"What? So Orochimaru wasn't just trying to fool me..."
As Rasa flew away atop his gold cushion, he looked back and saw a scene that left a deep impression on him.
Souya gripped the Starfall Rod and formed Hand Seals. A powerful aura surged outward, and a vast sand vortex instantly appeared beneath Orochimaru's feet.
The vortex, at least several hundred square meters across, churned as it ground up the surrounding earth and brought Gold Sand, refined from underground minerals, to the surface.
Countless sand arms writhed within the vortex. From his place in the air, Rasa watched as the ground seemed to turn into the underworld. Thick arms surged out one after another, as if intent on dragging their enemy into the abyss below.
Rasa clenched his fists, inwardly baffled. How could Souya possess such an enormous amount of Chakra? And the Gold Sand he controlled was more nimble, its color brighter.
The brilliant golden sand shimmered with a metallic sheen in the sunlight, and its density was several times greater than Rasa's.
Rasa turned away in frustration, no longer watching the battle. His face was full of resentment. Lately, he really had been neglecting his training because of all sorts of trivial matters.
His wife, Karura, was also carrying their third child. Had indulging in domestic bliss held back his progress?
"Orochimaru!"
"Shouldn't you give my proposal some serious consideration again?"
Souya stared coldly at Orochimaru, who was trapped in the sand vortex. One pale-purple Lightning Ball after another drove him into a frantic struggle.
Orochimaru's face had taken on a wary expression. The Gold Sand brat was one thing, but this new red-haired young man was just as uncanny...
The puppet he controlled could unleash a string of powerful Lightning Balls without even forming Hand Seals, constantly restricting Orochimaru's movements.
As he saw the black Sealing Technique symbols spreading through the sand vortex, Orochimaru felt a flicker of unease. This time, he wasn't just dealing with the Gold Sand brat...
If he really got sealed, escaping wouldn't be as easy as it had been last time.
"Cooperation?" After slicing apart the final Lightning Ball, Orochimaru stopped moving. Standing at the center of the slowly shifting vortex, he asked Souya.
"That's right! Cooperation!" Souya finished forming his Hand Seals and tossed the Starfall Rod into the air.
The Starfall Rod hovered directly above the sand vortex. Then, viscous black liquid seeped from its base, much like ink.
The black liquid spread around Orochimaru, gradually forming a sphere. Its color slowly faded until it became transparent.
Only on close inspection could one make out the faint, glimmering layer around Orochimaru, as clear and delicate as glass.
"This doesn't look much like cooperation to me!" Orochimaru sensed the area and discovered that the membrane had seeped into the ground, blocking his escape routes.
"You don't need me to tell you how good you are at escaping. I put this seal in place so we can have a more productive discussion," Souya said with a mirthless smile.
Sasori said nothing. He simply controlled the puppet of Raiga Kurosuki and gathered a tremendous amount of Chakra.
"Crackle!"
A fierce gust of wind swept out. Silver lightning appeared along the puppet's twin blades, the crackling growing denser until it sounded like a flock of birds calling.
Then a deep-purple glow suddenly blazed from the puppet's chest and abdomen. It streamed along the body and into the silver lightning on the blades, gradually tinting it pale purple.
The pale-purple lightning was less blindingly wild, but its dancing arcs resembled the turbulent currents beneath the surface of the sea, concealing astonishing destructive power.
Sasori moved his fingers, and the puppet raised its twin blades. A dense bolt of purple lightning shot toward Orochimaru with a sharp crack.
Orochimaru's pupils suddenly contracted. The threat from the millstone-sized Lightning Ball made his hair stand on end. He hadn't seen ninjutsu this terrifying in a long time.
Orochimaru instinctively tried to use the Substitution Technique to dodge, but Souya abruptly brought his hands together.
The Starfall Rod plunged downward.
Thud!
Countless tiny black dots appeared across the transparent barrier surrounding Orochimaru. They swarmed through the shield, intertwining with one another. At a glance, it looked as if a mass of tadpoles had been poured into a water tank.
"Hmm? What is this?!" For the first time, anger appeared in Orochimaru's eyes.
He could feel that Souya's Sealing Technique had completely cut off his escape routes. The only way out was to break through the barrier.
But then he realized that the Lightning Ball controlled by Sasori had stopped just outside the barrier without exploding.
The pale-purple Lightning Ball hung motionless, its surface alive with tiny arcs of electricity. The lightning was incredibly concentrated, crackling softly as though the air itself could no longer withstand its lash.
In a short time, Souya and Sasori had overturned everything Orochimaru thought he knew about Sunagakure.
Especially the newly appeared red-haired Puppet Master. It was the first time he had seen a dead puppet use such powerful Lightning Release Ninjutsu without Hand Seals.
If he'd known from the start that Sunagakure had these two, Orochimaru wouldn't have been so careless. With his abilities, escaping the battlefield early would have been easy...
What baffled Orochimaru even more was that the Gold Sand brat seemed to know his methods very well. Everything he did was aimed directly at Orochimaru.
"You're willing to work with an enemy from another village? Aren't you afraid your Kazekage will punish you and the villagers will despise you?" Having taken stock of the situation, Orochimaru let his tongue slip out again and licked his dry lips.
"As long as I achieve my goal, I don't care about any of that. And you're the only one who can help me achieve it!" Souya said nonchalantly.
"Tell me what you're after..." Orochimaru looked intrigued. He wanted to know why this man had targeted him from the beginning.
"I want you to let me write my name on your Summoning Technique scroll. And there's also..."
"The Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu!"
Souya enunciated each word.
"Ah!"
At the mention of the "Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu," Orochimaru's golden pupils contracted to pinpricks.
He could understand the request for a Summoning Technique scroll. After all, powerful summoning beasts weren't easy to find.
But why did this Sunagakure shinobi, someone he'd never even met, know one of his greatest secrets?!
Even in Konoha, only a handful of people knew about the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu, a Forbidden Jutsu...
Yet this young upstart from Sunagakure spoke with absolute certainty, as if he knew Orochimaru was researching it...
"Could Sunagakure have a high-level spy embedded in Konoha?"
"Or was it that man, Danzo..."
For a moment, Orochimaru's mind raced.
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