Space-Time Nemesis, Orochimaru's Escape

Ye rose unhurriedly from the rock, his black trench coat snapping in the turbulent currents. He raised a hand and brushed a bit of stone dust from his shoulder.

As he straightened, the darkness in his eyes rapidly faded. Three tomoe emerged, swiftly linking into an eerie, intricate Mangekyō Sharingan pattern. Cold, oppressive chakra filled the entire dungeon, and the cracks in the stone walls spread outward.

Orochimaru stood before him, pale as death. Ye looked at him.

"Had enough fun, Orochimaru?"

He raised his right hand, his five fingers aimed at the figure.

"Leave the scroll in your arms."

As the words fell, the dungeon's temperature plunged to freezing. The Mangekyō in Ye's eyes spun rapidly, and violent purple chakra surged from his body, rapidly solidifying in the air. Several thick energy ribs rose from the ground, shielding his body at their center.

The next instant, dense chakra formed a massive skeletal arm. It tore through the turbulent currents ahead and reached for Orochimaru's true body. With every foot the giant hand advanced, the stone chamber shook. Cracks spread across the ceiling, and chunks of rock continuously fell into the pooled water.

Orochimaru's scalp tightened. He decisively abandoned the Kusanagi Sword locked down by Kimimaro, his elongated neck rapidly retracting into his body. His fingers flashed through hand seals as he forcibly squeezed out what little chakra remained within him. When the final seal fell, three Rashomon Gates appeared.

Three iron gates carved with demonic faces burst through the rock beneath the dungeon and rose one after another, blocking the purple giant hand. Ye did not spare them another glance and simply controlled Susanoo to keep pushing forward.

The first Rashomon Gate had barely touched the palm when its heavy door caved inward. Dense cracks ran through the entire gate. The palm continued onward, snapping the second gate in half, while the third was crushed and twisted out of shape before being torn completely apart down the middle.

The thunderous crash of breaking steel made everyone's eardrums ache. Fragments scattered across the ground in trails of sparks. The purple giant hand did not slow, piercing through all three layers of defense and seizing Orochimaru's body.

The horrifying grip tightened inch by inch. Dull grinding sounds continuously came from Orochimaru's joints, and his chest collapsed inward under the pressure. He opened his mouth and vomited a torrent of blood as his internal organs rapidly ruptured beneath the crushing force.

Susanoo's fingertips then reached into Orochimaru's robes and forcibly plucked out the top-secret Impure World Reincarnation Scroll, slick with mucus. The scroll traced an arc through the air and flew directly to the side.

Kabuto Yakushi raised a hand and caught it, instinctively pushing up his slipping glasses. His fingers still trembled slightly. He carefully tucked the scroll into his robes, never once lifting his gaze.

Orochimaru, trapped in the giant hand, found it increasingly difficult to breathe. The bones in his chest would not hold much longer. He knew that unless he paid a terrible price today, he could never leave the Land of Water alive. His dim golden slit pupils turned toward the underground waterway beneath his feet, and he made his choice.

Orochimaru's jaw suddenly dislocated, his mouth opening to a horrifying extent. A giant snake covered in white scales crawled out of his original shell. Its body was coated in foul-smelling mucus, its belly nearly scraping the stone slabs when it landed, and the chakra within it had weakened to an extreme.

The white-scaled serpent plunged into the underground waterway and immediately used its highest-level stealth secret technique, burrowing into deep subterranean fissures. As for the Sound Ninja subordinates still in the outer passages, he had abandoned every last one of them.

The weakened snake body fled in panic along the underground current, quickly heading toward the border of the Land of Water. All that remained in Susanoo's palm was a shriveled, empty human skin.

Ye lowered his gaze and swept it over the discarded skin. He casually opened his fingers, and the purple giant hand dissipated with it. Without support, the skin flopped into the pooled water, splashing up a few muddy droplets.

No order to pursue left Ye's mouth. Orochimaru had lost the Kusanagi Sword and all his trump cards. Even his life-saving shedding secret technique had been exhausted; he would not be able to stir up trouble again anytime soon.

Extract. Ye silently recited in his heart. A fluctuation far beyond the realm of chakra spread from his right palm as highly concentrated lightning-nature chakra rapidly converged with the power of Yin–Yang Release at its source.

Dazzling purple-black lightning illuminated the half-collapsed stone chamber. Arcs of electricity danced between his fingers, and the air soon filled with the pungent scent of ozone. A purple-black sword of light, formed from dense energy, gradually took shape in Ye's palm.

Lightning patterns slowly flowed along the blade. Each flicker caused the surrounding space to warp slightly. This was the Sword of Takemikazuchi.

The instant Ye gripped the hilt, the space throughout the dungeon seemed to sink inward. The once-flowing air became heavy and difficult to move through. Fragments of stone and ice suspended in midair froze in place, unable to fall even an inch further.

The color rapidly drained from Kabuto Yakushi's face. He immediately mobilized the chakra within him and tried to use even the most basic Body Flicker Technique, but the moment his chakra began to move, it met invisible resistance. Even its flow through his chakra pathways became sluggish and difficult.

This space was rejecting all chakra-based movement. The moment even the slightest spatial ripple appeared, it would be forcibly locked down. The Sword of Takemikazuchi possessed more than an indestructible edge; the area it covered was enough to seal all space-time ninjutsu. It was the absolute nemesis of space-time ninjutsu.

Kabuto's Adam's apple bobbed, and his gaze behind the lenses did not shift for a long time. He understood all too well what this meant. The Flying Thunder God Technique, the Summoning Technique, even that kind of spatial intangibility that existed only in theory—they would all become useless techniques that could not be activated before this sword.

Ye turned his wrist, feeling the power of laws emanating from the blade. Obito's Kamui Intangibility, which had allowed him to run rampant throughout the Shinobi World, now had the most fitting means of being countered.

He casually swung the sword. Purple-black sword light swept across the ruined stone chamber, and even dust was locked firmly in midair wherever it passed. Then the entire sword contracted into a stream of purple-black light, coiling back along Ye's arm and merging into those eerie Mangekyō Sharingan eyes.

The end of the hilt transformed into a fine lightning pattern and sank deep into his pupil. From this day onward, this supreme divine weapon would become Susanoo's most terrifying trump card.

As the Sword of Takemikazuchi vanished, the oppressive space around them returned to normal. The suspended stones fell one after another, splashing into the pooled water.

Zabuza's grin remained wide. With his great sword slung over his shoulder, his fingers tightened ever more firmly around its hilt, his gaze constantly following Ye's back.

Haku did not move. He stood quietly where he was and slightly lowered his head as he looked at Ye, without the slightest hesitation remaining.

Kimimaro knelt on the shattered stone slabs, repeatedly wiping the filth from his jade-like bones with his sleeve. His fingers moved with extreme gentleness, again and again, not daring to use the slightest force.

In their eyes, this man who wielded a lightning sword and had forced one of the Sannin into a desperate escape had surpassed every powerful figure they had ever seen.

Ye turned and stepped over the human skin Orochimaru had left behind. His leather boots crossed the ruined stone slabs as he walked toward the dungeon exit, one step at a time. The salty, fishy sea wind pierced through the mist outside and stirred the black trench coat behind him.

His gaze passed through the thick Blood Mist. Ye raised his head and looked toward the center of Kirigakure.

"Rest for one day."

He paused for a moment, every word carried by the sea wind to those behind him.

"Tomorrow, we'll go to the Mizukage Building and meet that controlled Fourth Mizukage."