Chapter 154: Partners in Crime — Literally
"Right now, you're genuinely weak."
The killing intent passed through Sakura's eyes in an instant — and the Raikage felt every hair on his body stand up.
"Heaven Stomp!"
The ground shattered under her foot. Violent chakra erupted outward with a spinning kick that obliterated the earth in every direction.
When the dust cleared, the space where the Raikage had been standing was empty.
Sakura's eyes settled.
"You owe me a life, Raikage."
Orochimaru withdrew his tongue — it had wrapped around the Raikage's waist and pulled him clear. His voice was pleasant.
"I suppose that settles things."
"Hmph." The Raikage looked at the saliva on his side with an expression that gave nothing away.
Sakura stood with the staff in hand and looked at both of them.
The Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure. One of the Five Kage.
Orochimaru of the Sannin. S-rank missing-nin.
She exhaled slowly, then crooked a finger at the two of them. The smile on her face had no warmth in it.
"A man who acts bold while scheming from the shadows."
"A man who plays with corpses and tried to kill his own teacher."
"What a fitting pair. Truly — snake and rat, sharing a nest."
She paused.
"That's a statement of fact, not a metaphor. The snake-and-rat part is literal."
The Raikage's face darkened. He was already dark. It went further.
Orochimaru, for his part, was unbothered. He had very few pressure points. Being called names wasn't one of them. Let this girl talk — when she was old and dead, he'd resurrect her and have her bring his tea.
"I'll go first. You provide cover."
The Raikage didn't wait for Orochimaru's agreement. Lightning crackled back to life and he launched himself forward.
He'd accepted the reality. He was forty-something years old and this girl had outpaced him. The Raikage who had once been the terror of the battlefield was being surpassed by the next generation.
But she was Konoha's next generation. And she had to die here regardless.
He still had speed. It was the only edge he had left — no point refusing to use it.
"Lightning Oppression!"
His speed maxed out immediately.
"You're learning."
Sakura read his approach, expression unchanged. She'd already positioned.
The lightning closed the distance in a fraction of a second. The staff swung and caught it — Sakura hadn't tried to avoid, just redirected, the block flowing into the counter.
The Raikage was gone before the counter completed. She turned.
He was behind her.
Her foot came up and met his fist.
And in that moment — Orochimaru moved.
Unpredictable. Difficult to read. Where the Raikage was a force of nature going in a straight line, Orochimaru moved like something that had no obligation to follow physical rules.
The Kusanagi drove at her face.
Sakura tilted her head.
The blade passed her ear, taking a few strands of pink hair with it.
Her staff drove at Orochimaru's chest simultaneously.
He'd seen this approach before. He expected extension — her lengthening the staff toward him.
The staff extended from the other end.
The butt planted in the ground and launched her directly at him.
"What—"
Orochimaru had less than a second to recognize what was happening before Sakura's face was inches from his.
She was close enough that he could feel her breath.
For one disorienting moment, standing that close to something that radiated this much threat, Orochimaru — who had dissected fear out of himself over decades of self-modification — experienced the basic, animal sensation of being near something that could kill him.
Run.
His body was already forming the seals for an earth escape when the chakra gathered in her fist — blue and pink intertwined, blazing, shaped into a tiger's head that roared before contact—
"Oh, and you're the one who sold my intelligence file to Kumogakure."
"Adamantine Strike — Full Force!"
BOOM.
The tiger-head connected with Orochimaru's face.
Five features tried to occupy less space than they were designed for.
Sound stopped. Light went. Everything simply paused for a moment — his consciousness caught somewhere between the impact and whatever came after it.
The shockwave swept the field.
Orochimaru left. Horizontally. At speed.
The arm holding the Kusanagi separated from the rest of him during transit.
Blood across the snow.
Sakura looked at the arm in her hand and dropped it.
Jiraiya appeared beside her — he'd dealt with the Raikage while she finished Orochimaru. They looked at each other briefly, nodded once, and Sakura was already moving, sprinting toward the command position.
"Little Jiraiya — that child is..."
Fukasaku the Toad Sage, sitting on Jiraiya's shoulder, watched the retreating pink figure with something unreadable.
"Oh, just the village's next generation." Jiraiya's eyes returned to the Raikage, who was not going to give him a moment to think. "The old man believes in her. I'm starting to see why."
If he weren't the commander — if he could leave — Jiraiya in sage mode was the more suitable choice for the command situation. But he'd committed to the field. As long as this battle continued, he couldn't vanish. The entire Konoha army would feel it if their commander disappeared mid-engagement.
He opened the Formation link.
"Kakashi. Break away from your position and support Sakura at the command center. Now."
Kakashi, currently exchanging blows with Darui at rough parity, frowned without slowing.
If I leave — who holds Darui?
And what's happening at the command center?
"Shirakumo and Asuma are coming to replace you. This is an order. Move."
"Understood."
No debate. One feint, Darui's guard moved to track it, and Kakashi was gone — already running, not looking back.
Darui felt something clench.
He knew about Killer Bee's mission. He knew what it meant. He moved to pursue Kakashi—
A trench knife and a blade appeared in front of him simultaneously.
"Konoha elite jōnin. Shirakumo."
"Guardian Twelve. Sarutobi Asuma."
The moment Jiraiya's order had gone out, both of them had broken from their positions and covered the gap.
"Well, well." Darui looked at two jōnin with serious records and felt the scope of his problem become clearer. "This is complicated."
The Konoha command area had become a small lake.
Mei Terumī was breathing hard, watching the figure standing on the water's surface not far away.
Too strong.
She'd never actually reckoned with what a perfect jinchūriki could do. In her own estimation she could take the Fourth Mizukage — Yagura, the Three-Tails host — in a direct fight. She was confident she could handle Kirigakure's Six-Tails host too.
But this—
A single burst of tailed beast chakra had dispersed her Boil Release mist instantly. Her Lava Release couldn't track his speed. Her Water Release, unless she poured enormous reserves into it, wasn't penetrating the tailed beast cloak at all.
The only reason she was still standing was the terrain she'd created — a flooded area where water mobility techniques gave her some options, where she could use water displacement to stay in a grinding match.
And that was all of that was while he was at six tails.
According to the girl called Ino—
He was a perfect jinchūriki.
(Chapter End)
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