In that instant, Chiba brought the Totsuka Blade down on Orochimaru's fate and sealed him completely-cleanly, decisively, without giving him even a breath of space to slip away. On this battlefield, it was no different from death: Orochimaru's presence vanished, his schemes were severed at the root, and his very existence was swallowed by a sealed world with no door back out.
And yet… everyone who truly understood Orochimaru knew better than to believe the story ended so simply.
Orochimaru was not the kind of man who trusted victory, talent, or even survival. He trusted only preparation. His life was built on paranoia made practical-contingency layered upon contingency, an endless chain of "just in case" plans hiding behind every smile. The cursed seal was the clearest proof. It hadn't been a creation born after his defection from Konoha; it was an obsession that had already taken shape while he still wore the village's protection like a cloak. The evidence had always existed in plain sight: Mitarashi Anko carried his mark as well. Which meant that even before he ever obtained Jūgo, Orochimaru had already grasped the cursed seal's foundations deeply enough to treat it as an escape hatch-something he could use, through subordinates like Kabuto Yakushi, to arrange a "return" even if his current body was destroyed.
But none of that mattered to Chiba.
Not here. Not now.
On this battlefield, Orochimaru was dead in the only sense that truly counted-removed from the board, stripped of agency, reduced to something that could no longer choose its own future.
And if Chiba wished, he could reverse that "death" at any time.
He proved it immediately.
Chiba released Orochimaru from the Drunken Dream sealed world within the Totsuka Blade, not out of mercy, but with the calm precision of a man opening a container he already owned. The moment Orochimaru reemerged-before a single thought could settle into place-Chiba's gaze tightened like a noose. Mangekyō Sharingan: Tsukuyomi ("Moon Reader") crashed down, crushing and rewriting Orochimaru's will with terrifying accuracy, leaving no gap for resistance and no room for deception. With Orochimaru's mind already arranged into obedient stillness, Chiba dispelled Edo Tensei-a single decision that instantly unraveled the battlefield's ugliest foundation.
Then, as if finishing an ordinary routine, Chiba sealed Orochimaru again with the Totsuka Blade, the motion as effortless and indifferent as closing a book after turning the final page. Orochimaru didn't even realize how completely he'd been handled-how every move had been anticipated, every escape route denied, every possible outcome folded into something Chiba could pick up, set down, and control at will.
Once Edo Tensei was undone, the souls bound to the battlefield began to lift one by one, rising back toward where they belonged. Those who had not yet been sealed recovered their clarity in stuttering waves-eyes refocusing, minds snapping back into place, the fog of forced slaughter dissolving like mist under sunlight.
Hyūga Hizashi turned to look at his older brother, Hyūga Hiashi, and then at his son, Hyūga Neji. For a moment his expression held a quiet disbelief-as though he'd already accepted eternity, only to be offered one last impossible gift.
"Brother… Neji… I never thought I'd have a chance like this again."
Hiashi's shoulders sank, and in that movement lived years of guilt that had never found an outlet. "Hizashi… I'm sorry. What I made you do back then-my failure as your brother… as clan head…"
Hizashi's smile was gentle, unresentful, the kind of smile that could only exist when pride had finally been burned away. "You've changed, brother. You broke away from Konoha and joined Kirigakure. That alone tells me you're not the rigid man you once were. If you can truly keep moving forward, then you will lead the Hyūga toward a brighter future." His gaze shifted to Neji, and the warmth there deepened-quiet pride wrapped in absolute faith. "And you… Neji. I've always believed in you. You'll become the Hyūga's finest shinobi."
Neji's eyes flooded before he could stop it. "Father…"
Hizashi didn't waver. "Don't cry. I can tell Kirigakure's Mizukage is a man with real resolve-someone unlike the people who turned our clan into a cage. With him, the Hyūga will shine. This is the beginning of the Hyūga's reform."
Hiashi's voice turned hard with decision, and for the first time it sounded like he was speaking as a man prepared to destroy the structure that had shaped him. "I understand. I'll shatter the old rules. The rotting policies within our clan… it's time they ended."
Hizashi and Neji both went still, because there was no need to say the name aloud.
The Caged Bird Seal.
Hizashi let out a slow breath, as if something inside him had finally unclenched. "Brother… hearing you say that means I wasn't brought back for nothing." His outline began to blur, edges turning faint as his soul loosened. "My regrets are gone now. Hiashi… Neji… live well. Make the Hyūga a clan that stands proud across the shinobi world."
His figure faded as he rose into the sky, like a final exhale returning to the wind. Neji and Hiashi lifted their hands in farewell, holding the gesture a little longer than they should have-because letting go was the hardest part.
Not far away, the Uchiha were saying their own goodbyes.
When Uchiha Izuna heard the situation explained by Uchiha Yashiro, shock and bitter reflection crossed his face at once. "So that's how it was… the Uchiha suffered that much humiliation in Konoha." He clenched his jaw, then eased it with a slow breath that sounded more like acceptance than peace. "But you escaped the sea of suffering at last. It seems you chose a path different from the one my brother once walked… perhaps that was the right choice."
Uchiha Kagami exhaled quietly, eyes lowered. "So the Uchiha betrayed Konoha… I imagined it might happen one day, but to see it with my own eyes…" His voice trailed off, swallowed by what he didn't want to admit.
Uchiha Shisui nodded too, his expression weighed down by something sharper than disappointment-something that still bled. "I never expected Itachi would do what he did. When I entrusted my eyes to him, I wanted him to resolve the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha peacefully… but in the end…" The rest didn't need words. It lived in the silence between breaths.
Yashiro bowed his head to the gathered dead. "To all our fallen kin-rest assured. The Uchiha suffered heavy casualties, but we will endure. We will live on. And thanks to the Mizukage, our clan didn't vanish. We'll grow stronger, and one day… we'll reclaim the glory we once held."
The Uchiha spirits nodded. One by one, their souls rose, scattering upward like embers carried into the night-quiet, bright, and gone.
Elsewhere, Might Duy and Hatake Sakumo watched as their souls loosened from their bodies. Duy's grin was tired but sincere, as if even death couldn't fully erase his warmth. "To fight side by side with you again, Sakumo… it really wasn't bad. Shame I didn't get to see Guy or Kakashi."
Sakumo's voice was calm-too calm, the way a man speaks when he's already memorized the shape of tragedy. "You won't see them, Duy."
Duy blinked, confusion catching. "What do you mean-?"
Sakumo's eyes narrowed slightly, and his words came one at a time, each one sinking deeper. "Konoha cooperated with Orochimaru. They didn't just resurrect rebellious Uchiha and Hyūga… they resurrected us." He let out a quiet, bitter breath. "Do you still not understand what that means?"
Duy froze.
"It means our graves were dug up," Sakumo continued, his tone steady in the way only true anger can be. "Our remains were taken. We were turned into puppets that only knew slaughter." His gaze hardened. "And do you think Konoha-do you think Hiruzen Sarutobi-would ever announce that to the world? If Guy and Kakashi learned their fathers couldn't rest even after death… that their bodies were desecrated… what would they feel?"
Duy's eyes widened as realization hit like a punch to the chest. "So that's why we were sent here… to invade Kirigakure, instead of appearing on the main battlefield."
Sakumo gave a humorless smile. "Exactly. And if Kirigakure tells the world, Konoha can simply call it slander-'a lie from an enemy village.'"
Duy's figure began to fade, and his grin collapsed into something quieter, something wounded. "So the village we nearly died protecting… maybe it wasn't truly worth protecting after all…"
Sakumo-who had chosen death once already-understood Konoha's darkness better than most ever could. "…Yeah."
With that, the two of them ascended fully, their souls disappearing into the sky. Others rose as well-Uchiha Tajima, Senju Butsuma, Akimichi Torifu, Mitokado Homura, Yūhi Shinku-until the battlefield was stripped clean of Edo Tensei's stolen voices, leaving behind only the sacrificed corpses used as offerings for the forbidden technique.
With Orochimaru sealed and Edo Tensei undone, the battle's outcome was no longer in doubt. Only Jiraiya and Mount Myōboku's toads remained-isolated, battered, and fighting alone-while the Konoha elite who had infiltrated with them had already been wiped out under Kirigakure's full counterattack.
Fukasaku sighed, exhaustion weighing down every syllable. "Jiraiya-boy… if you keep fighting, you're only throwing your life away. It's time to go."
Jiraiya understood-more than he wanted to. His eyes drifted across distance and chaos to Tsunade, searching for something he couldn't name. But Tsunade didn't move. Not even a fraction. Something in her gaze remained hard and distant, like a door that had already closed and no longer cared who knocked.
So Jiraiya and the two sages activated the contingency they had prepared in advance, signaling Mount Myōboku to perform a reverse summoning. In a flash, Jiraiya and the remaining toads vanished from the battlefield, pulled back to their home.
Konoha's infiltration strike ended there.
Chiba dismissed his Ryūchi Cave summoning as well, sending the serpents back, and with a single order had the battlefield cleared. Before long, the outskirts of Kirigakure fell quiet again-as if the night had swallowed every scream and left only cold air behind.
The invasion hadn't even reached the village proper.
It was a colossal joke.
And for Konoha, it was worse than humiliation. Orochimaru had been "killed," and his greatest trump cards-Edo Tensei's Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama-had been sealed by Chiba. Sealing a soul and merely dispelling Edo Tensei weren't the same thing: if a soul was sealed, it couldn't be summoned again unless the seal was undone; if Edo Tensei was simply released, the forbidden technique could still be performed again later to call the same souls back.
In other words, Orochimaru had lost Hashirama and Tobirama permanently-at least for as long as Chiba wished.
After the battle, Chiba tallied the losses. On Konoha's side: Orochimaru was "killed," Hashirama and Tobirama were sealed, and 123 other resurrected were sealed as well; Mount Myōboku's toad army lost thirteen; Jiraiya returned heavily wounded; and the seventeen Konoha elite shinobi who had infiltrated the battlefield all died there. On Kirigakure's side, only Ryūchi Cave's snakes suffered notable losses, and Chiba's senjutsu Ice Release snow-dragon riders lost a little over a dozen-true casualties so small they were almost negligible.
This battle was a complete, overwhelming victory for Chiba and Kirigakure, and their image of invincibility hardened further-like ice freezing over the shinobi world's imagination. The Hyūga and Uchiha, in particular, now hated Konoha down to the bone; what had once been suspicion and anger became something absolute, an unwavering loyalty to Chiba and Kirigakure forged through humiliation that could never be forgotten.
Of course, Orochimaru would not truly die so easily-but the key was that Chiba had not truly "killed" him. He had sealed him, meaning he could be released at any time, controlled by genjutsu, and used again. To Chiba, Orochimaru was no longer an enemy-he was a library, a vault of knowledge that could be opened when needed and closed again just as easily, and because Orochimaru wasn't dead, his other contingencies meant nothing; cursed seal methods couldn't revive him elsewhere while his soul remained in Chiba's hands. Step by step, Orochimaru had been reduced into a puppet.
And immediately after, Chiba ordered the battle's intelligence to be spread.
In an instant, the entire shinobi world learned that Konoha had declared war on Kirigakure-and learned something far more humiliating: Konoha's carefully planned surprise assault hadn't even reached Kirigakure's gates before it was crushed, nearly wiped out to the last man. Orochimaru was taken. The Edo Tensei army was sealed or dispelled. Jiraiya was gravely injured. Mount Myōboku suffered heavy losses.
Konoha, once again, became the shinobi world's laughingstock.
In the Hokage's Office, Jiraiya returned from Mount Myōboku via summoning-bloodied, exhausted, and carrying failure that tasted like ash. Facing Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shimura Danzō, and Utatane Koharu, he spoke with blunt heaviness.
"The infiltration plan failed. Orochimaru was killed by the Mizukage, Chiba-and the backup he left behind failed as well. There's no way to revive him." He paused, eyes narrowing as the truth settled into shape. "I suspect the Mizukage didn't actually kill him. He likely sealed him… or used genjutsu to control him before sealing him again. If that's the case, Orochimaru will become his puppet-his piece."
Hiruzen's face darkened as reports continued to pour in-mockery from every nation, condemnation from every village-until rage swelled in his chest like something thick and choking.
BANG!
He slammed his palm down on the desk, the wood trembling as humiliation and fury boiled over. "Chiba… Kirigakure… you've gone too far!!!"
Koharu sighed, her voice hollow. "To think our plan ended before it even began… That Mizukage, Chiba-he was this strong? Not only did he know our plan, he was already prepared for Edo Tensei as well?"
Danzō's eye narrowed, his tone sharpening like steel drawn from a sheath. "Don't forget, Hiruzen-during the Five Kage Summit, you handed Orochimaru's research to that Mizukage. So of course he understands Edo Tensei and those secret arts inside and out."
The accusation was naked.
Hiruzen's temper snapped. "Danzō-are you blaming me?! Don't forget who the Hokage is!"
Danzō let out a cold snort and didn't press further, but the contempt in his silence was unmistakable.
Koharu hurried to smooth the air. "Enough. This isn't the time to argue. What do we do next?"
Jiraiya exhaled, the sound stripped of warmth. "Our infiltration failed. Kirigakure suffered almost no losses. We lost men, we lost face… and we lost Orochimaru. That means they won't march onto the Land of Fire like we hoped-luring them out is over. And Chiba announced everything to the entire world." His eyes stayed sharp despite exhaustion. "Konoha is now the side that 'declared war.' If we retreat now, we'll become an even bigger joke. But if we attack, we can't win at sea. In that terrain, Kirigakure has the advantage." He opened his hands slightly, as if showing them the cage they'd built for themselves. "We're stuck. Forward or back-either way is miserable."
Hiruzen smoked furiously, the pipe trembling between his fingers, but no words came-only the bitter taste of defeat.
Koharu's gaze settled on him. "Hiruzen… war or peace. The decision has to come from the Hokage."
And yet what decision could he make, when the desperate gamble had collapsed before it even began-when Konoha had bled, gained nothing, and become a laughingstock?
Jiraiya hesitated, then forced out what truly mattered. "There's something else. Chiba spread the details-Konoha not only invaded another nation, but used Edo Tensei. The shinobi world is furious." He leaned forward, voice grim. "You know what Edo Tensei means to the other nations. The Second Hokage used it against them once. They've hated it ever since. Now that it's resurfaced, they won't look kindly on Konoha." He paused, letting the silence sharpen. "And the most dangerous part is inside our own walls. This will shake people. Some will have… thoughts."
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?!"
"It wasn't only the Uchiha and Hyūga dead who were dug up," Jiraiya said, his voice dropping into something colder. "They used Hatake Sakumo-Kakashi's father. Might Duy-Guy's father. Yūhi Shinku-Kurenai's father. All of them were dragged out of their graves, their souls summoned, their bodies turned into war puppets." His stare pinned Hiruzen in place. "Do you think Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, Yūhi Kurenai-when they learn their fathers couldn't even rest in death-will be satisfied with what Konoha did?!"
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