Outside Konoha Village, Orochimaru faced the encirclement of the Foundation elites and Danzo. Although his body had long been heavily injured, he still did not lack the grace of the Sannin of the past.
As for Danzo, he stepped forward holding his cane: "Orochimaru, what is your reason for insisting on seeing Jiraiya?"
As if entirely unaware of Danzo's malice, Orochimaru smiled slightly: "It is because I have an important set of documents that I need to entrust to him."
Saying up to this point, Orochimaru grasped the modified Impure World Reincarnation scroll from within his robes, holding it in his hand as he slowly walked toward Danzo: "Or rather, perhaps this item is even more suitable to be handed over to you, Danzo?"
"Hand the item over to this old man. As for Jiraiya's side, I will transfer it directly to him when the time comes."
Facing Orochimaru, Danzo did not wish to press him too harshly either. The exact moment he stepped forward to receive the scroll from Orochimaru's hand, Orochimaru let out a cold snort.
The scroll in his grasp transformed into countless venomous serpents, abruptly exploding outward right from Danzo's hands.
Amidst the terrifying high-temperature explosion, Danzo's body was forcibly blasted and injured by Orochimaru. His body, resembling charred coal, collapsed to the ground and turned into a pile of ash.
With just a single surprise attack, Orochimaru successfully claimed one of Danzo's lives through his calculations.
Though he had successfully caught Danzo off guard once, Orochimaru knew full well that a Danzo possessing Izanagi would fundamentally not be killed so easily. This single surprise attack had merely destroyed one of the stock counts of the Sharingan upon his body.
The Sharingan that Danzo utilized to activate Izanagi numbered ten in total. Under the circumstances of his body having been transplanted with Wood Style cells, this was the absolute limit of Sharingan power his physical frame could endure.
Those Sharingan cultivated through cloned cells, though incapable of exerting much ocular power, functioned primarily for Izanagi.
As Danzo's former collaborator, Orochimaru naturally understood Danzo's weaknesses and capabilities with absolute clarity.
Resurrecting once more through the utilization of this genjutsu, Danzo manifested on the alternate flank: "What a pity. Orochimaru, to think you would actually choose to initiate open warfare directly against me?"
"Even the Third is dead. Danzo, you ought to go down and keep him company as well!"
Orochimaru's words were saturated with mockery as countless venomous snakes spread outward from all directions. Having devoured the White Snake Sage of Ryuchi Cave, he possessed a colossally powerful Sage Jutsu energy acting as his underlying foundation.
To contend against the desperate straits before his eyes, countless specialized runic curse marks manifested across Orochimaru's body.
While preventing his physical frame from collapsing, a powerful surge of Sage Jutsu energy completely saturated the entire wilderness.
Danzo's face twitched violently; he had never expected that an Orochimaru whose soul was heavily injured would still possess such a terrifying explosive force during a deathbed counterattack.
"Orochimaru, what a truly hideous display!"
A silhouette lunged straight into the battlefield. As the individual currently second only to Danzo within the Foundation, and concurrently Orochimaru's sole partner during his brief stint in the Foundation in the past, Aburame Ryoma engaged in a fierce mid-air clash with him.
Perceiving the identity of the newcomer, Orochimaru let out several soft chuckles: "Ryoma, with you being backlashed by the power of a Kekkei Genkai, do you still possess the qualifications to stand before me?"
Aburame Ryoma cultivated his clan's secret techniques and suffered a backlash from specialized venomous insects, rendering his current body thoroughly broken and dilapidated long ago.
A while back, he had even recommended a junior from his own clan to join the Foundation. It was originally assumed that he had already perished from the backlash of the nano-sized venomous insects, yet he unexpectedly remained alive.
"Then let us put it to the test..."
Condensing a specialized purple glow of venomous insects upon his fingertips, Aburame Ryoma launched a Body Flicker attack. However, with a swift turn of his torso, Orochimaru—operating under Sage Mode—sprouted massive horns from his head, looking exceptionally sinister and violently feral.
The high-temperature air currents from the explosions manifested a barrier of energy isolation. As one of the core combat assets of the Foundation, Aburame Ryoma naturally needed to probe and evaluate Orochimaru's strength on Danzo's behalf.
Many Striking Snakes Formation!
Under Orochimaru's control, a massive horde of serpents abruptly manifested from the Summoning Jutsu array, continuously surging toward Aburame Ryoma to form a twisting tornado that relentlessly attacked the enemy.
Confronted by the coordinated assault of the serpent horde, Aburame Ryoma drove his nano-sized venomous insects to hunt them down.
However, Orochimaru's genuine killing blow lay not within the venomous snakes themselves, but in directly detonating the serpent horde.
The terrifying high-temperature explosion generated in that instant formed a horrifying sequence of chain killer strikes across the field.
Not only Aburame Ryoma, but even numerous members of the Foundation were caught in the collateral of the Many Striking Snakes Formation, perishing miserably at Orochimaru's hands.
Aburame Ryoma retreated several paces coldly. Though his physical frame was heavily injured by the serpent detonations, his battle intent remained entirely undiminished: "As expected of one of the Sannin of the past; even when wounded, you remain an incredibly difficult beast to tame.
Yet, Orochimaru, you disappoint me deeply. Even now, you still cannot step out from the shadow of the Third Hokage's influence."
"Heh, he was fundamentally my teacher to begin with. As for you, you lack any qualification to comment upon the matters between myself and the Third!"
Letting out several cold chuckles, Orochimaru—who had materialized behind his back via a Body Flicker—projected countless venomous snakes to impale Aburame Ryoma.
The latter similarly sprayed out a vast mist of venomous insects. While both sides deployed their respective methods, Orochimaru directly detonated those venomous snakes, causing them to rupture violently straight inside Aburame Ryoma's body.
With a thunderous boom of an explosion, Aburame Ryoma's body was forcibly blasted into pieces. Simultaneously, the Kusanagi sword in Orochimaru's hand directly parried a surprise attack from Danzo.
Danzo's kunai had been reinforced with Wind Style, generating a Wind Style air current that allowed for a far more violent cutting speed.
At this moment, Orochimaru endured his injuries with sheer force, going so far as to sacrifice half of his own physical frame to directly drive his Kusanagi sword to slice Danzo's head clean off!
Reinforced by Inorganic Reincarnation and Sage Jutsu power, Orochimaru utilized an Orochimaru-style Substitution even while missing half of his torso, shedding his skin to manifest once more. Concurrently, Danzo utilized Izanagi yet again to appear right in front of Orochimaru.
The absolute split-second he materialized, countless paper bombs manifested all around Danzo. Orochimaru rapidly wove hand signs: "Die!"
Compared to a Danzo who had consistently lurked behind the scenes gathering intelligence, Orochimaru's role as a battlefield commander across several Shinobi World Wars, coupled with his years of wandering experiences, left him exceptionally rich in life-or-death combat experience.
Danzo's foolish manner of wasting Izanagi exactly like a sitting duck made him, quite simply, all too easy to kill.
Having three of his lives stripped away in the blink of an eye, Danzo's expression turned exceptionally ugly: "Orochimaru, you bastard!"
"Danzo, let us continue our battle!"
As Orochimaru went completely berserk, his Sage Jutsu power surged continuously. At this time, members of the Foundation began rushing forward wave after wave to assault Orochimaru, while Danzo lurked off to one side to command the forces and deplete Orochimaru's stamina.
Both sides engaged in a vicious struggle across the wilderness and dense forest, as the sounds of explosions and slaughter echoed continuously. A sky-covering expanse of venomous snakes swarmed forward unceasingly, composing a wild dance melody of slaughter.
Orochimaru of the Konoha Sannin—even if he was a wounded beast, a beast was a beast after all. How could he be harmed by ordinary men?
Meanwhile, in the distance, Jiraiya was rapidly rushing toward the combat zone between Orochimaru and the Foundation. Jiraiya was more familiar with Orochimaru's chakra signature than anyone else, yet the intense battle echoing from afar caused his face to twitch violently for some unknown reason.
An inexplicable wave of grief welled up from deep within Jiraiya's heart. This unsettling sensation made him feel exceptionally uncomfortable.
"That guy Orochimaru... he cherishes his own life more than anyone else. Why on earth would he be fighting so desperately here?"
In Jiraiya's impression, Orochimaru was absolutely not a fellow who would risk his life easily, yet right now, a highly peculiar premonition urged him forward, forcing him to accelerate his pace toward Orochimaru's direction.
Orochimaru... you must hold on. Wait for me!
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