Seeing how utterly shocked the Konoha ninjas were, Ziyun found it amusing and laughed without restraint.
The Konoha ninjas opposite him looked grim.
They had expected to see those expressions on Ziyun's face. Now it seemed the joke was on them!
"It seems this is another of Yeyue Ziyun's new Ninjutsu," Orochimaru said, frowning deeply.
The new intelligence he had once treasured now seemed like a pile of garbage.
A genius like Yeyue Ziyun wouldn't have only the Lightning Transformation Technique!
He had other trump cards!
He hadn't shown them because the Lightning Transformation Technique alone was enough to give Konoha a headache.
Or rather, Konoha had previously had no way to force Yeyue Ziyun to reveal his other abilities.
Now that they had countered the Lightning Transformation Technique, another strange technique had appeared.
At that moment, Orochimaru felt that his title as Konoha's greatest genius was insignificant compared to that of the Hidden Cloud Village's greatest genius.
Just how far had Yeyue Ziyun grown?
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Ziyun didn't care what Orochimaru was thinking. He was here to complete his mission and deal a blow to Konoha's morale along the way.
Transformed into a god of lightning, Ziyun darted between more than a dozen Konoha ninjas, reaping the lives of Konoha's Jonin like a god of lightning on the battlefield.
Though these Jonin all had considerable combat experience and could rely on instinct to dodge one or two of Ziyun's surprise attacks, they couldn't hold out for long.
After all, Ziyun's Thunder Wrath covered an enormous area. A Jonin's speed alone wasn't enough to dodge the wide-ranging assault of roaring lightning in such a short time.
Only Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and a few Elite Jonin were fast enough to dodge it.
That was right. Their new tactic now had no effect on Ziyun, so their way of fighting him returned to the old approach: focus on dodging and attack when they found an opening.
Meanwhile, Ziyun's mastery of Armament Haki was rising rapidly.
70%, 72%, 75%, 77%, 79%...
Every time a Jonin was killed, the Armament Haki mastery displayed on the system panel jumped.
After roughly two or three hours of fierce fighting, only five of the more than a dozen Jonin remained standing. The rest had all fallen in battle!
Of the five remaining, only Tsunade, with her immense healing ability, appeared to have suffered no serious external injuries. The others weren't doing much better.
Their ninja uniforms were also torn to shreds.
"Damn it... we really miscalculated this time."
Looking at the corpses of the dozen or so dead Jonin, Orochimaru felt pained.
Jonin were an important measure of a village's strength. It wasn't that Konoha couldn't afford to lose so many, but that so many had died fighting just one enemy, and that enemy still hadn't been dealt with.
These elite forces of Konoha had effectively died for nothing. How could Orochimaru not be pained?
"Lightning: Divine Judgment, 90 million volts!"
Rumble!
Ziyun didn't stop. With a sweep of his hand, five bolts of lightning flashed down from the sky. Guided by Observation Haki, they struck the five remaining Konoha ninjas with pinpoint accuracy.
All of the bolts carried Armament Haki.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The five hurried to dodge, but it was already too late. The lightning struck them with pinpoint accuracy, and screams erupted all at once.
Thud, thud!!
After the lightning passed, two more Konoha ninjas fell. Only Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya remained standing before Ziyun.
"Still standing? Not bad. You can be proud of surviving against me again and again."
"The three disciples of Hiruzen Sarutobi, I acknowledge you. I shall name you the Konoha Sannin!"
"I hope you won't disgrace that title in the future and drag me down with you."
Just as Hanzō had stood atop Ibuse in the original story, Ziyun stood on a tree trunk, looking down at the three with an exceedingly proud bearing as he spoke.
In truth, the three were indeed exceptionally gifted, and they had grown further during this battle.
Orochimaru already had one foot across the threshold of Kage Level, Jiraiya had reached Quasi-Kage Level, and Tsunade's healing techniques had improved greatly as well.
After all, battles of life and death were particularly effective at drawing out a ninja's potential, especially a genius ninja's.
"Damn it... we've actually been given a title by a brat."
Tsunade gritted her teeth, furious, but she had no intention of arguing.
Yeyue Ziyun's strength far surpassed theirs, and in the ninja world, strength decided everything.
Yeyue Ziyun possessed the strength of a Kage Level fighter, so there was no shame in accepting a title from him.
Even so, it was an unpleasant feeling.
"Retreat!"
At this point, Orochimaru knew they couldn't keep fighting.
If they continued, the three of them would only be throwing their lives away, so he decided to retreat.
Jiraiya and Tsunade nodded as well. They weren't afraid of death, but they refused to sacrifice themselves for nothing.
If they could trade their lives for Ziyun's, they would have fought him to the death long ago. But if they couldn't kill him even by dying, what was the point?
Bang, bang, bang!
Three Reverse Summoning Techniques were used in succession, and the three departed. Ziyun could no longer pursue them.
"Let them run. We'll meet again sooner or later."
Ziyun didn't think much of letting the three escape. As long as the Konoha F4 remained alive, two of the three would eventually leave Konoha. Jiraiya would protect Konoha, but even he would spend a period of time not bothering to return to the village.
Ziyun then turned to support his teacher Dodai and the others.
Boom, boom, boom!
Lightning raged.
With Ziyun joining the fight, the previously even battle between the Hidden Cloud and Konoha instantly tipped in the Hidden Cloud's favor.
"Yeyue Ziyun has joined the battle. Does that mean Lord Orochimaru, Lady Tsunade, and the others were defeated?"
Seeing the familiar lightning raging, the Elite Jonin of the Akimichi Clan who was commanding the battle sighed inwardly.
He then gave the order to retreat.
Without Orochimaru and the others holding him back, they couldn't deal with a Kage Level fighter like Yeyue Ziyun, so the Konoha ninjas had no choice but to retreat quickly.
"Ziyun, should we pursue them?"
Watching the Konoha ninjas retreat, Dodai came over and asked Ziyun.
"No. The Land of Fire's border isn't far from here. If we pursue them into the Land of Fire, they'll be on their home ground, and that could very well put us at a disadvantage. Let's set up camp here for now."
After considering the situation, Ziyun decided not to pursue them and to settle down here for the time being.
That also gave him a chance to check his rewards.
The system's rewards had arrived as soon as he bestowed the title of Three Sannin.
[Ding~ Congratulations, host, on completing the S-rank mission: defeat Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya and give them the title of Three Sannin!] "Mission rewards obtained: Paramecia-type Fusion Fruit; Logia-type Snow-Snow Fruit; Mangekyō Sharingan Advancement Card; Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique."
At that moment, two Devil Fruits and a Mangekyō Sharingan Advancement Card lay dormant in Ziyun's system space.
The rewards this time were indeed generous. Even Ziyun found them somewhat unbelievable.
Ziyun would certainly keep the Fusion Fruit for himself, and he could also save the Mangekyō Sharingan Advancement Card for his own use.
As for the Snow-Snow Fruit, Ziyun certainly didn't plan to keep it. He would give it away when he found a suitable person.
Although the fruit's offensive power wasn't much, its Elemental Transformation ability naturally granted immunity to 99 percent of Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, making it quite good for defense.
Ziyun even thought that eating the Snow-Snow Fruit and mastering a few ultimate moves would be enough to turn an ordinary ninja into a Kage Level fighter.
After all, few Kage Level fighters were immune to 99 percent of the Shinobi World's Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Add a few ultimate moves, and they could easily crush an ordinary Kage Level fighter.
Perhaps this fruit could be used to cultivate some talent for the Hidden Cloud Village. He would leave that aside for now.
In any case, he first needed to grind up his mastery of the Fusion Fruit, giving himself another ultimate move.
When he encountered strategic weapons on the level of "nuclear weapons" in the future, such as Tailed Beasts or Susanoo, Ziyun would have another way to defeat his opponents.
After all, Ziyun was getting a little tired of killing with lightning all the time. Trying out another fruit's abilities would be nice too.
What puzzled Ziyun was that after fighting Konoha for so long, he hadn't encountered a single ninja from the Uchiha Clan. Presumably, the Uchiha Clan had yet to take the field.
Meanwhile, in Konoha Village, at the Hokage's office.
"The main force led by Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya was defeated by Yeyue Ziyun."
"The force led by Hatake Sakumo has been defeated by the Third Raikage again and suffered heavy losses."
Looking at the reports that had just arrived from the Hidden Cloud front, Hiruzen Sarutobi took a long drag on his pipe, deeply worried.
The Hidden Cloud Village's forces were now stationed just outside the Land of Fire's border. If the fighting continued, they would break through the Land of Fire and enter Konoha Village.
Meanwhile, the fighting against the Hidden Sand Village and Amegakure wasn't going very well either.
First of all, the situation was already vastly different from the original story.
In the original story, the main force fighting the Hidden Sand Village had been led by Hatake Sakumo.
In a battle against the Third Kazekage, Hatake Sakumo had fought three opponents at once and killed Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law, dealing the Hidden Sand Village a heavy blow.