Zoro is eaten by Manda, at least that's what Orochimaru and Manda himself think. Manda even laughs triumphantly for a moment until he suddenly falls unconscious. Orochimaru is shocked because Manda doesn't just lose consciousness, but loses his life too.
Blood suddenly seeps out of a very thin line across Manda's body. Zoro has cut the giant snake's body right when he gets eaten. So the only place that doesn't get cut in half is Manda's head that Zoro uses to come out.
"Damn! It's so smelly inside that mouth. I know that snakes don't clean their teeth, but damn, it's so smelly." Zoro comes out while complaining because of the disgusting smell in Manda's mouth and also the saliva that covers his body now.
Seeing that Manda is defeated, Orochimaru decides to run away. He has moved away from the battle between Zoro and Manda so he can escape anytime. He wants Zoro's body, but it's too difficult to defeat Zoro now, so he needs to make more preparations.
Too bad that Zoro has always been locking on his presence from the beginning because Zoro doesn't want to let him escape. Zoro chases him because his bounty is just too high to let go.
"360 Pound Cannon!"
While running, Zoro shoots a spiral sword energy bullet at the running Orochimaru. It clears out many trees as it flies toward Orochimaru. The snake man realizes it on time and summons another Rashomon Gate that succeeds in redirecting the attack upwards.
Orochimaru is fast, so Zoro needs to take off his weights for the chase. Now Zoro can run very fast and he almost catches Orochimaru. So he swings his sword horizontally, creating a massive slash attack that cuts the trees on its way to Orochimaru.
But Orochimaru dodges it by jumping down from the trees and continues to run on the ground. Too bad, Zoro's slash attack cuts the trees on his path too, so the falling branches are blocking his way, slowing him down significantly.
Zoro finally catches up to Orochimaru because of the falling tree branches. He slashes Orochimaru's body from behind, but the snake man uses Body Replacement technique and the slashed body turns into a log.
Though Zoro finds him immediately thanks to the Observation Haki. Zoro immediately makes a vertical slash attack at Orochimaru. It flies very fast and Orochimaru almost gets cut in half because he almost dodges it too late.
He can't dodge the next attack though because Zoro suddenly flashes toward him at a very high speed. Zoro slashes his sword while passing Orochimaru at a very high speed and cuts the snake man's body in half, right on the waist.
Orochimaru's arms are also getting cut. But the next scene makes Zoro frown. Small snakes come out of Orochimaru's severed body. They elongate and connect Orochimaru's severed body into 1 again without any injury.
"Interesting, but also disgusting at the same time." Zoro turns around while sheathing Enma back to its scabbard.
He moves Enma to his right waist before he suddenly lowers his stance. Zoro then holds Enma's and Sandai Kitetsu's hilts while coating them with Haki. Orochimaru is finally done reconnecting his severed body too.
"Well, why don't we test how good that jutsu is. Let's see if it can reconnect your body after I chop it into many parts." Zoro smirks, making Orochimaru's eyes widened.
"What?!"
Before Orochimaru can say anything or do anything else, Zoro suddenly disappears from his spot. The next moment, Zoro is already some meters behind Orochimaru with Enma and Sandai Kitetsu slightly out of their scabbards.
"Nitoryu Iai: Taju Rashomon!" (Two Sword Style Acting Draw: Multiple Thin Gate Life!)
Zoro fully sheathed his swords while saying the skill name. Unlike the normal Rashomon technique where he only swings each sword once, Zoro swings both swords multiple times in a very short amount of time while he unsheathes the swords.
It obviously needs a lot of concentration and uses a lot of power to do. But as a result, he can cut his target so many times in a single sword draw. So now, Orochimaru's body is being cut into many parts because of Zoro's attack.
Orochimaru's chopped body parts aren't moving, but Zoro can still sense his presence. So Zoro approaches the body parts to find the source of Orochimaru's presence and as he thought, it's the head.
Zoro is about to destroy the head when suddenly Orochimaru's blood starts to evaporate. Zoro isn't prepared for this, so he inhales some of the bloody gas. He suddenly can't move his body because the toxic gas can paralyze those who inhale it.
Then suddenly, a strange creature appears in front of Zoro. Well, it certainly is strange, but it's not just a random creature, it's Orochimaru in his true form that looks like a giant snake. His face looks like a combination of a snake and Orochimaru while his body is made of many small white snakes.
"Hehehe, I wanted to do this after making better preparations to ensure the success of my plan. But you are stronger and more skillful than I thought. Your growth is so rapid that I'm worried you will still be too strong when my preparations are done. Besides, it's you who forces me to do this. You just need to chase me when I plan to leave. If you just let me go, I won't need to do this. Now that you have destroyed my current body, you need to take responsibility and become my new body."
Orochimaru laughs creepily before opening his mouth wide and swallows Zoro's body whole. The paralyzed Zoro can't do anything when his body is swallowed by the giant Orochimaru.
Then, he suddenly finds himself in a mysterious place. His body is bound by strange and disgusting meaty things. It's as if he is wrapped by internal organs, so he's like inside a stomach.
He looks around and there are some other people in the same condition as him. But all of them seem to have lost their minds and seem dead. Zoro quickly knows that everyone here is someone whose body has been taken over by Orochimaru.
"... This looks bad." Zoro finally realizes the severity of this situation. If he can't do anything about this situation, then he will become like these people. Having his body and mind taken over by Orochimaru is obviously worse than dying.
But Zoro doesn't know how to get out of here. This clearly isn't a genjutsu because he has great immunity to genjutsu, even the strong ones. It's more like his mind is transferred into another place altogether.
Then suddenly, Orochimaru appears in front of him, covered by these meats too. Orochimaru quickly tells him that he won't be able to escape from this dimension that Orochimaru created to keep the minds and souls of everyone whose body is being taken over.
"A dimension to keep souls and minds, you say? I see."
Zoro is grinning widely when he hears that even while the disgusting meat keeps crawling on his body, trying to bury him. Orochimaru doesn't understand why Zoro is grinning, but it doesn't matter.
"Now, your body will be mine." Orochimaru grins before laughing loudly.
"On whose authority?" Zoro suddenly releases his strongest Conqueror Haki all over the place.
The Conqueror Haki he releases is obviously the advanced version that can affect even non-living things, just like what Shanks showed on Moby Dick. His advanced Conqueror Haki repels the meat that wraps around his body, freeing him from it.
Then it spreads everywhere and destroys the meaty things in this place. Zoro's Advanced Conqueror Haki is like a sharp sword. It slashes the meaty things as it spreads, chopping them into small parts before breaking them apart with the pressure.
Even Orochimaru can feel the sharp invisible blades cutting his soul and mind. He can't do anything about it too and then Zoro suddenly grabs his head that has been separated from his body. But because it's his soul, he doesn't die.
"A place to trap souls and minds, that means this is a place where we can only fight using souls and minds. That means, the winner is the one whose soul and mind are stronger, right? Your soul and mind might be stronger than those randoms over there, but if you think your soul and mind are stronger than me, then you must be dreaming. What I always trained other than my body and skills are my soul, my spirit, and my mind. I may be stupid, but it doesn't mean my mind is weak. You want to take over myself? Hah! Dream on!"
Zoro then attacks Orochimaru's spirit with his fully concentrated Conqueror Haki. Even with everything Orochimaru has learned about souls, spirits, and mind, he still can't defend against Zoro's full-power Conqueror Haki and gets defeated.
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Chapter: 180. Late Hokages + Extra
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