"Ahahahaha! Is this one of the village's younger generation?" Hashirama boomed, crossing his arms as he observed the massive shockwave with apparent delight.
"Well, it seems Sarutobi has managed the village quite well," Tobirama added with a curt nod of approval.
A moment later, both were shredded into papery fragments by the roaring sword technique.
The Sound Four that Orochimaru had brought, standing too close to the blast's epicenter, met the same fate as the Hokages, vaporized without a chance to scream.
The remaining Ninjas in the arena scrambled for survival, each using their unique skills to weather Sakura's onslaught.
Boom!
Fragments of the stadium structure shot outwards. Fortunately, the arena was on the village's edge, and the direct path of the blast was clear of residential areas.
So, for the first time, Sakura had held nothing back.
The legendary spear's impact plowed a furrow from the stadium deep into the forests outside, obliterating everything in its path.
A massive, glacial-looking gash now marked where the village wall and protective barrier once stood. Bricks and shimmering chunks of the Chakra Barrier fell away like broken glass.
"Hey there, old man! Came to save you~" A cheerful Sakura landed beside Hiruzen, who had just dug himself out of the earth.
"You foolish girl! Look at the mess you've made!" Hiruzen roared, brushing dirt from his robes.
A full third of the stadium was gone, along with the entire southeastern section of the village's defensive wall and barrier.
The damage from Orochimaru's ambush and the summoned Hokages paled in comparison to this single strike.
"Don't be so mad~ The village can be rebuilt!" Sakura chirped, waving a dismissive hand.
Nearby, Orochimaru's head emerged from the soil, his buried body forming seals.
He gathered the fragments of the two Hokages, exchanging them for pristine, newly summoned copies of the First and Second.
Danzo also emerged, breathing heavily but showing no visible injury from taking the blast head-on.
'Wide-area attacks aren't as effective against Ninja of this caliber...' Sakura mused, tapping her chin as she assessed the situation.
Indeed, throughout the history of Ninja warfare, Kage who died in direct combat had almost invariably chosen to sacrifice themselves.
While their destructive power varied wildly, every Kage's ability to survive was unparalleled among their subordinates. And those who couldn't simply didn't live long enough to reach the position.
"Ahahaha! Well done, youngster!" A booming laugh interrupted Sakura's thoughts.
The two tall, armored figures emerged from the dust, one in blue, one in red. The one in red armor was looking at Sakura with keen interest.
He took in her striking features, her vast Chakra Reserves, and the sheer scale of the technique that had just torn through the village's defenses...
Hashirama, one hand on his hip, stroked his chin. Suddenly, an idea seemed to strike him.
"Whose child are you? Touka? Renshi? Sakuo?" His train of thought, remarkably similar to a certain knuckleheaded Genin, led him to lean forward, one foot propped on a large piece of rubble.
"Ha???" Sakura skidded to a halt, her head tilting in confusion.
"None of those? Then perhaps..." Hashirama's gaze grew fond, drifting between Sakura and his brother, Tobirama, "No wonder you failed all those matchmaking sessions, little brother! You had a thing for pink-haired girls all along!"
"Could she not be Tsuna's descendant?! Or perhaps my descendant liked pink-haired girls?!" Tobirama's retort died in his throat as his own words registered. His face darkened, "I have no descendants, you idiotic brother!!!"
He pressed a hand to his forehead, pained at having been dragged into his brother's absurd logic.
After Hashirama's death, he had led the clan in the disastrous attempts to replicate the Wood Release, sacrificing many Senju.
Then, in the Second Great Ninja War, the Senju Clan, always at the forefront, suffered devastating losses.
By the war's end, the few remaining members had, following his brother's wishes, discarded their clan name and integrated into the village.
'This girl couldn't be a Senju... could she? The odds were...'
"Hey, girl! What's your name?"
"Her name is Haruno Sakura!"
A grim voice, accompanied by the tap of a cane, cut through the air. Danzo, his body swathed in bandages, stepped forward.
"Danzo?" Tobirama's eyebrow rose, barely recognizing his former student from the half-visible face.
"It has been a long time, Tobirama-sensei." Danzo's murky eye closed as he gave a slight bow.
"The enemy must be formidable to have injured you so severely," Tobirama observed, his gaze taking in the heavily bandaged form.
"Pfft..." Sakura turned away, quickly covering her mouth.
"What are you laughing at?" Tobirama asked, puzzled. The scene that unfolded next made his pupils tremble.
Instead of aligning with Hiruzen, Danzo walked over to stand beside the young man who had used the Impure World Reincarnation to control them and attack the village.
"What is the meaning of this? Have you, who loved this village more than anyone, also betrayed it?!" Tobirama's anger flared, causing blue chakra to leak from his reincarnated body, straining its form and creating cracks.
"Tobirama, I told you back then not to test human nature. It only leads to loss!"
"Brother, be silent!" A single sharp look from Tobirama made Hashirama immediately shut up and start whistling innocently.
The God of Shinobi, cowed by his younger brother and strategic mind.
"Sensei, the village is not the one you left behind," Danzo proclaimed, spreading his arms to indicate their surroundings, "Hiruzen's rule has done nothing but deplete Konoha's foundation, sending batch after batch of children to their deaths on the battlefield, with no substantial progress to show for it!"
"Look around, Sensei! This great Konoha has only a single teenage girl standing with him! Kumogakure and Iwagakure now insult us at will! Today, I will reverse this decline and set Konoha back on the path to greatness! I will prove to you that I was the most suitable candidate for Hokage!"
Facing his teacher after decades, Danzo found himself unusually candid, no longer cowed as he had been thirty years prior, loudly declaring his ambition.
"You disappoint me, Hiruzen!" Tobirama let out a long sigh, his dark eyes piercing through the dust to fix on the armored, elderly man.
Danzo's face lit up with triumph. Having Tobirama's endorsement would bring him one step closer to his dream.
His teacher's next words, however, struck him like a thunderbolt.
"Why did you leave Danzo alive until now? Why didn't you deal with him sooner?!"
Crack!
The cane in Danzo's hand splintered. He stared at Tobirama in utter disbelief.
"Why, Sensei?! Is it because I was never the true Hokage?!"
"Because you are narrow-minded!" With Tobirama's political acumen, he saw straight through Danzo's rhetoric and his attempt to seek legitimacy.
He had known since the rearguard mission in the Land of Lightning twenty years prior that this student lacked the capacity for true leadership. He just hadn't realized the depth of the man's buried desire and ambition, nor that Hiruzen would form a political alliance with him, allowing the rot to reach this state.
"Fulfill your duty as Hokage, Hiruzen! Do not leave this disaster for the next generation!" Tobirama's gaze shifted to Sakura before he shouted at Hiruzen.
"It seems the 'Predecessor' plan has failed. What will you do now, Danzo?" Orochimaru sneered, raising a finger and activating the control seals, stripping Hashirama and Tobirama of their sentience once more.
"Kill them!" Danzo took a step forward, his killing intent swirling around him. There was no turning back now.
"Oh, it's finally happening!" Sakura's face broke into an eager grin as she leveled her greatsword.
"Wait!"
Hiruzen stretched out an arm, placing himself between Sakura and the others.
This time, when his wrinkled face lifted, it was filled with a desperate, final resolve.
"Sensei is right! I am a Kage of the old era... It's time I burned out to light the path for those who come after!"