Chapter 41: The Same Kind of Person
Orochimaru's offensive suddenly stopped.
The Forest of Death fell into a dead silence. There were no insect chirps, no bird calls, only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves.
The setting sun had sunk below the horizon at some point, and a full moon now hung high in the night sky.
The clear, cold moonlight poured down upon the earth, filling the empty forest. The silver light reflected on the ground, creating dappled patterns of light and shadow that swayed with the wind.
The girl's equally clear and cold voice echoed through the forest, swaying in the cool night breeze under the moon.
"As one of the Sannin, Orochimaru, are clones the only trick you have left? Come out!"
The response she received was a deathly silence.
Sakura did not let her guard down. The oppressive atmosphere filling the forest told her that this was... the calm before the storm.
The next moment, a storm-like assault came!
The offensive... came from below! The girl subconsciously leaped high into the air, dodging the snake's bite that shot out from the ground!
BOOM—! As if the earth dragon had turned over, the ground below seemed to turn into boiling water. Countless poisonous snakes and giant pythons erupted from the soil!
Green, green, yellow, purple, venomous, non-venomous, colorful, drab and unremarkable, as thick as a thumb, or too large for several people to encircle... an endless swarm of snakes emerged from the depths of the earth, turning the clearing into a sea of serpents!
Below the girl, above her head, and in front of her, countless poisonous snakes and giant pythons shot up towards her. Amidst their hisses, they either spat venom, lunged through the air, opened their mouths to bite, or held sharp blades in their mouths, launching their attacks on her in various ways!
Faced with this frenzied scene, the girl's small, expressionless face couldn't help but change color abruptly!
The snake swarm covered the sky and the earth, surrounding the girl from above, below, left, right, front, and back. Wave after wave of attacks drowned the girl's slender figure!
"Water Style: Super Water Gun Jutsu!"
The girl's clear and cold voice was drowned out by the swarm of snakes, but a whitish line of water pierced through the layered stacks of the snake swarm, shooting out from its center and shining with a beautiful yet deadly silver light in the moonlight!
The silver light swept horizontally, drawing a fan-shaped arc in the snake swarm, carving out a life-forbidden zone and cutting countless poisonous snakes and giant pythons in two!
Dark red blood mixed with the remains of countless snakes fell from the sky, as if it were raining blood.
Even the frenzied, surging snake swarm, under the merciless slaughter of the silver light, had its endless offensive stalled for a moment!
Then, in the next second, the empty space cleared out by the silver light was filled again by the endless tide of snakes!
The girl's figure weaved left and right within the snake swarm. The silver light shot out from her hand from time to time, reaping tens of thousands of poisonous snakes and giant pythons, clearing out a space for her to breathe, only to be immediately submerged by the swarming snakes again!
Charging left and right, she was still unable to break out of the snake swarm's encirclement. The endless battle gradually left the girl breathless.
The silver light began to slow, her leaps becoming more strenuous.
Finally, the girl stopped.
Then, the snake swarm swallowed that thin figure.
Layer upon layer of poisonous snakes and giant pythons, with the girl at the center, piled up into a tangled, impenetrable ball of snakes. The endless tide of snakes swarmed in, making the snake ball grow larger and larger like a snowball!
After a long time, the tide of snakes finally ended. By this time, a snake ball with a diameter of over a hundred meters stood in the Forest of Death! On the surface of the snake ball, countless poisonous snakes were still writhing restlessly, looking for a gap to enter the center!
An ordinary ninja would have probably fallen long ago before the endless offensive of this snake tide.
Is it over...?
In the darkness, a pair of orange-yellow vertical pupils stared at the snake ball and said softly.
The snake ball stood quietly on the ground. Only the various poisonous snakes on its surface could be seen still moving restlessly, as if the figure they had surrounded had already been buried in their bellies, no longer existing in this world!
Then, a silver light pierced through the snake ball and shot towards the sky. Then, a second, a third...
From within the snake ball, a voice, a clear and angry shout, grew from small to large and came out.
"Water Style: Bursting Thousand Blades!"
The several silver lights began to rotate at high speed!
Stinking snake blood gushed out wildly from wherever the silver light passed!
The numerous severely injured poisonous snakes and giant pythons, spurred on by the pain, went berserk. They uncontrollably and madly attacked everything they could reach, venting their pain. And this venting further triggered chaos, accelerating the disintegration of the snake swarm!
Wherever the silver light passed, a chaotic bulge would form in the snake swarm, and countless snakes, whether dead, severely injured, or even completely unharmed, would detach and fall from the snake ball.
In the blink of an eye, the giant snake ball, over a hundred meters in size, was cut to pieces by the silver light. The remains of various poisonous snakes and giant pythons piled up into a small mountain on the ground!
The last remnant of a giant python also fell from the sky, revealing the core that had been tightly wrapped by the snake swarm just now.
It was a transparent water sphere made of ultrapure water.
Inside the water sphere, the girl, whose stamina and chakra had been greatly consumed, still maintained her arms spread wide, maintaining the existence of the water sphere. Only after the snake swarm was cleared away by the water cutter shot out from the water sphere did she stop the ninjutsu and lower her slightly trembling arms.
Huff—huff—!
Frowning, the girl panted heavily. Her face had become pale and almost transparent, her pink hair was soaked with sweat, clinging to the sides of her cheeks.
The endless offensive of the snake swarm had placed a huge burden on her spirit and stamina. The fierce battle had left her exhausted, and the final move, Bursting Thousand Blades, had overdrawn her stamina!
Sakura could feel her whole body going limp, but her eyes were still shining brightly. Her sharp gaze was like a knife as she stared at Orochimaru, who had revealed himself not far away!
The girl's tenacious and sharp emerald eyes once again met Orochimaru's crazed and triumphant orange-yellow pupils.
This time, the two of them stood on separate trees, facing each other from a distance. Neither launched a new offensive.
The battlefield below their feet, a stretch of forest several hundred meters long, had been ravaged by Orochimaru's giant pythons and Sakura's water cutter jutsu, and had been turned into a mess of broken branches and fallen leaves, mixed with the remains and foul blood of countless poisonous snakes and giant pythons into a muddy swamp.
The clouds parted and the moon emerged. The bright, clear moonlight once again shone down upon the earth, but the dappled light and shadows were no longer to be seen.
A strange silence permeated the air between the two of them.
The surroundings were dead silent, with only the sound of the breeze passing through the forest.
Sakura had been on guard against Orochimaru's next move, but then she suddenly noticed something was wrong.
"Naruto? Sasuke?" The battle had been over for so long, yet the two of them hadn't made a single sound!
A strange smile suddenly appeared on Orochimaru's face. Following his gaze, Sakura saw the two of them lying unconscious on the ground!
"Hehehehe... Don't worry! They're just asleep!" Orochimaru suddenly said, watching Sakura hastily rush to their side.
His voice suddenly became hoarse and tempting.
"Haruno Sakura... your ninjutsu has been without a breakthrough for a long time. You've probably already felt the village holding you back! A talented ninja like you, why be bound by this corrupt ninja village?"
"Come to my village! Here, as long as you have the strength, you can do whatever you want. There will be no constraints, no rules set by a village..."
"You and I are the same kind of person. I understand your current feelings very well! Come, follow me. Believe in my sincerity, and I will give you everything!"
Orochimaru said with fanaticism!
"Hmph..." Sakura sneered in disdain. "Put away your boring tricks! Your genjutsu only cheapens your so-called sincerity!"
"And, my ninjutsu hitting a bottleneck has nothing to do with the village. You can stop being so sentimental! My ninjutsu is different from yours; it doesn't require any morally bankrupt experiments."
"You and I are not the same kind of person at all..."
Orochimaru suddenly burst into wild laughter.
"Hahahaha! How interesting! Then let's wait and see. Let's see if one day, you'll come running to me like a stray dog with its tail between its legs!"
"By the way, I've left a small gift for Sasuke! He is a person who seeks power. He will definitely come to me, because he needs my power!" Orochimaru said with a wicked smile, looking at Sakura with great interest. "At that time, you, who believe in Konoha's hypocritical creed of comradeship, how will you face his betrayal?"
"I'm really looking forward to that day!"
After speaking, he slowly sank into the ground, disappearing from the battlefield in the blink of an eye.
"Is he gone?"
Only after she could no longer sense Orochimaru's chakra and dangerous presence did Sakura's resolve finally break, and she collapsed softly to the ground!
So tired! Her stamina and chakra were completely overdrawn! And even more exhausting was her constantly tensed spirit!
But... now is not the time to relax. Just hold on a little longer!
"Ugh~! Damn it, I can't collapse here!" Sakura clenched her teeth, scraped together some chakra from somewhere she didn't know she had, turned it into a water clone, and propped up Sasuke and Naruto to walk deeper into the Forest of Death.
I must get away from the battlefield, then open up a safe and hidden place to rest...
Sakura thought silently.
The three of us can't fight for a short time... From now on, until we recover our strength, will be our most dangerous moment!
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