"Good thing Kabuto prepared the blood for me ahead of time, so I can use the Summoning Technique whenever I want!"
Orochimaru's forehead was beaded with sweat.
With his current abilities, he could still turn into a snake, spit out the Kusanagi Sword, and attack with the blade of light.
He could even bite someone and leave a Cursed Seal.
But all the techniques that required hand seals were completely out of reach.
The only thing he could rely on was the blood Kabuto had prepared in advance.
The blood that let Orochimaru use the Summoning Technique!
"Kabuto, did you fail? That Demon Fox brat really is persistent!"
Bang!
Orochimaru summoned Ten-Tailed Snake, whose purple scales glinted in the sunlight.
Its enormous body even overpowered Toad Gamabunta, whom Jiraiya had summoned.
"At last, the medicine's taken effect. I can use this move!"
Jiraiya summoning Toad Gamabunta had changed the balance of the fight.
At least now, they could put up some resistance.
"Did he do it? How is that possible?"
"Was it his determination to become Hokage, or that so-called ninja way?"
Tsunade had been lost for far too long.
Now she saw the blood scattered across the ground.
And Naruto charging at Orochimaru without a thought for his own safety.
"Why do there have to be wars and death?"
"What is this world even doing?"
In her anguish, Tsunade tried to summon Katsuyu.
She would overcome all of this!
The smoke cleared.
Naruto had leaped alone onto Ten-Tailed Snake's massive body.
"Naruto!"
Tsunade appeared, standing atop Katsuyu.
She couldn't afford to lose another person dear to her!
"Why are you calling me? The fight's only just begun!"
Naruto didn't think he was in any danger.
Orochimaru had lost the use of his hands. Naruto had failed to finish him off last time only because he'd run away.
There was no way he'd get away this time!
"Ten-Tailed Snake! What a fine summon!"
Naruto thought of how he could already summon Katsuyu, Toads, and Enma.
The only one he'd never summoned was a snake.
"Then today, I'll make you my summon!"
Naruto summoned Enma, too.
"Give me a hand and take that guy down!"
Naruto entered Sage Mode.
A thin layer of white vapor appeared over his skin.
Sage Mode: second stage!
After Naruto's modifications, he could infuse his flesh, skin, and bones with Senjutsu Chakra.
The longer he maintained it, the more powerful the tempering effect became.
A Rasengan formed in his hand.
It shone with a crystalline blue light.
After a week of grueling training,
Naruto had developed the Rasengan into an immensely powerful technique even in his normal state.
He could blend in huge amounts of chakra and unleash astonishing power!
"Large Ball Rasengan!"
What did Jiraiya or the Sannin matter?
As the times changed, and Naruto arrived as a transmigrator with a system,
the world that had once seemed immutable turned to a brand-new page!
Kabuto, Orochimaru, you're staying here!
Naruto would keep them both here and usher in a New World that would shake the present and astonish the future!
"What is that?"
Orochimaru prepared to spit out a blade of light and kill Naruto.
But the moment Naruto leaped onto Ten-Tailed Snake's body,
neither Orochimaru nor Ten-Tailed Snake had expected
him to be this strong!
"Sage Mode!"
Ten-Tailed Snake, Gamabunta, and Katsuyu all thought the same thing.
How was this possible?
Where had this child learned Sage Mode? What kind of opportunity and talent had it taken?
"Jiraiya! He's never even been to Mount Myoboku! How is this possible?"
Even Gamabunta, the great toad boss, hadn't expected Naruto to have mastered Sage Mode by the time they met again!
"Unbelievable. This child has surpassed the talents of both me and Minato Namikaze. He learned Sage Mode so easily, outside Mount Myoboku, using the faintest trace of Natural Energy!"
Jiraiya folded his arms, unable to hide his pride.
"I've never liked training prodigies, but Naruto's strength isn't his talent. It's his extraordinary ability to develop techniques and his sheer tenacity!"
"He mastered the Nine-Tails' chakra in the shortest time, learned Sage Mode, mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique, and developed countless variations of the Rasengan."
"Perhaps..."
Jiraiya thought of a possibility so remote it was barely worth considering.
The Child of Prophecy!
But could it really be Naruto?
"He's about to attack!"
Even Katsuyu found Naruto astonishing.
The Senjutsu Chakra within him was strangely distinctive. It radiated an aura unlike anything she'd ever known.
He'd changed!
Naruto had altered Sage Mode, trying to use it to forge a true Sage Body for himself!
A mad path no one had ever attempted before!
"He really is a lunatic!"
Orochimaru took half a step back, already thinking about fleeing.
Today, he might not only fail to get Tsunade to heal his hands—he could lose the rest of his life, too!
"Who is he?"
Ten-Tailed Snake only respected the strong. The more Orochimaru clung to the hope of going to Ryūchi Cave and attaining the form of a sage,
the less he gained from it. He had no chance of being accepted by Ten-Tailed Snake, let alone becoming its true master.
But Naruto, who didn't give a damn about Ten-Tailed Snake, struck it as interesting.
"Naruto Uzumaki!"
Orochimaru loathed him. If he couldn't take Naruto's life, he'd just have to cripple him.
With the Adamantine Ruyi Staff in one hand and a Large Ball Rasengan in the other,
Enma cheered with delight.
"At last, I can avenge Hiruzen! Let's defeat this traitorous disciple!"
Enma couldn't have been happier to avenge his old friend with his own hands.
"The Third Hokage's summon!"
Orochimaru gritted his teeth and shouted, "He even taught you this! Why wouldn't he teach me? He knew I wanted to learn every jutsu!"
Orochimaru was so rattled that he assumed Naruto could summon Enma only because Hiruzen Sarutobi had taught him.
"What are you going on about?"
Naruto struck Ten-Tailed Snake between the eyes with a Large Ball Rasengan.
The Adamantine Ruyi Staff swept through the air, knocking away the blade of light Orochimaru spat out.
With Sage Mode, Naruto had maximized his healing, physical strength, speed, and agility.
"That's a technique I should have learned! It's Senjutsu!"
Orochimaru had once desperately wanted to learn Sage Mode at Ryūchi Cave, but in the end, he had failed.
But why?
Why had everything he'd failed to master ended up in Naruto's hands?
With those techniques, Orochimaru would have been far stronger.
He wouldn't have felt so helpless now!
And he wouldn't have lost his hands in Konoha!
"Damn it!"
Ten-Tailed Snake took a blow to the head as if a meteor had crashed into it. It bowed its head in unbearable pain.
It tried to raise its head and struggle again.
But Naruto had already formed another Rasengan.
"Sage Art: Great Ball Rasengan!"
"Adamantine Ruyi Staff! Adamantine Prison Wall!"
The Adamantine Ruyi Staff split into dozens of lengths, forming an impenetrable cage around Orochimaru.
"Naruto!"
Orochimaru flicked out his forked tongue, wishing he could tear Naruto limb from limb.
"Either die, or become my summon!"
Naruto hurled a Sage Art: Great Ball Rasengan.
Ten-Tailed Snake had tried to keep up its usual haughty facade.
But pain like a raging storm instantly engulfed its entire body.
The blow struck across its middle!
The giant snake fainted on the spot, its tongue and tail sticking out like a puppy's fur standing on end.
"Pathetic!"
Naruto forcibly signed the Summoning Contract with the half-dead Ten-Tailed Snake.
"I only used the smallest Sage Art: Rasengan, and you're this weak."
Bang!
Naruto sent Ten-Tailed Snake back.
He walked toward Orochimaru, who had fallen into the Swamp of the Underworld.
Orochimaru had already transformed into the form of the Great Snake Summoning Technique.
A monstrous serpent made up of countless little snakes!
"I've always called the opponents I defeated monsters."
"Who would've thought that one day, I'd realize the weakling was me all along?"
Orochimaru had turned into a snake, but he still had no hands.
It was as if this was the form of life he'd been born to inhabit.
Outside the prison wall,
Orochimaru burrowed out through the ground in his snake form, reappearing behind another rock.
In this form, Orochimaru was about to launch his final counterattack.
"Orochimaru! You're going to fight to the death now, aren't you?"
Naruto recalled the Adamantine Ruyi Staff.
Sage Mode ended, and he immediately entered Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
As long as life endured, his body-tempering training would never stop.
"Yeah. I still don't want to be a weakling!"
Orochimaru lunged, and at the same time, snakes came swarming from every direction.
"Every one of my scales is a little snake, and every snake is me. As long as even one survives, you can't kill me!"
"I'm the immortal who'll live forever in the future!"
As Orochimaru spoke, his body broke apart into hundreds, then thousands, of little snakes.
"Then let's see whether there are more snakes or more clones!"
Naruto quickly formed hand seals. "Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"