No one knew that Root and the Hokage Tower had been breached by a formidable foe.
Fewer still noticed a fourth faction quietly cleaning the battlefield, collecting their comrades' corpses.
Konoha's ninja worked in silent coordination.
Some escorted villagers to shelters, while others didn't so much fight as stall, preserving their lives until escorts returned, ready to sound the counterattack.
At Konoha Plaza, the battle raged on.
The First Hokage, summoned via Impure World Reincarnation, unleashed Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees, cloaking the fight between Hiruzen Sarutobi and Orochimaru. Only sensory ninja or those with piercing vision could glimpse it.
They sensed the Third Hokage was struggling.
At the arena, elite Jonin Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy safeguarded spectators, clashing with Kabuto Yakushi's Sound ninja and reinforcing Sand ninja.
Elsewhere, Gaara and his siblings were subdued by Izayoi and the rookie prodigies.
As the Konoha Crush began, quick-witted Hinata and Shino Aburame, immune to genjutsu alongside Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara, and Neji Hyuga, ambushed Temari and Kankuro.
Tied to Gaara's False Sleep Technique, Temari and Kankuro couldn't flicker to rescue him. Against the rookies' teamwork, they fell swiftly.
Had Kurenai Yuhi not intervened, the fearless youths might've killed the siblings, heedless that their live value far outstripped their deaths.
Gaara, under False Sleep, surrendered to the One-Tail, Shukaku.
Tailed Beast chakra surged, forming endless sand waves, shaping Shukaku's form while shielding Gaara from Izayoi's triple-nature Ultimate Technique: Roaring Light Cannon.
But as Shukaku's body formed, before it could roar its arrival, its consciousness snapped back to Gaara.
Even fully formed, Gaara's upper body protruded from Shukaku's head.
Few below noticed this target—except Izayoi's shadow clone.
Fragile in durability, the clone exploited Shukaku's incomplete awakening, darting to its head and smashing Gaara's unprotected face.
Gaara, deep in sleep, jolted awake.
Shukaku's massive form collapsed into a giant sand pile in the arena.
As Gaara's senses cleared, Izayoi had dragged him to the competitors' stands.
"Move, and I'll kill you," Izayoi's voice hissed.
"Don't kill Gaara! He's my brother, worth sparing—please!" A pleading female voice snapped Gaara fully alert.
Seeing Temari—bound, once terrified of him, now begging for his life—Gaara's emotions churned.
No one cared. Kurenai issued orders: "Hinata, seal his chakra. If he breaks through, sever his limbs. He mustn't die."
"Yes."
Hinata moved, her acupuncture strikes sealing Gaara's tenketsu.
Her Byakugan, veins bulging, locked onto him, ready to alert others at any anomaly.
Izayoi's voice reached Hinata, feigning ignorance: "How's Hanabi?"
"Rest easy—Father's taken her away."
"Good."
Izayoi nodded, ready to coast.
The Konoha Crush starred Hiruzen and Orochimaru, master and pupil.
He was merely the mysterious fourth faction fishing in troubled waters.
Kurenai didn't intend for them to fight, ordering the rookies: "Take these captives and follow me."
She led Izayoi and the others, skirting the plaza, toward the Interrogation Department.
The Kazekage's children surely held valuable secrets.
They faced Sand and Sound ninja ambushes en route.
Konoha ninja soon reinforced them.
No longer hiding, Izayoi floated upward, unleashing Ultimate Technique: Verdict.
Using an ultimate as a casual attack stunned Sand, Sound, and even Konoha's reinforcements.
The technique—compressible for a weaker Roaring Light Cannon or diffuse for wide laser pillars—ignited Sasuke's eyes with fervor, nearly drooling.
His newly mastered Lightning Release: Chidori suddenly felt lackluster.
Sasuke resolved: post-war, he'd train Water Release, then politely—or persistently—beg Izayoi to teach him, pestering, freeloading, or third-wheeling until Izayoi relented.
"Damn it, my house!"
As Sasuke schemed, a furious shout snapped him back.
Izayoi—midair, dominating like a god, usually refined, polite, mature—glared somewhere, cursing.
Abandoning Kurenai and the rookies, he flew off.
Hinata's gaze sharpened, following wordlessly as a blur.
Kurenai and the others, tracing their path, stifled laughs.
In the city, a colossal three-headed snake rampaged, shattering buildings.
Explosive tags and Five Elements ninjutsu failed to kill it, enraging it further.
Its three heads struck attacking ninja, while its tail accidentally crushed a two-story house.
Izayoi's house.
No wonder he lost it.
Kurenai refocused, telling the rookies: "Ignore them—follow me."
"Storm Release: Verdict!"
A white laser pillar shot from the sky, striking the snake's central head.
It contracted visibly, shifting from electrothermal to sharp laser cutting, slicing the snake apart as Izayoi's arm guided. The corpse vanished in white smoke, returning to Ryuchi Cave.
"What… powerful Lightning Release!"
"Not Lightning—Storm Release, that genius everyone's talking about."
"Amazing kid, even knows flight ninjutsu!"
"Great, it's down—support the others."
"…"
Konoha ninja, awed by Izayoi's descent, flickered off to aid allies.
Landing amid ruins, Izayoi's mouth twitched. "The real me and those clones—utter trash."
Ruthless, he cursed himself.
Neither his real body nor clones foresaw this.
His real body plundered Root and Danzo's stash.
The Naka River clone handled puppets—kills, corpse collection, storage—its Tenseigan overwhelmed.
The clone guarding Ranmaru powered him.
The Hokage Tower clone erased traces, escaping with Tenzo.
None noticed the snake, which, per the original tale, rampaged from the gate until Jiraiya's toad crushed it.
But Jiraiya, hearing of 'Deva Path,' abandoned all to rush to the tower's base.
Perhaps Izayoi's luck fueled his drop rates, but the snake targeted his street.
Among countless houses, it crushed his.
Hinata flickered beside him, soothing, "It's okay, Izayoi-kun. A house can be rebuilt—just be safe."
"No choice. First, find the scrolls—my savings, our photos." Izayoi nodded. Short of time reversal, even he couldn't undo this.
Using Tenseigan's piercing vision, he scoured the rubble.
He found them.
"Hinata, handle those guys."
Spotting Sound ninja emerging, he nodded to her.
"Yes."
Hinata's gaze steeled. She nodded, chakra morphing into two purple lion heads.
Using Lightning Release to boost speed, she flashed before a Sound ninja, striking.
His chakra meridians drained, foreign chakra surged through flesh, ravaging organs.
He spat blood, incapacitated.
One-shotting him, Hinata tore through the fodder Sound ninja.
With the Hyuga main branch's advanced Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists, she dispatched them effortlessly.
As she finished, Izayoi retrieved scrolls and framed photos from the rubble.
Seeing the photos intact, he exhaled, eyeing the ruins. "Gone's fine—time for a bigger house."
Both turned toward the Hokage Rock.
Their senses caught a surge of chakra approaching.
Familiar with the safety manual, they knew Konoha's counterattack had begun.
With villagers safe, ninja fought unburdened.
The once-strongest village unleashed stunning unity.
Only a united great village or a dimension-crushing super ninja could rival Konoha.
As expected…
Returning escorts flipped the tide. Once passive against Sand and Sound's alliance, Konoha's forces crushed them decisively.
Sand ninja from the plaza brought news: their Fourth Kazekage was Orochimaru in disguise, the real one missing.
Led by Maki, Sand ninja fled, aiming to inform their elders, abandoning Gaara's group.
Trapped Sand ninja surrendered swiftly.
Alive, their village would ransom them.
Meanwhile, Hiruzen and Orochimaru's master-disciple duel concluded.
As in the original, aged Hiruzen was no match for Orochimaru.
With the First and Second Hokage reincarnated—mere shadows of their prime—they still overwhelmed him.
At death's door, the champion of the Will of Fire chose duty over the Pure Land, offering his soul to the Reaper. He sealed the First and Second's souls, then, unable to seal Orochimaru's, took his arms' souls, crippling his ninjutsu.
Amid Orochimaru's anguished roars, Hiruzen closed his eyes with a faint smile.
Childhood friends, Hokage's guards, village builders—one light, one shadow—brawling internally, they'd weakened Konoha from its invincible peak. Yet they achieved "same day, same death."
One's soul reached the Pure Land; the other's lingered in the Reaper's belly.
Orochimaru's Konoha Crush left no winners—not Sound, Konoha, nor Sand.
The sole victor, the ultimate winner, was Izayoi.
This plan made him obscenely rich.
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