Chapter 40: Clone Battle
"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!
Sasuke's pupils shrank slightly, his heart filled with shock, but he still calmly formed the seals—Ram - Horse - Snake - Dragon - Rat - Ox - Tiger!
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
A violent fireball, larger and hotter than the Great Fireball, transformed into a lifelike giant dragon that danced and collided fiercely with the endless stream of snakes! However, how could the flesh-and-blood swarm of snakes withstand a pure fire dragon? In the blazing flames, countless white snakes struggled before turning to ash. The serpent army charged forward one after another, futilely using their lives to consume the fire dragon's heat, only to be swallowed whole! Finally, the fire dragon roared, turned the ball of snakes to dust, and raised its head to charge towards the Rashomon gate, towards Orochimaru who stood upon it!
BOOM—!! The Rashomon gate, after being hit by two powerful ninjutsu, finally succumbed. It was blown to smithereens by the fire dragon, turning into a sky-full of dust that scattered into the air with a mournful cry, spreading throughout the forest and becoming a thick curtain that blotted out the sun and sky.
"Did it hit...?" Sasuke asked with a frown. The thick dust was impenetrable even to his Sharingan.
"Don't be careless, he's Orochimaru. He can't be taken down by just one or two A-rank ninjutsu—"
Before Sakura's words had faded, Orochimaru suddenly appeared behind her with a Body Flicker, swinging his sword down!
Schwing! The incomparably sharp Kusanagi sword was blocked by a pale blue water shield that appeared out of thin air. Under Orochimaru's vicious strike, not even a ripple was created on the water shield!
Orochimaru's surprised eyes met the girl's cold gaze as she turned to look back. The snake-like, pale yellow vertical pupils and the indifferent emerald eyes crossed for an instant. Their killing intents intertwined and collided in that moment—the former vast, sinister, and terrifying; the latter pure, ice-cold, and bone-chilling! Then, the two of them completed their next ninjutsu at the same speed!
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
"Water Style: Water Python Strangulation!"
With a cold laugh from Orochimaru, the Kusanagi sword transformed into a giant gray python. Under the girl's frost-covered, delicate face, the water shield turned into a crystalline blue-green serpent. The two coiled into a mass of intertwining blue-green and gray, wrestling madly! However, how could the strength of a water serpent made of ultrapure water be compared to a form made of ordinary chakra?
"Hah!" The girl clenched her teeth, and with an angry shout, the blue-green serpent suddenly exerted its strength, crushing the gray python into minced meat, which degenerated back into the twitching Kusanagi sword! Then, the water serpent pressed its advantage, fiercely coiling around Orochimaru's arm!
Feeling the tenacity of the water serpent, Orochimaru's expression couldn't help but change slightly. In the instant before the blue-green serpent could crush his arm, he made his hand as soft and slippery as a snake, slipped out of the Water Python's grip, and leaped backward into the air, dodging the approaching support from Sasuke and Naruto, his hands quickly forming seals!
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
A huge amount of chakra transformed into a roaring fire dragon and was spat out from Orochimaru's mouth. The blazing flames emitted a dazzling light, illuminating the dark forest. The boundless heatwave, even from dozens of meters away, still scorched the green grass on the ground yellow and withered!
Although Orochimaru didn't know why Sakura's Water Style was so powerful, with his rich combat experience, he immediately thought of a way to deal with it—since she's a Water Style ninja, let's test her with Fire Style! With a sharp wave of his hand, the fire dragon, under his control, roared and rushed towards the three of them!
Damn it, how do I not remember Orochimaru can use Fire Style! Alright, expecting a ninjutsu genius like Orochimaru not to know Fire Style, I was too naive! Sakura bit her lip. Without time to think, she cast a ninjutsu.
"Ice Style: Demonic Sealing Ice!"
Ice-natured chakra, under Sakura's still somewhat clumsy control, condensed in the air into a crystal-clear ice wall, emitting a bone-chilling cold.
This was a ninjutsu she had learned from Haku in the Land of Waves. Ice Style had a stronger resistance to elemental ninjutsu and was very suitable for a ninja like Sakura with high chakra control but not a large amount of reserves, making up for the weakness of her ninjutsu system being countered by Fire Style. However, because Sakura had also just crossed the threshold of ice nature transformation, when practicing Ice Style ninjutsu, she had a rare taste of the obscurity that ordinary people feel when practicing ninjutsu. It took her half a month to learn this one move.
At this moment, under Sakura's still slightly unskilled control, a thick ice wall formed a semicircle around the three of them, blocking Orochimaru's ninjutsu! The fire dragon and the ice wall collided head-on. In the face of the bone-chilling cold of the Ice Style ninjutsu, the scorching, blazing flames were no match for the thick ice wall. The ferocious fire dragon burned out all its firepower but only managed to melt a thin layer of the ice wall's surface!
Phew! Sakura secretly breathed a sigh of relief, stopped the chakra supply to the ice wall, and ended the ninjutsu.
"Ice Style? Hehe..." Orochimaru looked at the girl below with great interest. A common ninja from an ordinary family, yet she actually possesses a Kekkei Genkai! And, it's probably not a bloodline inherited from her clan, but a self-developed one...
"If it weren't for Sasuke... perhaps you would have been good prey too! What a pity!" Orochimaru smiled, his voice hoarse. "Too much time has been wasted. Even those wastes... they've probably reacted by now!"
"What a shame. I'm about to finish you all off!"
"Damn it, what are you talking about!" Naruto shouted defiantly, once again using the Multi-Shadow Clone technique. A huge amount of chakra instantly created enough clones to crowd the clearing!
However, this time, the shadow clone tactic was not effective—
"Get down!"
Sensing an unusual chakra fluctuation behind her, Sakura had no time to think. She instantly accelerated and rushed to Naruto's side, tackling him to the ground!
At the same time, a longsword swept horizontally over the three's heads. The longsword, extending over a hundred meters from Orochimaru's mouth, wiped out all of Naruto's hundreds of shadow clones in one go! Although it wasn't as clean and neat as Sakura's Water Cutter, with his unfathomable chakra and ninjutsu foundation, Orochimaru could also instantly eliminate a group of units!
"Water Style: Super Water Gun Jutsu!"
A whitish water line, faster, longer, sharper, and more powerful than the sword... Sakura responded to Orochimaru's attack with her own ninjutsu!
The water line swept across. Orochimaru's upright body softly fell in two smooth pieces, turning into soft mud and melting into the earth.
"He used a substitution to swap his real body with an earth clone the moment the attack was complete, did he?" the girl said softly.
So, where is the real body?
In a flash, feeling a movement under her feet, Sakura subconsciously leaped up. Leaping up at the same time as Sakura was a giant python as thick as a water bucket, its mouth biting the girl's delicate ankle!
However, the giant python's simple brain could not understand why its sharp fangs could not bite down on the food in its mouth! The next moment, the girl bent down to dodge Orochimaru's attack. The wind-natured chakra gathered at her fingertips turned her slender fingers into a supreme weapon, which cut off the giant python's head, turning its confusion into an eternal question!
Snake blood gushed out, spraying onto Sakura. She didn't open a water shield to block the blood; she had no time to care about such trivial details.
Letting the blood dye half her body, the dark red blood made the girl's exposed skin seem even more transparent, so crystal-clear that it glowed faintly in the moonlight, possessing a strange kind of beauty. Glancing at Naruto and Sasuke, who were still fighting with the remaining giant snakes, the girl's emerald eyes locked onto the distant Orochimaru. She tossed aside the snake's head, stepped on a transparent water mass under her feet, and her figure, a mixture of dark red and pure white, rushed towards Orochimaru at high speed!
Moving at high speed to Orochimaru's side, a fierce punch shot towards his abdomen! With the enhancement of her nin-taijutsu and the protection of her ultrapure water, the girl had enough confidence to trade blows in taijutsu with one of the Sannin! However, a slippery feeling came from the point of contact. Orochimaru's abdomen, as if boneless, twisted at an unimaginable angle and dodged the girl's punch!
This guy who's not quite human and not quite snake!
The girl's expression wavered slightly, but her attacks continued without pause. A few more consecutive punches were all deflected by the slippery, unknown liquid, not causing much damage to Orochimaru! However, this was not a futile attack. Sakura had finally seen the pattern in Orochimaru's bizarre taijutsu. Coordinating with her ultrapure water to lock his movements, a final, vicious elbow strike slammed into Orochimaru's head!
Dirt flew, and the head shattered. Orochimaru's body also turned into mud with this heavy elbow strike!
This is... an earth clone!
The tricked girl looked up coldly. Orochimaru's body was materializing from a tree.
The girl's cold, emerald eyes once again met Orochimaru's crazed, yellow, vertical pupils.
"Hehehehe—!" Orochimaru laughed wildly!
The next moment, an ice-cold water cutter crossed the space between them, cutting Orochimaru's body along with his wild laughter.
Another clone!
The real one... where is he?
On the girl's delicate face, her cold eyes slowly swept across the sky and the ground, the killing intent in them seeming as if it could condense into frost!