"Even the inhaled gas has been purged? How reckless."
Orochimaru watched as Sasuke, wreathed in blue flames, drew closer step by step. Not only did he not feel afraid, but he even found the mood to quip.
"What a dilemma."
Serpentine eyes shifted between Sasuke and Yamato's bodies as Orochimaru spoke using Monet's voice.
"Whether it's you or her, you are both rare 'hosts'."
"In comparison, these two individuals I selected—"
As he spoke, Orochimaru raised an arm, and the hand instantly dissipated into a flurry of snowflakes.
"—aside from their Devil Fruit abilities, are practically worthless."
The gently falling fine snow soon turned into a heavy snowfall. Within a few seconds, the embers left by the explosion were blanketed in snow.
The surrounding temperature plummeted.
And with Sasuke's body as the center, a radius of several meters was completely empty.
The snowflakes simply vaporized into steam the moment they drew near.
"But thanks to this ability, otherwise it wouldn't have been easy to escape from that explosion—"
Orochimaru's words faded mid-air, along with half of his body.
A black werewolf shrouded in Calamity Flames now stood behind him, the fire on his arms still burning fiercely.
"Oh? You don't intend to extract the method to neutralize this gas from me anymore?"
Half of Orochimaru's face was burned away. With Monet's abilities, it was simply impossible to disperse via Logia intangibility before Sasuke's Haki-infused attack struck.
Even among Logia-type Devil Fruit users, there are differences in skill. Those at the level of the three Admirals indeed possessed incredibly powerful abilities, but they themselves were not weak.
It wasn't the fruit that made them.
Underneath the torn half of his facial skin, Monet's mouth was continuously spilling blood.
With half her body destroyed, her life was like a candle in the wind.
The swirling snowflakes also began to gradually dissipate after this moment.
"You say…"
Sasuke turned around. His injuries weren't fully healed, but at least externally, he looked mostly recovered.
The damaged wounds, filled with Calamity Flames, at least weren't bleeding anymore.
That previous strike was originally aimed at the head.
But the sudden surge in physical prowess due to [Karma] made it difficult for him to control his strength and accuracy.
"Which is more important to me: the antidote, or you?"
As Sasuke said this, his gaze met Monet's vacant left eye.
He understood that this woman's current experience should be similar to theirs earlier, forced to watch as her body was manipulated by another.
"Is it the antidote?"
The reply was Sasuke shaking his head.
"It seems it should be me—"
Yet Sasuke still denied it.
"So you still want to obtain the antidote?"
Speaking, Orochimaru suddenly sensed something and brushed his remaining hand past the corner of his eye.
Tears.
Monet's tears.
She had watched as Orochimaru used her body to threaten her family, and watched as her own sister died before her eyes.
At this moment, Monet's heart held nothing but killing intent toward Orochimaru.
And Sasuke seemed to understand something from those vacant eyes. The flames on his arms madly coalesced, forming an ethereal wolf's head.
Simultaneously, purple lightning began to flash and spiral around it.
"It is very important to me that you are gone."
Sasuke finally understood that some people are born without empathy.
In their eyes, the lives of their own kind can only be used as tools, as 'consumables'.
To achieve their own goals, they wouldn't mind how many people died.
They don't even value their own lives.
And trying to get a method to save others from such a person's mouth is nearly impossible.
When a decision must be made, make it. Not killing Orochimaru would only allow him to harm more people.
While Orochimaru was slightly stunned, Sasuke had already thrown his punch.
The giant wolf wreathed in lightning carved a black trajectory through the air, swallowing Orochimaru's current body in the blink of an eye.
Under the combined effects of high temperature and lightning, the flesh and blood were almost instantly turned to charcoal.
Retracting his fist, Sasuke then cautiously made his way toward Yamato.
He hadn't fully adapted to his drastically increased physical prowess yet… he had to concentrate fully on control.
Using a ranged attack earlier was a necessity.
"If Naruto were here, perhaps he'd have a better solution."
Walking to the pile of black ashes, Sasuke's eyes held no regret.
Naruto had indeed brought many changes to him, but he still maintained his own way of thinking.
Unlike Karin, Sasuke wouldn't wholly accept Naruto's ideas.
"...Uzumaki Naruto, huh?"
Suddenly, a voice somewhat familiar to Sasuke rang out.
'What?!'
Sasuke instantly turned his head, looking toward Yamato.
Unbeknownst to him, a piece of residual flesh had attached itself to Yamato's body and now covered half her face.
"If he had come here, I probably would have run away long ago."
Orochimaru manipulated Yamato's body to lightly move her head.
He had, of course, watched the broadcast of the Marineford War and had a basic understanding of the power of Naruto.
That was power not inferior to… no, possibly even surpassing that of an Emperor.
If he couldn't even handle Big Mom alone, how could he dare covet Naruto?
...Of course, he also coveted Naruto's body.
As for Yamato and Sasuke, they were actually outside Orochimaru's plans.
His greatest shortcoming was his weak physical body. Even with drug enhancement, he could only boost his regeneration, not truly and greatly increase his physical strength.
So he took a different path, beginning to plan in the direction of seizing others' bodies.
Perhaps this possession-style mindset was engraved in Orochimaru's instincts.
Otherwise, it's hard to explain why two people with no shared memories would develop the same possession skill.
Originally, in Orochimaru's expectations, capturing a [Sweet Commander] this time would have been considered achieving his goal.
Who would have thought he'd hook two big fish instead?
Of course, big fish also bring great risks.
It could be said that Orochimaru had no strength to contend with either Sasuke or Yamato.
The only thing he could do was catch them off guard, using the other type of gas to paralyze their bodies, just as he did with Diamante and Monet.
However, one thing still felt off to Orochimaru.
In his calculations, given Yamato's displayed physical prowess, the amount of gas needed to paralyze her body should have been more than this.
At least after Sasuke ignited the gas, the residual amount shouldn't have been enough.
But—
Orochimaru's 'skin' gradually covered Yamato's entire body.
He casually clenched his empty hand a few times… the terrifying force directly caused sonic booms in the air.
'This kind of power!'
'It was now under my control!'
Yamato's strength exceeded even his estimates.
Orochimaru even entertained the idea of challenging Big Mom now to reclaim his memories.
"But before that… let's test the limits of this body with you first."