Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!
Various wind blades found their mark as Orochimaru didn't even try to use any defensive Jutsu to either counter or deflect them. Due to this, even with Iron Skin Jutsu active, the overcharged wind blades sliced through most of his muscles, finding his bones. Though he was able to evade taking any blow to vital areas and only suffered from blades in his arms and legs.
Which would have been a totally deadly injury in a fight if not for the 100-meter snake present in front of him.
"HISS, Orochimaru, I never thought you would fall this low, calling me for a child?" Manda said after scanning the surroundings for any other enemy.
"He is the smart one, took me by surprise. Handle him till I heal myself," Orochimaru said, now focusing on his really deadly injuries.
"My help is not for free, HISSSS."
"I know. I will arrange for any number of sacrifices you want after the battle, though I want him in one piece. He is an interesting one," Orochimaru said, looking toward Kaida. The calmness he was showing even when he was losing blood like someone had opened the gates of a dam was unsettling to say the least.
At this moment, Kaida was just looking toward Manda and Orochimaru. For the first time, he was not making any move, just waiting.
There was a hundred-meter-tall snake in front of him, a snake who was able to fight against Gamabunta and Lady Katsuyu two versus one and match them evenly. Considering Gamabunta went toe-to-toe against the One-Tailed himself, this snake was powerful enough to destroy minor villages alone.
So there was no way some sneak attack would work on it. That's why Kaida was waiting for something, and soon, when Manda finished his discussion with Orochimaru, Kaida received a massive influx of chakra, almost refilling his chakra reserves completely.
When his eyes went back toward Orochimaru, Kaida finally saw one of the most gruesome things in his life. Orochimaru was shedding his 'SKIN,' coming out completely uninjured.
'If he manages to heal himself, I will be at a complete disadvantage against him and Manda alone. I need to finish this soon.'
Now Kaida's eyes were no longer having three tomoe. As his three tomoe started rotating swiftly, they finally reached critical stage, merging into his pupil, now replaced with a beautiful pattern of a circular blade which resembled a deadly flower.
Unlike Orochimaru who was well trained in fighting an Uchiha, Manda was a little different. He was looking toward his prey with a grin on its face.
But suddenly the boy in front of him flickered and appeared behind him. Manda swiftly turned in case the boy tried some sneak attack, and he was correct. The boy did throw a chakra-enhanced kunai at him, embedding it in his scales, sending a shiver of pain through its body.
But this pain made one thing clear: 'I was under genjutsu.' It didn't take Manda long to figure out what had happened, but he was not given enough time to work on this new information.
As a long sword overflowing with fire chakra deeply embedded in his neck, almost slicing one-fourth of it, and that boy kept on pushing more fire chakra inside.
Manda started thrashing here and there, crushing various trees in the surrounding area. All of the animals fled from the forest for their lives, while a 100-meter giant snake was doing its best to shake off the bug on his body who was hell-bent on frying him from within.
After a few seconds, the pain became too unbearable. With no other option, Manda forcefully canceled his summon, resulting in Orochimaru facing another backlash from this.
With the shadow clone performing so many Jutsu, him summoning Manda, performing his disgusting jutsu of shedding the skin, Orochimaru had spent more than half of his chakra. With the backlash from Manda forcefully canceling the summoning, he was literally panting. Even though all of his injuries were now healed, he was in worse shape than when he was injured.
"Do you want to continue, Orochimaru? I don't mind having the contribution of dealing with a worthless rogue ninja of our village, but I don't want to see your worthless techniques anymore," Kaida said, now with Mangekyo Sharingan rotating in his eyes. The pressure coming out of him was many times more than before.
But it was just a façade. He had just spent an absurd amount of chakra in dealing with Manda. Just to deal a blow painful enough, he had to spend 30 percent of his chakra. If Orochimaru summoned something even remotely at the level of Manda, the fight would quickly get out of hand.
Though he still had many more cards which could deal with Orochimaru, if that cockroach managed to run even after all that, then there would be way fewer surprise attacks with Kaida in the future.
"Huhuhuhu, you are not ready to face me. I agree that surprise attack had really caught me off guard, but..." Orochimaru was about to take a step forward, but his instinct flared at the last moment when he felt Kaida pushing a large amount of chakra toward his left eye, which started to glow even more brightly.
"Fine, I will retreat this time, but you have piqued my interest," Orochimaru said, and Poof
"Hah, that was intense," Kaida sat down on the tree after making sure there wasn't a single trace of Orochimaru or one of his snakes left in the area.
'Even though I had thought about this fight, I never thought I would be on the receiving end of the ambush. Life can really be unpredictable, huh? But still,' Kaida looked toward his hand clenched in the form of a fist.
'To think I would be able to scare away Orochimaru in just 5 years, maybe this cheat of a bloodline I got is much better than the system I could have gotten.' A chuckle escaped his lips, but there was something else left for him to do.
Kaida let out a slow breath, his body still tense despite the battle being over. The forest was eerily silent now, save for the distant rustling of leaves carried by the wind. His gaze fell to the scorched ground where Manda had thrashed in agony moments ago—proof of how close this battle had been.
His muscles ached, his bones on the verge of being crushed from Manda's violent thrashing. If not for the Iron Skin Jutsu, he would have been reduced to pulp. His chakra reserves were low, yet there was still unfinished business.
'Kimimaro…'
After searching for some time, Kaida finally spotted the boy—fleeing. Or rather, swimming away from the island in a desperate attempt to escape. Given the sudden appearance of a 100-meter-long snake and the chaos that followed, it was the logical choice for anyone with a shred of sanity.
Wasting no time, Kaida used the Body Flicker Jutsu, appearing directly in front of Kimimaro. The sudden arrival startled him, triggering an immediate reaction—he fired a volley of bone bullets toward Kaida. Each aimed at a vital point in his body. Considering Kimimaro was still swimming in the water, it was a feat in itself