The atmosphere around the battlefield tightened as the legendary sannin, Orochimaru, finally dropped the last hint of amusement from his face.
The pale shinobi's golden eyes narrowed like a serpent preparing to strike.
"Interesting…" he hissed, his long tongue briefly flicking across his lips. "You're far more dangerous than the others."
Across from him, Kyro didn't move recklessly. His stance lowered slightly, weight balanced, eyes locked on Orochimaru's shoulders and hips rather than his face.
He already understood something important.
Orochimaru never attacked normally.
Everything he did had layers.
Wind stirred through the trees.
For a moment neither moved.
Then
SHRRRKK!
Orochimaru's neck suddenly stretched forward like a striking viper, his body barely moving as the blade of the Kusanagi Sword shot from his mouth at terrifying speed.
Kyro vanished.
The sword pierced straight through a boulder behind him.
But Orochimaru was already smiling.
"Too slow."
The ground beneath Kyro exploded.
Dozens of white serpents burst upward, coiling around his legs and torso like living chains.
Kyro reacted instantly.
BOOM
A pulse of raw power erupted from his body, shredding the snakes into pieces before they could constrict.
But that was exactly what Orochimaru wanted.
The sannin slammed his hand to the ground.
"Summoning Technique!"
Smoke exploded across the battlefield.
From it rose a massive purple serpent, its enormous body crushing trees beneath its weight.
The giant snake lunged forward, jaws opening wide enough to swallow Kyro whole.
Kyro didn't run.
Instead
CRACK
The ground beneath his feet shattered as he launched upward, rocketing straight toward Orochimaru instead of away from the summon.
Orochimaru's eyes widened slightly.
"Bold."
Kyro's fist came down like a meteor.
Orochimaru's body twisted unnaturally, bones bending in impossible ways as he dodged the strike by mere centimeters.
Kyro's punch slammed into the earth.
BOOOOOOM
A crater erupted across the forest floor.
The massive snake recoiled violently as shockwaves blasted through the area.
But Orochimaru immediately countered.
His arms extended unnaturally, stretching dozens of meters like serpents as they lashed toward Kyro from multiple angles.
Blades emerged from his sleeves.
Hidden snakes snapped from his wrists.
Poison fangs flashed.
Kyro blocked the first strike.
Dodged the second.
But the third grazed his shoulder.
A thin line of blood appeared.
Orochimaru's grin widened.
"Got you."
Kyro looked at the wound.
Then calmly wiped the blood away.
His eyes hardened.
"You're right about one thing."
The air around him suddenly compressed.
Wind spiraled violently outward as his aura surged.
"I won't underestimate you either."
The ground trembled beneath his feet.
Even Orochimaru felt it.
For the first time since the fight began…
The sannin's smile faded into genuine excitement.
"Excellent."
His killing intent exploded outward.
Snakes erupted across the battlefield.
Summons slithered through the forest.
The sky darkened with pressure.
Two monsters stood facing each other now.
No more testing.
No more holding back.
Just before the next clash
Orochimaru formed a complex hand sign.
Kyro noticed immediately.
His eyes narrowed.
Because he recognized the chakra pattern.
A forbidden one.
And if Orochimaru completed it…
The entire battlefield might change.
Next moment…
The fight would escalate into something far more dangerous.
The forest had already been devastated by the earlier clashes, but now the air itself felt poisonous with killing intent.
Across the shattered battlefield stood the legendary sannin, Orochimaru.
For the first time in the fight, the snake master's expression turned truly serious.
He slowly raised his hands and began weaving hand signs at blinding speed.
Kyro watched carefully.
The chakra pattern was wrong.
Not normal ninjutsu.
Something darker.
Orochimaru's lips curled into a dangerous smile.
"Let's see how long you survive this…"
His neck snapped back unnaturally as he opened his mouth impossibly wide.
RRRRRRIP
His own skin split open.
From within emerged a new body, pale, monstrous, and far more serpentine.
The forbidden technique had begun.
The transformation was the terrifying Yamata no Orochi Form.
Eight massive white serpents erupted from his back, their eyes glowing with murderous intelligence. Each head towered over the broken forest like a living war machine.
The ground cracked beneath their weight.
Trees collapsed.
The air filled with the sound of hissing.
Kyro didn't step back.
Instead he closed his eyes.
Deep inside him…
The ancient power of the Dreadbringer stirred.
Dark energy began pouring through his veins.
When his eyes opened again
They glowed crimson.
His body changed.
Black scales spread across his arms and chest like living armor.
Two curved horns burst from his temples.
His teeth sharpened into long draconic fangs.
The transformation made the surrounding air feel suffocating.
Even Orochimaru's serpents hesitated.
Kyro's voice deepened slightly as the power settled inside him.
"Let's finish this."
Then
He vanished.
Orochimaru's serpents whipped around searching.
Nothing.
No chakra signature.
No footsteps.
No movement.
Kyro had activated the Mirage Technique.
Dozens of Kyros suddenly appeared across the battlefield, each flickering like heat distortion.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.
"Interesting illusion…"
One serpent lunged.
It tore through three Kyros.
Illusions.
Another serpent struck.
Nothing again.
Then
The real Kyro appeared above them.
His chest expanded as dark energy gathered in his lungs.
The air began to distort violently.
Orochimaru sensed it instantly.
His eyes widened.
"That chakra…!"
Kyro unleashed it.
"Breath of Dread."
A massive beam of blood-red fire exploded from his mouth like a dragon's wrath.
The attack tore through the forest like an apocalyptic laser.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Miles of trees were instantly vaporized.
The earth melted.
The sky lit crimson.
Orochimaru's gigantic serpents screamed as several were burned to ash instantly, their bodies disintegrating in the inferno.
The remaining heads tried to retreat
But the beam swallowed everything.
The shockwave flattened the entire forest region.
Even the ground cracked open like a battlefield hit by a meteor.
At the last possible moment, Orochimaru made a desperate decision.
He slammed his hand into a summoning seal.
"Reverse Summoning!"
Just as the beam engulfed his position
His body vanished in a swirl of smoke.
The firestorm continued carving across the land before finally fading.
Silence returned.
Where a massive forest once stood…
There was now a smoldering wasteland stretching to the horizon.
Charred earth.
Molten stone.
Ash drifting through the air.
Kyro slowly landed in the center of the devastation, his scaled body still radiating heat.
His crimson eyes scanned the battlefield.
No serpents.
No Orochimaru.
The sannin had escaped death by a fraction of a second.
Far away, deep within the hidden chambers connected to the domain of Orochimaru, the pale shinobi reappeared through reverse summoning.
His robes were scorched.
His breathing uneven.
But then…
He started laughing.
A quiet, fascinated laugh.
"Kyro…"
His golden snake eyes gleamed with obsession.
"What a fascinating specimen you are."
Back in the destroyed forest, Kyro's horns slowly began retracting as the Dreadbringer power settled again.
But something else was happening.
The sheer magnitude of that battle…
Had been felt.
Miles away, powerful shinobi had sensed it.
Among them
The father of the Copy Ninja himself.
Sakumo Hatake stood on a distant cliff overlooking the smoke rising from the destroyed forest.
His single visible eye widened.
"…What kind of monster caused that?"
And he wasn't the only one heading toward the battlefield.