Orochimaru and Jiraiya were on the move.
The two Sannin streaked towards Hot Water Village.
As world-renowned shinobi with decades of combat experience, slipping past the Cloud patrols unnoticed was child's play. They entered the village with ease.
Following the sensor's report, they arrived at the area with the highest concentration of Cloud ninja.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya stood atop a roof.
"Alright, Orochimaru," Jiraiya cracked his knuckles, a fierce grin spreading across his face. "Let's do this."
He bit his thumb, smeared blood across his palm, and formed the seals for the Summoning Jutsu. Orochimaru followed suit without a word.
Their hands slapped the roof tiles in unison.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
BOOM! BOOM!
Two massive plumes of smoke engulfed them. The building beneath their feet groaned, then collapsed completely under the weight of two colossal beings.
From the dissipating smoke emerged Manda of Ryūchi Cave, and Gamabunta of Mount Myōboku.
Gamabunta took a long drag from his pipe and blew out a cloud of smoke, glaring at the giant serpent beside him. "Jiraiya. How many times do I gotta say it? Don't call me when this stinking reptile is around!"
Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head with an apologetic laugh. "C'mon, not this time! This fight's important! Can't you let it slide?"
Manda's slit eyes narrowed at the toad. "Orochimaru. Did you summon me to eat this foul amphibian? If so, I'll forgo my usual tribute."
Orochimaru's voice was ice. "Manda. Everyone here is your tribute."
"Tch."
Manda knew he couldn't actually eat Gamabunta. Just mouthing off felt good.
The commotion had already alerted everyone. Cloud and Hot Water shinobi swarmed the area, surrounding the two Sannin and their summons.
"Orochimaru of the Sannin?! What's he doing in the Land of Hot Water?!" "They're attacking the village!" "All units! Engage!"
The assault began. Ninjutsu and kunai flew.
Gamabunta drew the massive tantō at his waist. A single horizontal slash.
Shinobi were bisected mid-air. Blood misted the street.
Manda wasn't to be outdone. His tail whipped around.
A dozen ninja were smashed into the surrounding buildings like ragdolls. Stone crunched. Bones snapped.
The two titans were meat grinders on the battlefield.
Manda's scales shrugged off most elemental techniques. Gamabunta, despite his size, moved with shocking agility, leaping high to evade barrages of fire and lightning.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya dropped to the ground, letting their summons run wild.
Orochimaru's hands flew through seals. He dropped to all fours, jaw unhinging impossibly wide.
"Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes!"
A torrent of snakes erupted from his mouth, each one seeking out a target, fangs sinking into flesh.
Jiraiya completed his own seals.
"Ninja Art: Needle Jizō!"
His silver mane hardened, encasing his body in a spiky shield.
"Needle Hell!"
The hardened strands shot outwards in a thousand directions. Shinobi screamed, pierced through arms, legs, shoulders.
The surprise attack was devastating. Dozens fell in the first minute.
But the enemy wasn't fodder. Cloud and Hot Water ninja began to rally. They found cover behind collapsed walls and broken buildings. Shouted orders cut through the chaos.
"Form squads! Don't cluster!" "Target the Sannin directly! Ignore the summons if you can't pierce them!" "Water users! Aim for the toad's landing spots! Earth users, reinforce the ground!"
The initial slaughter slowed. A real battle began.
Outside Hot Water Village.
The moment the Cloud perimeter guards rushed inward to reinforce, the Leaf force struck.
Qianyu and Minato Namikaze were the spearhead. Blurs of motion. They breached the village lines before anyone could blink.
The rest of the Leaf ninja poured in after them.
Earth-style specialists moved immediately, just as Orochimaru had planned.
"Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall!"
Hands slapped the ground. Walls of earth erupted throughout the village center, slicing the battlefield into isolated pockets. Cloud and Hot Water forces were cut off from each other.
Water users were next.
"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"
Torrents of water spewed from their mouths, flooding the fractured streets, sweeping ninja off their feet.
The earth users combined their technique.
"Earth Style: Rock Lodging Destruction!"
They channeled chakra into the ground. The earth beneath the floodwaters churned, cracked, and dissolved into mud. A churning, grasping quagmire.
Shinobi trapped in the mire struggled, sank.
Fire and wind users were ready.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Wind met fire. It became a roaring firestorm.
The inferno swept across the mudflat. Trapped ninja had nowhere to run. Screams were cut short by the roar of flame and the sickening smell of burning.
On the village's main front, fireball after fireball bombarded enemy positions, advancing the Leaf line step by step. Earth and water users, their initial task complete, joined the frontal assault.
Lightning users, with their natural speed, became the battlefield's rapid response. They darted between pockets of fighting, rescuing pinned allies, and cutting down isolated enemies.
Orochimaru's strategy was working perfectly.
Hot Water Village was in chaos.
But the situation was still grim. The enemy had numbers. Too many. Under the shouted commands of their surviving officers, the Cloud and Hot Water forces began to stabilize, to fight back with cohesion.
That's when Qianyu and Minato's real mission began.
Hunt the officers.
Qianyu's method was brutally simple. His Sharingan.
Its insane visual acuity let him read lips from fifty meters away. He scanned the chaos. Looked for the mouths moving the most. The ones shouting orders.
Those were the targets.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash—Sixfold!"
He became a crackling bolt of lightning. Zigzagging off walls, leaping over rubble. Ninja in his path were either blasted aside by the raw energy or left twitching and paralyzed from the shock.
He reached his first target. A burly Cloud jōnin barking orders behind a rock.
The man sensed danger. Started to turn.
Too late.
Qianyu's blade cleared its sheath. A silver flash.
The jōnin's head left his shoulders before his brain registered the movement.
Qianyu was already gone, a blur using the Body Flicker Technique to retreat.
He'd left a little parting gift on the headless corpse.
Three explosive tags.
BOOM!
The blast caught three nearby ninja who'd rushed to their commander's aid. Shrapnel and fire tore through them.
One target down.