The purple mist was still seeping outward.
Naruto glanced down at his left hand. Gray blotches had already spread to his elbow.
The sensation was strange. It did not hurt, but that part of his limb was gradually slipping out of his control. Yang Release chakra surged toward it like water into a dry sponge, only to be absorbed completely in the blink of an eye.
"Sasuke, fall back."
Naruto shook his left hand. The golden chakra cloak covering it had already collapsed around the blotches.
Sasuke sheathed his blade. Half the left shoulder plate of his Power Armor had been destroyed, and the broken hydraulic rods hissed with white smoke.
"This thing is dismantling our atomic structure." Sasuke's expression was grim. "Conventional defenses are meaningless."
Naruto said nothing. He pulled a specially made scroll from the ninja tool pouch at his waist.
He unfurled it and bit his finger.
Poof. A cloud of white smoke appeared, and an Aoda as thick as a finger slithered out.
It did not flee. Instead, it flicked its tongue. Naruto bent down and pressed his finger against its head.
A cold chakra ripple spread outward.
Orochimaru's phantom appeared in midair. He wore the distinctive white lab coat of the Land of Grass and still held a test tube in his hand.
"Naruto, contacting me at a time like this means you truly ran into quite a bit of trouble." Orochimaru looked at the roiling purple mist around them, his eyes brimming with excitement. "The filthy thing Kabuto brought. Your Steel Cannon cannot hit it, and your Death God Chain Hook cannot catch it. Because it exists outside the rules."
Naruto had no time to listen to his musings.
"How do I kill it?"
Orochimaru smiled. His voice was sticky, like the sensation of