Above the arena, a purple barrier stood like an ominous cage, isolating all the noise and screams outside.
Kakashi's figure appeared soundlessly on the highest point of the arena's roof.
Before he could even catch his breath, his gaze was instantly seized by the scene before him.
Inside the barrier, Earth and Fire Release Ninjutsu intertwined with Wood and Water Release Ninjutsu, churning violently.
At the center of the battlefield, Hiruzen's aged body was locked in a desperate struggle with two legendary figures who should have long been at rest.
Hiruzen was panting heavily. His already tattered combat uniform was stained with dust and blood.
Kakashi's heart sank.
Then, his gaze involuntarily shifted to the other end of the roof, where he immediately spotted the figure that had already arrived.
Sasuke stood with his arms crossed, leaning against a protruding chimney, indifferently looking down at the battle isolated by the barrier below.
Kakashi's feelings were complex.
At this moment, they seemed like the most familiar strangers.
Each standing at one end of the roof, separated by an invisible abyss.
Kakashi let out a silent sigh in his heart.
He looked at the flowing runes on the barrier's surface and the scene of several Konoha's Jonin outside futilely attacking the barrier, only to be easily repelled.
Four Violet Flames Formation...
A high-level barrier jointly deployed by the Sound Four. Unless broken from the inside, it was nearly impossible to break through by force from the outside.
Kakashi comforted himself inwardly.
'It wasn't that I didn't want to save them, it was that this barrier was blocking me.'
Kakashi's eye grew somewhat vacant, as if searching for a reasonable excuse for himself.
'That's right, I couldn't get in.'
'It wasn't that I didn't want to save them, it was that I couldn't.'
'Sandaime-sama...'
'Please, you must survive.'
But this was merely a convenient excuse, a reason that allowed him to stand here with a clear conscience as a bystander.
He knew this deep down.
However, Sasuke, standing opposite him, was thinking of something else entirely.
His gaze was also locked inside the barrier.
He could sense Hiruzen's aura had weakened to its limit.
And Orochimaru...
A faint, almost imperceptible curve lifted the corner of Sasuke's mouth.
'If this guy couldn't even handle a dying old man...'
Sasuke sneered inwardly. He wouldn't mind personally sending Hiruzen on his way to the Pure Land to keep Danzo company.
After all, that 'Hokage' who had tacitly allowed the Uchiha Clan's massacre and Danzo's existence was also on his list of people who must die.
His gaze shifted away from the two reanimated Hokage.
It finally slowly lowered, settling on another battlefield below the arena.
The battle there seemed to have just ended.
Sunagakure's Jinchuriki, Gaara, was now tightly bound by countless strands of white hair, unable to move. The body of a Sunagakure's Jonin lay beside him.
Jiraiya stood panting to the side. Clearly, this battle hadn't been easy for him either.
A trace of unconcealed regret flashed in Sasuke's eyes.
He had ultimately arrived a step too late.
He had originally thought that after dealing with Danzo, he could meet this so-called 'Biju' along the way and personally test its strength.
He murmured softly, a thought flashing through his mind.
'Naruto had the Kyubi within him, while this Sunagakure's Shinobi, according to the intelligence, had the Ichibi within him. Is it true... the more tails, the greater the power?'
'What a pity.' Sasuke thought to himself.
'That Gaara hadn't been killed because of the value of his status as a Jinchuriki.'
'A living Jinchuriki, for any village, was an 'asset' that could be used to exchange for war reparations or serve as a strategic deterrent.'
'Jiraiya, in the end, was still a Shinobi bound by the village.'
Just as Sasuke was lost in thought, he seemed to sense something. He slowly raised his head and, across dozens of meters, his gaze met Kakashi's in a silent exchange.
No words were spoken.
Sasuke merely glanced at him lightly before withdrawing his gaze.
And Kakashi, from those eyes, understood that faint sense of alienation.
Kakashi smiled bitterly and turned his gaze back to the purple cage.
Inside the barrier.
Twisted trees grew and intertwined.
Four figures confronted each other on the highest branches.
Hiruzen faced three people alone.
One was Orochimaru wearing yet another face.
The other two were Konoha's previous Hokage.
Sasuke's arrival had also drawn the attention of the two inside the barrier.
"Oh, that Uchiha brat is here too." Orochimaru grinned, a ferocious smile appearing on his pale face, "Sarutobi-sensei, I never expected our teacher-student farewell performance to have such an interesting audience."
He extended his absurdly long tongue, greedily licking his lips.
"I am far too interested in him."
Hiruzen's face, already aged from the arduous battle, grew even graver at these words.
Dodging a fierce Wood Release thrust from the Shodaime Hokage, his voice was filled with suppressed fury, "Orochimaru, you're still targeting Sasuke?!"
"He's interesting, isn't he?" Orochimaru tilted his head, his golden snake-like eyes flashing with undisguised fervor.
"And, my target has always been him." He subconsciously reached out, touching a non-existent wound on his chest, his eyes turning somewhat sinister.
'Those strange techniques...'
'They were just ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan, yet he could use the same flames as Uchiha Itachi.'
Hiruzen took a deep breath. He turned his head, his gaze piercing through the barrier to look at the black-haired boy with the indifferent expression on the roof.
Then he looked back at the disciple who had long gone astray before him, and the two desecrated bodies of the Hokage.
Fighting Orochimaru forced him to face a cruel reality.
He was old.
Dealing with Orochimaru alone was already somewhat strenuous, let alone facing two legends who had once dominated the Shinobi World.
Even if their strength was far from what it used to be, they were still undoubtedly Kage-level powerhouses.
If this continued, he would undoubtedly die.
Hiruzen's eyes, at this moment, became utterly resolute, 'Rather than dying a humiliating death after exhausting my last strength, it was better... to use that technique.'
'Sasuke was still young, burdened with heavy darkness. He needed a beam of light bright enough to guide him.'
'He needed a role model to lead him toward the light.'
'I never expected that even at the final moment of my life, I would still have to borrow Minato's power.'
With this thought, Hiruzen didn't hesitate any longer. His hands quickly formed hand seals.
Bang!
Two shadow clones appeared at his sides, charging at Shodaime and Nidaime to buy time for the main body.
"Oh? Sensei, this isn't like you." Orochimaru, watching Hiruzen's complex hand seals, let out a mocking laugh, "At this point, are you still trying to struggle desperately with some Forbidden Technique?"
However, on the roof above, Sasuke's always calm and unruffled eyes abruptly contracted at this moment!
He saw it. Inside the barrier, behind Hiruzen, a massive phantom composed of pure soul energy, invisible to anyone else, was slowly materializing.
It was a semi-transparent, incredibly tall spirit.
Horns grew from its head, its demonic face was ferocious and terrifying, pale long hair flowed down, and it clenched a short sword tightly in its teeth.
A heart-palpitating soul pressure radiated from it.
'What is that?!'
'The Shinigami of this world?' Sasuke's mind was reeling.
Inside the barrier, Hiruzen's soul was slowly separating from his aged body, presenting itself before the demonic phantom like an offering.
"Orochimaru, I will not allow you to destroy the village." Hiruzen spoke, his voice noticeably weak from the soul extraction. "Let me show you a technique you have never seen before."
"Let me also show you..." A final light burned in his eyes, "...the will of a Hokage burning for his village!"
As his words fell, the giant spirit phantom behind him slowly raised its arm.
Countless tadpole-like curse marks madly flowed along that arm. A soul power even more terrifying than before gathered in its palm.
Then, it swung downward!
The hand covered in curse marks effortlessly pierced through the soul of its summoner, Hiruzen, and then reached for the two reanimated Hokage.
The bodies of the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage stiffened violently, expressions of extreme agony appearing on their faces.
Two similarly semi-transparent, faintly glowing souls were forcibly pulled from their unclean vessels by that cursed hand.
The phantom's arm, carrying the two souls, slowly retracted.
And on Hiruzen's aged body, a complex curse mark brand slowly appeared.
It looked as if the souls had been sealed within his body.
Inside the barrier, Orochimaru couldn't help but look on. The pain of soul extraction couldn't stop his morbid admiration, "What a remarkable technique."
He looked at the ferocious Shinigami's phantom behind Hiruzen, greed gleaming in his snake-like eyes, "After my improvements to the Impure World Reincarnation, the two previous Hokage possessed at least thirty percent of their peak strength."
"But to think you could instantly defeat them, Sensei." Orochimaru's voice held a hint of amusement, "This doesn't seem like a technique you could use."
Hiruzen didn't bother with his disciple's sarcastic remarks.
He no longer had the strength to pay attention to other matters.
His gaze, grown somewhat hazy from the soul extraction, struggled to pierce through the barrier one last time, landing on the black-haired boy on the roof.
"Sasuke."
Hiruzen turned his head to look at him, forcing a smile onto his face, "Watch closely. This is the true... Will of Fire."
His voice was weak, yet carried a sense of peace.
"I am undoubtedly going to die."
"But do you know? Once, a great hero also used this technique to save the village."
"I cannot compare to him, but now, I too will use this technique to protect the village."
On the rooftop, Sasuke listened indifferently.
'Will of Fire?'
A faint, cold curve lifted the corner of his mouth.
'How ridiculous.'
'A Hokage who could allow the Uchiha Clan's massacre to happen.'
'Until the final moment of his life, he was still using such high-sounding words to whitewash his entire life.'
'For what?'
'To move me? To make me become another dog solely for Konoha in the future?'
Thinking this, there was not a trace of emotion in Sasuke's eyes, only a deep, bottomless coldness.
Inside the barrier, Hiruzen seemed unaware of that cold gaze. He slowly turned his head back, staring intently at Orochimaru's unharmed hands, breathing heavily.
His lifespan and body...
They had deteriorated to this extent.
His own ability could only manage to extract the souls of those two hands.
"Orochimaru, I truly am old..." His voice grew hoarse, filled with complex weariness, "I'm sorry. As your teacher, I failed to correct your mistakes."
"But now, I will absolutely not forgive you."
A final light burned in his eyes.
"I will... give you a small punishment."
"I will make it so you can no longer commit evil, can no longer destroy Konoha's seedlings!"
"Let me... confiscate all the techniques you have learned!"
Hiruzen used the last of his strength to let out a final roar.
The Shinigami behind him seemed to hear the command. It slowly took the short sword clenched in its teeth.
The blade held no cold gleam, only a deathly stillness capable of severing causality.
It raised the sword high and swung it down with force.
Orochimaru's illusory arm souls, which had been forcibly pulled out, were mercilessly severed.
The Shinigami let out a satisfied yet greedy gasp. The souls of Hiruzen, Shodaime, Nidaime, and Orochimaru's hands were all sucked into its belly as if drawn by a vortex.
Its hollow eye sockets seemed to grow brighter.
Its expression grew more ferocious.
It seemed the quantity and quality of this offering had left it thoroughly satisfied.
Inside the barrier, Hiruzen used the last of his strength to turn his head one final time toward Sasuke's direction, a smile spreading across his lips.
His eyes could no longer open, he could no longer see Sasuke's form.
Only a silent blackness filled his entire vision.
He spoke, his voice incredibly weak, scattered by the wind.
"Where tree leaves dance... one shall find flames..."
"The fire's shadow will illuminate the village... and once again tree leaves shall bud anew..."
"Sasuke..."
He could barely make a sound for the last name, and could only use his last bit of strength to move his lips.
On the roof, Sasuke's crimson Sharingan clearly read the final lip movement.
'I'm sorry.'
Sarutobi Hiruzen's aged face wore a relieved smile as the last of his vitality completely dissipated.
Sasuke watched quietly.
He watched the old man who had borne the name 'Hokage' for half his life lose all support, like a withered tree.
The body swayed on the roof for a moment, then pitched forward heavily.
A muffled thud rang, and the dust it kicked up completely obscured that aged face.
There was no expression on Sasuke's face.
He was merely an observer.
Quietly watching the conclusion of what he saw as an ironic and self-aggrandizing death ritual.
'An apology?'
'Too late, and too light.'
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