[Hiruzen's Encampment]
Although he had already mentally prepared himself, upon hearing Pain introduce himself, Hiruzen's heart still began to pound uneasily.
They had made a private deal with Kakuzu, exchanging for fifty billion project for just a ten billion.
And Kakuzu had even used Akatsuki's manpower to complete it.
Such a matter could be big or small, depending on whether the other side chose to pursue it.
And now, they clearly had come to pursue it.
Hiruzen had already seen Konan's fighting power during the previous invasion of Konoha.
Now that the most mysterious leader of Akatsuki had appeared, he could only be even stronger.
"I wonder what brings the leader of Akatsuki here?", Hiruzen decided to play dumb first, pretending not to know anything.
"Two things," Pain said, "First, immediately return all the Konoha property you've sold off."
"Second, hand over the fifty billion, or the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki."
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes slightly, "And what does Konoha's property have to do with your organization?"
Pain directly threw down a thick stack of copied documents from above.
"These are all transaction records from various merchant guilds of the Land of Fire."
"A total of seventy billion."
"Fulfill these two conditions, and I'll leave."
Hiruzen glanced over the documents, they were all contracts forged by his clan and a few others to trick the merchant guilds into signing.
If he could return to Konoha, whether or not he gave these back didn't matter.
But if he couldn't return, then this money would naturally become the capital for his comeback.
"The Nine-Tails' jinchuriki was a deal between us and Kakuzu. It has nothing to do with Akatsuki."
"And these merchant records are none of your concern."
Hiruzen quibbled with his mouth, but his hands were secretly signaling to Jiraiya and the others.
Pain had come precisely to stir up trouble, so naturally, he wouldn't waste time arguing with Hiruzen.
"If you won't comply, then I'll accept Uchiha Rengoku's commission to wipe out you traitors."
Below, Hiruzen's men were already mobilized, slowly surrounding them.
"Just the two of you?"
Pain turned his head toward the far edge of Hiruzen's formation, "Of course not."
Hiruzen looked over in that direction, and immediately heard screams erupt.
"Run! Hurry!"
"It's Tsunade!"
"The Fourth Hokage!"
"Ahhh!"
Minato and Kushina, together with Tsunade, came crashing through their ranks like a storm. Tsunade and Kushina didn't even have a chance to act, Minato alone tore through everyone.
His figure flashed rapidly, twin kunai in hand. Whoever stood before him fell like cut wheat.
The Sarutobi clan members were utterly terrified, faces pale as they stumbled backward in panic.
Seeing Minato appear, both Hiruzen and Jiraiya wore stunned expressions.
Hiruzen's chest tightened, watching Minato mercilessly slaughter his clan.
He knew Minato must have found out everything he'd done to Naruto.
"Stop! Minato, what are you doing?", Jiraiya shouted and rushed toward him.
Minato didn't fight back, he allowed Jiraiya to grab his hand.
"Minato, what's going on? Are you being controlled?"
Seeing the cracks across Minato's face, Jiraiya instantly realized, this Minato wasn't alive.
Minato's expression remained calm, ignoring Jiraiya's question. Instead, he asked softly, "Jiraiya-sensei, have you seen Naruto?"
Jiraiya froze completely, speechless.
"I'm here today to kill Konoha's traitors. Are you going to stop me?"
Jiraiya's expression faltered, "No! You can't do this!"
Minato had long since lost faith in Jiraiya. He wasn't surprised by Jiraiya's choice, nor did he care to speak further.
He simply twisted Jiraiya's arm, his body flashing with light, and vanished.
An instant later, Minato had transported Jiraiya all the way to the border of the Land of Demons.
"Minato, you!"
Before Jiraiya could finish, Minato disappeared again with Flying Thunder God.
Jiraiya stood there, utterly stunned.
'He… threw me off the battlefield?'
"What is this place? We're not even in the Land of Fire?"
Jiraiya knew Flying Thunder God well, the farther the distance, the more chakra it required.
By Minato's chakra reserves, even if he drained himself completely, he shouldn't have been able to teleport out of the Land of Fire.
But the terrain around him clearly wasn't.
Jiraiya leapt up, scanning rapidly for people or buildings nearby.
In less than two minutes, he found a clue.
A boundary marker.
Something only found at a nation's border.
He rushed forward and read it aloud, "Land of Demons?"
Even if Jiraiya could fly, there was no way he could return to the Land of Fire anytime soon.
His face went instantly pale, "It's over…"
———
After sending Jiraiya away, Minato used Flying Thunder God again and reappeared behind Kushina.
Total elapsed time: less than three seconds.
Seeing Minato return alone, Hiruzen already knew Jiraiya wouldn't be coming back.
"I was wondering who Uchiha Rengoku would send," Hiruzen tore off his outer robe, revealing a combat uniform beneath.
"I didn't expect it would be you two together."
He had long anticipated Rengoku's moves and hadn't dared relax for a moment.
Now, his preparations had finally come in handy.
He gestured to the side, "But you two are underestimating us too much."
Not far away, signal flares shot into the sky one after another.
More and more people began surrounding them.
Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado, and Shimura Miyosuke also appeared, leading their elite clansmen.
As Hiruzen spoke, his gaze never left Minato. He knew the terror of Flying Thunder God.
But space-time ninjutsu was too rare, he had no countermeasure prepared.
Though he had many people here, his real hope was that Minato would see they were heavily surrounded and choose to withdraw.
"The Fourth Hokage?", Koharu Utatane, though old, still retained some fighting ability, but the moment she appeared, she instantly regretted it.
'Why did it have to be this demon star?'
Knowing about Edo Tensei's existence, she wasn't surprised Minato had been resurrected.
As for why someone sealed by the Reaper Death Seal could still be revived, that was a question she had no time to ponder now.
All she could think about was how to survive under Minato's hand.
Homura and Shimura Miyosuke were the same.
Shimura cursed his luck, back when Danzo was alive, they'd never gained much benefit.
After Danzo died, Uchiha rose to power.
So he'd chosen to side with the ever-scheming Hiruzen.
Yet Hiruzen had been banished from Konoha by Uchiha Rengoku himself.
He thought it would just be a temporary setback, but clearly, Rengoku wasn't planning to let them live.
He had revived the Fourth Hokage and Tsunade, allied with Akatsuki, and come for their lives.
Pain stood coldly, watching as more and more people surrounded them, his feet never moving an inch.
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