Under the ground, a ghostly figure moved silently, leaving no trace. Even the sharp-sensing White Zetsu found nothing.
With a wooden body and the scent of White Snake Senjutsu to mask him, Orochimaru was like a fish in water in this land.
At a certain moment, he looked towards the Valley of the End, a smirk on his lips. "That's truly a powerful seal."
The Slug Splitting Technique shares everything, in essence like the branches and leaves of a tree, a connection between souls. But the moment "Chibaku Tensei" was completely successful, even this root-level connection was severed.
What a terrifying sealing jutsu, no wonder it could seal the ancestor of Chakra back then.
"However, it's my turn to act now."
Looking at the location of Nagato's main body, less than two miles away, Orochimaru smiled.
His plan was to use a clone as a sacrifice to lure the opponent into using this extremely draining supreme eye jutsu.
Orochimaru was very wary of the Rinnegan, even more so than Nagato himself.
Now that a lot of Chakra had been consumed, there was an opportunity to fight Nagato. Failing wouldn't matter, as this was just a clone, insignificant compared to his main body.
Orochimaru's footsteps were light, his body floating forward like a ghost. In a moment, he arrived at Nagato's location.
Compared to the location provided by the Genie Lamp, it should be inside a large tree.
Orochimaru was a little puzzled. For ninjas at their level, opening up a wider environment to showcase their skills was more important than hiding. While hiding in a tree hollow could conceal their presence, it would become a burden if they were discovered.
After all, it was just a tree, what Ninjutsu could it block?
However, despite his doubts, he could only move forward.
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the thousands of trees. Strangely, there were no animal roars or insect chirps in this forest. As Orochimaru stepped onto a tree branch, he suddenly felt something was very wrong and quickly retreated.
In front of him, centered around the tree where Nagato was, all the plants and trees within a radius of thirty to forty meters began to rapidly disintegrate and shatter.
Countless paper pieces fluttered upwards like butterflies, gathering into a gray cloud that swirled above Nagato and Konan.
"So it's Paper Release. No wonder it seemed so lifelike..."
After a moment of surprise, Orochimaru's gaze shifted to the Genie Lamp beside him.
"You can't blame me for this."
The Genie Lamp shrugged, its expression innocent. "Except for crossing dimensions, trees and paper are all the same to me."
Saying it only sensed Nagato's life force, it didn't pay attention to other details. The Genie Lamp never gave itself extra tasks.
This was to reduce Orochimaru's dependence; he had put in great effort.
Raising an eyebrow, Orochimaru ignored the Genie Lamp's explanation and turned his gaze to Nagato under the gray cloud, a smirk on his lips.
"We meet again."
Having failed his surprise attack, Orochimaru remained calm. Nagato's expression, however, was very grave. His body was fixed on the wooden bed, and he said in a deep voice, "How did you get here?"
That was definitely not one of Orochimaru's Shadow Clones. Confident in his Rinnegan and his own senses, Nagato was certain that the one hit by 'Chibaku Tensei' was a physical body.
"Ah, that was my clone."
Orochimaru chuckled, like a villain defeated in the finale, and began to explain his abilities.
"Unlike the Shadow Clone technique, it's a physical body split from flesh and blood. Hmm... like a clone."
"No matter what it is, how dare you appear before me? Are you ready to be sealed again?"
Nagato formed hand seals, his eyes flashing with a sinister light.
"Then come on. I wonder how many times you can use it." Orochimaru spread his arms wide, adopting a defenseless posture, looking extremely arrogant.
Nagato's hands froze in mid-air. Orochimaru's rogue-like demeanor left him flustered. What was more hateful was that this move indeed hit his weakness.
Even with the Uzumaki Clan's abundant Chakra, it was not infinite. As for Orochimaru's so-called clones, who knew how many there were.
While his combat power might not be the strongest, his tenacity in the ninja world was...
"Tsk... why aren't you using it?"
A hint of mockery flashed on Orochimaru's lips, and his eyes suddenly turned fierce. "Do you think you have any other choice now?"
Before he finished speaking, his body turned into a streak of light, lunging straight at the incapacitated cripple.
The wind howled like a lit fuse, and the atmosphere that had just relaxed instantly exploded.
Nagato's pupils constricted, his gaze fixed on the rapidly approaching Orochimaru. He pushed his palms forward, unleashing a powerful suction force, "Bansho Tenin!"
Orochimaru's forward momentum increased, but his body was completely out of control.
At this moment, countless white-winged butterflies descended from the gray cloud above their heads. As they neared Orochimaru, they instantly turned red-winged and exploded with a bang.
Bang bang bang...
Explosions sounded one after another, paving a fiery, smoky path for the enemy. An ordinary person would have been severely injured or killed by this "full-service" attack.
But since the target was Orochimaru, Nagato dared not be careless. As the figure in the smoke rushed out, he had already prepared his next Ninjutsu, "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
A heavy and simple stone wall rose from the ground, blocking the flight path. Nagato himself abandoned the wooden bed and was carried into the air by Konan.
Boom!
There was a loud noise, and the giant wall was like tofu, riddled with holes by thin gold needles. The structure was instantly destroyed, becoming extremely fragile.
A figure quickly rushed out of the dust rising from the ground, covered in fine gold dust. A dozen slender gold needles protruded from its back, looking like a many-handed and many-legged spider.
Nagato stared at the opponent, frowning slightly. "This guy is unscathed."
The explosions just now were blocked by the gold dust on the surface of his body. This flawless defense was indeed the natural enemy of explosive tags.
But before he could think too much, Orochimaru rushed over again.
He jumped directly into the air and freely stretched the gold needles on his back like spears through the air towards Nagato. The speed was far faster than ordinary Earth Spear or Magnetic Style.
Nagato's expression changed slightly. With Konan's speed, he couldn't avoid this level of attack. He immediately raised his hands, "Shinra Tensei!"
A powerful impact acted on Orochimaru, but with a soft sound, it actually dissipated directly.
"Shadow Clone?!"
Nagato immediately felt bad in his heart. Even if the main body's ability to control the power of the Rinnegan was slightly stronger than Pain, the use of Shinra Tensei couldn't be continuous. The other party obviously wouldn't let go of this gap.
Sure enough, another figure rushed out of the dust that hadn't completely dissipated. His appearance was exactly the same as the previous Orochimaru, and the sharp spikes and claws on his back stretched out like lightning.
This set of tactics wasn't complicated. It was just to use a Shadow Clone to force out Shinra Tensei once, and then launch a fatal blow, but it was as difficult as reaching the sky to execute.
Just this extremely fast body and attack speed, which forced Nagato to defend, were rare in the ninja world. Perhaps only the Fourth Raikage of Cloud Village and the Fourth Hokage of Konoha had a chance.
Orochimaru was able to do this because of the dramatically increased physique enhanced by Sage Mode and the breathing technique, as well as the White Snake Sage Art's attack speed that far exceeded ordinary Ninjutsu.
These two things made him very complete, even if he wasn't good at everything.
Facing Orochimaru's attack, Nagato's expression changed rapidly, his figure rising rapidly, but the golden spear was still getting bigger and more visible in his vision.
"Earth Release? Water Release? No... these won't work... that's right!"
"Summoning Technique!"
With a loud shout, a chameleon suddenly appeared in the gap between the golden spear, and Nagato.
Before the chameleon could fall due to gravity, its body was cut broken and pierced by more than a dozen golden spears that sent out a miserable cry.
Nagato used this flesh wall to buy precious time and had a chance to dodge and escape.
But even so, he only avoided most of the damage and was pierced in the side of his abdomen by a golden spear and bleeding a lot.
"Shinra Tensei!"
After recovering, Pain immediately cast the Rinnegan technique, repelling everything, including the chameleon that was being used as a meat shield.
After a loud bang, the chameleon dispelled the Summoning because of its serious injuries, and Orochimaru was forced to assume a spider-like form on the ground.
Even so, Orochimaru had a smile on his face and slowly stood up from the ground, even taking the time to pat the dust off his body.
On the other side, after resolving the crisis, Nagato did not stop and rapidly increased his altitude.
Distance is speed's enemy, as it will lengthen time and turn the impossible into the possible.
Nagato hovered in the air, looking down at the ground, holding his side, and had thoughts of retreat.
"Nagato, are you okay?" Konan waved her paper wings, looking at Nagato with concern.
"It's nothing."
Nagato shook his head. After all, it was the Uzumaki Clan's body. Even when burdened with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, this level of injury was still no big deal. Even if Konan said it later, the wound would have stopped bleeding, but... being injured was a warning.
He couldn't fight Orochimaru to the death here, not because he dared or could, but because it wasn't worth it.
Besides, this was Orochimaru's replica.
"Nagato, we've achieved our goal this time. Let's retreat."
Konan saw Nagato's thoughts and suggested.
Nagato nodded and raised both hands slightly, "Shinra Tensei!"
The gray cloud in the sky began to cover Orochimaru under the push of this force.
This thing covered a very wide area, and even Orochimaru's speed couldn't escape immediately, not to mention that Konan also set these pieces of paper on fire.
Boom boom boom...
The explosions continued for several minutes before stopping. By the time Orochimaru crawled out the pit with his face covered in dirt, Nagato and Konan were long gone.
"That's really a waste..."
Orochimaru patted the dirt off his body, looked at the smoky pit, and couldn't help but twitch his lips.
The Second Hokage, Tobirama, had invented a forbidden technique called 'Multiple Exploding Tag', After it was cast, a single exploding tag could continuously summon exploding tags and cause a continuous direct concentrated explosion, which was very powerful
But compared to Konan's Paper Style, it had a poor person look.
"However, at this point, it should be over."
As he said that, he turned to the Magic Lamp beside him.
"Nagato and Konan have retreated, and Pain has also been summoned back. Besides the battle at the Box of Paradise,..."
The Magic Lamp closed its eyes for a moment, "Only Obito and the Fourth Kazekage are still intertwined in battle."
"That's really troublesome."
When Orochimaru heard the Magic Lamp say this, he simply sat down cross-legged on the spot.
This clone was the first one he made. Due to the limited amount of Chakra, it wasn't suitable for combat. Being able to do as much as it did was already its limit.
"Let the old folks take care of the rest."
...
Inside the underground shelter, fine gold dust condensed into gold needles, filling the entire space. No matter where the enemy appeared, they would be stabbed all over.
In a dark corner, Obito stared at the Fourth Kazekage with his intangible body, frowning slightly.
Although he knew that exposing his own information would make him vulnerable, he didn't expect it to be targeted in this way.
It was one thing for Minato Sensei, who was proficient in space time Ninjutsu and extremely fast, but for this Kazekage, the second most incompetent of the five major villages, to cause him a lot of trouble was really unexpected.
The Fourth Kazekage stared at the masked man with sharp eyes. "Your Akatsuki organization attacked Sunagakure and stole my village's One-Tail Shukaku. Did you ever think you'd see this day?"
Under his control, the gold needles remained near Obito's Sharingan. Once it materialized, he would stab it blind.
This was a cruel counterattack for Sharingan users.
"Oh, what about this day?"
Obito's tone didn't waver at all. He said indifferently, "Besides the initial attack, have you ever hurt me again? Also, how long can your current state last?"
Kamui's intangibility couldn't last forever, but even if he hid in the darkness and took a break, Kazekage Rasa couldn't stop maintaining the Magnet Release's Thousand Needles.
Although this consumption wasn't much, it added up over time.
Although Rasa had a wife with Uzumaki genes, he himself wasn't a ninja with abundant Chakra. At most, he could only be considered to be the normal level of a regular Kekkei Genkai user. After a long time, he would become tired.
And these were just the consequences of continuing the stalemate. Obito didn't just need to stand and do nothing.
Sasa...
Suddenly, the sound of dust shifting rang out. Rasa's expression darkened when he sensed another enemy. He immediately controlled the sand needles to stab the other party, but the move missed.
A voice came from the other side, "Kazekage, you're so rude. Don't you check if they're friend or foe? At least this time, I'm bringing you good news."
As he said that, Zetsu glanced at Obito, "It's time to retreat. Pain was defeated by Orochimaru."
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