Naruto: Naruto's Uchiha girlfriend is too arrogant

Chapter 287 Uzumaki Naruto

Manda's enormous vertical pupils contracted into thin slits with extreme terror, staring intently at the Tailed Beast Ball before it, which was constantly gathering and radiating destructive energy. It could clearly sense the terrifying energy contained within it, enough to completely erase its massive body from the world! The shadow of death gripped its heart.

"Woohoo—!!!" It let out a terrified and futile howl, struggling with all its might to try to break free of its restraints. However, in the face of Naruto's superb sealing technique, which could even suppress tailed beasts, all its struggles seemed so pale and powerless.

Orochimaru! You bastard! Release my summoning jutsu right now! Hurry up!

Manda finally panicked completely, letting out a desperate roar, no longer caring about the dignity of a strongman.

Orochimaru, meanwhile, was in a similarly dire situation. His already dwindling chakra reserves from repeatedly using the Snake Substitution Jutsu were nearly depleted, leaving him in an extremely weak state. He desperately wanted to immediately dispel the summoning jutsu.

Manda, as his strongest summoning beast, requires a hundred living people as sacrifices each time he summons it. For him, who has many sources of "test subjects", it is just a "somewhat troublesome" resource consumption.

However, there is only one way to forcibly break the summoning—to use sealing techniques far superior to Naruto's to forcibly cover up or break the [Four Symbols Seal] placed on Manda.

This is an impossible task for him in his current state.

The reason Naruto felt an unwavering determination to kill Manda was simple and direct—human sacrifice.

Orochimaru doesn't know any cloning technology now... Back when Orochimaru and Danzo Shimura were in cahoots, they secretly kidnapped sixty innocent children as test subjects in order to create Wood Release ninjas, and they became human traffickers. In the end, only one child survived.

In the past, Orochimaru fought on the battlefield under the title of "Sannin" and could use enemy ninjas to satisfy his appetite when summoning Manda, which could be barely disguised as an "act of war"...

But now, Orochimaru, who has completely fallen from grace, is providing Manda with "sacrifices"... where could they possibly come from?

"boom--!!!!!"

The Tailed Beast Ball slammed into the very center of Manda's massive head at extremely close range! The destructive energy erupted instantly, completely engulfing Manda's entire head and even a large portion of its body!

Manda didn't even have time to utter a desperate howl. Its hard skull and scales instantly vaporized and disintegrated in the face of the absolute power of the Tailed Beast Ball! The terrifying shockwave of the explosion spread outwards in a spherical shape, crushing everything in its path into dust!

However, Naruto noticed that golden chakra automatically condensed around him again, forming a solid phantom of a fox head, which steadily blocked the violent aftershocks of the Tailed Beast Ball explosion.

It didn't actively control itself... The only one capable of doing that is that arrogant big guy.

As the smoke and turbulent energy from the explosion slowly dissipated, only a shockingly large, charred crater remained where the ten thousand snakes had once coiled. Scattered around the crater's edge were massive, charred, and broken skeletal remains from the snakes' tails.

The weakened Orochimaru was violently thrown away by the terrifying aftershock of the explosion! Of course, before launching the Tailed Beast Ball, Naruto had already created a shadow clone to take Gaara, who was not far away, to a safer area.

"Bang!"

Orochimaru's body slammed heavily against the trunk of a giant tree before he finally came to a stop. He struggled to his feet, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, looking utterly disheveled. When was the last time he felt so disheveled? He had almost forgotten what it felt like.

However, before he could catch his breath, a flash of golden light appeared before his eyes! Naruto's real body was close again!

"Bang!"

Another heavy blow landed on his shoulder, the enormous impact sending him flying backward uncontrollably before crashing heavily to the ground.

Orochimaru raised his sinister eyes and stared intently at Naruto, who was closing in. However, even in this desperate situation, no despair or fear was shown in his eyes.

As long as... the inheritor of the cursed seal is still alive, his soul can be reborn in a new vessel... he will not truly die! This is his greatest trump card. Moreover, it is far from the point where he needs to rely entirely on such a backup plan.

"Old man! Found it! It's here! Orochimaru has already been subdued by Naruto!"

Just then, a familiar and loud voice came from the woods not far behind.

Naruto turned his head to look. He saw Jiraiya pushing aside the bushes, pointing excitedly in their direction. Closely following behind was Hiruzen Sarutobi, whose expression was solemn.

It seems that the earth-shattering explosion of the Tailed Beast Ball earlier lured them here.

Naruto turned his head, his eyes locking onto Orochimaru again. "Don't worry, I won't kill you."

This statement clearly startled Orochimaru.

Of course, Naruto's decision not to kill Orochimaru wasn't out of mercy or pity. On the contrary, it was because he knew that given Orochimaru's methods of survival, the guy could very well revive in another vessel using the Cursed Seal, at which point he would only hide even deeper, which would be troublesome.

Therefore, the safest approach is to keep him "alive" but deprive him of all ability to resist or commit evil. First, seal him completely, and then... find a way to use the power of those Mangekyou Sharingan to fundamentally alter his will!

"I will seal you away." Naruto took a step forward, his voice icy. "Don't even think about escaping. Even if you hide at the ends of the earth, I can find you with this."

His gaze swept to Orochimaru's shoulder—there, a unique Flying Thunder God mark, clearly imprinted on him.

Realizing he had reached a dead end, Orochimaru slowly and somewhat unsteadily stood up. However, to everyone's surprise, instead of despairing, the corners of his mouth slowly turned upwards, forming an extremely eerie arc beneath his lowered head.

"The old man has high hopes for you, he even wants you to become Hokage..."

Orochimaru's voice carried a strange excitement. This bizarre statement not only made Naruto frown, but also stunned Jiraiya and the Third Hokage, who had slowed down slightly because Naruto decided not to kill him.

"But I'm going to completely thwart his unrealistic wish now!"

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

Orochimaru suddenly raised his head and shouted at Naruto in front of him, his snake eyes burning with an almost frenzied excitement.

"Why do you, an ordinary civilian ninja, possess such astonishing talent in space-time ninjutsu and sealing techniques?!"

"Why did you become the vessel for the Nine-Tails?!"

"Why didn't anyone tell you who your deceased parents were?!"

This series of questions caused the Third Hokage's expression to change drastically!

"Stop talking!"

The Third Hokage shouted fiercely and charged towards Orochimaru without regard for anything else!

"There's only one answer!" Orochimaru completely ignored the Third Hokage's attempts to stop him, his voice becoming even sharper with excitement.

"Shut up!"

Jiraiya instantly understood his intention, and with a livid face, he rushed forward to try to stop him.

Amidst the chaos and shouts, Orochimaru used his last strength to issue a declaration.

"Naruto Uzumaki! Because you are—the biological son of Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, who sacrificed himself to protect Konoha and seal the Nine-Tails!!"

"Whoosh—!"

The moment he finished speaking, several dazzling golden chains shot out from behind Naruto, precisely and swiftly binding Orochimaru's body and immobilizing him!

However, at the very last moment before the chains tightened, the shock, confusion, sadness, or disbelief that Orochimaru had anticipated in Naruto did not appear on that young face.

All he saw was calm. It was as if what he had just said was a fact he already knew.

After completing the last hand seal, Naruto simply placed his hand, which was wrapped with sealing runes, on Orochimaru's chest, which was bound by chains and unable to move.

"Eight Trigrams Seal!"