Kabuto's chakra flickered at the edge of Orochimaru's perception, slipping through the debris and smoke from below.
Orochimaru allowed him to approach, stepping aside just enough for his subordinate to emerge atop the shattered rooftop.
Kabuto's eyes widened behind his glasses, breath catching for a moment at the sight of what remained of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"So this… is your masterpiece," he murmured, half in awe, half in clinical fascination.
Orochimaru didn't bother replying. He simply raised a hand and slammed it onto the tiles.
Snake Kuchiyose.
Three enormous serpents erupted upward, tearing through the stadium walls and coiling around the rooftop.
Their arrival sent a shockwave through the remaining combatants.
Below, Kurenai Yūhi alone was barely holding off a group of remaining infiltrating Oto shinobi with sharp, precise genjutsu, illusions snapping like traps in the chaos.
But the moment the giant snakes appeared, she had to retreat deeper into the stands, guiding civilians and dropping more illusions to stall the attackers.
Up on the roof, Guy, Kakashi, and the gathered Konoha shinobi wasted no time engaging the summoned beasts.
Steel clashed against scales; earth cracked under the weight of the serpent's thrashing.
One snake lifted Orochimaru, Kabuto, and the Sound Four onto its back, letting them tower above the chaos like a grotesque command post.
Orochimaru watched the battlefield with narrowed eyes.
He needed to eliminate these obstacles quickly.
Before Jiraiya arrived and flipped the entire tide.
He could already feel Konoha shifting, recovering, reorganizing.
Anbu units were converging from all directions.
Civilians were being swept into underground shelters.
Clan compounds had not yet committed their full strength.
If they did…
This shock advantage would evaporate.
The gruesome death of the Hokage had brought him a brief window where panic outweighed strategy.
But mishandled, that very same death could unite Konoha behind a single banner of rage, and that was the last thing he wanted.
He clicked his tongue softly.
"We'll deal with these ones first," he said to Kabuto. "Before the real trouble arrives."
The snake beneath them reared its head, ready to crash down on Guy and Kakashi.
And Orochimaru smiled again.
The Seventh Gate roared around Guy, blue steam writhing off his skin like boiling spirit-fire.
His muscles throbbed with power that bent the rooftop tiles beneath every step.
Even the giant snake hesitated for a fraction of a heartbeat, its predatory instincts screaming at it that this… thing… was wrong.
Guy didn't give it time to reconsider.
"HAAAH!"
His kick smashed upward into the serpent's jaw with enough force to crack bone through its scales.
The beast snapped back, crashing into the stadium wall, its massive coils thrashing wildly and flattening rows of seats.
Kakashi appeared beside him in a blur of smoke, Sharingan glowing sharply.
He exhaled once, steadying himself.
"You're really using that here, Guy?"
Guy didn't look back. His grin was too fierce for anything but forward motion.
"Kakashi! Our Hokage has fallen! If there was ever a time for youth to burn—this is it!"
Kakashi half wanted to correct him.
This wasn't youth.
This was desperation shaped into a man.
But he let the words pass.
Because Guy wasn't wrong.
And because the sight of Hiruzen's body in pieces still clung to the back of his mind like a stain he couldn't blink away.
Guy was now the strongest fighter on the rooftop.
Even Kakashi hadn't expected this level from him, despite all their rivalry, all those decades of keeping pace with each other.
For a moment, Kakashi simply watched him, Sharingan narrowing, and the thought hit him with a quiet, unnerving weight.
Guy… surpassed him.
Not in theory.
Not in some poetic youthful metaphor.
In raw, terrifying reality.
And by many levels at that.
All of a sudden, he didn't know how to feel exactly.
At his feet, another serpent smashed down.
Kakashi flicked a kunai with a lightning-quick snap, then dove forward, his chakra coiling through his arm.
The blade of lightning pierced straight through the snake's eye, exploding out of its skull in a spray of hot blood.
The creature convulsed and toppled backward off the stadium edge.
Kakashi landed beside Guy again, chest rising sharply.
"We need to end this fast," he said. "I'm informed that Lord Jiraiya is still minutes away. And Orochimaru—"
He looked up at the snake on which Orochimaru and the Sound Four stood.
The enemy commander was watching them like a bored deity, yellow eyes glittering with amusement.
Kakashi felt something cold settle in his sternum.
Guy's expression tightened, rare seriousness cutting through the blaze of his seventh gate.
Another serpent lunged for them.
Guy planted his heel, fists drawing inward.
Kakashi stepped aside immediately—he knew what was coming.
"Hirudora!"
The compressed shockwave took shape faster than the naked eye could track, a roaring tiger of sheer air pressure exploding forward.
It collided with the snake's head and ripped half its skull apart, the chakra-formed beast continuing on until it shattered against the stadium's far barrier.
The blast shook the entire arena.
Even Orochimaru stopped smiling for a moment.
Guy staggered a step, breath harsh, steam pouring from his pores.
Seventh Gate or not, the backlash stung deep.
Kakashi grabbed his shoulder to steady him, Sharingan spinning, scanning, calculating.
"You're pushing it."
Guy flashed him a grin that trembled only slightly.
"If I fall, then you'll have to carry the springtime of my youth in my place, Kakashi!"
"Please don't say things like that," Kakashi muttered, but the relief was there, buried beneath the dryness.
Another snake, the last, circled them cautiously now, wary of the blazing monster in human form.
Guy inhaled slowly.
Kakashi raised a kunai.
Nearby Anbu prepared a massive combination jutsu, finally at this moment.
And above them, Orochimaru leaned forward just slightly, intrigued now.
At that moment, Orochimaru finally stirred again, amusement slipping back across his face like a mask he'd momentarily set aside.
"Sound Four. Kabuto. Clean up the scraps gathering around us," he said lazily. "Take the serpent with you."
His smile sharpened.
"I'll handle the bowl-cut anomaly myself."
Before anyone could react, his hands blurred through seals, and the ground ruptured beneath them as a flood of snakes poured out, a writhing carpet of scales and fangs expanding across the rooftop and spilling into the stadium below.
Konoha's remaining shinobi immediately formed counter-lines, launching coordinated combination jutsu to hold back the tidal surge of serpents, fire, and wind, and earth detonating in frantic rhythm.
But Orochimaru no longer cared about the broader field.
He shot forward with a speed that blurred the air, moving straight for the two threats that actually mattered.
Kakashi's eye widened.
Guy's clenched, aura blazing. Orochimaru descended on them like a shadow with fangs.
...
Kimimaro returned to them in a blur, earth still dripping from his armor as he emerged from the treeline.
The girls all straightened the moment they sensed him, but he only gave a brief explanation, a clipped summary of where he'd gone and why, nothing more.
Whatever it was, they understood from his tone that it had been important.
"Move," he finished simply.
They slipped into the village at last, silence folding around them like a cloak.
And as they crossed the threshold, Kimimaro paused for half a heartbeat.
He felt it.
A surge of natural energy, thick and unmistakable, bloomed in the distance and cut through the chaos as it descended fast.
Jiraiya.
And not the imperfect, unstable one either.
Kimimaro's eyes narrowed slightly.
Something about this abrupt shift felt wrong to him.
Not just odd, but quietly dangerous, the sort of change that never meant anything good.
A moment later, another signature crashed into his senses like a comet.
Might Guy.
Seventh Gate.
Alive with raw pressure, hammering at Orochimaru head-on.
Internally, Kimimaro was… not surprised, but momentarily taken aback.
Troublesome for Orochimaru.
He motioned the girls forward.
For now, no one noticed them.
Their suppression seals held perfectly, letting Kimimaro stand in the treeline like a quiet shadow while he took in the battlefield with a long, steady breath.
He let his senses concentrate further.
Fighting still flickered across the village in scattered pockets, but the streets themselves were nearly empty now.
Most civilian chakra signatures had greatly vanished into a concentrated mass deep inside the Hokage Rock bunkers.
'So the evacuation finished,' he thought.
'Which means the tide is about to turn...'
And it was. He could already feel the great shinobi clans mobilizing at last.
Distinct signatures flaring awake like old, well-oiled machines.
Inuzuka packs sprinting across rooftops.
Nara shadows tightening into formation.
Yamanaka minds linking in sweeping networks.
Aburame bug clouds erupting in the distance.
And he didn't even need sensory mode for the Akimichi part, because he could see a fully enlarged Chōza Akimichi flattening snakes somewhere near the market district.
Then a heavier presence thundered into range.
Jiraiya finally crossed into the village's outskirts, sage-enhanced chakra blazing like a falling meteor, his giant toads smashing through Orochimaru's swarm of serpents as if clearing a path by sheer force of nature.
All signatures, Konoha regular forces and jonin, clan elites, and ANBU began converging toward one point.
The stadium.
The rooftop where Orochimaru stood.
Where everything was about to collide.
Kimimaro's senses then stretched outward again, gliding over rooftops, slipping past the haze of battle, reaching toward the dark line of forest where the younger shinobi had previously fled.
There, chakra signatures flickered like sparks in a storm.
The first thing he registered was Sasuke's faltering presence.
He had pushed himself likely too hard again, and his fight with Gaara had already burned itself out.
Kimimaro felt the residue of Chidori scorched into the trees, the acidic sting of cursed seal activation still hanging in the air.
Sasuke's chakra wasn't gone, just… stalled.
Bruised. Spent.
Held together by stubborn pride more than strength.
Gaara, meanwhile, was losing shape.
The boy's chakra spiraled erratically, spasming in waves that grew more monstrous by the minute.
The Shukaku presence inside him leaked through unevenly, distortions of sand and malice rippling outward.
His mind was fraying under the strain, pushing toward partial transformation.
Meanwhile, another chakra signature burst onto the scene like a thrown stone at some point.
Naruto.
Raw, bright, wildly unstable, but surging.
Kimimaro felt it collide with Gaara's warped presence, a clash of panic and willpower.
Naruto wasn't fighting elegantly.
He never did. But his chakra poured out with sheer force, hammering into Gaara's half-formed shell.
Moments flickered through Kimimaro's perception:
Naruto lunging in, fists flying.
Gaara's sand arm bursting upward, twisted by the One-Tail's influence.
Shadow clones scattering like leaves.
The air trembling with every clash of will.
And underneath it all, a steady, pulsing presence from another direction…
The Nine-Tails.
Subtle, but unmistakable.
The two were colliding in earnest now.
Eventually, the pattern would almost certainly slide back into the same familiar groove he remembered.
Naruto would hit his limit, crack it open, and let the Fox's ocean of chakra roar through him for a basic summoning.
A very refined display of hard work and advanced shinobi mechanics, clearly.
That raw surge would be enough to drag a Boss Summon into the world.
Gaara, pushed past coherence, would surrender the wheel entirely and slip into full Shukaku, trading stability for brute force as if it were the most natural choice.
A giant toad wrestling a giant tanuki in the middle of a forest.
Kimimaro's lips twitched.
Then, of course, Naruto would unleash his true secret art to finish it off.
Not a technique.
A catastrophic "talk no jutsu", delivered point-blank like a moral sledgehammer.
One "heartfelt" speech.
And Gaara's lifelong trauma, psychosis, and homicidal spiral would all politely evaporate on the spot.
Instant emotional reform.
Instant ally acquisition.
A new fan unlocked as a reward for clearing a boss fight.
Kimimaro could already picture it and almost snorted.
They slipped into a narrow back alley, quiet enough that the roar of the invasion softened into a distant tremor. Only then did Kimimaro stop, turn, and speak.
"I'm heading to the Hokage Residence first," he said calmly. "The Scroll of Seals is there. Konoha keeps some very… tempting techniques locked away."
Saya's eyes lit with bloodthirsty curiosity. Reika's narrowed with calculation.
Emi perked up. Akane looked like she immediately wanted to argue.
"And after that," Kimimaro continued, unbothered by their reactions, "I am going to the Hyūga Compound. I want as many Byakugan as I can pry from them."
That silenced them for a heartbeat.
Then he pointed down the alley's open end, toward the stadium where Orochimaru's massive chakra still clashed against Konoha's defenses.
"You four are going there. Support Orochimaru. Keep his momentum alive. I need time and space to clear these two objectives. Once I'm done, I'll meet you. Then we'll decide whether we push further and help him grind Konoha into paste… or withdraw together."
Saya grinned instantly.
Reika nodded as if merely accepting a mission, nothing more, nothing less.
Akane made a faint, annoyed tch, perhaps because he was going alone, but she didn't protest, Sharingan already spinning in anticipation.
Emi, however, deflated on the spot.
"Wait. Wait. Hold on," she said, stepping forward. "You promised you'd take me to the Main Branch. Personally."
Kimimaro gave the smallest sigh. "That was the original plan," he said. "But Konoha is stronger than anticipated. Jiraiya alone is far beyond the reports. We can't be reckless. Efficiency comes first."
Emi frowned, hurt flickering behind her usual brightness.
Kimimaro reached out, briefly brushing her shoulder.
"You will have your revenge," he said quietly. "This isn't the only chance. The Hyūga hide more secrets than even I accounted for. I feel like I won't be able to break them completely today, if at all. So, there will be many more opportunities for you in the future as well."
Emi's lips pressed into a thin line, but she nodded, stepping back.
"Fine. But give them my regards before you take their eyes."
Kimimaro almost smiled. "Of course."
Then he glanced at the four of them together, all masked, all cloaked, all ready.
"Orochimaru will notice your arrival. Send him my greetings as well. And be careful. Konoha still hasn't shown everything it's hiding. I have a bad feel."
Reika simply inclined her head a fraction, eyes narrowing in a way that meant she had already started calculating everything.
Saya practically vibrated with eagerness.
Akane rolled her shoulders, already sharpening her chakra.
Emi exhaled once, steadying herself.
Then, together, the four turned and headed toward the stadium, shadows slipping into chaos.
Kimimaro watched them vanish, then pivoted the other way and melted into Konoha's burning streets alone, moving like a ghost hunting its next prize.