Full-Power Strike

Before Orochimaru had even finished speaking, his arm transformed into a mass of writhing snake heads and lashed toward Mizuki.

"What a short temper. Orochimaru really has no patience at all for people he's not interested in."

The gap in strength between Mizuki and Orochimaru had long since surpassed anything numbers or tactics could make up for. In just a few exchanges, Orochimaru had already driven Mizuki into a desperate situation. Genjutsu, traps? Such things weren't even worthy of Orochimaru's attention. The barrier Mizuki had set up might have been a deadly weapon in the eyes of ordinary ninja, but to someone of Orochimaru's caliber, it was a joke.

"His Taijutsu, ninjutsu, and reaction speed are all inferior. What a despairing gap. In that case, I'd better get out of here quickly. It wouldn't be good if he caught on to me."

"Weren't you full of energy just now? Why are you only running around and hiding now? You put on such a big show, so I thought you'd at least be a little fun. But it turns out you're only this good. If you have no other tricks, then die." Mizuki had just been taunting Sasuke Uchiha, only to have the words thrown back in his face moments later. That was karma for you.

"But I'm not some helpless little kid." Taking advantage of Orochimaru's approach, Mizuki, who had been waiting for his chance, swiftly formed Hand Seals. "Explode!"

With a shout, Mizuki's Shadow Clone blew itself up, setting off all the Explosive Tags and other explosives it carried. Orochimaru, unable to dodge in time, was swallowed by the blast. Before he could even react, countless Kunai and shuriken flew through the smoke in the wake of the explosion, turning him into a pincushion.

When the smoke cleared, Orochimaru's body was covered in wounds. Then it turned into a mound of earth and quickly crumbled away, and a new Orochimaru appeared. The Earth Clone had rendered the Shadow Clone's attack almost completely ineffective.

"What's going on? It was only a Shadow Clone? That's unexpected. But this is definitely beyond what a Chunin Ninja Exams candidate should be capable of. A barrier that could only be set up through long-term study and extensive experience explains it, though."

Now that he was a little interested, Orochimaru quickly sensed the movements nearby. "Sasuke and the other two over there clearly aren't capable of this. The two unconscious Grass Ninja and that useless girl don't seem likely either. So..." Orochimaru's eyes suddenly fixed on one direction. "It must be you."

Elsewhere, Mizuki's clone, having accomplished its goal, was moving away from the battlefield when a shockwave from an explosion suddenly reached him.

"The Shadow Clone has disappeared." A rush of memories flooded his mind. "Did everything go smoothly? What's this? How did Orochimaru get here so quickly? This is bad..."

Before Mizuki could react, a terrifying killing intent locked onto him. An immense pressure descended, making him feel as if he could barely breathe. Cold sweat poured down his forehead.

"That killing intent is terrifying..." Mizuki smiled bitterly. "Was he just playing around before, and only getting serious now? Is the difference in strength between ninja really this astonishing? This seems completely beyond my understanding. The stronger they are, the more unreasonable the gaps between individuals become..."

Feeling the killing intent rapidly approaching, Mizuki could no longer afford to hesitate.

"If I can't fight back, I'll have to take a risk. The usual methods don't look like they'll get me out of this."

Having made up his mind, Mizuki struggled to pull out a Kunai with his right hand and plunged it into his thigh. The pain finally managed to overcome his fear, allowing him to regain control of his body.

"If you're going to keep hounding me, then don't blame me for taking a layer of skin off you."

Panting heavily, Mizuki took out a scroll and spread it flat on the ground. Then he bit his finger, swiftly formed Hand Seals, and pressed his hand against the air. The scroll on the ground gave off a dazzling red glow. The intense reaction burned it to ashes, and a red magic circle appeared out of nowhere. It rose higher and grew larger until it became a strange formation more than ten meters in diameter, floating nearly a hundred meters in the air.

At the same time, in Mizuki's apartment in Konoha, the real Mizuki was studying the Sealing Jutsu materials the Third Hokage had given him when he suddenly felt a disturbance. He quickly set down what he was holding and picked up a scroll from the top of a pile. It was trembling.

"Has it really gotten this bad?" Without a moment to spare, Mizuki activated the formation too. A crimson magic circle spread across the floor, seemingly connected to some distant location. It vibrated and rotated in a steady rhythm.

Then Mizuki took out a huge Sealing Scroll, activated the barrier he had prepared in the room long ago, and finally released the seal.

"Whether you're Orochimaru or not, let me show you what pure power looks like."

A huge mass of chakra poured out from the center of the Sealing Scroll and shot straight into the crimson formation below, vanishing from sight.

High above the Forest of Death, the formation opened a black portal as well. An enormous mass of chakra crossed through space and blasted toward Orochimaru. The tremendous impact blew a huge crater in the ground below, and the shockwave swept through, snapping the surrounding trees.

As the massive pillar of chakra continued pouring down, the air around it rippled, whipping up a huge tornado that carried dust into the sky. The tremendous energy produced by the intense friction created a vast cloud of charged dust. Bright white lightning crackled through it in increasing numbers, until it became a churning field of plasma that destroyed everything in its path, reducing an area a hundred meters across to scorched earth. And it still wasn't over. Even after all the chakra in the sky had poured out and the ground below remained like hell itself, the formation suddenly shrank. The energy it had contained, together with the lingering, terrifying fluctuations in space, formed a pitch-black ball of lightning that flew straight toward Orochimaru. The terrifying sphere of lightning seemed slow, yet moved at incredible speed, plunging down with enough energy to destroy everything.

"Summoning Technique: Rashomon!"

A huge, fearsome gate appeared in front of the ball of lightning. The tremendous sound of their collision resounded throughout the Forest of Death.

The ball's immense force crushed Rashomon inward. Lightning quickly wound around the gate, tearing it to pieces in moments. The ball was only held back briefly before surging onward again. A blinding flash followed, then a violent explosion sent thick smoke billowing into the air, forming a small mushroom cloud.

Mizuki's clone had already leaped into the air, formed Hand Seals, and passed through the formation's black portal, which had released all its chakra. The formation in midair immediately shrank and vanished.

Meanwhile, in Mizuki's home in Konoha, the real Mizuki used the Summoning Technique at just the right moment. A figure covered in wounds, with seemingly every bone in his body broken, passed through the hole in the floor's formation, blasted open by the chakra, and suddenly appeared in Mizuki's house.

"Don't exchange memories yet. Treat me first. If I pass out from the pain, I'll really die." The clone gave the order as soon as it reached safety.

The real Mizuki didn't waste words. He quickly gave it an injection of nutrients and an anesthetic, then manually reset its numerous broken bones. Finally, he placed it in the chakra-enrichment formation and the healing formation.

"As long as you're alive, we'll stick to conservative treatment for now, then use a method that pushes your body past its limits to recover quickly. I'm afraid you won't last until I find a solution to the life-force problem."

"That's fine. I probably won't be making any big moves over the next month anyway. You should be able to manage without revealing too many of your trump cards, real me."

"Got it. Rest up. Now, let's exchange memories and see how you ended up in such a miserable state."

In the Forest of Death, the mushroom cloud from the ball lightning's impact gradually dissipated. The once-dense woods had vanished completely. The explosion had left a crater dozens of meters across and more than ten meters deep. The extreme heat had even turned patches of soil at its bottom into gleaming glass. Water from a nearby stream, which had been affected by the blast, slowly flowed into the crater through the low ground. Before long, a small lake would surely form.

At the bottom of the crater, a patch of earth that had somehow remained intact suddenly rose up, gradually taking the shape of Orochimaru. He was covered in wounds and had already shed his Grass Ninja disguise. His clothes were in tatters, and his skin was scorched black in places. Smoke still seemed to rise from him. He had clearly suffered a severe loss.

"There's no other way. I never thought I'd have to use this move in a place like this."

Orochimaru suddenly opened his mouth wide. His head split apart along the corners of his mouth, and a human figure slowly crawled out through the opening. The new Orochimaru looked somewhat exhausted, but his body was completely unharmed. His battered body had been shed like a skin.

Once he had settled down, Orochimaru quickly checked the area. Finding no other enemies, he had no choice but to let it go. "Did he escape? I was injured like this without even figuring out who he was. That's a first." As he spoke, Orochimaru suddenly began to laugh. "This is the world I need to explore. There are always unexpected discoveries to keep things interesting. I hope I get to meet him again soon and repay him for this gift. But after all this commotion, the village can't possibly turn a blind eye. The most important thing is to get my hands on the treasure quickly. Heh heh."

Back in Mizuki's room, the real Mizuki had just received his clone's memories and was writhing in agony. Using the chakra Mizuki and his fiancée, Tsubaki Chie, had accumulated over several months, Mizuki had sealed it away, established a spatial link through the Summoning Technique, then used an immense amount of chakra to blast through the barrier between spaces and create a temporary passage. He had sent the massive chakra across a great distance, unleashing an attack far beyond anything imaginable. Finally, he had used the temporary passage to make a quick escape, regardless of whether the attack succeeded. He had had this trump-card plan, strong in both attack and defense, ready for a long time, but only today had he gotten the chance to use it for the first time.

But the clone's return through reverse summoning at the final step had been a near-death experience. He had no talent for space-time techniques and no powerful body to withstand the crushing force of spatial turbulence. If the surging chakra hadn't already carved out a temporary passage, the clone would have been torn to pieces long ago.