The moment the warning flared up in Orochimaru's mind, a chakra fluctuation, so faint it was almost imperceptible, suddenly emerged from the shadow behind him. A thin, swift black figure shot out of the shadow dimension, holding a sharp kunai in its right hand, and lunged toward Orochimaru's back.
The figure that burst from Orochimaru's shadow was Chi, who possessed the unique bloodline limit.
The right hand holding the kunai remained perfectly steady during the high-speed thrust. Chi continuously and subtly adjusted the kunai's angle of attack and the position of air displacement, keeping the kunai aimed squarely at the vital point of Orochimaru's back. This special micro-adjustment technique reduced the sound of air breaking during the thrust to barely a whisper.
However, with the extensive combat experience Orochimaru had accumulated over two lifetimes—experience forged in battle and a sea of corpses—combined with his powerful spiritual energy, he still detected Chi's near-perfect assassination attempt.
The kunai, flashing a dark gleam, relentlessly drove toward the vital point of Orochimaru's back.
Orochimaru did not turn his head. Estimating the position sensed by his spiritual energy, he immediately squatted down. His right hand, like a carp flipping its tail, swung sharply backward in a swift, elegant arc. With a "Snap!—" it clamped onto Chi's right wrist, immediately turning the attack into a counter.
Orochimaru's hand, like a nimble spider, his pale, long fingers quickly moved to pinch the soft bone of Chi's wrist.
Chi's three years of training had not been for nothing. The moment Orochimaru's hand clamped down on his wrist with lightning speed, he knew Orochimaru's next move. He decisively abandoned the thrust, his pinky finger barely slipping through the small ring at the base of the kunai, using the momentum to flip it into a reverse grip. The sharp blade forced Orochimaru to abort his intended maneuver.
At the same time, Chi, having lost his best opportunity to attack, was forced to retreat back into the shadow dimension.
Orochimaru noticed Chi's retreat into the shadows, smiled faintly, and stood up.
Hiss, hiss—
The mottled great snakes retracted into Orochimaru's sleeves one by one.
As Tsunade and the others focused their attention on Orochimaru, he smiled cryptically as the snakes were retracting, unseen by them. He secretly commanded two of the pythons to burrow into the ground fissures created by his Earth Release: Great Earth Crushing Palm, subtly setting up a contingency.
At this point, Jiraiya, scorched black by Orochimaru's counterattack, had recovered. He scrambled up awkwardly and, along with Tsunade and Hyūga Bluebird—whose offense had been halted—took positions on three sides, forming a pincer attack that constantly compressed Orochimaru's combat space.
Adding Chi, who had mastered the essence of Orochimaru's assassination techniques and was hidden in the darkness, threatening Orochimaru's back and any momentary opening, the situation was complex.
These factors caused Orochimaru to drop his earlier relaxed demeanor. He glanced at the three perfectly coordinated figures in the arena. Smiling wickedly, his dark-golden eyes grew serious. His voice, which was beginning to change but remained deep and magnetic, carried a hint of excitement as he addressed Hyūga Bluebird and the hidden Chi: "The warm-up is over. Chi and Bluebird, activate your Cursed Marks and let's 'play'!"
Hyūga Bluebird was stunned. In previous combat exercises, Orochimaru had never told them to activate the Cursed Mark. This meant he was serious this time.
After only a moment's thought, Bluebird obeyed Orochimaru's command.
Jiraiya and Tsunade were still wondering what kind of a thing this "Cursed Mark" was, when Hyūga Bluebird's entire being underwent a massive transformation.
The pale-gold Yamata Cursed Mark on Bluebird's neck writhed like a living thing, breaking down into dozens of pale-gold, worm-like threads. They swiftly crawled along the deathly-white veins bulging on Bluebird's temples and drilled into his Dual Pupil Byakugan.
Bluebird's already eerie, vein-popping, deathly-white dual pupils were instantly infused with a pale-gold sheen. The first stage of Bluebird's Cursed Mark had been activated!
From Jiraiya and Tsunade's perspective, Bluebird's handsome face appeared to be covered in pale-gold, worm-like creatures, all eagerly drilling into his Dual Pupil Byakugan, a horrifying sight.
The moment Bluebird activated the first stage of the Cursed Mark, his aura instantly became entirely different from before. Pure, deep blue chakra emanated furiously from Bluebird's body. The surging aura rapidly swept up the scattered blades of grass and dust around them. His overall power had instantly increased by nearly double.
Seeing Bluebird's sudden power boost, Jiraiya saw a glimmer of hope in defeating Orochimaru in this exercise. He let out a shout of excitement: "Aha! Orochimaru, if I still can't hit you this time, my name, Lord Jiraiya, will forever be spelled correctly!"
Jiraiya threw several shuriken to make Orochimaru dodge, then, using an accurate pre-emptive measure, he launched a Ninjutsu!
Earth Style: Earth Pillar Spike!
Several basin-sized openings suddenly tore open beneath Orochimaru's feet. Two-meter-tall, extremely sharp rock pillars burst from the ground.
Although Jiraiya had accurately predicted the timing, he clearly underestimated Orochimaru's speed and adaptability.
Orochimaru, in his wide-sleeved, pale-moon kimono, leaped lightly like a nimble antelope, dodging the shuriken and several of the rock pillars. Using the momentum, he spun into a whip-kick, sweeping aside the last, incredibly sharp rock pillar with a "Boom!—". His hands flashed through hand seals, instantly counterattacking Jiraiya.
Wind Style: Gale Palm!
A fierce gust of wind erupted from the ground, carrying several meter-long, narrow wind blades that howled as they sliced toward Jiraiya.
Just as Orochimaru counterattacked Jiraiya with Ninjutsu, Hyūga Bluebird, who had activated the Yamata Cursed Mark, came rushing in with a fierce, rapid attack.
Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Empty Palm!
The same technique, the same air-wave punches roughly a meter long, but the difference was that the fierce, internal-force-like power contained within them was nearly double what it was before.
Bluebird's punches caused a continuous "Poom, poom, poom—" of detonations in the empty air, carving out vacuum trails that howled as they bore down on Orochimaru.
Faced with this overwhelming, surging tide of air-wave punches, a flash of excitement crossed Orochimaru's dark-golden eyes. A bold spirit surged within him. He channeled the Strength of a Hundred Technique into his powerful physical body.
Pure, abundant chakra rapidly gathered in his two pale, strong fists. Against Bluebird's barrage of Eight Trigrams Empty Palms, he countered with ten consecutive strikes without pause!
The ten punches, infused with the skill of the Strength of a Hundred Technique, unleashed a savage power. Ten muffled detonations sounded successively right in front of Orochimaru, instantly creating a circle of invisible punch force, several meters in diameter, in the empty air.
The two waves of punch-force—one soft-and-hard, the other purely hard, but both utilizing exceptionally potent martial skill—collided violently in the air. With a series of intense "Rumble!—" explosions, the grass in the center of the clash instantly sunk into a deep crater several meters across, with cracked, spiderweb-like patterns covering every inch of the ground.
Just as Orochimaru deflected Bluebird's attack, a fierce wind howled over his head!
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