The battle between Renjiro and Shinsuke raged across a field already scorched by ash and lightning.
Each breath burned, each movement tore through the debris that blanketed the ground.
Renjiro's body was covered in burns of various degrees, his breathing ragged, but his eyes, one Byakugan, one normal, were focused, alive.
Faint lines of translucent energy still flickered in his vision, that strange pattern he'd started seeing mid-battle.
It wasn't chakra, but something deeper, like the pulse of the world itself.
Shinsuke's chakra roared like wildfire in contrast, fueling vast surges of Fire, Wind, and Earth Release at once.
The battlefield became a cauldron of smoke and molten air, his Eternal Ash Ruin spreading again in desperation.
But the longer it went on, the more sluggish his movements became.
His chakra control was perfect, yet his stamina wasn't infinite.
Every clone he made, every detonation of ash he triggered, drained him piece by piece.
Renjiro, meanwhile, was adapting.
His Byakugan focused narrowly on Shinsuke's movements, tracing not only chakra flow but the faintest distortion in the air, those invisible ripples that came before every attack. He could see them now.
He vanished, his Lightning Body Flicker flashing like a white streak through the haze.
Shinsuke caught the motion too late. His remaining clones burst in defense, but Renjiro slipped through, his tanto glowing with condensed lightning.
"Die, you arrogant brat!" Shinsuke roared, detonating the ash cloud around him. But Renjiro was already past him, cutting through the smoke like a ghost.
The two appeared several meters apart a second later.
Renjiro stood tall, his tanto lowered, lightning fading from the blade. Behind him, Shinsuke's body trembled, then blood erupted from a clean line across his chest.
He stumbled forward, coughing, his eyes locked on Renjiro's back. "So… even ants learn how to bite, someone like me, in the end…"
Renjiro turned slightly, his expression calm but his voice edged with quiet fury. "You should've stopped underestimating people when Ryusei killed your plans the first time."
Shinsuke tried to speak, but the words never came. His body began to crumble, Edo Tensei ash scattering into the wind.
Renjiro exhaled, lowering his stance, the last of his chakra stabilizing.
The translucent energy still flickered faintly in his Byakugan, tracing the horizon.
He muttered quietly to himself, "Guess I wasn't seeing things after all… natural energy, huh?"
Then he looked up, feeling Ryusei's distant chakra surge again in the sky.
The battle wasn't over, not yet, but one ghost from the past was finally gone.
Meanwhile, Pakura and Danzō's fight had long since reduced their section of the battlefield to molten ruin.
The air shimmered with unbearable heat, sand turning to glass beneath their feet.
Danzō was breathing hard, bandages half-burned away, revealing five Sharingan spinning wildly across his right arm.
He had managed to scavenge four more, the last from his private Root collection before this mission, giving him five Izanagi activations in total for today.
But even so, his chakra was fading even more quickly. Her Scorch Release was a true kekkei genkai, perfectly balanced by nature itself, while his elemental combinations were only forced imitations, crude, more chakra-draining attempts to match her natural potency.
Across from him, Pakura's body blazed with restrained fury, her heat shimmering like a living flame. She could tell her older opponent was nearly spent, his chakra thinning, his movements slowing. His mind and body were both exhausted. It was time to finish it.
Her Scorch Release: Blazing Cloak burned around her like a living aura, each flicker of light hot enough to turn stone to ash. It wasn't just defense, it was a second skin of living heat, devouring every attack that came close.
Danzō formed rapid hand seals, countering with Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere, then flooding it with Water Release: Liquid Bullet, creating a swirling misty gale that cut and boiled through the air.
But Scorch Release was merciless. It didn't clash; it consumed.
Pakura's voice was cold and steady. "You played with fire your whole life, old man. Let's see how it feels to be burned properly."
She weaved another set of signs, her chakra spiraling upward.
"Scorch Release: Solar Flare!"
A burst of blinding white light erupted, swallowing the entire field.
She was already gone.
"Scorch Release: Heatwave Barrage!"
A storm of razor-thin, superheated wind struck from all sides, slicing apart the clones Danzō had hidden in the haze.
He roared, summoning another gust to push her back, but the Mirage Cloak shimmered again, one image splitting into three.
"Scorch Release: Mirage Descent!"
Three Pakuras darted forward through the glare, indistinguishable from one another, each moving with blinding speed.
The real one appeared above him, her hands glowing with condensed sunlight.
"Scorch Release: Radiant Blade!"
The blade ignited into existence, a sword of pure, molten light.
When it swung down, the heat alone split the air like thunder.
Danzō countered desperately, his own chakra bursting outward into a gale, but it wasn't enough.
The sword cleaved through it, through him, and his body crumbled, only to reform a moment later in a flash of Izanagi.
Pakura didn't even pause.
"Scorch Release: Crimson Drought!"
Moisture vanished from the air instantly.
The ground cracked, steam became vapor, and a shimmering desert replaced the forest.
"Scorch Release: Corona Lance!"
A spear of white plasma shot through the haze, striking Danzō in the chest before he could move.
The beam impaled him cleanly, vaporizing everything around him.
He regenerated again, then again, each time more desperate, each new life weaker than the last.
"You can't kill me that easily," he snarled, coughing blood. "I am the will of—"
"Scorch Release: Desert Sunflower!"
Dozens of glowing orbs circled her like petals, humming with lethal resonance.
They collapsed inward in a blinding crescendo of heat.
The explosion vaporized everything in sight.
When the light faded, Danzō's final body reappeared one last time, his arm twitching as he tried to form the signs for his Reverse Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique, the last curse of a dying man.
But one of Ryusei's slugs hidden beneath the scorched ground pulsed a warning, sensing the seal forming.
A split second later, it yanked Pakura down into the earth, shielding her from the deadly self-destruction.
When she emerged again, the ground where Danzō had stood was gone, just a crater of molten glass and drifting ash.
She looked down at it silently, sweat and heat haze rolling off her body, then exhaled slowly.
"Six times… and you still died a coward."
Her cloak flickered once more, then dimmed as she turned her gaze toward the distant flashes where Ryusei and the others still fought.
A small grin tugged at her lips. "Heh… looks like I'm finishing his greatest enemies before he does. I'll make sure to rub that in later."
Her grin faded a little as the exhaustion finally caught up to her.
The prolonged use of her Scorch Release had taken its toll; her reserves were nearly empty.
She glanced at the few remaining slug fragments scattered nearby, their faint glow pulsing weakly. Ryusei had clearly been stingier this time with those portable chakra batteries.
"Tch," she muttered, crouching to catch her breath. "Guess I'll have to sit this one out for a moment. Fine… I've done my part."
Her eyes lingered on the distant flashes of battle. "Now it's your turn. Don't screw it up."
Meanwhile, across the battlefield, a sudden fluctuation rippled through the chakra field as Danzō's death disrupted his control over his single Edo Tensei summon.
For a brief moment, Sakumo's body wavered, movements slowing, chakra lines flickering, unstable. Ashina didn't hesitate.
Golden chains erupted from the ground in a flash, weaving into complex sealing patterns.
"Fūinjutsu: Heavenly Lock," he intoned calmly.
The White Fang's Edo body froze mid-motion, light consuming his form before it was pulled into the earth. The seal dimmed, and silence followed.
Ashina exhaled, his body still brimming with vitality despite the battle's toll.
He turned his gaze toward the nearby clash of crimson and gold in the distance, Kiyomi's Susanoo clashing with Hiruzen's elemental onslaught.
Without a word, he vanished in a shimmer of chakra, moving to reinforce her side next.
Hiruzen was soon being driven to the brink. Kiyomi's massive black Susanoo brought its burning hammer down with a thunderous crash, each strike warping the air itself.
Her twin Mangekyō powers, Enmetsu and Shōmetsu, the forces of decay and dissolution, spread across the battlefield in waves, eroding matter and chakra alike.
The very ground beneath Hiruzen's feet withered and cracked as his jutsu unraveled mid-formation, their energy eaten away by the distortion field surrounding her.
At the same time, Ashina's golden chains lashed out from both flanks, glowing with sealing formulas that tightened with every pulse, closing around Hiruzen like the jaws of a trap, leaving the Third Hokage barely able to breathe, let alone counterattack.
His elemental clones shattered one after another, each reforming weaker than the last.
Sweat rolled down his wrinkled brow as his staff barely managed to block another swing, the sheer pressure cracking the ground beneath him.
But then, in the middle of that chaos, space warped.
A flash of blue light streaked across the battlefield, and Tobirama appeared beside him, his hand gripping Hiruzen's shoulder.
A single Flying Raijin kunai, marked long ago and carried on Hiruzen's belt, glowed faintly.
The next moment, both were gone.
Across the distance, at the same time, Ryusei's sealing marks pulsed one after another: the monk, the samurai, the Second Mizukage, all restrained, their Edo Tensei forms sealed away.
Tobirama sensed it clearly, the tide shifting beyond recovery.
He gritted his teeth but decided not to linger because of that.
There was no point throwing more lives or corpses into a lost fight.
Especially, Hiruzen's nominal position as Hokage, not only his only remaining pupil now, still made him the face of and stabilizing figure for Konoha, and if he fell here, the village's fragile internal and external balance could collapse again.
Tobirama wasn't about to allow that.
So, with another seal, he recalled the distant souls of the Past Kage he had left there, shutting down the otherworldly barrier in the process.
Its shimmering illusory edges dimmed, fading from the sky like mist.
As the two reappeared miles away, the forest was eerily still.
The faint glow of Tobirama's teleportation seal faded, leaving only the whisper of wind through the trees.
Hiruzen fell to one knee, his breath heavy, eyes wide with shock and disbelief. His chakra was trembling, unstable.
"Shinsuke Sarutobi…" Tobirama said quietly, his expression unreadable. "He was gone before I reached you."
The words hit like a blade. Hiruzen's face went pale, his hands trembling as they clenched against the dirt. "He was my son… Konoha's finest..." His voice broke slightly. "My boy…"
"Then you understand better than most what it means to lose for the sake of the village," Tobirama said flatly. "His death will not be in vain."
Hiruzen's gaze snapped up, his eyes bloodshot. "Not in vain? He was my son, Tobirama!"
Tobirama didn't flinch. "And Konoha's soldier. He knew the cost. Danzo was reckless, Shinsuke was loyal, but neither was truly irreplaceable."
He turned his eyes toward the horizon, where the barrier had faded moments earlier.
"Still, we gained something. I've learned much more about them from this exchange again. All of it can be used in the future by us next. For you to get your own revenge, in part, as well."
His tone was calm, cold, clinical.
To him, it was a calculation.
To Hiruzen, it was a wound that would never close.
Inside, Tobirama felt way more irritation than grief.
At this point, Tobirama cared little for Hiruzen's son.
In his mind, the man's death was nothing more than a consequence.
After all, it was Hiruzen who had defied and failed his legacy and expectations over and over again, after his death, ignored some of his principles, and even allowed the assassination of his brother's only grandson.
Tobirama's empathy for people like him had long since withered after gradually witnessing everything after his resurrection. In this new existence, he was even colder, sharper, more pragmatic than he'd ever been in life.
Sentiment had no place in his plans, only results, ambition, and perhaps the faint shadow of loyalty he still reserved for his brother.
Regarding the strategic calculus, losing four powerful Edo Tensei and two of Konoha's current highest-ranking officials was unfortunate, but not catastrophic at the moment.
Setbacks were an inevitable part of life; what mattered was progress and adaptation.
He had also advanced further than expected during this engagement, both in personal strength, through his multiple new kekkei tota, molded in real battle, and understanding.
His theories had proven completely correct: a dimensional soul barrier could indeed be created and maintained like that against Ryusei effectively.
All of that alone justified the losses, at least to a degree.
Moreover, he still retained the majority of the former Kage souls, and enough to sustain future barriers, so the foundation of his plan remained intact.
He had also studied Mū's Dustless Bewildering Cover closely enough before in the past to reproduce it himself soon, so losing that particular Edo Tensei didn't concern him much. It hardly diminished his chances of mounting another successful strike on Ryusei in the future.
As for the fallen monk and samurai, powerful manifestations born of advanced natural energy and chakra external fusion, he was confident they could still be replicated in the future to an extent again. Perhaps, in an even stronger way more numerous formation.
Perhaps not with the same exact level or power as those two legends 'individually,' but probably sufficient to form an army of elite Edo constructs.
After all, his Edo Tensei control bandwidth would expand in the future; with the Sage of Six Paths' unseen guidance, that limit would only continue to rise.
Besides, this defeat gave him something even more useful: a very clear justification.
He could now openly frame Ryusei for the deaths of Danzo and Shinsuke, painting him as a growing existential threat to the village when needed.
That alone could rally others to his side.
Minato Namikaze. Kushina Uzumaki. Even Jiraiya.
And, perhaps most useful of all, his brother Hashirama.
Tobirama's lips curved faintly as the light of the Flying Raijin faded from his fingers.
"Yes," he murmured under his breath. "I lost a battle today, but not the war. Let's see how long the Senju brat can stand once the gods themselves continue to line up against him."
Hiruzen looked up, dazed, but Tobirama didn't elaborate.
The forest around them went silent again, only the faint hum of chakra remaining as they disappeared into the night, retreating, but not defeated.