Chapter 120: 120
"Sasuke!" Jiraiya shouted.
The Uchiha instinctively raised his sword, but Orochimaru's neck bent unnaturally around the blade before his jaws snapped shut on Sasuke's shoulder and neck.
Crunch!
For a brief moment, Orochimaru frowned.
"...What?"
His fangs had bitten down with enough force to tear through flesh effortlessly. Instead, they had barely managed to pierce Sasuke's skin. It felt as though he had bitten into tempered steel rather than a human body. His fangs only sank roughly an inch before stopping completely.
"What kind of body...?"
A normal genin should have a huge bite mark on the flesh itself. Yet Sasuke's physique refused to yield. Nevertheless, the little penetration proved enough. The cursed chakra hidden within Orochimaru's fangs poured into Sasuke's body. Black markings instantly spread outward from the bite wound like living ink.
"Ghh...!"
Sasuke's eyes widened as unimaginable pain exploded through every chakra pathway in his body. His sword slipped from his fingers while his knees buckled beneath him. Every muscle locked in place as the Curse Mark forcefully branded itself upon his flesh.
Orochimaru immediately retreated several meters away, licking the trace of blood remaining upon his lips while staring at Sasuke with unconcealed fascination.
"Incredible..." he whispered. "Even after all these years... I've never encountered a body this resilient. If not for the Curse Mark itself, I doubt my bite would've accomplished anything."
Rei's expression darkened the instant he saw the black markings crawling across Sasuke's neck. His eyes became completely emotionless.
"...You shouldn't have done that."
Without another word, his hand swept across his pouch.
Clink.
Clink.
Clink.
More than a dozen specially forged Flying Thunder God kunai scattered throughout the battlefield, embedding themselves into trees, rocks and the ruined temple with perfect precision. In a single moment, the entire battlefield became Rei's domain.
Orochimaru's instincts screamed.
A yellow flash erupted beside Orochimaru. Before the Sannin could react, Rei's fist crashed into his ribs with overwhelming force.
BOOM!!
Orochimaru was launched through two massive stone pillars before smashing into the cliff behind them. Cracks spread across the rock face as blood escaped from the corner of his mouth.
He barely regained his footing when another yellow flash appeared above him. A spinning kick slammed directly into his jaw.
BAAAAM!!
His body ricocheted across the ground before another teleport intercepted him in midair. Rei's knee buried itself into Orochimaru's abdomen before driving him violently back toward the earth. Each teleport came from a different direction.
Every attack that Rei delivered were made in such a way that this snake of a man would fall into the range of the kunai.
"Damn brat..."
For the first time since the battle began, genuine seriousness entered Orochimaru's eyes. He slammed his foot onto the ground, which was already ridden with blood flow.
Kuchiyose no Jutsu! [Summoning Jutsu]
A gigantic cloud of smoke exploded across the battlefield. A colossal serpent emerged, hissing violently as its enormous body coiled around Orochimaru, shielding him from the next incoming strike.
The yellow flash appeared again. Rei's punch landed against the serpent's thick scales instead, forcing the massive snake backward several meters. Jiraiya immediately recognized the danger.
"If he's bringing out summons..."
His own hands slammed together despite the poison still dulling his chakra.
"Then so am I!"
Kuchiyose no Jutsu!
A massive toad burst from another cloud of smoke, landing heavily before the serpent. The two giant summons immediately glared at one another, their killing intent shaking the surrounding forest.
Meanwhile, Kabuto finally managed to stagger back onto his feet, clutching his aching abdomen. Seeing Rei occupied with Orochimaru and Jiraiya, his gaze immediately shifted toward the kneeling Tsunade.
A smile spread across his face.
"Perfect."
His chakra scalpel formed once more as he rushed straight toward the defenseless Sannin. Naruto instantly stepped between them.
"You aren't touching Granny Tsunade!"
"Move aside."
"No."
Tsuande was too speechless to even say a word and still remained frozen while Shizune came forward to defend her too. Kabuto went for the kill and Naruto caught the kunai between his fingers.
"You laugh at people who dream of becoming Hokage."
A Shadow Clone appeared beside him without hesitation.
"But I'll prove you're wrong."
The clone pressed its hand against the swirling sphere, stabilizing the violent rotation exactly as Rei had suggested during training. Naruto's grin widened.
"Because one day..."
The completed Rasengan roared to life.
"...I'm going to become Hokage!"
Kabuto's confident smile disappeared.
"...Impossible."
"RASENGAN!!"
The spinning sphere slammed directly into Kabuto's abdomen, detonating with overwhelming force before launching him across the battlefield, exactly as it had in the original story.
Kabuto's body skipped violently across the shattered ground before crashing through several massive boulders. Dust exploded into the air while the medical-nin remained embedded inside the fractured rock, coughing blood as the Rasengan's destructive force continued tearing through his muscles long after the impact had ended.
"...Impossible..." Kabuto wheezed, barely conscious. He has uttered that word more times than he ever did in his life combined together.
Naruto stood there breathing heavily, staring at his own hand in disbelief before an enormous grin spread across his face. Not noticing the blood that was flowing through his hand.
"...I... I actually did it!"
For only a brief moment, everyone's attention shifted toward Naruto's successful Rasengan. Because something else was happening elsewhere.
Sasuke, who had remained collapsed upon the ground under the unbearable agony of the Curse Mark, slowly raised one trembling hand toward his neck. The black markings had spread halfway across his shoulder, writhing like living serpents beneath his skin while every heartbeat sent another wave of pain throughout his body.
"...Get..."
His palm hovered just above the curse mark without actually touching it.
"...Off."
A pale silver radiance quietly gathered around his fingertips. A pale silver radiance quietly gathered around his fingertips. The writhing black markings abruptly stopped moving. Then, to his and Orochimaru's disbelief...
They began retreating.
The Curse Mark slowly withdrew from Sasuke's skin as though something far more ancient had rejected its existence altogether. Every black vein flowed backward toward the bite wound before dissolving into countless silver particles that vanished into the surrounding air.
Within seconds... Nothing remained. Even the bite wound itself began healing.
"...What?" Orochimaru whispered.
The man who had spent years perfecting the Curse Mark couldn't comprehend what he had just witnessed. His seal had never been rejected before. Not once in his lifetime. Yet it had simply... disappeared.
Even Jiraiya momentarily forgot about the giant serpent before him.
"...That's impossible."
Rei, who had just teleported onto another Flying Thunder God kunai, slowly turned toward Sasuke after sensing the sudden disappearance of Orochimaru's chakra from the Curse Mark.
His eyes widened.
"...No..."
Silver-white bandages suddenly emerged from beneath Sasuke's clothes. They simply materialized.
Like living cloth, they wrapped themselves around his arms, legs and torso before weaving together into elegant white armor. A hood formed over his head while a flowing white cape unfurled behind him, dancing against a wind that hadn't existed only seconds earlier.
Golden accents appeared across the armor, contrasting beautifully against the pristine white fabric. A crescent-shaped emblem slowly manifested upon his chest while his face disappeared beneath an immaculate white mask whose glowing eyes silently observed the battlefield.
The transformation ended as quietly as it had begun. Sasuke slowly opened his newly concealed eyes.
"...Interesting..."
His voice sounded exactly the same. But there was a sense of deep ancient feeling about it. And that was not because the muffled voice under the face hugging cowl.
Orochimaru's instincts screamed louder than they had against Rei. Without hesitation, the Sannin commanded his giant serpent forward.
"Kill him!"
The enormous snake lunged. Sasuke merely looked at it. For a single heartbeat... Everything around the serpent appeared to slow.
Its charge lost the slightest fraction of momentum, as though time itself had become reluctant to move around Sasuke. It lasted barely a second before reality resumed normally.
That single second was enough. Sasuke had already vanished. He reappeared above the serpent, hovering effortlessly in the air.
"...Flying?" Jiraiya muttered.
With a casual flick of his wrist, two elegant crescent-shaped blades were brought out from the chest mark. And then he threw them. The silver weapons curved impossibly through the air, slicing across the serpent's scales before changing direction entirely and returning toward Sasuke's waiting hands.
The giant snake roared in agony as several deep wounds appeared across its enormous body.
"...Those blades came back." Shizune whispered.
Orochimaru leaped backward just as Sasuke descended from the sky. For the briefest instant... The Sannin felt the same strange resistance again.
His body responded... Just slightly slower. Enough for Sasuke's fist to connect cleanly against his chest.
BOOM!!
Orochimaru shot backward like a cannonball, smashing through the serpent he had summoned before both crashed into the forest beyond.
Rei remained completely frozen. He wasn't looking at Orochimaru as he never cared what happened to him. He wasn't looking at Sasuke's impossible abilities.
But he was staring only at the attire.
"...No... This isn't possible. No..." Rei was in disbelief.
-----
Read 40+ chapters on my [email protected]/thelightedghost