The Might of Susanoo: The Shock of Tearing Apart a Sannin with Bare Hands

The muddy swamp sank half a meter without warning, at the very instant two streams of deep crimson blood—the mark of supreme ocular power—ran past the corners of his eyes.

An unimaginably massive mass of tangible, pure Yin–Yang Release chakra erupted from Ye's spine, roaring outward in every direction.

Boom.

Dense dark-purple light shot into the sky against the backdrop of the midnight rainstorm, enclosing Ye's entire body seamlessly within its safest central space. In an instant, that energy solidified into two rows of towering, solid skeletal ribs, curved into an unbreakable arc.

A deafening clang rang out.

Orochimaru's prized Kusanagi Sword, whose edge was said to cleave through even divine weapons with ease, stabbed into the center of the newly risen giant dark-purple ribs with frenzied penetrating force.

Sparks scattered through the pitch-black woods.

The invincible Kusanagi blade was violently bent downward at an exaggerated, warped angle against the surface of that rib wall, made entirely of hardened chakra. It could not cut even a fraction of an inch into the bone wall.

The recoil forced Orochimaru's sword-wielding right arm sharply upward, and his feet unconsciously skidded backward across the muddy ground for over eight meters.

Standing amid the wind and rain, Orochimaru's steady breathing was completely disrupted. He stared in shock at the enormous purple chakra shell before him and cried out.

"Mangekyō Sharingan... Th-this pattern is wrong! How is this possible? You're only thirteen! Without the bodies of those Senju bastards, how could an Uchiha like you possess a Sharingan of this level? Even an elite would have had his retinas ruined long ago!"

According to Orochimaru's long-established combat logic and Konoha's top-secret database, the Uchiha Clan's Mangekyō Sharingan was an ultimate weapon, but its backlash was equally severe. As long as one maintained high-speed, agile taijutsu and kept moving to interfere rather than engaging in direct clashes, the caster would go blind and collapse from the Sharingan's violent backlash within an hour or two.

His body split into seven gray-green snake shadows in the wind. He stomped the ground and circled around Susanoo's frontal rib cage, intending to use the dense forest to wait until the boy had completely exhausted his strength.

But cruel reality once again mercilessly shattered this old Sannin's calculations.

In the next second, the dark-purple Susanoo shell protecting Ye expanded another two full circles. Not only did it show no sign of collapsing, weakening, or shrinking—

Even the faint bloodstains that had flowed from Ye's eyes as he activated his ocular technique were wiped away by the rapid regeneration of his facial cells. The Sage Body's immense vitality endlessly converted itself into pure, high-grade chakra in an incredibly short time.

The Mangekyō Sharingan before him only burned more fiercely. There was no blindness, no weakness.

Two dark-purple skeletal arms, each over five meters tall, rapidly formed outside Susanoo's ribs. They grabbed several thick old trees nearby and ripped them from the earth, roots and all, with brutal speed.

Standing at Susanoo's core, every movement Ye made carried physical force exceeding dozens of tons.

"Waiting for my chakra to run out, huh? Isn't that boring? With this little trick, I can keep pounding away until tomorrow night. Let's see how far a stinking snake like you can run."

The massive purple skeletal fist on the right generated crushing wind pressure. Without wasting a word, it smashed vertically down from above toward the forest where Orochimaru stood.

Boom—

Mud and water exploded in all directions beneath the heavy skeletal palm. The giant snake monster clone Orochimaru had summoned from underground as a temporary defense did not even have time to struggle or scream before the purple chakra arm flattened it into a bloody black-red mass of dead snake flesh.

The skeletal palm swept away the surrounding grass.

Orochimaru sprang wildly out from the edge of the filthy pile of blood and flesh, his robes shredded and his face filled with disbelief.

He had never imagined that this absurdly powerful Kamui ninjutsu, enough to drain an ordinary Uchiha dry in a single use, could be unleashed so freely by his opponent without any concern for the consequences.

Run.

Even for someone as obsessed with studying the body as Orochimaru, after personally confirming that this boy possessed not only extraordinary power but seemingly endless chakra, reason and the instinct to survive immediately overcame his desire to possess him.

He fled at top speed toward the dense marsh grass to the east. His legs instantly transformed into the lower body of a massive python, while his hands rapidly formed seals to activate the Shedding Substitution Secret Technique.

"Run? Fine, run if you want. But leave everything behind."

Part of the immense foundation of Wind Release knowledge stored within his palms had already completed its perfect integration through the reward. Ye remained where he stood without making any move to run.

He calmly swept one hand sharply toward the east, his right Mangekyō Sharingan locking onto Orochimaru's next landing point as he zigzagged at high speed through the foggy forest.

Within a single breath, a B-rank Wind Release ninjutsu, empowered by his immense Sage Body chakra, was amplified dozens of times over. An invisible high-speed blade of air flew directly toward its distant target.

A strange slice sounded.

Before Orochimaru could fully complete his substitution and escape behind a dark tree in the distance, half of his left arm—along with its ninja tool pouch and secret scrolls—was cleanly severed at the root of the shoulder by the high-pressure wind blade.

Blood sprayed high into the air.

With his facial muscles twitching, Orochimaru endured the agonizing pain. He did not dare stop even to retrieve his severed arm. The instant he landed, the rapidly activated shedding technique enveloped him, and the remaining right half of his body transformed into a swarm of tiny mud-colored venomous water snakes, which frantically slipped through the rainwater and scattered beyond the area, vanishing into the distance.

The boundary that had just been formed by dense trees had now become a bare pit, flattened twice over by overwhelming force. The wind had stilled, and the forest was quiet.

As several wisps of white vapor dissipated, the Mangekyō Sharingan's powerful ocular force calmly withdrew back into ordinary black pupils. Ye's thoughts settled, and the purple-black giant arms surrounding him rapidly fell apart toward the central skeletal frame.

Ye walked into the center of the pit, where blood was still dripping, without slowing his steps.

In the mud lay Orochimaru's severed hand. The thick inner pouch beneath the arm had been sliced open by the wind blade, and from it rolled out a hidden scroll covered in powerful secret-code seals.

A confidential list for checking hidden network operatives—this was something the Sannin had carried with him for years.

Seeing the low-level self-destruct seals on it, Ye boredly sent Sage Body chakra into it from his palm and shook it once. The poison needles triggered by contact and the small explosive tags instantly turned to dust, and only then did he flick the scroll into his hand.

He spread open the paper. Row after row of encrypted codenames listed intelligence bases hidden throughout the Land of Rice Fields, Grass Land, and beyond Konoha.

A familiar codename, one that would play a crucial role in the future, stood clearly at the top of the first row. His gaze finally settled on several codenames at the end of the scroll, marked as leaders of medical technical support teams.

Kabuto Yakushi.

Standing in the clearing of broken trees without any canopy overhead, Ye let the cold rain strike around his collar as he finished reading the detailed document that laid bare Orochimaru's entire intelligence foundation. Then he slowly closed the scroll.

"Kabuto, Orochimaru can't give you recognition. Tomorrow, I'll give it to you myself."