Han's heavy injury and subsequent capture acted like the final straw that broke the camel's back.
The Iwagakure forces, already demoralized by the Tsuchikage's critical condition and the Hidden Rain's defection, completely lost their will to fight.
They watched as Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, was pinned down by Minato Namikaze's exquisite Flying Raijin Jutsu; despite his advantage in raw power, he couldn't break free.
On the other side, the "God of Calamity" Saiki, who had just secured a "bitter victory" over the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, struggled to his feet after a few shallow breaths.
His long blade pointed toward Roshi once more, eyes flashing with a ferocious and resolute light, looking as if he intended to seize the Four-Tails as well!
"Retreat! All forces, retreat!" the Iwagakure frontline commander finally buckled under the pressure, barking the order with a raspy voice.
If they continued the engagement, it was highly likely both Jinchuriki would be lost here—a catastrophic blow the Stone could not afford.
The Stone units retreated like a receding tide, discarding their armor and fleeing in pathetic disarray.
"Saiki, do not pursue a cornered enemy!" Minato's silhouette flickered instantly to Saiki's side, his hand pressing down on the boy's seemingly lunging shoulder, his voice full of concern.
"Your wounds are severe, you need immediate medical attention! A reckless pursuit could lead you straight into an ambush!"
Saiki violently shook off Minato's hand, his face etched with a stubborn, almost manic sense of mission.
He panted heavily, yet his voice remained abnormally firm: "For Sister Tsunade! For the Hidden Leaf! I must take this chance to weaken the Stone as much as possible!"
"Captain Minato, you secure the prisoner. I'll be back in a heartbeat!"
Without waiting for Minato's rebuttal, his body transformed into a slightly stumbling bolt of lightning, chasing the retreating Stone ninja with desperate momentum, leaving behind a tragic and resolute silhouette.
Minato watched his back, his brow furrowed in a tight knot; he felt something was off, but the chaos of the field left him no time for deep thought.
He had to arrange for the containment of the unconscious Han, stabilize the defensive line, and tally the war results first.
Saiki continued his pursuit for nearly ten miles, casually slaughtering a few Stone stragglers along the way. His movements remained ruthless, but his speed had visibly plummeted.
Finally, he came to a halt in a relatively secluded valley, bracing himself against a jagged rock as he broke into a violent coughing fit.
His face was terrifyingly pale, looking as if he might collapse at any moment.
He found a sheltered hollow away from the wind, sat cross-legged, and began the arduous process of regulating his breathing.
The chakra fluctuations around him were incredibly chaotic and weak.
He looked like a guttering candle flickering in the gale, on the verge of being extinguished at any second... yet emitting an alluring fragrance.
Minutes passed, the silence of the valley broken only by the mournful whistling of the wind through the stone.
Suddenly, a cold, raspy voice dripping with unmasked greed shattered the stillness:
"Hehehe... Saiki-kun, it seems your injuries... are even more severe than I imagined."
Saiki jolted awake, looking toward the source of the sound, his face twisting into a mask of perfectly timed shock and vigilance.
Orochimaru's familiar figure slowly stepped out of the shadows, his golden slit-pupils shimmering with an icy, ecstatic light in the dimness.
"Orochimaru... It's you!" Saiki rasped, attempting to stand, but his legs failed him.
"You plan to take advantage of me in this state?!"
Orochimaru carefully sensed Saiki's weak and turbulent chakra. Seeing the boy's ashen complexion and frail posture, his last shred of doubt evaporated.
It was confirmed. Saiki was truly at the end of his tether!
After consecutive battles with Hanzo, Manda, and the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, no matter how strong he was, he was still just a child. His chakra and physical stamina had to be completely overdrawn!
"Taking advantage? No, this is simply seizing the perfect opportunity." He licked his lips. "That was a truly breathtaking performance, Saiki-kun."
Orochimaru approached slowly, a victor's smile on his face, his tone saturated with mockery and triumph.
"Decapitating Hanzo, overpowering a Jinchuriki... these feats are enough to be etched into the annals of shinobi history. What a pity... what a waste..."
"Such talent, such power, yet today you shall serve as the foundation for my path toward Truth!"
He no longer hid his intentions, his hands blurring into signs as a lethal chakra pulse radiated from his body.
"Your body, your secrets—I, Orochimaru, shall take possession of them all! To become a part of my journey toward immortality is the greatest honor you could receive!"
Hearing this, Saiki let out a roar of rage. "In your dreams!"
His expression remained firm, yet his actions resembled a cornered beast driven to desperation.
He struggled to raise his blade, the steel erupting with a brilliant flash of lightning once more, though it looked far less condensed than during his fight with Han—a hollow display of strength.
He transformed into a bolt of lightning, charging toward Orochimaru with suicidal momentum!
"Deathbed struggles!" Orochimaru sneered, unleashing the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands. Dozens of venomous vipers shot from his sleeve, coiling toward Saiki.
However, Saiki's blade-work was unnervingly sharp; in a sudden burst of "last-ditch" energy, he accurately and rapidly severed every attacking snake.
The blade's momentum did not slow as it lunged straight for Orochimaru's heart!
A flicker of surprise crossed Orochimaru's eyes, but he didn't care much, assuming this was Saiki's final explosion of life.
He sidestepped with fluid grace, simultaneously spitting the Kusanagi Sword from his mouth to parry Saiki's follow-up strike.
The two engaged in a violent, desperate struggle within the valley.
Saiki's swordsmanship appeared lethal, yet he repeatedly lacked the strength to follow through at the critical moment.
His Lightning Style looked berserk, but failed to land any meaningful damage on Orochimaru.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru remained composed, handling the boy with ease as he used bizarre ninjutsu and snake-based secret arts to continuously drain and probe him.
Finally, after another heavy collision, Saiki's blade was sent flying by the Kusanagi.
Saiki stumbled back, falling to one knee as he clutched his chest, coughing up a massive spray of blood.
His aura was abyssal; he didn't even seem to have the strength left to stand.
"It's over, Saiki-kun." Orochimaru held his Kusanagi, walking slowly toward Saiki.
The tip of the blade pointed at the boy's throat, his face a mask of absolute, dominant glee.
"Any last words?"
Saiki lifted his head, but his face broke into a mocking, pitying smile.
"Heh... Orochimaru... you think... you've won? Even if I'm at death's door... killing you... is more than enough..."
Orochimaru's brow furrowed. A sudden, inexplicable sense of unease rose in his gut.
But looking at the boy who could barely even twitch a finger, he suppressed the anxiety, dismissing it as the final wail of a defeated cur.
"Stubborn until the very end!" Orochimaru snorted coldly, and the Kusanagi lunged forward without hesitation!
However, just as the tip was about to pierce Saiki's skin—
The world shifted!
The "dying" boy on the ground erupted with a brilliance in his eyes that was unprecedented!
In a sudden, violent surge, the two figures crossed paths!
"How... how is this possible!" Clutching his throat, Orochimaru's eyes went wide.
A thin red line appeared across his neck, signaling the end of the line.
Kneeling on the ground, Saiki gasped for air in massive lunges.
But before he could catch his breath, the sound of rhythmic, crisp clapping echoed through the valley.
A second Orochimaru, face full of confidence, walked out from the dense forest.
"You! How can this be?" Saiki's eyes widened as he whipped around to look at the fallen Orochimaru.
"What a spectacular show, Saiki-kun!" With a smile on his face and a voice dripping with self-assurance, Orochimaru looked down at him triumphantly.
"You must truly be at the end of your rope now!"
Saiki used his sword to brace himself as he stood up. "I can still kill you. Do you believe me?"
Looking at Saiki's hollow facade—the way he mocked him while clearly being weak—the doubt in Orochimaru's heart was consumed by an even greater hunger and rage.
He was certain Saiki was bluffing!
Instantly killing a high-fidelity clone must have cost him his very last reserves!
Now was the moment of absolute vulnerability!
"Sharp-tongued brat!" Orochimaru tore off his mask of civility, a gargantuan chakra erupting from his frame.
"Once I turn you into a specimen, we'll see how arrogant you can be! Many Snake Formation!"
His jaw unhinged. Thousands upon thousands of venomous snakes poured from his maw like a tidal wave, drowning the valley as they rushed for Saiki!
This time, it was the full power of the original body!
Faced with this horrific tide of scales and fangs, the "fake" composure on Saiki's face finally shattered.
He showed a look of despair and resentment, swinging his blade with his remaining strength, but the lightning on the steel was dim and pathetic.
"FINISH HIM!" Orochimaru's face twisted into a victorious leer, his true body hidden behind the wall of snakes, ready to deliver the killing blow the moment Saiki was swallowed.
However, a microsecond before the snakes reached him—
Every trace of weakness, despair, and resentment vanished from Saiki's face as if it had never existed!
It was replaced by a bottomless, freezing tranquility... and the detached coldness of a hunter who has finally seen his prey step into the snare.
The long blade in his hand no longer flickered with weak lightning.
Instead, it was wreathed in a layer of pure, soft, yet blinding white radiance that made Orochimaru's very soul shiver in terror.
He swung the blade forward with a casual, effortless motion.
There was no sound. There was no aura.
Wherever the blade passed, the surging, toxic tide of the Many Snake Formation vanished.
It was like a pencil drawing being rubbed out by a god-tier eraser; the snakes were annihilated instantly, reduced to basic particles and scattered to the wind.
The momentum of the strike did not end. The white blade-qi seemed to pierce through the fabric of space itself.
Ignoring all distance, it appeared directly in front of the real Orochimaru hidden in the rear!
The leer on Orochimaru's face froze, replaced by an absolute, terminal horror and disbelief!
He tried to dodge, tried to use a Substitution Jutsu, only to find the space around him locked and solidified by that white light!
"NO—!!!"
It was the final, desperate shriek of his life.
SQUELCH.
The white blade-light passed through his heart as easily as a hot wire through chilled butter.
It bypassed every defensive ninjutsu and his reinforced, modified flesh with total ease.
A mountain of pure, holy Sage Chakra flooded into him instantly. It was the ultimate purifier.
Everywhere it touched, Orochimaru's cold, wicked, and ominous chakra was dismantled and vaporized.
The forbidden seals he relied on for survival, the contingencies for soul-transfer... under this absolute power, they were like snow beneath a summer sun. They failed to even trigger.
Orochimaru's eyes were wide as he stared at Saiki's calm, emotionless face from inches away.
Feeling his life force and consciousness being stripped away at light-speed, he managed to gasp out a few broken syllables:
"You... were faking... This... what... is... this... power..."
Saiki slowly withdrew his blade, watching Orochimaru's face turn ashen and grey. He spoke one final, flat sentence:
"You... haven't developed the Living Corpse Reincarnation yet, have you?"
Those words struck Orochimaru's mind like a bolt of divine lightning!
That was his deepest, most secret research—a path to immortality he hadn't shared with even his closest subordinates!
How could he possibly know?!
Endless confusion and a final, crushing regret were the last things Orochimaru ever felt.
In the next heartbeat, a gargantuan explosion of sword-qi erupted from within him.
His body—the vessel of countless ambitions and forbidden knowledge—along with his struggling soul, was completely destroyed and annihilated.
Not a single cell was left behind to allow for a resurrection.
The legendary Sannin, the man who pursued immortality and Truth, the grand schemer and scientist... Orochimaru was erased from existence!
Saiki watched the spot where Orochimaru had turned to ash, letting out a soft, weary breath.
There was no joy of victory on his face, only a mask of indifference.
He brushed off a speck of non-existent dust from his sleeve, as if he had merely swatted a nuisance.
Then, he turned his head. He looked toward the other side of the valley, deep into the dark, silent forest.
He spoke, his voice clear and resonant, carrying across the distance:
"Stop watching. Come out."
"Orochimaru was just the appetizer."
"I've been waiting for you for a long time."
As the words fell, the shadows of the forest began to warp and twist.
A figure clad in ancient red armor, with hair as wild and untamed as a forest fire, stepped slowly into the light. He was wreathed in a powerful, ice-cold chakra.
Those eyes—possessing the power of life and death, creation and destruction, the eyes that governed all things—the Rinnegan.
They locked onto Saiki with an intense, solemn scrutiny.
Madara Uchiha had finally appeared!
The entire staged drama, the serial play of "weakness," had been for this purpose.
Orochimaru was too slippery; if Saiki had revealed his hand, the snake would have fled to a hole he could never find.
Now that the act was over, it was time for the true target.