Chapter 19
"What is there to explain?" Danzo asked, and Hiruzen's chakra roared forth.
"I am in no mood for games, Danzo," he warned, and so his grip over his cane's handle tightened.
"That boy is a traitor," he argued, and Hiruzen's lips thinned.
"He is as much a traitor as you and I," and he scoffed at those words.
"Guilt has clouded your judgment. Gojo Hatake killed my people. He made a mockery of you as the Hokage, and yet you still continue to defend him over an overinflated sense of guilt," and Hiruzen shook his head.
"It seems like you are mistaken, Danzo. It is not him I defend. No," and Danzo understood the insinuation well enough.
"I should kill you myself for desecrating the bodies of the dead Uchiha clan, but I know that you and I were born and bred in an era of death and darkness," and Danzo had no remorse over his actions.
"You are as soft as ever," Danzo complained as he turned away from him.
"Those eyes woul..." and the wood cracked as Hiruzen's chakra burst forth like a raging wave.
"Do not utter those words in my presence ever again," and Danzo glanced back.
"You are making a grave mistake," he warned him.
"I made a mistake by putting too much trust in you. A mistake that I will never make again," and with that, Hiruzen turned away and walked towards the door.
"Leave Hatake alone, for the next time you do such a thing. I will not stand between you and him...."
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GOJO HATAKE
He saw it first, before anyone else even realised that the pillar keeping their entire village together was gone. Gojo had a very strange relationship with Hiruzen Sarutobi, and he held the old man responsible for many of the problems within the village, but even he would not deny the man's integral role in keeping the village afloat through perhaps its most tumultuous times.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had inherited the village from his predecessor amidst the First Great Ninja War. He was young then, just a few years older than himself. He had then led them through nearly three decades of conflict and tragedies.
Gojo respected him for that, even though he could never forgive him for his crimes against the Uchiha clan and his lover, Hana. Still, he was not expecting this outcome.
Orochimaru's Edo Tensei was not the incomplete version he had expecting. No. The jutsu was far closer to perfection than he had realized, and so in his advanced age, Hiruzen Sarutobi was taken apart by the combined might of the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage.
Beyond that, he could see hundreds crying out in pain, as the attack ravaged the village, and he realized that it was time to stop holding back. So, he focused all of his chakra on the two Suna genin, trying to protect their red-haired comrade.
Gaara had long lost his Bijuu form, and now lay unmoving on the ground while Temari and Kankuro protected him.
"Huh," they both gasped as the full force of his chakra and killing intent overwhelmed their senses, and he saw their bodies tremble before they both fell to the floor.
"I am not usually a cruel person, but I have run out of both patience and time for your childish indulgences," he warned, and the two of them were pale as milk, and they could barely breathe as their bodies were overwhelmed.
"Three minutes," he warned them, and that was all the warning he would offer them.
"That is all the time I will offer to you and your village," and Suna had been an ally for their village for years, and so he would offer them one last mercy before the promised.
"You must understand by now that your Kazekage has been killed already, and that the man pretending to be him is none other than Orochimaru," and Kankuro gulped down, as he gave them his warning.
"There is no use in fighting, so have your forces pull back out of Konoha within the next three minutes, for those who remain inside Konoha's walls will die," and with his warning given, he suddenly turned towards the roof where Orochimaru was laughing even as ANBU encircled him.
"Those two idiots," he whispered, and then in the blink of an eye he vanished and appeared right in front of Orochimaru, as he grabbed the heads of the two daring but idiotic genins who had broken through the ANBU encirclement to aim a strike at Orochimaru.
SMASH!
Both Sasuke and Naruto grunted in pain as Gojo pushed their heads into the tiles, stopping them from running to their death.
"What...," the ANBU gasped, as they saw him appear in the blink of an eye.
"LET US GO!" Naruto screamed as he tried to push himself up, and much to his surprise, the blonde boy was able to push back his hand slightly, and Gojo spotted the red slitted eyes that had replaced his usual blue orbs and realized the source of all that power.
'Kyubi,' he realized, and in his rage, Naruto had begun channeling the Kyubi's chakra.
"I think I told you to help with the evacuations," he reminded the two fools.
"We can not! No! We have to kill him!" Naruto glared at Orochimaru, who was smiling menacingly.
"He killed the old man," and he could spot the Third Hokage's corpse lying behind Orochimaru.
"Do you really think that you can kill a shinobi that was able to bring down Sandaime-sama?" he asked, and pushed chakra into his hands and the two of them stilled for a second before their bodies relaxed, and they shut their eyes.
"No....," and they were both unconscious now, and he rose up and threw them towards a masked ANBU at the back.
"Take these idiots away," he ordered, as he stepped forward himself to face Orochimaru, along with the revived First and Second Hokage.
"I was beginning to wonder if you would even show yourself?" Orochimaru taunted, and the truth was that, unlike Naruto and Sasuke, he was not overly emotional about Sandaime's death.
No. The truth was that he did not really care for it. But he cared for the attack on the Hospital. He cared for the attack on himself. He cared for the thousands who were affected by this war.
"I have heard whispers about your Kekkei genkai, but now that I see it for myself, it seems like the rumors did not do them any justice at all," and they did not, for this was the first time he was using them at their full power.
"Still, do you really think you can defeat me?" and Gojo smirked.
"We could find that out right now," he warned, even though his reserves were nearly half empty.
"You seem overtly confident for a shinobi who is about to face the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage," and then Orochimaru began to cycle through a set of handseals.
"Let me change that," and with a chilling grin, he bit into his thumb and put his hand onto the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu: Edo Tensei," and another coffin rose up from the ground, and when the lid fell off, he could feel the ANBU still at the sight in front of them.
"NO!" " You Monster!"
Their reaction was justified, for infront of them stood the very man who had commanded their loyalty for decades. The very man who had just sacrificed his life to protect their village.
"Sandaime-sama," and Orochimaru laughed as the three Kages assembled in front of him.
"Do you still wish to take me on?" and he was. He definitely was.
"Even more than before," Gojo warned.
"But you are quite a lucky man," and Orochimaru raised a brow.
"It seems as if I have a war to fight, so I will give you two minutes to leave the village," he offered the man a chance.
"Leave, and you might get to live for a few more miserable days," Orochimaru said.
"What are you doing!" "We have to kill him!" the ANBU protested.
"Silence!" Gojo thundered.
"We will have our revenge," he assured them.
"But first we must protect the village," and as confident as he was, he was certain that a full-fledged battle here would decimate the entire village.
"I have already accomplished what I came here to do," Orochimaru began, as the Sound Four assembled around the man in formation.
"So, we have no quarrel for the time being," and Orochimaru smirked as he looked at him one last time.
"Goodbye, Hatake," and then he vanished in a blur, and the ANBU all turned towards him at once.
"How could you do that!" "How could you let him go?" and he was in the mood to listen to their nonsense.
"You can wag your tongues later," he warned them angrily, before he brought up his hand and prepared himself to use his ultimate technique.
"But I have a war to end," and with that, he channeled nearly all of his chakra.
"Domain Expansion...." and the world around him stilled.
"....Infinite Void!"
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JIRAIYA—The Toad Sage
Just like that the war was over. One second, Konoha was full of enemy ninjas, and then in the blink of an eye, all their enemies were reduced to a pile of blood and bones.
But by then the battle was already lost. They had survived, but they had lost their leader.
Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Sandaime Hokage. The Professor. The God of Shinobi was dead.
Gone. Killed by his own former student because of a technique created by his own predecessor. Jiraiya knew of no technique more abhorrent than Edo Tensei, and to think that such a technique now lay in the hands of his former teammate was a troubling thought.
He had half a mind to chase him out himself, but as much as he loved his former teacher, this was no longer his fight.
Orochimaru had slain a Hokage, and so this was a Hokage's battle. It would not be easy to defeat him, for he had at his beck and call three of the Greatest Shinobi in the entire history of the shinobi world.
But if there was a shinobi who could do the impossible and defeat him still, then it was the young shinobi standing on the roof in front of him.
His last technique had spared Konoha much pain and devastation, but it had hollowed his reserves. In the end, it took him two days to wake up again, and by then most of the remnants of the attack had been removed.
"Are you here to complain like the ANBU commander?" Hatake asked, as he stood over the railings and looked at the village.
"No," and the ANBU had not taken well to him letting Orochimaru go.
"I understand your reasons well enough," and their anger was simply fuelled by their guilt of failing their leader, for as ANBU it was their duty to protect both the Hokage and the village yet they had failed in both.
He understood, though, that a fight between Gojo and Orochimaru at that moment would have destroyed the village.
"They have made the decision," and he walked forward and stood beside the white-haired boy.
"You are going to be the Godaime Hokage," and despite the troubles that lay ahead, Jiraiya was content with the news, for he could think of no one better to lead the village than him.
"But you already knew that," and he nodded slowly.
"I did," and there was not much to say between them.
"Suna has agreed to negotiate terms," but that was just the beginning.
"But by now all of the other villages will have learned of sensei's death, and they will try to use the opportunity to attack us," and they would have to face it all.
"Kumo has already begun making their moves," the Godaime Hokage answered back, and it seemed as if he had not been sitting idle.
"I will handle..."
"No," Gojo cut in before he could finish.
"Kumo is mine," he said, glancing towards him, and Jiraiya suddenly remembered his history with Kumo.
"You can handle Iwa, but Kumo. I will handle that myself," and what could he say to that? Jiraiya took out his pack of cigarettes and offered it to him as well. Gojo took one, and took in a big puff of smoke as Jiraiya did the same.
They did not say anything to one another, and when the cigarette was finished, he decided that it was time to leave, and as he headed towards the door, he stopped.
"Orochimaru," he began, and his blood boiled just thinking about him.
"If you were to face him with the revived Hokages, could you really defeat him?" and Gojo continued to stare at the skies.
"It would be a little difficult," and that was the first time he had ever spoken those words.
"But, I would win...."
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