Inside Hanzo's Illusion...

In Hanzo's warped perception, the fight was already over.

His enemies—the three great Sannin and that annoyingly calm fourth shinobi—had all fallen, writhing under the effect of his final trump card: a self-detonation of high-pressure neurotoxin that flooded the entire barrier field.

"I am Hanzo the Salamander," he rasped, a sick satisfaction curling his voice. "Let history remember that I alone stood triumphant."

Reality...

Outside the barrier, all four of them appeared in a sudden burst of light—just as the explosion hit.

BOOOOOOOOOM.

The second they did, a massive explosion occurred. It seemed like Hanzo had a barrier made—the barrier was likely meant to contain them inside as he slowly poisoned them. Hm, truly a smart man.

Oh well, they were gone now.

But the four of them?

They were already clear.

Seijuro dropped to one knee, gasping for breath. Okay, so maybe using Sage Chakra for this was a bit harder than he thought. Shunpo was good and all, but he wasn't that good at mixing it with Flying Raijin. Well... not as good as Seijuro thought he was.

Smoke curled off his cloak, his forehead beaded with sweat.

"Haaaah... that's gonna leave a mark."

Tsunade, eyes wide, immediately rushed to him and checked for injuries.

"You... How—how did you get us out?" she asked, pulling him close, chakra already pouring into her palm.

Seijuro lifted his head slowly, coughing once.

"A mix of Shunpo and the Flying Raijin," he said dryly. He gasped for air a bit—he was turning a little purple. Hm, seemed like he had inhaled too much of the man's poison. Luckily, Tsunade was there to heal him back to full.

Jiraiya blinked hard.

"Wait. You—wait. Did you just say Flying Raijin?"

Tsunade, however, wasn't focused on that. She was still healing her student. The poison wasn't much, but it was doing damage to his chakra system.

"I started learning the Flying Raijin a month ago. My control over it, however, is quite poor. I can barely even teleport, much less control where I'm going. That's why I used Shunpo—the second I 'jumped' there was a momentary link to the seal I left outside. I used it to teleport us out. However, I underestimated how much chakra it would take out of me," he said tiredly, a bead of sweat dripping down his face. His chakra amount was now at academy student level—going from elite jōnin to academy level with one jutsu... well, damn.

Orochimaru's gaze narrowed, intrigued.

"One month? Even Minato took longer than that... Your affinity for fuinjutsu must be... considerable."

Jiraiya leaned back, utterly flabbergasted.

"Flying Raijin in a month!? What the hell are they feeding kids these days?"

Seijuro sighed a bit.

"I did not master the Flying Raijin. I merely grasped the basics. Saying that I mastered the Flying Raijin would be like saying addition was the pinnacle of math—both statements are incorrect. As to what training method I used—I simply used ten shadow clones to help me," he said quite politely.

Orochimaru nodded slowly.

"Efficient. The shadow clone feedback method would allow for condensed learning—but the mental backlash is severe. Most minds crack."

Seijuro glanced up at him, eyes steady.

"I can bear it."

"Hmm. I don't doubt that..." Orochimaru muttered, voice low with rare respect.

Tsunade wrapped her arms around Seijuro, grinning ear to ear.

"You absolute brat. Do you know how many bragging rights I have now?"

He groaned. "Please don't."

"Oh, I will. You're going to help your beautiful sensei win the war, aren't you?" she smirked.

"...Do I have a choice?"

"Nope."

Jiraiya cracked a grin, ruffling Seijuro's hair.

Though Seijuro had a sneaking suspicion that this was Jiraiya's way of trying to touch Tsunade's boob, personally, or...

"Still can't believe it... You jumped from Genjutsu demon to time-space nightmare in a month. I feel personally offended."

Orochimaru's gaze returned to the now-fading barrier.

Within the toxic wreckage, slumped against scorched steel—

Hanzo's corpse had turned entirely violet, his body warped and leaking acid mist even in death.

A man once feared by nations...

"Hanzo the Salamander is no more," Orochimaru said quietly.

That was cool and all, but Seijuro couldn't take it anymore—and passed out in Tsunade's arms.

She held him, making sure he didn't fall.

Orochimaru still pondered how the boy did it.

Glancing at the Flying Raijin seal—hm, it was burnt... as in, it broke, like a circuit was destroyed or something.

So before the fight, the boy must have set the seal. Then, during the fight—mid-Shunpo—while he was, for a split second, too fast for the eyes to see, he used the Flying Raijin. And since the jutsu was still beginner level, he had to pay an absurd amount of chakra to teleport.

And the seal was fried due to the massive load it had to bear.

Turning around, Orochimaru noticed that 60% of the squadron he thought dead were rescued. Hm, so among the chaos, he had managed to save quite a few Konoha shinobi.

Hm. This had Orochimaru intrigued. This boy might even be a bigger genius than he was. Hm. How fun.

He wondered if the boy also liked experimentation. It could be fun.

Oh well. He had some Hashirama cells from Danzo. He'd be fine. He'd finish his experiment on them.

Those cells were so fascinating.