45

Ghost, who was heading towards Orochimaru's location, stopped; his senses picked up a sharp blade of light shooting towards him. The moon glinted off the blade as it came around, moving at blinding speed and Ghost knew that this wasn't an ordinary sword or any weapon, it was a treasure sword, Kusanagi. He didn't care as the sword phased right through him like he was some kind of a spirit or a mirage...

Countless rocks and big trees fell, arousing endless dust as if a lingering haze firmly covered the entire rocky forest.

"It's been a long time, Rai chan. Or should I call you Ghost now"

A deep and hoarse voice sounded, and a slender figure gradually appeared in the thick dust and fog.

No, it's not so much a human figure, it's a human-shaped shadow because the figure's head stretched out like a snake and slowly took the sharp and extremely long sword in his mouth.

"Are they getting so desperate to kill me now...!!!", Looking at the figure gradually emerging from the dust and fog in front of him, Ghost simply stood his ground.

Orochimaru grinned, "You must be joking Rai chan. Who in the world is strong enough to kill you!! Even the last time we faced I still couldn't touch your shadow before you killed me and destroyed my lab", Orochimaru couldn't help but stretch out his long tongue and licked it.

Ghost simply stared at him emotionlessly, "I know that curse seal makes you near immortal. Last time I gave you a chance by not following up on that, just because you were my teacher once. That was my mercy, don't make the mistake of thinking that you escaped from me and my range"

A gloomy and jealous light gleamed in his narrow snake eyes, "Indeed, there is definitely no escaping you and your near-limitless range. But you are not omniscient Rai chan"

"I never said I am. Now, why are you here..?! If not to kill me...!"

Seeing Ghost standing by, Orochimaru's face showed a wicked smile, "Looks like your sensory skills are getting rusted Rai chan... Didn't you notice? This entire space is filled with nature's chakra, why do you think it's so..?..!"

Ghost simply rolled his eyes wordlessly, did he care..?! Not really. He turned his head, looked at the rock behind him, and pointed, "There are seals planted everywhere, most of them are very old, clearly not designed by you. You are not that capable. Definitely Uzumaki clan's..."

Orochimaru laughed wickedly, "I knew you would figure it out in an instant, Indeed, in this given space; I have placed countless runes using sage's chakra to make sure that you can never leave this place. You are going to spend some private time with me..!"

Orochimaru's hands turned into a blur, forming more than a dozen complicated handprints in a very short time as he summoned a huge coffin directly on the ground under Ghost's feet.

Thousands of black mysterious ghost hands stretched out from it, seeming to pull the Ghost into the coffin, and then sink into the abyss with the huge coffin carrying his body.

Orochimaru's grinned, "This is my newly invented Jutsu just for you. With the seals powering it with Natural energy... I am afraid you won't be able to absorb the chakra within those hands...!"

"..."

To Orochimaru's absolute shock Ghost simply stood in his position, the hands that should be melting his body and pulling him down were capable of doing... nothing.

"I see. I never thought it'd be this easy to take down the strongest shinobi in existence. Well, doesn't matter. No matter how broken your abilities are, it won't help you now", Orochimaru roared with laughter, his long tongue hanging from the corner of his mouth as it licked the air, "You are just a normal man in my sight.", He said and fired the huge blade from his mouth...

The blade pierced the darkness and came to impale Ghost as the eerie hands tried desperately to sink him into the coffin beneath his feet.

Ghost sighed and carrying that sigh was a boundless infinite stream of sword energy that instantly break through the black coffin as he simply raised his finger and touch the incoming point of the sword that was capable of cutting through a mountain... It didn't manage to push through, as just with the slightest touch of his hand, the sword instantly shrink back into Orochimaru's mouth without any sort of resistance...

Orochimaru looked at Ghost with a smirk, "Your ability to absorb chakra at your will with nothing but just a mere touch never ceases to amaze me. Pity, it's foreshadowed by those demonic senses of yours..."

Ghost didn't intend to listen to Orochimaru's babbling; he turned his head sensing a mass of chakra closing in on where his subordinates are dealing with the prisoner. It's an elite unit..!

"Don't you want to go and save your subordinates..?!", Orochimaru asked with a wicked grin.

"Didn't you just say that I can't leave this space?", His voice could not be any calmer.

Orochimaru stood with some doubts, shouldn't Ghost be anxious or something like that..?!

Taking advantage of the fact that Ghost was distracted, Orochimaru's hands blurred again, "You are quite cold-hearted, aren't you...!"

Orochimaru's hands blurred again and summoned a titanic python from right underneath the Ghost's foot while opening its mouth to swallow him fully...

Ghost didn't care one bit about the threat to his life. He simply raised the sole of his feet as he tapped his shoe a bit and touched the snake's head beneath his foot as if it was nothing. At that moment, the snake exploded right there in white smoke like it was blown up by explosive shells...

Ghost's ability to absorb chakra was nothing to sneeze at. His body absorbed all of the chakra from the summoned beast with a single touch, this broken ability of his is one of the reasons he never gets to fight to his heart's content, it's over before it even starts, it's always been like that, no matter who it is or what they did, no one ever managed to get him on the defensive for more than half a second.

He didn't even turn his face to look at Orochimaru, his focus was solely on the incoming chakra, he was able to sense exactly what is happening around him without needing to look or be there...

Orochimaru gritted his teeth, fighting this guy is like playing with a god, he felt like vomiting.

To make matters worse, Ghost turned around and stared at him wordlessly as if mocking him, "It's useless sensei. If your chakra is powerful enough to destroy a mountain then maybe you and I can fight to a certain degree. But you know what..?! Even then, it would be useless against me"

Orochimaru glared at him with a burning desire to possess Ghost's body as his own, he could feel it all over, the mighty chakra ghost possess. Those broken abilities. He desperately wanted to drink and absorb all of it into his very being.

But it will never happen, no matter how much he wants it, he knew it will only ever be a dream, a dream that could never come true.

Suddenly, Ghost looked up again, things are getting out of hand, "You can stay here. I shall be taking my leave..."

"You are not going anywhere", Orochimaru bit his thumb a bit.

Summoning a giant serpent, he immediately had it charge toward Ghost without wasting a second. Waiting for him to destroy his Jutsu before using Kusanagi yet again...

However, Ghost didn't even bother; he simply raised his finger, "Tengen dousha!!!"

The chakra from his fingertip extended into some sort of a sword light and instantly tore apart the snake. The entire serpent simply split into countless pieces and fell apart like it was made of paper.

The air was so calm, as though the titanic snake that was still hissing a moment ago had never existed before.

Orochimaru, who fell to the surface on his two feet from the body of the snake opened his mouth wide and was so surprised that he couldn't speak. His summoning has been defeated just like that. What kind of a Jutsu was that..?! Some strange Kenjutsu..?!

"Goodbye", While speaking, Ghost had already disappeared on the spot.

"I have just told you this entire place is filled with-

All of a sudden the sky starts to grow increasingly dim. Ghost's incredibly dense and horrid chakra looms over the battlefield as if setting a statement of a matchless entity.

As the true representation of spiritual hunger, his chakra attempts to absorb the world around it in an incredulous yet awe-inspiring way.

The very earth becomes faded and lackluster as Ghost sucks the chakra of all the seals placed within the area itself. After witnessing the decrepit landscape of a hungry Ghost, Orochimaru opened and closed his mouth in shock yet again.

"You think you are Jiraiya sensei or something...?! Just stay there", He blurred into thin air.

Watching Ghost blurred and out of there, Orochimaru cursed, he tried his best, yet he could not touch a hair of Ghost. Taking out the sealing tag, Orochimaru tried to tear it apart but...

A shadow blurred in front of Orochimaru's eyes and before he knew it, the old scientist was already standing in front of Ghost who should have been far away by now...!

The sealing tag in Orochimaru's hand was already in Ghost's hand as he stare at the seal, "A trap within a trap?", He looked up and his eyes glance at Orochimaru.

Ghost's killing intent soared and Orochimaru's pale face instantly turned snow white. He weaved hand signs and roared hastily while jumping back, "Wind Release:...

Clink

This time Orochimaru couldn't even finish weaving his hand signs. It happened in an instant. With a clinking sound, Ghost used his thumb to unseath and sheath his sword back in an instant.

Orochimaru's mind was in a daze and he looked around blankly.

'Hm? How come all of a sudden he is so far away from me? Wait for a second, that is…', Orochimaru's eyes were bloodless, 'That is... my body!!?...'

A bizarre scene appeared in Orochimaru's vision. In the distance, a body was falling in front of Ghost, accurately speaking, it was half a body! A person with only his lower body, his body from the waist up had disappeared entirely.

Orochimaru's eyes blankly looked ahead. His body from the waist down, counting the lower body and legs had all completely bisected in an instant, all kinds of internal organs were falling to the ground below while dripping fresh blood from his falling upper body.

Only at this point did the pain that drowned his senses arrive.

Orochimaru released a gut-wrenching vomit of blood. Before he had even reached the ground, he had already died in mid-air.

Failing to accomplish his mission Orochimaru died in an unknown location only to get a chance at resurrection once again.