"Mandala Formation!"
Orochimaru spat out hundreds of snakes to attack.
They were too fast to fend off, and in an instant, they covered the ground beneath Naruto's feet.
Combined with the thousands of little snakes he had turned into earlier,
the ground was now covered in snakes.
He used them to block Naruto's pursuit once again.
"Take them all down!"
Naruto watched in every direction as his Multiple Shadow Clone Technique sent clones surging out.
They unleashed all kinds of ninjutsu.
"Rasengan!"
"Thunderstorm Rasengan!"
"Rasenshuriken!"
Orochimaru didn't even want to look at the Rasengan series.
Those techniques put him in a foul mood. Their destructive power was terrifying.
"Flame Bullet!"
"Great Flame Bullet!"
"Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
On the other side, dozens of Shadow Clones unleashed Fire Release, setting the snakes ablaze.
"Are you even human?!"
Orochimaru gritted his teeth in fury.
He had never imagined that one day he would face a person who outnumbered the snakes.
He was completely overwhelmed!
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
This was bad!
Orochimaru completely broke down.
The terrifying thing about this technique wasn't just its ability to cause widespread damage and destruction with Water Release.
More importantly, it could trap people inside.
Kisame Hoshigaki loved using Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave to wreak havoc, imprison his enemies, and protect himself.
People trapped underwater couldn't get out, and those outside couldn't get in.
Hundreds of snakes were trapped at once, mercilessly shredded by the swirling currents.
"Leave it to us! Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
A group of Shadow Clones emerged from the west.
They immediately buried all the snakes in a swamp where they could barely move.
"Use Scorch Release! Steam Murder!"
Another group of Shadow Clones charged out from the other side of the grass.
They roasted the poor little snakes until they quickly became nothing but snake skins.
"You're even using Kekkei Genkai? I recommend the Five Elements!"
"Five Elements: Great Barrage Technique!"
Five Shadow Clones joined forces,
surrounding the hundreds of snakes and slaughtering them.
On the sidelines, Tsunade had just overcome her fear of blood.
She summoned Katsuyu.
Jiraiya stood on Gamabunta's head, at a loss.
"Isn't this a bit much?"
Shizune had never seen one of the Sannin this humiliated.
"Maybe Jiraiya really wasn't lying. By the way, did the Third Hokage pass his Five Elements technique on to Naruto through Enma?"
Even Tsunade was stunned.
But the very next moment,
she saw something even more shocking.
Several Shadow Clones used Shadow Clone Shuriken.
Then came a flash of light!
It was the Flying Thunder God Technique!
If any snake managed to escape, it could only be because Naruto had deliberately let it go.
"Jiraiya."
Gamabunta spoke solemnly to Jiraiya, who stood atop his head.
"If you'd been as powerful as Naruto back then, perhaps you could have brought the lost Orochimaru back."
At that,
Gamabunta even took a puff from his pipe.
"No."
"Looking back, he could never have returned to Konoha. All the blame for his experiments was laid at Orochimaru's feet."
Jiraiya looked back on the past and felt only sorrow.
Once a ninja was no longer useful, it was all too easy to cast him aside.
Even one of the Sannin was no exception.
"Open the gates and let the rabbits out!"
"Summoning Technique: Rabbit Family!"
His signature summoning technique.
Naruto's Shadow Clone summoned the adorable Rabbit Family.
They were tiny and cute when they first appeared.
But with every hop, they grew bigger, until they started using snakes as jump ropes.
"Where does this kid learn all these weird techniques?"
Jiraiya smacked his forehead and wondered.
Naruto had no weak spots in Taijutsu, ninjutsu, Space-Time Ninjutsu, or summoning.
All he lacked now were age and experience.
Otherwise, he'd be the perfect candidate for Hokage.
Thinking of Tsunade's stubbornness—and the possibility that she might actually recommend Naruto as Hokage—gave him a splitting headache.
"Naruto!"
Surrounded by Shadow Clones, Orochimaru was on the verge of an emotional breakdown.
"Great Snake Style Substitution Technique."
Without forming Hand Seals, he shed his skin and emerged from the body of a snake.
Even in this state, Orochimaru still had plenty of trump cards.
But facing an absurdly talented genius like Naruto left him feeling deeply frustrated.
"What are you trying to do?"
"Why can't you just let me leave alive?"
Orochimaru let his hands hang at his sides.
His face was marked with patterns like a serpent's.
At this desperate moment, he still managed a bleak, mocking laugh.
"Even your teacher, Jiraiya, wouldn't dare kill me! The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, couldn't kill me either! What makes you think you can?"
"Naruto Uzumaki! You really think taking me back will bring peace to Konoha?"
"You're too young. You don't understand how dark Konoha's skies are, and you don't understand why I left back then!"
"There's no point in taking me back. It'll only drive a bunch of old men mad! They're the ones who most want me alive!"
In Naruto's eyes, Orochimaru saw only naivete and ignorance.
When they were young, hadn't they all given everything for Konoha and fought to the death?
Who could have imagined that, in the end, they'd be discarded once their usefulness was over?
"Naruto's still a child. How could he understand any of this?"
Tsunade had little faith left in Konoha, too.
It was a place of heartbreak. In fact, the entire Ninja World seemed like a meat grinder waiting to start at any moment.
Lives that had been laughing and talking just yesterday could become cold, silent corpses in the blink of an eye.
"Ever since ninjutsu was born and humanity gained chakra, everything was destined to become the fate of ninjas, generation after generation."
Jiraiya had devoted himself to finding the Child of Prophecy in the hope of ending this tragedy.
The Sannin had endured the cruelest wars and learned just how brutal the Ninja World could be.
"Nine-Tails Chakra Mode!"
"Release!"
Naruto had exhausted his Senjutsu Chakra and finished tempering his body.
In the blink of an eye, he used the Nine-Tails Chakra to enter an even more ferocious form.
"How many trump cards do you have, you little monster?!"
Orochimaru envied him. If he had layer upon layer of Chakra Cloak protecting him like Naruto did,
his vitality would be astonishing. And that was without even mentioning how much chakra Naruto had squandered already!
"Orochimaru, stop trying to stall."
"You could burrow underground, and I'd still drag you out."
Nine claws formed from Nine-Tails Chakra appeared behind Naruto.
The chakra claws surrounded Orochimaru, while hundreds upon hundreds of Shadow Clones left him with nowhere to hide underground.
"Do you know how your parents died?"
"Naruto, do you know why your parents were left without help that night?"
"Do you want to know who your enemy is?"
Orochimaru stuck out his tongue, grinning wickedly.
Jiraiya and Tsunade both frowned at his words.
Much of it was speculation; neither of them had been in the village at the time.
The Night of the Demon Fox.
Danzo had indeed misled the Uchiha Clan, making things even harder for Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.
But how could they retaliate?
Back then, Danzo, who had also experimented on human bodies, had been protected, while Orochimaru had become the target of everyone's scorn.
Konoha's leaders were still those same disciples of the Second, Tobirama Senju.
"I know."
Naruto could sense Orochimaru's hostility through the Nine-Tails Chakra.
He had kept Orochimaru's every move under lock and key from beginning to end.
"I've always known."
"That's why I'm not like you. I don't need to run."
"You killed the Third Hokage. Why didn't you take care of Danzo, too? Did you grow attached after dissecting bodies together?"
"You're wasting my time and energy."
Naruto raised one hand.
A thousand Shadow Clones and nine chakra fox claws attacked Orochimaru at once.
"You!"
"You really are insane!"
"Hyahahahaha! I can't wait to see what you do!"
"Konoha's mountains are more solid than Kage Rock. How are you going to bring them down?!"
Orochimaru couldn't escape, and there was no point in trying anymore.
He wanted to see just how far Naruto's madness would go.
Caught in the grip of a giant hand made of Nine-Tails Chakra, Orochimaru's eyes blazed with murderous intent.
"Naruto Uzumaki! I surrender. Take me back to Konoha. I want to see whether you can really topple Konoha's mountains!"
Orochimaru laughed without stopping.
Tsunade and Jiraiya, however, looked grave.
"Fine!"
"I'll topple Konoha's mountains!"
Darkness flashed in Naruto's eyes, and in an instant, he took it all in.