The acrid smoke from the Sannin's arrival banner coiled in the still, heavy air, a final veil before the inevitable storm. On one side, Ayy and Killer Bee stood as a united front, protectively positioned before the slumbering, seal-bound form of Matatabi.
Opposite them, the legendary Sannin had settled into their stances with the casual lethality of predators who had already won. Jiraiya's gaze was sharp and assessing, Tsunade's fists were already clenched with crackling green chakra, and Orochimaru… Orochimaru merely observed, a faint, unnerving smirk playing on his lips.
"How curious…" Orochimaru's voice was a silken whisper, "…to find such concentrated lightning and beastly chakra so far from the mountains of Kumo. It seems the Raikage lets his prized hounds run without a leash."
No further words were exchanged.
"SNAP!"
Ayy's lightning armour, which had dimmed to a flicker, snapped back to life with a roar of raw power. Beside him, Bee dropped into a low stance, a crimson cloak of Gyūki's chakra erupting around him, two horns curling from his brow as a guttural growl rumbled in his chest.
Ayy moved first. The concept of 'first strike' did not do his speed justice. He simply vanished from his position and reappeared directly before Jiraiya, his fist, sheathed in a vortex of lightning, already a hair's breadth from the Toad Sage's face. It was a blow meant to shatter mountains and end fights before they began.
But Jiraiya was not there. In a puff of smoke and a burst of speed that belied his size, he executed a flawless Body Flicker, reappearing ten yards to the left. Even as he moved, his hands were weaving seals.
"Katon: Gamayu Endan!" (Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!)
He spat a glob of thick, flammable toad oil, which he then ignited with a spark of his own chakra.
"WHOOSH!"
The resulting whip of liquid fire whipped through the space Ayy now occupied, forcing him to abort his charge and twist violently in mid-air to avoid being engulfed.
Simultaneously, Bee became a whirlwind of steel and crimson chakra, his seven swords a blur as he launched himself at Tsunade. His movements were a complex, acrobatic dance, each swing and thrust designed to dismember and confuse.
Tsunade did not retreat. She met the storm of steel head-on. Her hands, fortified with precise chakra enhancement, moved faster than the eye could follow.
"TING-TING-TINGING"
She didn't block the blades; she redirected them, her knuckles against the flats of the swords with shocking force. On the fourth pass, she found her opening. As Bee brought a sword down in a powerful overhead chop, she stepped inside his guard and drove the heel of her palm directly into the blade's centre.
"CRACK!" The high-carbon steel, infused with Bee's chakra, shattered into a dozen glittering shards.
While the frontal assaults unfolded, Orochimaru remained a spectre on the periphery. His hands were tucked into his sleeves, his head tilted in clinical observation. A faint, almost imperceptible hiss escaped his lips, and from the shadows at Bee's feet, several large, purple snakes erupted, coiling around his ankles with shocking speed, their grip like iron bands.
Ayy, having landed from his aborted charge, flashed to Bee's side, a blade of lightning extending from his hand to sever the serpentine bonds. The two brothers stood back-to-back, breathing heavily.
Tsunade smirked, flexing the hand that had shattered the sword. "You two are… predictable. You protect each other's blind spots, but you create patterns. And patterns are a death sentence against us."
Orochimaru unsealed a scroll with a flick of his wrist.
"Fūja Hōin." (Evil Sealing Method.)
Dark, inky seals spread from the parchment, slithering across the ground to form a wide containment perimeter, their malevolent energy pressing inward, sapping at the brothers' resolve.
Jiraiya, not to be outdone, bit his thumb and slammed his palm down. "Kuchiyose: Gamaken!" (Summoning: Gamaken!)
In a massive cloud of smoke, the colossal, shield-bearing toad appeared, his presence a literal wall. He immediately absorbed a follow-up lightning strike from Ayy on his massive shield, the impact creating a deep "GONG"
Tsunade, meanwhile, stomped a foot.
"Doton: Chidōkaku!" (Earth Release: Earth-Style Dome!)
She didn't create a dome, but instead reinforced the very ground they stood on, infusing the shattered rock with her chakra to prevent Ayy from using his speed to collapse the terrain under their feet.
The trio's perfect synergy was a cage of strategy and power, forcing Ayy and Bee onto the defensive. Frustrated, Bee roared, and his partial transformation intensified. A lash of Gyūki's chakra-tentacle swept out, obliterating the remaining snakes and forcing Orochimaru to take a graceful step back. But the Snake Sannin's smirk only widened.
"That's the power I was waiting for," Orochimaru murmured, his eyes gleaming as he analysed the fluctuating crimson energy. "
Ayy, seeing an opening, charged Jiraiya again, a golden comet of fury. But Jiraiya was ready.
"Suiton: Toad Oil Blob!"
A wave of thick, sticky oil sprayed from Gamaken's mouth, intercepting Ayy's path. The Raikage's lightning-clad fist met the viscous liquid, and the resulting collision created a blinding flash and a concussive whomp that split the battlefield, showering everything in sizzling oil and sparks.
Amid the chaotic flash, the turning point arrived. It was not Jiraiya or Orochimaru who delivered it, but Tsunade. As Ayy was momentarily stunned by the oil barrier's concussive reaction, she moved.
Her chakra-enhanced footwork was not a Body Flicker; it was something more direct, a burst of pure physical power that closed the distance in an instant. She intercepted his next attempted blitz, not by matching his speed, but by predicting his path.
Her fist, glowing with a dense corona of green chakra, met his chest. It was not a wild punch, but a precise, surgical strike. The sound was not a dull impact, but a sharp crack—the sound of his legendary Lightning Armor fracturing under a force it was never designed to withstand.
Ayy grunted, the air forced from his lungs. It was the first time in years he had been physically overpowered. Tsunade gave him no quarter. A devastating knee strike slammed into his ribs, followed by an elbow lock that twisted his arm at a punishing angle. Bee tried to intervene, but Jiraiya was already there.
"Kuchiyose: Gama no Dokubari!" (Summoning: Toad Gourd Barrier!)
A massive, hollow gourd descended from the sky, trapping Bee in a temporary prison, while new snakes from Orochimaru erupted from the ground, pinning his arms.
"You've got a strong body…" Tsunade said, "…but even lightning burns out."
With a final, brutal application of force, she slammed him face-first into the reinforced ground. Pre-placed seal tags flared to life beneath him, their light intertwining with the chakra marks she had imposed. Ayy was pinned.
Seeing his brother contained, Bee roared within the gourd prison, "Bro!"
As Ayy struggled futilely against Tsunade's immobilising hold, Jiraiya and Orochimaru converged on the trapped Bee. Orochimaru unrolled another scroll.
"Hold him, Jiraiya," Orochimaru instructed.
Jiraiya placed a firm palm on Bee's shoulder, forcing the raging Gyūki chakra to recede enough for the seals to take hold.
"Easy, don't make this harder than it has to be."
Orochimaru murmured as the seals began to glow, "Such a beautiful reaction… like a caged god waking up, only to find the walls closing in."
Inside Bee's mind, Gyūki's voice rumbled, thick with unease. *"Something's wrong, Bee. Those seals… they don't feel like containment. They smell of blood and poison. They're not meant to hold us… they're meant to alter us."*
As Jiraiya focused on stabilising Bee, Orochimaru's fingers danced, making minute, almost invisible adjustments to the seal matrix. Jiraiya noticed a secondary pattern, corrosive and unfamiliar, glowing faintly beneath the primary array.
He frowned, "Orochimaru… what is that?"
Orochimaru's smile was a thin, "It's… opportunity."
With a final, subtle pulse of chakra, Orochimaru activated the hidden mechanism.
It was the same latent gas seal they had used to destabilise Matatabi's host. A thin, nearly invisible mist began to leak from the ground around Bee, seeping through the seals on his body.
Bee gasped, his eyes flying wide open. It felt like acid in his veins, a corrosive, foreign energy that scrambled his connection to Gyūki and set his very chakra core on fire. He choked, his body beginning to tremble uncontrollably.
"Bee!" Ayy roared, sensing the violent destabilization of his brother's life force. He surged against Tsunade's hold, his lightning flaring erratically, but her grip was absolute, an unbreakable anchor of flesh and will.
The atmosphere thickened, growing heavy and toxic. Gyūki's guttural, pained growl filled the air, not just in Bee's mind, but externally, a sound of primal agony and rising, uncontrollable rage.
The gas fully activated, and its reaction was not limited to Bee. The unstable energy cascaded outwards, interacting with the sealed chakra of the slumbering Matatabi. The containment seals around her colossal body began cracking and shuddering, glowing lines fracturing like over-stressed glass.
The unconscious Two-Tails convulsed, a strangled, fiery roar erupting from her mouth as blue fire burst forth uncontrollably.
Bee's body arched backwards, his scream joining Matatabi's. "Damn it… Bro, I can't hold it back! He's breaking loose!"
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