"Summoning Technique!"
Hiruzen's hands flew through seals. With a shout, intricate summoning formulae spread across the ground.
The towering Enma, the Monkey King who had fought alongside him to forge his reputation, appeared on the battlefield.
Upon seeing Orochimaru, Enma, wearing a forehead protector and combat gear, let out a heavy sigh, "Orochimaru... So it has come to this. How tragic, Hiruzen."
"If only you had-"
Enma's words were cut short by a more urgent command, "Enma, please! Adamantine Staff!"
Enma, his 'monologue' interrupted, shot Hiruzen a look but complied, "Hmph. Fine."
"A troublesome variable. Stop that transformation!" Orochimaru, seeing Enma take a stance and begin to surge with Chakra, immediately ordered Hashirama and Tobirama to intervene.
"Sorry, this road is closed! Water Release: Water Severing Wave!" Sakura's voice rang out, accompanied by four high-pressure jets of water shooting forth.
The two reincarnated Hokages' forward momentum halted. Tobirama, in particular, clasped his hands and spat out a torrent of water.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
A wall of water, moving in a circular, rotating motion, erupted around the two brothers. The high-speed fluid created a seamless defense.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... Identical Water Release Ninjutsu... Tobirama." Hashirama commented with a knowing smirk.
Tobirama glanced back at his brother's suggestive grin and nearly choked.
"I told you I have no descendants, you idiot!" He roared back.
Distracted by the argument, Tobirama failed to notice the girl had already torn through his Water Formation Wall and closed the distance.
"Fish-Man Karate: Shark Tile True Punch!"
Sakura clenched her fist, gathering the ambient water vapor. Surging Armament Haki coiled around her arm like a tidal wave.
The raw power of the Giant Royalty, combined with the explosive force of her Boil Release...
This single punch shattered Tobirama's Chakra cloak and pulverized half of his reincarnated body.
"Well done!" The flying Tobirama managed to praise before shouting a warning, "Watch out for my brother's Wood Release! The vines attack from below!"
"Got it!"
Sakura nimbly executed several Geppo in mid-air, gracefully evading the grasping wooden tendrils.
Then, she heard a voice full of playful mockery, "It must be nice playing with your great-granddaughter, isn't it, Tobirama?"
On the ground, Hashirama's body, moving against his will, began forming more seals. More and more branches filled the area, their chakra connecting.
[Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees]
With a Chakra hum, a sea of trees erupted skyward.
Countless branches, animated as if possessing life, thrashed wildly like tentacles, weaving a massive net waiting to ensnare Sakura.
"She/I is/am not!" The furious retorts from both Tobirama and Sakura echoed simultaneously.
"Stop claiming random people as relatives! I have parents!" Sakura, still airborne, took a deep breath.
Her hair and pupils began to glow with a fiery hue. A radiant, flame-like aura cloaked her body.
Intense heat erupted from the girl's form, countless streams of energy converging at her fingertip, finally coalescing into a pure white fire too bright to look upon.
[Rokushiki: Heat Shigan]
A beam of condensed flame and light shot down from the heavens. The extreme light and heat erased material forms. The vast forest disintegrated, collapsed into charcoal, and was blown away as dust.
In the distance, Orochimaru and Hiruzen were locked in combat, staff against sword.
The violent surge of heat and flames forced them apart, both retreating to avoid the erupting inferno.
"So dangerous. To think she was hiding a technique like that?" Orochimaru's lower body transformed into a serpent's tail, allowing him to slither up the ruins of a nearby platform.
'Her Ice Release was troublesome enough. Now she revealed a Scorching Release as well?'
'However...'
Orochimaru's gaze shifted to Hiruzen, and then to the other Kage-level figures in the remnants of the stands.
"A Jutsu of this scale must significantly impact the environment. It can't be used for extended periods when allies are nearby."
With sharp insight, Orochimaru deduced the weakness of Sakura's High-Temperature Mode without even crossing blades with her.
"So, will you test your endurance against a younger man, Hiruzen-sensei?" Orochimaru ripped the disguising skin from his face, revealing the features of an unfamiliar woman.
"You... you've completed that technique?" Hiruzen's eyes flew wide open upon seeing Orochimaru's true body, his pupils trembling.
"Have you become a demon, so twisted you've forsaken life itself?"
Hiruzen's vision blurred. The image of the obedient student from his memories vanished, replaced by the monster he had both created and allowed to fester.
"Was I truly wrong, Tobirama-sensei?" A soft sigh dissolved into the flames. The clashing of sword and staff resumed, but their sounds were drowned out by the roaring collision at the inferno's center.
"Again!"
The two Flying Thunder God Users clashed repeatedly, their presence visible only through sudden flashes of blades and sparks.
"Your Flying Thunder God is too crude! Think about its application! Don't be constrained!" After teleporting to a safe location, Tobirama formed hand seals, unleashing a deadly Water Release technique.
He simultaneously began live instruction, guiding Sakura's thinking in high-level combat.
"For running away?" The girl leaped high, dodging streaking water bullets, answering while thoughtfully tapping her chin mid-air.
"Ahahaha! That's certainly one valid application!" Hashirama laughed, clasping his hands together.
A massive wooden hand shot from the ground, snatching Sakura out of the air.
"Brother!" Tobirama shot an annoyed glance, his Water Severing Wave blasting forth.
The powerful water column swept horizontally, slicing the wooden hand holding Sakura into neat cubes.
"Sorry, sorry! Shouldn't have interrupted. Please, continue." Hashirama brought his palms together, multiple wooden vines sprouting from his arms to grab at Sakura, who had just appeared near the ruined stands.
The Wood Release ignited upon contact with the flames around the girl. The intense heat traveled back along the wood, scorching the distant reincarnated body.
Sakura threw a kunai, instantly teleporting behind Tobirama.
Just as she was about to punch his form apart, he countered with a reverse-handed Flying Thunder God Slash aimed at her arm.
Clang!
Sakura and Tobirama passed each other in the void. The water blade in his hand shattered.
"Whoa, that was close!"
If not for the timely warning of her Observation Haki, supplemented by Armament Haki defense, Tobirama's sudden ambush might have severed her arm.
However, thanks to this exchange, Sakura also noticed something that surprised her.
"You used my Flying Thunder God's marker?"