Chapter 443: High Heat That Warps Space
"Mm… Pakura , huh… who is that?"
Yuzu drifted along with the moment, swaying gently, confused about the name "Pakura " and why Uncle would go help her.
"You don't know Pakura ?" Li Yao asked in slight surprise, then smiled and said, "Pakura is now quite famous across the shinobi world. While she may be a notch below Sasori of the Red Sand and Wood Style–awakened Orochimaru, she's still a renowned kunoichi. She's even been given the title 'Sun Goddess,' which says a lot about how well-known she is now."
"Oh… ah…" Yuzu hummed happily, tightening her body slightly and adjusting her tone before speaking, "I've just been waiting for Uncle in that desert all this time. I haven't really gone out or paid attention to outside affairs."
And it was true.
Yuzu had waited alone above the ruins of the phantom city of Rōran for years, just for his return. That kind of devotion moved Li Yao deeply.
In this fragmented and cold world, Yuzu might be the only one who truly cared for him.
"But how does Uncle know Pakura ?" Yuzu asked curiously.
If she remembered correctly, Uncle had said Pakura was a Sand shinobi.
Back then, he had even attacked Sunagakure. Logically, they should be enemies—so how did he end up getting close with someone like Pakura ?
"What, are you jealous that Uncle has other women?" Li Yao teased with a grin.
"Not at all." Yuzu shook her head at once, leaned close, and whispered gently into his ear, "No matter how many women Uncle wants, Yuzu doesn't mind. In fact, if Uncle likes, Yuzu can help you find them."
"Yuzu just hopes Uncle won't abandon me."
She looked up, locking eyes with Li Yao. Her gaze was soft and pitiful, like a kitten afraid of being left behind.
Li Yao gently stroked her crimson hair and replied seriously, "Don't worry. No matter what happens, I'll never leave you. That's my promise."
Even though the world still felt cold to Li Yao, Little Yuzu's years of silent waiting had given him a trace of warmth.
For that warmth alone, he would never abandon her.
As long as he lived, Yuzu would always be the one he trusted most at his side.
"Thank you, Uncle."
Hearing Li Yao's vow, Little Yuzu's heart was finally freed from all the fear and uncertainty. In this moment, she didn't care about Pakura anymore. She only wanted to offer the most passionate version of herself to him.
Zzzap!
A flicker of time-rewind chakra ran through Li Yao's body, and once again, his vitality returned, brimming with strength.
A woman completely devoted could be frightening.
Li Yao had to use the Time Rewind Technique just to keep up.
Which showed how wild Yuzu was in that moment.
While Li Yao and Yuzu were shamelessly entangled, his "little sister-in-law" Pakura was dodging attacks from Orochimaru's Wood Style giant—while angrily cursing out Li Yao's Wind Clone.
"Damn it… where the hell did that jerk brother-in-law go?!"
"Disappearing at such a critical moment… if I make it back alive, I'm making sure Sis leaves that bastard."
"Hmph! Just because Sis likes you doesn't mean you can do whatever you want! I swear, if I lure you into bed and Sis sees it, she'll dump you for sure!"
"Asshole… Sis is the one who loves me most, you bastard!!!"
Maybe Pakura really had been driven crazy, or maybe she truly sensed this was the end for her. Whatever the case, she stopped holding anything back and said all that was on her mind.
"Be a good girl and surrender!"
By now, Orochimaru had stopped using his massive Wood Style giant. He didn't want to accidentally kill her. Instead, he unleashed countless wooden snakes to surround her and drain her chakra.
Once Pakura was out of chakra, she would have no strength left to resist.
"Scorch Release…"
"What a beautiful kekkei genkai… and it's about to be mine."
Orochimaru's face was twisted with greed and curiosity—like a mad scientist staring at a marvelous new specimen.
To Orochimaru, obsessed with all forms of ninjutsu, Pakura 's Scorch Release was like a breathtaking experimental subject, full of mysteries waiting to be unraveled.
"Damn it!"
Orochimaru's gaze made Pakura 's entire body tremble.
"No. I absolutely cannot fall into the hands of this freak."
Pakura made up her mind instantly. If she was going to die, she wouldn't leave a corpse behind for this maniac. Who knew what he'd do with it?
"Die, Orochimaru!"
Seeing her chakra reserves nearly depleted, Pakura chose to self-destruct. She rapidly drew all her remaining chakra to trigger Scorch Release—this time not as an outward attack, but applied internally to her own cells.
Her terrifying Scorch Release caused the particles within every cell of her body to accelerate violently.
In an instant, her body temperature soared to the point that even space around her began to warp. The wooden snakes approaching her burst into flames within 100 meters, and those within 50 meters were instantly vaporized.
A 50-meter radius around Pakura became an absolute death zone.
Within this zone, all matter was annihilated.
Pakura hovered mid-air, with the ground below her vaporized into a massive pit. At the bottom, molten lava boiled and seethed.
And yet, this horrifying spectacle was just the result of the excess heat leaking from her body.
Internally, her body's heat had risen tens of thousands of times higher.
At this point, Pakura resembled a humanoid sun. Her flesh had vanished, and her organs had transformed into pure thermal energy.
Vmm!
A wave of invisible force rippled outward from Pakura 's body. Everything it touched was broken down at the particle level, reduced instantly to carbon ash, carried away by the wind.
Even Orochimaru's giant Wood Style creation turned into blazing charcoal in an instant.
If not for the giant's body shielding him from most of the wave's impact, Orochimaru would have been vaporized the moment it hit him.
Even so, he was left covered in burns and had to perform a large-scale chakra-draining Snake Shedding Technique, crawling out of his mouth in a fresh new body.
"What terrifying chakra!"
"What incredible Scorch Release!"
Orochimaru looked like a newborn—slick with fluid and unable to care about appearances. But as he sensed the terrifying chakra and imminent heat surge below, he immediately turned and fled using the Body Flicker Technique.
It was just too horrifying.
It hadn't even been a proper attack. Just a spreading wave had caused every substance it touched to undergo rapid particle motion and annihilation.
Li Yao's shadow clone, arriving via Flying Thunder God, was amazed by how far Pakura had developed her Scorch Release.
"What an amazing little sister-in-law—I can't let her die."
Glancing at the fleeing Orochimaru, Li Yao's clone shook his head. With a thought, he used Perfect Transformation to shift into his Wind Clone and instantly teleported in front of the now-unstoppable Pakura .
(END CHAPTER)
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Kira1997