Chương 51: Chapter 51
The Uchiha Hawk faction leader made a gesture to his team to prepare, and they all set themselves to a battle-ready state, drawing their weapons. The Shimura and Root members did the same.
At the same time, near the Hokage rock, the lonely figure of Orochimaru was observing the beautiful night view of the peaceful village, which he thought would soon plunge into chaos. The plans Danzo gave him included a complete layout of traps set in such a way as to trigger a huge landslide whose scale would probably engulf half of Konoha, destroying it. He was waiting, as per Danzo's instructions.
Orochimaru was supposed to trigger all the traps simultaneously after getting the signal, which was supposed to be a huge explosion within the new Uchiha clan site. By Orochimaru's estimate, Danzo was trying to pin all the blame on the Uchiha. Although he had a lingering attachment to the leaf, he truly didn't care as long as he could pursue his path to immortality. He was on the run because Jiraiya was chasing him earlier, and that guy could be annoying because he had a very good nose for information.
Just when he was reminiscing about the past, a huge explosion caught his attention. However, unlike what he was told by Danzo, the explosion didn't happen at the Uchiha site but at the Shimura clan. Orochimaru had already instinctively triggered all the traps when he heard the explosion, but unlike what he expected, none of the traps triggered. Orochimaru's face couldn't help but turn ugly, thinking that Danzo had fooled him, as nothing that was happening matched Danzo's words. He right away chose to retreat because he already had what he came for.
"Sensei." Before Orochimaru could leave, a voice out of the darkness made him stop. The voice was none other than his dear student Anko's.
However, the next moment, his senses flared as an attack was launched in his direction.
"[Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari]" (Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind)
The Shimura clan and Root Shinobi, expecting the Uchiha compound to blow up, were taken aback by an unexpected blast from another location. They simultaneously turned towards the origin of the explosion, deducing it came from the Shimura clan itself. In the midst of their confusion, blood splattered across the face of the Roots elite, who was leading the coalition. Their supposed allies, the Uchiha Hawk faction, started cutting down the Shimura and Root Shinobi in quick succession.
The Root Shinobi, who led the team, had somehow escaped the initial ambush. He also noticed more and more ninjas surrounding their team and launching attacks, quickly overwhelming them. He couldn't help but turn to the Uchiha faction leader, who simply chuckled.
"Danzo should be really stupid if he thought we would betray our own blood. For all I know, Danzo should have been blown to smithereens with the last blast. Haha." The Uchiha member, blood still dripping down his blade, rushed to finish the now crippled Root member.
The explosion served as a signal for the various factions intending to harm the leaf. The mercenary team, taking it as their cue, carried the container and started to move out of the building towards the center of the village. However, just as they took a few steps out of the house, they were stopped by a barrier. The temporary leader understood that they had been exposed and opted for mutual destruction, quickly breaking the seal on the container. Even so, the Leaf ANBU surrounding them outside the barrier acted coordinatively, performing a series of hand signs. The dozen mercenary Shinobi, along with the container, were forcibly reverse-summoned to a location way outside the village barrier. To their despair, close to more than two hundred Leaf Shinobi were ready and waiting, fully geared and ready for battle. The entire Leaf army was enclosed within a barrier, led by the Leaf's Jonin commander, Shikaku.
"Quick, deploy the sealing team! Cut down the mercenaries who resist. We need to seal the bijuu before we take any losses," commanded Shikaku. The Leaf army was prepared with all the necessary measures to subdue the Seven-Tails. Hiruzen had placed an elite Uchiha team, led by Fugaku himself, to be part of the force assigned to subdue the Seven-Tails. The mercenaries were killed before they could put up the slightest form of resistance. The forceful reverse summons left them disoriented upon reaching the entrapment.
Meanwhile, when the blast went off, Gai and his team immediately took action. Similarly, all the other Shinobi initiated actions to bring down their respective targets. The Kumo Shinobi were caught completely off guard, and before they could cause much damage, they were disposed of. Even those who escaped the initial attack were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers as the Konoha Shinobi joined the fray to eliminate the threat. The Hyuga clan was also fully prepared for the supposed unexpected attack. With most of the threats within the village neutralized, there were three locations where battles ensued.
Inside the toad's esophagus, Orochimaru faced Jiraiya, who had managed to trap him within the toad's mouth.
"Give up and surrender, Orochimaru. I will make sure to talk to Sensei on your behalf to show some leniency in your punishment," Jiraiya said, expressing concern for his friend.
"Oh, Jiraiya, aren't you naive, still trying to help me out even after all this? Are you sure that I cannot escape? From what I can see, this doesn't feel like an unbreakable barrier," Orochimaru commented, flicking his snake-like tongue and carefully observing his surroundings.
Confused about how Jiraiya was able to track him, Orochimaru realized it must have been Anko. Jiraiya must have somehow found a way to track him through his connection to the curse seal on Anko.
"Heh, so I guess it is true what they say about how Leaf has a new fuinjutsu grandmaster now. It was a pity I was not able to meet such a master while I was still in the leaf. Maybe I could have persuaded them to help me in my endeavor," Orochimaru leisurely commented, not really worried about the current situation. Suddenly, he acted.
"[Sen'ei Jashu]" (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands). Dozens of thick serpents shot out from Orochimaru's sleeve, rushing towards Jiraiya, who quickly formed an armor around himself with his steel-like hair.
"[Hari Jizō]" (Needle Jizō) and then quickly followed it by "[Hari Jigoku]" (Needle Hell), shooting a barrage of hardened hair needles towards Orochimaru. The hairs themselves were strong enough to pierce through and destroy all the incoming snakes.
Orochimaru, aware of the needle hairs' lethality, didn't take the attack without proper defense. He quickly weaved his hands and initiated a counter, "[Doton: Domu]." (Earth Release: Earth Spear). When the needle hair collided with Orochimaru, metal scraping sounds were produced, indicating that Jiraiya's attack didn't cause any visible damage. Jiraiya pushed for the next attack, retracting his extended hair. Although Orochimaru had confidence in matching Jiraiya's strength, he was not foolish enough to engage his opponent on his home ground. He understood that the longer he stayed within the toad's mouth, the greater the disadvantage he would be in. So, he quickly summoned the Kusanagi sword to clash with Jiraiya.
"[Katon: Gamayu Endan]" (Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet). Out of the various pores in the toad's mouth, oil was sprayed in the direction of the snake Sannin, which was ignited by Jiraiya's fire technique, enveloping Orochimaru in a hot inferno.
Before the raging inferno completely consumed him, Orochimaru summoned a water wall to defend himself from the burning oil. However, being inside the toad's mouth, the efficiency of his jutsu was lowered.
"[Suiton: Suijinheki]" (Water Release: Water Formation Wall). Steam quickly spread out with the clash of burning oil and water. Though Orochimaru was able to stop most of the attack, he didn't come out unscathed. Once the steam cleared, Jiraiya could see that most of the skin on Orochimaru's body was melting like wax.
"Damn you, Jiraiya. I just got this body recently. Now I have to go and find a new one. Do you know how tough it is to find a body that's pleasing to my eyes?" Orochimaru chuckled while observing the condition of his current body.
Orochimaru decided to engage in close combat because, within the toad's mouth, he couldn't use any summons, and his opponent had an advantage due to suppression. He chose to confront his friend in close combat before Jiraiya could launch his next attack. The battle within the toad's mouth escalated to another degree.
Meanwhile, at the location where the mercenary team had transported, the breaking of the seal by the mercenary leader allowed the Seven Tail to break out of the sealing container. However, no matter how the Seven Tails tried to escape the entrapment, it couldn't do so. In addition to the massive barrier that enclosed it, close to half a dozen hellbeasts besieged the Seven Tails like a pack of bloodthirsty wolves. When the Seven Tail was about to overpower one of the large hell beasts and go in for the kill, a Golden Susanoo intercepted the bijuu. Under the joint siege of half a dozen entities and the combination attacks of more than two hundred Leaf elites, the Chomei became more and more irritated as it fell into a disadvantage.
The Seven Tails roared in anger and slammed into the Golden Susanoo, pushing it to the edge of the barrier along with two other hell beasts. Even under such massive outbursts, two of the hell beasts managed to hang onto the Seven Tails' body with their jaws deeply sunk into the bijuu's flesh. The bijuu roared in anger, and it immediately charged to fire a bijudama (tailed beast ball) to break free from its current predicament. When the Leaf Shinobi saw the Seven Tails charging a large-scale attack, Shikaku immediately commanded the ninjas to fall behind a second barrier. The Seven Tails was confined within a three-layered barrier, but contrary to its expectations to complete the attack, a new obstacle interrupted it.
"[Mokuton: Mokuryū no Jutsu]" (Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique).
The wooden dragon, although not as big as the bijuu, was large enough to restrict the bijuu's jaws for close to a dozen seconds. During this time, the wooden dragon continuously absorbed the bijudama's energy, causing the energy ball to shrink in size. When the Seven Tail completely freed itself from the wooden dragon's binding, the hell beasts and the Susanoo, which were pushed away earlier, rejoined the fray.
Shikaku, carefully monitoring the battle situation, knew that he needed to finish the suppression as fast as possible. Fugaku, who was maintaining the Susanoo's form with difficulty, indicated that the battle had been raging for almost ten minutes. Shikaku anxiously turned towards the barrier team, working on sealing the Seven Tails within a container personally designed by Kazuki. He wished that Kazuki were by his side at such a crucial moment to expedite the sealing. Shikaku quickly erased the distracting thoughts and issued commands to the Leaf Shinobi and the Nara clan's blood summons.
Fugaku, inside the Golden Construct, opened a vial and consumed its contents in one go. This helped him quickly recover his fighting state, and he immediately rejoined the fight with renewed vigor. He understood that they had to finish the battle soon, or the burden on his eyes would become overwhelming. The Uchiha clan elites fought exceptionally fiercely, coordinating their Katon jutsus to damage the Seven Tails. Seeing Fugaku use their clan's signature technique, the Susanoo, which was long believed to be lost, raised their morale to an unprecedented level.
The clash between the Seven Tails and the Leaf army picked up pace again, and the Shinobi reentered the barrier to attack the Seven Tails with the threat of the Bijudama neutralized.
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The Raikage's team, which teleported the Leaf Village higher-ups, was surprised when they arrived at the new location. The sneak attack didn't yield the intended result. Originally, the transfer was supposed to isolate the entire Leaf higher-ups away from the village barrier, leaving them disoriented for the Kumo team to deal with. However, to their surprise, Hiruzen, fully geared for battle and emitting a palpable aura, stood before them. He was alone, as the other leaf elders were nowhere in sight.
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