章 104: Chapter 105

*Third Person POV*

"Where the fuck am I now?" a muscular orange-haired woman exclaimed as she looked around her, not yet noticing the three people standing in this barren marshland

"So she's the one we have to face?" Jiraiya let out quietly as he kept on staring at the woman in case she tried to attack them suddenly

"Be careful, her body is just like mine, though I don't know what modifications were made to her." Orochimaru said as he licked his lips since he wanted to study his opponent's body to see if he could upgrade his own in any way

"Judging by her eye, I think she's the one with that Clairvoyance ability, from what Yuichi told us, but that doesn't mean she cannot do anything else... Let's not get too hasty." Tsunade surprisingly exclaimed as she also carefully observed her opponent

The woman then locked her gaze on the three of them and declared "Three people? Are you fucking underestimating me?!" as she visibly became angrier and angrier with each second passing

"She's not a polite one uh... Remind me of someone." Jiraiya mumbled before Orochimaru added "My snake senses are smelling an inferiority complex." both sentences were unfortunately heard by their opponent as her veins began bulging even more

"Stop talking and get ready you two!" Tsunade let out as she grabbed both of them by their collar and jumped back as a massive tentacle slammed the ground where they once stood

"I've written too many adult novels to know where this is going!" Jiraiya said as another massive octopus-like tentacle appeared from the ground, surrounded by some weird murky water

"I will crush you!" the furious woman let out as the sky darkened and, as blood was flowing from her eyes, her body began to transform into a massive monstrosity while tentacles arose from the ground in front of her, thrashing around and preventing the trio from approaching

As she grew, her skin was no longer present, instead, she now had a horrendous mix of orange fur, dark brown scales, and white shells covering her joints.

She gained another pair of legs, two scaled ones, and two hairy ones with feet reminiscing of a lizard for the former and a lion for the latter, but all were on her lower body, allowing her to stand up.

Two tails also appeared, one was spiky and ended with a morning star-like protrusion, while the other, also covered with scales, had a snake head seemingly sentient at the end.

Her two arms became longer and developed long-scaled wings, and from her body sprouted many tentacles that were frenetically rampaging around.

Her initial head was almost unrecognizable as her eyes were like lizard's, and her mouth became a thing of horror as it was round and full of many sets of sharp beaks, like an octopus on steroid, along with two lion ears instead of the human one she used to have.

Even weirder, she gained another head that was coming off of her right shoulder, the head of a goat, though it was looking to the right, allowing this thing to cover most angles.

"Oi, when you said her body was like yours, is that what you meant?" Jiraiya exclaimed as he was now evading the tentacles by himself until he was far enough so he could focus for a few seconds

"Who knows, but my appearance is definitely more elegant." Orochimaru replied as he also moved far away from the tentacles and did the same as Jiraiya while Tsunade covered them

As Jiraiya closed his eyes, his face changed, with orange pigmentation appearing around his eyes and when he opened them, he now had yellow irises and toad-like pupils.

Since he couldn't activate his now-perfected Sage Mode instantly, Jiraiya left clones of himself at Mount Myōboku, allowing him to change so quickly.

Orochimaru, on the other hand, saw his whole body changing, becoming slightly taller and slimmer, with white scales now covering his body, a purple pigmentation surrounding his eyes and going as low as where his now wider mouth was which formed a 'V' shape, and finally snake-like yellow irises.

His homunculus body allowed him to absorb and store a set amount of Natural Energy, thus, he was not restricted to meditating to trigger the transformation.

Tsunade, on the other hand, released the full strength of her perfected Strength of a Hundred Seal, granting her black markings that spread all around her body from her forehead, though unlike before, it seemed to be moving, as if it was alive.

Her amber eyes also became yellow, a change caused by using the Sage Mode through the seal, Natural Emeefy stored alongside chakra.

As Tsunade popped two chakra wings on her back through the usage of her wedding ring's stocked chakra, she darted toward the monstrosity and sent a punch directly at the woman's face.

Despite the hard scales covering it, the head was completely obliterated by Tsunade's assault, spilling black blood everywhere which forced Tsunade to fall back as it was highly corrosive and, if she didn't cover her arm with chakra, it would have melted her arm.

Regardless, the monster's goat head began to release a powerful screech before something red began to form inside its mouth, then, it launched a breath of liquid fire towards Jiraiya who was trying to sneak attack the monster, forcing him to fall back as the floor in front of him was now akin to lava.

"Fuck, she's regenerating! Orochimaru!" Tsunade yelled as Orochimaru was currently trying to sense something and said "I haven't found her core yet, buy me more time."

Since this thing was still a homunculus like Orochimaru was, it was bound to have a core, just like a mortal's heart, it was allowing them to be 'alive', however, the core could be anywhere in a homunculus body, and the size could be infinitely small.

As such, he had a hard time finding it, like searching for an abysmal needle in a massive haystack.

Orochimaru was a bit different thanks to Yuichi as he could switch bodies if this one was destroyed, and in case this monster could as well, as long as they leave something behind, Yuichi can absorb them.

Nevertheless, since both Tsunade and Jiraiya weren't keen on waiting for Orochimaru to find it, both decided to blow this thing bit by bit in hope of destroying the core, time not being on their side.

As such, Jiraiya breathed in and released a jet of muddy water toward the monster's goat head, hindering its vision and preventing it from retaliating, before generating in his right hand a shuriken-like Rasengan large enough to separate the goathead from its main body.

The moment the goat head was cut off, Tsunade kicked the ground and, after evading the monster's powerful wind attack made simply by batting its wings, she kicked the goat head with all her strength, blowing it into pieces before getting slammed by one of the many tentacles, sending her flying away until she crashed.

"Tsunade!" Jiraiya worriedly shouted before being forced to evade the monster's snake head-tail that extended and tried to bite him, but as he did do, the spiky tail extended as well and tried to bash him, only to miss and suddenly send the spikes all around in an explosion, forcing Jiraiya to protect his face with his arms as his flesh was getting lacerated by the sharp fragments it released.

The abomination wasn't done yet as the 'humanoid' head opened its disgusting mouth wide and released a powerful beam of lightning toward Orochimaru who felt it coming and began to jump to his left, though he was too slow but thankfully someone grabbed him and launched him before the ray could hit him entirely.

"Thank you, Tsunade-san." Orochimaru said as his blown away right side was growing back thanks to Tsunade's extremely advanced healing, the black lines going on him in the process

"Did you find it yet? This thing is absurdly fast despite our current strength." Tsunade let out as she was completely unscathed after being thrown away, in fact, she even began to blow many of the tentacles coming out from the ground, all surrounded by some murky water and seemingly not linked to the monstrosity

"I scanned her entire body but found nothing, she may be keeping it away from herself..." Orochimaru explained as he watched Jiraiya continuously assaulting the abomination, burning its four legs to a crisp, cutting its two tails into pieces, and crushing its tentacles into sashimi, all while moving around to evade any counterattack as it regenerated extremely quickly

It kept on launching a combination of liquid fire breath, lightning rays, and some powerful wind blasts blowing everything around to catch Jiraiya who was as annoying to it as a fly would be to a human.

The Sannin usually tried to stay away from the tentacles spread all around the battlefield but at some point, Jiraiya couldn't permit himself to do so, and, as he found himself between the monstrosity and one tentacle, the thing suddenly stopped charging its devastating breath attack and instead opted to use the tentacles attached to its body to send him away.

While it wasn't the first time Jiraiya found himself near one of the many tentacles coming from the ground, it was the first time the abomination didn't dare to launch a destructive attack, something that Jiraiya and Orochimaru realized which prompted the latter to scan the tentacle and found out that the core was located inside of it… For a while before it suddenly 'disappeared'.

"Tsunade-san, go help Jiraiya-san and divert her attention to both of you, preferably while blowing the goat's head since its vision is the most annoying." Orochimaru said as he stealthily buried a multitude of snakes in the ground

"Got it." Tsunade replied before darting toward Jiraiya so he could know what he had to do

As such, Jiraiya nodded and began to take a gourd hanging from his waist before launching it above the monstrosity, all while Tsunade jumped next to it and covered her entire arm with enough chakra to create a massive-sized fist, grabbing the gourd before smashing it on the abomination's heads, crushing them before spilling the content of the gourd.

Then, Tsunade fell back and Jiraiya did a few hand signs that explosively ignited the monstrosity, completely hindering its vision.

During this time, Orochimaru was focused on finding which tentacles held the core as it was moving from one to another, as such, he sent one snake to each tentacle and, the moment he found the right one, he switched with the snake near it, unborrowed from the ground, and pierced the tentacle with a sharp bone protruding from his palm.

A glass-breaking sound was heard as he did so, a sound that didn't come from the tentacle but from the small orb that shattered on the tip of Orochimaru's palm bone.

"It's over." Orochimaru exclaimed as the tentacles began to wither away while the main body that was thrashing around suddenly stopped and fell on the ground while continuously burning away

"She was more of a pain in the ass than I expected her to be." Tsunade let out as she as well as Jiraiya went toward Orochimaru, all of them deactivating their Sage Mode

"They stole Yuichi and I's homunculus idea, of course they were going to be difficult to deal with as these bodies far surpass regular human ones... And this one couldn't even use her Clairvoyance ability, she was probably the weakest, and she felt incomplete as well." Orochimaru explained which made Jiraiya disappointed in himself

"So we're still weak in the end..." Jiraiya muttered but Orochimaru retorted "No, we're not. Any other shinobi would have died after receiving such attacks, but she had a powerful regeneration and pseudo immortality, and you as well, if she was unleashed outside against our army she would have decimated many of them with ease, don't forget that we are stronger while using Sage Mode, we brushed off her assaults."

"I guess you're right, I shouldn't consider them to be normal shinobi, thanks, Orochimaru." Jiraiya replied which made the latter add "You're welcome. Though, could you stop this fire? I want to study her body."

"Fine." Jiraiya replied before Tsunade exclaimed "Just store the body for later, we should help those outside, I'm sure I have people to heal."

But as Jiraiya turned toward the burning body, he saw it liquefy and disappear, leaving nothing behind...

====================

*Nagato's POV*

'Looks like my opponent is finally here' I thought as I was bored of waiting only for a single opponent

I could help those outside and crush the beasts with ease to bring peace quickly, but no, I have to take care of one person.

'A little girl? Easy.' I thought again as I saw a small girl with fur clothes and dense light green hair looking and sniffing around her like some animal

I was standing on the branch of one of the many trees around the place, a thick jungle-like forest with an absurdly cold temperature, and yet, the vegetation was doing fine.

Since I knew that her body wasn't that of a normal human, I had to stay careful, more so about her possible unique ability.

Nevertheless, I raised my arm toward her and, as she seemingly noticed me by smell and growled, I said "Shinra Tensei." sending a powerful repulsive force toward her with so much speed she couldn't evade and began to get crushed along with the trees around her

However, surprisingly enough, she only kneeled and did her best to not get slammed, as such, I increased the strength of Shinra Tensei by reducing the area I was affecting.

I couldn't do that before, well, Yuichi Senju 'cured' me.

"Hm? She's physically strong despite her look." I let out as I saw her slowly stand up using her arms... Which apparently went from two to six arms as it helped her get up

"Futile." I let out as I transformed my other arm into an energy cannon and launched a blast toward her, blowing everything below me

The Ancor Vantian held so many interesting technologies, I was now able to use them for my own device by transforming my body thanks to the Rinnegan.

Surprisingly enough, she disappear into the ground, or so it seemed as she left behind some black markings before suddenly coming out of them by launching a flurry of claw-like ranged attacks everywhere around her, not necessarily aimed toward me.

'She's definitely fast, but it doesn't matter for I am superior' I thought as I effortlessly evaded them, knowing that these things weren't technically Ninjutsu and thus wouldn't be absorbed if I wanted to

I then conjured two pairs of long mechanical arms from my back, each currently ending with homing missile launchers, sending rockets toward her and forcing her to run around.

She tried to evade them by going inside her weird markings but the missiles simply hovered and waited for her to reappear somewhere else.

Only when she suddenly appeared behind me did I get slightly surprised and ducked, the missiles staying on standby to not hit me as well.

"Begone." I let out as I raised my hand and wanted to use Shinra Tensei once more, but when I saw her dive inside one of her markings, I raised my other arm, not quite naturally, behind me, using Shinra Tensei as she appeared, pushing her away and destroying the trees with her markings on them.

As it began to take too long for my taste, I turned and raised my other arm toward her and used Banshō Ten'in, forcefully pulling her toward me and thus in the trajectory of the missiles, creating a huge explosion that destroyed what little was left of the forest.

Still, I noticed that she was somewhat fine, well, two arms blew away, and while she tried to hide, she couldn't escape my gaze so I purposely turned away and made it seems as if I was waiting for her to do the same trick.

When I did so, she used this as an opportunity to dash at me, unfortunately for her, the moment she was near, my mechanical arms grabbed hers before I used my right arm to grab her head, yanking her soul out of her body as I conjured the Gate of Hell behind me.

"Working solely on instincts makes you so predictable, you know." I said as she screamed in pain, doing her best to free one of her arms to use her poorly controlled technique on me

Knowing in advance what her technique could do was truly helpful, as for her having an artificial body, it didn't change the fact that she still had a soul I could extract from it.

"It's over." I exclaimed as I let go of her body and brought her soul toward the Gate of Hell

But as I did so, her soul as well as her falling body seemingly liquefied before disappearing altogether.

====================

*Madara's POV*

'He's here? Just wait Hashirama, I'm not going to leave all the fun to you' I thought as I saw an old man, seemingly a martial artist, enter the dimension I was sent to

This place brought me a lot of memories, being a valley with a river going through it... Not good ones.

"Madara Uchiha? It would be an honor to be the one killing you!" that old fucker dared to say which made me more than eager to beat the crap out of him

"Are you sure about that?" I let out before moving toward him with the intent to start by breaking an arm or two, only to seemingly get knocked back by an unknown force

'What the..?' I thought as my right arm was bent unnaturally, something I quickly recovered from as I grabbed it and turned it back to normal

"What's wrong? Did you trip?" the old bastard said which definitely made me angry but I kept my calm and understood what kind of ability my opponent had

'Of course I have to face the guy with the Reflection ability...' I thought as I saw him coming toward me with purple lightning crackling around his body while his fists were covered in a kind of black flame

I began to raise my arms in front of me to block his assault but I once again received a rebound as my arms broke before he was even close to me, leaving me open and knocked even further back as he hit me in the chest, breaking my armor in the process.

As I was flying away, I tried to use my Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique but not aimed toward my opponent, instead, I wanted to hit the rocky wall near him and try to indirectly damage him.

Unfortunately, I was once again faced with a rebound as my body spontaneously took fire.

As my arms quickly healed again, I took off my armor as I realized that I couldn't put out the black fire on it and looked at the smug face of my opponent before deciding to use a more personal technique.

Well, I once again saw him charge toward me, his fighting style solely focusing on Taijutsu, but unlike before, I moved away from where I was to avoid both his attack and the potential rebound I would have experienced if I simply wanted to block it.

Then, while the ground he hit was destroyed, I summoned four clones around him, clones he couldn't see since they were in Limbo, an alternate dimension only I could access.

I then ordered each of them to use a different technique, one would use Taijutsu, one would use Ninjutsu, one would use Genjutsu, and one would use Fūinjutsu, the latter two only trying to hinder or imprison him instead of 'harming' him.

But of course, instead of me getting rag-dolled, my clones took the blows in different manners, the two who simply wanted to stop him now being completely immobile instead.

'Glad I didn't do it myself... Now what?' I thought as I barely evaded another one of his assaults, he's fast, I'll give him that, but not enough regardless

Though, as he began punching me an incredible number of times and forced me to strafe my upper body left and right, I felt the purple lightning surrounding him crawl on me and paralyze me, for an instant sure, and that was enough for him to punch me on my right shoulder, knocking me away as the black flames began to burn me.

'What kind of fucker uses such fire as a technique... His fighting style is unrefined, reminds me of a certain someone' I thought as I crashed into the river and saw the black fire still burning... And damn did it hurt

'This guy reflected anything as long as it intended to do something to him, even indirectly by aiming to the side, or using techniques that don't harm him...' I thought as I looked at my reflection in the water, my Dōjutsu reminding me of how powerful I was and yet this boasting old man with a crude Taijutsu was playing with me because of some bullshit technique

I was clueless as to what to do... I knew this technique had to have a weakness of some sort, I thought of stalling until his chakra capacity was depleted but he seemed to have a near-endless amount.

"What's the matter? The great Madara is forfeiting? I expected more from an old legend, not even leaving a single scratch on my body." the arrogant old man exclaimed which made my eyebrow twitch

'I can't even attack his soul since his very self reflects things... Maybe... Hmph, could be worth a try, I'm already running out of ideas anyway' I thought as I looked at my reflection in the water and used a Genjutsu on myself, making me black out for a moment

When I opened my eyes and looked around, I knew that this place was familiar; the Valley of the End.

"Madara?" I heard a familiar voice call behind me, and when I turned, I saw a man I knew far too well

*Third Person POV*

"Hashirama! I hope you are ready for our round two, because this time... I will not lose!" Madara exclaimed, his face full of anger

"Uh? What are y-" the old man tried to ask as he was dumbfounded by Madara's sudden change, but he couldn't finish as the legendary Uchiha darted toward him with such vigor and anger that he felt fear for the first time since he got the Reflection Technique

Since then, he never bothered to evade anything, he didn't need to, after all, but right now, only one thought was going inside his mind.

'I have to dodge this'

Unfortunately, when you are used to an aggressive battle style, never caring about falling back, both body and mind aren't properly prepared for such a change, and thus, the old man felt a massive pain in his left shoulder, or what was left of it as Madara pierced through it with his unfolded hand and crazy smile.

And before he could even counterattack, still shocked as to how the hell this attack wasn't reflected, Madara used his other arm to grab the old man's right shoulder before headbutting him, sending him into the nearest valley wall.

Madara didn't want to leave any second of respite to 'Hashirama', after all, he knew how quickly he regenerated, and also, he was angry, angry from losing against him the right to lead Konoha, and now furious to see how weak his 'rival' had become now that he has the Rinnegan.

"You changed, Hashirama... Such weakness disgusts me." Madara let out as dark blue chakra began to surround and elevate him, revealing a massive Susanoo with two long katana, the sheaths held by the hands at the end of the wings

While Madara's arm was still burning because of the black flames that spread, he used one of Susanoo's techniques called Yasaka Magatama, creating dozen of shuriken-like projectiles before launching them toward the place the old man was knocked down.

The moment they touched the wall, it created a massive explosion, and only a figure was seen leaving the aftermath, with some missing body parts, but still somewhat 'fine'.

The old man tried to get away from here since the bottom of the valley is too cramped to face Madara's Susanoo, however, the Uchiha was prepared for this and launched two sword strikes in a cone in front of him, leaving behind enormous trails of blue fire, burning his opponent while also forcing him to retreat to a specific area.

Madara then raised his hand and summoned more than a dozen small black receivers before hurling them at his foe, forcefully pinning him on the wall as he couldn't even maintain his black flames.

"Struggle all you want, this technique can even prevent a Tailed Beast from using its chakra." Madara let out as he neared the old man's body while staying inside his Susanoo

He then summoned his old Gunbai, a war fan he enjoyed using in the past, and, as he looked directly into the eyes of 'Hashirama', he waved it in front of him, creating a powerful wind slash that split the powerless old man in two.

Once Madara saw 'Hashirama' die in front of him, the Genjutsu was lifted, leaving him with a headache as his Susanoo was disappearing.

"Urgh... Thankfully the Genjutsu was powerful... Hashirama wouldn't have fled like an ant, and he would have lasted far longer." Madara let out, a smile unconsciously showing on his face as he talked about his rival

Regardless, the chopped corpse in front of him began to liquefy and disappear from this dimension, as if it was moved away.

====================

*Third Person POV*

In a sand desert where only dunes prevented the place from being flat, two Hokage stood on top of one of them, not caring about the ongoing storm, a torrent of water coming from the darkened sky as thunder struck the ground endlessly, preferably aiming at some metallic tree trunks' remnants, and despite all of this, the sand was still dry, the water passing through it and accumulating below.

"She's here." Minato let out as he opened his eyes, touching one of his seals on the sand below him which allowed him to know where the intruder arrived

"Good, we had enough time to prepare our seals, under no circumstances should we get hit by one of her orbs." Tobirama said as both of them spread seals around the dimension's floor to teleport to with their shared Flying Thunder God Technique

"Let's try and finish her quickly then." Minato added as he gained an orange pigmentation around his eyes, as well as yellow irides and toad-like pupils while taking out two Sai given to him by Yuichi when he became the Hokage

Tobirama also began to change, black markings appearing on his face, holding some similarities to Yuichi's Sage Mode, in fact, two grey wings appeared on Tobirama's back.

Tobirama learned Sage Mode through the way of the chameleons, just like Yuichi, which allowed him to create a protrusion of any kind that would constantly cycle Natural Energy in and out, allowing a longer usage of Sage Mode compared to other methods, while allowing him to 'overuse' Natural Energy without the usual drawbacks.

The first time Tobirama used it, Minato wondered if the wings were always a thing, to which Yuichi answered with a no, while Tobirama argued that they greatly helped in a battle by allowing better movements, and more importantly allowed the user to fly.

The truth however was that Tobirama thought Yuichi looked good with them and thus wanted the same thing.

Though he never told anyone.

Nevertheless, Tobirama unsheathed his Sword of the Thunder God, and after a shared glance toward Minato followed by a nod, both Hokage vanished from their spot.

The next instant, they appeared near the old woman and slashed at her, Tobirama cutting off her head by passing through while Minato snapped both of her arms from her shoulders in a vertical motion.

However, as her head was falling on the ground, Minato noticed the orb she was conjuring from her mouth and yelled "Retreat!" which prompted Tobirama and himself to teleport away as the orb was thrown and grew, absorbing everything in the vicinity, which consisted of the ground and a few metallic trees

After a while, the orb shrank and moved back to the woman, revealing a fully healed woman, her head reattached as weird black threads brought it back to her body, along with her arms.

"Young ones these days sure are shrewd." the old woman said as her arms were back on her body and threads were going out of her and dangerously floated around

"Isn't that the Kinjutsu from Takigakure? I thought they lost it after Kakuzu's defection, and, well, death against Yuichi." Minato let out as Tobirama frowned and added "Kakuzu? That bastard was a tough one, he tried to kill Hashirama in the past, didn't work out for him."

Both know that it didn't matter how many times they cut her, she would sew herself back.

"Do we have to get her core? I sensed it but it was moving around her body extremely quickly and I ended up missing..." Minato let out to which Tobirama replied "We either try to stab it or blow her whole body at once."

"Option 2 then?" Minato said to which Tobirama nodded and shortly said "Occupy her a little." as he began to perform hand signs

Minato then launched one of his special Kunai toward the old woman who shrugged it off with the threads breaking off her right arm, before teleporting to it and instantly using a medium-sized Rasengan aimed at her chest, tearing her flesh.

He then fell back as the threads tried to catch him before teleporting to his left as a black orb was thrown toward him, expanding and making everything taken in it vanish.

One moment later, Minato made four clones that launched a kunai in all four cardinal directions around the old woman before doing hand signs that suddenly forced her to kneel.

'Perfect' Tobirama thought as he finished his hand signs and created a massive whirlpool of slicing water around the old woman before a gigantic dragon bigger than even tailed beasts made of lighting crashed right into it, creating a tremendous explosion as the ongoing storm in the dimension was entirely focused on her

"She's still alive." Tobirama let out, not alarmed that his attack, unfortunately, didn't work, which prompted Minato to use his clones to create a Big Ball Rasenshuriken, before launching it toward the center of the explosion, a clear-cut being heard in the distance

'She used her orb defensively but didn't have the time to make another one for Minato's attack... And she didn't try to move it either' Tobirama noticed, still disappointed that they didn't get her core with the latter's assault

While they sensed her sewing back her body, Minato murmured "I've got an idea." to which Tobirama nodded and added "If we think about the same thing, let me do the first part, the danger it holds doesn't matter much for me, I was supposed to stay dead after all."

"Someone will be mad if you died." Minato replied with a smile as he thought about Yuichi, but his smile didn't last long when Tobirama added "And your wife's fury would be worse if you died, I don't want to be alive to withstand it."

"Fair point." Minato shortly answered before readying himself and adding "For now, let's lower her guard."

Both Hokage raised their weapons and decided to attack her just like they first did, by teleporting in and out of her attack range while slicing her body, preferably into pieces.

This strategy lasted for a few minutes, infuriating the old woman who wasn't fast enough to catch one of them with either her threads or her orbs, only when Tobirama purposely misstepped did she yell "I got you now, insect!" as she launched an orb toward him, one that he couldn't dodge.

The moment the orb was close to Tobirama, he intentionally raised his hand toward it and, the moment it had contact, the orb disappeared and revealed Minato instead, Tobirama losing his hand in the process.

"Wha-" the old woman let out before feeling something hitting her back and growing in size, her body getting swallowed by the very orb she used

Minato teleported himself and Tobirama away to not get caught in the process and, when the orb shrank, only a hand could be seen on the ground, the threads leaving it no longer moving.

"Well, thankfully it worked... And you even have a new hand right here!" Minato said with a goofy chuckle, trying to appease the mood

"I won't touch that even with a stick." Tobirama replied as he used chakra on his stump to prevent the blood from spilling out, not caring about the pain it caused since he experienced worse

As the two Hokage no longer sensed any life near them, they saw the hand mysteriously liquefy before vanishing from the ground, leaving nothing behind.

Four Inners went down, and only two were left.

Unfortunately, Isshiki was one of them.