Deep within the sinkhole, the light was dim, thick with the heavy smells of scorched matter, sulfur, and rising groundwater.
The massive, long-dead corpse of a white giant snake lay crooked at the bottom of the pit like a collapsed mountain of flesh.
The snake's body was covered with horrific scars left by high-temperature burns and Chakra energy impacts. Large patches of scales were scorched and peeling off, revealing the equally charred flesh beneath.
Suddenly, the snake's tightly closed giant mouth slightly wriggled. Then, the mouth muscles were forcibly pushed open from inside. A wet figure, covered in sticky saliva and blood stains, somewhat stumbled as it 'crawled' out.
It was Orochimaru.
His appearance at this moment was quite disheveled. The white outer robe on his body was soaked through with mucus and torn in many places. His exposed skin was also covered in various stains.
His long, jet-black hair was wet and plastered to his cheeks and neck, adding to his strangeness.
But he seemed unconcerned about his appearance. Those golden vertical pupils glimmered with an unusual light in the dim light.
The first thing he did was look down and carefully examine his new body.
"Hmm... it seems I'll need to change bodies again when I get back..." Orochimaru murmured to himself. His voice, with its youthful timbre, sounded particularly sinister and out of place with his young appearance.
Clearly, he was not satisfied with this 'new vessel'.
After examining his body, Orochimaru raised his head and looked towards the black Sealing Kettle high in the sky.
His gaze seemed able to penetrate the obstacles and see the two figures floating above the sinkhole.
His golden vertical pupils revealed undisguised amazement, fervor, and a trace of deep dread.
"Shura... so these are the enemies you've been sparing no expense to oppose all along?" Orochimaru's voice was very soft, as if asking himself, or as if dialoguing across the vast distance with that 'collaborator' he both wanted to dissect and study, yet had to remain wary of.
He recalled the scenes from years ago, when his forbidden technique research was exposed, and after escaping from under his teacher's nose, he was precisely intercepted by Shura twice in a row.
The first time they met, the other party demanded Hashirama's cells. He thought the other was just another 'kindred spirit' with an extreme desire for power, immortality, and forbidden knowledge.
The second time they met, in the Iburi Clan's underground cave, Shura had snatched the Iburi Clan's loyalty from his hands.
Unwilling to be toyed with twice, he had fought the other party, only to be shocked to discover that the other party had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Being able to accurately find his defection route twice, knowing the Flying Thunder God Technique, and even surpassing him in familiarity with Konoha's village-protecting barrier!
A bold speculation had formed in Orochimaru's mind.
And the cooperation over the following years had only made Orochimaru increasingly firm in his speculation.
Yet now, having personally witnessed the terrifying battle that had nearly destroyed the land beneath their feet, feeling the lingering Chakra Fluctuations in the air, which surpassed those of Tailed Beasts, Orochimaru finally realized just how powerful Shura's enemies truly were!
"No wonder... no wonder you are so persistent, even willing to provoke the Fourth Great Ninja War to unify the Ninja World..." Orochimaru extended his tongue, licking his somewhat dry lips, his eyes glimmering with an even more burning thirst for knowledge.
"Such power... has already touched the realm of the [Sage of Six Paths], hasn't it? Truly... thrilling to the point of trembling!"
Just as he was immersed in his reflections and thoughts, the battle situation high above changed again.
He saw that giant 'tea kettle'-shaped object descending towards Shura.
But due to the angle and the obstruction of the sinkhole's terrain, he couldn't see the specific battle details hidden by the Sealing Kettle.
Then came that golden light sword, as if splitting the world, swinging down from his perspective from bottom to top!
"That is...?!" Orochimaru's golden vertical pupils suddenly contracted!
Even with his extensive knowledge, he was shaken by this golden Chakra light sword of ultimate purity.
The Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, after cutting through the Sealing Kettle, followed through downwards, splitting the sinkhole and the earth. It was too fast!
Even though Orochimaru had already retreated very quickly, his right arm was still lightly 'grazed' by this golden Chakra light sword.
No sound, no pain.
Orochimaru only felt his right arm lighten, as if something had left his body.
He looked down and saw that his right forearm, from below the elbow joint, was severed cleanly at the root!
The cut surface was smooth... even the cross-sections of bone, muscle, and blood vessels could be seen. But strangely, no blood gushed out immediately. The cells and tissues at the severed point appeared scorched black, as if instantly 'welded' shut by high temperature. Then, only afterward, a stream of dark red blood, carrying a fishy smell, slowly seeped out, like toothpaste being squeezed.
"Oh?" Orochimaru's face showed no pain or panic. Instead, he looked as if he had seen some extremely interesting experimental phenomenon.
He raised the stump of his right arm, brought it close to his eyes. Those golden vertical pupils fixedly stared at the scorched wound and the slowly seeping blood. His nose twitched slightly, and he even extended his tongue to lick the blood, as if analyzing the information contained within.
"This kind of destructive method..."
He seemed to have forgotten that he had just lost an arm, completely immersed in analyzing the severed arm.
A few seconds later, as if just remembering, his left hand quickly pressed several pressure points near his right shoulder and the severed area, and the slowly seeping blood immediately stopped.
At the same time, the muscles at his severed area began to wriggle unnaturally. Some tiny, white, earthworm-like granulation tissue emerged from beneath the scorched cut surface, slowly, at a visible rate, growing and interweaving, trying to repair the damage.
"A Chakra Nature I've never felt before... So this is the feeling of being hit by Yin-Yang Release techniques? Truly wonderful~" Orochimaru lowered his arm and looked up again at the high sky.
The black Sealing Kettle had disappeared. A figure was vaguely visible in the golden light.
He could feel an even more, even more heart-palpitating aura rising from that person.
A smile, mixed with obsession and excitement, slowly bloomed on Orochimaru's face. On his youthful, stain-covered face, it looked particularly strange.
"Shura... you truly... please me more and more! How many secrets are still hidden within you?" He murmured in a low voice, his tone slightly trembling.
At this moment, the Konoha Crush Plan, the life and death of the Third Hokage… all were temporarily cast aside.
Only the greed and desire for exploration towards that unknown power remained in his eyes.
Just then, the sound of wind breaking, accompanied by the dull thud of a heavy object hitting the ground, came from the rubble pile not far to his side.
Orochimaru alertly turned his head, his golden vertical pupils instantly locking onto the target.
There, in a pile of fresh rubble and dust, lay the body of a strangely shaped, bird-like figure, wearing a tattered white feather robe, covered in penetrating bloody holes, twisted in a bizarre posture.
Most striking was the forehead area of the corpse… a bloody, bone-deep hollow, as if something important had been forcibly gouged out.
"This is... that enemy who used the red fishing rod earlier?" Orochimaru's pupils narrowed slightly, instantly recognizing the corpse's identity!
Although Urashiki had lost the Golden Rinnegan at his forehead, and the characteristics of his Crane Form were rapidly receding, returning to a more human-like appearance, the Otsutsuki Clan's distinctive Chakra aura and the terrifying wounds lingering on the corpse still made Orochimaru overjoyed.
Without a moment's hesitation, Orochimaru quickly walked over.
He didn't even care about his right arm injury. His left hand quickly fumbled in the ninja tool pouch at his waist, soon taking out a special storage scroll.
Orochimaru formed a hand seal with one hand, releasing a large cylindrical container made of transparent reinforced glass from the storage scroll. The container was filled with a pale green culture fluid that was constantly bubbling.
He crouched beside Urashiki's corpse, first carefully using his left hand to examine the corpse's condition, confirming that its life aura had completely dissipated, but because of the special nature of the Otsutsuki physique, its cell activity had not completely died and still retained extremely high research value.
Especially the lingering Yin-Yang Release power at the wounds, and the tissue activity at the edges of the forehead hollow that had tried to repair itself but couldn't, all made Orochimaru's eyes shine with extraordinary brilliance.
"Precious experimental material... No, it's practically the 'key' to a higher level of life form!" An unprecedented expression of excitement appeared on Orochimaru's youthful face.
He spread the storage scroll on the relatively flat ground beside him.
Then, he carefully used his left hand to stuff Urashiki's battered, scar-covered corpse into the large culture dish.
The corpse sank into the pale green culture fluid, slowly descending, until it was completely submerged. Only some tiny bubbles escaped from its mouth, nose, and wounds.
Orochimaru quickly screwed the culture dish's sealing lid tight, then carefully placed this culture dish, containing the Otsutsuki's corpse, in the center of the spread-out storage scroll. He formed hand seals again.
"Seal!"
After a puff of white smoke on the storage scroll, the culture dish, along with Urashiki's corpse inside, was completely sealed into the scroll.
Orochimaru quickly rolled up the scroll and stuffed it back into his ninja tool pouch, his movements skillful and swift.
"Heh heh... heh..." After doing all this, he slowly stood up. The satisfaction and excitement on his face were barely containable, the corners of his mouth curving up wildly.
Orochimaru looked up again at the high sky.
"Shura, it seems your hunt has been quite fruitful... Kukuku..." A low, pleased chuckle echoed faintly in the depths of the sinkhole.
He knew he couldn't monopolize these spoils of war, nor had he thought of hiding it.
After all, there were only a few people under Shura's command capable of researching such a thing. He was confident he could persuade Shura to let him lead the research on this corpse.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the sinkhole, atop the Hokage Rock, Shikaku, Hiashi, Kakashi, Guy, Asuma... everyone.
All the survivors, without exception, stood frozen in place, their gazes dully staring at everything before them.
Their perspective was far more direct, more shocking, and more desperate than Orochimaru's, deep in the sinkhole.
They had personally witnessed that golden light sword spanning the sky, like the power of a god in mythology. First, it casually sliced that massive Sealing Kettle, which had oppressed their very souls, in two. Then, its momentum undiminished, like a hot knife through butter, it carved across the distant earth.
Rumble—!!!
A terrifying roar, even more muffled than the earlier collision between Spiralling Ring and Ryugu, came belatedly.
The already cracked and broken ground beneath their feet trembled violently again, countless gravel falling with a clatter.
In the distance, at the limits of their vision, a bottomless, giant rift, stretching straight to the horizon, suddenly appeared!
It coincided with the edge of the previous sinkhole, cutting off another large chunk of the already shocking sinkhole, forming an even more complex and broken terrain.
And the rift itself, which had changed Konoha's topography, spoke volumes about the terrifying power contained in that single strike just now.
Dead silence.
A dead silence lasting several minutes, long enough to nearly stop their hearts.
Finally, it was broken by Suigetsu, with a murmur almost like a moan.
"Wh-What the hell..."
Suigetsu, with his mouth full of sharp teeth, was now as pale as paper. His mouth unconsciously opened and closed, several times, before he uttered a voice like a sleep-talker: "Th-This... is this... really something a... Ninja... can do?"
His entire body trembled. He couldn't find the words to describe the scene before him.
Even he, who mastered the Hydrification Technique, couldn't muster the slightest thought of 'being able to withstand' that golden Chakra light sword.
Karui's teeth were chattering. Omoi's eyes rolled back, immersed in his own tragic fantasies.
'What should I do... Such terrifying enemies... and they have a grudge against Kumogakure. If Shura attacks the village again, and the Fourth Raikage gets killed... Would I, Omoi-sama, have to bear the burden?'
Samui was relatively calmer, but her green eyes were also filled with unprecedented shock. She looked at the endless giant rift, her voice dry: "Such power... likely... only the legendary Sage of Six Paths... could compare."
She recalled the scattered records of the Sage of Six Paths in Kumogakure's ancient texts, but that had always been mythology.
And before her eyes was a living, just-occurred 'miracle'!
Jiraiya's throat was somewhat dry. He slowly swallowed, but it didn't ease the burning sensation in his throat.
He had traveled the Ninja World for decades, participated in two Great Ninja Wars… what scenes hadn't he seen? What powerful enemies hadn't he encountered?
Even Pain, who called himself a 'god', hadn't made him feel desperate.
But this scene before him made him so clearly feel his own insignificance, and a deep sense of powerlessness.
This was not a gap that could be bridged by effort, tactics, or sacrifice. It was a chasm of strength, of power!
Adult Sasuke beside him stared intently at the direction where the golden light sword had disappeared, and at the figure in the air, now re-enveloped in golden light. A long-buried memory flashed through his mind like lightning.
Over a decade ago, the final battle on the moon between Naruto and Toneri.
At that time, he, Kakashi, Sakura, and the others on the ground had observed that earth-shattering battle on the moon through special means.
He clearly remembered... the Moon... being split in half from the middle, like a watermelon, by a golden light sword!
Later, he heard from Naruto that it was a technique called [Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion], used by Otsutsuki Toneri, a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths' brother, after activating Tenseigan Chakra Mode!
"Tenseigan... Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion..." Adult Sasuke repeated the two terms in a low voice, his gaze firmly locked on Menma in the air, especially his form, enveloped in golden Chakra.
And the several slowly rotating pitch-black Truth-Seeking Balls behind him.
"Truth-Seeking Balls... how does he possess Truth-Seeking Balls?" Adult Sasuke's Rinnegan beneath his side-swept bangs trembled slightly.
This kind of power, Truth-Seeking Balls… even he and Naruto could no longer master after the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War!
Yet in this Space-Time, such a person who could master Truth-Seeking Balls had appeared!
Boruto was equally shocked.
He secretly glanced at Big Sis Hinata not far away, who stood with one hand on her hip, looking at the sky with a somewhat grave expression, then at Menma, surrounded by golden light in the air.
'What is wrong with this Space-Time?!'