[Third's Last Stand]
Back in the heart of Konoha, the barrier enclosing the roof of the stadium shimmered with violent chakra. Hiruzen Sarutobi stood firm inside its flaming walls, face shadowed by his battle-worn hat. Before him, Orochimaru smiled with venomous glee, wielding the reanimated bodies of the First and Second Hokage like grotesque puppets.
"You've grown old, sensei," Orochimaru hissed, golden eyes gleaming. "The village is dying with you."
But Hiruzen's voice remained firm. "I gave everything to raise this village from war. And if I must give my life to protect it one final time… then so be it."
His hands weaved seals, summoning Enma, the Monkey King. The great staff roared into his hands. With the same skill honed over decades, Hiruzen fought with relentless determination. Each strike against the undead Hokage was filled not with anger, but sorrow—and duty.
Blood splattered the tiles as the dead pressed forward, unfeeling and unstoppable. Hiruzen's body faltered, his strength fading, but he forced his chakra to surge one final time.
He looked at Orochimaru through tired, pain-wracked eyes.
"This village will not fall to your hatred,"he whispered. "There are children here who will surpass us all. That is my legacy."
When the barrier dropped moments later, the Third Hokage's lifeless body lay still beneath the blood-red sky.
Orochimaru, tired, stood atop the ruined tower. He glanced at the devastation, then turned toward the forest edge where an escape route had already been prepared.
He said nothing as he retreated. In his mind, he weighed his chances. With Sarutobi gone, the village would soon reorganize under Tsunade. He had no desire to test her strength, not here—not against her— when he had other plans in motion.
[A Forked Path]
At the village outskirts, just beyond the scorched trees, Sasuke stood alone—silent, tense. His Sharingan was active, eyes blood-red, burning with frustration and something deeper… envy.
He had seen the fight.
He had seen Naruto.
Not the loser from the academy. Not the loudmouth who used to eat alone on the swing. But someone who could fight Gaara—Gaara—and still stand.
He had fallen behind.
"You look dissatisfied," came a voice from the shadows.
Sasuke turned sharply. The Sound Four emerged from the treeline—Jirōbō, Kidōmaru, Tayuya, and Sakon. Behind them stood Orochimaru, eyes glittering with that serpentine charm.
"Orochimaru," Sasuke said warily.
The Sannin smirked. "You desire strength. I offer you the key to unlock it. Leave this place, this weakness. Come with me. And I will show you how to sever the bonds that make you soft."
Sasuke didn't answer right away.
It wasn't just about Itachi anymore.
His fists clenched. Every second wasted here was time Naruto getting stonger.
It was Naruto, too.
"I"ll come" Sasuke said.
Orochimaru smiled.
[Outskirts - Place where Naruto fought Gaara]
Outside the walls, in the forest clearing not far from where the Sand siblings had departed, Naruto Uzumaki stood alone. His body ached from the battle with Gaara, but his heart felt clearer than it ever had before.
That clarity vanished in an instant.
A blur of movement. A cold hand over his shoulder. And then—
Pain.
Naruto's body arched as a searing pressure overwhelmed him. A twisted seal branded itself across his abdomen in a sickening blaze of orange and black. His chakra buckled. The Kyūbi howled in his mind, but the connection was broken. Interrupted.
The Five Elements Seal, Orochimaru's work.
Before Naruto could breathe—before he could scream—a sword struck his chest. Sasuke Uchiha stood before him, Sharingan spinning and eyes hollow with fury.
"You've always been in my way."
Naruto's body collapsed against the earth, his vision dimming as blood soaked into the soil.
Orochimaru stepped past Naruto's crumpled form without a glance.
"Let's go," he said. "We have much to do."
[Command Center]
As Orochimaru and the Sound Four vanished into the shadows, retreating from Konoha's borders after Hiruzen's death, the village was left rattled and bloodied. Grief weighed heavy in the air, but amid the chaos, one face had yet to return.
Naruto.
Tsunade paced the walls restlessly, watching the gates, scanning for a blond hair kid that never came. The battle with Gaara had ended long ago, but Naruto's absence gnawed at her with increasing dread. At last, unable to wait another moment, she set off herself—out of the village and into the forest, boots pounding against the roots and soil, following the lingering traces of his chakra.
She found him soon in a forest clearing, surrounded by fallen leaves and the scent of blood.
Naruto lay crumpled in the dirt, unmoving. His body was pale, his breath shallow and ragged. Blood stained his chest and soaked the ground around him. His shirt had been torn open, revealing the jagged black lines of a five-pronged seal etched grotesquely over his stomach.
Tsunade dropped to her knees. "Naruto!"
She pressed her glowing hands to his chest, pumping medical chakra into his heart, into his lungs—anywhere that would hold. But the chakra refused to circulate properly. His network was fractured, his flow unstable. Something was interfering with it.
Her eyes snapped to the seal on his stomach.
A Five Elements Seal. Overlaid crudely on top of the original Eight Trigrams seal. It was choking his chakra, disrupting the Kyūbi's ability to stabilize the boy from within.
With a curse, Tsunade formed hand seals and began the process of breaking it.
The moment the outer seal shattered under her jutsu, Naruto convulsed violently.
Tsunade's vision blurred.
In the next instant, she was no longer in the forest.
A surge of red chakra yanked her consciousness inward—inside Naruto's mind, inside the seal—and she stood before a massive, rusted gate. Behind it, two burning red eyes blinked open in the darkness.
The Kyūbi.
Its voice rolled like thunder. "So... the Senju blood still lives."
Tsunade didn't flinch. "He's dying. Tell me what to do."
The fox regarded her silently, then rumbled,
"You came just in time," the fox growled."But that snake's damage runs deeper than you realize."
Tsunade frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Orochimaru didn't just disrupt the seal. He poisoned him."Kyubi voice rumbled. "A rare, complex venom—chakra-reactive, designed to spread silently through his system. It's suppressing his natural healing, corrupting his chakra coils. I can hold it back… delay it. But I can't purge it."
Tsunade's face went pale.
"Unless he receives cells with rapid regenerative potential—like my own,"the Kyūbi added with a bitter growl, "he won't last long."
She clenched her jaw, her mind already spinning with ideas, "Then I'll find a way. Just hold him stable."
"I can't hold it forever,"the Kyūbi warned. "Do what you must… quickly."