Orochimaru Was Dead?

Ye Fan's words left Orochimaru utterly shocked. He couldn't even imagine how Ye Fan knew.

He racked his brain, unable to understand how Ye Fan had learned that he'd studied the forbidden technique, Impure World Reincarnation.

And judging by the way Ye Fan looked at him, he seemed to know even more.

For a moment, Orochimaru even felt as if he were transparent before Ye Fan, with no secrets at all.

"Orochimaru, still not planning to summon the First Hokage and the others? Keep this up, and I'll beat you to death!"

Ye Fan punched Orochimaru's body in half, a smile on his face.

In truth, Orochimaru suffered little harm from having his body split in two.

An unharmed Orochimaru crawled out of the old body's mouth.

The newly reborn Orochimaru stared at Ye Fan, his brows furrowed into a deep crease.

No one else knew that he had the First Hokage and the others in his possession. ...

No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't figure out how Ye Fan had learned this.

The thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy had become more and more unfathomable. Orochimaru couldn't see through him at all.

"Not only is he strong, he also knows so many of my secrets. Has he been spying on me all along?"

"Impossible. If he had been spying on me, there's no way he could have escaped my senses!"

The more Orochimaru thought about it, the more unbelievable it seemed. Never before had anything seemed so troublesome!

Watching Ye Fan effortlessly overwhelm Orochimaru, Sasuke and Sakura couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath.

For a while, they thought they were dreaming. They couldn't believe that a boy with no Kekkei Genkai could beat one of the Legendary Sannin so badly.

If they hadn't just experienced Orochimaru's terror firsthand, they might have thought Ye Fan was beating up an ordinary person who couldn't fight back!

"Ye Fan... How can you be this strong? This can't be real!"

Sasuke stared blankly, already struggling to face reality.

A question suddenly surfaced in his mind: Could he ever avenge his clan when faced with an enemy like Ye Fan?

For a moment, Sasuke sank into endless doubt.

Ye Fan's strength far exceeded anything he could comprehend.

"Shadow Snake Hand!"

Orochimaru thrust out both hands, unleashing a dense swarm of snakes that surged toward Ye Fan.

"Orochimaru, do you really think this can kill me?"

Ye Fan casually swung his hand. Every snake was cut into pieces, their life force snuffed out.

Orochimaru's expression turned grave. He retreated at high speed, putting distance between himself and Ye Fan.

In the time he'd spent fighting Ye Fan, he'd used nearly every trick at his disposal, apart from a few secret techniques he'd kept in reserve.

Yet even so, he still couldn't hurt Ye Fan.

In fact, he suspected Ye Fan hadn't even been trying very hard!

Orochimaru's gaze shifted as he wrestled with a difficult choice.

Ye Fan's body seemed far stronger than Sasuke's. He even suspected Ye Fan's taijutsu ranked among the top five in the shinobi world.

But he wanted the Sharingan so badly.

The Sharingan was the Kekkei Genkai he'd yearned for day and night!

At that moment, he wished more than anything that Ye Fan were also an Uchiha with the Sharingan.

Then he wouldn't have to agonize over the choice.

Seeing the greed in Orochimaru's eyes, Ye Fan smiled. "Are you torn between using my body forever and using Sasuke's?"

"Heh, Orochimaru, instead of daydreaming, you'd better think about how you're going to escape me today!"

"Uchiha Ye Fan, I like your personality. I like your body, too."

"I'll do you the favor of taking this body for myself!"

Orochimaru planned to take Ye Fan's body first, then see how far Sasuke could develop.

If Sasuke's physical abilities fell too far short of Ye Fan's, he'd transplant Sasuke's Sharingan into Ye Fan's body.

"Shuriken Clone Technique!"

Orochimaru threw more than a dozen shuriken. They multiplied into hundreds in an instant, flying in from every direction and cutting off all of Ye Fan's escape routes.

Ye Fan stood where he was, an amused smile on his face.

He sensed clearly that the Orochimaru before his eyes was only a Mud Clone. The real Orochimaru had already hidden himself among the shuriken.

"You think you can take my body by catching me off guard?"

"Maybe someone else would have trouble spotting the trick, but I'm not like them!"

Long ago, Ye Fan had discovered that he could use the "Qi" he cultivated within himself to sense other people's Chakra.

But others couldn't use Chakra to sense the "Qi" inside him.

That had led many people to misunderstand him, thinking he was nothing more than someone who trained in taijutsu!

What they didn't know was that while he couldn't use the "Qi" inside him to practice ninjutsu,

he could use it to unleash a different kind of light wave, one with far greater destructive power.

Ye Fan had tested that light wave a few times in private. Its power had far exceeded his expectations.

He'd once used it to flatten dozens of mountains!

Even now, Ye Fan rarely used that light wave, because he still couldn't control it perfectly.

If he used it recklessly, he might injure his teammates!

"Uchiha Ye Fan, become my vessel!"

The shuriken Orochimaru had transformed into flew toward Ye Fan's neck in the blink of an eye.

If he could cut Ye Fan's neck, he could enter his body through the wound and become its new owner!

"Hmph!"

Ye Fan snorted, first swatting away all the shuriken, then pinching between his fingers the one Orochimaru had transformed into.

"Did you see through me? What a shame!"

Orochimaru sighed and prepared to transform back.

But no matter what he did, the Transformation Technique seemed to have failed. He couldn't turn back into a person.

This surprised Orochimaru greatly.

Crack...

Ye Fan flicked his finger. One corner of the shuriken snapped off, and Orochimaru writhed in agony, unable to cry out.

Feeling the shuriken tremble faintly between his fingers, Ye Fan knew Orochimaru was enduring unimaginable pain.

At that moment, Ye Fan suddenly had a bold idea.

If he crushed the shuriken into dust, could Orochimaru, who supposedly had an Immortal Body, still come back to life?

Ye Fan thought it over seriously, then decided it wasn't worth tempting fate. If he really killed Orochimaru, who would use Impure World Reincarnation to summon his parents?

After all, at this point in the shinobi world, Orochimaru was the only one who knew the technique.

Ye Fan squeezed hard. The shuriken shattered into pieces and fell to the ground with a clatter.

The moment it left his fingers, it turned into several bloody chunks of flesh.

By the time they hit the ground, Orochimaru had been torn apart, reduced to several fragments.

"Th-this... Orochimaru is dead? That's impossible!"

"How could you have killed Orochimaru?!"

Sasuke stared at Ye Fan's calm face and took a few involuntary steps backward.

He couldn't believe that Ye Fan had just killed Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin!