The Tailed Beast Cannon is one of the Nine Tailed Beasts' most powerful techniques in the Naruto world. Even in a weakened form, it blasts almost anyone into scraps, aside from a very few.
It is an extreme chakra compression technique with extraordinary destructive power.
But even a technique this powerful has to hit to be effective.
Although Naruto's speed, strength, and combat awareness had all greatly improved—already comparable to a special jonin under normal output—and his combat power multiplied further in Nine-Tails Mode, in the face of Orochimaru's absolute strength he still seemed a bit green.
As mentioned before, in the official Naruto stats, Kakuzu's total is 65, Uchiha Itachi's is 71. But Orochimaru's total is 70. That's an alarming number. Itachi has the super cheat of the Mangekyou Sharingan.
And Kakuzu has Earth Grudge Fear.
But Orochimaru has neither, and still pushed himself to such a terrifying level purely on his own talent.
It must be said Orochimaru is indeed a super genius, and his undying nature—or rather, survivability—throughout the entire story is the strongest.
He's the only surviving villain among Akatsuki's most powerful former members.
Though Kabuto later claimed to have inherited everything from Orochimaru, in the end he was still just a pawn.
In the later period, Orochimaru's battle power wasn't the strongest, but still ranked among top-tier ninjas.
The early-stage main villain and the only late-stage surviving villain—his scheming and capability are both top class.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands." Strong as Naruto was, unless he used a four-tails-or-higher demon fox cloak, he was absolutely no match for Orochimaru.
"Five Elements Seal!"
With Orochimaru's signature sneak attack jutsu, Naruto was ultimately bound off to the side by two giant pythons.
"Huff… Worthy of the Nine-Tails jinchuriki—you've already grown this much. Hmph, now isn't the time to kill you. If your old man wouldn't go mad from killing you and that damn fox wouldn't burst out, you'd already be a corpse." Though Orochimaru was strong, Naruto in Nine-Tails Mode wasn't easy to handle either. At some point, Orochimaru had revealed his true face, and his clothes had become ragged.
"No good. Dragging this out too long. I need to finish quickly." A pair of orange-yellow serpent pupils glanced at the still-struggling Naruto, then shifted to another boy not far away.
Naruto had already fallen out of Nine-Tails Mode, and because of the Five Elements Seal, he temporarily couldn't control his internal chakra.
But that wasn't a big deal. Give him a little time and he'd recover. Don't underestimate a Nine-Tails jinchuriki's recovery.
"Sasuke, careful!" Though he didn't know what Orochimaru intended, seeing his movements Naruto shouted a warning.
Unfortunately, Orochimaru's move was something Sasuke currently couldn't evade.
His long neck shot toward Sasuke, and Orochimaru bit down hard on Sasuke's pale neck.
"A gift for you!" At the wound, a strange pattern of three tomoe rapidly formed.
"So… uncomfortable!" Sasuke fell painfully to the ground.
"I! Will! Kill! You!" Seeing his best friend hurt, an agitated Naruto sprouted three deep crimson tails behind him.
The pythons that had bound Naruto snapped into pieces in less than a second.
"This guy… the Nine-Tails' power, huh? This place isn't suitable to linger!" After one glance at Naruto, Orochimaru decided.
His original goal was Sasuke, and fighting them was only to test Sasuke's power. He hadn't expected to run into such a troublesome Naruto and waste so much time.
"Hehehe, what I gave you is a good thing, Sasuke. If you want power, come find me. Hehehe." Orochimaru didn't forget to tempt him as he left.
No one noticed the strange glint in the Golden Silkworm Gu's eyes on Naruto's head, nor the odd smile it showed toward where Orochimaru vanished.
"You are my student, but as a special jonin, how can you keep using the forbidden jutsu I taught you, Anko?" Though he'd wasted a lot of time, Orochimaru ultimately ran into Mitarashi Anko, who came searching for him.
But the difference in combat power was far too great, and because of the curse mark on Anko, her fighting ability plummeted against Orochimaru.
She wasn't even as threatening to Orochimaru as Sasuke was.
"Damn it… even if I die, I'll make you stay." Sweat streamed down Anko's forehead as she knelt painfully before Orochimaru.
"Excuse me, you two—sorry to interrupt." At this moment, a third voice cut in.
"Who?" Anko and Orochimaru were both startled. Though Orochimaru wasn't a sensory-type ninja, his scouting and vigilance were no joke.
Yet a third person had approached them without a sound.
A youth in white, with slightly green-tinged skin, appeared in their sight.
"Ah, an examinee this time? I'm proctor Mitarashi Anko—go report this situation to the other Konoha ninjas at once." Seeing his apparent age, Anko mistook him for a chunin exam candidate. Can't blame her—her current state was poor, and her judgment impaired.
"Anko, are you an idiot? How could this guy be an examinee? Who are you? What's your purpose?" Anko's judgment failed, but Orochimaru's didn't. As one of the Sannin, he had his own unique scouting methods.
Yet by all his methods, the other party registered as a normal person? Was that a joke? Not even the pythons around him could sense this person.
An unknown powerhouse.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the King of the Chimera Ants—Meruem. Lord Orochimaru, I came to borrow a little something from you, that's all." Yes, the newcomer was Meruem. In fact, as soon as Naruto and Orochimaru began fighting, Meruem had used the Golden Silkworm Gu's location and the Four-Dimensional Apartment to arrive nearby.
Thanks to Zetsu, unless someone had 360-degree Byakugan, they couldn't discover Meruem's position.
This world has no En. Sensory ninjas do have some detection ability, but facing a power like Zetsu, they could only grope in the dark.
If Orochimaru had moved to kill Naruto, Meruem would have intervened. But for some reason, Orochimaru hadn't gone for the kill, so Meruem was happy to be idle.
In short, a person like Orochimaru would never refrain from killing Naruto solely because it would affect his Konoha Crush Plan.
Wouldn't releasing the Nine-Tails by killing Naruto damage Konoha even more? But whatever—none of this concerned Meruem.
As Asura's reincarnation, Naruto occupies a large part in Meruem's plan.
"Oh? And what might that be? You aren't trying to borrow my head, are you?" Orochimaru probed. King of the Chimera Ants? What are Chimera Ants? When did they show up? Never heard of them before.
In the Naruto world, Chimera Ants had barely shown themselves, and their development was very low-profile. They were active in small war-torn countries, so it was understandable Orochimaru hadn't heard of them.
This world's communications and transportation aren't as developed as in the Hunter world, and there weren't inexplicable hunters like Kite dropping in. So an obscure reputation was normal. If Orochimaru learned that a force larger and stronger than Akatsuki had appeared in this world at some point, what expression would he make?
Know that each Squadron Leader is at least elite jonin level, and the stronger ones can reach Kage-level strength.
Among the artificial Chimera Ant army are many whose converted strength equals jonin or elite jonin-level monsters.
Currently, no single ninja village can match the Chimera Ant army alone—and the number of artificial Chimera Ants is still rising.
Not everyone is willing to undergo modification. But in this war-torn Naruto world, life is the most important thing. As for your looks and whether you're still human… surviving comes first.
One hundred thousand White Zetsu? One hundred thousand chunin-level White Zetsu? Once the Chimera Ant army takes shape, the so-called one hundred thousand White Zetsu would be a joke before them.
Their numbers wouldn't be just a hundred thousand, and their level wouldn't be just chunin.
"Hehehe, Lord Orochimaru, you jest. What I wish to borrow is simple. I've heard you possess the Summoning Scroll of Ryuchi Cave—one of this world's three great summoning sanctuaries. I only want to borrow that." Yes, what Meruem wanted was merely Orochimaru's Ryuchi Cave Summoning Scroll. As for Orochimaru's other things, perhaps only Impure World Reincarnation interested Meruem a bit.
As for the undying body transfer jutsu, Living Corpse Reincarnation, Meruem had no interest. Other forbidden techniques likewise didn't appeal.
Why the Ryuchi Cave Summoning Scroll? For the legendary Sage Mode, of course.
Though Konoha surely had records on Sage Mode, wouldn't asking the White Snake Sage at Ryuchi Cave be better?
Sage Mode isn't only to enhance Meruem's own strength—it's also for Naruto. The current Naruto has already been influenced by Meruem.
It's very likely he won't train under Jiraiya, and looking at it now, what Jiraiya could teach Naruto would only be the Rasengan series and Sage Mode.
Rasengan is trivial for Meruem—Musashi already uses it. He's just not taught Naruto yet. That leaves Sage Mode, and since no one had used it in front of Meruem, he couldn't learn it.
So he set his sights on Ryuchi Cave, one of the three great summoning sanctuaries.
If the White Snake Sage refused to teach it—Meruem hadn't considered otherwise—then he'd simply kill it and learn it himself with Gluttonous Feast.
(End of Chapter)
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