第34章 绝境求生

"Three."

Takuma suddenly shouted the number. Instead of counting from one to three as agreed, he skipped directly to the final digit.

This move, which ignored the established routine, caught Yakumo and Tetsu off guard for half a beat. In that split-second gap, Takuma shoved Yakumo's shoulder hard, sending her and Tetsu stumbling toward the woods on the right.

Yakumo staggered two steps, instinctively turning to grab Takuma, but Tetsu seized her wrist.

Tetsu gave Takuma a deep look.

Then, without looking back, he dragged Yakumo into the dense forest.

The sound of snapping branches and crushed dead leaves grew fainter, gradually swallowed once more by the silence of the woods.

Orochimaru tilted his head slightly, his gaze shifting from Takuma to the direction the two had fled. He paused for a moment, then turned back. "Your teammates abandoned you," he said, his voice lazy and laced with deliberate disappointment. "What a pity. I thought I might get two more experimental subjects."

"They didn't abandon me." Takuma gripped the kunai in his hand, sweat streaming down his palm and staining the dead leaves with dark marks. "I told them to go."

"Oh?" Orochimaru's eyebrows arched slightly, revealing a meaningful smile. "Do you think... they can really get away?"

The moment the words fell, Orochimaru moved.

It was not the Body Flicker Technique, but pure physical speed—so fast that even Takuma's Spider-Sense failed to react before the grey-black figure appeared in the path of Tetsu and Yakumo's escape.

He moved with the speed of a snake gliding across the ground.

But Tetsu's reaction was not slow.

Earth Release: Earth Prison Dome!

Tetsu's voice came from deep within the forest, low and firm, carrying a desperate resolve. He had pushed Yakumo forward and stayed behind, waiting for this very moment.

The earth trembled as four massive earthen walls rose from the ground, encircling Orochimaru.

Each wall was three meters thick, its surface shimmering with dark yellow Chakra. Tetsu poured all his Earth-style Chakra into the technique. Under the influence of the Chakra, the soil compressed and hardened, emitting a teeth-grinding creak. Inside the prison, veins of Chakra spread across the mud walls like blood vessels, frantically absorbing the Chakra of the enemy trapped within.

This was Tetsu's trump card.

Earth Prison Dome, a B-rank Earth Release Ninjutsu, used thick walls to trap an enemy while continuously draining their Chakra. Even a Jonin would find their stamina rapidly depleted until they were exhausted.

Tetsu's legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground, pressing his hands firmly against the earth to maintain the technique.

His Chakra leaked out like a broken dam. Veins bulged on his forehead, and sweat dripped from the edge of his hood.

How long could he hold on? He wasn't sure.

But every extra second he bought was another second of opportunity for Yakumo and Takuma.

Only three seconds later, one of the prison walls exploded from within.

The entire three-meter-thick wall was blasted into fragments by a terrifying force from the inside.

Debris and soil splattered in all directions, striking tree trunks with dull thuds.

Tetsu bore the brunt of the shockwave and was sent flying. He soared half a meter into the air before his back slammed heavily against a tree trunk. He groaned, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Orochimaru stepped out from the gap in the collapsed wall. Not a single speck of dust touched him; his clothes were as smooth as new.

"A decent use of Earth Release," Orochimaru commented, his tone flat. "The density and structure of the Chakra are solid. Among ordinary ninjas, this counts as top-tier."

He walked over to Tetsu, looking down at the man who was struggling to stand while kneeling on the ground.

Tetsu tried to raise his hands to weave signs, but Orochimaru was much faster.

Three white snakes shot out from his sleeves, tracing three white arcs through the air, their fangs bared as they lunged for Tetsu's face.

Tetsu barely dodged the first snake, but his right arm was bitten by the second.

The fangs pierced his flesh, and cold venom spread through his veins. His entire right arm turned purple instantly, swelling to twice the size of his left.

The third snake coiled around his neck and tightened sharply.

Tetsu's complexion shifted from pale to a bruised purple. He tried to reach up to pull the snake off his neck, but his right arm no longer obeyed him.

Breathing became increasingly difficult. Black spots appeared in his vision, and the sounds around him grew distant and blurred.

"Uncle Tetsu...!"

Yakumo's cry came from deep in the forest, shrill and desperate.

She had turned back. Her scroll was fully unfurled before her, and with a charcoal pencil in each hand, her fingers flew, frantically painting on the paper.

Painted Realm: Shura Hell.

Ink spread wildly from the paper, pouring out like spilled thick ink, dyeing the twenty-meter radius pitch black.

The ground beneath Orochimaru's feet turned into a boiling pool of blood.

Countless pale hands reached out from the blood, grabbing his ankles, calves, and knees, pulling him down with all their might.

The sky above cracked open, revealing a scarlet rift from which the heads of countless evil spirits emerged, letting out heart-wrenching screams.

The air grew thick and scorching, heavy with the stench of blood. Every breath felt like swallowing molten iron.

This was the Kekkei Genkai of the Kurama Clan... the pinnacle of five-sense Genjutsu.

Within the Painted Realm, the caster could control everything. Pain, temperature, gravity, the flow of time—everything was dictated by Yakumo's brush.

Orochimaru looked down at the dense mass of arms beneath his feet, then up at the churning evil spirits in the sky. A flicker of genuine surprise crossed his eyes.

"Oh?" He narrowed his eyes slightly. For the first time, something other than surprise appeared in his golden slit pupils: a thick, burning interest. "The Kurama Clan's Kekkei Genkai? Truly a rare specimen. Your sketch-based Genjutsu... there isn't a third successor left in the entire ninja world."

He laughed, his voice raspy and delighted, like an antique dealer discovering a long-lost treasure in a pile of junk.

"A descendant of the Senju, a Kurama bloodline... today's harvest is far richer than I imagined."

Yakumo's forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, and the hand holding the charcoal pencil trembled slightly.

Maintaining a Shura Hell-level Genjutsu drained her immensely; her mental energy was being siphoned away as if by a pump.

She used all her strength to deepen the blood pool beneath Orochimaru. Within the Genjutsu space, Orochimaru's body had already been dragged halfway down.

However, in the real world, Orochimaru merely took a step forward.

The Painted Realm shattered like a broken mirror, countless fine cracks spreading from beneath Orochimaru's feet.

The cracks spread in all directions at a visible speed. Wherever they passed, the blood pool evaporated, the evil spirits disintegrated, and the scarlet sky peeled away and faded.

The entire Shura Hell shattered into countless shards of Genjutsu residue within a second, like silent fireworks.

Yakumo's charcoal pencils snapped with a "pop," the barrels exploding in her palms and the fragments cutting her fingertips.

It was as if she had been struck in the chest by an invisible force; she flew backward, rolling into a pile of dead leaves, and struggled twice before failing to rise.

The backlash from the violent shattering of her Genjutsu left her mental energy nearly bottomed out. Her vision was filled with double images, and her ears rang with a dull hum.

Orochimaru walked to her side and looked down at her. There was no killing intent in those golden slit pupils, only the cold, critical scrutiny one would use on an experimental subject.

"Your talent for Genjutsu is excellent, but your physical constitution is too poor. Being unable to withstand the backlash of your own Genjutsu is a fatal flaw."

He casually slapped the back of Yakumo's neck, his force controlled with extreme precision.

Yakumo groaned, her body going limp on the ground, her hair splayed out across the dead leaves.

Then, Orochimaru turned around and looked at the last person remaining.