"Haruno Sakura? Did that guy Madara fail?"
Orochimaru, his face deformed from being stepped on, let out a hoarse voice.
"The two of you actually teamed up? Really, Konoha's Missing-Nins traitors sticking together?"
Sakura muttered to herself, then lifted her foot and slammed it down even harder on Orochimaru's head.
The power forged from pure stats ran rampant. Just the sonic boom from the compressed air from her stomp made Orochimaru's heart race.
"Not good!"
Orochimaru's body in the distance quickly formed hand seals, activating a technique without regard for Chakra Consumption.
Boom!
The tremendous force pierced through the earth. Soil and rocks cracked and flew everywhere. Orochimaru's body completely shattered into muddy debris.
He broke through the ground far from Sakura, his soft body wriggling as he climbed up.
"Taken as a disciple by both Jiraiya and Tsunade... It seems you are the hope of this generation of Konoha's new leaf!"
Orochimaru's cold serpentine eyes shifted. A sinister killing intent gradually accumulated in their depths.
Now that he had returned to this Konoha he so deeply loved, he had only one purpose left.
To completely destroy this windmill that had stopped turning!
"Hatred?"
Sakura's Observation Haki sensed Orochimaru's hatred for Konoha. She tilted her head in confusion.
At the same time, her small hands clenched lightly and two giant ice axes slowly condensed.
"Yes, I who once firmly believed the village was everything and was willing to give everything for it..."
"Now, seeing it in this rotten state, all that remains is bone-deep hatred!"
Orochimaru formed hand seals, pressed his head to the ground, and opened his mouth as if it had no bones.
Countless small snakes, flicking their tongues, poured out from his mouth!
Ninja Art: Ten Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes!
As the Chakra surged, it becomes an overwhelming dark tide that seems to engulf everything!
An endless flood of snakes of all colors turned into a torrent, gushing towards Sakura!
"I can't comment on what happened in your generation, but..."
Sakura tightened her grip on the axes. Fierce Haki wrapped around the axe blades, dark lightning crackling.
"In the village behind me, there are still people who love me, holding up lights for me."
"So, if you want to plunder my treasures, then bring it on!"
Feeling her treasures being threatened, a cold expression appeared on the pirate's face.
The axe she raised stirred up a magnificent, vast storm, forming the solemn, cold, and majestic outline of a spear tip.
The will to carve open the future roared loudly. The legendary spear was ready to be launched!
[Spear of Elbaf: Ikoku Sovereignty!]
The spiral-shaped massive impact was condensed into a beam of destructive light, coming straight forward without the slightest hesitation.
Innumerable snakes, and even Orochimaru himself,
Were silently swallowed within this brilliant, glorious storm.
Until a deafening roar erupted, dust shot into the sky, countless wriggling snakes turned to powder, and a giant crater was carved into the ground like a scar.
The intense vibrations attracted the attention of the proctors stationed outside. Many Ninjas began rushing rapidly towards the location of the battle.
"What a monster... Is Konoha truly destined not to fall?"
From the soil that had been scraped clean into a white plain, Orochimaru barely managed to poke his head out. All the bones in his body had been shattered by the impact and he was like a large hot water bag now.
If he hadn't avoided that last attack using an Earth Release Ninjutsu, he'd probably be meeting that person he wronged the most by now!
He opened his mouth, which could barely move, and used the Orochimaru-Style Substitution Technique.
Orochimaru left all injuries on the shed snake skin. His renewed self raised his serpentine body.
"But... the reason I can persist until now isn't just my own ideal!"
The sacrifices of countless subordinates, the tragic deaths of important disciples...
The reason this man, who recorded countless deaths, pursued immortality wasn't just out of an ideal to exhaust the limits of Ninjutsu…
In truth, he also held a beautiful wish: not to let the many departed be ultimately forgotten without mercy.
"Summoning Technique!"
Orochimaru bit both thumbs and slapped the ground at his feet.
As intricate patterns spread across the ground, massive smoke shot into the sky.
A giant snake with purple stripes, fine horns already growing behind its head, charged out from the smoke screen.
"Hey, Orochimaru, you summoned me for a little brat like this?"
The giant snake, Manda, lowered its head, looking down disdainfully at the small Sakura on the ground.
"Manda, underestimating the opponent will get you killed!"
Orochimaru clasped his hands together. A brown snake crawled out of his mouth, opening its maw to spit out a sharp sword.
"Hmph, a human like this..." Manda snorted coldly, "Remember to offer me a hundred human sacrifices afterward!"
With that, Manda's massive body crashed through the giant trees of the Forest of Death, lunging to bite down on the tiny human it perceived below.
"Orochimaru, such fighting spirit... I underestimated you!"
She had originally thought the other party was just an unfeeling, cold machine obsessed with endless data and experiments.
But she didn't expect that Orochimaru still had such a fiery will that could make her overjoyed.
Then… Sakura also clasped her hands together. Brutal Chakra boiled, combining with her ability.
Ice crystals like ribbons swirled around the girl's side. A frost-white skirt hem trailed to the ground.
"Low-Temperature Mode: White Snow Body!"
In an instant, unprecedented frost turned into an overwhelming flood, swirling, expanding, singing as it delivered pure white to all creation.
Manda was frozen mid-lunge, its biting posture solidified in mid-air. The resulting cold wave forced the Ninjas approaching from afar to flee outward.
"Sa~ku~ra~"
Even Leviathan, who had been hiding in the girl's embrace since the fight started, couldn't stand such severe cold, trembling as it voiced a protest.
"Sorry, you should leave first. And keep an eye on my two teammates for me!"
Sakura tapped Leviathan, applying a protective layer to it.
The night sparrow, flapping its wings, flew out, swallowed the already snow-covered Naruto and Sasuke into its belly, and then shot into the sky.
The intense low pressure formed by the cold within the forest caused dark clouds to gather overhead.
Pea-sized raindrops froze into ice pellets from the extreme cold before even leaving the clouds, crystalline hailstones crashing down to the ground one by one.
In the dead silence, Orochimaru's human-shaped ice sculpture suddenly shattered.
Trembling, he exhaled two or three puffs of white air.
He raised his hand, pouring Fire Attribute Chakra into Manda beneath him, allowing it to break free from its frozen state.
"Huh? What happened? I think I lost consciousness just now?"
The awakened Manda was still dizzy. In such an environment, the hibernation instinct of a snake affected it.
"You were defeated, and it was all thanks to me that you were saved.
"So you owe me one. No sacrifices this time!"
Orochimaru licked his lips with his tongue, happily discarding the originally promised sacrifices for Manda.
"Orochimaru, you bastard!"
Manda roared in indignation. But looking at the situation around them…
It knew Orochimaru was probably telling the truth, so it could only grit its teeth and accept Orochimaru's reneging this time.
"Be careful, that thing is coming!"
Orochimaru reminded in a low voice, and please forgive him for not being able to call the girl before him a human.
'That pure white form, Chakra Reserves even the Uzumaki Clan couldn't rival... Perhaps it was more fitting to call her...'
A crisp sound interrupted Orochimaru's thoughts. From the expanding ice and snow, a hand could be seen reaching out.
Fingers spread open, grabbing hold of the swirling snow and ice.
Amidst the violent tremors, the ice tide that had swept everything away became as docile as a lamb under the girl's hand.
Then, she threw it!
"Fish-Man Jujutsu: Modified - Cold Current Lifter!"