The moment those outrageously arrogant words fell, a devastating hurricane completely swallowed Naruto.
Countless shrieking wind blades savagely sliced at his orange jacket, producing piercing tearing sounds.
"Anyone can talk big!"
A chilling black shadow charged in from the other side of the storm at a speed far beyond the limits of human dynamic vision!
Orochimaru's figure passed through the gale he had created without being affected in the slightest.
In his shriveled hand was a longsword gleaming with an eerie purple light—the legendary Kusanagi Sword, capable of cutting through iron like mud.
The tip of the blade was coated in a thick, lethal poison that would seal one's throat the moment it drew blood.
Its target was Naruto's throat!
However, this was merely the prelude!
Almost at the exact instant the Kusanagi Sword pierced into the storm, Orochimaru's true body slapped both hands against the ground from outside the gale!
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Dozens of even thicker giant snakes burst violently from underground, forming a writhing wall of serpents that instantly separated Sasuke and Sakura from Naruto!
This was his true objective—divide the battlefield and create the perfect hunting ground!
"Sasuke-kun, return to my... embrace!"
With that chilling declaration, a giant snake opened its blood-soaked maw, slipped around the blind spot in Sasuke and Sakura's defense, and lunged with its fangs at Sasuke's neck!
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Sasuke reacted quickly, forming seals and spitting out a fireball, but it only slightly slowed the giant snake's assault.
Another snake tail swept toward them, about to completely shatter his formation with Sakura!
The fireball struck the snake's scales with a sizzling burn, but the giant snake did not even blink.
Useless.
It was useless again.
Sasuke's pupils suddenly contracted. Reflected in the blood-red glow of his Sharingan, the snake's tail was sweeping toward him at a speed he simply could not evade.
His leg was still bleeding—the kunai he had stabbed into it had bought him a moment to react, but that was all.
The muscles in his thigh spasmed, and the flow of chakra had been torn apart by the intense pain.
He could not dodge.
He could even feel the pressure of the snake tail splitting the air, like an invisible wall crushing toward him.
Was he going to die?
No—"Bang!!!"
An orange streak of light.
Naruto's back.
His long right leg carved an arc through the air. The sound of that kick slamming into the giant snake's jaw exploded like thunder.
The head of the tens-of-meters-long summoned beast was kicked apart outright.
Smashed to pieces.
Like crushing an insect beneath one's foot.
Sasuke stood frozen in place.
His hand still gripped his kunai, and his Sharingan was still spinning, but his mind had stopped working.
Not because of fear.
But because—
He suddenly realized that everything he had done from the beginning until now had been unnecessary.
The stab into his own thigh, that Fireball Jutsu, the desperate rolls and evasions with all his strength... all of it had been unnecessary.
Naruto had solved every problem without even looking back at him.
He casually flung aside two Grass Ninja, then kicked apart the summoned beast's head.
As if it were nothing.
As if doing such things came as naturally to him as breathing.
And I...
Sasuke lowered his head and looked at the wound on his leg, still seeping blood.
That kunai had been the desperate solution he had thought of to break the deadlock.
He had used excruciating pain to force himself to move. At that moment, he had believed he had touched the so-called "limit" and made the choice a warrior ought to make.
But looking at it now, what was that supposed to be?
Self-harm?
Compared to Naruto's kick that shattered the giant snake's head, stabbing his own thigh with a kunai was like a child throwing a tantrum.
Shame.
A scorching shame seeped from the cracks of his bones, making the tips of his ears burn bright red.
But what he found even more unbearable was not the shame.
It was—
He slowly raised his head and looked at the orange back standing before him.
Green vapor seeped from Naruto's skin in thin strands, and the air was filled with a scorching aura that instinctively made people want to retreat.
That was not chakra leaking out. It was something more primal, more savage.
It was life force itself burning.
Just how high was this mountain...?
No, it was not a mountain.
At least a mountain could be climbed.
Naruto felt more like the sky.
You stood on the ground and looked up, unable to see its end or its borders, seeing only endless blue spreading across the entire world.
And Sasuke Uchiha was nothing more than a speck of dust on the ground.
"You've still got a long way to go, Sasuke."
In his memories, Naruto had always said those words in that careless tone.
Before, he had thought it was mockery. He would get angry, grit his teeth, and silently swear that one day, he would catch up to Naruto and surpass him.
But now, he finally understood.
It was not mockery.
It was the truth.
A calm truth, without the slightest malice, simply stating an objective fact.
Like an adult telling a child, "You're still young." It was not belittlement, merely a statement.
Yet it was precisely that calmness that hurt the most.
"Brat... you're courting death!"
The repeated humiliation finally drove Orochimaru, one of the legendary Legendary Sannin, into genuine fury.
His hands rapidly formed seals!
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
An utterly violent hurricane formed out of thin air, instantly turning into a tornado that swept across the forest!
Countless tiny wind blades, nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, were mixed within the wind. Everywhere they passed, giant trees and boulders were sliced into fragments!
This was no longer a ninjutsu that Genin could resist. Even an ordinary Jonin would only be torn to pieces if caught within it!
The raging wind rushed toward him, making Naruto's orange jacket snap violently.
Yet rather than retreat, he advanced. He grabbed the back collars of Sasuke and Sakura, who were still dazed, and violently flung them backward like trash.
"Get the hell away. Don't get in my way."
Those domineering, unquestionable words rang clearly in both their ears.
The moment Sasuke was thrown away, his back slammed into a tree trunk, and intense pain spread through his entire body from his spine.
But he had no time to care about the pain, because in the very next second, he saw Naruto standing alone before that devastating storm.
One person.
Standing before a Shadow Level ninjutsu.
Just as he had stood before the giant snake.
Just as he had stood before Orochimaru's killing intent.
He was always like this.
Standing alone in front of everything.
While Sasuke Uchiha could only be thrown behind him.
"Getting in the way"—that was the phrase Naruto had used.
Sasuke's fingers dug deeply into the bark. His nails cracked, blood seeped out, yet he felt no pain.
Because the pain in his heart was ten thousand times worse than the pain in his fingers.
It was not that he had never thought of rushing forward.
It was not that he had never wanted to stand beside Naruto rather than behind him.
But reality was—he did not even have the right to stand here.
When Orochimaru's killing intent enveloped him, he could not even move, like a frog stared down by a snake, able only to wait for death.
It was Naruto who shattered that dead silence with a taunt, giving him the chance to breathe again.
When the giant snake bit at him, he had desperately evaded it and traded self-harm for a brief moment of mobility.
Yet Naruto had kicked apart that snake's head with a single blow.
What he had done with all his strength, Naruto could do better with a casual motion.
That was the gap.
A gap that effort could not bridge.
A gap talent could not explain.
It was... the gap between heaven and earth.
Sasuke's Sharingan spun wildly, the scarlet glow of its Two-Tomoe reflecting the figure ahead wrapped in green vapor.
He desperately wanted to see Naruto's movements clearly, to use his Sharingan to analyze Naruto's method of exerting force, the flow of chakra, the details of muscle contraction—
But he could see nothing.
Not because Naruto was too fast.
But because... they were on different levels.
The Sharingan could see through battles at the same level, but it could not analyze power beyond the limits of one's understanding.
It was like an elementary school student using a magnifying glass to observe a star. The tool was not the problem. The problem was—you were not even in the same dimension.
Sasuke's pupils trembled.
At that instant, a thought silently coiled around his heart like a venomous snake.
—Orochimaru had said he would give him "power."
No, that was wrong.
Not "give."
"Take."
Orochimaru wanted his body. He wanted to turn him into a vessel.
That was not power. That was death.
But...
That man's face surfaced in his mind without warning.
A pitch-black night.
Blood covering the ground.
His parents' corpses.
His brother's back.
And those red eyes—the Mangekyō Sharingan, its Three-Tomoe transformed into the shape of a windmill, coldly looking upon everyone as though they were ants.
"Foolish little brother... if you want to kill me... then hate me, and cling to life."
Those words had been carved into his bones. Not for a single moment had he forgotten them.
The only reason he was alive was to kill that man.
Not for the Hidden Leaf, not for justice, not even for his parents.
Only to—personally grind those lofty eyes into the mud.
But now, he could not even withstand a trace of Orochimaru's killing intent. He could not even see Naruto's kick. What gave him the right to kill that man?
Itachi—Itachi Uchiha.
That man had slaughtered his entire clan alone when he was thirteen.
And Sasuke Uchiha could not even defeat a snake in the Forest of Death.
Ironic.
Too ironic.
Sasuke bit his lip, and the taste of rust spread across his tongue.
He looked at Naruto's back.
Naruto was strong.
Stronger than he had imagined.
In today's battle, Naruto had not even used his full strength, yet he had already forced one of the legendary Legendary Sannin into this state.
Following Naruto, he truly could become stronger.
Naruto had taught him how to exert force, guided his training, and even in the most dangerous moments, always stood in front of him.
He had sincerely accepted him as his "big brother."
But...
How much stronger could he become?
From "being too terrified to move at the sight of a single snake" to "being able to fight ten snakes"?
From "not being able to see Naruto's punches" to "barely being able to follow them"?
Was that level of improvement... enough?
Enough to kill Itachi?
No.
It was nowhere near enough.
Itachi was the man who could crush Orochimaru with his bare hands.
And even after giving it everything he had today, Naruto had only managed to fight Orochimaru to a standstill.
So when would he ever catch up to Itachi?
Ten years?
Twenty years?
Or would he never catch up, even in his entire life?
But what if... there was another choice?
The instant that word surfaced, Sasuke seemed to have been scalded and ruthlessly forced it back down.
No.
What Orochimaru wanted was his body.
It was a trap, an abyss, a hell from which there was no return.
It was not as though he did not know that.
But...
The moment Naruto opened the Fifth Gate, the moment that nuclear-explosion-like green storm of energy swept through the entire forest, the string in Sasuke's heart called "reason" finally let out a faint, almost inaudible—"crack."
Before you continue