Chapter 154: The Final Lesson! White Scaled Serpent Barrier!
On the border of the Land of Wind, above the desert connecting to the rocky wasteland...
Tsukasa lay on the ground, staring at Orochimaru, who had just crawled out from the serpent's mouth.
The atmosphere froze for a moment.
"Orochimaru-sensei?!"
Tsukasa was shocked. At this critical moment, when he had exhausted all his chakra and could only hope that Ryūchi Cave's natural energy would give him one final burst of power—how did backup suddenly appear?
But thinking about it, it made sense. The Cursed Seal of Heaven, also known as the Curse Mark Possession Technique, was one of Orochimaru's immortality jutsu, containing fragments of his soul.
During the future battle between Sasuke and Itachi, Orochimaru had used this technique to exploit Sasuke's moment of weakness, crawling out from the curse mark to attempt taking over his body.
But Tsukasa thought—this doesn't add up. The Orochimaru of this time period shouldn't want to take over his body yet.
So why had Orochimaru crawled out now?
At this moment...
Orochimaru emerged from the white snake's mouth and landed on the ground. His serpentine eyes narrowed tightly as he stared at Tsukasa, who lay flat on his back, half his body covered by the dark patterns of the Cursed Seal of Heaven, having practically brought himself to death's door.
In truth, Orochimaru hadn't created himself—he had been forcibly expelled by the natural energy within the curse mark.
While his original body still lived, this expelled Orochimaru was merely a shadow clone, a safeguard against the paradox of multiple Orochimarus existing simultaneously, preventing a single soul from operating across multiple bodies for extended periods.
This Orochimaru's memories were frozen at the moment in the underground chamber of the Jashin Cult in the Land of Hot Water, when he had injected the Cursed Seal of Heaven into Tsukasa, performed experiments on him, and decided to take him as his student.
So in Orochimaru's eyes at this moment... how long had it been? How was this kid already on the verge of death again?
And why did he think "again"?
Orochimaru felt a chill run down his spine and was momentarily speechless.
But he quickly forced himself to regain composure.
He raised his hand and placed his palm on Tsukasa's shoulder, his serpentine eyes coldly and emotionlessly scanning the state of Tsukasa's body.
Soon, he narrowed his eyes in contemplation.
"As expected... this kid has been using the Cursed Seal of Heaven."
"A considerable amount of time must have passed—half a year, or perhaps a full year? My hypothesis was correct. With this kid's assistance, I should have mastered the Cursed Seal of Heaven by now in the present timeline."
"But it's still not perfected. I still haven't solved the difficulty of properly fusing the curse mark with Sage Chakra."
"Fortunately, this brat's body is incredibly resilient. The natural energy couldn't override the soul structure solidified by his unique constitution, and couldn't instantly transform him into a serpent. It could only gradually modify his physical structure."
"In other words, this kid subdued Ryūchi Cave's rampaging natural energy with nothing but his physical body."
"Then, the remaining question is—how to harness this natural energy."
Orochimaru stared intently at Tsukasa on the ground, his mind racing. His serpentine eyes narrowed, as if observing a fascinating experimental subject.
Suddenly, he chuckled hoarsely.
"Heh. Interesting."
Orochimaru raised his head, gazing at the Wind Release: Thousand-Faced Wind Blade jutsu raining down across the desert night sky, his brows furrowing slightly.
"A Sunagakure technique capable of using Wind Release to this extent? Is it Elder Ebizō?"
He only wanted to study the changes brought about by the Cursed Seal of Heaven, but the jutsu's coverage area was interfering with his research.
"Hmph, how irritating. I'll have to leave the detailed analysis to my main body."
Orochimaru frowned impatiently, snorted coldly, and drew some natural energy from Tsukasa's Cursed Seal of Heaven, exhaling deeply.
"Now then, I need to keep this brat alive first."
He rapidly formed hand seals and slammed them onto the ground.
"Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation!"
"Secret Technique: Serpent Body Hardening!"
In the next instant, the desert ground around Tsukasa and Orochimaru suddenly collapsed inward. A massive amount of sand was drawn upward by Inorganic Reincarnation, forming a huge crater. Under the influence of Sage Art, the sand transformed into thick, giant serpents that coiled together, rising toward the sky in a cage-like serpent barrier.
Then, under Orochimaru's controlled hand seals, the unconscious giant serpents hardened their bodies into steel.
This composite ninjutsu rapidly completed an extreme transformation of nature and form in mere seconds.
Orochimaru knew Sage Arts—he simply couldn't enter Sage Mode himself.
Inorganic Reincarnation wasn't an exclusive technique of Kabuto's future Sage Mode. Orochimaru also knew it, and was even more proficient than Kabuto would be. He could even execute it without hand seals.
He had used this technique before against the Four-Tails Jinchūriki Naruto, transforming the Kusanagi Sword into serpents through Inorganic Reincarnation. Unlike Kabuto's clumsy attempt to turn Inorganic Reincarnation into Earth Release, Orochimaru's technique was authentic Ryūchi Cave Sage Art.
He truly transformed inorganic matter into living beings!
Tsukasa stared blankly at Orochimaru's series of actions.
From his perspective, he only saw Orochimaru suddenly give him a sinister smile, then mutter to himself, "This brat needs to survive."
Then Orochimaru began demonstrating his skills as an elite shinobi.
Looking at the densely packed steel serpents wildly dancing toward the sky, Tsukasa was stunned. He wondered if something had gone terribly wrong.
He was about to unleash everything he had! This wasn't some fighting game where you could press a button to call for assistance! How did things turn out like this?
Orochimaru calmly watched the rain of death falling violently from the night sky, then stood up with his hands behind his back.
Lying on the ground, Tsukasa could clearly see that as the technique activated, massive amounts of chakra were being frantically extracted, and the sand on the ground constantly transformed into giant steel serpents surging into the sky!
Orochimaru's body was rapidly becoming withered and emaciated, resembling a skeleton.
Tsukasa's serpentine eyes suddenly contracted.
When he saw this scene of flesh dissolving away, he couldn't help but feel panic rising, staring at Orochimaru in shock.
The Orochimaru crawling out of his body now was not the same Orochimaru he had seen on the Sunagakure battlefield these past few days—the one who had already mastered the forbidden technique of Living Corpse Reincarnation and achieved a preliminary perfected form of immortality.
The Orochimaru at this stage hadn't yet mastered that forbidden immortality technique.
In other words, with such massive chakra extraction, the Orochimaru before him would truly die!
"Wait, Orochimaru! What are you doing?!"
"Heh."
Orochimaru, with his back turned, chuckled hoarsely.
He raised his head, gazing at the sky with his dim, golden serpentine eyes, and calmly said:
"Tsukasa, I don't know what happened in the future timeline."
"But—" He tilted his head slightly, his dim golden serpentine eyes glancing at Tsukasa, a faint smile playing on his lips as he chuckled hoarsely. "That title you used earlier was quite pleasant. 'Teacher,' was it? Heh."
Orochimaru turned his head back forward, not looking back at all, and said indifferently:
"Then let me give you one final lesson!"
"You—"
Tsukasa's eyes widened, staring at him in shock, his heart tightening, momentarily at a loss.
This scene gave him the sensation of being back in that boiling volcanic sea, protected behind that old man, Uchiha Setsuna.
Orochimaru took a deep breath, his tone returning to its coldness, his brows furrowed as he spoke hoarsely:
"Listen carefully! The Curse Mark Possession Technique is incomplete. I don't have enough stored chakra within it to help you kill that old bastard out there."
"But to reach the shores of our shared dream, you must save yourself."
The moment his words fell—
Orochimaru's body was like a candle flickering in the wind, nothing but skin and bones, yet he stood firm against the raging storm!
He raised his head slightly, formed a hand seal, and then suddenly vomited an enormous white-scaled serpent from his mouth.
The serpent surged toward the sky, coiling its massive body to form one final serpent barrier above Tsukasa's head!
The white-scaled serpent lowered its head, enduring the countless wind blades that rained down, carving deep gashes into its body and spraying blood high into the air.
It stared intently at Tsukasa, opened its massive jaws, and left behind its final, hoarse words:
"Remember—pure natural energy is not unusable."
"You must follow your instincts—"
"To find the answer!"
End of Chapter 154
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