"Orochimaru! You treacherous bastard...!"
Shisui, still young and lacking real combat experience, had let his guard down during the retreat. Orochimaru struck like a viper in ambush—literally.
A massive serpent lunged and sank its fangs into his shoulder.
Though he reacted with speed, severing the snake's head, the venom had already begun to spread through his bloodstream.
As Shisui turned, intending to counter with genjutsu, Orochimaru had already anticipated the move.
"Triple Rashōmon!"
With swift hand seals, three towering demonic gates erupted from the earth, severing the terrain between them. Orochimaru, having studied his opponent's reactions, had identified the flaw—youth. Inexperience.
Shisui was barely ten years old.
And Orochimaru no longer cared for appearances or fairness.
The lure of the Mangekyō Sharingan was too great.
He would take that eye. Whatever it cost.
Now that the terrain had shifted, he conjured another forbidden technique.
"Ninjutsu: Binding Serpent's Maw."
The surroundings warped grotesquely. Walls, floor, and ceiling all transformed into pulsating, fleshy tissue. Shisui was pulled into the belly of the beast—into the digestive chamber of a summoning beast.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Shisui scowled, his hands flashing through seals as he released a blazing sphere of fire toward the stomach lining. But the flames seemed to have little effect—just a momentary ripple.
Orochimaru's body vanished, absorbed into the walls.
His voice echoed from all directions.
"Myriad Snake Net Formation!"
From the quivering gut-flesh, countless serpents slithered out, descending in waves to consume him whole.
"Blood Release: Needle Spire!"
Shisui drew his blade and slashed his arm. Blood sprayed—and immediately solidified into thousands of steel-hard senbon, pinning the serpents to the crimson walls of the stomach.
He placed one hand to the pulsing ground and smirked.
"Even if it's a snake… it still bleeds."
"Blood Release: Devouring Dragon!"
Invoking the full power of his bloodline, Shisui summoned a monstrous crimson dragon. Its snarling head bore twisted red horns. Its mouth opened to a terrifying width of two meters.
The beast roared and tore through the fleshy chamber with violent thrashes, ripping a massive gash through the stomach walls.
Shisui leapt onto its head.
With his other hand, he conjured a blood-red spear.
"Machine-."
He channeled his Mangekyō's full force into the weapon. Chakra surged through his body. The spearhead shimmered with viridian light, the green chakra coalescing into an edge sharp enough to pierce everything.
The blood-dragon lunged, and Shisui thrust the spear down.
Crack—
The spear tore through the snake's toughest outer skin, the very hide Orochimaru had believed invulnerable. With one final blast, it ruptured open.
Light spilled through.
BOOM!
The summoned snake—massive and monstrous—vanished in a puff of smoke. The jutsu was broken.
Shisui didn't hesitate. Exhaustion clung to his limbs, but he pushed forward, piercing through the underground earth and bursting out into the open. He fled the battlefield at full speed.
Orochimaru watched him go, unbothered by the destruction left behind.
"So close," he whispered, shaking his head.
"He got away..."
"A new bloodline limit. One I've never seen before."
"Blood Release? That's not in any known Uchiha files. Who have they been mixing with behind the scenes...?"
Orochimaru's mind raced.
Nothing in the intel archives described this bloodline. Not even the Mist Village had anything close.
"Such a waste."
"The venom was too slow."
He stood among the ruins of his lab, sighing, reviewing the near-success and tallying his mistakes.
He was about to collect the remaining research notes when a massive black shadow fell across him.
A chill ran down his spine.
He turned—
And saw a creature that wasn't human.
It struck. A single swipe of razor-sharp claws opened Orochimaru's torso.
But he was faster.
Shedding Skin.
His body unraveled again, replaced by a serpent husk. He escaped death once more.
"What the hell is that…!?"
The monster towered over him, nearly four meters tall. Its body was sleek, dark, and metallic—like forged steel with a dull, oily sheen.
Despite its size, it moved with terrifying speed—easily rivaling a jōnin.
Its face was nightmarish—jagged teeth, sunken sockets, and an unnatural posture, bent and unnatural.
It didn't speak.
Its beady eyes simply tracked Orochimaru's every breath.
Clang!
Orochimaru hurled a kunai—then a dozen more.
In midair, the kunai multiplied into a storm of blades that rained down on the creature's frame.
Metallic chimes echoed.
The blades bounced harmlessly off its armor.
"Abdomen. That's the weak spot."
He had noticed the monster crouch and shield that area with its scaled back.
"Detonate."
The paper bombs affixed to the kunai exploded. The creature's belly tore open. Green blood spilled.
From the gash, something small leapt out—
A child-sized creature.
It lunged at Orochimaru.
"A spawn...!?"
Orochimaru recoiled in shock.
He activated another shedding—replacing himself with a snake clone just in time.
The spawn tackled the decoy, burrowing into the serpent's mouth and vanishing.
"Summoning Jutsu: Manda!"
Orochimaru bit his thumb and slammed his palm to the earth. A black sigil flared.
Manda appeared, coiled and hissing, his monstrous body filling the ruined cave.
With one swipe of his tail, he sent the dark creature crashing.
"Orochimaru! Summoning me means you owe me—one hundred sacrifices!"
Manda's tongue flicked. His vertical pupils narrowed on Orochimaru—then shifted to the black monster.
He hissed.
That body… horrifying.
No muscle. No fat. Just bone, scale, and steel.
A perfect engine of death.
The monster lunged again.
Its bite cracked Manda's armored hide.
Its claws tore into the serpent's flesh, ripping out a chunk and tossing it into its gaping maw.
Manda screamed, rage and pain twisting his massive frame.
He whipped his tail, trying to fling the creature away.
But it clung fast, jaws dripping green blood, still feeding.