The Same Kind of People
Orochimaru's attack suddenly stopped.
The Forest of Death fell into a deathly silence; there were no insects chirping, no birds singing, only the rustling of the wind through the leaves.
The sun had already set in the west, and a full moon hung high in the night sky.
The cool moonlight poured down on the earth, spreading through the empty forest. The silver light reflected on the ground, creating dappled shadows that swayed in the wind.
The girl's equally clear and cool voice echoed through the forest, swaying gently in the cool breeze under the moonlight.
"Is Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, only capable of using tricks like the Clone Technique? Come out!"
Her response was a deathly silence.
Sakura wasn't careless; the oppressive atmosphere filling the forest told her that this was... the calm before the storm.
The next moment, a storm of attacks came!
The attack... came from beneath her feet! The girl instinctively leaped high into the air, dodging the snake's bite that surged forth from the ground!
Boom! As if an earth dragon had turned over, the ground below seemed to have turned into boiling water, and countless venomous snakes and giant pythons emerged from the soil!
Green, blue, yellow, purple, poisonous, non-poisonous, brightly colored, dull gray, as thick as a thumb, too big for several people to hug... an endless swarm of snakes emerged from the depths of the earth, turning the open space into a sea of snakes!
Countless venomous snakes and pythons surged high towards the girl from her feet, head, and in front of her, hissing and spitting venom, leaping forward, opening their mouths to bite, or holding sharp blades in their mouths, attacking her in various ways!
Faced with this insane scene, even the girl's expressionless face suddenly changed color!
The swarm of snakes covering the ground surrounded the girl from all directions—above, below, left, right, front, and back—and wave after wave of attacks engulfed her faint figure!
Water Release: Super Water Gun Technique!
The girl's clear, cold voice was drowned out by the swarm of snakes, but a white streak of water pierced through the layers of snakes, shooting out from the center of the swarm and shimmering with a beautiful yet deadly silver light under the moonlight!
A flash of silver light swept across, drawing a fan shape in the swarm of snakes, creating a forbidden zone for life, and cleaving countless venomous snakes and giant pythons in two!
Dark red blood, mixed with the remains of countless snakes, fell from the sky like a rain of blood.
Even the frenzied, surging swarm of snakes was momentarily halted by the merciless slaughter of the silver light!
Then, in the next second, the blank space cleared by the silver light was filled again by an endless swarm of snakes!
The girl's figure darted left and right among the snakes, silver light shooting out from her hands from time to time, reaping thousands of venomous snakes and pythons, clearing a place for her to catch her breath, only to be immediately overwhelmed by the swarming snakes!
She charged left and right, but could not break free from the snakes' encirclement. The endless battle gradually left the girl breathless.
The silver light began to slow down, and jumping became increasingly difficult.
Finally, the girl stopped.
Then, the swarm of snakes swallowed up the frail figure.
Layer upon layer of venomous snakes and giant pythons piled up around the girl, forming a tightly intertwined, tangled mass of snakes. An endless tide of snakes surged in, making the mass of snakes grow larger and larger like a snowball!
After a long time, the snake tide finally subsided, and by then, a snake mass over a hundred meters in diameter had already formed in the Forest of Death! On the surface of the snake mass, countless venomous snakes were still wriggling, searching for a gap to enter the center of the snake mass!
Ordinary ninjas would probably have fallen to the relentless onslaught of the snake horde long ago, right?
Is it over...?
In the darkness, a pair of orange-yellow vertical eyes stared at the snake mass and spoke softly.
The snakes stood quietly on the ground, with only the various venomous snakes on the surface still moving restlessly. It seemed that the figure surrounded by them had already perished in the snakes' bellies and no longer existed in the world!
Then, a silver light pierced through the serpent and shot into the sky. Then came a second, a third...
From within the serpent coil, a voice, a clear and angry shout, grew louder and louder, emanating from it.
Water Release: Exploding Thousand Blades!
Several streaks of silver light began to spin at an extremely high speed!
The foul-smelling snake blood gushed out wildly from wherever the silver light touched!
Severely injured, the numerous venomous snakes and pythons, driven by the pain, unleashed their ferocious nature, attacking everything within their reach uncontrollably, venting their agony. This outburst further exacerbated the chaos, accelerating the disintegration of the snake swarm!
Wherever the silver light passed, the snakes swarmed into chaotic heaps, and countless venomous snakes, some dead, some severely injured, and some still intact, detached and fell from the heaps.
In the blink of an eye, the giant snake mass, hundreds of meters long, was cut apart by the silver light, and the remains of various venomous snakes and giant pythons piled up on the ground into a mountain!
The last piece of the giant python's remains fell from the sky, revealing the core that had been tightly wrapped by the swarm of snakes.
It was a transparent water sphere made of Ultra-Pure Water.
Inside the water sphere, the girl, whose stamina and Chakra had been greatly depleted, still kept her arms outstretched, maintaining the sphere's existence, until the snakes were cleared away by the water blades shot from the sphere. Only then did she Genin and lower her slightly trembling arms.
Whoosh--whoosh--!
Frowning, the girl gasped for breath, her face turning pale and almost translucent, her pink hair soaked with sweat and clinging tightly to her cheeks.
The relentless onslaught of snakes placed a tremendous burden on her mental and physical strength. The intense battle had left her utterly exhausted, and the final Exploding Thousand Blades attack had completely drained her energy!
Sakura felt her whole body going weak, but her eyes remained bright and sharp, her gaze fixed on Orochimaru, whose figure had appeared not far away!
The girl's tenacious and sharp turquoise eyes met once again with Orochimaru's crazed and triumphant orange-yellow pupils.
This time, the two stood on their respective trees, facing each other at a distance, neither launching a new attack.
The battlefield beneath their feet, a forest stretching for hundreds of meters, had been ravaged by Orochimaru python and Sakura's Water Blade Technique, reduced to a scene of desolate ruins, mingling with the stench of blood and carcasses of countless venomous snakes and pythons, forming a muddy mess.
The clouds dispersed and the moon shone brightly once more upon the earth, but the dappled light and shadow were no longer visible.
An eerie silence hung between the two.
The surroundings were deathly silent, with only the sound of the wind rustling through the trees.
Sakura had been watching Orochimaru's next move closely when she suddenly realized something was wrong.
"Naruto? Sasuke?" The battle has been over for so long, yet neither of them has uttered a sound!
Orochimaru suddenly revealed a strange smile. Following his gaze, Sakura saw the two unconscious people lying on the ground!
"Hehehehe... Don't worry! They're just asleep!" Orochimaru suddenly said, watching Sakura rush to their side.
His voice suddenly became hoarse and seductive.
"Sakura Haruno... your Ninjutsu hasn't made any breakthroughs for a long time. I'm afraid you've already felt the village's constraints on you! Why should a talented ninja like you be bound by this corrupt ninja village?"
"Come to my ninja village! Here, as long as you have the strength, you can do whatever you want without any restrictions or village rules..."
"We're the same kind of people, I understand how you feel right now! Come on, follow me, believe in my sincerity, I'll give you everything!"
Orochimaru is a fanatic!
"Hmph..." Sakura sneered disdainfully, "Stop your ridiculous tricks! Your Genjutsu will only diminish your so-called sincerity!"
"Furthermore, my Ninjutsu being stuck at a bottleneck has nothing to do with the village. Don't flatter yourself! My Ninjutsu is different from yours; it doesn't require any morally reprehensible experiments."
"You and I are completely different kinds of people..."
Orochimaru suddenly burst into maniacal laughter.
"Hahaha! How interesting! Let's wait and see, and see if you'll come running to me like a stray dog!"
"Oh, right, I left a gift for Sasuke! He's a man who craves power; he'll definitely come looking for me because he needs my power!" Orochimaru grinned wickedly, looking at Sakura with interest. "At that time, how will you, who believe in Konoha's hypocritical camaraderie, face his betrayal?"
"I'm really looking forward to that day!"
With that, he slowly sank into the ground and vanished from the battlefield in the blink of an eye.
"Have they left?"
Sakura could no longer sense Orochimaru's Chakra and dangerous aura, and collapsed to the ground!
So tired! My physical strength and Chakra are completely depleted! But what's even more exhausting is the constant tension in my mind!
But... now is not the time to let our guard down, let's persevere a little longer!
"Ugh! Damn it, we can't fall here!" Sakura gritted her teeth, and from somewhere she pulled out another Chakra, which she transformed into Water Clone. She then Sasuke and Naruto up and headed deeper into the Forest of Death.
We must get away from the battlefield and find a safe and secluded place to rest...
Sakura thought to herself silently.
The three of us are unable to fight for a while... From now on, until we recover our fighting strength, this is our most dangerous moment!