"Bang!"
Manda vanished into an enormous cloud of white smoke, his summoning forcibly dispelled in utter humiliation.
The terror in his eyes just before he disappeared made Orochimaru's heart clench.
Orochimaru landed on a tree trunk several dozen meters away, panting, his face as pale as paper.
That Shedding technique had consumed nearly half his chakra.
He could feel his body, which he had only recently transferred into, already beginning to reject him.
"Cough... cough, cough..."
Orochimaru clutched his chest and coughed violently, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
He raised his head. For the first time, an emotion called fear surfaced in his golden, serpentine eyes.
Too strong.
So strong... it made no sense at all.
He looked at the distant battlefield, devastated by the Wood Dragon's crushing coils.
He looked at the enormous Wood Dragon still coiled in midair, watching him like a predator through emotionless wooden eyes.
Then he looked at the languid boy who had not moved a single step from beginning to end.
A profound sense of helplessness washed over Orochimaru, drowning him completely.
This was no genius.
This was a monster wearing human skin!
An incarnation of nature even purer and more primal than the First, Hashirama Senju!
For the first time, Orochimaru realized something.
As long as this brat named Sen Senju was here...
Never mind obtaining Sasuke Uchiha's body.
He would lose his own life here today!
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
Orochimaru cursed furiously in his mind.
The intelligence was disastrously wrong!
That old fox Hiruzen wasn't protecting some Senju orphan.
He had secretly hidden a nuclear bomb in Konoha, one that could blow up the entire shinobi world at any moment!
I have to... I have to get out of here now!
Orochimaru made