The air in the room was thick, like a net of coagulated mist.
"Material?" Orochimaru echoed the word slowly, his hoarse voice first laced with confusion, then rapidly boiling into humiliation and wrath. His golden slit pupils locked tightly onto Crane, this boy he'd once dismissed as beneath notice. A disposable test subject. A background character.
Yet now, this insect dared look at him with the cold eyes of someone evaluating expired goods.
"You must have a death wish."
Before the last syllable even dropped, his sleeve burst open with a sharp hiss.
Countless vipers surged forth like a black tide, pouring out from Orochimaru's ruined arms, their forked tongues flicking, fangs glinting with venom, their rancid stench instantly saturating the small room. Their only target was Crane, intent on ripping this impudent fool to shreds.
But Crane didn't even blink.
He simply brought his hands together, and began weaving hand seals with a precision that was almost mechanical in its rhythm.
Tiger → Snake → Dog → Dragon.
Those were Sarutobi Hiruzen's seals.
Seals Orochimaru knew too well.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet."
Crane's voice was calm, eerily calm. And the next second, a crimson dragon of flame roared from his mouth, yet unlike Hiruzen's version, this fire dragon was wrapped in visible streaks of spiraling blue-green wind chakra.
Wind feeds fire.
Amplified by the principle of Wind Style: Gale Palm, the flames roared with the power to melt iron.
Boom!
The torrent of fire crashed into the sea of snakes.
There was no shrieking, no writhing, no resistance.
The moment the snakes touched the swirling vortex of wind and fire, they vanished, reduced to nothing, not even ashes.
The wave of heat blasted Orochimaru back, scorching pain searing his already-wounded arms, but even that pain couldn't match the shock flooding his heart.
That jutsu, how did he know it?
And more than that, why was it stronger than even Hiruzen's?
Before he could gather his thoughts, a shadow silently broke through the shimmering waves of heat.
Crane.
He had already used the Body Flicker Technique to close the gap.
In his left hand, a pale blue chakra glow condensed, Gentle Fist technique from the Hyuga clan.
In his right palm, there was nothing but an invisible ripple, the vibrational pattern of Sound Style: Sound Wave Slash.
Two entirely different styles, perfectly fused into one.
He struck.
The motion was slow, even gentle, as if devoid of strength.
Orochimaru instinctively tried to evade, but the searing pain in his disabled arms left him a half-beat too slow.
Bang.
Crane's palm landed on his chest.
No dramatic explosion. Just a subtle, chilling resonance.
But that force bypassed flesh and muscle, piercing straight through to Orochimaru's organs.
"Ghuh, !"
He vomited a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs, and his body flew backward, crashing into the wall with a heavy thud.
Orochimaru lay sprawled, coughing, eyes wide with disbelief and a hint of... fear.
"Who... are you?!"
Crane stepped forward, his face expressionless, eyes like still water.
"Me?"
"I'm the one you used as a decoy, the one you implanted with the Curse Mark in the Forest of Death... and then tossed aside without a second glance. The so-called 'lucky' one."
Those words struck like thunder in Orochimaru's mind.
He remembered now, that subject who fainted before the Curse Mark even activated. One he thought had died.
Since then... he had been hunting him?
"Ahhh, "
With a low, feral hiss, Orochimaru, refusing to admit defeat, unleashed his final trump card.
His mouth tore open grotesquely wide, jaw unhinging beyond human limits. A new, pristine body began to emerge from within, slithering out of the decaying husk.
[Orochimaru Style: Body Shedding Technique.]
As long as he could escape, he could rebuild.
But Crane's pale eyes were already glowing with bluish-white brilliance.
[Byakugan Insight: Activated.]
Under the Byakugan's gaze, every thread of Orochimaru's chakra network was laid bare.
Just as the new body was halfway free, Crane formed a single hand seal.
"Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu."
A sphere of water instantly manifested, engulfing both Orochimaru's discarded body and the freshly-emerging one.
But this was no ordinary water.
The entire prison shimmered faintly red, Crane had infused it with his own blood and layered it with a subtle, inescapable sealing array.
Inside the bloody water sphere, Orochimaru's new body twisted frantically, but to his horror, he found he couldn't circulate a single drop of chakra.
Total lockdown.
True despair drowned his golden serpent eyes.
Crane calmly walked forward and placed a hand atop Orochimaru's immobilized head.
The system's voice rang out, cold and mechanical:
[Contact with legendary ninja "Orochimaru" established. Successfully copying core abilities: Living Corpse Reincarnation (incomplete), Curse Mark Energy (awaiting analysis), Summoning Technique: Manda (contract transferable).]
The harvest had come.
Without hesitation, Crane formed another simple seal.
"Water Style: Ripping Torrent."
A high-pressure jet of water shot from his palm, honed like a blade.
It pierced the water prison.
And with it, it pierced Orochimaru.
In the blink of an eye, both of his bodies, along with his ambition, his hatred, and everything he was, were obliterated, dissolved, scattered with the red mist.
No blood remained.
Only the faint gurgling of crimson water slipping through the cracks in the floor.
Silence returned to the room.
Then,
Knock knock knock.
Someone rapped on the door. Calm and rhythmic.
Outside, a familiar voice called out, casual yet edged with warning.
"Crane, are you alright?"
"I sensed a very sinister chakra surge just now... from your house."
Outside stood Hatake Kakashi, the most suspicious elite jonin in all of Konoha.
Inside stood Crane, having just assassinated a legendary Sannin.
But before he could even speak, the system panel in his mind suddenly erupted with flashing red alerts:
[Congratulations, host! You have achieved the Legendary Feat: "Slay a God as a Background Character"!]
[Background Level upgraded to: LV2!]
[New Feature Unlocked: [World Travel]!]
[Warning! Due to your actions severely disrupting this world's causal balance, the "Will of the Naruto World" has marked you as an Abnormality. Rejection force is forming!]
[Countdown: 23:59:59. Host must leave this world within 24 hours, or face erasure by World Law!]
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter