Chapter 39: An Asymmetrical Battle
In the instant Orochimaru rushed over, Sasuke's eyes turned crimson. Outside his widened pupils, two bright red tomoe began to spin wildly!
In the world of the Sharingan, all movements slowed down. Orochimaru's bizarre movements also became traceable under Sasuke's powerful kinetic vision.
Swish, swish, swish—
He calmly took out several kunai and shot them towards Orochimaru's path!
Thud, thud, thud—
The sound of kunai missing their mark and embedding themselves in the dirt. Orochimaru, moving at high speed, dodged Sasuke's sure-hit attack with a few light turns and arrived in front of him with a twisted smile!
Hmph—! Facing Orochimaru's attack, Sasuke actually let out a cold smirk. Unaware of the true meaning of the "Sannin" title, although he was surprised that Orochimaru could dodge his kunai, he still trusted his comrade, believing that she would stop Orochimaru's attack!
Flesh and blood collided violently! Fist met fist. The young girl instantly erupted with terrifying power, actually sending one of the Sannin, Orochimaru, flying! With the power and speed brought by her nin-taijutsu, the girl leaped up, caught up with Orochimaru, twisted her body in mid-air, generated force from her shoulders that was amplified as it rotated through her slender waist, and channeled it through her long legs to the tips of her toes. In the girl's calm, emerald eyes, she viciously struck Orochimaru!
Crack! Orochimaru's left arm, used to block this blow, was bent from a straight line into an obtuse angle under the unquestionable, immense force. Immediately after, Orochimaru was hit by the girl's kick and slammed heavily onto the ground, even creating a small crater!
This wasn't enough! The girl knew very well how formidable Orochimaru was. These injuries were probably just a drizzle to him!
"Water Style: Super Water Gun Jutsu!"
Her bare, fair feet stepped on a water mass, floating in mid-air. Sakura unhesitatingly used her strongest ninjutsu to press the advantage against the enemy on the ground!
A transparent water line descended from the sky, cutting through Orochimaru's body and the soil as if they were butter!
"Is it over?" Sasuke frowned. Sakura jumped down from mid-air, looking gravely at the corpse on the ground, which was now in two pieces and had lost its chakra signature. She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but inwardly, she raised her guard.
It's impossible for Orochimaru to be killed by me so easily... No, I should say, it's a question of whether my attack even caused any damage to him! So, what will the next wave of attacks be like? Sakura thought secretly.
The next moment, a frantic fluctuation of chakra came from underground. The girl's expression changed drastically. Erupting from the earth were four giant snakes of enormous size!
Being stared at by the eight basketball-sized orange eyes of the giant snakes, Sakura couldn't help but swallow.
Hey, hey, this size is against the rules, isn't it!
After a standoff of less than two seconds, one of the giant snakes could no longer hold back its killing intent. It opened its great mouth, revealing fangs as thick as a young girl's thigh, and lunged at her with a foul wind!
Bang! The image of the girl in front of the giant snake suddenly disappeared. Its slow brain had no time to react and it crashed headfirst into the ground. In the next instant, the girl landed on the giant snake's head. The water line in her hand flashed past, easily slicing the giant snake's head off!
Tch! Just a huge body, but in reality, a good-for-nothing with no combat power! A small arc formed at the corner of Sakura's mouth, and her heart settled slightly.
The headless body of the giant snake was still convulsing madly, spraying stinking blood. The remaining three were aroused to a frenzy by the scent of blood and simultaneously launched their attacks on Sakura!
"Are you... in such a hurry to die?"
With a leap, she jumped onto a giant snake's head. A sharp ice blade had appeared in the girl's hand at some point. A deep blue chakra light shone from the tip of the blade—it was extremely pure wind-natured chakra condensing!
Hand up, blade down.
The second ferocious snake head fell from the air in a daze. Another madly twitching and flailing headless giant snake was added to the forest floor!
The girl leaped away again, stepping on a water mass and making several light changes of direction in the air. Her figure fluttered like a butterfly, and she soon pulled the two clumsy, large snakes chasing her from behind, as well as the distant Orochimaru, into a single straight line!
"Water Style: Super Water Cannon Jutsu!"
In the air, the chakra throughout the girl's body fluctuated violently. A super-high-powered water cutter jutsu shot out from her hand! The water line, at a speed of over Mach 7, pierced and severed the bodies of the giant snakes. A tenth of a second later, it once again cut the newly reformed Orochimaru, who was not far away, into two pieces!
Rumble— A continuous series of collapsing sounds echoed from the forest where the water cutter had passed. Looking down from the sky, the lush forest had suddenly become a lot shorter!
"Sakura-chan is amazing!" Naruto's voice came from below. Covered in blood and grime, he had only managed to kill the first giant snake after a bitter fight.
"Is it over?" Sasuke also breathed a sigh of relief.
Just now, when Sakura was entangled with the giant snakes, he had also been forced into a one-on-one confrontation with that bizarre ninja. Although he had managed to get the upper hand on his opponent by relying on the Sharingan's unique throwing technique, the "Windmill Triple Blade," and had burned the strange ninja, there was a feeling in his heart that told him the opponent didn't seem to care at all about the damage he had caused!
Is this guy a pervert? But, even if he's a pervert, he should be dead from such injuries!
"Not yet... Can you feel it, this chakra! The battle has only just begun!"
Landing from the air, Sakura frowned, staring intently at Orochimaru's bisected corpse, and said in a low voice!
Suddenly, the mouth of the remains on the ground opened to an exaggerated size. A soaking wet figure actually crawled out from the half-corpse. After a shake, a completely unharmed Orochimaru reappeared in front of the three of them—
Sasuke and Naruto were instantly dumbfounded. "This-this is just too ridiculous! All the previous injuries are gone! It's like he's a completely different person. What kind of ninjutsu is this!"
"It seems he just consumed a large amount of chakra to recover from a fatal injury. This is practically immortality!" Sakura murmured. "How are we supposed to fight this..."
"You two brats are really getting in the way. It seems I'll have to get rid of you first...!"
Orochimaru's expression was very grim. He seemed... to be getting serious! That cold gaze made even Sakura, who had already adapted to his killing intent, tremble for a moment!
"Hey! Don't look down on me, you slimy bastard!" Naruto said solemnly. "I'm not that easy to get rid of!"
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He released a massive amount of chakra and summoned hundreds of shadow clones in an instant. The vast crowd instantly filled the clearing, a truly spectacular scene!
Then, the hundreds of shadow clones formed hand seals together—
"Wind Style: Wind Cutter Technique!"
Hundreds of shadow clones activating a ninjutsu at the same time—what a presence!
Although the Wind Cutter Technique was just a simple C-rank ninjutsu, when hundreds of wind cutters were unleashed at the same time, they converged into a vast storm of wind blades! For a moment, wind blades danced wildly, the fierce wind roared, sand and stones flew, and countless wind blades, with the momentum of smashing dried weeds, cut the giant trees and rocks along the path into pieces and rushed towards Orochimaru without stopping!
"This amount of chakra... interesting!" Facing the wildly raging storm of wind blades, Orochimaru's expression remained unchanged. He calmly formed the seals—
"Summoning Jutsu: Rashomon!"
Rumble! A gate from hell, dozens of meters high, rose slowly from the ground, standing majestically among the giant trees, firmly blocking the path of the wind blade storm!
The massive storm of wind blades also seemed small in comparison to the giant demon gate. The endless wind blades crashed into the demon gate, mercilessly leaving crisscrossing gullies over ten meters deep! The Rashomon gate was cut into a pitted mess by the intertwining wind blades, its thickness rapidly decreasing at a visible rate. However, at the same time, the wind blade storm was also weakening at the same rate. In the end, it had shaved the demon gate down to a single layer of skin, but it still failed to break through!
Orochimaru sneered and jumped to the top of the Rashomon gate. His hands moved as quickly as a cat's cradle, forming seals, refining a large amount of chakra and transforming it into an endless number of poisonous snakes, which he spat out from his mouth! A full million poisonous snakes converged into a terrifying swarm, flowing down the Rashomon gate to the ground like a river, their mouths extending long, sharp blades, hissing as they lunged towards Sakura and the other two!