Inside the small town.
In a certain inn.
Kabuto sat on the tatami, holding up his fingers with a peculiar smile at the corner of his mouth, remotely controlling the interaction between Dan, Tsunade, and others.
Has Kagura's goal been achieved?
Tsunade has already witnessed the dangers of Orochimaru mastering the Reanimation Jutsu. The next step is to let Orochimaru escape, which shouldn't be too much of a problem.
In fact.
There is still a slight problem.
The enraged Tsunade was practically at full strength!
Orochimaru had no major issues dealing with Jiraiya, but handling the combined forces of a fully-powered Tsunade and Jiraiya was another matter. Not to mention, Tsunade's summoned beast, Katsuyu, was causing Orochimaru significant trouble, and his own Manda had long been sacrificed by Akihara Kagura!
Tsunade smashed Dan's body with one punch. Seizing the moment when Dan's body couldn't regenerate, she charged directly at Orochimaru with incredibly fast speed, so fast that it almost severed the communication between the enemy's brain and body!
"Orochimaru!"
Tsunade kicked Orochimaru hard, making him feel as if all his internal organs had been shattered. Before he could react, Tsunade punched him, breaking three or four ribs!
"Puff..."
Orochimaru coughed up a mouthful of blood.
However, Orochimaru looked back at the battlefield, trying to find support, only to see that Dan's body had regenerated in the distance and was fleeing the battlefield.
"Damn..."
Blood flowed between Orochimaru's teeth.
"Die!"
Tsunade swung her fist down vigorously, murder intent written all over her face: "Daring to toy with the souls of the dead like this..."
Boom!
The ground cracked open with a long rift under Tsunade's punch, forcing Orochimaru's body to roll to the side miserably, narrowly avoiding the blow!
"..."
Jiraiya was sweating profusely.
"Don't think about escaping!"
Katsuyu launched a glob of acid at Orochimaru!
"..."
Orochimaru's body was immediately corroded by the acid, the intense pain forcing him to use the Orochi Style Substitute Jutsu to shed and heal his injuries instantly!
"Jiraiya, Tsunade..."
Orochimaru glared at his two classmates, gritting his teeth: "Don't get too cocky. Once I've perfected the Reanimation Jutsu, I'll utterly destroy Konoha!"
With that said, Orochimaru transformed into a snake, slithering down the crevice opened by Tsunade's punch, vanishing without a trace!
"He escaped."
Jiraiya took a deep breath, sensing the trouble Orochimaru posed: "It's easy to defeat Orochimaru, but killing him is very difficult..."
"Back to Konoha."
Tsunade's fingers trembled slightly as she firmly instructed: "Immediately return to handle the Orochimaru problem. This time he revived Dan to fight us—who knows what other trouble he might cause next time!"
"Have you finally agreed to become the Fifth Hokage?"
Jiraiya finally felt relieved inside, having achieved his purpose for coming here.
Konoha Village.
Inside the Hokage Tower.
Since the Fifth Hokage had yet to be chosen, Akihara Kagura and two Hokage Advisors were still handling village affairs. During this time, Konoha had gradually become more stable internally, with only the external problems of The Hidden Mist Village and The Hidden Sand Village remaining unsolved.
Akihara Kagura also added The Hidden Rock Village to the list of targets, citing their sending of ninjas to infiltrate Konoha and gather intelligence.
The two Hokage Advisors wanted to oppose it strongly, but Akihara Kagura vetoed their opposition with just one sentence. They could only hope Jiraiya would quickly bring Tsunade back: "The village's Fifth Hokage is about to return, so let's wait until after the Hokage's inauguration to make a decision..."
"I heard Jiraiya and the two Advisors chose Lady Tsunade?"
Akihara Kagura leaned back slightly in his chair, tapping his fingers lightly on the table: "According to Root's intelligence, Lady Tsunade owes a considerable amount in gambling debts, which might affect Konoha's image, wouldn't it?"
"..."
The two Hokage Advisors frowned.
Was Akihara Kagura going to reject Tsunade's succession as Hokage because of this?
"Don't misunderstand."
Akihara Kagura squinted his eyes, seriously continuing: "To prevent those debt collectors from the casinos from potentially affecting Konoha's image, I merely plan to have Root clean them up so they don't spout nonsense and impact Konoha's standing in the Ninja World. The people related to these casinos aren't good people anyway, eliminating them would be doing a public service..."
"..."
The two Hokage Advisors nodded.
As long as Akihara Kagura wasn't opposing Tsunade's succession, they weren't concerned. They were only worried Akihara Kagura might anger the nobles of the Land of Fire.
However...
Akihara Kagura couldn't care less about these issues.
Root Base.
Akihara Kagura returned here.
He held a list in his hand and placed it on the table: "Everyone from Root, mobilize immediately. Clean out all the casinos in the Land of Fire, and according to Lady Tsunade's debt record, kill all the creditors on that list. They're all people who drive innocents to ruin..."
"This is..."
Karin hesitated, somewhat confused.
"Kill all her creditors as a welcome gift for our new supervisor."
Akihara Kagura glanced at Karin, then instructed: "Judging by the time, the Fifth Hokage should be arriving soon. Karin, take three squads to a small town near the village, clean out the casinos there. When you present the gift, make sure the supervisor knows who sent it to her..."