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Even in the pitch-black underground, Orochimaru's eyes gleamed with a faint golden light. His body trembled slightly—a clear sign of rising excitement.
Concealing himself and swiftly moving beneath the earth, he pressed his hands to the ground, summoning hundreds of venomous snakes that emerged from the soil. Coiled like springs, they shot upward with a hiss, darting toward Toshiro like a barrage of sharp spears.
The swarm of snakes launched a rapid, wide-range attack, their numbers overwhelming. Through the Sharingan's view, Toshiro could see their bodies cloaked in a strange layer of chakra—likely the Earth Release Hardening Jutsu.
"Don't you understand yet, Orochimaru? This level of attack won't work on me at all!"
As the swarm of venomous snakes surged toward him, Toshiro swung his chakra sword with force. A faint, translucent barrier formed before him, emitting a steady cyan glow as if it had a physical presence.
Crack!
When a snake struck the barrier, it fractured like delicate crystal hit by a solid object, splintering into countless tiny light blades, slicing through the approaching snakes, reducing them to countless pieces. Seizing the moment as Toshiro focused on the snakes, Orochimaru sprang up from behind, launching another surprise attack.
Once again, the clone that emerged from Toshiro's shadow blocked Orochimaru's sword, giving him a headache. With this clone constantly guarding his back, any attempts at a sneak attack were nearly impossible.
"What a fu*king troublesome clone!"
This Yin Release clone was a special ninjutsu Toshiro had developed precisely to guard his back.
What's the greatest danger in the world of Ninjas? It isn't secret techniques, bloodline limits, dojutsu, or space-time ninjutsu; the greatest threat is undoubtedly getting "stabbed in the back!"
Even a powerful figure like the Raikage has been caught off guard from behind multiple times. As a time traveler, Toshiro would never leave his back unprotected.
Before Orochimaru could utter another word about the troublesome nature of his opponent's clone, a flash of sword light, swift as lightning, appeared before his eyes.
Clang!
He raised the Kusanagi sword in defense, deflecting the force of the strike. The snake tail beneath his body twisted and coiled, propelling him away from Toshiro in an instant.
With Toshiro's strength and speed, Sharingan, and the Yin Release clone constantly guarding his back, engaging him in close combat seemed futile.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Even though Orochimaru's snaketail had increased his speed and agility significantly, Toshiro—one of the fastest in the ninja world—easily closed the distance, swiftly closing in from behind.
With a hum, the blade in Toshiro's hand expanded dramatically, transforming into a massive sword two feet wide and two meters long. He swung it fiercely toward Orochimaru.
Swish!
Caught off guard by the attack from behind, Orochimaru barely managed to twist sideways before being cleaved in two, split from his left shoulder to his right abdomen.
In that moment, he hadn't had the chance to use a substitution technique, and he was genuinely struck! However, for someone like Orochimaru, this kind of attack posed no lasting harm; at most, it only depleted some of his chakra.
The nearly bisected body lay on the ground without bleeding, and from the severed sections emerged a writhing mass of snakes. The snakes from each half intertwined and knitted the two halves back together.
"Disgusting!"
Seeing this, Toshiro lost interest in continuing his sword assault.
This guy—no matter how many times you cut him, even ten or twenty strikes would only drain a bit more of his chakra.
"In that case, I'll just have to try a sealing technique." with that he started a long series of complex handseals.
"Fuinjutsu: Absolute Seal!"
With the final hand sign complete, a black rune spiraled around Toshiro's palm.
This was a high-level sealing technique he'd learned from the Uzumaki Secret Scroll, powerful enough to be cast without Uzumaki blood. Its purpose was to seal the target's life energy.
If Orochimaru, no matter how resilient he is, were hit by this sealing technique, it would certainly have an impact.
After expending a large amount of chakra to restore his body, Orochimaru barely had time to catch his breath.
In that instant, another flash of sword light lunged toward him.
'He really doesn't give a moment's respite!'
Blocking the attack with the Kusanagi, Orochimaru glanced at Toshiro's other hand.
"What's that?"
When he noticed the black rune in Toshiro's hand, Orochimaru's narrow pupils contracted further.
'A sealing jutsu!'
As the favored disciple of the Third Hokage, friend of Jiraya, and being a genius himself, Orochimaru was well-versed in Fuinjutsu and had even reviewed the Uzumaki Secret Scroll. He knew that falling victim to this seal would be immensely troublesome.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Without hesitation, Orochimaru skillfully deployed the Shadow Clone Technique developed by the Second Hokage. He created six clones—some attacking Toshiro's Yin Release clone and main body, while others used their snake tails to rapidly gain distance from him.
This was his best tactic for confusing the opponent.
"Not a chance!"
The puff of white smoke from the shadow clone activation effectively concealed Orochimaru's true form, and even the Sharingan struggled to distinguish among the clones in the brief confusion.
But Toshiro wasn't without options.
"Fire Release: Mutliple Pheonix Flame Bombs!"
He exhaled a barrage of fireballs, each the size of a football, targeting the six clones in sequence to disrupt their movements and regain control of the battlefield.
Toshiro's movements continued without pause.
He hurled the massive sword—two feet wide and two meters long—directly at Orochimaru.
"Boom!"
With a sharp command, the chakra longsword still mid-air suddenly shattered, transforming into countless tiny blades, each no more than two inches long, compact, and dense.
Like a sudden summer downpour, a blue wave surged as the 'Frost sky' burst into a storm of sharp, miniature blades that "rained" down upon Orochimaru.
Whoosh! Thud, thud!
The first sound was of blades cutting through the air, and the second, of the tiny swords embedding into the grass and soil around him.
Each of these slender chakra blades, though less than two inches long, sliced through the air with a keen sharpness, making their impact impossible to ignore.
The four remaining Orochimaru clones scattered across the grass, twisting and writhing with serpentine agility, showing just what it means to move like a snake.
However, the density of Toshiro's attack was too overwhelming. Despite dodging many of the strikes, three of the clones vanished with a bang, leaving only the original Orochimaru on the battlefield.
His body was now peppered with countless tiny punctures, each wound slowly seeping blood.
"What a terrifying attack!"
Even he couldn't completely evade such an all-encompassing assault, but this was no time for admiration.
Toshiro's figure was already closing in on him.
"Are you planning to use your Yin Clone to hold me off first?"
Orochimaru's two other shadow clones, focused on restraining Toshiro's main body, remained close to him and were unaffected by the earlier attack.
They continued their efforts, using up the last of their energy to keep Toshiro occupied.
"I can't afford to get sidetracked!" Orochimaru thought. At their level, clones generally lacked the strength to overpower opponents outright; their main use was to delay or mislead.
If he allowed himself to be distracted by the yin clone and expended too much energy on it, he would fall into Toshiro's hands.
With a deft spin of his sword, Orochimaru struck at the Yin Release clone, his mouth opening wide as he attacked. A scarlet tongue, charged with chakra, arced through the air, aiming for the clone's flank.
"Huh?"
"Just an aimple illusion clone?"
Orochimaru's Kusanagi and his tongue attack both failed to connect, prompting him to quickly create distance from the clone. This doppelganger had properties similar to a simple E-rank clone, rendering physical attacks ineffective.
And that was precisely the case.
Toshiro had designed this clone using a combination of Yin Release and Nara clan's Shadow techniques. When faced with a physical attack, the clone could instantly transform part or all of its body into shadow to avoid damage.
No matter how sharp Orochimaru's Kusanagi was, there was nothing it could do against a shadow.
"Not yet!"
Retracting his extended tongue with a faint, sticky sound, Orochimaru fixed his gaze on the clone before him, considering how best to deal with it.
If he couldn't neutralize Toshiro's clone swiftly, he would lose the upper hand, and the clone would continue to keep him at bay.
"What exactly is this clone?"
Though this clone resembled a simple clone, Orochimaru had a range of options at his disposal—sealing techniques, forbidden jutsu, and more—that could potentially neutralize it.
But just as he prepared to act, something unexpected happened: he found himself unable to move.
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