The warm wind felt faintly stagnant, and the purple clouds twisted like dragons.
A girl like a deity stood in the sky, gray eyes looking down upon all things. On the ground, the two mysterious female ninja lifted the brims of their straw hats, their gazes cold and sharp.
Caught between the three of them, Sumaru, Hokuto, and Mizura wore grave expressions. The translucent, dazzling wings on their backs beat nervously.
"The Konoha ninja in the sky feels the strongest. I'll handle her.
"You two deal with the two Grass ninja on the ground. Don't clash head-on. Just hold them off. Once I finish the Konoha ninja, I'll come help you!"
As the team leader, Sumaru's command carried real resolve.
The girl in the sky was Konoha's rumored number one genius, while the two Grass ninja below were nobodies. He had chosen the hardest opponent for himself.
"Yes!"
Hokuto and Mizura naturally had no objections. They drew their kunai, turned their backs toward him, and faced the Grass ninja below, trusting Sumaru completely.
No one paid any attention to the Hoshigakure team's movements.
Orochimaru had already focused all her attention on Konome in the sky.
The fact that Konome had suddenly found them meant their identities had most likely been exposed. Had she noticed a flaw through the summoning technique?
Orochimaru did not know.
But whether they had been exposed no longer mattered. She had never planned to keep hiding forever.
She had come to this Chunin Exam only to find Sasuke, yet she had not expected the second exam's Forest of Death to become something like this.
A giant swamp filled with stone pillars and interwoven vines.
A netherworld-like land covered in white bones, scales, and red fungus.
And this strange crater, as if it had been blasted open by a meteor.
Everything here carried an abnormal air. As the chief examiner of the Chunin Exam, Konome clearly had something to do with the Forest of Death's transformation.
"It has been five years. You have changed a great deal."
Orochimaru spoke first, her voice as magnetic as ever. Paired with that pale female face, it looked terribly out of place.
"So have you."
Konome glanced at Orochimaru's feminine figure and smiled.
The Three Sannin were all over fifty now. Normally, their peak years should have passed, and they would be starting to decline.
Tsunade preserved her peak state through the Strength of a Hundred Seal and her Sage Body. Orochimaru developed the secret technique Living Corpse Reincarnation, maintaining combat ability by changing bodies.
In the original story, Orochimaru tore off her face in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi to prove her ninjutsu talent, revealing a woman's face beneath. Since there was only one month left until the third round of the Chunin Exam, this was clearly already the female body.
Konome did not know what method Orochimaru had used to seal off her aura and physical condition so thoroughly that even the Byakugan could not inspect it, but her presence was already very different from five years ago.
Hearing the mockery in Konome's words, Orochimaru's aura sank. Her golden vertical pupils narrowed dangerously.
The Vanishing Facial Copy Technique could alter not only her face, but her figure as well. It was like wearing a layer of chakra-made skin over her body, enough to block most sensory ninjutsu.
Even the Byakugan could not see through her body.
How did Konome know?
Could that girl's dojutsu see through her disguise?
Orochimaru instinctively wanted to look into Konome's eyes, but the memory of the defeat she had once suffered under ocular powers made her suppress that instinct.
In pursuit of the ultimate path of ninjutsu, she was willing to abandon everything about herself. But that did not mean she could accept someone mocking her to her face. Although she was still wary of Konome's strange abilities, icy killing intent uncontrollably seeped out of her.
Danzo keenly noticed the shift in atmosphere.
He did not know what riddles the two of them were exchanging, but he knew his identity had already been exposed. There was no need to keep up this foolish disguise.
Rip!
He tore off his face in one motion. His clothes and pale outer skin were ripped away along with it, the snake-shed-like layer collapsing to the ground like a crumpled sack.
A loose black kimono fell open at the chest, revealing firm muscles that did not belong to an old man.
White bandages covered his right eye, and his right arm was protected by a chakra-metal bracer. Danzo shifted his body slightly, his aura thick and sharp.
"Konome, I underestimated you before. But not this time!"
His gaze was still cold. Wrinkles gathered at the corners of his eye. Apart from the absence of the cane that had symbolized his authority, it was almost as if the high-spirited leader of Root had returned.
Orochimaru also covered her face with one hand. Faint purple spread around her eyes, and the ordinary-looking woman instantly became that sinister, eerie figure.
"Too late."
The flowing air seemed to freeze. Even the dust drifting beneath the sunlight submitted grain by grain.
Konome hovered in the air, ignoring the confused Hoshigakure small fry between them. Behind her, slender water shuttles began to appear one after another.
Sasuke, the future super-Kage and perhaps even Six Paths-level existence, had already been reserved by her. Naturally, she could not let Orochimaru ruin him again.
Obediently carry out the Konoha Crush Plan, appear as the villain, and then be effortlessly crushed by her.
That was the ending Orochimaru deserved.
Tap. Tap.
Curse mark patterns engraved on the inner side of her skin and muscle tissue began to light up rhythmically, piece by piece.
Dark purple chakra surged wildly through them, flashing over a thousand times in just two seconds.
Streamlined water shuttles, elegant as works of art, rapidly took shape. At their tips, precision-shaped rotating structures began to contract and spin in rhythm, like compressed tubes stretching inch by inch.
In an instant, twelve ferocious cannon barrels hovered behind Konome.
Their muzzles pointed evenly in all directions, forming a perfect disk. The water reflected strange chakra light beneath the sun, like an enormous halo.
Flesh Curse Seal: Wind-Water Floating Cannons, Twelvefold Cycle!
As the main body, her usage limit was far higher than a shadow clone's. Especially after the evolution of her Sage Body, even she did not know how many barrels she could manifest at once.
Twelvefold Wind-Water Floating Cannons could only count as a warm-up.
"What is that?"
Floating blankly in the sky, the Hoshigakure trio, who had already been shocked by the transformations below, stared at the water-shuttle halo that clearly emitted terrifying chakra fluctuations. There was no fear in their eyes, only deep confusion.
They did not understand it.
Just as bronze-ranked players could not understand how many details were hidden in the moves of a top-tier player, the Hoshigakure team could not understand the true value of this ninjutsu. They only knew that its chakra fluctuation was powerful and dazzling.
But Orochimaru and Danzo below were different.
Buzz.
A piercing hum echoed through the air. Looking at the twelve water shuttles spinning madly, every hair on their bodies stood on end.
A shape transformation so complex it exceeded human imagination.
A combined nature transformation of Wind and Water pushed to the absolute limit.
That dreadful chakra fluctuation.
And the terrifying pressure gathering with her killing intent and malice.
Their instincts, sharpened through decades of slaughter, were screaming alarms in their minds.
"Don't die, senior sister."
A cold female voice echoed through the air. In the sky, the two gray points symbolizing death bloomed with radiance. Her jade-white finger pointed at Orochimaru, and the twelve terrifying barrels locked on immediately after.
"Retreat!"
That magnetic voice uncontrollably turned shrill. Facing the rapidly spinning Water Release muzzles, Orochimaru twisted and burst away like a python whose vital point had been stepped on.
Hiss.
In an instant, twelve laser-like torrents blasted out.
Their speed had already surpassed the limits of human reaction.
In less than one-tenth of a second, Orochimaru and Danzo were pierced through. Even the solid ground beneath them was directly punched open by the surging streams.
Rumble!
Water continued to batter the earth, releasing thunderous booms. If one listened closely, it sounded less like thunder and more like a thousand-ton waterfall crashing down upon reefs.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Murky, dense mist spread wildly. Broken stone and soil mixed with leaking strands of wind, splattering in every direction.
The ground within several hundred meters exploded into dust. It was as if a giant of unimaginable strength were hidden beneath the earth, causing the entire surface to swell and crack with countless fissures.
That terrifying scene no longer resembled a battle between ninja. It looked like a natural disaster, or some brutal god bringing down divine punishment.
Gulp.
The Hoshigakure team stood blankly in the sky, watching the twelve laser-like long shuttles continue firing and the earth below being violently ravaged. Their eyes had gone from confusion to emptiness.
"Release!"
Sumaru, the calmest among them, reacted first and quickly formed a hand seal, only to discover in terror that nothing changed.
No, that was not entirely true.
Rumble!
The ground was being bombarded even more violently. It was as if something beneath the earth had been pierced through, and streams of muddy water continuously erupted below.
This was real.
How was that possible?
Sumaru, who had only moments ago intended to charge up and defeat Konoha's number one genius, now had unfocused eyes. The kunai in his hand drooped powerlessly.
Was this not the Chunin Exam?
Their opponents were supposed to be genin of the same age.
Then what was this?
The Hoshigakure trio was utterly lost. Under the threat of death, they slowly beat their wings and drifted away from the battlefield.
Why did they not flee quickly?
Because when one encountered a beast in the forest, sudden movement would only trigger a chase. Only by backing away slowly without attracting attention could one hope for survival.
Boom!
Water mist and dust still filled the air.
Countless flecks of mud and the sharp winds scattering with them pierced through the surrounding space.
Konome's eyes illuminated the area. With Takamagahara's ultimate insight, none of this could block her vision.
In the dust.
Danzo had already been torn to pieces by the torrents and dirt. White bones and scarlet flesh had been scattered everywhere. Even the most professional mortician would struggle to piece him back together.
Even his blood had been drained away by the high-pressure water cannons and blasted into the earth together with his organs.
Compared to him, Orochimaru was in much better condition.
Her body lay twisted against the ground in a wave-like posture, looking like a long white snake.
Relying on the power of bodily modification, she had reduced the area of impact to the minimum and successfully dodged the initial twelve-cannon volley.
The following splash damage was much weaker. With Earth Release chakra covering the surface of her body, she had survived without even using the Orochimaru-Style Body Replacement Technique.
As expected of the hardest person in the ninja world to kill.
Konome shook her head in admiration.
Her Wind-Water Floating Cannons possessed endless power. Their firing speed and formation speed had no weaknesses. They were already among the strongest ninjutsu in the ninja world.
Yet ever since their debut, aside from instantly killing Raiga Kurosuki and Ranmaru, everyone else seemed to have a way to deal with them.
Kakuzu and Hidan had relied on their immortality to tank them head-on. Orochimaru had relied on body modification to forcefully evade.
Snakes were exceptionally fast when striking prey. A black mamba could attack in an astonishing one-eighteenth of a second, and in this ninja world filled with natural energy, serpents were even faster.
Konome, familiar with the original story, also knew that Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode leaned more toward agility.
Orochimaru had transformed her body in the direction of snakes. Aside from gaining the molting survival mechanism, she had naturally acquired the incredible speed unique to serpents.
That was why she could evade a high-speed attack that surpassed ordinary human reaction limits.
Buzz. Buzz.
The hum grew lower and lower, even producing sharp, steam-like hisses. The rotational frequency of the muzzles also slowed.
The surging streams quickly lost power. Affected by gravity, they gradually bent downward, eventually leaving crisscrossing wet lines across the ground.
The mist in the air lost its source and mixed with the dust as it settled. Soon, the haze completely dispersed, revealing the battlefield below, now as devastated as if it had been bombarded by artillery.
Konome suddenly thought of a question.
The ground illuminated by Takamagahara's light had already become part of her body, and she could even manipulate it through bodily control. So if she used her own ninjutsu to attack "herself," did that count as self-harm?
Hiss.
The strange hiss unique to Wind Release suddenly sounded behind her. Konome's eyes shifted, and a three-hundred-sixty-degree divine perspective unfolded.
Danzo, who had just been torn apart by the Wind-Water Floating Cannons, appeared at another location like an illusion. The bandage over his right eye had been pulled open, and the seal on his Sharingan arm had also been undone.
If Orochimaru was the hardest person in the ninja world to kill, then Danzo was qualified to contend for that title as well. With Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan, he had also reacted to the water cannon attack.
But reacting and dodging were two entirely different things.
Danzo lived up to his status as a veteran Kage-level ninja. Since he could not dodge the attack and the seal on his arm could not be released in time, he directly raised his right hand in front of his face, using the torrents to forcibly destroy the seal and successfully activate Izanagi.
Now, with both hands forming seals, he spat out streams of sickle-like air blades from his mouth.
Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Blades!
Buzz.
Compressed to the extreme, the wind blades twisted through the air and advanced slowly, like fat maggots writhing with all their strength.
The Byakugan already possessed powerful perception, and its dynamic vision was exceptionally strong. After evolving into gray eyes, Konome's original abilities had not disappeared. Instead, they had been greatly strengthened.
Clang!
At the same time Danzo launched his sneak attack, Orochimaru did not stand idle.
Her body remained pressed close to the ground, but her waist and head arched like an attacking viper. Her mouth opened wide, and an endlessly extending sword shot "slowly" toward Konome's face.