Chapter 36
The Shodaime's technique grabbed hold of him just as Shisui felt a massive wave of chakra burst out of Gojo. Even though he was barely able to catch a glimpse of him before the sealing formula took hold and brought his unnatural existence to an end, he saw through the technique's terrifying truth.
"Idiot..." Shisui whispered, as the light vanished from his eyes once more.
The next time he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a fire. A warm fire, burning bright and red, while a familiar face sat beside it, enjoying its warmth.
"Hana," he called out as he slowly walked up to the flames and plopped down beside her.
"So, how is he?" she asked, without turning to face him.
"Same as before," Shisui answered, with a soft shake of his head. "He always was quite stubborn."
Of the many qualities Gojo Hatake possessed, perhaps his most notable was his unyielding nature. He was the kind of person who would go against the entire world just to keep his word.
"He's done something foolish," Shisui mentioned, turning toward his sister.
"I know," she answered, smiling gently at the fire.
Suddenly, a realization dawned on Shisui. He turned back toward the flames and saw that they were growing, consuming everything around them.
"This fire...?" he gasped.
"Indeed," she answered softly. "This is him...."
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OROCHIMARU
Orochimaru could not help but gnash his teeth in frustration as he watched Gojo Hatake rise into the sky.
Impossible. This should have been impossible.
The Rinnegan was meant to turn him into a God. It was meant to make him invincible. He had spent the last two years plotting for this very moment, and despite the initial setbacks, he had executed his plans to near perfection. He now possessed the legendary eyes, and though he had lost Obito Uchiha, he still had the glorious Shodaime to rely on. Yet, despite all his power, a cold, sinking feeling gripped his chest.
"You truly are a monster," Orochimaru declared.
When this battle had begun, Gojo Hatake had been operating at barely half of his strength, and he had still put up a devastating fight. Orochimaru could not even imagine a victory if he had faced the man at his full output. But no matter what, he just had to survive this now.
"But you have shown your hand!" Orochimaru refused to let fear rule him. He was Orochimaru, the wielder of the Rinnegan, the man who had brought down the Akatsuki.
He could not lose. He would not lose.
No. Never!
"I just need to survive this, and your body will crumble on its own!" So, he would do that. He would use everything in his power to make Gojo tear through his life force as soon as possible, and with that victory would be his.
The entire world would be his.
At his command, the First Hokage's hands came together as Orochimaru pushed Hashirama's wood style to its absolute limits and forced him to use his most powerful kinjutsu one more time.
"Senpo:...."
The entire world shook as a monstrous, thousand-armed wooden statue rose out of the ground, launching its colossal fists at the blue-eyed demon who refused to die.
"...Shinsu Senju!" and this was it. He wanted to see how he would survive this.
"Die!" Orochimaru roared.
A thousand fists rained down from above. But instead of panicking, Gojo simply brought his hands together, and he saw a hint of red bleed into those glistening blue orbs as Orochimaru felt the world still around him.
"Ninpo:...
"What the...." Orochimaru gasped, as he felt a barrier appear around them.
"...Fukuma Mizushi!"
CLINK!
Then the world itself was torn apart. The massive wooden Buddha statue—a construct that had once subdued the Nine-Tails itself—was instantly diced into falling timber.
Death. He felt Death's presence and in that moment his instincts took over as Orochimaru hastily raised his hand to protect himself.
"Shinra Tensei!" he pushed chakra into the technique.
The desperate repulsive force lessened the severity of the invisible blades, but cuts and lacerations still ripped across Orochimaru's body. Through the falling wood, Gojo Hatake rushed toward the injured form of the Shodaime Hokage.
"No, you don't!" Orochimaru snarled.
By now, his mastery over the Rinnegan's prowess had reached roughly seventy percent. Concentrating all of his remaining chakra into his next move, he knew that if he lost Hashirama Senju, the battle would be over in a blink.
No. He had to act, and while reeling from the pain of the wounds he had just suffered he pushed all of the chakra that he could into his technique.
"SHINRA TENSEI!"
The gravitational shockwave roared forth and ripped through the Earth itself; it caught Gojo off guard and sent him flying back through the air.
In the background, Hashirama's shredded body began to piece itself back together as Gojo's body tore through the woods and the mountains.
Shinsu Senju was a monstrous technique that placed a massive drain on the Edo Tensei's senjutsu reserves. By Orochimaru's estimates, the Hokage could barely use the technique one or two more times before losing his Sage Mode.
He had to end this. He had to end this right now.
So, Orochimaru raised his hands, gathering massive chakra into his palms to replicate the powers of the Shurado Path he roared forth as a massive beam of energy rushed towards Hatake's broken form.
"Shurado!"
The white-haired shinobi looked up at the final second and threw out his hand.
"...Hanten: Aka!"
A crimson shield formed around Gojo, dispersing the laser blast as he propelled himself off the shattered earth, charging at the Sannin once again.
"You are done!" Gojo's hands locked together in the same formation as before.
Orochimaru knew his hand was forced.
"Senpo: Shinsu Senju!"
Once more, a thousand armored arms erupted from the earth, raining down a barrage of fists.
"Ninpo: Fukuma Mizushi!" Gojo countered.
CLINK!
Once again, the wooden giant was sliced to ribbons. But this time, no attack came for Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin looked down in surprise, realizing that Gojo had focused the attack on the statue entirely.
His gaze rushed towards the Shodaime's form that had been torn asunder, and that minute distraction was enough for Hatake.
Before Orochimaru could question it, Gojo Hatake blurred into existence directly in front of him. A brutal punch struck Orochimaru square in the jaw. He barely raised his arms to parry the next strike, but the barrage was relentless.
Gojo refused to let up, chasing him through the dirt, punching him again and again. Orochimaru winced and grunted as his body was systematically broken by pure physical prowess.
His taijutsu was simply no match for Gojo's. He needed separation.
"Shinra Tensei!" Orochimaru tried to blast him away.
But, Hatake was ready and he saw a red leak into his blue eyes as he countered in the blink of an eye.
"Hanten: Aka!"
The two opposing forces clashed violently. Gojo's piercing blue eyes met his own as a fist smashed into Orochimaru's face, forcing him to spit out a tooth. No matter what Orochimaru tried, he could not escape the suffocating proximity of Gojo's strikes.
Orochimaru's back violently collided with a mountain wall. He managed to duck his head just in time as a fist whizzed past his ear, embedding itself into the stone behind him.
BOOOOM!
Web-like cracks ripped through the mountain face. Desperate, Orochimaru extended his hand toward the regenerating First Hokage.
"Bansho Ten'in!"
Gojo raised his hand, anticipating an attack.
"Hanten: Aka..."
But the universal pull wasn't meant for Gojo. Suddenly, the top half of the Shodaime's body ripped through the air, throwing itself between them. That singular lapse of judgment was all Orochimaru needed. He smirked.
"I have you now!" Orochimaru declared.
"Senpo: Shinsu Senju!" Hashirama roared one final time. The thousand-armed Buddha rose at point-blank range as Orochimaru threw his own weight into the offensive and aimed his next strike at Hatake.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Orochimaru poured everything he had into a singular, crushing gravity wave. Gojo was sent flying back directly into the path of the Shodaime's descending fists. His blue eyes flickered violently as his hands snapped together.
"Ninpo: Fukuma Mizushi...."
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Gojo's body ripped through the air. He knew his choices were spent. The sheer strain that Fukuma Mizushi placed on his dying, cannibalized body was disastrous. He barely had enough energy to use the technique one last time. He could use it to counter the Shodaime's senjutsu, but that would only prolong the fight.
In that split second, Gojo made his gamble. He shifted the target of his domain's slashing barrier entirely onto Orochimaru, bracing his own flesh and blood to take the full, unmitigated brunt of the First Hokage's god-tier attack.
"Die...." Gojo whispered, activating the technique.
He watched as Orochimaru's entire being was caught in an invisible vortex of slashes, even as the Shodaime's massive wooden fists slammed directly into Gojo's unprotected body.
BOOOOM!
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An invisible barrier of absolute cutting force manifested around Orochimaru. In the next blink, he felt his entire body getting systematically torn apart. Even with the Rinnegan and his unique body composition, it felt as if the very cells of his being were being severed. He coughed up a torrent of blood and fell to his knees.
His muscles, his chakra networks, his organs—nothing was spared. It was a miracle he was still breathing. Above him, the remnants of the Shodaime's technique finally crumbled into dust.
Gojo Hatake had gambled his life, choosing to withstand the impact of Hashirama Senju's kinjutsu just to ensure a fatal hit.
A massive dust cloud hung over the clearing. Orochimaru allowed himself a bloody smile, believing he had won. But his heart instantly sank as a faint, ragged whisper cut through the silence.
"...Kyoshiki: Murasaki!"
A devastating purple hue exploded outward, swallowing up the entire clearing, erasing the remaining pieces of the Shodaime and his massive statue from existence.
BOOOOOM!
The world was torn asunder. When the smoke finally cleared, Orochimaru could only watch in absolute terror as a shadowy figure limped out of the crater.
It was Gojo Hatake.
His entire body was dyed in scarlet blood. The bright, limitless gleam of his blue eyes was gone, replaced by a flickering, dying spark of blue.
Orochimaru tried to crawl away, but the white-haired shinobi blurred forward, his bloody fingers clamping around his neck.
THRUST!
He slammed Orochimaru into the cracked mountain wall. The Sannin could muster no chakra. His muscles refused to respond. Gojo's blood-soaked fingers reached directly into his eye sockets, tearing past the skin of his orbit.
"I win...." Gojo growled.
"AGHHHHH!" Orochimaru screamed, a blood-curdling shriek echoing through the wasteland as the world turned completely dark for him. The power of the Rinnegan was brutally ripped from his skull.
"AGHHHHH!" he screamed in pain, as the vice holding him up let up and he fell to the ground helplessly.
"I told you, didn't I...?" Gojo's ragged voice reached his ears before he felt a foot press his face into the ground, like he was some no-name thug.
"...you are not a God. You are just a snivelling rat!"
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Gojo's body trembled, coughing up iron-tasting blood. He could feel his life force evaporating into nothingness. His promise to Hana burned in his mind—this was his absolute last breath. He didn't have the chakra to heal himself, nor the time to find a living sacrifice.
Looking down at the paralyzed, bleeding, yet still-breathing body of Orochimaru beneath his boot, a grim smirk touched Gojo's lips. The perfect sacrifice.
With the last of his strength, he pulled out his own eyes and pushed in the Rinnegan, pushing himself closer and closer to the gates of hell, and then his hands cycled through the seals of one of the most unnatural techniques that existed in the world.
A technique that allowed reality itself.
"Gedō—...." Gojo gasped out, forcing the final hand sign.
"...Rinne Tensei"
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