A Battle That Began with a Bang and Ended with a Whimper

Two flowers bloom, each representing a different branch.

If we turn back the clock and focus our attention on the other side of the world, in the northern part of the Land of Fire in the civilized world, near the border of the Land of Rice Fields, on the battlefield where Sakura Uchiha is located.

When Sakura Haruno's experiment succeeded, the surge of energy spread across most of the planet, and could be faintly sensed even in this distant land.

The fierce battle suddenly paused for a moment.

Apart from Sakura Uchiha, the other three people present did not know the source of that inexplicable feeling of excitement.

"Quickly finish this, Kabuto!" Orochimaru suddenly said.

He suddenly had a bad feeling.

Suppressing the urge to turn back and look in that direction, Orochimaru's mind raced, and many thoughts surfaced in his head.

"A quick victory?" Orochimaru's response wasn't from Kabuto, but from a young girl's light laugh, "Heh, you really think highly of him!"

With a light wave of her slender arm, the giant beneath her feet raised his greatsword and delivered another simple slash!

Whoosh--

This move, so utterly devoid of skill or variation, when unleashed by that giant, possessed the power to split mountains and cleave the earth, an unstoppable force!

Even if you, Kabuto Yakushi, possess a thousand Ninjutsu and countless techniques, Sakura Uchiha wouldn't bother to counter them; she would simply break through with a single sword strike!

The girl stood high atop Susanoo, overlooking the battlefield.

She wanted to see what other Secret Technique Dou had up his sleeve!

Clang--!!

A deafening roar echoed through the valley! A cloud of dust billowed as the spiraling greatsword was suddenly stopped by something!

"Oh?"

The girl's smooth face showed a slight change in expression. She withdrew her gaze from Orochimaru and finally focused all her attention on the enemy in front of her.

"See? This is my surprise... Do you like it?"

Kabuto Yakushi's face contorted in a grotesque grin.

Before him stood a colossal giant, half the height of Susanoo, but extremely sturdy, even obese. It was covered in white bone armor, and on top of that, a thick layer of filamentous mucus, giving it an incongruous and eerie appearance!

It was precisely this combination of soft and hard defenses that created a synergistic effect, unintentionally forming a composite armor that blocked the attack of Susanoo!

Most disgustingly, several thick, umbilical cord-like strips of flesh were attached to the back of this giant, extending all the way to the body of the giant.

Influenced by her original self, Sakura Uchiha extremely high combat strength and a very high level of vision.

With just one glance, she recognized the origin of this enormous body; it was actually a combination of abilities from the Sound Five who died three years ago.

The gigantic body is the ability of the fat Jirobo, the bone armor is Kimimaro's Kekkei Genkai, and the filamentous slime is Kidomaru's spider silk... Essentially, this is a Frankenstein's monster. Kabuto's ability is to stitch them together, but Sakura doesn't care about that. Instead, she focuses more on Kabuto, on the umbilical cord that is becoming more and more like a snake, on the rapidly growing eyeshadow on his face, and on the scales that are faintly visible on his arms.

So, it turns out that Kabuto's stitching technique wasn't just the power of the Sound Five.

That's true... Without absorbing Orochimaru's power, Kabuto wouldn't have enough power to drive this powerful Frankenstein's monster.

I originally thought it was just a dish to pass the time, but I didn't expect it to pique her interest a little.

"Such an idea, only someone like you who plays with corpses would come up with." The girl sneered, looking down at Dou with disdain. "But are you sure you're still yourself?"

In the short time it took to speak, the scales on Kabuto's hands had already taken full shape.

If this continues, Kabuto... might become one of Orochimaru's clones!

But the young man with the glasses seemed unmoved.

He leaped onto the giant's shoulders, removed his glasses, and a strange light gleamed in his eyes. "Someone like you would never understand what it means to me to be one with Lord Orochimaru!"

"Besides, how can I stand at this height and face you if I don't do this?!"

Sakura Uchiha lowered her eyes, trying to understand Kabuto's feelings.

She knew about Kabuto's early life. After Danzo's downfall, the Root's documents were declassified, and Kabuto's file was exposed as well.

A ninja whose self has been erased.

However, knowing doesn't equate to understanding... How can a strong person who constantly pursues independence and self-worth understand a loser who has lost themselves and needs others to define them?

Never mind, it doesn't matter anymore.

Sakura shook her head slightly.

She said loudly, "You've worked hard to stand at this level and face me, and you've paid a terrible but acceptable price... However, there's something I must remind you of."

"Your level is far from sufficient to face me."

She looked down at the pocket, her voice calm, her right hand raised high.

Then, swing it down hard!

Boom--!

Susanoo his swords with both hands and brought them down with a thunderous crash!

The young man, now half-snake and half-human, dared not be careless. He mustered his Chakra and frantically activated the bone shield to grow and the spider silk to be secreted. The giant unleashed all his strength and raised his shield to meet the spiraling giant sword.

But this sword strike was far heavier than Dou had imagined.

In the instant of contact, the once indestructible bone shield snapped in two like an egg hitting a rock! Kabuto's expression changed drastically as he watched the giant sword fall, cleaving Jirobo and himself in two!

Even with Sakura Uchiha unleashing her full power, he couldn't even withstand a single attack!

But the worse the situation got, the more frantic Dou's expression became.

He still has a backup plan!

"Hahaha! As expected of an eagle soaring high above..." The newly born Kabuto crawled out of the corpse's belly, covered in blood and looking horribly grotesque, and laughed loudly, "However, even a snake wallowing in the mud will bite back in despair when faced with an eagle soaring high above!"

As he wrote, he frantically channeled his Chakra.

The two halves of the corpse, which had been teetering on the brink of collapse, suddenly shifted at the cut, and each half sprouted a hand and a foot, instantly transforming Jirobo into Sakon and Ukon!

Sakon and Ukon appeared, they pounced forward, each grabbing one of Susanoo's arms and body tightly. At the same time, as a flute melody sounded, three ghostly beings, somewhere between illusion and reality, suddenly emerged from the ground, wrapped around Susanoo's body, and launched an attack on Sakura Uchiha!

"Take this!"

With a smug look on his face, Kabuto shouted at Sakura, "I'm going to seal off Susanoo and pull you down from your high throne!"

He stared intently at Sakura Uchiha, trying to see something on the girl's face, but all he saw were a pair of eyes as calm as autumn water.

There was no panic, not even surprise.

Sakura Uchiha seemed to have anticipated his backup plan.

"As expected, those two were still hiding their moves." The girl said calmly, even leaping up with ease to dodge a sneak attack from the three demons. "However, Susanoo a product of Yin Release, Tayuya's summoned contraption seems to have no effect on it. I thought you would choose to use her Genjutsu!"

Dou remained silent.

Genjutsu?

Trying to deal with Sakura using Genjutsu, especially against someone with the Mangekyō Sharingan, would be a complete waste of effort.

The Doki, which was only imagined to pose a slight threat, seemed to be completely useless. Its sneak attack was exposed, and its direct assault was a joke. The Doki's strange attack methods and seemingly swift attacks were indeed effective against ordinary Genin and Chunin, but to harm a ninja of Sakura Uchiha's caliber was simply a pipe dream.

"Is this all the surprise you're talking about?"

Sakura Uchiha's voice even sounded somewhat disappointed.

She was indeed very disappointed.

Before the battle, the girl harbored some unrealistic expectations. She hoped that this ninja, who was said to be no weaker than Kakashi, would reveal some hidden card and give her a real surprise. She hoped to see an amazing Ninjutsu that she could learn from and at least gain some inspiration.

But she didn't.

Sakura Uchiha wouldn't even look at a mere Frankenstein's monster. That's all?

"Looks like this is all you're capable of," she sighed. "Well then, it's time to end this boring game..."

Kabuto's arrogant expression had vanished; his face hardened, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "Hmph, bluff! I've already trapped Susanoo hold you off for a moment until Lord Orochimaru finishes off Sasuke— "

He looked up at Sakura, staring intently at her face, but he couldn't detect any anger or panic in her expression. Instead, the meaning in her blue eyes seemed more like pity.

He was even pitied by the enemy.

Dou's words caught in his throat.

"Are you trapping me?" the girl asked softly.

Suddenly, a chill ran through Dou's body.

He jumped up instinctively, and then, the next moment—

The spiral sword suddenly spun at high speed, and its immense power, combined with the sharp wind- Nature Transformation Chakra, instantly shredded the gigantic Sakon and Ukon into a bloody pulp!

Rumble--!!!

The greatsword swung back and swept horizontally, and the three sinister ghosts were reduced to ashes by this thunderous strike!

In an instant, a fierce wind arose in the valley, dust flew everywhere, and everything was in a mess!

Sakura Uchiha stood atop Susanoo, her pink hair flying and her robes billowing, exuding an overwhelming aura.

"What right do you have to confine me, you worthless creature?"

He landed on the ground, covered in wounds and looking exhausted. Forcing a bitter smile, he said, "As expected, trying to hold you off is still too difficult..."

"Just surrender obediently," Sakura said coldly.

"That won't do. The battle... you ended it," Kabuto said, shaking his head, "But this cat-and-mouse game is far from over!"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Trying to run away?"

The giant sword slashed down instantly, carving a deep crater into Kabuto and the ground. Looking at Kabuto's shattered corpse and the deep hole in the crater, and sensing that Kabuto's Chakra fluctuations were rapidly disappearing underground, Sakura Uchiha's face darkened.

Is it Earth Release is a technique involving earth-based escape methods) combined with pre-buried tunnels?

After entering the tunnel, he quickly suppressed his Chakra and fled, making it impossible for her to track Kabuto using the Chakra fluctuations of Earth Release techniques... Even ordinary sensory ninjas couldn't catch up with him.

Her escape skills, however, far surpassed hers.

Looking towards Sasuke, they saw the boy also looking over with a surprised and suspicious gaze.

The two exchanged a glance, and Sakura sighed, "As expected, Orochimaru escaped too."

Sasuke said with a grim face, "They never intended to defeat us... From the very beginning, their plan was to buy time so they could escape!"

The girl quickly recovered from her disappointment at being outmaneuvered, chuckling, "Well, this is their home turf; escaping is easy for them. Orochimaru is slippery; we weren't really expecting to catch him anyway. Besides, they didn't waste much time..."

Hearing the girl's words, Sasuke's resentment subsided slightly.

Actually, he was only annoyed by Orochimaru's retreat after gaining the upper hand. Sasuke believed he still had a way to turn the tide; he hadn't lost after all!

"You can run away, but you can't hide. Let's go see what Orochimaru's base has," Sakura Uchiha said, beckoning.

Orochimaru probably didn't have time to take anything with him!

[We've done a lot of analysis on this battle and found that Kabuto can't beat Sakura no matter what, so we don't plan to drag it out too long.]