Boom!!
The colossal fist of the stone giant, obscuring the sky, swept with a destructive wind pressure and slammed fiercely down onto the tiny figures below!
The ground cracked and collapsed under the terrifying force, and rising smoke and dust obscured everyone's vision!
"Yugito!"
In the distance, the Fourth Raikage's expression changed abruptly, and he instinctively moved to rescue her.
"Hmph! Where are you looking?!"
Obito's cold voice rang out, and the skeletal arm of his Susanoo mercilessly smashed a punch toward the Fourth Raikage!
"Get lost!" the Raikage roared, his remaining right arm wrapped in violent Lightning Release Chakra as he fearlessly punched back.
Rumble!
Lightning and the bony fist violently collided again, creating a deafening crash. The turbulent blast sent both of them staggering back several steps.
The Fourth Raikage's face was ashen, his eyes blazing with fury. He glared intensely at the Susanoo preparing to strike again, his voice filled with hatred: "You're asking for death!"
Just as the Fourth Raikage was burning with anxiety, in the distance, Orochimaru's snake-like eyes narrowed slightly in the chest of the half-body stone statue.
His senses were linked to the colossal statue, so he clearly felt a faint, subtle rebound when his giant fist struck the ground.
Furthermore, the knuckles of the fist felt slightly numb?
"What happened?"
A flicker of surprise and doubt arose in his mind as he slowly manipulated the stone giant, raising the colossal stone fist.
As the giant's fist lifted, the pervasive dust slowly settled.
The scene below was clearly presented to Orochimaru, causing his eyes to narrow.
In the deep crater left by the giant punch, a semi-transparent, semi-circular barrier stood firm, its surface glowing with a gentle, watery light, sheltering the area beneath.
Inside the barrier, Kakashi Hatake was kneeling on one knee, his short sword 'Envy' plunged into the ground. Nearly drained of Chakra, he was breathing heavily.
But right now, he was looking up, staring intently ahead, his face filled with an expression of incredible astonishment. His mouth was slightly open, and his eyes were wide!
Yugito Nii and Yagura Karatachi were fully transformed into their Tailed Beast states, clearly having prepared for defense, but they, too, looked utterly bewildered, their gazes fixed on the same spot.
And in front of them, a new figure had appeared.
A figure that had suddenly materialized, standing with her back to Orochimaru on the stone giant.
Orochimaru could only see a long, black hair that flowed down to her waist like moonlight. It wasn't deliberately styled, merely tied up with a simple tree branch hairpin, revealing an elegantly contoured neck.
She wore a pure-white robe, impeccably tailored and spotless, with intricate gold patterns embroidered on the cuffs and collar.
"You..."
Kakashi's eyes were practically bulging out. He was staring intensely at the figure's face, as if witnessing the most unbelievable sight in the world. Shock, confusion, and disbelief were intertwined in his gaze.
Just then, the figure finally spoke.
The voice was that of a woman—clear, calm, and carrying an all-encompassing rationality.
"Interesting." Her gaze swept over Kakashi and the two Tailed Beasts. "It seems I was mistaken. The 'Parallel World Theory' does have merit."
Her voice wasn't loud, yet it clearly reached everyone's ears. Then, she slowly turned around.
As she turned, the pair of small, exquisite, serpent-shaped earrings on her ears, which connected head-to-tail to form an "∞" (infinity) symbol, gently swayed, shining with a soft luster.
And as she turned, as her face was fully revealed to Orochimaru...
Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
In the chest of the stone giant, Orochimaru's golden snake eyes suddenly contracted to the size of pinpricks, and the smile on his face froze.
It was replaced by an expression of unprecedented horror and stupefaction.
That face...
That face... was clearly seven parts similar to his own!
The same contours, the same jawline, even the slightly upturned corners of the eyes.
But she was more perfect and more refined.
She wore silver, circular-rimmed glasses, and her features looked like they were sculpted by a master artisan, yet lacked any artificiality, possessing only a harmonious, natural grace.
Her skin was fair and delicate, almost transparent, not sickly, but more like supreme-quality white jade, faintly flashing with a warm radiance and extremely subtle golden patterns beneath.
She appeared to be in her mid-twenties.
She simply stood there, emanating none of the cold, sinister toxicity of a snake. Instead, she carried an indescribable aura of intellect, rationality, and gentleness that was utterly out of place amidst the bloody chaos of the battlefield.
Beneath her white lab coat was a fitted black turtleneck, outlining a shapely and upright figure.
Pinned to her chest was an emblem of a serpent coiled around a tree, and a highly conspicuous identification badge that read:
—Konoha Academy of Science · Dean.
At a glance, she appeared to be an entity formed from the very condensation of the words Rationality and Life, inspiring awe that prevented any thought of desecration, yet also providing a sense of calm due to the gentleness that flowed around her.
A kind of intellectual beauty that transcended gender.
(The AI-generated character image can only achieve this level.)
"You..."
Orochimaru lost all his composure and madness, his voice hoarse and dry with disbelief as he spoke: "Who... are you?!"
The woman's deep, crystalline golden vertical pupils lightly scanned the half-body stone statue and Orochimaru.
Orochimaru inexplicably felt a strange sensation of being completely seen through, yet simultaneously enveloped by an ineffable sense of tolerance and acceptance.
"Me?"
Her lips seemed to curve upward due to an amusing discovery, but entirely without Orochimaru's madness and greed.
"I am Orochi-hime (The Great Serpent Princess)."
Her tone was calm and objective, as if stating a factual truth, and she smiled slightly: "I believe your name is, Orochimaru."
"I am you, and you are me."
"..."
Orochimaru's throat bobbed. The intense feeling of absurdity and incongruity almost made him believe he was caught in a Genjutsu.
However, the perfectly functioning Chakra within his body told him that everything before him was real.
"A Chakra aggregate similar to a 'Shadow Clone'?"
Orochi-hime paid no mind to Orochimaru's stunned confusion. She looked down at her own body, then followed a faint sense of connection to Kakashi.
"Hatake Kakashi, the you in this world is still alive."
Her gaze shifted lower, settling on the sword in Kakashi's hand. Her eyes flickered slightly, and she instinctively adjusted her glasses. "Truly a bizarre and overbearing power, it cannot be refused."
"I also can't detect the presence of a 'Flying Thunder God Marker.' Is it because the distance between worlds is too vast?"
She had been conducting an experiment in her research institute, and yet her consciousness was forcibly dragged here. While validating the "Parallel World Theory" was a pleasant surprise, the feeling of being bound was far from comfortable.
She could sense that once Kakashi cut the connection, or his Chakra was depleted, she would depart.
"If Hatake Kakashi maintains the current Chakra output, the estimated stable presence duration of this projection in 'World #2' is..."
She raised her arm, folded it across her body, and pondered, muttering beneath her breath.
Meanwhile, Kakashi suddenly snapped out of his daze.
Although this feminized and temperamentally different "Orochimaru" made him uneasy, the threat posed by the real Orochimaru was the immediate priority.
"Orochi—Orochi-hime!"
He suppressed the surprise in his heart, pointed at Orochimaru in the giant's chest, and urgently asked: "Do you have any way to help me deal with him?"
Orochi-hime's thoughts were interrupted. She slowly raised her eyes to look at Kakashi, the light flowing within her golden vertical pupils.
"I am a scientific researcher," her voice was completely devoid of fluctuation. "My power depends on external energy supply and available resources."
"Why did you arrive at the conclusion that 'I have the ability to independently resolve this high-threat target'?"
However, the moment her words fell, as if realizing something, her gaze once again settled on Orochimaru in the stone giant.
This time, she frowned slightly.
"Ah..." she let out a light sigh of realization, carrying the enlightenment of having discovered a variable, and an undisguised... disgust?
"I see." Orochi-hime's voice was clear and calm. "The version of me in this world has a behavioral pattern that tends toward 'forced non-essential exogenous substance fusion with a biological body'?"
She scanned the body, which was forcefully integrated and chaotically merged with rock, and frowned slightly: "While it is a peculiar ability, the form is ugly, and the energy utilization efficiency is low."
Hearing this, Orochimaru broke free from his trance.
Looking at that rational, feminized face similar to his own, and hearing the cold words that sounded like an assessment of a failed experiment, an unnamed fire surged in his heart.
"Kakashi!" his voice was angry and raspy. "What did you do to me?!"
"Can you please be quiet?" Orochi-hime's voice was placid. "Your voice is very unpleasant, almost intolerable."
"You!!" Orochimaru's eye twitched violently. The string of rationality snapped, and he controlled the stone giant, raising its fist to smash down on the seemingly fragile semi-transparent barrier!
"Watch out!" Yugito Nii and Yagura Karatachi's voices came from within Matatabi (Two-Tails) and Isobu (Three-Tails), instantly bracing themselves for a direct hit.
BAM!!
The giant fist slammed squarely onto the barrier. However, the barrier's surface merely rippled outward in soft, watery waves.
The terrifying force, enough to crush mountains, was silently absorbed and dissolved as if a mud ox had entered the sea. The barrier didn't budge, and not a single crack appeared.
"Wha—what is this?!" Yagura Karatachi blurted out.
"The application of basic Water Release Chakra properties," Orochi-hime calmly replied. "A barrier constructed based on the principle of 'Water Release Chakra Fluid Non-Linear Stress Response.'"
"Wha—what kind of fluid?" Yugito Nii's cat eyes were wide with confusion.
Orochi-hime sighed slightly, the expression of a teacher facing students who couldn't grasp basic physics.
"That is, a special Chakra fluid state where the relationship between shear stress and shear strain rate is a non-linear function."
She paused, seemingly worried they wouldn't understand, and added: "Most biological body fluids, such as lymph, synovial fluid, and the semi-fluid matrix of cytoplasm, fit this definition."
If Hyūga Kawa were here, he would recognize that what Orochi-hime was describing was essentially a 'Non-Newtonian Fluid.'
But Yugito Nii, Yagura Karatachi, and Kakashi Hatake didn't understand.
Looking at the still-bewildered Kakashi and the silent two Tailed Beasts, Orochi-hime habitually adjusted her glasses.
"When external force is applied slowly, the particle motion inside the fluid is gentle, particle bonding is tight, friction is low, and the fluid exhibits low viscosity, allowing it to flow easily."
"When external force is applied violently and rapidly, the particles inside the fluid are forced into high-speed motion, the gaps between particles increase, and motion friction intensifies. The fluid exhibits extremely high viscosity, even presenting a pseudo-solid rigidity."
Kakashi struggled to digest these unprecedented concepts, managing to grasp the core: "You mean, the greater the force applied to this barrier, the sturdier it becomes?"
"Fundamentally correct." Orochi-hime nodded slightly in approval.
"You said earlier that your power comes from external sources? Then this barrier..." Kakashi quickly asked.
Orochi-hime raised her hand and pointed to the tree and serpent emblem on her chest, answering concisely: "Konoha Academy of Science Personal Protection Unit. This is standard issue."
Kakashi's eyes instantly brightened, as if he had grasped a lifeline. He asked: "What is the defense limit of this... this Protection Unit? And how long can it be maintained?"
"I regret to inform you that, based on your currently provided Chakra output and your own energy reserves..."
After a quick mental calculation, Orochi-hime replied: "Estimated stable operating time: one hour and thirty-two minutes, with a margin of error of about three minutes."
Hearing this, Orochimaru, who was frantically bombarding the barrier, abruptly halted, and Kakashi's eye twitched involuntarily.
An hour and a half?
This defense, which didn't budge even when taking hits from the stone giant, could be maintained for an hour and a half? And she called that just "being able to maintain"?
Kakashi took a deep breath, suppressing his shock, and pressed on: "Did you bring anything else with attack capabilities?"
Hearing this, Orochi-hime let out a soft sigh, raised her hand, and removed the tree branch hairpin that held up her hair. Her black hair cascaded down her back, spreading to her waist like a waterfall.
"This is the only portable device on my person with an active attack function," she stated calmly, flicking her wrist seemingly casually.
The inconspicuous tree branch hairpin arced through the air in a subtle flash of light, shooting toward the chest of the stone giant, where Orochimaru was located.
Orochimaru's pupils immediately contracted out of instinct, and he commanded the stone statue to raise its arm to block the branch.
Pfft!
With a faint, almost inaudible sound, the hairpin easily pierced the rock.
"You... Tch!"
Orochimaru paused in surprise, and realizing the attack was only this weak, he couldn't help but let out a sneer.
But the next moment.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Countless cold, glittering, thorn-like spikes violently erupted outward from the point where the hairpin had penetrated the statue, exploding from the inside out!
CRASH!
Half of the stone giant's body instantly exploded in a shower of massive, jagged spikes. Large chunks of rubble shot everywhere, hitting the ground with a series of dull thuds!
"..."
Orochimaru watched in utter horror as the thorns, which had exploded practically brushing against his body, scattered. The icy breath of death instantly froze him in place.
What was that thing?!
Wood Release?
From what that woman said, was this terrifying thing meant to be used on people?!
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