The ground under their feet no longer just trembled—it heaved like a living creature in agony.
Naruto, leaving the defeated Kabuto in the ruins, dashed toward the epicenter.
A scene from ancient legends unfolded before him.
The giant toad Gamabunta, clutching a tantō the size of a tower, was locked in combat with a purple snake so long it could have wrapped around all of Konoha.
Manda. The Snake King.
He was faster. Much faster. His scales slid over the rocks, allowing him to evade the toad's strikes and counterattack with venomous bites.
On Manda's head stood Orochimaru. His long hair fluttered in the wind, his face distorted by a grimace of pain and rage. He was in rough shape due to the body rejection, but he continued to control the snake mentally, through a blood contract.
"Jiraiya!" Orochimaru hissed. "You were always a slow fool! Your toad is just a target!"
Manda lunged. Gamabunta barely managed to interpose his blade, blocking fangs dripping with venom capable of instantly dissolving stone.
"Bunta!" Jiraiya shouted, standing on the toad's head. "He's too slippery! We need to pin him down!"
At that moment, a black shadow landed on Gamabunta's nose.
Naruto.
He didn't stagger, despite the intense swaying. His legs, reinforced with Qi, stuck fast to the toad's rough skin.
"Need help?" he asked calmly.
Gamabunta rolled an eye.
"Ah, Uzumaki. Dealt with your bug?"
"Smeared him," the Jinchūriki replied briefly. "Now it's your turn."
"Look out!" Jiraiya barked.
Manda suddenly recoiled and... disappeared.
The giant snake burrowed into the ground with frightening speed, as if diving into water. The earth heaved and fell.
Silence.
Only dust settled on the ruins of Tanzaku Castle.
"Where is he?!" Jiraiya swiveled his head. "I don't sense his chakra underground, but he's definitely preparing to attack!"
Gamabunta tensed, gripping his blade.
"I can't see him, Jiraiya. That cunning snake could strike from anywhere. From below. From behind."
Naruto closed his eyes.
He shut off sight and hearing, activating Qi Sensory to the maximum, directing it not into the air, but into the ground.
He listened to the vibrations of the soil layers beneath them.
The earth became a transparent grid. And within this grid moved a huge, cold anomaly. It slid deep in the rock, circling their position to strike at the toad's unprotected belly.
"Found him," Naruto whispered.
He snapped his eyes open and pointed.
"BEHIND! Forty-five degree angle! Distance one hundred meters, speed high! He's coming out!"
Jiraiya didn't ask twice. He trusted instantly.
"Bunta! Jump! Right and back!"
Gamabunta pushed off with his legs with such force that he left a crater. The giant toad soared into the air, performing an unthinkable pirouette.
In that same second, the ground where they had just stood exploded.
Manda's maw, opened as wide as a fortress gate, burst from the depths, snapping his jaws on emptiness.
The snake's bite missed.
"Gotcha!" Gamabunta roared while in mid-air.
He spat a massive jet of oil.
A giant stream of viscous, black liquid covered Manda, who hadn't yet managed to regroup after the miss. The snake was doused from head to tail.
"Burn him, Jiraiya!" the Toad Boss commanded.
The Sannin formed seals.
"Fire Style: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!"
A stream of fire erupted from Jiraiya's mouth.
"Not enough!" Naruto instantly assessed. "He has thick hide! Need more heat!"
He formed his usual cross-shaped seal.
"Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Dozens of Naruto clones appeared on Gamabunta's head. Each held pre-prepared enhanced explosive kunai. Each clone began spinning chakra in their palms, creating air vortices—not full Rasengans, but turbulence.
"Let's add some spice!" the clones barked in unison.
They jumped down, straight into the stream of oil and fire flying toward Manda.
The clones threw hundreds of explosive tags into the combustible mixture. And added air currents, fanning the flames even stronger, saturating them with oxygen.
KA-BOOM!!!
It was napalm mixed with powerful bombs.
The explosion lit up the sky over Tanzaku brighter than the sun.
The inferno consumed Manda. Explosive kunai detonated upon contact with the oil, tearing scales, and the fire, fanned by the clones' wind, penetrated vulnerable spots.
"SHHHHAAAAAA!!!" Manda screamed.
It was a sound that shattered windows in the city kilometers away. The Snake King thrashed in the flames, shedding his skin, trying to go underground, but the oil continued to burn.
The Uzumaki landed back on the toad's head after the clones dispelled.
His breathing began to falter. The Pseudo-Core pulsed but held the load.
"Done," he stated.
The smoke cleared.
Manda, burned, smoking, half-submerged underground. He was alive, but he didn't want to continue the fight.
"Orochimaru!" the snake hissed. "You betrayed me! You promised easy prey! I'm leaving!"
"Stop!" the Sannin shouted, but Manda didn't listen. The snake disappeared in clouds of steam, leaving the summoner standing on the ruins of a wall.
Orochimaru was left alone.
The Snake momentarily thought about using Edo Tensei. The First and Second Hokage would have quickly turned the tide of battle, suppressing both the toad and the Jinchūriki.
But he had to discard this thought with annoyance.
He hadn't prepared for a battle of this scale. There were no new living sacrifices at hand—and no time to capture prisoners either. Besides, his shoulder, damaged by Tsunade's technique, although regenerated externally, internally still pulsed with the chaos of severed nerve channels. Trying to control the wills of dead Kage in such an unstable, disintegrating body would be suicide.
He was furious. His face twitched. His body was rejecting his soul and was useless in a serious fight right now, Kabuto was defeated, and Manda had fled.
And all this—because of one brat.
He looked at Naruto standing on the toad's head next to Jiraiya.
"Uzumaki..." he hissed with undisguised irritation. "You always get in my way."
Suddenly, the Snake's gaze darted to the side.
There, on the edge of the battlefield, stood Tsunade.
She was still paralyzed with fear. Hemophobia held her tighter than chains. She saw Kabuto's blood, Manda's blood, and she was shaking.
She was open.
The puzzle in the Sannin's head came together instantly. Old Man Sarutobi is alive but weak. Jiraiya never sought power. So, they aren't here for leisure.
They came for you, right, Tsunade? You are their choice for the Fifth, the Snake realized. Konoha is unstable. If I knock the last support out from under it, the Village will collapse on its own.
His eyes flashed with cold resolve.
"If I can't kill you... I will kill Konoha's hope."
Before rushing to the main target, the Snake made a sharp lunge toward the toad.
"Mandara no Jin! (Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes)"
A living wave erupted from Orochimaru's mouth. Thousands of poisonous snakes, woven into a single, pulsating carpet, shot toward Gamabunta, covering the toad's head in a solid teeming mass.
It wasn't a lethal attack, but it required an instant reaction.
"Damn!" Jiraiya, realizing he was about to be buried under a mountain of poisonous fangs, was forced into a total defense. "Needle Jizō!"
His white hair instantly lengthened and hardened, enveloping him and part of Gamabunta's head in an impenetrable thorny cocoon.
The Sannin was blocked for a few precious seconds.
Orochimaru achieved his goal. The main figure was temporarily taken out of the fight.
He pushed off the wall.
His body elongated, turning into a snake-like projectile. He wasn't flying toward Jiraiya or Naruto.
He was flying straight toward Tsunade.
Orochimaru spat out the Kusanagi sword. The blade extended, turning into a spear aimed at Tsunade's heart.
She saw death. And couldn't move.
"Die with their names on your lips!" the Snake hissed.
Naruto landed between Gamabunta and Tsunade. Qi Sensory allowed him to dodge in time, avoiding being crushed by the living, scaled press.
Calculation in his head took a split second. If he ran—he wouldn't make it.
Need to become a projectile too.
He clasped his hands.
Fox! Full thrust to legs!
Qi Control: Dash!
It was a dangerous mixture. Hybrid Explosion.
Dense, heavy Qi instantly hardened in his legs, turning bones into an indestructible frame capable of withstanding monstrous overload. Nine-Tails Chakra acted like rocket fuel.
KA-BOOM!
The ground beneath him heaved, and the air around burst with a pop, unable to withstand the pressure.
The Jinchūriki disappeared. He broke the sound barrier, turning into a blurred red-and-black streak flying to intercept the sword.
I promised I would protect. And I keep my word.
Naruto's shadow covered Tsunade an instant before impact.