Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame

"My student."

"And you thought you could lay a hand on him?"

The calm voice spread through the Forest of Death.

The dust slowly cleared.

Uchiha You had one hand pressed against Orochimaru's head, his entire face driven into the dirt.

The ground had caved in for dozens of meters around them.

Jagged cracks spread in every direction.

Orochimaru, who had just pushed Team 7 into a desperate fight, now lay like a dead snake, unable even to lift his head.

Silence fell over the area.

Gaara, Kurotsuchi, Chojuro, and the others watched from a distance, their expressions varied.

But every one of them had a wary look in their eyes.

Too fast.

From the moment Uchiha You appeared behind Sasuke to the moment he slammed the Grass Ninja into the ground, less than a breath had passed.

Not one of the onlookers had seen how he moved.

Even Sasuke, with his One-Tomoe Sharingan active, had caught only a blurred afterimage.

Kurotsuchi's pupils contracted.

"That man is Uchiha You?"

She had heard the name long ago.

But reports were only reports.

Only after seeing Uchiha You in action did she truly understand how terrifying the man Iwagakure's leaders had warned them about could be.

The Iwagakure Ninja beside her swallowed.

"That Grass Ninja has to be at least an Elite Jonin, right?"

"An Elite Jonin?"

Kurotsuchi shook her head.

"I'm afraid he's more than that."

To emerge unscathed from a Fire Release of that magnitude and summon such an enormous creature, his true strength had to be Kage Level.

Yet before Uchiha You, he had been unable to resist at all.

Among the Hidden Mist team, the smile vanished from Hozuki Suigetsu's face.

"That's the man who killed Zabuza and Raiga Kurosuki?"

Chojuro tightened his grip on his twin blades