Personal Grudges (1)

These three days passed by in the blink of an eye.

The Third Hokage stood along with a large number of shinobi from different clans. Their numbers peaked near at thousand…Yet, they were facing tens of thousands of Shinobi.

Some of them couldn't help but gulp down a mouthful of saliva. This was the time… The time which would decide the fate of Konoha's future.

They could see their enemies. The Suna Shinobi with the Third Kazekage leading them. And there was another person a bit behind the Third Kazekage. Upon his appearance, the Third Hokage hatefully gritted his teeth.

He immediately understood why he didn't receive any news about this invasion from Sunagakure. His spies had been replaced with fake ones… He never expected for Orochimaru to be in Sungakure and the fact that Orochimaru had replaced the Hokage's spies with his own.

Now… The odds were stacked against himself. Facing the Third Kazekage and Orochimaru at the same time though…? He felt like bitterly laughing.

But soon, that expression started burning with fierce determination. Since it had all come to this, the Hokage didn't plan to be lenient.

He immediately summoned the Monkey King, Enma and instructed him to turn into a staff. Enma noticed the huge number of Shinobi appeared in front of them and didn't ask any question.

He turned into a huge staff and was held by the Third Hokage.

Sunagakure Shinobi were soon quite close to the Third Hokage and other's location. The Third Kazekage stared at the Third Hokage while commenting, "You look in so much pain, Hokage. I think I should help you and relieve you of this pain."

The Third Hokage ignored him and stared at Orochimaru, "You really did betray Konoha. You should know full well of the consequences of this action. I won't be holding back, Orochimaru!" He said the word 'Orochimaru' with a tinge of malice in his voice.

Orochimaru though didn't appear to be intimidated, ��How cruel of you, Sensei. I am, after all your brightest student. I am forced to do this, as well. If I didn't do this, I would have died a few years later. This is the best method of preserving my life."

"Heh… You are quite right about that, Orochimaru." At that moment, they all heard an amused voice.

This voice made Orochimaru shudder uncontrollably. He, along with all the other Shinobi present, turned to stare at the voice. There, he saw Araki seated on the branch of a tree.

He had quite the casual look on his face. As if he could care less about this war.

"S-Senju Araki!" Orochimaru called out, a bit fearfully. His main motive was to let the Third Kazekage know that this was Senju Araki. The man who couldn't be taken lightly.

His skill at Wood Style was so great that he could practically be called a second Senju Hashirama.

"Don't worry Orochimaru, you didn't disappoint me. I knew letting you live would be the correct decision. I did want either Suna or Kiri to attack Konoha. It seems you convinced Suna." Araki gave out an explanation, not because he was kind, just because he was interested in what kind of expression Orochimaru would have.

And truly, Orochimaru didn't disappoint him. The utter shock, the dumb confusion… It was just pleasant to see.

"Well, fortunately for Suna, I don't have anything against them. So, I won't be killing any Suna shinobi, but there is someone who needs to die first." Araki turned towards the Third Hokage and said, "Haven't you waited a long time? The time has come, old man!"

"Senju Araki… There is a time and a place for everything! You can deal with our personal grudges later." The Third Hokage said while staring at Araki.

"Naah… I wanna deal with our grudges now!" Araki said, showing a hint of stubbornness while staring at the Hokage.

At this moment, the Hyuuga Clan Head stared at Araki while activating his Byakugan, "Don't you understand, you are putting the entire Konoha at risk! The Senju Clan will be branded as a traitor."

Araki simply shrugged in response, "Oh really? I want to see just what you can do to me! So what I am a traitor? Do you think I really care? At least I am not shameless enough to not admit it, right Orochimaru and Monkey." His words were spoken with hatred mixed in it.

Meanwhile, the Third Kazekage was completely confused about this entire scene. He was so confused that he didn't even ask his Shinobi to charge forward and kill the Konoha Shinobi.

He never expected the Hokage to have internal strife with the Senju Clan Head, Senju Araki. Orochimaru never mentioned anything about this.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru felt like he had been played. It was as if Senju Araki was waiting for him here…

Uchiha Keshiro stepped forward, a few more Uchiha Clan Members following his lead, "I am Uchiha Keshiro, the clan head of the Uchiha Clan. As long as I am standing, not a single one of the Sunagakure Shinobi will step inside Konoha, this… I swear at this moment!"

His crimson eyes stared at the Third Kazekage who frowned upon hearing Keshiro's words.

He noticed the three tomoe into those eyes revolving and changing into a Penta-Bladed Pattern.

"I won't be holding back at all, Kazekage."

"Tsukuyomi!"

Quite a surprising pattern indeed… And before the Third Kazekage even understood anything, he found himself in an unfamiliar location.

The world of Tsukuyomi…

Merely a second had passed, and the Third Kazekage fell on the ground with a blank look on his face.

The Sunagakure shinobi were shocked to see their Kage collapsing so suddenly. At that moment, an elderly woman named Chiyo shouted out, "Don't look into his eyes. That's a Sharingan… Kazekage-sama had been struck by an unknown jutsu and lost his consciousness."

Keshiro thought 'I only tortured him for 24 hours. That should be enough for him to stay out cold. Now that the Suna Shinobi will try to divide their focus and protect their Kage, I have successfully managed to sow seeds of discord in their chain of command.'

"Uchiha Clan! Charge!" He shouted the word charge and just like that, the Uchiha Clan rushed at the Sunagakure Shinobi.

The other clan members also didn't want to be left behind. They also ordered their respective Shinobi to charge.

The one fighting against Orochimaru was Keshiro. Orochimaru was rather careful in not falling in his Genjutsu… He was dodging the attacks while keeping track of Keshiro's movements.

At some point, Keshiro used Amaterasu against Orochimaru.

However, unlike what he expected, Orochimaru seemed to have shed his skin and escaped Amaterasu. This was beyond disgusting and he sure as hell wanted to delete that from his mind.

Unfortunately, once record by Sharingan, Keshiro couldn't forget this scene even if he wanted to.

A few puppeteers were the ones keeping the life of their Kage safe. Chiyo was even injecting him with some sort of drug…

She could only hope that it worked…

Meanwhile, Araki jumped down from the tree while staring at the Third Hokage, "Let's start as well, shall we?"