Luo Chen looked at Orochimaru and the Third Hokage with an indifferent gaze.
"Whether the water is deep or not depends on who is standing in it."
He scanned the war-torn Konoha. "Konoha, the Hidden Sand, the Hidden Sound."
"Setting the Hidden Sound aside for a moment, the majority of the military power of Konoha and the Hidden Sand is gathered right here, isn't it?"
"Suppressing both of your villages would be a simple task."
The disdain in Luo Chen's words caused the Third Hokage's expression to darken slightly.
However, out of gratitude for the life-saving favor earlier, he maintained his politeness and decorum.
"What do you mean by that, sir?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked.
Luo Chen retreated six or seven meters with Kalifa and beckoned to the master and disciple.
"I'll play along with you. It's time you witnessed true power."
Orochimaru's eyes flickered with thought as he smiled. "Teacher, shall we give it a try?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt as though he were in an incredibly difficult position; everything was going wrong at once.
Before Orochimaru could be dealt with, another mysterious powerhouse of unknown depths had appeared.
Even though the stranger had broken the Reaper Death Seal and rescued him, as the Hokage, he could never agree to submission.
This battle was likely unavoidable.
Hiruzen Sarutobi steadied his breathing, regrouped his strength, and said in a heavy voice, "Then, excuse my rudeness."
He began forming hand signs for a ninjutsu while simultaneously keeping an eye on Orochimaru.
"Ninja Art: Earth Dragon Flame Stream!"
Right from the start, he unleashed the composite ninjutsu that had helped make the Third Hokage famous.
A mud-flow earth dragon coalesced from the roof, spitting out spheres of white energy from its mouth.
Hiruzen Sarutobi simultaneously exhaled intense flames from his own mouth, merging them with the white energy spheres fired by the earth dragon to create an even more powerful technique.
Orochimaru controlled the recovering bodies of the First Hokage and Second Hokage, sending them charging from both sides.
He personally transformed his own arms into pythons, extending them forward to strike.
Luo Chen raised his right hand, aiming it toward the incoming white energy spheres and the thick, swirling flames.
From the outside, his palm showed no change.
Yet, it weirdly swallowed the Third Hokage's composite ninjutsu whole.
Seeing this scene, both Orochimaru and Hiruzen Sarutobi were somewhat astonished.
They had never seen such an ability before.
It had directly devoured a ninjutsu formed from chakra.
The next moment, Luo Chen's right hand released several white energy spheres that had expanded several times in size.
Even the flames became even more searing, their area of effect expanding four or five times over, covering the entire roof.
The charging First Hokage and Second Hokage were instantly engulfed by the flames; one could vaguely see their figures crumbling into ash bit by bit.
The pythons that Orochimaru's arms had become hissed in agony, also scorched by the massive fire.
He hurriedly severed his arms to block the spreading inferno.
From within the sea of fire, a large number of white energy spheres, each over a meter in diameter, shot out.
"Earth Style: Multi-Layer Mud Wall!"
"Summoning: Triple Rashomon!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi and Orochimaru had no time to wonder why the swallowed ninjutsu could be reflected back.
Furthermore, its power had increased so significantly.
The two acted in unspoken coordination, unleashing ninjutsu with extremely high defensive capabilities.
Six barriers of yellow earth rose rapidly in front of them.
More than ten white spheres struck with irresistible force, smashing through all six layers of the mud wall in succession.
The Rashomon summoned by Orochimaru descended from the sky.
The massive gates stood over ten meters high, thick and sturdy, appearing like the gates of hell used to seal away demons.
But the impressive-looking Triple Rashomon could not stop the composite ninjutsu that had been amplified ten times in power.
The gates were completely shattered by the remaining white spheres.
By the time the spheres were exhausted, only two remained, which struck the roof not far in front of Orochimaru and the Third Hokage.
The "rumbling" explosion was deafening.
The entire section of the roof was destroyed, and thick smoke filled the air.
The figures of the Third Hokage and Orochimaru leapt out of the dust and smoke, retreating to another rooftop nearby.
They stared into the smoke, their expressions solemn and filled with vigilance.
From just a single exchange, they could see that Luo Chen truly possessed immense strength.
His previous feats—crushing the Kusanagi sword and slaying the Reaper phantom—were definitely not accomplished through some trick.
"What is that ability of his? Swallowing and then reflecting ninjutsu?" Orochimaru sounded very interested.
He had never seen such a ninjutsu before.
The Third Hokage glanced at him and said, "Ninjutsu? This old man didn't feel a single ripple of chakra."
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes; it seemed that was indeed the case.
Subconsciously, he had assumed all moves were executed using chakra.
But thinking back to just now, he hadn't felt any chakra aura from Luo Chen.
Could the opponent truly be an Outsider?
Orochimaru glanced toward the sky, lost in thought.
...
In the spectator stands, the battle between the three ninja villages—Konoha, Hidden Sound, and Hidden Sand—gradually ground to a halt.
There was no helping it; they had all noticed the situation on the roof.
The two originally hostile Kage were actually joining forces to fight against another person.
Are they still fighting now?
Who was the enemy of whom?
Due to the uncertainty of the situation, the shinobi temporarily stopped their fighting.
Kakashi, Kurenai Yuhi, Asuma Sarutobi, and others gathered together.
Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Naruto, and several other Konoha Genin present also kept their eyes glued to the distant roof.
"Kakashi-sensei, what exactly is going on?" Naruto asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
"I'm not sure," Kakashi replied briefly, quietly staring at the opposite roof.
Who knew what was happening?
The Hokage and Orochimaru, who had been fighting to the death, were suddenly working together to deal with Luo Chen.
The change must have stemmed from the words the three had just exchanged.
Just moments ago, Luo Chen had strangely passed through the barrier and saved the Third Hokage.
After the three spoke at close range for a while, the current situation emerged.
"What exactly did this person say? To threaten both Orochimaru and the Third Hokage at the same time."
Many conjectures surfaced in Kakashi's mind, but none could be confirmed.
Hinata looked worried.
That big brother named Luo Chen should be a good person.
Not only had he treated her earlier, but he had also promised to treat Kiba.
And he had saved Sakura and Ino as well.
But why was he suddenly fighting with the Hokage?
Seeing no answer to his question, Naruto curiously observed the surroundings and added, "Where's Sasuke? Why isn't he here?"
"He went to chase Gaara," Kakashi said.
He had originally intended to let Sakura and Naruto go find Sasuke.
But the situation had now become far more complex.
The young man on the distant rooftop gave Kakashi a sense of profound, unfathomable mystery.
He felt that something major was about to happen.
To be safe, he decided to let Sakura and Naruto stay put.
If anything went wrong, he would be there to protect them.
...
On the roof, space rippled with a subtle, hard-to-detect vibration.
Orochimaru's brow twitched as he suddenly looked behind him.
A large, black rubber sole was already closing in on his nose. He tried his best to lean back, but he still felt his head suffer a powerful impact.
Orochimaru let out a pained grunt, his body already sent flying more than ten meters away, slamming heavily onto the roof.
His body rolled repeatedly, smashing through layer after layer of tiles.
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned around in horror; he hadn't sensed when Luo Chen had appeared behind them at all.
He was also sent flying by a front-facing kick.
Fortunately, Orochimaru's experience had allowed Hiruzen Sarutobi to prepare in advance, crossing the iron staff in front of his chest.
Luo Chen's heavy and powerful kick sent Hiruzen Sarutobi flying more than ten meters as well, causing him to cough up a large amount of blood while still in mid-air.
The iron staff, transformed from the summoning beast Enma, was also kicked back to its original form.
The elderly Enma vomited blood in mid-air and was teleported back to where he had come from in a puff of white smoke.
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