The corpse storage room was filled with a thick stench—a mix of decay and chemical preservatives.

Outside the door, hidden in the shadows, countless Konoha shinobi waited silently.

Within the Root facility, which resembled a tower sunk into the ground, numerous patrol squads moved about.

The Konoha nin held their breath, senses heightened.

The village had been attacked.

The enemy was either targeting the Tailed Beast or the Root Organization's base.

With threats both internal and external, the "Impure World Reincarnation" project had been upgraded to the same security level as protecting the Jinchuriki.

Hiss—

Suddenly, the air in the hall turned frigid, the soft crawling and hissing of countless snakes echoing through the darkness.

"There's something wrong!"

One of the ANBU captains barked out, halting his unit.

The nearby patrols immediately lowered their heads, alert.

Hiss—

In an instant—

Countless venomous snakes slithered rapidly across the floor and then lunged at the patrol squads.

"Enemy attack!"

The ANBU captain's pupils shrank beneath his mask. He roared furiously and drew his ninjatō, slashing at the swarm of snakes while flickering rapidly through space.

Chaos erupted in the Root base.

Wooden beams high above.

Snakes scattered everywhere.

There were too many, and they'd struck by surprise—this dark, enclosed base had become their battlefield.

All of the snakes had undergone genetic modification, far more lethal than any found in the wild.

By the time the last Konoha shinobi collapsed to the ground, his body riddled with bite marks and venom holes—

Orochimaru emerged from the shadows, a twisted smile on his pale face. His golden, slit-like pupils gleamed with malevolent light as he slowly stepped into the corpse chamber.

He wore a black cloak, hood up, with purple vertical eye markings painted on his pale, sinister face.

Wherever he walked, the snakes parted to let him through.

Among the swarm, he was their king.

Finally arriving before the coffins, Orochimaru paused and opened each lid one by one.

Bang—

The heavy wooden lid thudded to the floor, sending up a cloud of dust and a wave of ancient decay—it was the scent of time itself.

In the first coffin lay the preserved body of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, still remarkably intact thanks to secret jutsu.

His face looked noble, clad in the beige hemp robes of the Senju clan—more like a peaceful, sleeping middle-aged man than a corpse.

Orochimaru moved on to inspect the second and third coffins—unsurprisingly, they held the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

"How lifelike," Orochimaru muttered with a smirk, the corners of his mouth curling up in scorn. Forming hand seals, he prepared to perform the Summoning Technique.

Just then—

A rush of footsteps echoed from outside. A large number of Konoha shinobi swarmed in.

Leading them were two senior village advisors: Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado.

The venomous snakes outside had already been wiped out by this elite Konoha unit.

"So it's you—Hiruzen's traitorous student," Koharu narrowed her eyes, her aged face trembling slightly as she raised her hand to give the kill order.

She had never truly left the base.

She had been waiting for the intruder to fall into the trap.

"Hyah!"

Several branch members of the Hyuga clan activated their Byakugan. With fists clenched, they charged toward Orochimaru like a gust of wind.

Other Konoha shinobi provided coordinated long-range support, launching ninjutsu to suppress Orochimaru's movements.

Hissss~

Orochimaru sneered coldly. He let out a chilling hiss while continuing to form seals. "Summoning Technique!"

But—nothing happened within the corpse chamber.

Crouching low, Orochimaru dodged a heavy fist that thundered toward him, his lower body transforming into a writhing mass of serpents.

He spun across the floor like lightning, evading one long-range attack after another.

Then, like a phantom, he darted through the chaos. Snake bodies whipped around, wrapping and crushing Konoha shinobi with ease.

Orochimaru's neck twisted like rubber, his jaw unhinging.

Before the eyes of every shinobi, he ensnared a Konoha kunoichi in his coils. The venomous fangs of a serpent pierced her carotid artery.

"Aaagh—!"

The woman shrieked in agony, her beautiful face rapidly paling.

Her body convulsed in Orochimaru's grip—until life left her eyes.

"..."

Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado exchanged glances. Their expressions were icy as they quickly retreated, escorted by Konoha shinobi out of the corpse chamber.

These two veteran advisors of the Hokage were no fools. They knew exactly why the enemy had chosen this moment to attack Konoha.

The Nine-Tails was under heavy protection.

As for the corpses stored in this facility—they weren't actually the real Hokage. They were decoys planted by Koharu to bait any would-be infiltrators.

The true remains of the Hokage were hidden in a location the two advisors considered far more secure.

At that moment, the internal defense barrier system of the entire Root base activated. On top of that, Konoha's Barrier Corps had layered multiple protective seals on the outside.

The base was garrisoned by elite shinobi left behind to protect the village. An external encirclement had also been deployed.

Koharu and Homura's real intention… was to lure and kill any intruder attempting to interfere with the Impure World Reincarnation project.

If Konoha weren't already at the end of its rope…

Even the Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi, wouldn't have elevated the protection level of the former Hokage's remains to such extremes.

"If the intruder is Orochimaru…"

Koharu narrowed her old eyes, her mind racing. Then suddenly, she clenched her fists and said gravely, "This is bad—we need to get underground immediately!"

With that, she lifted the hem of her black-and-white robes and dashed forward with surprising speed.

"But we already have heavy defenses in place there!" Homura followed close behind.

"If it were anyone else, it wouldn't matter. But if it's Orochimaru, then his understanding of the Root base's layout is likely no less than Danzo's," Koharu said coldly.

Her words snapped Homura out of his complacency.

He adjusted his glasses, set aside any hope of luck, and prepared to put his aging body on the line—to face off against his former junior, Orochimaru.

After all, both he and Koharu had once been direct disciples of Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage.

They were true guardians of the shadow—trained to protect the Kage himself!

But just as the two advisors stepped out of the doorway—

BOOM—

A violent tremor erupted from deep within the underground levels of the Root base.

Thick black smoke billowed upward.

A colossal brown serpent burst through the ground—its mouth holding a coffin.

Atop its head stood Orochimaru himself, calm and composed, his cold gaze sweeping across the towering structure crawling with Konoha shinobi.

He let out a sigh.

Then quickly formed hand seals and directed the giant snake to dive back into the earth.

The base was laced with barriers—making reverse summoning impossible.

But—

Just as Koharu had feared, aside from Danzo, no one in Konoha knew the Root base better than Orochimaru.

Navigating the gaps and weaknesses in the various seals placed by the Barrier Corps, Orochimaru manipulated the snake to burrow out—vanishing underground.

Silence returned to the Root base.

Koharu and Homura leapt from above, landing among the rubble and massive slabs of broken stone.

They didn't pursue Orochimaru.

Instead, they marched with long strides into the devastated underground hallway.

As torchlight flickered in the gloom, the two arrived at the true corpse chamber.

Most of the elite guards stationed here were already dead or gravely wounded. Among the fallen were several ANBU, who, even in death, had used Earth-Style jutsu to lock down two of the coffins—and a decayed old tree.

One heavily injured ANBU staggered toward the two advisors.

Clutching his right arm—its veins blackened by venom—he said weakly:

"...My lords… the Fourth Hokage's body… has been taken…"

With those words, the ANBU collapsed.

Koharu and Homura turned to look at the coffins of the First and Second Hokage, as well as Danzo's tree-encased remains. They both exhaled deeply in relief.

"To have protected the First and Second Hokage's bodies even under attack by Orochimaru… you are already heroes of Konoha," Koharu said, wiping the sweat from her brow.

But worry clouded her eyes as she muttered:

"Just like when we researched Wood Style… start recruiting volunteers. The Impure World Reincarnation can't be delayed any longer!"

"...Sigh."

Mitokado Homura let out a heavy sigh.

°°°

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