Question about 3rd Hokage's duel...
 

I suppose this is a spoiler for episode...uh...70-some, was it?


But when Orochimaru and Sarutobi are facing off and Orochimaru resurrects the First and Second Hokage another coffin begins to emerge with a "III" on it and Sarutobi says that he has to stop the third one from emerging "at all costs," or something like that.

My question is: does anyone have any ideas who was being summoned in that 3rd coffin? Was Orochi attempting to somehow resurrect Sarutobi while he was still alive? Would this have killed him? It couldn't have been the Fourth, since the Fourth gave his soul to seal the Ninetails. So who else could it have been?

EDIT: Btw, I haven't seen anything beyond episode 96 of the anime, so if this is revealed later on please don't spoil it.

The third coffin was the fourth. The other hokages had no souls when they were ressurected. Orochimaru gave them a soul that would specifically kill the third.

Actually that was the kanji for '4' on that coffin. As for Oro trying to summon the 4th, he had no idea about the existance of that sealing technique. Maybe the 3rd did stop it, but it also might have failed because the 4th's soul was sealed along with the kyubi within Naruto or because oro didn't have a sacrifice. We really don't know for sure if it would have succeeded otherwise.

Thanks for the answers, guys. And you're right. That was a "4." I was confused on my kanji.

What I mean was that I thought the Fourth gave his soul away to seal the Ninetails just like Sarutobi gave his soul to take the souls of the First and Second (and Oro's arms). I was under the impression that this technique prevented one from being resurrected again (which was the main reason why Sarutobi had to use it on the First and Second to begin with, and why it was one of the few techniques that would really defeat Orochimaru).

I loved the Hokage battle. Their jutsus are awesome.
Shuriken Kage Bunshin is very effective. Naruto should use this with the Kyubi chakra. Also, check out the Shodaime's Genjutsu Bringer of Darkness. You can see everything while your enemy is in complete darkness...how cool is that?

^^ v off topic O.o

the thirds response is enough proof that the coffin would contain a combat-capable 4th hokage, why else would he worry? if anyone knew how the sealing technique worked it was him