"Hey, that's interesting."
The moment Orochimaru saw the transformation taking place in Carl's body, a gleam of fascination lit up in his serpent-like eyes.
Carl—the Fire Prince who had arrived in Konoha a week prior—was already known to Orochimaru, thanks to the intelligence reported by Kabuto. Yet, the report had conspicuously lacked crucial details: that Carl was a ninja, and that he possessed such a terrifying level of physical strength—enough to obliterate a massive summoned snake with a single punch.
"Stop daydreaming and save the others!" Carl barked.
With that, he grabbed the lifeless summoned snake by its massive jaw, swung its colossal body like a whip, and hurled it toward Orochimaru with staggering force.
Orochimaru's eyes widened. He barely leapt aside in time to dodge. The place where he had just stood—a thick tree trunk, easily three to four meters in diameter—snapped cleanly in half under the force of the impact. Anko Mitarashi, who had been perched on that very branch, lost her footing and plummeted toward the ground.
Sasuke and Sakura, who were holding the unconscious Naruto, finally snapped out of their daze. The sight of Carl morphing into a muscle-bound titan and destroying a summon beast with a single blow had stunned them into immobility.
They rushed forward, managing to catch Anko mid-fall.
"Trying to run?" Orochimaru sneered as he turned to pursue them. But before he could take a step, Carl appeared silently in front of him, blocking his path.
"You remind me of someone I once knew," Carl said flatly, his expression unreadable. "But I don't have time to play with you right now."
Intrigued but undeterred, Orochimaru opened his mouth, and his long tongue lashed out like a snake, aiming to ensnare Carl.
"Soft Physique Modification," Carl muttered, recognizing the technique instantly.
He didn't move an inch. Instead, he reached out and caught the tongue in midair.
This was one of Orochimaru's signature abilities—a jutsu he had developed himself that allowed his body to become hyper-elastic and stretch without limit. It was a powerful, seal-less technique, and one that Carl had specifically come to Konoha to learn.
If Carl could successfully integrate this jutsu, it might enable him to experiment with swallowing enchanted storage boxes expanded using the Traceless Stretching Spell—bringing more items between worlds.
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed as Carl tightened his grip on the tongue. He attempted to reel Carl in like a fish, yanking hard.
But Carl remained rooted, standing in a deep horse stance, his muscles like steel cables under tension. In this state—his chakra-enhanced form multiplied his strength fivefold—he was immovable.
"Let's fly."
Carl's voice was calm, almost bored, as he lifted Orochimaru by the tongue and spun him overhead like a ragdoll. His right arm blurred, whirling like a turbine. Orochimaru's body, flailing helplessly in midair, began to generate a vortex of wind strong enough to disturb the canopy of the forest.
"What in the world…?"
Sasuke and Sakura, a safe distance away, turned around instinctively at the disturbance. Their jaws dropped.
"Should we even be running?" Sakura muttered, completely stunned.
Anko, gritting her teeth against the pain in her neck where the cursed seal throbbed, snapped, "Don't stand there! Keep moving—get to the tower and bring reinforcements! Orochimaru won't go down that easily!"
Despite Carl's overwhelming strength, Anko knew her former master far too well. Orochimaru was not someone you defeated with brute force alone.
"It seems I won't be able to reach Sasuke unless I deal with you first," Orochimaru hissed, just before his airborne body twisted unnaturally.
Shedding his skin like a snake, a new body emerged, pristine and untouched—the grotesque but effective Snake Clone Technique. A forbidden ninjutsu of Orochimaru's own invention, it allowed him to escape death by sacrificing only his outer layer. Not even the Amaterasu flames could consume it fully.
"Now I'm going to cut you into eight pieces."
Reborn and seething, Orochimaru drew a sword from his throat and charged at Carl, blades flashing.
Carl cracked the snake-like tongue in his grip like a whip, aiming it at Orochimaru—but the legendary blade sliced through it with ease.
Carl's eyes narrowed as he recognized the weapon.
"The Kusanagi Sword..."
Orochimaru wielded two variants of the mythical Kusanagi. The first was straight and elegant, razor-sharp, capable of slicing through chakra-enhanced defenses, and extendable via chakra. The second, a Japanese-style katana, that would one day be passed on to Sasuke.
While Carl was physically stronger, Orochimaru's blade mastery and agility made him a dangerous opponent. Barehanded combat wouldn't be enough, and summoning a conventional weapon from the mission space would just get it cleaved.
So Carl reached inside his cloak and pulled out... a wand.
"The hell is that? A stick?" Orochimaru mocked, his lip curling as he lunged forward and slashed.
"Expelliarmus!"
Carl's voice was sharp and focused. A bolt of brilliant blue light shot from the Elder Wand and struck Orochimaru squarely in the chest.
Orochimaru had expected something flashy, perhaps a smoke bomb or minor binding jutsu. But the blast didn't harm him—instead, his grip loosened involuntarily. The sword flew out of his hand, embedding itself in a distant tree with a metallic thunk.
"What—?!"
Carl didn't let the moment slip. He stepped in with explosive precision.
"Xingyi—Half-Step Collapse Fist!"
A single, sudden step forward—and Carl's fist rammed into Orochimaru's abdomen like a cannon.
Orochimaru's body arced through the air like a missile, smashing through a dozen trees before crashing to the forest floor in a heap.
"Urgh!"
Gagging, Orochimaru opened his mouth unnaturally wide. Hands emerged from his throat, followed by a perfectly intact new body—yet another rebirth.
Carl exhaled slowly, frowning.
"That was a full-power strike—just shy of what Tsunade can do. And you're still not done?"
He wasn't wrong. Orochimaru might not be the most powerful in raw terms, but when it came to survival, he was nearly unmatched. Each regeneration was grotesque, but flawless.
"The number of lives you have is really pushing the definition of 'immortal,'" Carl muttered.