Kisame

After all, the only way ahead is upwards.

Thinking of this, Orochimaru's heart gradually relaxed, and with a burst of deep tiredness came from within, he just rested against the boulder for a while.

In a distance, behind a tree, Kisame quietly watched Orochimaru.

Orochimaru is undoubtedly a genius scientist. During his lifetime, the development of Hashirama cells was only one of his many research achievements.

Cursed seal, Impure reincarnation, the eight branches... Orochimaru's attainments and experience in many ninjutsu are very precious, which makes Kisame very envious.

Not to mention, if he can get Orochimaru's insight and experience of the Eight branches, it will be of great help to Kisame.

That's why he followed Orochimaru, and planned to subdue the latter and bring him back to Kirigakure to torture and interrogate him.

However, just when Kisame was about to attack.

'Hmmm?'

He suddenly found that he was not the only one who followed Orochimaru, and the other party attacked earlier than him.

'Swish!'

A kunai flew like lightning from a distance and went straight to Orochimaru. The latter was bowing his head, as if he was too tired and fell into a deep sleep.

Just as the kunai was about to pierce Orochimaru's face, he suddenly opened his eyes, tilted his head to the side, and ducked in the nick of time.

Immediately afterwards, Orochimaru rolled on the spot and hid aside.

Almost at the same time, the kunai that was inserted into the crevice of the big rock, that had an explosion tag tied to it exploded with a loud bang, blasting the huge rock into countless pieces.

"Who is it? Come out!"

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and stared at a bush not far away, only to see a figure rush out and land on the opposite side of him.

It was a tall man wearing a headscarf and a mask, and Orochimaru couldn't see his face clearly, but he had the forehead guard of Taki Shinobi on his forehead.

However, it was slashed horizontally, indicating that this person was a traitor.

'Kakuzu.'

Some time ago, Kakuzu, as a bounty hunter who was addicted to money, was attracted by the 300 million ryo on Kisame's head, and secretly sneaked into the Land of Water, preparing to assassinate Kisame.

As a result, as soon as he entered the gold exchange office to get information, he ran into Kisame destroying the gold exchange place. In just one encounter, Kisame destroyed a heart and he escaped by luck.

Kakuzu was frightened by this and immediately gave up his plan to assassinate Kisame, and instead focused on the two Konoha traitors, Danzo and Orochimaru, so he came to the Land of Rain.

A day ago, he sneaked into Amegakure, hid in the dark like Kisame, and followed Orochimaru all the way.

"Are you really Orochimaru?"

Kakuzu stared at Orochimaru for a few times, then took out the Bingo book for comparison, and nodded with satisfaction, "As expected of the former Konoha Sannin, your bounty is as high as 60 million ryo, this time I earned big amount."

Hearing his words, Orochimaru was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that he was targeted by a bounty hunter.

"He really don't know what is good for him."

Orochimaru smiled coldly, his pair of golden snake pupils glowed with cold light, exuding a strong killing intent.

He was chased and defeated by Nagato, Obito, Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, and now even a small bounty hunter dared to come to him and brazenly wanted to take his body to collect the reward.

Orochimaru was chased and defeated all the way, and his heart was full of fire. he can vent his anger on this guy.

Thinking of this, he made a sudden move, and with one move, he summoned a large number of poisonous snakes from the sleeves of his hand towards Kakuzu.

In the face of this move, a general Jōnin can't even resist, they only to be killed in seconds.

However, to Orochimaru's surprise, Kakuzu sneered, and a large number of strange black lines shot out from his arms.

'Shhhhhh.'

These black wires flew forward, they are extremely flexible and are as sharp as steel wires, forming a large net that cut the venomous snakes one by one.

'Rustle.'

None of the snakes summoned by Orochimaru survived, they were cut into several pieces and fell to the ground. After struggling for a while, the stumps stopped moving.

Seeing this scene, Orochimaru was surprised.

'What kind of ninjutsu is this?'

He has always been well-informed and can identify thousands of ninjutsu, but this strange black wires used by this man is something he has never seen before.

Kakuzu spoke again, and asked Orochimaru in a deep voice:

"What about Danzo who defected with you? That guy's body is also worth 60 million ryo. However, if I deal with both of you at the same time, it may be a little troublesome for me. Forget it, that's fine, I will kill you first, and add a fresh heart, I found you at the right time."

When he finished speaking, he tore off his clothes, revealing his body stitched up with black threads, and then walked towards Orochimaru step by step.

"You are…"

Orochimaru's pupils suddenly shrank, his figure suddenly retreated, and he blurted out the other party's name, "Taki traitor - Kakuzu!"

"Oh? I didn't expect anyone to recognize me. I am really surprised."

Kakuzu stopped in his tracks, feeling surprised. He was very curious about this. As Orochimaru had never seen him before, so how did he find out his identity.

"You are a repeat offender of Taki, you were supposed to be imprisoned in Hozuki Castle, but you escaped from there and returned to Taki to kill all the high-level officials and take away their Kinjutsu."

Orochimaru stared at Kakuzu as his eyes flickered and analyzed, "It stands to reason that you are in your seventies now, but you are still middle-aged, presumably because of the Earth Grudge, right? I heard that it is a way to make someone immortal, when I heard you say that you want to take my heart, I believe it is how you became immortal."

The reason why he locked on his identity so quickly was because he was very interested in the Earth Grudge, and had collected a lot of relevant information about it.

'Clap clap.'

After listening to him, Kakuzu couldn't help but clap his hands and say with emotion:

"Excellent analysis! That's right, I'm Kakuzu, a man who once assassinated the God of ninjas, Senju Hashirama, and successfully retreated. By the way, I went to the Land of Water not long ago to assassinate the Demi-God Hoshigaki Kisame, although I failed, I once again successfully escaped with my life. You are not wronged to die in the hands of someone like me."

Kakuzu's boasting horrified Orochimaru, as he didn't expect his record to be so brilliant. If what he said was true, then he was a powerhouse no less than Nagato and sage mode Jiraiya.

Not only Orochimaru was surprised, but even Kisame, who hiding in the dark was also surprised.

When he saw Kakuzu for the first time, he recognized his identity, but in his memory, it was clear that he had never moved against this guy.

'Is he bragging?'

While Kisame was still wondering, Orochimaru and Kakuzu have already started fighting.

'Swiiiii!'

Orochimaru quickly formed a seal and threw a shuriken forward. The shuriken separated into hundreds of clones and shrouded the latter overwhelmingly.

Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu.

This is an A-level ninjutsu created by Orochimaru's teacher Sarutobi Hizen, which is very lethal and specially used to deal with strong enemies.

Orochimaru had just experienced a fierce battle in Amegakure, and used the Orochimaru Substitution Jutsu, consuming a lot of chakra, and was in a state of extreme weakness.

Therefore, when facing a powerful enemy of this level, he could only strike first and resolve the battle as quickly as possible, otherwise he would be doomed to lose if he dragged on.

Unfortunately, Kakuzu is not a weak ninja.

Earth style · Earth shield!

In the face of the incoming Shuriken Rain, he resorted to the earth style ninjutsu, which hardened the skin of his body into pitch black, creating a powerful defense.

'Clang clang clang.'

Those shurikens struck Kakuzu making bursts of metal hitting each other, bursting with dazzling sparks, and finally falling to the ground.

After defusing Orochimaru's ninjutsu attack, kakuzu's's eyes turned cold and he slapped the ground with his palm.

Next second.

Under Orochimaru's feet, a black wire that was attached to the end of his palm emerged from the ground, hit Orochimaru's chin, sending him flying high.

kakuzu's body is connected by countless black wires. His wrists, arms, and even his body can be separated at any time. When fighting an enemy, he can attack from near or far, with unexpected effects.

The Tentacle Punch just now was a tried-and-true move that Kakuzu had tried many times, and it only needed a single blow to penetrate the enemy's heart. However, he wants to keep Orochimaru's heart, so he didn't kill him.

But this time, it was Kakuzu's turn to be surprised.

'Boom.'

Orochimaru flew high and fell heavily, but right at the moment he reached the ground, his body like a clay statue, shattered into countless clods.

"Earth style clone jutsu, when did he..."

Kakuzu was startled, and before he had time to think about it, he felt a strong fishy wind coming from behind him.

He turned around abruptly, and saw a huge python rushing over, opening its mouth, trying to swallow him whole.

"Humph."

Kakuzu snorted coldly, used the earth shield jutsu to harden his whole body again, and used his arms to hold the python's upper and lower jaws so that it couldn't eat him.

However, this big snake is just a feint, it is to let Kakuzu fall into the trap.

Just when Kakuzu was at a stalemate with the snake, Orochimaru's body rushed out of the belly of snake, holding a sharp sword, which instantly penetrated Kakuzu's heart.

"Poof!"

The python turned into white smoke and disappeared. And Kakuzu also fell to his knees on the ground with a plop, clutching the big hole in his heart, his expression extremely distorted and painful.

"How is it possible, even my earth shield jutsu can't resist..."

Kakuzu raised his head with difficulty and stared at the sword in Orochimaru's hand, feeling unbelievable.

"Because this sword is one of the legendary Kusanagi swords, it is sharp enough to pierce everything in the world."

Orochimaru said proudly.

There are three Kusanagi swords in the world.

As a Kusanagi sword collector, Orochimaru has acquired two Kusanagi swords in the past few years.

Not long ago, one Kusanagi Sword that he uses most of the time was taken away by Kisame. Fortunately, one more remained remained, which won him this life-and-death battle at a critical moment.

However, this duel between the two is destined to have twists and turns.

Kakuzu, whose heart was pierced by Orochimaru, should have died, but he suddenly let out a low roar, and his back bulged high, as if something was about to run out of it.

'Shhhhhhhh.'

Under Orochimaru's horrified gaze, four black shadows of different heights shot out of Kakuzu's body and turned into four mask monsters.

On one of the mask monsters, the mask on its face shattered with a click, and fell to the ground.

The remaining three mask monsters represent fire, wind and lightning respectively, and also represent the three remaining hearts.

Kakuzu slowly stood up from the ground, and finally resorted to the Earth Grudge mode.

As he cast the seal, the lightning mask merged into the heart of his body, while the Fire and Wind masks were fused onto his left and right shoulders respectively.

"Is this the secret of Earth Grudge?"

Orochimaru saw this and could see on the spot the characteristics of the Earth Grudge jutsu, which is to achieve immortality by constantly stealing the hearts of others.

And the most surprising thing is that the body can hold multiple hearts at one time, which means that he has several lives.

This is similar to the Eight branches jutsu he practiced.

At this moment, Kakuzu, who turned on the Earth Grudge form, without a word of nonsense, launched the most powerful compound ninjutsu attack at Orochimaru.

His body and the two masks on his shoulders opened their mouths at the same time, releasing three large-scale ninjutsu. They intertwined with each other to form a dazzling beam of light, sweeping towards Orochimaru.

"Triple Rashomon!"

Facing the terrifying ninjutsu released by Kakuzu, Orochimaru did not dare to hold any reservations, and with a loud shout, he displayed the most powerful defensive ninjutsu.

With this move, the winner will be decided and the battle will come to an end.

Extremely violent chakra fluctuations rose in the valley, and the dazzling light drowned everything.

The three mouths on Kakuzu shot in unison to form a chakra cannon with a diameter of more than ten meters, which was powerful enough to destroy a town or a mountain.

Orochimaru, after he formed the seal, he pressed his palm to the ground, draining all the chakra in his body, and finally summoned three huge doors at the critical moment.

'Rumble.'

The three Gates rose from the ground, lined up in a row, and blocked in front of Orochimaru in turn. Each of them is more than ten meters high, and the door is carved with the head of an evil spirit symbolizing death, which is the door of Shura from hell.