From when Hiruko used his summoning beast to being sent flying out, the entire process took less than a minute.
One has to say, even with four Kekkei Genkai merged, Hiruko's strength wasn't as strong as imagined.
It's like a child who suddenly has a lot of money but doesn't know how to spend it.
His "hardware" was sufficient, but his "software" was really lacking.
"Hiruko's battle awareness is really poor."
Orochimaru, standing at the back, could see it very clearly.
When Hiruko faced Sakumo's attack, he was still careless.
He overestimated the defense of Steel Release and underestimated Sakumo's offensive power, causing his left arm to be cut off.
But when facing Minato's simple Shadow Clone and Rasengan combo, it really showed his lack of battle awareness.
When the second Rasengan was about to hit, you could've just used Steel Release to defend.
The fact that Steel Release couldn't block Sakumo's slashes doesn't mean it couldn't block the Rasengan.
In the movie version, Dark Release not only absorbs Rasengan but even the Big Ball Rasengan.
"Damn it."
Sent flying through the air, Hiruko finally realized what happened.I should have used Steel Release just now.
"Yoho~ Didn't expect you to deliver yourself right to me."
Over here, Tsunade had just knocked the summoning beast down with a punch, and when she looked up, Orochimaru was flying toward her, spitting blood.
"We haven't seen each other in years, and I don't have much to offer. So here, have a taste of my strength punch."
"To hell with you, I'm not taking it."
Orochimaru knew that Tsunade's most powerful attack was her strength punch. As long as he could block that, Tsunade would be no threat.
Thinking this, Orochimaru decided to give Steel Release another chance.
Boom~
Pfft~
As expected, Orochimaru was sent flying again.
"Weren't you saying Steel Release's defense was invincible? Why is it that neither the cutting strike from Sakumo nor Tsunade's strength punch can be blocked?"
He fell to the ground.
Orochimaru stared blankly at the moon in the sky, reflecting on everything that had happened up until now. A sudden sorrow filled him, and two tears fell.
To be fair, Steel Release did block Tsunade's strength punch.
But while the body was protected, the internal organs weren't.
The impact of the strength punch could directly damage the organs inside the body.
"Did you get punched to the point of crying?"
The summoning beast was killed by Tsunade, and Orochimaru was severely injured. It could be said that their battle was over.
"Wuwuwu~~~ Who's crying? Damn you, Orochimaru, get out of my way, I'm trying to see the moon!"
"Minato, what do we do now?"
Jiraiya's instructions were to kill Orochimaru.
After all, they were childhood friends. Seeing Hiruko cry, even Orochimaru found it hard to strike him down.
"Sakumo-san, what do you think?"
For someone who had lost their ability to fight, Minato couldn't bring himself to kill Hiruko. He turned to ask Sakumo for his opinion.
Because he knew, Sakumo had the strongest intent to kill among them.
After all, Hiruko had put a puppet curse on Kakashi.
Not killing him would almost dishonor the title of Konoha's White Fang.
"If none of you can bring yourselves to do it, then I'll handle it."
With a swift motion, Sakumo severed Hiruko's head.
After Hiruko's death, they quickly cleaned up and took his body back to Konoha.
Not long after Minato and the others left, a White Zetsu appeared from a tree not far away and said, somewhat gleefully, "Well, someone's going to be pissed now."
Laughing to himself, White Zetsu quickly headed toward where Black Zetsu was.
"What? That idiot Hiruko is dead?"
When Black Zetsu heard the news White Zetsu brought back, he froze.
"The modifications to Madara's body haven't even begun, how could he die? How dare he die?"
At this moment, Black Zetsu was furious.
The mechanism of the Edo Tensei (Reanimation Jutsu) is that when someone dies, they come back in the age they were when they died.
Madara Uchiha was effectively an old man who died of natural causes.
The Edo Tensei summoned an elderly version of Madara. While it's true that the Edo Tensei body possesses endless chakra and immortality, making it powerful, the fact is that Madara is supposed to be the vessel for Kaguya's return, and he must be fully revived.
It doesn't want to use an elderly Madara as the vessel for Kaguya.
That would be disrespectful to her, and it would also affect her strength.
So, after Hiruko improved the Edo Tensei technique, it immediately demanded that he modify Edo Madara's body.
It wanted the Edo Madara to have the body he had in his youth, so that when fully revived, he would be in his prime, not in his old, weakened state.
To achieve this, it tolerated Hiruko's demands time and time again, spending a lot of resources on him, even helping him capture three ninjas with kekkei genkai.
It watched as Hiruko grew from a pawn into a powerful ninja with four different Kekkei Genkai.
Everything was going smoothly, and they just had to wait for Hiruko to finish modifying the Edo Madara body.
But then, out of nowhere, this guy was killed by Leaf Village ninjas.
Black Zetsu was so angry, he almost wanted to call the police.
"Damn it, those Leaf ninjas! You forced my hand."
Black Zetsu sent White Zetsu away after delivering the message, then went to a mysterious underground room.
The basement wasn't very big, only a few square meters, but in the center of the room was a coffin.
Black Zetsu opened the coffin and looked at the person inside. "I had planned to let Hiruko finish modifying your Edo body before summoning you, but it seems plans don't always go as expected."
That's right. The person lying in the coffin was the Edo Tensei version of Uchiha Madara.
When it comes to scientific research, Hiruko was indeed no slouch.
After his modifications, the Edo Tensei body summoned could remain in the world for a long time without being awakened.
When it was time for battle, it could be awakened as needed.
Additionally, Hiruko had used a secret technique to transfer control of Madara's body to Black Zetsu.
That way, even if Hiruko died, Black Zetsu would still be able to awaken Madara.
"Wake up, Madara."
"Let's welcome this final scene together."
As soon as Black Zetsu's words fell, Uchiha Madara, who had been quietly lying in his coffin, instantly opened his eyes.
Inside Konoha Village, Jiraiya looked at the decapitated body of Hiruzen, sighed softly, and then asked Minato.
"This operation, nothing unexpected happened, right?"
Minato shook his head and replied, "No, everything went smoothly, more than we expected."
"That's good. Later, give me a detailed mission report. You all go rest for now."
"Ah~ I need to go take a nap."
Yawning, Tsunade turned and began walking out.
"Remember the light screen video tonight, don't oversleep."
"I know, stop nagging."
*********
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