Sarutobi is still alive."
"Sarutobi!?" Both Hashirama and Tobirama exclaimed in complete surprise.
"What do you mean by Sarutobi participating in..." Tobirama started, cutting himself off before finishing. Sarutobi was his successor whose role was to safeguard Konoha and its clans. To hear he had a part in the Senju clan extinction... Tobirama's mood darkened and he became sullenly contemplative.
'Did I choose my successor wrong?' Tobirama wondered as self-guilt started to flood his conscience. 'Should I have picked Kagami?'
Nobody would ever be able to answer that question for him.
While Tobirama was pondering about his life choices, Hashirama felt a rare twinge of anger seep on the surface. He was usually a very jovial man with a capacity to forgive a lot but this... this made him want to go and deal with the entire Sarutobi clan.
Such was the 'justice' and common sense of men raised in the Warring States era.
As he usually did when such a situation arose, Hashirama pushed this impulse down, knowing it would not solve anything. This time, however, he was not about to let it go. "What exactly was Sarutobi's part in that?"
"Honestly?" Tsunade wryly smiled, "From a certain standpoint, you can't really blame him nor his advisors, granduncle's other students. They had no direct involvement. They just knew about it and allowed it to happen. 'For the good of Konoha.' of course." She imitated Sarutobi's grave voice before snorting at the notion.
It was easy for her to talk about these things. Decades passed since her clan perished and her new family helped her to deal with it. She wasn't really even an adult when most of her clan members died so it had not that big of an impact on her. Yes, attending a funeral every other week was depressing but the biggest and most rememberable impact on her had Nawaki's death.
Unlike her, however, Tobirama and Hashirama died when the clan was still going strong. For them, it was like being taken from a time when everything was alright and put into a time when one of the most important things in their life was simply gone.
Tsunade's light-hearted manner of speaking and snarkiness did not carry the same humorous undertone for them as it did for her. In fact, it only fueled their anger.
That's why Tsunade was utterly surprised when the two men just walked towards the sealing barrier before turning towards her with an intense stare so similar to each other that there was no doubt they were brothers despite their ridiculously different hair coloring.
The purpose of their stare couldn't be more obvious. They were as if demanding for her to open a passage for them.
Sarutobi was almost a part of the family. To hear he just sat by and didn't even try to prevent the extinction of the Senju clan for his own selfish purposes...
He might not have killed them with his own hands or orders but in Tobirama's and Hashirama's opinions, what he did was bonafide betrayal regardless. They gave so much to the little shit and he couldn't even make sure their legacy would be preserved!?
It was such an outrageous thing they would normally question the truthfulness behind Tsunade's words. Alas, Hashirama's Senjutsu could discern between lies and truth quite well and his senses were telling him Tsunade was truthful to them. And since Hashirama looked so crushed, Tobirama also understood this was no distasteful joke.
His very own students turned out to be utter scumbags. The only good one was the Uchiha. The one he kept at arm's length.
What an irony...
Seeing their demanding determination, Tsunade inwardly chuckled as she opened a small passage through the barrier, letting the two previous Hokages enter the arena where Sarutobi and Orochimaru were still locked in an intense ninjutsu battle.
...
Orochimaru had a hard time. He was sweaty, panting, and under a lot of pressure as bullets of molten earth swished all around him.
He, however, refused to break his calm and collected facade in front of his former teacher.
The fact that Sarutobi was also heavily panting was the only highlight in his unpleasant situation for Orochimaru.
He tried everything. He fought Sarutobi in a weapon fight, clashing his extremely poisonous blade with his teacher's indestructible staff...
He only needed one goddamn cut to poison Sarutobi to death but apparently, the old monkey was prepared and eager to fight. Hence, Orochimaru could not land even one glancing blow. It was extremely infuriating and frustrating.
Orochimaru's ego actually wanted to sneer.
When the weapon-clashing led to nowhere, they started to use ninjutsu and the oldest trick in the book, deception. Orochimaru would love to think he returned as good as he received and Sarutobi's disheveled appearance would certainly be a good proof of that... but that was only because Orochimaru had to use his special life-saving skin-shedding four times already.
In short, a prepared Sarutobi was an exceedingly difficult opponent. If there was no sealing barrier around the arena, Orochimaru would have fled a long time ago.
As crafty as he was, matching Sarutobi's pure firepower was proving to be quite demanding.
Fortunately for him, the opening in the sealing barrier proved to be just enough distraction for Sarutobi to stop his onslaught of Jutsus. The old geezer still had more juice in the tank than his frail facade would suggest and Orochimaru found that the hard way.
Unfortunately for Orochimaru, he was not stupid enough to think he could use this opportunity to sneak attack Sarutobi. The opening Sarutobi showed as he slightly turned around was far too tempting and reeked of a newbie mistake. There was no way it was anything but bait.
As Orochimaru turned towards the opening, he suddenly saw two utterly pissed Senjus and instantly went deathly pale. He had enough problems with Sarutobi alone!
'Tsunade! You bitch! You said this was one on one!' Orochimaru seethed while sweat was pouring down his forehead.
He didn't want to die! He still had so many Jutsus to research! So many people to cut open! So many bloodline users to experiment on!
His journey for immortality could not end like this!
Orochimaru was desperately looking for a way to run away but... the more he looked, the more he realized just how tight the sealing barrier is. Not even the reverse summon seal responded and that scared him witless.
The last time he felt so powerless was when he fought against Hanzo the Salamander and he at least had his teammates with him there.
Unlike Orochimaru, Sarutobi felt relieved and smug. With Tobirama and Hashirama on his side, there was no way his slippery misbehaving student could run away!
He of course did not fully trust Tsunade's barrier Jutsu so Orochimaru getting away was a real concern for him.
But with two Hokages coming to help him...
'This will be your end, Orochimaru!' Sarutobi thought with determination, intent to wash off the biggest mistake of his life that was currently staring at the two Hokages with fright in his eyes.
Tobirama and Hashirama walked towards Sarutobi, intently staring at him.
"Hiruzen-" Tobirama started.
Sarutobi, however, did not want to give Orochimaru the time to prepare a counter-attack and escape plan!
"Tobirama-sensei, we can talk later." Sarutobi interrupted Tobirama with urgency in his tone as he didn't let his eyes wander off of Orochimaru's body. "Now we have to deal with my misguided student! You can't imagine what heinous deeds he-"
He didn't manage to finish his sentence. Tobirama had had enough and right in front of Orochimaru's eyes, a sight that made his jaw drop in utter bewilderment had just happened.
Tobirama grabbed Sarutobi's shoulder, instantly spreading restraining seals on him and immobilizing him. Sarutobi didn't even manage to widen his eyes in shock before he found himself bent over Tobirama's lap and then...
Orochimaru had to wince at every smack he witnessed and tighten his posterior when he saw how proficient and creative Tobirama was with the lighting chakra nature.
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