Inside the barrier, the rooftop was already a wreck.
Orochimaru lay sprawled among shattered roof tiles. His chest was completely caved in—if he'd been an ordinary human, he would have been dead already. Even so, the searing pain made his body convulse uncontrollably.
Minato stood right in front of him.
"It's all over, Orochimaru-sensei. Please stop struggling."
Blood kept spilling from the corner of Orochimaru's mouth, running down his chin and staining his jaw red.
"Over? No… it's far from over…"
He lifted the only arm he could still move and, contorting it at a grotesque angle, managed to force out a series of hand seals. Minato and Shinju, instead of interrupting him, simply watched as he used the last of his strength to slap his palm against the ground beneath him.
Orochimaru shouted hoarsely.
"Kin Jutsu: Edo Tensei (Forbidden Technique: Impure World Reincarnation)!"
The ground shook violently.
Two enormous wooden coffins burst up from the rubble at his side, carrying soil and broken stone as they tore free of the earth.
Their lids fell forward with a heavy crash, echoing dully through the barrier.
Inside each coffin stood a figure.
One wore crimson Warring States–era armor, long black hair flowing loosely down his back, stern features faintly tinged with a bold, heroic air.
The other wore blue armor, with short silver hair and jade-like facial plates covering his cheeks, his expression cold and severe.
The First Hokage, Hashirama.
The Second Hokage, Tobirama.
The two founders of the Leaf Village had been brought back into this world in a thoroughly desecrated form.
Their eyes were empty and lifeless, their skin the ashen gray of the dead. Fissure-like lines of dust crawled across their bodies, making them look like clay statues that had sat too long without anyone caring for them.
Orochimaru struggled to push himself up, finally managing to sit with his back against a broken roof pillar. A sickly, manic smile twisted across his face.
"Minato! Shinju!"
His shrill roar echoed inside the barrier, the voice of a man on the edge of madness.
"Even if I die here today, don't think you'll walk out alive! If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"
"I'll let you see with your own eyes just how terrifying this ultimate forbidden technique—this profane resurrection of the dead—really is!"
As soon as he finished speaking, two charm tags covered in intricate formulas shot out of the open coffins and sank neatly into the backs of the First and Second Hokage's heads.
The instant the charms embedded themselves, the two Edo Tensei bodies were completely taken over.
Hashirama and Tobirama raised their heads in unison, their empty gazes locking mechanically onto Minato.
Up in the VIP seats, Shinju watched everything happening on the rooftop.
There was no fear on his face—instead, his gaze carried the focused intensity of a researcher studying a rare specimen.
He turned toward Minato beside him and spoke calmly.
"Father, are you seeing this?"
"This is Orochimaru's proudest creation. Forcibly summoning the souls of the dead back from the Pure Land to the living world, using living bodies as vessels, then erasing their personalities through talismans so they become perfect puppets that know only how to kill. Of course, this forbidden technique was originally created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama."
"Unfortunately for him, he chose the wrong opponents—and the wrong 'materials.'"
On the rooftop, the controlled Hashirama had already begun forming hand seals.
That complex, smooth sequence of signs was one Minato knew well—a signature jutsu capable of creating an entire forest.
Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Kōtan (Wood Style Secret Technique: Deep Forest Emergence).
At the same time, Tobirama raised both hands, preparing to unleash one of his devastating wide-range Water Style techniques.
The combined pressure of the two legendary Hokage's chakra churned the very air. The entire golden barrier trembled faintly in response.
A savage gleam of vengeance flashed in Orochimaru's eyes.
He wanted to watch Minato—watch that boy who made him feel true fear from the depths of his heart—torn to pieces by the very "legends" he had summoned.
Just as Hashirama was about to complete the final seal…
His hands suddenly froze mid-motion, as though some overwhelming force had forcibly cut him off.
In the next instant, a sealing power even more domineering and refined than the Edo Tensei itself surged into his body.
Hashirama could clearly feel the chakra link between him and the caster—Orochimaru—being severed, ripped apart by an external force.
This sensation… it felt similar to Uzumaki Mito's power, and also carried the same kind of affinity as the Senju's own. A type of sealing jutsu even more mysterious and profound than Edo Tensei.
Without him noticing when she'd arrived, Uzumaki Kushina was already standing behind him.
Both of her hands were pressed firmly against Hashirama's back.
From her palms, dozens of golden chakra chains erupted, twisting like living things as they burrowed deep into the Edo Tensei body.
Their target wasn't Hashirama's soul.
They went straight for the core—the control talisman from Orochimaru, hidden within the center of the body.
The chains wrapped tightly around the charm layer after layer, then yanked it outward with a sharp, tearing pull.
"Tamashii Hakuri Fūin Jutsu (Soul-Stripping Sealing Technique)!"
Almost at the exact same moment, Minato's figure flickered into existence behind Tobirama.
He activated the same technique.
Golden chains exploded out from his hands as well, penetrating the Edo Tensei body and ripping away the core used for controlling the Second Hokage.
From the moment the chains appeared to the moment the cores were torn free, the whole process took maybe three seconds—perhaps even less.
The killing intent surging from Hashirama and Tobirama vanished as if it had never been there at all.
The dust-crack patterns on their bodies began to knit themselves back together at a visible rate, and the emptiness in their eyes slowly gave way to a faint, returning awareness.
The crazed smile on Orochimaru's face disappeared completely.
Now, he just looked worse than crying.
He stared blankly at the scene before him, his mind on the verge of shutting down.
How…
How could they possibly know that the core weakness of Edo Tensei lay in that talisman?
How could this world have a sealing technique capable of directly interfering with the link between a soul and the charm controlling it?
Had his own training still not reached its peak? Was this world even more insane than he had imagined?
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
This technique was the culmination of half his life's work. His ultimate forbidden jutsu. His strongest trump card. His final hope.
And it had just… been broken like this?
Broken by a method he couldn't even begin to comprehend.
A fear that came from the very depths of his soul finally swallowed what remained of Orochimaru's reason.
He realized, at last, that what he was facing today were not "shinobi" in any ordinary sense of the word.
They were monsters who had mastered knowledge on an entirely higher plane.
On the rooftop, Hashirama and Tobirama had regained most of their consciousness.
They each flexed their stiff limbs and quietly felt the chakra now flowing through these unfamiliar yet strangely familiar bodies.
Hashirama lowered his head to look at his cracked hands, then lifted his gaze to the golden barrier around them and the burning fires scattered throughout the village below.
A deep, sorrowful expression appeared on his face.
Tobirama, on the other hand, analyzed the situation in an instant.
His eyes fell on Orochimaru—pinned helplessly under Minato's foot—and he let out a cold snort.
"So you're the one desecrating the dead?"
"You're an interesting boy," Tobirama continued.
The two legendary Kage could both feel it: everyone present, consciously or not, seemed to be oriented around that one youth.
Hashirama looked at Shinju at last and finally spoke.
"Young man… who are you?"
(End of Chapter)
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