The Cracking Foundation

At the heart of the storm, a cold glint flashed through Naruto's azure eyes.

"Tricks like this!"

He had not been fooled by Orochimaru's real body, because that purest, most ravenous killing intent had remained fixed on Sasuke!

"Eight Gates: Fourth Gate, Gate of Pain... open!"

With a low roar, Naruto stopped testing him.

The Fourth Gate, which he had only forcibly opened during training the night before, was now unleashed instantly without reservation!

Boom!!!

Green vapor more than ten times fiercer than before erupted into a massive tornado that shot skyward, forcibly bursting Orochimaru's "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough" from within and tearing it apart!

The terrifying blast swept through the area like a hurricane!

The Kusanagi Sword that was about to touch the throat of Naruto's afterimage was actually halted half an inch by the sheer pressure!

"What?!"

For the first time, genuine shock appeared on Orochimaru's face.

This had merely been a feint meant to mislead him, yet this brat had shattered even the feint with such brute force?!

"Your opponent is me."

A cold voice sounded behind him.

Fast!

Fast beyond measure!

With the Fourth Gate open, Naruto's speed had already surpassed the level of an elite jonin!

Orochimaru's pupils contracted sharply, and he immediately activated the backup plan he had prepared long ago!

Squelch!

Naruto's inevitable punch pierced through Orochimaru's chest.

But the sensation in his hand was wrong. There was no flesh and blood, only something slick!

The "Orochimaru" that had been struck let out a strange laugh, his entire body collapsing into a puddle of mud.

Earth Clone!

The true danger came from beneath Naruto's feet!

"Ninja Art: Snake Gaze Bind!"

Two giant snakes shot out from Naruto's shadow, coiling around his legs like lightning!

At the same time, Orochimaru's true body slid out from a nearby tree trunk, a scheming sneer in his golden snake eyes.

"Caught you, brat."

The Kusanagi Sword in his hand traced a vicious arc toward Naruto's bound body!

"Is that so?"

Naruto grinned, his smile more savage than a demon's!

The muscles in his legs suddenly bulged, and the two giant snakes wrapped around them let out overloaded cracks as he forcibly tore them apart with raw strength!

He broke free by force, twisting his body at an impossible angle and narrowly avoiding the Kusanagi Sword's lethal strike!

Yet the sharp sword tip still cut a shallow wound across his arm.

A sting ran through him as black poison rapidly spread from the wound!

"It's over."

Orochimaru licked his lips. Even Shadow Level experts would not dare touch his deadly poison lightly.

Yet the next second, the smile on his face froze.

A faint golden warmth flashed over Naruto's wound, and the lethal poison dissolved like melting ice and snow, completely purified in an instant!

The wound also healed rapidly at a visible rate!

Perfect Sage Body!

"This regenerative power... this physique..." Orochimaru's breathing grew rapid for the first time, and the greed in his eyes turned fanatical. "Your body... is even more perfect than Uchiha blood! A supreme treasure bestowed upon me by the gods!"

"Too bad you won't live to take it."

Naruto could feel that the Fourth Gate's power was beginning to fall short against someone as cunning as Orochimaru.

The blood and energy surging through his body reached an unprecedented boiling point!

The barrier he had failed to break through countless times the night before finally showed a crack beneath the pressure of a powerful enemy!

"Good. I'll use you, old snake, as the whetstone for my breakthrough!"

Naruto's low roar sounded like the voice of a demon god rising from the depths of hell!

"Fifth Gate, Gate of Limit... open!!!"

Rumble!!!

If the earlier blast had been a typhoon, then this was an earth-shattering landslide!

An indescribable, tangible green energy storm erupted from Naruto's body!

The terrifying shockwave became a visible ring-shaped wall of air, spreading wildly in every direction with unstoppable force!

"Impossible!"

The legendary Sannin Orochimaru finally showed an emotion called terror.

The Gate of Limit!

That was a forbidden realm where even jonin at the peak of physical ability would have one foot in the grave after opening it!

How did he dare?!

Why could he still stand?!

What made Orochimaru's scalp go numb even more was that the figure within the vapor was undergoing a horrifying transformation.

Naruto's once pale skin turned red like heated iron. The muscle fibers across his body swelled and knotted at a visible rate, while blue-black veins coiled around every inch of him like vicious pythons!

At that moment, his speed, strength, and reactions all rose to a terrifying realm that even made Orochimaru look sideways!

"You..."

Orochimaru had just begun to speak, but there was no longer any time.

Because Naruto vanished from where he stood.

He was so fast that even the air could not withstand such violence, producing a sharp explosive crack!

Pfft!

Orochimaru did not see Naruto's movement at all!

He only felt a world-splitting pain tear through his abdomen!

He stiffly lowered his head and saw only a fist wrapped in green vapor, buried deep, completely sunken into his stomach!

"Gah!"

Orochimaru's body folded like a cooked shrimp, and a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of organs sprayed wildly from his mouth!

His entire body became a black cannonball, sent flying backward like a stone slapped away by immense force!

Yet the nightmare had only begun!

"I'm not done yet!"

Naruto's voice, like a demon's whisper, somehow reached Orochimaru's ears before him!

Orochimaru's airborne body suddenly stiffened. He turned his neck with difficulty and saw that Naruto had somehow already caught up with him. Another fist rapidly filled his snake-like vision!

Bang!

Another punch!

It slammed solidly into Orochimaru's face!

The great Sannin, the legendary Orochimaru, was being treated like a ragged sack and endlessly comboed through the air!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Naruto's fists became countless green afterimages, raining down upon Orochimaru like a furious storm!

"Ora ora ora ora ora!!!"

In the distant forest.

Sakura and Sasuke had just joined forces to deal with the two giant snakes. When they looked up, they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Sasuke's crimson Two-Tomoe Sharingan spun madly, yet he could not capture Naruto's punching trajectory at all!

He could only see a blurry green storm battering and tearing apart that black figure that had once filled him with despair, again and again!

The Sharingan was crying.

Not shedding tears. The eyes themselves were "crying."

They spun desperately, recorded desperately, analyzed desperately, only to discover that they could analyze nothing.

The gap in power was too great—so great that the Sharingan's insight had completely lost its meaning.

It was like a mortal gazing directly at the blazing sun. All you could see was a blinding white before being scorched.

Sasuke's fists clenched tightly.

His nails dug into his palms, blood flowing out and dripping onto the rotting leaves.

Naruto was not a mountain.

A mountain could be climbed.

Naruto was the sky itself.

The sky could only be looked up at.

"So... this is true power..."

The moment those words surfaced in his heart, he felt a chill that sank into his bones.

It was not fear.

It was wavering.

He had always believed he knew where the path lay.

Grow stronger, grow stronger, kill that man.

But Naruto had shown him in an almost cruel manner that the road called "getting stronger" was far longer than he had imagined.

So long that he might spend his whole life walking it and never reach the end.

That man would not wait for him.

With every passing day, that man grew stronger.

And Sasuke Uchiha was still being chased and bitten by snakes in the Forest of Death, still needing Naruto to save him.

What if there were a way to gain power faster?

That thought surfaced again.

This time, Sasuke did not immediately suppress it.

He merely watched that green storm, watched Naruto beat Orochimaru like a punching bag, while his mind went blank.

Like someone standing at a crossroads, unable to see where either path ended, left only standing there in a daze.

One path was following behind Naruto.

Safe, warm, a sense of belonging—but he did not know how long he would have to walk.

The other path...

He did not dare think about it.

Sasuke took a deep breath and pushed the thought back into the depths of his heart.

But it did not disappear.

It merely sank deeper, into a place far, far below, like a seed falling into dark, damp soil.

When the next storm came, it would sprout.

Boom!!!

In midair, Naruto seemed to have grown tired of punching. He let out a wild roar.

The muscles in both his arms swelled another full size. He brought his fists together, turning them into a massive hammer that could split heaven and earth, and smashed it brutally into Orochimaru's chest!

Squelch!

Orochimaru's chest was smashed inward by the blow, forming a horrifying depression!

His body finally escaped the hell of endless strikes and fell like a descending meteor, trailing a long plume of dust as it crashed violently toward the ground below!

Sasuke watched the falling black figure, then looked at Naruto still standing in midair.

The green vapor was fading.

Naruto's body was returning to normal.

But Sasuke knew that some things would never return to normal.

Like the crack in his heart.

It would not heal.

It would only grow wider and wider.

Until one day, it would become too large for even him to fill.

He lowered his head and looked at the bloodstained kunai in his hand.

Its blade reflected a pair of crimson eyes.

Within those eyes were admiration, shame, unwillingness, gratitude, self-loathing...

And a faint longing stretching toward the darkness, one he himself was unwilling to admit.