Hokage! Past and Present! - 2

"All that and you haven't even had to interrogate him, eh?" He couldn't help but smirk at his old pupil, "I understand. Stay put, Minato, I'll have this barrier down in five minutes just as soon as-"

"No, there's no time to waste!" The Yondaime's eyes narrowed, shining like sapphires, "Your students will die if you don't go to them. He's been using them as well."

"Eh? How'd you know about the squirts I'm training?"

"Go now! Please, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato wasn't ready to answer any questions, "I'll handle this. Just trust me."

"…alright, kid." Jiraiya took one last look at his student before departing, feeling an aching weight in his chest, "Get this barrier down, captain!" The ANBU heeded his order before he rushed from the battle site, wondering how to go about it without being burned alive.

The Fourth returned to the Third, "I'll take Orochimaru, Hokage-sama."

The Third raised an eyebrow at the golden haired ninja, "Do you intend to settle an old grudge match, Minato?"

"Of course!" Minato hurled a three-pronged kunai and zipped past the Shodaime and Nidaime, straight up to the snake sennin, ready to fight. Orochimaru had prepared his final kunai, itching to get the Yondaime under his control.

The snake sennin had miscalculated Minato's speed; he'd forgotten how fast the man was. The Yondaime moved like the wind, side-stepping Orochimaru's predictable jab and boldly reached for the kunai, securing it, and tossed it sidelong into the barrier where it was instantly burned up.

Minato smirked at the snake, "You should know better than that, Orochimaru-sama."

It was enough to get Orochimaru's blood boiling. He had always hated Jiraiya's prodigy student, long before he had even become Hokage, 'If I can't control him then I will break him along with the Sandaime!'

"Mokuton: Birth of Dense Woodland!" The Shodaime's jutsu called enormous tree branches that crashed upward from the roof, trying to ensnare Hiruzen as he dodged.

The Third Hokage used another jutsu after avoiding the First's attack, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A large, black staff appeared and Hiruzen wheeled it about expertly, speaking to it, "We have trouble, Enma!"

The staff sounded annoyed when it answered, "You could have settled this long ago, Hiruzen!" The Sandaime attacked the Tobirama and Hashirama head-on, deflecting blows with his staff.

Orochimaru resorted to using his kusanagi sword after a short scuffle, forcing Minato to counter with one of his three-pronged kunai. With his free hand the Fourth made his feelings for the snake sennin perfectly clear, "Rasengan!"

The spiraling sphere knocked Orochimaru back across the rooftop where he slammed into a thick tree branch that the First had summoned, knocking the wind out of him.

"Doton: Doryuheki!" Hiruzen created a thick wall of mud that deflected a huge wave the Second had created, pulling water from thin air. Hashirama and his younger brother attacked in unison, soon overwhelming the Sandaime as he was forced further back towards the barrier.

"Hokage-sama!" Rather than finishing Orochimaru, Minato returned to the Third Hokage, noting he had been trapped in a powerful genjutsu cast by the First. While Sarutobi floundered in the darkness, unable to avoid his foes' strikes, the Yondaime managed to keep his footing long enough to release the illusion.

Both Hashirama and Tobirama backed off momentarily, avoiding a spiraling sphere of chakra that was flung at them, demolishing what was left the untouched roof tiles.

Enma was surprised to see Hiruzen had an ally and was quiet while Minato spoke, "Hokage-sama, our chakra is limitless and we cannot die. This impure resurrection can't be countered unless it is reversed…" He paused, smiling, "I will make sure they don't get in your way, but I must ask you to defeat Orochimaru. I'm afraid I cannot."

"Very well, Minato!" Hiruzen agreed to the terms, watching as the Yondaime hurled his kunai directly for Orochimaru and disappeared soundlessly as if he were a ray of light.

"You cannot kill me with the Hiraishin!" Orochimaru deflected the kunai, knocking it away. Minato reappeared beside the kunai as it soared past Hashirama and Tobirama, and slashed at them, stunning them.

"Without these, they won't be very useful to you, Orochimaru-sama." Minato reached for their necks and extracted the kunai from the First and Second. A few quick hand seals disintegrated the sacrificed bodies of the two freed Hokages and the blonde haired ninja sighed in relief.

It was that moment of delay that cost him.

Orochimaru was already at wits-end with the unpredictable Yondaime, and made it look all too simple as he appeared behind him, skewering him with his Kusanagi to hold him in place.

"You've been a nuisance ever since you became a chunin, you air-headed fool!" Orochimaru hissed, driving the blade mercilessly through his back and out through his chest, "You're no different from Jiraiya! Daydreamers who can't see past the now…"

Minato gritted his teeth, glaring at Orochimaru from the corner of his eye. He had no hope of countering and remained silent while the snake sennin spoke again.

"The greatest achievement of your life was sealing a biju into a filthy, worthless, little infant! You could have accomplished so much more!" Orochimaru smirked gleefully, "I've been waiting so long to gut you, Minato-kun…my only regret is that the Fox Demon could do it before I could!"

"It was my greatest achievement…but you'll see! My son will grow to be the shining star of Konoha!" The Yondaime smiled, "And he already outshines you."

Minato hurled the two kunai he had taken from the Shodaime and Nidaime with the remainder of his strength toward the barrier, forcing chakra into the blades that swirled like wind about them.

Orochimaru released the forbidden summoning and dispelled the Yondaime, knowing he would never cooperate. He grimaced in disgust as the body became that of one of his deceased Sound genin, Zaku, who was smiling blissfully as the Fourth had been moments before.

He tossed the body aside, frustrated, only then realizing that the brace of chakra-enforced kunai Minato had cast seconds earlier had sailed through the barrier and met their mark.

Someone screamed in pain and confusion, alerting the snake sennin that two of the four Sound shinobi who had created the barrier had been wounded. A few moments later, it flickered and then came down fully.

The ANBU took immediate action, rushing to the Hokage, forming a defensive ring around him. The startled Sound shinobi also reacted, surrounding Orochimaru, the palest of the four murmured to the snake sennin, "Orochimaru-sama, Tayuya and Jirobo are wounded. They will not be able to-"

"They stay and fight!" Orochimaru hissed angrily, not caring if his subordinates suffered from injuries, "I won't have the Black-Ops getting in my way…"

"Eliminate the other four," Hiruzen commanded, his anger only heightened by the snake's disposal of the Fourth, "I will handle Orochimaru."

They obeyed, moving quickly to counter traitor who had already taken the fight to the nearby stands as a distraction. Orochimaru readied the sword in his hand, glaring at his old mentor, feeling somewhat euphoric from his triumph over the Fourth.

'I have no choice…I must kill Orochimaru now or Konoha will surely be destroyed…' The Sandaime lifted his staff and charged ahead to meet his former pupil.

Their weapons met, clashing together, and were then knocked away from their respective owners from the impact. Enma fell through the air, landing behind Hiruzen, encouraging him to kill the snake quickly.

Hiruzen created two shadow clones and sent them to grapple with Orochimaru, who had retrieved his sword. Without a second thought, desperate to prevent the sennin's escape, the Sandaime formed hand seals that he knew would be sure to end the fight, "Shiki Fuijin!"

A large, transparent form faded into view behind Hiruzen, only visible to him. As much as he dreaded to see the shinigami, he knew that he had far less to fear than his former pupil would.

Orochimaru slashed at the pair of shadow clones restraining him, destroying them and then turning to see the Third Hokage as he collided with him frantically, seizing him by the shoulders, "This is the end for you, Orochimaru!"

Unseen to the snake sennin's eyes the shinigami reached through the Sandaime, latching on to his soul and moved ahead to take his own as well. Orochimaru, kusanagi still in hand, brought his sword down and stabbed the Hokage in his left flank, sneering at him, "Really old man, did you truly believe you could defeat me?"

The Sound ninja were holding up well against the ANBU, that was until the captain unexpectedly appeared behind one of the injured ninja, taking advantage of his wounds, and plunged a kunai in his throat. The remaining three attacked in unison, knocking the captain from the stands and down into the arena below. A few of his subordinates followed, while some remained to fight.

Orochimaru's confidence wavered as he sensed a terrible force jolt his spirit and begin to drag it forcibly from his body, slowly and painfully, "What…what do you think you're doing-!"

"Minato was able to endure such a dismal jutsu," Hiruzen spoke through gritted teeth, "Now you shall share the same fate!"

The snake sennin drove his sword deeper into the Sandaime's back, frustrated to see Enma pulling back on it with equal force, refusing to let him be injured worse. The monkey king snarled at him, infuriated that his friend was reduced to such measures.

For a long while it remained a stalemate, Hiruzen pulled with all of his might on Orochimaru's soul, barely able to extract it any further past his elbows, and the kusanagi which was embedded deep in Hiruzen's back was frozen in place by Enma's determination.