Hiruzen was running. He had only one thought.
At my age, doing this to me? You really have no sense of educational ethics!
He would bet his entire secret stash of treasured items that Muzo had not been controlled from the beginning.
What nonsense about wanting to kill on sight, liar! When have I not seen you act when you wanted someone dead?
Who uses secret techniques non-stop like that?
Well, maybe Orochimaru hadn't seen it, so he believed it. But even his behavior is strange.
"Hiruzen-sensei, where are you going?"
The Kusanagi Sword slashed from the side, but he didn't even bother to look. He casually swung his Adamantine Staff, which suddenly extended toward his treacherous disciple's chest.
As expected, Orochimaru transformed into a swarm of snakes midair.
Enma emerged halfway from the staff, using his indestructible body to block the venomous fangs, and even casually bit a small snake into mush and spat it out.
"If you want to fight, then fight! Stop being disgusting!" he shouted furiously.
Only Orochimaru's sinister laughter replied. They could hear him, but not see him.
"If you had killed him back then, none of this would be happening now." Enma wasn't swayed at all by the scolding and started grumbling instead, "What the hell did you teach him?"
Hiruzen fell silent. Back then, you praised him for mastering stealth beyond your expectations. And now you're saying I taught him crap?
"Let's not argue about that now… Your teacher has already vanished, so why are we still running?"
"Muzo-sensei doesn't act without a purpose. If he wants us to go in this direction…" Before Hiruzen could finish, a booming sound came from up ahead. He turned to look and his eyes widened.
"That's…"
From a distant building, a giant tree shot into the sky, spreading a canopy like an umbrella.
He knew one thing, it wasn't Yamato. He couldn't produce that kind of Wood Release!
Hiruzen understood instantly.
"Orochimaru! What have you done!?"
"You can't just accuse people like that. I haven't summoned anyone." Orochimaru emerged from the ground ahead, speaking lazily, "That over there? That's Kumo's responsibility. My only target is you."
"What exactly do you want?" Hiruzen stopped and sighed. "You're not the type to act out of mere resentment or boredom. What's your true goal?"
Muzo-sensei, come on, be reasonable, you should go to the front lines first. I'll follow right after.
I'm not being lazy, I just really think something's off about Orochimaru. You're a teacher too, you understand this mindset, right?
From the corner of his eye, he noticed movement in the shadow of a nearby building, something darted away.
Good. He is still human enough when it comes to his own people. He didn't throw an old man like me into a deathtrap.
Feeling content, his breath finally eased.
"You seem oddly happy all of a sudden."
"Orochimaru, you break my heart."
"...I don't see it. You look happy to me. Have you finally realized? I've surpassed you."
Hiruzen gave a small smile. "This is your goal? Just to prove yourself to me? That's not like you."
"Whether it's like me or not, I'll say it seriously, you'd better listen seriously too." Orochimaru sneered.
Stubborn old man!
---
At that moment, in a district of Konoha, a figure emerged from the shadows. Muzo stepped out of an alley, looking up at the rampaging Wood Release ahead.
Where did Orochimaru get Madara's cells? That's worth investigating.
Summoned by Edo Tensei and seeing Hiruzen, he realized that the future had deviated completely from what he remembered.
He had been resurrected to fight Hiruzen. And Madara had also returned.
Meanwhile, Tobirama hadn't been summoned by Orochimaru at all.
This plotline had gone way off course!
Convincing him to replace the Edo Tensei in the Scroll of Seals had been the right move. It was just a precaution, but now, the backdoor had come in handy.
Such a dangerous technique shouldn't be written in full in a public scroll. Why not teach it verbally instead? What if some shady genius with photographic memory got their hands on it?
So dangerous!
Without Hashirama, there's no one who can stop Madara. And at this precision level...
He had used the Edo Tensei before, he could instantly assess the quality of the body. His current strength was about 90% of what it had been in life. That meant Madara's was probably the same. But even at 90%, he was more than enough to crush the ninjas of this era, unless…
He began walking toward the origin of the Wood Release. To modern-day ninjas, the way he moved seemed... a bit un-ninja-like.
Ninjas typically advanced with their arms trailing behind them to reduce air resistance. It also kept their limbs poised to attack at a moment's notice, one of the very first things taught in Ninja Academy. First-year students often fell flat on their faces because they couldn't master their center of gravity.
Muzo, however, had interacted extensively with chakra-using warriors during his lifetime and liked to borrow from their martial arts.
For instance: optimizing acceleration by constantly adjusting balance to achieve max burst speed in the shortest time; enhancing agility through core strength training; increasing evasive maneuvers while maximizing attacks on an enemy's weak points. Once he mastered all that and fused it with the chakra control of a ninja, he could traverse vast distances in a single step.
Wind stirred at his feet. His body moved like lightning. The wind whipped at the cloth not covered by his armor. He vanished from the streets, darting across rooftops.
Then he landed on the Hokage Rock. The heart of the battlefield was nearby.
Thinking it over, this should be where the Nine-Tails rampage happened. He wondered if Naruto in this timeline was still suffering just as much. This was the darkness of Konoha, it was inevitable.
If an organization's darkness wasn't in plain sight, then it was stabbing people in the back. And the more prosperous the organization, the more it favored the latter.
He looked down.
The stone face of Tobirama had been carved into the mountain, and he looked the most fierce.
What a handsome face… wasted on that kind of guy.
If Hashirama was around, there's no reason Tobirama shouldn't be too.
Perfect. We're all in Edo Tensei state now, no pain in a fight.
He looked ahead. In the core of Konoha, massive vines were sprouting unpredictably, one here, a twitch there.
It was a running battle. And rooftops were the best, no need to search for targets.
Suddenly, he caught a flicker in the air, someone zoomed past.
That looked like… a blond-haired guy?
That teleportation technique, solid!
Even the Wood Release user seemed to be chasing that person.
Muzo shifted his form and followed. The opponent's Body Flicker technique was strong, but still too straightforward, one of the common flaws among ninjas.
He easily cut him off.
Both sides were shocked.
Looking at the blond young man in the Hokage cloak, his mouth slightly opened.
Wasn't the Fourth Hokage dead? Did the Nine-Tails not go on a rampage?
Minato stared back, equally stunned at the sight of this reanimated ninja clad in brown armor.
Aside from the First and Second Hokage… there was another one!?
"Minato, what are you doing?" A red-haired figure dodged the grasping Wood Release and landed beside him.
Kushina spotted Muzo at a glance.
"There's one more!?" she was startled.
She knew the First and Second Hokage by their faces, they passed by the Hokage Rock all the time. But this guy? Totally unfamiliar.
Back in the Warring States period, ninja armor styles weren't that different, so identifying someone as a Konoha ancestor based on armor alone wasn't easy.
And besides, he was clearly a reanimated ninja. So she assumed he was an enemy who didn't deserve respectful restraint.
She wrapped one of her tails around Minato to refill his chakra, then waved a hand, sending a tailed beast claw sweeping toward the reanimated ninja.
Seeing the fox claw coming straight at him, Muzo sidestepped and charged toward the Wood Release branches aiming for Kushina instead.
A high-pressure water jet sliced through the branches. Then he dove in like a wild boar barreling into a cornfield.
Minato and Kushina stared, dumbfounded, as the ninja ripped apart the newly sprouted Wood Release, roots and all, with his bare hands.
So… he's not an enemy? He's that strong?
"Hm? What are you two looking at me for?" After tearing everything down, Muzo turned to the couple and said, "Go do your jobs."
Even though his curiosity was burning, business came first.
Tearing down weak, uncoordinated Wood Release attacks like this wasn't surprising. In his current state, he had no reason to fear it. He sliced off a piece of root from the uprooted the wood and used a tracking technique.
The jutsu's feedback came quickly.
Muzo ignored Minato and Kushina. Once he received the feedback, he swiftly took off.
To Minato and Kushina, the armored reanimated man vanished in the blink of an eye, but a cluster of Wood Release just ahead was already crashing down with a loud rumble.
"Is he a Konoha ninja too?" Kushina sighed, "So strong."
This kind of slightly violent fighting style, she really liked it! She glanced back at her husband.
If only he had just a bit more stamina and was a little less gentlemanly, he'd be the perfect man.
Minato could tell exactly what Kushina was thinking from her expression. But his decade-plus experience as Hokage hadn't been for nothing.
"Let's go," Minato said. "With him here, you don't need to worry about Wood Release. Let's go help drive out the Kumo ninjas."
Kushina nodded, and the couple headed north.
---
At this time, Muzo, following his tracking jutsu, had already spotted two figures in the distance.
One in red armor, one in blue. Sure enough, they'd both been summoned.
There was one more person behind them, that must be the summoner.
But it wasn't Orochimaru. It was... a damned Kumo ninja?!
Still… For a Kumo ninja to be able to control these two brothers… it seemed the jutsu had been deeply researched by later generations.
It had to be the Snake Sannin.
After all, to secretly leave a backdoor without getting noticed, you had to include something to mislead people. For example… Some seemingly unremarkable "directions" that could, with enough research, enhance the reanimated body and the control over it.
Not easy to do.
Aside from him, there shouldn't be any other ninjas of this era capable of discovering the "improvement space" he deliberately left behind. But teaming up with a Kumo ninja?
That lowered his opinion of Orochimaru.
Kumo ninjas are shit. Mix with shit, and you become shit. Muzo would never praise a pile of crap.
He stomped down, shattering the rooftop. After a few leaps, the faces of his old comrades became clearly visible, but his landing target was the summoner.
Midair, a massive crescent-shaped wind blade slashed toward the summoner. The wind blade sliced through the summoner's body, cutting through the earth beneath his feet and cleaving the buildings on either side.
In the next moment, a surge of mud burst forth. In his eyes, that was an overwhelming chakra surge, obscuring his vision.
His expression barely changed. His hands continued weaving signs, and the Sharingan in his right eye flared.
But the next attack never came.
After a brief eruption, the mud fell as the jutsu lost its power.
Standing before him now were three armored reanimated bodies.
The summoner, none other than the disguised Obito, looked at the brown-armored reanimated who had just attacked him and released his hand signs.
"You're Muzo," he said with certainty.
Orochimaru! I'm gonna kill you! He cursed inwardly.
Sure, he was no stranger to betraying allies himself, didn't even feel guilty about it, but being the one betrayed? That was a first.
Summoning Madara? Fine. He'd already abandoned the "Madara" identity. But summoning this Konoha hero? If this wasn't intentional sabotage, he wouldn't believe it even if beaten to death.
"That's right, it's me!"
Muzo's hand had just been withdrawn from the backs of the two reanimated bodies.
No wonder he could control Hashirama and Robirama, it was an Uchiha.
Senju vs. Uchiha. Uchiha screwing over Senju. Totally reasonable. Just the natural order.
But that kid's face… looked familiar.
Maybe a descendant of some old enemy? He'd killed so many Uchiha back then, hard to remember.
Muzo turned back to those beside him.
Hashirama in red armor and Tobirama in blue. Luckily, they were in full manual mode, otherwise, seizing control wouldn't have been so easy.
No wonder the Wood Release was so weak. That stuff was only scary when Hashirama used it himself.
Watching the light gradually return to their eyes, he felt a bit emotional. How long had it been?
Ever since the village was founded, Hashirama was always wandering around with his best buddy. Once the buddy was gone, he started drifting like a lost soul. And the Tobirama's persecution complex only got worse, he couldn't stand the sight of the Uchiha clan. So he decided to slowly bleed them dry. Good thing the Uchiha at the time still considered the village their home. Otherwise, with their old explosive personalities, they would've definitely blown up.
The three of them hadn't cut someone up together in ages! Starting by slicing this Kumo ninja would be a nice warm-up. Kumo ninjas were basically born to be chopped down.
The first to regain full awareness was the long-haired, red-armored Hashirama. Even though they were being controlled, the Edo Tensei still preserved their consciousness.
At least, in his version. He didn't know about Tobirama's, but his own version had been designed that way on purpose.
"Sigh…" Hashirama suddenly let out a long sigh. His gaze was deep and mournful, like someone who'd taken the wrong medication.
Muzo was immediately displeased by this reaction.
"…What's with the sigh the moment you come out? Don't you understand your role at all? That serious expression really doesn't suit you."
Hearing the familiar voice behind him, Hashirama turned around.
"Taka, you got summoned too, huh?" Hashirama said with a sigh. "See, I told you not to mess with that kind of jutsu. But you never listened to me."
Yato was Muzo's real name, Senju Taka.
It was simple, really. On the day he was born, his cheapskate father had gone to raid a bird's nest for food and ended up grabbing a hawk's. After enjoying a meal of baby hawk that evening, the transmigrated soul entered the world and ended up with the name Taka. But ever since he earned the nickname Muzo, everyone but Hashirama and Tobirama called him that. And he had gotten used to it himself.
Right now, facing Hashirama's nagging, he was exasperated.
If I didn't use Edo Tensei, how could I even fight alongside you guys? And besides, wasn't it Tobirama who invented it first? Why am I the only one getting blamed?
"Come on, think logically. Even if I didn't use it, someone else would've. Look, it's that damn Kumo ninja."
"Yeah… sigh. Can't believe this jutsu spread outside the village. What a sin."
Hashirama who loved to sigh ever since losing his best buddy was seriously starting to sound like an old granny.
Muzo decided to turn to someone else to get the praise he deserved. No way he was walking away today without a single compliment.
But what greeted him was Tobirama's furious expression and tightly clenched fists.
"Whoa! Cool it!" Muzo shouted in shock. "It's me! It's Taka!"
"I know it's you," Tobirama said darkly. "Where did you get the guts to go to the rear of the battlefield alone?"
"Huh? Taka, you're not behaving again?" Hashirama chimed in, "That's not okay, you can't go into dangerous places by yourself."
"Shut up! It's because you always coddle him that he's so reckless! He almost got himself killed!"
Muzo said, "…Tobirama, we're all in Edo Tensei state now. Fighting each other just feels… weird."
WHAM!
Tobirama punched him in the head, frowning deeply.
"Yup. Completely no impact… so this is what it feels like to be reanimated."
"If it doesn't feel right, then maybe stop holding your fist up?"
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Tobirama ignored him and just kept punching until Muzo's head was actually covered in dust.
Hashirama watched with delight.
"Taka, I knew it was you. I was wondering if today would be fake if you didn't get smacked."
"Could you not say things like that? What do you mean, if I didn't get smacked it must be fake?" Muzo roared. "Tobirama's just too hot-headed! And it's not like I was slacking off, I got things done!"
"True…" Hashirama looked guilty. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
"Rich Bastard, what now?"
"What did you just call me?"
"Rich Bastard…? Haven't I always called you that?" Muzo looked puzzled, unsure what Tobirama was upset about this time.
"Fine, then look at the enemy first," Tobirama said with a cold sneer.
"Huh? That Kumo ninja's still here?" Muzo's gaze returned to Obito. "As an Uchiha, to serve a crap hole like Kumo, if I kill you, even the Uchiha clan would thank me."
Obito sneered. Even though he'd lost control over them, he wouldn't let these three go help the Konoha ninjas.
With Kamui, he was confident he could tangle with all three.
Reanimated bodies were far weaker than in life. At this point, he wasn't even afraid of facing Madara himself. And from what he'd just seen, neither Hashirama nor Muzo seemed too smart. Fighting two brainless guys and one sharp one was way easier than facing three tacticians.
"Well, aren't you a proud one," Muzo grinned.
Honestly, when he saw the Sharingan, he had thought it might be Obito, but he was convinced Madara would've disfigured Obito by now. He may have changed some things, but he couldn't possibly change Madara.
But this guy clearly wasn't Obito, right?
WHAM!
"You hit me again!? That's just too much!"
"Are you blind!?" Tobirama snarled. "Look at his face! Don't you recognize it?!"