The Eight Branches Technique

"You heard it from Jiraiya, the one from your world," Lin Zi said with a shrug, looking unconcerned. "It's not like I went out of my way to pry into your sordid affairs."

"That bastard Jiraiya..." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, a cold glint flashing in his slit pupils.

"Oh? Is that how you treat a former comrade?"

Lin Zi tilted his head and gave a mocking smile.

"No wonder they couldn't stop you. Let me see..."

He suddenly stepped forward, his golden slit pupils fixed on Orochimaru's eyes.

The senses of Ryūchi Cave were like countless invisible threads, burrowing through the other's skin and bones and probing all the way into the depths of his soul.

Lin Zi's voice suddenly softened, like a venomous snake hissing right beside his ear.

"The soul inside you... its power is far too weak and fragmented. What do you make of that?"

"You—"

Orochimaru recoiled in shock. He had never told anyone about this. How had this impostor seen through him?!

"No wonder you can't master Sage Mode."

Lin Zi folded his arms and looked down at him, his tone as if he were inspecting a defective product.

"So... you're pursuing immortality?"

The shock on Orochimaru's face slowly faded, replaced by a feverish excitement, as though Lin Zi's words had revealed a kindred spirit.

He suddenly spread his arms, his pale fingers splayed beneath the moonlight, as if embracing some ethereal truth.

"What, do you want to explore the secrets of immortality too?"

Orochimaru's voice trembled with barely contained excitement.

"We can exchange techniques! With our combined talents, I'm sure we can uncover true immortality!"

The more he spoke, the more excited he became. He seized Lin Zi by the shoulders, his nails nearly digging into the flesh.

"Come on! Tell me what you know! The complete Senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave, the secrets of the soul, and the knowledge from your world—tell me everything!"

Lin Zi glanced down at the hands gripping his shoulders, then looked up at Orochimaru's face, twisted with fervor.

He suddenly smiled.

"Is that so?"

He uttered the two words softly, then shrugged Orochimaru's hands off his shoulders.

"But I'm sorry. I love telling people who think too highly of themselves..."

He spoke slowly, each word clear.

"NO."

"What...?"

Orochimaru froze in place, his feverish excitement doused in ice water and quickly snuffed out.

Lin Zi stepped back and folded his arms, looking at Orochimaru as if he were a piece of trash.

"Orochimaru, the you of this world is truly alone. And you haven't figured anything out yet, have you?"

"What... did you say?!"

Orochimaru's pupils shrank to pinpoints, and his body trembled despite his efforts to hold back.

"Oh? Getting angry?"

Lin Zi licked his lips, his slit pupils full of amusement.

"Did I hit a nerve?"

Before the words had even left his mouth, Orochimaru sprang into action!

"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

Countless venomous snakes poured from his sleeves, surging like a runaway meat grinder straight for Lin Zi's face!

Their fangs glimmered with purplish-black poison, and the air sizzled wherever they passed, corroded by the venom.

"Then there's no way for us to reconcile, me from another world!"

Orochimaru roared as he controlled the swarm.

"I'll take your brain right here! I'll dig out all your knowledge!"

Lin Zi snorted and charged forward instead of retreating, thrusting out both hands!

"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

A vast swarm of snakes surged forth from him as well. But the scales of Lin Zi's white snakes gleamed with a warm sheen. The two surging masses collided in midair with a thunderous crash—fangs tore at fangs, venom sprayed against venom, and flesh flew everywhere!

Lin Zi stood amid the swarm, his black ponytail whipping wildly in the gale, his golden slit pupils shining with a terrifying light.

"Go ahead and try!"

He reached back and grabbed a black snake that had broken through his defenses and lunged for his throat. With one squeeze, he crushed its head.

"But take my advice."

He shook the blood and venom from his hand, a vicious smile spreading across his lips.

"I'm nothing like a loser like you. If you try to swallow me whole..."

"Be careful not to choke to death!"

The two swarms writhed together amid the ruins. Pale snake corpses piled up like a small hill, their stench so foul it made one's head ache.

Standing at the center of the swarm, Lin Zi brought his hands together, horns bursting from his head.

Sage Mode, full power!

"Many Snakes Array!"

He spat out a torrent of snakes mixed with Natural Energy. His swarm seemed to have been injected with a stimulant, tearing Orochimaru's black snakes to pieces in an instant.

Orochimaru's black snakes sank their fangs into the snakes Lin Zi had summoned, but they couldn't pierce them. Instead, the Natural Energy rebounded and consumed them, making each snake explode and vanish.

"Damn it!"

Orochimaru leaped back three zhang, his face dark. He formed Hand Seals, and two giant pythons shot from his sleeves to coil around Lin Zi's ankles. At the same time, he turned his palm and thrust the gleaming Kusanagi Sword straight at Lin Zi's heart!

Lin Zi neither dodged nor flinched, letting the Kusanagi Sword pierce his chest.

Squish!

Blood sprayed, and Orochimaru's pupils contracted before he broke into a delighted grin.

"I got him!"

But in the next instant, Lin Zi's pale face deflated like a punctured ball.

His entire body went limp and melted away, turning into a heap of pale snakeskin that rustled to the ground.

"What?!"

Orochimaru stood frozen.

"I'm right here."

The voice came from directly behind him, close enough that he could hear the speaker breathe.

Orochimaru whipped around. Lin Zi stood unharmed three zhang away, leisurely pulling the last scraps of snakeskin from his mouth.

"Orochimaru-Style Substitution Technique. Never seen it before?"

Lin Zi tilted his head, his golden slit pupils full of amusement.

"Oh, right. You invented it. Pity you seem to have forgotten how to use it."

"You tricked me?!"

Orochimaru's face twisted, veins bulging across his forehead.

"So what if I did?"

Lin Zi spread his hands, looking utterly innocent.

Orochimaru flew into a rage.

He threw back his head and let out a roar unlike any human cry. Then he slammed both hands against the ground, and the chakra around him surged like a flood bursting through a dam!

The ground collapsed with a thunderous rumble, and countless gigantic, pale snake bodies burst up from below.

"Eight Branches Technique!!!"

Rumble!

A colossal serpent as thick as a house burst from the earth. Its eight enormous heads rose in unison, sixteen slit pupils glowing in the darkness.

The monster had no tail. In its place were eight bone spikes thrusting into the sky, their pallid tips stabbing at the night.

It strutted triumphantly across Konoha's ruins, carving unfathomably deep furrows in the ground with every step.

An S-rank forbidden technique, the Eight Branches Technique!

Lin Zi tilted his head back and looked at the eight heads blotting out the sky. In Sage Mode, his senses stabbed into his nerves like needles. Each head brimmed with chakra powerful enough to destroy the world.

The mocking look finally faded from his face. His golden slit pupils narrowed to two thin lines, and his Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

"...Interesting, Orochimaru. I knew I shouldn't underestimate you."