With Orochimaru fleeing, this great battle that shouldn't have happened finally came to an end.
Shinji, who was closely watching the battlefield through Jikibi, also breathed a sigh of relief.
The result of this battle had no meaning to him; as long as that half of the Nine-Tails sealed in the Shinigami's belly reappeared in the Ninja World, his goal was achieved.
Afterwards, he just needed to spread this intelligence so the Akatsuki organization would know; the rest was for Nagato and Obito to worry about.
Therefore, Shinji used Jikibi to give a few instructions to Karin, who was still on the battlefield.
"Yes!"
Karin, who was still annoyed about not completing the transaction, hurriedly responded after receiving Shinji's new instructions.
Immediately, she, Ryuzetsu, and Chino began to arrange the battlefield.
Orochimaru, Yakushi Kabuto, and the three Hokage retreated very hastily just now, so they left many traces on the battlefield.
Among them were mainly trees generated by Wood Release. Although many trees withered and died quickly after losing the maintenance of Wood Release chakra, vast patches of trees that did not match the geographical environment still remained on the entire battlefield.
"Here!"
Suddenly, Ryuzetsu shouted.
Karin and Chino, who had spread out, hurried over. Following the direction of Ryuzetsu's finger, they discovered a specialized kunai engraved with the characters 'Blade of Ninja Love' in a ground fissure.
"Yes, that's it!"
Karin, who had just fought the Fourth Hokage, recognized at a glance that the kunai in the fissure was the specialized kunai habitually used by the Fourth Hokage.
Putting on gloves, she carefully took the kunai out of the fissure and placed it on the ground. Karin quickly formed hand seals: "Four Symbols Seal, Seal!"
As she pressed her palm down, the sealing formula of the Four Symbols Seal was inscribed onto this specialized kunai, sealing the Flying Thunder God formula on this specialized kunai.
After completing the seal, Karin stood up and observed the surroundings, then threw this sealed Blade of Ninja Love in a direction, nailing it to a large tree, just as if the Fourth Hokage had shot it during battle.
After arranging the scene, Karin went to the large pit not far away that was originally Orochimaru's underground laboratory.
After clearing some rubble with Almighty Push, Karin found Orochimaru's shriveled corpse that was still wearing the Shinigami mask.
This was Orochimaru's original body, only because of the transaction with the Shinigami, this body had completely lost its vitality, looking like a dried corpse that had been dead for decades.
Karin neither touched these remains of Orochimaru nor took back that Shinigami mask; she just observed it for a moment, then activated Almighty Pull, and pulled some rocks from the side to half-bury the remains, leaving only half exposed.
Having done all this, Karin finally glanced at the giant stone sphere she created with Chibaku Tensei that was still suspended high in the sky. She hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to leave it alone, turning around and leaving the scene with Ryuzetsu and Chino.
When the pupil power at the core was exhausted, that giant stone sphere suspended high in the sky would crumble and fall.
And the Chibaku Tensei Karin activated earlier was not infused with much pupil power, so that giant stone sphere could only maintain for another one or two hours at most.
Swish swish swish...
A long time later, a Hidden Leaf shinobi squad arrived at the scene.
The location where this battle broke out was the border area between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rice Fields; strictly speaking, it still belonged to the territory of the Land of Fire.
Because of Orochimaru's prison break, Hidden Leaf shinobi were investigating all suspicious places within the Land of Fire, so this great battle naturally alerted the nearby Hidden Leaf shinobi, especially that giant stone sphere hanging high in the sky, making it hard for people not to notice this side.
"Is it Wood Release?"
"Heavens, what exactly happened here!"
"Quickly notify the village!"
After a brief shock, the Hidden Leaf squad that discovered this battlefield immediately transmitted the news back to the Hidden Leaf.
A few more hours later, Kakashi led a Hidden Leaf shinobi army and arrived hurriedly at the scene.
After meeting up with the Hidden Leaf squad that arrived earlier, Kakashi immediately asked: "How did you discover this place?"
The squad captain pointed to a small hill on the ground in the distance: "We first discovered those stones. They were in the air before, a huge spherical structure... about two hours ago it suddenly fell to the ground and smashed into what it is now!"
Speaking and gesturing, the squad captain finally described the previous situation clearly.
It turned out that because Kakashi and the others arrived too late, the giant stone sphere created by Karin using Chibaku Tensei eventually crumbled and fell to the ground, turning into an inconspicuous small hill.
Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Kakashi hurriedly began to survey the battlefield.
"Captain Kakashi, come look quickly!"
In a short while, a Hidden Leaf shinobi exclaimed.
Kakashi hurried over and saw that Blade of Ninja Love nailed to the tree, which had been sealed by Karin using the Four Symbols Seal.
Pulling the Blade of Ninja Love from the tree, Kakashi looked incredulous: "This... how is this possible!?"
As the Fourth Hokage's disciple, no one was more familiar with this specialized kunai dedicated to the Fourth Hokage than him.
And the fact that this specialized kunai was left on the battlefield undoubtedly indicated that the Fourth Hokage had fought a great battle with a strong enemy here, and it was highly probable that the Fourth Hokage had retreated, because if the Fourth Hokage had won, he would not have allowed this precious kunai to remain on the battlefield.
But this was obviously impossible, because the Fourth Hokage had died more than ten years ago, and it wasn't an ordinary death, but being sealed inside the Shinigami.
"A discovery over here!"
Another exclamation came from the distance.
Kakashi put away that sealed Blade of Ninja Love and flashed to the large pit where the exclamation came from, seeing Orochimaru's remains that had been dug out from the rubble by the Hidden Leaf shinobi.
"A dead body?"
Because the corpse was severely shriveled, Kakashi did not immediately recognize it as Orochimaru's corpse, but when he squatted down to examine the corpse, his gaze was instantly attracted by the Shinigami mask worn on the corpse's head.
Carefully taking off the mask, Kakashi frowned slightly.
This mask gave him a familiar feeling, but for a moment he couldn't recall where he had seen it.
A Sealing Squad shinobi accompanying him noticed the Shinigami mask in Kakashi's hand and let out a light sound of surprise: "Eh, isn't this the Shinigami mask of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal?"
Hearing this, Kakashi was stunned at first, then suddenly realized something. He hurriedly turned the shriveled corpse over, identified it carefully, and then his expression became increasingly ugly.
Although the corpse was hard to identify, judging from body shape and clothing, he finally recognized that this corpse was Orochimaru, whom they were looking for.
Connecting it to the Shinigami mask of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, he already understood why there were traces of the Fourth Hokage's action here...