"It's useless! Impure World Reincarnation makes them immortal and indestructible! A brat like you with nothing but brute strength had better get ready to be worn down to death!"
Orochimaru's wild laughter, as grating as a night owl's cry, echoed across the ruined rooftop. He stood with his arms crossed, his eyes full of lofty mockery and cruelty.
Just as Orochimaru had said, the First Hokage and Second Hokage, whom Shengu Xuan had pulverized into fluttering scraps of paper with sheer violence, were now reforming at an extraordinarily eerie speed. The dust and paper drifting through the air seemed drawn by some mysterious force, rapidly piecing themselves together. In the blink of an eye, the two former Hokage's crack-covered faces and bodies appeared before Shengu Xuan again, fully intact.
No pain, no fatigue, unlimited chakra, and immortal, indestructible bodies. This was the forbidden technique Orochimaru took such pride in, one capable of overturning the entire Shinobi World-Impure World Reincarnation!
"Shengu Xuan, fall back!" Dragging his gravely wounded body, Hiruzen Sarutobi struggled to place himself in front of Shengu Xuan. This "Ninja Professor," who had once awed the Shinobi World, now had eyes filled with resolve and a willingness to die.
Hiruzen Sarutobi rapidly formed an extremely complex hand seal, and cold, deathly still chakra rose from within him. Behind him, the spectral figure of a hideous death god holding a short blade faintly emerged.
"This is the evil I brought about, and I must end it myself. Orochimaru, even if it costs me this old life today, I'll seal your soul along with the First's and Second's!" Hiruzen Sarutobi prepared to unleash the forbidden technique that would take his enemy down with him-the Reaper Death Seal.
Yet at the very last moment, just before Hiruzen Sarutobi completed his hand seals,