same time Ay, having taken out Tobirama for the time being examined the battlefield, Hiruzen and Darui had engaged Orochimaru and the 1st Hokage. He then spotted the sound four at the corners of the barrier. There was still a minute before Tobirama fully reformed, that was more than enough.
Jirobo was happy. He had become instrumental fulfilling Orochimaru-sama's dream of killing the Sandaime Hokage and destroying Konoha. The barrier he had helped erect together with his fellow Sound-Four members was instrumental in ensuring that no one interfered in Orochimaru-sama's fight with the Sandaime. It didn't matter for the fat sound shinobi to have not gotten the chance to fight, he was sure Orochimaru-sama would reward him handsomely for today's efforts. His thoughts were brought to an abrupt finish when two fingers of the Raikage, coated with lightning, pierced his chest from behind and destroyed his heart. It was an instant kill. (Shot through the heart, and Ay's to blame!)
There was no logical explanation as to why Ay had decided to learn his father's Hellstab and working to master it, even though he didn't know it in the previous timeline. Well, the Biju having travelled back in time had set off a chain of changes even if they were in no way involved with it. Changes that include very minor decisions like Jiraiya agreeing to test Naruto's elemental affinity and teaching him elemental ninjutsu and Ay deciding to master his father's finger attacks. It was all a true butterfly effect and the consequences of it would prove to be far-reaching. (Hope this don't turn out like Flashpoint, we don't need horribly screwed over world cause of butterfly effect.)
From his fight with Hashirama, Hiruzen caught a glance of the Raikage's attack.
"I didn't know Ay had learned or mastered the 3rd Raikage's Hellstab technique." The Sandaime mused.
"At first he thought he couldn't do it and he was satisfied with his lightning armour but then one day, out of the blue he decided that being a kage meant that he could never stop striving to become stronger or better and set himself on learning his father's techniques." Darui commented.
At the same time, the barrier began receding.
"Water Style: Severing Wave!" The reformed Tobirama yelled releasing a high-speed stream of water at Ay.
"Fire Style: Fire Stream!" Ay yelled going through a series of hand signs and released a stream of fire at the water stream racing towards him. The jutsu collided and the water evaporated but the Raikage was still hit with a strong jet stream of water and was pushed pack. Thanks to his once again activated lightning armour, he was relatively unharmed, except for a few bruises.
"And now I see him using ninjutsu." Hiruzen commented as he dodged a wooden dragon.
As the barrier went down, Jiraiya jumped into the battlefield.
"What a mess you have caused Orochi-teme." The Toad sage stated to his estranged teammate.
"Jiraiya, what a reunion, you got old." Orochimaru taunted his former teammate and rival as he internally winced at his barrier being removed. At that moment, Tayuya, Sakon and Kidomaru tried to engage Konoha's spymaster.
Jiraiya saw the red-haired girl playing some tune with her flute, he began feeling drowsy.
'Shit, that's Genjutsu. Focus Chakra on your legs quick!' The toad sage dispelled the genjutstu, just in time to dodge an incoming arrow from Kidomaru. He was then engaged by Sakon in a taijutsu bout.
After a minute, Jiraiya was able push away the member of the Sound Four, he immediately went through hand-signs.
"Summoning jutsu!"
Two puffs of smoke appeared on the battlefield.
"I was cooking our lunch, can't you summon us at some better time, Jiraiya-chan." A female elderly toad commented.
"And I was just back from training Gamakichi in the fire element. Jiraiya-chan, cut this old toad some slack." The male elder toad commented with a deadpan expression.
"Sorry Ma and Pa! The village has been invaded and I need to finish my fight quickly to go and assist sensei."
"All right, you better end this quickly or our food will be burnt." Shima said in a sing-song voice as she and Fukasaku jumped at took positions on Jiraiya's shoulders.
Within seconds, Jiraiya's appearance changed, he got a beard, his facial features become a little bit like toads, and his eyes now had yellow eyeballs with horizontal and black pupils, similar to that of the toads of Mount Myoboku.
"So, someone from Konoha has been deemed worthy of learning the sage arts by the toads of Mount Myoboku, that's nice to see." Tobirama commented with a smile, just as he dodged blocked a slash from Darui's black lightning encased sword with his own.
"That's Jiraiya, he is my student." Hiruzen commented as he sideswiped, avoiding Orochimaru's Kusanagi blade.
At that time, Jiraiya saw Sakon activating his curse mark and another head appearing over his shoulders.
'So that's how Orochimaru's curse mark works. Perhaps this is the first time I am seeing a two headed human. Whatever, if that's one of Orochimaru's elites, it's natural that he would end up like this. It's a shame that I don't have the time to observe how he fights. Orochi-teme will soon realize that he is cornered, now that the barrier is gone and then he will try to escape. I can't let that happen.'
In both of Jiraiya's hands, two Rasengans formed and they only grew bigger in size.
Just as Sakon approached the Toad Sage to try and get hold of him and release Ukon so that his twin brother could kill Jiraiya from within,
"Sage art: Ultra big ball Rasengan!" showing a jaw dropping agility, thanks to the sage mode, Jiraiya appeared behind Sakon and slammed both the Rasengans into Sakon and Ukon's heads, ripping them into shreds.
Just then Kidomaru, seeing that Jiraiya was not an opponent to be toyed with, activated his curse mark and tried to trap Jiraiya with the spider web like substance, he could spit out of his mouth, but Jiraiya was not a Sannin for nothing, he dodged them. Then the four-armed ninja tried his luck with arrows, putting 120% accuracy on them, but suddenly Jiraiya's hair grew at an astonishing rate and covered almost all of his body and the hair also turned out to be strong enough to withstand the arrows. Kidomaru cursed, upon realizing that he was fighting someone of Orochimaru's caliber.
At the same time Jiraiya was attacked by three demonic beings who had their eyes and ears covered.
Fukasaku realized that the beings were controlled by the sounds of the flute Tayuya was playing.
"We have to disrupt the sound of that flute." The Elder toad commented and earned a nod from Shima.
"Sage Art: Frog Call!" Both toads began croaking in high frequencies, disrupting the tunes of Tayuya's flutes and even paralyzing her, even though she was a specialist of sound based jutsu, specifically Genjutsu. That was all the time Jiraiya needed for exterminate her.
"Sage art: Goemon!" Jiraiya, Fukasaku and Shima perform the combination jutsu with perfection, Jiraiya releasing a huge amount of oil from his mouth, Fukasaku releasing a huge gust of wind from his and Shima igniting the oil by a fire jutsu from her mouth. The inferno headed towards Tayuya at binding speeds and before she could free herself from the temporary paralysis due to the toads' earlier sound based jutsu, she was fully incinerated.
Kidomaru was about to release another arrow towards Jiraiya, this time with 150% accuracy, when he saw Tayuya getting burnt to ashes. He hesitated momentarily, only to get an ultra-big ball Rasengan on his chest, which destroyed his lungs and heart, killing him immediately.
Jiraiya stood over Kidomaru's corpse and looked towards Orochimaru who was still engaged with Darui.
Orochimaru looked around to find the Sound Four slaughtered within five minutes by Jiraiya, who was now looking at him with a smirk.
The Snake Sannin delivered a vicious kick to Darui's gut and with a quick horizontal slash, knocked the sword out of the Kumo-Jonin's hands.
"Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!" and several snakes rushed towards Darui.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!" The Kumo Jonin yelled releasing a huge discharge of black lightning on the ground, which destroyed the snakes. He looked up to find Orochimaru gone.
"Sneaky bastard, this is really drab." He mumbled to himself as he prepared to chase the retreating Sannin.
Jiraiya knew he had to chase after Orochimaru but he also knew that he had to stop the reanimated Hokage first.
"Sensei, Raikage-sama hold them for some minutes, ANBU! I need a team with binding paper, quick!" the Toad Sage ordered and two members of the ANBU rushed to carry out the ordered. Jiraiya crouched and quickly began writing down sealing tags.
The battle between the revived Hokage and Ay and Hiruzen remained locked in a stalemate.
The ANBU came back with huge scrolls of paper.
Just then, Hashirama went through a series of seals.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!" As the forests again appeared, the First Hokage vanished into a tree, just before being hit with a huge senjutsu empowered fireball from Jiraiya. He reappeared behind Hiruzen and kicked him viciously, sending the Old Hokage flying away.
"I forgot just how strong Hashirama-sama was." Hiruzen mumbled to himself in pain, as he quickly got to his feet.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Hiruzen yelled slamming him palm on the ground after biting his finger. With a puff of smoke Enma appeared.
"It's been some time Hiruzen." The monkey king commented.
"Yes, it is old friend. I intend to correct the blunder I committed years ago, care to help me out a bit?" Hiruzen asked.
"With pleasure, I have been looking forward to killing that snake Orochimaru for years now." Enma commented as he turned into a staff.
With his staff, Hiruzen blocked a punch from Hashirama, when the latter tried to attack him again. The staff elongated and pushed the first Hokage back by a few feet. And then a wooden dragon again headed towards the Third Hokage, who broke it into pieces with the staff-formed Enma. He then tried to attack Hashirama who blocked his blows.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!" without any seals, Tobirama created a huge dragon of water out of nowhere and made it attack Hiruzen. The Hokage was saved by Ay in time.
Then Ay focused lightning chakra in a single finger and rushed towards Tobirama.
'Whatever you do, please don't use the Flying Thundergod, please!' The Raikage prayed inwardly, his prayers were answered as his finger stabbed Tobirama.
Jiraiya saw that.
"Quickly, bind him with the paper!" The ANBU obliged and covered the still reforming Tobirama with binding paper. Jiraiya wasted no time in placing the sealing paper on it.
Now only Hashirama remained.
"Time to take a gamble, hopefully it will stop him for a few minutes, Ma, Pa! Now!" The now out of sage mode Jiraiya requested the elder toads, who were now on the ground.
"Demonic Illusion: Toad Confrontation Chant!" The toads chanted the mantra of the Genjutsu. Hashirama found himself surrounded by four giant toads wearing Samurai outfits and wielding swords. He understood that he was under a genjutsu and began focusing a large amount of chakra on his feet.
"Bind him, Now!" Jiraiya yelled and the two ANBU holding the binding paper immediately complied, Hashirama was bound in a paper just before he could set himself free from the genjutsu. Jiraiya placed the sealing tag on him.
"H-He a-almost broke f-free. N-No one h-has e-ever done it." Shima stuttered horrified as well due to the after effects of the sound based genjutsu.
"He is not the strongest shinobi till date for nothing. I sensed that he was not at his full potential, otherwise even this would have failed, that man is a monster. He was called a God of Shinobi for a reason." Jiraiya commented in a slow voice. "He didn't even use sage mode, otherwise all of us would have been dead by now." The Toad-Sannin added. Fukasaku and Shima nodded. They had avoided a terrible disaster, all three sighed.
Meanwhile Hiruzen and Ay looked back towards Orochimaru. The traitorous member of the legendary Sannin looked awfully pissed. He was writhing in anger.
"I told you earlier, Orochimaru, you will never be able to destroy this village and you won't make it out of here alive." Hiruzen commented in a calm voice.
Orochimaru hissed in anger, his planning over the years had all fallen apart.
"You! You will not get me." He spat furiously.
His opponents ignored his rant. Some ANBU rushed at him, he dispatched them quickly with the Kusanagi blade.
"Sage Art: Goemon!" Jiraiya released a huge fireball using his combination senjutsu with Fukasaku and Shima.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!" Darui released his panther made up of black lightning towards Orochimaru.
The combination jutsu hit him with tremendous power.
"Did we get him?" Jiraiya wondered knowing it was still too easy for them to kill the traitorous paedophile. His doubts were confirmed when the burning corpse turned out to be a mud-clone.
"Sneaky bastard!" Jiraiya grumbled in annoyance as he tried to sense his estranged teammate using sage chakra.
"He's already outside the walls!" The toad sage warned.
"He won't escape this time." Ay commented. "Lightning Armour Level 2!" the lightning that surrounded his body became even more violent and took a more whitish hue, rather than the bluish.
"Hokage, I will stall him until you get there." He commented before vanishing in the direction Jiraiya pointed.
Orochimaru was panting and he was really pissed. His plan of destroying Konoha had utterly failed, instead he had expedited the formation of an alliance between Konoha and Kumo. The fight took a heavy toll on his chakra reserves. He had severely underestimated Sarutobi's strength, thinking the senile old fool would be too weak due to his age and to add insult to injury, the Raikage and his right hand man were there to even the odds he thought would be enough to destroy Sarutobi.
'Why did Kumo suddenly decide to get all friendly with Konoha and why did I not know of this earlier!' He thought in frustration as he made his way out of Konoha.
Suddenly his instincts screamed at him and he ducked, narrowly avoiding a vicious kick from the Raikage.
"Kukuku! I didn't think you would be so angry with me." The Snake Sannin commented with a sly smile.
"Cut the crap! The ninja you killed by ripping the Hachibi out was my cousin, the attack afterwards killed a lot of our promising Shinobi. Not only that, my precious brother had to go through the scorn of the people by becoming the jinchuuriki. It was all because of you! How did you think I would forgive any of that?" Ay scowled angrily.
Orochimaru didn't reply, instead he went through a series of hand-signs.
"Wind Style: Air Bullets!" The Snake Sannin released multiple concentrated bullets of air, hoping to destroy the Raikage's armour, as wind would beat lightning any day. (*Sigh* who didn't tell Orochimaru that weaknesses only work like that if the attack in question isn't so powerful that the counter is rendered useless?) What he didn't take into account was the Raikage's speed. By the time the air bullets reached the spot the Raikage was at, he was already gone.
Orochimaru's eyes widened, then by pure instinct, he swung to his right. The Raikage's Hellstab narrowly missed his heart, but punctured his left lung. Orochimaru coughed up blood.
Ay smirked, but his smirk turned into a scowl when he saw Orochimaru's mouth opening and another Orochimaru emerging from it. Ay had to suppress his urge to puke.
"Kukuku! Foolish Raikage, did you think it was that easy to kill me! I am immortal." Orochimaru taunted with a maniacal laugh, Ay only growled in response. Just then before Orochimaru could move his body became immobilized. "Shadow Possession Jutsu success!" Shikaku Nara said as he made it to Orochimaru in time with his teammates Inoichi and Chouza, guided by Hyuuga Tokuma, after killing about a hundred Oto and Suna Ninjas near Konoha's central market and reminding their enemies why the Ino-Shika-Cho team was considered the second most legendary combo in any Ninja villages. (The most legendary combo was Kumo's A-B combo, alas due to Bee not being present in Konoha, the spectators have to wait to see the said combo in action at a later time.)
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" Hiruzen yelled, without wasting any second as he saw Orochimaru trapped.
"Need some help old man?" Said Asuma Sarutobi as he reached his father's side after killing around 20 ninjas in the Arena and escorting Choji and Ino to their clan compounds. "Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!" Asuma released a several blades of wind from his mouth and aimed them in similar directions as Hiruzen's flame dragons, significantly strengthening his father's attack. The combined attack from the Father and Son crashed upon Orochimaru and began violently incinerating him.
Jiraiya who was already there and still in his sage mode, thanks to Shima and Fukasaku on his shoulders sensed that Orochimaru was trying to emerge again from this old and burning body. He charged up a huge Rasengan with all the sage chakra he had after putting Fukasaku and Shima on the branch he was standing on.
"Sage Art: Super Ultra Big Ball Rasengan!" The Toad Sannin yelled, jumping down on the still burning Orochimaru, without a single care for the flames and slammed the spiraling chakra sphere on Orochimaru's head with as much strength as he could.
The Rasengan destroyed Orochimaru's head into shreds as his body turned into ash. Jiraiya's arms were slightly burnt as he jumped in before Asuma and Hiruzen's attack was dispelled.
"Looks like we got him…..really got him." Hiruzen commented panting. Jiraiya let out a sigh. Asuma also sighed in relief and also happy that he was able to help his father make up for his greatest mistake. Hiruzen couldn't help walk to a nearby tree and sit against it. He was followed by Jiraiya and Ay soon.
Tokuma inspected the area as well as Orochimaru's remains. There was no chakra signature except for those already present there, there was no signs of life in Orochimaru's burnt remains.
"He really is dead." The Hyuuga stated.
"So Konoha finally got rid of a troublesome traitor." Shikaku commented. "And Hokage-sama, the marketplace has been secured, no casualties among the civilians, unfortunately we lost five Chunin, seven were seriously injured and were taken to the hospital." Inoichi reported.
"The arena is secure as well. We managed to avoid any civilian casualties in the arena as well, however we lost 10 Chunins and 7 ANBU members." Asuma stated.
Hiruzen let out a deep breath.
"It quite unfortunate that we lost several bright Shinobi, however I am really proud and glad that our shinobi managed to protect all the civilians with extreme valour." Hiruzen stated. The Jonin present there nodded.
"And our village is really indebted to your invaluable assistance Raikage-dono, personally I owe you my life as well." Hiruzen told his Kumo counterpart, who acknowledged it with a nod and a small smile.
"Now I think we should head back to the village and make a detailed assessment of the situation." The Sandaime Hokage said as he got up. The Jonin and the Raikage followed him back to Konoha.
"Jiraiya-chan, those ninjas you killed when you joined the battle, do you remember the marks they had on them which activated and amplified their power?" Shima asked.
"Yes, Ma that was Orochimaru's curse mark, something he gives his subordinates which increases their power but twists their mind. A Shinobi from our village, Anko Mitarashi was one of the first ones to survive with a curse mark. However apart from the psychological effects of it we couldn't carry out further research on it."
"The energy they received from that felt like Nature Energy. Didn't you feel that when you were in sage mode." Fukasaku asked.
"Yes Pa, I did notice it a little, however I didn't have enough time at that moment to ponder over it."
"That is understandable, we were in a fight, however you must make sure to analyse the bodies of those fallen ninja any other curse mark that appears in the village. You must determine the source of that nature energy, it felt a bit different from that of the Snakes of the Ryuchi Cave, sure there were traces of them as well but it was mostly from another source. It looked like similar to an imperfect sage mode transformation. Jiraiya-chan, be sure to look into this, it could be a problem if whatever it is starts becoming widespread with anything or anyone unsavory." Fukasaku commented.
"Understood, Luckily the one that the Raikage killed only had his heart pierced, the rest of his body is intact, so it will be easier to study him and we can also study Anko's curse mark more." Jiraiya offered. Unfortunately, he was unaware of Sasuke having received a cursed seal in the Forest of Death.
Fukasaku and Shima nodded.
"Well then take care Jiraiya-chan, until next time and I am eagerly waiting to see Minato's tadpole as well." Fukasaku said in farewell and then he and Shima vanished in puffs of smoke.
Jiraiya walked back to Konoha with a thoughtful expression.
A/N: So, another chapter done. I hope I was able to do justice to the first major fight scene I have written that involves S-class shinobi. The following chapters will slowly transition to the Tsunade retrieval arc. Also, I am planning to publish another fic titled "One Year Early" which will be beta edited by my trusted friend GBAboy313. I hope that this fic would also garner the same support from you folks as Guardian did. The fic will be published shortly, maybe within the next week or two. Anyways, I hope you all had a happy reading. Thanks again for all the support, love and reviews. See ya all in the next chapter.