Hashirama's chakra shifted first. Orochimaru didn't need to speak; the subtle tug of his binding seals was enough. Tobirama followed, steps silent and predatory, movements crisp despite being a hollow facsimile of his living self.
Hiruzen watched them advance but didn't hesitate. His body might have been old, worn from decades of service, but his resolve hadn't thinned. If anything, it sharpened into something the moment he understood Orochimaru's intent. He would end this now, or Konoha would pay the price.
Hashirama raised a single hand, fingers curling with the calm gesture. Darkness poured outward like ink spilling across the world. It swallowed the rooftop whole. Bringer of True Darkness was nothing dramatic to look at; it was the exact opposite. The world evaporated. Sound stretched thin. Hiruzen felt the jutsu wrap around him like a cold, living blanket, smothering every sense except his heartbeat.
He exhaled slowly. If Orochimaru thought this would paralyze him, he had forgotten who trained him.
Even so, Hiruzen understood one something: the only way to keep Orochimaru from spiraling further was to end him here. Before he could twist this jutsu into some larger nightmare. Before he could chase the lunacy he called "peace."
Hiruzen steadied his breathing and began the hand signs. Slow at first, then faster, weaving seals he had prayed he would never need to use. His fingers trembled from the sheer weight of the technique. Shiki Fujin. The Reaper Death Seal. It demanded his everything. Body, soul. He felt the temperature around him drop as the invisible presence awakened behind him. Even under total blindness, he sensed the faint rustle of a spectral blade. The Shinigami had heard the call.
Orochimaru can perfectly see what hiruzen was doing. It was only hiruzen who was covered in the darkness.
He couldn't see the ghost locked behind Hiruzen's spine, but he recognized the shift in chakra and the hand signs. He knew exactly what technique Hiruzen was invoking. He remembered the outcome from his original timeline, remembered the agonizing loss of his arms and how it crippled his research for years. Convenient as the memory was, he wasn't going to let that repeat.
"Hiru—Sensei," Orochimaru's voice cut through the darkness, smooth as oil. "Do you want to know why I attacked Konoha? It's because stagnation rots everything. Nothing changes unless someone breaks the pattern. There is no excitement in a world that sits still."
From within the pitch-black world, Hiruzen's voice answered him. "And what of your reanimation? A world full of Edo Tensei would be bleak. Static. Without growth. Without hope."
"Oh, don't worry, sensei." Orochimaru chuckled softly. "I plan to make a few additions. A touch of unpredictability. A shift in structure. A world immune to death should not be monotonous. But, there will be growth. Your pointers before your death... that I am thankful."
Hiruzen didn't rise to the provocation. He finished the seals. Two shadow clones formed beside him, their movements precise despite the blindness. They lunged toward where Hashirama and Tobirama's chakra flared, ready to seize their souls before Orochimaru could react.
But Orochimaru was already moving.
He whispered a single word: "Kai."
The genjutsu snapped. The world flooded back in a rush of color and light. Orochimaru flicked his fingers toward the coffins embedded behind him. Wood tore through the ground. The lids snapped open like hungry jaws. The Hokage were yanked backward in a blur of force and chakra, vanishing underground as if swallowed whole.
The clones' arms closed on empty air.
The Bringer of True Darkness dissolved completely as hashirama was thrown back into the coffin.
Hiruzen barely had a heartbeat to register what happened before Orochimaru's mouth split unnaturally wide and the Kusanagi sword shot forth like a serpent freed from a cage. Enma, still in the form of the adamantine staff, twisted around Hiruzen in an instant.
"Hiruzen!" Enma roared, trying to defend him.
The Kusanagi cut straight through the staff's hardened surface. The blade tore into Hiruzen's shoulder, driving him back with enough force to crack tiles under his sandals. Orochimaru twisted the sword, savoring the recoil of pain that flickered across his former teacher's face.
But Hiruzen was a veteran. He didn't break. Not even then.
Two more clones burst into being beside him, hands already forming the final sequence of Shiki Fujin. They lunged for Orochimaru's soul.
Orochimaru clicked his tongue and bit into his thumb.
"Summoning: Double Rashōmon."
Two colossal gates materialized instantly, one on each side, their monstrous faces snarling. The clones' sealing arms slammed into them instead, halted by cold stone and murderous intent carved into their surface. Orochimaru leapt backward, the Kusanagi retracting into his throat as cleanly as if it never existed.
"Sensei," Orochimaru murmured, voice almost tender, "I'll wake you when I am done reshaping the world. For now… rest."
Hiruzen was already on his last leg. He couldn't believe his last move is wasted like this. As the Shinigami took over hiruzen soul as a prize.
Behind the barrier, the Sound Four felt his signal.
"Kai," Orochimaru commanded.
The Four Purple Flame Formation shattered with a hiss, crackling sparks dissolving into the night sky. As the barrier vanished, ANBU and Konoha jonin surged in from every direction but Orochimaru was already moving. The Sound Four intercepted the first wave of pursuers.
Kidomaru flicked webs high into the air, the Spider Sticky Gold Net stretching wide to create a mesh that would stall the fastest pursuers. Jirobo braced himself. Tayuya's fingers tightened around her flute, chakra gathering. Sakon and Ukon slipped into motion with eerie synchronicity.
In the Chunin ground, Kabuto clashed briefly with Kakashi and Guy, then felt Orochimaru's recall. He broke contact instantly. "Kai!" His body dissolved into smoke as he retreated.
But Orochimaru wasn't done. Not yet.
He could sense Sasuke's cursed seal flaring like a beacon. The itch of destiny tugged at him. This was the moment. He had always coveted Itachi Uchiha body after his defeat. But for potential alone, Sasuke was priceless. The Rinnegan. The bloodline. The hatred simmering just beneath the surface. Everything Orochimaru desired wrapped in one prodigy.
He ran. Full speed. Chakra stretching behind him like a pale tail, the afterimage of a serpent in flight. His excitement bordered on euphoria.
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A/N: For Advance chapters @patreon.com/DeidaraTheFourth