The Face That Took a Tailed Beast Ball

With a howl of wind, Manda twisted his body and, in the blink of an eye, coiled around the Eight-Tails, just like a python swallowing a wild ox in nature.

"So fast?"

Killer B's heart jolted. He struggled desperately, using all eight tentacles to try to tear Manda off his body.

"A Jinchuriki, huh..."

Manda snorted arrogantly. His coils tightened, and his jaws suddenly gaped wide before biting down hard on the Eight-Tails' neck.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The two colossal creatures began to fight. A series of deafening crashes echoed through the dense forest, sending rocks flying and trees snapping as dust billowed up to blot out the sky.

At this rate, neither side would gain the upper hand anytime soon.

"Hiss..."

The White Snake flicked his tongue, a humanlike smile crossing his face. Orochimaru used seven snake heads to entangle the Fourth Raikage, while the remaining head lunged toward the Cloud Ninja in the forest.

His body stretched dozens of meters. Shinsuke Uchiha saw a flash of white, and his opponent, a Kumogakure jonin, vanished before his eyes.

He hurriedly checked his momentum and instinctively looked back. Just in time, he saw a mangled body spat out of the snake's mouth.

A chill ran through Shinsuke Uchiha. A short blade struck at him while he was distracted, and he quickly forced the thoughts from his mind and lunged toward his next opponent.

Still, he couldn't help thinking that it was a good thing a monster like that wasn't their enemy.

"Damn it!"

The Fourth Raikage's body turned into a blade of lightning, drilling a huge hole through one of the giant snakes. Yet not a trace of satisfaction showed on his face.

Because as soon as he passed through the snake's body, the wound in its head began to shrink and heal.

It looked as though he had the upper hand against Yamata no Orochi, but in truth, the snake had merely tied him down—and Orochimaru still had the strength to slaughter the Kumogakure Ninja in the forest.

The Fourth Raikage roared toward the forest. "Everyone, get away from here!"

At his command, the Cloud Ninja broke off from their opponents and fled as fast as they could.

"Hiss... Listen to my command. All Konoha Ninja, stay within a hundred meters of me."

The White Snake wore a sinister smile. "Don't bother with the Cloud Ninja who are leaving."

The Konoha side, about to give chase, stopped in their tracks. Once they thought it over, it made sense.

They were defending. If Kumogakure wanted to run, let them.

So the Konoha Ninja stood where they were, watching the fleeing Cloud Ninja with faintly amused expressions.

With some of their forces free, a few elite Uchiha let their Tomoe spin in their eyes and even tried to support Orochimaru.

Though they only cast genjutsu from a distance, the Raikage's movements were restricted, preventing him from fighting as freely as before.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

The Fourth Raikage was furious. The Cloud Ninja who had just fled were also frustrated, and they turned back, once again risking their lives to fight the Konoha Ninja one-on-one.

They had no choice. They couldn't just watch the Raikage get surrounded and killed by the Konoha Ninja.

But with their minds burdened by worry, they couldn't bring their full strength to bear. As the balance shifted, the outnumbered Konoha side gradually gained the upper hand.

This wasn't surprising. The Konoha Shinobi Army under Orochimaru had grown out of the Uchiha Police Force, and every one of them was an elite among elites. The deep night naturally favored the Sharingan, and on top of that, Orochimaru was backing them up.

"This can't go on."

Seeing the Cloud Ninja fall behind, the Fourth Raikage's heart sank. He had never imagined the situation would turn out like this.

If the stalemate continued, Kumogakure would suffer heavy losses.

So he shouted, "Killer B, destroy Konoha's fortress!"

The round building decorated to look like a light bulb had, under Orochimaru's deliberate control, somehow remained intact until now.

The hastily cast Barrier Ninjutsu was crude, but the battle's aftershocks had only sent rocks and broken branches flying, which weren't enough to destroy it.

Hearing the Raikage's order, Killer B also sensed that something was wrong. Ignoring Manda's bites, he controlled the Eight-Tails, Gyuki, and opened his mouth to form a Tailed Beast Ball.

"Not so fast!"

Manda naturally wouldn't let him attack at will. His coils wrapped around the Eight-Tails' bull head.

But Killer B paid no heed. Not only did he refuse to stop, he sped up, gathering a massive amount of Yin-Yang Release Chakra in front of him. It looked as if he would let the Tailed Beast Ball explode right in front of him if Manda interfered.

Faced with Killer B's reckless move, Manda froze.

He had accepted Orochimaru's summoning only to make some extra money. It wasn't worth risking his life over. Besides, Orochimaru wasn't an heir of Ryūchi Cave, nor did he have the aptitude to learn Senjutsu.

It took Killer B a while to form the Tailed Beast Ball. Clearly, as the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, he wasn't yet as skilled as he would be in the future.

But a Tailed Beast Ball was still a Tailed Beast Ball. The highly compressed mass of Chakra flew toward Yamata no Orochi with a thunderous burst of air.

The "fortress" stood right behind Orochimaru.

The Fourth Raikage leaped out of the way first. Even with his physique, taking a Tailed Beast Ball head-on would be no joke.

Yamata no Orochi's actions, however, took the Raikage by surprise. The snake stretched across the Tailed Beast Ball's flight path, as if planning to take the blast with his own body.

"Could that fortress actually be real?"

The thought flashed through the Fourth Raikage's mind. He couldn't think of any other explanation for Orochimaru's actions.

But was that really the case?

Fugaku Uchiha knew whether the building was real or not, and he, too, was deeply puzzled by Orochimaru's behavior.

As both sides watched in confusion, Orochimaru stared at the incoming Tailed Beast Ball with a pair of cold snake eyes.

His aim was certainly not to protect a fake fortress. He wanted the battle to continue.

The Raikage feared suffering heavy losses and didn't dare keep fighting. Orochimaru, however, did.

Orochimaru didn't fear losses. As long as he could bring Kumogakure's war against Konoha to an end, he wouldn't stop even if only one of them remained alive.

Besides, they had finally gained the upper hand. How could he let the war end so easily?

As the thought flashed through his mind, Yamata no Orochi shifted to one side. Just as everyone thought Orochimaru was about to abandon the fortress, one of the snake heads slammed into the Tailed Beast Ball.

Like a whip striking a spinning top, the giant snake collided with the Tailed Beast Ball, deflecting its trajectory slightly upward.

Boom...

The Tailed Beast Ball skimmed over the fortress and exploded in the forest in the distance, making the earth shudder.

But Orochimaru had protected the fortress, though the price was that the snake head had been completely obliterated.

The Cloud Ninja felt no relief whatsoever. Before their eyes, flesh began to grow from the severed wound. That snake head would likely recover before long.

"When did Orochimaru get so insanely strong?"

Watching the snake head whip the Tailed Beast Ball aside, Manda felt a chill run through him.

"No, that's not right. He's always been this ruthless—to others and to himself."

Manda began to feel uneasy. His inaction had just caused Orochimaru trouble.