You really think my Kirin is made of water? Shinsei chuckled and changed his hand seals. The water flowing through the Water Kirin's body accelerated dramatically, until its entire body seemed to glow white.
Screeech!!!
A tremendous screech of high-speed friction came from Manda's mouth. Huge quantities of water mixed with blood splashed onto the nearby trees, blasting several of them to pieces.
Manda let out a harrowing scream. His enormous mouth had been ground to pulp by the high-speed water, and his massive body thrashed across the ground, snapping the surrounding trees one after another.
Orochimaru leaped off the serpent's head, looked at the giant serpent's mangled face, and cursed.
"Idiot!"
Shinsei had already guided the Water Kirin away from Manda and watched the struggling giant serpent coldly.
The Water Kirin was still in fairly good shape, with every part of its body intact, but its overall size had shrunk considerably. It now stood less than twenty meters tall.
His chakra was running low, so Shinsei simply stopped using any more ninjutsu. He would wear Orochimaru down like this, meeting every change by remaining unchanged.
He was using Water Release in an environment without water to begin with. Although the simulated water created from chakra was more flexible to control, the consumption was enormous.
"Hehehe..." Orochimaru braced a hand against a tree trunk, the wind stirring his long black hair and robes. "What an impressive ninjutsu!"
Shinjō watched Manda let out an unwilling roar and vanish in a cloud of smoke. Defeating Manda head-on felt pretty good. Although the main reason was Manda's stupidity, it also demonstrated the tremendous power of the ninjutsu he had developed.
Orochimaru began running, forming hand seals and opening his mouth wide. A snake's head emerged from his mouth, then opened its own mouth to spit out a longsword.
Gripping the longsword, he raised it high and swung it toward Shinsei from afar.
Is that Orochimaru's Kusanagi Sword?
The longsword rapidly extended through the air. By the time it cut into the Kirin's body, it had grown dozens of meters long, slashing into the Kirin's back.
The instant the longsword struck the Kirin's body, the high-speed water caught it and dragged it off course. It looked about to be flung out, but with a slight twist of Orochimaru's wrist, it improbably followed the current through several turns and slashed toward Shinsei.
In that urgent instant, Shinsei made the Kirin twist beneath his feet while he rolled aside to dodge the sword's slash.
That was close!
Did he see through the direction of the current?
He calculated the direction of the current in such a short time, and even worked out possible angles of attack based on it.
As expected of Orochimaru, then? That terrifying calculating ability, and that knowledge-he really is the scientist of the Shinobi World.
Still, after one surprise attack, he probably would not get a chance to use the same move a second time.
Sure enough, Orochimaru swallowed the longsword and gave Shinsei an easy smile.
What strange ways of storing things.
Orochimaru formed hand seals and slapped the ground.
Mounds of earth rose from the ground and quickly burst open. Earthen spears five or six meters long emerged and launched toward Shinsei one after another like missiles.
The Kirin began running across the ground, dodging the incoming earthen spears. Those it failed to dodge were flung away by the rapidly flowing Water Release chakra as soon as they entered its body, raising only small splashes.
The Kirin slammed a claw down at Orochimaru on the ground, smashing the earth into a massive, deep crater.
Shinsei rapidly scanned the surroundings while lifting the Kirin's claw. Sure enough, Orochimaru was nowhere beneath it.
Earthen spears continued shooting toward the Water Kirin, and its body swayed. Another enormous mud swamp appeared beneath it, trapping the Water Kirin.
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!
This move again. Even when Orochimaru used this Earth Release ninjutsu, it could not restrain the Water Kirin, but it would slow it down.
Sure enough, he spotted Orochimaru behind a large tree-two of him in total. One was continuously using the earthen spear ninjutsu, while the other maintained the swamp.
Countless Earth Release earthen spears shot toward the Water Kirin in an unending barrage.
The Water Kirin leaped out of the swamp, but even that brief delay had left its body pierced by many more earthen spears. It expelled them from its body as it ran.
The shattered earth was washed along by the current, contaminating the Water Kirin's entire body and turning it murky. It did not affect his control much, but after a few more rounds, he would probably be blind with his eyes open inside the Kirin.
The earth that missed snapped a large tree in half, sending countless branches and leaves tumbling to the ground.
Shinsei marveled inwardly. Ninjutsu at this level really devastated the environment. Who knew how many years these large trees had taken to grow?
With this much commotion, Konoha still had not sent anyone. The Anbu really were a bunch of-Shinsei wanted to call them useless, but then remembered that he was an Anbu member himself.
Shinsei could tell that Orochimaru intended to exhaust his chakra. He had probably noticed that Shinsei's chakra reserves were insufficient.
The Water Kirin beneath him had shrunk again and was only a little over ten meters tall. It had lost a great deal of water breaking free of the Swamp of the Underworld just now. He did not know whether it could last until reinforcements from Konoha arrived.
The Kirin charged up to one Orochimaru in a single stride and deftly stamped him into a huge, deep crater with a forefoot.
It lifted its right foot, revealing an unfamiliar man's face inside. He had sickly pale skin, faintly visible snake scales on his body, and had been trampled into a mangled mess.
Is this Orochimaru's unique clone?
The other Orochimaru made no move to stop it, as though it had nothing to do with him.
"Your ninjutsu truly is remarkable, Shinsei-kun!" Orochimaru said with a smile. "You're quite troublesome unless I wear down your chakra. There isn't much time left, so, to finish things off, let me show you my ninjutsu too, Shinsei-kun!"
Is he bringing out his ultimate move? Impure World Reincarnation? Shinsei was still faintly expectant. He wanted to hear the Second Hokage's assessment of his Water Release ninjutsu.
Orochimaru formed hand seals.
Ninja Art: Eight-Headed Serpent Technique!
An enormous white serpent with eight heads emerged from Orochimaru's body, its body growing with an overbearing air. In the blink of an eye, it was already dozens of meters long!
Orochimaru emerged from the open mouth of one of the serpent's heads and laughed wildly, sinister and bewitching:
"Shinsei-kun! Accept my gift!"
The Eight-Headed Serpent's eight heads surrounded him together, each with a different task. Four wound around the Water Kirin, three opened their mouths and bit down, and in the uppermost head, Orochimaru waited expectantly.
The Water Kirin's high-speed currents ground against several of the giant serpent's long necks, sending flesh and blood flying, but the wounds immediately healed.
The four serpentine bodies constricted the Water Kirin, making water splash wildly. Vast quantities of water scattered, washing away chunks of the Eight-Headed Serpent's flesh and blood.
Bang!
The Water Kirin finally buckled under the strain and burst into a vast spray of water.
A serpentine body coiled around Shinsei. Orochimaru stretched his long neck like a snake, extending it until he was right before Shinjō.
"Hehehe, accept my gift, Shinsei-kun."
Shinsei calmly watched Orochimaru bare his fangs and bite his neck.
"Goodbye, Lord Orochimaru. Your ninjutsu truly is extraordinary!" Shinsei smiled.
Poof!
Shinsei dispersed into a cloud of smoke.
Orochimaru's wickedly smiling face instantly went blank.
"Hehehe, hahahahaha... A Shadow Clone? I really did underestimate you, Shinsei-kun!"