Sage Art - Lightning Release - False Darkness

Outside Otogakure, nearly a hundred civilians huddled together, trembling as they stared in terror at the raging sea of flames consuming the village.

Beside these civilians lay more than a dozen corpses, all of them Orochimaru's subordinates.

Kidomaru, Jirobo, Tayuya, Kin, Yoroi Akado, and the rest—without exception, all had been killed by Houka, dead beyond any doubt!

The reason he had not killed these civilians... was because they were merely civilians. Though Houka was decisive when it came to killing, his grudge against Orochimaru had not reached the point where he would take it out on innocent people.

Watching nearly a tenth of Otogakure perish by his own hand, Houka felt immensely satisfied.

He looked up, intending to admire Orochimaru's wonderful expression, but regrettably, amid the billowing black smoke, Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen.

"Trying to run?"

Houka let out a sharp cry, and a piercing eagle screech immediately rang out from high above.

"Screee!"

Super Whirlwind Style Two beat its enormous platinum-white wings, its massive body slicing freely through the air like a flying behemoth. Its sharp eagle eyes locked tightly onto Orochimaru's position before it plunged down at incredible speed, gliding over Otogakure.

Houka tapped off the ground with his toes, his body shooting forward like lightning as he leaped onto Super Whirlwind Style Two's back and gripped its feathers tightly.

"Screee!"

Super Whirlwind Style Two shrieked wildly in excitement, its cry resounding through the heavens.

At Super Whirlwind Style Two's speed, it quickly caught up to Orochimaru.

Orochimaru looked up at the enormous Snow Eagle in the sky, and his expression shifted slightly.

He immediately formed Hand Seals and summoned Manda.

Boom!

As a massive cloud of white smoke dispersed, Manda's enormous dark-purple body lay coiled there like some prehistoric pile of crap, its forked tongue