From my hand, an over-glorified flamethrower engulfed the side of the roof occupied by my still active opponents, developing in a growing cone, the jutsu swinging between white and blue.
Tobirama had turned his attack into defense and rose out of nowhere his Suiton: Suijinheki (water wall).
My jutsu couldn't care less.
...
The water burned, oxygen and hydrogen doing nothing to slow down the last song of the fire god, which burned to ashes the Nidaime Hokage with the same carelessness of a civilian flicking away a mosquito.
I couldn't direct the flame in the way I could direct the technique in the Hinokami no Mai, all the control I had over the inferno I had unleashed was dedicated to keeping the jutsu from backfiring.
Orochimaru had dodged the first bout of my technique, but the evergrowing flame washed over the barrier and almost behaved like a liquid, rebounding against it and spreading in a wave.
I felt my clone walking behind me and tapping the armor at the base of my back, unsealing the second giant scroll I had prepared.
"Hashirama is sealed and sent to the elephants. I am almost out of juice, I'll do the same with Tobirama, then you'll be on your own until the other one of us dispels."
With my sage enhanced sensing, I felt Orochimaru moving in the ground we were staying on, trying to sneak his way to me in an ample circle. I cut down my jutsu, leaving my clone to hide with the scroll until there was enough of the Nidaime to be sealed away and turned towards the incoming threat.
I wasn't eager to face Orochimaru without Sage Mode, so I had to stop throwing ninjutsu around like confetti.
I slammed my foot in the ground, senchakra disrupting the renegade Sannin's technique, forcing him to abandon it.
I ignored the several Tsuchi bunshin that emerged from the ground, frankly, I doubted that they were able to actually harm me.
I was on my opponent like a landslide, my right arm shot forward in an open palm strike, the concussive force behind it enough to generate a low boom when it impacted the chest of my opponent.
I whirled on myself, ignoring the now destroyed clone he had kawarimed with and I lashed out with a sweeping high kick, that he leaned back to avoid.
It wasn't enough. The natural energy surrounding my body hit true, and the snake summoner was flung back.
I dashed in pursuit, the memories of my clone suddenly swarming my brain and informing me of the Nidame's successful sealing. The tiny silver on unused chakra returned into my coils, I thoughtlessly formed a Rasengan and slammed it into Orochimaru's head.
Again, he had crumbled into dirt, and suddenly, Sage Mode left me.
I darted away, creating a kage bunshin and immediately dispelling it, my other clone should have been able to tell if I was no longer in Sage Mode, but I wasn't willing to risk it.
I kept moving feeling blind and deaf in comparison to my previously enhanced senses.
"Are you running out of juice, Daiki-kun?" the mocking voice of the Snake Sannin reached me.
I refrained from rising to his bait, any idiot with half familiarity with chakra sensing could tell the difference between my previous Sage-state and my sadly... mortal one.
Even if I was far from defenseless, I had exactly 0 experience with dealing with other S-rank. I was an exceptional jonin, and in sage mode I could barrel through almost anyone, uncaring of their rank.
Facing Orochimaru without what was definitely my trump card, was unwise at best and woolish at worst.
The duel had lasted almost twenty minutes already, but it felt like a lifetime.
Out of the purple barrier, the Snake Sannin's lackeys had wasted no time in raising, I could recognize the flashes of Onoki's signature jutsu and Jiraya running circles around the giant sand tanuki, giant toads in the distance dealing with giant snakes.
My eyes never left my opponent form, and I had never been more aware that at the end of the day, my S-rank was a one-trick pony.
I frowned, distractedly taking notice of finding other ways to apply my repertory of skills. I needed to be an S-rank without Sage-mode.
Oh well, no moment is better than the present. I thought.
"How does it feel?" I asked.
And when the snake sannin stopped to tilt his head sideways I continued: "To have a nineteen years old take away your toys one after another?"
The Snake Sannin smiled, his poisonous yellow eyes landing on mine, they were flickering, like the edge of a fire, like...
I fluctuated my chakra violently, breaking through the genjutsu and already feeling another layering itself over my coils.
I flexed my muscles, reading myself for the effort I was about to face: "Keimon, kai!"
The Gate of View broke open, and I felt like a giant coil had sprung in my stomach, making me flinch at the unsteady and turbulent flow of chakra in my coils, but I felt the three genjutsu Orochimaru had sneaked in break apart, like spider webs cut by an avalanche.
The surrounding bodies of water, a legacy of the Nidaime and mine' previous Suiton techniques exploded away from me, generating a wave that slammed against the purple barrier and ripped apart the tiles of the roof.
I watched Orochimaru with a tight, unimpressed expression, a green aura started settling around me.
I noticed his fascinated expression, and the curiosity of the consumed scientist pick apart my technique.
"Fascinating." he hissed "You opened the sixth, bypassing the first five, no..."
He smiled widely, not bothering hiding his curiosity, and likely banking on the fact that I was on a time limit.
"The difference between you and before isn't great enough... no..." He continued, I steadied my breath, lowering my barycenter and bringing back my right arm, my hand clamping close in a fist.
"You were already using the first five?" He speculated, guessing the truth without difficulty: "But your chakra was stable..."
When I smirked, he laughed: "Don't tell me! You perfected it! No longer a kinjutsu, but a technique all with enough training and skill can master without repercussions! Daiki-kun, it's outstanding, you surpassed your sensei at such a young age..."
And now cones the recruit-spiel. I dryly thought.
"Akai Tsubu." (Red Grain) I whispered.
My legs straightened and I was in front of the Snake Sannin, my right hand crashing through the air and setting it on fire before landing in the middle of Orochimaru's chest.
He was propelled backward, his feet instinctively digging through the tiles to avoid being swept away.
I jumped ahead with a twenty-degree angle from the ground, I cartwheeled in the air, my right leg coming down on my target, my left still pointed at the sky.
"Tsukirakka!" (Falling moon) The axe kick set the air on fire and exploded on my enemy.
When the Snake Sannin managed to parry the blow, his arms encased in stone making my right foot slide off him, I brought down my left leg, completing my movement.
"Nichibotsu!" (Sunset) My left heel dug into Orochimaru's guard, breaking it and burrowing him through the reinforced roof of the warehouse.
I followed without hesitation, eager to run through him.
In the dimly lit warehouse, the Snake Sannin laughed: "Kukukukuku..."
Who the hell actually laughs like that? A brief thought flashed and disappeared into my mind.
"To think one of my creations would grow so strong... but it's no wonder, with your genes..." The Snake Sannin hissed.
"What?" I couldn't believe he would choose this moment to reveal what was surely a tragic backstory.
Not that I actually cared. I distractedly realized for the first time that I couldn' t care less about how I came to be into this world. Maybe knowing that the multiverse was real made the idea of being the result of an experiment into another reality easier to accept, maybe I simply was no longer a functional human being.
"Kukukuku... you must have wondered who your parents were..." he hissed from somewhere to my left.
I didn't lower my guard: "People live, people die, my parents likely ditched me for one reason or another, I don't really care."
"Oh, but you're wrong, Daiki-kun... soo wrong..." he hissed again.
"Say what you want to say, then I'll punt you through the floor." I said "Again." I added after a brief pause.
"Kukukuku... you never noticed? The similarities are all there to see after all..." He continued tauntingly.
"From the ease through which you use the Rasengan, to your ridiculously high water affinity..."
"I am a sort of DNA mesh up from the Yondaime and Nidaime? Yeah, pull the other one." I rolled my eyes, even if my mind was running faster than Naruto could say 'Ramen'.
I already knew there was a relationship between a body and its soul, after all, the Edo Tensei somehow created a corpse from the DNA of someone.
It could make sense that a body made from DNA of already alive (like the yondaime was when I was born) and dead ( like the nidaime was when I was born) and some fuinjutsu tossed on the side would pull a soul from another dimension.
Tenzō had his own soul, but he was created to be a clone of the first, but with the face of a random kid from the clan of the people that turned into smoke if I remembered correctly, so maybe...
"But you know it's true..." he hissed again.
At that point, once more I regained perspective: "So what?" I asked.
"Let's say it's true, why would this sudden revelation stop me from killing you?"
"Kukukuku... don't you want to know the secret behind your birth? It's clear to me that Konoha can't help you become stronger, you already surpassed them all, they will only hold you back..." he whispered, tempting me with the 'Sasuke-standard-pack'.
I pity I couldn't care less: I closed the sixth gate, regulating my chakra flow and stabilizing it again.
"Kukukuku... I knew you would see reason... cone with me, I can make you the greatest this world has ever seen..." The Snake Sannin came into the dim light that shone through the hole in the roof.
I closed my eyes, my clone dispelling itself, and gifting me with his memories.
...
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