"Heavily wounded?"
"Instead of running, you're actually approaching me?!"
Motomu watched the severely mangled white snake as it left a trail of blood on the ground, rapidly closing the distance.
Big Eyeball No. 1 narrowed its eyes. Motomu had originally worried the enemy might flee and had already positioned Big Eyeball No. 2 to block the exit.
Now, it seemed he had overthought things.
He did not hesitate.
In the next moment.
Just as it reached the outer edge of the cliff, Big Eyeball No. 2 suddenly poked its head out of the circular tunnel entrance.
Keeping its mouth tightly shut, it pushed forward at a slow pace.
Big Eyeball No. 1, meanwhile, blocked the path in front of Motomu.
In an instant, the hundred-meter passage was sealed off.
Caught in the middle, the white snake faced Big Eyeball No. 2, which was closing in from behind to crush it.
Unable to turn around, it was like a sausage trapped between two buns.
The white snake hissed as its senjutsu chakra surged outwards.
Motomu felt a momentary wave of dizziness before the Cobra nestled within Big Eyeball No. 2 snapped him out of it.
The stalled pincer attack resumed.
Boom!
The white snake slammed into the surface of the eyeball, its sharp fangs biting down desperately.
Aside from getting saliva all over the eyeball, it achieved nothing.
With a series of cracks, Big Eyeball No. 1—annoyed by the biting—opened its own maw, revealing a bloody cavern far more savage than its opponent's.
The shadow of its jagged, interlocking teeth loomed large.
"Roar! Roar!"
Crunch! With a single bite, it clamped onto the snake's head, and the Big Eyeball began to tear at it frantically.
Even with physical attack power in the mere double digits—unable to bypass the snake's defense—it still held the creature in a death grip.
As the Big Eyeball pulled away, the white snake was slowly dragged out like a sausage being yanked from a bun.
A perfect opportunity presented itself.
Motomu excitedly searched his ninja tool pouch.
He pulled out three explosive tags he had scavenged from the bodies of the Root ninjas.
He didn't care about his clothes, which were beginning to catch fire from Heart's intense heat.
His Flame Charge state erupted.
Motomu lunged forward, thrusting his right hand—clutching the three explosive tags—deep into the white snake's open wound.
The snake roared in agony!
Feeling the pain of the wound, the white snake thrashed with desperate strength, finally snapping free from the Big Eyeball's grip.
With a roar toward the ceiling, the white snake turned and swallowed Motomu in a single gulp.
Motomu braced his legs against the gaps in its teeth, his hands gripping the two large fangs on either side of its mouth.
The white snake's maw clamped shut instantly.
Crack, crack—the sound of bones under unbearable pressure echoed from Motomu's spine.
The terrifying force of the bite was something even Motomu's Arm Thrust burst couldn't fully withstand.
Despite the black smoke billowing from its mouth and the smell of roasting meat wafting through the air...
The white snake didn't care. In its dying struggle, it was determined to take him down with it.
Just then.
The explosive tags reached the end of their fuse, and the resulting shockwave tore through the wound from the inside.
The bloody laceration was forcibly expanded; fragments of organs flew everywhere, and a spray of foul-smelling blood erupted from the snake's mouth, drenching Motomu.
Yet, even so, the white snake refused to let go. In its extreme agony, it seemed to find even more strength to clamp down.
Pushing his Psychokinesis and physical stamina to their limits, Motomu's body bowed, and his hands began to tremble violently.
Just as he was about to give out.
With a roar, seeing that Psychokinesis couldn't save its master, the Big Eyeball bit down on the snake's upper jaw.
Like two interlocking blocks snapping together.
The white snake's mouth and the Big Eyeball's maw locked together, rendering both immobile.
Motomu released the snake's fangs and simultaneously drew the kunai at his waist.
He flipped onto the snake's face, aiming his kunai at its eye just as the Big Eyeball's Psychokinesis erupted.
[DING!]
[CONGRATULATIONS TRAINER FOR COMPLETING GYM BOSS CHALLENGE 2/5!]
[THIS CHALLENGE IS AN OFFICIAL GYM BATTLE. UPON VICTORY, YOU WILL RECEIVE A SMALL EXPERIENCE BONUS AND A RANDOM ITEM REWARD (3% DROP RATE FOR TWISTED SPOON... 4.22% PROBABILITY FOR AN EVOLUTION STONE).]
CHALLENGER: MOTOMU
CURRENT GYM: RYUCHI CAVE GYM - LEVEL 40-50 AREA
CHALLENGE TARGET: MILOTIC (TRAINER TAGITSU HIME)
CHALLENGE LEVEL: LV.40
RECOMMENDED CHALLENGE LEVEL: LV.40-LV.42
[RIGHT EYE (LEVEL 34) USED PSYCHOKINESIS!]
[IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE!]
[MILOTIC WAS PIERCED!]
[HP-1086]
[BATTLE SUCCESSFUL]
[RIGHT EYE ABSORBED EXPERIENCE]
[RIGHT EYE EXP +10,000]
[OBTAINED ITEM: EVOLUTION STONE]
A crisp, pleasant system notification appeared.
But Motomu had no time to pay attention to it now.
He whipped his head around, staring deep into the cave.
Something was coming.
Staring intently at the pitch-black tunnel, Motomu—his chakra nearly depleted—ordered Big Eyeball No. 2 to carry the Cobra and flee.
Meanwhile, he hid inside Big Eyeball No. 1.
No sooner had he hidden than something terrifying occurred within the cave.
The cave walls, the stalactites, the puddles—every inanimate object suddenly came to life!
As if the world itself had birthed a malicious intent, these rocks transformed into spears and short lances with a series of sharp cracks.
They pierced and extended amidst an endless quaking of the earth.
Before Motomu could react, his Big Eyeball was already pinned firmly in mid-air.
His entire field of vision was filled with stone spikes.
When everything settled.
Motomu saw it.
At the far end of the stone spikes, a white-scaled snake—wearing a yellow hat and smoking a pipe—slithered forward, accompanied by two young girls.
All along the way.
The stone spikes created by the White Snake Sage's Inorganic Reincarnation parted to make a path for her.
As they drew closer, Motomu realized that the two girls and the snake weren't actually walking; the ground itself had come to life, carrying them toward the Big Eyeball.
"Monster of the shinobi world, was it not enough for you to cause Garaga's death? You have even dared to kill my capable subordinate."
"Do you truly think our Ryuchi Cave is so easily bullied?"
The Big Eyeball shifted slightly, meeting the snake's eyes.
[MILOTIC (LEVEL 53) HAS ACCEPTED YOUR PROVOCATION]
[DING!]
[CONGRATULATIONS TRAINER FOR TRIGGERING GYM BOSS CHALLENGE 3/5!]
[THIS CHALLENGE IS THE FINAL GYM BATTLE. UPON VICTORY, YOU WILL RECEIVE A LARGE EXPERIENCE BONUS AND A RANDOM ITEM REWARD (20% DROP RATE FOR TWISTED SPOON... 5.1% PROBABILITY FOR AN EVOLUTION STONE, 100% DROP RATE FOR THE SNAKE BADGE).]
CHALLENGER: MOTOMU
CURRENT GYM: RYUCHI CAVE GYM - LEVEL 40-60 AREA
CHALLENGE TARGET: MILOTIC (WHITE SNAKE SAGE)
CHALLENGE LEVEL: LV.53
RECOMMENDED CHALLENGE LEVEL: LV.60-LV.69 (NOTE: SPECIAL TERRAIN PROVIDES A SIGNIFICANT BUFF TO POKEMON!)
The White Snake Sage had lived for over a thousand years; like the Great Toad Sage who could see the future in his dreams, she was an ancestor of a Sacred Region.
Her level of strength didn't catch Motomu by surprise.
Her Inorganic Reincarnation—a technique that breathed life into inanimate objects—was practically insurmountable in an environment like Ryuchi Cave, which was made entirely of stone.
To deal with her, one would either need to be vastly superior in strength to crush her head-on, or find some clever trick, which was easier said than done.
As things stood.
His only option was to rely on the fact that she would have a hard time piercing the Big Eyeball's defenses to stall for enough time.
This would allow the Cobra to get far enough away before he canceled the summoning, preventing it from being caught.
Besides, Motomu was curious about what she had said regarding Garaga's death.
Had Sasori made his move?
Or was it a backstab by the Third Kazekage?
It couldn't be that Garaga never recovered from that punch and ended up choking on his own spit, could it?
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