The fire dragon struck in an instant.
Flames swallowed Orochimaru and swept across the surrounding ground, leaving scorched earth in their wake.
Sasuke immediately activated the second stage of his curse mark.
His skin turned ashen gray, and two enormous, hand-shaped wings grew from his back. With his strength and speed greatly increased, he used the Body Flicker Technique to escape.
Sakura grabbed one of his wings as he moved, barely managing to flee with him.
Even from a distance, the Leaf shinobi felt the scorching heat against their faces. The power of Naruto and Gamabunta's combined attack left them staring.
When the flames finally subsided, a yellow sphere remained.
Its surface broke apart, spilling sand onto the ground.
Orochimaru and the reanimated Fourth Kazekage stood unharmed inside.
Rasa had protected them with a shell of ordinary sand.
Turning the surrounding earth into sand wasn't especially difficult for him. Finding enough gold dust to use his preferred techniques here was another matter.
Orochimaru looked up at Naruto, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
"Well, Naruto-kun? What will you do now?"
Naruto sneered.
"You're that confident in your reanimation? Then watch closely."
He brought his hands together.
A hurricane swept toward Orochimaru and Rasa.
The Fourth Kazekage answered by pressing both palms against the ground. Earth crumbled into sand, rising into a towering wave that surged toward Naruto and Gamabunta.
Naruto drove the hurricane into it.
Wind caught the sand and hurled it skyward.
Within moments, a violent sandstorm engulfed the battlefield.
Grit filled the air, obscuring everything. The howling wind drowned out every other sound.
Kakashi and the other jōnin seized the younger shinobi and pulled them away.
They didn't stop until they reached the treetops farther from the battle.
Looking back, they saw a storm so dense that it blotted out the daylight. The battlefield had disappeared behind a churning wall of wind and sand.
None of them had imagined Naruto could fight on this scale.
Farther away, Sasuke clenched his teeth.
He had come here to obtain the power to kill Itachi.
Yet he still couldn't catch up with Naruto. The gap between them kept growing.
Orochimaru suddenly appeared beside him, watching the storm with interest.
"You're going to make me stronger," Sasuke said coldly.
"Oh? Would you like to learn the reanimation technique you're seeing now?"
Orochimaru licked his lips and turned toward the boy he intended to claim as his next vessel in three years.
"I want power of my own."
"So my forbidden jutsu doesn't interest you?"
Orochimaru sounded amused. His confidence hadn't faltered.
"Keep watching. Naruto will lose soon enough."
Sasuke glanced at him.
"You seem to know something about him."
There was curiosity beneath the irritation in his voice.
"I know why he's improved so quickly."
"Then tell me."
Even Sakura stepped closer, listening intently.
Back at the Academy, Naruto had been at the bottom of the class. Neither of them had considered him a serious rival.
After graduation, everything had changed.
His strength had grown at an astonishing rate. He had even beaten Sasuke seven times.
If there was a secret behind that growth, they wanted to know it.
Perhaps they could use it themselves.
Orochimaru understood exactly what they were thinking.
"His mother."
"What?"
"Isn't Naruto an orphan?"
Sasuke and Sakura stared at him.
"Very few people in Konoha know who Naruto really is," Orochimaru said. "Perhaps I'll explain that another time."
For now, he offered only a brief account.
"His parents were supposed to have died in an incident on the day he was born. But it appears his mother survived—and became considerably stronger. She must have been teaching him."
His eyes narrowed with interest.
"One day, I intend to find out how she survived. I have a feeling that answer will lead me to something far more significant… something about the very nature of this world."
…
Within the storm, Naruto continued fighting Rasa.
The swirling sand obscured his vision, but it did nothing to hinder his senses. He could follow the Fourth Kazekage's position and movements clearly.
"Wind Release: Wind Sphere!"
Naruto spread his arms, then slowly brought them inward.
The chaotic currents began to converge.
Wind and sand curved around Rasa, gathering into an enormous sphere.
Sensing the change, the Fourth Kazekage tried to force an opening before the enclosure could close.
A thick wall of wind met him.
The sand he sent against it was immediately thrown back. Breaking through with his body would be even harder.
Rasa gathered sand around himself to shield against the cutting winds, then drove another mass toward the barrier.
Naruto's currents intensified.
Wind blades converged on the reanimated Kazekage from every direction.
Gradually, Rasa began losing control of the sand around him.
He had been using Earth and Wind Release to create and manipulate this ordinary sand. Now Naruto's stronger wind chakra was disrupting the wind chakra woven through it.
The sand slipped from his control.
It scattered and fell, stripping away the defense he had been relying on.
In the deserts of the Land of Wind, Rasa could have drawn on gold dust with his Magnet Release.
Here, there was far too little available.
The airborne sand began settling, and the storm slowly cleared.
Rasa was left exposed inside a nearly transparent sphere of wind.
Countless blades slashed at him.
In the distance, Orochimaru's smile faded.
The wind within the sphere grew denser.
Rasa's reanimated body broke apart beneath the relentless attacks, scattering into fragments of dust and ash.
Normally, those fragments would have immediately gathered to restore his body.
Naruto gave them no opportunity.
The sphere contracted until it was only half a meter in diameter.
Inside, violent currents kept the remains tumbling in every direction. Whenever the fragments began drawing together, the wind scattered them again.
They spun like dead leaves caught in a whirlwind.
Rasa couldn't reform.
Naruto held the sphere above his right hand, lightly tossing it up and down as though playing with a ball.
He looked toward Orochimaru with a mocking smile.
"There. What do you think of your reanimation now?"
Orochimaru's face tightened.
He had just finished boasting about the technique in front of Sasuke.
Now Naruto was casually playing with what remained of his reanimated Kazekage.
"Naruto-kun… your strength continues to surprise me."
His voice was cold.
"At this rate, you'll soon be as strong as your father was."
Frustration gnawed at him.
He had poured enormous effort into developing this forbidden technique, only to see his reanimated shinobi neutralized one after another.
Hiruzen had sacrificed his life to seal away the First and Second Hokage.
Now Naruto had found an entirely different way to render another of his reanimations useless.
What was he supposed to do now?