Orochimaru formed seals in a flash.
"Summoning jutsu!" Boom!
The colossal form of the Great Serpent erupted into being.
"Susanoo!" Natsuki pressured with his eyes, and a massive chakra construct shot up from the ground.
Skeleton, flesh, armor!
Boom! Intense chakra rippled outward.
Natsuki's Susanoo drew out the Yasaka magatama and hurled it.
The Great Serpent's huge body had no place to hide.
A low, anguished roar, and the serpent shed a layer of skin where it had been struck.
"Wind Release — Great Breakthrough!"
A gale burst from Orochimaru's mouth, blowing sand and stones across the battlefield.
Visibility vanished.
Natsuki sheltered inside his Susanoo and waited for an opening.
Boom! As the earth shattered, the Great Serpent leapt up from behind Natsuki — and Orochimaru suddenly appeared at his side!
"Multi-Shadow Snake Hands!"
Orochimaru slammed both palms to the ground; countless venomous snakes crawled forth.
Natsuki braced, took a headbutt from one of the serpent heads, and instantly unraveled his Susanoo. He placed his hand on the serpent's skull.
"Contract Seal — Release!"
Boom! Under a cloud of smoke, Orochimaru's myriad snakes were forcibly sent back.
Orochimaru formed seals with his hands.
Sra! Sra! Sra!
With tearing flesh and bone sounds, a huge white snake-head burst forth, lunging ferociously at Natsuki.
Natsuki forced himself to re-summon Susanoo despite the heavy chakra drain, and drew the enormous samurai blade that hung on its arm.
Slash—slice, slice, slice—the razor edge severed three heads cleanly.
But it was futile: the Yamata no Orochi's infinite-regeneration trait kept new heads sprouting.
Natsuki was quickly ensnared.
The dream shattered and spun; Natsuki's eyes flew open and his mind snapped back to reality.
Orochimaru was terrifyingly strong.
After Natsuki had sent numerous research topics and hypotheses to Orochimaru, the Serpent's name had appeared repeatedly in Natsuki's training dreams.
At first Natsuki hadn't given much credit to Orochimaru's field combat ability—Orochimaru's strength was in science. In direct fights, he seemed ordinary; under Itachi he hadn't scored a single decisive blow.
But the more Natsuki fought Orochimaru, the more he lost. Either he died to some endless regeneration of the Eight-Forked Serpent, or he was crushed by reanimated First- and Second-Hokage strikes, or struck down by Orochimaru's baffling soft-body modifications and poison ambushes.
The only angle that could check Orochimaru was genjutsu—but Natsuki wasn't strong there. Unlike Itachi, who could use genjutsu to surgically cut off control of a limb, Natsuki's approach was blunter: he shoved out powerful, deathlike illusions—effective, but they consumed massive ocular power. The stronger the foe's will, the harder they resisted.
Against Orochimaru, Natsuki's winning chances were few without genjutsu advantage.
That's when he remembered his duel with Jiraiya.
Although Natsuki had held back then, in a real all-out fight he still wasn't sure he'd have won. Meeting someone who could fully unleash like Jiraiya taught him his limits.
He could beat Itachi, Shisui and Fugaku because his ocular power was huge and their genjutsu didn't affect him—yet in terms of Susanoo scale his Susanoo had both advantages and limits. Itachi's Susanoo capped around thirty meters; Natsuki's could reach seventy meters and grow with his ocular energy. But his chakra reserves were thin in absolute terms; Susanoo was a huge drain.
He had plenty of sealing techniques too—fast, effective—but he lacked a powerful offensive ocular jutsu. Itachi's Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi were the kind of eye techniques Natsuki admired. He even had a one-time trump card, but once used it would be gone.
If only his dojutsu were offensive — something with huge destructive power!
That thought took hold, and his Sharingan began to stir.
A dojutsu of the mind requires a fierce inner will to awaken. Obito's Mangekyō opened under the despair of Rin's death; he awakened Kamui to escape his broken world. Shisui awakened Kotoamatsukami because of his deep love for peace and his desire to change people's minds. Itachi's Mangekyō—born from Shisui's death and his own extreme resolve—unleashed Amaterasu, a world-burning flame, and Tsukuyomi, a mind-reforming world. Fugaku's eye grew from constant thoughts of his clan's future and strategy, enabling a "future-vision"-like technique.
Natsuki, who had traveled from another time and always felt a degree of detachment from this world, had only ever awakened Susanoo because he knew of its might. He'd learned to use each stage of Susanoo easily. But for Mangekyō-level techniques he'd lacked the burning emotional impetus—no cruel catastrophe, no life-shattering loss. Thus, despite enormous ocular power, he hadn't awakened a true Mangekyō ability.
Now he realized this wasn't all bad: it meant he still had a chance to awaken a Mangekyō with the right, intense desire.
What would it be? A technique to dodge reality like Kamui? A world-burning Amaterasu? A mass-mind-altering Kotoamatsukami?
He thought them through and found none matched his temperament.
What he wanted was simple, direct: an ability to cut through chaos and end things cleanly.
Clutching that fierce intent, his ocular chakra surged violently.
He couldn't hold it back—he opened his Sharingan and it spun rapidly. As the tomoe whirled, three new lines extended outward, reaching the rims of his eye sockets.
Thud… thud… thud… like stones dropped into a flat lake, waves of ocular chakra rippled outward.
Among the remaining Uchiha combatants—anyone with three tomoe and sharp insight—the sensation was obvious. They all felt a peculiar ocular energy sweep from Vice-Chief Natsuki's direction.
After a moment it subsided.
Is Vice-Chief Natsuki experimenting with an eye technique? Why does this ocular chakra feel so… different?
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