"Wood Release? What a troublesome bastard…"
Orochimaru sneered, then unleashed one of his signature moves—"Man spitting snake, snake spitting sword."
The Kusanagi Blade shot out with its serpentine flexibility. In a flash, Orochimaru slashed at the wooden barricade blocking the door. Sword light flickered, splinters flew—and the wooden wall shattered into pieces.
But Yamato had already recovered. Forming a hand seal, he slammed both palms to the ground. More branches erupted from the floor, surging toward Orochimaru. Within moments, the operating room door was blocked again—and half the room was swallowed by a forest of living wood.
"Orochimaru, you won't escape this time!"
Enma dashed through the dense wood, rapidly closing in on Orochimaru.
With a single-hand seal, Orochimaru's right arm split into several serpents, striking toward the monkey king.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
"Damn long-worm! Get off me!"
The snakes coiled around Enma's body, constricting him tightly. Normally, with his immense strength, Enma could smash through stone walls with ease—but Orochimaru's technique was all about flexibility overcoming brute force, perfect for restraining power types.
Worse still, the snakes were venomous. As soon as they tightened around him, they sank their fangs into his neck.
Fortunately, Enma's body was famed as diamond-hard—an exaggeration perhaps, but still thick-skinned enough that the venomous teeth couldn't pierce through.
Even if Orochimaru's Hidden Shadow Snake Hands later became one of his casual, almost slapstick moves, it was still highly effective against weaker foes. At this stage, it was more than enough to hold Enma down for a while.
"Enma—transform into the Adamantine Staff!"
Finally deciding to stop holding back, Sarutobi Hiruzen charged forward. Enma, tired of being entangled, immediately transformed—turning into a massive black staff that flew into Hiruzen's hands.
Sarutobi placed the staff between his arms, freeing his hands for seals.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bullet!"
A roaring dragon of fire surged toward Orochimaru. But the Sannin reacted instantly—nearly at the same moment Hiruzen's seals completed.
"Water Style: Water Encampment Wall!"
A circular wall of water rose around Orochimaru, intercepting the incoming fire dragon.
Water and flame collided violently, filling the room with thick steam. Visibility vanished in an instant.
When the steam finally dispersed—Orochimaru was gone.
From above came the distant echoes of clashing jutsu.
Observing everything through his Konoha Tenseigan, Tahara Rokuro couldn't help but mutter:
"Seriously? These guys are pure friendly fire. Using a Fire Release in a cramped operating room? If Hiruzen's not secretly a traitor, I'd be shocked."
By now, Orochimaru had broken through the lower level and was fighting against Kakashi's ANBU unit outside.
Elemental techniques of all kinds—fire, water, wind, earth, lightning—combined with serpentine ninjutsu erupted one after another from Orochimaru's hands.
Even ignoring his mastery of technique, that endless chakra supply alone screamed of Kage-level power.
"At this stage, Orochimaru's at his peak—strongest he's ever been, without a single glaring weakness. But once he joins Akatsuki and starts swapping bodies, his soul becomes unstable. That's why Itachi utterly crushed him later. I mean, just look at the symbolism—one's a weasel, one's a snake. No matter how poisonous the snake, against a weasel-type predator, it's just a chewy snack."
After watching for a while, Rokuro confirmed that Orochimaru would likely break through the encirclement with only minor injuries. The man's greatest asset was his tenacity—even mortal wounds rarely kept him down.
Switching his Tenseigan's focus back inside the lab, Rokuro saw Hiruzen leading Yamato and four ANBU members out. The operating room was now empty.
Rokuro activated Flying Thunder God and appeared inside the room.
He glanced around at the carnage and sighed at Orochimaru's ruthlessness before turning to the real prize—the computer beside the operating table.
That's right—the Naruto world had computers, albeit clunky, heavy desktop types. Still, they were far more advanced than handwritten ledgers.
Rokuro formed a seal and summoned a large scroll—half a meter long and as thick as an adult's thigh. He unfurled it and activated the sealing inscription.
"Poof!"
With a muffled sound, the entire computer—along with the power board—was sealed neatly into the scroll.
"Even though these machines run slower than a tortoise, they're luxury tech in this era—easily worth over a million ryō. If Orochimaru kept one in his lab, it's gotta hold experimental data. The hardware's secondary; the data inside is the real treasure. Definitely worth the trip."
After sealing the computer, Rokuro ignored the corpses on the walls and strode into the specimen storage room.
He grimaced. "Ugh… disgusting. But biology's all about dissection, I guess. These specimens are valuable experimental material too. Might as well take them."
One by one, he sealed away every preserved sample from the entire underground floor—not a single one left behind.
Just as Rokuro prepared to move to the next level, he noticed a faint pattern in a dark corner—an inconspicuous seal array.
To the untrained eye, it might look like random stains on the wall. And with the dim lighting down here, most people would miss it entirely.
But to a sealing master like Rokuro, it stood out like a torch in the dark.
"A transparency seal? It's hiding something large. Maybe a piece of equipment Orochimaru couldn't take with him… but why stash it here?"
Rokuro studied the array carefully, cleared away nearby debris to free up space, then performed the release seal.
"Poof!"
White smoke billowed—and when it cleared, a massive glass tank stood before him. Inside the tank swirled green nutrient fluid… and within it floated a monster.
It was as thick as a barrel, at least six or seven meters long, shaped like a snake—but instead of scales, its surface was covered in tiny white serpents.
Each "scale" was, in fact, a miniature snake—hundreds, maybe thousands—woven together into a single living organism.
"This thing… that's the White-Scaled Serpent! The one Sasuke later cut down with a single swing!"
Indeed—the creature's head resembled a human's, complete with facial features and long black hair eerily similar to Orochimaru's own.
"So this must be an incomplete version of the White-Scaled Serpent—left behind because it wasn't fully developed yet."
"Maintaining a device of this size must've drained enormous power. Orochimaru's new hideout probably couldn't support that level of energy yet… so he had to leave it here temporarily."
Rokuro debated whether to take it. Just then, several snake-like wooden tendrils crept toward him from behind.
Without turning, Rokuro sliced through them with a Lightning Release: Hand Blade.
"I noticed you long ago. Trying to sneak up on me? You're not even close to my level."
END OF CHAPTER
35 CHAPTERS AHEAD!!
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