For Naruto, encountering Sasuke was entirely unexpected.
If he had a choice, he would have preferred not to meet Sasuke at all.
Sasuke, who is fueled by hatred, was steadily growing stronger. Naruto's original plan was to wait until Sasuke hit a bottleneck in his growth. At that point, Naruto intended to reveal the truth, enabling Sasuke to take the next leap forward.
But plans often fail to keep up with changes. Since they had crossed paths, Naruto knew he had to continue acting and deceiving Sasuke.
Still, Naruto felt that simply acting wasn't enough. As he dashed toward Orochimaru, he mulled over how best to deal with Sasuke when the time came.
"What's going on here?"
Kisame, rushing alongside Naruto, asked as they brushed past each other. He understood Naruto was performing some act, but he wasn't sure what the purpose was.
"What are you mumbling about, Kisame? Yasuo-kun said to take down Orochimaru, so let's just do it. Who cares why? I got beaten up earlier, and now it's time for payback!"
Hidan shouted as he charged toward Orochimaru without hesitation.
Naruto wanted to explain the reason to these three, but he was afraid of being exposed, so he didn't know how to start.
However, Hidan's words made Naruto chuckle inwardly, 'Sometimes, having no brain was better than overthinking.'
"Hidan's right! Why bother so much? Let's do this! Attack!"
As he said that, Naruto joined the charge toward Orochimaru.
Anyway, this performance was aimed at Sasuke, so Hidan, Kisame, and Kakuzu only needed to act as supporting characters by fighting Orochimaru, which will not affect the direction of the plot.
After hearing what Naruto said, Kisame and Kakuzu exchanged glances. Something felt off to both of them, but neither could pinpoint exactly what.
However, when they sensed the strengthened blessings Naruto granted through his Zanpakuto, which is doubling their strength, they decided not to question it further.
Looking at the glowing white Samehada, Kisame smirked darkly, "You're right. Why bother so much… let's just do this!"
The doubled Weapon Blessing and Courage Blessing caused a significant spike in Kisame's strength.
He hadn't forgotten the earlier challenge with the 'Demon King'. Since the game hadn't concluded, Kisame believed he still had a shot at taking first place.
With that thought in mind, he focused entirely on unleashing his power and defeating Orochimaru. The rest didn't matter to him.
Kakuzu shared the same mindset.
With their weapons radiating brilliant white light and their bodies glowing in red, blue, and purple hues, the four of them charged at Orochimaru with everything they had.
Seeing this, Orochimaru was a little confused.
He could clearly sense the drastic increase in their power, and it was no exaggeration to say their strength had doubled.
'I thought this was supposed to be a performance?'
'Why were they going all out?'
Orochimaru was quite speechless, but since the acting had reached this point, it was too late for him to retreat even if he wanted to.
Or rather, he felt a surge of excitement.
Ever since becoming one of the Sannin, Orochimaru has lost his original passion for being a Shinobi. It's mainly because he has seen too many deaths and realized how insignificant his own strength is.
However, ever since he got Urashiki's body, he felt an unprecedented level of strength, and, along with it, a renewed passion for being a Shinobi.
Unfortunately, Otogakure was filled with weaklings, and even the once-mighty Akatsuki now seemed no more threatening than paper to him.
Because he possesses the Yomotsu Hirasaka, he could instantly appear at any Akatsuki's base. As for destroying the members of the Akatsuki, in the first round of challenges just now, he has perfectly demonstrated that he can effortlessly defeat Akatsuki's members without a scratch.
Thus, Orochimaru had reverted to his earlier mindset: avoiding battle. The difference was that before, he feared death, but now, he simply found no challenge in it.
But now, with Naruto's blessings, the strength of Akatsuki's members had doubled once more, and with Naruto himself joining the battle, Orochimaru's excitement surged.
After all, in this performance, his role was to stop Naruto, Kisame, Hidan, and Kakuzu. So going all-out wouldn't hurt, right?
With that in mind, Orochimaru bit his finger and slammed his hand onto the ground. Instantly, the earth was covered in intricate black markings, and with a resounding 'Bang', thick white smoke billowed into the air.
When the smoke cleared, a massive serpent with purple scales and long horns, over 50 meters in length, appeared in the previously empty clearing.
"Hehehe!"
Orochimaru let out a sinister chuckle.
This is his strongest Summoned Beast, Manda.
Though Manda was his Summoned Beast, it was far from obedient. Unlike typical Summoned Beasts, Manda was exceptionally malevolent, demanding sacrifices of over a hundred lives every time it was summoned.
Orochimaru's cruel nature rarely stopped him from calling Manda, but even he hesitated to summon it frequently.
Now, however, was a different time. With the power of the Rinnegan, Orochimaru could completely subjugate Manda through his overwhelming Dojutsu, forcing it to obey without resistance.
Naruto's eyes widened slightly at the sight of Manda.
In his memory, Manda was known for its high attack power and incredible speed. Most notably, it had withstood Deidara's ultimate self-explosion in the original work.
Though Manda perished in the explosion, it was significant that Sasuke, hiding inside its belly, survived unscathed. This fact alone proved Manda's remarkable defensive capabilities.
However, with Sasuke watching from the sidelines, Naruto couldn't use the Eight Gates or Rasengan. Aside from those, he didn't have any truly devastating moves at his disposal.
"Petty tricks!"
At this moment, Kisame snorted coldly. After rapidly forming hand seals, he unleashed a massive torrent of water from his mouth.
The sheer volume of water was enormous, akin to the size of a lake.
But it didn't stop there… the water quickly morphed into an elliptical shape, trapping Manda within its confines.
Naruto instantly recognized the technique. This was a combination of Kisame's Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave and Water Prison Technique… a technique known as Water Prison Shark Dance Technique!
This was a powerful map-altering move, and in this case, it had effectively turned the battlefield into a giant water prison, sealing Manda within.
Whoosh!
Kisame rushed into the water prison, and his speed increased instead of decreasing. As the caster, he could move freely within the water.
"A Thousand Feeding Sharks!"
Without hesitation, Kisame poured an immense amount of Chakra into the water, instantly summoning a thousand sharks!
Though the sharks were small compared to Manda, and the giant serpent could swallow them whole with ease, their sheer numbers made up for it.
Driven mad by the scent of blood, the sharks swarmed Manda in a frenzied attack.
Before long, over half of the sharks were gone, but all that remained of Manda was a massive skeleton.
Who could have predicted that Manda, Orochimaru's strongest Summoned Beast, would meet such a dismal end?
If Orochimaru hadn't used the Rinnegan to control Manda, it would have reverse-summoned itself and disappeared the moment it was injured.
Alternatively, if Orochimaru hadn't been so distracted by Hidan and Kakuzu's relentless assault, he might have de-summoned Manda if he saw Manda's situation.
Any of these scenarios could have spared Manda.
But alas, there were no 'ifs' in this battle.
Seeing this unfold, Naruto couldn't help but laugh.
'In the old days, people say that you need to use magic to defeat magic. Now, Kisame uses summons to defeat summons...'