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Chapter 131n
🕑 Added 2025-08-16 15:07:34 +0000 UTCChapter 131n
2-in-1-chapter
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“Yes, Lord Orochimaru. I will be careful,” the white-haired boy replied with a serious nod.
The two stepped out of the shop together. The long street outside was sparsely populated, and it took only a glance to see the black-cloaked figure in the distance. Shisui was walking toward the far end of the street.
This was a town on the seashore.
At the street’s end lay the coastline.
Under a dark, overcast sky, a bitter wind howled. Waves rolled in from the deep sea, crashing against the rocks and sending up white spray. The dull boom of each impact carried through the air, then scattered with the gusts and the salt-laden surf.
The world was steeped in a chill, battle-laden stillness.
Shisui stood on a reef, holding his short blade, the hem of his black coat snapping in the wind. In his crimson eyes burned a rare, unrestrained battle spirit. Because of the tangled events leading up to this moment, his mood had been long stifled.
Now, facing Orochimaru—the ironclad traitor of Konoha—he realized he no longer needed to think about anything else. All he had to do was fight with everything he had. In truth, it had been a long time since he had encountered an opponent who could push him to his limits. Battle fervor surged in his chest, and his blood ran hot; he could hardly wait.
One of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru, should not disappoint him.
His fingers traced the edge of the blade as he fixed his gaze on the approaching figure.
Crack!
A vertical blade of wind cleaved through the reef beneath Shisui’s feet. The stone, weathered for centuries by the pounding of the tide, broke apart like a brittle biscuit. But Shisui was already gone, the ferocious strike not even brushing the hem of his cloak.
Only inky black crow feathers drifted down, spinning in the wind.
More than ten crows wheeled together in the air, converging and shifting into human form. Shisui’s figure emerged once more, standing poised atop another reef.
This was the Bird Clone Technique, a special clone technique developed by Shisui. It required coordination with his own tamed summoning crows in order to be cast. Compared with the Shadow Clone, it conserved much more chakra, yet it was far stronger than the Water Clone Technique. It possessed high mobility and could freely merge or disperse. The Bird Clone also had considerable endurance; ordinary attacks could not easily destroy it.
“A special clone technique that makes use of summoned beasts? It is somewhat similar to my Snake Clone Technique.” Orochimaru, known as the most brilliant and deranged scientist since the Second Hokage, harbored a deep hunger for the secrets and power of ninjutsu. He was endlessly curious about anything unfamiliar to him. This journey to Kirigakure had been driven by that same curiosity, for he had wished to witness firsthand the so-called power of the Mangekyō Sharingan. With a single glance, he had discerned the workings behind Shisui’s clone technique.
“So this is a clone? Then where is the real body?” Orochimaru smiled faintly, not rushing to destroy Shisui’s clone. His sharp gaze scanned the shoreline. Aside from a few coconut trees, the beach offered no real cover.
Which meant—
“Underground?”
Orochimaru raised his thumb to his mouth and bit down.
Crunch.
Fresh blood stained his teeth and his fingers, yet he seemed not to feel the pain at all. Pressing both hands to the ground, he intoned, “Summoning Jutsu!”
With a resounding bang, dozens of massive brown serpents, each as thick as a house, were called forth. Manda was too proud and violent for such a task; Orochimaru summoned him only against equally colossal opponents, such as a tailed beast or the giant summons of Jiraiya and Tsunade. It was not that he begrudged the hundred human sacrifices demanded as payment, but rather that he found the trouble excessive. These more obedient serpents, numerous and responsive, were far more convenient to use.
Standing atop the head of one giant snake, Orochimaru watched as they spread outward, crushing trees beneath their coils. Some burrowed into the sand, gouging deep holes in order to drive Shisui from underground. In the past, during battles against the Iwa-nin, Orochimaru had often resorted to this method of “digging out the rats.” He knew the tactic well.
“Truly worthy of a Sannin.”
Shisui’s voice came as his head emerged from below the ground. His real body had indeed been hidden underground, preparing to strike unexpectedly. He had not anticipated that Orochimaru would first expose his Bird Clones with that terrifying Wind Style technique, then force him up with serpents. While using Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole, Shisui could not fight.
Yet this setback did nothing to dampen his fighting spirit. On the contrary, the stronger Orochimaru displayed himself to be, the more fiercely Shisui’s eyes blazed, his battle intent surging ever higher.
This was how it should be. A Sannin of such renown had to prove himself worthy of that name.
Leaping from the ground, Shisui performed the Body Flicker Technique, instantly reaching the back of one serpent. Gripping his short blade, he charged toward Orochimaru standing on the snake’s head. To cut down each serpent one by one would be needlessly troublesome unless he summoned Susanoo, and ordinary ninjutsu would be too time-consuming. Besides, Shisui’s specialty was combat against shinobi, not beasts.
The Body Flicker Technique achieved its greatest effect only in close-quarters fighting. Susanoo he had tested only once and never again. Unlike Rēn, who used it so frequently it was almost a habitual weapon, Shisui had guarded carefully the secret that he too had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Unless absolutely forced, he would not reveal that power here.
“You’ve come out?”
Orochimaru’s hoarse voice carried a mocking edge as he watched Shisui race along the serpent’s back toward him. With a wave of his hand, more than ten serpents shot forth from his wide sleeves, their jaws open to reveal sharp fangs as they lunged at Shisui.
This was the secret technique Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, a ninjutsu Orochimaru had created by combining summoning with serpentine extensions. These snakes were not illusions; each was a living entity, possessing intelligence and specialized roles—some to intimidate, others to restrain, to seize, or to bite. One strike thus became a flurry of layered assaults. Ordinary opponents would be left flustered and overwhelmed, unable to mount a proper defense before being captured or torn apart.
But today, Orochimaru’s foe was not some incompetent weakling.
“Uchiha Style: Gale Blade.”
Facing the mass of serpents, Shisui did not dodge. His scarlet Sharingan spun, capturing every detail of their movements and predicting their next trajectories. Guided by his insight, his body flowed naturally into action. His short blade, wreathed in howling wind, slashed downward.
A spray of blood filled the air.
In the blink of an eye, Shisui’s swift strikes had severed all thirteen serpent heads. The sight of those heads arcing upward, blood gushing like fountains, was reflected in his crimson eyes burning with fighting spirit. At the same time, his left hand formed seals. Just as the wave of blood threatened to splash across his face, his body dissolved like a mirage and vanished.
In the next moment, among the falling serpent heads, another head appeared—that of Orochimaru himself, with pale skin, violet eyeshadow, and the blue-green magatama earrings swaying at his ears.
Shisui stood behind Orochimaru, his short blade still poised in a finishing stance. He had used the Body Flicker to slip behind him and with a single stroke had taken his head cleanly off.
It had been almost too easy.
For an instant, Shisui even felt a pang of disappointment—was this truly the level of a Sannin?
Yet the disappointment lasted less than a second before it vanished. From Orochimaru’s severed neck poured not blood but writhing serpents, thick and thin, coiling together in sickening motion. Shisui understood at once that this was no death. It was a trick, akin to his own Bird Clones.
“Snake Clone Technique, then. So where is the real body?”
His scarlet Sharingan spun as he searched the battlefield for Orochimaru’s true form. Raising his blade into a defensive guard, he remained alert for the attack that might come from the shadows.
A little further out, Kimimaro stood on the trunk of a coconut tree that had been crushed and snapped by the giant serpent. He raised his eyes, watching Lord Orochimaru battle the man called “Shisui.” Though only eight years old this year—still a child in terms of age—he already possessed the strength to defeat an average Chūnin.
As the last surviving orphan of the Kaguya clan, Kimimaro was the final afterglow of a once-proud bloodline. Raised among a household of battle-mad lunatics, he had awakened the clan’s bloodline limit, Shikotsumyaku (bone release), at a very young age, and his people had cultivated him as a weapon. Later, when he followed Orochimaru, an even greater madman, his values and way of thinking were shaped accordingly.
Anyone who mistook Kimimaro for a mere child would certainly pay a bitter price.
“Lord Orochimaru!”
When Kimimaro saw Orochimaru beheaded in a single stroke by Uchiha Shisui, his fists clenched tight. For more than two years he had remained at Orochimaru’s side, deeply favored because of his talent and ability. Orochimaru had never treated him as a burden. Even on this journey to the Land of Water, he had brought him along.
Kimimaro had witnessed Orochimaru’s strength and knew his master could not possibly be killed so easily.
And yet, this was the first time anyone had managed to reach him so quickly. In the past, the enemies they encountered had rarely been able even to touch the hem of Orochimaru’s robe. Often, Orochimaru had even selected some of those foes as opponents for Kimimaro to deal with himself. But this was the first time Orochimaru had told him to keep his distance and simply watch.
Now, looking at Orochimaru’s headless body, Kimimaro took a step forward.
…..........
On the serpent’s head, Shisui had severed Orochimaru’s neck with a stroke, only to realize that his attack had not struck the true body. He was not particularly surprised. In truth, he had been disappointed earlier, disappointed that Orochimaru’s reputation seemed unearned—but that feeling was quickly dispelled. Orochimaru had not fallen to a single strike after all.
What he had cut was merely a body double—a clone formed from countless snakes.
“Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu.”
Forming hand seals with one hand, Shisui exhaled an orange-red sphere of searing flame. The fireball engulfed and incinerated the clone of entwined snakes. The heat was so intense that the serpent beneath his feet shuddered violently, its massive head thrashing from side to side as if to throw Shisui off.
But such tricks were meaningless to him. With his balance and composure, it was not difficult to remain steady.
As Shisui continued to search for Orochimaru’s true body, the serpent beneath him abruptly froze. Lowering his gaze, the scarlet Sharingan pierced through flesh and bone and caught sight of an abnormal surge of chakra within. His pupils contracted. He immediately leapt high into the air, his short blade drawn across his body.
In the next instant, a glint of cold light shot out from within the serpent.
