In that very moment -
The mere swell of senjutsu chakra spilling from the White Snake Sage was enough to make the entire battlefield quake.
With a single motion - Senpō: Mujin Tensei (Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation) - the land itself awakened. The ground twisted like a colossal beast coming to life, splitting open and surging forward in jagged, blood-soaked waves. Earth, stone, and shattered terrain rose as if they had teeth, lunging into Konoha's formations to crush, tear, and swallow anything caught in their path.
Bound in imperfect Edo Tensei bodies and unable to draw out their true power, Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama could only grit their teeth and answer with everything they had.
"Mokuton: Mokujin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Wood Golem Technique)!!!"
"Suiton: Suidanha (Water Release: Severing Wave)!!!"
Hashirama forced his reincarnated body to the limit and produced a Wood Golem - powerful by any standard, yet pitiful compared to the monster he once commanded in life. It slammed into the rampaging terrain head-on, trying to pin and break the living ground apart. At the same time, Tobirama's Suidanha cut through chunks of earth being ripped free, cleaving them midair before they could pulverize Konoha's front line.
Elsewhere, the situation was no better.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru - men who should have been stabilizing the battlefield - were locked down by Ryūchi Cave's three ruling presences, leaving them no room to intervene. Every second they spent contained was a second Konoha lost elsewhere.
And all of this -
Was happening before Chiba had even truly moved.
He stepped down from atop the White Snake Sage with calm, measured precision and looked at the Hyūga Clan - faces pale, eyes wide, caught between disbelief and grief.
"You can leave now," Chiba said evenly. "Don't worry. No one will stop you."
At his command, the massive serpents of Ryūchi Cave slid forward with reverent obedience, lowering their bodies to form living ramps. One by one, the Hyūga climbed onto their backs. Then the snakes aligned in long, disciplined rows - like silent, moving trains - and began carrying the entire clan away from the battlefield with terrifying efficiency.
The sight snapped Hiruzen's restraint clean in half.
"Stop those snakes at once!!!" he roared, fury cracking his voice. "Do not let the Hyūga Clan escape!!!"
But rage didn't create manpower.
The shinobi under his command were already drowning. They were fighting just to stay alive against Ryūchi's endless tide, their formation collapsing into scattered pockets of resistance.
Even Might Guy was gasping, sweat pouring down his face.
"Kakashi… this doesn't look good," he muttered, breathing hard. "What do we do?!"
Kakashi's voice came out heavy, strained by the chaos around them. "Who would've thought we'd be fighting an ocean of snakes inside Konoha…"
His grip tightened. "No choice. We do what we can."
"Right!!!"
They charged back into the writhing storm.
Meanwhile, under Hyūga Hiashi's leadership, the Hyūga Clan continued to retreat atop the great serpents. Confusion spread through the ranks - some stared back at the village with wet eyes, others looked down at the snakes beneath their feet as if afraid they would wake up and realize it was a nightmare.
Leaving their homeland so suddenly hurt.
But what hurt more was how unreal it felt - Konoha's soil split by Ryūchi's host, and the Hyūga being carried out like honored guests atop ancient monsters.
Then Hiruzen roared again, voice shaking with desperation.
"Kakashi! Guy! Stop fighting the snakes!"
"Intercept the Hyūga Clan immediately!"
Kakashi and Guy froze for a fraction of a second.
Truthfully, neither of them wanted to raise their hands against the Hyūga. They had been comrades - people they'd fought beside, bled beside. And compared to that, battling the serpent tide was almost simpler: it required no hesitation, no moral weight.
But the Hokage's order was the Hokage's order.
They exchanged a glance, then launched toward the massive serpents carrying the Hyūga away.
Before they could close the distance, a figure stepped into their path.
Chiba.
Up until now, he had barely lifted a finger.
"I'd advise you not to interfere," he said lightly, like he was warning them away from bad weather.
Kakashi's expression tightened. "Sorry, Mizukage-sama. This is the Hokage's order."
Chiba's faint smile didn't fade. "Kakashi… I heard that during the Uchiha Clan's rebellion, you abandoned the battlefield to save Uchiha civilians instead. Is that true?"
Kakashi's eyes shifted.
That incident had never stopped haunting him - least of all politically. Hiruzen had never truly been satisfied with him afterward, and Kakashi couldn't afford to hand the Hokage a new excuse to tighten the leash.
Guy caught the change immediately. Even someone as straightforward as him understood what Chiba was doing.
"Kakashi acted out of kindness!" Guy barked, stepping forward. "But this time it's a direct order! We can't disobey it!"
To take the pressure off his partner, Guy didn't hesitate.
The Eight Gates opened -
Hachimon Tonkō no Jin (Eight Gates Formation).
And in the next instant, the Sixth Gate detonated open.
Dai Rokumon: Keimon (Sixth Gate: Gate of Joy).
A violent surge erupted. Green chakra steam roared around Guy's body, wrapping him in a brutal aura until he looked less like a man and more like a beast forged from emerald light.
"Konoha Dai Senpū (Leaf Great Whirlwind)!!!"
His kick tore through the air and slammed straight toward Chiba - an attack that, at this level, could shatter stone and snap bodies like twigs.
And yet -
Against Chiba, raw taijutsu meant almost nothing.
Chiba was a Logia-type Devil Fruit user. In this world, there was no Haki - no direct counter to force his body into solidity.
Only senjutsu could truly threaten him, because sage chakra drew from natural energy - the same fundamental source that brushed against the laws his power was built on.
But here, only Jiraiya had trained Sage Mode. Hashirama possessed it too, yet Edo Tensei's limitations kept him from accessing it properly. And Jiraiya - no matter how experienced - was nowhere near enough to injure Chiba.
Not to mention…
Chiba had mastered Ryūchi Cave's senjutsu himself. In sage arts, he stood above them.
So when Guy's kick connected -
It blasted through Chiba's shoulder, exploding it apart in a burst of ice-shards and vapor.
Guy's eyes widened.
It had been… too easy.
The next heartbeat answered him.
Chiba's body reformed as if shattered ice were knitting back into a single seamless shape. At the same time, thick frost spread up Guy's leg, locking it down with crushing weight and freezing stiffness into his muscles.
"Huh?! What is this - ?!"
Guy roared and unleashed the Sixth Gate's signature barrage.
Asa Kujaku (Morning Peacock)!!!
His fists and kicks hammered the air itself, friction igniting the atmosphere into violent bursts. Flaming air cannons bloomed outward like a peacock spreading its wings, ripping through the frost and detonating toward Chiba in a relentless chain.
Chiba nodded, genuine admiration flickering across his gaze. "As expected of Might Guy. When it comes to taijutsu, no one surpasses you."
He raised one hand.
A wave of lethal cold burst forward.
Fire and frost collided - heat melting ice, ice smothering flame - until both forces devoured each other and vanished in a violent shockwave that tore the air apart.
When the turbulence settled, Guy dropped heavily to the ground, bent forward and gulping ragged breaths. His muscles screamed. The Sixth Gate's cost hit him all at once.
Chiba, however, stood calmly where he was, expression unchanged - as if none of this had even qualified as a warm-up.
Kakashi moved the instant he saw Guy forced back. He tore away the covering over his left eye, revealing the blood-red Sharingan spinning beneath.
And he struck.
"Raikiri (Lightning Cutter)!!!"
Lightning screamed around his hand, condensing into a crackling blade guided by the Sharingan's piercing vision. Kakashi blurred forward, driving the thrust straight toward Chiba's heart.
Chiba simply smiled - and flicked his fingers.
A burst of absolute cold detonated outward.
Kakashi froze mid-lunge.
Crack - !
Ice swallowed him from the ground up. Kakashi gritted his teeth and forced chakra through Raikiri, lightning tearing jagged fissures through the ice inch by inch -
But Chiba had already turned away.
His gaze followed the Hyūga Clan.
They were getting farther with every second.
He had no intention of wasting time here.
Today's objective was simple: extract the Hyūga Clan from Konoha - cleanly, completely, and without delay.
And beyond that… his thoughts stretched to the other side of the village.
To split Konoha's attention, he had arranged for Tsunade and Mei Terumī to appear elsewhere. Judging by who remained here, Chiba could already tell Danzō Shimura and his faction had gone to intercept them.
He trusted their strength.
But this was still Konoha.
So Chiba decided to end it.
At his silent command, Ryūchi's serpent host surged again, their pressure crushing what little resistance Konoha still had left. The White Snake Sage alone kept both Senju brothers pinned - only possible because Edo Tensei denied them the power that once made them gods.
Chiba's interest in prolonging the battle vanished.
"Ice Age."
The battlefield screamed.
A glacial wave surged outward, swallowing ground, snakes, broken weapons, and shinobi alike under thick, suffocating ice. Cold-blooded serpents could endure the freeze for a time.
Humans could not.
In that frozen instant, Chiba vanished -
And reappeared directly before Hashirama and Tobirama.
The brothers' instincts snapped into motion even as ice crept around their limbs.
"Mokuton: Mokuryū no Jutsu (Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique)!!!"
"Hiraishin Giri (Flying Thunder God Slash)!!!"
A colossal wooden dragon burst out from the frozen terrain, roaring as it lunged to bind and crush Chiba.
At the same time, Tobirama forced himself beyond the limits of his reincarnated body and flashed to a previously marked kunai, blade swinging down in a killing arc - the same kind of decisive cut that had once ended Uchiha Izuna.
But Chiba had already read everything.
He didn't even look at the blade.
His gaze locked onto the marked kunai.
A needle-sharp blast of cold struck first.
The kunai - and the space around it - froze solid.
So when Tobirama arrived, it was as if he had teleported straight into a wall of ice.
His body locked in place, completely immobilized.
On the other side, Hashirama's Wood Dragon crashed closer -
Chiba stepped lightly onto the White Snake Sage's head.
With a thunderous hiss, the ancient serpent erupted with overwhelming senjutsu chakra and unleashed Senpō: Karyūka no Jutsu (Sage Art: Dragon Transformation Technique).
Sage power collided with wood.
Crack - crack - CRASH!!!
The Wood Dragon shattered into splinters.
At Hashirama's peak, that would have been unthinkable. But now - bound by Edo Tensei - he wielded only a fraction of what he once was.
Chiba lifted his arm once more.
Cold surged.
Hashirama froze solid beside his brother.
Chiba knew they couldn't truly "die" again.
Sealing them was enough.
In mere moments, both Senju brothers were neutralized.
The battlefield broke.
Konoha's forces stared in horror as their legends fell - frozen, silenced, removed from the fight like they had never mattered. Morale shattered, collapsing into panic.
And when Chiba looked back, the Hyūga Clan was already far away, riding Ryūchi's colossal serpents toward the outskirts of the village.
A satisfied smile touched his lips.
Sarutobi Hiruzen - staring at the frozen First Hokage, the immobilized Nidaime Hokage, the fleeing Hyūga Clan, and the ruined state of Konoha's forces - was swallowed whole by rage and despair.
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