Chapter 504: Self-Destruct?

"It's you, Orochimaru!"

As his carefully chosen base, Nagato naturally arranged some surveillance measures.

However, that Orochimaru could sneak in still surprised him greatly.

"You're looking for death!"

With a cold snort, a pressing killing intent flashed in Nagato's eyes.

This damned guy, at this critical moment, still harbors such petty thoughts; he truly doesn't know how to write the word 'death'.

"Spirit Technique"

Although there was a huge snake ahead and a sneak attack behind within close range, Nagato did not stop his actions.

He summoned Pain's Six Paths.

At the same time, his arm slapped the machine beneath him.

Whoosh!

A black arrow, with an equally black thin string attached behind it, after several nimble turns, shot toward Orochimaru behind him.

Pfft!

Orochimaru directly ignored this attack, letting the arrow strike his body.

Urgh!

The snake's mouth opened wide, ignoring the interference coming from the arrow or rather from the thin string behind it; another Orochimaru burst out from the snake's mouth.

At a speed impossible to catch with the naked eye, he quickly closed the distance with Nagato.

The Grass-Cutting Sword in his hand also pointed straight at Nagato's neck.

For Orochimaru, whether cutting off the opponent's neck or extracting Nagato's eyes, the result is the same.

"Delusional!"

Just as they appeared, Pain's Six Paths, with perfect coordination, surrounded the main body in the middle, and the Heaven Path even let out a snicker.

"Heavenly Subjugation"

Whether facing the myriad snakes ahead or the Orochimaru approaching behind, they are useless before the power of his Samsara Eye.

Boom!

An invisible repulsive force flung the snake ahead and the Orochimaru behind away.

But before Nagato could even breathe a sigh of relief, his expression suddenly changed.

"It's underground!"

As his words fell, a huge spike burst from the ground beneath him, targeting the immobile Nagato.

It was the tail of the myriad snakes.

Slurp!

Just as Nagato was controlling Pain, intending to block this sudden attack, a scarlet tongue shot from the mouth of the flung Orochimaru.

At the same time, another Orochimaru appeared, opening his mouth to spew out a large number of tiny poisonous snakes.

Because there were too many poisonous snakes, layered upon each other, they resembled a great wave, flooding toward Nagato.

Moreover, a purple snake scale the size of a washbasin detached from the tail of the myriad snakes, taking the form of Orochimaru, and reached out to press against Nagato's true body.

"Ninja Art: Four Symbols Seal"

Orochimaru truly lives up to his reputation as a veteran powerhouse who fought his way out of the Ninja World's mountains of corpses and seas of blood; if he doesn't act, fine, but once he does, he takes Nagato's reactions into account.

First, using his own body and the myriad snakes, he lured out the opponent's most dangerous Heavenly Subjugation, then used the myriad snakes' tail for cover.

Using a clone transformed into snake scales, he waited for the chance to activate the Four Symbols Seal, intending to seal Nagato's chakra in one fell swoop.

Thus, the opponent's clone became mere decoration, posing no threat at all.

To protect this clone, he even extended his tongue from his true body to attack Nagato's true body, and another clone attacked Nagato's Heaven Path clones.

…

Under a sky dyed blood-red, Konan watched the crows circling and flying around her.

Her ears were filled with noisy clamor.

Suddenly, several of the crows flew over in flocks toward her position.

Swish, without hesitation, several sheets of white paper detached from her body, folded in midair into several white swallows, and flew toward the crows.

"Brilliant Genjutsu!"

Watching her own swallows, upon contact with the enemy's crows they turned into a ball of flame, and Konan's fine brows furrowed.

However, as those papers burned, a violent explosion rang out.

That short enemy's genjutsu was the most terrifying she had ever seen in her life.

To guard against the guy calling himself 'Madara', she had also gathered some Uchiha intelligence, which noted that the Sharingan genjutsu was very troublesome.

She originally thought that the information gathered from the black market was exaggerated, just nonsense to earn a fee from her.

Only after personally experiencing it today did she know that the information was not false.

Not yet having figured out how to break the enemy's genjutsu, Konan's body, which had been floating in the air, suddenly scattered like falling apart, turning into sheets of white paper drifting in the air.

"That woman's technique…"

Hidden within the illusion, Itachi slashed a blade at the enemy's neck.

Seeing the opponent turn into a sky-full of white paper, Itachi could confirm that the opponent was immune to physical attacks.

This gave him a headache.

If he used ninjutsu, the explosive tag in the opponent's hand could also render almost all of his ninjutsu useless.

"Could it be that he needs to use eye technique?"

Touching his own eyes, Itachi felt it was time to play his trump card.

At this moment, Konan felt a bad premonition welling up inside her.

The alarm she had hidden on Nagato's side was triggered.

Something happened to Nagato.

Upon thinking of this, Konan knew she could no longer continue to entangle herself with the opponent.

Nagato's main body simply couldn't cope with an overly complicated situation.

"Sorry, Ye Cang!"

She could no longer worry about Ye Cang; in her heart, Nagato was the most important.

Her body reassembled in midair; although she couldn't see Itachi's figure, she quickly formed several hand seals.

As her hand seals completed, sheets of white paper peeled off her body; these fallen papers, as if multiplied by the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, began to increase rapidly.

"This crazy woman!"

Looking at the black patterns on those white sheets of paper, Itachi Uchiha's formerly calm expression finally began to waver.

He glanced at the terrifying number of papers, still increasing, especially the explosive character at the center of each sheet.

A bead of cold sweat slid down Itachi's forehead.

Without hesitation, given this terrifying quantity, he began to doubt whether his Susanoo could withstand this attack.

The number of these explosive tags could not be described as merely thousands or tens of thousands.

It's a hundred thousand… no, maybe millions or tens of millions? Uh… tens of millions is too conservative~

Doesn't the opponent fear blowing herself up as well?

"Yamato, retreat!"

Without hesitation, while maintaining the genjutsu on the opponent, Itachi informed Yamato, who was entangled with Ye Cang, and then left this dangerous battlefield without looking back.

"What's wrong?"

Yamato, who had been sparring with Ye Cang, was still somewhat puzzled.

He clearly saw that Itachi had put the opponent under genjutsu, yet that woman, relying on her unique ninjutsu, had managed to evade Itachi's attack.

But in his view, Itachi defeating the opponent was merely a matter of time.

How could Itachi retreat without looking back just because some white paper appeared beside the opponent?

"Explosive tag~"

"What?"

"Explosive tag?"

Regarding Itachi's answer, he didn't quite understand.

Before, he had also seen the opponent block Itachi's ninjutsu attack with an explosive tag.

But a mere explosive tag shouldn't pose a threat to Itachi, right?

"They're all like that~"

Twitching the corner of his mouth, Itachi still gave Yamato an explanation.

Then he fled from Konan's vicinity at his utmost speed.

"……"

He glanced back, carefully examining the patterns on those white papers, and Yamato's face instantly turned deathly pale.

He wished he could grow two more legs to get away from the spot as fast as possible.

With this quantity… if they all exploded at once…

Not only Yamato and Itachi, but Ye Cang, upon realizing something was wrong, also changed expression and began to withdraw as well.

Coincidentally, the direction she took was the same route as Itachi and the others.

However, both sides at this moment had no regard for nearby enemies, fleeing at top speed to save their lives.

"Damn it, that woman's gone crazy!"

Constantly watching Yamato behind him, his expression suddenly changed; as he stepped, he missed his footing and nearly fell from the tree.

His whole face was drenched in cold sweat.

"This time we're doomed!"

They hadn't even fled far—less than three hundred meters away.

Given the terrifying number of those explosive tags, it was nearly impossible for them to remain unharmed at that distance.

And that woman—is she really gone mad?

We can't escape, yet she stands at the blast's epicenter—how could she possibly remain unharmed?

Even if we wanted to defeat the enemy, we wouldn't need to go this far!

At this moment, Dahe was already desperate.

"Uh! It seems the timing isn't right~"

Beside Itachi, a familiar male voice rang out; as Dong Shilang just landed, he heard Yamato's words about almost dying.

Before he could even figure out what had happened.

His keen intuition had already been frantically sending him warnings.

"Damn it!"

In the corner of his eye, he saw a white shockwave spreading outward, sweeping toward this place.

It was an explosion, a large-scale explosion.

Only such an explosion could produce a shockwave of this scale.

"Go!"

No time to study how such an exaggerated blast shockwave could appear here; Dong Shilang's arms were respectively slung over Itachi's and Yamato's shoulders.

Prepare to unleash the Flying Thunder God Technique, taking these two people away from here.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ye Cang nearby to the side.

As a faint clamor came from behind, Dong Shilang realized it was the shock wave's sound arriving ahead, shattering the surrounding trees.

Right after these shock waves came a deafening blast, followed by a small mushroom cloud rising.

Ye Cang, this woman, at this range, likely couldn't hold out for more than a few seconds.

But he has no free hand right now!

Susanoo

As the shock wave loomed closer, Dong Shilang gritted his teeth; a red skeletal arm sprouted from his body, and he seized Ye Cang whole in his grasp.

A skeletal framework also appeared over his body, shielding him, Itachi, and Yamato together inside.

Cough!

He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Just that brief delay, despite Susanoo's protection, Dong Shilang still couldn't help spitting a mouthful of blood.

There was simply no time; the Susanoo he'd manifested couldn't possibly withstand this terrifying shock wave.