"Boom!"
With a powerful, heavy-hitting Lion Combo from Sasuke,
the last Rain Ninja screamed as he was smashed into the ground.
He was completely out of the fight.
Naruto wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He excitedly ran over to the Rain Ninja and searched his clothes, pulling out a scroll.
"Whew... done."
Naruto held up the scroll, cheering and jumping for joy.
"This is great!"
"It's the Earth Scroll!"
"We have them both!"
Sasuke landed lightly and brushed the dust off his clothes.
Although he was a little out of breath, his eyes were full of pride.
He turned toward Shengu Xuan, who had been watching from the sidelines the whole time.
He sneered.
"Did you see that?"
"This is the power of the Uchiha!"
"We don't need you to lift a finger. We can handle it ourselves."
Shengu Xuan looked at Sasuke's smug face.
He merely gave a few perfunctory claps.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're the best."
"Now that we have both scrolls, let's hurry to the Central Tower."
"There are too many mosquitoes in this lousy forest."
Sasuke gave a disdainful snort.
He turned to lead the way.
"Hmph. Coward."
However,
the instant he turned,
"Whoosh!"
A strange gale suddenly swept through the forest!
The wind did not come from all directions.
Instead, it howled out from deep within the dense woods directly ahead of them!
The wind carried a strong earthy smell and a sickening stench of blood.
The gale sent the surrounding leaves rustling loudly.
Even the thick tree trunks began to sway violently.
Naruto could not keep his eyes open against the wind.
He clung tightly to a tree trunk.
"What's going on?"
"This wind is so freaky!"
Sasuke's expression changed instantly.
His Sharingan spun wildly.
He stared fixedly in the direction the wind came from.
Sasuke's body began trembling uncontrollably.
He felt like prey under the gaze of an enormous, ancient beast.
Even breathing became incredibly difficult.
"This feeling..."
"This suffocating killing intent..."
"Tap... tap... tap..."
Heavy, slow footsteps came from the center of the gale.
A woman wearing a bamboo hat and Kusagakure clothing
slowly emerged from the shadows.
Her face was as pale as paper.
In those narrow eyes, her pupils were actually like a snake's Vertical Pupils!
At that moment, those Vertical Pupils gleamed with greed and fervor.
They were locked firmly on Sasuke.
A spine-chilling, raspy laugh came from the Grass Ninja's mouth.
"Hehehehe..."
"I finally found you."
"The Uchiha Clan's most perfect vessel."
Orochimaru!
Although he was still disguised as a Grass Ninja,
the terrifying oppressive presence unique to him as one of the Sannin
had already been unleashed without restraint!
Sasuke forced down his fear, drew a kunai, and demanded loudly.
But he found that his voice was actually trembling.
"You..."
"Who the hell are you?!"
Orochimaru extended his abnormally long tongue and licked his lips.
"Who I am doesn't matter."
"What matters is that you'll soon belong to me."
Before his words had faded,
Orochimaru abruptly tore off his bamboo hat.
His hands rapidly formed hand seals at a speed almost impossible to follow with the naked eye!
"Ninja Art: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
More than a dozen thick venomous snakes instantly shot from Orochimaru's sleeves.
Like black lightning, they opened their gaping mouths full of venomous fangs.
They lunged at Naruto and Sasuke!
Sasuke shouted.
His body instinctively leaped backward while his hands rapidly formed hand seals.
"Naruto!"
"Dodge!"
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
An enormous fireball struck the venomous snakes head-on.
It burned several of them to charcoal.
But Naruto reacted a beat too slowly.
He had just tried to form hand seals when two venomous snakes tightly coiled around his body.
They hoisted him straight into the air!
Naruto struggled frantically.
But the snakes tightened their coils, even opening their mouths to bite his neck.
"Damn it!"
"Let me go!"
"You disgusting snake!"
Seeing this, Sasuke immediately tried to rush over to help.
"Naruto!"
Orochimaru's cold voice suddenly rang out beside Sasuke's ear.
"Getting distracted in battle"
"can get you killed, Sasuke-kun."
At some point,
Orochimaru had appeared beside Sasuke like a phantom!
Horrified, Sasuke was just about to turn and counterattack.
But he discovered that a terrifying psychic assault had suddenly erupted from Orochimaru's Vertical Pupils!
"What?!"
Killing intent made tangible!
In Sasuke's vision, the surrounding forest vanished instantly.
In its place were mountains of corpses and a sea of blood!
Orochimaru transformed into a giant snake that blotted out the sky.
It opened its gaping maw and swallowed him whole!
Sasuke let out a piercing scream.
The kunai in his hand fell to the ground.
He collapsed, plunged into the extreme terror of the illusion.
"Aaaah!"
Orochimaru looked down at the trembling Sasuke.
A trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes, but greed outweighed it.
"Too weak. Far too weak."
"Although you possess those beautiful eyes,"
"mentally, you're still an unweaned child."
He slowly lowered his head and opened his mouth.
His neck stretched unnaturally like a snake's.
He lunged to bite Sasuke's neck!
He intended to plant the Cursed Seal of Heaven on Sasuke!
At this critical moment,
"Hey, you perverted snake man over there."
A nonchalant voice suddenly rang out amid the tense atmosphere.
Orochimaru's movements paused slightly.
He turned toward the voice.
Shengu Xuan was leaning against a large tree.
At some point, a twig had appeared in his hand, and he was idly drawing circles on the ground.
Facing Orochimaru's tangible killing intent, powerful enough to mentally break an ordinary Genin,
Shengu Xuan actually acted as though nothing were wrong.
Not even a single hair stood on end!
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and looked Shengu Xuan up and down.
All his attention had been on Sasuke just now.
He had actually overlooked this black-haired boy's presence completely.
"Oh?"
"There's another little bug that slipped through the net."
What surprised him even more was that this boy showed no reaction at all to his killing intent?
Shengu Xuan tossed away the twig and slowly straightened.
He brushed the dust from his hands.
A mocking, cold glint gradually surfaced in his pitch-black eyes.
"A bug?"
"You thing that's neither man nor woman."
"It's bad enough that you're ugly, but your mouth stinks too."
"Do you know"
"that interrupting someone watching a show is very rude?"
Orochimaru froze for a moment.
Then he burst into an even more grating, wild laugh.
"Hahahaha!"
"What an interesting brat!"
"Since you're so eager to die, I'll send you on your way first!"
Killing intent flashed in Orochimaru's eyes, and he swung his hand sharply!
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Boom!
A violent tornado erupted from Orochimaru's mouth.
With overwhelming force, it uprooted the trees in its path.
It became a storm of destruction that slammed toward Shengu Xuan!
This Wind Release was more than a hundred times as powerful as an ordinary Genin's ninjutsu!
Orochimaru turned back with a sneer, ready to sink his teeth into Sasuke again.
As far as he was concerned, that boy had already been torn to shreds by the Wind Release.
"Die, you arrogant brat."
Yet.
The next second.
Bang!
A deafening, muffled crash came from the center of the storm.
Orochimaru whipped his head around.
His pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints!
That violent tornado, powerful enough to destroy everything.
At a point just one meter away from Shengu Xuan.
As though it had struck an invisible, indestructible wall of lamentation.
It had actually been stopped dead!
The raging wind scattered in every direction.
It made the hem of Shengu Xuan's clothes flap loudly.
Shengu Xuan slowly lowered his right hand, on which he had extended just one finger.
A devilish smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
"The power's decent."
"It's just that this wind... reeks of bad breath."
Before you continue