Even now, as Orochimaru was captured by Aoba with his chakra rapidly depleting, he still considered Aoba merely a member of the Uchiha clan.
Though naturally talented, members of the Uchiha clan achieved their greatness through the power of the Sharingan.
The formidable power displayed by Aoba was not a testament to the Uchiha's strength but rather a proof of how powerful the Rinnegan was.
It must be said.
Orochimaru's thinking wasn't entirely wrong.
Indeed, with their dojutsu, the Uchiha's capabilities would significantly improve.
However...
The Uchiha's reliance on their dojutsu was not the problem here.
It was because of Orochimaru's arrogance and prejudice.
Even at this moment, as panic began to set in, Orochimaru still regarded the Uchiha before him as merely a youngster reliant on his eyes. Yet, the power of the Rinnegan deeply fascinated him.
Even if he couldn't possess the body of this young Uchiha, he wanted to extract those Rinnegan and implant them into his eye sockets.
After all.
The power of the Rinnegan was too great.
It could unleash incredible gravitational forces and had a terrifying ability to absorb chakra.
Without the Rinnegan, such a level of power would be unattainable—a truly incredible feat.
With this thought.
Orochimaru's excitement surged.
Even though he hadn't escaped Aoba's grasp.
"Do you think you can still escape?!"
Behind his mask, Aoba's lips curled into a sinister smile, having observed Orochimaru's behavior and instantly understanding his thoughts—excitement.
This greedy man!
Even now, he still covets the Rinnegan.
How interesting!
Aoba was amused that Orochimaru could not see the situation clearly, whether it was a gross underestimation of his power or too much confidence in his escape plans. To Aobsa, Orochimaru was intriguing.
Suddenly.
Orochimaru opened his mouth wide.
His jaw unhinged like a snake, opening 180 degrees, revealing a seemingly bottomless red throat capable of accommodating anything without bursting.
As Orochimaru's mouth reached its widest, a snake slithered out.
The snake, flicking its tongue and eyes narrow like slits, shot out quickly, darting in a direction opposite to Aobsa.
This snake was not attacking Aoba.
It was avoiding him.
At the same time.
Orochimaru, whom Aoba was holding, suddenly went limp as if drained of all strength, lifeless like a corpse.
Orochi-style Substitution Technique!
Aoba's expression remained calm, unfazed by Orochimaru's technique. He was not surprised; this was within his expectations, not an unforeseen scenario.
Aoba had known Orochimaru could do this, having seen similar scenes while watching Naruto.
People spit out snakes, snakes spit out people, people spit out snakes again, snakes spit out swords...
Orochi-style Substitution Technique could be considered one of the strongest techniques in the ninja world, almost like a matryoshka doll, endlessly spitting out more, endlessly to the end of time.
Aoba was concerned that Orochimaru might use this method to escape, so he set up a barrier to prevent this scenario from the beginning.
Boom!
As if responding to Aoba's thoughts.
The snake that Orochimaru had transformed into slammed directly into the barrier, causing a loud noise. If not for Orochimaru's exceptionally tough body, such a collision would have been painful.
At this moment.
The small snake that hit the barrier barrier opened its mouth wide and then spit out a person.
It was Orochimaru.
But compared to the Orochimaru, which had just been absorbed and bound, this was a fresh Orochimaru.
Of course.
This Orochimaru had not regained his peak chakra levels.
"What a barrier!"
Orochimaru squinted slightly, eyeing Aoba not far in front of him. He had just seen a white expanse, not realizing how close the barrier was.
The barrier was deceptive.
It seemed vast.
The source of light appeared very distant.
Especially since the barrier had already formed before Orochimaru had walked over, according to his fixed understanding, there were no barriers until he retreated to his original position.
But now it seemed...
Things were not as he had imagined.
The barrier consisted of two parts: the barrier wall and the light source, which were separate and not unified.
When the barrier first formed, the barrier wall was at the light source, which gave Orochimaru a misperception that the light source accompanied the barrier's emergence or that the barrier itself was the light source, a luminescent barrier.
Riding on this inertial thinking, as Orochimaru retreated, he felt he was still some distance from the barrier wall, a distance that, at his level as one of the Legendary Sannin, should not be problematic.
However...
He had overlooked one thing.
While Orochimaru focused on Aoba's Mangekyo Sharingan, Aoba had already started contracting the barrier wall inward.
The light source did not move.
This created an illusion for those inside the barrier, making it seem like there were no changes, but the barrier wall had shrunk as much as possible.
Orochimaru could no longer return to the position he had been standing in.
Especially after being captured by Aoba, the distance between the two was very close. Orochimaru could hardly retreat with the barrier wall contracting madly at such a close range.
"Interesting."
Orochimaru inhaled slowly, his smile gradually fading. He began to understand that he had met his match in the person before him, this Uchiha youth with the Rinnegan.
A moving barrier.
This was completely beyond Orochimaru's understanding.
He had never seen such a technique.
And he was deeply curious and eager about the Rinnegan, his eyes filled with greed.
He still believed that Aoba's ability to do such things was inseparable from the Rinnegan and that only someone with the Rinnegan could accomplish this.
"That's quite interesting."
Aoba did not release the now limp body of Orochimaru but instead channeled a dense, powerful chakra into the corpse.
Buzz!
Orochimaru's body suddenly trembled, his skin becoming rigid, hardening rapidly under the chakra-filled state, changing from its previously limp condition to being as hard as iron. His entire body seemed to inflate as if it had been pumped with air.
It was better to say it was Orochimaru's substitute than his corpse.
Orochimaru meticulously created substitutes, using only the finest materials, including stretchable snake skin, which could support incredible transformations. As for the deep, unfathomable throat, it was like it had been stamped with spatial seals, capable of producing endless energy.
At this point.
Aoba, holding Orochimaru's neck, appeared as if he was holding a weapon in his hand, and this stiff weapon was the body left by Orochimaru shedding his skin.
"Let's see how many more times you can spit!"
Aoba watched Orochimaru intently. Now, he had nothing much to do, relatively free since the next phase of his plan had already begun. His clone and the Deva Path clone of Danzo currently had nothing pressing, so he could afford to play with Orochimaru a bit.
Aoba was always curious about how many layers Orochimaru's Orochi-style Substitution Technique had, where the limit was, or if there even was one.
Aoba didn't believe Orochimaru could keep spitting indefinitely; otherwise, that would be akin to having an immortal body. There must be a limit, but typically, no one had pushed Orochimaru to this limit before a fight ended; it was always either with Orochimaru winning or fleeing.
Now that Orochimaru was trapped inside the barrier.
With Orochimaru's current strength, he couldn't break through the barrier Aoba had created. He was like a turtle in a jar, without any cause for concern. Now, whenever Orochimaru used his Orochi-style substitution technique, Aoba would collect the shed skin, gradually forcing Orochimaru into a corner.
This...
Aoba found it very thrilling.
He wanted to watch step-by-step as Orochimaru was desperate and see what kind of last-ditch efforts he could muster.
This was something...
He had often pondered while watching Naruto.
Where exactly was Orochimaru's limit?
"And also..."
The smile behind Aoba's mask grew thicker as he swung the now stiff Orochimaru like a heavy club, slapping it hard against Orochimaru's face.
"I know you can take a beating!"
"I also want to see..."
"Just how much of a beating you can take!"
Aoba vividly remembered how Orochimaru had stoically endured Tsunade's punch with his face when he first watched Naruto. Because of that scene, many discussions rated Orochimaru's physical defense among the top.
With this opportunity, Aoba wanted to see how many hits Orochimaru's face could take from Orochimaru's chakra-infused, hardened body.