You've Studied It Quite Thoroughly

Tsunade was sent flying like a kite with its string cut. She smashed through two surviving stone pillars before crashing into a broken wall with a BOOM! Rubble buried half her body.

"Tsunade!!" Jiraiya's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.

Amid the ruins, Tsunade coughed up blood and struggled to push herself upright, only to find her right arm hanging limply. It had been dislocated.

"Orochimaru! You bastard!!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi glared furiously. The fire burning in his eyes was more than bloodlust; he looked like a lion driven into a frenzy, roaring with rage. His chakra surged, and the wind from it whipped his combat uniform.

"Hiruzen! Let's go!"

Enma's voice boomed from inside the staff.

"Let's go!!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi leaped into the air, the Adamantine Staff whirling in a fierce flurry as he brought it crashing down on the nearest snake head!

Meanwhile, Lin Zi flashed to Tsunade's side.

Tsunade had just dragged half her body free of the rubble. Her right arm hung limply, and blood still stained the corner of her mouth.

Lin Zi crossed his arms. Snake Limb Hardening! He braced himself against a falling snake head!

BOOM!!!

His feet sank three inches into the ground, rubble bursting from around his boots. With his back pressed against Tsunade, he could feel her panting rapidly behind him.

"Fourth Hokage! Jiraiya!!"

Lin Zi turned his head and shouted toward the distance.

"How much longer?!"

At the edge of the ruins, Jiraiya's white hair stood on end. The two sages, Fukasaku and Shima, crouched on his shoulders, their hands racing over the ground as chakra patterns spread like a web.

Minato was kneeling beside them, a Kunai flipping between his fingers as he helped draw the sealing nodes. Sweat covered his forehead.

"Just hold on a little longer!!"

Jiraiya didn't even look up. His voice had gone hoarse.

"Almost done!!"

Lin Zi spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.

"Fine!!"

He was just about to spring off the ground when—

A faint, rustling sound came from the air beside him, like scales rubbing together.

It was the sound a snake made just before coiling around its prey.

The third snake head shot soundlessly toward Lin Zi's side like a giant python lying in wait. Its cavernous jaws opened and wrapped precisely around his waist and arms! Its body tightened sharply, and his bones creaked under the unbearable pressure!

What?!"

Lin Zi's pupils contracted.

The Eight-Headed Serpent's chakra poured into the snake's body like chains, binding him fast.

His feet left the ground. He was wrenched up into the air like a pebble swept away, tracing a pale arc through the sky.

Then he was carried straight to the central head of the Eight-Headed Serpent.

Orochimaru emerged from the split flesh, his face covered in blood. Greedy madness gleamed in his golden, slit-pupiled eyes.

He reached out a pale hand and gripped Lin Zi's chin, examining him like a priceless treasure as his fingertips slowly brushed Lin Zi's cheek.

"I've caught you, me from another world."

Bound too tightly to move, Lin Zi still had the horns of Sage Mode glowing, but the flow of his chakra had clearly grown sluggish.

He sneered, forcing the words through clenched teeth.

"You think... this is enough to take me down?"

"I've always admired people who are capable and have a personality of their own, you know?"

Orochimaru held Lin Zi's chin, then spread his mouth in a grin that reached his ears. Laughter rasped from his throat like scales scraping against rough stone.

"Aaaah! Orochimaru!"

Among the ruins, Tsunade's eyes burned red as she slammed her intact left hand into the ground.

BOOM! Rubble flew everywhere. Through sheer strength, she forced her dislocated right arm back into place. Her bones cracked as she rose like a furious lioness, ready to pounce.

But after taking half a step, her leg gave way and she dropped to one knee again, left with nothing but a furious roar and a fist pounding the ground.

"Let him go!"

In the distance, Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya jerked their heads up.

Jiraiya still had both hands on the sealing array. The chakra patterns were glowing halfway to completion, but Tsunade's roar made his fingers tremble.

Minato's pupils contracted. The Flying Thunder God Kunai had already slipped into his palm, but when he looked up and saw the scene, he froze in place.

Lin Zi was bound tight by the snake head, his waist and arms completely locked. Like a moth wrapped in a spiderweb, he was held directly in front of Orochimaru.

"Do you know what I'm going to do, me from another world?"

Orochimaru leaned even closer, his nose almost touching Lin Zi's forehead. His breath carried the stench of decay and poison.

Lin Zi silently gathered Natural Energy inside himself with all his might, trying to break through the chakra restraints. But his words remained as cutting as ever, laced with mockery.

"Of course I don't. How would I ever understand... what goes on in a monster's mind?"

"A monster?"

Orochimaru laughed. His laughter grew louder and louder, until it turned into a crazed, breathless chuckle.

He released Lin Zi's chin and spread his arms.

"Do you know why I came here tonight? What do you think my goal is? You're a clever man... Surely you don't really think I came here just to get rid of you?"

"Didn't you say it from the start?" Lin Zi sneered. "You want my brain."

"That was my decision at first."

Orochimaru gripped his face again, this time with enough force to nearly crush his bones. A sick, feverish passion burned in his golden, slit-pupiled eyes.

"But now I'm ready to try living another way. You seem pretty happy. You have companions, trust, and... knowledge from another world."

"What do you mean?"

"Ha ha ha!"

Orochimaru threw his head back and laughed wildly. All eight heads of the Eight-Headed Serpent hissed along with him, their voices shaking the ruins.

"Me from another world! Since you were able to come here, you must know how to travel to other worlds! So there's only one thing I need to do!"

He abruptly lowered his head. His mouth split open at an angle no human body could manage, and an eerie green light—the glow of a soul—surged from deep in his throat!

"That is, Living Corpse Reincarnation!"

Humm!

A flood of cold, rotten mental energy, thick with the aura of destruction, poured straight toward Lin Zi's brow!

It was a bite at the soul, meant to tear Lin Zi's consciousness straight out of his body!

"Did you think I'd never studied Sage Mode?!"

Orochimaru's voice exploded through the mental assault, like a needle stabbing into Lin Zi's mind.

"Keeping your energy in a 1:1:1 ratio, right? Mind, body, and Natural Energy—all three have to stay balanced to maintain that form!"

Lin Zi's whole body shuddered. The horns of Sage Mode began flickering, and the Natural Chakra across his skin flashed wildly like a faulty light bulb.

"You have to fight off my mental invasion while maintaining Sage Mode!"

Orochimaru's laughter was full of cruel confidence.

"The moment that balance slips—even a little—your body will explode! Hahahaha!"

As everyone on the battlefield heard him, only one thought remained in their minds.

This man had completely lost his mind.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's hand trembled as he gripped the Adamantine Staff. Pain and fury surged in his eyes, alongside the regret of someone who had raised a monster with his own hands.

"Orochimaru... You won't even spare yourself...!"

Coughing up blood, Tsunade braced herself against her knee and tried to stand again, veins bulging across her forehead.

"You bastard... What do you think your comrades are to you?!"

Jiraiya's face had gone deathly pale. Even his white hair drooped a little in Sage Mode as he dug his fingers deep into the lines of the sealing array.

"Damn it... Damn it!! Just give me ten more seconds!! Ten seconds is all I need!!"

Minato said nothing. He simply stared at Lin Zi, bound in midair by the snake head. The Flying Thunder God Formula quietly lit up beneath his feet. His azure eyes narrowed to pinpoints, and his whole body tensed like a bow drawn to its limit.

And Lin Zi, amid the flood of his opponent's soul, suddenly smiled.

"I see..."

He spoke softly, his voice so low that only Orochimaru could hear him.

"You've studied it... quite thoroughly, haven't you."