The instant the white-scaled, black-haired snake's cold, venomous fangs sank viciously into "Naruto's" neck, carrying Orochimaru's wild delight and certainty of success...
Something unexpected happened!
The Chakra-coated branch in the Shadow Clone's hand sliced into Orochimaru's serpentine body.
A savage gleam flashed through the white-scaled serpent's eyes.
This brat was trying to trade his life for Orochimaru's, but Orochimaru's goal was to take control of his body, not kill him.
This body will soon belong to me...
No!
Orochimaru's eyes widened.
The Naruto who had just severed his serpentine body, whose neck he had bitten, suddenly began to turn transparent and hazy. Then...
With a poof, Naruto turned into a thick cloud of white smoke that quickly dispersed into the air.
A Shadow Clone!
This isn't Naruto's real body at all.
He played me!
"Hiss-"
Reduced to half his body but still conscious, the white-scaled, black-haired snake let out a shrill, venomous hiss.
His golden slit pupils remained fixed on the dissipating smoke, filled with the humiliation and fury of having been played and outwitted.
"Urgh!"
He abruptly opened his jaws wide again and vomited another figure from deep within his throat, curled up like a newborn and coated in thick, transparent fluid!
The newly emerged Orochimaru lay sprawled miserably on the ground amid fallen leaves and bloodstains, gasping for breath, snake mucus still clinging to him.
He raised his head and looked toward where "Naruto's" Shadow Clone had vanished, then at the white-scaled snake body lying severed in two on the ground, its life slowly fading, and the shattered remains of the female body a short distance away...
"Damn it..."
Through gritted teeth, he forced the words out of his throat, suppressing overwhelming rage and frustration as a cold fire burned in his golden slit pupils.
"It was... a