Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 133 Second Hokage vs. Orochimaru

Orochimaru and Tobirama Senju were indeed very similar geniuses, which led them to admire each other, but also to be wary of each other.

They both knew very well that once the Reincarnation Technique was largely perfected, that would be the time when the two sides would completely turn against each other!

Now that both the Second Hokage and Orochimaru have obtained the perfect ninjutsu they envision, it's time for them to start fighting.

Orochimaru could not tolerate the existence of the Second Hokage because he knew very well that the Second Hokage had prepared ninjutsu specifically to target him. No matter how good Orochimaru's survival skills were, he would definitely not be able to withstand the targeted attacks of Tobirama Senju, a master of forbidden techniques.

As for why Orochimaru was so sure that the other party was involved in this kind of ninjutsu—because Orochimaru had also developed a targeted ninjutsu against Tobirama Senju!

The white snake's gaze collided with Tobirama Senju's sharp eyes, and almost instantly, both of them could see the other's killing intent!

With a gentle spit, Tobirama Senju seemed to exhale a mouthful of saliva. However, the tiny droplet of water transformed into a transparent needle the moment it left his mouth, piercing the white snake's head.

Water Release: Heaven's Cry!

This move isn't particularly sophisticated ninjutsu, but it's incredibly effective in combat, demonstrating the Second Hokage's exceptional combat wisdom (and cunning).

The Water Release technique compresses water into tiny needles that can be sprayed out the instant one speaks, piercing the enemy's throat without any hand seals.

Back then, Tobirama Senju used this technique to kill many powerful ninjas. Rather than saying that they died from this ninjutsu, it would be more accurate to say that they died from Tobirama Senju's cunning.

With a thud, the white snake, its head pierced, fell to the ground, blood slowly seeping out, its abdomen gradually swelling. Then, Orochimaru, a cold-smirking man, crawled out of its mouth.

"So you finally have the courage to face me, kid!"

Tobirama Senju looked at Orochimaru and spoke coldly. Orochimaru grinned, his long tongue lightly licking his lips.

"After all, he is the Second Hokage whom I admire most. Naturally, I must make thorough preparations before I dare to fight you."

As soon as he finished speaking, the walls of the entire room suddenly lit up with a pale purple light. The Second Hokage raised his eyebrows slightly and realized that he could no longer sense the Flying Thunder God coordinates he had left behind.

However, Tobirama Senju was not surprised by this, and even thought it was only natural - if Orochimaru couldn't even restrain the Flying Thunder God Technique, how could he dare to turn against him?

Similarly, Tobirama Senju had already prepared his ninjutsu to deal with Orochimaru. His body trembled and emitted an eerie light, which eventually condensed into a black chakra sword in his hand.

"The proper name for this sword should be the Sword of Annihilation... It is a strange energy that was collected from the corpse of the former Third Raikage. It needs to constantly absorb the power of soul and flesh to grow stronger. It took me a long time to grow that bit of energy I collected to a usable level."

"In fact, the greatest effect of this energy is not just that it can nullify the defenses formed by chakra, but that it can damage the soul!"

"It is said that the Third Raikage was killed by your disciple. It seems that your disciple has gone further than you in terms of spirituality... But in terms of being ruthless and indifferent to human life, you are indeed of the same ilk."

Just from the way the Qi of Destruction is strengthened, one can see just how cruel this energy is. Without the sacrifice of the bodies and souls of hundreds of people, it would be impossible to strengthen enough Qi of Destruction.

This is precisely the evidence that the Second Hokage described as cold-blooded and indifferent to human life... However, after hearing this, Orochimaru merely gave a strange smile:

"Yes... this kind of cold-blooded mentality is probably something that has been passed down from the roots of our lineage—you agree, right? The Second Hokage... or rather, my grandmaster."

Upon hearing this, Tobirama Senju was somewhat speechless. If we're talking about lineage, then he and Orochimaru were definitely the most orthodox master-disciple lineage. Even if we bring up all the ninjas of Konoha, Orochimaru was the one who resembled him the most and inherited the most of his ninjutsu.

How did that throwing knife end up spinning around and stabbing itself in the head? Well... to be honest, I've certainly been ruthless and callous with human life.

This farcical situation, where the crow laughs at the pig for its own good, ultimately ended with Tobirama Senju raising his hand and thrusting his sword at Orochimaru. The two most famous masters of forbidden techniques in the ninja world engaged in a life-or-death duel in the secret chamber of this underground base.

Facing the black blade thrusting at him by the Second Hokage, Orochimaru also drew a Kusanagi sword and casually blocked it—even if that black longsword composed of evil energy could injure the soul, it would first have to pierce Orochimaru.

Orochimaru didn't think he was much worse than the Second Hokage. In fact, he felt that he should have the upper hand against the Second Hokage, who no longer had space-time ninjutsu.

The black and white longswords clashed, the golden snake eyes and the pitch-black, lifeless eyes met for a moment, and then the two jumped away.

"I don't want to waste any more time with you, Second Hokage. Let's reveal our true strengths and weaknesses sooner rather than later!"

Orochimaru said in a cold, gloomy voice, then reached out and formed a hand seal:

"Secret Technique—The Soul-Sealing Technique!"

Strange sealing patterns immediately flowed from the Second Hokage's reanimated body. Although the Second Hokage had broken free from Orochimaru's control over the Reanimation Jutsu, as the one who summoned the First Hokage, there was still an inseparable connection between the two.

As the summoner, Orochimaru undoubtedly held a superior position in this connection, and with a little manipulation, he could control the Second Hokage.

Given the Second Hokage's talent, the duration of this control might be calculated in seconds, but in a battle where every second counts, a few seconds or even a dozen seconds is enough for Orochimaru to completely seal the Second Hokage using other methods.

Countless runes emerged from all parts of his body, yet Tobirama Senju maintained a cold expression and spoke calmly:

"That's right, it's time to reveal my hand. Let me show you the ninjutsu I developed especially for you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Second Hokage twisted the black sword in his hand and thrust it towards his own heart. The dark blade transformed into a fluid, instantly enveloping his Edo Tensei body.

Then, a dark shadow left the body of the Impure World Reincarnation, and the Second Hokage's original body was instantly covered with various sealing talismans, completely controlled.

Orochimaru's expression changed slightly as he looked at the Second Hokage's soul, which floated in mid-air like a wisp of black smoke.

"Spiritualization technique!?"

"This isn't just the Spirit Transformation Technique, Orochimaru! After absorbing the Shattering Qi, the Spirit Transformation Technique's chakra shell has increased its destructive power against the soul several times over!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Second Hokage transformed into a phantom and entered Orochimaru's body. Orochimaru groaned in pain as his physical body began to crack and gradually shattered completely.

As his physical body shattered, a giant serpent with eight heads and eight tails, a snow-white body, and blood-red eyes swelled out from Orochimaru's body.

However, on this giant serpent's body, there were countless black, fire-like patterns that were constantly eroding the flesh of the Yamata no Orochi.

"Damn it, it's leaving my body... Waaaaaah!!"

"Give up, Orochimaru. Your soul strength is indeed astonishing. Ordinary spirit transformation techniques might not be able to deal with you, but after condensing the evil energy, even if you transform your soul into an eight-headed serpent, you still won't be able to withstand the damage from this power!"

"Hahaha... Hehehe... Woohoo! As expected of the Second Hokage... But if you think you can win like this, then I can only say... you underestimate me..."

The Yamata no Orochi's snow-white body suddenly collapsed, transforming into countless tiny white snakes, while the black patterns on the serpent's body instantly turned into black flames, burning fiercely.

The tiny white snake suddenly lunged at the black flames, and although it was instantly charred by the flames, it also left a sealing talisman within the black flames.

More and more tiny white snakes entered the black flames. Although more and more white snakes were charred, the flames gradually subsided and returned to the form of the Second Hokage's soul.

Countless white sealing talismans still roam on the outer shell of the soul; these are the seals set up by Orochimaru's white snake using his soul.

Although it seemed that the Second Hokage's soul had been sealed, Orochimaru was not doing well either. Not only was his physical body completely shattered, but even the white snakes that represented his soul were mostly dead, leaving only a dozen or so small white snakes that coalesced and eventually transformed into the pale-faced Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru brat, I underestimated you. I never expected you to be so ruthless to yourself, even altering your soul!"

"Are you human now, or the White Snake?"

"Heh, it's just a little bit of White Snake gene. Even the First Hokage's Wood Release cells have a lot of plant genes. What's wrong with me mixing a little bit of White Snake gene into myself?"

Orochimaru chuckled as he spoke, but when he discovered that the Second Hokage's soul shell was gradually breaking apart and then breaking free from the seal like a cicada shedding its shell, his smile froze on his face.

The soul shell of the Spirit Transformation Technique is actually made of a layer of pure Yin Release chakra. The Second Hokage, a genius, mixed in the evil energy to greatly enhance its destructive power.

But to put it bluntly, it's still just an outer shell. Even if the shell breaks, the damage to the soul is negligible. If it were a pure soul, the Second Hokage wouldn't dare to mix in any evil energy.

The soul, having detached from its outer shell, returned to the Edo Tensei body almost instantly, and the seal that had been surrounding the Edo Tensei body began to rapidly contract after the soul returned.

Orochimaru originally didn't intend for the seal he used through the Impure World Reincarnation technique to control the Second Hokage for very long, so its sealing effect was strongest at the beginning and gradually decreased thereafter.

Not to mention that Orochimaru had just used a large number of white snakes as consumables in an attempt to seal the Second Hokage—you should know that those white snakes were fragments of Orochimaru's own soul. A few deaths would be one thing, but so many deaths would be an absolute devastation for Orochimaru.

With his soul severely damaged, the power of his sealing techniques was naturally weakened, which led to the Second Hokage breaking free of part of the seal as soon as he returned to his Edo Tensei body.

"We can't let you succeed so easily!"

At this juncture, Orochimaru had nothing more to say. He suddenly formed hand seals, and a large number of sealing talismans began to circulate throughout the room, emitting a strange light.

Having broken free from some of the seal and regained the ability to move, but unable to mobilize his chakra, the Second Hokage felt a sharp pain in his soul under the illumination of this strange light and immediately collapsed to the ground.

"This...this is...what kind of ninjutsu is this...?"

"Hehe... If I had to name it... this ninjutsu should be called the Chaos Treasure Box Technique... Hmm... I really had a lot of trouble... to finally manage to transform this room..."

"I didn't originally intend to use... this move... it's a technique I copied from a treasure given to me by my student..."

Orochimaru's already pale face now had a deathly gray hue, and his body trembled as sweat poured down his forehead.

Seeing Orochimaru's reaction, the Second Hokage gritted his teeth and snorted coldly:

"It seems this ninjutsu... should cause you some harm too!"

"Can your soul... withstand... the damage from this kind of ninjutsu?"

"Hehe... then I won't bother you any longer, Master! Although... I can't be completely immune to... the damage from the environment in this room... but I'm prepared... so I can withstand it more than you can."

Moreover, if all else fails, Orochimaru swallows his pride and goes to his disciple to ask for some soul pills.

Over the past two years, Orochimaru has obtained a number of Soul Pills through his deal with Uchiha Tou. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to transform into the Eight-Headed Serpent, and he wouldn't have been able to withstand the sealing of the Second Hokage's soul shell with his immense power.

Therefore, he was well aware of the effects of the Soul Pills. As long as his soul was not shattered to the point of being unable to maintain his thinking ability, he could be saved by a large number of Soul Pills. It was with this confidence that he dared to disregard his own soul and risk his life against the Second Hokage.

After all, he was that guy's teacher. Most importantly, his research ability was still very useful to Uchiha Touyu. At worst, he would have to bear the research debt for decades. Anyway, after the Reanimation Jutsu was fully developed, his lifespan would be endless. As long as he could win, anything was negotiable!

Even so, Orochimaru was secretly groaning – his soul was now severely damaged, far inferior to that of the Second Hokage, so even if the ninjutsu did little damage to him, it was still uncertain who would ultimately prevail.

(End of this chapter)