"You're a genius, but I really can't figure out what gives you the courage to chase me this far. Even your teacher Kakashi once didn't dare make a move on me."
Orochimaru had originally wanted to mock Kakashi, but the memory of getting played by him last time made him change the wording mid-sentence.
Souma heard that tiny hitch.
He chuckled.
"Obviously, it's courage."
"???"
Orochimaru froze for two seconds, then gave a soft laugh.
"I don't really understand what you mean, but if you think that's going to provoke me, you're being naïve."
"Do I need to?" Souma asked mildly.
"Heh… Kakashi used to be just as fearless as you," Orochimaru said quietly. "Back then, he was already in ANBU."
He licked his lips.
"Souma-kun, there's no one else around here right now. I truly do appreciate you. Come with me. Let's uncover the truth of the shinobi world together—explore the secrets of immortality."
When Orochimaru was interested in someone, he had endless patience—like a snake savoring the prelude before it struck.
"Thank you for the compliment," Souma said.
He did respect Orochimaru, in his own way.
But—
Unfortunately, he currently had no intention of working with him.
"So you have no desire to cooperate. What a shame." Orochimaru sighed. "Then… Can I ask you one small question?"
"If you answer—"
"I'll spare you."
As he spoke, a suffocating killing intent flooded the air.
The Legendary Sannin were all creatures who'd crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Not one of them was a gentle soul.
Facing Orochimaru head-on, Souma finally understood why Kakashi had fallen behind in that earlier pursuit.
Just this killing intent alone was enough to crush the weak-hearted.
Even with his firm will, Souma had to circulate his spiritual power and meet it head-on.
At the same time—
He already knew what Orochimaru wanted to ask.
"You want to know how I keep finding you, right?" Souma said.
"Correct," Orochimaru replied. "I consider my disguises flawless. Yet you've seen through me twice. Do you have some special way of marking me?"
He genuinely didn't understand.
Two times now.
Every time, only Souma discovered him. Even the Third Hokage hadn't noticed.
Souma had to have some special method of distinguishing him.
Souma's smile turned bright.
"Good question. But as a researcher, I think the best answer—"
"Is the one you discover for yourself."
As he spoke…
He bit his thumb.
Summoning Formation!
In the blink of an eye, a dark cloud erupted from the formation at his feet.
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed.
These were…
Parasitic Rot Bugs, thick as smoke.
The Aburame clan had actually allowed their bugs to be shared with an outsider?
Impossible.
Those stubborn misers would never be that generous.
No—
There had to be a trick.
Was it this special Summoning Technique?
Or was it—
These bugs themselves?
Orochimaru's eyes thinned even more. He raised a hand and flared his chakra.
From his sleeves, a mass of snakes exploded outward.
Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!
But before they even reached Souma, the bugs surged up like a living tide and swarmed over them.
In a heartbeat, his snakes were devoured down to the bone.
These bugs… ate everything.
What terrifying destructive power—far beyond the original strain.
Orochimaru's pupils shrank.
And then—
Souma's speed suddenly spiked, and he flashed to Orochimaru's side.
Orochimaru brought up a kunai to meet him on instinct.
But almost immediately, he noticed something was wrong.
His kunai was being pulled off-line.
Not only that—the chakra wrapped around Souma's blade suddenly burst, an explosive force surging down the edge.
A strange kenjutsu.
Orochimaru immediately used his Orochimaru-style Body Replacement Technique to evade.
He slithered out from his own "body" a moment later, feeling a cold sheen of sweat on his back.
That strike was vicious.
Not only was it fast, the impact was massive, and that bizarre spiralling chakra power…
In that instant, other than using that special body-shedding technique, he couldn't think of a clean way to defend.
"What a truly exquisite sword technique," he breathed, eyes bright with excitement.
This kind of new jutsu might not be a forbidden technique, but its difficulty already grazed the edge of S-rank.
"It's a pity I didn't prepare the right materials beforehand," he said, voice low. "Otherwise, I could show you some of my own."
"But… it seems you still have other helpers."
The moment his words landed, his body suddenly twisted and moved in an odd, serpentine pattern, closing in on Souma with incredible speed. Two massive snakes shot out from his hands.
The bugs surged up again to intercept.
But this time, a giant snake burst out from behind Orochimaru, curling protectively around him.
Souma widened his stance.
Limit State.
And—
Sage Mode!
Boom!
The instant Sage Mode flared, chakra condensed around him. One after another, invisible chakra fists formed in the air and crashed toward Orochimaru in a wild barrage.
Orochimaru couldn't react in time.
Before he could process what was happening, he'd already been pounded into the air by a storm of invisible blows.
Before he could stabilize, Souma appeared next to him again, fingers stabbing toward his tenketsu.
One strike, two strikes, three strikes—
A rapid-fire flow of chakra-laced pokes hammered into his chakra network, exploding in small bursts from within.
Orochimaru's body was locked up, unable to move.
After that relentless flurry, Souma slipped behind him.
The final blow.
Gentle Fist: Spiral.
But at the last second, Orochimaru's body twisted in a way no normal human could replicate, barely slipping his vital points out of line.
Souma's speed was too high; he couldn't readjust mid-attack.
Even so—
His strike still landed squarely on Orochimaru's lung.
BOOM!
Orochimaru felt a tidal wave crash through his insides.
Even with his Orochimaru-style Body Replacement Technique triggered at the last moment, he couldn't completely avoid the Gentle Fist shockwave. A mouthful of blood forced its way up his throat and sprayed out.
Sage Mode faded. The bugs swarmed again.
But just then—
A massive purple snake surged over the ridge behind Souma, its colossal body sweeping across the battlefield and hurling back both the bugs and Souma.
"Orochimaru, what a pathetic state you're in," the giant snake sneered.
Orochimaru leapt onto Manda's head, still breathing heavily.
The next moment, a figure flashed into existence behind Souma.
Flying Thunder Formation.
The Third had arrived.
Orochimaru's face tightened.
"Manda, get me out of here."
"Hmph," Manda snorted.
Its tail rose—
And slammed toward Souma like a falling boulder.
Orochimaru didn't stop it.
He still hadn't sorted out what technique Souma had used to unleash that absurd burst of power earlier. He'd barely registered anything before that combination struck had left him rattled.
The second half, he recognized.
Hyūga Gentle Fist.
But it wasn't the same simple Gentle Fist he'd seen before.
That sequence had included proper point strikes. The internal damage was still hampering his chakra flow even now.
Summoning Manda had already been pushing his limits.
"Orochimaru, you won't escape this time!" the Third shouted.
He flew through a series of hand seals. Four shadow clones popped into existence around him.
He was going straight for the Five Elemental Great Bullet?
Souma couldn't help glancing over.
Going in with a big move right from the start—
The Third really did want Orochimaru dead.
It was surprising… and not.
Ao hovered at Souma's side, commanding the bugs. Souma had warned him earlier not to charge recklessly; if Orochimaru marked him, the Insect King might not live to see another day.
"Orochimaru, there's a trap. You always pick such troublesome enemies," Manda hissed. "You'd better offer me a big sacrifice when we get back. If you don't, I'll eat you myself!"
The giant snake realized something was off.
Some kind of sealing technique had wrapped around it, binding it in place. At the same time, a barrier was quietly siphoning off its chakra and feeding it back into the bindings to tighten them further.
Humiliation.
Manda roared, pumping chakra into its enormous body and battering the barrier. But the more it struggled, the stronger the bindings pulled.
Meanwhile—
The Third had finished his seals.
Five Elemental Great Bullet Technique!
Five terrifying elemental blasts shot out from five different directions, all converging on Manda's gigantic body.
For a moment, fear flickered in the serpent's eyes.
If those all landed…
It might really die.
It thrashed and howled.
Orochimaru formed seals as fast as his battered chakra network would allow.
Souma's Gentle Fist had wrecked him more than a little. Combined with the sealing formation's effect, his movements were sluggish and his chakra flow chaotic, even with Manda taking some of the pressure.
The instant the Five Elemental Great Bullet was about to hit—
The entire ground lurched.
Souma's eyes narrowed.
Earth Release.
One of Orochimaru's underlings?
The technique itself wasn't that strong.
But it disrupted Souma's sealing formation at the critical moment.
Orochimaru finished his hand seals.
The five elements slammed down, a thunderous explosion ripping through the forest.
When the smoke cleared, a severed tail still twitched in the crater.
As for Orochimaru—
He'd already vanished, having used Manda's Reverse Summoning to escape.
"Ao. Get him," Souma said.
The Insect King snapped its pincers and sent the bugs swarming.
That Earth-Style ninja was almost certainly Jirōbō.
If he couldn't catch Orochimaru, then catching a subordinate would do.
At the very least, the Yamanaka could strip-mine his memories later.
The Third panted for a moment, then recalled his shadow clones and let them merge back into him.
"A pity we couldn't catch Orochimaru," he said.
"If he wants to run, catching him is next to impossible," Souma replied. "Lord Hokage, I'll go after his underling."
"Go," the Third nodded.
Souma followed the bugs, racing ahead.
Keeping his senses locked onto the fleeing chakra, he was almost certain of the man's identity now—
One of the Sound Four.
Jirōbō.
And not just him.
Aside from Kimimaro, the other three were out there as well.
They kept setting up traps along the way, but every one of them was chewed apart by the Parasitic Rot Bugs. At the same time, ANBU and the Guard Squad were closing in from all sides.
"Jirōbō," someone called.
"I had no choice. Lord Orochimaru was in real danger back there. I had to move," Jirōbō growled. "Now… you guys go. I'll hold them off."
The enemy's speed was terrifying.
If no one stayed behind, none of them might get away.
"You—"
"Go!" Jirōbō snapped. "That brat is strong enough to make even Lord Orochimaru take a hit. Until we know what he can really do, we shouldn't charge recklessly. I'll block him with a barrier and leave when I can."
"…Fine," Tayuya said after a moment.
She nodded.
"We'll hold off the others."
Tayuya led the remaining two toward the ANBU and Guard Squad.
Souma closed from behind.
A massive Earth-Release formation suddenly surged up around him, the range so wide it swallowed him and the bugs whole.
Earth Prison: Earth Mausoleum of Imprisonment.
A pre-laid barrier had activated, successfully trapping him.
But then—
Souma's voice drifted out from within.
"So you widened the range of your barrier just to make sure you caught me?"
"…"
Cursed-seal Jirōbō's expression twisted.
He didn't know how things had gone this wrong. All he knew was—
He had to stop Souma.
Or kill him.
He maintained the Earth-Release barrier, but within moments, his face went slack with disbelief.
His jutsu had failed.
No—
The Earth Mausoleum itself was still there, but the chakra-draining barrier formation layered over it had been destroyed.
How…
How was that possible?
He stared at the earthen dome, mind blank for a second. Then he abandoned the barrier altogether, threw up an Earth Flow Wall to block line of sight, and dove into the ground with Earth Release, trying to flee.
BOOM!
One punch.
The Earth Mausoleum shattered. The Earth Flow Wall exploded.
The bugs surged forward like a flood.
In just a few breaths, they had seeped into the ground and dragged Jirōbō out like a struggling radish.
Captured.
In the distance, Tayuya—who'd been preparing to stall the pursuers—felt the shift in chakra.
"Retreat! Jirōbō's already down!" she shouted.
"???"
"…Useless," Sakon/Ukon snarled. "Talking about killing the guy if he was alone—and he didn't even last a minute."
"Let's hope he at least dies fast and doesn't spill all our intel."
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