Meanwhile, Kimimaro's group stood just outside Konoha's outer treeline.
With the suppression talismans layered over their bodies and the village swallowed by chaos, not a single sensor picked them up.
Kimimaro sensed everything anyway.
His sensory mode painted the entire battlefield in perfect clarity, every chakra flare and shifting intention.
Emi saw even more, the Byakugan stretching her vision across the arena rooftops.
Reika's Kagura's Mind Eye flickered like a calm heartbeat beside her.
Between the two of them, Akane and Saya were kept fully updated, each girl relaying information in her own tone to the other two.
Kimimaro stayed silent.
Probably analysing something.
So they didn't disturb him.
Reika's eyes unfocused slightly, her Kagura's Mind Eye drifting across the village. "Multiple chakra surges… the arena finally just destabilized," she murmured.
"One-tailed bijū chakra is fluctuating. Someone is pursuing."
Emi leaned forward beside her, Byakugan veins raised.
"Wow… Konoha really is on fire today."
Emi said, voice bright despite the chaos.
Saya, impatient and practically vibrating, snapped,
"Talk more. I can't see a damn thing from out here."
"Relax. I'm getting there. Sheesh. Someone's excited."
"Two giant snakes, at least a few hundred invaders, and some guy just dropped half the stadium like a bedtime story."
Emi flicked her fingers in Saya's direction without looking away.
Saya glared, but Emi continued anyway, cheerful as ever,
Akane's posture stiffened at once.
Arms folding, eyes narrowing, her Sharingan flickered, not in excitement, but in that tangled annoyance she always felt when Sasuke Uchiha came up.
The other survivor.
The one Itachi spared because he was his precious younger brother.
The one who lived comfortably under Konoha's roof while she bled alone.
She didn't have many good feelings toward him either.
"Tsk," she muttered, jaw tightening. "Just tell us what matters. Who's actually winning?"
Emi smiled sweetly without turning around.
"Not Konoha."
Reika added calmly, "Orochimaru isolated the Hokage. Just as expected."
Saya's eyes widened. "He actually pulled that off? In the middle of all this?"
"Mm." Reika nodded. "The barrier's already up."
Emi tilted her head, still tracking chakra flows.
"Kinda neat, honestly. Big flashy box, four guys holding hands, very dramatic. Orochimaru-sensei must be in his theater-kid phase today."
Akane stared at her. "How can you sound cheerful during all this? And why are you even calling him 'sensei'?"
Emi blinked. "Oh. That."
She kept her Byakugan open, voice breezy. "The cheerful part is just… me. Reflex, probably."
Then she tapped her temple lightly. "And as for the title? He fed me enough research hints at that time that he's basically my academic… ancestor."
Akane's eyebrow twitched. "That's not a normal thing to say."
Emi smiled wider. "Neither is he a normal man."
Meanwhile, Kimimaro silently watched the invasion unfold exactly as he remembered it from the original story, and a faint amusement touched his expression.
Even after all his growth, Orochimaru still went for overkill, isolating Hiruzen on a rooftop as if he were afraid that the old man might bolt at any moment.
Using a battlefield-scale jutsu to pin down a single elderly target.
Like swatting a fly with a boulder.
Kimimaro shook his head slightly.
Orochimaru always had a flair for the dramatic, but this… this was almost nostalgic.
Kabuto's mass sleep-genjutsu, the stadium collapse, the timing, it all followed the script he knew, the canonical chain of events he remembered so clearly from his past life.
Iconic scenes replaying in reality.
Only one difference existed: Orochimaru's current power.
Hiruzen would learn that soon enough.
Kimimaro shifted his attention again.
He already sensed the squads giving chase to Gaara, Sasuke pursuing him first, just as canon dictated, followed by other teams mobilizing in response.
Naruto's chakra flickered with chaotic determination; Shikamaru's with reluctant irritation; Sakura's with a tight, worried focus.
Even Pakkun was there, the little hound's trail clear as day.
"Everything's moving just like the story," Kimimaro murmured inwardly.
And Gaara…
He could feel the jinchūriki's chakra twisting, spiraling into that familiar instability, yet somehow still refusing to trip fully into Shukaku's release.
Kimimaro frowned.
It made no sense.
Shouldn't instability make a berserk tailed beast transformation easier, not harder, in the stadium?
He dismissed the thought a moment later.
It wasn't the first inconsistency the original author had left behind with his endless retcons, after all.
This world had its own logic now, since it was the reality, not fiction anymore, and even if there now had to be some viable reason, it wasn't important enough for him to waste time exploring.
His focus was elsewhere.
Konoha was collapsing exactly on schedule.
And their part in this was about to begin.
They all wore matching simple dark cloaks, but not the ordinary blood and bone stylised Jashinist ones, and each was masked in ANBU-like porcelain with similar crimson markings.
Information was power, and anonymity was armor.
Kimimaro refused to let even their silhouettes be identifiable.
If something could be hidden for a while longer, it should be.
He also hadn't brought any other ordinary Jashinists for a reason this time.
His true elites had been wiped out by Orochimaru years ago and were still slowly being rebuilt.
They were still lying low after all, and Yugakure was not exactly a "treasure trove" of elite shinobi.
The remaining fodder wasn't worth dragging into Konoha; they'd only get in the way, make noise, and risk early detection.
Better to leave them behind.
Besides, he intended to fix that problem today.
Endless casualties and corpses would fall in this invasion, everywhere, ritual sacrifices waiting to happen.
With those bodies, he would rebuild his elite force stronger than ever before in one afternoon.
Reika would handle most of that "collection" work this time.
Her new Adamantine Sealing Chains had far more functions than the original series ever implied, something Ashina revealed to them over time.
Kimimaro's thoughts shifted to the invading forces themselves.
Only a few hundred shinobi between Oto and Suna.
Any more and they would've been caught long before reaching the village, Danzo's assistance or not.
On paper, that number wasn't nearly enough to topple a great village.
But…
Add Orochimaru's strength.
Add surprise.
Add the spectacle of Hiruzen's public execution.
Add chaos erupting from within the exams themselves.
It could work.
It would've been impossible in the canon timeline; Orochimaru had been at the end of his rope back then, his vessel decaying, his strength compromised.
But now?
Now he was stronger.
Healthier.
And far less desperate.
If Konoha didn't produce something truly earth-shattering in response, this invasion could very well succeed.
But just then, Kimimaro's expression shifted.
Barely.
A fractional change no one else would've noticed, unless they were watching him the way the girls did.
He had sensed something.
Thanks to his Sage Body, refined from childhood, his perception had long surpassed ordinary sensors.
Even Ashina had once remarked that Kimimaro's sensing already rivaled himself in his prime and other greats of history, Tobirama, Mito, and the other strongest Uzumaki and Senju.
And so his sensory mode had almost certainly evolved far beyond anything currently present in Konoha.
Which was why he caught it instead of anyone else currently or in the canon.
An abnormality.
Observing this very scene.
But not from Konoha.
Not from any shinobi.
It wasn't… human.
Or rather, it felt human, animal, and plant-like all at once, as if many incompatible signatures had been forced together and buried deep underground.
It was the strangest presence Kimimaro had ever brushed against.
And yet…
There was familiarity in it.
A faint echo of something he had handled before.
Hashirama's cells.
That was all he needed.
Kimimaro's eyes narrowed, a quiet spark igniting behind them, hunger, calculation, greed, all interwoven.
He knew exactly what this presence was.
Why it was here.
And why missing it would be unforgivable.
A White Zetsu-type entity.
Not a weak one either, its aura was dense, layered, far more coherent than the fodder types.
A strong specimen.
A perfect sample for them.
A perfect body for someone.
A perfect stepping stone.
A god-given gift, arriving at the exact moment he needed it.
So, he didn't hesitate.
"Stay here," he said calmly, turning slightly toward the girls.
"Do not move unless Orochimaru is cornered and Konoha reveals something unexpected. If that happens, interfere."
Saya blinked. "What? Why? Where are you—"
Kimimaro continued as if she hadn't spoken.
"There's a very valuable catch waiting nearby," he said. "I won't be long."
The greed in his voice was barely concealed.
Reika opened her mouth to ask a question.
Akane tensed.
Emi leaned forward instinctively.
But by then, he was already gone.
A single step.
A blur.
A ripple in the leaves.
He vanished into the forest in less than a heartbeat, leaving only the faint rustle of disturbed air behind him.
The girls traded looks, concern, curiosity, and a little awe, before refocusing on the chaos in the village.
Kimimaro was hunting something.
And whatever it was… it mattered.