No one knew that both the Root organization and the Hokage building had been invaded by formidable enemies.
Not many even noticed that a fourth faction was silently cleaning up the battlefield, gathering the bodies of their comrades.
At this moment, the Konoha ninja were working together in tacit cooperation.
Some escorted villagers to the shelters, while others were not so much fighting back as delaying to survive, waiting for the escorts to return, then sound the call for counterattack.
The battle at Konoha Square remained fierce.
Since the First Hokage had been resurrected by Edo Tensei and unleashed Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands, creating a forest, only those skilled in sensing or with visual powers could see the battle between Sarutobi Hiruzen and Orochimaru.
They could also sense that the Third Hokage's situation was not good.
Above the exam arena, elite jonin Hatake Kakashi and Might Guy were tasked with protecting the spectators' lives, jointly fighting against the Sound ninja led by Yakushi Kabuto and some Sand ninja reinforcements.
Meanwhile, Gaara and his siblings had already been captured by Izayoi and his small team.
The Konoha Collapse Plan had just begun. Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame, immune to genjutsu, teamed up with Uchiha Sasuke, Nara Shikamaru, and Hyuga Neji to attack Temari and Kankuro.
Because Gaara had used the Sleeping Technique, Temari and Kankuro didn't dare instantly teleport to take him away. Faced with the combined efforts of the small team, they were quickly defeated.
If it hadn't been for Kurenai Yuhi's timely warning, the siblings might have been finished off by the fearless young fighters who valued keeping them alive more than killing them.
Gaara, under the Sleeping Technique, entrusted his body to the One-Tail Shukaku.
The tailed beast's chakra surged out, forming endless waves of sand, quickly condensing Shukaku's form, and also shielding Gaara from a combined elemental secret technique called the Sound Wave Cannon.
However, just as Shukaku's form solidified, Gaara's upper body still emerged from the beast's head.
Those below barely noticed this target — except for Izayoi's shadow clone.
Because the clone was fragile, Izayoi seized the moment before Shukaku fully awakened, flying above and punching Gaara's unprotected face.
Gaara, just awakened from deep sleep, was instantly alert.
Shukaku's massive form turned back into endless sand waves, forming a large sand mound in the arena.
When Gaara gradually regained consciousness, he was already being held by Izayoi near the spectator stands.
"If you move, I will kill you," Izayoi's voice whispered in his ear.
"Don't kill Gaara. He's my brother and worth living. Please don't kill him!" The pleading female voice made Gaara fully wake up.
Seeing Temari tied up and begging for him, despite usually fearing him, Gaara's feelings were complicated.
But no one cared about his feelings. Kurenai ordered, "Hinata, seal his chakra. If he breaks free, sever his limbs. This guy can't die."
"Yes." Hinata responded immediately, hitting Gaara's acupuncture points to seal him.
Her tense temple veins and Byakugan eyes focused on him. If anything unusual happened, she would alert everyone.
At this moment, Izayoi's voice came to Hinata's ear, "How is Hanabi's situation?"
"Don't worry, Father has already taken Hanabi away."
"Good." Izayoi nodded and prepared to chill.
The main actors in the Konoha Collapse Plan were Sarutobi Hiruzen and Orochimaru.
He was just the mysterious fourth party taking advantage of the chaos.
Kurenai didn't intend to involve them in the war and told Izayoi and the others, "Take these prisoners with me and leave."
They were the Wind Shadow's children and likely knew many secrets.
On the way, they were attacked by Sand and Sound ninja, but quickly received Konoha ninja reinforcements.
No need to hide his power now, Izayoi floated and used his secret technique: Judgement.
Facing Izayoi treating his secret technique like an ordinary attack, not only the Sand and Sound ninja but also the Konoha reinforcements were dumbfounded.
Watching the laser beam that could compress or expand — the former weakening it into a smaller form, the latter becoming a wide-range attack — Uchiha Sasuke's eyes burned with excitement, nearly drooling.
Even his newly learned Chidori lost its appeal.
Sasuke decided that after the war, he would learn Water Release and try to force Izayoi to teach him the secret technique by pestering him constantly.
"Damn it, my home!"
While Sasuke was planning, a sudden angry shout snapped him back.
Flying fiercely through the air, Izayoi — usually calm, polite, and mature — suddenly cursed and flew off alone in a direction.
Hinata's gaze immediately turned fierce; without a word, she followed, leaving the others baffled.
Looking in that direction, the group saw a massive three-headed snake destroying buildings recklessly.
Explosives and elemental jutsu failed to kill it, only making it angrier.
The snake's three heads attacked the ninjas who hurt it, and its tail accidentally destroyed a two-story house.
That house was Izayoi's.
No wonder he was so broken.
Kurenai, realizing this, told the others, "Ignore them and keep following me."
"Storm Release: Judgement!"
A white beam of light shot down from the sky, hitting the middle head of the three-headed snake.
The huge beam rapidly shrank, transforming from a simple heat attack into a sharp laser cutter.
With a flick of the caster's arm, the entire snake was sliced into pieces, its corpse turning into white smoke and returning to Ryūchi Cave.
"What a powerful lightning release attack!"
"That's not Lightning Release. It's the Storm Release secret technique from the genius ninja everyone's been talking about."
"Impressive little guy, he can even fly!"
"Great, the trouble's gone. Let's support the others."
...
Seeing Izayoi descend, Konoha ninja praised him and swiftly went to aid their comrades.
Landing, Izayoi looked at the ruins and grimaced. "My main body and shadow clones are useless."
He was so ruthless he even cursed himself.
The Truth About the Shadow Clones
In fact, not only his clones but Izayoi's main body and puppet-controlling clones didn't expect this.
The main body was busy harvesting Root and Shimura Danzo's treasures.
The Nanka River clone controlled puppets, cleaning up bodies and hiding evidence, too overwhelmed for the Rinnegan.
The one protecting Ranmaru was charging him.
The clone infiltrating the Hokage building was cleaning up traces and escaping with Amano-Kage.
None noticed the three-headed snake because it had come from the village entrance.
Originally, in canon, Jiraiya's summoned giant toad would have crushed it.
But after hearing of 'Pain of the Six Paths,' Jiraiya abandoned everything to head to the Hokage building's underground base.
Luck was all used up on drop rates — the snake happened to head to Izayoi's street.
Of all the houses, it chose his.
Hinata instantly teleported to Izayoi's side, gently comforting him: "It's okay, Izayoi-kun. You can rebuild your home. As long as you're safe."
"All that's left is to find the scrolls — they have my savings and photos." Izayoi nodded; there was no changing fate unless he could reverse time.
Using his Rinnegan's X-ray vision, he searched the ruins and quickly found the important items.
"I'll leave those guys to you," Izayoi said, looking at several Sound ninja who appeared out of nowhere.
"Yes." Hinata's eyes turned fierce; she summoned two purple lion heads with her chakra.
Then, stimulating her cells with Lightning Release chakra, she appeared in front of a Sound ninja with a flash and struck a palm.
The ninja's chakra was instantly devoured, foreign chakra surged into his body, hitting his internal organs.
He spat blood and lost his combat ability.
One hit killed a Sound ninja; Hinata moved on to others.
Using the Hyuga clan's high-level secret technique, Gentle Step Twin Lion Fist, she easily defeated the cannon fodder Sound ninja.
After finishing, Izayoi retrieved scrolls and photos protected by frames.
Seeing the photos unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief and comforted himself, "Good to have them. Destroyed is fine; I can build a bigger house."
Izayoi and Hinata both looked toward the Hokage Rock.
Their senses detected a huge chakra surge from that direction.
Having read the safety manual, they knew Konoha was beginning its counterattack.
Once villagers were escorted to shelters, ninjas had no worries.
The former strongest ninja village would now unleash incredible unity.
Unless the enemy was a ninja village with all forces combined or a super strong opponent capable of overwhelming strikes, no one could beat Konoha.
Sure enough...
With the escorts returning, the Konoha side, once passive and disadvantaged against the Sand and Sound ninja alliance, suddenly unleashed overwhelming power, driving their enemies into full retreat.
Sand ninja led by Maki realized the Fourth Kazekage was actually Orochimaru in disguise; the real Kazekage was missing.
They abandoned finding Gaara, fled Konoha, and intended to bring the news to the elders for a decision.
Unable to flee, some Sand ninja chose to surrender, trusting the village to redeem them.
Meanwhile, the battle between Sarutobi Hiruzen and Orochimaru reached its conclusion.
As in the original story, the aged Sarutobi was no match for Orochimaru.
With Edo Tensei's resurrected First and Second Hokage assisting Orochimaru, even at a tenth of their prime, they caused serious trouble for Sarutobi.
At his last moment, Sarutobi — known for instilling the Will of Fire in younger generations — decisively sacrificed his chance to enter the afterlife.
He sealed the souls of the First and Second Hokage.
Unable to seal Orochimaru's soul, he took Orochimaru's hands' souls, preventing him from using ninjutsu.
As Orochimaru screamed in rage, Sarutobi smiled faintly and closed his eyes forever.
Growing up together, becoming Hokage's guards and disciples, building Konoha, fighting within and without, these two lifelong rivals achieved the feat of dying on the same day, month, and year.
Unfortunately, one soul could reach the afterlife while the other was trapped by the Shinigami.
Orochimaru's Konoha Collapse Plan left neither Sound, Konoha, nor Sand as the winner.
The only winner — the biggest winner — was Izayoi.
He took the lion's share of the Konoha Collapse Plan.