"Advanced Earth Release: Hardening Technique… tch! What a troublesome ability. Shame I can't transmit Lightning Release chakra remotely into the Kusanagi Sword." Orochimaru curled his finger, and the Kusanagi Sword: Sky Blade traced an arc through the air before flying back into his hand.
From his sleeve, a small snake slithered out, opened its mouth, and swallowed the Sky Blade whole.
The other Kusanagi Sword—the one that could extend—had already been retrieved earlier when Orochimaru and Kyoichi were facing off, carried back through the body of a summoned serpent.
At the same time, Manda once again launched its attack, swinging its massive tail with brute force along the ground in a sweeping strike toward Kyoichi.
This blow carried its full strength—Manda's vengeance for the punch earlier that had left its mind reeling.
"Sage Art: Earth Release—Earth and Stone Dragon Technique."
Kyoichi clapped his hands together.
The hand seals—abandoned.
In Sage Mode, he found his affinity with the earth element far greater than in his normal state. Ever since his battle with Hanzō of the Salamander, he had been refining this connection—using the "divine eye's" bestowed extraordinary affinity and dominion over the earth element as the foundation, and framing it with the Earth Release techniques he had mastered.
The result: in Sage Mode, he could cast without seals.
That is to say—he could unleash any Earth Release he knew without forming a single hand sign.
Of course, the techniques themselves hadn't grown stronger yet. Limited by time, Kyoichi hadn't had the chance to optimize or innovate them into true Sage Techniques. For now, it was still his old Earth Release ninjutsu, powered by Sage chakra.
Even so—stripping away casting delays was already a significant step forward.
For shinobi who had honed agility to its peak, even a single second could tip the balance: one second faster meant victory; one second slower, death.
From the ground, a colossal dragon of stone erupted forth, its rugged body tearing through the earth like a runaway train. It met Manda's sweeping tail head-on with an earth-shaking crash. The stone dragon shattered into rubble, but Manda's tail was torn open, left raw and bleeding.
"Sage Art: Earth Release—Swamp of the Underworld!!"
Kyoichi's next strike followed immediately.
With no need for hand seals, his casting speed surged. If not for the time still needed to refine and convert chakra, he might have achieved truly seamless casting. Even so, this was close enough. While Manda roared in pain, the ground beneath it liquefied, churning into a deep mire of mud.
With its massive weight, Manda sank instantly. Only by lifting its head skyward did it avoid total submersion, but at this rate, even its skull would vanish beneath the swamp within seconds.
"Damn it!!!" Manda bellowed.
Its body tensed, then suddenly split open along the jawline. With a violent lunge, it shed its massive purple husk, leaping free of the swamp in a desperate Snake Shedding.
Orochimaru, still standing atop Manda's head, escaped along with it.
"Orochimaru, you bastard! Quit standing there watching me take the beating—fight back already!!" Manda cursed furiously.
It had been a long time since it had been pushed this far. In the distant past, alongside Orochimaru, it had suffered grievous battles—like against the giant, venomous salamander of Hanzō, where it had nearly lost its life if not for Katsuyu's intervention.
But those days were long gone.
For over a decade, every time it was summoned, it had either slaughtered freely or marched straight into overwhelming victories. Rarely had it tasted defeat.
And yet—
"Bang!!"
Orochimaru released the Summoning Technique, sending Manda back to Ryūchi Cave.
Against Kyoichi, Manda was of no further use. His Earth Release mastery countered Manda's burrowing and brute-force combat too directly. Keeping it here would only put it at risk.
Better to send it back—so Orochimaru could focus entirely on hunting this self-taught Sage, a rare specimen indeed!
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld."
Orochimaru formed hand seals and, even without Sage chakra, conjured a swamp nearly identical in scale to Kyoichi's Sage-powered version. The ground beneath Kyoichi collapsed into mire, dragging him down into the depths of death.
But within mere breaths—
"Splash!!!"
A colossal stone pillar erupted upward, splitting the mire.
Kyoichi stood atop it, drenched in mud, his appearance a bedraggled mess.
Before he could shake the filth off, Orochimaru was already upon him.
The sannin hadn't been surprised at all by Kyoichi's escape. Far from it—he had expected it. Anyone who could slay Hanzō of the Salamander and master Sage Mode alone would never fall to something so simple.
So, even as he cast the Swamp, Orochimaru had already summoned a disposable serpent, using its body as a stepping stone before the mire swallowed it. From there, he sprinted forward, leaping toward the rising stone platform.
As he soared upward, his hands completed a set of seals.
"Lightning Release: Snake Lightning."
Orochimaru's body erupted in blinding arcs of electricity, the lightning threads weaving together into the form of a giant, fanged serpent. With a crackling roar, it lunged and swallowed Kyoichi whole.
The boy's body was torn apart by lightning, bursting into clods of earth and mud.
"A Earth Clone… or a substitution…" Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.
This boy wielded Earth Release with terrifying mastery. Capturing him would not be easy.
And then—
Before Orochimaru could steady himself upon the stone platform, a hand burst from below, seizing his right ankle.
Crack!!
The bones shattered under Kyoichi's grip, his foot twisted into a pulverized mess.