Fifth Gate of the Eight Gates! Treating a Shadow Level as a Punching Bag!

The moment those wildly arrogant words fell, a hurricane capable of destroying heaven and earth had already completely swallowed Naruto.

Countless shrieking wind blades frantically tore at his orange jacket, producing piercing ripping sounds.

"Anyone can talk big!"

A cold black shadow charged in fiercely from the other side of the storm at a speed that completely surpassed the limits of human dynamic vision!

Orochimaru's figure passed through the gale he had created without being affected in the slightest.

In his withered hand, he held a longsword shimmering with an eerie purple glow—the legendary Kusanagi Sword, capable of slicing through iron like mud.

A layer of sticky, throat-sealing poison coated its tip.

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 slammed both hands against the ground outside the tempest!

"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 purpose—dividing the battlefield and creating the perfect hunting ground!

"Sasuke-kun, return to my... embrace!"

With that cold declaration, a giant snake opened its bloody maw, slipped around a blind spot in Sasuke and Sakura's defenses, and sent its venomous fangs straight for Sasuke's neck!

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Sasuke reacted quickly, forming seals and blasting out a fireball, but it could only slightly hinder the giant snake's advance.

Another snake tail was already sweeping 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 giant snake's tail was sweeping toward him at a speed he simply could not evade.

His leg was still bleeding—the stab he had driven into it earlier 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 agonizing pain.

He could not dodge.

He could even feel the air pressure from the incoming tail, like an invisible wall crushing down on him.

Was he going to die?

No—"Bang!!!"

A streak of orange light.

Naruto's back.

His long right leg carved an arc through the air. The sound of that kick smashing into the giant snake's jaw exploded like thunder.

The head of the summoned beast, dozens of meters long, was kicked apart on the spot.

Shattered.

Like crushing an insect beneath his foot.

Sasuke stood there in a daze.

His hand still gripped a 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, the Great Fireball Technique, the desperate rolling evasions... all of it had been unnecessary.

Naruto had solved every problem without even turning around to look at him.

He had casually flung aside two Grass Ninja, then kicked apart the summoned beast's head.

Effortlessly.

As though doing such things was as natural 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 only after racking his brains.

He had forced himself to move through searing pain, believing that in that moment, he had touched the so-called "limit" and made the choice a warrior should make.

But now, what had that been?

Self-harm?

Compared to Naruto's kick that shattered the giant snake's head, stabbing his own thigh with a kunai looked like a child throwing a tantrum.

Shame.

A scorching shame that seeped from the cracks in his bones burned his ears 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 figure standing in front of him.

Green steam seeped from Naruto's skin in wisps, filling the air with a scorching aura that instinctively made people want to retreat.

That was not chakra leaking out, but something more primal, more savage.

Life force itself was 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 boundaries, seeing only endless blue spreading across the entire world.

And Sasuke Uchiha was nothing more than a speck of dust on the ground.

"You're still far too weak, Sasuke."

In his memories, Naruto had always said those words in that casual tone.

Before, Sasuke had thought it was mockery. He would get angry, grit his teeth, and secretly swear that one day he would catch up to Naruto and surpass him.

But now, he finally understood.

It was not mockery.

It was fact.

A calm statement of objective fact, without the slightest malice.

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 successive humiliations had finally stirred genuine anger in Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin.

His hands formed seals at incredible speed!

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

An incomparably violent hurricane formed out of thin air, instantly transforming into a tornado that swept through the forest!

Countless tiny wind blades, nearly impossible to distinguish with the naked eye, were mixed into the gale. Wherever it passed, massive trees and boulders were sliced to pieces!

This was no longer a ninjutsu that a genin could withstand. Even an ordinary jonin would only be torn to shreds if caught inside!

The gale rushed at him, making Naruto's orange jacket flap wildly.

Yet instead of retreating, he advanced. He grabbed Sasuke and Sakura by the backs of their collars while they were still stunned, then flung them hard behind him as though tossing out garbage.

"Get the hell away. Don't get in my way."

Those domineering, unquestionable words rang clearly in their ears.

The moment Sasuke was thrown away, his back slammed into a tree trunk, and pain surged through his entire body from his spine.

But he could not spare any attention for the pain, because the next second, he saw Naruto standing alone before that world-destroying 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 deep into the bark. His nails broke and blood seeped out, but 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 descended upon him, he could not move at all. Like a frog stared down by a snake, he could only wait to die.

It was Naruto who had broken that dead silence with a taunt and given him the chance to breathe again.

When the giant snake had bitten at him, he had barely managed to evade it, exchanging self-inflicted pain for a brief moment of mobility.

Yet Naruto had shattered that snake's head with a single kick.

What he had accomplished with every ounce of his strength, Naruto could do better with a casual movement.

That was the gap.

A gap that effort could not bridge.

A gap that talent could not explain.

It was... the gap between heaven and earth.

Sasuke's Sharingan spun madly, the crimson glow of its Two-Tomoe reflected in the figure ahead, wrapped in green steam.

He desperately wanted to see Naruto's movements clearly, to use his Sharingan to analyze his method of exertion, the flow of his chakra, the details of his muscle contractions—

But he could see nothing.

Not because Naruto was too fast.

But because... they were on different levels.

The Sharingan could see through battles between opponents of the same level, but it could not analyze power beyond the limits of its own understanding.

It was like an elementary school student using a magnifying glass to observe a star. There was nothing wrong with the tool; 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 not right.

Not "give."

"Take."

Orochimaru wanted his body and 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 pinwheel, as indifferent as though they were looking at a colony of ants.

"Foolish little brother... if you want to kill me... then hate me, and cling to life."

Those words had been carved into his marrow. Not for a single moment had he forgotten them.

The only reason he lived 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 dirt.

But he could not even withstand a trace of Orochimaru's killing intent. He could not even see Naruto's kick clearly. What right did he have to kill that man?

Itachi—Itachi Uchiha.

That man had wiped out their entire clan alone at the age of 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 over 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 driven one of the legendary Sannin to this point.

If he followed Naruto, he really 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 acknowledged Naruto as his "big brother."

But...

How much stronger could he become?

From "being too terrified of a snake to move" to "being able to fight ten snakes"?

From "being unable to see Naruto's punches clearly" to "barely being able to see them"?

Was that degree of improvement... enough?

Enough to kill Itachi?

No.

Not even close.

Itachi was the man who could crush Orochimaru barehanded.

And even after giving it his all today, Naruto had only managed to fight Orochimaru to a standstill.

So when would he be able to catch up to Itachi?

Ten years?

Twenty years?

Or would he never catch up in his entire life?

But what if... there was another choice?

The moment that word surfaced, Sasuke seemed to have been scalded and viciously forced it back down.

No.

Orochimaru wanted 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 gave a faint, nearly inaudible—"crack."