Golden walls rose from the ground.
The Four Violet Flames Formation the Sound Four had erected still burned on the rooftop.
But compared to that golden light, the purple barrier suddenly looked pitifully fragile. Orochimaru's plan had been proceeding smoothly up until now—this golden wall's appearance was the one variable he had not accounted for.
His gaze locked onto the point where the two barriers met.
The violent clash of energies he'd envisioned… never came.
When the purple wall of the barrier touched the golden light, there was no thunderous report. No resistance. Nothing.
The golden light simply pierced through, completely overwriting the violet flames and beginning to devour them.
Jirobo, who was sustaining the barrier, flinched.
He was horrified to feel his chakra being sucked away by some unknown force, pouring wildly out through the conduit linking him to the barrier.
He couldn't hold back a mouthful of blood. It burst from his lips.
"My chakra is being absorbed!"
Pure terror echoed in Jirobo's voice.
Kidomaru, Tayuya, and Sakon/Ukon were in almost the same state.
An absolute sealing force was flowing back through the Four Violet Flames Formation they themselves had constructed, reflecting along that channel and crashing down on them. They had never heard of, let alone seen, such a method of counterattack.
The nature of this power completely overwhelmed them. Any attempt to resist was utterly meaningless. Their chakra was stripped away by force, their bodies going limp as energy drained out of them at a terrifying rate.
Orochimaru watched his subordinates' suffering.
The purple barrier faded rapidly under the golden light. In less than two breaths, it vanished completely.
In its place stood a golden cage—far wider in range, far sturdier in its structure.
Countless complex formulae flowed across the golden walls, weaving together into a seamless whole.
Kongō Hiraishin-kai (Adamantine Flying Thunder Realm).
Orochimaru stood at the center of the rooftop, all expression gone from his face.
He slowly turned his head, taking in the golden barrier rising on all sides.
As his gaze slid across the special formulae that made up the barrier's surface, a familiar pattern leapt out at him, sending a chill down his spine.
This type of sealing jutsu represented the highest level of the present era.
It could sever every flow of chakra in and out, and withstand even the most direct physical assaults.
Combined with Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God) markers, it was the technique of the Fourth Hokage, Minato. This space-time ninjutsu also stood at the very peak of the ninja world, allowing the user to appear at any marked point within the barrier.
"This… what kind of barrier is this!?"
"Kongō Fūsoku (Adamantine Sealing Lock)… and Hiraishin?! Can those two really be fused together?"
"Impossible."
The idea itself flew in the face of common sense.
Two techniques of completely different natures—each already standing at the summit—how could they be combined? To achieve that, one would need a deeper understanding of both than even their original creators.
Orochimaru's mind whirled as he tried to analyze flaws in the barrier.
Kongō Fūsoku's property was absolute sealing, cutting off all contact between inside and out.
Hiraishin's defining trait was absolute speed, free movement between marked coordinates. Fused together, they produced a cage that was not only unbreakable, but whose every inch of interior space was under the caster's control.
He thought of ways to escape.
Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei (Summoning: Reanimation) might be able to create enough chaos… but the summoning required a medium and time. The summoning scroll was on his person, but with Kongō Fūsoku severing connections, his link to Ryuchi Cave might already have been cut.
He couldn't sense any chakra fluctuations from outside at all.
This place had become an independent space—
A prison custom-built just for him.
All his life, he had pursued the truth. And now, that "truth" had trapped him in the most merciless way possible.
The technical difficulty to realize such a concept was beyond anything he could imagine.
What terrified him even more was this:
This barrier had been laid down in advance.
It wasn't a last-minute response. It was a trap that had been waiting for him for a very long time.
That meant his supposedly perfect "Konoha Crush Plan" had been inside someone else's precise calculations from beginning to end.
He was nothing but an arrogant, foolish animal that had thrown itself headfirst into a hunter's snare.
"Orochimaru."
A calm voice drifted up from the VIP section.
Shinju stepped out of the shadows and walked up the steps toward the rooftop, one measured step at a time.
He looked at the pale-faced Orochimaru standing on the tiles and spoke without the slightest ripple in his tone.
"Welcome to my stage."
"You thought you were the director, but you're just a clown who barely has any lines."
"The script you so carefully prepared… was nothing more than the opening act of our little after-dinner entertainment."
Those words shattered the last trace of wishful thinking in Orochimaru's heart.
He had fallen for it.
In that instant, his mind made the only correct judgment left to him—
Run.
His hands flew through seals. He decided to use Earth Style to burrow underground and escape this monstrous barrier.
But halfway through his hand signs, he froze.
A flash of gold flickered in front of him.
Minato appeared between him and the ground, cutting off every route of retreat.
In his hand, a high-speed spinning sphere of blue chakra had already taken shape.
Within that sphere, pure natural energy was mixed in, boosting its power several levels higher.
Senpō Rasengan (Sage Art: Spiraling Sphere)!
"The last time, I let you get away. This time, I won't. You're too slow, Orochimaru-sensei."
Minato moved at a speed that approached the limit.
Orochimaru barely had time to cross his arms over his chest, concentrating chakra into them in a desperate attempt to block.
Boom!
The Rasengan slammed straight into his sternum.
Devastating rotational force erupted all at once.
Orochimaru's arms twisted at unnatural angles, bone spearing through skin. His breastbone shattered piece by piece as his body was launched like a cannonball.
He crashed into the golden wall of the barrier behind him.
The barrier only shimmered faintly, then sent an even stronger backlash through him, hurling him forward once more and slamming him into the rooftop tiles. He rolled a long distance before finally coming to a stop.
A spray of blood mixed with fragments of his organs burst from his mouth.
Just one hit had pushed him to the brink of death.
"Orochimaru-sama!"
The Sound Four roared, eyes wide with bloodshot rage at the sight.
"Bastard!"
Jirobo slammed his hands onto the rooftop.
"Doton: Tsuchi Kairai (Earth Style: Land's Return)!"
The tiles at his feet heaved upward, rising into a massive earth wall that surged toward Minato.
Kidomaru opened his mouth and spat out a tough net of chakra-forged spider silk that dropped toward Minato from above.
Tayuya put her flute to her lips; her shrill melody turned into an invisible sonic assault.
Sakon and Ukon merged into one, their body spinning rapidly as they charged forward like a living drill.
The four of them moved with perfect coordination, sealing off every angle Minato could use to dodge.
But inside the golden barrier, all of that was meaningless.
Minato's figure vanished from where he stood.
In the next instant, he was behind Jirobo.
A Hiraishin kunai had somehow appeared in his hand. With a casual sweep, he opened Jirobo's throat.
Blood fountained out.
The earth wall, losing control, collapsed in a thunderous crash.
Minato vanished again.
He reappeared above Kidomaru's head and brought his heel down in a brutal axe kick, slamming him into the tiles. The chakra web shattered with him.
Tayuya's flute cut off mid-song.
A hand had closed around her neck, lifting her off the ground.
Jiraiya stood behind her, expression hard.
Sakon and Ukon's spiraling charge smashed into something invisible.
Kushina stood calmly in their path.
Golden chakra chains sprouted from her back, effortlessly intercepting their strike and binding them tight.
At the four corners of the barrier, Kushina, Jiraiya, and two masked Anbu each stood at a key point, hands forming seals as they sustained the jutsu.
This barrier was a prison crafted specifically for Orochimaru.
Its defensive power was unmatched.
The space within it was completely locked down by Hiraishin.
Any space-time ninjutsu was impossible to perform.
Orochimaru struggled to stand, but the agony coming from his body forced him back to the tiles.
His chest had caved in, a visible hollow in his ribcage. Every breath tugged at shattered bones and torn organs.
He looked at Minato walking toward him step by step… then looked at the distant youth whose face remained as calm as ever.
Today, there was no chance of escape.
He would die here, in this cage.
Shinju stepped into the center of the rooftop and looked down at Orochimaru, who now lay there like a half-dead dog.
"Now," Shinju said, "we can talk."
"About your 'Konoha Crush Plan.' About your little deal with Sand."
"And about those… interesting research projects of yours."
"I think you'll be very eager to cooperate, won't you?"
(End of Chapter)
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