Orochimaru immediately flickered away while thinking, 'Whatever his weird jutsu is, it works by touching his opponents. I can't let him touch me! At least not until I figure out what it does.'
Hiruzen immediately chased after Orochimaru, intent clearly visible on his face. He resolved, 'Ten years ago, I made a grave mistake by letting my emotions cloud my judgment and letting you go. In all the decades I have led this village, that was my second biggest mistake. I can't fix my biggest mistake, but I'll fix this one!'
The Student-Master duo flickered at an intense speed inside the barrier. They were so fast that the Sound Four couldn't even track their movements! Overall, Orochimaru was faster. Unfortunately, he was restrained by the very barrier he raised to trap Hiruzen! Due to the confined space, Hiruzen made steady gains, reducing the distance between them every second!
As he appeared just a few steps away from Orochimaru, Orochimaru used the Hidden Shadow Snake jutsu and launched dozens of snakes at Hiruzen while shouting, "Old geezer! Do you think you can sustain that jutsu forever? How much chakra do you still have left? Just die!"
Orochimaru's prediction was on point. Even though Hiruzen had made a short work of the reanimated ninjas, it wasn't without cost. His chakra reserves had taken a major hit. Even so, Hiruzen grinned and said, "I can sustain it until I fix my mistake, my ignorant disciple! Let me educate you one last time!"
'Fire Release: Yang Demon jutsu'
Hiruzen's chakra suddenly flared and an intense Yang and Fire chakra exited from every chakra point in his body. It immediately transformed into black flames and covered his entire body!
The snakes hit the flames and hissed painfully as they were burnt alive! The fire rapidly spread through their bodies and moved towards Orochimaru, who cut them while retreating. He cursed, "Have you gone senile, old man? You dare to use that jutsu without any protection?"
The black flames around Hiruzen's body not only burnt the snakes but were also burning his flesh. After the Third Raikage created the Lightning Chakra Mode, Hiruzen was inspired to create a Fire Chakra Mode. He gained some successes initially, but soon reached a bottleneck.
While he could create extremely hot flames, his body couldn't endure such heat. Initially, his body adapted, making his skin and flesh far more resilient to fire. However, it reached a limit very soon and couldn't endure higher temperatures. No matter what Hiruzen tried, he couldn't overcome this physical limit.
Later on, he tried to use jutsus to resist the flames so that he could fight without getting hurt. He tried several Water and Earth jutsus as those two elements resisted Fire the most. In the end, he created a modified version of the Iron Skin jutsu that worked very well.
Unfortunately, the result was subpar as using another element decreased the power of the Yang Demon jutsu considerably. Hiruzen still made a few modifications, but the final result paled when compared to Raikage's Lightning Chakra Mode.
As a result, Hiruzen ended up dropping that idea. However, Hiruzen wasn't very concerned about his life at that moment. His goal was to kill Orochimaru irrespective of the cost. Hence, he didn't hesitate to use such a suicidal jutsu.
Hiruzen quickly gave chase again, the flames making him even faster! In just a couple of seconds, he appeared close to Orochimaru.
'Water Release: Gale River jutsu'
Orochimaru released a stream of water straight at Hiruzen. However, it wasn't ordinary water. Even though there wasn't a lot of water and it wasn't very forceful, the water had a very high amount of Wind and Yin chakra. It decreased the temperature of the water, almost making it icy cold!
Hiruzen immediately realized, 'Hmm, combining Water, Wind and Yin chakras in such a gentle manner… It looks like he was developing a counter for my Undying Flame jutsu. However, this jutsu is still incomplete. It can't stop me! On the contrary...'
Even though Hiruzen understood that Orochimaru's jutsu would suppress the fire strengthened by Yang's chakra around his body, he rushed straight into it! The icy water cooled off the flames around Hiruzen as he moved straight through it. Orochimaru immediately realized, "This isn't enough to stop him. Hmm? Shit!"
Orochimaru bit his thumb and slammed it on the ground.
'Summoning jutsu: Rashomon!'
Orochimaru didn't even glance at the ground. Instead, his eyes were fixed on his earlier jutsu. At the center of the water was a burning red dot which was moving towards him at a blinding speed! A single gate of Rashomon rose and protected Orochimaru in the nick of time as a staff crashed into the gate!
Needless to say, the staff was the Monkey King Enma. However, there was one big difference. Just like Hiruzen, the staff was covered in black flames too!
The hardness of the staff, combined with the incredibly hot black flames and the force with which it slammed into the gate meant that even the Gate of Rashomon couldn't endure it. Cracks appeared at the center of the gate and soon spread throughout it!
Enma smashed through the gate and went straight at Orochimaru, who thought, 'Even the Gate of Rashomon couldn't stop Enma? Due to the short time, I couldn't raise more gates, but I still didn't expect it to fall. The flames strengthened him too much. However, he shouldn't be immune to those flames irrespective of how hard his body gets.'
A sword appeared in Orochimaru's right hand as he swung it to block Enma. The staff and the sword clashed, stopping the staff from extending endlessly. However, the force with which Enma slammed into Orochimaru was too strong!
To make matters worse for Orochimaru, his sword, even though extremely good and of superior quality to Kazekiri, was inferior to the one broken by Fujin in the forest of death. Without it, Enma didn't feel any pain and he sent Orochimaru's sword flying away.
Yet, there was no panic in Orochimaru's eyes. He had already expected it and was concentrating his chakra. Before the staff could slam into him, Orochimaru placed his left hand on it and said, "I always wondered how much you could endure, Enma!"
Orochimaru unleashed a massive amount of Lightning straight into the burning staff! Enma, who already had to endure Hiruzen's intense flames, suddenly also had to endure intense Lightning shocks wreaking havoc throughout his body!
A wide grin appeared on Orochimaru's face as Enma couldn't sustain his transformation and turned back into his original appearance. He thought, 'Finally I have a chance to reset the momentum. Now, it's my tur...'
However, Orochimaru's grin was wiped out in the blink of an eye. Even though Enma's transformation ended, the shadow that the staff was casting on the floor of the barrier still existed! And, it was connected to Orochimaru's shadow!
Orochimaru's expression became grim as he wondered, 'Nara's secret technique. However, when did he…'
His eyes widened as he realized, 'The Rashomon… I took my eyes off him for a mere second. He must have extended his shadow along the shadow of the staff then!'
When two top-tier ninjas battled, momentum was a major factor that could decide victory and defeat. When Fujin and Orochimaru battled in the Forest of Death, Fujin had gained complete control over the momentum after Orochimaru was blown up due to his trap and Fujin destroyed the Sword of Kusanagi. However, Orochimaru successfully reset the momentum by double-bluffing Fujin.
However, his opponent this time wasn't Fujin. It was the vastly more experienced Hiruzen. Even though Fujin was very experienced for his age, he was still a child when compared to a veteran like Hiruzen. Hiruzen had gained the momentum by attacking Orochimaru before he could recover from the strain the reanimated ninjas put on him. And, now that he had the momentum, Hiruzen wouldn't squander it like Fujin did.
Of course, it also showed the difference in their priorities. Fujin always gave the highest priority to his own safety. He didn't mind squandering such advantages to ensure he stayed safe. On the other hand, Hiruzen gave the highest priority to Konoha. He was willing to give up his life if the need be.
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