"Jo! Long time no see, how you doin'?" - Eiji walked nonchalantly towards the Konoha force while greeting Naruto and Sakura.

"YOU!!! GET OUT OF THE WAY!!" - Naruto

"NOO!! STAY BACK NARUTO!! IT'S AN ORDER!!" - Yamato didn't want Naruto to do something stupid again.

"Get out of the way? And then? You gonna run to Sasuke so he can continue to ignore you?" - Eiji said mockingly.

"Ugh!" - Naruto didn't know how to respond.

But at this time Sakura stepped forward: "Excuse me...but can you tell me why Sasuke is with you? I don't understand...why would he..."

"Why would he what? He isn't doing anything illegal and is just an official employee of the Shiki Ryuu, earning money through honest work...or would you prefer if he was with Orochimaru?" - Eiji

"..."

For some reason, they really had trouble speaking with Eiji.

But Yamato thought about the mission and suddenly attacked with the other Anbu.

Eiji tried to dodge, but the barrage of a whole Anbu squad was too much and an arm was bitten off by an ink-tiger.

However, he didn't seem to be faced and just looked at it before it started to regenerate: "Even though I can regenerate, I still feel pain you know...this was pretty rude to suddenly jump at me like that..."

"This regenerative ability will be a huge pain in the ass..." - Yamato started to feel that this day couldn't get any worse.

Meanwhile, Sasuke just looked at the transformed Orochimaru crawling towards him.

It was obvious that Orochimaru wanted to fight in close-range, but even though Sasuke wasn't worried that he would lose in close-range, why would he do what his opponent wants?

So he decided to use the Fireball Jutsu, which was easily dodged by Orochimaru but Sasuke was already firing Chidori Senbons at him.

Normally Orochimaru wouldn't care and just let himself get hit, but since he not only was weakened because his current body was rotting and he needed to take over a body soon, but also because his arms still weren't restored, so he dodged.

"Hmph...are you really a legendary shinobi? It looks like I won't even need to get serious." - Sasuke sneered at Orochimaru.

"Hehehehe...you think I would get defeated that easily? It looks like they are finally here" - Orochimaru suddenly jumped backward and transformed back.

Suddenly a group of Otogakure shinobi appeared, being lead by the Sound Four - or Sound Three.

Like in the original timeline, Orochimaru didn't have the time to bother with finding a replacement, which was even more true when only one spot was vacant.

Unlike the Sound Three, the other Otogakure-nins were all carrying coffins.

When he saw that Sasuke instantly knew what his plan was and he scoffed: "It seems like you still have the habit of digging corpses out."

But he wasn't worried, no matter who Orochimaru would revive, Sasuke was sure that he could easily defeat them.

"I see...so the other force was indeed a subversion, while this group only moved after Orochimaru already made contact with Eiji so that it would be easier to go undetected...of course it could have backfired in case they didn't reach him fast enough, but it's Orochimaru we are talking about...with his haughtiness, he would never think that he would get done that quickly. But if Sasuke instantly went full out, it might be different...anyway, the more important thing is, who will he revive? I should only move after finding it out, until then Sasuke should be able to deal with it...I'm more worried about Akatsuki..." - Jiraiya was still hiding and watching for now.

"This damn heretic!! Reviving the dead is a blasphemy! Death is the highest gift from Jashin-sama! I will sho-"

"Shut up or you expose us!" - Kakuzu hit Hidan on the head while grunting.

"Damn you! How can I stay calm when I see such blasphemy in front of me?" - Hidan

"Then just wait until they wear each other down and then you can do your religious nonsense for all I care!" - Kakuzu

Zetsu actually hoped that Hidan would just jump in so that they can force Sasuke to show his potential, but of course, he couldn't say that aloud.

But after thinking for a few seconds, he made up a plan in his mind...

The Akatsuki was about to participate as well!