Six black-clad ninjas had already arrived outside the Third Hokage's hospital room. Rather than barge in, however, they took out countless Explosive Tags and began sticking them to the wall.
Presumably, these ninjas intended to blow the Third Hokage's room to dust, eliminating him while destroying all the evidence. But they-
They had only just begun sticking up the Explosive Tags when an arm suddenly pierced through the wall and grabbed one ninja by the neck. With a slight twist of the arm, the ninja's neck snapped, killing him instantly.
The door to the room opened at the same time, and Minato Namikaze and Kakashi Hatake darted out, striking to kill. Neither cared who their opponents were anymore. Anyone who dared attack the Third Hokage had to die.
Seeing Orochimaru and the others charging at them, the black-clad ninjas detonated the Explosive Tags without bothering about how few they had placed on the wall.
The wall exploded instantly. Flying rubble blocked Minato and the others from pursuing them, and only after the explosion ended did Minato and Kakashi give chase.
As the smoke outside the room cleared, the original wall could clearly be seen blown to pieces. Yet behind it stood another earthen-brown wall, which had kept the room's interior safe.
The earthen-brown wall was slowly melting away, revealing Orochimaru.
When the enemy detonated the Explosive Tags, Orochimaru had used Earth Release: Earth Wall to defend against the blast. But this wall differed from the original Earth Release technique. Orochimaru had added true qi, greatly increasing its defensive strength, so that even the Explosive Tags had failed to blast through it.
Meanwhile, Minato had already pursued them out of the hospital. He and Kakashi had thought that they would find no one after setting off in pursuit so late, but