"Yakita no Jutsu..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at Orochimaru's back. For a moment, he seemed to overlap with another figure from his memory—his former teacher, the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.

That same back, facing death.

When their team was surrounded by the Kinkaku Force during the First Great Ninja War, it was Tobirama who chose to stay behind, sacrificing himself so the others could escape.

And now... Orochimaru stood just as Tobirama had.

A surge of helplessness swelled in Hiruzen's chest.

His fists clenched so tightly that his nails cut into his palms.

"Damn it... just like back then."

"Is there still... nothing I can do?"

He grit his teeth so hard that blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced his chest, followed by a wave of weakness that spread through his limbs.

Only then did Sarutobi Hiruzen realize—even with the secret medicine, there was hardly any chakra left to draw from his aging body.

The medicine's side effects were beginning to set in.

His meridians felt fractured. Even breathing was a struggle.

His legs trembled, and he collapsed to one knee, barely supporting himself with one hand on the ground.

Now, he could only watch—helplessly—as his beloved student prepared to confront a tailed beast alone.

Orochimaru's chakra surged explosively, visible even to the naked eye.

Two meters. Five meters. Ten. Twenty. Forty.

As he completed the final hand seal, the chakra erupting from his body shifted in color—from blue to white.

The massive chakra mass began to separate—eight distinct streams, like eight towering white serpents.

All around, Konoha shinobi turned toward the terrifying aura gathering before them.

"Is that... one of Lord Orochimaru's summons?"

"No—if it were a summoning, it would've appeared instantly."

"Wait! Is this... is this the jutsu Orochimaru-sama invented?!"

Hope reignited in the hearts of the exhausted Konoha forces. The fear that had settled when Yagura entered his Three-Tails transformation now burned away.

Their blood boiled again.

The sounds of kunai clashing and chakra roaring surged across the battlefield.

"Push them back!"

"Drive Kirigakure out of Konoha!"

"Kill them all!"

The battlefield ignited anew.

At the center of it all—Orochimaru's forbidden jutsu, the Yamata-no-Orochi, finally took form.

Eight colossal white serpents, each over thirty meters long, towered above the battlefield. Though each individual snake was shorter than the Three-Tails, their combined mass nearly matched it in scale.

The serpents' backs were armored in bristling, jagged scales. They didn't resemble ordinary snakes—they looked like white serpentine dragons.

They were evolving.

Even Orochimaru hadn't expected the Eight-Headed Technique to activate so smoothly.

He had forged this jutsu using chakra extracted from the severed horn of the Eight-Tails, Gyūki. Through years of chakra infusion and forbidden experimentation, he created this technique to one day rival the tailed beasts themselves.

But he had always been a step short.

The chakra of tailed beasts is cold, violent, corruptive. It threatened to devour his own chakra—twisted and murderous as it already was.

If it weren't for Uchiha Hikaru...

If it weren't for him, who had stabilized the chaos within Orochimaru...

Even Orochimaru himself had forgotten just how vital that aid had been.

"Fwoooosh!"

"Crack!!"

The Three-Tails swung its massive tails, blowing away the surrounding mist.

Its enormous body loomed into view once more.

Its three tails slammed forward—aimed directly at the Yamata-no-Orochi.

But snakes are faster than turtles.

And Orochimaru—master of serpents, whose own body had long since become serpentine—commanded them like extensions of himself.

Six of the white snake heads lunged at once, their fanged jaws locking onto Isobu's tails.

The tails whipped in fury, but the snake heads clamped down harder.

Even Isobu's thick, armored hide couldn't withstand the combined bite force. His tails were pierced—crackling under the pressure.

The remaining two snake heads coiled and lunged at Isobu's face.

But the Three-Tails wasn't so easily overwhelmed.

He swung his claws sideways, slamming the lunging serpents aside. Then he raised his upper body and slammed both snake heads beneath his weight.

"ROOOAAAAARRR!!"

The thunderous bellow of the Three-Tails reverberated through the battlefield, bursting eardrums and rattling bones.

Then, with surprising speed, Isobu struck.

He lunged forward and bit down on one of the trapped snake heads.

Pain exploded through Orochimaru's soul.

Not just physical pain—soul-deep agony.

This wasn't like taking damage to the body. It was deeper.

Instinctively, Orochimaru released his grip.

The remaining six heads immediately retaliated, all lunging at the gap Isobu had left exposed.

Isobu tried to pull his head back—but too late.

Two of the snake heads latched onto his exposed neck.

"RAHHHHHH!!!"

The Three-Tails screamed in pain once more.

But this time, he responded with something different.

The tips of his three tails rose high into the air—then fired a barrage of chakra-infused needles.

Orochimaru acted quickly. He twisted his massive body, attempting to shield himself with the Yamata's armored back.

But the size of the transformation, once an advantage, now worked against him.

The heads moved swiftly—but the body moved slowly.

He realized it in that instant—

This form... it's too heavy.

He made a snap decision.

Orochimaru sacrificed two of the snake heads—positioning them to shield the others from the incoming storm.

"AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!"

Even bracing himself, the soul-rending pain left him howling in agony.

The battlefield heard it.

The Konoha shinobi turned toward the source.

Two of the Yamata's heads—skewered and bleeding—writhed in agony. Thick, blackish blood oozed from hundreds of tiny punctures.

"DAMN KIRIGAKURE!!"

"Kill them!!"

"Fight! FIGHT!!"

Their commander's pain turned to fury in their hearts.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, still kneeling, gritted his teeth as Orochimaru's tortured screams rang out through the chaos. His heart clenched.

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Bonus Chapter at 150 Power Stone

Second Bonus Chapter - 300 Power Stones

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