Chapter 297: Edo Tensei — Hiruzen Sarutobi, Prime of His Life
Land of Frost
The Land of Frost remained locked in its usual blizzard, bitter wind cutting through endless falling snow.
While the battle in the Land of Rain raged in full force, the Frost front had settled into a stalemate — something closer to dead, unnerving silence.
Nearly every one of Konoha's top fighters, aside from Tobirama, Hikaru, and Tsunade — held back for emergency response — had converged here.
Kakashi, Naruto, Mei Terumi, Guy, Asuma Sarutobi, Shiranui Genma — all gathered together.
Beyond them, Naruto's two hundred chakra-armored shinobi had also arrived, and together with ten thousand Konoha troops, had successfully held back a twenty-thousand-strong coalition of Lightning, Water, Iron, and Bear forces at the very border of the Land of Fire.
That had been true, at least, until a moment ago.
Now, over a dozen figures had begun walking slowly out from within the coalition ranks.
That was—
The Fourth Raikage.
And not only him. Alongside the Fourth Raikage stood the Third Raikage, the Second Mizukage, the Second Tsuchikage, the Fourth Kazekage, the Fourth Mizukage, and the Fifth Kazekage.
Beyond the various village Kage, a whole procession of the shinobi world's most legendary figures stood among them as well.
Kakuzu. Itachi Uchiha. Chiyo. Hanzō the Salamander. Gold and Silver Brothers. Katō Dotō.
And at the center of it all — black hair, black beard, a broad, imposing frame.
Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Third... Grandpa..."
The blond boy stared at the towering figure before him, eyes trembling, unable to quite believe it.
Even without the age lines he remembered, Naruto recognized that familiar face instantly.
"That's Lord Third..."
Kakashi gripped the handle of White Fang tightly, his expression complicated as he stared at the man ahead of them.
It wasn't just Kakashi and Naruto. The entire Konoha force fell into an unspeakable, dead silence.
Standing across from them was their own Hokage.
A man who'd served as Hokage for decades. Many of the shinobi here had entered the academy under Hiruzen's tenure.
And now — they were expected to stand as enemies against that same kind, familiar old man from their memories?
"Orochimaru. I should have killed you back then, no matter the cost."
Revived through Edo Tensei, Hiruzen looked out over the sea of Konoha shinobi before him, his eyes carrying nothing but cold, unmistakable killing intent toward Orochimaru.
The instant his consciousness returned, Hiruzen had already understood his situation. The only real uncertainty had been whether Konoha itself had revived him with Edo Tensei — or Orochimaru had.
Looking now at the fully mobilized Konoha army arrayed before him, ready for battle, the answer was obvious.
Orochimaru had cast the jutsu.
"Don't say that, my dear teacher."
"One last favor from you, if you would."
"And as a mark of my respect, I made this particular vessel something special."
"Enjoy it — a body younger than you've had in decades."
Orochimaru, hidden away in some unknown location, maintained his connection to Hiruzen through the Edo Tensei link.
"Didn't expect this."
Itachi Uchiha looked at Naruto — barely grown since he'd last seen him — a tangle of emotions churning inside him.
Looks like I've only just died, and already they've dragged me back through Edo Tensei.
"You dead monkey seem to know quite a lot."
Beside him, the towering Third Raikage crossed his arms, glancing sideways at Hiruzen.
Hiruzen shot the Third Raikage a cold look but said nothing further.
He turned his gaze back toward Naruto, unmistakable in the distance.
"Naruto!"
"Where's Sakura right now?!"
Hiruzen called out.
"Sakura's on the Land of Rain front, fighting the Wind-Earth coalition and Akatsuki!"
Naruto answered at once.
"What?"
"Alone?!"
Hiruzen's chest tightened with worry at that.
Looking around, every notable Konoha powerhouse he could name stood right here before him — which meant, beyond whatever forces had stayed back to guard the village, Sakura couldn't have taken more than one or two people with her to the Land of Rain.
"Um, there's also Yuki."
???
Naruto's answer left not just Hiruzen but even the nearby Fourth Raikage's face darkening.
"What did you say?!"
"There's no way Yuki would ever help Konoha!"
The Fourth Raikage roared.
"Hey, dark-skinned dude, who even asked you?"
Naruto had no patience left for the Fourth Raikage's sudden interjection.
!!!
"You little brat!"
The Fourth Raikage's fury exploded instantly.
But just as he moved to strike, a hand blocked his path.
The Third Raikage.
"Father?!"
The Fourth Raikage glared, furious, at the man beside him.
"Learn a little more about the current situation first."
The Third Raikage said, calm.
"Gaara. Didn't expect you'd end up..."
Rasa looked at Gaara beside him, his expression deeply conflicted.
"..."
Gaara said nothing, staring silently at his father.
Nearby, Chiyo watched Gaara and let out a quiet sigh.
"The Second Hokage's technique, I take it?"
The Second Tsuchikage, looking down at his own cracked and fissured body, spoke, calm.
"Hmph. Didn't expect I'd end up fighting alongside you, of all people."
The Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki, looked at the man beside him with open displeasure.
The two of them had been bitter enemies once — legend had it they'd killed each other in the same battle.
"So it seems the shinobi world remains, in the end, a world of endless war."
A voice spoke up from behind the revived, gentle and tinged with resignation.
At the sound of it, Itachi turned, disbelieving.
"Shisui!"
The newcomer wore a short black outfit, a short blade strapped to his back, his face soft, carrying a faint trace of weariness.
"It's been a while, Itachi."
The man was none other than Shisui Uchiha — known, ten years ago, as "Shisui of the Body Flicker."
"Looks like Konoha's become everyone's enemy again."
Shisui looked out at the tens of thousands of Konoha shinobi in the distance, then glanced back at the cold, indifferent ranks of the coalition army behind him.
"Shisui..."
Itachi's chest tightened, looking at the man before him.
He was about to say something more, when Shisui suddenly looked up, meeting Itachi's eyes directly.
A Mangekyō Sharingan, shaped like a four-bladed pinwheel, ignited in Shisui's eyes.
This was—
The Mangekyō Sharingan!
In that instant, Shisui's dōjutsu activated.
Kotoamatsukami!
In an instant — in the span of that single, brief glance — a technique capable of rewriting another's very will had already taken effect.
Everything seemed to shift. And yet, somehow, nothing seemed to change at all.
"Hm?"
Hiruzen seemed to sense something.
"Lord Third. It's been a while, hasn't it."
Shisui greeted him cheerfully, as though he'd done nothing at all.
"...Ah..."
Hiruzen started to speak — but the moment his eyes met Shisui's Mangekyō, something jolted through him.
He remembered, suddenly, exactly what Shisui's dōjutsu was.
Kotoamatsukami!
At that instant, a single unshakable directive — protect Konoha — settled into Hiruzen's mind like a brand burned into stone.
"That's all I can do."
Shisui let out a quiet sigh.
A healer can't heal himself.
Wielding Kotoamatsukami, he could rewrite anyone else's will with ease. His own, though, remained beyond his reach.
Meanwhile, hidden somewhere unseen, Orochimaru stared down at the chessboard before him — at two shattered white pieces — his expression darkening considerably.
Careless of me.
Down two pieces before the opening move even finished.
But the irritation passed quickly enough.
Lost is lost. Neither of those two were my real trump cards anyway.
Better question — how should I spend that five billion...
To Orochimaru, this whole so-called war was nothing more than a match on the board in front of him.
The nobility, through Killer Bee, had paid him an enormous sum to buy his participation. Having no real choice but to accept, he'd simply deliver results worth the price.
Who ultimately won or lost mattered nothing to him at all.
And besides—
Orochimaru licked his lips, and pulled several more black stones from the box beside him, setting them down on the board.
Well then.
Let's see who really has the better hand, in the end.
My dear little junior.
"Lord Orochimaru."
A figure stepped out of the shadows toward him.
"How'd it go? Did you get it?"
Orochimaru asked, without turning around.
"Got it. Wasn't sure which mask it was, so I brought all of them."
Kabuto adjusted his glasses, and pulled a sack out from behind his back, setting it down beside Orochimaru.
Through the sack's open mouth, a jumble of grotesque, twisted masks was visible inside.
...
Land of Frost battlefield
"Shisui. Well done."
Hiruzen, sensing his body finally under his own control again, turned to look at the young man beside him.
"You're the Hokage. Anyone else is fair game to stand against Konoha."
"But you."
"Absolutely not."
As Shisui spoke, the short blade on his back cleared its sheath in an instant, a flash of blinding steel cutting straight toward Hiruzen!
The move caught everyone off guard — even the other revived figures around them looked genuinely bewildered.
Facing that flashing blade, Hiruzen's eyes sharpened instantly, and he caught Shisui's incoming strike with lightning reflexes, bare-handed.
Given the extra time he'd had to prepare, Orochimaru had chosen a specially crafted sacrifice for Hiruzen's Edo Tensei vessel.
Which meant—
The Hiruzen standing before them now was at the absolute peak of his prime.
At that moment, Gengetsu Hōzuki — standing closest to Hiruzen — found himself moving against his own will, striking at Hiruzen without warning.
He raised a finger, aimed straight at Hiruzen.
Water Release — Water Gun!
A high-speed jet of water shot toward Hiruzen like a bullet.
But Hiruzen didn't even turn his head — a crimson skeletal hand rose up and blocked the water jet outright.
Itachi. Freed from Edo Tensei's control by Kotoamatsukami as well, had already made his move.
"What an irritating technique."
"Though against Konoha, I suppose I can tolerate it for now."
At that same moment, the Third and Fourth Raikage moved as one.
Combined Lightning Plow Blade!
Kumo's signature "AB Combo" — A for the Raikage, B for the Eight-Tails jinchūriki. To execute it properly required a partner fast enough to keep pace with the Raikage and strike the Lightning Plow Blade in perfect simultaneity.
When both A and B unleashed Lightning Plow Blade together, it completed the true secret technique of the AB Combo.
Here, both the Third and Fourth Raikage were, themselves, former Raikage — meeting every requirement for the technique on their own.
Father and son moved together, without a word between them, in perfect unspoken sync.
And the moment they moved, it was a killing blow.
Two A's, together, executing the AB Combo's ultimate technique.
Their combined speed exploded to its absolute peak.
Facing an assault like that, even Hiruzen — in his absolute prime — felt his expression tighten.
He raised one hand and yanked, and with a burst of tremendous force, Shisui — caught completely off guard — was hauled forward and held in front of him like a shield.
Sixteen years ago, during the Nine-Tails' rampage, Hiruzen — already past fifty at the time — had single-handedly held the Nine-Tails back from Konoha with nothing but the Adamantine Staff. That alone marked him as one of the shinobi world's absolute strongest, even then.
And now, his body was restored to something in its thirties.
Shisui, who'd died at only seventeen, had never even reached his own prime — and speed and Sharingan aside, raw physical power had never been his defining strength to begin with.
Caught flat-footed, he was shoved directly into the path of the attack, serving as Hiruzen's living shield.
In an instant, the combined Lightning Plow Blade struck Shisui head-on.
Under that overwhelming force, both Shisui and Hiruzen were sent flying backward together.
"Well. I understand the logic."
"But Lord Third, that's a little much, don't you think."
Shisui managed a wry laugh, looking down at his own badly broken body, sounding faintly wistful.
"Couldn't be helped. It was the best option available."
"And besides — you won't die from this, in your current state."
Hiruzen pressed the rapidly recovering Shisui down flat against the ground.
"Sealing Technique — Crimson Lotus Binding Seal."
In an instant, red markings spread outward from Hiruzen's palm, covering Shisui's body within moments.
Not just his movement — his chakra, too, sealed off entirely.
An enhanced version of the Self-Curse Binding Seal, taught originally by Mito Uzumaki herself.
Shisui said nothing further, simply looking deeply at Hiruzen.
Not just the body — the personality's closer to his younger self too, isn't it.
Watching Hiruzen's sudden outburst, the assembled Konoha ranks stared in genuine shock.
They knew about Edo Tensei — three years ago, after all, Orochimaru had used it in Konoha itself, controlling the First and Second Hokage against Hiruzen.
But shouldn't someone revived through Edo Tensei obey the one who summoned them?
Why was their own Hokage suddenly turning on his own allies?
"Lord Third and I have both broken free of Edo Tensei's control. Rest easy."
At that moment, Itachi — having used Susanoo to break free of Gengetsu's attack — arrived beside Hiruzen and called out urgently to the Konoha ranks behind them.
"Ohh!"
"Knew it! Grandpa Hokage's the best!"
Naruto, though he had no idea what exactly had just happened, saw no reason to let that stop him from cheering blindly.
"Lord Third!"
"What should we do now?"
Kakashi and the others rushed to Hiruzen's side.
The moment Kakashi spoke those words, command of Konoha's forces had already, automatically, shifted from him to Hiruzen.
Hiruzen's eyes went cold, sweeping across the countless powerhouses arrayed before them.
"What do we do?"
"Obviously."
"We kill them all."
(End of chapter.)
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