Chapter 611: The Battle on the Moon I
Although Ishiro's attack was repelled, discovering one of Orochimaru's dōjutsu through a single offensive was still a very worthwhile trade.
Ishiro had some impression of this Byakugan dōjutsu of Orochimaru; Kaguya Ōtsutsuki seemed to have used it in the original story.
Sending enemies to the Pure Land with a mere glare—this kind of dōjutsu truly made the Byakugan worthy of being one of the Three Great Dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai.
Ishiro took a deep breath and charged at Orochimaru again; he wanted to test the limits of this dōjutsu.
Leading with various single-attribute ninjutsu and Kekkei Genkai ninjutsu, Ishiro launched another assault on Orochimaru.
This time, Orochimaru no longer chose to respond passively. He began to utilize the advantage of his body's unique flexibility.
His originally humanoid body shifted with incredible pliability, dodging Ishiro's ninjutsu attacks in this manner.
Occasionally, he would open his large mouth and spit out a large number of small snakes formed from chakra to attack.
In the past, Orochimaru would summon snakes from Ryūchi Cave to fight.
He could even summon a massive number of snakes without hand seals, forming his unique fighting style: Snake Ninjutsu.
But this skill became unusable after reaching the Sage level.
Because the snakes of Ryūchi Cave didn't grow stronger along with Orochimaru's strength.
The current Ryūchi Cave could basically offer no help to Orochimaru.
Even if Orochimaru summoned all the snakes of Ryūchi Cave at once, they couldn't pose any threat to Ishiro.
Unless he summoned the White Snake Sage to fight, but that was obviously unrealistic.
So Orochimaru used his own Senjutsu chakra to replace the summoned snakes to realize these special tactics.
Ishiro remained unhurried; he had long anticipated these conventional methods of Orochimaru.
Ishiro extended a hand—Shinra Tensei—directly repelling all of Orochimaru's countless small snakes.
After being repelled, the snake swarm reverted to chakra and then dissipated directly into nothingness.
Moreover, Ishiro took the opportunity to rush forward quickly, closing the distance with Orochimaru and successfully arriving at Orochimaru's side again.
Specifically, beside Orochimaru's head.
The current Orochimaru was tens of meters long, his body long having lost its human shape.
He now resembled a snake more than a human!
Ishiro swung his right fist, blasting Orochimaru's head apart. Then, a ball of flame suddenly appeared in his left palm, which Ishiro pressed directly onto Orochimaru's exploded head.
The flame rapidly absorbed the chakra from Orochimaru's body and grew, then spread to other parts of Orochimaru's body.
Orochimaru certainly couldn't be killed so easily. One of his feet suddenly exploded, and a slimy Orochimaru drilled out from it rapidly.
Ishiro wasn't surprised. While changing direction to rush at Orochimaru, he controlled the Scorch Release flames to attack him.
After absorbing the chakra from Orochimaru's shed body, the Scorch Release flames quickly became immense.
The Scorch Release flames rushed toward Orochimaru overwhelmingly. Orochimaru used his dōjutsu again to scatter the flame impact.
Neji-kun and the others were also affected by the scattered flames.
Neji-kun waved his hand, using the Imperial Wheel to deflect the flames. He didn't want to touch this kind of flame that could absorb others' chakra to strengthen itself.
The ineffectiveness of the Scorch Release attack was within Ishiro's expectation. This time, Ishiro's main body wasn't repelled by the invisible shockwave.
He used Shinra Tensei to withstand this wave of impact.
Moreover, immediately after the shockwave ended, Ishiro moved forward. simultaneously, two beams of blue light shot toward Orochimaru's body from left and right.
It was the Kekkei Tōta: Light Release, and it was Light Release fused with Senjutsu!
Previously, Ishiro's Light Release hadn't been fused with Senjutsu. This was the first time he truly displayed Light Release with Senjutsu enhancement!
And this was just the beginning. Ishiro used Light Release to simulate various ninjutsu, launching an endless barrage toward Orochimaru.
Light Release was fast and destructive; Orochimaru dared not use the Kusanagi Sword to defend.
Or rather, he didn't have a good defense method.
Originally, he could use ninjutsu to offset Light Release attacks, but unfortunately, Ishiro cast ninjutsu without hand seals, while Orochimaru couldn't do the same.
The ninjutsu he managed to cast with difficulty would be vaporized directly by Light Release very quickly.
So not long after dispersing the Scorch Release flames, Orochimaru used this dōjutsu again. This was the third time he had used it.
But this could only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.
Soon, under the pressure of Ishiro's Light Release, Orochimaru used it a fourth time, a fifth time...
It had to be said that this dōjutsu of Orochimaru was very practical. To some extent, this could be considered an absolute defense.
And with Ishiro trying to speed up the attack frequency, Orochimaru had consistently managed to use this move to get out of trouble before the Light Release hit him.
This dōjutsu seemed to have almost no usage restrictions for Orochimaru, or at least Ishiro hadn't probed out any cooldown time for this move.
Perhaps there was one, but the time was too short to seize the opportunity.
Since the cooldown time couldn't be probed, then change the direction.
When Orochimaru used this dōjutsu, Ishiro didn't use Shinra Tensei to resist but took the opportunity to form seals and cast an Earth Release ninjutsu.
Senpō: Doton - Gōremu no Jutsu (Sage Art: Earth Release - Rock Golem Jutsu).
The next moment, a rock golem of exaggerated size formed extremely quickly in front of Ishiro.
This rock golem had its feet on the seabed, but most of its body was exposed above the sea surface. Although Ishiro and the others were flying in mid-air, they were only level with this rock golem's chest.
As soon as the rock golem appeared, it punched at Orochimaru.
At the same time, Ishiro, having stabilized his figure, also cast Light Release again.
Seeing this, Orochimaru frowned. He saw through Ishiro's idea instantly.
However, he also wanted to test how powerful his dōjutsu truly was.
So after several rounds of attacks from the rock golem and Light Release, Orochimaru, with nowhere to hide in the distance, chose to confront it head-on.
Orochimaru's Byakugan stared fixedly at the giant fist falling from the sky.
When the giant rock fist was about to hit him, he immediately activated his dōjutsu.
The next moment, the dōjutsu's shockwave met the falling giant fist.
Time seemed to stop for an instant!
Ishiro couldn't be sure if it was his illusion, but he felt that Orochimaru and the rock golem were deadlocked for that instant.
But this process was very brief, truly only an instant. The next second, Orochimaru was smashed directly into the sea by the rock golem's heavy punch.
Ishiro breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the upper limit of this dōjutsu's intensity wasn't high.
Just as he thought this, Ishiro's body abruptly shifted in the air like lightning.
Swish, an attack passed through the position where Ishiro originally stood and rushed into the air behind him.
Ishiro didn't look back to see what that attack was, because another identical attack had already shot straight toward the rock golem.
The rock golem was huge; no matter how agile, it couldn't dodge such an attack.
With a pfft, that thing inserted directly into the rock golem's abdomen.
Ishiro looked toward the sound and saw a slender bone spike stuck straight there.
The rock around the bone spike quickly turned gray, and the gray rock fell rustling onto the sea surface like dust.
Then, starting from the rock golem's abdomen, this graying-to-dust effect spread rapidly toward the rock golem's entire body.
Seeing this scene, Neji-kun and the others all gasped.
Neji-kun immediately said to Shion, "Shion, be careful of this move from Orochimaru during the battle later."
"Your sensory perception must lock onto him throughout the process. Don't give him a chance to sneak attack."
Shion looked a bit flustered, but she nodded.
Sōkai subconsciously grabbed Izumi Uchiha's hand.
Ishiro also looked grave. He recognized this move; it was one of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's ultimate moves: Tomogoroshi no Haikotsu (All-Killing Ash Bones).
In the original story, Obito Uchiha died from this move. At that time, even Naruto, who had obtained the Sage of Six Paths' Yang Power, couldn't stop the terrifying effect of the All-Killing Ash Bones.
This was also the most direct way Ishiro knew to kill a Sage in one blow.
He didn't expect Orochimaru to have mastered this technique.
However, Orochimaru had used this move while being smashed away by the rock golem just now.
Orochimaru was too fast; Ishiro didn't capture the specific chakra fluctuation on him.
Ishiro wasn't sure if this was Orochimaru's dōjutsu or a special ability obtained after merging with Hiashi Hyūga and Kimimaro Kaguya.
Before long, Orochimaru flew out of the seawater.
Ishiro sensed with his Mind's Eye but couldn't determine if the rock golem's blow just now had injured Orochimaru.
After Orochimaru stopped in the air in front of him again, Ishiro launched another attack on Orochimaru.
This time, Ishiro's attack method was the same as before at the beginning: omnidirectional Light Release attacks without blind spots.
When Orochimaru was forced to use the shockwave dōjutsu, Ishiro adopted a new move again. He extended his right hand, making a grasping motion.
The next moment, a fiery red sphere formed rapidly in his palm, then changed shape into a high-speed rotating shuriken.
It was exactly: Senpō: Yōton - Rasenshuriken (Sage Art: Lava Release - Rasenshuriken).
In the original story, Naruto used this move to cut the God Tree directly.
Using this move required Senjutsu, mastery of Rasengan and Rasenshuriken, and the chakra of the Four-Tails Rōshi.
Coincidentally, Ishiro had all of these.
Naturally, Ishiro wouldn't hold back in this battle. Before coming, he had let the eight small Tailed Beasts merge into his body.
Actually, Ishiro could enter Tailed Beast Chakra Mode at any time; he just hadn't shown it before.
The current Ishiro only lacked the Three-Tails' chakra. He could cast eight types of Rasengan with different properties.
The reason he chose Son Gokū's Lava Release was that Ishiro himself had mastered Scorch Release. Ishiro also incorporated the chakra-absorbing property of Scorch Release into this fiery red Rasenshuriken.
After launching this move, Ishiro detonated it directly.
The Wind Release property of the Rasenshuriken possessed super strong cutting capabilities, cutting a slit directly into Orochimaru's dōjutsu shockwave.
Orochimaru's dōjutsu still failed to completely block the cutting of the Sage Art: Rasenshuriken!
Then the exploding Rasenshuriken sliced Orochimaru's body in two.
However, Orochimaru's reaction wasn't slow. Realizing the bad situation, he used the Snake Substitution Jutsu.
He opened his mouth and spat out a new self again.
The Rasenshuriken cut Orochimaru's body in half, and the Lava Release flames quickly engulfed Orochimaru's shed body.
Ishiro was familiar with this move of Orochimaru and didn't hesitate. Just as one attack ended, a yellow Rasenshuriken formed quickly in his other hand.
This time it was: Senpō: Jiton - Rasenshuriken (Sage Art: Magnet Release - Rasenshuriken).
This time, Ishiro utilized the sealing property unique to the One-Tail Shukaku.
Orochimaru had just left his original body when he saw Ishiro's new attack approaching.
So he used that shockwave dōjutsu again.
This time, the Sage Art: Rasenshuriken also broke through Orochimaru's dōjutsu.
However, what the exploding Rasenshuriken produced this time wasn't flames, but Magnet Release possessing sealing abilities.
A large amount of Magnet Release permeated all areas where Orochimaru could dodge.
Even using the Snake Substitution Jutsu would be useless for Orochimaru; he still couldn't escape the coverage of the Magnet Release.
Ishiro locked onto Orochimaru's every move with his Mind's Eye, seeing what other countermeasures he had.
But what puzzled Ishiro was that facing the Magnet Release seal rapidly filling the entire space, Orochimaru didn't put up any effective resistance.
He just dashed left and right for a bit, and seeing no hope of breaking out, simply gave up.
Looking at Orochimaru waiting to be sealed on the spot, Ishiro's heart skipped a beat. Wrong!
Giving up like this was definitely not something Orochimaru would do.
"Shinra Tensei!" Realizing something was wrong, Ishiro shouted, repelling everything around him.
This wasn't over. Ishiro immediately followed up with the Dustless Bewildering Cover invented by the Second Tsuchikage Mū.
Then Ishiro flew around randomly in an invisible state, dodging potential attacks.
While doing all this, Ishiro was also disrupting his own chakra. And expanding the range of his Mind's Eye to the maximum, perceiving the surrounding environment to dispel the Genjutsu.
This series of operations was very effective. Ishiro felt the scene before his eyes shatter like broken glass instantly, the real world returning to his sight.
In the attack range of his Sage Art: Magnet Release - Rasenshuriken, there was no Orochimaru. Orochimaru was standing not far from him holding a bone spike, watching him covetously.
And Neji-kun and Sōkai had also rushed to the vicinity, obviously coming to support after seeing Ishiro fall under a Genjutsu.
Ishiro could sense that their eyes were filled with powerful pupil power, obviously ready to strike at any moment.
Even Izumi Uchiha and Shion in the distance were ready for battle.
Ishiro waved his hand, signaling them all to stand down.
Confirming that Ishiro had truly broken free from Orochimaru's Genjutsu, Neji-kun and Sōkai slowly retreated, returning to Izumi Uchiha and the others.
Even so, their tense nerves didn't relax, nor did they disperse their pupil power.
Orochimaru was also very surprised. He didn't expect Ishiro to break free from the Genjutsu so quickly.
He didn't even have time to launch an attack.
After thinking for a moment, Orochimaru asked, "Tsuchikage, both your soul and body have reached the Sage level?!"
Although Orochimaru used a questioning tone, his expression was quite certain.
Seeing Orochimaru's gaze locked onto him, Ishiro knew that the Dustless Bewildering Cover was useless in front of those Byakugan.
So Ishiro dispelled the Dustless Bewildering Cover and nodded to Orochimaru.
While Ishiro probed out Orochimaru's dōjutsu, Orochimaru also probed out some intelligence on Ishiro.
For example, Ishiro's biggest reliance when fighting Sages of the same level was: both his soul and body had entered the Sage level.
Orochimaru was very puzzled. He said, "But, how is that possible?"
"When I advanced to the Sage level, I could clearly feel that I could only make one choice at that time: either let the soul advance or let the eyes advance."
"The energy from that transformation could support at most one advancement."
"And I had a feeling that if I chose the soul, I would likely fail."
"Through my observation, Neji Hyūga, Sōkai Uchiha, and Izumi Uchiha, like me, all only had their eyes complete the advancement."
"Wanting to nourish the body and soul through these Sage eyes so that both the body and soul complete advancement... the time required is incalculable."
"How did you achieve simultaneous advancement of soul and body?"
"Is the advantage of five-attribute fusion that obvious?"
There was some sourness in Orochimaru's tone; he was jealous!
Ishiro smiled and said, "It's not like that. Under normal circumstances, it's impossible for my soul to reach the Sage level."
"However, I told you before that I received a lot of help from Neji and the other two."
"Before I completed the five-attribute fusion, my soul had already reached the mortal limit, just a step away from being a Sage."
"Moreover, before that, I had already absorbed a large amount of soul power, completing the accumulation of quantity!"
"So when my body advanced, my soul naturally completed the advancement as well."
"The soul advancement didn't occupy the energy needed for my body's advancement."
Orochimaru fell silent upon hearing this. He couldn't do this, not only because he didn't have the help of Neji-kun and the others.
But more because before becoming a Sage, his own soul had defects.
Orochimaru's soul level wasn't low to begin with. According to Ishiro's judgment, he belonged to the relatively powerful ones in the third stage.
At least much stronger than the current Sakura, Yakumo Kurama, Natsuki, and others.
But in order to seize others' bodies, defects appeared in his own soul.
So this kind of good thing happening to Ishiro had nothing to do with him.
When he advanced to Sage, the defects in his soul were repaired.
But that was all. His current soul was normal compared to Kage-level and Super Kage-level individuals, but compared to Neji-kun and others at the same Sage level, it was actually slightly worse.
Compared to a Sage like Ishiro who had truly reached the fourth stage, the difference was too great.
Thinking of this, Orochimaru understood why Ishiro cast most ninjutsu without hand seals. It turned out he already possessed a Sage-level soul.
The chakra control brought by a Sage-level soul could indeed allow Ishiro to cast most ninjutsu without hand seals.
Ishiro laughed, "I also didn't expect Orochimaru-senpai's dōjutsu to be related to Genjutsu!"
"Seeing this advancement to Sage, Orochimaru-senpai's soul deficiencies have also been remedied."
"I was careless just now. Again!"
Ishiro was indeed careless. He hadn't heard that the Byakugan was related to Genjutsu. Plus, Orochimaru's soul was originally a weakness, while Ishiro's own soul had already crushed Orochimaru in terms of realm.
So Ishiro didn't guard against Orochimaru casting Genjutsu.
Orochimaru smiled bitterly. Ishiro was surprised, but he was even more surprised. His Genjutsu was a special dōjutsu of the Byakugan.
A Sage eye's dōjutsu was naturally a Sage-level ninjutsu. This kind of ninjutsu was much more powerful than Ishiro using Sage power to cast five-attribute ninjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, and Kekkei Tōta.
But he didn't expect Ishiro's soul to have also reached the Sage level, breaking free from his Genjutsu so easily.
How could he fight this?
His special abilities were all exposed, but Ishiro hadn't used any special abilities except exposing his own level.
There was already a gap between them. Now that the intelligence was completely asymmetrical, adding the two together, his situation was very bad!
Sure enough, in the subsequent battle between the two, Orochimaru never gained the upper hand again.
Unable to produce other dōjutsu, faced with Ishiro's endless attacks, he could only passively dodge.
The occasional sneak attacks prepared were all anticipated and dodged by Ishiro beforehand.
There was no helping it; Orochimaru currently had too few means usable for Sage-level combat.
After the intelligence on his three special abilities was exposed, Ishiro could figure out what kind of tactics he could adopt.
However, Ishiro's attacks couldn't do anything to Orochimaru either. Ishiro's greatest advantage against Orochimaru was his body, but with Orochimaru holding the All-Killing Ash Bones spike, Ishiro didn't dare approach at all.
So after fighting for a long time, the two still couldn't determine a winner.
Boom!
Another attack from Ishiro ended. After Orochimaru escaped from Ishiro's Senpō: Futton - Rasenshuriken (Sage Art: Boil Release - Rasenshuriken), he found that Ishiro didn't chase after him.
So he laughed, "Tsuchikage, if you still don't show your real skills, I'm afraid you won't be able to kill me."
Up to now, all the means Ishiro displayed were things he knew before becoming a Sage.
It was just that when used with Sage power, the power was much greater.
As for the special abilities truly belonging to a Sage, Ishiro hadn't used a single one.
Orochimaru didn't believe Ishiro had no special abilities at all.
Although Ishiro didn't awaken a Sage eye like them, having a Sage body and a Sage soul, it was impossible for Ishiro to gain nothing.
Ishiro also smiled and said, "Alright, our sparring ends here. Next, let the others go."
Seeing Ishiro unwilling to expose his strength, Orochimaru felt somewhat regretful but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Finally changing opponents; fighting Ishiro was too tiring.
During normal combat, he still had to divert half his mind to observe if Ishiro would use new moves.
In this way, he, who was already at a disadvantage, found it even harder to deal with Ishiro!
He had a feeling that Ishiro would explode at any time, inflicting heavy damage on him in one fell swoop, or even killing him.
Orochimaru knew clearly that this was the apprehension, or rather fear, that the weak had when facing the strong.
Ishiro flew to Neji-kun and the others and asked, "Who wants to go first?"
Sōkai was the first to step forward and say, "Me first, me first!"
Seeing Ishiro suppressing Orochimaru the whole time just now made his blood boil, and he wanted to try too.
Ishiro nodded and said to Sōkai, "Orochimaru has shown three Byakugan dōjutsu."
"They are Shockwave, All-Killing Ash Bones, and Genjutsu."
"You have the Rinnegan, so I'm not worried about Genjutsu, but you must be careful with the All-Killing Ash Bones!"
"This thing is remarkably effective against your Susanoo. Don't be careless!"
"Yes!" After agreeing, Sōkai flew impatiently toward Orochimaru.