Chapter 608: An Anticlimactic Battle.
Let us describe two flowers blooming simultaneously, but trace each branch separately.
Turning the clock back a few hours and focusing our sight on the other side of the world, near the border of the Land of Sound in the northern part of the civilized Land of Fire, on the battlefield where Sakura Uchiha was located.
When Haruno Sakura's experiment on the other side succeeded, her skyrocketing momentum transmitted across more than half the planet, and it could be vaguely sensed even from this distant place.
In an instant, the fierce battle abruptly paused for a moment.
Other than Sakura Uchiha, the other three people present did not know where that indescribable palpitation originated from.
"End this quickly, Kabuto!" Orochimaru suddenly said.
He suddenly had a bad premonition.
Forcefully resisting the urge to turn his head and look in that direction, Orochimaru's mind raced, and many thoughts surfaced in his head.
"End this quickly?" The one who responded to Orochimaru, however, was not Kabuto, but the young girl with a light chuckle. "Heh, you sure think highly of him!"
She lightly waved her slender arm, and the giant beneath her feet hoisted the greatsword, unleashing a simple, straightforward slash!
Swoosh—
It was such a move devoid of any trickery or variation, yet when executed by that giant, it possessed the power to split mountains and cleave the earth, an unstoppable force!
Even if Kabuto Yakushi had a thousand types of ninjutsu and endless methods, Sakura Uchiha disdained to unravel them, choosing to shatter them all with a single sword strike!
The young girl stood high atop Susanoo, looking down at the battlefield.
She wanted to see what other secret jutsus Kabuto had left!
Clang—!!
A massive rumble echoed resoundingly through the valley! Amidst the flying dust, the spiral greatsword was shockingly blocked by something!
"Oh?"
The expression on the young girl's smooth, fair face shifted slightly. The peripheral vision of her eyes withdrew from Orochimaru's side, finally focusing all her attention on the enemy before her.
"Look, this is my surprise... do you like it?"
Kabuto Yakushi's face was ferocious as he revealed a twisted smile.
Right in front of him shockingly stood a massive giant. Its height was half that of Susanoo, but its build was extremely stout, even bordering on corpulent. It was clad in white bone armor, and covering that white armor was a thick layer of silky mucus, giving off an eerie, incongruous feeling!
And it was precisely this dual layer of defense—one soft and one hard—that created an effect greater than the sum of its parts. It unintentionally formed a kind of composite armor that blocked Susanoo's attack!
The most disgusting part was that there were several thick, umbilical cord-like strips of flesh attached to the giant's back, connecting all the way to Kabuto's body.
Influenced by the original, Sakura Uchiha's combat power was extremely high, and her vision was equally lofty.
With just a single glance, she saw through the origins of this massive body. In truth, it was a combination of the abilities of the Sound Five who died three years ago.
The gigantified body was the ability of the fat man Jirobo, the bone armor was Kimimaro's Kekkei Genkai, and the silky mucus was Kidomaru's spider silk... Essentially, this was an abomination stitched together. Being able to stitch them together was Kabuto's skill, but Sakura didn't care about this. Instead, she focused more of her gaze on Kabuto—on that umbilical cord that increasingly resembled a snake, on the rapidly growing eyeshadow on his face, and on the faintly visible scales on his arms.
It turned out that what Kabuto stitched together wasn't just the power of the Sound Five.
That made sense... Without absorbing Orochimaru's power, Kabuto wouldn't have enough strength to drive this powerful abomination.
She originally thought it was just a side dish to pass the time for entertainment, but she didn't expect it to actually pique a little bit of her interest.
"Such creativity; this truly is something only a person who plays with corpses like you could come up with," the young girl scoffed. Looking down at Kabuto, she said disdainfully, "However, are you sure that you like this are still yourself?"
In just the time it took to speak, the scales on Kabuto's arms had already completely taken shape.
At this rate, Kabuto... might just end up becoming a clone of Orochimaru!
But the bespectacled youth appeared unmoved.
He jumped onto the giant's shoulder, taking off his glasses, an inexplicable light shining in his eyes: "Someone like you completely doesn't understand what it means to me to become one with Lord Orochimaru!"
"Moreover, if I didn't do this, how else could I stand at this height to face you?!"
Sakura Uchiha lowered her eyelids, trying to understand Kabuto's state of mind. She knew about Kabuto's early experiences. After Danzo's downfall, Root's files were declassified, and Kabuto's records were subsequently exposed.
A ninja whose sense of self had been erased.
However, knowing did not mean understanding... How could a powerhouse who continuously pursued an independent personality and possessed a strong sense of self understand a loser who had lost himself and needed others to define him?
Forget it, it didn't matter.
Sakura shook her head slightly.
She said clearly and loudly, "To stand at this height to face me, you have worked very hard, and you have paid some terrible prices that you gladly accepted... However, there is one thing I must remind you of."
"Your height is still far from sufficient to face me."
She looked down at Kabuto, her voice calm, and raised her right hand high.
Then, she swung it down forcefully!
Boom—!
Susanoo gripped the sword with both hands and viciously slashed down!
The youth, who was already half-snake and half-human, did not dare to be careless. Pumping his chakra to the max, he frantically stimulated the proliferation of the bone shield and the secretion of spider silk. The giant erupted with its entire body's strength, raising the shield to meet the spiral greatsword.
But this sword was heavier than Kabuto had ever imagined.
In just the instant of contact, the bone shield that was indestructible just a moment ago shattered cleanly into two, like an egg smashing against a rock! Kabuto's expression changed drastically as he watched the greatsword fall, chopping Jirobo along with him alive into two halves!
Under Sakura Uchiha's full power, he couldn't even take a single strike!
But the worse the situation became, the more crazed Kabuto's expression grew.
He still had a backup plan!
"Hahaha! As expected of the eagle soaring in the sky..." The reborn Kabuto crawled out from the belly of the corpse, dripping with blood and looking terrifying, laughing loudly, "However, even a small snake rolling in the mud will bite back in despair when facing a lofty eagle!"
As he spoke, he frantically channeled his chakra.
The flesh and blood at the incisions of the originally tottering two halves of the corpse suddenly shifted. Astonishingly, they each grew an arm and a leg, instantly transforming from Jirobo into Sakon and Ukon!
The moment Sakon and Ukon appeared, they lunged forward fiercely, one on each side, firmly hugging Susanoo's arms and body. At the same time, along with the sound of a flute playing, three demonic creatures that were halfway between illusion and reality suddenly emerged from underground. They tangled around Susanoo's body and launched an attack on Sakura Uchiha!
"Take this!"
Kabuto wore a smug look and shouted at Sakura, "I'm going to lock down Susanoo and drag you down from your lofty throne!"
He stared fixedly at Sakura Uchiha, wanting to see something on the young girl's face, but all he saw was a pair of eyes as calm as autumn water.
No panic, not even surprise.
Sakura Uchiha seemed to have expected his backup plan all along.
"So you really were hiding the techniques of these two people." The young girl spoke calmly. While speaking, she even leisurely jumped up, dodging a sneak attack from the three demonic creatures. "However, Susanoo is a product of Yin Release, and the little toys summoned by Tayuya seem to have no effect on it. I thought you would choose to use her genjutsu!"
Kabuto didn't say a word.
Genjutsu?
Using genjutsu to deal with Sakura, let alone a Sakura who possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, would truly be a waste of effort.
It was just that the Doki demons, which he imagined could pose a bit of a threat, also seemed to be completely useless. The sneak attack was seen through, and a direct assault was a joke. The eerie attack methods and seemingly fierce attacks of the Doki demons were indeed invincible when dealing with average Genin or Chunin. But wanting to harm a ninja at Sakura Uchiha's level was simply a fantasy.
"Is this your so-called surprise?"
Sakura Uchiha's voice even sounded somewhat disappointed.
She was indeed very disappointed.
Before the battle, the young girl still held a certain unrealistic expectation. She anticipated that this ninja, who claimed to be no weaker than Kakashi, could reveal some trump card and give her a true surprise. She hoped to see a stunning ninjutsu, allowing her to secretly learn the fruits of someone else's painstaking efforts, or at least give her a little inspiration.
But she got nothing.
A mere stitched abomination, Sakura Uchiha truly looked down upon it. That was it?
"It seems this is the extent of your capabilities." She sighed and said, "Then it's time for this boring game to end..."
Kabuto's expression was no longer arrogant. He sank his face and gritted his teeth, "Hmph, bluffing! I've already locked down Susanoo to death. As long as I stall you for a moment, once Lord Orochimaru finishes off Sasuke—"
He looked up at Sakura, staring intently at her face, but he failed to see the slightest bit of anger or panic in her demeanor. The meaning contained in those jade-green eyes instead looked more like a certain kind of pity.
He was actually being pitied by his enemy.
Kabuto's words instantly got stuck in his throat.
"Have you locked me down?" the young girl asked softly.
Kabuto suddenly felt a chill all over his body.
He instinctively jumped up, and then, in the next moment—
The spiral sword suddenly spun at high speed! The tyrannical power and the sharply mixed chakra of wind nature transformation instantly shredded the gigantified Sakon and Ukon into a flurry of minced meat!
Rumble—!!!
The greatsword swung back in a horizontal sweep, and the three sinister demonic creatures were also reduced to ashes under this thunderous strike!
In an instant, violent winds roared through the valley, dust flew into the air, and everything was left in a mess!
Sakura Uchiha stood high atop Susanoo, her pink hair flying and her clothes violently fluttering, her tyrannical aura fully displayed.
"Things that are like clay chickens and pottery dogs, what right do you have to lock me down?"
Kabuto landed on the ground, riddled with wounds and looking exhausted. He forced a bitter smile and said, "As expected, trying to stall you is still too difficult..."
"Be a good boy and surrender with your hands tied," Sakura said coldly.
"That won't do. The battle... has been ended by you," Kabuto shook his head. "But this game of cat and mouse is far from over!"
The young girl's elegant brows raised slightly. "Trying to run?"
The greatsword slashed down instantly, chopping Kabuto along with the earth into a deep pit. Looking at Kabuto's shattered corpse and the deep hole in the pit, feeling Kabuto's chakra fluctuations rapidly disappearing underground, Sakura Uchiha's face sank.
Earth Release combined with a pre-dug tunnel?
By quickly withdrawing his chakra and fleeing after escaping into the tunnel, she was unable to track the fleeing Kabuto relying on the chakra fluctuations of his Earth Release jutsu... Even ordinary sensory ninjas wouldn't be able to catch up.
His escaping skills were indeed far superior to hers.
Looking toward Sasuke's side, she saw the youth looking over with a suspicious and uncertain gaze as well.
The two exchanged a look, and Sakura sighed: "As expected, Orochimaru escaped too."
Sasuke said with a dark face, "They never thought about beating us... From the very beginning, they were planning to stall for time to prepare their escape!"
The young girl, however, quickly snapped out of the feeling of defeat from being played. She chuckled lightly, "It can't be helped, this is their home turf. Running away is quite simple for them. That guy Orochimaru is extremely slippery; I didn't expect to catch him in the first place. Moreover, they didn't stall for much time anyway..."
Hearing the young girl say this, the resentment on Sasuke's face slightly smoothed out.
Actually, he was only angry at Orochimaru's behavior of slipping away right when he had the upper hand. Sasuke felt he still had means to turn the tables; he hadn't lost!
"The monk can run, but the temple can't. Let's go and see what things are in Orochimaru's base," Sakura Uchiha beckoned.
"Orochimaru probably didn't have time to take anything away!"