Jiraiya was still waiting when he suddenly felt a presence on the outside of the battle.

"So there you are..." - he concluded that this must be Akatsuki, but he didn't act instantly - instead he thought what would be the best course of action: go for them or wait for a chance to ambush Orochimaru?

"I'm worried about who Orochimaru intends to summon, but the Akatsuki is more of a wildcard and more unpredictable, so I should go for them..."

He prepared himself to ambush them, but what he didn't know was that Zetsu intentionally had a clone get found out by him.

"Kabuto, it's time..." - Orochimaru smiled while saying that.

Orochimaru's arms still weren't healed, so he needed Kabuto to perform the jutsu.

This was also the reason that they sacrificed a bunch of their henchman beforehand so that they won't waste time to do it on the battlefield and only had to carry the coffins.

But Kabuto was currently defending against a powered-up Ukon who bombarded him with Taijutsu attacks.

'Isn't he asking too much?' - Kabuto smiled wryly.

The only reason he was able to hold up was that Ukon was more or less just rushing at him without any thought behind his attacks and Kabuto using his knowledge of the human body to read his muscles to predict his movements.

Sasuke was watching in a cool pose and ridiculed Orochimaru: "How long are you gonna make me wait?"

"Hehehehe...just wait a bit...you three switch with Kabuto!" - he ordered the Sound 3.

"I wanted to deal with this traitor anyway..." - Tayuya said before going in and giving Kabuto the chance to escape.

"Sorry Lord Orochimaru...you know musclebrains are a bad matchup for me..." - Kabuto readjusted his glasses.

"Whatever...just get started!" - Orochimaru

With that Kabuto walked towards two coffins and opened them.

"!" - when Sasuke saw who was in the coffin, he couldn't maintain his aloof attitude.

Eiji looked at the Anbu squad and sighed.

He knew that talking would be fruitless so he moved his hand towards the sword grip, but at the same time, he glanced at the over to the other battlefields.

'Ukon should be fine though with the snakes I gave him before, but...what's up with Sasuke? I told him to let them revive whoever they want so that he copies the Edo Tensei with his Sharingan, but why is he looking like he saw a ghost?'

While his mind was preoccupied with that, Konoha's side was preparing themselves: just the presence of Eiji touching his sword was enough for them to guard themselves.

This was one of the psychological-advantages of Iaijutsu compared to other sword-styles.

The enemy knew an attack was coming, but attacking ruthlessly and open themselves up would be even worse, so they only could wait for the attack and defend.

Eiji used this time to return his thoughts to his own battle: 'If I'm not mistaking, the leader was the one who used the wood jutsu on Sasuke, so I guess that's Yamato? And the other one is Sai? I never thought I would meet them like that...but it doesn't matter. Let's just deal with them quickly and look at what's causing Sasuke trouble.'

Of course, he didn't intend to kill them, which greatly limited him.

He often lamented that he only runs into people he can't kill, but that's expected when he has to interact with the "main story".

And then he finally drew his sword.

The Anbu instantly reacted to the wind coming from Eiji and used the Mud Wall Jutsu and other defensive Jutsus, but it cut through it without any difficulties.

However, they expected that and used the minuscule time which their defensive Jutsus bought to dodge.

Furthermore, since Eiji only attacked the Anbu, it gave the opportunity for Naruto to attack from a blind spot with a Rasengan.

Eiji sneered, thinking: 'I may be not the brightest shinobi out there and just a knowledge cheater, but I still learn when you keep doing the same thing over again and again, you know?'

After his last fight with Naruto, he started to instinctively know how Naruto will attack, so he turned nonchalantly around and with a raised finger he shot an air-bullet at Naruto, which pierced his heart.