Your talent is indeed astonishing, but unfortunately you don't have the Sharingan

"Shua—!"

A cold light flashed, and Orochimaru's Grass-Cutting Sword transformed into a sharp, cold gleam, aiming straight for Xuan Yu's heart.

However, with Xuan Yu's current explosive speed, such an attack posed almost no threat to him.

He shifted his body slightly, deftly dodging the thrust of the Grass-Cutting Sword, and in an instant, he appeared behind Orochimaru's flank.

Orochimaru, possessing extremely rich combat experience, sensed his attack miss. Without even turning his head, he swung his sword backhand in a horizontal sweep, simultaneously forming a hand seal with his left hand at lightning speed to activate a jutsu.

Facing the sword edge sweeping towards him, Xuan Yu's figure flickered again, instantly unleashing the Phantom Body Flicker!

Orochimaru's sword strike missed, and as he turned to sweep his gaze around, he saw five Xuan Yus appearing simultaneously around him, each launching an attack!

Seeing this, Orochimaru inwardly marveled.

"This is the intelligence that Zetsu mentioned, saying it was a cloning technique comparable to Shisui of the Body Flicker. So, which one is the real body?"

Lacking bloodline-based ocular jutsu and powerful sensory abilities, Orochimaru was unable to distinguish which of the five Xuan Yus before him was the original.

Faced with this situation, he did not gamble on the real body like Kakuzu. Instead, he decisively chose a wide-area attack.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

Orochimaru took a deep breath and suddenly exhaled a fierce gale. The wind swept horizontally from left to right, instantly engulfing all five of Xuan Yu's figures.

However, in the next second, Kabuto, Kimimaro, and Orochimaru all widened their eyes—those five "Xuan Yus" were all intangible phantoms!

"Not good!"

Orochimaru was initially confused about what had happened, but as one of the Legendary Sannin, his combat experience far surpassed others, and he quickly realized.

Although the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough had swept through the five Xuan Yus, it hadn't hit them simultaneously, nor had it destroyed all the phantoms in sequence.

In other words, his attack had only hit phantoms, not captured all five figures.

This gave Xuan Yu immense room to maneuver!

What happened next confirmed Orochimaru's judgment.

Before Orochimaru could react, the first "Xuan Yu" on the left had already unleashed his strongest killing move.

"Leaf! Whirl! Wind—!!"

With a roar from Xuan Yu, a high-speed rotating, small green-blue tornado was kicked out by him!

The green-blue tornado instantly engulfed Orochimaru, followed by a "boom," sending Orochimaru flying high into the air!

Seeing Orochimaru sent flying, Kabuto and Kimimaro immediately attacked Xuan Yu together, intending to stop him from pursuing and further harming Orochimaru.

"Stop!"

Orochimaru's voice, slightly disheveled but still steady, came from a distance, halting them.

Orochimaru looked somewhat disheveled, his cloak covered in dust, but his expression was exceptionally excited.

He clearly remembered that on the first day Xuan Yu joined the Akatsuki, he had fought this kid, and he knew the opponent's strength level at that time.

Now, fighting again, although Xuan Yu hadn't used many new moves and had even used an old taijutsu like the Leaf Whirlwind to send him flying, Orochimaru clearly felt Xuan Yu's leap in strength.

Xuan Yu's speed, power, ninjutsu potency, and almost all other aspects had improved significantly compared to before.

The current Xuan Yu might not be a "perfect vessel," but the astonishing potential he displayed was enough for him to grow into the perfect reincarnation vessel Orochimaru had always dreamed of.

With this thought, Orochimaru's gaze towards Xuan Yu couldn't help but become more fervent and greedy.

Xuan Yu's monstrous growth rate and incredible ninjutsu learning ability made his mouth water.

If he could possess Xuan Yu, wouldn't all of Xuan Yu's abilities become his own?

Not far away, Xuan Yu did not continue his attack.

With his arms crossed, he smiled and said loudly to Orochimaru, "Snake Bro, you should have a good idea of my ninjutsu learning talent and growth speed now, right? It can be said that the intelligence outside about me is actually inaccurate—my strength and potential are much greater than described in the intelligence."

Orochimaru slowly nodded, "Indeed. You are a quite special ninja. Although you, as part of the Uchiha Clan, haven't awakened your Sharingan yet, it doesn't detract from your overall quality."

Xuan Yu couldn't help but roll his eyes, "Can we not mention the Sharingan? Besides, it's not like I definitely can't awaken it. And even if I really can't... isn't the Sharingan just a hot-swappable peripheral in the Ninja World? Getting a pair to install wouldn't be that difficult?"

Orochimaru naturally understood what Xuan Yu meant.

However, these were not the focus of their current conversation; the priority was the cooperation between them.

Orochimaru chuckled lightly and asked, "These special abilities you possess are indeed worth the fifty million ryo bounty. But tell me, how do you plan to cooperate with me?"

Xuan Yu answered without hesitation, "It's simple, I can provide chakra for you to use in your research."

Orochimaru's expression darkened, and his tone was displeased, "It sounds like you lack sincerity in this cooperation."

Xuan Yu didn't reply immediately. He just smiled slightly and, right in front of Orochimaru, formed hand seals and performed a jutsu again.

"Bang!" A puff of white smoke exploded, and a second "Xuan Yu" appeared beside Xuan Yu.

Immediately after, both Xuan Yus simultaneously used the Healing Jutsu they had just learned.

Two balls of green-blue chakra light lit up in their palms, shining brightly.

While demonstrating the Chakra Clone and Healing Jutsu, Xuan Yu said unhurriedly, "My special abilities, in essence, all rely on my chakra. Because my chakra is special, the clones I create using the Cloning Technique are not only difficult to distinguish from the real body but can almost be used as the real body."

He spread his hands slightly towards Orochimaru, "So, providing you with my chakra for research is already showing you great respect and the utmost sincerity in our cooperation."

Once again, Orochimaru was stunned on the spot.

He had already witnessed many of Xuan Yu's bizarre abilities, but hearing Xuan Yu personally reveal this trump card still left him unable to hide his shock.

While the Wood Style Clone of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, was undeniably formidable, there was still a significant gap between a wood clone and the original body.

Other types of Cloning Techniques might have their own merits, but compared to Xuan Yu's cloning ability, they were undoubtedly far inferior.

With such a Cloning Technique, Xuan Yu alone could perform many combination ninjutsu that would normally require the joint effort of several people!

A sharp glint flashed in Orochimaru's eyes as he finally nodded. "Very well... follow me to the laboratory."

With that, he turned and walked toward the rock wall on the side of the valley.

The few wooden houses here were not his true experimental site; his base was built inside the mountain.

Seeing Orochimaru agree to cooperate, Xuan Yu couldn't help but be overjoyed.

Once the details were settled, he would net a cool fifty million ryo in commission from this trip, plus he'd get a Healing Jutsu for free.

If he put in a little more effort, perhaps he could see if he could swindle Orochimaru's Triple Rashomon summoning technique as well?

A technique like the Triple Rashomon was incredibly useful for dealing with those self-propelled, large-scale lethal attacks!