Fire Country, southern forest.
Outside one of Orochimaru’s secret hideouts.
“Lord Orochimaru, all the test subjects have been dealt with…”
A young man named Kabuto Yakushi respectfully reported his findings.
Standing before him was a man dressed in the shinobi uniform of Konohagakure, a Leaf forehead protector tied around his head.
His long black hair fell over his shoulders.
His golden eyes had vertical pupils, while purple eye shadow extended toward the sides of his nose.
His skin was deathly pale, and blue-green, tomoe-shaped earrings hung from his ears.
His appearance was both sinister and strangely alluring.
This was Orochimaru in the prime of his life.
It was the end of Konoha’s 47th year.
The Fourth Hokage had recently taken office, with Orochimaru having lost the position to Minato Namikaze.
Afterward, Orochimaru had secretly devoted himself to human experimentation.
At this point, however, he had yet to defect from Konoha.
“Danzō has given me a warning. The ANBU have already noticed the disappearances of shinobi within the village.”
“This hideout has served its purpose. It’s about time we abandoned it…”
Orochimaru glanced back at the entrance to the hideout, his voice hoarse.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, he sensed something.
His golden pupils turned toward the darkness between the trees in the distance.
“Lord Orochimaru?”
Kabuto looked confused.
“It seems we have a guest…”
Orochimaru licked his long tongue.
“Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!”
Hiss!
Several venomous snakes shot out from beneath his sleeve, lunging toward the trees!
Boom!
The tree trunks were blasted apart.
Birds scattered into the sky as dust filled the forest.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and stared into the cloud of smoke.
“Not bad. As expected of one of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru.”
Kai stepped out of the smoke without a scratch on him.
The snake hands quickly retracted into Orochimaru’s sleeve.
He placed one hand on his hip and looked at Kai.
“So you’re not ANBU from Konoha.”
“State your identity.”
Kai raised his head and deliberately exposed his left Sharingan.
Orochimaru’s pupils instantly contracted.
“Hmm?”
“An Uchiha’s eyes!”
Whoosh!
Almost simultaneously, Orochimaru used the Body Flicker Technique.
He appeared beside Kai, reaching directly for his left eye with a grin.
“How fortunate. A Sharingan has practically delivered itself to me!”
But—
His body passed straight through Kai.
Orochimaru’s grin froze.
“What?!”
“What just happened…?”
“Lord Orochimaru! Behind you!”
Kabuto shouted.
Kai’s hand was already resting on Orochimaru’s shoulder.
The three-tomoe Sharingan in his left eye transformed.
Three curved blades spun into the distinctive Mangekyō pattern.
The power of Kamui!
Whoosh!
A space-time vortex appeared.
Orochimaru’s body began twisting as an invisible force dragged him toward the Kamui dimension.
“This is… a space-time dōjutsu?!”
Orochimaru’s heart shook.
He immediately made his decision.
His mouth opened unnaturally wide.
A hand emerged.
Then an entire body crawled out of his mouth, covered in mucus.
His legs transformed into a snake’s tail as he shot away from Kai.
After putting some distance between them, Orochimaru stared at Kai as though facing an unprecedented threat.
The playful expression had completely disappeared from his face.
Only caution remained.
Kai looked at the shriveled skin Orochimaru had left behind and sighed.
“As expected… you’re not that easy to capture.”
The technique Orochimaru had just used was the Orochimaru-Style Substitution Technique.
By using another body as a substitute, Orochimaru could shed his current body and emerge from its mouth without forming hand seals.
It was an extremely effective escape technique.
Sasuke had even used the technique to escape Amaterasu.
For anyone other than Orochimaru, however, performing it would consume a tremendous amount of chakra.
“Those eyes of yours… They don’t seem to be ordinary Sharingan.”
“You’ve awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and its ability is actually space-time ninjutsu.”
“When did the Uchiha clan produce someone like you?”
“What is your name?”
Orochimaru asked with both caution and curiosity.
After a moment of silence, Kai answered,
“My name is Kai Uchiha.”
“So, Kai-kun…”
Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed meaningfully.
“How much do you know about me?”
“I know you’re conducting human experiments.”
“And you’re developing a power called the ‘Cursed Seal’…”
Kai’s answer caused Orochimaru’s expression to darken.
“You know this much about me?”
“Then I’m afraid I really can’t allow you to live.”
As he spoke, Orochimaru glanced toward Kabuto.
Whoosh!
Kabuto suddenly attacked.
Blue chakra formed around his hand like a blade as he thrust it toward Kai’s back.
“You’re just a small fry. Stay out of this.”
Without even looking behind him, Kai reached backward.
His hand caught Kabuto’s arm perfectly.
At the same time, Kai kicked him in the stomach.
“Gah!”
Kabuto was sent flying.
He smashed through several trees before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Orochimaru’s expression became even more serious.
“Although Kabuto is a medical ninja, his combat ability is comparable to that of an elite jōnin.”
“And he was defeated with nothing but taijutsu…”
Kai looked toward Orochimaru.
“Looks like you don’t intend to have a proper conversation with me.”
“I have no intention of handing over the results of my research to someone as dangerous as you!”
Orochimaru threw a shuriken.
At the same time, he rapidly formed hand seals.
The technique he had learned from the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—
Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!
Poof!
Poof!
Poof!
A single shuriken multiplied into hundreds, then thousands, filling the sky as they rained toward Kai!
Orochimaru naturally didn’t expect this technique to kill Kai.
He simply wanted to use the wide-area attack to test Kai’s abilities.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Every single shuriken passed straight through Kai’s body and buried itself in the ground.
“As I thought…”
Orochimaru’s eyes gleamed.
“His body can become intangible.”
“But when he wants to attack, he has to become tangible.”
“So there is a brief moment when he can actually be hit.”
“Kabuto has already been taken out…”
“If I want to force him to attack, I’ll have to summon that one.”
Orochimaru truly lived up to his reputation as one of the Legendary Sannin.
With only a brief exchange, he had already grasped the basic principle behind Kai’s ability.
He bit his thumb, formed the hand seals—Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram—and slammed both hands onto the ground.
Summoning Jutsu: Manda!
BOOM!
A massive cloud of smoke erupted.
Manda appeared.
The enormous snake’s body coiled across the forest, towering dozens of meters into the air.
His terrifying vertical pupils looked down at Kai.
Orochimaru stood atop his head.
“Damn you, Orochimaru!”
“You summoned me just to deal with some insignificant human?”
“Do you really think you can summon me whenever you want?”
“Believe me, I’ll swallow you whole!”
Orochimaru smiled.
“He’s not an ordinary human.”
“He possesses the Sharingan and can use a rather troublesome dōjutsu.”
“I’m a little uncertain about handling him alone.”
“Hmm?”
Manda carefully examined Kai.
After looking more closely, his expression changed.
“His eyes really are strange.”
“They give me a feeling I absolutely hate.”
“After this is over, bring me one hundred living sacrifices.”
“Otherwise, I’ll swallow you whole!”
Manda let out a cold snort.
His enormous body suddenly shot forward with astonishing speed.
BOOM!
BOOM!
The ground where Kai had been standing was smashed into a massive crater by Manda’s head.
Kai leaped into the air.
He formed hand seals as his chest expanded.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!
Whoom!
A massive fireball erupted and engulfed Manda.
After half a year of training, Kai’s Great Fireball Jutsu had reached an impressive level.
Its power was now nearly comparable to the Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance he had used before.
The flames gradually dispersed.
A charred shell remained in the crater.
It began cracking and falling apart.
Kai narrowed his eyes.
“Manda shed his skin?”
He stared at the hole beneath the discarded snake skin.
“His real body went underground?”
Rumble!
Rumble!
The earth shook violently.
Manda’s enormous tail suddenly burst out from underground.
A moment later, his head emerged from another location.
His fangs bared, Manda lunged toward Kai.
But—
His head passed straight through Kai’s body!
“What?!”
“What the hell is this brat?!”
Manda was completely baffled.
Kai flashed to Manda’s side.
He formed hand seals and slammed both palms onto the ground.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall Spear!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Dozens of enormous, sharp stone pillars erupted from the ground beneath Manda.
They pierced his massive body, leaving him covered in wounds!
“Now!”
At that moment, Orochimaru, standing atop Manda’s head, formed another set of hand seals.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Countless snake heads burst from the earth.
Each snake held a Kusanagi Sword in its mouth.
They all lunged toward Kai.
“They’re targeting the moment I become tangible to attack…”
Kai muttered.
“Then I have no choice.”
Wood sprouts suddenly emerged from his left arm.
They rapidly grew into enormous trees.
The trunks twisted together, covered in countless thorns.
The incoming snakes were completely crushed beneath the twisting wooden branches.
Orochimaru was utterly stunned.
“W-Wood Release?!”
“You possess both the power of the Uchiha and the Senju?!”
“Damn you, Orochimaru!”
Manda roared angrily.
“If you’re still alive next time, I’ll settle this score with you!”
The injured Manda disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.
Kai twisted his body.
Crack!
His left arm separated from the wooden growth.
At the same time—
Click!
The spiral mask formed from Spiral Zetsu’s body opened.
Kai’s face emerged from behind it.
And with it, his other Mangekyō Sharingan was revealed.
Two Mangekyō Sharingan.
Two eyes carrying the power of Kamui.
Kai’s right eye, the original eye belonging to Obito, possessed the close-range form of Kamui.
It could instantly transfer Kai himself, or objects he touched, into the Kamui dimension.
Its most terrifying ability was its passive intangibility.
Without requiring conscious activation, Kai could shift parts of his body into the Kamui dimension at the moment they were attacked, allowing attacks to pass harmlessly through him.
His left eye, originally the eye Kakashi had possessed, held the long-range form of Kamui.
By focusing on a target, Kai could distort the space around it and warp it into the Kamui dimension from a distance.
The combination of both eyes made Kamui extraordinarily difficult to counter.
Kai’s left Mangekyō began to spin.
His gaze locked onto Orochimaru’s right arm.
Kamui!
Crack!
Space twisted violently.
Orochimaru’s right arm was forcibly torn away and warped into the Kamui dimension!
“Urgh!”
Orochimaru clutched the bleeding stump.
For the first time, his expression was genuinely shaken.
He was about to use his substitution technique to produce a new body.
“You can shed your current body and spit out a brand-new one.”
“But next time, this dōjutsu will twist your neck instead.”
Kai’s cold warning stopped Orochimaru in his tracks.
Orochimaru understood.
Before these eyes, resistance was meaningless.
If Kai had truly wanted him dead…
He would already be dead.
“What do you want?”
Orochimaru finally asked.
Kai answered solemnly,
“Not some inferior copy of the First Hokage.”
“I want the true power of Hashirama Senju.”
Orochimaru’s pupils trembled.
After a long silence, he lowered his head.
A realization slowly dawned on him.
“Hehehe…”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“So that’s it!”
He raised his head and licked his long tongue.
His golden, slit-pupiled eyes burned as he stared at Kai.
His voice was low and hoarse.
“Looks like I’m not the only one trying to reach that realm.”
“Without a doubt, you’ve already walked farther down that path than I have.”
“Since our goals are the same…”
“Very well, Kai-kun.”
“Allow me to lend you a hand.”
Add to Collection.
Send some Power Stones.