Full-Power Strike

Before Orochimaru could finish his sentence, his arm transformed into a mass of coiling, serpentine heads that lunged forward.

Truly an impatient one. Orochimaru really has no patience at all for those who don't interest him.

The gap in strength between Mizuki and Orochimaru had long since surpassed what could be compensated for by numbers or tactics. Within a few short exchanges, Mizuki was driven into a desperate corner. Genjutsu? Traps? Such things weren't even worthy of a glance from Orochimaru. The barrier Mizuki had set up, which would be a lethal weapon in the eyes of an ordinary ninja, was nothing more than a joke to someone of Orochimaru's caliber.

Taijutsu, ninjutsu, reaction speed—I'm completely outclassed. What a despair-inducing gap. If this is the case, I'd better make my escape; it would be bad if I left behind any evidence.

"Weren't you quite energetic just a moment ago? Why are you only hiding now? I thought that since you could orchestrate such a grand display, you would at least bring me some amusement. To think you only have this level of skill. If you have no other tricks, then die." Mizuki had been mocking Sasuke Uchiha just moments ago, and to think he'd be served the same treatment so quickly—truly, karma is swift.

"However, I am not some defenseless child," Mizuki, waiting for his moment, seized the opportunity as Orochimaru closed in and rapidly formed hand seals. "Detonate."

With a loud shout, Mizuki's Shadow Clone exploded, triggering all the explosive tags attached to his body. Orochimaru, unable to dodge in time, was swallowed by the blast. Before he could even register surprise, countless kunai and shuriken surged through the smoke, riding the shockwave and turning Orochimaru into a pincushion.

As the smoke cleared, a scarred Orochimaru was revealed, only for his body to soften into mud and vanish. A new Orochimaru appeared in his place. The Earth Substitution had rendered the Shadow Clone's attack almost entirely ineffective.

"What is this? It was just a Shadow Clone? Truly unexpected. However, this is definitely not strength a candidate in the Chunin Exams should possess. It explains how he was able to set up a barrier that requires long-term research and extensive experience."

Now slightly intrigued, Orochimaru quickly sensed the surroundings. "Sasuke and his group clearly don't have this strength, and those two unconscious Grass Ninja and that useless girl don't fit the bill either. So then," Orochimaru's eyes suddenly locked onto a direction, "it seems it must be you."

Elsewhere, the Mizuki clone, having achieved its goal, was moving away from the battlefield when a sudden wave of explosive energy rippled through the air.

The Shadow Clone has vanished. A flood of memories surged into his mind. Did everything go smoothly? Wait, how did Orochimaru arrive so quickly? This is bad...

Before Mizuki could react, a terrifying killing intent locked onto him. A massive sense of oppression descended, making it feel as though he couldn't breathe, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.

"This killing intent is truly astonishing~" Mizuki forced a bitter smile. "Was he just playing around before, and now he's actually getting serious? Is the gap in ninja strength really this staggering? This seems to be completely outside the scope of my understanding. The higher the strength, the more unreasonable the gap between individuals becomes~"

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

"Since I cannot resist, I have no choice but to take a risk. It seems I won't be able to escape using conventional methods."

Having made up his mind, Mizuki struggled to pull out a kunai with his right hand and plunged it into his own thigh. Relying on the sharp pain to override the fear in his heart, he barely managed to regain his ability to move.

"Since you are so relentless, don't blame me for making you pay a heavy price."

Gasping for breath, Mizuki took out a scroll, spread it on the ground, bit his finger, and after rapidly forming hand seals, pressed his hand into the empty air. The scroll on the ground emitted a blinding red light, the violent reaction instantly burning it to ash. A red magic circle manifested in mid-air, rising higher and growing larger until it became a bizarre formation ten meters in diameter, floating nearly a hundred meters above the ground.

Simultaneously, in Mizuki's apartment in Konoha Village, the real Mizuki, who was studying the sealing technique documents gifted by the Third Hokage, suddenly felt a disturbance. He quickly set aside his work and pulled out a trembling scroll from the top of a stack.

Has it reached such a critical point? Without time to think, Mizuki activated his own formation. A crimson circle spread across the floor, vibrating and rotating with a rhythmic pulse, seemingly linked to a distant location.

Mizuki then retrieved a massive sealing scroll, activated the barriers already prepared in the room, and finally released the seal.

"Whether you are Orochimaru or not, let me show you the meaning of pure power."

Instantly, a massive surge of chakra poured out from the center of the sealing scroll, shooting directly into the crimson formation on the floor and vanishing.

High above the Forest of Death, the floating formation opened a black aperture. A massive torrent of chakra crossed the void, bombarding the area where Orochimaru stood. The immense impact blasted a giant crater into the ground, and the shockwave swept outward, snapping surrounding trees like twigs.

As the massive pillar of chakra continued to descend, the surrounding air fluctuated violently, whipping up a massive tornado of dust. The intense friction generated such immense energy that it created a vast cloud of electrified mist. Bright white lightning flickered within, eventually coalescing into a zone of churning plasma that ground the hundred-meter radius into scorched earth. That wasn't all; as the chakra from the sky finally exhausted itself and the area below remained a hellscape, the formation rapidly shrank. The previously contained energy, combined with the residual, terrifying spatial fluctuations, formed a pitch-black thunder orb that dove toward Orochimaru. The terrifying, slow-yet-fast ball lightning carried enough energy to destroy everything in its path.

"Summoning: Rashomon."

A massive, hideous, and terrifying gate blocked the path of the thunder orb. The deafening sound of their collision echoed throughout the entire Forest of Death.

The immense impact of the thunder orb crushed the Rashomon, and the electrical power quickly coiled around the gate, tearing it to shreds in moments. The orb was only slightly delayed before pushing forward once more. A flash of intense light erupted, followed by violent smoke and a massive explosion that soared into the sky, forming a small mushroom cloud.

The Mizuki clone had already leaped away, forming hand seals to pass through the black hole of the formation, which had now exhausted its chakra. The formation in mid-air shrank and vanished immediately after.

Back at Mizuki's home in Konoha, the original body used the Summoning Jutsu at the perfect moment. A battered figure, every bone seemingly shattered, passed through the black hole created by the chakra bombardment and appeared abruptly in the room.

"Don't exchange memories yet, heal me first! If I pass out from the pain, I'm truly going to die." The clone gave the order as soon as it reached safety.

The original Mizuki didn't waste words, quickly injecting it with a nutritional supplement and anesthetic before manually setting the multiple fractures. Finally, he placed the clone within the chakra-rich formation and a healing circle.

"As long as we can save your life, we'll stick to conservative treatment for now and use overdraft methods to recover quickly. I'm afraid you won't last until the day I find a solution to this vitality issue."

"That's fine. In any case, there won't be any major moves for the next month. You can handle things without exposing too many trump cards."

"Understood. Get some rest. 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 collision gradually dissipated, and the once-dense forest had completely vanished. A crater dozens of meters wide and over ten meters deep formed at the center of the explosion, the bottom fused into a crystalline, glass-like surface due to the intense heat. Water from a nearby stream began to trickle into the low-lying crater; it wouldn't be long before a small lake was born.

At the bottom of the crater, a patch of soil that had barely remained intact suddenly heaved, gradually transforming into the shape of Orochimaru. He was covered in wounds, having long since shed the skin of the Grass Ninja. His clothes were in tatters, his flesh charred and still smoking—it was clear he had suffered a significant blow.

"There was no other way. I never expected to use this technique in a place like this."

Orochimaru suddenly opened his mouth wide, his head splitting along the corners of his lips as a humanoid figure slowly crawled out. Though the new Orochimaru appeared somewhat exhausted, his body was completely unscathed. The tattered remains of his previous body were left behind like a discarded skin.

Having stabilized, Orochimaru quickly scanned his surroundings. Finding no further sign of his enemy, he had no choice but to give up. "Escaped, have they? To be wounded like this without even knowing who the opponent was... this is truly a first." Orochimaru suddenly began to laugh. "This is the world I need to explore. It's only when there are unexpected discoveries that things remain interesting. I hope we can meet again soon so I can return this favor. Still, with such a commotion, the village won't be able to turn a blind eye. Securing the treasure is the most important thing now, heh heh."

In Mizuki's room, the original Mizuki was wracked with agony as he received the clone's memories. He had used the chakra accumulated by himself and his fiancée, Tsubaki Chie, over the past few months, sealed it, and then used the Summoning Jutsu to establish a coordinate link. By bombarding the space with massive amounts of chakra to break through the spatial barrier, he had created a temporary channel to project that power over a long distance, resulting in an attack far beyond imagination. Finally, he used the temporary channel to retreat immediately, regardless of the outcome. This trump card, combining both offense and defense, had finally been used for the first time today.

However, the final step—the clone returning via reverse-summoning—had been a brush with death. Without an affinity for space or a powerful body to withstand the crushing pressure of spatial turbulence, the clone would have been torn to shreds if not for the channel already carved out by the surging chakra.